224  Comments  on  Magendie's  Formulary.   [^^'  ■^Tprii!^9'^2o'. 
for  a  solution  of  Morphine  Sulphate  which  differed  from  both  of  the 
solutions  proposed  by  Magendie,  being  four  times  as  strong  as  the 
weaker  and  sixteen  times  as  weak  as  the  stronger,  leading  to  years  of 
confusion  and  undoubted  loss  of  life  through  prescribing  and  dis- 
pensing errors. 
The  following  prefatory  note  to  the  chapter  on  Narcotine  will 
be  found  of  interest: 
"My  researches  have  not  led  me  to  consider  this  matter  as  a 
medicine.  I  shall,  however,  give  its  history  here,  because  it  is  one 
of  the  immediate  principles  of  opium,  and  has  thrown  and  still  con- 
tinues to  throw,  much  uncertainty  over  the  subject." 
The  employment  here  of  the  word  "immediate"  as  we  use  the 
word  "proximate"  is  curious  but  is  in  accord  with  the  particular 
meaning  it  is  intended  to  convey. 
Under  the  Extractum  Opii  Narcotina  Privatum  (extract  of  Opium 
deprived  of  Narcotine)  a  curious  editorial  note  is  appended  by  the 
translator  in  commenting  upon  Dr.  Magendie' s  statement  that  an 
exciting  property  is  noted  in  extract  of  opium  which  is  not  observed 
in  morphine. 
"M.  Magendie's  conjecture  is  probably  true;  and  as  said  in  the 
translator's  preface,  it  forms  one  of  the  most  valuable  properties 
of  the  isolated  morphine,  that  the  stimulating  and  constipating 
effects  of  opium  are  thus  avoided.  Mr.  Battley  ought  to  publish  the 
formula  for  his  liquor  opii  sedativus.  It  is  beneath  him  as  an  old 
practicing  member  of  the  profession  and  really  useful  chemist,  or 
rather  druggist,  to  practice  such  a  paltry  concealment." 
The  Extractum  Opii  Morphine  Privatum  (extract  of  opium  de- 
prived of  morphine),  is  nothing  more  than  a  prepara4:ion  made  from 
the  drugs  of  the  opium  left  after  extracting  the  morphine  by  the 
process  described  under  that  substance.    The  author  states : 
"This  residuum  still  exerted  a  certain  narcotic  property  on  animals 
and  on  man;  a  less  marked  one,  it  is  true,  than  that  of  the  common 
aqueous  extracts,  but  sufficiently  strong  to  make  it  useful  in  prac- 
tice. *  *  *  It  ought  to  be  kept  by  all  apothecaries  who  prepare 
their  morphine." 
Iodine  is  accorded  quite  a  detailed  description  as  to  its  properties 
and  compounds.  Credit  is  given  to  M.  Courtois  for  its  discovery 
in  1 8 13  "from  the  mother  waters  of  soda  as  it  is  obtained  from  sea 
weed."    Potassium  and  sodium  iodides  are  referred  to  as  "Hydrio- 
