Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
August,  1920,  j 
Note  on  Opium  Poisoning. 
593 
tests  there  is  no  certainty  that  it  will  respond  strongly  to  the  others. 
The  extent  of  this  discrepancy  is  shown  by  the  following  table. 
It  refers  to  analyses  of  thirty-one  stomachs,  three  specimens  of 
vomit,  one  of  liver,  and  one  of  urine,  a  total  of  thirty-six  specimens. 
In  each  case  the  history  of  symptoms,  etc.,  had  pointed  to  opium 
poisoning : 
Reactions  given 
in  the  same  case  by 
Test. 
Test 
2 
7 
5 
O 
I 
I 
4 
3 
12 
13 
O 
o 
o 
I 
5 
4 
I 
I 
o 
o 
6 
6 
o 
o 
Reaction  given  by  the  Porphyroxin  Husemann 
Urotropin  Test. 
{  Strong 
Strong  in  8  cases  {  Medium 
[  Negative  or  Doubtful 
f  Strong 
Medium  in  i6  cases  \  Medium 
[  Negative  or  Doubtful 
f  Strong 
Doubtful  in  6  cases  \  Medium 
[  Negative  or  Doubtful 
[  Strong 
Negative  in  6  cases  \  Medium 
[  Negative  or  doubtful 
Thus,  in  eight  cases  in  which  the  urotropin  reaction  was  strong, 
the  porphyroxin  reaction  was  only  given  strongly  in  two.  In  six 
cases  the  urotropin  test  gave  a  negative  result,  and  in  each  of  these 
the  extract  reacted  with  medium  strength  to  the  porphyrodin  and 
Husemann  tests.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  cause  of  the 
occasional  failure  of  the  urotropin  test  is  the  inevitable  presence 
of  impurities  in  the  extracts.  It  appears  to  be  particularly  difficult 
to  get  a  pure  extract  in  cases  of  opium  poisoning.  If  an  extract 
has  a  yellowish  color  there  is  a  presumption,  in  our  experience,  that 
it  is  going  to  respond  strongly  to  the  tests  for  opium. 
When  dealing  with  highly  decomposed  viscera  preserved  for  a 
fortnight  or  more  in  alcohol,  no  amount  of  washing  with  ether  or 
with  ether  and  chloroform  will  so  purify  the  acid  solution  that  it 
will  not  allow  impurities  to  pass  into  the  solvent  when  made  alka- 
line. Repeated  washing  of  the  acid  solution  with  ether  is  likely  to 
result  in  the  porphyroxin  test  yielding  a  negative  result,  and  a  valu- 
able piece  of  evidence  will  thus  be  lost.  Hence,  in  carrying  out  the 
Stas-Otto  process,  we  wash  the  acid  solution  once  only  with  ether 
and  chloroform,    it  is  advisable  to  add  these  solvents  separately. 
