MISCELLANY. 
Sophisticated Opium. — At the meeting of the Societe de Pharmacie, of 
Paris, held May 2, 1838, M. Dubail presented a specimen of opium 
resembling that of Smyrna, a considerable quantity of which had been 
introduced into commerce at Paris and Havre, many cases having been 
seized at the instigation of the School of Pharmacy. This opium does 
not exhibit the least trace of morphia. It is in rolls, well covered with 
leaves, has a blackish section, and a slightly elastic consistence. It 
becomes lactescent upon contact with water. The aqueous and alcoholic 
solutions are neutral to test papers, and are not precipitated by ammonia, 
Its odor and taste are analogous to those of ordinary opium, although 
feebler. It has been adulterated with so much skill, that the reputed 
inimitable character of transparent agglutinated tears appears even under 
a magnifier, so that this character, hitherto regarded as decisive in detect- 
ing pure opium, from the above occurrence, loses all its value. This 
vitiated product has been, as appears, imported from England; and the 
fraud explains the low price for which morphia and its salts are there 
sold. M. Dubail, feeling authorized by the serious consequences to 
patients, attendant upon such falsifications, requested that a committee be 
appointed to present a petition to the Chambers, to enact severe laws 
against the falsifiers of substances destined for medical use. 
Journ. de Pharmacie, 
Note. — We are informed that the same article has been imported into 
the United States, and has been met with by a respectable house in New 
York. The account given of it from the Journ. de Pharmacie, will put 
every druggist on his guard in purchasing opium. — Ed, 
On the condensation of Chlorine, by M. Mohr. {Ann. der PAar.) — To 
condense chlorine into the liquid state, M. Mohr directs bisulphate of 
potassa to be fused, pulverised, and intimately mixed with chloride of 
sodium and peroxide of manganese. Fill the branch of a curved glass 
tube two-thirds full : this tube should be very long and strong. Heap on 
the top of this mixture about the thickness of two inches of chloride of 
calcium ; the tube is now to be hermetically sealed at the other extremity. 
The tube is to be introduced into a gun-barrel, with some sand, and heated 
in a chemical furnace. There will soon condense in the smaller arm of 
the tube, a considerable quantity of perfectly dry chlorine, characterized 
by its orange yellow color, without any shade of green. 
Ann. dcs Mines. 
vol. iv. — no. m. 34 
