€EYPTOPIA,  A  NEW  ALKALOID  IN  OPIUM. 
421 
befog  rather  greater  than  in  the  case  of  the  other  thermometer. 
The  rise  of  the  two  thermometers  has  been  almost  identical 
during  the  last  nineteen  years. — Lond.  Chem.  News,  May  17, 
1867. 
CRYPTOPIA,  A  NEW  ALKALOID  DISCOVERED  IN  OPIUM* 
By  T,  and  H.  Smith. 
There  are  now  known  to  exist  in  opium  nine  undoubted  prin- 
ciples with  markedly  distinguishing  characters  : — -morphia,  co- 
deia,  papaverine,  nareotine,  thebaia,  narceine,  meconine,  meco- 
nic  acid,  and  thebolactic  acid. 
In  the  multiplicity  of  its  constituents  and  in  its  wonderful 
action,  as  well  salutary  as  deleterious,  upon  the  living  animal 
system,  opium  takes,  par  excellence,  the  highest  place  amongst 
all  the  products  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  of  nature.  If  it 
should  be  objected  that  the  greater  part  of  the  principles  yielded 
by  it  may  really  be  the  result  of  the  varied  manipulations  ne- 
cessary for  obtaining  them,  the  wonder  is  not  in  the  least  di- 
minished, unless,  which  is  very  far  from  being  the  ease,  anything 
like  an  equal  number  of  principles  of  equally  marked  characters 
may  have  been  found  in  any  other  production  of  vegetable  na- 
ture.* 
It  is  long  since  it  became  a  conviction  in  our  minds  that  the 
long  and  wonderful  list  of  opium  products  does  not  exhaust  the 
number  which  this  drug  might  still  conceal,  but  which  may  be 
ready  to  be  revealed  by  some  happy  chance  to  the  chemist  pos- 
sessed of  sufficient  opportunity  for  the  research.    In  proof  that 
*  It  must  not,  in  this  connection,  be  overlooked  that  in  none  of  the 
processes  for  obtaining  the  different  principles  of  opium  are  the  chemical 
actions  of  a  very  powerful  nature.  They  consist  in  a  few  precipitations, 
solutions  in  acids,  not  generally  more  than  neutral,  and,  in  addition,  the 
use  of  various  solvents,  such  as  water,  alcohol,  and  ether,  and  a  moderate 
heat.  When  the  principles,  pure  and  in  a  separate  state  (the  remarkably 
ready  change  of  meconic  acid  into  comenic  acid  forming  an  exception), 
are  subjected  to  such  operations  and  conditions,  the  only  result  is  a  more 
or  less  great  degeneration  or  destruction  of  the  body.  When  more 
powerful  agents,  such  as  strong  acids,  alkalies,  chlorine,  or  a  strong  heat, 
are  used,  the  principles  of  opium,  like  all  other  organic  bodies,  are 
changed  into  other  substances  almost  endless  in  number. 
