CRYPTOPIA,  A  NEW  ALKALOID  IN  OPIUM.   '  427 
stirred.)  Next  day  we  threw  the  soft  mass  upon  a  cloth  and 
pressed  out  the  liquid.  The  cake  left  was  almost  pure  muriate 
of  cryptopia. 
The  salt  can  be  very  easily  rendered  colorless,  by  crystalliza- 
tion and  a  small  quantity  of  pure  animal  charcoal.  It  is  not  un- 
worthy of  remark,  that  the  bleaching  effect  of  charcoal  is  much 
more  marked  in  the  case  of  the  salts  of  cryptopia  than  in  those 
of  the  other  alkaloids  of  opium. 
There  is  no  difficulty  in  knowing  if  the  salt  obtained  is  mixed 
with  thebaia.  If  the  minutest  particle  gives  a  blue  color  with 
sulphuric  acid,  it  is  pure  ;  but  if  it  give  the  least  tinge  of  purple, 
it  still  contains  thebaia.  To  obtain  the  pure  alkaloid  it  must  be 
precipitated  from  its  watery  solution  by  ammonia,  and  the  pre- 
cipitate, after  washing  and  drying,  is  to  be  washed  freely  with 
ether  or  spirit,  either  of  which  dissolves  the  thebaia  readily,  but 
has  little  action  on  the  cryptopia. 
The  crystallised  alkaloid  is  prepared  by  boiling  the  precipita- 
ted alkali  in  rectified  spirit,  and,  as  its  solubility  in  spirit  is  very 
small,  a  large  quantity  of  spirit  must  be  used.  The  alkaloid 
crystallizes  after  cooling,  and  on  being  allowed  to  remain  un- 
disturbed for  some  time.  The  crystals,  which  are  partly  sepa- 
rated on  the  sides, — partly,  and  in  greatest  quantity,  at  the 
bottom, — are  very  minute,  but  by  the  aid  of  a  powerful  magnify- 
ing glass  are  found  to  be  composed,  especially  on  the  sides  of  the 
glass,,  of  beautiful  groups  of  transparent  six-sided  prisms.  The 
crystals  given  by  twenty  ounces  of  rectified  spirit,  saturated  at  a 
boiling  heat,  do  not  weigh  more  than  sixty  grains  ;  and  a  thous-  , 
and  water  grain  measures  of  the  spirituous  mother  liquid,  after 
complete  crystallization,  only  give,  on  evaporation,  a  weight  of 
0*79  grains,  so  that  cryptopia  requires  the  large  quantity  of  1265 
parts  of  cold  rectified  spirit  for  solution. 
The  quantity  of  cryptopia  yielded  by  opium  is  very  small  in- 
deed :  we  have  only  got,  altogether,  since  it  first  came  under  our 
notice,  about  five  ounces,  in  the  form  of  muriate  ;  and  to  obtain 
that  quantity  not  less  than  four  or  five  tons  of  opium  have  been 
operated  upon  ;  we  do  not  suppose  the  whole  of  the  cryptopia 
contained  in  the  opium  to  have  been  obtained  by  us ;  but  still 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  new  alkali  is,  of  all  the  con- 
