CRlTPTOPIA,  A  NEW  AL&ALOIt)  IN  O'PItJM. 
If  the  color  reactions  were  the  only  means  of  distinguishing 
oryptopia  and  papaverine  from  each  other,  they  might  be  mis** 
taken,  the  one  for  the  other  ;  but  differing  so  much  as  has  been 
shown  in  other  respects,  such  a  mistake  is  quite  impossible. 
As  there  is  some  analogy  between  cryptopia  and  the  substance 
occasionally  found  in  opium  by  Pelletier,  and  named  by  him 
pseudo-morphia,  it  appears  to  us  right  to  point  out  a  few  features 
in  which  they  differ  so  much  as  to  show  them  to  be  quite  distinct 
substances.  They  are  both  very  insoluble  in  alcohol  and  in 
ether  :  in  this  respect  they  are  analogous,  but  hardly  so  in  any 
other ;  for  instanoe,  the  pseudo-morphia  separates  from  an  acid 
liquid,  while  in  such  a  case  cryptopia  could  not  separate. 
Pseudo-morphia  is  insoluble  in  ammonia,  but  very  soluble  in 
caustic  fixed  alkalies  ;  cryptopia,  although  insoluble  in  ammonia^ 
is  equally  so  in  caustic  mineral  alkalies. 
Diluted  acids  favor  a  little  the  solution  of  pseudo-morphia,  but 
there  are  marked  differences  in  this  respect,  sulphuric  and  nitric 
acids  dissolving  very  little,  muriatic  acid  sensibly  more,  and 
•acetic  acid  much  more.  Cryptopia  dissolves  readily  in  any  one 
of  these  acids. 
Concentrated  sulphuric  acid  turns  pseudo-morphia  strongly 
brown,  and  then  decomposes  it.  Cryptopia  is  turned  blue  by 
the  same  agent,  and  so  far  from  being  thus  decomposed,  if  the 
vessel  used  for  the  reaction  be  left  exposed  to  the  air,  the  color 
disappears  by  dilution  of  the  acid,  through  attraction  of  moisture* 
If  the  liquid,  next  day,  be  poured  off,  and  a  fresh  quantity  of 
strong  acid  again  added,  the  blue  color  is  reproduced ;  and  the 
same  result  may  be  brought  out  three  or  four  times  successively, 
the  blue-,  of  course,  becoming  more  and  more  faint  each  time.* 
Concentrated  nitric  acid  turns  pseudo-morphia  red,  passing 
into  yellow,  exactly  as  in  the  case  of  morphia.  Cryptopia  is 
colored  yellowish-orange,  and  the  color  does  not  change. 
out  the  green  by  the  addition  of  a  minute  quantity  of  cryptopia  to  the 
yellow  liquid.  The  green  is  of  a  deep  grass  shade,  and  has  a  remarkable 
resemblance  to  that  which  is  observed  on  heating  meconine  with  slightly 
diluted  sulphuric  acid,  and  which  is  so  highly  characteristic  of  that  sub* 
stance. 
*  After  the  coloring  action  of  vitriol  on  cryptopia  has  been  exhausted) 
it  will  be  found  by  calculation  to  have  been  really  enormous. 
