Am'j£™\m?m'}   Action  of  Morphine  and  Derivatives.  29 
poison  of  voluntary  muscle,  and  to  some  extent  depresses  the  func- 
tions of  the  spinal  cord. 
Stockman  and  Dott  conclude  from  their  researches  that  so  far  as 
morphine  is  concerned,  chemical  changes  restricted  to  what  may  be 
called  the  outlying  groups  of  the  molecules  cause  very  little  change 
in  the  physiological  action,  but  when  a  change  is  made  in  the  kernel 
or  groundwork  of  the  molecule  the  action  is  much  more  profoundly 
altered.  To  determine  the  exact  influence  of  the  molecules  under 
varying  conditions,  will,  of  course,  require  an  extensive  series  of 
similar  observations  on  many  other  substances. 
Dr.  Tauber,  in  his  paper  on  the  fate  of  morphine  in  the  animal 
organism,  gives  a  resume  of  the  investigations  already  published 
concerning  the  excretion  of  morphia,  and  adds  some  experiments  of 
his  own  made  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  what  becomes  of  mor- 
phine after  it  has  been  absorbed.  He  points  out  that  whilst  some 
observers  have  found  morphine  in  the  urine  of  men  and  lower 
animals  after  its  administration  by  the  mouth  and  subcutaneously, 
others  have  been  unable  to  detect  its  presence  in  this  secretion,  and 
that  of  those  who  have  detected  it  in  the  urine,  only  one  professed 
himself  able  to  recover  morphine  from  the  urine,  and  even  his  suc- 
cess was  open  to  question.  No  one  has  so  far  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing it  from  the  blood  after  absorption.  He  holds  the  discovery  of 
the  traces  of  morphine  in  the  urine  by  the  color  test  after  its  absorp- 
tion is  no  proof  that  the  kidney  is  the  special  seat  of  its  excretion, 
since  a  color  test  such  as  Frohde's  is  so  delicate  that  it  detects  yg1^ 
of  a  grain.  Any  definite  quantity  of  morphine  in  the  urine  should 
be  easily  separated,  for  he  records  experiments  that  even  from  blood 
95  per  cent,  of  morphia  mixed  with  it  can  be  recovered.  Some  have 
thought  it  probable  that  morphia  is  destroyed  in  the  body.  Eliassow 
found  in  the  urine,  after  small  doses  of  morphia,  a  substance,  prob- 
ably the  product  of  the  metamorphosis  of  morphine,  which  does  not 
give  the  same  color  test  as  morphine  with  Frohde's  and  Husemann's 
reactions. 
After  large  doses  he  noticed  an  increase  in  the  paired  sulphuric 
acid  of  the  urine  and  also  in  the  excretion  of  ammonia.  Berkhart, 
too,  in  chronic  morphine  poisoning  found  in  the  urine  a  substance 
which  gave  with  Frohde's  test  a  color  differing  from  that  produced  by 
morphine,  and  Marme  a  substance  which  he  thought  gave  the  reac- 
tion of  oxidi-morphine  in  the  stools,  blood,  liver,  lung  and  kidneys. 
