Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1891. 
Ihe  Chemistry  of  Opium. 
stances  of  which  we  have  but  little  definite  knowledge  save  that  they 
exist  to  worry  the  chemist,  very  much  hindered  the  work  in  many 
respects.  Dialysis  was  chosen  inasmuch  as  by  means  of  it  it  was 
hoped  that  all  of  the  looked-for  constituents  would  pass  into  solution 
while  little  dr  none  of  the  undesired  would  follow  suit.  Besides  this 
no  operation  was  to  be  performed  with  the  opium  which  might  change 
the  nature  of  combination  of  its  various  constituents.  It  had  been 
observed  by  Fliickiger  that  there  is,  in  all  probability,  enough  sul- 
phuric acid  present  in  opium  to  combine  with  nearly  all  of  the  alkaloids 
present.  Whether  or  not,  however,  it  is  sulphuric  acid  or  meconic  acid 
that  is  in  excess  and  hence  free,  as  yet  remained  an  open  question. 
It  is  certainly  very  probable  that  if  it  were  a  question  of  which  acid 
would  first  and  most  readily  be  neutralized  by  the  bases,  that  sul- 
phuric acid  would  be  the  one,  although  mass  action  might  cause 
some  of  the  meconic  acid  to  be  in  combination  at  the  expense  of 
sulphuric  acid.  With  this  aim  in  view  50  grams  of  finely  powdered 
opium  were  rubbed  together  with  distilled  water  and  the  paste 
washed  completely  into  a  dialyser  consisting  of  an  oval  gutta-percha 
ring  covered  with  heavy  parchment  paper  and  immersed  in  a  dish 
containing  about  five  litres  of  distilled  water.  This  was  allowed  to 
stand  covered  thus  for  nearly  three  months,  the  water  being  changed 
about  twice  a  week.  Even  at  the  expiration  of  this  time,  sulphuric 
acid  and  alkaloids  could  be  detected  in  the  dialysate  and  as  my  time 
here  was  limited  and  the  semester  was  rapidly  drawing  to  a  close, 
it*  was  decided  to  finish  the  operation  more  expeditiously  by 
exhausting  the  opium  remaining  in  the  dialyser  with  cold  water.  This 
last  extract  was  treated  separately  although  exactly  in  the  same 
way  as  the  greater  portion.  While  this  operation  was  quietly  pro- 
gressing, a  complete  analysis  of  the  ash  of  opium  (the  same  as  was 
used  for  dialysis)  was  made  in  order  thus  to  get  a  definite  idea  of 
the  mineral  constituents  of  the  drug.  Accordingly,  20  grams  of 
finely  powdered  opium  were  carefully  and  gradually  ignited  in  por- 
tions in  a  platinum  dish.  It  was  found  very  difficult  to  completely 
incinerate  the  drug,  so  that  even  after  heating  -the  dish  to  a  bright 
red  heat  the  resulting  ash  was  quite  dark,  in  fact  nearly  black.  It 
was  found  very  advantageous  at  this  point  to  treat  the  mass  with  a 
little  cold  water  and  evaporate  this  off  on  a  water-bath  and,  finally, 
again  carefully  heat  and  glow  it  over  a  free  flame.  By  repeating 
this  operation  several  times  an  ash  was  obtained  which  was  very 
