AmAp°rif  i?9hoarm-}  Morphine  Salts  and  Hydrocyanic  Acid.  163 
better  quality  of  bark,  or  whether  some  other  cause  must  be 
assigned  for  the  difference,  I  am  at  present  unable  to  say.  A 
method  for  the  quantitative  estimation  of  this  glucoside  has  not  as 
yet  been  devised. 
Further  experiments  and  its  ultimate  analysis  I  beg  to  reserve 
for  future  investigations. 
Memphis,  Jenn.  4 
MORPHINE  SALTS  AND  HYDROCYANIC  ACID. 
By  John  M.  Maisch. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  March  18,  1890. 
During  the  last  six  or  eight  months  the  following  item  has 
appeared  in  quite  a  number  of  medical  journals  : 
One  of  the  most  dangerous  incompatibilities  of  drugs  consists  in 
a  mixture  of  cherry-laurel  water  with  morphine.  In  such  a  combi- 
nation an  insoluble  cyanide  of  morphine  is  formed,  which  is  precipi- 
tated. If  no  attention  be  paid  to  this  effect,  it  may  happen  that  the 
patient  takes  with  the  last  portions  of  the  mixture  a  toxic  dose  of 
morphine  and  hydrocyanic  acid.  As  cherry-laurel  water  is  recom- 
mended to  preserve  alkaloidal  solutions  from  microscopical  vegeta- 
tions which  decompose  them,  this  observation  is  worth  noting,  not 
only  for  morphine,  but  also  for  the  other  alkaloids.  The  addition 
of  five  or  six  drops  of  hydrochloric  acid  will  prevent  the  formation 
of  cyanide  of  morphine  ;  but  if  for  certain  purposes  this  addition  be 
useful,  it  is  not  to  be  employed  in  the  case  of  solutions  intended  for 
hypodermic  injections. 
In  a  paper,,  published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy, 
June,  1 87 1,  p.  258,  I  stated  that  hydrocyanic  acid  does  not  precipi- 
tate neutral  solutions  of  morphine.  The  same  paper  details  some 
experiments  made  by  me  with  neutral  salts  of  morphine  and  alkali 
cyanides  which  were  shown  to  precipitate  the  morphine  so  com- 
pletely that  the  filtrate  will  yield  no  further  precipitate  with  potas- 
sio-mercuric  iodide.  The  crystalline  precipitate  I  supposed  to  con- 
sist of  morphine  hydrocyanide,  but  Prof.  Fliickiger  subsequently 
showed  {N.  Jahrb.  filr  Pharm.,  xxxviii,  p.  138)  that  under  the 
conditions  mentioned,  the  alkaloid  morphine  is  precipitated,  and 
that  a  morphine  cyanide  does  not  exist. 
The  error  in  the  above  statement  can  only  be  explained  by  the 
improper  preparation  of  the  cherry-laurel  water  used.  If  made  by  dis- 
