520 
THE  CHEMISTRY  OF  OPIUM. 
the  preparation  of  morphine  in  a  pure  state.  In  extracting 
the  opium  in  order  to  obtain  the  bases,  it  was  better  to  use  only 
a  small  quantity  of  water  heated  to  about  150°  F.,  in  which 
case  all  the  narcotine  would  be  dissolved  out,  and  only  woody 
fibre  left ;  but  if  a  large  quantity  of  water  were  used,  the  narco- 
tine was  left  behind  in  the  insoluble  residue.  The  alkaloids  ex- 
isted in  combination  with  a  peculiar  organic  acid  called  meconic 
acid,  and  another  acid  had  been  discovered  in  opium  which  was 
isomeric  with  lactic  acid.  The  liquid  obtained  by  extraction 
with  water  was  mixed  with  a  certain  quantity  of  chloride  of  cal- 
cium, and  the  precipitated  meconate  of  lime  separated,  after 
which  the  solution  was  concentrated  and  allowed  to  stand,  when 
hydrochlorate  of  morphine  and  hydrochlorate  of  codeine  crys- 
tallized out;  these  bases  could  be  easily  separated  by  precipita- 
tion by  ammonia,  the  codeine  being  soluble  in  water.  It  was 
generally  supposed  that  the  codeine  formed  a  double  salt  with 
ammonia,  but  from  Dr.  Anderson's  experiments  this  did  not  ap- 
pear to  be  the  case.  The  mother-liquor  from  which  the  hydro- 
chlorates  had  been  deposited  gave,  on  the  addition  of  ammonia, 
a  precipitate  containing  narcotine,  papaverine,  thebaine,  and 
codeine,  together  with  numerous  resinous  matters  ;  the  presence 
of  the  last-mentioned  base  in  the  precipitate  was  remarkable  on 
account  of  its  solubility  in  water.  On  dissolving  this  precipi- 
tate in  alcohol  and  crystallising,  narcotine  was  deposited,  the 
other  bases  remaining  in  solution  ;  and  Dr.  Anderson  imagined 
that  this  solution  contained  a  base  which  had  not  as  yet  been 
noticed.  The  original  mother-liquor  from  which  the  ammonia 
precipitate  had  been  separated  still  contained  bases,  which 
might  be  extracted  by  agitating  with  ether.  From  the  ethereal 
solution  meconine  could  be  obtained.  The  products  of  decom- 
position of  narcotine  under  the  action  of  reagents  were  very  in- 
teresting. The  composition  of  this  alkaloid  had  been  determined 
by  different  experimenters,  and  their  results  did  not  altogether 
agree;  for  the  three  formulae,  C44H23N014,  C46H25N014,  and 
C48H27N014,  had  been  given,  which  had  been  explained  by  the 
supposition  that  there  existed  three  alkaloids  agreeing  very 
closely  in  their  properties,  and  named  methylo-,  ethylo-,  and 
propylo-narcotine,  on  account  of  the  decomposition  they  under- 
went when  passed  over  soda  lime,  the  three  yielding  respectively 
