AMERICAN  OPIUM  FROM  VERMONT. 
515 
dregs  percolated  with  boiling  water  till  exhausted  of  the  soluble 
matters  of  the  opium.  The  alkaline  infusion,  slightly  acidulated 
with  muriatic  acid,  was  evaporated  to  about  half  a  fluidounce, 
and  when  cold  neutralized  with  ammonia  and  filtered,  to  sepa- 
rate coloring  matter,  and  then  carefully  evaporated  to  about  200 
grains,  and  a  slight  excess  of  ammonia  added  whilst  yet  warm. 
After  standing  twelve  hours  the  crystalline  precipitate  was  care- 
fully collected  on  a  small  tared  filter,  washed,  dried,  treated  with 
ether  and  weighed  6*25  grs.  This  precipitate  afforded  the 
characteristic  reactions  of  morphia  with  nitric  acid  and  sesqui- 
chloride  of  iron. 
Now  from  these  results  it  must  be  inferred  that  this  new 
kind  of  opium  contains  6*25  per  cent,  of  morphia  in  its  moist 
commercial  condition,  or  7*44  per  cent,  when  it  is  dry ;  and  that 
H  is  much  more  soluble  in  water  than  ordinary  opium,  affording 
75  per  cent,  of  its  weight  to  that  fluid.  The  tincture  made  from 
it  by  the  officinal  process  has  the  appearance  and  odor  of  ordi- 
nary laudanum,  but  of  its  therapeutic  character  in  relation  to 
Smyrna  opium  I  am  wholly  uninformed.  Now  there  need  be  no 
hesitation  in  saying  that  this  opium  is  below  the  standard  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia.  The  maker  appears  to  be  entirely  candid  and 
honest  in  his  conduct  of  the  process,  and  the  fault  is  in  his  not 
knowing  the  real  character  of  the  substance  he  is  dealing  with,, 
and  the  importance  in  medical  and  hygienic  points  of  view  that 
it  be  parallel  in  strength  with  fair  Turkish  opium,  to  obtain  and 
deserve  the  confidence  of  physicians,  apothecaries  and  drug- 
gists. It  is  probable  that  the  pure  exudation  from  the  capsules 
unmixed  with  any  foreign  matter  rarely  reaches  us  in  the  opium 
market,  and  there  may  be  less  impropriety  in  employing  the  inspis^ 
sated  juice  of  the  poppy  than  the  various  matters  that  are  intro- 
duced at  Smyrna  and  elsewhere,  to  give  consistence  to  the  too 
soft  exudation  from  the  capsule  and  increase  the  volume  of  the 
product.  The  fact  that  640  pounds  of  an  opium,  containing  be- 
tween six  and  seven  per  cent,  of  morphia,  was  produced  in  a  few 
weeks  after  the  poppy  attained  its  proper  size,  from  six  and  a 
quarter  acres  of  land,  in  a  climate  as  far  north  as  Vermont,  by 
a  moderate  force,  seems  to  warrant  the  belief  that,  under  intejl* 
