524 
WHAT  IS  OPIUM  ? 
Balsam  of  Peru,  a  drachm, 
Oil  of  rosemary, 
Oil  of  lavander, 
Oil  of  lemon,  of  each  22  grains.  Mix. 
This  physician  employs  the  solution  of  Vleminckx  for  psori- 
asis, prurigo  and  sycosis. — Bull.  Ther.  et  Jour,  de  Chim.  Med. 
WHAT  IS  OPIUM? 
By  Dr.  F.  A.  Fluckiger,  of  Bern. 
This  question,  in  our  days,  will  certainly  be  looked  at  as  per- 
fectly idle,  both  by  practical  pharmaceutists  and  chemists.  The 
drug,  indeed,  is  well  known,  and  has  been  universally  used  since 
the  earliest  time,  in  fact  for  twenty  centuries  at  least ;  while  to 
no  other  product  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  has  so  astonishing  an 
amount  of  excellent  chemical  research  been  devoted  since  the 
days  of  that  glorious  discovery  of  a  modest  Hanoverian  Apothe- 
ker,  who  the  first  evolved  the  idea  that  there  are  bodies  existing 
which  are  thoroughly  analogous  to  ammonia  or  potash,  yet  com- 
posed of  organic  elements.  Every  one  looking  over  the  rich 
chemical  literature  of  opium  published  from  the  time  of  Serttir- 
ner  (1816)  to  the  recent  delicate  investigations  of  Smith  of  Ed- 
inburgh or  Hesse  of  Stuttgart,  may  well  be  satisfied  with  a  mass 
of  analytical  facts  so  interesting,  useful  and  complete.  The 
present  text-books,  indeed,  display  a  very  satisfactory  knowledge 
of  this  important  drug,  albeit  they  leave  a  little  doubt  regarding 
some  of  its  numerous  constituents. 
Yet,  I  venture  to  say,  that  science  is  far  from  having  an  exact 
idea  of  the  nature  of  opium.  The  endeavors  of  so  many  emi- 
nent chemists  having  failed  to  supply  a  thorough  acquaintance 
with  the  drug,  I  cannot  hope  to  fill  up  at  once  this  defect,  but 
merely  wish  to  make  it  evident,  and  to  contribute  some  facts  con- 
cerning the  composition  of  opium,  which  have  escaped  the  at- 
tention of  former  investigators. 
Opium  contains  a  dozen  of  more  or  less  decidedly  alkaline 
bodies,  among  which  morphine  and  narcotine  occur  in  the  largest 
proportion.  The  former  constitutes  very  rarely  more  than  20 
per  cent,  of  the  dried  drug  and  usually  not  more  than  12  to  15 
