262  Assay  of  Opium  and  its  Preparations.  {Am'jS£emtTW' 
Vanillin. — Fine,  white,  crystalline  needles;  soluble  in  about  100 
parts  water  of  25°,and  in  15  parts  of  8o°  ;  readily  soluble  in  alcohol; 
melting  point  80  to  8i°. 
WlNTERGREEN  OlL  : 
a.  from  Betula  lenta  L.  {Oleum  betulce). — aD  ±  0°  ;  for  the  rest, 
the  same  properties  as  Oleum  gaultherics. 
b.  from  Gaultheria  procumbens  L.  {Oleum  gaultherice). — Color- 
less or  almost  colorless;1  d25o  1-172  to  Pi8o;  feeble  laevorotation, 
aD25°  up  to  —  i°;  boiling  point  218  to  22 1°. 
c.  Artificial  Wintergreen  Oil  (Methylis  salicylas). — Colorless; 
d25o  1-180  to  1-185  f  aD  ±  o°  ;  boiling  point  219  to  2210;  soluble  in 
every  proportion  in  alcohol. 
ASSAY  OF  OPIUM  AND  ITS  PREPARATIONS.3 
By  Phiup  Asher,  Ph.G.,  M.D. 
A  reliable  and  rapid  method  for  the  assay  of  opium  and  its  prep- 
arations has  long  been  a  desideratum.  In  reviewing  methods  in 
vogue  the  one  that  appears  most  plausible,  rational,  easily- 
understood  and  practically  under  the  full  control  of  the  operator, 
is  the  English  method,  as  recently  modified  by  Stevens.  This 
method,  however,  has  not  given  the  results  that  had  been  expected 
of  it,  and  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  A.  Ph.  A.,  1904,  L.  F.  Kebler, 
Chief  of  the  Drug  Laboratory,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture, 
compiled  results  of  various  workers,  which  showed  a  lesser  percent- 
age than  that  obtained  from  other  methods.  In  the  outlines  of  the 
American  Association  of  Agricultural  Chemists,  work  for  drugs  for 
1905,  this  subject  is  again  taken  up  and  a  review  of  the  methods 
suggested  therein  shows  they  do  not  contain  the  several  new  features 
embodied  in  this  paper. 
The  process,  as  now  again  modified,  has  been  found  in  the  hands 
of  the  author  to  give  results  within  a  few  milligrammes,  of  the  quantity 
of  morphine  originally  taken.  Due  credit  must  be  given  to  Prof. 
A.  B.  Stevens,  University  of  Michigan,  and  the  principal  point  of  my 
1  The  oils  are  frequently  of  a  reddish  color,  owing  to  traces  of  iron. 
2  The  lower  limit  is  given  too  high  ;  it  should  be  1*177  (comp.  table). 
3  Read  before  the  Alumni  Association  of  the  New  Orleans  College  of 
Pharmacy. 
