442  Legislation  Relating  to  Poisons  and  Drugs.  {A™ctJ0°"rr'  \$™m' 
the  lower  fractions  of  fusel  oil  with  chloroform.  I  take  the  fraction 
obtained  from  raw  fusel  oil,  which  distils  between  900  C.  and 
no0  C.  The  distillate  is  separated  from  water  and  the  oil  shaken 
twice  with  one-half  of  its  volume  of  saturated  salt  solution.  This 
oil  is  shaken  with  dry  calcined  sodium  or  potassium  carbonate  to 
remove  most  of  the  water  in  solution  and  then  mixed  1  :  1  vol.  with 
chloroform.  If  the  resulting  mixture  is  milky  it  has  to  be  shaken 
again  with  calcined  carbonate  of  potash  or  soda  until  perfectly  clear. 
This  mixture  dissolves  alkaloid  morphine  crystals  readily  when  hot 
in  the  proportion  1  grm.  to  60  c.c,  when  cold  1  :  140  c.c.  Alkaloid 
morphine  freshly  liberated  by  an  alkali  from  an  aqueous  solution 
of  a  morphine  salt  in  the  presence  of  the  solvent  and  shaken  out 
at  once  in  the  amorphous  state,  is  taken  up  by  this  mixture  in  the 
proportion  1  grm. :  80  c.c.  at  25 0  C.  The  mixture  is  not  very  liable 
to  form  emulsions  and  can  easily  and  completely  be  evaporated  at  a 
low  temperature  on  a  water  bath,  leaving  the  morphine  as  a  white 
residue,  which  can  be  titrated  in  the  usual  way. 
I  add  a  table  showing  the  number  of  cubic  centimetres  of  differ- 
ent solvents  required  to  form  a  clear  solution  with  1  grm.  of  the 
most  important  alkaloids  and  salts  at  a  temperature  of  25 0  C.  This 
table  might  be  of  interest  to  pharmaceutical  chemists  for  analytical 
purposes. 
Morphine  hydrochloride  and  morphine  sulphate  with  the  full 
amount  of  water  of  crystallization  dissolve  easily  in  cold  methyl- 
alcohol,  but  after  some  time  the  solution  begins  to  separate  out 
salts  containing  only  2  molecules  of  water  of  crystallization.  These 
salts  require  much  more  of  the  solvents  for  resolution.  The  table 
therefore  shows  2  numbers  for  these  salts,  the  lower  number  show- 
ing .the  solubility  of  the  U.S. P.  salts  and  the  higher  the  amount  of 
cubic  centimetres  required  for  resolution  of  the  separated  crystals. 
Laboratory  New  York  Quinine  and  Chemical  Works  (Ltd.). 
SOME  RECENT  LEGISLATION  RELATING  TO  POISONS 
AND  HABIT-FORMING  DRUGS. 
By.  M.  I.  Wilbert,  Washington,  D.  C. 
In  compliance  with  a  request  made  by  the  Conference  of 
State  and  Provincial  Boards  of  Health,  in  June,  1909,  the  Public 
Health  Service  of  the  United  States  has  undertaken  to  compile 
and  classify  the  laws  relating  to  public  health  matters.    Up  to  the 
