Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Nov.,  1876.  j 
Assay  of  Opium  for  Morphia. 
was  treated  with  dilute  acid  and  precipitated  with  ammonia.  This  last 
operation  was  performed  entirely  with  about  10  cc.  of  liquid.  It  yielded 
•067  gram  of  morphia,  which  with  *oio  to  be  added  for  loss  of  morphia 
in  the  10  cc.  of  liquid,  gave  '077  or  only  '005  gram  in  excess  of  the 
theoretical  quantity,  which  may  be  accounted  for,  as  the  morphia  was 
not  quite  free  from  color. 
Five  grams  of  Persian  opium  treated  as  above  yielded  '460  gram  of 
morphia,  and  50  cc.  of  liquid  was  used.  This,  treated  by  amylic  alco- 
hol, gave  '053  gram  of  morphia. 
6*480  grams  of  a  very  rich  sample  of  Persian  opium  gave  .907  of 
morphia,  6*8o  cc.  of  wash  water  were  used.  This,  by  treatment  with 
amylic  alcohol,  yielded  '087  gram  of  morphia. 
There  is,  however,  one  point  in  connection  with  the  precipitation  of 
morphia  by  ammonia  to  which  special  attention  must  be  paid.  It  is 
that  solutions  of  opium  from  which  the  morphia  has  been  precipitated 
by  slight  excess  of  ammonia,  if  left  to  stand  until  the  smell  of  ammonia 
has  disappeared,  redissolve  a  large  quantity  of  the  precipitate,  so  that 
care  must  be  taken  that  the  liquid  should  always  have  a  slight  excess  of 
ammonia  present.  It  is,  I  believe,  to  the  neglect  of  this  fact  that  Prof. 
Dragendorff  has  made  the  statement  that  opium  contains  some  ingre- 
dient which  hinders  the  precipitation  of  the  morphia. 
When,  however,  ammonia  in  strong  excess  was  allowed  to  remain  in 
the  liquid,  the  amount  of  morphia  extracted  by  amylic  alcohol  was 
much  greater,  in  one  case  as  much  as  3  per  cent. 
If  the  opium  before  treating  with  water  has  been  mixed  with  chalky 
then  the  precipitate  obtained  by  ammonia  consists  of  morphia,  narco- 
tina  and  resin,  the  meconate  of  calcium  being  entirely  got  rid  of.  If 
the  opium  has  been  treated  with  boiling  benzin,  bisulphide  of  carbon  or 
ether,  previous  to  infusion,  then  the  precipitate  consists  of  morphia, 
meconate  of  calcium,  resin  and  minute  quantities  of  other  alkaloids. 
The  following  experiment  will  illustrate  the  difference  in  composition 
of  the  precipitate  under  these  different  circumstances. 
No.  1.  6*480  grams  of  dried  opium  treated  with  cold  water,  the 
solution  evaporated  to  half  an  ounce,  ammonia  added  in  slight  excess 
and  allowed  to  stand  twenty-four  hours,  gave  1*695  gram  of  precipitate  ; 
of  this  1*506  was  soluble  in  boiling  alcohol.  The  alcoholic  residue, 
etc.,  treated  with  bisulphide  of  carbon,  lost  -358  gram.  The  remain- 
der dissolved  in  dilute  acid,  and  treated  with  slight  excess  of  ammonia, 
yielded  '870  gram  of  morphia. 
