288 
SULPHURIC ACID ON MORPHINE. 
that they soon acquire, when exposed to the air, a more or 
less dark green colour, being converted into another body 
which contains only two-fifths of the sulphuric acid of the 
white substance. The amount of sulphuric acid of this 
white substance is greater than that of the sulphate of mor- 
phine, but only a portion of the sulphuric acid is separated 
from a solution in muriatic acid by chloride of barium, while 
the other portion can only be detected after decomposition 
by chlorine. The analysis of the body, dried in a current 
of carbonic acid gas, yielded — 
Found. Calculated. 
Sulphuric acid - 14.68 14.14 11.63 
I Carbon - - 61.12 61.22 61.41 
Hydrogen - - 5.88 5.58 5.84 
Nitrogen - - 3.86 .. 4.11 
Oxygen - - .. .. 14.01 
The organic constituent of this compound is, judging from 
its equivalent, equal to 4 atoms of morphine ; it may conse- 
quently be expressed by the formula 4 (C 35 H 2e NO 6 ) + 5 
SO 3 . If we set out from the supposition that the morphine 
is a conjugated compound of ammonia, its sulphate, which 
contains, like the salts of the organic bases in general, 1 atom 
water, can be expressed by the formula C 35 H 17 O 6 4- NH 4 
0, SO 3 , i. e. it contains 1 atom of oxide of ammonium in- 
stead of the ammonia. On being heated with sulphuric acid 
the whole of the water is expelled, and the peculiar sulphates 
of ammonia discovered by H. Rose areTormed,in which the 
ammonia is conjugated with the sulphuric acid. Of these 
compounds the neutral is NH 3 SO 3 , and the acid one which 
Jacquelain analysed 3NH 3 4- 4S0 3 . If these two salts were 
formed in the substance examined, it is directly evident that 
the above composition must result, and the rational formula 
would accordingly be (C 35 H 17 O 6 + NH 3 ) + SO 3 + 3 (C 35 
H ]7 -f NH 3 ) + 4S0 3 . The fact that anhydrous sulphu- 
ric acid passed over effloresced morphine produces this body 
speaks in favor of this view; nevertheless the change which 
