ACTION OF ALKALINE BIC ARBONATES, ETC. 
297 
ART. LXXXIII. — ON THE ACTION OF ALKALINE BICARBO- 
NATES ON VEGETABLE BASES IN THE PRESENCE OF TAR- 
TARIC ACID. 
By C. Oppermann. 
During his experiments on the organic bases or alkaloids, 
the chemist is necessarily obliged to make use of the generic 
and specific characters these bases possess, and which con- 
sist, among others, of the property of being separated by 
powerful inorganic bases and alkaline carbonates. In the 
latter instance, as we know, they often occasion, inciden- 
tally, combinations between the displaced and the displac- 
ing bases of such a nature that these reactions offer the 
means of distinguishing one from the other, on account of 
some being dissolved in an excess of the precipitating base, 
while others remain insoluble. 
The phenomenon of the precipitation of bases by one 
another, when they are in the state of a salt, is not, however, 
a constant phenomenon. We know, by the experiments 
of Lasonne and Rose, that many organic substances, such 
as tartaric acid, sugar and albumen oppose themselves to 
the displacement and precipitation of an oxide, to such an 
extent as to resist the agency of a number of tests. M. 
Persoz having remarked, that, like alumina, certain organic 
bases possessed the property of being concealed by tartaric 
acid, I have endeavoured to ascertain to what extent this 
phenomenon was peculiar to this particular substance, for 
the influence such a fact might have upon inquiries into 
vegetable alkalis is easily conceived. I have, therefore, 
made experiments to ascertain whether tartaric acid, albu- 
men, and other fixed organic bodies, possessed, or not, the 
property of preventing the separation and precipitation of a 
vegetable alkali. I shall in this p ace, merely give the re- 
sult of my experiments on the action of the salts of morphia, 
