Am.  Jour.  Pharru  \ 
November,  1895.  J 
Granulated  Opium. 
557 
No.  5  was  conducted  similarly  to  No.  4,  percolating  for  10  hours, 
and  using  granulated  opium  which  assayed  14-35  Per  cent-  mor- 
phine. 1*370  per  cent,  of  morphine  was  obtained  in  the  assay  of 
the  completed  tincture. 
Nos.  6,  7  and  10  were  executed  in  precisely  the  same  manner  as 
No.  5,  and  gave  practically  identical  results. 
In  Nos.  8,  9  and  11  the  only  change  made  was  in  retarding  the 
rate  of  percolation  so  that  it  covered  24  hours  instead  of  10  hours. 
The  assays  show  a  slight  increase  in  the  percentage  of  morphine 
extracted. 
Nos.  12  and  13  were  additional  experiments  with  the  U.S.  P.  pro- 
cess, the  results  being  no  more  encouraging  than  before. 
These  experiments  were  all  conducted  in  the  most  careful  manner, 
using  good  quality  precipitated  calcium  phosphate  and  making 
duplicate  assays  in  nearly  every  case.  The  uniformly  low  results 
which  were  obtained  by  the  official  process  indicate  that  the  objec- 
tions which  have  been  offered  to  it  are  not  without  good  foundation. 
The  maximum  loss  by  this  process  was  2  42  per  cent.,  the  minimum 
loss  was  1-40  percent.  With  the  granulated  opium  process  the 
greatest  loss  was  0  65  per  cent.,  the  least  being  only  0-15  per  cent. 
A  comparison  of  the  two  methods  with  reference  to  elegance  and 
neatness  gives  immediate  preference  to  the  use  of  the  granulated 
drug.  The  strictly  followed  U.  S.  P.  process  is  anything  but  neat, 
and  often  involves  difficulties  which  have  a  tendency  to  disturb  the 
serenity  of  the  operator's  temper. 
With  regard  to  the  rapidity  of  percolation  the  tendency  of  the 
granulated  opium  is  to  allow  the  menstruum  to  pass  too  rapidly,  and 
it  must  be  retarded  somewhat  in  order  to  obtain  the  best  results. 
With  the  official  process  the  case  is  far  different.  No  choice  what- 
ever is  allowed  the  operator,  who  must  submit  to  the  inevitable  and 
allow  it  to  take  its  own  time.  Experiments  conducted  as  uniformly 
as  possible,  produced  widely  different  results  in  this  respect,  and  the 
length  of  time  required  for  percolation  bears  no  simple  relation  to 
the  percentage  of  morphine  extracted,  unless  it  be  an  inverse  ratio, 
for  in  the  instances  when  the  percolate  came  through  with  exasperat- 
ing slowness  the  loss  of  morphine  appeared  to  be  the  greatest. 
Summing  up  the  entire  work,  it  has  been  shown  that  a  finished 
preparation  of  tincture  of  opium  can  be  made  by  the  granulated 
opium  process  in  from  10  to  36  hours,  with  a  loss  of  morphine  vary- 
