598  Deodorized  Tincture  of  Opium.  {^"'D^T'^iss?*™' 
DEODORIZED  TINCTURE  OF  OPIUM. 
By  R.  Rother. 
The  writer  has  been  informed  through  various  public  and  private 
sources  that  his  process  for  preparing  deodorized  tincture  of  opium,  as 
published  in  the  "American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  for  February,  is 
characterized  by  a  radical  fault.  The  objectionable  feature  is  reported 
to  consist  in  the  sacrifice  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  activity.  The 
loss  of  morphine,  as  determined  by  assay,  is  stated  to  vary  from  \  to 
J  of  the  whole  amount.  It  has  been  variousl}^  conjectured  that  either 
the  fatty  adjunct  absorbs  the  morphine  or  else  envelopes  it  so  as  to 
render  its  extraction  from  the  marc  impossible.  These  charges  are 
certainly  formidable  enough,  and  if  sustained  by  subsequent  experience 
must  doubtless  render  the  process  worthless.  On  reflection  the  writer 
concluded  that  the  real  cause  of  the  aberration,  if  such  there  be,  had 
not  yet  been  surmised,  that  in  fact  the  fats  are  not  instrumental  at  all 
in  this  connection.  The  fault  in  reality  resides  in  an  insufficiency  of 
time  given  to  the  extraction  and  the  peculiar  form  of  the  opium  that 
the  formula  directs  to  be  used.  The  writer  feels  partially  to  blame 
for  this  in  two  ways;  firstly,  the  ambiguous  phrase  "dried  and 
powdered''  does  not  indicate  precisely  what  the  writer  means  and 
employed,  as  it  would  lead  to  the  belief  that  the  "pulverized"  or 
rather  finely  powdered  opium  of  the  market  is  intended.  By  the  term 
used  in  the  formula  the  ordinary  air-dried  gum  rubbed  into  a  coarse 
powder  is,  however,  meant.  Secondly  and  chiefly,  the  writer  did  not 
give  the  important  and  explicit  direction  to  soften  the  opium  by  means 
of  a  preliminary  maceration  or  digestion  before  submitting  it  to  a  boil- 
ing temperature  and  subsequent  treatment  with  the  fat.  This  then  is- 
actually  the  only  difficulty  about  the  formula.  By  interpolating  the 
provision  to  macerate  or  better  digest  the  gum  at  a  gentle  warmth  for 
twenty-four  hours  first,  the  process  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired.  The 
writer  never  employs  the  powdered  opium  of  the  market  for  making 
the  liquid  preparations  of  opium.  It  is  too  indurated  and  impervious 
for  such  uses,  and  is  in  all  probability  otherwise  injuriously  altered 
during  the  process  of  its  preparation. 
The  writer  has  most  usually  assayed  the  opium,  when  not  obtained 
of  guaranteed  strength,  used  in  its  various  preparations.  As  a  rule,  a. 
moderately  large  amount  of  gum  is  best  worked  up  in  its  ordinary- 
