512 
ESTIMATION  OF  MORPHIA  IN  OPIUM,  ETC. 
lish  a  limit  to  their  power  to  enter  the  minuter  pores  of  solid 
bodies. 
Carbonic  oxide  is  taken  up  more  largely  than  hydrogen  by 
soft  iron.  Such  an  occlusion  of  carbonic  oxide  by  iron  at  a  low 
red  heafc  appears  to  be  the  first  and  a  necessary  step  in  the  pro- 
cess of  acieration.  The  gas  appears  to  abandon  half  its  carbon 
to  the  iron,  when  the  temperature  is  afterwards  raised  to  a  con- 
siderably higher  degree. 
Silver  has  a  similar  relation  to  oxygen,  of  which  metal  the 
sponge,  fritted  but  not  fused,  was  found  to  hold  in  one  case  so 
much  as  7*49  volumes  of  oxygen.  A  plate  or  wire  of  the  fused 
metal  retains  the  same  property,  but  much  reduced  in  intensity, 
as  with  plates  of  fused  platinum  and  palladium  in  their  relation 
to  hydrogen. — Oh  em.  News,  Aug.  24,  1866,  from  Proc.  Royal 
Society. 
ON  THE  ESTIMATION  OF  MORPHIA  IN  OPIUM  :  IMPROVE- 
MENTS ON  M.  GUILLERMOND'S  PROCESS. 
By  M.  Roussille. 
M.  Guillermond's  process,  which  consists  in  macerating  the 
opium  in  cold  alcohol  of  72  per  cent.,  is  very  accurate,  but  it 
possesses  the  inconvenience  of  being  long.  I  propose  to  intro- 
duce some  modifications.  15  grammes  of  opium  are  treated  with 
25  grammes  of  boiling  water  till  complete  disaggregation ;  then 
add  60  grammes  of  boiling  alcohol  at  40°  ;  digest  for  an  hour, 
and  filter  through  linen ;  then  treat  the  residue  again  with  10 
grammes  of  water  and  60  grammes  of  alcohol  as  before.  Now 
extract  the  residue  with  50  grammes  of  boiling  absolute  alcohol. 
All  the  liquids  collected  together  and  cooled  are  to  be  carefully 
filtered,  evaporated  to  one-third,  and  filtered  again  after  cooling. 
Then  precipitate  the  morphia  with  10  grammes  of  ammonia,  and 
evaporate  over  sulphuric  acid.  At  the  end  of  three  days  collect 
the  deposited  crystals,  and  wash  them  with  ether  and  with  water. 
Six  successive  trials  have  given  the  same  results  as  by  Guiller- 
mond's process,  which  takes  more  than  five  days,  whilst  this  only 
requires  three. — Chem.  News,  Oct.  5,  1866. 
