LIQUOR  OPII  COMPOSITUS. 
39 
associated  with  morphia  salts  forms  the  therapeutic  basis  of  the 
nostrum  "  chlorodyne,"  and  the  extraordinarily  incongruous  and 
irrational  mixture  of  molasses,  peppermint,  capsicum,  cannabis, 
hydrocyanic  acid,  perchloric  acid,  and  all  the  others,  if  there  be 
more,  forms  a  mere  vehicle  and  blind  for  the  attempted  secretion 
of  this  old  and  valuable  combination.  When,  however,  it  came 
out  in  this  new  dress,  at  the  call  of  the  tin  trumpet  of  quackery, 
many  physicians  in  the  very  cities  where  the  extemporaneous  use 
of  the  combination  originated  became  loud  in  its  praise,  and 
their  patients  found  no  diflSculy  in  swallowing  it  at  double  price. 
Through  the  now  waning  use  of  this  "chlorodyne  "  and  its  nu- 
merous imitations,  many  physicians,  and  some  of  them  without 
being  yet  aware  of  it,  have  been  again  taught,  on  a  larger  scale, 
that  there  is  a  value  in  the  association  of  chloroform  with  their 
opiates  for  internal  use.  But  to  realize  the  best  effects  of  this 
combination  the  chloroform  must  be  in  the  proportion  of  about 
one  fluidrachm  to  the  grain  of  morphia  salt,  or  about  eight  or 
ten  minims  to  the  ordinary  dose.  This  makes  a  mixture  which, 
though  not  too  pungent  for  many  uses,  is  so  rarely  needed  as  to 
be  objectionable  for  common  use. 
These  considerations  led  the  writer  to  adopt  purified  chloro- 
form as  an  ingredient  in  the  new  formula  for  liquor  opii  com- 
positus,  and  a  series  of  experiments  was  undertaken  to  determine 
how  much  chloroform  could  be  introduced,  and  still  have  the 
solubility  or  miscibility  of  the  preparation  in  water  secured.  This 
proportion  was  found  to  be  unexpectedly  small,  even  when  the 
solution  was  made  to  consist  of  one-half  its  volume  of  alcohol, 
thereby  taking  the  character  of  a  tincture  rather  than  a  solution. 
One  minim  in  twenty-five,  or  one-twenty-fifth  of  its  volume,  was 
found  to  be  the  maximum  quantity  of  chloroform  which  would 
be  permanently  held  in  solution  when  the  twenty-five  minims  of 
the  preparation  was  dissolved  in  one  fluidrachm  of  water  or 
more.  This  solution  when  made  with  a  fluidrachm  of  water  was 
considered  a  little  too  near  to  the  boundary  line  of  precipitation 
of  the  chloroform,  and  a  little  too  pungent  or  biting  for  common 
use,  and  therefore  the  proportion  of  chloroform  was  reduced  to 
one  minim  in  thirty  minims  of  the  finished  preparation,  and  the 
whole  formula  as  finally  determined  upon  was  as  follows  : 
