NEW RESEARCHES ON OPIUM. 
69 
To decide the question I repeated the process of this che- 
mist, and implicitly followed the method he employed to 
obtain his crystalline matter. M. Dublanc evaporated the 
ammoniacal mother waters of morphia, dissolved the residue 
in alcohol, obtained an alcoholic extract, treated this extract 
with ether, evaporated the solution, obtained an acid matter, 
dissolved it in water, saturated the acid with sub carbonate 
of soda, and procured two distinct substances, one white and 
granular, the other brown, which he removed by very cold 
and weak alcohol, used in small quantities, and finally purified 
the white substance by dissolving it in alcohol and crystal- 
lising it. 
By acting in this mode, I obtained a crystalline substance 
which did not appear to me to be homogenous, I therefore some- 
what modified the operation; the matter left on the evapora- 
tion of the ether, was dissolved in water and purified by 
animal charcoal; the fluid which was acid was slightly evapo- 
rated, and suffered to stand for twenty-four hours in a cool 
place. It afforded crystals which were evidently meconine; 
having separated these, I added carbonate of soda, and thus 
procured a granular precipitate, which when purified, gave me 
crystals having all the characters of codeine. 
It is therefore highly probable that the substance described 
by M. Dublanc was a mixture of meconine and codeine, 
which will explain its peculiar properties and actions. 
VI. 
Researches on the extraction of Morphia by means of Lime. 
Paramorphia. 
Oxide of calcium (lime) is often employed to obtain the 
vegetable alkalies; in some cases even, lime is to be preferred 
to the more energetic alkalies, as potash, soda, or ammonia, for 
these salifiable bases often retain a portion of the vegetable 
alkalies in solution, and exercise an action which tends to 
modify or alter them. Being anxious to ascertain if lime 
might not be advantageously substituted for ammonia in the 
extraction of morphia, I determined to make a trial on a large 
