76 
SELECTED ARTICLES. 
being able to assign a reason. I have only succeeded in pro- 
curing it three times. Is this substance the result of a reac- 
tion of various agents on morphia or narcotine, the two 
products of opium to which it bears the greatest analogy? I 
do not think so; at least I have never been able to form it 
from those two bodies. Is it owing to some other vegetable 
juice mixed with that of the poppy, in the country in which 
the opium was collected? This, I am of opinion, is still more 
unlikely; for the resemblances in nature and properties be- 
tween this substance and morphia, would seem to indicate 
that one is formed from the other, either naturally or from 
some disease of the plant. Be this as it may, the quantity of 
this substance I have obtained at different times, has permitted 
me to study it closely, and to describe it in such a manner, 
that it can never be mistaken. 
Some varieties of opium, on precipitation by ammonia from 
their solution in water, furnish a morphia mixed with much 
narcotine; this morphia, even when rendered white by several 
crystallisations, still retains narcotine, if not treated in a par- 
ticular manner. It was from a morphia thus mixed with nar- 
cotine, that the substance under consideration was obtained in 
my laboratory. After having treated the morphia by a solu- 
tion of caustic potash to dissolve it, and to leave the narcotine, 
the solution was saturated with sulphuric acid, and the mor- 
phia precipitated by ammonia; after filtration, the fluid, which 
was slightly acid, was evaporated, when it precipitated a 
whitish, micaceous substance; this was collected on a filter, 
and washed with distilled water. To render it more pure, it 
was re-dissolved in boiling water; on cooling, it crystallised in 
micaceous scales; the mother water retained a little sulphate 
of soda. In this state, cold water at 14 C. dissolved only 
0.0013 of its weight, and boiling water 0.008, which crystal- 
lised on cooling. If a little ammonia be added to the boiling 
solution, this substance loses its pearly lustre, becomes less 
soluble and parts with T J 7 of sulphuric acid. 
This substance, as has been shown, is almost insoluble in 
water. It is still less so in absolute alcohol and in ether; 
