ON HYDROCHLORATE OF MORPHIA. 
155 
ART. XXVIII. — AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR PREPARING 
THE HYDROCHLORATE OF MORPHIA, By A. T. Thomson, 
M. D.,F. L. S. 
The best known and the most extensively employed of 
the salts of morphia is the hydrochlorate; hence many pro- 
cesses have been proposed for preparing it 1 shall not occu- 
py the time of the Society by criticising these, although 
some of them display little acquaintance with the subject. 
The officinal preparations, contained in the London and the 
Edinburgh Pharmacopoeias, are sufficiently pure for medicinal 
use; but the processes for making them are operose, and are 
besides susceptible of considerable loss in the quantity of 
the salt obtained from the weight of opium ordered to be em- 
ployed. 
In the London formula, the solution of opium is ordered to 
be decomposed by the chloride of lead dissolved in boiling 
distilled water; the result of which is a hydrochlorate of 
morphia, held in solution in the water employed, and an in- 
soluble meconate of lead, which are easily separated, and all 
the soluble matter washed out of the precipitate. The evapo- 
ration of the solution and the washings form impure crystals 
of hydrochlorate of morphia, which are ordered to be pressed, 
re-dissolved in distilled water, digested with animal charcoal, 
strained ; and, with the washings of the charcoal, again 
evaporated cautiously that pure crystals may be produced. 
So far this process is efficient, although in repeating it I 
have never been able to obtain pure crystals of the hydro- 
chlorate, without a third, and sometimes a fourth crystalliza- 
tion. As a quantity of the hydrochlorate, also, remains in 
the solution, expressed from the first crops of crystals; and is 
ordered to be converted in morphia, by the aid of the solu- 
tion of ammonia ; and again formed into the hydrochlorate, 
by dissolving the morphia in hydrochloric acid, digesting 
VOL. VIII. — no. ii, 20 
