ON HYDROCHLORATE OP MORPHIA. 
157 
authorised to draw a conclusion from repeated comparative 
experiments, the produce obtained from operating upon the 
same quantity of opium, and the same sample, has been con- 
siderably greater by my process than by that of either of the 
British colleges. 
In describing the process I shall divide it into three 
stages : — 
1. The exhaustion of the opium. 
2. The formation of the hydrochlorate of morphia. 
3. The purification of the salt. 
For exhausting the opium of its soluble matter, I follow 
the method of the Pharmacopoeias to a certain extent, name- 
ly, dividing, or rather slicing, the opium into thin fragments 
and macerating it for thirty hours, after which it is strongly 
pressed ; but, instead of macerating the marc a second and a 
third time, as directed by the London college, I rub it in a 
mortar with an equal weight of pure white siliceous sand, and 
a sufficient quantity of water to form the whole into a soft 
past ; and, having introduced it into a percolator, pass through 
the mixture distilled water until the fluid comes off perfectly 
devoid of color and of taste. 
In following the directions of the Edinburgh and Dublin 
colleges, the marc has always yielded to alcohol not only color 
but bitterness ; whilst that which is afterwards triturated 
with sand and left in the percolator, yields nothing but a 
slight degree of color to alcohol passed through it. This 
arises from the influence of the sand in extending the surface 
to be acted upon by the water ; for, if the marc of the pressed 
opium and the sand be well rubbed together, it is evident that 
the water in percolating the mass must be applied to every 
side of each minute particle of opium ; and, consequently, it 
will act upon the soluble matter in the most efficient man- 
ner. 
By employing water at 60° for the maceration and the per- 
colation of the marc, the narcotina, a considerable portion of 
the extractive, much of the resin, the whole of the fatty 
matter, the caoutchouc, the bassorine, and the ligneous 
