by means of animal charcoal; but, on the large scale, to purify the salt by repeated crystallisations alone.
3. (Ph. B.) Macerate opium, sliced, 1 lb., for 24 hours with distilled water, 2 pints, and decant. Macerate the residue for 12 hours with distilled water, 2 pints, decant, and repeat the process with the same quantity of water, subjecting the insoluble residue to strong pressure.
Unite the liquors, evaporate on a water bath to the bulk of 1 pint, and strain through calico. Pour in now chloride of calcium, 3⁄4 oz., previously dissolved in 4 fl. oz. of distilled water, and evaporate until the solution is so far concentrated that upon cooling it becomes solid. Envelope the mass in a double fold of strong calico, and subject it to powerful pressure, preserving the dark fluid which exudes. Triturate the squeezed cake with about 1⁄2 pint of boiling distilled water, and, the whole being thrown upon a paper filter, wash the residue well with boiling distilled water. The filtered fluids having been evaporated as before, cooled, and solidified, again subject the mass to pressure, and if it be still much coloured, repeat this process a third time, the expressed liquids being always preserved. Dissolve the pressed cake in 6 fl. oz. of boiling distilled water, add purified animal charcoal, 1⁄4 oz., and digest for 20 minutes; filter; wash the filter and charcoal with boiling distilled water, and to the solution thus obtained add solution of ammonia in slight excess. Let the pure crystalline morphia which separates as the liquid cools be collected on a paper filter, and washed with cold distilled water until the washings cease to give a precipitate with solution of nitrate of silver acidulated with nitric acid.
From the dark liquids expressed in the above process an additional product may be obtained by diluting them with distilled water, precipitating with solution of potash added in considerable excess, filtering, and supersaturating the filtrate with hydrochloric acid. This acid liquid, digested with a little animal charcoal, and again filtered, gives upon the addition of ammonia a small quantity of pure morphia. Diffuse the pure morphia obtained as above through 2 oz. of boiling distilled water placed in a porcelain capsule, kept hot, and add, constantly stirring, dilute hydrochloric acid, 2 fl. oz., or q. s., proceeding with caution, so that the morphia may be entirely dissolved and a neutral solution obtained. Set aside to cool and crystallise. Drain the crystals and dry them on filtering paper. By further evaporating the mother liquor, and again cooling, additional crystals are obtained.—Dose. From 1⁄8th to 1⁄2 gr.
4. (Mohr.) By dissolving the precipitate of morphia (see Morphia, Prep. 4) in dilute hydrochloric acid, and by crystallisation, as before.
Pur., &c. It “is completely soluble in rectified
spirit, and in water. What is precipitated from the aqueous solution by nitrate of silver is not entirely dissolved, either by ammonia, unless added in excess, or by hydrochloric or nitric acid.” (Ph. L.) “Snowy white; entirely soluble; solution colourless; loss of weight at 212° Fahr. not above 13%; 100 measures of a solution of 10 gr., in water, 1⁄2 fl. oz., heated to 212°, and decomposed with agitation by a faint excess of ammonia, yield a precipitate which, in 24 hours, occupies 121⁄2 measures of the liquid.” (Ph. E.) It takes 20 parts of cold and about its own weight of boiling water to dissolve it. The hydrochlorate of morphia of the shops is usually, like the acetate, under the form of a white crystalline powder.
Obs. Of all the salts of morphia, this one appears to be that most suitable for medical purposes, from its free solubility, and from its solution not being liable to spontaneous decomposition, at least under ordinary circumstances. “The opium which yields the largest quantity of precipitate by carbonate of sodium yields muriate of morphia, not only in the greatest proportion, but also with the fewest crystallisations.” (Ph. E.) Smyrna opium contains the most morphine.
Morphia and Codei′a (Hydrochlorate of). Syn. Gregory’s salt; Morphiæ et codeiæ hydrochloras, L.; Sel de Gregory, Fr. This is commercial HYDROCHLORATE OF MORPHINE prepared according to Dr Gregory’s process.
Morphia Mec′onates of. (C19H20NO3)2,C7H2O7. Prep. 1. (Neutral meconate of morphine; Morphiæ meconas, L.) By saturating an aqueous solution of meconic acid with morphia, and evaporating the solution by a gentle heat, so that crystals may be obtained.