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Morphine or Morphia

This is white hellebore. When pure, it is a white the chief active principle of opium. The powder; but as usually met with, the powder morphia of commerce is a white crystalline is yellowish or greenish-white, insoluble in powder; but when crystallized in alcohol, water. forms brilliant, prismatic, transparent, and 4008. Colchicine. Extracted from the colorless crystals, which turn nitric acid red. seeds of the common meadow saffron; has In powder, unlike strychnine, it is fusible similar properties to veratrine, but is crystalwithout decomposition, and strongly decom- line, and soluble in water. poses iodic acid. It is insoluble in ether, 4009. Harmaline. A substance formscarcely soluble in water, and freely soluble ing yellowish prismatic crystals, obtained in alcohol. Potassa and ammonia precipi- from the Peganum Harmala, a plant aboundtate morphia from the solutions of its salts. ing in southern Russia. By oxidation it 3998. To Find the Percentage of Morphia in Opium. An excellent process for ascertaining the quality of opium is to boil an infusion of 100 grains opium with 25 grains quicklime, made into a milk with water; to filter while hot, saturate with a dilute hydrochloric acid, and to precipitate the morphia by ammonia. After expelling any excess of ammonia by heat, the precipitate is collected, dried, and weighed; the weight in grains will nearly represent the percentage of morphia in the opium.