morphine, morphia

[MORPHEUS.] Chemistry: C17H19NO3. Morphinum. The most important of the opium bases, discovered by Sertürner in 1816. It is obtained by decomposing an aqueous extract of opium by chloride of barium, and allowing the chloride of morphia to crystallize out. The crystals, which contain codeine, are di olved, and the morphine is then precipitated by ammonia, and finally purified by recrystallization. It crystallizes from alcohol in colorle , lustrous, trimetric prisms, soluble in 500 parts of boiling water, easily soluble in alcohol, but but insoluble in ether and chloroform. Morphine is also soluble in caustic alkalies, but scarcely at all in ammonia. Solutions of morphia are colored blue with ferric chloride; and iodic acid is reduced by morphine and its salts, free iodine being liberated. By the aid of starch solution this reaction affords a highly delicate test for its detection. Morphine forms well-defined salts with mineral and organic acids. The most characteristic and best defined salt is the hydrochloride, which crystallizes in slender, colorle needles, arranged in stellated groups, soluble in 20 parts of cold water, and in its own weight at the boiling heat. mor-pho, s. [Gr. Morpho, an epithet of Venus, as the bestower of beauty.] Entom .: The typical genus of the family Morphide or the sub-family Morphinse. Forty species are described from the Neo tropical region and the Brazilian and Central American sub-regions. The male of Morpho cypris is probably the most brilliant but terfly known; it is of dazzling sky-blue, with a white band acro the center of the wings, which have an expanse of five inches; the female is often orange or tawny. Some of the species fly near the ground, but the largest and most gayly-colored fly at a great height. The scales from the wings of Morphomenelaus are sometimes used as test-objects for the microscope. IMG:content-1408.png:[blocks in formation] "In cla ifying languages morphologically ."- Max Müller: Selected E ays , i. 33.