Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume Ii Part 64

Good opium yields from 10% to 13% of morphia. See OPIUM.

=Morphia, Ac'etate of.= C_{17}H_{20}NO_{3}C_{2}H_{3}O_{2}. _Syn._ MORPHIae ACETAS (Ph. L., E., & D.), L. _Prep._ 1. (Ph. L. 1836.) Morphia, 6 dr.; acetic acid (Ph. L.), 3 fl. dr.; distilled water, 4 fl. oz.; dissolve, gently evaporate, and crystallise.

2. (Ph. E.) Hydrochlorate of morphia, 1 part, is dissolved in warm water, 14 parts; and the solution, when cold, is precipitated with ammonia, in slight excess, the precipitate is washed in cold water, and dissolved by means of acetic acid, in excess, in warm water, 12 parts; from the solution crystals are obtained as before.

3. (Ph. D.) Morphia (in fine powder), 1 oz.; rectified spirit, 8 fl. oz.; mix, apply a gentle heat, and add of acetic acid (sp. gr. 1044), 4-1/2 fl. dr. or q. s., until a neutral or slightly acid solution is obtained; evaporate this to the consistence of a syrup by steam or water heat, and set aside the residuum for a few days until it solidifies.

4. (Ph. L.) Similar to the Edinburgh process.

_Pur._ "Soluble in water and in rectified spirit" (less so in the former than the latter); "and when the spirit is distilled from the solution, it yields crystals which are totally destroyed by heat." (Ph. L.) "100 measures of a solution of 10 gr. in 1/2 fl. oz. of water, and 5 minims of acetic acid, heated to 212 and decomposed by a very slight excess of ammonia, yield by agitation a precipitate which, in 24 hours, occupies 15-1/2 measures of the liquid." (Ph. E.)

_Obs._ The acetate of morphia of commerce is usually in the form of a whitish powder, and is prepared by the mere evaporation of the solution to dryness by a gentle heat. During the process a portion of the acetic acid is dissipated, and hence this preparation is seldom perfectly soluble in water, unless it has been slightly acidulated with acetic acid. In the Ph.

L. 1851 this salt (in crystals) is included in the materia medica. See MORPHIA (_above_).

=Morphia, Hydri'odate of.= C_{17}H_{19}NO_{3},HI. _Syn._ MORPHIae HYDRIODAS, L. _Prep._ (A. T. Thomson.) Hydrochlorate of morphia, 2 parts; iodide of pota.s.sium, 1 part; dissolve each separately in a little water, mix the solutions, wash the precipitate in a little very cold water, press it in bibulous paper, redissolve it in hot water, and crystallise.

=Morphia, Hydriodate of, with Iodine.= _Syn._ MORPHIae HYDRIODAS c.u.m IODINIO; BOUCHARDAT'S IODURE D'IODHYDRATE, &c.; MORPHINE. _Prep._ Mix an acid solution of sulphate of morphia with an ioduretted solution of iodide of pota.s.sium, keeping the liquid at the temperature of 140 for an hour.

Pour off the liquid, wash the scales, and dry them.--_Dose_, 3/4 gr. at bedtime.

=Morphia and Hydriodate of Zinc with Iodine.= (Bouchardat.) _Syn._ MORPHIae ET ZINCI HYDRIODAS c.u.m IODINIO. _Prep._ Boil 1 scruple of ioduretted hydriodate of morphia with 2 fl. oz. of water and 10 scruples of zinc.

After some days' action filter the boiling liquid, which deposits the salt. Make 1-1/2 gr. into 8 pills, with powdered marshmallow root and syrup.

=Morphia, Hydrochlo"rate of.= C_{17}H_{19}NO_{3},HI. _Syn._ MURIATE OF MORPHIA; MORPHIae HYDROCHLORAS (Ph. L. & Ph. B.), MORPHIae MURIAS (Ph. E., D. & U. S.), L. _Prep._ 1. (Ph. L. 1836.) Macerate sliced opium, 1 lb., in water, 4 pints, for 30 hours; then bruise it, digest it for 20 hours more, and press it; macerate what remains a second and a third time in water until exhausted, and as often bruise and press it; mix the liquors, and evaporate at 140 Fahr. to the consistence of a syrup; add of water, 3 pints, and after defecation decant the clear portion; gradually add to this liquid crystallised chloride of lead, 2 oz. (or q. s.), dissolved in boiling water, 4 pints, until it ceases to produce a precipitate; decant the clear liquid, wash the residuum with water, and evaporate the mixed liquids, as before, that crystals may form; press these in a cloth, then dissolve them in distilled water, 1 pint, add freshly burnt animal charcoal, 1-1/2 oz., digest at 120, and filter; finally, the charcoal being washed, cautiously evaporate the mixed liquors, that pure crystals of hydrochlorate of morphia may form. To the decanted liquor from which the crystals were first separated, add of water, 1 pint, and drop in liquor of ammonia, frequently shaking, until all the morphine is precipitated; wash this precipitate with cold distilled water, saturate it with hydrochloric acid, digest with animal charcoal, 2 oz.; filter, wash the filtrate as before, and evaporate the mixed liquors, cautiously, as above, that pure crystals may be obtained.

2. (Ph. E.) Opium, 20 oz., is exhausted with water, 1 gall., in the quant.i.ty of a quart at a time, and the mixed liquors are evaporated to a pint; chloride of calcium, 1 oz., dissolved in water, 4 fl. oz., is added, and, after agitation, the liquid is placed aside to settle; the clear decanted liquid, and the washings of the sediment, are next evaporated, so that they may solidify on cooling; the cooled ma.s.s, after very strong pressure in a cloth, is redissolved in warm water, a little powdered white marble added, and the whole filtered; the filtrate is acidulated with hydrochloric acid, the solution again concentrated for crystallisation, and the crystals submitted to powerful pressure, as before; the process of solution, clarification, with powdered marble and hydrochloric acid, and crystallisation, is repeated until a snow-white ma.s.s is obtained. This is the process of Gregory and Robertson, and is one of the easiest and most productive on the large scale. To procure the salt quite white, 2 to 4 crystallisations are required, according to the power of the press employed. The Edinburgh College recommends, on the small scale, the solution, after two crystallisations, to be decoloured 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 quant.i.ty 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 ma.s.s 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 ma.s.s 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 quant.i.ty 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 12-1/2 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 circ.u.mstances. "The opium which yields the largest quant.i.ty 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; MORPHIae ET CODEIae HYDROCHLORAS, L.; SEL DE GREGORY, Fr. This is commercial HYDROCHLORATE OF MORPHINE prepared according to Dr Gregory's process.

=Morphia Mec'onates of.= (C_{19}H_{20}NO_{3})_{2},C_{7}H_{2}O_{7}. _Prep._ 1. (NEUTRAL MECONATE OF MORPHINE; MORPHIae 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.

(2.) BIMECONATE OF MORPHINE; (MORPHIae BIMECONAS, L.) C_{17}H_{19}NO_{3}HC_{7}H_{3}O_{7}. Meconic acid, 11 parts; morphia, 14 parts; dissolve each separately in hot water, q. s.; mix the solutions, and either gently evaporate and crystallise, or at once evaporate to dryness.

_Obs._ Morphia exists in opium under the form of bimeconate, and hence this preparation of that drug has been preferred by some pract.i.tioners. A solution of this salt for medical purposes may be directly prepared from opium, by treating its solution in cold water with a little animal charcoal, filtering, gently evaporating to dryness, redissolving the residuum, in cold water, filtering, and repeating the treatment with animal charcoal. The dose of the dry bimeconate is 1/4 gr., or more; and of the meconate rather less. "A powder is also sold, called 'bimeconate of morphia,' which is of the same strength as powdered opium, and is given in similar doses. It is obviously incorrect to apply this name to a powder which consists princ.i.p.ally of foreign matter. It is to be hoped that physicians will not prescribe this powder under the above name, as such a practice might lead to fatal results, if the prescription should be prepared with the substance which the name strictly indicates." (REDWOOD.)

=Morphia, Nitrate of.= (A. T. Thomson.) _Syn._ MORPHIae NITRAS. Add morphia in slight excess to very dilute nitric acid, filter, concentrate by gentle evaporation, and set aside that crystals may form.

=Morphia, Phosphate of.= _Syn._ MORPHIae PHOSPHAS. As the nitrate, subst.i.tuting dilute phosphoric by nitric acid.

=Morphia, Sul'phate of.= _Syn._ MORPHIae SULPHAS, L. _Prep._ Saturate very dilute sulphuric acid with morphia, evaporate to one half, add a little animal charcoal, continue the evaporation for a short time longer at a gentle heat, filter whilst hot, and abandon it to spontaneous evaporation.

It is decomposed by driving off the water of crystallisation. Sulphate of morphia is included in the Ph. U. S. According to Magendie, this salt sometimes agrees with patients who cannot bear the acetate.

=Morphia, Tartrate of.= (A. T. Thomson.) _Syn._ MORPHIae TARTRAS. _Prep._ Saturate a solution of tartaric acid with morphiae, concentrate by evaporation, and set aside that crystals may form. By using an excess of acid an acid tartrate may be formed.

=MORPHIOM'ETRY.= A name given to the process of determining the richness of opium in morphia. See OPIUM.

=MORISON'S PILLS.= See _Patent medicines_.

=MORSU'LI.= An old name applied to lozenges and masticatories. It is still retained in some foreign Pharmacopias.

=MOR'TAR= is the well-known cement, made of lime, sand, and water, employed to bind bricks and stones together in the construction of walls, buildings, &c.

In the composition of mortar stone lime is preferred to that obtained from chalk, and river sand to pit or road sand. Sea sand is unfitted for mortar until it has been well soaked and washed in fresh water. Sifted coal ashes are frequently subst.i.tuted for the whole or a part of the sand.

HYDRAULIC MORTARS or CEMENTS are those which, like Roman cement, are employed for works which are either constantly submerged or are frequently exposed to the action of water. The poorer sorts of limestone are chosen for this purpose, or those which contain from 8% to 25% of alumina, magnesia, and silica. Such limestones, though calcined, do not slake when moistened; but if pulverised, they absorb water without swelling up or heating, like fat lime, and afford a paste which hardens in a few days under water, but in the air they never acquire much solidity.

"The essential const.i.tuents of every good hydraulic mortar are caustic lime and silica; and the hardening of this composition under water consists mainly in a chemical combination of these two ingredients through the agency of the water, producing a hydrated silicate of lime. But such mortars may contain other ingredients besides lime, as, for example, clay and magnesia, when double silicates of great solidity are formed; on which account dolomite is a good ingredient in these mortars. But the silica must be in a peculiar state for these purposes, namely, capable of affording a gelatinous paste with acids; and if not so already, it must be brought into this condition, by calcining it along with an alkali or an alkaline earth, at a bright red heat, when it will dissolve and gelatinise in acids. Quartzose sand, however fine its powder may be, will form no water mortar with lime; but if the powder be ignited with the lime, it then becomes fit for hydraulic cement. Ground felspar or clay forms with slaked lime, no water cement; but when they are previously calcined along with the lime, the mixture becomes capable of hardening under water.

"All sorts of lime are made hydraulic, in the humid way, by mixing the slaked lime with solutions of common alum or sulphate of alumina; but the best method consists in employing a solution of the silicate of potash, called liquor of flints or soluble gla.s.s, to mix in with the slaked lime or lime and clay. An hydraulic cement may also be made which will serve for the manufacture of architectural ornaments, by making a paste of pulverised chalk, with a solution of the silicate of potash. The said liquor of flints likewise gives chalk and plaster a stony hardness, by merely soaking them in it after they are cut or moulded to a proper shape.

On exposure to the air they get progressively indurated. Superficial hardness may be readily procured by washing over the surface of chalk, &c., with liquor of flints, by means of a brush. This method affords an easy and elegant method of giving a stony crust to the plastered walls and ceilings of apartments; as also to statues and busts cast in gypsum mixed with chalk."

Under Prof. Kuhlman's patent, dated April, 1841, "instead of calcining the limestone with clay and sand alone, as has been hitherto commonly practised, this inventor introduces a small quant.i.ty of soda, or, preferably, potash, in the state of sulphate, carbonate, or muriate; salts susceptible of forming silicates when the earthy mixture is calcined. The alkaline salt, equal in weight to about 1-5th that of the lime, is introduced in solution among the earths." (Ure.)

The hardening of the common mortars and cements is in a great measure due to the gradual absorption of carbonic acid; but even after a very great length of time this conversion into carbonate is not complete. Good mortar, under favorable circ.u.mstances, acquires extreme hardness by age.

Attempts have been made at various times to introduce the use of bituminous cements into this country, and thus to restore both to land and submarine architecture a valuable material which has now lain neglected for a period of fully thirty centuries; but, unfortunately, owing to the interest of our great building and engineering firms lying in another direction, these attempts have been hitherto unsuccessful. See ASPHALTUM, CEMENT, LIME, &c.

=MORTIFICA'TION= _Syn._ GANGRENE; GANGRENA, MORTIFICATION, L. Local death; the loss of vitality in one part of the animal body, whilst the rest continues living. "The terms gangrene and mortification are often used synonymously; but gangrene properly signifies the state which immediately precedes mortification, while the complete mortification, or absolute death of a part, is called sphacelus. A part which has pa.s.sed into the state of sphacelus is called a slough.

=MOSA'IC GOLD.= See BRa.s.s, GOLD, &c.

=MOS'SES.= _Syn._ MUSCI, L. Several vegetables of the natural orders _Algae_, _Fungi_, _Lichenes_, and _Musci_, commonly pa.s.s under this name with the vulgar. Of these the following are the princ.i.p.al:--

BOG MOSS (_Sphagnum pal.u.s.tre_). Very retentive of moisture. Used to pack up plants for exportation.

CEYLON MOSS (_Gracilaria candida_). Very nutritive; made into a decoction or jelly, which is highly esteemed as an article of diet for invalids and children, more especially for those suffering under affections of the mucous membranes or phthisis.

CLUB MOSS (_Lycopodium clavatum_). See LYCOPODIUM.

CORSICAN MOSS, C. WORM M. (_Gracilaria Helminthocorton_).--_Dose_, 1/2 to 2 dr., in powder, mixed up with sugar; as a vermifuge.

CUP MOSS, C. LICHEN (_Cladonia pyxidata_). Astringent and febrifuge. A cupful of the decoction, taken warm, generally proves gently emetic. Used in hooping-cough, &c.