This One A CONTRIBUTION TO THE PHARMACOLOGY OF PSEUDOMORPHINE

Emphasis has been laid (1, 2, 3, 4) upon the role played by pseudomorphine as a decomposition product of morphine in the body to explain certain of the phenomena of chronic morphine poisoning, yet there has not been sufficient interest in the drug for anyone to attempt to harmonize the many conflicting state-ments in the literature regarding its activity by a study of its pharmacology. Pseudomorphine occurs in very small amounts in some speci-mens of opium, and was isolated by Pelletier in 1832 and termed by him oxymorphine (5) or pseudomorphine (6). Other investi-gators advanced a number of synonyms for this substance, pre-pared by various methods, and a confused nomenclature de-veloped. Donath (5) in 1886 reviewed the literature and stated that oxymorphine prepared from morphine by Schutzenberger was later named pseudomorphine by Hesse, and was termed oxydimorphine by PoLstorff and Broockmann on the basis of its chemical formula. Donath suggested dehydromorphine as a more logical name than oxydimorphine, since he showed that the compound was formed by the linkage of two molecules of mor-phine not through taking up oxygen, but by splitting off two atoms of hydrogen. Legewie (3) misquoted Marm#{233} and termed it dioxymorphine. Fr#{228}nkel (7) referrred to pseudomorphine also as morphine morphine ether. In this paper, except in quot-ing other authors, we shall use “pseudomorphine, ” the name com-monly accepted at the present time. From the time of the discovery of the drug, confusion has ex