WILLIAM GREGORY Morphine, chloroform, and hippuric acid

William Gregory (1803-1858), an English physician turned chemist, carried extensive research on a wide variety of subjects in inorganic, organic, and biochemistry. His most important contribution was the development of a
new method for separating morphine from opium, based on extraction with water, precipitation with ammonia, and treatment with HCl. This method was faster, had a very high yield, and avoided the use of alcohol, an expensive reagent. Therapeutic tests showed that Gregory's morphine hydrochloride was more efficient and economical than the painkillers used at that time. Gregory studied uric acid and the preparation and properties of several of its derivatives, among them alloxan, alloxantin, ammonium dialurate, dialuric acid, ammonia acid thionurate, and alloxanic acid. Gregory developed also a very efficient process for preparing glycocoll, for purifying chloroform and making it a safer anesthesia, based on washing it with sulfuric acid. He also proved that lead sulfite, used for extracting sugar cane, was not toxic to humans, and developed an efficient modification of Baup's procedure for preparing potassium iodide