Sir,-In the recent returns requiring the numbers of those be the introductory address of the British who signed against Mr. Forster's Bill, and also the number Thursday evening the public dinner of the of chemists in the respective towns, opposite Brighton was 52, take place; while throughout Monday, Tuesd in each case. This has led to an erroneous conclusion, and Thursday the Craigie Hall, 5, St. Andrew which I am desirous of rectifying. All that I saw readily open from 9 till 6 as a reception room, where signed the petition, but as some were out their names did not be constantly in attendance to give any info appear. Others, however, on the register, but not in busi- may be required. ness on their own account, signed, which seemed to me in number equal to those that were out. Subsequently, on going more carefully through the names, I find 56 chemists in Brighton in business. I have heard that one of the absent ones was opposed to the petition, and therefore, in justice to him and the other three whom I did not see, this explanation is due. number vonlied 66 T JOHN MACKA Sir,-Seeing in your last issue two lette poison-bottles, each adopting a method of fixin stopper, I beg to ask how many chemists w trouble to remove a fastening before they cou contents of the bottle, and the few who would they all replace it after use? If not, it woul value. I suggest a small bell attached to the neck of which would not give extra trouble, and could and heard on taking up the bottle to get at t I hope this suggestion may prove useful from "ALAE THE GRAPHIC' ON POISON REGULATI Sir,-I beg to call your attention to a short s Graphic of July 8th, respecting a case of pois Islington Dispensary, in which Kino powder wa rhubarb and soda. Mr. Graphic seems to blame and not the dispenser at the dispensary, for not packets properly labelled. Are we to put up wit you? Does not such an article make the pub and drive them from the doors of a chemist, c injuring his trade? Ought not Mr. Graphic fi the chemist's drawers, and see for himself if the powders are properly labelled? Or where can chemist in fifty or a hundred who keeps kino po weighed up? I consider it very hard that chemists should h the cargo of mistakes made in public dispensarie some, at least, of your readers will agree with n some one more able than I will bring the case Graphic, and explain to him the difference betw mist's establishment and that of a dispensary. Bath, July 10th, 1871. "FA E. Marshall.-Prussiate of potash is not a meta within the meaning of the Act, neither is it a pois "Calyx."-The Journal of Botany, British an edited by Dr. Seemann, assisted by Dr. Trimen Baker, and published at 10, Little Queen Street "Associate."-The work is out of print, but s copies may sometimes be met with. Robert Stewart.-(1.) Pharmacopoea Boruss septima, 1862. (2.) See Vol. I. p. 995. able to read it, contains nothing beyond what w W. L. Scott.-Our correspondent's letter, as fa ready published on the subject referred to. We are compelled, from want of space, to defe cation of several communications. The following journals have been received:-1 Medical Journal, July 8; the 'Medical Times am July 8; the Lancet, July 8; the Medical Pres cular,' July 12; Nature,' July 5; the 'Chem July 8: Gardeners' Chronicle, July 8; the the Society of Arts,' July 8; the Grocer,' Jul duce Markets Review,' July 8; the English July 7; the 'Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie' for Fe NOTES ON SOME EASTERN VARNISH- no wax can, of course, be obtained. In some dis TREES. BY JOHN R. JACKSON, A.L.S., Curator of the Museums, Royal Gardens, Kew. "We sell six sorts of varnish; to wit, the dry varnish, which is made of oil of spike, fine turpentine, and sandarac melted together. The second is white varnish, call'd Venetian varnish, which is oil of turpentine, fine turpentine and mastick melted together. The third is spirit varnish, which is compos'd of sandarac, white karabe, gum elenic and mastick. The fourth is golden varnish, which is of linseed oil, sandarac, aloes, gamboge and litharge of gold. The fifth is China varnish, which is of gum lac, colophony, mastick in tears and spirit of wine. The sixth is common varnish, which is nothing else but common turpentine dissolv'd in oil of turpentine, as observ'd speaking of turpentine before. There is another varnish, some of the religious make; but, as we do not deal in it, I shall not trouble my self or the reader about it. As to the use of varnish that is best known to the workmen, whose business it is to deal in the several sorts, whereby they understand which is the properest for their particular use." tricts, where a higher value is set upon the wax than upon the varnish, the extraction of the latter is prohibited. At the time of collecting, the varnish is about the thickness of cream, and of a lightish colour, changing to black, and becoming thick by exposure. It is cleared from impurities by straining: at one time very fine paper was used for this purpose. Of the mode of preparing it for use, nothing certain seems to be known. The old Japanese lacquer ware was far superior to that of the present day, and it is said that the ancient mode of preparation has been lost to the modern Japanese. Some travellers, however, tell us that if the varnish is used in its pure state it is very clear, and every mark or grain of the wood upon which it is laid is distinctly visible; but the natives frequently mix with it other materials, such as finely-ground leaf-gold or pulverized charcoal, which, of course, renders it opaque, and with which they produce various designs. Japanese use it for varnishing many of their articles of household furniture. Chapters for Students. BY WILLIAM A. TILDEN, D.SC. LOND. DEMONSTRATOR OF PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY TO THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. LIQUOR CALCIS. acid.] The So wrote Pomet in his Compleat History of Druggs, published in 1725. Since that time, we CHEMICAL NOTES TO THE PHARMACOPOEIA. have not only added to the list of compound or manufactured varnishes, but discovered other natural exudations which are generally known as varnishes. Two useful Indian varnish-producing trees are the Melanorrhoea usitatissima, Wall., and the Holigarna longifolia, Roxb. They both belong to the Natural Order Anacardiacea. The former is a large, hard[§ 438 grams require for neutralization at least wooded forest-tree, found growing from Tenasserim 20 cub. centims. of the volumetric solution of oxalic and Pegu to Munnipore. To collect the varnish with which the tree abounds holes are made in the trunks, and pieces of bamboo, closed at the lower ends, inserted. These bamboo pipes are left for a day or two to fill. The juice, as it flows from the tree, is white, but it becomes black by exposure to Lime water exposed to the air gives a deposit of the air. In order to preserve it for use it has to be carbonate. Very distinct crystals are sometimes kept in water. It is very extensively used by the produced in this way when, as in an imperfectlynatives for varnishing or lacquering all kinds of stoppered bottle, the carbonic acid gas has been adhousehold articles, furniture, etc. The juice of Ho-mitted very gradually. 100 cub. centims. of the volumetric solution are neutralized by of half a molecule of lime, or 38= be of this, or 56 gram of Ca O. 28 grams; therefore in 438 grams there would LIQUOR CALCIS SACCHARATUS. This solution contains 154 per cent., or almost exactly twelve times the amount of lime in ordinary lime water. If heated, it deposits a compound of lime and sugar, 3 Ca O. C12 H22O11, which redissolves on cooling. LIQUOR CHLORI. 12 chloric acid on black oxide of manganese. Mn0.0 + 2HCl + 2H CI ligarna longifolia, which is also a large tree, is like- LIQUOR CALCIS CHLORATE.-For the quantitative wise collected and used as varnish by the natives of test, see CALX CHLORATA. Malabar. It is very acid, and, like that of Melanorrhea, will raise blisters or swellings if applied to the skin. Another, and certainly the most interesting, of the Anacardiaceous varnish-producing trees is a species of Rhus, a genus of some notoriety, inasmuch as some of the American species, as R. venerata and R. Toxicodendron, are reputed to have caused such extraordinary effects of poisoning from the mere handling of any portion of the plant, that they have become almost as familiar as the Upas tree of Java. The varnish-producing species to which we have alluded is Rhus vernicifera. It is a small tree, native of Japan, and yields, it is said, the Chloride of manganese remains in the generating best varnish or lacquer, in the use of which the flask. The chlorine gas is passed first through a Japanese are, and have been, so famous. The tree little water to wash it, and then into the water in is very extensively cultivated in many parts of Japan, which it is to be dissolved. The solution is to be and yields, besides varnish, a quantity of wax. One kept in the dark, since under the influence of light product, however, suffers at the expense of the other, chlorine decomposes water, with production of hydrofor if the trees are tapped for the sake of the lacquer, chloric acid and evolution of oxygen. which is usually done before they come to full ma- [S A yellowish-green liquid, smelling strongly of turity, some have said at the age of three years,- chlorine, and immediately discharging the colour of and which frequently ends in the death of the tree, a dilute solution of sulphate of indigo. Evaporated, THIRD SERIES, No. 56. = Mn Cl2+Cl2+H2O+H2O. it leaves no residue.] Mixed with iodide of potassium in excess, it gives free iodine, which requires for the discharge of its colour an amount of the volumetric solution of hyposulphite of sodium corresponding to 0.6 per cent. of chlorine. For a comparison of the properties of chlorine, bromine and iodine, see Vol. I. p. 526. Equal volumes of hydrogen and chlorine gases weigh respectively 1 and 35 5. Chlorine is therefore a very heavy gas. Its specific gravity, taking air as unity, is 35 5 x 0693=2:46. If, therefore, chlorine gas is required, it is usually collected by allowing it to run from the delivery tube into a bottle, from which it displaces the air. Chlorine dissolves in about half its volume of water; with a small quantity it unites to form a crystalline hydrate. Its great affinity for hydrogen causes it to decompose almost all organic bodies by removing that element from them. It combines with an equal volume of hydrogen gas to form hydrochloric acid gas. The combination occurs instantly with explosion when the mixed gases are exposed to sunlight. LIQUOR FERRI PERCHLORIDI FORTIOR. Iron wire is first dissolved in hydrochloric acid so as to give solution of ferrous chloride. 2HCl + Fe FeCl + H2. = = 3 Fe, Cl + 2(NO + H2O + H2O). Ferric chloride. Nitric oxide gas. Water. Water. And then on boiling the solution with the excess of acid as directed, the mercurous is converted into mercuric nitrate. 6 HgNO, 6NO,H+ 2(NO.O.HO). Mercurous nitrate. Nitric acid. Nitric acid. Water. = 6Hg(NO3)2 + 2(NO + H2O + H2O). Mercuric nitrate. Nitric oxide. Water. The B. P. tests indicate that it is a mercuric ni trate (yellow precipitate with potash) free from mercurous salt (no precipitate with dilute HCl). CUNDURANGO. BY THOMAS ANTISELL, M.D. In the month of March of this year, Mr. Flores, [S Diluted with water it is precipitated white by Minister of Ecuador at Washington, forwarded a nitrate of silver, and blue by yellow prussiate of box containing a vegetable medicament which he potash; but not at all by red prussiate of potash.] These tests indicate its character as a chloride and as a ferric salt; the third that it is free from ferrous chloride. It is apt sometimes when carelessly prepared to contain nitrate; this can be destroyed by well boiling with a little more hydrochloric acid. had received from his government for presentation to the State Department, and requested that some analyses and experiments might be made with it, to test its medicinal value. The samples of the drug Ecuador; and extracts from the official journal acwere stated to have grown in the province of Loja, companied the parcel, showing that great medicinal virtues were attributed to the wood and bark of the tree known as Cundurango. The extracts were testimonials from Doctors Cæsares and Eguigureu of that province, as to its great value in cancer, fungus, hæmatodes and constitutional syphilis. These statements were supported by a letter from Mr. Rumsey Wing, the United States minister resident at Ecuador, to Hon. H. Fish, Secretary of State, testifying to the medicinal virtues of the plant as admitted by the natives of Loja, in which he mentions that a decoction of the fruit is known to be a poison, and that the parts of the plants used medicinally are the bark and leaves. During the month of April a sample of the plant (small branches) was received at this Department from Hon. Mr. Fish, with the request to have an analysis made and reported to him for the benefit of the Ecuador government. Meanwhile, the plant itself had been tried, in the form of a decoction, upon some patients in this city affected with cancer, and with apparently considerable relief to the sufferers. About one pound and a quarter in weight were the resin is diffused, but the greater portion of the received for analysis. resin is not extracted by the water. The therapeuThe sample consisted of stem and branches of tic position of the plant, judged from analysis, might apparently a shrub, but was unaccompanied by leaf be among the aromatic bitters.-Amer. Journ. Pharm. or root, so that the botanical characters of the plant could not be determined. BY DR. F. VERSMANN. The stem is woody, and covered by a greenish or ENGLISH CHLOROFORM IN GERMANY. ash-grey bark, the former tint being due to the lichens on its surface; the branches are from half an inch to a little over an inch in diameter, averaging about the thickness of the finger; the woody fibre is straw-coloured and brittle, breaking with a sharp fracture; it is almost tasteless, having a slightly aromatic and bitter flavour when chewed. Many professors of German laboratories and proprietors of chemical works have adopted the valuable plan of communicating to the journals, from time to time, observations and points of practical experiences made in the course of their investigaThe bark contains whatever medicinal virtues are in tions; and it would be well if this plan was imitated the plant. It is of grey colour, slightly ribbed or fluted here, as much labour and trouble may often be saved longitudinally from unequal contraction while dry- by this liberal exchange of practical information. ing on the branch; increasing in thickness in propor- This arrangement, like everything good, is, howtion to the diameter of the woody stem, in the thicker ever, not quite unalloyed, for it sometimes happens branches constituting more than half the weight of that statements are published which are of little use, the whole, in the thinner somewhat less than half; or which, on examination, are found to be incorrect. readily separable from the stem by pounding or The last is the case with a communication in a bruising, when it comes off in clean longitudinal current number of Buchner's Repertorium der pieces, brittle in the transverse fracture; of a warm, Chemie,' and as this special incorrectness bears on aromatic, camphor and bitter taste, resembling the an English article, it may not be out of place to cascarilla of the old collections. Under the lens it rectify it. Mr. E. Schering, in his practical commuis readily resolvable into three layers: 1st, the inner nication, asserts that abroad English chloroform, layer or cambium of reticular woody tissue, having sp. gr. 1485, is, for anesthetic purposes, preferred to granules of starch and particles of resin imbedded; the German (the Prussian Pharmacopoeia prescribes 2nd, a middle layer of woody fibre and dotted ducts, a specific gravity of 1500) because of its greater staresinous particles also in this layer; and 3rd, the cuticular or outer layer of cells, of a brownish colour, and containing colouring matter and tannic acid. The usual methods of filtration from digestion in the usual solvents, as gasolene boiling at 110°, ether, alcohol, carbon disulphide, water, etc., were adopted. 1. Ratio of bark to wood Bark 49.72) Mean of these . Wood. 50-28) experiments. bility. According to Mr. Schering, the presumption was natural that the English product had been obtained from chloral, and this idea was actually verified by Mr. Hager's investigation, who found it to be chloral chloroform with an addition of 75 to 80 per cent. of alcohol; but not a word is said as to the manner in which this result had been arrived at. Mr. Schering refers his readers to his price list of last year, in which he quotes chloral chloroform, and he informs them that he now keeps an article of sp. gr. 1485, identical with the English, or, according to his own words, adulterated with alcohol. Mr. Hager actually distinguishes the two preparations; he says, the chloral chloroform becomes slightly coloured on addition of strong sulphuric acid, whereas the pure, obtained from hypochlorite of lime and alcohol, remains colourless. Another difference is said to be, that ordinary chloroform, on being allowed to evaporate on a watch-glass, gives off, with the last few drops, a distinct foreign smell, indicating the presence of other chlorine compounds, which may be the cause of the ready decomposition of the chloroform when exposed to the light, and this is not the case with the product obtained in the new manner. The manufacture of chloral in quantities and at a reasonable price, is of so recent a date that it is scarcely necessary to recall the fact that seldom, if ever, the supply of any chemical compound responded so readily to the demand, as with the chloral. The price of chloral hydrate was, at the commencement of last year, 112s. a pound; before the year was out it had gone down to 12s., and it is now sold at 5s. and even less. Surely at this time when the hydrate commanded such high prices and the manufacture was in its infancy, no English manufacturer would have dreamt of converting chloral into chloroform, and with the present low prices and the high duty on alcohol, he = 6785 at 10.6° C. at 30.6° C. = 87° F. 51° F. weighs 446.30 gram. 20° C. = 36° F. 6.61 = Made with alcohol s. g. 8208 at 15.6° C. = 102 60° F., 100 parts alcohol require 135 parts distilled water, and the s. g. of the mixture at 15.6° C. = 60° F. is 941849. at 25° C. 77° F. is 935422, or 000684 for ea. 1° C. One pint of this mixture writer is one that has been found well adapted to wild cherry bark, pareira brava and uva ursi. This is a mixture of two parts stronger alcohol, three parts glycerine, two measures each of the alcohol and glycerine, and four and five parts water. By measure this is very nearly of water. Made from alcohol of s. g. 81953 at 15.6° C., and glycerine s. g. 1-2523 at 15-6° C., it has a s. g. at 15.6° C. = 60° F. 1·03833, at 25° C. 77° F. 1.03283, or nearly 0006 for ea. 1° C. One pint of this mixture at 10.6° C. at 30.6° C. 51° F. weighs 492·03 gram. = 7593 grains. = 87° F. 486.97 =7514 It appears very probable that special menstrua for special drugs can and should be very much multiplied. Indeed, it may be regarded as almost certain that a proper degree of research would show that every drug requires a special menstruum in order to secure the best results. If there be a rule of any general applicability, it is that for drugs which contain definite alkaloids, the menstruum should be as strongly alcoholic as possible a rule which is in opposition to former practice. It remains now to notice the prominent fluid extracts with which the writer has had most experience, in detail. FLUID EXTRACT OF ACONITE ROOT. Not officinal, but should be, and should always bear a red label. The root should be in very fine powder, and the menstruum stronger alcohol. The officinal quantity of powder requires 5 f3 for moistening, and the moistened powder should be passed through a sieve before packing. A pint of the menstruum at 25° C. =3 77° F., weighs about 5907 grains, and a pint of the finished preparation, at the same temperature, should weigh about 6350 grains, giving a difference of about 440 grains, varying somewhat with the quality of the root and the dryness of the powder. FLUID EXTRACT OF BELLADONNA ROOT. Not officinal, but should be, as stronger and more uniform than that yielded by the leaf. The two are not necessary, and if the leaf was dropped, the root would soon go into general use. The fluid extract should always bear a red label. The root should be in very fine powder, and the menstruum stronger alcohol. FLUID EXTRACT OF BUCHU, OFFICINAL. The leaf should be green and fresh, the short buchu the best, and be in very fine powder. Many menstrua tried, with various portions of glycerine and water, but none so good as stronger alcohol. About 8 fz required to moisten the powder, which should be passed through about 5907 grains, and a pint of the finished preparation a sieve before packing. A pint of the menstruum weighs about 6677 grains, giving a difference of about 770 grains. FLUID EXTRACT OF CIMICIFUGA, OFFICINAL. The root being in very fine powder, the officinal plan yields an excellent preparation by repercolation. The process could, however, be much simplified. FLUID EXTRACT OF CINCHONA, OFFICINAL. The bark should be in very fine powder, the menstruum one part glycerine and three parts alcohol, and 8 fz should =6594 grains. be used to moisten the powder before sifting. Many = 6479 menstrua were tried with this drug, but none seemed to answer so well as the mixture indicated. With it a fluid extract was prepared of which a minim represented about one and a half grains, and this has now stood more than The other special menstruum thus far studied by the four months without a deposit. Therefore, a prepara 419-82 20° C. = 36° F. 7:48 = 115 |