February, 1882.!
NEW REMEDIES. 33
New REMEDIES.
AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY TRADE JOURNAL OF MATERIA MEDICA,PHARMACY,AND THERAPEUTICS VoL. XI., No. 2. WHOLE NO. 92. FRED'K A. CASTLE, M D., - - EDITOR. CHARLES RICE, Pu.D., - ASSOCIATE EDITOR. wii i PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM WOOD & CO., No. 27 Great Jones St., N. Y. pa a ales
FEBRUARY, 1882.
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EDITORIAL
THE Louisvillg Medical News of January 14th, in the course of an editorial article replying to the objections that have been raised against the amendment of the Kentucky law regulating the practice of pharmacy, mentions the follow- ing facts relative to the revenues and expenses of the Board of Pharmacy established in 1874. It having been claimed that the Board of Pharmacy has undue control of the moneys received as fees for registration, and that its members derive an improper revenue from this source, the editor says that ‘‘the total receipts of the Board to January Ist, 1882, have been $3,316. It has annually held two general meetings, to which often the majority of its members had to come from a distance, and its examining committee, composed of three members, had met monthly during the greater part of that period. Simple calculation will show that to meet the expenses of these meetings, as well as for stationery, postage, certificates of registration, ‘etc., the Board of Pharmacy had the control of $442.13 annually; a sum which, even if it were divided among the seven mem- bers of the Board, and there were no expenses, could certainly not be claimed to be a ‘bonanza.’ The ‘im- proper revenue’ argument requires therefore no further refutation.”
The proposed amendment will require the annual regis- tration of every pharmacist and the payment of a fee of
one dollar. There is practically no other way in which the Registrar can know of the existence and place of business of those who are entitled to practise pharmacy; and with- out some such system, no law for the regulation of medicine or pharmacy can be made efficient.
ForMERLY it was considered unethical to consult with those who held heretical views with regard to the action of remedies, especially when such opinions savored of the dogmas of Hahnemann. The world moves, however; and while many of the adherents to homceopathy have aban- doned a distinctive title and removed it from their signs, business cards, and periodicals, the Royal College of Phy- sicians, of London, has lately adopted, without a dissent- ing vote, a resolution,
‘‘That, while the College thinks it desirable not to fetter the action of the fellows, members, and licentiates, with reference to any opinions they may adopt, it never- theiess expresses its opinion, that the assumption or ac- ceptance, by members of the profession, of designations implying the adoption of special modes of treatment, is opposed to those principles of the freedom and dignity of the profession which should govern the relations of its members to each other and to the public; the College, therefore, expects that all its fellows, members, and licentiates will uphold these principles by discountenancing those who trade upon such designations.”
Ergo, give the ya'o5 of a grain of atropia as a prophylac- tic against scarlatina; believe in psora as an axiom in pathology; put your faith in the power of toonan0 of a grain of nitric acid to cure caries of bone; but don’t call it ‘‘homceopathy,” and you are safe.
CONSIDERABLE discussion has taken place of late upon the question of the advisability of re-imposing a customs duty of ten fer cent. on the salts of cinchona. From pres- ent appearances, it is extremely doubtful if this can be ac- complished. It would be only fair, however, to remove the duty on imported materials used in their manufacture, and efforts in this direction should receive the encourage- ment of all physicians and pharmacists
In this connection we may mention that popular jour- nals have lately published numerous complaints that the benefit to the consumer, which was expected to follow a reduction in the price of quinine, consequent upon removal of import duty, has not been experienced as yet; that while the cost of quinine in bulk has greatly diminished, the price per grain, as paid by the consumer, has hardly varied from what it was when the price in bulk was nearly three times more than itis now. One result of this popu- lar complaint has been the habit of buying quinine by the ounce for ‘‘ family use.”
It is very likely that harmful effects will sometimes fol- low the indiscriminate use of sulphate of quinine as a house- hold panacea, and it is equally true that a very general ad- option of this custom would correspondingly diminish the profits of the pharmacist. That this fact is appreciated may be inferred from the announcements published by some pharmcists in this neighborhood of the price per grain for which they will furnish the article, whether in powder, mixture, or pill.
NEW REMEDIES.
[| February, 1882.
[OricinaL ComMuUNICATION.] Instrument for Shaping Troches.* BY ARTHUR D. MARCY, PH.G.
THE extemporaneous manufacture of troches has always been an operation requiring considerable time and skill, and then has usually been unsatisfactory in its results, as the troches made by hand have been much inferior in appear- ance to those made by machinery. The process of making them by rolling the paste into a sheet and cutting them with a die is impracticable for the pharmacist, as it is almost im- possible to use all the material and to have the troches of the required strength. Heretofore there has been no prac- tical instrument for making them extemporaneously in small quantities, and it occurred to the writer some time ago that a simple piece of apparatus could be manufactured that would answer all the purposes of the pharmacist and at the same time be inexpensive.
To make the instrument, a piece of brass, iron, or steel tubing, about three inches long, five-eighths of an inch in diameter on the inside, and at least one-eighth of an inch thick is required. The inside of this tube must be per- fectly round and smooth, and the ends must be square, in order that the troches may present a regular and smooth appearance. It is better to have ft silver or nickel plated, to prevent contamination of the troches by the metal, and also that it may be more easily kept clean and free from rust.
The inside of the tube is to be fitted as perfectly as pos- sible with a plunger of hard wood or metal as long as the
Fic. 1.
tube, having a top the same diameter as the outside of the tube, and projecting about an inch beyond it. The writer has used plungers both of wood and metal, and prefers the latter, as the former is liable to shrink and thereby spoil the looks of the troches. It is essential that the bottom of this should be smooth, in order that a good result may be ob- tained. It is also necessary to have a smooth solid surface on which to place the instrument when the troche is being formed. This may be had by placing a piece of steel or iron in a block of wood as shown in the accompanying illustration.
To muke the troches.—A paste similar to a pill mass is to be made, having it as hard as can be worked (the harder the paste the better the troches will look and the quicker they will dry). It is then to be rolled out on an ordinary pill tile or machine and divided into the required number of parts; take one of the parts and place it on the anvil, having previously dusted it with lycopodium or starch to prevent sticking. Place the tube over the part, and with a quick sharp blow of the mallet on the top of the plunger, force it into shape, raise the instrument from the anvil and with a light blow drive the troche from the tube. In dark- colored troches lycopodium or scented olive oil, and in the white ones powdered starch, sugar, or acacia may be used to
prevent sticking. In making the United States pharmaco- poeia troches it will be found that some are considerably smaller than the others, and it will make it more conveni- ent to have anothet instrument of a proportionately smaller diameter than the one described.
The troche made as above is in every way superior to the one made by the old process, and even rivals those made by confectioners in appearance. It also has the advantage of enabling the operator to make a very solid troche which dissolves more slowly, thereby giving it better satisfaction.
The Estimation of Quinine in Quinine Wine, Tinctures, etc.*
BY A. WYNTER BLYTH, M.R.C.S.
HAvinG had occasion to make several estimations of quinine in the quinine wines and tinctures of commerce, it became necessary, in the absence of any definite informa- tion in the text-books, to independently investigate the best methods of procedure.
THE FormuLa.—I have found hitherto nothing but the seven hydrate in common use. I therefore think when any article is sold with a label describing it as con- taining so much ‘‘quinine,” we are justified in consid- ering the word ‘‘ quinine” to signify sulphate of quinine, and that sulphate of quinine to have the formula (CooHas- NO.) H.SO,4.7H:0O. That is—
Marcy’s Troche Apparatus.
Quinine CeoH2sN202.H20....
....76.4 per cent. SO; dy
{site IOS 7H.0 .. : oe sae
In an actual determination of the quinine, precipitated from a solutign of pure sulphate of quinine, the precipitate dried at 100° equalled 76.5 per cent, and generally speaking the error seems to lie a little on the side of over-estimation. However that may be, quinine precipitated in small quan- tity by an alkali, and dried at the temperature of boiling water, may, I think, be fairly calculated into sulphate of quinine by multiplying its weight by the factor 1.3.
MAYER’S REAGENT.—Mayer’s reagent, made by dissolv- ing 13.456 gm. of mercuric chloride and 49.8 gm. of potassic iodide in a liter of water, gives a dense white pre- cipitate with the feeblest trace of quinine. When operat- ing on solutions of quinine sulphate in pure water, the assay can be made as expeditiously by suitable arrange- ments as any titration of an alkali by an acid with the usual indicators. To use the reagent I employed a very simple mechanism which I will call a filter tube (see Fig. 2). Take a glass-tube, enlarge its end funnel shape in the flame (A), cut the minute funnel off at A, cram it with glass-wool, slip it on to the end of another tube by means of a close yet easy piece of rubber. By the aid of this
* Graduating thesis submitted to the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.
* Read before the Society of Public Analysts on 27th June, 1881.— From 7he Analyst, Sept., 1881.
February, 1882. |
NEW REMEDIES.
35
filter tube you can suck up a clear drop of the liquid, and by placing this clear drop on a black plate, the addition of a droplet of the reagent at once shows if the quinine has all separated or not. When, however, you add ‘‘ Mayer” direct to the wines and the like, the precipitate, instead of being flocculent and rapidly separating, is so excessively fine that, however tightly you pack your filter-tube, it is difficult to get a really clear drop, and the process, though still accurate, becomes tedious, consuming much time. DISSOLVING KNOWN QUANTITIES OF QUININE IN WINE. —Accurate results were obtained to the second decimal place, and, therefore, with the exception of time it com- pares favorably with estimations by weight. Mayer recommends the concentration of the solution to be as I : 800, and under these circumstances he says that each cc. is equal to .o108 gm. of quinine. But my own experi- ments show that this is not to be depended upon, and it appears probable that the value varies according to the temperature of the solution. For the ‘‘ Mayer” precipi- tates are generally very soluble in warm water, reappearing as the solution cools. I would, therefore, recommend each
SS SS
Apparatus tor kstimauon of Quinine.
time that the standard solution of quinine and the wine to be assayed be first brought to exactly the same temperature, and the solution of quinine made so as to be of the same strength as the solution to be examined should be, and then the number of cc. in each case required actually found.
SCHEIBLER’S REAGENT.—Known quantities of quinine were precipitated by ‘‘Scheibler.” The precipitate sep- arated by filtration, and then shaken with strong solution of soda and ether in the tube to be described. Here absolutely dccurate results were obtained, but it did not compare favorably in respect of time with the next process.
E*HER AND AIKALI Process.—In order to make the old-fashioned ether process expeditious and accutate, I devised a new tube which has since been found most use- ful and, in fact, indispensable for the separation, quanti- tatively, of volatile solvents when used for the recovery of substances from liquids. The tube 4 (Fig. 1) may be of any convenient length or diameter to suit the analyst (ordinarily burette size will do). It is furnished with a stop-cock and bent beak, 8, of small, almost capillary bore. The lower end is attached to a long piece of pres- sure tubing, which is also connected with a small reservoir
of mercury capable of being raised or lowered by a pulley. To use the apparatus, raise the reservoir after opening the stop-cock, until mercury flows out of X. Now insert the point of the outlet tube, X, into the liquid to be examined, and, by lowering the reservoir, cause a vacuum so as to suck the liquid into the tube. The ether is introduced in exactly the same way. Now run all the mercury or nearly all of it out of the tube, and clamp the pressure tubing at //, and also shut the stop-cock at 8. The tube and contents may now be violently shaken. After standing, the ether separates in a defined layer. The stop-cock and clamp are now opened while raising the reservoir. The ether is made, even to the last drop, to flow out of A into the tared flask from whence it is recovered by distillation. Wines and tinctures freed from most of their spirit in this way were exhausted of quinine very rapidly by three times shaking with ether, previously making the liquid strongly alkaline by soda. At first, a woolliness at the junction of the ether and the wine gave much trouble, but it was found that by using a large excess of soda the line between the liquid and the ether became sharp and well
SO etenherhentanda tet gi ae ated
:
TTT HIT PU ELLIE
AN
Attachment for Filling Burettes,
defined. Quinine is practically quite insoluble in strong soda lye.
I therefore declare that this method, in my experience, is, all things considered, the best for quinine estimations, but the others may be used as confirmatory checks.
[Or1GINAL COMMUNICATION. ]
Attachment for Filling Burettes and to Avoid the Use of Glass Stop Cocks.
BY FR. O. ROEDER, PH.D.
HAvinc had trouble in procuring burettes with glass stop-cocks which would:not leak when freed from grease, I made an apparatus having the following arrangement : A Mohr burette is connected by means of glass and rubber tubing with a bottle (B) having three openings to enable it to be filled and emptied (with water), Free com- munication between the burette and B is always to be maintained,
The siphon used to empty Bis closed by means of acom- pression clip (C), as is likewise the siphon used to fill B from the reservoir placed above it. To fill the burette
36
NEW REMEDIES.
| February, 1882.
have B filled with water, close the clip D, place the lower end of the burette into the liquid used as a reagent, open the clip C, and as the water flows from B, the burette will be filled. To empty the burette, close the clip C and open D, and as much liquid as runs into B will be dis- charged from the burette. Use corks boiled in paraffin in preference to India-rubber stoppers, and see that all the joints are tight. The latter may be accomplished by the use of melted paraffin upon all joints excepting those be- tween the glass and rubber tubing with which there is never any difficulty.
This apparatus was exhibited at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and received such approval from chemists present that I think a description of it may interest others.
CINCINNATI, Oxi10.
Cinchona Cultivation in Jamaica.
Jamaica as an island exporting tropical produce is usu- ally associated with mountains of sugar and rivers of rum. That idea contains only half the truth. Evenin the palmy days of the colony, when its name was a synonym for vast wealth, and when its retired proprietors vied with East Indian nabobs in the purchase of pocket boroughs, large
fortunes were won from its soil apart from the cultivation |
of the cane.
of many generations of Americans and Englishmen. Fine
Jamaica ginger has been hot in the mouths |
Jamaica coffee was sipped in the London coffee-houses by |
the wits and politicians of the Augustan age. Pimento, “*the child of nature,” has always occupied a respectable position on the list of exports. in produce numbered sixty, and for a considerable portion of the eighteenth century the indigo planters of Vere lived in a style betokening great ease and prosperity. Mahog- any, tobacco, arrowroot, cinnamon, and medicinal plants helped to swell the imposing statistics of a period to which, with feelings akin to despair, the inhabitants of this lovely isle now often go back in thought and speech.
More than ever is the idea erroneous in the present age. It is true Jamaica still makes a plenty of sugar. It is true that her rum still deserves the lavish praises of the song in **Olivette.” But the island is being brought under culti- vation of the most varied kind ina manner full of promise for her near future. While the cane, for grave reasons known to all, barely holds its own, coffee advances steadily by the reoccupation of old properties and the breaking of new soil. ease and renews its charms as a stimulant. Jamaica to- bacco commands remarkably high prices in England and Germany, and the fruit trade of the island with the United States increases with ‘‘leaps and bounds.” A few years ago the cigar of Jamaica manufacture was despised at home. To-day few cigars of other make are smoked in the island, and the English connoisseur, who finds the true Havana dear and scarce, consumes Jamaicas by the thousand. A few years ago the fruit rotted on the ground or was given to stock. To-day large steamers and fleet schooners convey to the denizens of New York and other cities of the Atlantic board, mil- lions of oranges, bananas, mangos, pineapples, limes, shaddocks, and cocoa-nuts. The agricultural awaken- ing of Jamaica will not stop here; it would have gone much further already had capital been obtainable. But in quiet, unostentatious ways, becoming to a fallen, though not decayed colony, experiments have been made in the culture of new trees and plants of commercial value, espe-
cially Liberian coffee, suited to lower elevations, and’
cinchona, suited to the loftiest peaks of the beautiful Blue Mountains. It is of cinchona cultivation, which has just been proved an undeniable success in Jamaica, that I wish to speak,
It was early seen by Mr. Markham, who introduced the cultivation of cinchona into India in order to supply the dim millions of that country with quinine, that the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, ‘‘ wooded to the peak,” with ‘*lawns and winding glades high up,” also presented a
In 1672 the cacao walks |
Ginger has recovered from the ravages of dis- |
good site for this cultivation, being about the same distance from the equator on the north, 18 , as the famous Calisaya cinchona forests are to the south. By the liberality of the English Government a supply of seeds was obtained in 1860, and the experiments with them were so successful that in 1868 the Jamaica Government determined to establish per- manent plantations on the Blue Mountains along their southern slopes, about twenty-five miles from Kingston. The work has gone forward steadily since then, and with the happiest results. Jamaica has now three fine varieties of cinchona well established on public lands where little else could have grown, these varieties being officinalis, suc- cirubra, and a good one called Calisaya, probably a hybrid. Moreover, the highly valuable Ledgeriana, a variety of Calisaya, introduced recently by Mr. Morris, the Director of Public Plantations and Gardens, is growing most success- fully. In short, the conditions requisite to the growth of the finest cinchonas are all found in thisisland. The mean annual rainfall at the Government Cinchona Plantation is 136 inches, and the mean annual temperature 60° Fahren- heit, the elevation being from 5,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level. There C. succirubra flourishes, while it also grows well in the Parish of Manchester, at 2,700 feet, with a rainfall of 120 inches and a temperature of 70°. The
| range of the officinalis in Jamaica is between 4,500 and
6,300 feet. Cudisaya is recommended with the saccirubra for coffee plantations—below 4,000 feet. It will thus be understood that Jamaica offers great advantages to the cin- chona cultivator. I have lately seen the cinchonas raised by the Government in all stages and conditions, from the little nurslings four or five inches high, shaded carefully and soiled richly, to the mature plantations where, ‘‘ like rows of Noah’s ark trees,” they lift graceful, nodding crowns of foliage forty feet into the blue sky.
Sales in England of cinchona barks from Jamaica have given great encouragement and stimulus to the growers here. Some of the officinalis, or crown or gray bark, has realized prices which are surprising as compared with those obtained at the same time for Ceylon and South American barks, the advantage all around resting with Jamaica. It is to be noted, too, that American quinine manufacturers have been anxious to obtain Jamaica bark direct, and a market could thus be found at our very doors for all the bark gathered. But, for the present, England takes every chip and quill at the present remunerative prices. These prices range from 8s. 10d. to 3s: gd. per pound. Several gentlemen in the island, including the governor, Sir An- thony Musgrave, have already invested considerable money in the business. The demand on the Botanical Depart- ment for seeds and plants increases daily and can hardly be met. Many extensive plantations, from St. Catharine’s Peak, on the west, to Blue Mountain, on the east, might be named as boasting extensive tracts of cinchona; while the cultivation is also prosecuted with vigor in the western Parish of Manchester. This new industry has brought into pro- ductiveness regions generally unsuited to coffee or ‘‘ pro- visions,” and which, being valueless, were also a burden on the owner. It is, of course, spare capital that has been put into the cuitivation of cinchona ; that is, capital which can be invested without distressing other operations of the owner and wait half a dozen years for profits. The planters interested in cinchona in Jamaica are all men who have other crops to garner, and look upon it as a valuable auxil- iary. In fact, I should not recommend anybody with less than $2,500 to go into the business single-handed. For small capitalists or colonists, a combination of funds, and, as far as may be, of labor, would best succeed.
Estimating the profit to accrue from new enterprise is always a dangerous undertaking. I do not pretend to be able to dictate the prospectus of a company intended to de- velop the mining resources of Ormuz or of Ind, but I am glad to believe that cinchona cultivation in Jamaica has no need to be bolstered up by such means. I will merely remark here that many shrewd and experienced planters have satisfied themselves as to the gain derivable from cin- chona. My own experience in a recent visit to the Govern- ment plantations gave an opportunity of seeing how the
February, 1882. |
NEW REMEDIES.
37
valuable C. officinalis spreads in self-sown forest patches at the highest elevations, thus evincing great fitness for the soil and situation. Mr. Morris found a little patch of this variety hardy and thriving in the midst of tangled tropical bush after years of neglect and oblivion. An area of less than 120 square yards was occupied by 397 trees, each of which, at the most moderate computation, would yield one pound of bark, valued at 5s. If an acre were planted at about one-half the above rate, the yield would be worth 41,800 or $9,000. These may, perhaps, be regarded as extreme figures. But upon the actual yield of the Gov- ernment plantations, it would appear that an acre of offci- nalis, costing in total an outlay of $500, realizes, under the old system of wide planting, about $2,500 in eight years. Close planting is now adopted. Mr. Markham has lately shown that the public cinchona enterprise in India has already more than paid its way, including the heavy cost of the introduction of the seeds and plants from South Amer- ica, cultivation, distribution, and interest on the capital invested. A private venture in Ceylon is reaping the same reward. While the Government of India has to supply a cheap febrifuge to the inhabitants of British possessions in Asia, the planters of India, Ceylon and Java find a ready and profitable demand for their bark in Europe and North America, At the same time, a vast market is opening for quinine in China, where, until now, opium has been the cheapest drug as a cure and preventive of disease, and where the multitudes use it to theirown ruin and England’s reproach. As far as one can now judge, cinchona and its cultivators everywhere have a bright future. One great ad- vantage possessed by the cultivator in Jamaica is his near- ness to the insatiable market of the United States. Another great advantage is that land adapted to cinchona and to a varied culture is still to be bought at ridiculously low prices. The Government is also allotting Crown lands to cinchona growers on highly favorable terms, and I am informed that the conditions applying to these splendid runs of land are less irksome than any enforced in the ‘‘far East.” Lands not so good sell in Ceylon at $100 an acre.
Those who watch with anxiety the progress of Jamaica are hopeful of witnessing an early extension of cinchona cultivation. Young England can be employed in worse ways than growing cinchona and coffee in the sweet and nimble air of the blue hills of this land of woods and streams, hills where ferns from the ‘‘tree” to the ‘‘ filmy,” wild strawberries, and common English hedge flowers grow lux- uriantly. I have called attention chiefly to the commercial advantages arising from this promising enterprise, which provides a new employment for capital and for labor, and furnishes the world with cheap quinine. But, leaving out of question the invaluable economic and social benefits re- sulting from cinchona, a humble worshipper of nature’s beauty may fairly claim that this tree, the praise of whose virtues once inspired the prose of Mme. de Genlis and the verse of La Fontaine, will, with its graceful stem, shining leaves, and clustering flowers, be an additional adornment to the noble, far-famed, but neglected mountains of Jamaica,— Spec. Corresp. in The N. Y. Times.
To Decolorize Gum-arabic.
A SOLUTION, after being filtered through calico, is mixed with freshly precipitated hydrate of alumina in the wet state, and then filtered through a linen cloth, when a col- orless gum solution will result. By filtering gum-solution through a layer of freshly precipitated alumina, it can also be decolorized greatly, and by repeating the filtration sev- eral times, a quite colorless liquid is obtained.
On the Occurrence of Salicylic Acid in Viola Tricolor L.
From the Inaugural Dissertation of Karl Mandelin (Dorpat, 1881', who has carefully investigated the above subject, we abstract the following:
Ninety pounds of fresh Viola tricolor L. var. arvensis, growing in the neighborhood of Dorpat and collected dur- ing July and August, were dried—which reduced the
quantity to twenty-one pounds—twice boiled with a suffi- cient quantity of water, and expressed. The resulting liquid was boiled down to one-half and then set aside, for a few days, in a cool place. The clear liquid was poured off the sediment, and evaporated on the water- bath to the consistence of a thin extract, after which it was poured, under birsk stirring, and in small portions, into double its volume of 85% alcohol. The mixture was set aside, in a cold place, for two days, during which time a brownish-black substance deposited on the sides of the ves- sel. The alcoholic solution, after being filtered off, yielded, on distillation, a residue which was first concentrated on the water-bath to a thin extract and then again poured into two volumes of alcohol. The mixture having been al- lowed to stand for two days, the alcoholic solution, after filtration, was distilled, when a viscid, brownish-black resi- due remained. After being completely deprived of alcohol, it was diluted with a little water and then shaken repeat- edly with ether, until the residue left by evaporating the latter no longer gave a violet coloration with ferric chloride. It required eighteen to twenty agitations with ether to ac- complish this.
The ethereal solution had a green color, and, on being distilled, left behind a viscid residue rich in chlorophyll and fat, which, on being treated with repeated portions of distilled water on the water-bath, yielded a yellow solution. The latter was again shaken out with ether, and, after dis- tilling off the latter, the residue was allowed to crystallize in a capsule over sulphuric acid. The first crop of crystals was repeatedly recrystallized from hot water, until perfectly colorless crystals, free from all inorganic matter, were ob- tained.
The physical properties and chemical characteristics proved the substance to be ordinary salicylic acid.
The occurrence of the latter, in this state, is remarkable from the fact that salicylic acid has heretofore been met with, in plants, only in form of one of its derivatives, as f. i. methylsalicylic acid. Although Léwig* once announced the discovery of ordinary salicylic acid in the flowers of Spirea ulmaria L., yet it remains to be proved that it has not been produced during the process of preparation.
Not only the variety avvensis, but also other varieties of Viola tricolor L. were found to contain salicylic acid, and in. none of them were any derivatives or compounds of the acid met with.
Regarding the distribution of the acid, the author found that the rhizome (with its rootlets), the stem and the leaves contained, comparatively, the most acid. The petals con- tained only a small amount, and the seeds only minute traces. The seeds, however, appear to contain a substance which, when boiled with dilute hydrochloric acid, yields salicylic acid and which is able to produce the latter after the plant has begun to develop.
Small quantities of salicylic acid were’ also found in the following species of viola: V. odorata L., V. silvatica Fr., V. palustris L., V. palustris L., var. epipsela Led., V. canina L., and V. aren ria D.C.
Concerning V. odorata, it should be mentioned that the author found a small quantity of the acid only in the rhi zome, but none in the stem and leaves. Only after boiling the latter with dilute hydrochloric acid, could he detect small traces. Possibly, during another stage of develop- ment of the plant, the yield of acid would have been differ- ent. At all events there seems to be present a glucoside body which requires the action of a dilute acid to yield salicylic acid.
Peptone of Mercury as a Remedy in Syphilis.
Dr. MARTINEAU, of Paris, reports that during October last he made 3,087 hypodermic injections of ammonio- mercuric peptone on 172 patients. The amount used each time varied, .o1o gram(¥% gr.) being the greatest. He, and others, find that this use of the remedy causes neither pain nor salivation, and its effects on inveterate cases of syphilis are quite remarkable.
* Lowig u. Weidmann, Journ. f. prakt. Chemt., 1340, i., 2
NEW REMEDIES.
| February, 1882.
[OricinaL CommuNIcATION.]
The Irritating Effects of Cardol.*
BY MRS. IDA R. BRIGHAM.
THE oleaginous liquid contained in the pericarp of th cashew nut is, according to Prof. Staedler, a mixture o about ten per cent of cardol, ninety per cent of a fatty acid called anacardic acid, and a little of an ammonium compound.
Curdol is an oily liquid of the spec. grav. 0.978 at 23° C., | odorless at the ordinary temperature, but having a faint, | pleasant odor when warmed. Its color, in mass, is a deep | reddish-brown ; in a thin layer, a beautiful brownish-red. | It is insoluble in water, readily soluble in alcohol and | ether ; it dissolves in concentrated sulphuric acid with a red color; also in strong potash lye, which solution becomes | red when exposed to the air, and precipitates the salts of | the earthy and heavy metals with a red or violet color. It | burns with a bright, sooty flame. |
Staedler proved by his experiments that neither the am- | monium compound nor the anacardic acid were irritant ; hence the vesicating principle must be cardol. To test the action of the oily substance contained in the pericarp, he spread it over about one square inch of the surface of the breast, and covered it with a piece of blotting paper also moistened with it. In the course of fifteen minutes a slight burning was perceptible, which rapidly increased and attained its greatest energy in half an hour. The skin beneath the paper had become whitish, surrounded by a red circle. The paper was allowed to remain in contact with the skin for three hours, which was then covered with small vesicles that increased in size during the night, with- out, however, attaining the size of those usually produced by cantharides.
The spot was dressed with linen, spread with tallow ; it not only healed very slowly, but the after-effects contin- ued for a long time ; a second experiment made with the liquid which had been treated with dilute hydrochloric acid afforded the same result.
Henry W. Worthington states that he could fully cor- roborate the statements of writers concerning the irritant properties of the oily substance contained in the shell of the cashew nut, having suffered seriously from its effects while extracting it from the bruised nuts by ether and sub- sequent evaporation.
The U. S. Dispensatory notes a case of a lady who was exposed to the fumes of the nuts while roasting. Her face was so swollen that not a feature was discernible for several days.
A similsr case occurred in a boy who cut open one of the nuts, eating a small portion raw, and, by handling it, spread the juice over different parts of the body. The tongue, face, neck, hands, forearms, etc., were enormously swollen, red, and very painful.
Several years ago, the writer and her husband, being ignorant of the poisonous qualities of the nut, incautiously attempted to break the shell with their teeth. Both suf- fered seriously from an obstinate eruption, accompanied with swelling and intense itching. In the writer, the erup- tion appeared in irregular patches on various parts of the body, while that of her husband was confined almost en- tirely to the anterior surface of the chest, the swelling being uniform and brawny, throwing the integument into four dense and prominent folds.
While conducting the necessary experiments for the ex- traction of the vesicating principle, the writer has again suffered from its poisonous effects.
While manipulating the nuts, the hands were incased in rubber gloves, and instruments used.
In spite of these precautions, a small particle of the juice was spattered on the right cheek just over the malar prominence. Instantly a slight burning was felt. As quickly as possible the poison was washed away with water, and to prevent any minute particle from adhering, again washed with ether.
| | | | }
* From a thesis on Amacardium Uccidentale, presented to the Massachusetts College o- Pharmacy, ’78.
At the point of contact a red line soon appeared, which had disappeared by the next day, and it was hoped that all unpleasant consequences had been escaped. The third day, however, a red line again appeared, which soon in- creased in a diffuse redness and swelling of the right side of the face. At first glance, the skin appeared red, cedema- tous, and smooth; but, by closer inspection, minute vesi- cles were discernible, which increased in size and number, until the surface was completely covered with them.
Hoping to limit its action to the part already affected, every precaution was taken to prevent conveying the virus: by the contact of hands or towels. The inflammation gradually extended to the left side until the whole face and and ears were involved.
The swelling was tense and brawny, so disfiguring the face as to render it unrecognizable to the most intimate friends. The dorsal surface of both hands, including all the fingers, became seriously inflamed, swollen, and cov- ered with the characteristic cedematous eruption. The palmar surface escaped with the exception of a few scat- tered vesicles which appeared under the denser cuticle. Small patches also appeared on other parts of the body. The disease reached its height the eleventh day; the vesi- cles gradually diminished in size, and the skin assumed the appearance of the desquamative stage of eczema.
The treatment adopted was various and necessarily em- pirical, as no authorized line of treatment could be found. During the acute inflammatory stage, bathing with cold water and dusting with dry powder was all that gave the slightest relief.
Ammonia water, borax water, Goulard’s solution, iodized glycerin, carbolated cosmoline, lime liniment, rose-water oint- ment, oxide of zinc ointment were used in the vain en- deavor to obtain relief from the painful itching or to hasten the cure.
All oily substances produced such intolerable itching and smarting that they could not be endured on the face, but the zinc ointment gave great comfort to the hands.
Much of the treatment in the first attack is unknown to me; but I remember that oxide of zinc ointment gave the most relief.
Painting with tincture of iodine is suggested by Dr. Monkur in the New Jersy Medical Reporter, 1855, as an abortive treatment. This was faithfully applied to my hands, but without any apparent effect. Having suffered so severely from the action of this poisonous nut, a few words in criticism of its reputed uses may not be unwarranted.
Several authors speak of its use for the removal of corns, warts, and callosities, and some as a vesicant instead of cantharides. Considering the almost infinitesimal quantity of the poison which could have been absorbed in my recent attack, and the gravity of the results, it would seem, in my judgment, to be unwarranted to apply a remedy so uncon- trollable in cases where many other standard remedies might be used which are not open to such objections.
Soda in Nevada.
TWENTY miles south of Wadsworth, Nev., says the Reno Gazette, lies a supply of soda that is being extensively worked. The water is pumped into vats and evaporated, and then the soda is scraped up and spread out under a shed for the water to dry out before it is shipped. There are a good many hundred tons piled up there now.
Prune Paste and Laxative Lozenges.
FAIRTHORNE recommends the use of prune paste as an excipient for palatable laxative lozenges. The prune paste is made as follows:—Dried prunes are washed, stewed slowly with a little water, barely enough to cover them, until quite soft. They are then rubbed in a large mortar, so as to crush the fruit, but not the stones. Transfer to a coarse straining cloth, and squeeze the pulp through. This should be about the consistence of honey in winter. Lax- ative lozenges may be made by making compound licorice- powder(Ph. G.)into a mass with this. They should weigh about half a drachm ; dose, one or two as a laxative.
February, 1882. ]
NEW REMEDIES.
39
On Beef Tea—Liebig’s Extract—Extractum Carnis—Urine,
IN the Zancet for October, 1880, Mr. G. F. Masterman draws attention to the chemical analysis of beef tea, and shows that it is analogous to urine, excepting that it contains less urea and uric acid. Some years ago, Mr. Masterman also gave analyses in one of the medical journals, but which of them I cannot learn, even from the author him- self, showing that beef tea, most carefully prepared, does not contain, including alkaline salts, more than from 1.50 to 2.25 per cent of solid matters, and that such matter is composed mainly of urea, kreatine, kreatinine, isoline, and decomposed hematin, exactly the animal constituents of the urine, except that there is but a trace of urea.
Many writers have endeavored to impress the public and the profession with the true value of beef tea, viz., that it is not a nutrient but a stimulant, and that it mainly con- tains excrementitious materials. It appears, however, of little avail, for you constantly meet with those, even in the ranks of the profession, who believe beef tea to be really a powerful nutriment, while in most cases among the public your positive statement that in milk we possess a far cheap- er and more powerful blood and flesh-making food than in beef tea is met with a skeptical stare. A short time since, a consulting physician wrote in one of our periodicals how he was not infrequently called to cases where he found the patient literally starving to death in the midst of plenty. Wines and liquors of all choice brands covered the table, with beef tea, jellies, and essence of meats in all their end- less varieties, some of which, the consultant was told, were given every half-hour, and that therefore the patient had been well kept up. By a speedy clearance of all but the brandy bottle, and with the addition of two or three penny- worth of milk, he had on several occasions rescued a young and valuable life from certain death.
The late Dr. Francis Sibson, in an admirable paper on Bright’s disease and its treatment, published in the British Med. Journal, February, 1877, showed how detrimental beef tea may prove in some cases of Bright’s disease, where the kidneys are already taxed to the utmost to throw off metamorphosed structures, and yet the metamorphosed structures of the muscles of the cow are superadded, for these very materials, had the animal lived, would have been passed away as urine. Frequently, too, beef tea is advised by practical physicians in diarrhoea, dys- entery, and during diarrhcea of typhoid; certainly a large experience of tropical dysentery and diarrhoea has taught the writer to look upon this fluid in the light of poison in such cases.
Dr. Lauder Brunton has some very able remarks upon the occasional injurious results of beef tea (vide Practitioner November, 1880): ‘‘ We find only too frequently that both doctors and patients think that the strength is sure to be kept up if a sufficient quantity of beef tea can only be got down; but this observation, I think, raises the question, whether beef tea may not very frequently be actually inju- rious, and whether the products of muscular waste, which constitute the chief portion of beef tea or beef essence, may not under certain circumstances be actually poisonous. For although there can be no doubt that beef tea is in many cases a most useful stimulant, one which we find very hard indeed to do without, and which could hardly be replaced by any other, yet sometimes the administration of beef tea, like that of alcoholic stimulants, may be overdone, and the patient weakened instead of strengthened.”
Many other writers who have frome time to time endeav- ored to impress the profession with the true value that beef tea possesses as a stimulant, but not as a nutritive agent, may be referred to by the aid of the Medical Digest, secs. 124 and 125.
The non-nutritive, but valuable stimulating powers of beef tea, and its excellence as a vehicle for flesh-making food, such as bread, being fully conceded, it will be inter- esting go note some facts proving that similar properties have long been known as pertaining to urine. In South America, urine is a common vehicle for medicine, and the urine of little boys is spoken of highly as a stimulant in
malignant small-pox. Among the Chinese and Malays of Batavia, urine is very freely used. One of the worst cases of epistaxis ceased after a pint of fresh urine was drunk, although it had for thirty-six hours or more resisted every form of European medicine. This was by no means an un- usual result of the use of urine, as I was told by many of the natives. Hypodermic injections of secale were then unknown. As a stimulant and general pick-up I have often seen a glass of child’s or young girl’s urine tossed off with great gusto and apparent benefit. In some parts of our own country, the use of urine as a medicinal agent is not unknown. The use of urate of ammonia and guano was noticed by Bauer in 1852, who found their external use of value in phthisis, lepra, morphea, and other obsti- nate skin-diseases. Dr. Hasting’s report of the value of the excreta of reptiles in 1862 in the treatment of phthisis will also be fresh in the recollection of the older members of the profession. Possibly other observers may be able to add further to our information regarding the medicinal uses of urine both at home and abroad.—Lowisville Med. News from RICHARD NEALY in 7he Practitioner.
To Cover the Odor of Iodoform.
AccorDING to S. Hoenig, the best means of covering the odor of iodoform is cumarin, one grain of the latter being sufficient for about forty-five grains of the former. The odor of cumarin can be perceived in the mortar after several days, even when most carefully cleaned, while the iodoform odor disappears immediately.—Pharm. Zeit.
[Vote.—Cumarin is prepared both from tonka beans, and occasionally other plants containing it, but most gen- erally it is manufactured synthethically from salicyl-alde- hyde. One ounce of cumarin is said to be equal to about three pounds of best tonqua beans. Its price is about six dollars per ounce.-—Eb. N
Action upon the Feetus of Medicine Taken by the Mother.
UsinG the microphone, Dr. Kubassow has observed the effect on the heart of the foetus of medicine taken by the mother (Dissertation: Russisch. Centralb, ftir Gynekol.). 1. Chloroform and chloral hydrate, he finds, have first a stimulant, then a sedative effect on the foetus, this last effect being evidenced by the dulness and the infrequency of the heart’s beat, and the greater quietness of the foetus. They act within five to ten minutes, chloral more power- fully than chloroform, and especially so if given per rectum. 2. Opium and alkaloids cause prolonged irregularity of the heart’s beat in the foetus, acting more slowly, but for a longer period than chloral or chloroform. Opium acts more powerfully per os than per rectum. 3. Digitalis has also a powerful and prolonged action on the foetus. Dr. Kubassow believes, from chemical examination, that a dose of chloral hydrate taken by the mother is divided within fifteen minutes between herself and her child, in proportion to their weights, The practical conclusion is, that more than thirty grains of chloral hydrate will be dan- gerous to the child, if given at once per rectum, or re- peated sooner than in half an hour. The same holds for one and a half grains of opium, as tincture, repeated sooner than in an hour.—Medical Press and Circular.
Black Leather-Varnish,
A BLACK leather-varnish, which is said not to crack or peel off, may be prepared thus: Rosin. .. -e ee 3O parts.
Turpentine ae
Oil of turpentine. a “
Sandarac x
PICONGU IGOR) vi0566.0060.0:06.65% 65 2008 ~ Digest, then add
Lampblack . ... 1§ parts, previously triturated with a little alcohol—M. v. VALTA, in Pharm, Zeit.
NE w RE
MEDIES.
[ January, 1882.
Original Siatin,
(From The Chemists’ and Druggists’ Diary for 1882. The packages of some of the articles in the American mar- ket vary from those here given. But for the international drug trade, the usual packages are those quoted below.) Acid benzoic, German.... boxes Ib.
a boxes. .
“cc
English.... carbolic, pure “ powder... .
“cc
oxalic
picric, cryst...... : ; $5 cwt., 500 to | ( 800 Ibs. Aconite leaves. 150-200 lbs.
7 200-300 lbs.
. 200-300 lbs. seroons 14-2 cwt. baskets... ... 1%-1% cwt. boxes...°.. .. 25 ibs gourds .. .. 10-20 lbs. cases. ....... 300-500 lbs. ae . 50-75 lbs.
tartaric
Aloes, Barbadoes ‘* Cape Socotrine
Ammonium carbonate.... kegs 1 cwt. * = muriate sulphate. nitrate... ...
Aniseed, Italian
sé
about 150 lbs. about 250 lbs. about 125 lbs. about 125 lbs.
“ec
§ picul and 1 |
( picul.+
7 lb. boxes. { caskets 49-50 lbs. CODES: i scaces nearly 2% cwt. boxes....
Annatto,
“cc
“cc “cc
“cc
p golden Arnica flowers.
“cc
sulph. 5 cwt. pressed bales. about 100 Ibs. I cwt., or about Arrowroot, Bermuda. .... 125 Ibs. St. Vincent... about 200 lbs. - ‘ne about 25 lbs.
““c
a ee ;
ee ee ‘¢ lump
«eee 3144-5 cwt.
so as DOW.
ab. gals.
in ‘ Basse os @0. 90% 122 Ibs.
about 10 Ilbs.,
j 12 in a case.
56s TOOMBS: a's ab. 125-150 lbs.
seroons.. ... 125-150 lbs. 125-150 lbs.
- 4-5 cwt. I cwt.
. 4 Ibs. 50 lbs.
. 12 gals. 7 cwt. 800 lbs.
§ about 300 Ibs.,
“« St. Petersburg... .
Balsam copaiba..........
Bark, calisaya....... INS «sean ws eat
loxa
Barytes sulphate grnd....
Beeswax, American
Bisulphide of carbon. ... Bleaching powder
Dike, CERNE. ........% barrels
* Invoice weight and tare. + A picul case is 133 lbs. ; 3§ picul equals 66 Ibs.
Io and 20)
or 600- |
Borax, refined Burgundy pitch. . Calomel, English
| American. . | Camphor, refined oe “oe
| | Castile soap, white
cia oil, E. I
| ts Bombay Chalk crayons
|
- " German..
Cobalt crystals Cochineal
Cocoanut oil Colza oil
“cc
Copper sulphate | Copperas green | ar white | Columbo root
Cotton wool, pe eae
Virginia Carolina Georgia
Wot
N. Orl’ans Alabama
| Cream tartar crystals
“ec
Cubebs Cutch - Cuttle-fish bone
Dextro-quinine
| Ess.
| Ess. bergamot
| Farina, German
| Finish, methylated ..... | Galls
| Gentian root
| Ginger, East India....
“é
Jamaica | Gambier Glauber’s salts........... Glycerin, Price’s
Sarg’s, bulk.... |
obi Beigium.. . oe
Bravil ....% Egyptian... .
powdered...
i bales..... ae
. 112 lbs.
I lb. bottles.. 50 in a case.
. I lb. bottles.. 50 in a case.
..+. about 200 lbs.
I cwt,
fr. 150-200 Ibs. about 4 Ibs., 14 —-16 in a bale.
barrels. EE. ocaukic cases
mats ... —
ree about 100 lbs.
¥ and picul. . about 35 lbs.* about 35 lbs.+ 40 lbs, tins... 4 in a case. COBKS : o.:005% 3 cwt. I gross boxes, 100 in a case. 25 lbs. boxes.. cases of 100 bxs.
eee
os MBAITEIS .6 55 :0:0 about 300 lbs.
fr. 200-300 lbs. fr. 125-300 lbs. I cwt.
. + 92% lbs. about 140 lbs.
hogshead .... 16-20 cwt. about 120 Ibs.
bags.... 12 gals.
tins
bbls. or casks bales........ 320-360 lbs. bales ... . 160-200 lbs. bales..... ... 180-280 lbs.
veeeeees 300-310 lbs.
» 400-500 lbs.
“4 10 cwt. or 600- goo Ibs. about 250 lbs. about 100 lbs. about 100 Ibs. about 125 Ibs, 1o and 25 and 100 oz. . about 250 lbs.
barrels
coppers coppers. .... bags .. FMIEE Sh a's oie 12 gals. 3% cwt. - about 150 lbs. I cwt. about 125 lbs. . about 125 lbs. barrels: .......1 Kew. barrels ...... about 125 lbs. bales about 250 lbs. barrels . 3 cwt. I lb. bottles . 50 in a case. 50 lb. cans... 4 in a case. 1 lb. bottles.. 50 in a case.
i ee 56 lb
casks or skins
| * 8 lbs. tare for boxes.
+ 4 lbs. tare for boxes.
February, 1882. |
NEW REMEDIES.
41
Grains of Paradise Gum arabic, sorts
“ce
East India... Asafcetida pioaiata dacs
guaiacum gamboge myrrh, Turkey East India
tragacanth, sorts... - flakes. . thus (olibanum). Honey, Cuba :
“* California Bavarian © English. .
Indigo, eli Madras Salen eae
Insect powder Ipecacuanha root
Jalap root
Juniper berries...,...... Lac dye...
Lard, refined
Lead, red, dry Linseed oil
Madder...
eee eres e ses
Magnesia.......... seaiws
carbonate es calcined. ... Methylated spirits Mustard... : Naphtha, coal tar wood Neatsfoot oil, S. Amer..
Nutmegs ....
Plumbago ... wh dire Manna, “small flake. eniteres
Musk, Tonquin
Moss, Iceland........ .. Nutgalls, Aleppo........ Nux vomica ...
Orange peel, sweet
“
Orris root, Florentine...
“
Oil, anise
citronella croton, English...
caraway, chaff
“cc
+ I cwt. . fr. 350-500 Ibs.
fr. 200-300 lbs.
. 6 cwt.
oi Er. 200-400 Ibs. - about 200 lbs. .. fr. 100-200 lbs.
¥ and picul.
«. about 100 lbs.
about 250 lbs. fr. 150-200 lbs.
+ 250-400 lbs.
: " barrels. dive . bbls. & tierces
ae DAIES: 2620. ae
. pockets
seroons CASES. wee
200-300 lbs. about 150 lbs. 40-60 gals.
56 lbs.
3 cwt.
ab. 1%-1¥% cwt. about 150 lbs.
. about 200 lbs.
about 200 lbs.
..+ 7,14, and 28 lbs,
about 100 lbs. about 150 lbs. about 150 lbs. 4 cwt.
20 and 28 lbs. 300 lbs.
about 200 lbs. I-5 cwt.
- 3 cwt.
about 200 lbs.
about 1% cwt.
about 100 lbs.
about 60 lbs.
j goo lbs., or 10- I2 cwt.
| 14, 28, and 56
Ibs. and I cwt.
. fcwt,
1 Ib. 30-140 gals.
. 18 lbs. & 36 lbs.
- 4gal.tins. . . barrels casks
40 gals. 12 gals. 2 in a case.
. 200 lbs.
60 flasks. Ir cwt. about 120 lbs.
. about 60 lbs.
50 oz. about 20 oz. fr. 350-500 Ibs.
. fr. 50-100 lbs. . about 200 lbs.
pockets bales bales... ... . casks
casks .
16% Ib. lead. 162% Ib. lead.
about 40 lbs.
about 300 lbs. about 200 Ibs. g00-1, 200 lbs.
. I,000-1,400 lbs.
cans 4 in a case, cans 4 in a case.
. 3.and 5 gals.
copper cans.. 1% lb. bottles 1% lb. bottles bottles
20 and 40 lbs. 36 in a case. 36 in a case. 24 02.
. 24 02.
copper cans.. bottles
Io and 30 lbs. ro and 30 lbs, about 22 oz. about 24 oz. 20 and 40 lbs, about 22 oz.
; OFaNge .....:.
‘* lemongrass origanum eae geranium. . cinnamon, true . bottles....
juniper wood
lavender, garden.
flowers . rosemary leaves...... a flowers .
olive, Malaga..... ‘* sublime..... se
“ec “cc
barrels
“cc “ce
verbena . bottles Opium, East India «Turkey Orange-flower water... . Ochre, Havre & Rochelle. Paris green ....... seainer Persian berries Phosphorus
Pumice-stone, lump, Eng. se “e
Potash, prussiate ** iodide ‘* chlorate, English. ge ak French. . carbonate
oe
Quicksilver
Quassia, chipped
Rice, East India “* American
barrels
Rottenstone, English..... Saffron Sago Sarsaparilla, Mexican .... Honduras... Saltpetre, East India refined oa granulated Senna, East India ‘« Tinnevelly se Alexandria Soda, ash DIGAGDS 05.0S sacred COURIC? 86 s.06 5400 Pa
nitrate
crystals . hyposulphite tartarated
Sulphur flowers..........
“c
Sugar of lead
Spermaceti.
Seeds, cardamom, Aleppo. rs Madras = Malabar
canary, Sicily .... barrels
CANS ...-ceee
. 1 Ib. bottles.. bottles & cans
« WOASTOIS) i6.656:6
.. stone crocks..
iron flasks ..
. 120 Ib. bbls. .
pt ee DAaleS.cc5 6s WSS Ss. «'are,ar01 barrels .....
300 lb. bbls..
CASES. «ee eens
20 and 40 Ibs. about 22 oz.
20 and 25 lbs.
5 lb. cans.
from 5-25 lbs. about 22 oz.
ab. 16 & 30 lbs. ab. 16 & 30 lbs.
.. ab. 5 & 10 lbs. .. about 30 lbs.
5 or I0 lbs. 22-50 02.
about 25 lbs. about 40 gals. 4, 8, and 16 oz. 40 and 60 gals. 40 gals.
ab. 6 and 12 gal. about 5 gals.
24 In a case. 149% lbs.
136 lbs.
ab. 3 and 6 gals. fr. 600-800 Ibs, 14, 28, & 56 lbs. I cwt.
10 lbs.
100 lbs.
about goo lbs. about 100 lbs. about 500 lbs. 50, I lb, bottles. 112 lbs.
about 125 lbs.
5 cwt.
about 125 lbs. about 125 lbs.
. about 125 lbs.
1% cwt.
. 77 \bs. & 25 Ibs.
about 125 lbs. about 1% cwt. about 6 cwt.
. 3.cwt. & 2 cwt.
60 and 120 lbs. 600 Ib. casks. 28 lbs.
about 120 lbs. about 175 lbs. about 150 lbs. 1% cwt.
. I cwt.
about 75 Ibs. about 250 lbs. about 250 lbs.
. about 1,000 lbs.
112 lbs.
about 600 lbs. 3, 4, and 6 cwt. 2 cwt. & 350 lbs.
about 150 lbs. about 150 lbs.
{ 600 to 800 lb.
cases.
about 35 Ibs. about 200 lbs. fr. 150-200 Ibs. fr. 150-250 lbs. about 4 bushels,
‘¢ Smyrna... CALAWAY ic'ens es
6 ADE DS esis e ocacne about 3% bu. a DABS es 040 50% about 125 lbs.
42
NEW REMEDIES.
[ February, 1882.
Seeds, coriander...,.. fenugreek flax, whole ‘ground... ... sg English.. Shellac ee . barrels.. .. IEE MOD 5, oso ceste< ae Sugar candy Sage Senega root Snake root St. John’s bread Sugar milk
barrels
Tapioca. Tar, Archangel Tobacco
| rE
mustard, American bags... ..... bags .....<. a ee
about 150 lbs. about 100 lbs. about 200 lbs.
. about 3% bu.
about 150 lbs. ab. 50 & 100 Ibs. about 200 Ibs. I-3 cwt.
- 3cwt. OS eee
XM ewt. 4 firk. (256 Ibs.). about 70 lbs. about 250 lbs. fr. 50-150 lbs. fr. 200-400 lbs. about 125 lbs. about 100 lbs. fr. 200-400 Ibs. about 50 lbs. about 150 lbs. 3 cwt. 12-18 cwt. 2-2% & 3 cwt.
Turpentine about 150 lbs. about 250 lbs. from 400 to 600 200 Ib. bbls. . i “ag oN 28 Ibs., I2 in a case. about 258 lbs. about 150 lbs. Valerian root, German ... about 125 lbs. - ‘English. ... - about 125 lbs.
Vanilla beans i about 25 Ibs., 4
in a case.
English 30 and 50 lbs. American.... 72 lb. cases. Trieste 31 lbs., 2 in keg. Chinese... 662% Ibs. Venetian red.... about 350 Ibs. Vitriol, blue about 100 lbs. Whiting .... . about 350 lbs. Zinc oxide, dry, French... barrels .. . 220 lbs.
“ «« «© American. barrels...... 200 lbs.
- I cwt.
barels o.<...
Vermilion, i
£ 6 lb. boxes...
- CASES. .. 20-0
sulphate
The Preparation of Chlorates.
IF the product of the action of chlorine gas upon milk of lime is decomposed in the ordinary manner with chloride of potassium, then, after the chlorate of potassium has been crystallized out, a part of this salt remains in the mother liquor, and is allowed to flow away on account of the im- possibility of separating it out in a state of purity. To prevent this loss, A. R. Pechiney (German patent 15,493) separates the greater part of the chloride of calcium from the chlorate of calcium before adding the chloride of potas- sium. This may be effected in a twofold manner :
I. The solution is evaporated to g2° Tw., when the chloride of calcium crystallizes out; the mass is cooled down to 50° F., and is put into a centrifugal machine. The liquid run off contains then from one to two molecules of chloride of calcium to one molecule of chlorate of cal- cium.
2. Lime is added to the solution in the proportion of three molecules of lime to one molecule of chloride of cal- cium. There are then formed, especially with the aid of heat, basic chlorides, which are separated from the liquid. These two methods may be advantageously used in succes- sion. The basic chlorides, which contain a considerable quantity of chlorate of calcium, are decomposed by warm water, and the solution of chloride and chlorate of calcium is separated from the lime and concentrated till the chloride of calcium crystallizes.
From the solutions of chlorate of calcium thus enriched considerably greater proportions of chlorate of potassium may be obtained on adding chloride of potassium than by
former processes. In order to obtain chlorate of sodium, sulphate of sodium is added, and the lime remaining in the liquid is removed by the addition of soda. On concentrat- ing the solution, there is deposited first chloride of sodium, which is freed from chlorate by washing.
This method is interesting from a double point of view: it permits the utilization of that portion of chlorate of potas- sium which was formerly wasted, and it points out a way for obtaining the chlorates of sodium and barium which are now required in dyeing and printing, and have at present to be obtained from the chlorate of potassium by tedious and expensive methods. Chlorate of baryta might easily be prepared from the chlorate of lime, by adding chloride of barium and separating by crystallization.—Chem. Zet- tung.
Cologne.
THE following formula has been placed at our disposal by Mr. Tuomas J. CoveLt, PuH.G., of Marshalltown Iowa:
Oil of lavender flowers ‘« rosemary neroli, Bigarade petit grain
“cc
bergamot...
rose geranium
Tincture of storax
Cologne spirit... Orangpe-Nower water. ..0....6560 2.s0000%
Mix. Use troy weight for the oils.
The Phenix Universal Copying Method.
EXTRAORDINARY advantages are ascribed in several German journals to a new process of copying which not only permits the multiplication of copies written specially for this purpose, but also permits the exact copying of prints, maps, printed matter of all kinds, etc. The pro- cess is patented, but the composition of the various ingre- dients is not stated. A general idea may, perhaps, be gotten from the following description. The writing (done with a special ink, or pencil), or the print is painted over with a liquid called ‘‘durative,” dried with tissue-paper, and a print made from it upon a sheet of ‘‘ phoenix-paper,” upon which a negative copy of the original will appear. On now placing a clean sheet of paper on the latter, and gently rubbing, there will be obtained a gelatin-impression, which, when treated with a ‘‘color-dust,” yield a faithful copy. The copies require fixing.
From the description it would seem that the process is a little more complicated than that of the hectograph. But there was no process heretofore known for taking a copy of a page of printed matter, of a drawing, etc., except by the aid of photegraphy, or more complicated processes.
We have no practical knowledge of the process, and refer those of our readers who desire to know more about the matter, to Mr. J. L. SeefehIner, K. K. Hof-Papierhand- lung, Budapest (Hungary), IV. Waitznergasse, 9.
Psoriasis Following the Use of Borax.
Dr. W. K. Gowers (Lancet, Sept. 24th, 1881) speaks of three cases in which the prolonged internal use of borax as a remedy for epilepsy was followed by the appearance of psoriasis. —Lancet and Clinic.
Bismuth Concretion in the Stomach.
LAZARO PaPINI reports in the Revista Clin. di Bologna a case of a sixty-year-old woman with gastric ulcer (carci- nomatous), who for a long time had taken bismuth, and in whose stomach was found fost mortem a pound of bismuth mixed with mucus of the consistence of a firm jelly.—ed. Times.
February, 1882. |
NEW REMEDIES.
43
The Preparation of Hydrobromic Acid.* BY AUGUST HARDING, OF SAN FRANCISCO.
| flask z is heated to boiling, so that the steam escapes from | the lateral tube x.
The hydrogen apparatus having been started to work,
HAVING accepted an invitation of Prof. Rising to join | the gas first passes through the wash-bottle s, containing
him in some investigations of bromine compounds, I un- dertook to prepare a quantity of hydrobromic acid for this purpose. But, since all the methods heretofore used for this purpose are complicated and expensive, it occurred to me that a new process might possibly be based upon the fact that bromine and hydrogen unite when passed to- gether through a red-hot tube. Finally, I devised the fol- lowing apparatus to accomplish this object.
Fig. 1.—a is thermometer-tube, 80cm. (31% inch.) long, from @ to 4of such a calibre, that 250 to’ 500 grams of bromine may pass through it per hour. It is bent twice at right angles, one end passing through a soap-stone stop- per 4 into the flask c, which contains the bromine. The other leg is again bent at a right angle, at f, and termi- nates inside of the globular expansion ¢. The tube / is I metre (39% inch.) long, 7 mm. inch) in diameter, and at its end contracted to 4 mm. A globular expansion of 25 mm. (1 inch) diameter, is blown in it at ¢d. To
k Fig.2.
a 5 f
| sulphuric acid, and then through ¢ into d. As soon as all
| the air has been displaced, the platinum tube is heated to | redness at 4, and afterwards bromine in c is made to pass | over into a /, by blowing in the flask through the tube which | may be applied at its lateral tubulure. As soon as the | bromine reaches the globular expansion at d, it volatilizes, | and passes, together with hydrogen, into the platinum | tube 4, where they unite. It is now necessary to so regu- | late the supply of bromine that no vapor of the latter be- | comes visible in 7, If there is too large an excess of hydro- | gen gas, this may be noticed from the imperfect absorption | of the gas in the receivers m, m’. Especial care is to be | taken not to have too strong a current of hydrogen in the | beginning, since the union of the two substances may be | prevented by an excess, and bromine would thereby enter the receivers. The latter, m, m’, contain in their lower, | contracted portion a little water, which, when it is satu- | rated with hydrobromic acid, retains any excess of bromine.
Harding’s Apparatus for making Hydrobromic Acid.
the left of d, it has a diameter of 15 mm. (5€ inch), and a length of 10 cm. (4 inch.), and is united with the lege. g is a tube surrounding f, as shown by the figure ; at 4 it carries a lateral branch 4’, which passes into the flask 2, containing water; 4 isa platinum tube, 12 mm. (1% inch) wide and 10 cm. (4 inch) long, which may be formed by wrapping thin platinum-foil around a porcelain tube, and hammering it together [the author speaks of a small blow- pipe flame, but incurving and overlapping the edges would probably do as well]. In its centre, at 4, is a spirally- twisted piece of thin platinum-foil. At /, the platinum tube is pushed over a slightly-contracted glass tube, which is cemented to f by means of plaster of Paris. The other end of the platinum tube is firmly pushed over the end of the bulb-tube 7, The latter is accurately fitted, by grind- ing, into the neck of the 1 liter-flask m,; in the same man- ner, 2 is connected with m’. o is a tube, 40 mm. (1; inch.) in diameter and 1.25 meter (49 inch) long, filled with antimony, and is joined at # with the flask m’, by means of a rubber connection. At the other end it is joined to a tube leading to the wash-bottle g. w is a hydrogen-gene- rator, constructed of lead, 70 cm. (27% inch.) high and 25 cm. (9% inch.) wide. The zinc solution may be removed through the faucet 7. For generating hydrogen, it is pre- ferable to use sheet-zinc.
When the operation is to be started, the water in the
* Berichte d. Deutsch. Chem. Ges., 1881, p. 2085.
These flasks must be kept cold by a current of water, so that the gas may reach the antimony cold. The object of the latter is to combine with any free bromine which may escape, and the gas should reach it cold, since otherwise the bromide of antimony would be volatilized. Antimony is particularly suitable, because it has a strong affinity for bromine, but none for gaseous hydrobromic acid. When- ever it is desired to interrupt the operation, the faucet at v is opened, which arrests the flow of bromine, and after- wards the current of hydrogen is stopped.
With an apparatus of the described dimensions, 1 kilo- gram of concentrated acid may easily be prepared per hour.
For working on a large scale, the apparatus may, of course, be enlarged or modified, as circumstances may re- quire. The principal point is to cause the bromine vapor to come in contact with the hydrogen only at one place (meaning the place at @), and to insure the thorough mix- ing of the gases before they pass through the heated plati- num.
At the present prices of bromine—35-40 cents per lb.— the cost of preparing hydrobromic acid would be only about one-sixth of the price at present demanded by man- ufacturers.
Commercial bromine, as is well known, contains more or less organic matter, which must be removed if a pure acid is to be obtained. This may be accomplished by passing the bromine vapor over certain red-hot metallic oxides,
44
NEW REMEDIES.
[February 1882.
which, themselves, are not decomposed by bromine, but, in presence of carbon, are converted into carbon monoxide and the bromide of the metal.
Manganese dioxide fulfils this condition admirably.
The above apparatus may also be used with advantage | for the preparation of hydrobromic acid upon the lecture | table. For this purpose, the tube / may be shortened one- half, and the tube a (Fig. 2) is connected at /”, by means of rubber, with 7 The U-tube 4 15 filled, up toc, with antimony. As reservoir for the bromine, a funnel-tube (g) may be used, about 60 cm. (23% inch) long. The current of hydrogen is to be so regulated that 4 may contain a little free bromine, which is then retained by the anti- mony. In this manner pure hydrobromic acid gas is ob- tained.
A New Dry ng Oven.
W. KIRcHMANN, of Ottensen, near Altoona, has obtained a German patent (No. 12, 759), for a new drying closet for | the use of chemists, pharmacists, etc. The drying closet proper, 7, is provided with double walls, which are filled at the sides and top with non-conducting material. The
EEE eee
Kirchmann’s Drying Oven.
bottom compartment, w, is filled through the tube / (x be- ing the outlet) with water to be heated by a flame, or else it may be supplied by live steam.
A conical space 4, within a cooling apparatus A’, com- | municates with the drying closet by way of a lateral con- | nection at a, and the bottom tube 4. The cooling appara- | tus is fed with cold water through e¢.
When the drying closet has been charged with the | objects to be dried, the first effect of the heat, applied be- | low, will be to volatilize some of the moisture contained in | the substance. This will be carried by the current of air | through the opening a, in the direction of the arrows, and | by coming in contact with the walls of the conical cooler | B, the suspended moisture will be precipitated, while the dried air will re-enter the closet at 4 and abstract further | quantities of moisture as long as any is present.
The con- | densed water flows down the inner walls of the conical |
Spurious Drugs.
In the early part of this year, a root was offered in the London market for belladonna which now turns out to be that of lucerne (A/edicago sativa), which, according to Pro- fessor Fliickiger, is sometimes met with on the continent mixed with belladonna root. A large quantity of the seed of Ptychotis Ajowan, amounting, it is believed, to several tons, has just been received in London, imported under the name of ‘‘Omum,” one of the names applied to the seed in India.
A simple Air-Bath for Evaperations, Distillations, etc.
For several years past, a very simple arrangement has been in use in the ‘‘ Chemische Centralstelle” at Dresden, whereby an air-bath was made to do all the duty of a water-, oil-, or paraffin-bath. By a circular cut, or by other means, glass rings are prepared from glass cylinders
| of various sizes, about I to 2 litres capacity, and 2 to 10
cm. in height. These rings, which are open at both ends, are set upon an iron plate, and covered with a similar plate, which latter has suitable openings for receiving a thermom- eter and the vessels intended to be set upon it. If high temperatures are required, low cylinders (of about 2 cm. in height) are selected; low temperatures require higher cylinders (5 to 10 cm.), The cylinders are scratched with
Fleck’s Air-Bath.
a diamond, in a vertical direction, so that, if they should crack, the fracture would always be up and down. This simple apparatus permits the maintenance of constant tem- peratures of 50 to 300” C, (122° to 572° F.) and over. Its transparency is an additional advantage, when it is of importance to watch the progress of reactions, as it often happens in synthetical experiments. Dr. H. FLECK, in
| Repert. der Anal. Chem., No. 13.
Bicarbonate of Sodium in Tonsillitis.
M. GineE, Professor of Clinical Surgery, at Madrid, affirms that the repeated application topically of bicarbon- ate of sodium is of incontestable efficiency in tonsillitis. The powder may be projected through a tube on to the inflamed parts, or applied directly with the finger.
The relief is often immediate, and the cure often rapid, sometimes requiring but twenty-four hours, The applica- tion is rarely inefficacious, and often aborts the disease in its prodromal stage.
M. Giné also considers these applications of great benefit
chumber and flows off at c.—Dingler’s Pol. Journ., 241, \in hypertrophy of the tonsils, often obviating the necessity
120.
of an operation.
February, 1881. |
NEW REMEDIES.
45
Caoutchouc Cultivation in British India. BY CLEMENT R. MARKHAM, C.B., F.R.S.* (Concluded from page 7.)
THE forests of caoutchouc trees on the banks of the Ma- deira, Purus, and other tributaries, yield over 1,600,000 pounds; while the yield of the whole of this colossal river basin amounts to 12,800,000 pounds. Keller laments the fact that no attempt is made, in the Amazon district, to cultivate these useful trees; which, owing to frequent tap- ping and rough treatment, suffer much and die soon.
The seringuetros have to go farther and farther into the interior, to seek fresh trees in undiscovered valleys. It is to be feared that, owing to the indolence of the mestizo population, and the short-sightedness of the Brazilian Gov ernment, measures of conservancy will not be adopted until too late. The Castilloa, like the Ficus elastica, though re- quiring a very humid climate, will only thrive when there is drainage at the roots. But Keller says that the Hevea yields the largest supply of milk when, during the annual inundation, its stem is at least five feet under water.
The scene presented by an encampment of caoutchouc collectors is extremely picturesque. Their huts are lightly built among the trees, and round them tower the majestic mosqueteiro palms, and the lofty ertholletia,t while in front is the gleaming river with its sfmny sandbanks. From the huts narrow paths lead through the dense under- growth, cut by the axe of the seringueiro, to the lonely caoutchouc trees. The collector makes small holes in the bark, to which tubes of clay are fixed, which lead the milk into bamboo receptacles ; going from tree to tree he collects these bamboos, and on his return to the hut the contents are poured into the carapace of a large tortoise. The milk is then subjected to the process of smoking with- out delay, for if left standing too long the resin separates. In this process the milk is subjected to the smoke of the urucuy, or nuts of the Atholea excelsa palm, which alone, it is said, possesses the power of liquefying. An iron pot, without a bottom, and with a narrow neck like a bottle, is placed so as to form a chimney over a heap of these burn- ing nuts, and the white steam rises in masses through the narrow opening. The seringueiro pours a small quantity of the white fluid, of the consistence of thick milk, from a calabash over a light wooden shovel, as evenly as possible, and then rapidly thrusts it into the white steam. The milk soon takes a grayish-yellow color, and becomes firm, Then they add layer upon layer, until the caoutchouc on each side of the shovel is about eight inches thick. The plancha or slab is then finished, taken off the shovel by cutting down one side, and hung up in the sun to dry, as there is a good deal of water between the layers. The color of the p/ancha is at first a light silver gray, but by de- grees becomes yellower and yellower, until it turns the dark color known in commerce; a practised hand can, in this way, manufacture 5 or 6 pounds in an hour. The thicker and freer from bubbles, the better the quality and the higher the price. The cheapest is called suinaméy or cabeza de negro inegro-head), and is made from drops found at the foot of the trees and from the refuse in the vessels. The export of caoutchouc from Para in 1876 amounted to 6,493 tons, worth £955,000.
There are two other India-rubber trees of South America of less value, whence come the Pernambuco and Ceara rubbers. The Pernambuco is an apocynaceous tree, //an- cornea speciosa, known as the mangiaba by the natives, and is found in the provinces of Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Pernam- buco, and Goyaz. It is a small tree about the size of the apple, and is more valued for its fruit than for its caout- chouc, which is not much collected. The Ceara tree (Manthot Glaziovii) is more important, especially as it flourishes in a dry climate.
For obtaining plants yielding the India-rubber of Para and Ceara, I was again so fortunate as to secure the ser-
* From: Peruvian Bark. A popular account of the introduction of cinchona cultivation into British India,. By Cl. R. Markham, 8vo, London, 1880.
+ Bertholletia excelsa yields the Brazil nuts
vices of Mr. Cross, who left Liverpool on June roth, 1876, and reached Para, at the mouth of the Amazons, on July 15th. He found, on inquiry, that the great field for caout- chouc collecting was the Province of Para and the islands formed by the delta of the river, especially Marajo. The land round Para rises from the bank of the river southward in gentle undulations, cut by deep gully-like natural ditches called gafés, which often penetrate for many miles into the interior of the vast forest region, and are filled daily by the tide. To those navigable by canoes, the term wjarape is often applied. The intervening land between the gapds owes its origin first to tidal deposits, and after- wards has been raised by the decayed remains of a long series of rank growths of vegetation. On the more ele- vated lands, beds of white sand twenty feet deep are met with, covered with a layer of decayed vegetation. In every direction the country is a mass of dense, exuberant forest.
Mr. Cross explored this region, in order to make obser- vations on the soil, climate, and mode of collecting and preparing the rubber. On the 2d of August, he was fol- lowing the tracks of the rubber collectors through the dense forests ankle-deep in mud, until he came to a wide gapé into which the tide flowed. It was connected with many lesser water-courses, forming a kind of network over a whole district of forest, the most elevated parts of which were only raised three to four feet above the highest tides. India-rubber trees grew along the margins of the streams, and Mr. Cross observed three, the trunks of which were flooded to a height of a foot. Most of the others occupied dry situations. The gafds are lined with soft, rich mud, and the exhalations from such places, shrouded by a forest growth of sixty or a hundred feet high, always produce attacks of fever. Mr. Cross measured a few of the largest trees, all of which had been tapped for periods varying from five to fifteen years, and found their circum- ference, one yard from the ground, to vary from three feet to six feet ten inches. Regularly tapped trees do not ex- ceed sixty feet in height.
Mr. Cross went on with the work of collecting plants, and established them at once in cases. In this way he made a collection of one thousand plants in four cases. The range of the thermometer from July to Octobor was from 72° tog2°. On the 17th of October, 1876, the col- Tection was shipped for Liverpool, and Mr, Cross proceeded in the same steamer to the Ceara region. He landed ina heavy surf, on a kind of a raft called jangada, and found himself in a very different country from that of the Ama- zon.
South of the Amazonian forest, there #s a region known as the Sertao or wilderness, extending in a broad belt from the Parnahyba River to the Sao Francisco. The Province of Ceara is within this belt—a high rolling plain, broken by abrupt elevations and chains which are in fact outlying fragments of the great central table-land of Brazil. The only high forest is found on these mountain sides, the summits and the plains below being occupied either by their forest growth, or by pastures and sandy tracts, with groves about the river courses. From June to December, the climate is extremely dry, and the streams and rivers disappear, except along the mountain sides. The rains, at times very heavy, come in December and January. The principal commerce of the country is in hides and jerked beef ; and there are plantations of sugar, coffee, and cot- ton, along the mountain sides. In 1877-78, Ceara was visited by a terrible drought and famine, when about half the population perished.
Ceara is connected with a place called Pacatuba, forty miles inland, by a railway made to facilitate the transport of sugar and cotton. It traverses a flat and parched coun- try, covered with thickets of thorny bushes and slender myrtles and Leguminose. Here and there clumps of the carnauba palms (Copernicta cerifera) rise high above the other trees and bushes. The crowns of these palm trees, waving with the wind, are visible over a wide expanse, and the back-ground is formed by a range of mountains. Mr, Cross stopped at a village called Maracanahu, about thirty miles from Ceara, where he obtained a guide to take him
46
NEW REMEDIES.
[ February, 1882
to the India-rubber trees. The forest was tolerably high, elastica in the lower Ghat valley; but the point, which
but the sparse small foliage did not afford much shade from the fierce rays of the sun. Neither grass nor weeds grew under the trees, and there was an entire absence of ferns, mosses, and other plants. Mr. Cross concluded that the Ceara rubber-tree would thrive perfectly over a very wide area of the drier regions of British India.
At first sight, the tree resembles a birch, and the outer bark comes off in the same way in thin silvery peelings. The largest tree was about fifty ft. in height, with the trunk about a foot in diameter. Having found some young plants, Mr. Cross had great difficulty in uprooting them. The roots have tubers of the size of kidney potatoes, which ad- here with great tenacity to thesoil. Afterdiligent search and very severe labor, eighteen plants were collected and brought safely on board the steamer. Thus, in one day, Mr. Cross was able to discover the origin of a tree hitherto unknown and undescribed, yielding an important article of com- merce, and at the same time to secure a number of plants. Next day, he again went to Maracanahu, and obtained 42 more plants and 700 seeds.
Mr. Cross arrived at Liverpool on the 22d of November, 1876, and his valuable collection of plants was deposited at Kew the next morning, consisting of a thousand plants
of Para rubber trees (Hevea Braziliensis) and forty-two |
Ceara plants. Thus all the valuable caoutchouc trees of South America had been obtained, and were ready for experimental cultivation in India; but the Government was very lukewarm on the subject, and I considered it most safe to send them, in the first instance, to the Ceylon gardens at Péradeniya. From that centre, their cultiva- tion could be extended to India hereafter, when_ its importance is better appreciated by the authorities. The Ceara plants (Manthat Glaziovii) arrived from Kew in October, 1877, and grow admirably in the Péradeniya and Henaratgode gardens. They have produced ripe seeds, and plants have already been sent to Calcutta Madras Burma, and the hot districts of Ceylon for trial. The Hevea also grows extremely well. A few trees are already nearly 30 ft high, with a girth of fourteen inches. Already 500 /Yevea plants, raised from cuttings, have been sent to Madras and Burma. The Castilloa trees grow well at Péradeniya, still better at Henaratgode; some are 16 ft. high, with a girth of 16 inches. The increasing demand for caoutchouc must eventually convince the Gov- ernment of the greatimportance of its systematic cultivation. The Para rubbe;z is the best and choicest, the Castilloa will grow over the largest area in the moist belts, and the Ceara thrives on the drier and hotter plains.
A writer in the Judian Forester,* after reading Mr. Cross’s report on the Castilloa region, pointed out the ghat forests as far as the Nagar division of Mysor as the most likely region to constitute a new habitat for the Castilloa trees. He says:—
‘In the interesting account of the Casti/loa elastica in the last number of the /xdian Forester, the low forests about Co- imbator and the base of the Nilgiri Hills are recommended as the locality in India where it is perhaps most likely to succeed. Were the writer acquainted with the line of Ghat forests ex- tending from thence northwards as far, say, as the Nagar division of Mysor, we feel confident, after a careful perusal of his notes, that he would place his finger on this region as the most likely to constitute a new habitat for his species. Alter the names, and his description of the climate, soil, and general surroundings of the forests where his caoutchouc tree grows will exactly suit that of the lower valleys of the Ghat range. Indeed, looking at the map of the world with our knowledge of winds and rain in the tropics, were it otherwire a very fertile brain would be required to strike out a plausible explanation of the fact. As it is, we know from the general accounts of travellers that there is a very striking resemblance between the two regions. Where the difference lies, and that a great one, is in the two floras. In the ordinary course of things, there can be no doubt about one’s ability to grow Castilloa
* July, 1876, vol. iii., p. 57.
nothing but experiment on the spot can determine, is whether in this tract of teeming fertility and bewildering wealth of species it can so far intrude on the closely-fitting vegetative economy as to conquer an independent position in the forest flora. Most probably it would require some artificial aid to maintain itself; but if its economic value is anything like that stated, this we can afford to give it. Only to a limited extent though; for the same poisonous climate exists here as in the trees’ New World habitat. Up to this limit, great facilities for working exist. The region we are speaking of is permanently inhabited by aboriginal tribes, who sometimes settle down into villages in healthy localities, at other times retire to the most lonely and malarious portions of the belt, where they seem to be dying
| out, and who sometimes can be depended on for regular
work, at other times not. With or without their aid, labor for a portion of the year could be easily got from the settled and healthy country above. Very often villages with surplus labor exist on spurs of the Ghats almost over- hanging the low country, in a cool and non-malarious climate, two or three thousand feet above the sea. Here the forest officer has his hut, and rides up after tte day’s work is done. Back here, too, he brings his fever-stricken coolies for a change of air—better than any medicine. The whole forest-region below is now pierced by easy Ghat roads at intervals of about 50 miles—the ports of Mysor, as the talented engineer who made most of those in that province has aptly described them. All the most accessible passes are lined by a dusty streak, along which the produce of the up-country passes to the sea. In a word, in the lower Ghat forests we can offer Castilloa elastica a habitat quite as unhealthy as its own in America, and an amount of care and culture it could not get there. Away from the trunk roads and the valleys abutting to them, minor forest produce should be attended to. It is a question whether the existent minor forest produce could not profitably be more extensively worked; it is certain that the successful introduction of Castilloa elastica would unmistakably turn the scale in the right direction. We would not, however, have it thought that we staked bringing down the trembling beam on this one species. Many others will occur to everybody; but Castilloa elastica seems to open up a fairer prospect than them all. There is our old, now familiar friend, Ficus elastica, which seems likely to grow well enough here, provided we kept down hardier native species; probably it would require a good deal of aid in this way. There is also Hevea elastica, and, in fact, the whole series of caoutchouc- yielding trees, not forgetting the wonderful Burmese climber, Chavanmesia esculenta. Since, however, Castilloa elastica admittedly produces one of the finest India-rubbers, one would naturally wish to begin by trying that. Consid- ering the inaccessibility and unhealthiness of the lower Ghat forests, we seem to have a case here of what our fore- fathers would have described as a providential adaptation of ways to mearts; in the fact that the locality is, neverthe- less, so well fitted to produce an article, so necessary in the arts, and of such a growing application, as caoutchouc.
While the Castil/oa will find a new home in the western Ghats, the Hevea is introduced into one of the moist zones of India, the Ficus elastica is cultivated in its native forests of Assam, and the Chavannesia in Burma; the Ceara rubber, with quite a different habitat and requirements, may be extensively grown on the hot, dry plains of Eastern India. This measure, if intelligently and continuously followed up, will thus insure, in the future and as the de- mand increases, a regular and large supply of the best kinds of caoutchouc from British India.
Natural Deposit of Sulphate of Magnesium.
In the southern part of Polk County, Ga., there ‘is re- ported to be ‘tan undeveloped mountain of Epsom salt. The latter, it is said, crops out all over the ground, and an ounce of the earth put into a glass of water will give a good solution of salts.
February, 1882. | NEW REMEDIES. 47
Useful Tables (From the Smithsonian Report, 1865. Calculated hy Prof. H. A. Newton. Continued from NEw REMEDIES, 1881, 151.)
TABLE XIII.—-For converting metres into feet and inches.
Metres. 2 0.3. 0.4. 0.5.
Ft. In | Ft. Ed hee 2) Pe
o 11.8 = 3: i 97 I 4 3:2 #7: 4-117 5 7 66 7 8 24 8 I0 9.9 | II I. Ir 5.8 | 11 la 0.3 | 14 & TA O72. | 15 7 429.) 27 83 18 0.5 | 18 20 80 | 21 0. 2I 3.9 | 21 23 11.4 | 24 3. 24 7.3 | 24 27° 2/8°'|.27 0, 27 10.6 | 28 30 6.1 | 30 Io. St. 2:0" 1'S8
© ONT QOUP WN HO
TABLE XIV.—For converting feet into millimetres. (Divide the result by 1 000 to obtain metres.)
I. ’ 3. 4. 5. 6. |
- |
305 914 1219 1524 1829 3353 3962 4267 4572 4877 6401 7010 7315 7620 7925 9449 10058 10363 10668 10973 12.97 3 13106 13411 13716 14021 15545 16154 16459 16764 17069 18593 19202 19507 19812 20117 21641 22250 22555 22860 23165 24689 25298 25603 25905 26213 27737 2 28346 28651 22956 29261
TABLE XV.—For converting kilograms into troy ounces.
1
oO. a 2. 3. 4. ae e., iE : 9.
° 32.15 64.30 96.45 128.60 160.75 Ig2 90 225.05 289 35 321.50 353.65 385.81 417.96 450.11 482 26 514 41 546.56 610.86 643.01 675.16 707.31 739.46 771.61 803.76 835.91 868.06 932 36 964 51 996.66 | 1028.8r | 106¢.96 | 1093.11 | 1125.26 | 1157.42 | 1189.57 1253.97 120.02 | 13 &.17 | 1350.32 | 1382.47 | 1414.62 | 1446.77 | 147%.92 | 1511.07 1575.37 1607.52 | 1639 67 | 167:.82 | 1703.97 | 1736.12 | 1763.27 | 1800.42 | 1832 57 1$96.87 1929.03 | 1961.18 | 1993.33 | 2025.48 | 205-.63 | 2089.78 | 2121.93 | 2154.08 221%.33
2251.53 | 2282.68 | 2314.83 | 2346.93 | 2379.13 | 2411.28 | 2443.43 | 2475 58 2579 38 2572.03 | 2604.1. 26 6.33 | 2668.48 | 2700.64 | 2732.79 | 2764.94 | 2797 09 a 61.39 2393 54 | 2925.69 | 2957.84 | 299.99 | 3022.14 | 3054.29 | 3086 44 | 3118.59 3182.89
TABLE XVI.—for converting avoirdupois pounds and ounces into grams. (Divide the result by 1,000 for kilograms.)
30z. | 4o0z. | 50z. | 60z. | 702. | 8 oz. s. HIOO2.
85] 113 170] 195 283 567 624 | 652 737 g92 | 1021 1077 | 1106 IIgl 1474 - | 1530} 1559 1644 1928 1984 | 2013 2098 2381 2438 | 2466 2551 2835 2892 | 2920 3005 3289 3345 | 3374 3459 3742 3799 | 3827 3912 4196 42-2] 4281 4366 4649 470% | 4734 4819 5103 516 | 5158 5273 5557 5613 | 5642 5727 6010 6067 | 6095 6180 6664 6520 | 6549 (634 6917 6u74 | 7002 7.87 7371 7428 | 7456 754! 7825 7881 | 7910 795 8275 7 | 8335 | 8263 d £4 8 £732 §788 | §817 8902 9185 9242 | 9270 9355
© ONT AUIS WN HO
48 NEW REMEDIES.
| February, 1882.
Absorption of Chrysarobin.
ISRAEL has lately shown, by a number of experiments on dogs, that when an ointment of Goa powder is applied to the shaven skin, chrysophanic acid may be detected in the urine on the third day. Albuminuria has frequently been observed to follow inunction of this substance, and this should be borne in mind during its use. The same author- ity thinks that the blood, which is occasionally detected in the urine of such patients, is due to the effect of unaltered chrysarobin which is excreted with the chryso- phanic acid, its irritant effect upon mucous membranes resembling that of cantharides.—A/ed. Zimes, Dec. 31st, from Virch. Archiv.
An Accident with Hydrofluoric Acid.
Mr. ROBBINS, assistant in the Chemical Laboratory of the Institute of Technology (Boston), having occasion to etch a hole through a piece of porcelain, made use of hydrofluoric acid, and, to facilitate the process, used a piece of match that had been saturated with the acid ; noticing that his fingers were getting wet, he washed them and applied tallow. He held the match in his fingers the greater part of an hour and a half, and about the end of that period noticed a loss of sensitiveness in the end of the finger and thumb, and some pain. He again washed them, and applied dilute ammonia water ; washed that off, and ap- plied bicarbonate of soda. The pain increasing, he applied ‘Carron liniment,” the sensation being like that of a burn. This was about noon. The pain gradually increased, and in the evening he was obliged to consult a physician.
‘* At this time, the ends of the fingers were white and very hard—so hard, indeed, as to dull the scapel with which he endeavored to cut away some of the skin. The action was still going on; and as the depth to which it had penetrated could not be determined, a dressing of cold cream was applied, and later vaseline was used ; but neither seemed to allay the steady increase of the pain which now most nearly resembled the sensation of a burn when held to the fire. The only relief obtained was by the application of cold, and this was only partial; and the only variation in it was from bad to worse ; and at last it became the most severe pain I can imagine ; and it was not till four o’clock the next morning, and with the aid of one hundred and ten drops of laudanum, that I was enabled to obtain suffi- cient relief for a broken nap. The next day the pain had subsided, and the acid had penetrated quite a distance below,the skin, rendering the flesh totally insensible and hard, having abstracted all the water from it. The other fingers were only slightly swollen, and the swelling did not extend back as far as the hand, showing that the blood was not poisoned at all. My usual good health was only tempo- rarily and slightly impaired by the laudanum, but no other medicine was given. The course of treatment was to re- move the destroyed tissue. This it was thought best not to do with the knife, but poultices, alternating with frequent soakings in very hot water, were constantly employed, which proved effectual, although slow, in its operation ; it
yin eve Ae Mae re heehee Rete Ar giheae pared with that of quinine, being an additional advantage.
slough was all removed. It was very dry and tough, and by no means inclined to separate from the surrounding tissues. In four weeks I abandoned all dressings to the fingers, and was enabled to use them a little. Only a small permanent loss of tissue has resulted, but now, after three months, the scars are tender and the sensation is, perhaps, permanently destroyed. This agrees with the action of
this acid as stated by Wurtz, especially as regards the pain, |
but he does not mention the very important fact that no pain is felt for some time after contact with the acid, which in my case was between one and one and a half hours, and by this time the surface has become so hard that it is difficult, if not impossible to check the action underneath, so that the damage is for the most part done before one finds it out.
‘« The difficulty in healing appears to consist in removing the slough, as it heals very quickly when this is out of the way ; and after the first siege of pain, which is a long and severe one, the sore is no more painful than any other of
equal size. I think that should I meet the same same acci- dent again, I should lose no time in washing it off as thor- oughly as possible, and then apply water-glass if this were accessible ; if not, I should use an alkali, and, if possible, soak the part in water as hot as could be borne, and apply cold cream or some other dressing which will keep the part soft, and also exclude the air.”"—Boston Med. and Surg.
Jour.
Chinoline (Quinoline) and its Use as a Febrifuge.
IN continuation of our remarks on chinoline (quinoline), contained on page 364 of last volume, we give below a re- sumé of the results obtained by Dr. Loewy, of Fiinfkirchen.
Dr. L. treated 40 cases of intermittent fever with tar- trate of chinoline. He gave it to adults in the same doses as quinine, namely I gm. (15% grs.) to be taken 3 hours before the expected attack in 2 or 3 portions, either in cap- sules, if the stomach was delicate, or in solution. In the latter case the following formula was used :
Chinolinz tartratis Igm, 15 grs. Syrupi rubi idzi.... i fl. oz. Aquze
Aque laurocerasi....
In patients having a very delicate stomach, or who had already been under the influence of malaria fora long while, and whose digestion was greatly impaired, he di- rected a spoonful of lemon-juice to be taken after each dose of the salt, so as to furnish sufficient acid to render the salt (which has an alkaline reaction) soluble. This generally overcame any tendency of the salt to cause nau- sea or vomiting; in some cases he also combined with it the administration of small pieces of ice. Children of four to eight years were given about half of an adult dose, al- ways in solution, the quantities being graduated, according to age, as with quinine.
The general results of this method of treatment are summed up by Dr. Loewy as follows: Tartrate of chino- line is a good antipyretic, deserving to be ranked alongside of quinine. It cannot be said that it will make the latter superfluous, since, in a few of the cases, it did not fulfil all expectations, the paroxysms returning afterwards in a milder degree, and therefore requiring a larger quantity of the salt for complete cure. Yet, this partial failure is also sometimes encountered when using quinine. There is no doubt that chinoline is a most important acquisition of therapeutics, as it may be administered, with probable success, as an alternative for quinine, whenever the latter should be found to fail.
The most prominent disadvantage of chinoline, besides its peculiar odor and slightly caustic taste, consists in its property to irritate the stomach of delicate persons, some- times so much as to cause vomiting. For this reason it will scarcely be fit to be used in heavy febrile conditions,
| infectious diseases, etc., where the irritability is increased
and only minute quantities of acid are secreted by the stomach.
In ordinary malarial attacks, however, it will find a large field for usefulness, its comparatively low price, com-
It may be added, that chinoline itself, which is an oily, mobile, strongly refracting liquid, is not suited for medical use. With acid it forms very deliquescent salts, and only the ¢artrate can be readily obtained in silky, shining, and non-deliquescent crystals, This salt has a faint odor of bitter almonds, and a somewhat biting, but not bitter taste, somewhat resembling that of peppermint water. From Pharmac, Centralhalle, 1881, No. 46.
Hzmoglobinuria Caused by Naphthol.
A. NEISSER has made experiments on animals that afford evidence that the administration of naphthol may cause hemoglobinuria, and he suggests that during the prolonged administration of this substance the urine should be carefully examined.—A/ed. Times, Dec. 31st, from Cd. jf. Med., 30, 1881.
-~—~_o -—- 7 F —™ DH Be See Se UR CUS
February, 1882. |
NEW REMEDIES.
49
German Vaseline.
THE manufacturers of petroleum ointment in Germany, who use the term vaseline almost exclusively to designate the product, employ as raw material ‘‘ mountain-tar,” that is, crude ozokerite, from the Alsace and Galicia, and Amer- ican petroleum residues, which are of semi-liquid or unctu- ous condition, and yield a correspondingly softer or denser vaseline.
The purification and decoloration of the raw material is accomplished by either treating it with sulphuric acid and bichromate of potassium and subsequent digestion with animal charcoal, or by treating it with the latter substance alone. In the following we describe two processes fur- nished by two German factories. The first one accompa- nies a petition for the granting of the privilege of establish- ing the works; the second was communicated by the manufacturer, L. Meyer, of St. Johann.
First Process.
1. The oil is heated by steam to about 30° C. (86° F.), mixed, at this temperature, with Io per cent of its weight of sulphuric acid of 60° B., stirred for half an hour and then allowed to stand at rest so-that the carbonized por- tions may separate.
2. When clear, the oil is washed with an aqueous solu- tion of bichromate of potassium, whereby any remaining excess of sulphuric acid is at the same time removed.
3. The residue from the acid treatment is mixed with lime, neutralized and disposed of to manure factories.
4. The clear oil from the second step of the process, after being washed, is heated by steam to 80° C. (176° F.), mixed with Io per cent of its weight of granular spodium and then allowed to stand at rest to permit the spodium to settle.
5. After the latter is separated, the liquid portion is fil- tered through filters heated by steam.
6. The residuary magma of spodivm is subjected to hy- draulic pressure, the expressed oil filtered, and the solid residue again used in the next operation, a sufficient quan- tity of fresh spodium being added to make up for any loss or waste
Second Process.
The petroleum-residue, or the natural ozokerite contain- ing vaseline, are rendered fluid, and the liquid, after the separation of all extraneous matters, is passed through a series of charcoal filters such as they are used in sugar refi- neries.
After the liquid has passed twelve or fifteen of these cylindrical filters, its original brownish-black color has be- come wine-yellow. To render it colorless and limpid as water, double the number of filters are required. The liquid acquires a lower specific gravity the less colored it becomes, but when it has become colorless, the specific gravity remains stationary no matter how long the filtration may be continued.’ After it has thus been freed from all bituminous matters, it is transferred to the ‘‘ duplicator,” where it is brought in direct contact with superheated steam and the temperature allowed to rise to 250° C. (482° F.). Samples which are taken from the boiler, from time to time, show, that no further alterations can be ob- served in the product, after it has been exposed to this temperature for a few hours. The finished vaseline, amounting to 25 or 30 per cent of the raw material, is finally filtered and filled into cans for shipping.
A great drawback in this method is the rapid exhaustion of the animal charcoal, which can decolorize only a small percentage (of its own weight) of crude vaseline. It is therefore necessary to have extensive facilities for extract- ing the portion retained by the charcoal, and to regenerate the latter, which may be done by superheated steam at a temperature of 400 to 500° C. (752-932” F.) It is for this reason that most factories use sulphuric acid for purifying, by means of which the material may be brought to the color of beer, so that only about one-third as much char- coal is required for final decoloration as in the other pro- cess. It is, however, almost impossible to get rid of the
last traces of the employed chemicals. (Pharmaceut. Cen- tralhalle, 1881, No. aa}
The paper from which we quote the above describes the product obtained by the latter process as being white, odor- less, tasteless, yielding, when melted, a clear, colorless liquid, which, on cooling returns to its former homogeneous condition. Cold 98% alcohol dissolves, on shaking, 2.2 per cent of vaseline. The residue left on evaporating the alco- hol is liquid at ordinary temperatures. Hot alcohol dis- solves it completely to a clear solution. On cooling, the vaseline separates in flakes. It behaves in the same man- ner towards benzol and ether, but is not completely soluble in the latter, even on warming. It does not impart an acid reaction to water, and is not affected by solution of potassa. Boiling sulphuric acid of spec. grav. 1.600 and boiling nitric acid of spec. grav. 1.185 do not alter it. Fuming nitric acid colors it yellowish-red, and sulphuric acid of 1 820 grayish-black. The acid itself acquires a yellowish-brown color. The spec. grav. of the vaseline is 0.848.
Five grams, heated in aclosed tube for several hours with oxygen, absorb from 4 to § cubic centimeters (result of two experiments). Its odor is thereby rendered only very faintly acid, and its ethereal solution has only a very faint acid re- action on blue litmus paper.
Value of Some Whooping-Cough Remedies.
Pror. J. L. O. HEUBNER has been experimenting with five commonly-used remedies for whooping-cough to deter- mine their relative value. The drugs were given as follows :
Bromide of potassium in doses of 0.5-3.0 grams in watery solution per diem. Quinine was given in solution or in powder in the dose of 0.3 gram per diem. Chloral hydrate was given in two cases in broken doses, in the other cases in enema, in the dose of 0.3 to I gram per diem. Salicylic acid was given in one case in the form of salicylate of sodium, inwardly ; in the other cases it was inhaled as spray in a one-third to one-half-per-cent solution, 0.I-0.15 gram of salicylic acid being inhaled at each sitting. Belladonna was usually given as the powdered extract in doses of 0.015- 0.06 gram per diem.
The results of Heubner’s investigations are given in the following table:
INFLUENCE IN SHORTENING THE DISEASE.
INFLUENCE ON THE ATTACKS.
os deta | Negat.M@e. |
Positive Negative.
Belladonna........... ‘ Quinine. ........---- chloral
Salicylic 15 14 ||Bromid. potass......... 23
Salicyl. inhal.. .... ... Chloral. Belladonna.............
os ao
aren
_——- F romid. potass
oust
From the above table of cases it appears that salicylic acid is about eight times as likely to be useful in diminish- ing the frequency and severity of the attacks as is bromide of potassium. Salicylic-acid inhalations are therefore the best means of shortening and diminishing the attacks, while belladonna and quinine have the best effect in abbreviating the duration of the disease.—AZed. Times, Dec. 31st.
—_—1ooe—
Explosive Mixture.—A correspondent of the Phar- maceutische Zeitung states that he recently had to prepare a prescription in which nitrate of silver was ordered to be fused together with acetate of lead. On heating the two substances together in a porcelain capsule, the mass began to sputter so violently that the heating had to be inter- rupted. A second attempt was made with acetate of lead which had previously been deprived of its water of crys- tallization. After a few minutes, an explosion took place which scattered the whole mass, and endangered the eyes of the operator.
50
NEW REMEDIES.
| February, 1882.
Extract from the Annual Report of the Government Chemical Laboratory in Yokohama.
Dr. A. J. C. GeErTs, Director of the Imperial Japan- ese Laboratory at Yokohama, who is charged with the duty of examining all drugs and chemicals introduced into Japan for medicinal purposes, has published his annual re- port for the fiscal year, July Ist, 1879, to July Ist, 1880, from which the following is abstracted.
During the year, there were examined 1,683 different in- voices, containing altogether 182,127 bottles or packages, or about 140 invoices with 15,177 bottles, etc., each month. Of the total quantity, 1,425 invoices answered the
requirements, 49 were returned to the sender, and 209 ;
were confiscated. The following were those which most frequently were refused the Government stamp:
Acid. phosph. dil., Ph. Liq. ammon. acet...... 14
i EE Pee 4 Oleum morrhue........ 5 |: Acid salicylic........... 2 Pepsinum c. amylo..... 15 PU sseecces>s sasas Qf Gute Citess... 5... 2 Aqua amygd. amar... 5 ‘* hydrochloras... 2 Bals. copaive........... 2 re RDS ie aie se Ext. belladonn., Ph. Br. 3 Spir. ether. co......... 12
‘* hyoscyami, Ph. Br.. 3. ‘‘ ammon. arom..... 8 Fel bovis inspiss......... q+ eer tte oss 8 Ferri et quin. citras..... ee es BOE ee 6
to | ee Pre 3 Tinct. ferri chlor....... 6 Ferrum reductum. ..... 3 ‘* opii (Sydenh.)... 6 Linim. saponis. .......
5
Of adulterations, the following are specially noted:
Arsenious acid.—Consisting chiefly of impure calcium carbonate.
Silver nitrate, fused.—Contained 50 per cent of salt- petre.
Copaiva.—In two lots considerable quantities of fatty oil were found.
Quinine, citrate.—Consisted in two cases almost exclu- sively of citrate of cinchonidine, with only 5 per cent of quinine.
Quinine hydrochlorate.—Two lots were found to be hy- drochlorate of cinchonine and of cinchonidine.
Quinine salicylate.—Contained only 33% (instead of 70%) pure quinine, and a large admixture of sulphate of sodium.
Quinine sulphate.—One lot contained 32% of sulphate of cinchonidine, another contained 29% of carbonate of magnesium,
Quinine and iron citrate.—In one lot 6% of pure qui- nine, but no other cinchona alkaloids were found. In another, 5% quinine and 8% cinchonidine; in another, 12% alkaloids, among them, 2.5% quinine. An amorphous pre- paration contained only 4% of alkaloids.
Oil of almonds.—Two lots were mixed with other fatty oil. Both congealed already at —1° C.
Oils of cinnamon, fennel, and lemon.—Some were mixed with 18 to 22% of alcohol.
Paracotoin.—One lot had a very disagreeable odor of decomposed animal matter, and was almost entirely insol- uble in alcohol of goZ.
Pepsin —Frequently mixed with very large quantities of starch, and of feeble solvent power towards albumen.
Rhubarb, Powdered.—Some was mixed with powdered tumeric.
Spir. zther. co.—Contained in many cases too little ether.
Syr. ferri iod., Pharm. Gall,—In six cases, there was too little iodide of iron.
Acetic Acid, Ph.Br.—Contained frequently some sul- phuric acid.
Phosphoric Acid, dil.—In two cases was contaminated with arsenic.
Apomorphine.—Sixteen vials of this contained a black- ish, insoluble mass.
Bismuth Subnitrate was twice rejected on account of too much arsenic.
Cerium oxalate.—Forty-eight bottles of this were found to contain too much calcium carbonate.
Cinchonine Salts, particularly the hydrochlorate, are
chonidine [? This should probably be reversed, for it would not pay any one to adulterate a cheap substance with a dearer one.—Ep. NEW REM. ]
Ferrum Reductum.—One specimen contained 12.8% of reduced iron, some sulphur and carbon, Another contained 40.1% of reduced iron, much sulphur and carbon. Anda third, 34% of reduced iron, with little sulphur and carbon.
Tincture of Opium.—Mostly prepared according to the Brit. Pharm., was rejected six times as being poor. The samples contained :
Extract: Morphia: Tc cceccsessce ++ +727 per cent 0.052 per cent. 2 ise Wee bas gan. ** oie” MET CTL TE ee s- * O10 =“ Oi beans tas 300 ** o“ge. ‘* Ete seeaseneked aha ** e353 ** Dixeteccerett s§000° 0,120 **
A standard tincture prepared by Dr. Geerts from 1 part of Smyrna opium and enough menstruum to make Io parts of laudanum, was found to yield 7.1 per cent of extract and 1.15 per cent of morphia.
Linim. Saponis.—Five lots were deficient in soap.
Liq. Ammon. Acet.—Contained twice a considerable amount of zinc.
Potassium Acetate.—The salt as prepared by English factories always contains much chlorine, and is never clear- ly soluble in 5 parts of go% alcohol.
Potassium Iodide.—Two invoices contained only 88.6 per cent of the pure iodide and were strongly alkaline.
Spir. Aither. Nit.—In eight lots of this less than 0.5 per cent of ethyl nitrite was found.
Spir. Amm, Arom.—Was rejected because impure al- cohol (containing fusel oil) had been used in its prepara- tion.
Besides the Government analyses, Dr. Geerts also made 504 private analyses of medicines, etc. The laboratory is a real benefit, as it protects the ignorant people from un- scrupulous manufacturers, who would otherwise swamp the country with fraudulent or damaged medicines.—After Pharmac. Zeitung, 1881, No. 102.
Bromide of Sodium in Epilepsy.
Dr. HAMMOND’s experience has proved the following to be one of the best plans of treatment for epilepsy: Dissolve eight ounces of bromide of sodium in a quart of water. Of this, take a teaspoonful three times a day. After three months add one teaspoonful more to the night dose, and after another three or four months add a teaspoonful to the afternoon dose also. At the expiration of a year, do the same with the morning dose, and continue with this for a year or more thereafter. If no symptoms of the disease have meanwhile appeared, then gradually reduce the doses, and at the expiration of the third year stop. The attacks do not usually return after this course of treatment. Ordi- narily, however, patients stop the medicine after a month or two, and in such cases the attacks almost invariably return. It is then almost impossible to bring these patients under the influence of the bromides again. The doses will have to be at least doubled, and this may so derange the system as to make it impossible to take the medicine longer.
Hop-Bitters.
THE following is given as the composition of hop bitters:
By AOE OF BIDE san ccse S4sicwee cass. say 3 ss. sy DOM des 4 esne>nonanSonow 3 ij
a WEINER co's es Pons win a eo: us ie as 3 iij Podophyllin (dissolved in spirits of wine)... 3 ss. PERCOMTE OF COCMMBER «555.55 5 ces c:0ic0 esd gtt. xx SPIN INET vc ca ni cn sss) Beweiewn ec to O. j
M. These ingredients will cost about 10 cents; selling price,
stated to occur frequently mixed with 20 to 30 per cent cin-
$1.00.—Canadian Jour. Med. Sci.
mo YY
oOPaWd =o
February, 1882. |
NEW REMEDIES. 51
Indian Opium.
CoMMERCIAL Indian opium is grown and manufactured in two special tracts : (1) the Valley of the Ganges round Patna and Benares, and (2) a fertile tableland in Central India, corresponding to the old kingdom of Malwa, for the most part still under the rule of native chiefs, among whom Sindhia and Holkar rank first. In Malwa, the cultivation of poppy is free, and the duty is levied as the opium passes through the British Presidency at Bombay ; in Bengal, the cultivation isa government monopoly. Opium is also grown for local consumption throughout Rajputana, and to a very limited extent in the Punjab and the Central Provinces. Throughout the rest of India it is absolutely prohibited. In the Ganges valley, the cultivation is supervised from two agencies, with their headquarters at Patna and Ghazipur, at which two towns alone the manufacture is conducted. In 1872, the Bengal area under poppy was 560,000 acres ; the number of chests of opium sold was 42,675; the sum realized was £6,067, 701, giving a net revenue of £4,259,376. The whole of this was exported from Calcutta to China and the Straits settlements. The amount of opium exported from Bombay is about equal, thus raising the average exports of opium to about twelve millions sterling, of which about nine millions represents net profit to government. In 1878-79, 91,200 chests of opium were exported from all India, to the value of £12,993,985, of which £7,700,000 represented net profit to government. Under the Bengal sys- tem, annual engagements are entered into by the cultivators to sow a certain quantity of land with poppy ; and it is a fundamental principle that they may engage or refuse to engage as they please. As with most other Indian indus- tries, a pecuniary advance is made to the cultivator before he commences operations, to be deducted when he delivers over the opium at the subordinate agencies. He is com- pelled to make over his whole produce, being paid at a fixed rate according to quality. The best soil for poppy is high land which can be easily manured and irrigated. The cultivation requires much attention throughout. From the commencement of the rains in June until October, the ground is prepared by repeated ploughing, weeding, and manuring, The seed is sown in the first fortnight of November, and several waterings are necessary before the plant reaches maturity in February. After the plant has flowered, the first process is to remove the petals, which are preserved, to be used afterwards as coverings for the opium cakes. The juice is then collected during the month of March by scarifying the capsules in the afternoon with an iron instrument, and scraping it off the next morning. The quality of the drug mainly depends upon the skill with which this operation is performed. In the beginning of April, the cultivators bring in their opium to the subordi- nate agencies, where it is examined and weighed, and the accounts are settled. The final process of preparing the drug in balls for the Chinese market is conducted at Patna and Ghazipur. This generally lasts until the end of July, but the balls are not dry-enough to be packed in chests until October.—/mp. Gaz. of India, IV., 496.
The Care of Sponges.
WE all know that sponges, after they have been used for a while in hard water, become clogged with organic and earthy impurities, and lose much of their elasticity and power of absorbing and parting with water. The ordinary domestic remedy for this condition is common washing- soda ; but this. substance, while effectually removing the impurities, destroys the texture of the sponge, and it quickly falls into pieces. The preparations of chlorine and sulphurous acid used for bleaching and disinfecting sponges have also an injurious effect, and should be avoided (as should new bleached sponges, for they are always bad ones); Condy’s fluid stains, and carbolic acid consolidates organic matters in the meshes of the structure ; and they are also to be avoided as unsuitable for mere cleansing purposes. I have found by repeated experiments that re- turning the sponge to its native element, or what answers equally well, steeping it in strong salt and water, to which
a few grains of iodine have been added, enables it to throw off its impurities and to regain its normal elasticity and absorbent properties, and at the same time to become dis- infected. The process is not a rapid one ; and iodine is only slightly soluble in salt water, so that very dirty sponges cannot be purified in this way, and a preliminary washing in soap and warm water may be necessary. Sponges may be kept in this kind of pickle for any length of time without injury to their texture; and as clean sponges are essential to success in operative surgery, sur- geons and nurses would do well to keep their sponges in this manner when not in use, instead of allowing them to become dry and gather dust, or absorb and condense im- pure gases. Salt is one of the best antiseptics, and iodine is one of the most powerful disinfectants, and they belong to the element in which the sponge was originally devel- oped. A bath-sponge which has been treated in this way has the pleasant sea-side smell, which has been attributed to the presence of ozone, but which is more probably due to iodine. —CHARLES ROBERTs in the Br; Med. Jour.
Artificial Hunyadi Janos Water.
THE following formula is recommended as a cheap and efficient substitute for this purgative water. It is thrice the strength of the formula derived from Prof. Liebig’s analysis of the natural water, the latter being found want- ing in purgative action:
Sulphate of magnesium, 514.92 gr.; sulphate of sodium, 519.54 gr.; sulphate of potassium, 2.76 gr.; chloride of sodi- um, 39.15 gr.; bicarbonate of sodium, 15.60 gr.; water, 16 oz. Dose, two ounces and upwards. It will be observed that the chloride of calcium is omitted, but the proportion is so smali that, even when it was included, there was no difference in the action.
This is said to be equal, in every respect, to the original, and costs somewhere about two cents per quart.
Asclepias Syriaca in Dropsy.
Mr. Cu. Spurway (Br. Med. Journ.) has used a homee- opathic tincture of milk-weed as a diuretic in a case of cardiac dropsy, in conjunction with punctures and milk- diet. The tincture was given in increasing doses of two to seven minims four times daily. The urine increased under this treatment from six to eight ounces to forty ounces in the day. While recognizing the important part played by the punctures and the milk-diet in effecting an improvement in the case, he is convinced of the efficacy of the drug.
Hyoscine.
Tuis alkaloid, discovered by Prof. Ladenburg, in Hy- oscyamus, and the therapeutic properties of which have recently been reported upon by Prof. Edlefsen,* has been further studied by its discoverer, who desired to discover some easily crystallizable salts which would facilitate its preparation and dispensing. He found that the hydrio- date and the hydrobromate are the most suitable.
Hydriodate of hyoscine crystallizes from water, in which it is only moderately soluble, in small, stout, monosymmet- ric, hemimorphous prisms, which mostly have a slight yel- lowish color. Dried at 100° C. (212° F.), the salt had the composition: C,;HzsNO3.HI.4%H.0O.
Hydrobromate of hyoscine is very easily soluble in
‘water. It forms large colorless, transparent, and sharply
defined crystals, sometimes of I to 2 cm. in length. They are rhombic, sphenoid, hemihedric prisms, which, when exposed in the desiccator over sulphuric acid, lose three molecules (12.27 per cent) of water. Afterwards dried at 100° C. in vacuo, they yield nothing more. The composi- tion is C);HasNO;.HBr.%4HO, when dry ; when crystal- lized, the water amounts to 34%H.O.—Ber. d. D. Chem, Ges., 1881, 1870.
* Compare on Hyoscine, New Rem., 1881, 183 and 340.
The Estimation of Nitric Acid.
BY J. WEST-KNIGHTS, F.C.S., ETC.*
IT is generally supposed that nitric acid in acid solution is only partially converted into ammonia by nascent hydro- gen;+ but I have found that it is quite possible to obtain the whole of the nitric acid present, in the form of ammonia, when proper precautions are taken. When a nitrate is dissolved in water in the presence of sulphuric acid and zinc, the N2O; is first converted into N2Os, and after prolonged action, the latter is completely converted into NH; by the nascent hydrogen.
As the reduction, when once started, requires but little attention until completed, the time occupied is of little importance, as the analysis can be left standing all night, and will, in most cases, be complete in the morning. After the reduction, the NH; can be distilled into standard | acid, after making the solution strongly alkaline with caustic soda, and estimated in the usual way by titrating the residual acid with half normal alkali.
Before commencing the distillation, it is necessary to test the completeness of the reduction; this is best done by adding 1 cc..of deci-normal permanganate solution. If the permanganate is quickly destroyed, nitrous acid is still present, and the reducing action must be continued; but if, on the other hand, 1 cc. produces a permanent tint, the action may be considered complete.
The process will be best described by giving examples:
Six separate quantities of 0.5 grm. of pure nitrate of potassium were taken, and each dissolved in about 80 cc. of water; 10 cc. of sulphuric acid (1 vol. of acid to 3 of | water) was added, and a stick of zinc, six inches long, placed in each flask, and the whole allowed to remain all night; in the morning, 5 cc. more acid was added, to again stimulate the evolution of hydrogen. In half an hour, the rods of zinc were lifted out, rinsed with distilled water; the samples were tested with permanganate, then rendered alkaline by the addition of three or four short sticks of caustic soda, and distilled into 10 cc. of normal sulphuric acid contained in a U tube, having a bulb blown on each arm, and being immersed in cold water. After the distillation, the contents of the U tube were washed into a beaker, and titrated with half-normal soda, with the following results:
Corresponding
Permanganate Standard Acid to Nitrate of No. Destroyed. Neutralized. Potassium. I 2.0 cc. 4.9 cc .505 2 Ses 4:9 “‘ -499 3 0.0 * 50°" -505 4 0.0 “* a9: ** -494 5 0.5 ‘ 49 ‘ -496 6 bw * 4.8 ** -494
The calculations are made, in the case of nitrate of potas- sium, by multiplying the number of cc. of permanganate and acid respectively by 0.00505 and 0.101, and adding the re- sults together ; but I prefer to have the whole of the nitrous acid converted into ammonia, or at least not to have more than is equal to 1 cc. of permanganate left, as experiments made in which one-third or one-half of the whole of the nitrous acid was purposely left unconverted, and allowed for by titration with permanganate, were very unsatisfactory. I think this method will be found more simple and man- ageable than Harcourt’s, and the results fully as accurate ; but, of course, reducible and oxidizable substances, as iron, etc., must be absent.
Quill Pencils.
Tue large feathers in the wings of the swan, goose, turkey, and crow supply the tubes which have been found so convenient for holding the hair from which pencils are made. Doubtless, the quill was employed by the earliest painter, who conceived the idea of using colors wet up with
water. In the fourth century B.c., Greek artists had
* Read before the Society of Public Analysts, November 16th, 1881. Fromthe Analyst December, 1&8.
NEW REMEDIES.
.| ments induced by the chorea.
+ Fresenius Quantitative Analysis, 6th edition, p. 348.
[ February, 1882.
rendered painting with hair pencils famous, and it may be safely inferred that the quills of birds were employed by them in making certain sizes of pencils. 4
The light, pliable horny substance of the quill, when properly cleansed of fatty or oily matter, is unsurpassed for the purpose of holding the hair of which pencils are made. The sources of supply of quills have a wide range. Bleak Iceland is drawn upon for swan quills. The goose variety is known to the trade under the names, English, Irish, Hudson’s Bay, Dutch, St. Peterburg, Riga, and Turkey goose quills. The hairs employed are those of the camel, sable, badger, mink, fitch, ox hair, etc., and great nicety and skill are required in the production of fine pencils. Metal tubes or ferrules are a modern invention, and are preferable for certain kinds of pencils and brushes, in that the handle is permanent, whereas the quill pencil re- quires a portable handle. The quality of the hair and the sizes according to quantity and length of hair are the same in both kinds. Quill pencils should have perfect fit- ting handles, otherwise the quills will be split and thereby rendered troublesome if not valueless. Good shaped and well balanced handles may be purchased at from ten to twelve cents a dozen. Those that are known as the French polished, should be selected, as they will not absorb paint, and may be cleansed with turpentine when soiled.—Coach Painter.
Making India-Rubber Varnish.
Dr. EDER gives the following recipe: Inclose thirty grams of finely cut caoutchouc in a capacious linen bag, and suspend this within a flask containing a litre of benzin, by means of a thread held fast by the stopper, so that the bag remains near the surface of the liquid. In the course of six or eight days, the soluble portion of the caoutchouc, about forty to sixty per cent, will pass into the benzin, while the contents of the bag will expand enormously. The clear solution, which is quite viscous and contains 1.2 to 1.5 per cent of caoutchouc, is then carefully separated. The swelled contents of the bag retain one-fourth to one- third of the benzin used, and may be utilized for the prep- aration of an inferior kind of varnish. A solution of India- rubber in benzin, kept in half-full bottles, is decomposed on exposure to light, which may be seen by the change in the solution from a viscous to a thin-fluid condition, Even in the dark this change goes on, but it requires about three times as much time.
Veratrum Viride in the Treatment of Chorea.
Dr. F. E. Gary, of Abbeville, S. C., having a case of severe chorea following rheumatism, after the failure of other remedies, gave veratrum viride [tincture?]. Two drops were first administered and every two hours the dose was repeated with an increase, each time, of two drops, to be continued until nausea or a considerable reduction of the pulse should be observed.
Just after the administration of the fourth dose of eigh- teen drops, there was free emesis, and a reduction of the pulse to fifty beats, with great prostration; this, however, under a dose of stimulants, soon passed off, when it was observed that there was great improvement in the cho- reic movements, which just before had been so violent and serious. The treatment was continued in smaller doses, increasing the quantity in proportion to the move- The case continued to im- prove daily, and at the end of two months was dismissed cured.—Medical and Surgical Reporter.
Spruce Gum in Maine.
THE spruce gum industry of Maine is represented to be in a highly flourishing condition. Men who range the woods collecting the gum make good wages, selling the article for forty cents a pound. Altogether, residents of the State obtain $40,000 yearly by the sale of the article.
February, 1882. |
NEW REMEDIES.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
A MANUAL OF ORGANIC MATERIA MEDICA: being a Guide to Materia Medica of the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms. For the Use of Students, Druggists, Phar- macists, and Physicians. By JoHN M. MAIscH, PHAR.D., Professor of Materia Medica and Botany in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. With 194 illustra- tions on wood. 8vo, Philadelphia, 1882. Henry C. Lea’s Son & Co.
THIS is the first text-book of vegetable materia medica published in this country, which assigns to pharmacognosy that position and importance which it deserves. The art of correctly describing, or, from a correct description rec- ognizing any given plant, is the practical aim of a botanist. And the same train of reasoning, either synthetically (by correctly describing), or analytically (by correctly recog- nizing) must be cultivated in the druggist and in, the phar- macist. Too little attention has heretofore been bestowed upon this branch of natural science in our pharmaceutical and medical schools; and yet its importance is self-evi- dent. Pharmacognosy requires for its successful teaching or study, the grouping together of similarities and the sep- aration of differences. It cannot be made as universal a science as botany, because it does not deal so much with individuals (whole plants), as with portions of these. Therefore, its field is more circumscribed, but may be ex- tended more or less, according to the author’s or student’s aim. Professor Maisch has here furnished a system which appears to us to be the golden mean between superabund- ance and barrenness. All the drugs at present officinal in the United States and British Pharmacopceias have been included ; besides, a great many which are officinal in other pharmacopeeias, and occasionally used here; and finally, most of the important new drugs which appear to have survived their infancy in therapeutics.
The system which Professor Maisch has adopted is the following :
I. Animal Drugs.
1. Animals,x—2. Eggs.—3. Anastomosing fibrous tis-
sues.—4. Membranous tissues and Gelatins.—5. Secre-
tions and Excretions.—6 Calcareous Skeletons and
Concretions.
II. Cellular Vegetable Drugs.
I. Roots.—2. Rhizomes.—3. Tubers and Bulbs.—q.
Twigs and Woods —5. Barks.—6. Leaves and Leaflets
—7. Herbs.—8. Leafy Tops.—g. Flowers and Petals.
—I10. Fruits —11. Seeds —12. Cellular drugs not read-
ily recognized as distinct organs of plants III. Drugs without Cellular Structure.
I. Extracts and Inspissated Juices.—2. Sugars.—3.
Gums.—4. Gum Resins.—5. Resins. —6. Oleoresins and
Balsams.—7. Volatile Oils. —8. Fixed Oils and Waxes.
Within each of the above subdivisions, the different sub- stances belonging to it are again classified according to their obvious similarities and differences. Where the ob- vious external characteristics were insufficient, such fea- tures were drawn into the system which can be recognized by an ordinary good pocket-lens, without necessitating the use of the microscope. Most of the important drugs are accompanied with illustrations, among them being many sections of roots, seeds, etc:, which are of special impor- tance in a work of this kind.
We could have wished that the author had been a little more prolix in the paragraphs treating of origin, habitat, and constituents ; but, as probably every one who has oc- casion to use the book, also possesses larger works of ref- erence (such as the Dispensatory), the apparent gaps under those headings are readily supplied. -
The work will doubtlessly become the standard text- book in our colleges, and will be the means of giving a new impetus to the study of pharmacognosy.
GMELIN-KRAUT’S CHEMISTRY.
THE publishers of the new edition of Gmelin’s Chemistry (German), which has been unavoidably interrupted in
1878, have notified us that two new parts have just been issued, two others were to be issued the week after the date of their letter, and that measures have been taken to complete the work as rapidly as possible. Many of our readers will be interested in this information.
VERSUCHE UBER DIE DARSTELLUNG UND CONSTITUTION DES COLCHICINS UND UEBER DIE BEZIEHUNGEN DESSEL- BEN ZUM COLCHICEIN UND EINIGEN ANDEREN ZERSET- ZUNGSPRODUKTEN. Von Provisor JOHANN HERTEL. (Received from Prof. Dr. George Dragendorff.)
THE author, after a short historical introduction, states that the ‘‘ colchicinum purum” sold by chemical factories contains only about 10-20 per cent of the pure substance. He examined the various processes heretofore recommended for its preparation, and found that the yield could be materially increased by shaking out the alkaloid by means of chloroform, and using some other precautions (see the Jan. number, p. Ig). Colchicin, under the influence of acids, readily splits up into colchicein and other substances, among which sugar could not be detected. The author also discovered a new body, which he named colchicoresin, a resin-like dark-brown body, very little soluble in water, easily soluble in alcohol and ether with brown color. At the conclusion of the paper, the author reviews the state- ments lately made as to the deterioration of colchicum seed by age. He has found by actual experiments that col- chicum seed, even when kept for several years, does not become inert.
UEBER Fucus AMYLACEUS. (From Prof. Dragendorff.)
THE author examined the alga known under the name Fucus amylaceus (.Spherococcus lichenoides Ag.), which is also known in commerce under the names: Ceylon-moss, Agar-agar. He found it to contain no less than seven carbohydrates, namely: 1. a gum soluble in water, 2. a jelly-forming substance, 3. starch, 4. asubstance resembling pararabin, 5. metarabin, 6. ligneous gum, 7. cellulose. All of these, when boiled with dilute mineral acids, are converted into sugar.
Von Apotheker Greenish.
THE ANNUAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF . MICHIGAN, for 1881-82. 8vo. Ann Arbor, 1881.
REVUE ANTIPHYLLOXERIQUE INTERNATIONALE. Journal mensuel illustré pour combattre les enemies de la vigne. Sous la direction de M. le Pror. Dr. L. ROESLER. Redigé par M. le BARON NAPOLEON DE PRATS.
THIS new journal, devoted to the warfare against the
Phylloxera and other enemies of the vine, appears monthly
in 8vo numbers of 24-32 pages; price: 15 francs per year.
Office: Klosterneuburg, near Vienna (Austria).
SoME DOUBLE AND TRIPLE OXALATES CONTAINING CHROMIUM. By F. W. CLARKE. (From Amer. Chem. Journal, vol. iii., No. 3, June, 1881.)
THE TITRATION OF TARTARIC, MALIC AND CITRIC ACIDS, WITH PoTASSIUM PERMANGANATE, Preliminary Note. By F. W. CLARKE. (Ibidem).
MANUALE DELLE ALTFRAZIONE E SOFISTICAZIONI DEI PRINCIPALI PREPARATI CHIMICI E DELLE PIU IMPORTANTI DROGHE MEDICINALI. Pel ProF Dorr D. VITALI. 8vo. Piacenza.
From the sample-sheet which we have received, we
judge that this work will be a useful handbook.
Erupes SUR LES LIQUIDES EXTRAITS DES KYSTES OvA- RIQUES. PAR LE Dr. C. MEHU, Pharmacien de I’hé- pital de la Charité. (Extract from Archives génér. de Méd.) 8vo. Paris, 1881.
VARICI GUARITE COLL’ ELETTROLISI DAL Dott. DOME- nico Mucct. (Preliminary Notice.) 8vo. Firenze, 1881, (Varicose Veins successfully Treated with Electro- lysis.) .
54
NEW REMEDIES.
[ February, 1882.
UNTERSUCHUNGEN UEBER DAS VORKOMMEN UND UEBER DIE VERBREITUNG DER SALICYLSAEURE IN DER PFLANZEN- GATTUNG VIOLA. Inaug.-Diss.v. Karl Mandelin. Dor- pat. (From Prof. Dr. G. Dragendorff.)
Investigations on the Occurrence and Distribution of Sal- icylic Acid in the genus Viola.- See page 37.
NEW BOOKS.
Artus (W.). Hand-Atlas simmtlicher medicinisch-phar- maceutischer Gewachse. 6te Aufl. umgearb. von G. v. Hayek. 8vo, Jena. (In numbers.) Each, . 0.60
Babo (A. v.). Handbuch d. Weinbauer u. der Keller- wirthschaft. Unter Mitwirkung v. E. Mach, I. Weinbau. (With 348 illust.) 8vo, pp. 733. Berlin. $5.90.
We take occasion to draw the special attention of our Western friends to this valuable work.—Ep. N. R.
Bayley (Thos.). A Pocket-Book for Chemists, Chem. Manufacturers, Metallurgists, Dyers, Distillers, Brewers, Sugar-refiners, Photographers, Students, etc. 2d Ed., 32mo, London. 55h.
Brehm’s Thierleben, Of this well-known zoological work, a new edition is being issued, with 170 chromo-lith- ographic frontispieces. It will be issued in 140 weekly parts, each at $0.36
Cairns (F. A.). A Manual of Quantitative Chemical Analysis. 8vo, New York.
Davison (I.). Aids to the Chemistry and Tests of the Pharmacopeeia. 12mo, Dublin. Ish. 6d.
Drechsel (Dr. Edmund). Introduction to the Study of Chemical Reactions. Translated by N. F. Merril. 12mo, New York. $1.25.
Earle (John). English Plant Names, from the tenth to the fifteenth century. 16mo, Oxford.
Gorup-Besanez. Lehrbuch d. organischen Chemie. Neu bearb. v. H. Ost. 8vo, Braunschweig. $4.40.
Hager’s Untersuchungen. Ein Handbuch d. Un- tersuchung, Priifung und Werthbestimmung aller Handels- waaren, etc. 2te Aufl. von H. Hager und A. Gawalovski. (In about 15 number.) 8vo. Each, $0.80
Harvey (A.) and Davidson (A. D.). Syllabus of Ma- teria Medica. 5th Ed., 32mo, London. Ish. 6d.
Hendess (H.). Waaren-Lexikon f. d. Droguen-, Spe- cerei-, u. Farbwaaren-Handel. 8vo, Berlin. (In numbers.)
Each, 0.75 m.
Hoffmann (C.). Pflanzen-Atlas nach d. Linné’schen System. 80col. Tafeln mit mehr als 800 Abbild. und Text. (In 12 numbers.) 4to, Stuttgart. Each, $0.35
Hoppe-Seyler (F.). Physiologische Chemie, IV. Die Organe des Thierkérpes und ihre Functionen; der Ge- cast d. Thiere. 8vo, pp. 619-1,036, Berlin.
3.70.
Hubert-Gourrier (A.). Traité de la culture de J’oli- vier et de la fabrication de I’huile d’olive. 8vo, pp. 4o. Toulon, 1881.
Kerl (B.). Repertorium d. technischen Journal-Litera- ture. Im Auftrage d. kais. Patentamtes herausgegeben. Jahrgang 1879. 4to, Berlin, 1881. $5.50.
Kolbe (Dr. H.). Ausfiihrliches Lehr- und Handbuch d. organischen Chemie. 2te Aufl. v. Dr. Ernst v. Meyer. (In 3 vols.) II., 1. 8vo, Leipzig. $2.65
L-ubenheimer (Prof. Dr. A.). Grundziige der organi- schen Chemie. 8vo. (In 3 parts.) Part I. and II. $3.70.
[This work is, in our judgment, the best treatise on organic chemistry in existence. It is specially written for use in Prof. L.’s lectures. Under each class of bodies, the general methods by which they can be formed are de- scribed in detail, and explained by formule.—Ep. N. R.]
Loebisch (W. F.). Anleitung z. Harn-Analyse f. praktische Aerzte, Studirende u. Chemiker. 2te Aufl., 8vo, Wien (illus.). $3.30.
Marmé(W.). Grundriss der Vorlesungen tiber Pharma- cognosie des Pflanzen- u. Thierreichs. 8vo, Gottingen.
m. 1.80. A Medical Vocabulary. 8vo,
Mayne (R. G. and J.). ° 10sh. 6d.
London.
Muspratt’s Chemie. Frei bearbeitet von Bruno Kerl u. F. Stohmann. 3te Aufl., 7 vols., 4to, Braunschweig. A new issue of this last edition is being gotten up in 26 arts. Each at 10 mark. Pentzoldt (F.). Die Wirkungen der Quebracho-Dro- guen. 8vo, Erlangen. m, 1.20. Pereira (J.). Selecta e Prescriptis. (Selections from Physicians’ Prescriptions.) 17th Ed., 32mo. 55h. Phillips (J. E. and M. E.). The Explorer's and As- sayer’s Companion: Rocks, Veins, Testing, and Assaying. 8vo, London (illus.). Al Ish. Poulsen (V. A.). 8vo. $0.8». Proost (A.). Traité pratique de Chimie agricole et de Physiologie. 12mo, Paris, 1881. m. 3. Roberts (W.). On the Digestive Ferments and use of Artifically Digested Food. 8vo, London. ash. 6d. Schenk (Prof. Dr. A.). Handbuch d. Botanik. 8vo, Breslau. Vol. I. $7.40. Schultz (H.). Das Eucalyptus-Oel pharmakologisch und klinisch dargestellt. 8vo, Bonn. m. 2. Skalweit. Repertorium d. analytischen Chemie. Or- gan d. Vereins analytischer Chemiker. Herausg. v. Dr. Skalweit. (In 24 numbers per year.) $6.60 Thudichum. Annals of Chemical Medicine, including the Application of Chemistry to Physiology, Pathology, Therapeutics, Pharmacy, etc. Ed. by’ Dr. Thudichum. II. 8vo, London. 14sh. Vaughan (V. C., M.D.). Chemical Physiology and Pathology. With Lectures upon Normal and Abnormal Urine. 3d Ed., 8vo, Ann Arbor. $4.50. Wagner (L. von). A Practical Treatise on the Manu- facture of Starch, Glucose, Starch-sugar, and Dextrin. From the German by Julius Frankel. Ed. by Rob. Hut- ter. 8vo (illustrated). Philadelphia. $4.50. Wenghoeffer (Dr. L.). Kurzes Lehrbuch d. Chemie d. Kohlenstoffverbindungen. 8vo, Stuttgart. m, 12. Wills. Przscripta. Containing 100 difficult prescrip- tions for students desirous of perfecting themselves in the art of dispensing. 32mo. London. Ish. Wills (G. S. V.). A Manual of Vegetable Materia Medica. 5th Ed. (illus.), 8vo, London. 10sh. 6d.
ooo =
Botanische Mikrochemie.
Thymol in Diphtheria.
J. H. Warren recommends the following as being very effective in diphtheria : R Thymol.... 0.3-0.5 gm. Potass. chloratis 10.0 be Quiniz bisulphat. 2.0-4.0 ‘“‘ Glycerini 70.0 es Spir. vini Gallici.250.0 ; Dose: A teaspoonful every hour or every two hours for children of two to five years. The dose may be increased for older children. If possible, it ought to be given with- out water, so,as to obtain a stimulating effect upon the fauces. The mixture is also said to have a prophylactic effect in diphtheria and malaria [?]. Addition of a little tincture of iron will give it a tonic effect, and it may be used in typhous fevers accompanied by diarrhcea. For inhalations the following is employed : R Thymol g Sodii borat 3 Glycerini : fl Aq. camphor -
“cc
Ss. O-IT
Testing Olive Oil.
THE Italian government has ordered the custom-house officers to use the following test for detecting cotton-seed oil in olive oil: 2 cubic centimetres of pure nitric acid are to be mixed with 5 cubic centimetres of the oil. A piece of pure copper, in form of a wire, is then introduced, and the whole stirred with a glass rod. If any cotton-seed oil was present, the liquid becomes red in the course of half an hour. ,
February, 1882. |
NEW REMEDIES.
55
NOTES, QUERIES AND ANSWERS.
Under this heading we shall, to the best of our ability, en- deavor to answer such questions addressed to us, as cone within the scope of this journal, provided they are accom- panied by the name and address of the writer, Answers to queries received after the 5th of the month will lie over until the next issue. Unless specigl instructions to the contrary accompany the query, the initials of the corre- spondent will be quoted at the head of each answer.
When asking for the formula of an unusual, patented, or proprietary compound, always accompany the query with any information vou may already possess regarding the locality in which it is used, its use and reputed effects, in order to enable us to make inquiry without waste of time and labor. When it can conveniently be done, send alsoa specimen of the label used on packages of the compound,
—— - ewe
No. 987.—Sulphophenate of Zinc (D. P. Jackson, Cal.).
This is only another name for sulphocarbolate of zinc. The former term is the one ordinarily employed by French writers.
No. 988.—9Oilusedinthe So-called ‘‘ Roman Bath.” (J. M. T., New York).
This is said to be a refined paraffinoid—like Vaseline, Cosmoline, etc., with the addition of some perfume. Re- fined palm-oil is also used.
No. 989.— Tonga (A. R. S.).
According to Glendenning, this drug, which has for some time past been highly lauded as a valuable remedy in neuralgia, is composed of two substances, one of which is called avo upon Vanua Levu (one cf the Fiji Islands), and which is the inner bark of Premna taitensis, a plant of the nat. fam. Verbenacezee, The other is called wai yalu or ualu, is the stem of Raphidophora vitiensis, which has already two years ago been recognized by Holmes (see New ReEmM., 1880, 206) as constituting the larger portion of the drug. It remains now to be seen which of the two substances is the really valuable one, and upon which prin- ciple its action depends.
No. 990.—Phosphor-Bronze (J. F.).
Among the latest compositions of this kind are those patented by N. v. Lawroff, of St. Petersburg (Germ. Pat. 14,422), and by G. A. Dick, of London (Germ. Pat. 14,650).
The former directs to first prepare a mixture of 70 to go parts of copper, 4 to 13 parts of tin, and 0.5 to 1 part of phosphorus. When the mass is uniformly melted, 5.5 to 16 parts of melted lead are added.
The other adds to white-hot iron a sufficient quantity of tin, or phosphorized tin, with or without the subsequent addition of lead. The finished mixture should not contain more than 2 per cent of phosphorus or more than 20 per cent of tin.
No. g91.—Artificial Indigo (W. G. G., and Dr. H. C. S., New York).
We could not have ourselves succeeded in furnishing a more lucid and concise explanation of the various steps by which artificial indigo is prepared than by quoting the fol- lowing from the American Chemical Journal, 1881, 282:
The following extracts from a lecture by Professor Ros- coe, delivered before the Royal Institution of Great Britain, will not be without interest, as a number of facts connected with the industry of dyeing with the artificial dye-stuff are made public for the first time in the lecture.
After speaking of the discovery of indigo and the methods used for extracting the dye-stuff from the plant, the lecturer recounts the steps which have led to the discovery of the constitution of indigo, and consequently to its syn- thesis. These are:
STEP No, 1.—This was made so long ago as 1840, when Fritsche proved that aniline, CsHsNH2, can be obtained from indigo: The name for this now well-known sub- stance is indeed derived from the Portuguese ‘‘ anil,”* a word used to designate the blue color from indigo. This result of Fritsche’s is of great importance, as showing that indigo is built up from the well-known benzene ring CeHe, the skeleton of all the aromatic compounds, and, more- over, that it contains an amido-group.
STEP No, 2 was also made by Fritsche in the following year, when, by boiling indigo with soda and manganese dioxide, he obtained ortho-amido-benzoic acid, or, as he then termed it, anthranilic acid. The following is the reaction which here occurs :
CsH;,NO+0+2H:20 = C;H,NH.0.+CH:20, e's Ortho-amido- Formic benzoic acid. acid.
What light does this fact shed upon the constitution of indigo? It shows (1) that one of the eight atoms of carbon in indigo can be readily separated from the rest ; (2) that the carboxyl and the amido-group are in neighboring posi- tions in the benzene ring, viz., I and 2.
Step No. 3.—The next advance of importance in this somewhat complicated matter, is the discovery by Erdmann and Laurent independently, that indigo on oxidation yields a crystalline body, which, however, possesses no coloring power, to which they gave the name isatin.
C.H,.NO+0 =CsHsNO, Indigo. Isatin.
Strep No. 4.—The reverse of this action, viz., the reduc- tion of isatin to indigo, was accomplished by Baeyer and Emmerling in 1870 and 1878, by acting with phosphorous pentachloride on isatin, and by the reducing action of am- monium sulphide on the chloride thus formed.
Understanding now something of the structure and of the relationships of the body which we wish to build up, let us see how this edifice has, in fact, been reared. Three processes have been successfully employed for carrying out this object. But of these three only one is of practical im- portance. ‘
For the sake of completeness, let us, however, consider all three processes, although Nos. 1 and 2 are at present beyond the pale of practical schemes. : ;
These three processes have certain points in common. (1)’They all proceed from some compound containing the benzene nucleus ; (2) they all start from compounds con- taining a nitrogen atom; (3) they all commence with an ortho-compound.,
They differ from one another, inasmuch as No. I starts from a compound containing seven atoms of carbon (in- stead of eight), and to this, therefore, one more atom must be added ; process No. 2, on the other hard, starts froma a body which contains exactly the right number (eight) of carbon atoms, whilst No. 3 commences with a compound in which nine atoms of carbon are contained, and from which, therefore, one atom has to be abstracted before indigo can be reached,
Process No. 1 (Kekulé, Claissen and Shadwell).—So long ago as 1869, Kekulé predicted the constitution of isatin, and gave to it the formula which we now know that it possesses :
cH./ Sco. \NH/
Following up this view, Claissen and Shadwell, two of Kekule’s pupils, succeeded in preparing isatin, and, there- fore, now indigo from ortho-nitro-benzoic acid.
The following are the steps in the ascent :
I. Ortho-nitro-benzoic acid acted on by phosphorous pentachloride yields the chloride CsH4(NO.)COCI.
* This word was adopted by the Portuguese a/¢er they had be- come acquainted with indigo in India. (See Garcia de Orta, Col- loguios dos Simplas. etc., pg. 25 y.) The wood is derived from the San-kirt #i/a ‘* dark b!ue,”’ which in the later literature was also used to denote *‘indigo’’ (in the fem. forms xé/a and ili). “Anil + comsegeeds to the Sanskrit compound adjective 4-ni/a ** bluish. —ED. N. .
56
NEW REMEDIES.
[ February, 1882.
2. This latter heated with silver cyanide yields the nitril CeH.(NO2)CO.CN.
3. On heating this with caustic potash its yields ortho- nitro-phenyl-glyoxylic acid, CeH4(NO2 CO.CO.H.
4. This is converted by nascent hydrogen into the amido-compound C.H,(NH,2).CO.CO2H.
5. And this loses water and yields isatin, CsH,NH.- CO.CO. 4 (Q. Z. D.).
The reasons why this process will not work on a large scale are patent to all those who have had even a bowing acquaintance with such unpleasant and costly bodies as phosphorous pentachloride or cyanogen.
Process No. 2.—Baeyer’s (1878) synthesis from ortho- nitro-phenyl-acetic acid.
This acid can be obtained synthetically from toluene, and it is first converted into the amido-acid, which, like several ortho-compounds, loses water, and is converted into a body called oxindol, from which isatin, and, therefore, indigo, can be obtained. The precise steps to be followed are :
1. Ortho-amido-phenyl-acetic acid yields oxindol : /CH2.CO:H /CHa., \NH, CoH. NH JO + H.0O.
2. This on treatment with nitrous acid yields nitrosox- indol :
CoH,
7 CH(NO)\. SR 7
3. This again, with nascent hydrogen, gives amidox- indol.
CoH, co.
/CH(N Ha), \ NH poo: 4. Which on oxidation gives isatin :
CoH,
cud ©? Sco. \NH/ Q. E. D.)
This process, the feasibility of which had also been foreseen by Kekulé, is, however, not available as a practi- cal scheme, for various reasons.
Process No. 3.—This may be called the manufacturing process, and was also proposed by Baeyer. It starts from cinnamic acid, a substance cuutained in gum benzoin, balsam of Peru, and some few other aromatic bodies. These sources are, however, far too expensive to render this acid, thus obtained, available for manufacturing pur- poses. But Bertagnini, in 1856, had obtained cinnamic acid artificially from oil of bitter almonds, and other pro- cesses for the same purpose have since been carried out. Of these, that most likely to be widely adopted is the fol- lowing practical modification by Dr. Caro of Mr. Perkin’s beautiful synthesis of cinnamic acid :
1. CsH;sCHs + 4Cl = C.,H;CHCl, + 2HCIl. Toluene. Benzylene dichloride. 2. CeHsCHCl, + 2CH;COONa = Benzylene dichloride. Sodium acetate. CsH;CH=CH.COOH + 2NaCl.
Cinnamic acid.
But why did Baeyer select this 9-carbon acid from which to prepare indigo? For this he had several reasons. In the first place, it had long been known that all indigo com- pounds, when heated with zinc dust, yield indol, C.H;N, a body which stands, therefore, to indigo in the same rela- tion as anthracen to alizarin, and Baeyer and Emmerling had so long ago as 1869 prepared this indol from ortho- nitro-cinnamic acid, thus:
CsHe(NO.)CO,H = C.H;N+O02+COs.
Secondly, the ortho-nitro-cinnamic acid required (for we must remember that indigo is an ortho compound and also contains nitrogen) can be readily prepared from cin- namic acid, and this itself again can be obtained on a large scale Thirdly, this acid readily parts with one atom of carbon, and thus renders possible its conversion into 8-carbon indigo.
The next steps in the process are (3) the formation
of ortho-nitro-cinnamic acid; (4) the conversion of this into its dibromide ; (5) the separation from this of two mole- cules of hydrobromic acid, giving rise to ortho-nitro-phe- nylpropiolic acid, and (6), lastly, the conversion of this latter into indigo by heating its alkaline solution with grape sugar, xanthate of soda, or other reducing agent These reactions are thus represented : 3. CeHsCH=CH COOH yields Cinnamic acid CoH,(NO.)CH=H.COOH. Ortho-nitro-cinnamic acid.
In this process the para-acid is also obtained, and, as this is useless for the manufacture of indigo, it has to be removed. This is effected by converting the acids into their ethyl-ethers, which, possessing different degrees of solubility, can be readily separated from one another.
4. This is next converted into the dibromide,
CeH,(NO.)CHBr.CHBr.COOH.
5. And by careful treatment with caustic soda
yields ortho-nitro-phenylpropiolic acid, thus : CeH,(NO.)CHBr.CHBr.COOH +2NaOH= =C.H,(NO2)C,.COOH +2NaBr-+-2H,0.
. n[CsHyNO,)C..COOH] + H,=
Ortho-nitro-propiolic acid. —C,H,NO+CO.+H,20. Indigo. (Q. E. D.)
The last of these reactions is in reality not so simple as the equation indicates, for only about 4o per cent of indigo is obtained, whereas, according to theory, 68 per cent should result. Indeed, although, as we have seen, indigo can be prepared by these three methods, chemists are as yet in doubt as to its molecular weight, the proba- bility being that the molecule of indigo contains twice 16 atoms of carbon, or has the formula 4 CsH;NO), or Cso- HooN,O,. Still, it must be remembered that, according to Sommaruga, the vapor-density of indigo is 9.45—a num- ber corresponding to the simpler formula C,¢H10N2Osz.
The artificial production of indigo may even now be said to be within reasonable distance of commercial suc- cess, for the ortho-nitro-phenyl-propiolic acid—the color- less substance which, on treatment with a reducing agent, yields indigo-blue—is already in the hands of the Man- chester calico-printers, and is furnished by the Baden Company for alkali and aniline colors at the price of 6 shillings per lb. for a paste containing 25 per cent of the dry acid.
With regard to the nature of the competition between the artificial and the natural coloring matters, it is neces- sary to say a few words. In the first place, the present price at which the manufacturers are able to sell their pro- piolic acid is 50 shillings per kilo. But 100 parts of this can only yield, according to theory, 68.58 parts of indigo- blue, so that the price of the artificial (being 73 shillings per kilo.), is more than twice of the pure natural color. Hence, competition with the natural dye-stuff is not to be thought of yntil the makers can reduce the price of dry propiolic acid to 20 shilllngs per kilo. and also obtain a theoretical vield from their acid. This may, or it may not, be some day accomplished, but at present it will not pay to produce indigo from the nitro-phenyl-propiolic acid. Nevertheless, a large field lies open in the immediate future for turning Baeyer’s discovery to practical account. It is well known that a great loss of coloring matter occurs in all the processes now in use for either dyeing or printing with indigo. A large percentage of indigo is lost in the ‘‘cold vats” in the sediment Another portion is washed off and wasted after the numerous dippings, whilst, in order to produce a pattern, much indigo must be destroyed before it has entered into the fibre of the cloth. Moreover, the back of the piece is uselessly loaded with color. In the processes of printing with indigo, the losses are as great, or even greater, and, in addition, such consid- erable difficulties are met with, that only a few firms (Pot- ter, Grafton, in Manchester, and Schliefer, in Elberfeld) have been successful in this process. But a still more im- portant fact remains—that no printing process exists in which indigo can be in combination with other colors
February, 1882. |
NEW REMEDIES.
57
in the ordinary way, or without requiring some special mode of fixing after printing. Hence, it is clear that the weak points of natural indigo lie in the absence of any good process for utilizing the whole of its coloring matter, and in the impossibility, or, at any rate, great difficulty, of employing it in the ordinary madder styles of calico-print- ing. Such were the reasons which induced the patentees to believe that, although the artificial dye cannot be made at a price to compete with natural indigo for use in the ordinary dye-beck, it can even now be very largely used for styles to which the ordinary dye-stuff is inapplicable.
To begin with, Baeyer employed (Patent 1177) grape- sugar as a reducing agent. The reduction in this case does not take place in the cold, and even on long standing only small traces of indigo are formed; but if heated to 70° or upwards the change takes place. Unfortunately, this production of indigo-blue is rapidly followed by its reduc- tion to indigo-white, and it is somewhat difficult in practice to stop the reaction at the right moment. But ‘‘ necessity is the mother of invention,” and Dr. Caro, of Mannheim, found that sodium xanthate is free from many of the objections inherent to the glucose reduction pro- cess, inasmuch as the reaction then goes on in the cold. Moreover, he finds that the red isomeride of indigo-blue, Indirubin, which possesses a splendid red color, also occur- ring in natural indigo, but whose tinctorial power is less than that of the blue, is produced in less quantity in this case than when glucose isemployed. On this cloth alum- ina and iron mordants may be printed, and this afterwards dyed in alizarin, etc., or this coloring matter may also be printed on the cloth and the color fixed by moderate steam- ing without damage to the indigo-blue. This process is now in actual use by printers both in England and on the Continent, so that, thanks especially to the talent and energy of Dr. Caro, Baeyer’s discovery has been practically applied within the short space of twelve months of its conception. Operations on a manufacturing scale have been successfully carried on in the Baden Sodaand Aniline Works at Ludwigshafen for the last two months, and the directors see no reason why they should not be able to supply any demand, however great, which may be made for ortho-nitro-phenyl-propiolic acid.
The proper way of looking at this question at present is, therefore, to consider ortho-nitro-phenyl-propiolic acid and indigo as two distinct products not comparable with each other, inasmuch as the one can be put to uses for which the other is unfitted, and there is surely scope enough for both. Still, looking at the improvements which will every day be made in the manufacturing details, he must be a bold man who would assert the impossibility of competing with indigo in all its applications. For we must remember that we are only at the beginning of these researches in the indigo field. Baeyer and other workers will not stay their hands, and possibly other coloring matters of equal inten- sity and of equal stability to indigo may be obtained from other as yet unknown or unrecognized sources, and it is not improbable that these may turn out to be more formidable competitors in the race with natural indigo than ortho- nitro-phenyl-propiolic acid.
Looking at this question of the possible competition of artificial with the natural indigo from another stand-point of view, it must, on the other hand, be borne in mind that the present mode of manufacturing indigo from the plant is extremely rude and imperfect, and that by an improved and more careful carrying out of the process great saving in coloring matter may be effected, so that it may prove possible to produce a purer article at a lower price, and thus to counterbalance the production of the artificial material.
P S.—Recent European exchanges announce that the manufacture of artificial indigo has failed to yield a profit, and is soon to be abandoned.
No. 992.—Lavender and its Cultivation (C. A. P.).
Our correspondent lives in a western section which ap- pears to him to be specially suitable for the growth of per- fume plants, and he desires us to inform him especially regarding the cultivation of lavender.
Of course, in this case we cannot speak of experience, but we will quote what an authority on this subject (Mr. Piesse) says. Regarding the sfecies of lavender, we may add that the same species which are planted abroad for their odorous principle should also be used here. Differ- ence in soil, altitude, and average temperature may require a modified treatment, but this can only be acquired by practical experience.
‘* Lavender is grown to an enormous extent at Mitcham in Surrey, and at Hitchin in Herts by Mr. Perks, which are the places of its production in a commercial point of view. Very large quantities are also grown in France. What is called the Alpine lavender of France is remarkably good ; but the fine odor of the British produce realizes in the mar- ket four times the price of that of Continental growth.
‘‘Burnett says that the oil of Lavandula Spica is more pleasant than that derived from the other species ; but this statement must not mislead the purchaser to buy the French spike lavender, as it is not worth a tenth of that derived from the Lavendula vera.
‘“* Half a hundredweight of good lavender flowers yields, by distillation, from fourteen to sixteen ounces of essential oil.
‘‘ Lavandula vera is a native of Persia, the Canaries, Barbary, and the south of Europe, from the last of which it is said to have been first brought to England where, finding a congenial soil, and being carefully cultivated, it yields an essential oil, or offo, very far superior to that produced from it in its original places of growth.”
The peculiar qualities of most plants are susceptible of change, and in many instances of improvement, by cultiva- tion ; but none, perhaps, more so than this.
It is not even in all parts of England that it can be grown with success; and for many years it was supposed that it would only come to perfection in the neighborhood of Mitcham in Surrey; but it has, within the last half century, been found that a soil and climate equally suited to its growth exists near Hitchin, in Hertfordshire.
There the finest otto is now produced, from its flowers, by Mr. S. Perks, by whom is furnished the following account of his mode of its cultivation and treatment.
‘‘The ground for a plantation of lavender should not be surrounded by high hedges or be in the immediate neigh- borhood of any trees which tend to retain too much mois- ture upon the plants, and thus cause the spring frost to cut off the flowers, but should be as much exposed to the sun as possible. In October, a large number of slips from the old plants are placed in previously-prepared beds which are allowed to remain for twelve months, during which time they are carefully clipped. When a year old, they are planted out (in fine weather) in rows four feet apart, with a space of three feet from plant to plant, but are not allowed to flower, the clipping being still continued in order to strengthen them, which object is further pro- moted by a regular supply of short manure to the roots. If this cannot be procured in sufficient quantity, its place may be supplied by superphosphate of lime, which greatly improves the appearance of the plant, and causes it also to produce fine flowers.
‘«The number of lavender plants upon an acre of ground would be about three thousand five hundred and forty- seven; that is, if planted one yard apart and four feet between the rows. An acre would yield about six to seven quarts of otto, but it depends upon the plants: the latter, when about four years old, produce the most. Every fourth year the old lavender plants are taken up, and the crop upon the land is changed to that of potatoes or some other, and it is here the practical farmer has to decide. In the cases of some lands at Mitcham, lavender can be grown for even six years, by judiciously removing worn plants and inserting younger ones. Severe frost will often kill rows of plants, and their places must be renewed. At the end of August, or early in September, the lavender is fit to garner: it is cut with a sickle, and is then laid upon a mat (these mats are the common Indian _ bas-netting) which will hold an average of half a hundredweight each, and are then delivered at the still-house.”
58
NEW REMEDIES.
| February, 1882.
No. 993 —Wickersheimer’s Fluid (Subscriber).
This liquid, the formula of which was purchased by the Prussian government for public use as a preservative agent, was directed by the inventor to be prepared in the follow- ing manner:
In 3,000 parts of boiling water dissolve 100 parts of alum, 25 of sodium chloride, 12 of potassium nitrate, 60 of potassa, and 10 of arsenious acid. Let cool and filter. To every 10 litres of the filtrate add 4 litres of glycerin and 1 litre of methylic alcohol (see NEw REM., 1880, 23, where also its uses are stated).
Soon after its publication, criticisms of the formula were published, showing it to contain various incongruities and incompatibilities. We have not space here to republish the whole of these criticisms, but you will find them in detail in our volume for 1880, page 157. Modified formulz were afterwards constructed, which we printed in the same vol- ume, page 304. We will repeat the modified formulz here for the benefit of other readers :
1. (J. Martenson, St. Petersburg.)
tL ESS eee Potassium sulphate... Sodium chloride ..... Sodium nitrate
Arsenious acid.... Giycerin........
About 10,000 parts.
The arsenious acid and carbonate of potassium are dis- solved together by the aid of heat, and added to the solu- tion of the other ingredients. 2. (Poetz and Flohr, Berlin.) For Injecting. Arsenious acid 16 gm. Sodium chloride Bo. = Potassium sulphate... 200 Potassium nitrate ... 25 Potassium carbonate.. 20 i Water .... litres 10 litres Glycerin eed — ee Methylicalcohol...... x * is
No. 994.—Gender of the Latin Names of Chemical Salts in as and is (St. Louis’.
Our correspondent desires information concerning the correct gender of such nouns as sulphas, sulphis, etc., which are treated as feminines in the U. S. Pharm., while they are masculines in the Germ. Pharm.
When the chemical terms sulphate, nitrate, carbonate, sulphite, etc., were first introduced and were translated into Latin for pharmacopceial use about the beginning of the present century, the different translators used them in various genders, according to their judgment. Previous to this period, the nomenclature of salts was very complicated, and often quite confusing ; but when the binary theory of salts was beginning to be accepted by chemists, the nomen- clature was at the same time simplified. For instance, what had previously called A/kali ammoniacum acetatum or Sal ammoniacum acetatum, was afterwards termed Acetas ammonia (also Acetis ammonia). The effort to establish simplified names for terms like Sa/ acetatum, Sal sulphuri- cum, culminated in the new nomenclature introduced by Fourcroy in France, Thomson in England, and others ; and, doubtlessly, during the first period of the use of these new names, the idea and the word sa/ (or its French or English equivalent) was presented to the mind as a supplement.
Now, the Latin word sa/ (salt), which is to be mentally supplemented, is a masculine in the large majority of cases where the term occurs under circumstances which permit the gender to be noted. But it also occurs occasionally as a neuter. The Greek equivalent A$ (salt) is likewise mas- culine, but never neuter. It occurs, however, in Homer, and elsewhere, as feminine, in the meaning ‘‘ ocean.”
For Immersing. 12 gm. 60 “cc 150 18 “oe
“the same rule.
The fact that sa/ can be considered as a neuter, is the reason why the above-mentioned new chemical terms in as and zs were, in some pharmacopeeias, employed as neuters. For instance, the Pharm. Batava has such terms as Wurias ammonia depuratum, Sulphas Potasse sulphurosum, etc, and the Pharm. Suecica (1817) has, for instance, Murias calcicum, Sulphis ferrosum, etc.
It is probably owing to the Latin translators of the Lon- don Pharmacopeeia of 1809, in which the new chemical nomenclature was then introduced for the first time, that the feminine gender was selected. The new terms were probably held to be analogous to the large number of classic Latin nouns of an affarently similar termination (ztas, pietas, etc.). The London Pharmacopzia contin- ued this practice, and when the British Pharmacopoeia was published, the feminine gender was retained. The United States Pharmacopceia, on the other hand, had from the beginning adopted the masculine gender up to 1860, but at this revision a change was made, and we find the state- ment in the preface that this was done ‘‘ because it con- formed to the best Latinity.”
To arrive at a correct solution of the question, it is necessary to critically examine the Latin nouns in as of the third declension. By a proper classification (according to roots and affixes) the following classes will be found to exist :
I. -as, -édis; that is, nouns which end in the nominative in -as, and in the genitive in -ddis. These are mostly Greek nouns, as Momas, a Nomad (both masculine and feminine) ; /ampas, the torch (feminine),
2. -as,-antis. Also mostly Greek words, as adamas, the diamond (masculine), edephas, the elephant (masculine), acragas, a cert, mountain (masculine).
3. -as, -@tis. Again mostly Greek words, as dbuceras, ‘‘ox-horn”’ (neuter). The only true Latin word having this termination is amas (andtis), the duck, which is a feminine.
4. -as, sis. Only as (assis], the as [neuter], vas [vaszs], the vessel [neuter].
5. -tas, -tatis. This class has the largest number of representatives. They all denote originally [as well as those in -¢«s, -c#tis] abstract ideas, being formed by the: Indogermanic noun-affix -td, -té¢, which produces nouns expressing quality or condition: Examples: cévitas, @s- tas, lenitas, etc. And these nouns are a/ways feminine. But these nouns in -¢as, ¢a¢is, form a sharply separated class by themselves, and cannot be made the basis of con- clusions for other nouns in as.
6. -as, dtis. This termination, which is the same as that in our modern terms Su/phas, etc., occurs in Latin:
a.) in certain geographical or patronymic adjectives, denoting birth-place or descent, for instance, Ca- penas, Tawinas, etc. ; and these adjectives are naturally either masculine or feminine, according as they accompany or imply the name of a male or female. For instance, we could say “vir Taurinas,” a man from Turin. But we could also say simply ‘‘ Zazrinas,” a Turinian.
6.) in a few other words, like swmmas, optimas, which were also adjectives originally.
c.) in some proper nouns, as Af@cenas (masc.).
d.) in some technical or fanciful terms, like anas, and- tis, *‘old-womanhood.” This noun is a fem., but really belongs to § 5 above, as it is contracted from anitas (anitatis).
The chemical names in as, dis (nitras, atis, etc.), there- fore, are exactly parallel to the adjectives in as, under § 6, a, and must be treated as masculines, as the word sa/ is to be supplied. There is no analogy whateyer, in Latin, to justify their use as feminines.
The nouns in 7s, -2¢/s, as Sulphis, -itis, etc., must follow There is only ove true Latin noun in -is, itis, namely, dis, the lawsuit, which is fem. But there are a number of geographical or patronymic adjectives in zs (like Aéderis, -itis, a man from Abdera, .etc.), and these can also be either masc. or fem., like those in as.
No. 995.—Creasote and Carbolic Acid, Distinction of (R. O. D.) We comply with your request by quoting below the
February, 1852.]
NEW REMEDIES.
59
statements of Prof. A. H. Allen (from his Commercial Or- ganic Analysis), Besides, we would like to draw your attention to the exhaustive paper on this subject by Mr. H. B. Parsons, in our volume for 1879, page 25.—Prof, Allen says :
1. Morson’s creasote is practically insoluble in strong ammonia, or in 6 per cent soda. It is also insoluble in any smaller proportion than two volumes of g per cent soda, and is partially reprecipitated when more than 3% volumes of the solvent are added.
2. Creasote is sharply distinguished from the coal-tar acids by its insolubility in Price’s glycerin (sp. gr. I 258), whether one, two, or three times its volume of that liquid be employed. A mixture of equal parts of Morson’s crea- sote and the highly cresylic coal-tar product known as “Calvert’s No. 5 carbolic acid” dissolves in an equal measure of glycerin. The liquid is not affected by a drop or two of water, but a further addition causes preci- pitation. A mixture containing % of creasote to 3 of coal tar acids dissolves in an equal measure of glycerin, and is not precipitated by less than 1% measures of water.
3. Creasote is also distinguished from the coal-tar acids by its reaction with an ethereal solution of nitrocellulose. Shaken with half its measure of collodion, B P., Calvert’s No. 5 acid coagulates the gun-cotton to a transparent jelly, best observed by inclining the tube and causing the liquid to flow gently from one end to the other. Creasote does not precipitate the nitrocellulose from collodion, but mixes perfectly with the ethereal solution. Addition of much creasote to a mixture of collodion anda coal-tar acid causes a re-solution of the precipitated nitrocellulose. When a mixture of equal volumes of creasote and Calvert’s No. 5 acid is shaken with half its measure of collodion, decided sign of precipitation are observed. With two-thirds of the coal-tar acids to one-third of creasote, the precipitation of nitrocellulose is very marked. ‘
4. The addition of one drop of a 10-per-cent aqueous solution of ferric chloride to 15 cc. of an aqueous solution of a coal-tar acid, causes a permanent violet-blue colora- tion. When creasote is similarly tested a blue color re- sults, which almost instantly changes to green and brownish-yellow. The test is useless for the recognition of coal-tar acids in admixture with creasote.
Other distinctive tests for creasote and carbolic acid are to be found in the books, but are almost worthless in practice. Thus their reactions with bromine, sulphuric acid, sulpho-molybdic acid, are far too much alike to be of service for distinguishing between them. It has been stated that creasote differed from carbolic acid in its power of rotating a ray of polarized light. I redistilled a sample of Morson’s creasote to obtain it colorless, and carefully tried this test, expecting to find in it a possible means of determining the creasote in a mixture, but the rotary power of creasote proved so exceedingly weak as to be quite worthless for the intended purpose, or even as a qualitative test. It is, however, quite possible that differ- ent samples of creasote may exhibit considerable difference in this respect, but if so, the test is valueless for quantita- tive purposes, and the problem is not so much to detect wood-creasote as to recognize an admixture of the coal-tar acids. I am also unable to confirm the statement that creasote gives a solid deposit when kept for some hours at the temperature of boiling water. I have not obtained satisfactory results by the reaction of an alkaline solution of the substances with hydrochloric acid and pine-wood, or with a solution of iodine in iodide of potassium.
From the foregoing reactions, it will be seen that car- bolic acid, cresylic acid, and creasote can be readily dis- tinguished from each other. The case, however, is very different when a mixture of the three substances has to be dealt with, as in the case of a sample of creasote adul- terated with crude carbolic acid. As the problem is to detect the coal-tar acids in presence of wood-creasote rather than the reverse, only affirmative tests for the former bodies are of service, and in many cases these are seriously modified by the simultaneous presence of creasote. In fact, the glycerin and collodion tests are the only two of
real service, and these are much affected by a considerable proportion of creasote. It is, however, possible to effect a partial separation of the substances by fractional distilla- tion, so as to allow the tests for the coal-tar acids to be more readily applied. For this purpose the suspected sample is introduced into a small retort, and distilled. The aqueous distillate is collected separately, the next portion (amounting to one-fifth of the whole bulk of the liquid) is boiled to free it from water, and is then examined by glycerin and collodion in the manner already described. A considerably smaller proportion of the coal-tar acids can thus be detected than by operating on the original sample. The ferric chloride test is not of service for examining the distillate, as sufficient creasote is present to produce a brown coloration.
Fractional distillation also serves for the detection of alcohol, which is occasionally added to creasote.
No. 996.—Prescription Difficulty.
A correspondent sends us the following prescription with the request, to state how it is to be dispensed :
Salicylic acid SA
Pepsin (Scheffer’s) ....... Muriatic acid Soe Seer Elix. calisaya bark, iron and strychnie ..... 34
The above cannot be made to furnish a clear mixture. If the elixir were strongly alcoholic, it could be done. But as this contains, usually, only a moderate amount of al- cohol, the salicylic acid will not all dissolve. Even if you were to use a salt of salicylic acid this would be decom- posed by the hydrochloric acid, and you would have the same condition of affairs again.
We cannot help but wondering at such a conglomerate of remedies in one prescription. The patient must evi- dently be a poor rheumatic-dyspeptic-atonic-anzmic-para- lytic wretch. Give a hint to the physician who prescribed the compound, to outflank and attack the different detach- ments of the enemy szzg/y, rather than to attempt a charge against their united force.
No. 997.—Trifolium Fibrinum (E. A.)
This is the pre-Linnean name of Menyanthes trifoliata L. English; bog bean, common buck-bean, marsh trefoil; German: Fieberklee, Dreiblatt, Bitterklee, Wasserklee, Bieberklee. The leaves are officinal in the German, and in ‘some other pharmacopceias under the title: Folia Trifolii fibrini or Herba Trifolii fibrini. It isa mild, bitter tonic, generally used in form of infusion, or in form of extract. It is gradually going out of date, and certainly does not deserve introduction into a pharmacopceia where it has not been previously recognized.
No. 998.—Ozone (Subscriber.—Further answer to auery 977, on p. 29 of January number),
Prof. James F. Babcock, State Assayer and Inspector of Liquors of Massachusetts, has obligingly placed the follow- ing information at our disposal:
The ‘‘ ozone” is a preparation sold by a stock company of Cincinnati, and is claimed to be a wonderful preservative of meat, fruits, and all perishable articles. One can buy a county right to the exclusive use and sale of the prepara- tion for from $2,000 to $5,000. Sample packages $2. I have analyzed a specimen of this article, and the result may interest your readers. It is adark powder of a slight tinge of green. A quantity of this powder, placed ina saucer and ignited, produces the ‘‘ozone” (I had always supposed that heat was fatal to the production of ozone). The articles to be preserved are exposed to the action of the gaseous products of the combustion in a closed box or chamber; and when treated this way, many articles, es- pecially meat, are really preserved, perfectly sweet forseveral weeks. It is, perhaps, needless to add that an analysis of the powder shows it to consist of flowers of sulphur, colored and disguised by damp-black,
No. 999.—Red Oxide of Mercury Ointment (H. C. G.)
Our failure to reply to some questions, which you state you sent to us previously, is not chargeable to us, but pos-
a RD haath Mee Aetgsagrgaaaeaeeea
rs
op SIM wt
60 NEW REMEDIES.
| February, 1882.
sibly to yourself or to some accidental miscarriage of the letter. We answer every question which is proper to be answered publicly some are not}, and which is signed by the name and address of the inquirer. Now to your query:
Do pharmacists generally keep in stock Red Oxide of Mercury Ointment? Is it salable after it commences to turn, etc. ?
There may be a few who still keep the ointment in stock, though made with lard or cerate. But thiscan only be done if it is in frequent demand. Both lard and cerate soon become oxidized at the expense of the oxide, which is gradually reduced to the metallic state. Hence, the change in color. Itshould zo¢ be dispensed or sold when in the slighest degree altered.
If you use vaseline or cosmoline, or any other kind of petroleum ointment as a base, you may make up a stock of the ointment, and keep it for almost any length of time un- altered.
No. 1,000.—Essence of Ambergris and Extract of Civet (P. H. K.)
The usual formule for preparing these are the following:
Essence of Ambergris: Macerate 3 0z. of ambergris with t gal. of cologne spirits for a month, frequently shaking. Then filter.
Extract of Civet: Triturate 1 oz. of civet in a mortar with I oz. of powdered orris root and some fine, clean sand. Add the mixture to a gallon of cologne spirit, and macerate for a month, frequently shaking. Then filter.
Both of the above are used only as fixing ingredients, and never on account of their own odor. The proportion of either varies greatly, according to the kinds of odors with which they are mixed. Extract of civet should not be used in larger quantity than about 4 oz. (occasionally up to 8 oz.) in a gallon of other perfumes. Essence of ambergris in about the same proportion. But it is almost impossible to give any specific proportions. Extract of musk is more powerfui than either, and only about half the quantity of the latter is needed when they are to be combined. But even here it depends on individual judgment.
No. 1,001.—Perfume Pomades (P. H. K.)
These are usually prepared only from such odorous sub- stances from which the volatile oi] cannot be profitably extracted by distillation. Hence it is that lavender, rose geranium, patchouly, and bergamot pomade are not reg- ular articles of trade. In these cases, it is just as well to use the essential oil. But jasmine, cassie, heliotrope, rose, tuberose, and orange flower pomade are always to be obtained. The price per pound, when purchasing an original package of 11 lbs., is at present about $2.10 to $2.25. In smaller quantities, you would have to pay more. Any of the New York wholesale houses (see our advertise- ments) will supply you.
No. 1,002.—Extraction of Urea from Urine or other Animal Fluids (Dr. W. B. G.).
The following are Thudichum’s directions :
1. A quantity of caustic baryta, in the proportion of 5 grams to the litre, is dissolved in urine by means of a little sieve suspended near its surface. A saturated solution of nitrate of baryta is then added, until a precipitate is not any longer produced. The fluid is then filtered from the precipitate, neutralized with nitric acid, and evaporated to dryness on a water-bath; the residue is extracted with alcohol; the alcoholic extract is again evaporated, and ex- hausted a second time with absolute alcohol. This last solution contains the urea very pure, so that on evapora- tion and standing, it crystallizes out in colorless needles.
2. The presence of albumen in urine or other animal fluids requires a modification of this process. It is not advisable to remove the albumen by boiling whenever it is present in considerable quantity. For albumen, on pass- ing into an insoluble condition, incloses in its substance a certain amount of urea, which, when only a little urea is present, as in blood, may amount to the entire quantity present, and cannot afterwards be separated from it with- out great loss of time andtrouble. The albuminous fluid, therefore, particularly blood, should be at once mixed with
absolute alcohol, the precipitate exhausted with spirit, and the united extracts evaporated. From these concentrated solutions all that baryta can precipitate is removed; the fitrates, after neutralization, and even acidification with a little acetic acid, are evaporated to dryness, extracted with absolute alcohol, and the extract evaporated. Any urea will be obtained in a crystalline state. It should be crys- tallized in needles; be entirely volatilized after fusion from heated platinum, without blackening, and its concentrated watery solution should yield the characteristic reactions with nitric and oxalic acids, and nitrate of mercury. It may then be dried and weighed, or its quantity determined volumetrically.
3. The urine is evaporated at a gentle heat and reduced to a clear extract. It is then mixed with an equal volume of nitric acid. If the mixture is allowed to get hot, a consider- able effervescence, accompanied by some loss of urea, is ob- served; but the crystals subsequently obtained are much less colored than when the mixing has been effected gradu- ally, and with the aid of refrigeration. The crystals are placed upon bricks, and, when dry, dissolved in boiling water, and decolorized by animal charcoal. The solu- tion is then neutralized by carbonate of barium or potassium, and concentrated until it crystallizes. The mother-liquor, containing nearly all the urea, is decanted from the crystals of nitrate of barium or potassium, evaporated to dryness, and extracted with alcohol. The solution or evaporation will furnish pure urea.
4. The clear extract may be mixed with a concentrated solution of oxalic acid and the crystals formed, which are but little colored, entirely decolorized by charcoal. The solution is decomposed by carbonate of lime in the state of powder, and the filtrate, on evaporation, yields pure urea, which, by repeated crystallization, can be obtained so pure that the employment of alcohol becomes unnecessary.
Mode of Obtaining Urea Artificially.
Mix intimately 28 parts of dry ferrocyanide of potassium with 14 parts of manganese dioxide, and heat on a sheet- iron plate over an open fire until the mixture ignites and is slowly burned through. Extract the blackish-gray mass which remains with cold water, add to the filtered liquid 20% parts of dry sulphate of ammonium, let it stand in order that the sulphate of sodium may crystallize, separate the crystals from the solution containing urea, evaporate the latter to dryness, and extract with alcohol, which leaves the rest of the sulphates undissolved, and, on evaporation, gives perfectly pure and white urea.
No. 1,003.—Alum and the Decoloration of Crude Alkaloids (Leadville).
We think there is a mistake on your part when you say that we published an article in which alum was recom- mended for the decoloration of crude alkaloids. Alum could only be used in special cases for this purpose, namely in those where the alkaloid itself is soluble in water, so that the alumina may be precipitated by an al- kali and thereby separated. In other cases, special pre- cautions or modifications would have to be adopted to effect the separation of the alkaloid from the alumina. The latter, namely, when precipitated in a solution con- taining coloring matters, carries down with it a large quantity of these. But if the alkaloid is precipitated at the same time, and has to be subsequently extracted by alcohol or some other solvent not acting on the alumina, a portion of the precipitated coloring matter is apt to re- enter into solution.
Alumina, either as such, or in form of some of its insol- uble compounds (f. i. bole, see NEW REM., 1878, 200) has been used by various chemists as an indifferent diluent of the residuary aqueous liquid, containing the alkaloid, previous to its being evaporated to dryness, so as to per- mit the dried mass to be exhausted by some solvent with greater facility.
Wanted.
We have inquiries from several correspondents, who de- sire information on the following. Any of our readers in possession of the same are requested to furnish it.
February, 1881. ]
NEW REMEDIES.
No. 1,004.—1. Composition of Wilson’s Preparations of H ypophosphites ; also Blodgett’s.
No. 1,005.—2. Where can Kowrie gum be purchased ?n
No. 1,006.—3. Is any parchment paper manufactured in the United States, and where ?
TRADE NOTES.
Bimuriate of Quinia and Urea.
Messrs. McKesson & Rossins, of New York, inform us that they are now prepared to furnish the above salt, very pure, and handsomely crystallized in one gram, two gram, and four gram vials. The latter (¢q gm. = 1 drachm) size costs seventy-five cents. This comparatively low price will doubtlessly facilitate the more frequent employ- ment of this valuable compound.
Seabury and Johnson’s Eucalyptol Gauze.
WE had occasion to examine a twenty-five-yard roll of this gauze, and have found it to be very uniformly and evenly impregnated with the antiseptic mixture, of a strong and agreeable odor, and a soft and pliable texture. It has been used for antiseptic dressings with good success (compare NEW ReEM., 1881, 256; 1882, 23’, and isat pres- ent being experimented with in Bellevue Hospital.
Prices of Essential Oils.
From a special circular sent out by the well-known man- ufacturers of essential oils, Messrs. Sachsse & Co.,* of Leipzig, we abstract the following:
Per kilo. Mark. Pf. Oil of Anise, Russian, I., twice rectified, package of 10 kilos Is lower than for years past. Oil of Bergamot, 1., Reggio, ramiere of 25 kilos.. Oil of Lemon, I., finest, guaranteed pure ramiere of 25 kilos Owing to bad ee prices will soon rise. Oil of Citronella, \., package of 20 kilos. Oil of Coriander, 1., superfine, rect., package of 5 KAIOS wise saws sends Owing to bad crop, an advance is expected. Oil of Fennel, 1., from seed, package of 20 kilos. . Oil of Lavender, superfine, quintessence, package of 25 kilos. Oil of Lavender, extra fine, same package : fine, same package ce F Mitcham Oil of Cloves, from cloves, package of 25 kilos. . ‘* from stems Oil of Werolt, SUPCMNE.. 04 22s es essecics.s . Oil of Patchouli, 1., superfine Oil of Petitgrain ‘ Oil of Peppermint, I., Mitcham rect. t i twice rect.
50 50 50
9 25 00
25
wn °
bottle
pack. ‘* German superfine Pe ios
= ‘* Michigan ‘ kilos
The last named equal the finest other Ameri- can oil of peppermint. Oil of Orange, Portugal § package of Bigarade ( 10 kilos. Oil of Rose, OO Vi irgin Serail ‘* superfine, Kezanlyk Oil of Sandalwood, Turkish I East Indian West Indian Oi of Cinnamon, Ceylon Cassia, I., orig. pack white crystals
88 S888s8Sssss
“cc “ce
n88888888
Thymol, I.,
* Sole Fink, 1€0
ents for North and South America are Messrs. Lehn & illiam street, N. Y
NEW PATENTS.
[Complete specifications and illustrations may be obtained of any one or more of the following patents by sending the number, title, name of patentee, and date of issue, with twenty-five cents for each copy, to the Commissioner of Patents, at Washington, D. C., together with the name and address of the person requesting the same.|
244,275. Frame for Supporting Carbonating Appara- tus.—John Matthews, New York, N. Y.
244,308. Capsule Filler—John P. Reymond, Newton- ville, Mass.
9,797 (Re-issue). Louisville, Ky.
244,474. Medicinal Tonic Pill.—Joseph Newton, Bennetsville, S. C., assignor of one-half to Hope H. Minton, same place. Consists of sulphuretted iron, capsi- cum, ginger-root, wild cherry bark, and golden seal.
244,551. Medicinal and Nursery Spoon.—Herbert Clayton, Cincinnati, Ohio.
244,643. Hog-Cholera Compound.—William F. Miller and Charles W. Stover, Tipton, Iowa. Turpentine and spirit of camphor, each 6ne pound, carbolic acid and Ca- yenne pepper, each one-half ounce.
244,652. Syringe.—Charles Oyster, Little Falls, N. Y.
244,740. Open Cap for Bottles.—Thomas W. Brown,
Bottle Wrapper.—Bennett D. Marks,
Belmont, Mass. 244,767. Mo.
Paint Can.—William F. C. Guehl, St. Louis,
244,965. Medical Compound.—Richard M. Brimmer, Batavia, Ohio. Composed of Cape aloes, rhubarb-root, caraway-seed, American centaury herb, juniper-berries, agrimony, and buchu-leaves, and whiskey or other high wines.
246,654. Hydrotherapeutic pe on E. G. Bozerian, Paris, France, patented in France, Feb. gth, ’81.
246,697. Bulb Suppository.—John C, Wadleigh, Chicago, Ill., assignor to David Duncan, same place. A composi- tion medicated suppository, provided with a laterally pro- jecting bulbous portion for retaining it in the urethra.
246,793. Process of Distilling Alcohol.—Charles W. Lawrence, New York, N. Y. A process for obtaining refined and odorless spirit direct from the still, consisting in charg- ing the still with spirit-producing material and powdered charcoal, then stirring and heating the mass by means of steam, whereby the operations of distilling and rectifying are accomplished at one operation, the empyreumatic oil being retained by the charcoal in the still.
246,823. Cork-Cutting Machine.—Jacob Schlacter, Phila- delphia, Pa.
246,949. ‘Apparatus for the Continuous Distillation of Ammonia,—Hermann Gruneberg and Jacob Greis, Kalk, near Cologne, Prussia, Germany.
246,967. Apparatus Sor Charging Portable Fountains with Aerated Beverages. — John Matthews, New York, N. Y.
246,987. Carbonating Apparatus. — John Matthews, New York, N. Y.
246,987. Soap.—Basil M. Wilkerson, Baltimore, Md. A cake of soap having a block or base secured thereon, and projecting from the surface of the cake to form a support, upon which the cake may rest.
247,012. Zooth-Brush.—Louis Chevalier, Brooklyn, N. Y. The combination with a tooth-brush, having its handle constructed with a tubular passage leading to and through the bristle-plate of an elastic bulb which is fitted over the handle, so that the end of said tubular handle shall extend nearly in contact with the bottom of said bulb, whereby all the water in the bulb may be easily ejected when the brush is held with the bulb downward.
9,875 (Reissue).—Apparatus for a. Soda Water, etc. John Matthews, New York, N.
247,185. mg if for Medicine Bottles — William H, Flinn, Nashua, N. H.
Foe ee RNS My oF eat Sip oe te Re gee Sa
62 NEW REMEDIES.
[ February, 1882.
247,306. Pendulum Scale.—Charles F. Kleinsteuber, Milwaukee, Wis., assignor to the Phoenix Scale Company, same place. Sia,
247,480. Method of and Apparatus for Volatilizing Cresylic Acid.—Elias H. Carpenter, Providence, R. I., assignor to James H. Valentine, same place ; said Valen- tine assignor of one-half to George Sheppard Page, Stan- ley, N. J.
ys bao. Electro- Thermal Vapor-Bath.—Jno. H. Mark- ham, Kansas City, Mo.
247,720. Hair-Tonic.—Caroline Weisser, Los Angeles, Cal. Decoction of dried olive-leaves, marjoram leaves, marjoram roots, and glycerin. ;
247,761. Computing-Balance. — William W. Hopkins, Thorntown, Ind., assignor to the Hopkins Improved Scale Co., same place. :
247,763. Refining Camphor and Apparatus There for.— William H. Atkinson, London, England. Refining cam- phor, while surrounded by sheet metal or alloy, which may afterwards be readily stripped from the refined cake.
247,818. Medical Compound.—Josiah C. Gilman, Mas- sena, N. Y. Steeps balm-of-Gilead buds in alcohol to ex- tract their strength. One part of this is added to two
ITEMS.
John William Draper, M.D., LL.D., who died Jan. 4th, at his home at Hastings, on the Hudson, was born near Liverpool, England, May 5th, 1811, and educated at a Weslyan school at Woodhouse Grove. In 1833, he joined some of his relatives who had emigrated to Ameri- ca, and, in 1836, took his medical degree in the University of Pennsylvania. He was at once appointed professor of natural philosophy, chemistry, and physiology in Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia. In 1839, he removed | to New York, and was connected with the Preparatory | Department of the University of New York, in which he | taught chemistry and physiology- In 1841, he joined Drs. Valentine Mott, Patterson, ef a/., in founding the Medical Department of the University, in which he became the professor of physiology, and, in 1850, professor of chemis- try. He served as secretary of the Medical Department until the death of the president, Dr. Mott, when he was elected president, and so continued until 1873, when he retired altogether.
Dr. Draper never pursued the practice of medicine to
hundred and eighty-eight parts of the oil obtained by heat
from the yolk of eggs, and the mixture is applied as a mild
irritant to ruptures. : | 248,013. Combined Funnel and Gage-Rod.—Samuel J.
Bleyer, St. Louis, Mo. |
248,147. Siphon-Bottle, —Charles de Guilfeldt, New York, N. Y. ; A :
248,307. Bottle-Cover. — George Griesel and Earl K. Cooley, San Francisco, Cal. A tapering sheath for bot- tles, open at both ends, and formed of lengths of straw, or straw stalk, each length running the full length of the sheath, and so arranged as to be one thickness of stalk at the large end, and two thicknesses at the small end, and sewed together. '
248,350. Cough-Remedy.—Harry C. Ruminger, Wil- liamsport, Pa. To be used as a remedy for coughs and consumption, consisting of black snake-root, elecampane root, comfrey root, spikenard root, horehound tops, wild-
any extent, but devoted himself to scientific and literary pursuits. His writings were many and voluminous, em- braced a variety of subjects, and gave him a world-wide celebrity. His studies of vegetable physiology were many years in advance of those of other scientists. He was twenty years in advance of others in the science of spec- troscopy, and in his appreciation of ‘‘ radiant energy ” he was many years in advance of European students. His | text-book on physiology was for many years the standard | work here, and was often translated into other languages. He was one of the earliest developers of the art of photog- raphy, and, in 1839, secured the first sun-picture of a liv- ing subject. He was also the first to make a photograph of the moon. His writings are to be found in the Amevi- can Fournal of Medical Sciences and the Edinburgh Phil- osophical Fournal, In 1844, he published a treatise on ‘““The Forces which Produce Organization in Plants”
cherry bark, colombo root, dandelion root, princess-pine leaves, elder blossoms, bonesci tops, extract chestnut | leaves, sugar, and soft water. :
248,594. Medical Compound.—Dorothy L. Martin, Ox- | ford Township, Warren Co., N. J. Formed by union of | one-half ounce of bitter-root (Apocynum androsemifolium), one-half ounce dog-wood blossoms, one-quarter ounce cayenne, and one pint rye whiskey. :
248,647. Liguid Drainer. — John C. Harlocker, and Simon W. Oyster, Harrisburg, Pa. _ ;
248,672.—Bottle-Filler.—Philip Seibal, St. Louis, Mo.
248,711. Manufacture of Peach Cider, or Wine.—Louis P. Coblentz, Middletown, Md. ;
248,727. Medical Compound for Ague.—Lydia A. Ford, Kansas City, Kan. Composed of wild-cherry bark, sul- phur, and strong beer or ale. : im
248,735. Process of and Apparatus for Purifying Wax, Fats, or Resins.—Daniel T. Gray, Brooklyn, assignor by mesne assignment, to John A. Suntenburgh, New York, N. Y. Causing’a stream of wax, or equivalent material, while in a fluid or melted state, and a stream of naphtha or other solvent, to flow together, and thus form an inti- mate mixture or solution, and thence pass through a filter.
248,770. Bottle-Wrapper.—Henry J. Mark and William J. Martinek, St. Louis, Mo. ; ‘
248,886. Bottle-Filler.—Peter Saal, Greenville, Pa.
th
Vanilla of superior quality is now raised on the Sechelle Islands. One acre of ground is said to yield nearly 250 pounds.
Dr. Frank L. James has been called to fill the Chair of Chemistry and Toxicology in the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Charles O. Hunt, of Portland, Me., has