bS Anaii/sei of Books, [Jan. 



Berzelius takes it for the real deutoxide ; but if we compare the 

 very compound action of nitric acid with the simple effect of 

 combustion in atmospheric air, there scarcely can remain any 

 doubt, that not this, but the first mentioned is the real deutoxide. 

 Two grammes were by a strong red-heat reduced to brown 

 deiitoxiae, and lost by that 0-06 1 grm. This oxide, therefore, 

 consists of 



Oae atom of peroxide . 22-323 { j^l^'JJ ^YmZde 

 One atom of deutoxide 77*677 



100-000 



Article XIII. 

 Analyses of Books. 

 'Pharmacopeia Colhgii Medicorum Edinburgensis. 1817. , 



Although this edition of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia hai^» 

 been published for more than three years, yet I have been pre- 

 vented by various causes from offering the observations and 

 experiments which I have made respecting it, until it may appear 

 quite out of date to notice it at all. 



I am perfectly aware of the distinguished stations in science 

 which many of the Fellows of the Edinburgh College occupy ; 

 and it is requisite only to remind the reader that Dr. Hope is the 

 President, and Dr. Duncan, jun. one of its Fellows, to render it 

 certain that no work of this nature can have appeared without 

 having excited and ensured their unremitting attention. 



The remarks which 1 now propose to offer upon this work will 

 be principally confined to the chemical part of it, occasionally 

 making observations upon the nomenclature ; but the points of 

 minor importance, such as the arrangement and the regulations 

 adopted as to weights, I shall leave untouched. . 



The preparation which I shall first notice is termed ncidum 

 accticum forte ; it is prepared by distilling a mixture of 12 parts 

 of sulphate of iron, which has been dried to whiteness, with 

 10 parts of acetate of lead in a glass retort. 



The first objection which 1 shall state to this process is, thnt 

 the quantities of the salts employed are not such as are required 

 for mutual decomposition. Ten parts of acetate of lead require 

 only about 7-6 parts even of crystallized sulphate of iron for 

 their decomposition, and of this quantity nearly 3*5 are water; 

 admitting that only three-fourths of this proportion of water are 

 dissipated by drying, the 12 parts of dried sulphate of iron will 

 be nearly equal to 18 crystallized instead of 7*5 only as required. 

 Sulphate of iron is not certainly a costly article, but the great 



