46 



C. U. C. p. ALUMNI JOURNAL 



March, 1918 



Thiarsol.— L. M. H., New York.— 

 This, according to American Druggist 

 61,1913,397, is a French proprietary so- 

 kition of colloidal arsenic trisulphide of 

 the strength of i to 2000. 



Pulvis Unna. — T. R. M.. New York. 

 — By this title, the prescriber undoubt- 

 edly meant pulvis fluens hydrargyri, a 

 powdered form of mercury, made by 

 rubbing mercury with talcum powder 

 and a little oil of turpentine. In another 

 recipe a 30 per cent, powder is directed 

 to be made by triturating 30 grammes 

 of mercury with 5 grammes of oil of tur- 

 pentine and 15 grammes of lycopodium 

 until it is extinguished, after which it is 

 diluted with 55 grammes of powdered 

 wheat starch. For further details, see 

 Year Book of the American Pharmaceu- 

 tical Association, 1915, page 210; 1916, 

 page 281. 



Turner's Copaiba Test. — M. D. F., 

 New York, desires to know why the test 

 for gurjun balsam in copaiba was 

 changed in the last revision of the Phar- 

 macopoeia. Duessen (Arch. Pharm., 

 252. 19 14, 590) pointed out that while 

 the Turner test ; the pink color produced 

 when the copaiba is treated v/ith glacial 

 acetic and solution of sodium nitrite and 

 then layered on concentrated sulphuric 

 acid; was reliable when applied to a dis- 

 tillate from copaiba, it was of little value 

 when applied directly to the balsam it- 

 self. For this reason the change was 

 made and in the present (ninth) revision, 

 the Pharmacopoeia directs distillation 

 prior to trying the test. 



A Mild Protest. — While we are de- 

 sirous of making the Information Bureau 

 of genuine value to every pharmacist in 

 this vicinity, we find from time to time, 

 that our pharmaceutical friends are sug- 

 gesting to people outside of our calling 

 that they write us for trade information, 

 from which they expect to reap mone- 

 tary advantage — all for the investment 

 of a two-cent stamp. For instance, we 

 had a letter recently from a firm, stating 

 that the Department of Agriculture had 

 ordered its members to stop putting bo- 

 rax into an effervescent salt marketed by 

 them and so they turn to the Information 

 Bureau for advice as to a way out of 

 their trouble. 



Our answer was to refer the firm to 

 the monographs on effervescent salts 

 given in the Pharmacopoeia in the Na- 

 tional Formulary and in Pharmaceutical 

 Formulas and added that if further in- 

 formation was desired, a professional 

 pharmaceutical chemist should be con- 

 sulted. 



Cumarin in Tonka Bean. — P. M. C, 

 New York. — The average yield of cuma- 

 rin from tonka bean is from 1.5 to 2 per 

 cent. 



Blancard's Syrup of Iron. — B. T. S., 

 New York. — While it is well-known that 

 the pills of iodide of iron have long been 

 known in France as "pilules de Blan- 

 card." we fail to find in any of the books 

 in our library any reference to Blan- 

 card's syrup of iron. We presume syrup 

 of ferrous iodide was intended, but we 

 should like the opinion of our readers in 

 this matter. 



