C. U. C. p. ALUMNI JOURNAL 



237 



Latin Terms.— B. K. H., New York, 

 asks us for the Latin words meaning (a) 

 bruising, (b) cutting. For the first we 

 would use "contusum" and for the sec- 

 ond "concissum" seems appropriate. 



Percentage of Alcohol in Liniment of 

 Soft Soap.— AL L. M., New York, de- 

 sires to know the percentage of alcohol 

 in tincture of green soap. By the latter 

 name, we presume our querist means the 

 official liniment of soft soap and accord- 

 ing to Paul Caldwell (Dr. Circ, 50- 

 1906-43) this preparation contains about 

 29 per cent, of alcohol. 



Calamine Lotion. — B. T. H.. New 

 York. — According to the British Phar- 

 maceutical Codex, this lotion is prepared 

 as follows : 



Prepared calamine 2 ounces 



Zinc oxide i ounce 



Glycerin i fluidounce 



Rose water enough to 



make 20 fluidounces 



Triturate the calamine and the zinc 

 oxide with the glycerin and then add the 

 rose water. 



In compounding this and other British 

 recipes, it must be borne in mind that 

 the British fluidounce represents 437.5 

 grains of water and is therefore smaller 

 than the U. S. fluidounce which repre- 

 sents 454.6 grains of water. 



Legfal Queries. — During the month, 

 we have answered a number of queries 

 relating to pharmacy laws, local, state, 

 and national, emphasizing each time that 

 the information given was merely the 

 personal opinion of a layman. For this 

 reason we do not print such answers, 

 since in serious legal matters a lawyer 

 should be consulted. 



Naphtha, Gasoline, Benzine and 

 Benzene. — A. A., New Jersey, is puz- 

 zled like so many of the rest of us over 

 these synonyms and turns to us for in- 

 formation. 



We will get rid of benzene first by 

 stating that this is the scientific name 

 for benzol-CgHg, which, as we all know, 

 is a distillation product from coal-tar. 



Benzine and Gasoline are on the other 

 hand, distillates from petroleum, and 

 right here it might be stated that at the 

 petroleum refineries, all of the more vola- 

 tile distillates from petroleum are called 

 "naphtha," each having as a prefix the 

 degrees Baume that the distillate pos- 

 sesses. Thus at oil refineries automobile 

 gasoline is sold as "68° to 72° naphtha" ; 

 68° naphtha meaning one having the spe- 

 cific gravity 0.713; while ^2° naphtha 

 means the specific gravity 0.699. Ben- 

 zine of commerce is called 59° to 62° 

 naphtha ; the 59° having the specific grav- 

 ity 0.746. The commercial product is 

 unfortunately quite different from the 

 official benzine which is directed to have 

 a specific gravity between 0.638 and 

 0.660 or to be therefor 89° to 82° 

 naphtha. Pharmacists wishing the offi- 

 cial benzine m;)Ust order it from chemical 

 houses under the name petroleum ether 

 and curiously enough the average oil re- 

 finery does not know it even by that 

 name, selling it as 89° naphtha or 85° 

 naphtha or 82° naphtha as the specific 

 gravity chances to be. 



To add to the confusion, in France and 

 to a certain extent in England, benzol, 

 CgHg, is called benzine. For this phase 

 of the matter, those interested are re- 

 ferred to a paper by Otto Raubenheimer, 

 which appeared on page 144 of the Chem- 

 ist and Druggist for July 25th, 1908. 



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