C. U. C. p. ALUMNI JOURNAL 



189 



Prescription Difficulty. — J. G., Con- 

 necticut, submits for criticism, the fol- 

 lowing prescription : 



Chloral hydrate 2 drachms 



Sodium bromide 4 drachms 



Resorcin i drachm 



Spirit of anise 2 fluidrachms 



Chloroform water enough to make 4 

 fluid ounces. 



Attempting the compounding of this 

 prescription in several ways, we found 

 there were two sources of difficulty. 

 First, if chloroform water is used as the 

 solvent for the bromide, a 'salting out' of 

 the chloroform occurs with a resultant 

 cloudy liquid. The second difficulty is 

 the obvious one; the insolubility of the 

 oil of anise (of the spirit) in the aque- 

 ous vehicle. We find that if we dis- 

 solve the chloral hydrate, the bromide 

 and the resorcin in enough water to make 

 I fluid ounce, and if we then add 

 two fluidrachms of alcohol and enough 

 chloroform water to make 4 fluid ounces 

 a clear solution results, but try as we did, 

 we could not succeed in obtaining a clear 

 fluid if the two fluidrachms of spirit of 

 anise directed by the prescriber was 

 employed. 



Our querist states that the customer 

 said that the fluid as obtained elsewhere 

 was yellowish, whereas the one dis- 

 pensed by our friend was almost color- 

 less. This discrepancy is due to the 

 well-known property of resorcin solu- 

 tions of darkening in aging. If J. G. 

 keeps the mixture on hand a few weeks, 

 it will be yellow enough to suit the most 

 captious customer. 



The Composition of Proprietary 

 Preparations. — A number of queries to 

 the composition of proprietary remedies 

 have been answered by telephone during 



the past month, by reporting analyses 

 published by chemists in various bureaus 

 devoted to such work. For various rea- 

 sons, at this time we will not print the 

 answers to such queries, but will refer 

 our readers to the two publications of 

 the American Medical Association, "The 

 Propaganda of Reform in Proprietary 

 Medicines" and "Nostrums and Quack- 

 ery" as well as to the Bulletins of the 

 food and drug departments of the States 

 of Connecticut, Ohio, Indiana and North 

 Dakota, all of which we have in the 

 library. 



Pills Containing Oxgall. — J. H., New 



York, wishes to know the best excipient 

 to use in making salol-coated pills of 

 oxgall. He tried various excipients but 

 found that the finished pills softened so 

 much that coating was an impossible 

 task. The first problem was whether by 

 'oxgall' our querist means purified oxgall 

 of the eighth edition of the Pharma- 

 copoeia (a soft solid) or powdered oxgall 

 which is to be recognized in the new 

 U. S. P. under the title of extract of 

 oxgall. 



We find that the pilular extract can be 

 solidified into fairly firm pills by adding 

 starch or kieselguhr. Far better, how- 

 ever, we find the employment of the 

 above-mentioned powdered oxgall. On 

 moist, sticky, summer days, such as we 

 are now enjoying, we find vigorous man- 

 ipulation of the powder in a mortar with 

 a pestle makes a perfect mass. In dry 

 weather, the addition of a few drops 

 water or alcohol is all that is necessary 

 to make the mass. We also tried a mix- 

 ture of the pow^dered oxgall with soft 

 soap and starch and obtained an attract- 

 ive looking pill, but found that the pills 

 so prepared softened sooner than did 

 those made by pounding with a minimum 

 amount of water. 



