190 



C. U. C. P. ALUMNI JOURNAL 



In this case as in the case of many 

 pills containing extractive matter, the se- 

 cret of the manufacture of a successful 

 pill mass is largely a question of ''elbow 

 grease." We knew one druggist a score 

 of years ago who made highly success- 

 ful compound cathartic pills by substitut- 

 ing for the few drops of water then di- 

 rected as excipient, vigorous manipula- 

 tion of the mixed powders in a warm 

 mortar with the pestle. 



Saccharin Mouth Washes.— K. M. 

 T., New York. — The recipe you have in 

 mind is evidently that devised by Pro- 

 fessor W. D. Miller of Berlin, who. in 

 the early nineties published in The 

 Dental Cosmos a classical series of pa- 

 pers on mouth bacteria. In one of his 

 papers {Dent. Cos. 33-1891-917) he 

 stated that the most satisfactory oral an- 

 tiseptic was saccharin and he then gave 

 the following recipe for a saccharin 

 mouth wash. 



Saccharin 2.5 gm. 



Benzoic Acid 3.0 gm,. 



Tincture of Krameria 15.0 mils 



Absolute Alcohol loo.o mils 



Oil of Peppermint 0.5 mil 



Oil of Cinnamon 0.5 mil 



Make a solution. 



Curiously enough no mention of this 

 recipe has been found in the pharmaceu- 

 tical journals of England, Germany or 

 America, although a saccharin mouth 

 wash, antedating that published by Miller 

 is found in the American Journal of 

 Pharmacy (62-1890-407). This recipe, 

 taken from a French source, calls for 

 saccharin i gm. ; sodium bicarbonate .05 

 gm. ; alcohol 100 gm. ; oil of peppermint 

 2 drops. 



In Miller's article, he particularly em- 

 phasizes the fact that the sodium com- 

 pound of saccharin is not as good an an- 

 tiseptic as saccharin in itself. 



Names of Manufacturers. — We glad- 

 ly furnish our querists with information 

 concerning the manufacturers of goods 

 handled by the drug trade, but for 

 obvious reasons, such answers are not 

 published in this department. 



Is Ammonium Nitrite a Liquid? — 

 E. F. W., New York, asks us the ques- 

 tion just given, stating that he was sur- 

 prised to see in a chemical price-list the 

 nitrite cited as a fluid. He could not 

 understand how it should be that other 

 inorganic nitrites are solids while the 

 ammonium compound is listed as a 

 liquid. 



Gmelin-Kraut and other authoritative 

 chemical books state that ammonium ni- 

 trite occurs in white crystalline, exceed- 

 ingly deliquescent masses. So deliques- 

 cent is it that the manufacture never 

 knows whether even a sealed package of 

 the chemical will reach its destination in 

 the form, of a solid or whether it will 

 have liquefied by the absorption of 

 even a minute amount of moisture. 

 Hence the manufacturer in question 

 wisely sends it out in deliquescent condi- 

 tion labelled as a liquid. 



And right here comes another compli- 

 cation. Gmelin-Kraut's book states that, 

 even in the solid form, ammonium nitrite 

 decomposes, by the well-known reaction, 

 into nitrogen and water. The book fur- 

 ther states that for this reason, the salt 

 cannot be marketed in sealed glass 'tubes, 

 since eventually enough nitrogen is 

 evolved to cause the tube to explode. 



For this reason, ammonium nitrite is 

 rarely used. For instance, instead of us- 4 

 ing it in obtaining nitrogen for labora- 

 tory purposes a mixture of the stable 

 salts, sodium nitrite and ammonium 

 chloride is employed. 



