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4 
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, 
41 
of valerian has been poured. Impressed with the conviction 
that, as long as valerianic acid is derived from the root of the 
valerian, the price of the valerianates could not be materially 
reduced, and occupied, at the desire of the College of Phy- 
sicians, with the task of bringing out a new edition of the 
Dublin Pharmacopeeia, it became his duty to inquire whether 
valerianic acid could not be obtained from some other source, 
and at such reduced cost as would permit of the valerianates 
being more generally used in the practice of medicine. 
The well-known method of Dumas and Stass was first tried, 
which consists in passing the vapour of fusel oil over the hy- 
drate of potash at a certain temperature, but the result was 
such as t6 forbid its being recommended as a pharmaceutic 
process. The conversion, however, of fusel oil, C;9H,,;O, HO, 
into valerianic acid, CjpHyO;, HO, being obviously a process of 
oxidizement, it naturally occurred to him to try whether the 
oxidation in question could not be effected by agents frequently 
applied in other departments of organic chemistry to a similar 
purpose, viz., bichromate of potash and oil of vitriol ; and upon 
subjecting, in November, 1847, this idea to the test of experi- 
ment, operating on small quantities, a tolerably satisfactory 
result was obtained. The subject, however, was not then pro- 
secuted further ; but as the Pharmacopeeia approached comple- 
tion, he had again to return to it, and working with the same 
materials, but by a somewhat different method, he had such 
success as, he conceived, would justify him in communicating 
his results to the public, through the medium of the Academy. 
The following process succeeds well : 
Take of Bichromate of potash, nine ounces ; 
Oil of vitriol, six and a half fluid ounces ; 
Fusel oil, four fluid ounces ; 
Water, half a gallon: 
Dilute the oil of vitriol with a pint, and dissolve the bichro- 
mate of potash, with the aid of heat, in the remainder of the 
