PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION B. — SUB-SECTION, PHARMACY. 147 



Class " C " {Fixed Oils). — Broadly speaking, the above remarks 

 apply to this class also, but the tests employed include saponification 

 and iodine values, and other data for individual substances. 



Class " D " {Chemicals and Synthetic Substances). — The identity of 

 the substance having been proved and its appearance and solubility 

 checked, an examination is required for impurities which may have 

 crept in during the manufacture. Very great attention has been paid 

 to this subject in recent years, with a marked improvement in supplies. 

 Lead, iron, arsenic, and other such, objectionable impurities have been 

 largely eUminated, and the purity of the pharmaceutical chemicals from 

 reputable manufacturers leaves little to be desired. 



There is just a tendency to push this " purity " to too great ex- 

 ■ tremes, and an insistence to rid a chemical of the last traces of impurity 

 imposes a task on the manufacturer which increases the cost of material 

 to perhaps an unnecessary extent. This is particularly the case in 

 those chemicals which have industrial as well as pharmaceutical uses ; 

 this has been well shown in the case of borax, where a higher arsenic 

 content is admitted when sold for commercial purposes than in medicine. 



6.— PHARMACEUTICAL ALCOHOL. 



By G. I. Machay. 



(Published in Australasian Journal of Pharmacy, 

 Feb., 1913, p. 37.) 



