176 Miscellanies. 



servation, if any, is multiplied in the higher numbers. He proposes 

 to construct an instrument, of which one hundred degrees shall rep- 

 resent an increase or decrease of two tenths of specific gravity, water 

 being zero, and the scale equally divided. 



After adverting to the limitation of the use of the hydrometer by 

 the unequal expansion of different fluids by heat, a copious table is 

 inserted, calculated from the very copious tables, prepared by direc- 

 tion of the British Excise, exhibiting the per centage of alcohol of 

 .825 specific gravity, indicated by each degree of the hydrometer 

 for every five degrees of temperature, from 30° to 80° of Fahrenheit. 

 The second number contains an article on James's Fever Powders 

 by Dr. Samuel Jackson, who infers, as well from the various analy- 

 ses of this substance, as from a trial of it in the alms house, Phila- 

 delphia, that it is an inert and wholly useless preparation, and should 

 be expunged from the Pharmacopoeia. 



In the same number we find a very judicious article on the Black 

 Drop, by Thomas Evans, in which the writer shows plainly enough, 

 we think, that this celebrated preparation is very improperly called in 

 the most noted pharmacopoeias, the vinegar of opium, — that it is in 

 fact a compound syrup of opium, exceedingly clumsy and unscientific 

 in its preparation, and that administering such a mixture, the practi- 

 tioner can never know what quantity of opium he is giving. The 

 writer however, who is an experienced pharmacien, admits the ad- 

 vantage of acetic acid as a solvent of opium. " Some years ago (he 

 observes) Dr. Joseph Hartshorne directed the preparation of such a 

 tincture, according to the following recipe, viz. 



Turkey opium, - - - - f ii 

 Strong vinegar, - - - - f f • xiii. ^ 

 Alcohol, - - - - - 5 f • yiii. 

 Triturate the opium with the vinegar ; add the alcohol, and digest 

 with gentle heat for ten days ; then filter through paper for use. 

 This has been extensively used, and found to possess all the virtue 

 of the black drop. As a substitute for common strong vinegar, which 

 is often impure, and of uncertain strength, the writer proposes pure 

 pyroligneous acid f f. v, with water 5 f. vii, and the same proportions 

 as before stated of alcohol and opium. 



The fourth number of the new series of the Journal, contains the 

 excellent discourse of the President, to which we have alluded, and 

 in which the young apothecary will find an interesting account of the 

 progress and condition of the pharmaceutic art, in the most civilized 



