148 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I912. 



nitrous ether according to directions. These samples were 

 carefully tested and then stored as follows : Sample A was 

 kept in a dark amber-colored bottle, full to the top, in the dark, 

 in a refrigerator, strictl}^ according to Pharmacopoeia direc- 

 tions. Sample B was kept in an amber-colored bottle tightly 

 corked with a cork stopper, at ordinary room temperature in a 

 dark cupboard. The bottle was full at the beginning of the 

 experiment. Sample C was kept in a green colored bottle in 

 the same cupboard with B but the bottle was only half full at 

 the beginning. These three experiments were not made at 

 exactly the same time and the intervals between the different 

 assays were not the same in the three diiTerent cases. From 

 table 25 it will readily be seen, however, that sample A, kept 

 strictly according to directions, remained for two months at 

 exactly the same strength found by the first test and that 

 during the next month it lost only 0.23 per cent of ethyl nitrite. 

 This sample when made up carried 4.06 per cent, and at the 

 end of 90 days 3.83 per cent of ethyl nitrite. In order that the 

 conditions under which sample A was kept approximate as near 

 as possible the conditions existing in a drvig store, each time 

 the sample was opened and assayed two or three ounces were 

 turned out in imitation of a sale. 



Sample B was kept in an amber-colored bottle under the 

 same conditions which surrounded A with the exception that 

 it was kept at ordinary room temperature. Results of the assay 

 of this sample show that the decrease in strength began at 

 once and that the decrease was steady but not rapid. The 

 sample at the beginning contained 4.21 per cent ethyl nitrite. 

 In seventy days the strength had dropped to 3.93 per cent, and 

 in one hundred and sixty-six days to 3.80 per cent ethyl nitrite. 



Sample C, kept in a green bottle only half full, at room tem- 

 perature, in the same closet with sample B, decreased in 

 strength from 3.86 per cent at the beginning to 3.48 per cent 

 of eth}^ nitrite at the end of 170 days. 



The results are given in Table 25. Sample A was stored 

 as the preparation should always be kept and the result indi- 

 cates that under these favorable conditions sweet spirit of 

 nitre will keep for several months practically uniform. Samples 

 B and C were stored as such material is often kept in drug 



