: ~ ChemIcaL . PREPARATIONS AND Drugs. Se | 69 
100 per cent. " a rabiaels oP which’ was sent us from Hambure for inspection. The 
— 
excessive ‘specific weight (diso 1 0809) aroused suspicion at once, as well as the fact 
‘that it dissolved already in 1 vol. of alcohol 70 per cent., whereas oil of violets re- 
“quires 2.5 to 3 vols. 70 per cent. alcohol for dissolving ind has a specific gravity of 
from 9.935 to 9.94. The saponification supplied at once. the explanation for the irre- 
3 -gularities. Pure oil of violets, as is well known, does not contain any saponifiable 
_ constituents, wheres here an acid v. of 2.8 and an ester v. of 436.8 were stated. The 
E acid ‘separated from the saponification lye was identified as phthalic acid by its m. p. 
of 197°. The content of dimethyl phthalate calculated from the ester v. amounted to - 
75.5 per cent., so that this “100 per cent.” oil of violets consisted in reality mostly of 
3 _ another Eohenound. One cannot deny said firm a certain thoroughness, but it is un- 
4 - fortunately. misplaced and worthy of a better cause. Taking into consideration the 
_ present high prices for everything, such manceuvres sill certainly pay well. 
™~ 
= Menthol. The tienes Snot figures for menthol for the first Six months of 
_ the three last years are as follows’): — 
. ey MOT ie 1918 ; 1919. 
q x .  British- Indias 5 620 : 10809 3946 ji 
- Ee Great Britaig 5 082 re AT 244 TOO BOL. +? 25006? ve, oA 
& gated States. 2 222. 110006. 42.62% 110373 } 
= Pulmen Coulinics «75-302, LOTS: EBA ALOT, 
ee: kin: 143132, 161615 © 141432 si 
= to the value of yen: 932754 977882 1400675. 
4 5 solution of 2 parts of menthol, 2 parts of phenol and 1 part. of dipeael has 
been included in the last edition of the Swedish Pharmacopceia under the name of 
 Tinctura antiodontalgica, owing to the action of menthol as a local anzesthetic, for 
_ which it is sometimes used in dental surgery. Now a method for determining the 
_ menthol content is required for the State control of this preparation. The usual 
acetylation cannot - be taken into consideration, as O. von Friedrichs*) correctly 
observes, owing to the presence of eugenol and phenol, nor the formic acid method, 
introduced by Simmons’). The simplest would be to determine the menthol content 
with the aid of specific rotation. If this is calculated from the rotation found, it 
results that the variation of the percentages in the various solvents causes a modi- 
fication of the specific rotation, 7. ¢. a decrease with rising content of the optically 
_active body, such as is the case with most of the active substances. A modification 
of the solvent likewise brings about a change in the specific rotation, mee the= 
- addition of eugenol raises the rotation. \ 
2 Von Friedrichs examined 10 to 50 per cent. soonS of Ticathiol in eugenol, 
25 to 50 per cent. ‘solutions in phenol and three series of 10 to 50 per cent. solutions 
in phenole and eugenol, in which the proportions of the two inactive bodies were 2:1, 
1: 1 and 1:2, respectively. For solutions in only phenol, 25 per cent. has been- tnosen 
‘as the lowest menthol content, as similar preparations made in the warmth and con- 
taining 20 per cent. of menthol or less do not keep liquid when cooling down to room 
temperature. The rotations were measured and the specific gravities determinedat + 18°. 
it results from the tables contained in the original that the angle of rotation of 
a) Chemist Gnd Dricggist 1 (1919), 1105.. — 2) oe der Pharm. 257 (1919), 72: — %) Analyst 40 (1915), 
9 peers October 1916, 89. : ' 
