THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
365 
Tlie feathered metal was next dissolved in commercial nitric acid diluted 
with twice its bulk of distilled water, the solution of the metal being effected in 
a large stoneware jar well glazed, and sufficiently high to prevent loss by 
sprinkling of the solution. The action of the acid should be sufficiently slow 
to prevent undue evolution of nitrous fumes. The solution was of an intense 
blue colour, and was heated in Berlin ware dishes of 500 oz. capacity over a 
sand bath, and fine silver gradually added until the free acid was taken up. The 
liquid was next filtered through an asbestos filter, evaporated, and the crystals 
that formed on cooling were purified by washing and recrystallising until quite 
free from impurities. After separating out several crops of crystals it is neces- 
sary to remove the copper and lead present. The copper may be removed by 
concentrating the solution, and fusing the mass in an iron enamelled pan, 
whereby the nitrate of copper is reduced to oxide, and the mass, treated with water, 
yields a solution of nitrates of silver and lead, and out of which the oxide of 
copper should be filtered. 
From this solution more crystals of argent nit may be obtained, whichf 
however, will have to be recrystallised and washed, to free the crystals from 
all traces of lead. The lead is finally separated by adding a solution of salt 
to the solution of the mixed nitrates, by which means a precipitate of chloride 
of silver and chloride of lead is produced. The mass is collected on a calico 
filter, washed with hot water to free it from chloride of lead, and the silver 
chloride is next placed into a large earthern vessel with pieces of iron and 
dilute sulphuric acid. By this means the chloride is readily reduced to the 
metallic state, and, if the process has been carefully conducted, may be at 
once reconverted into nitrate by dissolving the fine metal in nitric acid. The 
process of reducing the chloride by boiling it with hydrate of potash and milk 
■ugar has the disadvantage of necessitating the employment of a filter press in 
order to get the metallic deposit quickly washed and dry. 
At times I have found it convenient to fuse and feather the reduced metal 
before re-dissolving it. Whatever gold is present may be reduced from the asbestos 
filter, together with the chloride of silver formed by the impurity in commercial 
nitric acid. If the chrystals are dried on blotting paper (as is frequently done when 
argent nit is made on a small scale), the paper employed must be burnt and the 
metal reduced from the ash, but I have found it convenient to employ a dark 
dessicator with an air-pump and crystal drainer attached. 
I am well aware that there is nothing original in the above notes, and that 
much of the above is familiar to all students of chemistry, but trust that it 
may give a few hints to those who have found the preparation of argent nit 
by no means an easy task. 
PHARMACY IN COUNTRY AND TOWN. 
By “Pila.” 
Varied and interesting as are the phases of the life pharmaceutical in the 
country parts of Victoria, those in town — by which I mean Melbourne — are not 
less so. 
The pharmacists of your chief city, as a body, appear to me to compare very 
favourably with men of the same social standing in any of the great cities of 
Britain, and, in many instances, show rather more enterprise and energy. 
Altered conditions probably account for this — the immense “possibilities’* in 
this young country fanning the spark of hope that exists in the breasts of most 
men into an active flame. It was, to me, an agreeable but very great surprise 
to find on my arrival a well-organised, well-governed, and prosperous Pharma- 
