THE CHEMIST AND DEUGGIST OF AUSTEALASIA. 
13 
VoL. i., No. 2. 
Table fob the qualitative analysis of the 
MOBE IMPOKTANT OBGANIC ACIDS. 
Ziegler ( Phann. CenfnilhaUe) gives the following useful 
table for the qualitative distinction of the organic acids : — 
OiioAxic Acids. 
Heated in a test tube with caustic 
soda yields 
A.— Ammonia. 
The watery solution, neutralised 
with caustic soda, yields, with 
Ferric chloride — 
1. A brown precipitate soluble in 
excess. 
1 Ilippuric acid. 
2 No precipitate. 2 Uric acid. 
B. — No Ammonia. 
Dissolve the acid in water, neu- 
tralise with potassium hydrate. 
Ferric chloride added to the 
solution produces — 
1 . A Precipitate. 
A. Precipitate brown, soluble 
in acids. 
3 Succinic acid. 
B. Precipitate flesli coloured. 
insoluble in concentrated 
but soluble in dilute hy- 
drochloric acid. 
4 Benzoic acid. 
c. Precipitate bluish black. 
5 Tannic acid. 
2. A Colouration. 
A. Colour blood red. 
Another tcst-tul)c of the 
solution gives with silver 
nitrate a precipitate. 
a Kc-dissolved on boiling. 
6 Acetic acid. 
h Blackened by boiling. 
7 Formic acid. 
B. Colour violet. 
8 Salicylic acid. 
3. Neither Precipitate nor Colour- 
ation. 
I. Another portion of the solu- 
tion gives with silver nitrate a 
white precipitate. 
A. Blackened by boiling. 
Another portion of the so- 
lution gives with Tartaric 
acid — 
a A precipitate. 
9 Tartaric acid. 
b No precipitate, but a 
white precipitate on 
addition of calcium 
chloride. 
10 liaclmic acid. 
c No precipitate, nor when 
calcium chloride is 
added. 
11 Malic acid. 
B. The precipitate caused by- 
silver nitrate docs not 
blacken on boiling. 
Another xiortion of the so- 
lution gives with calcium 
chloride — 
a An immediate precipi- 
tate. 
12 Oxalic acid. 
h A precipitate formed 
only on heating. 
13 Citric acid. 
II. Gives no precipitate with 
silver nitrate. 
14 Lactic acid. 
This table cannot be applied to the detection of acids when 
two or more are present. 
EARACHE. 
By C. Iredell, M.R.C.S., London. 
There is, perhaps, no suffering more acute or more serious 
as a symptom than earache ; and yet, although nostrums with- 
out end are always suggested, patients, especially the little 
ones, very largely go unrelieved until the destruction of tissue 
has taken place, and irretrievable damage has been done. It 
would be manifestly impossible, in the compass of a short 
aiticle, to deal with all the questions involved in the compli- 
cations and sequel* of eai-ache, and as the most serious 
results may follow any incautious treatment of this delicate 
organ, it will he the object of this paper rather to insist on 
how very simple the treatment should be, and to warn 
against some of the forms adopted by those ignorant of the 
subject. 
_ Earache, like toothache, is merely an indication that acute 
inflammation is going on, and that, if this he unchecked, it 
will result in the death of the tissues supplied by the irritated 
filaments of the nerve or nexwes j but as the organism of the 
internal ear is far more delicate and easily injured than that 
of the tooth, it becomes of vast importance to stop the inflam- 
matory process without the smallest delay. Even after a few 
hours of severe earache the most serious damage may be done 
The membrane may have given way (that which is ‘popularly 
known as the drum of the ear, more correctly the drum head) 
and a discharge will then follow, which in its turn, according 
to circumstances of health and constitution, may further 
result in great loss of hearing, polypus, or even graver mis- 
chief. 
_ On the other hand, of course under very favorable condi- 
tions, the rupture may heal, and little or no inconvenience 
follow. 
Again, without any rujiture of the membrane, the inflam- 
matoiy exudation within the cavity of the tympanum may, 
after the acute stage has passed, form itself into adhe- 
sive hands which, as it were, tying down and restricting the 
movements of the chain of ossicles, give rise to one of the 
most mtractahle forms of deafness. Thus it is impossible to 
over-estimate the urgency of immediate attention to the warn- 
ing given by acute pain. 
There is considerable reason for the belief that the tendency 
to earache is more or less constitutional, the most frequently 
exciting cause being cold or local irritation from the throat. 
At the same time, there arc few people who have not experi- 
enced a twinge at some period or other of their lives, usually 
during childhood. 
The pain may vary from occasional shoots to almost insup- 
portable agony, and although for the most part the amount of 
injury may be gauged by the amount of pain, this is not 
always so, the most extensive destruction .sometimes occurring 
with a disproportionately small degree of pain, and running a 
very rapid course. This is usually seen in very severe cases 
of tlie eruptive fevers— especially scarlet fever and measles. 
Occasionally, also, a low form of inflammation, accompa- 
nied by very little pain, but followed by great disintogratioii 
of parts, is seen in consumptive subjects, there being little 
chance of avoiding injury in this case. Earache results, not 
very frequently, hut still sufficiently so to need notice, from 
impacted wax, the iiresence of a foreign body, or from the 
effects of a local injury, including shock from noise ; hut 
whatever the cause, with the exception of wax or foreign body, 
the treatment to he adopted should he the same. ' 
It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that there arc 
upon record, since the days of .^sculapius, a more numerous 
assortment of remedies, suggested and testified to, for this than 
for any other ache or pain that the human body is prone to. 
There is scarcely an oil or distillation of any known mineral, 
vegetable, or animal substance that has not been called into 
requisition. It would fill pages to name them, and it will 
suffice to say that they extend from such widely differing 
material as Copper filings ami Honey " to '^Cockroach Oil 
and Nut GallP A curious instance 'of a by no means bad 
mode of treatment, unfortunately spoilt by quackery, has been 
handed down to us by Hipprocrates, who has it: — “ If any 
person has a pain in his ear, the physician should roll a hit of 
wool about his finger, and then pour some warm oil into the 
ear, and then taking the wool in the hollow of his hand, so 
hold it before the ear, in order to make the patient believe it 
has come out of it. In order that the deception may he com- 
plete, the wool should he at once thrown into the tire.” 
Of those popular remedies now most commonly employed, 
the use of chloroform, or of any kind of spirit or tincture, even 
of opium, cannot too strongly be condemned, while warm oils, 
glycerine, or warm decoctions are only of value so far as their 
warmth is concerned. It is marvellous that the ear should be 
thus badly treated. No one thinks of indiscriminately putting 
things into the eye ; yet the ear, although the external passage 
is protected by skin, has at the end of this passage a mem- 
hiane nearly, if not quite, as sensitive as the cornea of the 
eye, and even more vascular; and as the thickening or opacity 
of the cornea impairs vision, so does the thickening of this 
membrane impair hearing. Thus too much caution cannot he 
used in putting spirit or irritating matter of any kind into 
the ear, more especially during the time of acute inflamma- 
tion. 
Plugs of tobacco, the core of an onion, and such like are 
not harmful so long as they are not pushed in too far, but act 
only as generators of heat. 
The only right way to treat an attack of earache is to set to 
work with the firm determination not to relax any effort until 
the pain has ceased. This can be looked forward to with 
absolute certainty by attention to the following detail, except 
in such a case as alluded to later on. 
Thick coarse flannels must be wrung dry out of the hottest 
water that can he borne, and applied in succession to the ear, 
clianging the flannels at intervals of not more than half a 
minute. If at the end of half an hour the pain has not 
almost entirely gone, no time must he lost in obtaining some 
leeches. Having then lightly plugged the car with cotton wool 
to prevent any blood oozing in, make a leech fasten imme- 
diately in front of the ear, on what is called the tragus, that is 
the small lobe or fold on a direct level with the lower portion 
of the nose, and forming the anterior boundary of the ear. 
The effect of this is usually magical ; but should relief not he 
obtained by one leech, apply another. This faihiig, the sooner 
the patient is taken to a competent authority the better, for 
the case is beyond ordinary treatment, and demands serious 
attention. 
In speaking of fomentations it was necessary to ex])lain the 
method of use, for it has often happened that when fomenta- 
tions have been ordered, poultices have been applied. No 
words can describe the suffering that has been inflicted by the 
use of poultices to the ear. Let it be once for all understood 
that there is no possible condition in which it is even justifi- 
