156 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
earnestly hope that under the auspices of the New Pharmacy Act, along with 
the superior spirit of emulation engendered by the workings of the British 
Pharmaceutical Conference, future reports will show less and less till it can be 
said that “Adulteration is a vice unknown in British Pharmacy;” then, and 
not till then, will our Conference have fulfilled its mission. 
Since writing the foregoing I have had other four samples brought in. 
I). G. -950, P. G. D. -855, D. H. F. -845, and G. B. T. -930. The first is a 
bad sample of adulteration sold for 3d. per ounce, and contains two parts water 
to one of sweet spirit of nitre. The second, fair. The third, pure. The 
fourth is half water, and sent out unlabelled. 
The President said, that his experience of the process for sp. aether, nitr. in the Brit. 
Pharin. was favourable to it, the product being perfectly satisfactory. 
Mr. Sutton could not accept as very definite the iodine test described by the author 
of the paper; certainly it was not so, unless the same sample of iodide of potassium 
was always used. 
Mr. Deane was not aware of any objection to the use of an alkaline bicarbonate, or 
of a proper quantity of liquor potassse to neutralize free acid of sp. sether. nitr. when it 
had to be dispensed in combination with iodide of potassium. 
Professor Attfield confirmed the President’s remarks as to the results of the formula 
given in the B. P. He found that the junior students were always able to make a satis¬ 
factory preparation by following the directions of that formula. 
ON THE ADULTERATION OF ANNATTO. 
BY W. LAIRD, PH. C., DUNDEE. 
The Conference meeting this year in the chief city of a great agricultural 
district will, I hope, be held as a sufficient reason for my bringing under notice 
a subject not strictly pharmaceutical, but rather agricultural, i. e. adulteration 
of annatto. I have heard that there is a saying in some parts of England, that 
“ annatto now-a-days won’t dye.” I don’t wonder at it, if the sample before 
me is anything like a fair sample of what is usually supplied to the trade. We 
are told “ annatto is obtained from the seeds of Bixa Orellana , is imported into 
Europe in cakes and usually made up in England into rolls before sale we 
are further told that “ the best annatto is known as roll annatto.” This sample, 
when received about two years ago, was labelled “ roll annatto,” and seemed 
what its name implied, good, of a beautiful deep orange colour, and pliable, 
something like a well beaten pill-mass. In my unsuspicious ignorance I thought 
it of first-rate quality. A short time after, on having occasion to sell some, I 
found it studded with minute crystals of salt, but, being busy, paid no attention 
to them till some time afterwards, I found that the crystals had largely increased 
in size and number. I supposed the salt had been added to help to keep it moist, 
or it might be to increase weight and profit. I thought, however, that this was 
at least a safe if not a necessary adulteration. As time went on my beautiful 
annatto began to lose its rich colour and softness, becoming shrunk, hard, and 
mottled, like a piece of brick made of badly cleaned clay. Being now thoroughly 
convinced of the roguery of some one, I was desirous of knowing to what extent 
and how it had been adulterated. 1 weighed out a hundred grains from a thin 
section of one of the rolls, digested it for twenty-four hours in two or three 
ounces of spirits of wine, boiled the residue in two ounces more, then put it 
into a percolator, passed spirit through it till it came off colourless, finishing off 
with ether, which also came through colourless, thus making sure of having 
thoroughly exhausted it of the “orelline;” on drying and weighing the residue 
