ON THE DETECTION OF METI1YLIC ALCOHOL. 
465 
ticular necessity for growing it at home. He should look forward with interest 
to Dr. Smith’s further experiments upon the growth of jalap, of which there was 
a deficient and uncertain supply ; and the past summer having been so excep¬ 
tional in its atmospheric conditions no general conclusions could safely be drawn 
from experiments in its growth in that year only. He feared, however, that 
but little success would attend its cultivation in the United Kingdom. 
Mr. Hanbitry produced some specimens of jalap grown near London, but 
said he believed his roots were of less size and more watery than those obtained 
by Dr. Smith. There was great difficulty in finding in Europe a climate suit¬ 
able to the growth of this plant, which appeared to flourish only on the Mexi¬ 
can Andes. Its cultivation had been attempted in the south of France, but the 
result was a complete failure, the plants being evidently totally unsuited to so 
dry a climate, whilst in England the summer did not generally last long 
enough for the plants to flower. Last summer, notwithstanding the great heat, 
his plants did not produce a single flower, lie did not know of any part of the 
world except some parts of India where the cultivation could be introduced 
with much hope of success. He bad not ascertained the percentage of resin in 
his roots, but they appeared to have a very saccharine smell,—more so even than 
that from Tampico. He might remark that the mode of drying the roots in 
Mexico imparted a peculiar smell to them ; the tubercules were hung up in a net 
from the roof, where the smoke from a peat fire curled round them, and occa¬ 
sionally a piece would be found quite scorched. 
ON THE DETECTION OF METIiTLIC ALCOHOL. 
BY JOHN T. MILLER. 
It is desirable to be able to detect with certainty small quantities of methylic 
alcohol in presence of spirit of nitrous ether. If for this purpose we employ the 
oxidation test, after merely shaking the spirit with carbonate of potassium, very 
'little reliance can be placed on the indications, as was shown by Mr. H. N. 
Draper, who, it will be remembered, failed in two instances to arrive at correct 
conclusions by this process. 
After trying in several ways without success to overcome the difficulty, 
which is most marked when the samples under examination contain much 
nitrous ether, etc.,—I at last obtained satisfactory results by preparing the 
spirit for oxidation in the following manner :— 
Shake about an ounce of the sample with 20 or 30 grains of anhydrous car¬ 
bonate of potassium, and, if needful, add fresh portions of the salt until it 
ceases to be dissolved, then pour off the supernatant spirit. This serves to 
neutralize acid and to remove water, in which some samples are remarkably 
rich. Introduce half a fluid ounce of the spirit into a small flask ; add 150 
grains of anhydrous chloride of calcium in powder, and stir well together; 
then, having connected the flask with a condenser, place it in a bath of boiling 
water, and distil a fluid drachm and a half, or continue the distillation until 
scarcely anything more comes over. The operation is rather slow, but needs 
little attention, and should be done thoroughly. The distillate contains nearly 
the whole of the nitrous ether and other interfering substances. Now add to 
the contents of the flask a fluid drachm of water, and draw over the half 
drachm of spirit required for testing. Add it to the usual oxidizing solution 
composed of 30 grains of red chromate of potassium, 25 minims of strong sul¬ 
phuric acid, and half an ounce of water ; let the mixture stand a quarter of an 
hour, then distil half a fluid ounce. Treat the distillate with a slight excess of 
vol. x. 2 k 
