240 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
“The addition of water of course increases materially, and in proportion to the 
extent of the addition, the weight of the article ; so that for the purpose of as¬ 
certaining whether water is present, and if so, the amount , nothing more is re¬ 
quisite than to ascertain, at the temperature of about 60° Fahr., the specific 
gravity of the liquid, and to compare this with a table showing the iveight of 
spirit of nitric ether containing different percentages of water.'" He then 
gives a table representing the specific gravities of mixtures of spirit of nitre with 
different proportions of water, by reference to which he proposes to determine 
the percentages of water in the samples under examination. This is certainly 
a very simple and easy mode of jumping to a conclusion, but the result is likely 
to be very far from the truth. 
If the analyst had started by stating—which would have been more like the 
truth than the statement he makes—that sweet spirit of nitre consists of a mix¬ 
ture, in indefinite proportions, of nitrous ether and spirit of wine, and if he had 
further stated that the nitrous (or hyponitrous) ether has a specific gravity, 
according to Liebig, of *947, he might have shown that the addition of this ether 
“increases materially, and in proportion to the extent of the addition, the 
weight of the article;” and he might then have given a table of the specific 
gravities of mixtures in different proportions of nitrous ether and spirit of wine, 
for the purpose of showing the proportion of nitrous ether in a sample under 
examination. This method of determination would have been quite as likely to 
give correct results as the other; but, in fact, neither of them could be relied 
on without other analytical operations, of which no account is given in the 
report. The statements made in the report with reference to the proportions of 
water in the specimens examined, are therefore, as far as we know of the method 
of determination adopted, unworthy of confidence. The exact determination of 
all the constituents of sweet spirit of nitre is not, we admit, an easy task, and 
the analyst might be excused for failing to accomplish his object in this respect 
very completely. But, on the other hand, the production and preservation of 
sweet spirit of nitre that shall consist of “ a mixture in definite proportions of 
nitrous ether and alcohol” and nothing else, is also beset with considerable diffi¬ 
culty, and pharmaceutists may be excused for failing to accomplish this object, as 
even the most eminent chemists have failed to show how it can be accomplished. 
We are given to understand that there will be a new and improved process for 
making sweet spirit of nitre in the forthcoming Pharmacopoeia, and we hope it 
will afford the means of overcoming the difficulties which have hitherto attended 
the preparation and preservation of Spiritus Hither is Mtrici. 
It is stated that the subject of the next report in the 4 Lancet ’ will be “ Spi¬ 
ritus Ammonise Aromaticus.” 
TRANSACTIONS 
OF 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
AT A MEETING OF THE COUNCIL, November Ith, 1863, 
Present—Messrs. Bird, Deane, Hanbury, Haselden, Hills, Mackay, Meggeson, Morson r 
Sandford, Savage, Squire, and Waugh,— 
Mr. Thomas Herring, 40, Aldersgate Street, was unanimously elected to fill the 
vacancy in the Council, caused by the lamented decease of Mr. W. H. Bucklee. 
The following were elected 
