THE DETECTION OF PHOSPHORUS. 
57 
whiteness. Let me stop here for a moment to point out that these beautiful fat 
aems—pertectly tree irom rancidity, and not prone to change ; of constant com¬ 
position and melting-point, and often brilliantly white—are too much neglected 
y ie pmc ica pharmaceutist. I hey are easily obtained in any required quan- 
tity and are very cheap. I feel convinced that, ere long, alloys of one or other 
o Kin vitli either the fluid fat acids or with neutral oils ivill replace the 
changeable and unsatisfactory lard as bases of ointments. And the oleic acid of 
pa m 01 , unlike the oleic acid of tallow, is nearly scentless, and answers admi¬ 
rably tor preparing Oleum Morrhuse cum Quina by the method of Dr. Attfield. 
1 do not think that the beautiful specimens of Glycerine , which have so 
artistically been made to adorn this case, call for any especial notice. Here, 
however, is a practical fact. My friend Mr. Tiehborne finds that Price’s glyce¬ 
rine, as it comes into the market, has a specific gravity of 1*253, and that this 
density is scarcely increased by evaporation at 212° F. Many of the German 
glycerines range nearly as high as this, but I have never yet seen a specimen 
equal to Price’s in every respect,” and although taking their very low cost 
into consideration, they are fairly good as a rule, I once met with some which 
was far from being so. It was in a cask : I think there was about fifteen gal¬ 
lons of it, and my attention being attracted by its great thickness, I was led 
to examine it, when it proved to be pure sugar. How it was made I have not 
tbe least idea, but I have never seen a more beautiful specimen of uncrystal- 
lizable glucose. The maker must have been somewhat of a philologist, for when 
axev Ly the importer with the fraud, he took, I heard, the ingenious line of 
defence that as yXvKvs meant " ' ” 1 • *~ - - 
fruit instead of sugar of fat! 
Messrs. Price and Co. also 
Cocoa- Olein. 
Harry Napier Draper. 
(To be continued.) «- 
sweet,” he was justified in selling sugar of 
exhibit Cocoa-stearin , Cocoa-Stearic Acid , and 
Dublin. 
ON THE DETECTION OE PITOSPHOEUS IN CASES OF 
POISONING. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Last year, Dr. TV . Diro. Herapath published a new mode of discovering 
phosphorus in cases of poisoning. It was said to be dependent upou two che¬ 
mical principles—the first of which was, that nascent hydrogen would dissolve 
and combine with phosphorus'either in the elementary state or in that lower 
state of acidity in which it exists after the element has been exposed to slow 
combustion; the second principle was, that such nascent hydrogen would not 
decompose phosphates. 
The first principle has been acted on for many years in making spontaneously 
inflammable phosphuretted hydrogen with phosphorus, zinc and diluted sulphu¬ 
ric acid; it is, in fact, an extended application of Marsh’s means of detecting 
arsenic, antimony, etc.; but it is with the second I have to do here. I thought 
that if the notion that phosphates were not decomposed by the process was not 
correct, it was impossible to say what mischief would be produced by its use in 
cases of suspected poisoning. I therefore commenced a set of experiments to ' 
prove or disprove the fact. I selected those phosphates which were most fre¬ 
quently found in animal matters. I began with pure well-burnt bone-earth * 
this I introduced into a tubulated retort with diluted hydrochloric acid and 
zinc; the gas produced was passed by means of a tube into a solution of ammo- 
niacal nitrate of silver. In a few minutes the solution became black, and soon 
a black powder deposited, which, by chemical means, was rapidly converted 
VOL. VII. 
