162 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
u What are the advantages and disadvantages of the addition of spirit to, and 
of the retention of, the excess of oil in contact with them ? 
In 1696 the ‘ New London Dispensatory ’ contained no less than one hundred 
and sixty-seven u simple distilled waters 5 ” in this paper, however, the waters 
considered are those of the British Pharmacopoeia. They are twelve in number, 
the first being simple distilled water. , , 
It is well known that simple distilled water will not keep long In a perfectly 
pure state ; change and decomposition occur, however carefully it may have 
been distilled and preserved. Formerly, I distilled about 20 gallons at a tune, 
and kept it in a well-closed copper cistern; but discovering in it on one occasion, 
a confervoid growth, I have since adopted the plan of distilling only half the 
quantity at a time, keeping it upon a convenient shelf by itself in half-gallon 
"lass bottles, simply capped with paper. The bottles are filled direct from the 
still; we can always see that it is in good condition, and have simply to ex¬ 
change empty for full bottles to keep a supply in the dispensing department. 
We next come to camphor w r ater. I think I am right in saying that the 
"eneral impression is it contains a homoeopathic quantity of camphor when 
made according to the Br. Ph. This impression is not however universal. . - 
know a medical gentleman in large practice who seldom or never orders a mix¬ 
ture to be made up in quantity with camphor water alone, but 1 or 2 ounces, 
and then to fill up with distilled water. May we not gather from these ex¬ 
tremes, that there "is a cause for such diversity of opinion as to its medicinal 
power ? In order to arrive at some conclusions as to the quantity of camphor 
dissolved in the Br. Ph. process, I cut carefully and weighed exactly 120 grains of 
fresh camphor divided into four pieces, put them in muslin, with a glass weight to 
sink it, into a half-gallon bottle of distilled water, corked and left it for two 
days. I then withdrew the pieces of camphor, carefully dried them with blot¬ 
ting-paper, and weighed them ; they had only lost 6 grains. I then re-cut them 
into about twenty pieces, put them again in muslin into the bottle, let it stand 
five days, shaking occasionally, and at the end of that time the dried camphor 
only weighed 100 grains ; thus by the first process only ^th of the gum was 
dissolved, by the second part £th part, I think this is sufficient to show a ne¬ 
cessity for more definite instructions than those of the Br. 1 h. 
We will now consider in a class the cordial aromatic waters, viz. caraway, 
dill, cinnamon, fennel, peppermint, spearmint, and pimento waters; and I here 
venture to express an opinion, that all of these can be better prepared by tritu¬ 
rating the essential oils with chalk than by distillation. I have samples ol pep¬ 
permint and spearmint waters, distilled under the most favourable circum¬ 
stances from the choicest portions of the fresh green herb, just bursting into 
bloom, and they at present, as to aroma, compare favourably with the samples 
made from the oils ; but before many months are past they will give evidence 
of incipient decomposition, and then, even in aroma, be inferior to the samples 
made from the oils. But is the slightly more agreeable aroma the chief con¬ 
sideration in these waters ? Is it not rather their medicinal power, their uniform 
strength, and their freedom from incipient decomposition ? When distilled 
from the raw material, whether fruit or herb, there is always in the water some 
mucilaginous matter, which by degrees degenerates into confervoid growths; 
but the pure essential oil seems to have a preservative power on the water, as 
waters so impregnated will keep longer than plain distilled water. Besides this, 
there is the fact that such waters can be prepared at any season of the year.* 
I have now to speak of rose and elder-flower waters. Of these it can scarcely 
be said, that their medicinal power is the chief consideration, and therefore the 
*= Samples of nearly all the waters, made respectively by distillation from the raw material, 
and by trituration with the essential oil, were submitted to the meeting. 
