170 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
of carbonate of soda, boil it down to 2 fluid drachms, and add enough acetic 
acid to impart a distinct though feeble acid reaction; then pour it into a test 
tube and after adding a grain of nitrate of silver, dissolved m hah a drachm of 
water boil ^ gently :for about two minutes. If the liquor merely darkens a 
little but continues quite translucent, the spirit is free from methyl; but if it 
become^inuddy 1 and^opaque, and the tube, after being rinsed and filled with 
water, appears browned (best seen by holding it against white paper), the spirit 
T dtti!led d a portion of the tinct. rhei, of which I have brought a sample, and 
Oil testing the distillate with the iodo-hydrargynde of potassium, there was no 
precipitate, thus indicating the presence of methylic alcohol. °n carrying ou 
the oxidation method of detecting it, I obtained further 
thus confirming the reliability of the iodo-hydrargynde of potassium, and. 
•proving, beyond all dispute, that the tincture was a methylated one. I think 
it will be evident that this specimen of tinct. rhei must have been prepared vith 
« cleaned methylated spirit, though very few could, I believe, detect the methy- 
fate^sp^itby^die sense of ’smell alone/ If a method of oxidizing the methylic 
alcohol and of neutralizing the acid so formed could be devised, without distilla¬ 
tion it would wonderfully simplify the oxidation test; although I have 1 
some experiments in this direction, by heating the methylated spirit with a mix¬ 
ture of lime and potash, they have not yet been of a satisfactory nature. I have 
not tried the action of platinum black on methylated spirit, but presume it would 
slowly^convert 5 the ethylic alcohol into acetic acid, and the methylic into formic 
acid 7 According to Dobereiner, spongy platinum, moistened with wood spirit, 
does not act upon the air, but if moistened at the same time with strong caustic 
potash, it often becomes heated to redpess, and converts the wood spirit, * 
into formic and afterwards into water and carbonic acid. v 
11 befng very suitable to the present paper, and, thinking too they would 
prove of interest, I have pleasure in placing before Conference, eight different 
specimens of methylated preparations, kindly placed at my service by the Cliair- 
of the Board of Inland Revenue, W. H. Stephenson, Esq. There are three 
“ecimens of the beverage called “ whiskee,; three of « brandee,” onei tincture o 
rhubarb and one sweet spirits of nitre. The specimens of brandee are a i 
prepared with methylated spirit, without any, or at any rate hut little prepa- 
ratorv cleaning and are all distinctly acid. The “ Medicated Indian Brandee, 
and the “ Cordialized Indian Brandee ” are all sweetened with sugar. I he I rench 
brandee or Indian tincture is different to the other two, being much higher 
flavoured it is made very sweet with honey, and, I believe contains saffron as 
a flavouring ingredient; the colour is derived from burnt sugar, and they a 1 
contain more or less sweet nitre. I am not at all prepared to say, positively, in 
what manned ^ the sweet spirit of nitre comes to be present in these beverages ; 
whether there is a certain amount of sweet nitre added to the methylated spirit, 
or whether it arises from the addition of nitric acid to the spirit and then boil- 
ino- or distilling it, is very difficult to say. I am rather inclined to believe that 
ihl litter is the true origin of it, and that the nitric acid is added with the in¬ 
tention of oxidizing the oils in the naphtha, or at any rate modifying the tagie 
and smell of the plain methylated spirit. The three specimens of whiskee 
differ much from each other, the medicated whiskee contains a good deal of sweet 
nitre and is strongly acid, the sweetening agent here used is sugar, ? and itmsit e 
least sweet of all the beverages; the u Hollands flavoured whiskee is acid, and, 
like the others, contains a portion of sweet nitre, and is sweetened with honey. 
I now come to the last, thS best, and the most 
rimpns illustrating human ingenuity m cheating the Lxcise, the 1 mre . 3 
Mountain Medicated Whiskeethis was at first a colourless and perfectly c ear 
syrupy liquid, which, on being exposed to full daylight in a window, durmg 
