176 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
Pharmaceutists require a duty-free spirit, without disagreeable odour or 
any admixture which would prove injurious, when the mixed spirit was taken 
internally, in quantities of at least half an ounce. 
Perfumers and others require a duty-free and odourless spirit, hut it is not 
absolutely essential for it to be free from injurious admixture when taken 
internally. 
The Board of Inland Bevenue, on the other hand, will only sanction a spirit 
of wine being duty-free, conditionally upon something being added to it, so 
as to render it totally unfit for the purposes of a beverage. Another condition 
is, that such addition to the spirit shall be a permanent mixture, and not re¬ 
movable by any known process, method, or operation. 
Now, I think it will be plain to all, that these conditions, as regards phar¬ 
macy at least, are extremely difficult of realization, if not impossible, so that I 
fear we must still continue to use a duty-paid spirit. Although it may not, 
perhaps, ultimately be an extremely difficult task to not only find a method of 
rendering fermented spirit thoroughly unpotable, but incapable of being made 
so, and at the same time adapted for fine varnishes and perfumery, it never¬ 
theless is not at all probable at present. 
It is in meeting these hitherto unsupplied requirements of perfumery, var¬ 
nish-making, etc. e c. (none of which were benefited in the least by methylated 
spirit), that the patent wood naphtha has become of so much importance, all 
the essential oils, odorous substances, resins, gums, etc., being as soluble in 
it, and in some cases even more so than in spirit of wine. In my former 
paper I gave a list of more than twenty essential oils I had dissolved in it; 
since that time I have tried its solvent action on many other essential oils and 
substances used in perfumery, and the general conclusion I have come to con¬ 
cerning it is, that it is a most valuable menstruum,' and one well worthy the 
attention of perfumers and others requiring a spirit for its solvent action. I 
have made several compound perfumes, using only the patent wood naphtha 
as a solvent,—amongst them have been lavender -water, verbena, eau de Co¬ 
logne, the “ favourite,” etc. ; and I have pleasure in placing samples of the 
perfumes so prepared before the Conference, and some specimens illustrating 
the purification of the crude naphtha,—No. 1, being the mixture of oily 
hydrocarbons obtained by diluting the naphtha with water, and found floating 
on the surface of the diluted spirit; No. 2, obtained by distilling the charcoal 
used in the purification of the diluted spirit; No. 3, the finished patent -wood- 
naphtha, as sent into commerce. 
Tor making transparent soaps, as far as my experiments permit me to give 
an opinion, it will be found to answer in every respect as w ell as fermented 
spirit,—curd, Castile, and other soaps being just as soluble in it. It will be in 
the recollection of some here present, that a few years ago ordinary wood- 
naphtha was given and recommended extensively in the treatment of phthisis, 
and now that it can be obtained free from odour and disagreeable taste, its 
medicinal action upon the system would form a very interesting inquiry. In 
cases of painful inflammation, headache, etc. etc., the “Patent Wood-spirit” 
makes a far better evaporating lotion than spirit of wine in the same propor¬ 
tions, on account of its greater volatility, its boiling-point being much lower. 
To the naturalist it affords a new and valuable agent for the preservation of 
his animal and vegetable specimens, being free from the faults that attend 
the ordinary naphtha. It also promises to be of the highest importance in 
photography; from some experiments detailed lately in one of the photo¬ 
graphic journals, gun-cotton is more soluble in it than in sulphuric ether, and 
I have seen a good picture taken upon collodion so prepared. The patent 
wood-naphtha colic dioti will prove a great boon to photographers in India 
and Avarm climates, where the ordinary collodion frequently boils as it is 
