ON EMULSIONS. 
105 
Tlie only characteristic of the ammonia derived from this source that I am 
aware of is its perfect purity and freedom from all those minute traces of evil¬ 
smelling compounds with which both that made from gas liquor and from bones 
are so liable to be tainted. 
The annual yield of the lagoons is, as I previously stated, an almost im¬ 
possible problem. Doubtless the amount of ammonia arriving in this coun¬ 
try in the boracic acid is a very small amount in comparison with that 
which is yearly run away in the mother-liquors. Nor do I think that there 
would be a profit on collecting it, as the price it would fetch in this market 
would hardly do more than cover the expenses of transit. 
Mr. Brady expressed much satisfaction that Mr. Howard’s firm had placed in the 
hands of pharmaceutists liquor ammonite of volcanic origin, sufficiently pm-e for pre¬ 
paring liq. amnion, acet., Br. Ph. Had it not been for this, he thought it would have 
been next to impossible to find ammonia made from gas-products that would have been 
sufficiently pure for this critical preparation. 
Dr. Parkinson had met with liquor ammoniac made from gas-liquors in which not 
a trace of tarry odour could be detected after neutralization. 
The Conference adjourned till 4 p.m. 
ON EMULSIONS. 
BY MR. BARNARD S. PROCTOR. 
In our published list of subjects for investigation, my name stands as having 
undertaken the study of emulsions. At the time this promise was made, I was 
aware that I could not work it to a satisfactory conclusion in the course of the 
year, but circumstances soon occurred which made it impossible even to get it 
so far advanced as to justify a report of progress; unwilling, however, to let the 
meeting of the Conference for 1865 pass without some communication from my¬ 
self, I may state to you how the subject arose, and what I had proposed to do. 
The subject suggested itself to me, some years ago, from observing that a 
mixture which was made with balsam of copaiba and an alkali, was, from some 
cause, a very imperfect emulsion, and that a further addition of alkali rendered 
it still less satisfactory. At another time I noticed that in making Locock’s lotion 
(from Beasley’s formula), a less perfect emulsion was formed, when strong solution 
•of ammonia was used, than when it was prepared with that of -960 sp. gr. ; and 
that it was most perfect when the mixture was so long rubbed in the mortar, 
that great part of the ammonia evaporated. These were crude and casual obser¬ 
vations. I was not prepared to say whether it was much rubbing or much evapora¬ 
tion which was the cause of the superiority in the latter case, but I was im¬ 
pressed with the subject as being one worth looking into. I remembered often 
observing that soap was much more effectual than caustic alkali, for removing 
grease from bottles ; I bore in mind also, that most, if not all the natural emul¬ 
sions, were not far removed from neutrality. These floating thoughts, not 
.systematized, but not forgotten, were occasionally turned over, in the hope that 
they would at last germinate and give rise to a crop of facts which should prove 
of practical value. 
Questions spring up like weeds in uncultivated ground ; they are abundant in 
the field I have entered upon. I propose now to show you the most conspicuous 
of these spontaneous growths ; some time, probably a long time must elapse, be¬ 
fore I can hope to present you with the answers which should be the produce of 
cultivation. 
The first question is, what is an emulsion? Is it essentially a watery fluid, 
holding in suspension an oily or resinous body ? The term is a very indefinite 
