500 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
made to ascertain the value of a test recently proposed by Hager, and published 
in the ‘Pharmaceutical Journal’ (February, 18G6, page 424 of the present 
volume), for detecting the adulteration of otto of roses. This test was based 
upon the alleged fact, that strong sulphuric acid forms, with pure otto of roses, 
a resinous substance, which is entirely soluble in absolute alcohol, while the 
01 dinary adulterants of otto form products that are insoluble, or but partially 
soluble. The great difficulty, he said, that was generally experienced in in¬ 
quiries such as this, was to get specimens for comparison that could be relied 
upon as genuine; but in the present instance he had been relieved from that 
difficulty by having a number of samples of genuine otto of roses and of oils 
used for its adulteration placed at his disposal by Mr. Daniel Hanbury. These 
samples were described by Mr. Hanbury in a paper published in the ‘Pharma¬ 
ceutical Journal,’ vol. xviii. p. 504, in which an account is given of otto of 
roses, its production, adulterations, and usual commercial condition. It was 
generally admitted that commercial otto of roses was rarely if ever unadulterated, 
and some test by which the nature and extent of its adulteration could be de¬ 
termined was much wanted. Hager’s test was represented as supplying the 
required want, but he (Dr. E.) had not found it to be a reliable test. In the 
exjDeriments he had made, he used four samples of what were considered to be 
genuine otto, one sample of the ordinary commercial otto of English commerce, 
two samples of oil described by Mr. Hanbury under the respective names of 
Roslie oil and hh is 3 ctghi , said to be obtained from a species of Andropogon , and 
extensively used in the adulteration of otto, a sample of oil of geranium, and a 
sample of spermaceti. Of the four samples of genuine otto, one was of English 
manufacture, having been produced by Mr. Whipple in the distillation of rose¬ 
water, two were of French manufacture, and one was Turkish. These had all 
been obtained by Mr. Hanbury under circumstances which appeared to afford a 
sufficient guarantee of their genuineness. The samples were all submitted to 
the action of Hager’s test, as described in the published account of it, five drops 
of the oil being mixed with twenty drops of oil of vitriol, and the thick brown 
product resulting from the action of the acid on the oil being afterwards added 
to three diachms of absolute alcohol, and heated to the boiling-point. Accord¬ 
ing to. Ilagei s statement, genuine otto, when thus treated, ought to yield a 
yellowish-brown solution which should remain clear after having been heated 
and allowed to cool,, while from the solution made with adulterated otto, a sepa- 
ration takes place, either of a dark fluid, which collects at the bottom of the 
alcoholic solution, or of a flocculent substance that either rises to the surface or 
remains suspended in the liquid. The latter result is represented as indicating* - 
the presence of spermaceti, while the former indicates the presence of one of the 
oils used as an adulterant. 
Hie results which he (Dr. It.) had obtained did not entirely accord with this 
representation. The two oils called Roslie Oil and Idris Yacjlii , which Mr. Han¬ 
bury describes as identical, gave results such as Hager ascribes to the oils of 
geranium, palm-rose, and pelargonium,—a dark resinous substance separating 
from, the alcohol, and collecting in a globule at the bottom. The sample of 
genuine geranium oil, however, gave no such result, but formed a clear brown 
solution, similar to that obtained with genuine Turkey otto. Spermaceti gave 
a result similar to that ascribed to it by Hager. Therefore, so far, two of the 
adulterants appeared to answer to the test, and one did not. On the other 
hand, applying the test to the four samples of genuine otto, it was found that 
with two of them, namely, the English and one of the French samples, a floc¬ 
culent matter separated from the solution, which closely resembled that pro¬ 
duced with spermaceti, so that only two of the samples, one French and the 
other Turkish, answered to the test as genuine otto. Moreover, it was found 
that the sample of commercial otto, which there was every reason to believe was 
