GELATINE CAPSULES FOE BOTTLES. 
511 
chloric acid and iron wire, care being taken to prevent the access of air as much 
as possible. This solution is poured in a Woolf’s flask, and a current of pure 
chlorine gas is made to pass through it until the protochloride is converted into 
perchloride. Then, to remove the excess of chlorine, the solution is exposed in 
a porcelain evaporating dish, at a temperature that must not exceed 50° Centigi ade 
(or 122° Fahrenheit). When the required density is obtained, to get rid of the 
last traces of chlorine a current of air is passed through the solution. 
Thus obtained, it is perfectly neutral and transparent, and will keep so for 
any length of time, without forming a deposit. 
This solution, as it is generally made and kept, contains 26 per cent, of anhy¬ 
drous perchloride of iron 5 but, on being further diluted with water, it is noo 
more liable to alteration. On the addition of spirits of wine, a slight deposit 
will take place after some time. 
It will be observed that the superiority of M. Adrian’s process consists in 
not suffering the solution to boil, and in conducting the evaporation at a tem¬ 
perature not exceeding 122° Fahrenheit. 
If you think this sufficiently interesting, you will insert it in your next 
number. 
I am, Sir, yours respectfully, 
E. Dupeey, Pharmaceutical Chemist. 
Jersey , March 16 , 1866 . 
GELATINE CAPSULES FOE BOTTLES. 
TO THE EDITORS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Dear Sirs,—The appearance of Mr. Haselden’s interesting paper, upon the 
employment of gelatine for capping bottles, in your last number, lias induce 
me to offer a few remarks relative to my own connection with the subject. 
The author of the article in ‘ Temple Bar,’ I have every reason to believe, is 
a member of the literary profession lately located in Leicester, and_ the whole 
of that portion of his paper relating to the employment of gelatine in place 01 
metal, is simply a repetition, word for word, of information he obtained from 
me a week or two before that number of ‘ Temple Bar ’ appeared. I have been 
quite unable to ascertain his address, as he left Leicester just after the article 
appeared, or I should have called his attention to his own aptitude for appro¬ 
priation,—literary kleptomania being a malady of which the patient is, in many 
cases, loftily unconscious. ' . . 
I have used gelatine for bottle capping for nearly two years. During the 
summer of 1864, we had complaints from several colonial customers, of photo¬ 
graphic varnishes, which we export largely, percolating through the cork, (from 
pressure caused by expansion while passing the heat of the tropics,) dissolving 
the wax and causing much loss to the purchaser. I thought of gelatine, and 
proceeded to test it against damp. I laid a bottle capped with it on a damp 
cellar floor for three months, at the end of that time the capping was decidedly 
harder than when it was first placed there, and we then adopted it m our ware¬ 
house for all photographic spirituous and ethereal preparations, for ammom 
carb., potass, bicarb., ol. ricini, and, where applicable, for every article we put 
up in bottles or jars. To seven pounds of the lightest-coloured glue we can 
obtain we add about ten ounces by weight of Price’s glycerine, and about three 
pints of water; when the glue has absorbed this, we place the whole in ivwater- 
bath, and add sufficient pigment—Derby red or emerald green we find best to 
form a neat clean-coloured capping,—also more water if required. 1 recollect 
distinctly that I suggested transparent capping to my enterprising friend ot 
