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SOLUTION OF PROTOXIDE OF NITROGEN. 
TO THE EDITOE OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—Attention having been drawn by Mr. C. H. Wood and other writers to 
a paper on solution of protoxide of nitrogen by M. Stanislas Limousin, in the 
1 Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie,’ it may not be uninteresting to your readers 
to know that such a solution has been prepared for medicinal use on rather a 
large scale in this country ; during the last two or three years the firm with 
which I am connected has made and sold upwards of 15,000 half-pint bottles ; 
it has been prescribed with apparently good results by some local physicians, 
and is preferred to other effervescing waters by many persons who now drink it 
regularly. 
A similar solution is also described by Pereira (‘ Materia Medica,’ vol. i. 4th 
edition, p. 421) as “aqua azotica oxygenata,” or “ Searles’ patent aerated oxy¬ 
genous water,” containing five times its bulk of the gas. 
I am, Sir, yours truly, 
F. Baden Benger. - 
1, Market Place, Manchester. 
SULPHATE OF BEBERINE. 
TO THE EDITOE OF THE PHAEMACEUTICAL JOUENAL. 
Dear Sir,—A foot-note at page 193 of your October number runs thus : — 
“ But the so-called sulphate of bibirine of Macfarlan of Edinburgh, of which 
Mr. Hanbury provided me a sample, proved in fact to yield only a very trifling 
amount of pure bibirine, the sulphate containing so large a proportion of dark 
brown-coloured matter that it caused the purification of bibirine to be ex¬ 
tremely difficult, at least by the method above mentioned, which, however, I 
believe to be the best.” We have one short reply to give Dr. Fliickiger. If 
we prepare our sulphate of bebeerine with the materials, and by the method, or¬ 
dered in the British Pharmacopoeia, we are not responsible for what it does or 
does not contain. 
Dr. F. forgets the “sulphate of beberia” is a pharmaceutical preparation of a 
somewhat variable and unknown constitution, save that it contains an alkaloid 
named beberia. He forgets that, and then compares and contrasts it with a 
chemical compound of definite composition, namely pure beberine. 20 ounces 
of the Decoctum Cinchonse Flav.oe of the B.P. may contain 14 or 15 grains of 
quinine, or about 1 grain in 580 fluid grains of the decoction ; it does not need 
italics to tell us that it yields quinine to a very trifling amount; and it is not, 
for the purpose of blaming individuals who prepare it, a fair thing to contrast 
it with pure quinine. Its proper standard is itself, i. e. an honestly-prepared 
decoction. 
If by the word “ impurity,” when applied to pharmaceutical preparations, 
we are to understand all other substances except one prime ingredient in a pre¬ 
paration, we object to the term out-and-out; for, from the materials given and 
the method ordered, those other substances ought to be in it,—they constitute 
a part and parcel of it. In chemical ethics, “the law” is, take them all out; 
but in pharmaceutical ethics it is, keep them all in , for, in many cases, they are 
valuable, and you have no authority to remove them whether they are or are 
not. 
The “ sulphate of beberia ” needs investigation. Unfortunately, we think, 
the name was first applied to a fluid extract of bebeeru bark, got by excess of 
