September 21, 1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
233 
glycerine, even in a diluted form. In an American 
journal some observations are made on the short 
notice written by my son on the subject; and they state 
that no doubt our experiments are made with diluted 
glycerine. Such, however, is not the case. They were 
made with Price’s glycerine, which, I think, can hardly 
be called diluted glycerine. You have only to add a few 
drops of this substance to find out that carbolic acid in 
all its forms is perfectly soluble in glycerine, and that 
most readily. Creasote we have prepared for 40 years. 
We take the heavy oil of tar, and separate the light oils 
by frequent saponification with oil of vitriol, and ebul¬ 
lition. We distil it in a concentrated form. We do not 
distil it in glass, for it breaks the retorts very readily, 
until you get rid of the whole of the water, and requires 
a very high temperature for the process. We have con¬ 
stantly pursued one process, and never had difficulty. 
Of course, the introduction of carbolic acid has inter¬ 
fered with it. It is strange that G-erhardt was perfectly 
acquainted with it. He says, “ Le substance qu’on vend 
dans le commerce sous le nom de creosote n’est sou vent 
que l’acide phenique plus ou moins impure. Mais le 
veritable creosote, extrait de goudron de bois par M. 
Reichenbach, est un corps parfaitement distinct, et 
c’est a cette creosote que le vinaigre de bois, l’eau 
de goudron, la fumee de bois, doivent leurs pro- 
prietes antiseptiques.” It is a curious thing that 
carbolic acid and creasote act very differently as 
preservatives of animal matter. There are instances in 
which that will be found to be the case. Creasote pre¬ 
serves in a very different way from carbolic acid. There 
is another fact which should not be lost sight of, and 
that is, that if you mix carbolic acid with creasote, the 
mixed body is perfectly soluble in glycerine, and even in 
comparatively diluted glycerine. When it contains half 
its weight of water, it will still dissolve carbolic acid. 
Consequently, the observations made in the American 
journal as to diluted glycerine do not in the slightest 
"degree apply. Professor Fliickiger speaks of anhydrous 
glycerine. That is a body I am not acquainted with; 
but I suspect—in fact, I know—that much that is de¬ 
scribed as beech-wood creasote is nothing but carbolic 
acid, and is not derived from wood. I make this obser¬ 
vation because some of the so-called beech-wood creasote 
becomes red, and that is quite a characteristic of carbolic 
acid. 
Mr. Stoddart : I should like to ask Mr. Morson a 
question which I have not been able to get solved. Some 
few years ago, a naturalist, who was going to Australia, 
went into a shop in London to get some creasote; and 
all the things that he put into the bottle and brought 
back from Australia were preserved admirably. You 
could dissect them, or do what you like with them, and 
thev did not disintegrate. He then took them out, and 
put them into fresh creasote, and, to his utter astonish¬ 
ment, all the things disintegrated. 
Mr. Mousox : He got pure creasote first, and carbolic 
acid afterwards. 
The President : The fact is, that pure creasote has a 
very different sort of antiseptic power from carbolic 
acid. That is very well known amongst zoologists and 
anatomists, who I find generally prefer pure creasote for 
preserving specimens of animal tissues. 
Mr. Morson : AVhen creasote is distilled with water 
and so perfectly saturated, this solution is very efficient 
in preserving objects of natural history. 
Tincture of Perchloride of Iron. 
BY MR. T. H. HUSTWICK. 
So many complaints having been made as to the un¬ 
satisfactory character of this preparation, and so many 
alterations suggested in its formula, is proof enough that 
considerable revision is needed to make it an acceptable 
article to those who have to do with it. 
Of the suggestions that have appeared in the Phar¬ 
maceutical Journal for improvements in the formula, 
one was an addition of a certain proportion of glycerine, 
another, a reduction of the quantity of spirit; the objec¬ 
tion to the first of these is too patent to call for remark, 
and to the second, it is that the reduction is not carried 
far enough, for so long as alcohol is left so long will 
there be a liability to change. 
Now the spirit being useless, either chemically or me¬ 
dicinally, for no medical man orders the tincture from 
any therapeutic value possessed by the spirit, but simply, 
as I believe, from pure force of habit; and it also having 
been pronounced by competent authority to be “useless, 
unnecessary and detrimental,” I think we are justified 
in expunging the tincture from our Pharmacopoeia and 
abolishing it in our practice. 
Acting on this idea, for two years past I had com¬ 
pletely abandoned the use of tincture, the liquor being 
invariably substituted in its place. Prescriptions where¬ 
in tincture was ordered, and which had been previously 
dispensed at other establishments, were prepared by me 
with the liquor, the substitution in no case giving rise 
to any difference either in taste, appearance, or any other 
particular, while, for retailing, it also has completely 
taken the place of the tincture. 
I do not exactly like tampering with official formulae, 
but would prefer, where they are unmistakably objec¬ 
tionable, if possible, to ignore them altogether.. 
As to the legality of such a substitution as this, though 
it cannot be held to be exactly and strictly correct, still 
I think an educated pharmacist who thoroughly under¬ 
stands what he is about, should not be tied down by a 
Medo-Persian law in such a case as this, where an 
elegant, stable, and inexpensive compound is made to 
displace one that is inelegant, unstable and costly; 
such a change causing no difference whenever used. 
These are my own opinions strengthened by experi¬ 
ence, and I should like to elicit an opinion from those 
who have had more experience than myself, and if any¬ 
thing said here to-day on this subject can induce our 
medical friends to prescribe a good article in the place of 
a bad one, I, for one, shall be abundantly satisfied. 
Mr. Sciiacht : I think some of the difficulties which 
are supposed to surround this preparation are more fan¬ 
ciful than real, and can be very easily indeed surmounted. 
I think the changes that sometimes annoy us in the tinc¬ 
ture are limited to one cause, and that is the absence of 
chlorine in the preparation in sufficient quantity, and that 
that arises very likely from the fact that the quantity of 
nitric acid ordered in the Pharmacopoeia is beyond what is 
necessary, and consequently after the oxidation process is 
completed, during the evaporation which follows, a large 
proportion of chlorine is naturally driven oft. I cer¬ 
tainly take this liberty with the Pharmacopoeia process, 
that instead of adding the whole quantity, of nitric acid 
there ordered, and heating until there is the exhala¬ 
tion of red fumes, the acid-protochloride is heated 
and the nitric acid added gradually. The evolution of 
red fumes in that case occurs long before the nitric acid 
is all added. After that, I cease to add further nitric 
acid and the evaporation is then not attended with so 
much loss of the chlorine element. Since I adopted that 
plan some three years ago, I have never found any 
trouble arising from change in tincture made from 
liquor so prepared. 
Mr. Giles : It appears that one gentleman who has 
spoken has taken a liberty with the Pharmacopoeia, and 
I have taken another. 1 think it is very important that 
the formula should exist in a form in which it can be 
practised. I made the tincture according to the. new 
Pharmacopoeia one day, and I have never repeated it. I 
did not try to find out the why and the wherefore. 
Mr. Umney : I was about to confess that I also have 
taken a liberty with the Pharmacopoeia. The excess ot 
nitric acid is about 25 per cent, over the theoretical 
