November 9, 1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
361 
TINCTURE OF ORANGE-PEEL. 
BY A. F. HASELDEN, F.L.S. 
Tincture of orange-peel lias often furnished a 
topic for conversation, but I do not remember see¬ 
ing any written communication upon it published in 
our Journal, hence one reason why I have thought 
it worthy of being brought to your notice this 
evening; secondly, wliilst the Pharmacopoeia directs 
the dried peel to be used, there are pharmacists who 
consider that the fresh peel, or peel cut in England, 
and not allowed to dry, is to be preferred in point of 
flavour. Again, there are others who admit the 
superiority of the fresh peel when the tincture is 
unmixed, but consider it a matter of secondary 
importance, in the eyes of their patrons, when 
mixed with other ingredients, as in tincture 
of quinine, or when added to other things in 
prescriptions, the supposed delicate flavour of the 
fresh peel is inappreciable. Again, there are phar¬ 
macists who look upon the peel cut, dried abroad, 
and imported into this country for the purpose of 
tincture, equal to that cut and dried here, although 
the Pharmacopoeia describes orange-peel as “The 
dried outer part of the rind of the bitter orange, 
Citrus Bigaradia, Itisso, ‘ Histoire Naturelle des 
Orangers,’ plate 30.” From the ripe fruit imported 
from the South of Europe I can hardly imagine 
it would exclude the same, because it was cut and 
dried abroad. 
“ Characters. —Thin, of a dark orange-colour, 
nearly free from the white inner part of the rind, 
having an aromatic bitter taste and fragrant odour ” 
As regards colour, the foreign-cut peel I have gene- 
require less water to make the spirit proof. How¬ 
ever, I do not think that that circumstance has at 
all interfered with the flavour of the article pro¬ 
duced. The specific gravity of each has been 
taken, and there is considerable variation, running 
thus:—-944, ’938, *936, -926, and '922. This I 
shall be happy to explain presently, as in my 
opinion it does not affect the odour or flavour which 
is the point which I should be glad if you could 
decide this evening; and that I may in no way bias 
your opinion, I refrain at present from giving my 
own. I feel that it may be diffbnltto taste or smell 
one after the other withou bsiig in some measure 
confused, but we expect as muon sometimes in our 
examinations; at any rate, any great difference 
either in colour, fragrance or flavour, I may natu¬ 
rally expect to be readily detected. 
[The discussion upon this paper is printed at p. 369.] 
THE 
PROPOSED “UNIVERSAL 
PHARMACOPOEIA.”* 
BY PROFESSOR REDWOOD. 
One of the questions submitted to the “ Interna¬ 
tional Congress of Pharmaceutical Associations and 
Unions,” at the meeting held at Vienna on the 9tli 
and 10th of September, 1869, was as follows:— 
“ What should be done to effect the greatest pos¬ 
sible uniformity in the strength and composition of 
the remedies used in all countries ? ” A continuation 
of the universal codex question. 
When tills question came before the Congress, 
Mr. Waldheim, of Vienna, stated that the Societe 
de Pharmacie of Paris was then engaged in pre¬ 
rally met with is darker than the English cut, but p ar i U g a small work which would contain the reme- 
not so thin. Upon the table are five samples of qj es ^ost generally used in all countries, and espe- 
tincture, four of which were prepared by macera- c i a iiy the most important and powerful remedies, 
tion (B.P. proportions). Maceration was chosen as suc h as hydrocyanic acid, tincture of opium, Fowler’s 
~ 4-^ the little accidents which some- ■ 1 - 1 -- 1 mu- v - 
being less liable to 
solution, the mineral acids, etc. The formulae for the 
times attend percolation, and they could all be pre-1 preparation of these medicines would be given ac- 
pared at the same time, without requiring four per- cording to the principal pharmacopoeias, and ques- 
colators of the same size, and one was prepared by 
percolation. 
To those who hitherto have not paid attention to 
the subject, it may be interesting to know that the 
fresh peel cut here, not being as thin as I wished 
it, upon being recut by myself, lost just one-fourth 
of its weight, that is, I removed one fourth of the 
white inner part of the rind ; secondly, this, upon 
drying, lost two-thirds of its weight, i.e., eight 
ounces out of twelve, and even then was not as dry 
tions put as to the reasons for having different 
forms, and for preferring any one of these to the 
others. He said the work would in a short time be 
ready for publication, and would as soon as pub- 
lislied be sent to the different pharmaceutical cor¬ 
porations with a request that it might be circulated 
among medical men and pharmaceutists, and their 
remarks made on blank pages with which it would 
be interleaved. 
This announcement appeared to the Congress to 
as the commercial article. This, dried by myself, cost I qi S p 0Se 0 f the subject, at least for the time, very 
5s. per lb., the commercial dry English peel costs satisfactorily, and accordingly a resolution was 
from 2s. 2d. to 3 s., and the foreign from dd. to Is. Of p asse q thanking the Societe de Pharmacie of Paris 
these five examples, the one by percolation was made f or havin" undertaken the work, and encouraging 
with foreign imported dry peel; of the others, one them to proceed with it and get it finished as soon as 
with foreign, one with the English commercial dry p 0SS ible. 
peel, one with the peel recut and dried by myself, Although three years have now elapsed since that 
announcement was made, I am not aware that any 
further information has been published with refer- 
and one with the fresh peel recut; of this last six 
ounces were required as an equivalent of two 
ounces dry. In preparing the tincture with fresh ence t he promised work, nor do I know what pro 
peel, I made one oversight. I tell you this because „ ress h as been ma q e towards its completion, 
non-success is sometimes as useful as success. The ° j n ^ ie current number of the ‘ Chemist and Drug- 
oversight was tills : although I calculated the quan- a no tice appears headed, “ Universal Pharma - 
tity of the fresh peel required as an equivalent for CO p^eia,” i n which it is stated that Dr. Phoebus, of 
the prescribed quantity of dry peel, I omitted to j coniointlv with some other chemists and 
calculate the amount of moisture, and that I should pharmacists of high standing, privately undertook 
* Read at the Evening Meeting of the Pharmaceutical * Read at the Evening Meeting of the Pharmaceutical 
Society of Great Britain, November 6, 1872. | Society of Great Britain, November 0,1 7-. 
Third Series, No. 124. 
