420 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [November 23,1S72. 
Patent Medicine Licence. 
Dear Sir,—In reply to Mr. Taplin, I will pass over liis 
reductio ad absurdum, and merely ask the name of the che¬ 
mist at Sandown, and the date when he was fined for sell¬ 
ing Ess. Zingib. 
Personally, I have no wish for any alteration in the licence, 
but if any change should be made, I appeal with confidence 
to the majority of the trade for support of my scheme. 
Geoege Be own. 
Sandown, I. TV., November 11 th, 1S72. 
*** [M" e have communicated with Mr. Taplin respecting 
the above question, and have received information from him 
which has satisfied us that his statement ■was correct.— 
Ed. Piiaem. Jouen.] 
Sir,—The flagrant injustice manifest in the imposition of 
this tax has been freely commented on by several of your 
correspondents. 
All are agreed that the sale of patent as well as officinal 
medicines legitimately belongs to chemists and druggists, and 
the assumption of this business by stationers, grocers and 
others ought to be put a stop to. 
While residing in a large manufacturing city the amount 
of trade I did in these articles was about £300 per annum, the 
licence being 10 s.; now, however, as I live within a certain 
distance from the metropolis, and the amount done in patent 
medicines is comparatively small, I have to pay two pounds 
for the privilege. 
It should be remembered that wholesale dealers, whatever 
the extent of their transactions, are placed on the same foot¬ 
ing with the retailers as regards the medicine duty—the 
princely (!) Holloway pays no more—and country wholesale 
manufacturers and wholesale dealers may sometimes be 
exempt from the payment of 10 s. or even 5s. per annum. 
Would it not be possible for Government to make a more 
equitable adjustment of the duty, still realizing a satisfactory 
return ? 
Sieius. 
Educational Labelling. 
Sir,—Seeing many letters in the Journal upon Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Education, I take the liberty of sending you from Dieppe a 
few labels similar to what we have upon all our bottles. When 
I arrived in France 1 was quite ignorant of the contents of the 
French pharmacopoeia, and not having any time to study 
(our hours being from a quarter to seven a.m. till nearly eleven 
o’clock p.m., the early closing not having yet arrived here) 
have been obliged to read up as best I could, but with the 
help of the labels I have been enabled to learn the composi¬ 
tion of most of the various wines, pommades, and syrups, 
which are very numerous. 
The labels contain nearly all the information (with the 
exception of the compounds they enter into) that is re¬ 
quired for the materia examination. First 3*011 have the 
plant, then the family to which it belongs, then the natural 
order, if poisonous or "not, the mode cf employment, dose, and 
if poisonous, the antidote. 
With regard to "wines, syrups, etc., 3*011 have the composi¬ 
tion, if poisonous, mode of employment, dose, etc. 
I think, could these labels be placed upon the bottles, that 
apprentices and all desirous of learning would be greatly 
facilitated, as I have been. 
P. Vincent. 
[*** The labels forwarded by our correspondent are printed 
in black on white paper, by 2 in. or less. We give trans¬ 
lations of two of them.for specimens.—E d. Piiaem. Jouen.] 
LEAVES OE PUEPLE DIGITALIS. 
Digitalis purpurea. 
Family. —Scrophulariacece. 
Source. —Europe. 
Poisonous in large doses. 
Properties. —Diuretic, sedative. 
Not sold without “ ordonnance.” 
Used internally in infusions, in the proportion of 1 to 4 
grams to a litre of water, for dropsy, palpitations, etc. 
Cost, per 500 grams. To sell at 
per gram. per 5 grams. per 30 grams, 
per 125 grams per 250 grams. per 500 grams. 
Observations — 
PASTILLES OE TABLETS OP IPECACUANIIA. 
Formula. —Ipecacuanha powder, 30; sugar, 1470; mucilage 
of gum tragacanth with orange-flower water, q. s. To be 
made into tablets weighing 6 decigrams. 
Properties. —Emetic, expectorant. 
Sold with “ ordonnance.” 
Used internally. 
Dose .—3 to 6 daily as expectorant. (Each tablet contains- 
12 milligrams of Ipecacuanha). 
Cost per 500 grams. To sell at 
per gram. per 5 grams per 30 grams, 
per 125 grams, per 250 grams. per 500 grams. 
Observations — 
Condensed Milk. 
Sir,—It would, I think, interest some of your readers to- 
learn that so far from condensed milk being a new prepara¬ 
tion, a kind of condensed milk was in constant use by the- 
army of Chinese Tartary in the thirteenth century, as this 
paragraph from Marco Polo’s Travels will show:— 
“ They also have milk dried into a kind of paste to carry 
with them; and when they need food they put this in water,, 
and beat it up till it dissolves, and then drink it. 
££ It is prepared in this way; they boil the milk, and when 
the rich part floats on the top the}* skim it into another 
vessel, and of that they make butter, for the milk will not 
become solid till this is removed; then they put the milk 
in the sun to dry, and wdien they go on an expedition, every 
man takes some ten pounds of this dried milk with him, and 
of a morning he will take a half pound of it and put it in his- 
leather bottle, with as much water as he pleases, so as he 
rides along, the milk paste and the water in the bottle get 
w*ell churned together, into a a kind of pap, and that makes 
his dinner.” 
Doncaster, October 23 rd, 1872. C. Paekin. 
C. D. P. —The loss is only one-eighth the quantity of 
phosphate of iron which is helcl in solution. We are not 
aware of any better mode of precipitating it than the Phar¬ 
macopoeia process, where the soda of the acetate neutralizes 
the sulphuric acid in which the phosphate of iron is dissolved* 
The acetic acid thereby set free scarcely dissolves any phos¬ 
phate of iron, and consequently it is precipitated. 
L. TV. Marshall. —We think both your preparations of 
iron must have contained some basic oxide in solution—pro¬ 
bably not the same quantity in each. This wo find is easily 
precipitated by many salts and by acids, except hydrochloric, 
unless these be added in excess. 
II. H. Pollard. —It is intended that the Bell Scholar should- 
avail himself of all the privileges provided for him ; he must 
therefore commence his studies at the commencement of the 
session. See the resolution of the Council recorded on p. 188 
of the present volume. 
“Fluff.” — Succus Taraxaci. — We have never seen the 
juice of dandelion after one-third of its volume of rectified 
spirit had been added to it become so solid that it could 
not be poured from the bottle. Such an appearance might 
have been brought about either by an unusual amount of 
Inulin being present in the Taraxacum root, or by the roots 
being much drier than usual, and consequently the expressed 
juice stronger. The specific gravity of expressed juice of 
Taraxacum from autumn gathered roots should be about 
1*080, and when the spirit is added (before filtration) 1*035. 
Have these speciGc gravities been determined ? Try to 
remove the liquid from the solid by placing in a cloth and 
applying the gentle pressure of a screw press. 
“ Piper.” —(1) We know not what is meant by the term 
££ Nepaul Pepper.” Capsicum is sometimes called ££ Indian 
Pepper.” (2) ££ Phu ” is an old name for Valerian. 
“A Pharmaceutical Chemist .”—We are unable to find any 
record that it has been used medicinally. 
££ Fair Play ” is referred to the rule respecting anonymous 
communications. 
jEditor of the £ TVandsioorth and Battersea District Times? 
—We are obliged for your communication. 
The report of the meeting of the Sheffield Pharmaceutical 
and Chemical Association, on the 13th inst., and that of the 
meeting of the Bristol Pharmaceutical Association, on the 
15th inst., have been received too late for insertion this week. 
Communications, Lettees, etc., have been received from 
Dr. Hardwicke, Mr. M. Lee, Mr. Taplin, Mr. Mildren, Mr. 
Lutwyche, Mr. Metcalfe, Mr. Crooke, ££ Digby Grand,” 
££ Justice,” “Student,” “A Minor Minor,” ££ Unus ex 
Alumnis,” £i Chemist,” A. P. S. 
