December 7, 1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
459 
preparations are not of uniform composition,—that hen¬ 
bane and belladonna not being definite chemical sub¬ 
stances, it is unreasonable to expect they will afford pre¬ 
parations of unvarying composition. He also thought 
that.the author had rather assumed than proved that the 
portion of the extracts insoluble in cold water consisted 
wholly of chlorophyll. 
Professor Attfield said that Mr. Barnes had alluded 
to the evolution of nitrous fumes in certain cases during 
the preparation of extracts, and had suggested that some 
nitrous acid might be produced at the expense of the 
nitrogenous principles, notably,, of course, the active 
principles of the plants. Considering how commonly 
nitrates were found in the juices of plants, it was not 
unlikely that the source of the nitrous fumes would be 
nitrates reduced by the organic matters present. He 
had found crystals of nitrate of potassium imbedded in a 
certain specimen of extract, but no nitre in a similar 
specimen from the same drug, which had undergone de¬ 
composition. 
Mr. Umney could quite corroborate what Mr. Barnes 
had stated, upon the unmistakable odour of nitrous 
fumes in making the extract of henbane. Mr. Giles 
strongly advocated at the Pharmaceutical Conference at 
Brighton the omission of the chlorophyll in these green 
extracts. Uiey had a great deal to learn from the 
Americans as regarded fluid extracts. 
Professor Attfield asked Mr. Umney whether he had 
ever noticed these nitrous fumes from senna. He had 
observed them, and he should like to know whether any¬ 
body else had done so. 
Mr. Umney replied that he had not. 
Professor Attfield remarked that fresh henbane juice, 
pressed from a plant within half an hour of its being cut, 
was rich in nitre. 
Mr. Fryer believed that a large proportion of the 
loss in these extracts could be avoided by applying 
less heat. He thought the process of the Pharmacopoeia 
was quite needless in the separation of the chlorophyll. 
It was much better prepared without separating the 
chlorophyll, and by this means a good deal of waste 
could be avoided. Of course, it took a longer time; but 
he believed the result was more satisfactory. 
Mr. Umney said that such an extract w T ould be con¬ 
taminated by the very body that they wished to get rid 
of—the albuminous matter. The authors of the Phar¬ 
macopoeia . had. in view the raising of the juice to the 
boiling-point, in order that the nitrogenous principles 
should be rejected, as they looked upon that as the most 
damaging ingredient in the extract. 
“ A Dispensing Note on Chloral Hydrate,” by Mr. J. 
G. Plumer, was then read by Mr. J. Ince. 
[This paper is printed at p. 443, and gave rise to the 
following discussion :—] 
. Mr. Barnes mentioned that he had recently had occa¬ 
sion to take chloral hydrate, and he found it exceedingly 
disagreeable, even with syrup of orange-peel. He found 
it greatly.irritated the throat; but with the addition of a 
little mucilage of tragacanth, that was almost done awav 
with. __ 
A paper by. Mr. J. Moss, F.C.S.,on “Sulphurated An¬ 
timony, Official and Commercial,” was then read. 
[The paper is printed at p. 443, and gave rise’ to the 
following discussion :—] 
I he 1 resident remarked that this was an interestin 0, 
paper, which might be the means of inducing them to 
test some of their preparations to ascertain whether thev 
were B.P. preparations such as they ought to be : and 
he rather thought this was doubly necessary now’after 
the passing of the Adulteration Act. 
Professor Redwood said this subject was one which 
had come under his notice for a great many years. As 
long as. he could recollect anything of laboratory expe¬ 
rience in that Society, the preparation of sulphurated 
antimony had presented to those engaged in making it 
a great deal of difficulty. The process given in the 
present Pharmacopoeia did not materially differ from 
the processes, previously given. It was true that the quan¬ 
tity of alkaline solution directed to be used with a Uven 
quantity of black antimony was now smaller than it 
used to be, but that did not practically affect the result for 
in none of the cases was the whole of the antimony taken 
up in solution. He could entirely confirm what had been 
stated by Mr. Moss, that, as a general result, proceeding 
as strictly as possible according to the instructions o-i V en 
m the Pharmacopoeia, the product was rather a reddish- 
brown than a yellowish-red powder. Nevertheless, they 
knew that in commerce what had been sold as sul¬ 
phurated antimony was either golden-yellow, as it had 
been sometimes called, or yellowish-red,—lighter and 
brighter in colour than that generally obtained by 
adopting the process given in the Pharmacopoeia. He 
had felt a great deal of interest in the results which 
were represented as having been obtained by Mr. Muss. 
He. regretted, however, that Mr. Moss had not been able 
to indicate a method of manipulation by which, without 
materially altering the composition of the product, they 
might be able to obtain a result nearly coinciding in ap¬ 
pearance with that which pharmacists had been accus¬ 
tomed to use. He believed that if such a preparation as 
the one before them were sent out by wholesale houses, 
the trade generally would reject it; and he should be 
glad, to see a method indicated by which they could 
obtain uniformly a product of a yellowish-red colour 
rather than a brown, and which, nevertheless, should 
have a composition such as the Pharmacopoeia pre¬ 
paration was directed to have. He quite agreed with 
Mr. Moss, that it would be incorrect to use the golden 
sulphuret of antimony, which was commonly met with 
in commerce, and which appeared to contain a large 
proportion—according to Mr. Moss’s analysis, 37 or 38 
per cent.- of oxide in the place of the 3^ per cent, of 
oxide, which Mr. Moss found in the preparation made 
by himself, strictly according to the Pharmacopoeia. 
There could be no doubt whatever that the active con¬ 
stituent of this preparation was the oxide which was 
contained in it. If they now had to consider whether 
this preparation of antimony was the most satisfactory 
which could be proposed, he had no doubt they would 
come to the conclusion that it was not, and that they 
could replace it by some other which would be 
much more satisfactory, because more uniform in its com¬ 
position and more to be relied upon. But suppose they 
were to omit this preparation from the Pharmacopoeia, 
what would be the consequence F It would not be 
omitted from medical practice. They would go on 
using it without, anything in the Pharmacopceia 
to indicate what its composition even approximately 
ought to be, and, therefore, they were bound to retain it 
because it was so firmly fixed in medical practice. 
Since Mr. Moss had kindly given him a copy of his paper 
a day or two ago, he (Professor Redwood) had repeated 
the Pharmacopoeia process. Having made the solu¬ 
tion by boiling the antimony with the alkali, he took 
one portion of it -while it was still hot at nearly 
boiling, temperature,, strained it, and precipitated it 
with dilute sulphuric acid, and it came out as dark 
as the darkest specimen which Mr. Moss had placed 
before them. He took another portion when the cooling 
had taken place to a greater extent, and treated it in the 
same way, and it came out of a much lighter and 
brighter' colour, nearly coinciding with the description 
in the Pharmacopoeia. 
Professor Attfield said that his colleague had almost 
exhausted the subject from a pharmacopoeia ] point of 
view. It seemed that, as regarded the colours of the 
substance, if it was manufactured by the commercial pro¬ 
cess, it included penta-sulphide of antimony, and was 
more or less of an orange-red tint ; if by the official 
process, it contained tersulphide of antimony, but had 
not the official colour—it was brownish, not “orange- 
