March 22, 16?3.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
743 
repeat the experiments ; believing that such action’ 
if existing, might be due to the alkalinity of the 
borax. On treating both bitter almonds and black 
mustard-seed with borax solution, I found the odour 
of the essential oil peculiar to each to be exhaled ; 
but my experiments, though convincing me that M. 
Dumas was in some degree under an error, were not 
complete enough to warrant their publication. How¬ 
ever, the February number of the Journal de Pliar - 
made gives a paper by M. Petit, read before the 
Paris Academy of Sciences, to which it would seem 
my crude experiments may be fairly and usefully 
appended. This paper has appeared in the Phar¬ 
maceutical Journal of March ]5tli. 
M. Dumas states that the essential oil noticed on 
treating the black mustard with borax solution existed 
previously in the seed; this, however, is contrary to 
one’s usual experience, as no odour whatever of the 
oil is perceptible when the freshly crushed seeds are 
treated with lime water. My tests were confined to 
crushed black mustard-seed and bitter almonds (the 
latter in lieu of amygdalin and emulsin employed by 
M. Dumas). 
The solutions I employed were borax, containing 
30 grains of the salt in two ounces of water; bicar¬ 
bonate of soda, 30 grains in two ounces of water ; 
carbonate of soda, 20 grains in two ounces of water; 
and lime water. 
Crushed black mustard-seed and bitter'almonds, in 
quantities of about half an ounce each, were seve¬ 
rally treated with the above solutions and digested, 
at a temperature of 60° F., in closed flasks, which 
were from time to time carefully examined. The 
experiments were repeated more than once, with the 
following results:— 
Black Mustard Seed. Bitter Almonds. 
Bicarbonate of \ Oil evolved within { Oil evolved within 
Soda Solution.) 5 minutes. \ 1 hour. 
Oil evolved, faint 
Oil evolved within 
30 minutes. 
Borax. 
A 
Carbonate 
Soda. 
Lime Water. 
of 
ly, within 90 
minutes, but 
strongly within 
6 hours. 
Oil not evolved 
until after 16 
hours, and then 
only faintly. 
No evolution of oil (No evolution of oil 
in 36 hours. \ in 36 hours. 
Oil evolved within 
40 minutes. 
M. Dumas stated that borax neutralizes the action 
of yeast, synaptase, diastase, and myrosin ; but it 
would appear, from the experiments of M. Petit, that 
a one per cent, solution of borax possesses no power 
in arresting the action of yeast upon cane-sugar solu¬ 
tion ; and from my own, that it only slightly retarded 
the formation of essential oil in a mixture of either 
black mustard-seed or bitter almonds with water. 
kingdoms, and the most obscure medical practitioner 
felt it incumbent on him to peruse at least some 
epitome indicating the principal differences in strength, 
etc., of the preparations ; he found Liq. ammonite 
acetatis five times as strong as its prototype, and 
prescribed accordingly. Now this work proving a 
failure it became necessary in three years to issue a 
new edition, and the pharmacist, desirous of keeping 
pace with pharmaceutical progress, soon renders him¬ 
self conversant with this last edition ; not so the 
medical practitioner—he feels the change to be a bore 
rather than otherwise (of course there are many ex¬ 
ceptions), and only slowly adopts the various improved 
preparations, and we find some even to the present 
day prescribing twenty minim doses of Liq. ammonise 
acetatis, presuming that quantity to be equivalent to 
100 minims of the P.L. preparation. 
In an appendix then, which it is intended to pub¬ 
lish intermediately between the editions of the B.P., 
no alteration in the strength or general characters 
of any existing preparation should be made ; but 
clearly it is desirable as far as possible to correct all 
the errors of the work it is intended to supplement, 
to introduce improvements in manufacture, to make 
such additions as seem desirable, and thus bring the 
work up to pharmacy of the day. 
Ferri sulph. granulata is an acknowledged mistake : 
could it not be corrected by something like the follow¬ 
ing paragraph ?—“ Where ferri sulph. granulata is 
ordered, use ferri sulph. cryst., answering to the 
following characters and tests,” etc. 
Ungt. plumbi subacetatis comp, soon becomes dis¬ 
coloured by the formation of oxide of lead: this is 
readily prevented by the addition of a few drops of 
acetic acid, and such addition could easily be sanc¬ 
tioned in the appendix. 
Introducing specific gravities of tinctures would, I 
fear, be less valuable than its advocates suppose. 
Two samples of opium, containing the same percent¬ 
age of morphia, will contain varying amounts of 
extractive matter soluble in proof spirit, hence will 
produce tinctures of different specific gravities: to 
dilute the tincture of greater density, so as to bring it 
to the standard of the other, would of necessity reduce 
the percentage of morphia in the finished product, 
and yet uniformity of strength is of vastly greater 
importance than specific gravity. Again, the finest 
myrrh does not always produce a tincture of the 
greatest density, often the reverse, and yet if a 
tincture of good quality does not come up to the 
pharmacopoeia standard of sp. g., what is to be done ? 
macerate, of course, with a fresh quantity of myrrh— 
a very troublesome process, and one that would not 
often" be followed. Instances might be multiplied, 
but it is unnecessary ; if the specific gravities of 
tinctures are to be introduced, they can only be 
approximate and should not be imperative. 
THE EMBRYO APPENDIX. 
BY CHARLES SYMES, PH.D. 
The statement of Professor Redwood “that it is 
.undesirable to publish a new edition of ‘ The Phar¬ 
macopoeia ’ more frequently than once in about ten 
years ” is fully borne out by experience. One point 
will suffice as an illustration. In the B.P. of 1864 
more important changes were necessarily made than 
:in any previous editions of the various pharmacopoeias, 
this being the first published jointly by the united 
THE STUDY OF BOTANY AND MATERIA MEDICA. 
BY PROFESSOR G. PLANCHON.* 
It is now a long time since the sciences of observation 
found their true path, and, resting upon the principle of 
induction, first advanced surely towards the solution of 
the problems set before them. And still, to the extent 
* Abstract of a Lecture delivered at the Paris School of 
Pharmacy, and published in ‘L’Union Pharmaceutique,’ 
vol. xiv., p. 18. 
