March 29, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
761 
DOES PERSIAN AMMONIACUM CONTAIN 
SULPHUR ? 
BY JOHN MOSS, F.C.S., 
Demonstrator in the Laboratory of the Pharmaceutical 
Society. 
No one consulting the various works on materia 
medica for an answer to this question would feel 
very well satisfied at the close of his search. Some 
of them make no reference to sulphur, whether pre¬ 
sent or absent; others affirm decisively that it is 
not present, leading to the inference that there are 
yet others who affirm that sulphur is present. The 
doubt that has existed on this point seemed so easy 
to be resolved, that one wonders why it has not led 
to special and conclusive experiment before now. At 
the suggestion of my friend Mr. Hanbury, I under¬ 
took to make such experiment, and now publish the 
result. 
Assuming that sulphur, if present in ammoniacum, 
existed in combination, forming a sulphur oil as in 
assafoetida, the readiest plan for its detection which 
presented itself, was to oxidize with nitric acid and 
test for sulphuric acid ; but the difficulty of ob¬ 
taining nitric acid free from traces of sulphuric, 
led me to prefer the use of pure nitrate of potas¬ 
sium. 
Process :—Eight grammes of the pure nitrate were 
brought to a state of tranquil fusion in a platinum 
capsule supported over a Bunsen flame by an iron 
plate having an orifice in the centre. This plate 
extended round the capsule for a distance of four 
inches from the edge, so as to prevent sulphurous 
gases from the flame passing so near to the contents 
of the capsule as to be absorbed. The nitre being in 
this condition, ammoniacum, from carefully scraped 
tears of the largest and purest kind, was added little 
by little to the extent of about one gramme. When 
the action had ceased, the lamp was first removed, 
and then the capsule was turned round obliquely so 
that the fused contents should solidify in a thin crust 
over the sides, and so be more rapidly dissolved away 
by the water which was subsequently added. During 
the action of the fused nitre on the ammoniacum, a 
quantity of tarry matter condensed on the inner edge 
of the capsule where it was not in contact with the 
flame, and as it was found to be impossible to burn 
away this tarry matter without introducing sulphur, it 
became necessary to remove it from the aqueous solu¬ 
tion by filtration. The filter employed was washed 
with acidulated water, and the washings examined 
with nitrate of barium. A solution being thus obtained 
presumably holding, in the form of sulphuric acid, 
whatever sulphur was present in the ammoniacum, a 
second solution was prepared in a precisely similar 
manner, with the important exception that no am¬ 
moniacum was used. The two solutions were placed 
side by side in beakers of equal size, and now a few 
drops of barium nitrate solution were added to each, 
and the beakers covered ; at the end of three days no 
precipitate had appeared in either. To prove that the 
test was delicate enough, two drops of a liquid con¬ 
taining 1 in 300 of sulphuric acid were added to the 
contents of each beaker, and in a few minutes, three 
at the most, there was a marked turbidity produced 
in each. In a few hours a white film covered the 
bottom of each beaker. 
This experiment, one of nine , demonstrates the 
fact that ammoniacum contains no sulphur. 
Third Series. No. 144. 
Conditions \necessary to secure the above result :— 
1. The reagents and apparatus employed must be 
free from sulphuric acid. 
2. The operation must be conducted in an atmo¬ 
sphere free from sulphuretted hydrogen and other 
sulphurous gases—a condition not easy to be attained 
in the laboratory, save in the early morning, before 
general work commences, at which time the fusions 
spoken of were made; even an additional lamp 
burning in the fume closet where the operation was 
conducted, seemed to affect the result. 
3. The gas flame employed must not come in 
contact with the edge of the capsule. 
A strip of silver leaf partially immersed in an 
emulsion of ammoniacum is not darkened after 
many days. 
THE MICROSCOPE IN PHARMACY. 
BY HENRY POCKLINGTON. 
Continued from p, 703. 
Ulmi Cortex. —As generally met with in com¬ 
merce, the thickness of this bark very greatly exceeds 
the ^th of an inch allotted to it in the B. P. descrip¬ 
tion, but this is a matter of secondary importance, as 
the astringent principles are quite as present in the 
thicker as in the thinner specimens. It is an easy 
bark to examine, and will not present any features of 
special interest. The details of structure are best 
studied in ordinary transverse sections and in vertical 
sections cut parallel with the surface, and, therefore, 
cut across the medullary rays. 
Seen in cross section the tissues may be grouped 
in three divisions : liber cells, either isolated or in 
twos and threes ; the oblong thin walled cells of the 
medullary rays ; and irregularly sized and shaped 
thin walled parenchymatous cells, amongst which the 
liber tubes are distributed with an apparent attempt 
at regularity. The medullary rays alone can be best 
studied in transverse sections, and are most easily 
examined in carefully stained specimens. In a well 
prepared logwood stained section the nature of the 
cell wall and the cell contents, with nuclei, etc., can 
usually be seen with a comparatively low power. 
As also the liber cell-structure may be best studied in 
similar sections from which the greater portion of the 
staining fluid has been removed by the aid of hydro¬ 
chloric acid,the colour being subsequently redeveloped 
by ammonia. But the general arrangement of the liber 
tubes, with relation to the other tissues, can only be 
studied in vertical sections, and preferably in thin 
sections that have been treated with dilute solution 
of caustic soda or potash, and very slightly stained 
with magenta. The liber is seen to be veiy fibrous, 
almost cordlike, and is sufficiently tough to permit of 
easy separation from the other tissues. Two or 
three liber cells would appear to lie side by side in 
the normal state ; medullary rays, composed of a con¬ 
siderable number of cells, passing between the fibres, 
force them into, what is seen in cross section to be, 
a loop or mesh of a net-work of vessels, the fibres 
intimately cohering again after they have encircled 
the ray. Some of the liber cells bifurcate, and, after 
having run some distance, unite by an imperfect 
natural graft (anastomose is hardly the word) with 
their neighbouring liber cells. They are imperforate 
and devoid of any other contents than fluid, which 
appears to possess in small degree the astringent pro¬ 
perties of the bark. 
