July 16, 1870.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Hill, Edward.Barnstaple. 
Turner, John .Ramsgate. 
Matthew, Josiah .London. 
The Secretary presented a list of members who had 
paid their subscriptions since the 30th April last. 
Resolved— That they he severally restored to their 
former status on payment of the nominal fine of one 
shilling. 
A request having been made by the Sunderland Che¬ 
mists’ Association that the Journal of the Society he sup¬ 
plied to them, it was resolved that the requisition he com¬ 
plied with. 
EXAMINATION IN LONDON. 
July 13 th, 1870. 
Present—Messrs. Allchin, Bird, Carteighe, Cracknell, 
Davenport, Gale, Garle, Haselden, Ince, and Southall. 
Dr. Greenhow was also present on behalf of the Privy 
Council. 
Twenty-five candidates presented themselves for ex¬ 
amination,—twelve Major and thirteen Minor; the fol¬ 
lowing passed and were duly registered 
MAJOR (As PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTS). 
*'VVebb, Edward Alfred.Clapham. 
* Bland, Thomas Fredrick.Stourbridge. 
^Thompson, William Milner ..Thirsk. 
*Raffle, William .<*.South Shields. 
Pitts, Phineas Reynolds.Hingham. 
Walton, Jonathan Sparke .... Haydon Bridge. 
Adams, Frank .Stoke-on-Trent. 
Mason, Robert William.Rugby. 
MINOR (As CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS). 
*Sherburn, Thomas .Harrogate. 
* S umn er, Benjamin Tindale... .Homcastle. 
Clark, Walter Beules.Leicester. 
Page, William Henry.London. 
Storey, Edward Henry .London. 
Margetts, George William ... .Fakenham. 
Green, Marryat Hahnemann .. London. 
Thomas, Evan Medeni.Pantyrodyn. 
The above names are arranged in order of merit. 
for Sttarts. 
CHEMICAL NOTES TO THE PHxlRMACOPCEIA. 
BY WILLIAM A. TILDEN, B.SC. LOND. 
DEMONSTRATOR OF PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY TO THE 
PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
Acidum Carbolicum. Carbolic Acid. — Synonyms: 
phenic acid; plienic alcohol; hydrate of phenyl; 
phenol. When coal-tar is distilled, the first portions 
which come over constitute crude coal naphtha, and 
contain benzol, C 6 H 6 . The next portion collected in 
the receiver is heavy coal oil (being heavier than 
water); it boils at 300° F. and upwards, and con¬ 
tains carbolic acid. Later in the process the oil 
which distils contains a good deal of solid matter 
(naphthaline, etc.), and the black residue in the re¬ 
tort forms pitch. Carbolic acid is separated from 
the heavy oils by distilling them fractionally, that is, 
by collecting the constituents wliich pass over at 
different temperatures in different receivers. The 
details of its successful preparation on the large 
scale, are only known to a few manufacturers. 
* Passed with honours. 
It melts at 95° F., and boils at 370° F.; sp. gr. 
L065. Formula HC 6 H 5 0. 
It resembles creasote in many respects, but differs 
from it in having no action on polarized light, and 
being easily crystallizable by cooling. An aqueous 
solution also gives a blue colour with percliloride 
of iron, wliich creasote does not. Carbolic acid is an 
important antiseptic. [§ A slip of deal dipped into 
it, and afterwards into hydrochloric acid, and then 
allowed to dry in the air, acquires a greenish-blue 
colour. It coagulates albumen.] Although called 
an acid it has no acid reaction upon litmus-paper, 
and is given off unchanged by heating any of its 
compounds with bases. 
By treating it with nitric acid it gives, according 
to the strength of the acid and time allowed for 
reaction— 
Mononitrophenic H C 6 H 4 (N 0 2 ) O, 
Dinitrophenic . HC 6 H 3 (N0 2 ) 2 0, 
Or trinitrophenic HC 6 H 2 (N 0 2 ) 3 O acid. 
The last is important as a yellow dye, it is called 
picric or carbazotic acid. 
By dissolving carbolic acid in oil of vitriol, sulplio- 
carbolic or sulpho-phenic acid is obtained, and by 
diluting tills, and neutralizing with various metallic 
oxides or carbonates, the sulpho-carbolates are 
formed. These salts have been recently introduced 
into medicine. The sodium salt is C 6 H 5 NaS0 4 , 
H 2 0 ; the zinc salt Zn"(C6H 5 S0 4 ) 2 ,H 2 0. 
Acidum Citricum. —Citric acid is found in greater 
or less proportion in the fruits of all the orange 
tribe. It is prepared practically from lemon-juice 
or from lime-juice, by boiling with chalk until the 
acid is neutralized, collecting the insoluble citrate 
of lime thrown down:— 
2 H 3 C 6 H 5 0 7 + 3CaCO s = Ca" 3 2C 6 H 5 0 7 
Citric acid. Calcic citrate. 
+ 3(H,0,C0 2 ). 
Suspending this in water and digesting it with a suf¬ 
ficient quantity of sulphuric acid :— 
Ca" 3 2C 6 H 5 0 7 + 3H 2 S0 4 
= 2 H 3 C 6 H 5 0 7 + 3 CaS0 4 . 
'The addition of the chalk to the juice causes effer¬ 
vescence, from the escape of carbonic acid gas; the 
citric acid is wholly precipitated upon boiling in the 
form of citrate of lime, leaving behind, in solution, 
the other substances (mucilage, sugar, etc.), which 
are mixed with it in the juice. The sulphate of lime 
formed in the second part of the process is almost 
wholly insoluble, and is therefore filtered off. 
Citric acid crystals are soluble in three-fourths of 
their weight of cold, and in half their weight of 
boiling water; they are easily distinguished from 
those of tartaric acid, by being much shorter and, as 
it were, rounder, and by giving no precipitate when 
added in excess to solution of acetate of potash, nor 
when added in moderate quantity to cold lime-water. 
Al um or bisulphate of potash would be detected in it 
by giving a white precipitate with chloride of barium. 
7 grams of the acid are neutralized by the addition 
of 100 cubic centims. of volumetric solution of soda. 
Citric acid is tribasic; out of the 10 atoms of hy¬ 
drogen which it contains altogether, 3 atoms can be 
expelled by the action of metals by way of double 
decomposition. For instance:— 
H 3 C 6 H 3 0 7 . H 2 0 + 3 NaHO 
Citric acid crystals. 
= Na 3 C 6 H 5 0 7 + 3 H 2 0 +H 2 0. 
