198 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [September 3, 1870, 
add some more again, and you may go on adding alcohol 
to that original quantity of sulphuric acid, and it will 
decompose each successive portion into these two products. 
There is no limit known to the extent to which sulphuric 
acid will effect that change. You perceive, therefore, 
that this, in its general features, is a process analogous 
to those which we were considering at first. 
I may illustrate that by an experiment. First, I will 
show you how we discover the presence of sulphuric acid. 
The common test is, to add some salt of baryta—this 
which I have here is a chloride—to the sulphate, when 
we get at once a precipitate, sulphate of baryta. The 
sulphuric acid, in making the ether, passes over into a 
compound that does not possess this property. I have 
some of it here. It is a clear liquid, and on mixing it 
with the same re-agent I used just now, you see that it 
will not form the precipitate; I put some of the same 
baric chloride into it, but, as you see, the liquid remains 
clear. But I can bring back my sulphuric acid to its 
original state. Mr. Taylor, my assistant, was heating 
some of it just now, and it has been standing so long 
that it has returned to its original state already. It has 
returned from the state in which it does not precipitate 
baryta to the state in which it does. There is in the 
process a successive departure of the sulphuric acid from 
its ordinary state, and a return to that original state ; it 
is a kind of circle or cycle. The substance passes over 
into a compound which does not precipitate baryta, and 
then it returns again to its original form, and that is the 
key to the anomaly. When the sulphuric acid has 
effected the decomposition of one portion of alcohol into 
ether and water, it comes back again to sulphuric acid, 
becomes exactly what it was in the beginning, and is 
able to recommence precisely the same combination. I 
will give you another example of it. I have here a 
substance used in one of the commonest manufactures, 
that of oil of vitriol, in which the same operation occurs. 
I have there a substance at work called nitric oxide. It 
is converting a quantity of sulphurous into sulphuric 
acid. In principle it would so convert an infinite quan¬ 
tity, but in practice it is limited by convenience. It acts 
by carrying oxygen from the air to one portion of sul¬ 
phurous acid and then to another, and thus it goes on, 
and effects successive oxidations of a great number of 
particles of sulphurous acid, forming sulphuric acid from 
them, and it does that in virtue of a process perfectly 
analogous to that which I just now mentioned. The 
gas, after one operation, returns to the same state in 
which it was in the beginning of the first operation; it 
is a cyclical process. I have here some of the nitric 
oxide combined with oxygen, and when in that state it 
has the red colour which you see in the flask. If we 
blow a little sulphurous acid into it, the red colour will 
disappear as the nitrous acid gives up the oxygen, the 
nitric oxide itself being a colourless compound, but in 
combination with oxygen it is red. As the sulphurous 
acid passes into it, the nitric oxide parts with the oxygen 
and becomes colourless, but on again blowing in a little 
oxygen it returns to its former red colour. This shows 
you that there are processes, of simple, normal, chemical 
action, somewhat analogous to those fermentive proper¬ 
ties which I formerly described. Each one of these pro¬ 
cesses takes place in perfectly definite proportions, the 
peculiarity being that one material which takes part in 
them returns at the end of one operation to the same state 
in which it was at the beginning of the operation, so that 
the processes are cyclical, and this re-agent is able, by 
acting successively on a large quantity of particles, to re¬ 
peat its action very frequently upon them, and beyond 
what would appear to be its definite combining propor¬ 
tion. You see this red compound of nitric oxide and 
oxygen has. lost a great deal of its red colour. I will not 
wait until it is completely bleached, but will blow in a 
little oxygen, when we shall get a return to the original 
deep red colour. This is the ordinary process by which 
.sulphuric acid is made on a large scale in lead chambers. 
The sulphurous acid is allowed to remain a considerable 
time in the chamber, and is passed on from one to an¬ 
other, as it is acted on by the nitric oxide, which passes 
through the successive stages of its action by a process 
which I should be glad to name cyclical, as I shall have 
occasion again to revert to a similar process of the same 
name. At our next meeting I shall have to analyse some 
of the best known, and also some less familiar instances of 
cyclical action, that we may arrive at a conception of their 
nature. 
farlratratas ank fitto fmtttMnp. 
In the County Court of Yeovil, Atigust 16 th, 1870. 
The Pharmaceutical Society v. Colmer and Wife. 
BEFORE CHARLES SAUNDERS, ESO-, JUDGE. 
The defendants were husband and wife, and were sued 
for the penalty of five pounds, incurred by their using 
the title of Chemist and Druggist, neither of them being 
registered under the Pharmacy Act, 1868. 
Mr. Flux (of London) appeared for the Society, and 
Mr. Wood (of London) appeared for the defendants. 
Mr. Flux, in opening the case, said that the action was 
brought in the exercise of powers which the Society used 
with reluctance, as was shown by the fact of the case 
being but the third which had been brought under the 
statute. The defendants’ course of conduct had rendered 
the action a necessity, because the title was used by them 
with distinct knowledge that they were violating the 
law; and upon the customary application being sent to 
them before action, they replied by a letter so defiant 
that to avoid the issue of a plaint was a virtual impossi¬ 
bility. The letters having been admitted, he read them 
as containing an admission that the defendants were 
using the title chemist and druggist, and then referred 
to the sections 4 and 15 of the Act of Parliament, as 
showing that the defendants had incurred the penalty, 
and that the register proved itself, and was conclusive 
in favour of the plaintiffs. As, however, the defendants 
were, by their attorney, prepared to admit the use of the 
title, he asked the Court to accept and record the admis¬ 
sion, and also, as the defendants desired an opportunity 
of cross-examining the Registrar, he (feeling it desirable, 
in a matter of the kind, to pursue the most open course) 
should put the Registrar in the witness-box, and ask him 
a few formal questions, in order to afford the other side 
the opportunity for the cross-examination. 
The Judge (to Mr. Wood ).—Do you admit that the de¬ 
fendants used the title Chemist and Druggist ? 
Mr. Wood. —I do. 
The Judge. —Then I shall take a note of the admission. 
What have you to say ? 
Mr. Wood then raised a technical objection to the form 
of the particulars of debt, but that was overruled. 
Mr. Elias Bremridge was called, and proved that he was 
the Registrar of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great 
Britain and brought the action with the sanction of the 
Council of that Society. 
Cross-examined by Mr. Wood .—I was appointed Re¬ 
gistrar, and was authorized to bring this action by reso¬ 
lutions of the Council, which are recorded in minutes. 
Mr. Wood (to the Judge ).—I raise the objection that 
the facts of the witness being the Registrar and being 
authorized by the Council, can only be proved by pro¬ 
duction of the minute-book. 
Mr. Flux. —I submit, Sir, that the witness derived his 
authority not from the record of the resolutions in the 
minute-book, but from the resolutions themselves as they 
were orally passed; that the witness is acting in the ex¬ 
ercise of powers cast upon him by the Legislature; and 
that he is not to be called upon to prove his authority by 
the production of any minute or other books. 
The Judge. —I consider that the objection is untenable 
