October 15, 1870.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
307 
my getting credit for wliat I am justly entitled to, and that 
is all I ask; and I would willingly entertain the hope that, 
had he been still living amongst us, and my claim been placed 
before him as it is now before the public, he himself would 
have admitted its justice.” 
VEHICLE FOR THE INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION 
OF CHLOROFORM. 
To supply the wants felt by many physicians of a 
good vehicle for the internal administration of chloro¬ 
form, Dr. G. Wilson Murdock, of Cold Spring, New 
York, in a letter to the Medical Record , suggests the use 
of a solution of chloroform in glycerine, which, having 
tried, he has found to answer the purpose so completely 
as to leave little to he desired. 
Dr. Murdock says that by a little care in rubbing it 
up, one part of chloroform in hulk can be dissolved in 
three of glycerine. This solution is perfectly clear, is 
bland to the taste, and has hut a slight odour of chloro¬ 
form. It can he taken readily as it is, or can he diluted 
with water to any extent without disturbing the solution. 
Curiously enough, the addition of water immediately 
increases the smell of chlorofonn without any precipita¬ 
tion of it. 
In preparing it, it is best to take one part of chloro¬ 
form with two parts of glycerine; add the chloroform 
very slowly and rub up carefully. Then put it in a 
bottle and let it stand twenty-four hours. A little 
chloroform will have deposited at the bottom. Separate 
this and rub it up with the third part of glycerine, then 
mix it with the rest, and the solution is complete. No 
further separation will take place. Six ounces of glyce¬ 
rine, with tw r o of chloroform, will give seven fluid ounces 
of the solution, so that each fluid drachm contains about 
17 m of chloroform .—Chicago Pharmacist. 
THE ROASTING OF COFFEE. 
In distilling a cold prepared extract of roasted coffee 
with lime or magnesia, an alkaline distillate is obtained, 
which, by evaporation after the addition of hydrochloric 
acid and extracting with alcohol, yields a pure chloride 
of methyl ammonium. This salt is chloride of ammo¬ 
nium, in which one equivalent of hydrogen is substi¬ 
tuted by methyl, the radical of methylated spirit or 
methyl alcohol, this being the lowest one in the series of 
alcohols, of which ordinary alcohol and ether are repre¬ 
sentatives. This product is formed by the decomposition 
of caffein, when combined with tannic acid, as is the 
case in all coffees, pure caffein yielding different pro¬ 
ducts of decomposition, among which is cyanogen. In 
roasting coffee, part of the caflein is volatilized together 
with some methylamin, while the larger amount re¬ 
mains with the coffee itself. Half of the caffein of the 
coffee is decomposed in this way; one sample, which 
before roasting tested 1-45 per cent., yielding afterwards 
only 0 - 65 per cent, of caffein. The temperature at which 
these changes are effected is, in the case of green coffee 
(Porto Rico), 275° C.; in the case of yellow coffee (Java), 
250-255° C. 
Caffein is soluble in bisulphide of carbon and in ben¬ 
zole ; in benzole especially, to such an extent that it may 
be used with advantage for the preparation of the pure 
alkaloid .—New York j Druggists' Circular. 
Poisoning' by an Embrocation. —A widow lady 
named Elizabeth Simpkins, who resided with her brother- 
in-law at Crewe, has lately died under the following 
circumstances. It appeared that the deceased had been 
a sufferer from rheumatism, and that for the last seven¬ 
teen years she had been in the habit of using an embro¬ 
cation consisting of chloroform and aconite, prepared by 
Dr. Dawes, of Longton. About half-past one on the 
morning in question, she awakened her brother-in-law 
and told him she had taken the wrong medicine. Medi¬ 
cal men were sent for, but on their arrival life was ex¬ 
tinct .—Liverpool Daily Courier. 
Poisoning by Strychnia. —An accident which 
nearly proved fatal, occurred a few days ago to a lad 
residing at Bishopsfield, Chester. His master had put 
some cheese into a cupboard to poison mice. The cup¬ 
board was generally locked, but having inadvertently 
been left unlocked, the boy went to it and ate a piece of 
the cheese. Ho soon showed symptoms of poisoning 
from strychnia and was taken to the infirmary, where 
the stomach-pump having been applied and antidotes 
administered, he recovered .—Liverpool Daily Courier. 
A Child Killed by Worm Lozenges. —An in¬ 
quest was held at Leeds, on Saturday last, on Arthur 
Shepherd, aged one year and eight months. The mother 
of the child had obtained from a Mrs. Geldart, the widow 
of a herbalist, some lozenges her husband had manufac¬ 
tured during his lifetime, containing sugar, ginger, 
hellebore, gamboge and calomel, wliich she had given to 
the deceased and three other children, the deceased hav¬ 
ing a quarter of a lozenge, that not being, in the opinion 
of Mrs. Geldart, too much for a child of that age. After 
taking the lozenges all the children became sick, the 
deceased especially so. A medical man w T as sent for, 
but when he arrived the child was in a dying state, and 
its death took place the same night. A post-mortem 
examination showed that it had been poisoned by helle¬ 
bore. A verdict to that effect was returned, and Mrs. 
Geldart was cautioned that, if she permitted any more 
of the lozenges to be used, she might get into serious 
trouble .—Leeds Paper. 
Solutions of Soluble Chlorides for Road- 
Watering. —At the Liverpool Meeting of the British 
Association Mr. W. J. Cooper, who has introduced the 
method of watering roads with a solution of deliquescent 
chlorides, stated, in a paper read by him, that the expe¬ 
riment tried by the Westminster Board of Works at 
Whitehall and Knightsbridge had been so successful 
that they had resolved to extend it throughout their en¬ 
tire district. He gave statistics to prove that a saving 
of expense was effected by his plan; besides which, he 
called attention to the special value of some of the chlo¬ 
rides in chemically deodorizing and disinfecting the 
offensive matter deposited on public thoroughfares. Mr. 
Cooper claims for his present solution, which contains 
the chloride of sodium and calcium, that the chloride of 
calcium decomposes the carbonate of ammonia of the 
horse-droppings, and produces carbonate of lime and 
chloride of ammonium, which salts, combining with the 
chloride of sodium, serve to form a layer of concrete on 
the surface. He now suggests that to the original solu¬ 
tion a portion of chloride of aluminium should be added, 
which he thinks would completely purify and disinfect 
the streets over which it was spread. 
Colouring Materials in Tinctures. —Mr. G. M ,r . 
Kennedy, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in a letter to the 
American Journal of Pharmacy , referring to the presence 
of red saunders in the United States Pharmacopoeia for¬ 
mula for tinct. cinchonm comp., says that it is not 
required, as there is colouring matter enough in the 
other drugs that are used to make the tincture a dark 
red. He suggests that this is one of the matters that 
should be taken into consideration in the revision of the 
United States Pharmacopoeia. 
Antiseptics in the War Hospitals. —The Berlin 
correspondent of the British Medical Journal writes,— 
“In 1866 permanganate of potash was the antiseptic 
remedy d la mode; this year it is carbolic acid. .In 
every hospital it is used on the largest scale for dressing 
and washing wounds, in more or less strict accordance 
with the directions of Mr. Lister.” 
