October 22,1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
321 
THE LOSS OF SPIRIT IN MAKING THE TINCTURES 
OF THE BRITISH PHARMACOPOEIA. 
13Y C. UMNEY, F.C.S. 
As a considerable portion of a pharmacist's time is 
necessarily occupied in the preparation of tinctures, 
any subject connected with their production must 
always be of interest to him. To those who have 
little opportunity of making laboratory notes, the re¬ 
cord of the loss of alcohol (in its officinal forms of 
Tinct. 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
3) 
33 
>3 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
33 
aconit. 
arnica}. 
aurantii . 
belladonna) .... 
benz. comp. 
buchu . 
calumbse. 
camphor, comp. 
cantharid. 
capsici. 
cardam. co. 
cascarilke. 
castor . 
catechu. 
chiretta) 
cinchona) .. . 
v CO. 
cinnam. ... 
cocci . 
colchic. scm. 
conii. 
croci . 
cubeba). 
digitalis ... 
ergota). 
ferri acet.... 
* • « • • 
galla) 
gent, co. 
hyoscyam. .. 
jalap a). 
kino. 
krameria).... 
lavand. comp. 
limonis. 
lobelia). 
„ mther. 
lupuli . 
myrrha) .... 
nuc. vomic. .. 
opii . 
,, ammon... 
pyrethri .... 
quassia) .... 
rhei . 
sabina). 
scilla) . 
senega). 
senna) . 
serpontar. 
stramon. ..., 
sumbul.. 
valerian, am. 
valerian. ... 
veratr. viiid. 
zingibcris... 
fort.. 
Quantity 
made. 
Alcohol*838 
to make 
up measure. 
1 . . 
Gals. 
Pints. 
4 
2-5 . 
10 
3-0 . 
10 
2 
5 
2 
5 
10 
4 
5 
1-0 . 
20 
5 
2 
•5 
5 
2 
10 
10 
5 
1 
2 
2 
1 
2 
•5 
5 
2 
1 
1-2 
1 
10 
10 
5 
1 
no loss 
5 
20 
2-0 
2 
3 
3 
*3-5 
5 
5 
2-5 
4 
2-9 
10 
25 
•5 
1 
1-0 
1 
10 
2 
5 
1 
10 
1 
1 
. 3 
. 5 
f3*5 
5 
. 2 
2*5 
. 5 
2-5 
. 10 
3*6 
o 
Cl 
C5 
s ® 
Pint3. 
5-0 
•7 
1-0 
3-0 
*5 
•6 
2-0 
2-0 
12-0 
9-0 
4-0 
•25 
U5 
•75 
•6 
a 
cr o 
co > 
■Sjf 
7-9 
3-8 
6*3 
4T 
63 
7-1 
•7 
1- 9 
2- 5 
5-0 
3-2 
3-0 
2-0 
•4 
7-0 
6-0 
2-0 
2-0 
1*5 
2-5 
4-0 
'io 
w 
4-0 
•8 
3-0 
•75 
2-0 
•9 
*5 
1-0 
2-3 
12-5 
15-0 
11- 3 
10-0 
31 
94 
4- 6 
7-5 
3-2 
7 - 5 
12- 5 
15-0 
50 
8*7 
75 
5 - 0 
°. a 
pus 
a o 
10-0 
2‘o 
5 - 0 
1*3 
9 - 4 
10-5 
14 - 5 
10-0 
6 - 2 
6-2 
1-0 
2-5 
12-5 
8 - 7 
50 
5 - 0 
7-5 
9 - 3 
2-5 
10 - 9 
6 - 3 
4 - 2 
4.4 
5 - 7 
15 - 6 
6 - 3 
3 1 '5 
proof and rectified spirit) entailed in the manufacture 
of tinctures, ma} T be of sendee; and even to those 
who possess such memoranda of their own, the peru¬ 
sal of the preceding schedule may be interesting. 
It must always be remembered that the quantity of 
spirit required to make the measure of tinctures to a 
given bulk, will only be strictly uniform, in so far as 
the operators proceed under precisely the same cir¬ 
cumstances. 
No causes will be found to influence results more 
than the manufacture of tinctures upon a small as 
compared with a large scale, and the use of the 
screw as contrasted with the hydraulic press, in the 
final removal of the spirit from the marc; even the 
difference between the temperature of summer and 
winter may cause a variation in the results. 
The loss of alcohol noted in these tinctures has 
not been the subject of special experiment, but 
merely the memoranda made in the ordinary routine 
of manufacture. It may be well to remark that 
hydraulic pressure has always been used for the re¬ 
covery of the spirit, when the quantity of ingre¬ 
dients has been sufficiently large to admit of its 
application. 
Tinct. aloes 
guaiac. am. 
tolutani ... 
Gals. 
Menstruum 
required 
p. c. by 
volume. 
Ingredients occupy 
when in solution, 
filtered, and made 
to prescribed 
volume. 
3 
95 
5 p. c. by vol. 
8 
927 
7*3 „ 
2 
93 
7 
In those tinctures in which the ingredients are 
directed to be macerated in a portion only of the 
spirit, and the measure finally made up when their 
solution has been effected, the percentage volume 
such ingredients occupy when dissolved and filtered 
has been determined; the difference therefore in 
volume will be the amount of menstruum required 
to produce the exact measure. To the tinctures 
directed to be thus made in the Pharmacopoeia, the 
compound tincture of benzoin might have been added, 
as a considerable augmentation in volume is pro¬ 
duced by using the whole of the alcohol for macera¬ 
tion. 
Laboratory , 40, Aldersgate Street, E.C. 
TESTING OF BITTER ALMOND OIL AND OIL OF 
CLOVES.* 
BY F. A. FLUCKIGER. 
Since the foundation of the anilin dye industry, 
nitro-benzol, or oil of mirbane, has become a readily 
obtainable substance, costing no more than one- 
twentietli as much as the true bitter-almond oil, 
which it resembles in many characters. For some 
purposes there is, in reality, little more reason for 
objecting to the use of nitro-benzol than to the use 
of crude bitter-almond oil containing prussic acid. 
Existing toxological experience has proved nitro- 
benzol to be a narcotic poison, though it is scarcely 
more dangerous, on the whole, than bitter-almond 
oil.f Every now and again the problem of clistin- 
guisliing these two liquids comes forward in pliar- 
* Sp. aether, sulph. 
Third Series, No. 17. 
f Sp. ammon. arornat. 
* Abstract from the author’s paper. 
f Compare Husemann, Supplement to the ‘ Handbuck dor 
Toxicologic,’ 1867, p. 118. 
