40S 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [November 19, 137 a 
CONDY’S FLUIDS. 
The article on this subject in No. 12 of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Journal has called forth a reply from 
Mr. Condy which, besides being irrelevant to the 
point discussed, is much too long for insertion. As 
the article in question was taken by us from the 
pages of the Practitioner, and as Mr. Condy’s ob¬ 
jections to it have been answered in that journal so 
well as to leave nothing more to be said, we can 
merely remark in reprinting this reply, that we fully 
concur in the views expressed therein.— Ed. Ph. J. 
“ We have received a lengthy remonstrance from Mr. 
H. Bollman Condy on the subject of our report on the 
various disinfecting and purifying fluids sold in his name, 
and we must say that Mr. Condy’s letter shows a strange 
want of appreciation of the motives with which we called 
attention to the composition and the prices of his goods. 
Our statement was substantially this :—The manganates 
and permanganates were long ago known to the chemist 
as powerful oxidizers, but Mr. Condy was the first per¬ 
son to see that this property might be turned to the pur¬ 
poses of disinfection, and to commence the manufacture 
of these agents on the large scale. We remonstrated 
with him, however, for maintaining so high a price for 
these fluids in proportion to the intrinsic cost of the ac¬ 
tive ingredients. We showed that pure permanganate of 
potash , representing the highest oxidizing, and therefore 
disinfecting power, possessed by any ingredient of Mr. 
Condy’s fluids, can be purchased retail for two shillings 
(in ounce , and that with this quantity it would bo possible 
to convert 400 ounces of distilled water into a disinfect¬ 
ing fluid of equal power with the No. III. “ Ozonized 
water;” 400 ounces of which, at Mr. Condy’s price, 
would cost about eight guineas. That with the same two 
^hillings’ worth of permanganate of potash one could 
convert 50 ounces of distilled water into a disinfectant 
of equal strength with the “ green” 01 the “red” solu- j 
tiohs, while the same quantity of the latter, at Mr. 
Condy’s prices, would cost respectively Is. 9 cl. and 3s. Gel .; 
but that the red and green fluids, being made mainly 
with the cheap manganates and permanganates of soda, 
the cost of which is very greatly less than that of che¬ 
mically pure permanganate of potash, there is in fact an 
extremely large margin of profit to the manufacturer. 
In restating the gist of our original remarks, we have 
now to add, that we might have greatly strengthened 
them; for we have discovered that, in Germany, the 
purest possible permanganate of potash can be procured 
for threepence an ounce, or eight times cheaper than the 
specimen which formed the basis of our comparisons. 
“Now to these criticisms Mr. Condy makes three kinds 
of objections, which it is necessary to separate carefully 
from each other. In the first place, he maintains that a 
trader has a right to make what profits he can; to quote 
his own words, “ It (our table of analysis) shows indeed 
that the selling price of Condy’s fluid is somewhat (!) 
higher in two of the kinds than that of the equivalent 
quantity of its active ingredient. But surely this is no¬ 
thing unusual; on the contrary, it is the rule in such 
cases, as every chemist and druggist must know. Is the 
Liquor Potassse Permanganatis of the Pharmacopoeia 
dispensed per ounce at the price of the eight grains of 
the permanganate contained therein ? Ear from this 
being so, sixpence per ounce is very commonly charged 
for it. Is it not the case that all other proprietary dis¬ 
infecting preparations sell at rates greatly in excess of 
the value of the quantity of the active ingredients con¬ 
tained in them r” Really, this needs no comment. We 
had paid Mr. Condy the compliment of presuming that 
his views were not altogether those of a mere trader; the 
claims to scientific discovery which he put forward had 
led us to believe in his patriotic intention to bring a 
valuable sanitary discovery within the reach of the poor, 
and of public health authorities who might require to 
use it on a large scale. We beg his pardon if we have 
been mistaken. 
“ The second objection which Mr. Condy makes to our 
remarks is to the effect that even the oxidizing power of 
the manganates was not applied in laboratories before 
Hofmann (1856), and that Hofmann learned it from 
Condy. That is quite erroneous; our analyst informs 
us that this use of these salts -was common long before 
1856, to his personal knowledge. 
“ The third objection to our remarks is a charge of in¬ 
accuracy in our analysis of the “ Ozonized water.” In 
answer to this we have to remark that the examination 
was made by one of the first analysts of this country, 
and we are therefore disinclined to attach any very great 
importance to Mr. Condy’s hints about some previously 
quite unknown permanganate. The only object in using- 
a permanganate for toilet purposes, one would think, 
must be for its oxidizing power. It is a fact that for 
three farthings one could impregnate eight ounces of dis¬ 
tilled water with J per cent, of pure permanganate of 
potash (purchased in Germany); and it is also a fact 
that such a solution -would be practically tasteless. 
“Afterall, however, it is comparatively unimportant 
what the character or price of a toilet-water may be. 
But we must repeat the expression of our regret that 
Mr. Condy does not yet see his way to reducing the 
above-mentioned scale of profits on his green and red 
fluids, which, in order to make them useful as disinfec¬ 
tants in precisely the places where there is the most ur¬ 
gent need for this class of agents, ought certainly to be 
sold at a considerably cheaper rate. We would even 
venture to predict that, in the long-run, commercial suc¬ 
cess would also be found to attend upon the lower rather 
than the higher rates of profit; and we should be de¬ 
lighted to hear that Mr. Condy had benefited himself 
while doing a service to the public.” 
DRUG MARKET NOTES* 
HE SIN OF SCAMMONY.. 
We have had ail opportunity of examining a re¬ 
cent importation of resin of scammony , said to have 
been manufactured in Smyrna from scammony root. 
It had a resinous fracture, translucent edges, fra¬ 
grant odour, and was nearly wholly soluble in ether 
and, as far as could be ascertained, was entirely free 
from other resinous substances likely to be used as 
adulterants ; its pale brown colour would almost lead 
one to suppose that animal charcoal had been used, 
for its decolorization. 
Analysis of 100 Parts. 
He sin (soluble in ether dried at 212°) . 91*4 
Insoluble in ether . 2*8 
Water . 5 8 
100-0 
It was certainly quite equal to any we have seen 
produced by the British Pharmacopoeia process, and 
far superior to some of the so-called resin of scammony 
of pharmacy, which is little better than the hardened 
alcoholic extract of the root (resin with glucose). 
Former parcels of this resin, sent from Smyrna, 
are said to have found a ready sale in France ; the 
excessive price, however, asked for this London 
import prevented a sale being effected. 
