^larch 4, 1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
707 
faculties, but many become permanently insane. It is 
in the intoxication produced by hemp that running 
a-muck seems most frequent,—not that it follows that 
hemp is the cause of the violence, but the native, ex¬ 
cited by some wrong, real or imaginary, fortifies his 
determination to be revenged by a dose of gunjah or 
bhang. 
Opium eating and smoking are very prevalent in 
many parts of India; but the drug does not seem to 
be very often used as a poison, except in those parts 
where it is produced in abundance. But it would seem 
to have been very extensively employed for the destruc¬ 
tion of female children. To this end, it was either in¬ 
troduced into the infant’s mouth or the mother’s nipples 
were anointed with it; so that it was insensibly taken 
in with the milk. Drugging older children, by their 
nurses, to keep them quiet, is common enough, and 
opium is used for this purpose also. Opium-eating 
seems to be most pi’e valent among the Rajpoots; with 
them, eating opium together is the most sacred pledge 
of friendship; and upon festivals and high days the 
•chiefs solemnly partake of it in company. The practice 
was encouraged, because opium was supposed to strengthen 
"their courage in warfare, and to increase their aptitude 
for business. Finally, it would seem that in certain 
parts nux vomica is eaten to the extent of as much as 
"twenty grains a day, in the same way as opium, and the 
hakeems give it to supersede the use of opium. —Medical 
Times and Gazette. 
ADULTERATION OF “GOLDEN SYRUP.” 
A paragraph having gone the rounds of the American 
papers stating that the substance retailed as golden syrup 
contains no sugar at all, but that it is produced by the ac¬ 
tion of strong sulphuric acid upon starch, and mentioning 
tannic acid as a test to show the difference between it 
and cane-sugar, Dr. C. E. Chandler has published the 
following remarks upon the subject in the American Che¬ 
mist :— 
Genuine “ golden syrup ” is the liquor drained from 
the crystallized sugar of the sugar-house, after all the 
sugar that can be profitably extracted from raw sugar 
has been separated. This syrup still contains a con¬ 
siderable quantity of crystallizable sugar, which cannot 
be profitably extracted, together with uncrystallizable 
sugar, colouring matter, and the substances which give 
to syrup its peculiar agreeable flavour, but whose exact 
mature is not known. 
The adulteration complained of is the dilution of this 
pure sugar-house syrup with syrup made from starch, or 
the entire substitution of starch syrup for sugar-house 
syrup. We have no fault to find with this portion of 
the statement, but the test with tannic acid or strong tea 
is totally fallacious. It is simply a test for iron, which 
is much more likely to occur in genuine sugar-house 
syrup than in the starch syrup complained of. The raw 
sugar is manufactured in iron vessels; the tanks, pipes, 
•coal-filters, moulds, and often the vacuum-pans in the 
sugar-house are made of iron, and as the solutions take 
up small portions of this metal, the syrup often, though 
not always, contains iron. The refiner is careful to pre¬ 
sent, as far as possible, the introduction of iron into the 
sugars and syrups, not because it is in any way injurious, 
Lut simply because if it occurs in the sugar to any ex- 
lent, it produces a dark colour when used in tea, which 
consumers dislike. As syrup is not used in tea, there is 
mo real objection to a small proportion of iron ; in fact, 
as iron is a good tonic, its presence is perhaps desirable. 
The starch-sugar which we have seen manufactured on 
a large scale in Europe, would not be as likely to con¬ 
tain iron. This test, therefore, is simply a test for iron, 
and not a test for adulterated syrup; in fact, guided by 
this false test, one would be likely to reject pure sugar- 
house syrup, and select the starch syrup instead. 
SYRUPUS CROCI. 
Mr. G. W. Kennedy, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, 
having been called upon to make considerable quantities 
of syrup of saffron, gives in the American Journal 
Pharmacy, as the result of his experience, a formula which, 
in his opinion, yields a very fine preparation. He says, 
“ As commonly prepared, it is apt to ferment, and be¬ 
come worthless; during the summer months I have 
found it to ferment with ease. This is entirely obviated 
by substituting glycerin for sugar. I have some in my 
store which I made eight months ago, and it is as perfect 
as when first made. It is known that the medical pro¬ 
perties of saffron are due to the volatile oil; and in order 
to obtain this we must guard against heat in the prepa¬ 
ration of the syrup, and make it cold, as when heat is 
used it drives off part of the volatile oil. The next point 
is to use something that will dissolve the volatile oil from 
the saffron, and for that purpose I have used glycerin, 
and find it to work admirably. 
u Take of true Saffron ^ss 
Glycerin £ij 
Water ^vj. 
“ Let the above macerate for seven days, filter into a 
pint bottle and add water through the filter q. s. to make 
5viij, then add sugar 14 oz. av. and dissolve cold by fre¬ 
quent agitation. The result is a beautiful thick, dark 
orange-coloured syrup.” 
SPURIOUS QUININE. 
In the last number of the American Journal of Phar¬ 
maci/, Mr. Charles Bullock, of Philadelphia, announced 
the discovery of an intended fraud in the vending of a 
spurious preparation. He says that there has lately been 
offered in the market there what purported to be about 
five thousand ounces of sulphate of quinine of the manu¬ 
facture of Pelletier, Delondre ct Levaillant, of Paris. 
The bottles in which it was contained bore the label and 
the corks the seal of that firm. 
An examination of the so-called sulphate of quinine, 
which was offered at about the market price of quinine, 
showed that it contained scarcely a trace of quinine, but 
consisted entirely of muriate of cinchonine mixed with 
small quantities of the other associated alkaloids of the 
bark. 
The first impression was that old bottles from which 
the labels had not been removed had been used to per¬ 
petrate the fraud; but a more careful examination and 
comparison with a known genuine package led to the 
belief that the whole transaction—bottle, label, seal, and 
circular accompanying each bottle—was a counterfeit. 
It is somewhat amusing to read that the original cir¬ 
cular issued by the firm, a counterfeit copy of which ac¬ 
companied each bottle of the spurious quinine, contains 
a ready method for discovering the fraud, viz. “ 1 gramme 
of sulphate of quinine, 4 grammes of ether, and 2 grammes 
of aq. ammoniac should form a clear solution.” 
EAMEELA. 
As met with in commerce, kameela is a powder of a 
dark brick-red colour, having, when recent, a peculiar, 
heavy odour, increasing on being rubbed between the 
fingers, but which diminishes with age. In the mouth 
it is gritty, and has a somewhat acrid taste. When ex¬ 
posed to a temperature of between 200° and 212° F., it 
undergoes no apparent alteration; when a small portion 
is dropped into the flame, it flashes up instantaneously. 
Its best solvents are ether, alcohol and solutions of alka¬ 
lies, from which it is precipitated by water or acid in the 
fonn of a resinous substance. It has been analysed by 
several chemists, and found to consist of albumen, cellu¬ 
lose, volatile oil, volatile colouring matter, ashes and 
water; but chiefly of a resinous colouring substance, which. 
