710 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
In the second place, the writer doubts from his 
own inquiries, “ whether any section of the public 
has the slightest objection to the official sal volatile.” 
On this point we may inform him that there is a 
section—we forbear to mention it, further than to 
state that it is the one which has the most refined 
taste,—which we know has a great preference for it 
when flavoured with a substance which is not in the 
official formula. The following case, which came 
under our notice some years ago, illustrates how ma¬ 
terially the tastes of some persons differ with respect 
to that preparation. An English family having been 
travelling in Scotland, on their arrival in the North 
of England, applied to a pharmacist for a supply 
of sal volatile,—had he any which he could recom¬ 
mend? Yes; his was So-and-so’s make, mentioning 
a noted Edinburgh house. “Just what we did not 
want,” said the gentleman; “ we have been in Scot¬ 
land during the last month, and have not been able 
to obtain any but that of Edinburgh make, (that of 
P. E. contained oil of rosemary,) and my wife does 
not like it; we felt sure we should be able to obtain 
some of English manufacture here.” No sale was 
effected. As traders, pharmacists find it necessary 
to study the tastes of their customers. 
Lastly, our contemporary does not publish the de¬ 
tails of the analyses. The writer assumes that Spi- 
ritus Ammonise Aromaticus prepared by the official 
process would contain all the ammonia directed to be 
employed in its manufacture, nay—he erroneously 
assumes even more, as the quantity of ammonia he 
states it ought to contain should be 2'6 per cent, by 
weight in volume. By a careful calculation,* we find 
that supposing the whole of the ammonia (NH 3 ) 
ordered in the formula were contained in the seven 
pints of distillate, which is the resulting yield of 
the official quantities, it would only contain 2*473 
per cent, by weight in any given volume. 
The compilers of the 1864 edition of the British 
Pharmacopoeia, who introduced the present process 
for the manufacture of spiritus ammonias aromaticus, 
tried “ to ensure the formation of a neutral carbo¬ 
nate of ammonia ”f in solution in that preparation. 
But this neutral “ carbonate is insoluble in alcohol” 
(absolute), and “ an aqueous solution of it is precipi¬ 
tated by alcohol, the precipitate being acid carbo¬ 
nate or intermediate in composition to that and 
the normal carbonate.If to the aqueous solution 
rectified spirit be added, as in Mr. Martindale’s ex¬ 
periment (2), p. 704, the crystalline formation is 
most probably the normal carbonate itself. 
With these remarks we will leave the matter with 
the members of the medical profession: we trust 
that in future, when they censure us for sliortcom- 
* See p. 704. 
f Dr. Garrod’s ‘Materia Medica and Therapeutics.’ 3rd 
edit. p. 47. 
t Divers on the Combinations of Carbonic Anhvdride with 
Ammonia and Water. 
[March 4,1871. 
ings, they will clearly establish their case, and hold 
the balance of justice fairly, so that no trader shall 
meet with such an unmerited share of obloquy as our 
contemporary has dealt out. 
THE CALENDAR FOR 1871. 
Following closely upon the issue of the Register,, 
referred to last week, the Calendar of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society for the present year is now ready. 
It contains a list of all persons who are connected 
with the Society, corrected up to a recent date. It 
is gratifying to notice the increase in the length of 
some of these lists, notably in that of the Chemists 
and Druggists who are Members of the Society, 
where it amounts to nearly two hundred names 
beyond last year. There is also a considerable aug¬ 
mentation in the numbers of the Associates, both of 
those who are and those who are not in business and 
of the Registered Apprentices. 
Besides these lists the Calendar contains the 
Charter, Bye-laws and Pharmacy Acts, the Regu¬ 
lations of the Board of Examiners, the Examination 
Papers for the past year, and much useful informa¬ 
tion concerning the School of Pharmacy at Blooms¬ 
bury Square. This is followed by a list of Donors 
and Subscribers to the Benevolent Fund, giving the 
number of votes to which each is entitled. In the 
Appendix are printed remarks on, and extracts 
from, several Acts of Parliament, Regulations and 
General Orders, in which. Chemists and Druggists 
may be interested, such as the Medicine Stamp and 
Licence Acts, the Petroleum Act, the Act to Regu¬ 
late the Sale of Poisons in Ireland, the Regulations 
as to Navy Dispensers, etc. Altogether the Calendar 
will doubtless be very useful to those for whose con¬ 
venience it is issued by the Council. 
OPIUM CULTIVATION. 
The question of opium cultivation is just now 
exciting considerable interest. The reports from 
different sources (some of which have been printed 
in this Journal) that it is being attempted on a large 
scale hi many parts of the world, and notably in 
China, have not only raised the hopes of those by 
whom it is largely used that the present price may 
be materially reduced, but they have also awakened 
the anxiety of statesmen as to the permanence of 
the revenue at present derived from it in Lidia. 
We give the gist of some remarks upon the subject 
from a leading article in the Times of Monday .last. 
As a tax not open to the objection of being levied 
on an article of prime necessity, the profit made by 
opium sales is the most defensible form of Indian 
taxation, though there is more than one other point 
of view from which it cannot be regarded with satis¬ 
faction ; but apart from the moral arguments which 
may be urged against it, Mr. Grant Duff's budget 
