June 10, 1871.3 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
987 
NOTICE ON THE DECOLONIZATION AND 
DEODORIZATION OF TINCTURE OF 
IODINE. 
BY JAMES LAKER MACMILLAN. 
Witliin the last year or two an unusual degree of 
attention has been devoted to methods for deco¬ 
lorizing tincture of iodine. The agent commonly 
resorted to for this purpose is ammonia; a practice 
which cannot be too highly censured, inasmuch as a 
change takes place which is liiglily detrimental to its 
medicinal properties. J3y the addition of ammonia 
to this tincture, one or more compounds of iodine 
and nitrogen are formed, which are thrown down 
in the state of a black precipitate, which is re¬ 
dissolved after standing for a number of hours, or by 
the addition of carbolic acid. 
The reaction is as follows:— 
6I-MNH 8 = NI 3 + 3NH 4 I. 
Thus, it will [be seen that the use of ammonia for 
this purpose is detrimental to the medicinal efficacy 
of the iodine; and that when such so-called tinctures 
prepared by this process are substituted for the 
tincture proper, the physician unwittingly uses a 
solution of the above compound. To rectify this 
error is the object of tliis notice; to which I ap¬ 
pend the following simple, though none the less 
noteworthy processes, for the consideration of the 
pharmaceutical body at large. 
Process No. 1.—Potassium acetate (KC 2 H 3 0 2 ) 
2‘59 gram, with 7*7 gram solution of KHO, having 
a specific gravity of 1*06, at 15'55° C., are capable of 
decolorizing 2'592 decagrams of tincture of iodine, 
B.P. 
Process No. 2.—A similar reaction is manifest if 
treated with a solution of NaHO, having a specific 
gravity of l’OT at 15'55°C., in the proportions of 5‘3 
decigrams of the sodium solution to 3‘6 gram of the 
tincture. 
[We believe these preparations (introduced by the 
late Sir James Simpson) should not be decolorized, 
since that cannot be done without interference with 
the medicinal efficacy of the iodine.— Ed. Pharm. 
Jo URN.] 
ORIENTAL SPICES. 
BY JAMES BATON, 
Assistant-Keeper in the Museum of Science and Art , 
Edinburgh. 
(Concluded from page 9G7.) 
With the discovery and introduction into com¬ 
merce of the clove and nutmeg, the last link in the 
series of Oriental spices was supplied. In the early 
and rude state of the traffic, the steps by which 
spices reached the European markets were numerous, 
and their progress slow. The Javanese brought the 
Moluccas spices to the western ports of the Archi¬ 
pelago. The Klings or Telingas next carried them 
to the eastern shores of India. Thence the third 
journey was to Calicut, or other port on the Ma¬ 
labar coast, where were collected the pepper and 
other spices of India and Ceylon. Fourthly, the 
Arabs conveyed them to their ports on the Red Sea, 
or the Persian Gulf, and from these, by many stages, 
they reached the Mediterranean and Black Sea ports. 
These four voyages were, as already remarked, re¬ 
duced to one by the Arabs in the seventh century, 
under the impulse given to their energies by the 
doctrine of Mahomed, and in this condition the- 
Asiatic portion of the journey continued till the dis¬ 
covery of the Cape passage struck it a fatal blow. 
On the European side many important cities arose, 
flourished and attained great power during what we 
call the dark Middle Ages, through their hold on 
this most lucrative commerce. Smyrna caught the 
caravans that toiled along the Euphrates Valley, and 
across the Desert, and forwarded the precious pro¬ 
ducts to the Black Sea ports and Constantinople, 
To a few mud-flats at the head of the Adriatic the 
miserable remnant of a Roman province were, in the 
sixth century, hunted by the hordes of the Goths 
and Huns, and in miserable huts, they caught a few 
fish, and dried a little salt, in which they began a 
humble commerce. From that beginning the proud 
republic of Venice arose, the commercial influence 
and political power of which overshadowed the civi¬ 
lized world. The records of the Middle Ages are 
principally made up of the wars and commercial 
rivalries, the endeavours to outwit and overreach 
each other in the great eastern trade of the Venetians 
aud them great compeers the Genoese, till the Por¬ 
tuguese involved both in inevitable ruin by open¬ 
ing up the Cape passage. 
Towards the beginning of the fifteenth century 
the civilization and commercial instincts which had 
been marching steadily westward reached what ap¬ 
peared to be the outer limit of the world. The 
ocean-bounded kingdoms cast greedy, longing eyes 
at the glories of Venice derived from the costly aro¬ 
matics of the East. The restless spirit of enter¬ 
prise chafed at the seemingly impassable barrier. 
Then at the courts of these Western nations ap¬ 
peared two brothers, Genoese sailors, of the name of 
Colon or Columbus, with a proposal to reach the' 
land of spices by what appeared to them a short 
voyage due west. Ultimately the one, by name 
Christopher, succeeded with the king of Spain, and 
found, not the little spice islands, but the great con¬ 
tinent of America. At the same time, the Por¬ 
tuguese had sent two emissaries to the East to ex¬ 
plore the countries where the pepper, cinnamm and 
spices that enriched Venice were produced. One 
went to India, where he saw pepper and ginger 
actually growing, and learned that cloves and nut¬ 
megs were produced in very distant eastern coun¬ 
tries. On liis return to Cairo, he sent to his govern¬ 
ment much information regarding eastern commerce, 
and departed to Abyssinia, the land of Prester John, 
where his companion had died. Here he was de¬ 
tained twenty years,—the Abyssinians even at that 
time had a fancy for Europeans;—then he was 
allowed to return home, without his release costing 
his country ten millions of pounds. 
Meantime, the restless Portuguese had likewise 
been feeling their way along the African coast, and 
Bartholomew Diaz had actually doubled the Cape, 
wliich, from its stormy waters, he called Cabo Tor- 
mentosa; but the king, seeing better omen in it, 
changed it to Cabo de Boa Esperan 9 a. Thereafter, 
in 1498, Vasco de Gama, with the first European 
vessel which had ploughed the eastern seas, dropped 
his anchor in the harbour of Calicut. The stream of 
merchandise, which for twenty centuries had poured 
its torrents of wealth through the Red Sea and the 
Persian Gulf was immediately dried up, and the 
States which had flourished by it withered like 
plants from wliich the nourishing roots were cut off. 
