G6 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[July 22, 1871. 
phites entirely failed. They appeared, indeed, to retard 
coagulation "by other reagents. The coagulating power 
of sulphurous acid was faint and ill defined. 
If we review the evidence now before us, we shall find 
that it stands thus. 
We start with two assumptions,—the first justified by 
recent research, the second borne out by analogy, viz. 
that infection results from the transference and develop¬ 
ment of minute germs; and that these germs contain 
albuminous matter as a necessary constituent, the coagu¬ 
lation of which terminates their existence. Upon these 
assumptions we frame our major premiss,—that “ all 
coagulators of albumen are disinfectants and, having 
arrived at this result by a process of pure reasoning, we 
proceed to prove its truth by experiments upon the anti¬ 
septic, and so upon the disinfectant, properties of a well- 
known albumen-coagulator. Having thus established 
our fundamental proposition, we produce experimental 
proof of our minor premiss—that “ nearly all the sub¬ 
stances to which popular experience has assigned the 
property of arresting the spread of infectious diseases, 
•where that power is at present unexplained, are coagu¬ 
lators of albumen.” The conclusion then necessarily 
follows, that these substances are disinfectants ; and thus 
a vindication of their efficiency is furnished in those 
cases where it has been called in question by chemists 
on the ground that no sufficient explanation of their 
action had been offered. 
The above conclusion does not apply to sulphurous 
acid and the sulphites. In their case, we must probably 
look for some more remote physiological effect upon 
germinal existence. 
Mote on the TJse of Hydrochloric Acid as an Antiseptic. 
It is probable that hydrochloric acid, which shares the 
properties attributed to nitrohydrochloric acid in the 
foregoing remarks, will be found to be a valuable pre¬ 
servative of animal food. A piece of meat, immersed 
for fifteen minutes in a mixture of one part of the acid 
to three of water, remained entirely free from putrefac¬ 
tive change after nearly a fortnight, though the action 
of the acid was not sufficiently powerful to prevent the 
appearance of a small quantity of mould. The meat 
was then immersed in a dilute solution of carbonate of 
soda, and the superficially absorbed acid was thus con¬ 
verted into common salt. This reaction obviously gives 
hydrochloric acid a great advantage over other anti¬ 
septics, which introduce into the food a foreign sub¬ 
stance, inimical by its very nature, in most cases, to the 
process of digestion.— The British Medical Journal , 
SOLUTIONS OF ALKALOIDS IN MEDICATED 
WATERS. 
In the July number of the American Journal of Phar¬ 
macy, Professor Maisch mentions a case that had been 
brought under his notice, in which a prescription or¬ 
dering sulphate of morphia dissolved in peppermint 
water, having been dispensed with peppermint water 
made according to the United States Pharmacopoeia, by 
triturating the oil with carbonate of magnesia and water, 
it was found that the sides of the bottle, upon its being 
brought back for a renewal of the prescription, were 
covered with crystals. The crystals were collected, and, 
upon examination, proved to be morphia. He calls 
attention to the fact that the process of the United 
States Pharmacopoeia, above alluded to, yields in all 
cases a medicated water having an alkaline reaction, 
which is shown by the reddish-brown colour produced 
by it in a diluted solution of turmeric. He says, “ If 
chloride of ammonium and ammonia water are added to 
such a medicated water, any soluble phosphate will, in a 
short time, produce a dense cloudiness and finally a pre¬ 
cipitate. It is unnecessary to enter into the causes of 
the solubility of magnesia under these circumstances; 
the fact is a plain one, and the possibility of dangerous 
effects very obvious. Neutral salts of insoluble (in 
water) alkaloids may bo dissolved in such medicated 
waters, but the alkaloids will be gradually precipitated 
in a form in which they cannot be uniformly diffused 
in the liquid even by agitation ; hence the possibility, if 
the separated alkaloid does not firmly adhere to the vial, 
that the last dose may contain an excessive amount of a 
poisonous article; while, in case it should adhere with 
sufficient firmness, the result might be, at least, disap¬ 
pointment in the effects, if nothing worse, in consequence 
of insufficient medication.” Professor Maisch thinks 
that this furnishes an additional and strong argument 
for the preparation of medicated waters by distillation; 
and that, where waters prepared from volatile oils by the 
aid of magnesia are used, it is the duty of pharmacists to 
neutralize or slightly acidulate them when poisonous 
alkaloids are to be dissolved therein. 
FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE 
STRUCTURE OF ALBUMEN AND THAT OF 
CASEINE. 
BY J. ALFRED WANKLYN. 
Among the determinations of the quantity of ammonia 
evolved "by the action of alkaline permanganate of potash 
on organic substances, Chapman, Smith and myself have 
already published that cascine yields 7'6 per cent of am¬ 
monia, and that albumen yields about 10 per cent. We 
considered, however, that a result of such importance 
required confirmation ; and refraining from drawing the 
conclusions legitimately following from it, pointed out 
that in the instance of the caseine taken for our experi¬ 
ment some further guarantee was desirable. Confirma¬ 
tion has been given ; caseine having been shown to yield 
6‘5 per cent, of ammonia—rather less than before, and, 
consequently, even further removed from albumen than 
was at first represented. 
In ultimate percentage composition albumen and ca¬ 
scine are indistinguishable. In oxidation products they 
have, up to the present time, been considered as being 
alike. Only in some small reactional characters, as, for 
instance, that the one is, and the other is not, preci- 
pitable by acetic acid, had they been distinguished. The 
difference in the yields of ammonia, which we now insist 
upon, points to deep-seated difference in chemical struc¬ 
ture, and shows that albumen and caseine, which are 
metameric, and possibly, even isomeric with one another, 
belong to different chemical families. 
Inasmuch as the albuminous compounds of young 
mammals have necessarily been obtained by metamor¬ 
phoses of the caseine supplied in the milk which they 
feed upon, the process of assimilation must consist partly 
in fundamental chemical change, and not merely in mor¬ 
phological changes and superficial chemical alterations. 
—Milk Journal. 
PELL-MASSES FOR PROTOSULPHATE OF IRON 
AND CARBONATE OF POTASH. 
In the American Journal of Pharmacy, Professor J. M. 
Maisch, referring to a combination of protosulphate of 
iron and carbonate of potash sometimes prescribed in the 
form of pills, and the various methods proposed for over¬ 
coming the hygroscopic tendency of the carbonate of 
potash, speaks with approval of a suggestion made in the 
Pharmaceutische Zeituncj to substitute for the iron sul¬ 
phate an equivalent quantity of the exsiccated salt, and, 
after triturating it with the potash salt, to beat it with 
honey into a mass of proper consistence. The slower 
solubility of the exsiccated salt would necessarily render 
such pills slower in their effects, but probably not suffi¬ 
ciently so, he thinks, to be objectionable. He reports 
that he has obtained excellent results by manipulating 
as follows:—Sulphate of iron, granulated by prccipita- 
