July 22, 1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
77 
carbolic acid, tincture of aconite, sulphate of atropia, 
acetate and bimeconate of morphia, corrosive sublimate 
and chloral: a tabular classification of mineral waters, 
and an amplification of the index, which will be highly 
appreciated by busy pharmacists and practitioners of 
medicine. 
From a purely literary point of view, we feel it our 
duty to condemn the imnecessary amount of puffing scat¬ 
tered broadcast throughout this and all previous editions 
of an otherwise valuable book. In his preface the author 
tells us he has “ omitted many remarks that are no longer 
necessarymay we venture to hope that much of that 
fulsome praise of his own articles, which disfigures the 
work, and is unworthy of the Queen’s chemist, will be 
-omitted in the next edition, or transferred to its appro¬ 
priate place, the advertisement pages at the end of the 
book ? 
The following extracts on the new medicines intro¬ 
duced into this edition, fairly illustrate the excellences 
and shortcomings of our author’s style. The italics are 
•ours:— 
“Chloral, Hydrate of.—C 4 HC1 3 0 2 + 2Aq. 
“ A white opaque mass, having a pungent odour, re¬ 
sembling that of a ripe melon. 
“ The author is indebted to his son William Stevens Squire, 
JTh.D. (who, he believes , is the only maker of this prepara¬ 
tion in England ), for the following outline of the process :— 
“ Pass dry chlorine gas, for several days, through ab¬ 
solute alcohol, sp. g. '795, until it becomes a thick viscid 
liquid of sp. g. 1*570. 
“ At the beginning of the operation, the alcohol is well 
•cooled to prevent inflammation and explosion; but to¬ 
wards the end of the operation the alcohol is heated 
nearly to the boiling-point. The resulting liquid, which 
after a day or two solidifies to a mass of crude hydrate of 
chloral, is agitated well with four times its bulk of con¬ 
centrated sulphuric acid, and the anhydrous chloral 
which floats on the surface is separated and purified by 
fractional distillation. The purified anhydrous chloral 
is placed in a still, mixed with 11 per cent, of water, and 
distilled over chalk to remove any hydrochloric acid that 
may be present, the resulting solid distillate is then 
fused and poured out into shallow vessels to cast into 
cakes. 
“ The action of chlorine on alcohol is very irregular, 
'depending upon the temperature and other circumstances, 
and the crude product obtained is consequently very A r a- 
riable in composition, requiring some modification of the 
above process, and frequently special methods of purifi¬ 
cation. It appears that the purest product is obtained by 
crystallizing the hydrate of chloral once or twice from 
■purified bisulphide of carbon. 
■“Solubility: 3 in 1 of water and measures only 2|; in 
glycerine 1 in 1. 
“ Test. —From 100 grains dissolved in \ oz. of water and 
well shaken with 1 oz. of liquor potasses, after being 
allowed to stand several hours, at least 46 grain-measures 
of chloroform will separate. 
“ Medicinal Properties. —An excellent hypnotic, produc¬ 
ing sound and placid sleep ; suitable for hypochondriacal 
affections, chorea, nervous disturbances, and restlessness, 
where opium and Indian hemp disagree. Good also in 
asthma, whooping cough, scarlet fever, diminishes the 
temperature of the body, has been found useful in idio¬ 
pathic tetanus, in doses 30 to 60 grains ( Lancet , Doc. 31, 
1870); also for cancer, 20 to 30 gr. doses ( Lancet , May 
14, and June 4, 1870) ; 10 grs. three times a day ( Medical 
Times , Dec. 31, 1870). 
“ Dr. Tuke, after trying it on several maniacal patients 
with good results, reports, “ Its advantages over other 
hypnotics are as follows : that it is more uniform in its 
.action and its effects more lasting, it has no depressing 
influence, it does not constipate nor produce nausea.” 
“Dose. —From 10 to 60 grs. 
“ An admirable calming draught is made with 15 grs. 
hydrate of chloral and 5 minims of solution of bimeconate 
of morphia. Dr. Liebreich employs 7 grains, in solution, 
for subcutaneous injection. 
“ Effects from an over-dose or repeated over-doses, are 
cramp in the legs, swimming in the head, flushed face, 
closed eyes, with injected conjectiva, and in some cases 
death.” 
Chlor-Alttm. 
“An inquire solution of chloride of aluminium, sp. g. 
1*150. Contains, in a pint, 1500 grs. of the chloride == 
75 grains in the ounce. Introduced as a disinfectant and 
antiseptic by Professor Gamgee. Should be diluted with 
four times its volume of water for antiseptic use, but 
may be used stronger for a gargle. 
Liquor Ferri Chloroxydi. 
“ Intensely blood-red colour, same strength as tinct. 
ferri perchloridi and liquor ferri perchloridi. 
“ This preparation was made at the suggestion of Mr. 
Spencer Wells, who had noticed the paper by M. Jeannel, 
of Bordeaux, describing a yellow and red peroxide of 
iron, the latter being soluble in very dilute hydrochloric 
acid. 
“ Mr. Spencer Wells has found that he can give this 
preparation to patients who cannot take the tincture of 
steel; he has also used it as a styptic at operations.” 
This is the sum total of the information vouchsafed of 
one of the new preparations, perhaps the newest. An 
addendum of the price per pound is only needed to 
render the information more readily available to phar¬ 
maceutists in general. 
As the author has published a substitute for chloro- 
dyne, that those who object to prescribe proprietary me¬ 
dicines may be able to order a compound under the 
above name, with a knowledge of its composition, we 
trust some competent pharmacist will do us a similar 
favour in regard to liquor ferri chloroxydi. 
Amongst omissions we note the absence of chloroform 
water, a pleasant vehicle for a large class of nauseous 
drugs, and too long overlooked; gaseous and liquid 
nitrous oxide, extensively used as an anesthetic in dental 
and some minor surgical operations; syrupy phosphoric 
acid; the so-called hypochloride of sulphur, and its sim¬ 
ple and compound ointment. The formula for the well- 
known compound syrup of the phosphates, published by 
Professor Parrish in his ‘ Practical Pharmacy,’ is also 
omitted. 
The practical remarks on most of the preparations are 
beyond praise. We should like to see this part of the 
work thoroughly revised with each new edition, and the 
most recent improvements or suggested improvements 
added. That this has not been the case hitherto is shown 
by the comments we find under fluid extract of ergot, 
where we are still told to use a large quantity of ex¬ 
pensive ether, which Umney has shown, as the result 
of some experiments on the large scale, to be useless, and 
we believe the editor of the Pharmacopoeia holds a similar 
view. We know as a fact that some manufacturers make 
it without the ether, and that prescribers do not notice 
any difference in the activity of the preparation. 
Again, under cherry-laurel water, the same chemist, 
and others before him, have pointed out the variability in 
the amount of prussic acid present in different commercial 
specimens, depending upon the time of year when the 
leaves are gathered, and the modus operandi of distilla¬ 
tion ; surely worthy of notice in connection with the dose, 
and important also as a caution to prescribers. 
Notwithstanding these omissions and the blemishes 
which we have noticed, this book does contain an im¬ 
mense amount of practical and valuable information, 
such as could only be written by a master of the craft, 
and for which every member of the trade ought to bo 
thankful. 
We congratulate the author on the completion of the 
edition, begun and ended after he had passed the ago 
