250 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [September 23, 1371. 
decanted. This saccharated emulsion had not the repulsive 
odour of the emulsion prepared with an alkali; it possessed 
the odour of tar, and a taste neither sharp nor hitter. It 
was miscible with water in all proportions, so that, by 
estimating the quantity of tar present, a solution might 
he prepared instantaneously, containing any required 
quantity of the active principle. 
But the liquid form of the medicament presenting 
many and serious inconveniences, it appeared to M. 
Roussin that the pulverulent form, with all its practical 
advantages, would he very desirable. He therefore pur¬ 
sued his researches until he succeeded in obtaining a 
saccharate, as a yellow powder only differing from 
sugar in appearance by its colour, and exhaling the 
balsamic odour of tar. This preparation constitutes 
a remedy essentially new in form, and appears to be 
the real and complete solution of the problem of Dr. 
Jeannel. 
The saccharate of tar is constant in its composition. 
It contains 4 per cent, of purified vegetable tar. A tea- 
spoonful (o grammes) thus represents 20 centigrammes 
of tar, and will suffice for the preparation of a litre of 
water. 
According to M. Bouchardat, 30 grammes of tar-water 
contain nearly 1 centigramme of the principles of the 
tar in solution. This would be nearly 30 centigrammes 
to the litre. Soubeiran says that the proportion of 
matter dissolved in tar-water is so small that 100 
grammes do not contain 4 centigrammes (less than 40 
centigrammes the litre), and that patients can scarcely 
support the tar-water unless it be diluted. 
The irritation of the stomach often provoked by the 
tar-water of the Codex is prevented by the saccharate; 
the proportion being but 4 per cent., the acridity of the 
tar is covered. Another advantage, not less important, 
due to its pulverulent form, is that it avoids the necessity 
of swallowing a large quantity of liquid, since a glass of 
water is sufficient to dissolve several teaspoonfuls. The 
physician can thus augment the quantity of tar accord¬ 
ing to the necessities of the patient. 
The pulverulent form has another valuable advantage. 
Patients who are unable to overcome the repugnance the 
odour and taste of tar often provoke, may enjoy the be¬ 
nefits of this therapeutic agent, by making up the sac¬ 
charate into a pill with unleavened bread. 
_ Hay, sj>eaking of the acridity and repulsive taste of 
oil of tar, recommended that it should he sweetened, “ in 
order to mask its flavour and its odour.” Sugar, as I 
have said., does not alter the therapeutic properties, but 
modifies its organic properties and facilitates its absorp¬ 
tion. While retaining the odour and taste of the remedy, 
the saccharate so disguises them that the most delicate 
stomachs can bear it without repugnance. 
The saccharate of tar is not the result of a chemical 
reaction; it is a simple mixture, each of the elements of 
which retains intact its composition and its properties. 
Constant in its composition, it will furnish solutions 
really and mathematically entitled to the name, being 
able to fulfil all the conditions necessary for mixtures, 
gargles, injections, etc., and enabling the physician to 
give his patient such quantity of tar as he may deem 
necessary .—Journal de Fharmacie et de Chimie. 
The Great Glass Bottle. —It was an odd, dingy, 
old-fashioned shop, with huge gables and overhanging 
eaves—interesting, no doubt, in an antiquarian point of 
view, but giving the ordinary passer-by the somewhat 
uncomfortable sensation that in going underneath its 
projecting windows there was a very considerable risk 
of the building falling bodily upon his head. Verily, 
the old house had seen its best days; but still (old, dingy, 
and dilapidated as it was), it very well suited its occu¬ 
pier—Jonas Trcgaskis, druggist. In those days, before 
“ pharmaceutical chemists” were invented, men who 
dealt in drugs were content to call themselves druggists, 
adding sometimes thereto the not very euphonious or 
attractive title of drysalter; albeit it is possible quite as 
many people are poisoned by drugs now-a-days as there 
were then. Well, then, within the shop of Jonas Ti'e- 
gaskis there was the usual supply of mysterious-looking* 
jars and gallipots labelled with odd words known only 
to the initiated, and sometimes it would seem not very 
well known even to them, such as “ Galbanum,” “ Hy- 
drag. s. crcta,” “ Cap Papr.,” not to mention the extra¬ 
ordinary-looking circles and triangles which were en¬ 
graven on those that stood on the top shelf, and of which 
not even old Jonas himself knew the meaning. But it 
was not these which constihitcd the glory of the esta¬ 
blishment, it was not upon these that Jonas daily cast an 
eye of pride and his apprentice an eye of envy. No! it 
was the huge red glass bottle which stood in the window 
and gazed like a great red eye of fire, when the lamp in 
the window had been lighted, upon every one that passed- 
Now this bottle was a new acquisition of the druggist’s- 
He had bought it, in fact, only the month before from 
the widow of a respected member of his trade in an ad¬ 
joining town. Well, then, the bottle had for that space 
stood quietly and calm in the shop window. It had not 
yet recovered the shock occasioned by so sudden a re¬ 
moval from the premises it had hitherto occupied to the 
somewhat dingy abode of Trcgaskis; but the feelings so- 
long pent up at last found vent, this being (so the bottle 
mused) somewhat as follows:—“ Here’s a treat, to be- 
shut up in this nasty, dingy, little hole, with no society 
except those vulgar jars and gallipots! No! insuffer¬ 
able! insufferable!” As the bottle pronounced these 
words it quivered from top to bottom. “ Ah!” cried the 
druggist, suddenly looking up, “it is as I feared; that 
bottle is rather top-heavy.” “Well,” continued the 
bottle, “ what a view for any respectable bottle to look' 
at! Faugh! it’s enough to turn one sick ; these over¬ 
hanging windows, and that chandler’s shop opposite, 
with the strings of dips in the windows. What a hor¬ 
ribly low neighbourhood; my old master’s premises were- 
bad enough, but as to these”—here the bottle again, 
trembled with such vehemence as to attract the drug¬ 
gist’s attention. “ Tell you what it is, Ben,” said Jonas- 
to his boy, “it’s my opinion that bottle isn’t safe.” - 
“ Heigh ho! what a life to lead,” continued the bottle*. 
“ nothing to do but to stand here all day to be looked at; 
even excess of admiration becomes tiresome! Therefore- 
I am resolved to put in execution a plan which I have- 
long contemplated; it is very evident a sedentary life 
does not suit me. I am convinced that I was born to be 
a roamer, so here goes for a start. The world and 
liberty for ever!” As the bottle uttered these words, 
whether it was that it leapt off the shelf, or whether the 
sudden passage of a brewer’s dray at that particular 
moment had anything to do with it, it is impossible to 
say; however, the fact was that it precipitately fell 
headlong from the shelf, nearly frightening the druggist 
out of his wits, and quite frightening his apprentice out. 
of his—at least, all he had to be frightened out of—and 
was broken into a hundred pieces. “Ah!” said the- 
druggist, as he and the boy picked up the hits and wiped 
iip the red fluid which had run out all over the floor, “it 
is as I feared, that bottle had not enough bottom .” As-- 
with bottles, so, oftentimes, with people ; they talk and 
talk of what they mean to do, but when they pass from 
talk to action they invariably end in failure, they meta¬ 
physically fall to pieces, they have not enough bottom.. 
Thus it is, too, one often sees shops get shut up, and the 
plate glass windows, once all brightly decked, get. 
whitened over, and placarded with bills announcing 
“Peremptory Sale!” Afterwards the shutters go up, 
and whisks of straw flit vaguely round the door, and 
women and children weep, while wise men shake their* 
heads and sigh; and all for the want of bottom. — (A Bra; 
Beothek.) 1 he Bristol Times and Mirror. • 
