November 18,1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
411 
(ournal. 
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Street, London, TV. Envelopes indorsed u Bharm. Journ.” 
THE DUTY ON CHLORAL HYDRATE. 
The consumption of chloral hydrate bids fair to 
be as fruitful a topic for the sensational writers at 
this dull season of the year as was the case of 
stiychnine in 1850, when the statement was made 
in a French newspaper that M. Payen in one of 
liis lectures had said that much of the strychnine 
made in Paris was sent to England for the manu¬ 
facture of bitter beer. To this day many people are 
credulous enough to believe this nonsense, and 
would be offended with those who differed from them 
in opinion on this subject. Now, up to the present 
time no satisfactory proof whatever has been adduced 
that chloral has been ever used in beer; and, however 
attractive sensational articles and letters may make 
the newspapers containing them, it is not fair either 
to the brewers of beer or to the public that such 
liberties should be taken with our national beverage. 
To those who constantly have to analyse beer, 
such wild statements are known to be untrue ; and 
it may be broadly stated, without fear of contra¬ 
diction, that beer is seldom adulterated with hurtful 
materials, but the adulteration generally consists in 
diluting with weaker beer or with sugar and water, 
in order that the beer sold may yield a larger margin 
of profit than would otherwise be obtained. We are 
not advocates even of harmless dilution, but con¬ 
demn sophistication in every shape and form, and 
hope the day is not distant when by legislative 
enactments the Government will undertake the re¬ 
sponsibility of suppressing the adulteration of food, 
drink and drugs. 
Although no reliable statistics can be given, we 
believe that both the quantity of chloral hydrate 
imported and its consumption in this country have 
been very much over-estimated, and we may be quite 
sure that the Customs duty now imposed upon it of 
Is. 3d. a pound will decrease the consumption, and 
also divert the manufacture from Germany to Eng¬ 
land. The absence of competition will probably 
tend to increase the price; and if the price be in¬ 
creased, it may in the end prove a means of causing 
the chloral to be used in a more legitimate manner 
than it otherwise would be. 
The mention of the imposition of this duty brings 
us at once to the real subject-matter of this article, 
which is, why was this duty imposed ? From in¬ 
quiries we have made on the subject, and from the 
clause in the Act imposing the said duty, the facts 
appear to be these. A certain amount of alcohol 
has to be used in the preparation of the chloral 
hydrate, the chloral is therefore chargeable with a 
duty “ equivalent to that which is chargeable on the 
like quantity of spirit on its importation.” The 
duty on alcohol imported is 10s. 5 d. per gallon at 
proof strength, and as a gallon of such spirits weighs 
9 x 2 o lb., it follows that according to the duty im¬ 
posed it has been found that lTo lb. of proof spirit, 
is required to produce 1 lb. of chloral. 
The very heavy duty on alcohol in this country— 
which produces an annual revenue of not less than 
fifteen millions per annum—has a tendency to re¬ 
strict all manufactures in which alcohol is used, 
and it is only by countervailing duties levied on 
similar articles imported from abroad, that our manu¬ 
facturers are able to hold then own even in this 
country. It is true that the Methylated Spirit Acts 
have set free many branches of industry in this 
countiy which otherwise could never have been suc¬ 
cessfully carried on, but these remarks only apply 
to the manufacture of such goods as are not dete¬ 
riorated by the offensive odour of methylated spirit. 
In pharmacy methylated spirit ought never to bo 
used; and, to the honour of those who were con¬ 
sulted on behalf of the Pharmaceutical Society, it is. 
recorded that they were strongly opposed to allow¬ 
ing methylated spirit to be used in the preparation 
of medicine of any kind. It is well known that, 
the first of the methylated spirit Acts were grossly 
abused, and that the preparation from methylated 
spirit of medicines for internal use was so common,, 
and found to be such an extensive fraud on the 
Revenue, that eventually legislative action had to 
be taken in the matter, and it was made illegal to 
prepare medicines for internal use from methylated 
spirit. In this Act, however, exception was made 
to' chloroform and ether, on the ground that these 
substances, when properly prepared, would not con¬ 
tain alcohol of any kind. But we know from expe¬ 
riment that there is little difficulty in determining 
whether a sample of chloroform or ether is made- 
from pure alcohol or methylated spirit, and this fact 
at once shows the difficulty there is in practice in 
getting rid of the offensive hydrocarbons and other 
impurities which are always present in methylated 
spirit. Doubtless if chloral had then occupied as 
prominent a place in public estimation as it does, 
now, it would also have been put in the same cate¬ 
gory as ether and chloroform, and when prepared 
from methylated spirit it would, no doubt, as easily 
betray its origin when submitted to chemical treat¬ 
ment as do the other two substances named. 
As before stated, the heavy duty on chloral will 
probably tend to check its general use, but, however 
