5S4 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [January 20, 1872. 
Head and thorax yellow, the latter with three small 
longitudinal black lines, more or less well marked, 
the head with very small black dots. Elytra of a 
more or less deep yellow, covered with shining, irre¬ 
gular large sunken black dots, very different from 
the small and superficial dots of L. adspersa. The 
under side of the body is covered with yellow hairs. 
Feet reddish. 
This species is rare. “I have always found it,” 
says M. Courbon, “on Eryngium paniculatum, DC., 
an umbelliferous plant which is very common in the 
Cerro of Montevideo. I have sought for it in vain 
on other plants. I experimented with this fiy, for 
the first time, on the 12tli September, 1852. It is 
very nearly as vesicant as the officinal cantharides.” 
(2o be continued.) 
THE ACTION OF CARBOLIC ACID AND THE 
DISINFECTION OF AIR. 
Dr. A. Ernest Sansom has addressed to the Lancet of 
January 13th a communication in answer to the paper 
on “ Chromic Acid as a Disinfectant, etc., more especially 
as compared with Carbolic Acid,” by Dr. John Dougall, 
which we recently reprinted from that Journal.* He 
says that Dr. Dougall’s statement that carbolic acid 
seems to act as an antiseptic solely by coagulating albu¬ 
men is exactly opposed to the conclusion come to by him¬ 
self. Pie claims to have shown that the white-cloud ap¬ 
pearance in albuminous solutions to which carbolic acid 
has been added, is often really no albuminous precipitate 
at all, but is caused by refractile globules of carbolic 
acid in a state of fine subdivision; also, that it has been 
shown that albuminous solutions are antisepted when 
carbolic acid exists in them in too feeble a proportion to 
cause any precipitate whatever. He criticizes Dr. Dou- 
gall’s assertion “that, in general, chemical precipitates 
of albumen are soluble in water, specially carbolico-albu- 
minoid precipitates,” and points out that to say such 
precipitates from aqueous solution are soluble in water, 
is to say that they are not precipitates at all. Arguing 
that if carbolic acid acted as an antiseptic by producing 
coagulation of albumen, agents which had a greater 
coagulating power would d fortiori be more powerful 
antiseptics, which has been abundantly proved not to be 
the case. He maintains, therefore, that the antiseptic 
properties of carbolic acid do not result solely from its 
power of coagulatir g albumen. 
With regard to the assertion that the amount of car¬ 
bolic acid vapour which could be tolerated in the air of 
a hospital ward would be entirely inadequate to act as a 
disinfectant, Dr. Sansom says that his experiments have 
shown to him that carbolized atmospheres are efficient in 
preventing putrefaction and the growth of mouldiness, 
more so than atmospheres impregnated with chloride of 
lime or sulphurous acid. He objects to the experiments 
recorded by Dr. Dougall, since in the one case tar oil, 
a crude product, weak in carbolic acid, and possessing 
little or no other volatile disinfectant constituent, and 
Macdougall’s powder containing its carbolic acid in the 
form of carbolate of lime, and that only in one-third of 
its bulk, are used; in the other, the phials were suspended 
in a gallon bottle, the mouth of which, necessarily 
large, was left open. Dr. Sansom concludes by saying, 
“ Carbolic acid is readily taken up by +he air, so that 
159’44 cubic inches of air at 60° F. contain one grain of 
the antiseptic. Air thus carbolized (currents excluded) 
entirely annuls putrefaction and fungoid manifestation 
on the surface of putrescible fluids. Such carbolized air is 
more permanently efficacious than air charged with the 
fumes of chloride of lime or sulphurous acid, and equally 
so with air containing iodine, creasote or phosphorus. 
Such carbolized air can be breathed by mammifers with 
perfect impunity. There is a reasonable amount of evi¬ 
dence derived from practical experience that the air of 
places can be preserved from noxious inhalations, and, at 
least in some degree, from the power of transmitting 
infectious disease when it is commingled with a volatile 
antiseptic.” 
TANACETIC ACID AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR 
SANTONIN.* 
BY FROSINI MERLETTA. 
Tanacetic acid is prepared in distilling the heads of the 
common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) ; the filtered residue is 
evaporated to the consistency of honey. Treated with 
lime and animal charcoal and dried, it is diluted first by 
water, acidulated with hydrochloric acid and afterwards 
by acetic acid. The tanacetic acid is deposited in 
coloured crystals, which are purified by repeated wash¬ 
ings in distilled water. It has a sharp, bitter taste. It 
is insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol and ether. 
Nearly all its salts are crystallizable. 
The author states that as a vermifuge it operates in the 
same doses as santonin. 
SACCHARATED COD-LIVER OIL. 
M. Tissier, in the November part of the Journal cle 
Pharmacie et de Cliimie , publishes a method for preparing 
a granulated saccharate of cod-liver oil, for which he 
claims several advantages, and which may be flavoured 
by orange, vanilla, etc. The ing 
redients are as follows 
White Gelatine . . 
Distilled Water . . . 
25 
(Simple Syrup .... 
25 
Finely Powdered Sugar 
• • • o 0 ^ ^ 
Pure Cod-liver Oil . . 
• • • o 0 j j 
The gelatine should be cut and placed in a wide- 
mouthed. bottle; the water and syrup added, and the 
whole heated in a water-bath until dissolved. The cod- 
liver oil and the sugar should next be well rubbed up 
together in a mortar and then the warm solution of gela¬ 
tine stirred in, the stirring being continued until the 
mixture is quite cold. 
After some time the mass will present the app'earance 
of a dense homogeneous jelly; it is then necessary to 
add a sufficient quantity of finely-powdered sugar to form 
a firm paste, weighing 250 grams. The paste is spread 
upon a marble slab, divided into small pieces and left for 
some hours to harden. It is then divided into small 
pieces the size of a lentil, which, after further drying, 
become sufficiently firm to allow of granulation in a 
mortar. The drying of this granulated powler is accom¬ 
plished on a stove at a temperature of 30° to 35° C. 
The product will contain one-fifth of its weight of cod- 
liver oil. It should be kept in well-closed bottles. 
THE NEW AMERICAN PHARMACOFCEIA. 
The Philadelphia correspondent of the Medical Times 
and Gazette makes the following remarks upon the revi¬ 
sion of the American Pharmacopoeia and the construc¬ 
tion of Pharmacopoeias in general, which will not be 
without interest to those -who desire to see some progress 
made towards the assimilation of those of different 
countries to one standard:— 
“ The Committee of prominent Physicians and Phar¬ 
maceutists appointed in May, 1870, by the National 
Convention for the Revision of the Pharmacopoeia are 
* Ante, pp. 544, 568. 
* Journal de Pharmacie et de Cliimie, 4th ser. vol. xiv. 
p. 368. 
