GIG 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [January 27 , 1872. 
may "be detected, if present, "by treating the catechu with 
alcohol, and, after drying the insoluble residue, heating 
it in a tube, when ammoniacal vapours will be given off, 
as well as vapours of a most offensive odour. 
Catechu is composed of three distinct substances, first, 
a tannin matter called mimo-tannic acid ; second, catechine , 
or catechinic acid ; and lastly, a brown colouring matter 
due to the oxidation of the catechine. 
Mimo-tannic acid is prepared by treating pulverized 
catechu by ether in a displacement apparatus. The 
ethereal solution leaves on evaporation a yellow porous 
mass of this acid. Bombay catechu yields about 55*5 
percent, of mimo-tannic acid; that from Bengal, 48'2 
per cent.; while gambier yields from 36 to 40 per cent. 
Catechine , or catechinic acid , is obtained by treating 
with boiling water the residue from catechu, which has 
yielded its mimo-tannic acid to ether. The water, on 
cooling, deposits a brown crystalline precipitate, which 
is redissolved in water, treated with subacetate of lead, 
and the precipitate washed. The lead compound is 
then suspended in water, and decomposed by sulphu¬ 
retted hydrogen, when pure catechine remains in solu¬ 
tion. Its formula is C 10 H 10 O 4 . It rapidly becomes 
coloured brown in the presence of air and an alkali, 
being, it is said, converted into japonic acid , whilst with 
alkaline carbonates it yields rubinic acid. It is also 
converted into japonic acid under the oxidizing influence 
of salts of copper and of bichromate of potash. 
If dyers, instead of employing catechu as imported, 
were to grind it, and wash with cold water, they would 
obtain an extract which would yield very pure shades 
of green drabs, while the insoluble residue of catechine 
would give a great variety of shades of brown. To 
increase the permanency of catechine colours, the goods 
dyed with them should be passed through a solution of 
bichromate of potash, as is usually done for catechu 
browns. 
Dr. Stenhouse has shown that the tannin matters 
giving a green .coloration -with persalts of iron, such as 
catechu and elder and larch barks, do not contain a 
glucoside. The only exception he has found to this rule 
is willow bark. 
smir fato foitcMngs. 
Infringement of the Pharmacy Act. 
At the Wrexham Borough Magistrates’ Court, on 
Monday, January 15th, Mr. John Davis, druggist, Yorke 
Street, appeared in answer to a summons charging him 
that he “did unlawfully sell by retail one certain poison 
contained in one wrapper or cover, and containing a 
certain poison, being a preparation of mercury, called 
red oxide of mercury, or red precipitate, without the 
said wrapper or cover being distinctly labelled with the 
name and address of the seller of the poison, and the 
contents of the said wrapper or cover then and there not 
being medicine supplied by a legally qualified apothe¬ 
cary to his patient, nor any article forming part of the 
ingredients supplied in medicine dispensed by a person 
registered according to law.” A second information 
charged the defendant with selling syrup of poppies 
without the bottle being distinctly labelled with the 
word poison, and with the name‘and address of the 
seller. 
Mr. T. Bury prosecuted, having been instructed by 
Mr. J. F. Edisbury, Local Secretary of the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Society. 
Mr. Bury said the defendant was charged with an 
offence under the Pharmacy Act of 1868, which was 
passed to regulate sale of poisons, so that a person selling 
any without labelling it with the name of the article and 
the name and address of the seller was liable to a penalty, 
for the first offence not exceeding £5. The Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society from time to time passed resolutions 
defining what were poisons, which resolutions were for¬ 
warded to the Privy Council for approval and advertised 
in the London Gazette. The object in laying the present 
information was simply for the protection of the public. 
It had become necessary and expedient in the opinion of 
the Legislature that the sale of poisons should be placed 
under certain stringent regulations, in order that in 
any case of poisoning, for instance, the poison might be 
traced to the seller ; and also that the strength might be 
known. It was necessary that the public should know that 
there was such an Act as the Pharmacy Act in existence, 
for at present the people seemed rather to have been led 
into the belief that the existing Acts relating to the sale 
of poisons were simply useless. He then referred to a 
letter that had appeared in a local newspaper, ridiculing 
the poison clauses of the Pharmacy Act. John Wil¬ 
liams, an errand boy, was sent—on the Wednesday 
night before Christmas—to the shop of the defendant 
for a pennyworth of red precipitate, which was served 
to him with the word “ poison ” on it, but not tho 
name and address of the seller, and he also got half an 
ounce of syrup of poppies without the word “poison” or 
the name and address of the seller. He (Mr. Bury) 
would put in the Gazette of the 21st of December, 1869, 
in which the resolution of the Pharmaceutical Society 
for making red precipitate a poison appeared, which was 
the same article supplied by the defendant. 
In reply to the clerk, the defendant did not admit tho 
offence. 
J. Williams said: I live in Penybryn, and I am an 
errand boy in the employ of Mr. Edisbuiy. On the Wed¬ 
nesday before Christmas Day, about seven o’clock at 
night, I was sent to the defendant’s shop, in Yorke 
Street, and he was in the shop. I asked him for a penny¬ 
worth of red precipitate, which he gave to me. He gave 
me the packet now produced. He did not say anything to 
me about it, and I saw him put the label upon the packet 
as it is now, and it is in the same condition in which it 
was when handed to me. I took the packet to Mr. Edis¬ 
bury. 
The defendant cross-examined the witness as to the 
number of times he had been sent to make purchases, 
and as to the package being in the same state now as when 
he received it, saying that witness had been trying to 
entrap him, under the superintendence of Mr. Edisbury. 
Mr. Bury complained that defendant had made such 
an imputation, and asked how Mr. Edisbury was to per¬ 
form his duty as secretary to the Pharmaceutical Society 
without bringing forward these cases ? There was no 
feeling or animus in the matter. 
Defendant: Are you sure you have not ? 
Mr. Bury : T am sure we have not. Mr. Edisbury is 
the local secretary to the Society, and he is bringing 
these cases before the public. 
Defendant said he did not deny having sent the poison 
out without a label. 
Mr. Bury: You insinuated that the labels had been 
tampered with. 
The defendant said he did not wish to insinuate any¬ 
thing of the kind. It was unusual for him to sell any¬ 
thing like red precipitate without a wrapper round it 
stating its contents. He really had no intentiou to sell 
any poison without his name attached. He had been in 
business thirty years, and he had not killed any one—[a 
pause]—to his knowledge. He had been very cautious, 
and he hardly ever gave poison to a young man like the 
witness without questioning him. This was the first 
time he had been before either a coroner or a justice of 
tho peace. 
Mr. Charles Hughes (a magistrate) said the Act had 
only been in operation about three years, and it was for 
the protection not merely of the public, but of the de¬ 
fendant’s profession,—it involved such stringency that 
people would not like to enter such a business,, surrounded 
by so many peculiar cautions ; but the defendant, having 
