654 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [February 10, 1872. 
Dr. Attfield : Surely the flavour of the almonds was 
not present to the same extent P 
Mr. Mack ay : No; but it was sufficient to enable it 
be used for flavouring purposes. 
Mr. Allchin said that his experience totally differed 
from that of Mr. Mackay. There was no doubt that 
essential oil of almonds deprived of prussic acid would 
dissolve rapidly in spirit, but the spirit, whatever its 
strength, did not prevent the oxidation going on; and as 
•that proceeded, the flavour was gradually destroyed, 
until it entirely disappeared and nothing but benzoic 
acid was left. 
Mr. Maiitindale said that he believed with regard 
to many proof-spirit tinctures, besides those which Mr. 
Greenish had mentioned, it would be desirable to in¬ 
crease the strength of the spirit employed; for instance, 
in the case of the tinctures of the leaves of plants indige¬ 
nous in this country, such as hyoscyamus, belladonna and 
■digitalis. He believed that proof-spirit took up a quan¬ 
tity of matter which was comparatively inert, and that a 
stronger spirit would be preferable. As a rule, it was not 
found that the tincture made with the stronger spirit 
g-ave any deposition at all; for instance, arnica and aco¬ 
nite. Although, of course, as Dr. Redwood mentioned, 
the changes might occur without being perceptible, still 
his own’experience did not lead him to that opinion. 
Another point to which he would draw attention was the 
proportion of the ingredients to the quantity of spirit 
ordered. Taking the specific gravity of many tinctures 
which he had made, he found that in making them by 
percolation, very little more than weight by weight to 
.the ingredients, as in the case of the green plants which 
lie had mentioned, would almost completely exhaust them. 
Tn making two gallons of tincture of hyoscyamus by per¬ 
colation, he found that after the first 40 ounces were ob¬ 
tained, the specific gravity of that which passed after- 
awards was little above that of the spirit used. 
Mr. Groves said that he differed both from Mr. 
Mackay and Mr. Allchin as to the essence of almonds. 
He had used nine volumes of alcohol, and he found that he 
might keep the solution twelve months without its either 
•depositing crystals or losing flavour. It was very likely 
that Mr. Allchin’s essence was made with a smaller pro¬ 
portion of alcohol. 
Mr. Allchin said that he used about one to twelve. 
Mr. Groves said that the preservative influence of 
rectified spirit was probably due to the abstraction of 
water. That would equally apply to oil of almonds and 
tincture of cinnamon. He thought that the fact of Mr. 
Greenish’s tincture retaining its odour must be accepted 
.as a proof that there was certainly no great amount of 
■oxidation. He believed that the effect was entirely due 
to the spirit retaining the water and preventing the 
oxidizing action from taking place. 
Mr. Allchin asked whether Mr. Groves thought that 
the quantity of spirit deterred the oxidation. 
Mr. Groves said he did not. It was the strength of 
the spirit. 
Mr. Allchin said that his opinion was quite different. 
Mr. Umney said that if the essential oil of almonds 
were diluted with nine parts of alcohol, the amount of 
benzoic acid produced, even by the total oxidation of the 
oil, would be entirely soluble in that quantity of alcohol. 
He could not understand how a deposition could take place 
in the way described by Mr. Mackay. He (Mr. Umney) 
■could corroborate the experiments which Dr. Tilden made 
three or four years ago. He had found that two or 
three pieces of chloride of calcium, placed in a quantity 
of essential oil of almonds freed from prussic acid, took 
rip the water, and the oxidation afterwards did not take 
place as rapidly as under ordinary circumstances. 
Mr. "Williams said on one occasion he had an oppor¬ 
tunity of inquiring of Dr. Hofmann the probable effect 
of alcohol on oil of bitter almonds in preserving it. Dr. 
Hofmann had had presented to him some oil of almonds 
in which there was 23 per cent, of alcohol. The makers 
said that they put the spirit in for the purpose of keeping 
the substance; but the doctor did not like it, and he 
pointed out that so far from keeping it, it was a very 
inj urious addition. Prof. Redwood had mentioned balsam 
of tolu. He (Mr. Williams) should like to know whether 
he would take the quantity of cinnamic acid as the 
standard for the quality of balsam of tolu. That was 
only one ingredient and a small one. There was another 
question involved, which was the strength of the spirit. 
It was simply a question whether spirit really kept a 
tincture, or whether decomposition went on just the 
same, the spirit simply dissolving the resulting product. 
There was no evidence at present to prove that when 
the strong spirit was used, decomposition took place. 
That, of course, was an open question, and one which 
ought to be clearly defined. 
Mr. Groves said that many years ago he found that, 
in dispensing, on adding liquor potassm to syrup of tolu, 
prepared according to the Pharmacopoeia, a jelly was 
formed after a time, so firm that the bottle could be 
inverted without the contents running out. He should 
like to know how that was occasioned. 
The President said that he should have liked to make 
some remarks on the subject, but it would be better to 
proceed to the other papers. 
A “ Note on the Longouze of Mauritius ” was read by 
Mr. Daniel Hanbury, F.R.S. 
[This paper is printed at page 642, and gave rise to 
the following discussion :—] 
Mr. Collins said that about eighteen months ago a 
specimen, labelled “ grains of paradise,” was shown him 
in Mincing Lane. It came from the west coast of A frica. 
It had the appearance of one of the so-called millets, and 
w r ould not pass muster in the market. He believed it to 
be identical with what was described by Mr. Hanbury. 
Dr. Tilden asked to what species Mr. Hanbury finally 
referred the plant. 
Mr. Hanbury said that Sonnerat’s name, Amomum an - 
gmtifoliuni , displaced all the other names. 
A paper on “ The Separation and Quantitative Deter¬ 
mination of the Cinchona Alkaloids,” by Dr. J. E. De 
Vry, w’as read by Dr. Attfield. 
[The paper is printed at page 642, and gave rise to 
the following discussion :—] 
Mr. Williams said that the paper was a most impor¬ 
tant one, but it would be very difficult to enter into a 
discussion upon it at once. It would require much 
thought, and was fitted for study rather than discussion. 
It was one of those papers which seemed to mark defi¬ 
nite steps in the progress of scientific investigation. 
A paper by the same author, on “ Samadera Indica ,” 
was read by Dr. Attfield. 
[This paper is printed at page 644, and gave rise to 
the following discussion :—] 
Professor Attfield said that the bark mentioned in 
the paper w^as one of the two substances alluded to in a 
paper by Mr. Cooke, entitled “Two Medicinal Barks 
from Ceylon,” which appeared in the Journal of January 
6th. He exhibited Dr. De Yry’s samaderine to the 
meeting, and said that as there was no evidence of its being 
an alkaloid, it would be well to drop the final e in its 
name. Samadera belonged to the same Natural Order as 
Quassia , but the bitter principle of Quassia did not colour 
sulphuric acid ; neither did strychnia, which also was 
excessively bitter; but samaderin coloured it very beau¬ 
tifully (Professor Attfield here showed by experiment). 
The tint was the same as that produced by a mixture 
of sulphuric acid and red chromate of potassium, or of 
other oxidizing agents on strychnia, namely, a delicate 
purple, and was less fugitive than the colour produced 
by strychnia. Fuming sulphuric acid also produced the 
reaction. Neither ordinary nor fuming nitric acid gave 
