GG8 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [February 17,1673L 
peculiar sparkling brightness imparted to syrup by alco¬ 
hol in a high degree. 
Syrup of seneka is prepared as follows:— 
Take of seneka root in No. 24 powder 8 troy ounces. 
Sugar 32 troy ounces. 
Alcohol, 
Water, of each sufficient. 
Mix 1 part of alcohol with 3 of water, pour 8 fluid 
ounces of this on the seneka, macerate twenty-four hours, 
and pack moderately firm in a cylindrical percolator 
forming a column of medium height; then pour on the 
menstruum until 2 pints of percolate has passed, heat this 
slowly to boiling, maintain the temperature ten or fifteen 
minutes, evaporate to 22 fluid ounces, let cool, and filter, 
then add the sugar, apply heat until this has dissolved 
and strain through muslin while hot. The product 
measures 2% pints.— Chicago Pharmacist. 
NITRO-ETHAL, NITRO-GLYCOL AND A GENERAL 
METHOD OF TRANSFORMING ALCOHOLS INTO 
THEIR CORRESPONDING NITRIC ETHERS. 
BY P. CHAMPIOX.* 
Powdered ethal is added little by little to a mixture of 
sulphuric and nitric acids ; no appreciable amount of 
heat is evolved, but after agitation the ethal becomes 
transformed into a milky substance, which is decanted 
and freed from admixed acids by solution in ether, and 
agitation of the ethereal liquid with water; finally the 
ether is evaporated, and ultimately leaves nitro-ethal as 
an oily liquid which is practically colourless if pure ethal 
has been used. Thus obtained, nitro-ethal is soluble in 
ether, carbon disulphide and chloroform; ethylic and 
methylic alcohols dissolve it but sparingly; on a strongly- 
heated plate it becomes spheroidal, and burns with a 
smoky flame ; by heating alone it is decomposed, leaving 
a coaly residue; it solidifies between 10° and 12°, and 
has the specific gravity 0‘91 ; strong sulphuric acid de¬ 
composes it; by analysis it was found to have the 
formula C 16 H 3 3 (N 0 2 ) 0. 
Nitro-glycol is similarly obtainable by using a mixture 
of 100 parts fuming nitric acid, 200 of concentrated sul¬ 
phuric acid, and 42 of glycol, and observing the direc¬ 
tions formerly described in the preparation of nitro¬ 
glycerine. Nitro-glycerine (sic (?) nitro-glycol) is a 
colourless mobile liquid of a sweet taste, and poisonous; 
its specific gravity is l - 48 ; though but little volatile at 
common temperatures, it is markedly so at 100°; it is 
soluble in ether and alcohol, but insoluble in water : 
kept at — 15° for two hours it did not crystallize ; per¬ 
cussion detonates it, but it does not explode when heated 
on a plate ; thus heated, it volatilizes at 185° and more 
abundantly at 230°, giving off yellow vapours; at 295° 
it becomes spheroidal. Its vapour, according to Dr. G-. 
Birgeron, produces, when inhaled, sleepiness and intense 
and continuous pains in the head ; ^ c.c., injected under 
the skin of a rat, produced in about an hour somnolence 
and vertigo ; the animal then fell into a comatose state, 
and finally died ; six or eight drops under a belljar pro¬ 
duced the same symptoms in a bird. 
The author considers that the action of mixed sulphuric 
and nitric acids on alcohols is a general method for pro¬ 
curing nitric ethers, a low temperature being occasionally 
indispensable; thus ethyl nitrate and amyl nitrate re¬ 
quire the materials to be cooled to —15°; by this means 
octyl nitrate has been obtained identical (?) with that 
which Bouis obtained by the action of octyl iodide on 
silver nitrate. In the same way many new chloro- and 
bromo-nitrated compounds may be formed.— Journal of 
the Chemical Society. 
* Comptes Rendus, lxxiii. 571. 
VOLUMETRIC ANALYSIS.* 
BY W. GILMOUR. 
The purity and strength of those substances which 
the pharmaceutical chemist daily comes in contact with, 
handles and dispenses, must always form one of his 
first considerations. This is the more to be remembered, 
as I am afraid we are apt, nowadays, to overlook it im 
delegating to the wholesale dealer or manufacturer the 
preparation of many substances which it formerly was- 
considered the proper province of the retail chemist 
himself to look after and prepare. 
Doubtless, the arrangement is not only convenient, 
but, in most cases, also most economical,—if economy be 
a legitimate consideration in a matter so important as 
medicine in its relation to health ; most economical also, 
we say, thus to look to the wholesale dealer and manu¬ 
facturer for our supply of those chemicals and sub¬ 
stances requiring time and care in their preparation. 
Indeed, there may have been many reasons apart from, 
the above which w-e need not take time to indicate, 
helping to bring about this change in the life and 
labours of the chemist; but from whatever cause the 
change may proceed, it has now come to be so thoroughly 
recognized, that even in the first edition (1864) of the 
Pharmacopoeia the question was taken into considera¬ 
tion “ whether this transference of the manufacture of 
most of the chemicals from the pharmaceutic chemist to 
the wholesale manufacturer should not form one reason, 
for the withdrawing of the greater part of the chemical 
processes from the Pharmacopoeia altogether;” and. 
there are not wanting other indications that this revolu¬ 
tion will not only be permanent, but will, in the future, 
be even more universal and more strictly defined.than 
in times past. This arrangement, however, if it relieves 
us of one, imposes on us other obligations, probably not 
less onerous and difficult, certainly not less important 
and scientific than the one from which we have escaped ;, 
and amongst these we consider will primarily be ranked 
the testing and proving every substance introduced from 
extraneous sources into the stock of the pharmaceutist 
for himself. 
So far as this revolution has already taken place we 
are afraid, not to mince matters, it has been a custom 
far too prevalent amongst us to receive such chemicals 
and compounds on the mere warranty of the manufac¬ 
turer, or, what is far less excusable still, on the assump¬ 
tion of the respectability of the firm from whom they 
are obtained; oftentimes even without this warranty. 
Neither the one nor the other, I hold, ought to be suffi¬ 
cient for us, or excuse us the moral obligation of ex¬ 
amining all such substances so obtained, each one for 
himself. He would be accounted a fool, and incapable 
of being trusted in any important transaction, who 
would receive a sum of money from a bank, for example, 
without checking it, on the assumption that it must be 
correct from the respectability of the bank. No one, we 
believe, at the same time would think the bank would 
willingly defraud, but there are a hundred different 
ways in which an error might creep in ; and even were 
there not, it still would be no less his duty to examine 
and check for himself. And so is it also with the far 
more important matter of medicine received into our 
stock, and from which time we are accountable for it. 
It is as much a duty devolving on us as the examining of 
the twenty shillings, “ all told and true,” which we re¬ 
ceive in exchange for a sovereign. Nay, it is an infi¬ 
nitely higher duty, for in the latter case we may only 
wrong ourselves, whilst in the former we may not only 
wrong ourselves but the public also, and wrong them, 
too, in what is of far greater value than money, of what • 
is even beyond price,—of health itself. 
Commercial men and agriculturists in this respect 
* Read at the Meeting of the North British Branch of the 
Pharmaceutical Society, January 1st, 1872. 
