March 9, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
735 ' 
thought that such preparations, when brought before the 
Society by a student, were worthy of notice, especially 
when the student, as in this case, bore an historic name. 
Professor Attfield said that Mr. F. J. Hanbury and 
Mr. Rammell had, with a great deal of patience and a 
considerable amount of manipulative skill, prepared this 
specimen from rhubarb in the Society’s laboratory; and 
perhaps it was not the least interesting part of the matter 
that they had obtained it from a material that would other¬ 
wise be thrown away, namely, from the residue of the 
preparation of extract of rhubarb. Other students might 
very well follow in the steps of these gentlemen in uti¬ 
lizing the residues of pharmaceutical preparations for 
isolating somewhat rare chemicals, and, as they had done, 
presenting them to the museum. 
Mr. Williams made a few remarks with respect to 
the specimens of syrup of lacto-phosphate of lime and 
syrup of lacto-phosphate of iron, which, he said, 
were made in accordance with the formula) given in 
the Year Book published by the Pharmaceutical Con¬ 
ference. The specimens seemed to be very nice and 
elegant forms of medicine, although he thought they 
were rather weak, 2 per cent, being prescribed instead 
of 2 grains in a drachm, which was the common form 
in the English syrups. He thought they might be 
very useful. With regard to the croton chloral hy¬ 
drate, he might say that it was the chloral hydrate of 
another series ; it was the chloral hydrate of crotonic 
acid, just as the ordinary chloral was the product of 
acetic acid. It was obtained by passing chlorine through 
pure aldehyde, and was said to act upon the system per¬ 
fectly as a narcotic, but not as a stimulant to the heart, 
and the heart’s action was not in any way interfered 
with. If that were the case, it would be of great import¬ 
ance. It was very soluble in hot water, and but slightly 
soluble in cold water. In both ether and alcohol it was 
freely soluble. It was destroyed by strong and boiling 
sulphuric acid, turning black and evolving hydrochloric 
acid, in which it differed from ordinary chloral. The 
dose was about the same as that of ordinary chloral, but 
not quite so much—not more than 20 grains. Dr. 
Liebreich, of Berlin, had written upon this subject, and 
it was entirely upon his authority that he (Mr. Williams) 
made the statement as to its medicinal qualities. 
Xylol had been introduced as a remedy for smallpox. 
It was the third member of the benzole series; it boiled 
at 139 Centigrade. It formed a double compound with 
sulphuric acid, and had many points of interest. The 
dose was from 5 to 15 drops. The effects following its 
administration were said to be that the pustules were 
dried over, and the pitted appearance of smallpox re¬ 
moved. 
Notes ox the Pharmacy of Ipecacuanha. 
Dr. Dyce Duckworth then read a paper on “ Phar¬ 
maceutical Preparations of Ipecacuanha.” 
[This paper is printed at p. 721, ami elicited the fol¬ 
lowing discussion:—] 
The President said he perfectly well remembered the 
paper of Mr. Johnson’s in 1860, which Dr. Duckworth 
had spoken of, and also that the subject was discussed 
by the Chemical Discussion Association of the Society. 
He believed they came to the conclusion that the acetic 
preparation was the best that could possibly be obtained, 
and that the bulk of the precipitate was acid tartrate of 
potash, but why the matter remained in abeyance and 
the framers of the Pharmacopoeia did not take it up, he 
could not understand. 
Mr. Hills said that Dr. Duckworth’s paper opened 
rather a new question with respect to wines. The wines of! 
commerce varied so much that he would suggest whether 
proof-spirit could not be substituted for them, so that they 
might have something definite as a menstruum. Why 
the wines of the Pharmacopoeia should have remained 
so long in use, was a subject worthy of consideration 
for the next Pharmacopoeia. It was a question whether 
they should not do without wines, and substitute alcohol 
with water in the best proportions for the purpose re¬ 
quired. He felt very much indebted to Dr. Duckworth 
for bringing this subject forward ; and he thought that 
the acetum ipecacuanha) and the oxymel would recom¬ 
mend themselves to the notice of the profession by 
whom they would be found very serviceable. 
Mr. Hanbury said the course that Mr. Hills suggested 
had actually been tried, for in the Pharmacopoeia of 
1824 wines were abolished. Steel wine, antimonial wine, 
colchicum wine and ipecacuanha wine, made with 
sherry, were all abolished; but he believed the result was 
a failure, for in the next edition of the Pharmacopoeia 
the wines were restored. 
Mr. Williams remarked that in making emetia they 
were very careful not to bruise the root, but used it 
whole. The preparations before them were made with 
bruised roots, but he thought bruising the root was rather 
a disadvantage than otherwise. They sliced it into small 
pieces, and did not allow that starchy matter that would 
otherwise come out to get into the preparation. Ho 
should like to ask Dr. Attfield how he assayed the sam¬ 
ples of ipecacuanha, by what test or means he discovered 
the various strengths and qualities of these roots. 
Professor Attfield said that to the best of his recol¬ 
lection he exhausted the ipecacuanha with alcohol, 
evaporated to dryness, treated the residue with water 
and magnesia, evaporated the resulting aqueous solution 
of the liberated emetia to dryness, and thus obtained a 
product containing all the emetia, or at all events nothing 
nitrogenous except emetia, and then estimated the amount 
of nitrogen in that residue by combustion. Emetia con¬ 
tained nearly 4f (4-3) per cent, of nitrogen, so that by 
a simple calculation the proportion of emetia was indi¬ 
cated. He thus obtained results which, in the case of 
ordinary ipecacuanha, coincided with the results of pre¬ 
vious experimenters. In the case of his striated specimen, 
he showed that there could be no more than 2f per cent, 
of alkaloid of any kind, even if impure. While speaking, 
he might perhaps be permitted to give utterance to one 
or two thoughts that had been suggested to his mind 
whilst listening to the paper. He understood Dr. Duck¬ 
worth to say that the precipitate which formed in 
ipecacuanha wine was not affected by acids or alkalies. 
Being a mixed substance, containing a body insoluble 
in acids and soluble in alkalies, and a second soluble in 
acids and insoluble in most alkalies, that would be the 
apparent effect; but he presumed alkalies would really 
dissolve a portion of the precipitate, that was to say, 
cream of tartar, while acids would dissolve a different 
portion, neither liquid dissolving the whole sediment.* 
With that exception he saw nothing in the paper itself 
to call for remark from a chemical point of view. Thu 
feeling which was uppermost in his mind in listening to 
Dr. Duckworth’s paper was one of gratification, namely, 
that they had had that night what they so seldom had, 
the pleasure of listening to a paper by a gentleman whe 
was conversant not only with pharmacy and chemistry, 
but with therapeutics. Most of those who were in the 
habit of reading papers in that room were looked upon 
as heretical if they said anything about the action of 
remedies on the system, yet none knew better than they 
how intimately associated were pharmacy and thera¬ 
peutics. He maintained, nevertheless, that they could 
never have scientific therapeutics, that the art of curing^ 
would always remain a3 now, in great part a mass of 
empiricism, until researches in therapeutics were as 
common and numerous as those in chemistry or any 
other science, such researches being conducted by one 
or more gentlemen, who either in himself or ajnongst 
themselves, had a competent knowledge of chemistry, 
pharrnacy and therapeutics. Some years ago ho had the 
* See a paper on “ Ipecacuanha Wine,” read by Mr. George 
Johnson before the British Pharmaceutical Conference at 
Birmingham, in 1865. (Phakm. Jodrn. 2nd Ser. "\ ol. VII„ 
p. 179.)—J. A. 
