003 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 1,18(2. 
which it need scarce to be said contain no vesicatory 
properties. 
Moquin-Tandon mentions also tlie common 
Hose Chafer, Cetonia aurea, L., the Cetoine doree 
of Guibourt, as one of the insects which are mixed 
with the Cantharides for the purpose of fraud. It 
is abundant on flowers in many parts of Britain, and 
is thus described: — Shining golden green or deep 
black; beneath, bright copper; head and thorax 
punctured; scutellum smooth; elytra irregularly 
punctured, the suture and three lines faintly elevated, 
the apical portion with several waved whitish scales 
and spots; sternum with its tip somewhat globose. 
When fraudulently employed it is also broken up, or 
the very different shape would instantly be recog¬ 
nized. In colour it very nearly assimilates to that 
of the ‘ Spanish Fly,’ or Cantharides of commerce. 
The species of Ckry&omela alluded to by Moquin- 
Tandon is probably the same as that exhibited in the 
Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society, and which 
is a plump little green beetle, picked out in some 
quantity from a sample of Cantharides which was 
imported into London. This is the Chrysomela 
graminis, L., figured by Donovan in his ‘ British In¬ 
sects,’ plate 365,fig. 1. .Oblong-ovate, convex, shining 
blue-green; head and thorax thickly punctured; 
elytra thickly and finely punctured, punctures distinct 
and irregularly placed in lines towards the sides, 
surface of a uniform blue-green ; legs and antennae 
b rassy green. Found in grass} 7- places in many parts 
of Britain. It is not improbable that Chrysomela 
fitly Ida, Fab., is sometimes mixed with it. 
The remaining species cited by Guibourt are 
Dipliucephale soyeux , figured in the Atlas to the 
* Ilegne Animal’ of Cuvier, plate 43, fig. 3 ; the 
Melyre vert or Melyris virulis , Fab., figured in the 
same work, plate 32, fig. 18; and L'Euchlore de la 
vigne, or green vine beetle, Bromius vitis, also figured 
in the Atlas cited, plate 43, fig. 7. All these green 
beetles, and probably others of the same colour, have 
been broken up and mixed vdtli the officinal Cantha¬ 
rides. It is easy for an entomologist to detect these 
fraudulent mixtures even from the fragments into 
which they are broken, especially by the use of the 
microscope. None of them possess vesicating pro¬ 
perties in the smallest degree, and it is believed that 
the readiness with which such adulterations can be de¬ 
tected, is one of the chief reasons why the fraudulent 
adulteration of Cantharides is not practised to any 
important extent; in fact, it seems difficult nowa¬ 
days to meet with a sample of the adulterated drug. 
THE USE OF PETROLEUM-BENZINE* IN 
MAKING OLEO-RESINS. 
BY JOHN M. MAISCH.* 
Petroleum benzine is an excellent solvent, and 
lias been repeatedly suggested for introduction into 
the pharmaceutical laboratory, particularly when, 
in consequence of the high tax upon alcohol, the 
price of ether and the other derivatives thereof was 
even higher than at present. It is not unlikely that 
the so-called benzine may have been substituted 
* The application of the terra benzine to this volatile spirit 
is objectionable, inasmuch as it is liable to cause misunder¬ 
standing. It is the more volatile portion of petroleum or 
paraffin oil, and would be better designated petroleum or 
paraffin naphtha.— Ed. Pharm. Journal. 
f Read at the Meeting of the Philadelphia College of 
Tharmacy, April 16th, 1871. 
wholly or in part for ether before experiments on 
this subject were published. 
In 1866 Professor Procter* proved that cubebs, 
after having being exhausted by the solvent in 
question, yielded to ether over 4 per cent, of cube- 
bin, waxy matter, chlorophyll, with a little pungent 
resin. Mr. H. N. Rittenhousef therefore suggested 
to prepare oleo-resins by employing first ether, and 
finish the percolation with petroleum benzine. 
In 1867 an interesting discussion on this subject 
took place at the meeting of the American Pharma¬ 
ceutical Association,! but the facts at that time 
published were very few in number. 
At the close of the last session of the Philadelphia 
College of Pharmacy two essays were presented, 
both treating of this question from a different stand¬ 
point, without, however, exhausting it. Notwith¬ 
standing this, the results are sufficiently interesting 
to deserve notice. Mr. Alfred IP. Bolton treated 
powdered capsicum, cubebs and ginger with petro¬ 
leum benzine, spec. grav. 700, and exhausted them 
by the process of repercolation, whereby the pow¬ 
ders were left entirely or almost tasteless; three 
troy ounces of the powders named yielded respec¬ 
tively six, four, and one fluid drachms of oleo-resins. 
Mr. Milton W. Both operated on ginger and cu¬ 
bebs, and observed that these substances, when 
exhausted by petroleum benzine, spec. grav. 686 to 
710, would again yield to ether some non-volatile 
matter, which it is to be regretted was not sufficiently 
examined; the benzine oleo-resins of both drugs 
were perfectly soluble in ether, but the ethereal oleo- 
resins yielded precipitates on being mixed with ben¬ 
zine. It follows conclusively from these experiments, 
what Prof. Procter (loc. cit.) proved in 1866 for cu¬ 
bebs, that the benzine oleo-resins are not Identical' with 
the officinal ethereal oleo-resins, while Mr. Bolton, 
from the tastelessness of the residuary powder, 
argues or rather is inclined to regard the two pro¬ 
ducts as representing the drugs in question. 
The absence or presence of odour and taste, how¬ 
ever, are too unsafe criteria of the medicinal pro¬ 
perties, since some decidedly active principles, like 
santonin, the resins of jalap and scammony, etc., 
are tasteless or nearly so, while the experiments of 
Dr. Bernatzik,§ Mr. F. V. Heydenreicli,|| and of 
E. A. Schmidt,** prove that the volatile oil of cubebs 
has no diuretic properties whatever, but acts as a 
carminative, diffusive stimulant and irritant, like 
most other volatile oils. 
Petroleum benzine is such an excellent solvent, 
and at the same time so low in price, that its em¬ 
ployment in the place of ether and even alcohol is 
very desirable; but from all the knowledge we 
possess thus far, based upon critical experiments, 
the substitution of the liquids in question for phar¬ 
maceutical preparations must be regarded as inad¬ 
missible until it has been proven that the proximate 
principles not acted upon by the benzine are medi¬ 
cinally inert; odour and taste alone are insufficient 
to furnish this proof.— Amer. Journ. of Pharm. 
* ‘American Journal of Pharmacy/ 1866, 210. 
f Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Associa¬ 
tion, 1866, p. 208. 
X Proceedings, 1867, page 94. 
§ Amer. Jour. Med. Sc., cvii. 534. Proc. Amer. Phirm. 
Assoc., 1868, 194. 
|| Proc. Am. Pharm. Assoc., 1867, 337. Amer. Jo.irn. 
Pharm., 1868, 42. 
** Amer. Journ. Pharm., 1870, 222. 
