382 
ALCOHOL AS A TEST FOR CROTON OIL. 
composed of men who have for many years occupied a foremost position in 
the confidence of the medical profession and the public, and of those younger 
members who have passed the ordeals of examination, and who, after due con¬ 
sideration, prefer to rank themselves among the pioneers of a profession, rather 
than the average of a trade. 
It is essential to the character of such a nucleus, that it should be volun¬ 
tary and self-supporting, and the wide and liberal character of its basis is best 
shown by the fact that its representative Council and Board of Examiners is 
replenished by kindred spirits from all parts of Great Britain. Around this 
nucleus are gathered men of simple educational status, who rank as Pharma¬ 
ceutical Chemists, and who may rest on this legal and professional basis alone, 
outside the volunteer corps constituting the Society proper. Then we pro¬ 
pose to add another grade of registered chemists and druggists, who by this 
association may derive the advantage of registration and consolidation into a 
compact body without any further claims on their purse or co-operation than 
an examination and registration fee, paid once for all; who, if they choose, 
may connect themselves as Associates with the parent Society, but who en¬ 
joy a legal status and an independent position if they prefer to decline to join 
the Society. This is, we think, a fair balance of existing claims and of future 
position, and it will be for the benefit of all, that co-operation and co-regis¬ 
tration should bind all parties together; while the volunteers are left united 
in the ranks of their own society to advance Pharmacy and protect the com¬ 
mon interest of all. On the other band division is defeat. Rival societies 
produce “Disunited States,” and a fratricidal war is an inevitable consequence. 
The disadvantage attending rival constitutions has been sufficiently exem¬ 
plified in the long struggle for union on the part of various medical bodies. 
Let us not try the effect of such a dislocation, but by a long pull, a strong 
pull, and a pull altogether, obtain “ in things essential unity, in things doubt¬ 
ful liberty, in all things charity.” E. 
ON THE USE OF ALCOHOL AS A TEST FOB THE PURITY 
OF CROTON OIL. 
BY ROBERT WARINGTON, F.R.S., F.C.S. 
The College of Physicians of Edinburgh in their Pharmacopoeia of 1839, 
under the article u Croton Oil,” contained in the Materia Medina, gave the 
following directions for testing its purity:— u When agitated with its own vo¬ 
lume of pure alcohol and gently heated, it separates on standing, without hav¬ 
ing undergone any apparent diminution .” The alcohol is ordered to be prepared 
from rectified spirit by well-burnt lime, and the density should not exceed *796. 
This test has been transcribed verbatim into various works on Materia Medina, 
dispensatories, etc., and is repeated in the Pharmaceutical Journal for July, 1S44, 
vol. iv. p. 47, and December, 1849, vol. ix. p. 296, in answer to correspondents. 
In the latter volume, however, at a later date, May, 1850, vol. ix. p. 499, a 
very valuable paper, by the late Dr. Pereira, was published on the subject, enti¬ 
tled, “ On the Alcohol Test of the Purity of Castor and Croton Oils, ny Jona¬ 
than Pereira, M.D., F.R.S.” As it is only with the experiments and deductions 
concerning croton oil that we have to deal, I shall only allude to those parts of 
the paper which relate to it, and that as briefly as the nature of the subject will 
ad.iiit. 
“ Experiment 2.—Eight volumes of pale or amber-coloured East India croton 
oil were mixed with eight volumes of alcohol, specific gravity -796, and gently 
heated. In two days a separation had taken place, the oil now measured 8| 
