PREPARATION OF LIQUOR BISMUTHI. 
013 
and that I then repudiated that signature. My reason was this:—I have for the last 
twenty years advocated the incorporation of the trade and the compulsory examination of 
those who enter it. The lack of such provision in the Pharmacy Act "of 1852 was one 
reason why I refused to enter the Society. I prefer the Bill of the United Society to 
that of the Pharmaceutical Society, but prefer the latter to none at all; and so, fearing 
that the same tactics which prevailed two years ago in reference to the attempt to 
exempt chemists from serving on juries might prevail again, and that our society would 
not be able to gain that position With the Government and with Parliament which they 
have since gained, I made the mistake of signing the memorial. When I found the 
Government were willing to listen to us, and place us on a footing with the other So¬ 
ciety, I did what I had a right to do—I confessed I had made a mistake.” 
ACTION OF PERMANGANATE OF POTASH ON GLYCERINE, 
TO THE EDITORS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Gentlemen,—The prominent position in which glycerine is 'placed in Dr. 
Redwood’s admirable Paper on the Construction of a Pharmacopoeia, will in¬ 
duce many experiments to be made with it. I therefore wish to caution those 
who may not think twice before they act once, not to attempt the mixture of 
permanganate of potash, or its solution vvith glycerine, without taking the 
same precautions as when operating with nitric acid on that substance. The 
solution of permanganate of potash is such a harmless and apparently inoffen¬ 
sive substance, that the readiness with which it parts with its oxygen when in 
contact with organic substances may possibly be overlooked. I have not been 
caught myself. 
Your obedient servant, 
George Mee. 
8, Torrington Place, Gordon Square, W.C. 
PREPARATION OF LIQUOR BISMUTHI. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—The process for the preparation of “ Liquor Bismuthi,” which has ap¬ 
peared this month in your Journal, and which came under my notice some little 
time ago in the pages of the 4 Chemical News,’ is similar in many important 
points to one which I have used successfully for more than a year; the latter 
resulted from a series of experiments suggested by the process of Mr. Tich- 
bourne, which I, like Mr. Gray Bartlett, found impracticable. 
Upon the appearance of the communication of the last-named gentleman, in 
the 4 Chemical News,’I tested the method there given. The results in my hands 
were not satisfactory, the quantity of precipitate formed being scanty in pro¬ 
portion to the weight of bismuth used, and a considerable portion proving quite 
insoluble in ammonia. I must acknowledge, however, my great obligations to 
that paper, from which I have largely drawn, since its appearance, for my own 
process ; the proportions there given being almost universally adopted, as well as 
certain points of manipulation, which will be duly mentioned in the account to 
be given below. I have thus been enabled to attain for it a certainty and accuracy 
in which it was previously somewhat wanting, and which will, I hope, recom¬ 
mend it to such operative chemists as will give it a fair trial. 
I had intended to reserve the following account for a paper, which I hoped to 
read before the Pharmaceutical Conference at its next meeting ; since, however 
