634 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
ters. A heavy white powder, which, when slowly sublimed in a glass tube, 
forms minute brilliant and transparent octahedral crystals. It is sparingly 
soluble in water, and its solution gives with ammonio-nitrate of silver a canary- 
yellow precipitate, insoluble in water, but readily dissolved by ammonia and 
nitric acid. Tests: Entirely volatilized by heat, four grains of it dissolved in 
boiling water with eight grains of bicarbonate of soda, discharge the colour of 
80-8 measures of the volumetric solution of iodine. Comparing the two, there 
is materially little or no difference; both arrive at similar results, though by 
slightly different agents. 
Acide Phenique, Phenol, Acide Carbolique, Acidum Phenicum ; Phenic or 
Carbolic acid. In long colourless, prismatic needles, of a strong peculiar odour, 
resembling that of creasote, melting at about 35° Centigrade (95° F.), boiling 
between 187° and 188° Centigrade, of a density of 1‘065. It attacks powerfully 
the skin and mucous membranes, does not redden litmus, liquefies upon the 
slightest access of moisture, is but sparingly soluble in water, but dissolves in 
all proportions in alcohol, ether, glycerine, and the fixed and volatile oils. It 
is not in P. B. of 1864 ; will be in that of 1867. It does not carry the aste¬ 
risk ; its employment to any extent as a detergent, escharotic, or disinfectant, 
is comparatively of recent date. 
*Alcool, Esprit de Vin, Alcool; Spirit of Wine. A limpid, colourless liquid, 
very volatile, having a clear and pure taste, leaving no residue when evaporated; 
when mixed with distilled water there should be no cloudiness, neither should a 
strange taste or disagreeable odour be observable. The strength of it is ascer¬ 
tained by means of the centesimal alcohometer. Absolute alcohol marks 100° ; 
rectified spirit (esprit de vin) 85°, and weak spirit (eau de vie, or brandy) 56°. 
These strengths, which are those of commerce, do not agree with those adopted 
in the Codex. This does not seem to me to be the proper place for alcohol; I 
shall refer to it again. In the P. B. alcohol is placed in Appendix B. Bectified 
spirit containing 84 per cent, of alcohol is the recognized spirit. The observa¬ 
tions as to taste and smell resemble those of the Codex, but the P. B. gives 
another test for fousel oil. Four fluid ounces with three measures of the volu¬ 
metric solution of nitrate of silver, exposed for twenty-four hours to bright 
light, and then decanted from the black powder which has formed, undergoes 
no further change when again exposed to light with more of the test. 
^Carbonate de Soude (Bi-), Sel de Vichy, Bicarhonas Sodicus ; Bicarbonate 
of Soda or Sodic Bicarbonate. The name Sel de Vichy or Vichy salt is given 
to it because it is the chief ingredient in the Vichy water, the rather over¬ 
valued remedy for gouty symptoms. Description: Opaque masses having a 
weak alkaline taste, turning reddened litmus paper to blue, soluble in ten parts 
of cold water. The solution of this salt should not yield a precipitate upon the 
addition of an acid nitrate of baryta or silver, nor by sulphate of magnesia. 
The P. B. adds that it imparts a yellow colour to flame, and loses a nortion of 
its carbonic acid at 212° F. 
^Carbonate d’Ammoniaque, Alcali Volatil Concret, Carhonas Ammonice, 
Following the system of nomenclature correctly, this should, I think, have been 
Carhonas Ammonicus. 
^Chlorate de Potasse, Chloras Potassicus ; Chlorate of Potash, or Potassic 
Chlorate. A salt in white, shining plates, unchangeable in the air, of a fresh 
or cool and slightly sour taste, fusing upon live coal, of which it greatly 
quickens the combustion. Heated in a retort it melts and gives off oxygen, 
leaving chloride of potassium; it dissolves in twenty parts of cold water, and 
in less than two of boiling (depositing crystals on cooling). The aqueous solu¬ 
tion should not be cloudy upon the addition of nitrate of silver. The P. B. 
adds that it explodes when triturated with sulphur. 
^Chlorhydrate d’Ammoniaque, Sel Ammoniac, Chlorhydras Ammonice. This 
should have been Chlorhydras Ammonicus^ Amnionic Hydrochlorate, 
