THE CODEX AND THE BKITISH PHARMACOPCEIA. 
635 
^Chlorure de Potassium, Cliloruretum Potassicum ; Chloride of Potassium, 
Potassic chloride. A salt in colourless cubes, taste approaching that of chloride 
of sodium, but slightly bitter ; sparingly soluble in alcohol. Dissolved by three 
parts of cold and two of boiling water, the aqueous solution yields an abun¬ 
dant white precipitate upon the addition of nitrate of silver, and a yellow by 
chloride of platinum, and should not be precipitated by ferrocyanide of 
potassium. 
^Dextrine, JDextrina ; Dextrine. A pulverulent substance, white or yellow¬ 
ish, insipid, completely soluble in water, which it thickens ; insoluble in alcohol 
at 80°. The aqueous solution assumes a purplish colour in contact with iodized 
water Not in P. B. ; it seems out of place here. 
^Glycerine, Glycerine. A syrupy liquid, obtained by acting upon or decom¬ 
posing neutral fatty bodies. Glycerine is colourless, inodorous, with a sweet 
taste, leaving no acrid or bitter after-taste; it does not redden litmus paper, 
nor turn syrup of violets green. The density of glycerine is 1-26 (30° Acido- 
meter of Baume). Oxalic acid and the soluble salts of baryta cause neither 
cloudiness nor precipitate; nitrate of silver only a slight degree of opacity. It 
should not change colour upon the addition of sulphide of sodium, nor when 
boiled with caustic potash ; its combustion should be perfect and leave no resi¬ 
due. P. B., Characters : A colourless thick fluid, oily to the touch, without 
odour, of a sweet taste ; freely soluble in water or alcohol. When decomposed 
by heat it evolves intensely irritating vapours. Test * Sp. gr. 1*26. 
*Iodure de Potassium, loduretum Potassicum; Iodide of Potassium, or Po¬ 
tassic Iodide, In white cubic crystals, anhydrous, having a sharp taste, soluble 
in less than their own weight of cold water, and six times their weight of alco¬ 
hol at 90° ; sulphuric acid separates the iodine, producing a blue with starch- 
paste. This salt is sometimes contaminated with carbonate and iodate of potash, 
the chlorides of potassium and sodium, and bromide of potassium. Alcohol at 
90° separates the two first salts, and the chlorides are recognized by mixing 
with a solution of the iodide of potassium an excess of nitrate of silver, collect¬ 
ing the precipitate and treating with ammonia ; the chloride of silver dissolves 
in this liquid, the iodide remains insoluble. To determine the presence of 
bromine, pour into the solution of iodide of potassium an excess of a solution of 
sulphate of copper, and pass through it a current of sulphurous acid, and filter, 
to separate the iodide of copper formed. The supernatant liquor, put into a 
tube with a little chlorine-water, becomes yellow if bromine is present. 
Os Calcines, Ossa calcinata: Calcined bones. They are the product of the 
calcination, or burning, of the bones of oxen and sheep, in contact with air ; they 
should be quite white, are composed of phosphate and carbonate of lime, dis¬ 
solve in dilute hydrochloric acid with slight effervescence. In Appendix A. 
of P. B. 
^Sulfate de Magnesie, Sel de Sedlitz, Sel d’Epsom, Sulfas Magnesicus; Sul¬ 
phate of Magnesia, Magnesie Sul^jhate. It may at first seem strange that this 
salt should be called Seidlitz Salt, but it is substantially correct, the chief ingre¬ 
dient in the real Seidlitz, or Seidscliutz, water being sulphate of magnesia, 
although in the artificial powders sold in England it is omitted, in order to 
make a more agreeable though less active preparation by the substitution of 
tartrate of soda. 
I feel that I have written enough to give an idea of this portion of the 
Materia Medica; it would have advanced another step towards completeness if 
a chapter had been added (and a few pages more would not have appeared 
much among so onany) devoted to those substances which are obtained from 
the vegetable kingdom by chemical processes,—I allude to morphine, codeine, 
quinine, cinchonine, strychnine, brucine, atropine, aconitine, cicutine, and 
veratrine : and in this chapter it would have been more correct to have placed 
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