456 
DETECTION OE CASTOR OIL IN VOLATILE OILS. 
His treatment, which was successful, consisted in giving 
repeated doses of linseed oil and tincture of opium, with 
large quantities of demulcents, in the form of gruel and in¬ 
fusion of linseeds. 
PORTABLE HORSE VAN. 
Mr. G. Cooke, M.R.C.Y.S.,Newcastle-upon-Tyne,informs 
us that he has successfully adopted the use of a portable 
horse van/ drawn by two horses, for the removal of sick or 
lame horses from any reasonable distance to his infirmary, 
which he finds of great service, since the accommodation for 
sick animals he says is often but poor, and better attention 
can be given to them at home than when they are located 
miles off. He relates two or three cases the favorable termi¬ 
nation of which he attributes in a great measure to his being 
able, by this means, to have them under his immediate 
superintendence. 
DETECTION OE CASTOR OIL IN THE VOLATILE OILS. 
Volatile oils,from their expensiveness, are often adulte¬ 
rated with other oils; these being either fixed, as castor oil, or 
volatile, as oil of turpentine, and likewise with alcohol. The 
detection of the last named is easy enough, while the presence 
of turpentine may be known by its smell. As castor oil, how¬ 
ever, is soluble in alcohol and all other menstrua which 
dissolve the volatile oils, adulteration with it is not so easily 
exposed. Air. H. N. Draper, F.C.S.L., states, in the 
‘Dublin Medical Press, 3 that he has been able to detect the 
admixture of five per cent, castor oil in volatile oils, by the 
production of ananthylic acid (C 14 H 13 0.+ HO) from it by 
the action of nitric acid. 
His method is as follows :—Twenty drops of the suspected 
oil are placed in a small porcelain capsule, and heated in a 
sand-bath until the odour of the oil is no longer perceived. 
To the residue, if there be any, add five or six drops of nitric 
acid, and as soon as the action has subsided, dilute with a 
solution of carbonate of soda. If castor oil be present, the 
odour of ananthylic acid will be at once perceived, and this, 
once smelled, is not likely to be mistaken for any other sub¬ 
stance. Should it, however, be the case that the party is not 
familiar with the odour, it w'ould be as well to make the 
experiment first with castor oil alone. 
