Nov. 27,1916 Nicotine-Sulphate and Fish-Oil-Soap Sprays 
395 
nicotine sulphate at the rate of 1 to 630 is present in a soap solution the 
wetting power of this solution is less than that of one which contains 
an equal amount of soap without the nicotine; and (5) that when 4 
pounds of soap or less are added to a 1 -to-630 nicotine-sulphate solution 
the wetting power is but slightly affected by the presence of the nicotine. 
When more than 4 pounds of soap are added, the wetting powers of the 
subsequent solutions are greatly reduced from those of similar soap 
solutions containing no nicotine. The efficiency of the combination 
sprays likewise decreases from the point where the wetting power is 
influenced the least by the concentration. 
From the foregoing statements it is evident that the addition of nicotine 
sulphate to soap solutions reduces the w r etting power. A comparison of 
the wetting-power determinations of the soap solutions containing nicotine 
with those of the soap solutions without nicotine shows that the loss of wet¬ 
ting power is not by any means in direct ratio to the quantity of soap in 
the solution; therefore the loss is probably not entirely due to a physical 
effect of the nicotine upon the solution, for in that case the loss of wetting 
power would be proportional to the amount of soap contained in the 
solution before the nicotine was added. The wetting-power curves of 
the two groups of solutions indicate that a chemical change takes place 
when a certain degree of concentration is reached, which affects the 
physical properties of the solutions containing nicotine, and also that the 
effect is greater after a definite degree of concentration of soap is reached. 
Since all the sprays in group 1 have an efficiency of 75 per cent or more, 
depending on the amount of soap contained in the formula, and the 
highest efficiency of any of the sprays in group 4 was only slightly above 
75 per cent, it is evident that the chemical reaction affects the soap and 
not the active nicotine sulphate. In support of this it may be stated 
that the solutions in groups 1,2, and 3 were tested and it was found that 
the percentage of nicotine in them agreed with the amount of nicotine 
sulphate contained in the formulae, and that the amount of soap present 
apparently had no influence upon the nicotine content of the solutions, 
for if any nicotine was set free by a reaction with the soap, less than 
0.005 P er cent was l° s t- This was not sufficient to cause any appreciable 
variation in their efficiency. 
groups 2 and 3 
The formulae in group 2 contain 5 pounds of soap, which is constant 
for the group, plus varying quantities of nicotine sulphate to 50 gallons 
of water. Group 3 contains formulae for 1 pound of soap, with similar 
amounts of nicotine sulphate as above, to 50 gallons of water. The 
efficiency and wetting-power curves for these groups appear in figure 2. 
The efficiency curve for group 2 rises gradually with the increased amounts 
of nicotine in the solution from 70 per cent at 3X ounces of nicotine to 
93.5 per cent at 6 % ounces of nicotine in the solution. The efficiency of 
64313 °— 16—2 
