28 
ON NITRIC ETHER. 
I infer that sweet spirit of nitre of a more uniform strength, 
would be obtained by the addition of alcohol to pure nitric 
ether, to an extent no more than adequate to render it soluble 
in water; and then adding water to the alcoholic solution until 
the ether should form only a twelfth of the aggregate. In a 
preparation thus made, the properties of the ether would not 
be unnecessarily associated with those of alcohol, as in the 
usual officinal preparation. 
Process for Nitric Ether, or Sweet Spirits of Nitre, hy 
means of an approved Jipparatus. 
The reaction of nitric acid with alcohol is so difficult to re- 
gulate, in the ordinary mode of making nitric ether in which 
the whole of the materials are mingled at the outset of the 
