20 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
the dirty yellowish white appearance of the true oxide ; but 
on examination we found that it effervesced by the addition of a 
strong acid. I accordingly submitted 100 grains to a more 
strict investigation. Muriatic acid was added until the evo- 
lution of carbonic acid ceased. The mixture was diluted with 
water, and filtered. The portion remaining on the filter, when 
dried, weighed 70 grains, and proved to be real oxide of an- 
timony. To the filtered solution was added a solution of 
oxalate of ammonia until it ceased to act. The precipitate 
thus formed, which was oxalate of lime, was washed and 
dried, and weighed 42 grains. As oxalate of lime consists 
of one atom of the acid, (= 36) united to one of lime, {= 28) 
and one of water, (=9) and as carbonate of lime is composed 
of one atom of lime and one of carbonic acid, (=16) the 
above quantity of 42 grains of precipitate indicated an adul- 
teration of nearly 29 grains, or, (allowing a little for loss,) say 
20 per cent, of carbonate of lime. It is scarcely needful to 
add that this result suggested the propriety of subjecting the 
whole of what remained of this imported article to ablution 
by dilute muriatic acid. 
Wm. Hodgson, Jr. 
Philadelphia, 2d mo. 20, 1837. 
ART. III.—CAPSULEIS OF GELATIN. 
{Capsules Gelatineuses Dublanc et Mothes, a Paris.) 
By Alfred Guillou, Graduate of Phil. Coll. Phar. 
There are many medicines whose administration would in 
numerous cases be productive of very beneficial eflfects, were 
it not absolutely prevented by their strong or disagreeable 
taste. Of this class are the turpentines and many of the gum 
resins, oil of croton, creosote, &c. &c., and last, though by no 
means least, the balsam copaiba. Notwithstanding the many 
ingenious formulae adopted for the purpose of concealing the 
odour or disguising the nauseous taste of this latter drug, there 
