Am\pi?ir" i9i(?rm ' }     Cardamom  and  Oil  of  Cardamom.  167 
color  requirement  are  as  follows :  Acetone,  the  various  "  colorless  " 
liquid  acids,  ether,  acetic  ether,  ethyl  chloride,  alcohol,  water  and  a 
number  of  the  medicated  waters,  benzaldehyde,  benzin,  bromoform, 
carbon  disulphide,  cinnamic  aldehyde,  eucalyptol,  glycerin,  guaiacol, 
a  number  of  the  liquors,  methyl  salicylate,  oil  of  peppermint,  oil  of 
thyme,  spirit  of  ammonia,  spirit  of  nitroglycerin,  terebene. 
As  no  one  color  standard  will  do  for  all  these  liquids,  a  number 
of  standards  should  be  provided,  and  the  liquid  should  be  required 
to  be  not  more  highly  colored  than  the  designated  standard,  or  if  a 
given  liquid  is  found  at  different  times  to  assume  two  or  more 
different  colors  in  consequence  of  various  impurities  or  deteriora- 
tions, a  corresponding  number  of  color  comparisons  may  be  pre- 
scribed. For  certain  of  the  "  colorless  "  liquids,  distilled  water 
itself  may  serve  as  the  color  standard ;  for  others,  very  dilute  solu- 
tions of  the  decomposition  products  {e.g.,  for  hydriodic  acid,  iodine), 
but  for  most  it  will  be  necessary  to  experiment  and  find  suitable 
non-related  soluble  substances  by  the  use  of  which  the  usually 
occurring  colors  may  be  matched  for  practical  purposes. 
In  many,  perhaps  most  cases,  a  faint  color  may  be  present  in 
officially  "  colorless  "  liquids,  and  still  the  liquid  be  for  practical 
purposes  as  good  as  though  it  were  water-colorless.  The  Pharma- 
copoeia designedly  permits  such  deviations  from  absolute  perfection 
as  will  not  result  directly  or  indirectly  in  injury  to  the  consumer, 
and  will  reduce  what  would  otherwise  be,  in  many  cases,  the  prohibi- 
tive cost  of  production.  But  now  that  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  is 
a  pivotal  legal  reference  work,  vagueness  of  any  sort  must  be 
eliminated,  and  all  requirements  stated  in  language  which  shall  be, 
humanly  speaking,  unmistakable. 
A  NOTE  ON  CARDAMOM  AND  OIL  OF  CARDAMOM. 
By  George  M.  Beringer. 
At  the  last  annual  meeting  of  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical 
Association  the  writer  contributed  formulas  for  some  new  basic 
elixirs  that  were  proposed  for  introduction  in  the  revision  of  the 
National  Formulary.  Among  these  was  a  compound  elixir  of  car- 
damom in  which  the  oil  of  cardamom  is  an  essential  ingredient.  In 
the  discussion  following  the  reading  of  this  paper,  some  doubt  was 
