348     PURIFICATION  OF  THE  ESSENTIAL  OIL  OF  ALMONDS. 
5.  That  experiment  shows  that  if  this  substance  is  to  be  called 
a  poison  at  all,  it  must  be  regarded  as  one  of  no  great  activity ; 
but  that  in  reality  it  cannot,  eyen  on  the  ground  of  its  effects  on 
rabbits,  be  styled  a  poison,  without  including  under  that  denomi- 
nation many  substances,  such  as  oil  of  cloves,  which  cannot  be 
regarded  as  poison  in  the  common  sense  acceptation  of  the  term. 
6.  That*  the  use  of  the  purified  oil  to  make  flavoring  condi- 
ments, is  open  to  no  objection  which  would  not  apply  to  ordi- 
nary aromatic  volatile  oils,  and  that  the  spirituous  solutibns  sold 
for  this  purpose,  if  made  of  properly  purified  oil,  are  not  dan- 
gerous. / 
7.  That  since  by  due  care  the  oil  can  be  so  freed  from  hydro- 
cyanic acid  as  to  deprive  it  of  active  poisonous  properties,  great 
culpability  will  attach  to  the  sale  of  preparations  made  with  un- 
rectified  oil. —  Trans.  North  British  Branch  of  Pharm.  Society. 
jjNiOTE. — As  the  sale  of  bitter  almonds  is  becoming  more  and  more  exten- 
sive as  a  flavoring  material,  we  have  deemed  it  advisable  to  re-publish  the 
above  and  the  two  following  papers,  for  the  information  of  apothecaries 
and  druggists  who  may  desire  to  take  the  precaution  to  free  this  oil  from 
prussic  acid  before^they  vend  it  for  culinary  purposes. — Ed.  Am.  Jour.  Ph.^ 
ON  THE  PURIFICATION  OF  ESSENTIAL  OIL  OF  ALMONDS. 
By  Mr.  George  Whipple,  F.C.S. 
The  purification  of  oil  of  bitter  almonds,  and  the  means  by 
which  hydrocyanic  acid  can  be  most  advantageously  separated 
from  the  crude  oil,  having  recently  occupied  the  attention  of  Phar- 
maceutical Chemists,  I  beg  to  communicate  some  of  the  results 
of  my  experience  as  a  drawer  of  this  and  other  essential  oils. 
The  method  recommended  by  Dr.  Maclagan  (Pharmaceutical 
Journal,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  277)  for  removing  hydrocyanic  acid,  is  not 
only  complex,  but  fails  to  render  the  oil  permanently  innocuous. 
— (Vide  Pereira's  Materia  Medica,  3rd  edit.  p.  1776.) 
Some  years  ago  I  thought  of  obtaining  hydrocyanic  acid  and 
essential  oil  of  almonds  at  one  and  the  same  time,  by  receiving 
the  contents  of  the  condensing  worm  into  a  solution  of  nitrate 
