Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
June,  1881.  ) 
Testing  of  Peru  Balsam. 
297 
very  easy.  To  the  observing  eye^  liowever,  many  additions  will 
become  at  once  apparent  from  the  thread-like  attenuated  drops^  whi<;lii 
are  not  observed  with  the  pure  balsam.  This  observation  appears, 
indeed,  to  possess  considerable  value  in  tliis  case. 
The  sophistication  of  Peru  balsam  has  probably  for  some  time  been 
exercised  to  a  considerable  extent,  but  for  some  years  past,  as  it  appears, 
particularly  in  Hamburg  and  Bremen,  has  attained  quite  a  prominent 
significance,  so  that  the  means  of  detecting  such  adulterations  have 
been  repeatedly  considered  in  the  pharmaceutical  literature  of  the  day. 
Colophony,  benzoin,  liquefied  with  a  little  alcohol,  styrax,  copaiba,  and 
even  castor  oil,  are  named  as  admixtures  of  which  the  adulterators 
make  use;  as  all  these  substances  are  lighter  than  Peru  balsam,  one 
would  think  that  the  adulteration,  even  with  all  ingenuity,  would  be 
very  much  confined  in  its  practice.  As  soon  as  the  specific  gravity 
becomes  decreased  below  1*14  or,  perhaps,  below  1*138,  the  article 
becomes  suspicious.  The  price  relations  grant  to  the  adulterator,  how- 
ever, even  with  slight  admixture,  a  sufficient  reward,  when  he  exer- 
cises his  profession  on  a  somewhat  larger  scale,  which  indeed  appears 
to  be  the  case. 
A  rational  test  of  the  balsam  should  be  founded  first  upon  the  above- 
mentioned  physical  observations,  and  then  upon  the  chemical  proper- 
ties of  the  chief  constituents.  The  author  has  previously  (compare  his 
Pharmakognosie,"  2d  edit.,  1881,  p.  127,  128)  observed  the  adapta- 
tion of  the  cinnamein  to  this  purpose,  which  may  be  obtained  with  the 
greatest  facility,  though  not  perfectly  pure,  when  the  balsam  is  shaken 
with  three  times  its  weight  of  carbon  bisulphide.  The  latter  becomes 
only  slightly  colored  when  a  pure  article  is  employed,  while  the  adul- 
terated often  yields  a  very  dark  colored  solution.  After  a  series  of 
experiments  in  this  direction,  however,  the  author  considers  the  amount 
of  cinnamein  present  altogether  too  variable  to  admit  of  the  determina- 
tion of  definite  limits,  or  perhaps  more  correctly  expressed,  the  rela- 
tion of  cinnamein  to  carbon  bisulphide  is  altogether  too  much  condi- 
tioned by  the  possible  admixtures  as  to  admit  of  its  quantitative 
estimation.  The  cinnamein  may  be  obtained  more  pure  by  means  of 
the  lower  boiling  fractions  of  petroleum.  This  solution  is  almost 
entirely  colorless,  and  leaves,  after  the  evaporation  of  the  petroleum, 
as  is  known,  a  very  fragrant  cinnamein,  amounting  to  about  half  the 
weight  of  the  balsam,  thus  far  less  than  by  the  application  of  carbon 
bisulphide.    For  the  estimation  of  the  value  of  Peru  balsam,  a  petro- 
