3/8 
Drops  as  Dose  Measures. 
( Am.  Jour.  I'harm. 
I     August,  1902. 
to  grammes.  The  table  in  Dorvault's  L'Officine  is  in  the  metric 
system,  as  are  the  remaining  ones  that  are  quoted.  The  additional 
series,  made  by  the  writer,  were  added  to  demonstrate  the  possible 
variation  that  may  be  obtained  by  using  different  dropping  surfaces, 
the  fixed  dropper  being  an  adaptation  of  the  "  Decigramme  pipette" 
(mentioned  on  page  133  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy, 
1902)  to  a  separating  funnel,  and  this  in  turn  was  clamped  in  a 
burette  stand,  with  the  object  of  eliminating  any  error  due  to  vibra- 
tion. The  dropping  bottle  was  of  the  ordinary  type,  but  with  rather 
a  pointed  lip  or  outlet,  causing  marked  reduction  in  the  dropping 
surface  tor  the  more  volatile  liquids. 
A  careful  study  of  even  this  limited  number  of  liquids  should 
convince  any  one  that  there  is  little  or  no  promise  of  being  able  to 
generalize  on  the  relative  sizes  of  drops  that  should  be  dropped 
from  different  surfaces  or  different  dropping  devices. 
If  we  take,  for  instance,  the  relative  weight  of  distilled  water  and 
Fowler's  solution,  we  will  find  that  this  varies  from  I-  to  0-969,  as 
given  by  Talbot,  or  I-  to  r,  as  given  by  Hager,  all  the  way  up  to 
I-  to  1-592,  as  given  by  Eschbaum  in  his  latest  list.  Some  of  the 
other  variations  are  so  apparent  that  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  go 
into  detail  regarding  them. 
One  other  interesting  feature,  in  this  same  connection,  might  be 
illustrated  by  making  a  selection  from  the  triple  drop-table  by 
Kinsey  (A.  J.  P.,  1884,  page  181).  This  writer  gives  a  long  list  of 
preparations,  from  which  we  have  selected  the  following  instructive 
list: 
TABLE  NO.  2.  — NUMBER  OF  DROPS  NECESSARY  TO  MEASURE  ONE  FEUID 
DRACHM. 
Shop 
Glass 
Minim 
Dropped  from 
bottle. 
Stopper. 
Measure 
 57 
65 
70 
Acid  hydrochloric  dilute  
 70 
50 
62 
 63 
60 
8l 
92 
92 
.....  58 
.  61 
7.7  1 
 10S 
87 
139 
 124 
I20 
98 
.  ...  .  .116 
88 
143 
 66 
80 
124 
79 
145 
This  selection,  01"  course,  illustrates  primarily  that  drops  differ 
materially  in  size.    If  the  original  work  on  the  table,  however,  was 
