SOS ON THE EXAMINATION OP BALSAM OF COPAIBA. 
formed, observing the precautions mentioned above; for two 
days the young plants continued unaltered, but on the third 
they acquired a yellow colour, and towards the end of the 
week they drooped. Exposed to the air, they re-assumed, 
in a few days, their verdure and erect position. 
It must be remarked, that the above experiments were 
made not only upon seed, but also upon the plants, and that 
the oxide of nitrogen was exposed to the direct rays of the 
sun, and kept in the shade, but that in neither case decom- 
position of the gas was effected. — Chem. Gaz. from Jour m. 
de Pharm. 
ART. LXVII.—ON THE EXAMINATION OF BALSAM OF CO- 
PAIBA. By M. Oberdoffer. 
Balsam of copabia has latterly produced considerable 
embarrassment among druggists with respect to the necessity 
of its being completely soluble in alcohol. We have often 
heard the importers declare, that they would no longer deal 
in this article, unless some new mode of examining it was 
resorted to. This circumstance induced me, at the request 
of a respectable mercantile house in Hamburgh, carefully 
to study the subject again. 
If we compare the different kinds of balsam of copaiba, 
which are met with in commerce, both old and new samples, 
we shall find a well-marked difference. Formerly, we usual- 
ly obtained a perfectly transparent balsam, thick, and com- 
pletely soluble in alcohol, forming a transparent soap with 
caustic potash, and leaving behind a brittle resin after 
having been boiled a long time in water. It was seldom 
met with in a more fluid state, frequently it was more firm 
