'^'"re'T'^isS'*'^"''}        Examination  of  Balsam  of  Peru.  607 
^as  therefore  a  failure.  Copper^  zinc  and  mercury  albuminate 
remained  for  4  w(  eks  without  perceptible  change^  and  the  author 
believes  they  would  remain  so  for  an  unlimited  period  were  oxygen 
and  water  absent. 
Other  experiments  made  with  such  materials  as  iodoform^  carbon 
dichloride,  tetrachloride,  and  hexachloride,  solid  and  liquid  bromoto- 
luene,  which  have  been  favorably  noticed  in  medical  journals,  were 
unsuccessful,  and  the  author  believes  them  useless  as  antiseptics. — Jour, 
ehem.  Soc,  Nov.,  1882  ;  from  J.  pr.  Chem.  [2],  25,  300-309. 
THE  EXAMINATION  OF  BALSAM  OF  PERU. 
By  O.  Schlickum. 
The  author  reports  the  results  of  a  number  of  experiments  having 
for  their  object  the  facilitating  of  the  examination  of  balsam  of  Peru 
for  adulterants  and  the  quantitative  determination  of  these  when  pres- 
ent. As  materials  he  used  five  guarantee  samples  of  balsam  obtained 
at  different  times  from  different  sources.  The  possible  adulterants  par- 
ticularly investigated  were  castor  oil,  copaiba  balsam,  purified  storax, 
an  alcoholic  solution  of  benzoin  brought  to  the  consistence  of  a  bal- 
sam, and  a  similar  solution  of  colophony.  Before  proceeding  to 
methods  of  investigation  the  author  makes  the  following  remarks  on 
the  specific  gravity  and  the  free  acids  of  Peru  balsam. 
The  specific  gravity  is  a  very  important  criterion  of  unsophisticated 
balsam.  All  the  other  substances  above  mentioned  possess  a  lower 
specific  gravity  than  the  true  Peru  balsam.  The  highest  of  the  five 
specimens  examined  by  the  author  was  1'148  and  the  lowest  1'142. 
Any  sample  of  Peru  balsam  having  a  specific  gravity  lower  than  1*135 
may  therefore  be  regarded  as  adulterated.  The  si)ecific  gravity  of 
castor  oil  and  of  copaiba  balsam  is  in  each  case  under  POO,  that  of  the 
former  varying  between  0"95  and  0*97,  and  that  of  the  latter  between 
0*94  and  0*99.  The  specific  gravity  of  the  purified  storax,  which  was 
obtained  as  a  brown  transparent  balsam  by  extracting  liquid  storax 
with  alcoholic  ether  and  evaporating  the  clear  filtrate,  was  determined 
as  1*090;  that  of  the  colophony  solution  as  P016;  and  that  of  the 
benzoin  solution  as  1*080.  These  are  all  considerably  below  the  spe- 
•cific  gravity  of  the  true  Peru  balsam,  so  that  an  addition  of  one  of 
them  would  markedly  lower  its  specific  gravity.     For  instance,  an 
