APPARATUS  FOR  THE  USE  OF  GAS  IN  PHARMACY. 
529 
aqueous  liquid  on  standing  has  a  decided  alkaline  reaction  and 
ceases  to  be  clouded  by  the  potassa.  The  chloroform  is  now  de- 
canted, and  by  spontaneous  evaporation  yields  a  crystalline  fawn- 
colored  residue  of  impure  atropia,  weighing  36  grains.  By  agi- 
tation with  an  additional  portion  of  chloroform,  three  grains  more 
of  impure  atropia  is  obtained.  The  atropia  in  this  condition  is 
dissolved  in  alcohol,  shaken  with  half  a  drachm  of  purified  ani- 
mal charcoal,  and  after  filtration  mixed  with  a  few  drops  of 
water  and  albwed  to  evaporate  and  crystallize. 
The  yield  of  purified  atropia  does  not  exceed  30  grains,  or  less 
than  one-third  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  root  treated. 
By  evaporating  the  chloroform  washings  the  fixed  oil  is  ob- 
tained. This  and  the  previous  portion  obtained  by  ether  was 
redissolved  in  ether,  filtered  and  evaporated  by  a  gentle  heat. 
The  product  was  fluid  at  summer  heat,  had  a  dark  brown  color 
and  disagreeable  odor,  and  is  at  least  partially  the  cause  of  the 
odor  of  the  root. 
Philadelphia,  June,  1860. 
APPARATUS  FOR  THE  USE  OF  GAS  AS  FUEL  IN  PHARMACY. 
By  Edward  Parrish. 
No  kind  of  fuel  offers  to  the  pharmaceutist,  in  the  small  pro- 
cesses of  his  shop  and  laboratory,  such  advantages  and  facilities 
of  adaptation,  as  the  carburetted  hydrogen  gas,  supplied  to  most 
towns  and  cities  for  illumination.  Where  it  is  obtainable,  this 
gas  is  generally  cheaper  than  alcohol,  less  wasteful  to  use,  and  if 
properly  applied,  equally  cleanly ;  in  comparing  it  with  any  of 
the  cheaper  forms  of  fuel,  its  great  facility  of  application,  the 
fact  of  its  being  so  readily  ignited  and  extinguished,  leaving  no 
solid  residue,  and  requiring  no  flue  to  carry  off  the  gaseous  pro- 
ducts of  its  combustion,  render  the  question  of  its  mere  cost 
comparatively  unimportant. 
As  far  as  my  observation  has  extended,  these  advantages  have 
been  so  far  appreciated  as  to  lead  to  the  employment  of  some 
form  of  gas-heating  apparatus  in  almost  every  pharmaceutical 
store,  where  manufacturing  is  carried  on ;  in  laboratories  for 
analysis  and  for  practical  instruction,  this  is  equally  the  case, 
