146 
Poivrette. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
March,  1887. 
the  impure  salt  into  a  pure  salt  represents  nothing  more  than  a  small 
difference  in  the  intrinsic  value  ;  the  pharmacist  really  solicitous  for 
the  quality  of  the  products  he  supplies  will  therefore  act  wisely  in 
repudiating  any  kind  of  tolerance,  and  demanding  from  the  manufac- 
turer to  be  supplied  with  an  absolutely  pure  salt.  This  is  easily  to  be 
characterized  according  to  what  has  already  been  stated  above  ;§  its 
special  crystallization  in  a  dense  form  is  moreover  a  primary  feature 
which  has  maintained  up  to  the  present  its  value,  and  to  which  phar- 
macists should  adhere. 
I  am  Avell  aware  that  it  is  usual  to  attach  to  the  light  sulphate  par- 
ticular qualities,  the  value  of  which  I  do  not  remember.  Certain 
makers  have  even  found  themselves  constrained  lately  to  give  the  pure 
salt  this  light  form,  and  they  have  succeeded  in  doing  so.  The  com- 
mercial interest  attaching  to  their  success  in  this  respect  ought  to  be  a 
real  one,  since  they  congratulate  themselves  upon  it ;  but  I  do  not  per- 
ceive any  advantage  that  pharmacists  would  derive  from  the  circum- 
stance that  an  article  which  they  sell  in  a  state  of  purity  should  receive 
the  appearance  of  the  same  article  in  an  impure  condition. — Phar. 
Jour,  and  Trans.,  Jan.  22,  1887  ;  Jour.  Phar.  Chim.,  Jan.  1887.  p.  5. 
ON  POIVRETTE 
By  Prof.  J.  Campbell  Brown,  D.  Sc. 
Read  at  the  Meeting  of  Public  Analysts,  January  12th,  1887. 
The  substance  known  in  the  pepper  trade  as  "  Poivrette,"  or  "Pep- 
perette,"  is  now  so  frequently  used  for  the  purpose  of  "  fraudulently 
increasing  the  weight  and  bulk  "  of  commercial  pepper,  that  the  mem- 
bers of  this  Society  ought  never  to  omit  a  careful  search  for  it  in  all 
samples  of  pepper  officially  submitted  to  them.  As  many  commercial 
analysts  do  not  appear  to  be  yet  familiar  with  poivrette,  and  as  some 
public  analysts  have  applied  to  me  for  specimens,  a  short  account  of  it 
may  be  of  use  to  the  Society.  It  made  its  first  appearance  in  Liv- 
erpool last  summer,  when  more  than  one  wholesale  pepper  merchant 
brought  me  samples,  and  inquired  what  the  substance  was,  and  what 
were  its  properties.  During  the  last  three  months  I  have  met  with  it 
in  between  twenty  and  thirty  retail  samples  of  pepper. 
$  Ker ner's  test  modified  applied  at  100°  0. ;  5  cc.  of  the  solution  at  15°  C.  being 
rendered  clear  by  less  than  6  cc.  of  ammonia  (0*96  specific  gravity),  the  other 
characters  named  in  the  Codex ;  maximum  rotatory  power  to  the  left,  etc. 
