312  Minutes  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting.  {AmjJney'i?£arm' 
Fifteen  specimens  of  Chinese  Materia  Medica  were  exhibited,  illustrating 
a  paper  on  this  subject  published  a  short  time  ago  in  the  Medical  and  Surg. 
Reporter  of  this  city,  by  Stewart  Culin. 
A  paper  upon  Bechi's  test  for  cotton-seed  oil  was  read  by  Jos.  W.  Eng- 
land, Ph.  G.,  who  also  exhibited  a  number  of  different  oils,  pure  and  mixed 
with  cotton-seed  oil,  illustrating  the  effect  upon  them  of  the  reagent  pro- 
posed by  Prof.  Bechi. 
Prof.  Maisch  said  that  in  testing  for  the  purity  of  olive  oil,  he  had  relied 
mainly  upon  two  reagents,  strong  sulphuric  acid  and  a  cold  mixture  of  sul- 
phuric and  nitric  acids ;  both  these  reagents,  when  dropped  to  the  oil  upon 
a  white  plate,  would  scarcely  change  the  color  of  pure  olive  oil,  but  with 
cotton-seed  oil  or  several  other  cheap  oils  would  produce  a  red  or  brown 
color ;  while  thus  an  adulteration  was  shown,  these  test  liquids  would  not 
identify  cotton-seed  oil.  This  is  done  by  Bechi's  test  and  this  gives  it  its 
great  value  as  cotton-seed  oil  is  the  main  adulterant  of  olive  oil  at  the  pres- 
ent time,  but  probably  not  the  only  one  since  the  sample  of  olive  oil  im- 
ported in  Florence  flasks  was  shown  by  Mr.  England  to  be  free  from  cotton- 
seed oil;  but  it  acquired  a  red  color  with  the  acid  test. 
P.rof.  Remington  said  that  olive  oil  is  now  used  almost  as  a  mere  flavor- 
ing material  to  the  cotton-seed  oil,  such  is  the  extent  to  which  this  fraud  is 
carried;  the  amount  of  cotton-seed  oil  exported  to  Europe  is  somewhere 
near  20,000,000  gallons  for  which  there  is  no  ostensible  use,  except  that  of 
mixing  with  olive  oil. 
Prof.  Trimble  said  that  while  the  subject  of  mixing  oil  and  decolorizing 
was  being  discussed  it  might  be  stated'  that  mineral  oil,  one  of  the  recent 
sophistications  of  castor  oil,  was  deprived  of  its  fluorescence  by  adding  a 
small  quantity  of  nitro-naphthalin. 
Mr.  England  stated  that  Prof.  Maisch  had  suggested  that  the  reaction 
by  Bechi's  test  upon  cotton-seed  oil  was  probably  due  to  the  yellow  color- 
ing principle. 
Prof.  Maisch  said  that  a  method  of  destroying  this  coloring  matter  which 
persistently  remains  with  the  oil  and  even  with  the  soaps  prepared  from  it, 
had  been  a  study  for  many  years  among  European  investigators  and  as  yet 
no  satisfactory  process  had  been  devised. 
Mr.  Webb  stated  that  in  the  last  revision  of  the  pharmacopoeia,  cotton-seed 
oil  had  been  directed  in  place  of  olive  oil  in  making  linimentum  ammonise, 
and  that  it  was  a  failure,  the  liniment  thus  made  being  a  thin  unadhesive 
preparation  quite  unfit  for  the  purpose  designed. 
Prof.  Remington  stated  that  alow  grade  of  olive  oil  suitable  for  liniments, 
could  easily  be  obtained.  This  green  and  almost  always  rancid  oil  was 
obtained  by  racking  off  the  oil  from  the  settlings  of  the  oil  vats,  and  sold  as 
commercial  olive  oil;  being  very  cheap  it  don't  pay  to  adulterate  it.  He  said 
that  about  this  time  last  year  he  went  through  the  oil  producing  districts 
of  southern  Europe,  and  the  methods  of  making  the  oil  were  of  the  most 
primitive  kind  ;  an  old  press  turned  by  two  or  three  men  forced  the  oil  out 
from  the  olives,  and  so  dirty  and  common  a  process  was  it,  that  he  felt  lit- 
tle disposition  to  indulge  in  olive  oil  since.    There  is  something  in  cotton- 
