398  Practical  Notes  from  Various  Sources.  {AmA^s\*w7m' 
Given  as  injections  these  solutions  are  tolerated  in  doses  from  1  to 
15  grams  per  day  and  even  more. 
3.  Carbon  bisulphide,  1  gin.;  paraffin  oil,  19  gm.  Used  repeatedly 
in  small  quantities,  from  one  to  two  grams  through  the  day. 
4.  Pure  terebenthene,  5  gm.;  paraffin  oil,  20  gm.  This  is  tolerated 
in  daily  quantities  of  from  1  to  10  grams. 
Some  paraffin  oils,  on  being  saturated  with  pure  phenol,  and  mod- 
erately heated,  acquire  a  rose  color,  and  form  a  violet-colored  precipi- 
tate, which  is  augmented  in  the  intensity  of  color  on  the  addition 
of  alcohol.  Such  paraffin  oils  should  be  rejected  for  hypodermic  use. 
The  impure  oils  are  usually  colored  black  in  contact  with  sulphuric 
acid.    (See  also  Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,  1887,  p.  349.) 
At  a  meeting  of  the  Paris  Soci^te"  de  Th6rapeutique,  Dujardin-Beau- 
metz  called  attention  (Prog.  m6d.,  Feb.  12,  1887)  to  the  solvent 
powers  of  huile  de  Bakou,  paraffin  oil,  and  stated  that  the  oil  is  in- 
nocuous, and  could  be  used  with  advantage  subcutaneously  as  a  ve- 
hicle for  various  irritating  compounds,  the  acrid  nature  of  which  was 
thus  very  materially  modified.  It  dissolves  fixed  and  volatile  oils, 
camphors,  benzol,  carbon  bisulphide,  iodoform,  iodine,  bromine  and 
phosphorus.  To  be  adapted  for  such  use,  paraffin  oil  should  not  have 
been  treated  with  sulphuric  acid,  but  should  be  neutral  to  test  paper, 
inodorous  and  tasteless,  and  should  not  give  off  vapors  below  180°  C. 
Adrian  (Les  nouv.  Rem.,  April  24,  p.  171)  observed  a  distinct  acid 
reaction  on  the  treatment  with  hot  alcohol  of  Russian  and  American 
paraffin  oils,  as  well  as  that  prepared  from  soft  paraffin  with  ether  at 
— 10°  C.  (14°  F.)  The  specific  gravities  of  these  oils  varied  from  845 
to  880.  To  be  adapted  for  medicinal  purpose  such  oils  should  be  col- 
orless, not  fluorescent,  inodorous,  insipid,  and  of  the  density  875  to 
890 ;  when  heated  to  50°  C.  they  should  not  give  off  the  odor  of  pe- 
troleum, and  nothing  should  distil  over  below  360°  C.  (680°  F.);  at 
— 15° C.  (5°F.)  they  should  neither  congeal  nor  become  turbid;  they 
should  not  impart  an  acid  reaction  to  hot  alcohol,  and  when  treated 
with  sulphuric  acid  in  a  water-bath  for  24  hours,  should  at  most  pro- 
duce a  light-brown  color. 
From  a  paper  by  Dr.  J.  Ley,  in  Les  nouveaux  Remedes,  April  8,  it 
appears  that  Dr.  Balzer  experimented  in  the  direction  indicated  in 
1886,  and  in  November  communicated  his  observations  to  the  Society 
de  Biologic  Digitalin,  aconitine,  quinine  and  other  alkaloids  may 
thus  be  administered,  but  require  to  be  dissolved  in  chloroform  or 
