ON  CANE  SUGAR,  ETC. 
197 
with  gallotannic  acid,  are  similar  to  its  tannin.  Now,  if  it  is 
correct  to  choose  of  too  evils  the  least,  we  have  to  select  a 
menstruum  which  secures  to  us  the  whole  virtues  of  the  bark, 
though  they  may  partly  be  affected  by  oxidation,  in  preference 
to  the  one  which  does  not  exhaust  the  bark  entirely,  is  no  safe- 
guard against  oxidation,  and  necessitates  a  considerable  loss  by 
its  inability  to  preserve  a  complete  solution. 
Whether  the  increase  of  the  strength  of  alcohol  is  objection- 
able from  a  medicinal  point  of  view,  is  not  for  me  to  determine, 
but  if  we  must  have  tinctures  of  bark,  let  us  at  least  have  such — 
this  I  conceive  to  be  the  pharmaceutical  view  of  the  subject — 
which  preserve,  better  than  others,  their  properties. 
Philadelphia,  April,  1861. 
ON  CANE  SUGAR  IN  ITS  RELATIONS  TO  SIMPLE  AND  OTHER 
SYRUPS. 
By  Wilson  II.  Pile,  Jr. 
(An  Inaugural  Essay  presented  to  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  1861.) 
Every  one  who  has  been  accustomed  to  prepare  tbe  various 
syrups  and  saccharine  fluid  extracts  demanded  in  pharmacy, 
must  be  aware  of  the  uncertainty,  and  often  perplexity,  which 
attends  their  manufacture.  The  difficulty  arises  in  part  from  a 
faulty  manipulation,  in  the  boiling  being  too  long  continued, 
or  from  a  badly  shaped  vessel,  occasioning  too  great  a  loss 
by  evaporation,  before  even  the  boiling  point  be  reached. 
In  other  cases  a  want  of  proper  adjustment  of  the  liquid  men- 
strua to  the  amount  of  sugar  employed,  giving  a  preparation 
either  too  thin  or  dense,  or  rendering  it  difficult  or  impossible 
to  make  the  exact  quantity  required  by  the  formula.  In  the 
non-medicinal  syrups  a  skilful  operator  can  judge  with  sufficient 
accuracy  by  various  familiar  signs,  when  the  proper  degree  of 
consistency  is  arrived  at ;  but  this  could  not  be  done  by  an 
inexperienced  hand,  and  with  the  more  important  fluid  prepa> 
rations,  where  sugar  is  employed  a  more  exact  and  certain 
method  must  be  used. 
In  our  national  Pharmacopoeia,  it  has  unfortunately  happened 
