Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1907. 
Acetanilid  and  Phenacetin. 
155 
II.  Amount  taken,  acetanilid  i'o  gramme  and  salol  i'o  gramme;  acetanilid 
found,  0*9985  gramme. 
III.  A    MOIST    ANTISEPTIC     GAUZE,     CONTAINING     ACETANILID,  ZINC 
SULPHO-CARBOLATE,  POWDERED  ALUM,  BORIC  ACID,  THYMOL,  MEN- 
THOL, EUCALYPTOL,  AND  FORMALDEHYDE. 
The  gauze  had  been  prepared  by  saturating  the  cloth  with  a  hot 
aqueous  solution  of  the  above  ingredients,  and  as  it  was  an  impos- 
sibility for  the  cloth  to  take  up  all  of  the  solution,  the  reliability  of 
the  results  obtained  on  analyzing  the  preparation  can  be  judged 
only  by  the  closely  concordant  figures  obtained  by  the  two  slightly 
different  methods  pursued. 
One  yard  of  the  gauze  was  divided  into  two  parts.  The  first 
part,  which  weighed  51-35  grammes,  was  exhausted  completely  in  a 
Soxhlet  apparatus  with  chloroform,  and  the  chloroform  solution  was 
treated  as  in  the  method  for  the  analysis  of  the  elixir  given  above. 
The  second  part,  which  weighed  48-5  grammes,  was  extracted  in  a 
Soxhlet  apparatus  with  alcohol,  as  it  was  supposed  that  the  chloro- 
form might  not  have  been  able  to  penetrate  the  moist  gauze  suffi- 
ciently well  to  extract  all  of  the  acetanilid.  The  alcohol  solution 
was  then  carefully  evaporated,  the  residue  was  taken  up  with  water 
and  the  aqueous  solution  was  shaken  out  with  chloroform,  after 
which  the  usual  method  of  procedure  was  pursued. 
The  results  obtained  were  as  follows: 
I.   Weight  of  gauze  taken,  51*35  grammes  ;  acetanilid  found,  o "93863  gramme 
=  1*828  per  cent. 
II.  Weight  of  gauze  taken,  48*5  grammes  ;  acetanilid  found,  0*89840  gramme' 
=  1  '852  per  cent. 
Conclusion. — The  method  can  be  applied  to  the  most  complicated 
pharmaceutical  mixtures,  it  being  necessary,  in  general,  only  to 
extract  the  mixture  with  chloroform  or  alcohol  in  order  to  obtain 
the  acetanilid  in  a  state  of  sufficient  purity  for  the  saponification. 
If,  after  saponification,  and  on  acidulation  with  phosphoric  acid,' 
volatile  acids  other  than  acetic  acid  obtained  from  the  acetanilid  are 
present,  means  must  be  taken  to  remove  them  before  carrying  out 
the  distillation,  as  for  example,  the  removal  of  phenol  by  means  of 
ether. 
As  phenacetin  is  closely  related,  chemically,  to  acetanilid,  all  that 
has  been  said  with  regard  to  the  latter  applies  equally  well  to  the 
