186 
EDITORIAL. 
ether,  namely,  2,  2,  less  than  1,  2-5,  less  than  1,  2-25,  2-3,  2'4,  1-5,  1*5, 
per  cent.  Thus  not  one  single  specimen  contained  as  much  as  half  the 
officinal  proportion  of  nitrous  ether,  though  three  of  them  came  pretty 
nearly  up  to  half  strength.  Of  the  remainder  none  exceed  two-fifths, 
and  five  are  below  two-fifths,  and  do  not  average  one-fourth  strength. 
The  prices  paid  for  these  were  17  c,  20  c,  20  c,  20  c,  25  c,  30  c, 
unknown,  unknown,  unknown,  55  c,  and  40  c,  per  pound,  and  as  usual, 
there  is  no  relation  between  price  and  quality,  that  sold  at  40  c,  containing 
1*5  percent.,  and  that  sold  at  17  c,  containing  1  per  cent,  of  nitrous 
ether.  A  little  more  than  seven  years  ago,  the  Chairman  of  this  Com- 
mittee went  over  this  ground  in  a  similar  manner,  and  published  the  re- 
sults. These  were  about  the  same  as  those  now  obtained,  showing  that 
there  has  been  no  improvement  whatever  in  the  market  for  this  article 
during  that  time.  The  preparation  cannot  be  honestly  nor  properly 
made  by  the  usual  process,  nor  at  the  usual  price  at  which  it  is  sold,  and 
all  manufacturers  know  this  perfectly  well,  and  yet  go  on,  regardless  of 
of  anything  but  the  profits  to  be  realized  by  their  dishonesty  ;  and  phar- 
maceutists, though  repeatedly  appealed  to  on  behalf  of  this  and  other 
preparations,  knowingly  continue  to  dispense  them. 
Compound  Spirit  of  Ether.  The  Spiritus  iEtheris  Compositus  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia,  or  Hoffman's  Anodyne.  Eleven  specimens  of  this  prep- 
aration were  examined.  Not  one  of  these  was  officinal  in  any  single  re- 
spect, nor  in  any  degree,  and  not  one  contained  any  true  heavy  oil  of  wine. 
One  specimen  professed,  by  the  label,  to  be  strictly  officinal.  This  answer- 
ed most  of  the  officinal  tests,  and  certainly  contained  some  compound  of 
sulphuric  acid  in  small  proportion,  but  whatever  this  was,  it  was  not  the 
officinal  heavy  oil  of  wine,  nor  in  the  officinal  proportion.  This,  therefore, 
was  probably  a  strictly  fraudulent  preparation,  got  up  carefully  and  skil- 
fully for  the  purpose  of  deception,  and  is  calculated  to  deceive,  except  that 
the  delicate  characteristic  fruity  odor  of  heavy  oil  of  wine  is  absent.  This, 
however,  would  only  be  likely  to  be  detected  by  comparison,  by  those 
not  very  familiar  with  the  officinal  article.  It  is  curious  that  this  speci- 
men appears  to  have  been  made  by  the  same  manufacturer  as  the  very 
best  specimen  of  Ether  Fortior.  Four  of  the  other  specimens  contained 
light  oil  of  wine  enough  to  render  water  milky,  and  were  so  nearly  alike 
in  other  respects,  as  to  render  it  probable  that  they  came  from  the  same 
manufactory.  All  the  specimens,  except  that  specially  alluded  to  above, 
were  mere  mixtures  of  dirty  ether,  generally  in  less  than  the  officinal  pro- 
portion, with  dilute  alcohol,  and  were  probably  made  from  the  residue  in 
rectifying  ether.  The  prices  charged  for  these  were  75  c,  25  c,  25  c, 
25  c,  30  c  ,  30.,  38  c,  unknown,  unknown,  50  c,  and  25  c,  all  except 
one  being  far  below  one-half  of  the  neat  cost  of  making  the  officinal  arti- 
cle, and  a  great  majority  of  pharmaceutists  are  aware  of  this  fact. 
Laudanum — The  Tinctura  Opii  of  the  Pharmacopoeia.  It  was  thought 
by  the  Committee  that  it  would  be  well  to  examine  a  represenative  from 
the  class  of  Tinctures  ;  and  this  one  was  selected  for  its  primary  import- 
ance, its  simplicity,  and  the  facility  with  which  opium  of  good  quality  can 
always  be  obtained  when  desired,  An  accurate  morphia  assay  is,  how- 
ever, one  of  the  most  difficult  in  the  whole  domain  of  ordinary  research, 
requiring  move  time  and  skill  than  was  at  the  command  of  the  Committee. 
It  was  therefore  determined  by  experiment  that  a  uniform  process  for 
precipitating  all  the  alkaloids  could  be  adopted  and  relied  upon  as  giving 
a  tolerable  close  comparison  of  the  narcotic  value  of  the  specimens  to 
which  it  was  applied.  Fifty  cubic  centimeters  of  the  Standard  Tincture 
of  the  Pharmacopoeia  yielded  0*604  grammes  of  mixed  alkaloids  by  the 
process  adopted.     Eleven  specimens,  treated  precisely  in  the  same  way, 
