298     ON  SOME  PREPARATIONS  OF  TIIE  U.  S.  PHARMACOPOEIA. 
developed  crystals  of  rock  candy,  which  gave  precisely  the  same 
reactions  and  left  the  same  white  ash,  which  also  proved  to  be 
lime ;  but  on  adding  acetate  of  lead  to  a  slightly  acidulated 
aqueous  solution  of  the  crystals,  I  could  not  perceive  any  pre- 
cipitate. 
In  the  mean  time  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  examining  the 
paper  of  Prof.  Schroff  in  the  Prager  Vierteljahresschrift  fuer 
die  Practische  Ileilkimde,  1854,  2er  band,  p.  129,  and  also  his 
later  treatise  in  Schmidt's  Jahrbuecher  about  the  varieties  of 
aconitum. 
The  alcoholic  extracts  in  which  he  notices  the  appearance  of 
sugar,  are  of  Aconitum  lycoctonum  (L.),  A.  anthora  (L.)  and  A. 
neomontanum  (Wulfen).  Especially  the  alcoholic  extracts  of 
the  roots  collected  in  the  fall  yielded  more  sugar  than  the  roots 
collected  in  the  months  of  June  or  July,  but  the  latter  proved  to 
be  more  active. 
New  York,  June  1,  1864. 
REMARKS  ON  SOME  PREPARATIONS  OF  THE  IT.  S- 
PHARMACOPOEIA,  1860. 
By  William  Procter,  Jr. 
(Continued  from  page  209.) 
Acetum  Scillae.  In  remarking  on  preparations  of  this  class 
in  a  previous  paper,  the  practical  error  which  crept  into  the 
formula  for  this  preparation  was  passed  accidentally  un- 
noticed. The  glutinous  character  of  squill  develops,  even  in 
a  coarse  powder,  so  much  adhesiveness  in  the  particles  as  to 
render  the  directions  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  almost  impractica- 
ble. It  is  better,  therefore,  to  mix  the  squill  with  a  pint  of 
dilute  acetic  acid,  as  directed  in  the  second  formula  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia  of  1850,  and,  when  the  particles  are  thoroughly 
swollen  by  maceration,  to  put  the  magma  into  a  glass  coni- 
cal percolator,  settle  it  down  by  agitation  and  slight  pressure, 
and  pour  on  dilute  acetic  acid  until  two  pints  of  vinegar  of 
squill  ha  ve  passed. 
Aconitia.  The  process  for  Aconitia  is  a  modification  of 
that  of  Headland,  noticed  in  the  Dispensatory,  but  differing 
from  it  by  the  precaution  taken  to  remove  the  fixed  oil  and 
