Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
Oct.,  1878,  j 
Nitrite  of  Amy  1. 
499 
Mr.  Abraham  said  the  specimen  of  syrup  furnished  seemed  to  him 
very  deficient  in  aroma  although  not  in  pungency. 
Mr.  Sumner  said  there  was  room  for  a  great  deal  more  research  with 
regard  to  extracting  the  properties  of  ginger.  One  of  his  sons  had 
given  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  the  subject,  and  his  experience  up  to 
the  present  time  had  been  that  the  pungency  was  in  the  resin,  and  the 
aroma  in  the  soft  part.  Ginger  might  be  separated  into  two  distinct 
kinds,  the  soft  floury  ginger  and  the  resinous,  and  his  son  had  found 
that  he  got  the  aroma  in  the  soft  ginger,  and  the  pungency  in  the 
resinous.  With  regard  to  the  flavor  no  ginger  could  give  the  same 
flavor  or  anything  approaching  it  as  the  Jamaica. 
The  President,  in  moving  a  vote  of  thanks  to  Mr.  Thresh,  said  it 
seemed  to  him  that  the  subject  might  be  divided  into  two  portions.  If 
the  object  of  the  investigator  was  to  get  a  preparation  which  was  per- 
fectly soluble  in  water  that  was  one  thing  ;  but  if  it  were  to  produce 
a  mixture  which  should  dissolve  all  the  characteristic  properties  of  the 
drug  and  produce  them  in  a  fluid  form,  that  was  another  question 
altogether,  the  latter  being  by  far  the  most  interesting  as  it  came  into  the 
category  of  inquiries  which  he  rather  thought  in  the  future  would 
attain  more  interest  than  they  had  up  to  the  present  time.  Many 
present  would  be  familiar  with  some  work  of  Dr.  Squibb,  in  which  he 
had  been  endeavoring  to  show  that  almost  every  drug  should  be 
treated  with  a  different  menstruum.  That  seemed  to  be  the  tendency 
of  Dr.  Squibb's  investigation,  and  already  some  curious  results  bearing 
upon  it  had  been  brought  out.  He  should  be  disposed  to  think  the 
ultimate  analysis  of  ginger  was  still  to  be  made.  As  far  as  obtaining 
simply  a  preparation  soluble  in  water  the  problem  was  not  a  very 
difficult  one,  and  Mr.  Thresh  seemed  to  have  pretty  well  worked  it 
out. — Phar.  yonr.  and  Trans. ,  Aug.  31,  1878. 
NITRITE  OF  AMYL.1 
By  D.  B.  Dott. 
Nitrite  of  amyl  is  now  admitted  to  be  an  important  remedial  agent, 
having  taken  its  place  in  the  national  Pharmacopoeia.  Being  a  sub- 
stance of  great  physiological  activity,  it  is  highly  important  that  it 
should  be  obtained  pure,  or  if  that  is  impracticable  that  the  preparation 
1  Read  before  the  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference. 
