THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
MARCH,  1877. 
COLORED  GLASSWARE. 
By  Hans  M.  Wilder. 
Amber. — Mr.  Rother  ("  Pharmacist,"  February,  p.  43)  furnishes  a 
good  illustration  of  the  usefulness  of  amber-colored  bottles  in  protect- 
ing the  contents  against  the  action  of  the  chemical  rays.  Of  a  batch 
of  tincture  of  kino,  a  portion  was  put  in  a  brown  bottle,  and  was  found 
to  be  still  in  a  good  condition  while  the  contents  of  the  shelf  bottle  were 
entirely  gelatinized.  Since  most  preparations  are  sensitive  to  light 
(especially  tinctures,  essential  oils,  some  of  the  powdered  drugs  and  a 
few  chemicals),  amber-colored  bottles  should,  by  right,  constitute  the 
bulk  of  shelf-furniture.  Sir  John  Herschel's  observation,  that  the 
vegetable  colors  are  destroyed  by  rays  of  the  complementary  color,  will 
form  no  objection,  since  the  complementary  color  of  yellow  is  purple5 
and  few  articles  possess  that  color. 
Blue  would  be  the  right  color  for  bottles  containing  "  externals  "  or 
"  poisons"  (f.  inst.  aqua  ammoniae,  acid,  oxalic.) 
White  for  all  the  remainder. 
For  the  use  of  customers  (prescriptions  and  counter  sale)  :  Amber 
only  for  solutions  of  nitrate  of  silver  (as  mentioned  by  Prof.  Maischy, 
in  the  February  number,  not  necessary  in  itself,  but  to  serve  as  a 
distinction  from  other  colorless  preparations);  Blue,  for  " externals  ;" 
White,  for  the  remainder.     But  what  have  we  to  use  for  poisons  ? 
The  usual  "  knobbed  "  blue  bottle  is  good  enough,  but  we  cannot 
prevent  people  from  using  the  cleaned  empty  poison  bottles  for  other 
purposes  (f.  inst.  castor  oil,  sweet  nitre,  laudanum,  etc.),  and  as  for 
exchanging  such  bottles  for  white  ones  (that  is,  unobjectionable  ones) 
every  practical  druggist  knows  that  it  is  generally  well-nigh  impossible 
to  induce  people  to  submit  to.  Some  invention  is  wanted  which  can  be 
applied  to  bottles  containing  poisons,  so  as  to  serve  as  a  distinguishing 
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