Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  "I 
Dec,  1877.  J 
Action  of  Nitric  Acid, 
lactucarii  when  present  is  owing  to  an  excess  of  one  or  more  of  the 
acids  contained  in  that  substance,  and  is  the  more  convinced  of  this  as 
at  times  he  has  obtained  a  perfectly  clear  syrup  by  simply  adhering  to 
the  formula  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  while  at  other  times,  using  equal 
care,  a  muddy  preparation  would  be  the  result,  showing  a  difference  in 
the  substance  employed. 
Portland,  Afc.,  Oct.  za,  1877. 
Remarks  by  the  Editor. — The  bitter  principles  of  lactucarium 
are  lactucin,  lactucic  acid  and  lactucopicrin,  the  first  of  which  appears  to 
be  present  in  larger  quantity  and  to  be  less  freely  soluble  in  water  than 
the  others.  Aubergier  already  observed  that  the  bitter  taste  of  lactu- 
cin  is  destroyed  by  alkalies  and  not  restored  by  acids  ;  the  syrup  sug- 
gested in  the  ab&ve  paper  should  therefore  be  carefully  tested  for  its 
medicinal  properties  before  it  is  substituted  for  the  officinal  syrup. 
Since  Walz  found  lactucin  to  be  freely  soluble  in  acetic  acid  it  is  not 
improbable  that  lactucarium  may  be  exhausted  by  dilute  acetic  acid, 
and  the  liquid  preserved  by  sugar,  without  the  alteration  of  any  of  its 
constituents. 
ACTION  of  NITRIC  ACID  on  SYRUP  of  IODIDE  of  IRON. 
•  By  Herman  Betz. 
Read  at  the  Alumni  Meeting,  November  1 . 
At  the  last  Alumni  Meeting,  Mr.  Kennedy  spoke  of  a  paper  which 
had  been  read  before  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  where- 
in it  was  stated  that  some  syrup  of  iodide  of  iron  was  suspected  to  be 
deficient  in  strength  and  colored  with  anilin-green,  on  account  of  its 
deep  green  color,  and  that  the  suspicion  was  proven  to  be  correct  by 
the  liquid  becoming  colorless  on  the  addition  of  a  few  drops  of  dilute 
nitric  acid. 
In  examining  into  this  subject,  syrup  of  ferrous  iodide,  U.  S.  P.,  was 
first  treated  with  nitric  acid,  which  gave  a  dense  black  mixture  from 
which  free  iodine  was  obtained  by  filtering  and  subliming  the  precipi- 
tate. To  a  small  quantity  of  the  same  syrup  a  deep  green  color  was 
imparted  by  a  minute  quantity  of  anilin-green  ;  on  adding  afterwards  a 
few  drops  of  nitric  acid  the  reaction  did  not  differ  from  the  foregoing 
one. 
If  dilute  nitric  acid,  U.  S.  P.,  is  added  in  a  small  quantity  to  syrup 
of  iodide  of  iron,  the  same  reaction  takes  place,  but  is  not  visible  quite 
