14  Revision  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia.  {Am'/a0nuj8PM.arm- 
is  too  limited.  Peter  MacEwen  reports  for  an  Indian  oil  0-989  and 
recommended  that  the  official  British  Pharmacopoeia  figures  be 
changed  to  0-970  to  0  990.  Mr.  Holmes  had  previously  reported 
for  museum  specimens  0  9901  (Amer.  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  1886, 
p.  254.)  Dodge  and  Olcott  report  (Druggists'  Circular,  1889,  p. 
84) :  "  We  find  the  bulked  result  of  a  distillation  to  be  0-970 
at  6o°  F.  The  first  of  the  run  is  of  a  light  color  and  weighs  0*960  at 
6o°  F.,  and  on  account  of  its  flowery  odor  is  especially  adapted  for 
perfumery  use.  The  last  of  the  run  is  dark  and  weighs  980  at6o°." 
I  have  examined  American  distilled  oil,  showing  a  gravity  of  0-9809. 
The  East  Indian  oil  distilled  in  crude  apparatus  would  of  course 
show  a  higher  gravity  and  the  figures  proposed  by  MacEwen  would 
include  this  native  oil. 
The  official  test  solubility  in  mixture  of  alcohol  and  water  (3-1) 
is  not  always  reliable  for  detecting  the  common  adulterant,  oil  of 
cedar.  E.  M.  Holmes  (loc.  cit,  p.  262)  concludes  that  the  admix- 
ture of  cedar  oil  with  sandal  oil  to  the  extent  of  10  per  cent,  is  not 
easily  detected  by  the  reduced  solubility  in  alcohol.  My  own 
experiments  in  this  direction  were  likewise  unsatisfactory.  I  have 
found  the  arnmonio-copper  solution  test,  proposed  by  M.  Durand 
(see  Braunt, "  Fats  and  Oils,"  pp.  540-541),  to  give  satisfactory  results 
in  detecting  easily  3  to  5  per  cent,  of  cedar  oil.  This  test  appears 
to  have  been  overlooked  by  all  the  recent  investigators,  although 
claimed  by  the  author  to  detect  of  one  per  cent,  of  the 
adulterant.  Almost  all  of  the  so-called  West  Indian  sandal  wood  oil 
in  the  American  market  is  not  the  oil  described  by  Holmes  as 
obtained  from  an  undetermined  species  of  Rutaceae,  but  is  really  a 
mixture  of  East  Indian  sandal  wood  oil  and  oils  of  cedar  and 
copaiba. 
In  the  preparation  of  Phosphorated  Oil,  I  would  suggest  the 
use  of  chloroform  in  place  of  ether  as  being  a  much  better  solvent 
of  phosphorus. 
Oil  of  Turpentine  should  be  accompanied  by  specific  tests  for  ben- 
zin. 
While  the  morphine  strength  of  Opium  remains  at  not  less  than 
9  per  cent.,  that  of  powdered  opium  is  rightly  limited  to  not  less 
than  13  nor  more  than  15  per  cent.  The  Pharmacopoeia,  1880, 
admitted  powdered  opium  of  from  12  to  16  per  cent,  morphine, 
which  permitted  too  great  a  variation  in  the  strength  of  the  pharma- 
