114 
Synthetic  Chemicals. 
J  Am.  Jour.  Pharrn. 
I      March,  1900. 
mine  whether  a  substance  in  hand  is  or  is  not  a  definite  chemical 
species  or  entity.  With  most  of  the  chemicals  examined,  it  is  true, 
no  serious  difficulty  was  experienced.  A  substance  like  phenacetin, 
for  instance,  having  a  definite  chemical  formula,  crystalline  in  form, 
with  a  well-defined  melting-point  and  characteristic  reactions,  gave 
us  very  little  trouble,  but  it  was  by  no  means  such  clear  sailing  with 
less  definite  substances;  and,  thinking  that,  perhaps,  you  would 
find  a  hasty  review  of  some  of  the  articles  which  failed  to  pass  the 
ordeal  more  interesting  than  those  which  did,  we  have  brought  a 
number  of  the  latter,  and  will  show  them  to  you,  with  an  explana- 
tion of  the  reasons  for  rejection  in  each  case. 
The  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue  is  inclined  to  hew  pretty 
close  to  the  line,  and  exempt  no  proprietary  remedy  under  the  pro- 
viso which  is  not  clearly  and  fully  entitled  to  it  under  the  terms  of 
the  decision  of  the  Court.  This  being  the  case,  a  rather  rigid  stand- 
ard was  adhered  to,  and  quite  a  number  of  medicinal  chemicals  failed 
to  answer  its  requirements. 
Many  preparations  which  are  classed  in  the  trade  as  synthetic 
remedies,  and  included  in  the  lists  given  by  Coblentz  and  Thorns, 
are  very  far  from  being  definite  bodies,  pure  and  unmixed  with  any 
other  substance  whatever.  Ichthyol  and  Tumenol,  for  example,  are 
products  obtained  by  treating  mineral  oil  with  sulphuric  acid,  whereby 
sulphones  and  sulphonic  acids  of  the  various  unsaturated  hydrocar- 
bons present  in  the  oil  are  produced.  While  both  preparations  con- 
tain sulphur  in  organic  combination,  and  are  doubtless  valuable  in 
medicine,  they  are  mixtures,  not  only  of  the  sulphones  of  different 
hydrocarbons,  but  even  of  the  different  classes  of  bodies,  sulphones 
and  sulphonic  acids,  as  shown  by  the  following  figures,  hence  they 
are  not  definite  bodies: 
Ichthyol.  Tumenol. 
Per  Cent.        Per  Cent. 
Loss  at  ioo°  C  ,   43 '09  6-32 
Ash    0-03  9-28 
Extracted  by  alcohol  (sulphonic  acids)   50*21  46*09 
Insoluble  in  alcohol  (sulphones)  .........  6*30  38*31 
Totals   99'63  ioo'oo 
Somewhat  similar  is  the  case  of  albuminoid  or  proteid  bodies, 
and  combinations  of  such  bodies  with  different  bases  and  acids. 
Hemol,  hemogallol,  ferratin,  iron  somatose,  tannalbin,  argonin,  etc., 
are  examples.    Iron,  for  instance,  enters  into  chemical  combination 
