Am.  Jotra.  Pharm.  1 
March  1, 1&72.  J 
Chalk  Mixture. 
101 
of  water,  leaving  a  mere  trace  of  residuum  upon  the  filter.  Here 
comes  in  the  practical  part  of  the  operation.    This  salt,  perfectly  free 
from  uncombined  lime,  such  as  was  found  in  the  commercial  article, 
was  made  for  about  one-fifth  of  the  market  price. 
Jersey  City,  K  J.,  Feb.,  1872. 
CHALK  MIXTURE. 
By  Geo.  W.  Kennedy. 
Mistura  cretas  of  our  pharmacopoeia  is  a  remedy  frequently  pre- 
scribed by  our  physicians  for  diarrhoea  and  summer  complaints  of 
children,  and  yet  it  is  very  objectionable,  owing  to  its  becoming  sour, 
especially  during  the  summer  season,  that  being  the  time  when  mostly 
prescribed.  It  is  surprising  how  rapidly  it  ferments,  the  supernatant 
liquid  becoming  sour  and  mouldy  ;  of  course  there  is  no  necessity  to 
dispense  a  fermented  preparation,  when  it  may  be  made  up  fresh 
every  time  when  wanted,  and  yet  how  very  inconvenient  it  is  at  times 
to  prepare  it  as  called  for,  especially  if  several  customers  are  waiting 
in  the  store,  and  most  likely  all  of  them  having  prescriptions  to  be 
filled,  each  one  desiring  to  be  waited  on  first. 
In  order  to  see  what  was  sold  in  some  of  our  shops  as  chalk  mix- 
ture, I  purchased  some  from  twelve  different  stores ;  three  of  the 
samples  proved  to  be  in  perfectly  good  condition,  eight  partially  sour 
and  one  quite  sour  ;  two  of  the  first  were  from  stores  kept  by  gradu- 
ates in  pharmacy,  the  rest  were  not. 
By  way  of  experiment  in  order  to  obviate  this  great  inconvenience 
I  tried  the  substitution  of  glycerin  for  sugar,  ?m>  1  so  far,  up  to  the 
present  time,  I  have  found  it  to  work  well  after  i..  j  following  formula  : 
fy.       Cretse  Praept. 
Glycerin  ae  (Bowers')  a  a  ^ss. 
Pulv.  acaciae  3ij. 
Olei  Cinnamomi  gtt.  viij. 
Aquae  Destill.  viij. 
Mix  thoroughly. 
The  above  mixture  I  have  kept  a  whole  summer  and  up  to  the 
present  time;  I  made  it  about  ten  months  ago,  and  upon  opening  it  I 
found  it  in  perfect  condition,  not  even  the  slightest  acidification  having 
taken  place. 
