426 
Editorial, 
f  Am.  Jour.  Phaem 
t    Sept.  1, 1872. 
lution,  containing  20  per  cent,  caustic  potassa,  with  10  drops  of  the  suspected 
oil.*. 
In  a  note  read  by  M.  de  Vrij,  he  stated  that  bitartrate  of  soda  produces,  with 
sulphate  of  cinchonidia,  at  once  a  precipitate  which  is  insoluble  in  water ;  the 
quinidia  salt  yields  a  similar  precipitate  after  several  hours. 
A  report  by  Messrs.  Adrian,  Dubail  and  Boudet,  was  read  on  the  law  re- 
cently enacted  by  the  National  Assembly,  confining  the  sale  of  essence  of  ab- 
sinth to  the  pharmacies  ;  the  various  absinth  liquors  are  made  principally  by 
two  processes,  either  by  distilling  an  alcoholic  liquor  from  fresh  wormwood, 
or  by  dissolving  the  volatile  oil  in  alcohol. 
In  the  following  discussion,  it  was  stated  that  the  consumption  of  absinth 
liquor  had  led  to  the  most  deplorable  consequences ;  that  the  design  of  the  new 
law  was  to  prevent  its  manufacture  from  the  essential  oil;  that,  according  to 
observations  presented  to  the  therapeutical  society,  it  possesses  dangerous  prop- 
erties, differing  in  its  physiological  action  from  alcohol,  anise  and  the  other  es- 
sences used  in  making  absinth  liquor  ;  that  the  essential  oil  of  wormwood  had 
been  supplied  by  the  wholesale  trade  in  large  quantities  for  the  manufacture  of 
the  liquor,  and  that  under  the  new  law  pharmacists  only  have  the  right  to  sell, 
upon  a  prescription,  the  oil  and  the  concentrated  preparations  of  wormwood. 
Mr.  Vuaflart  read  a  note  on  orange  flower  water  distilled  by  steam,  which, 
though  at  first  very  pleasant,  loses  its  odor  soon  after  being  opened.  Mr. 
Machet  had  previously  noticed  that  rose  water  distilled  by  steam  does  not  keep 
nearly  as  well  as  that  distilled  over  the  naked  fire.  Since  he  follows  this  plan, 
the  author  is  enabled  to  keep  orange  flower  water  for  years  ;  at  first  it  has  a 
peculiar  empyreumatic  odor  (gout  de  feu)  which,  however,  it  loses  after  the  first 
frost. 
The  Arabs,  according  to  Mr.  Roucher,  use  great  care  in  preparing  this  water, 
which,  after  several  cohobations  over  the  naked  fire,  is  saturated,  strongly 
aromatic  and  keeps  well. 
Editorial  Department. 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association. — Mr.  H.  C.  Gaylord,  the  Local 
Secretary,  informs  us  that  the  Central  Rink  at  Cleveland,  corner  of  Euclid 
Avenue  and  Monument  Square,  has  been  secured  for  holding  the  meeting  and 
the  exhibition.  From  our  correspondence  with  members,  and  a  number  of 
pharmacists  desirous  of  connecting  themselves  with  the  Association,  we  are 
led  to  expect  that  the  approaching  meeting  will  be  largely  attended, from  all 
sections  of  the  country,  and  that  in  scientific  interest,  and  in  importance  to 
the  pharmaceutical  profession  in  this  country,  it  will  most  likely  be  equal  to 
any  one  that  preceded  it.  The  applications  for  membership  which  have  reached 
the  Permanent  Secretary  in  advance  of  the  meeting,  are  unusually  numerous, 
so  that  the  Association  has  a  fair  prospect  of  increasing,  not  only  in  numbers, 
*  A  brown  resin  and  azoxybenzid  are  formed,  which  are  insoluble  in  water,  while  pure  oil  of 
bitter  almonds  yields  soluble  benzoate  of  potassa.  This  process  of  detecting  the  adulteration 
was  described  by  me  in  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  1857,  p.  544.— Ed.  Am.  Joub.  Pharm. 
