200  OLEUM  iETHEREUM  AND  SPIRITUS  -35THERIS  COMPOSITUS. 
$1.70  per  fluid  ounce,  instead  of  70  or  80  cents,  as  it  should  be 
by  the  authorities  above  mentioned. 
The  great  disproportion  between  the  materials  and  product, 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances  make  it  most  desirable 
that  some  economical  process  should  be  found  for  this  preparation, 
and  the  writer  has  been  long  under  the  impression  that  by  the 
distillation  of  anhydrous  sulphovinates  better  results  might  be 
had.  The  few  crude  trials  made  in  this  direction  have,  however, 
thus  far  given  no  hope  of  success  as  far  as  practical  application 
is  concerned. 
The  attempts  to  make  heavy  oil  of  wine  from  the  residue  of  a  ' 
well  conducted  process  for  ether,  have  also,  in  the  writer's  hands, 
always  proved  abortive,,  or,  at  least  have  yielded  too  small  a  pro- 
duct to  pay  for  the  fuel  and  apparatus  involved.  When  the 
materials  for  ether  are  worked  to  the  best  advantage  the  residue 
yields  much  light  oil  of  wine,  but  very  little  heavy  oil  of  wine, 
and  no  method  has  yet  been  discovered  by  which  such  residue 
can  be  utilized  in  the  preparation  of  heavy  oil  of  wine.  When 
ether  is  made  on  the  small  scale,  and  over  a  lamp  or  fire,  the 
materials  are  rarely  managed  to  the  best  advantage.  The  resi- 
due, then,  will  yield  a  notable  proportion  of  heavy  oil  of  wine,  if 
the  distillation  be  continued  at  a  higher  temperature. 
Thus  all  the  efforts  made  at  this  Laboratory  to  produce  heavy 
oil  of  wine  cheaply,  have  thus  far  failed  signally.  But  the  pre- 
paration produced  has  been  of  a  uniform  character  and  of  full 
medicinal  effect  and  value,  and  there  is  no  good  reason  why  so 
valuable  a  curative  agent  should  not  be  restored  to  the  medical 
profession  generally.  There  can  be  but  little  doubt  that  the 
original  character  of  the  compound  spirit  of  ether  was  based 
upon  an  intrinsic  curative  value,  and  that  such  value  belonged 
mainly  to  the  ethereal  oil  as  the  anodyne  ingredient ;  and  there 
certainly  can  be  as  little  doubt  now,  that  for  some  years  past 
the  preparation  sold  under  the  name  of  Hoffman's  anodyne  has 
been  forcibly  dragged  along  by  the  materia  medica  list,  supported 
alone  by  its  unused  formula  and  former  character,  and  that  in  a 
few  years  more  it  must  be  dropped  entirely  or  transferred  to  the 
class  of  diffusible  stimuli.  It  remains,  therefore,  as  a  question 
for  decision  in  the  medical  profession,  whether  such  valuable 
agents  can  be  sacrificed  with  impunity  to  the  cupidity  of  manu- 
* 
