OLEUM  JETHEREUM  AND  SPIRITUS  ^ITHERIS  COMPOSITUS.  203 
If  the  proportion  of  the  ethereal  oil  shall  have  been  reduced, 
and  its  deficiency  supplied  by  a  fixed  oil,  for  purposes  of  decep- 
tion, the  surface  of  the  mixture  will  indicate  it  by  the  film  which 
collects  there  in  mnch  greater  proportion.  In  this  case  the 
simple  convenient  test,  proposed  by  Prof.  Procter,  of  drawing  a 
slip  of  paper  across  the  surface,  and  then  drying  it  with  a  gentle 
heat,  will  expose  the  fraud  if  the  proportion  of  water  in  the 
mixture  is  not  above  one-half.  When  deception  is  attempted  by 
means  of  fixed  oils,  the  milkiness  is  commonly  too  great,  and  of 
an  opaque  character  not  at  all  like  the  transparent  leaden  milki- 
ness attempted  to  be  described  above. 
One  fluid  ounce  of  the  compound  spirit  of  ether  evaporated 
to  dryness  in  a  water  bath,  with  an  excess  (say  60  drops  of  an 
ordinary  test  solution)  of  solution  of  chloride  of  barium,  yields 
an  insoluble  precipitate,  which  after  being  washed  on  a  tared  fil- 
ter with  two  fluid  ounces  of  hot  water,  and  dried  at  212°,  weighs 
6.25  grains.  This  test  very  conveniently  estimates  the  propor- 
tion of  heavy  oil  of  wine,  for  it  takes  no  cognisance  of  light  oil 
of  wine,  or  any  mere  hydrocarbon,  because  its  reaction  depends 
upon  the  conversion  into  sulphate  of  baryta,  of  the  characteristic 
constituent  of  the  heavy  oil,  namely  the  elements  of  sulphuric 
acid.  Moreover,  it  is  a  test  not  easy  to  circumvent,  for  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  combine  sulphuric,  or  even  sulphovinic  acid  practically  in 
this  mixture,  so  as  not  to  be  detected  by  solution  of  chloride  of 
barium. 
These  few  simple  and  easy  tests  are  quite  sufficient  to  enable 
any  one  to  distinguish  the  officinal  preparation,  and  no  one  need 
hesitate  in  condemning  any  specimen  which  will  not  fulfil  their 
indications. 
Specimens  purchased  from  four  of  the  best  drug  houses  in 
New  York  city,  and  representing  the  three  largest,  and  indeed 
almost  the  only  manufacturers  in  the  United  States,  all  failed  on 
the  very  threshold  of  this  testing.  These  specimens,  however, 
might  all  have  been  condemned  without  the  application  of  a 
single  test  except  the  sense  of  smell,  for  a  more  villainous  odor 
of  bad  empyreumatic  ether,  mixed  with  bad  oily  alcohol,  aggra- 
vated in  two  cases  by  putrescent  bladders  used  under  the  corks, 
could  hardly  be  imagined.    One  specimen  (of  conservative  prac- 
