560         Gleanings  from  the  European  Journals.  {AMbecUi,'iPs74RM' 
whole  weigh  fifty  parts,  triturated  with  the  addition  of  a  few  drops 
of  alcohol,  and  again  dried. 
If,  in  the  above  formula,  glycerin  is  substituted  for  the  sugar  a 
glycerite  is  obtained,  which,  in  the  author's  hands,  has  kept  entirely 
unchanged  for  two  years.  Made  to  contain  10  per  cent,  of  iron,  it 
has  a  handsome  brown-red  color,  and  the  consistence  of  a  soft  ex- 
tract ;  if  representing  3  per  cent,  of  iron,  it  has  the  consistence  of 
glycerin. 
This  glycerite  is  a  very  delicate  test  for  grape  sugar.  Suitably  di- 
luted and  heated  with  a  trace  of  the  latter,  ferrous  chloride  is  formed, 
which  is  recognized,  after  supersaturation  with  hydrochloric  acid,  by 
the  blue  color  produced  with  ferridcyanide  of  potassium.  Cane  sugar, 
similarly  treated,  does  not  show  this  reaction. — -Ibid.,  pp.  184-139. 
Adulterations  and  Substitutions. — E.  Heintz  enumerates  the  fol- 
lowing, which  he  met  in  the  German  drug-market :  Formic  acid 
spec.  grav.  1*2,  was  found  to  be  only  142,  and  its  actual  value  was 
therefore  little  more  than  one-third  of  its  pretended  strength.  Im- 
pure carbolic  acids  sold  as  containing  50  per  cent,  of  acid,  were  found 
to  contain  only  15  and  25  per  cent.  ;  another  sample,  said  to  con- 
tain 60  per  cent.,  yielded  only  35  per  cent,  of  carbolic  acid.  One  lot 
of  nine  different  volatile  oils,  had  to  be  returned,  all  proving  to  be 
adulterated.  Prepared  oyster-shell  was  found  to  consist  merely  of 
burned  bones. — Ibid.,  p.  142. 
Iron  by  Hydrogen. — P.  Carles  estimates  the  amount  of  metallic  iron 
in  this  preparation  by  operating  upon  0-1  gram,  mixed  with  5  grams 
of  hot  water  in  a  flat-bottomed  dish,  with  a  solution  of  4*53  grams  of 
iodine  and  5  grams  of  iodide  of  potassium,  in  100  c.c.  water.  1  c.c.  of 
this  solution  combines  with  0*01  gram  of  iron.  If  the  iron  is  greasy, 
has  been  considerably  heated,  or  is  superficially  oxidized,  the  appli- 
cation of  heat  to  the  mixture  may  have  to  be  repeated.  That  all  the 
iron  has  combined  with  the  iodine,  is  evidenced  by  the  residue,  which 
remains,  not  evolving  hydrogen  with  muriatic  acid.  A  separate  por- 
tion of  the  iron  is  treated  with  hydrochloric  acid,  and  the  resulting 
gas  passed  through  a  solution  of  sugar  of  lead,  in  order  to  estimate 
the  sulphur  as  sulphide  of  lead.  The  undissolved  residue  contains 
sand,  carbon,  &c. 
The  author  gives  the  following  analytical  results  of  different  sam- 
ples : 
