Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
March,  1885.  j 
Commercial  Kamala. 
141 
which  is  due  to  the  presence  of  hydroquinon.  The  author  has  ob- 
served that  on  his  own  person  large  doses  have  a  tendency  to  produce 
an  eruption  of  the  skin,  a  fact  of  which  it  would  be  necessary  to  take 
cognizance  when  administering  arbutin  to  patients  of  herjoetic  tempera- 
ment.— Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  Feb.  14,  1885,  p.  659. 
NOTE  ON  THE  PURITY  OF  COMMERCIAL  KAMALA. 
By  p.  W.  Squire,  F.C.S.,  and  R.  A.  Cripps. 
Having  had  occasion,  a  short  time  ago,  to  examine  a  sample  of 
kamala  before  buying,  we  were  somewhat  surprised  to  find  a  very  large 
proportion  of  ash,  which  led  us  to  obtain  a  number  of  samples  from 
good  houses,  with  a  view  of  determining  to  what  extent  this  article  is 
contaminated  with  earthy  impurities.  The  results  were  so  surprising 
that  we  have  thought  them  sufficiently  important  to  embody  in  this 
short  note. 
In  the  "  Pharmaceutical  Journal,'^  [3],  vol.  i,  p.  708,  it  is  stated 
that  "kamala  always  contains  from  6  to  10  per  cent,  of  sand,  and  1  to 
2  per  cent,  of  sesquioxide  of  iron,''  while  in  a  paper  by  Mr.  T.  B. 
Groves,  read  before  the  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference  in  1872, 
the  amount  of  ash  is  said  to  be  less  than  4  per  cent.  Fliickiger  and 
Hanbury  give  only  1-37  per  cent.,  and  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia 
recognizes  an  article  containing  not  more  than  8  per  cent. 
As  will  be  seen  by  the  following  table,  our  results  vary  from  6*02 
to  61*5  per  cent. ;  only  one  sample  can  fairly  be  supposed  to  be  genuine. 
The  ash  in  most  cases  consisted  of  a  reddish  sand,  but  its  composition 
was  not  determined,  while  the  best  sample  left  a  greyish  ash,  about 
one-half  of  which  was  insoluble  in  hydrochloric  acid. 
Sample,  Amount  of  ash.  Color  of  ash. 
A   25    per  cent   Reddish. 
B    13-5  "    Greyish. 
C    61-5  "    Reddish. 
D    24  0  "   
E    59-6  "   
F    40-3  "   
G    46-2  "   
H    47-3  "   
I    30-3  "   
J                           6  02  "    Greyish. 
K    26-7  "    Reddish. 
L    47-G  "   
—Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  Feb.  14,  1885,  p.  654. 
