528  Edttorial.  {^'"lZJ'7iTo. 
"Why  Nancy,"  exclaimed  her  mother,  ''what  made  you  say  that?" 
"  'Cause  I  made  it  that  way  in  my  examination." 
The  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  under  the  present  edi- 
torial management,  will  adhere  closely  to  the  rules  of  spelling  war- 
ranted by  usage  and  accepted  authorities.  Our  exceptions  to  the 
spelhng  of  the  standard  dictionaries  will  be  only  those  which  have 
been  adopted  in  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia,  as,  for  example, 
the  distinction  of  alkaloids  by  the  termination  "ine"  and  the  re- 
tention of  "in"  as  the  terminating-  letters  for  neutral  principles. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  has  adopted  in  only  a  few  instances  a  distinct 
form  of  spelling  for  a  limited  number  of  articles  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  avoiding  error  in  either  distinguishing  the  article  or  in  its  adminis- 
tration. We  consider  it  incumbent  upon  medical  and  pharmaceut- 
ical journals  in  the  spelling  of  these  words  to  follow  these 
pharmacopoeial  modifications.  These  are,  fortunately,  from  a  phil- 
ogical  view  point,  only  minor  changes  that  do  not  seriously  infract 
the  established  rules  of  English  orthography.  G.  M.  B. 
DENATURING  OF  BAY  RUM. 
In  Regulations  No.  60,  the  Bureau  of  Internal  Revenue  pro- 
vided for  denaturing  of  bay  rum  by  the  addition  of  not  less  than 
one-fourth  grain  of  tartar  emetic  to  each  fluidounce. 
Objections  have  been  offered  to  the  use  of  such  a  toxic  sub- 
stance as  an  antimony  salt  for  this  purpose  and  the  Department 
has  since  issued  several  memorandums  modifying  this  provision 
and  permitting  the  use  of  other  denaturing  agents.  These  are  not 
less  than  five  grains  of  resorcin,  or  two  grains  of  quinine  sulphate, 
or  two  grains  of  cinchonidine  sulphate,  or  five  grains  of  salicylic 
acid,  or  five  grains  of  sodium  salicylate  per  fluidounce. 
It  would  appear  that  these  modifications  have  been  proposed 
largely  in  the  interest  of  certain  manufacturers  of  hair  preparations 
and  toilet  articles  in  which  such  modifying  agents  were  used  in  the 
formulas  of  the  preparations  manufactured.  These  denaturants 
have  not  been  considered  as  yielding  a  product  that  is  satisfactory 
for  the  general  sale  of  bay  rum  in  the  trade  as  a  toilet  water. 
A  recent  decision  of  Prohibition  Commissioner  Kramer  adds  to  the 
list  of  permissible  denaturants  for  bay  rum  the  addition  of  the  solu- 
ble matter  of  not  less  than  two  grains  of  the  pulp  of  the  Colocynth 
fruit  {Cttrullus  Colocynthis)  to  each  fluidounce  of  the  preparation. 
In  our  opinion  this  will  prove  a  more  desirable  denaturant  for 
bay  rum  and  other  toilet  waters  and  the  medication  will  be  sufficient 
to  deter  the  use  of  such  products  as  beverages. 
