26 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
I dissolved a portion of this suspected lunar caustic (fifty 
grains) in distilled water, and added pure hydrochloric acid 
until it no longer threw down any chloride of silver. After 
subsiding, the chloride was carefully separated by decantation, 
and when dry it weighed ten grains, which indicated about 
seven and a half grains of pure silver ; say fifteen per cent. 
The atomic weight of silver being 108, and that of the nitrate 
170.3, this fifteen per cent, of pure silver was equivalent to about 
twenty-four per cent, of pure nitrate. There was, besides, 
nearly half a grain of insoluble matter, separated from the 
watery solution, which appeared to be oxide of silver. So 
that, allowing a little for the inaccuracy of the weights in the 
manufactory, we may state the quantity of real nitrate of sil- 
ver in this article as about twenty-five per cent. The rest, 
about seventy-five per cent., was found, when evaporated and 
crystallized, to be nitrate of potash, common nitre ! Some of 
this caustic was moistened and rubbed on the hand. On 
drying, it formed, indeed, sufficiently beautiful acicular crys- 
tals of nitre; but after many hours exposure to the light, left 
on the skin only a slightly dirty mark ; no blackness, and no 
darkness of the cuticle. Country physicians and druggists 
may thus see the advantage of purchasing cheap chemicals. 
Spir. JEtheris Nitrici. — The remarks made in the above 
paragraph will also apply to this article, which is often found 
of a quality calculated rather to produce intoxication in the 
system of a debilitated patient, than the genuine effects of the 
sweet spirit of nitre. The venders assign the plea that they 
have two articles ; the one termed " Sp. nitri dulcis" 
which they acknowledge to be a weak article, though the 
term is very ill applied, inasmuch as it contains a large pro- 
portion of alcohol ; the other, termed " Spir. aether, nit." 
is only to be sent out to particular persons, as it is the genuine 
article, and of course at a higher price. 
The only possible motive for this distinction is the sordid 
desire for gain, even at the expense of a clear conscience and 
the health of our fellow creatures. I have now before me a 
