Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
July,  1884.  j 
Spirit  of  Nitrous  Ether. 
385 
The  shop  round  need  not  be  of  the  largest  series  or  nearest  the  shop 
window,  and  stored  stock  should  certainly  not  be  kept  in  partially  filled 
Winchesters,  nor  need  we  lay  in  a  stock  which  will  serve  the  better 
part  of  the  solar  year. 
For  the  purposes  of  this  investigation,  Messrs.  J.  F.  Macfarlan  & 
Co.  have  liberally  supplied  me  with  spt.  aether,  nit.,  B.  P.,  and  other 
material,  for  which  I  desire  to  thank  them.  My  thanks  are  also  due 
to  Mr.  Dottfor  much  technical  information. — Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans., 
April  12,  1884,  p.  817. 
SPIRIT  OF  NITROUS  ETHER.1 
By  D.  B.  Dott,  F.  R.  S.  E. 
In  this  paper  on  sweet  spirit  of  nitre  I  have  no  intention  of  taking 
up  the  slippery  subject  of  its  composition  and  transformations,  which 
Mr.  MacEwan  has  been  bold  enough  to  tackle ;  but  am  only  desirous 
of  discussing  the  characters  and  tests  of  this  important  preparation. 
Before  doing  so,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  refer  briefly  to  what  is 
known  of  its  composition,  in  order  that  we  may  decide  what  tests  it 
ought  to  answer.  To  fix  exactly  the  composition  of  sweet  spirit  of 
nitre  is  doubtless  a  problem  beyond  the  attainments  of  chemical  analysis, 
but  there  is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  have  a  better  knowledge  of 
its  chemistry  than  we  at  present  possess.  We  may  safely  say  that 
ethyl  nitrite,  acetic  aldehyde,  nitrous  and  acetic  acids,  and  ethyl  acetate, 
are  normal  constituents  of  spiritus  setheris  nitrosi.  It  has  been  almost 
universally  recognized  that  the  value  of  the  preparation  depends  on  the 
presence  of  the  nitrite,  though  this  has  been  doubted  by  a  few  writers. 
Among  these  is  Mr.  Abraham,  of  Liverpool,  who  believes  the  aldehyde 
to  be  the  active  ingredient.  According  to  this  view  the  aldehyde  is 
oxidized  to  acetic  acid,  which  forms  acetates  with  the  alkalies  of  the 
blood,  whereupon  the  physiological  effects  are  manifested.  If  I  rightly 
follow  this  train  of  reasoning,  it  would  appear  that  one  may  as  well 
swallow  a  little  vinegar  as  take  a  dose  of  sweet  spirit  of  nitre.  Not 
being  a  pharmacologist,  I  wrote  to  Professor  Matthew  Hay,  of  Aber- 
deen, on  the  matter,  and  have  received  from  him  a  very  interesting 
letter,  from  which  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  a  few  sentences. 
1  Read  at  an  Evening  Meeting  of  the  North  British  Branch  of  the  Phar- 
maceutical Society,  March  19,  1884. 
25 
