562  Pharmaceutical  Still  and  Vapor  Condenser.    { Am-J™ riSsJarm* 
Spanish  ergot,  at  a  cost  of  about  35  cents  per  pound  (which  is  probably 
not  always  done  by  wholesale  manufacturers),  and  grind  it  in  an 
ordinary  drug-mill,  which  is,  or  ought  to  be,  in  every  drug  store.  The 
grinding,  done  at  leisure  hours  by  the  available  help,  without  extra 
expense,  as  well  as  passing  through  a  suitable  sieve,  olFers  an 
advantage  over  the  manufacturer.  The  menstruum  of  the  reserve 
liquid,  amounting  to  85  per  cent,  of  the  final  result,  and  consisting 
of  3  parts  of  alcohol  and  4  of  water,  would  cos't  only  about  14 
cents,  and  the  evaporated  remainder  contain  no  alcohol.  If  the  resi- 
dual ergot  of  the  percolator  is  mixed  with  water  and  expressed,  and  the 
alcohol  in  the  expressed  liquid  recovered  by  distillation,  the  loss  of 
alcohol  would  certainly  be  very  small,  and  not  amount  to  more  than 
10  cents  per  pound  at  the  utmost.  If  the  amount  for  ergot  be  set  down 
at  35  cents,  alcohol  in  extract  at  14,  loss  at  10,  and  gas  or  oil  for 
heating  at  10,  the  cost  of  a  reliable  article  can  be  computed  at  69  cents 
per  pound.  What  my  confreres  pay  for  it  in  the  market  I  need  not 
state  here. 
That  the  precipitated,  purified  aqueous  extract  of  ergot,  usually  sold 
under  the  name  of  ergotin,  can  be  made  by  every  pharmacist,  with 
recovery  of  the  alcohol  employed,  at  less  than  one-half  of  the  lowest 
wholesale  price  now  asked,  I  could  demonstrate  equally  as  well.  Most, 
if  not  all,  of  the  alcoholic  and  semi-alcoholic  extracts  can  be  prepared  even 
in  small  quantities  in  the  pharmaceutical  laboratory  with  equal  advan- 
tage and  economy,  as  well  as  the  new  abstracts  of  the  Pharmacopoeia. 
The  great  desideratum  which  has  always  presented  itself  to  me  in  the 
work  of  the  laboratory  has  been  that  of  a  proper  distilling  apparatus. 
The  recovery  of  volatile  solvents  is  an  easy  matter  in  laboratories 
with  steam  supply  and  properly  jacketed  stills  and  evaporating  pans ; 
but,  without  these,  the  alternative  remains  either  to  distil  over  the  open 
fire,  and  thereby  endanger  the  product,  or,  by  placing  a  small  still  in 
hot  or  boiling  water,  conduct  the  process  in  a  tedious  and  imperfect 
manner. 
To  overcome  this  defect  and  at  once  to  have  a  distilling  apparatus 
of  suitable  productiveness,  which  admits  of  distillation  with  or  without 
pressure,  I  had  constructed,  of  tinned  copper  and  medium  weight,  the 
apparatus  I  here  exhibit,  which  was  made  after  a  design  executed  by 
one  of  my  assistants,  Mr.  J.  Eobert  Moechel. 
It  will  be  seen  by  the  cut,  showing  both  the  interior  and  exterior, 
that  it  is  of  cylindrical  shape,  about  two  feet  in  height,  that  it  consists 
