ON  SOLUTION  OF  ACETATE  OF  AMMONIA. 
45 
utterly  futile  has  been  its  attempt  to  discover  a  mode  of  detection. 
In  future  many  a  throbbing  heart  will  suddenly  cease,  and  no 
eye  but  God's  be  able  to  detect  the  murderer.  For  the  present 
too  much  weight  cannot  be  given  to  the  testimony  of  the  medical 
witness  at  the  bedside  ;  if  that  is  not  had,  and  no  physician  was 
near  at  the  time  of  death,  we  are  cast  to  drift  upon  an  unex- 
plored and  perhaps  a  shoreless  sea. 
Medical  testimony  now  becomes  all-important,  and  chemical 
testimony  wanes  in  value,  for  no  satisfactory  results  can  be 
obtained.  Juries  will  now,  more  than  ever,  be  dependent  upon 
circumstantial  evidence. 
Mortifying  in  the  extreme  as  it  is  to  our  professional  pride, 
stripped  of  professional  honors  in  medico-legal  investigations,  the 
chemist  and  toxicologist  now,  if  never  before,  realize  the  truth 
that  comes  floating  to  us  on  the  dying  breath  of  La  Place — 
"  What  we  know  is  little,  and  what  we  are  ignorant  of  is 
immense." — Proc.  Amer.  Pharm.  Assoc.  1866. 
ON  SOLUTION  OF  ACETATE  OF  AMMONIA. 
By  Wilson  H.  Pile,  M.  D. 
Query  30th.  What  is  the  most  perfect  and  reliable  process  of  manipu- 
lation to  produce  liquor  ammoniae  acetatis  pure,  and  in  a  neutral  or 
slightly  acid  condition  ? 
This  question  is  one  which  at  first  sight  appears  rather  un- 
inviting, and  devoid  of  interest;  it  being  a  case  of  simple 
chemical  union  of  its  elements.  The  directions  given  in  the 
Pharmacopoeia  for  its  preparation  are  also  so  concise  and  devoid 
of  ambiguity,  and,  in  chemical  language,  so  determinate,  that 
it  might  be  supposed  the  result  would  always  be  satisfactory  in 
a  pharmaceutical  point  of  view.  And  yet  the  contrary  to  this 
is  more  frequently  observed.  The  principle  is  well  understood 
— the  practice  is  not  so  readily  followed  ;  and  on  this  account 
probably  few  preparations  will  be  found  to  vary  more  in  their 
sensible  properties  than  this  one.  Although  the  writer  has  not 
been  able  to  devise  any  practical  method  by  which  a  solution 
of  acetate  of  ammonia  can  be  prepared  with  perfect  uniformity, 
and  therefore  so  far  has  failed  in  giving  a  satisfactory  answer 
to  the  query  submitted  to  him,  yet  perhaps  the  observations 
