ON  TESTING  GLYCERIN  FOR  SUGAR  AND  GLUCOSE.  109 
recommended  for  young  children  in  whom  the  assimilative  func- 
tion is  at  fault.    It  may  be  used  in  place  of  sugar,  a  teaspoon- 
ful  being  added  two  or  three  times  a  day  to  the  child's  food. 
Chicago,  Illinois. 
NOTE  ON  TESTING  GLYCERIN  FOR  SUGAR  AND  GLUCOSE, 
By  the  Editor. 
The  Druggist's  Circular  for  January  (page  9)  has  a  communi- 
cation from  a  correspondent,  A.  C.  Pope,  relative  to  the  purity 
of  commercial  glycerin,  which  attracted  our  attention  by  the 
assertion  of  his  inability  to  find  any  pure  glycerin,  notwithstand- 
ing some  of  the  best  kinds  were  instanced  as  having  been  tried. 
The  loose  and  imperfect  manner  in  which  the  alleged  testing  was 
applied  lead  to  strong  doubts  of  the  correctness  of  the  results, 
and  especially  those  by  Trommer's  test  for  glucose,  but  the  state- 
ment was  so  straightforward  and  unhesitating  that  it  was  calcu- 
lated to  challenge  belief,  and  shake  the  faith  of  some  in  the  best 
product  of  our  markets.  Until  Bower's  bottled  glycerin  was 
introduced,  we  had  clung  to  Price's  as  the  only  perfect  product 
obtainable,  but  since  the  former  was  fairly  tried  we  have  believed 
it  to  be  equal  in  all  respects  to  Price's.  When,  therefore,  we 
read  the  statement  of  Mr.  Pope  we  at  once  subjected  the  glyce- 
rin of  the  manufacture  of  Mr.  Bower  to  Trommer's  test  for  glu- 
cose and  to  tests  for  lime  and  chlorine,  and  found  it  wholly  free 
from  these  impurities  and  from  odor  when  warmed.  We  then 
tried  the  Vienna  glycerin,  made  by  F.  A.  Sarg,  and  found  it 
entirely  free  from  sugar  and  lime,  but  it  was  clouded  by  nitrate 
of  silver,  due  most  probably  to  some  chloride  present,  and  when 
heated  it  had  a  faint  odor,  not  observed  when  cold.  Two  other 
American  glycerins,  Eckstein  &  Co.  and  Hennell  Stevens,  were 
tried  for  sugar  only  with  equally  negative  results.  The  action 
of  Trommer's  test  for  glucose  is  so  unequivocal  and  well  marked 
in  the  presence  of  glycerin  that  no  doubt  need  be  felt  by  the 
experimenter ;  the  reduction  of  the  oxide  of  copper  on  boiling 
being  manifest  by  its  brick  dust  color,  when  even  in  small  quan- 
tity. But  as  glucose  would  not  be  used  as  an  adulterant  in 
less  than  5  or  10  per  cent.,  with  profit  equal  to  the  risk  of  dis- 
