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NOTES  ON  POWDERED  CASTILE  SOAP. 
NOTES  ON  POWDERED  CASTILE  SOAP. 
By  Joseph  P.  Remington,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
The  following  notes  are  contributed  to  the  present  fund  of 
knowledge  on  the  subject  of  drug  powdering  : 
Exp.  1.  986  avoirdupois  ounces  of  white  Castile  soap  (Conti) 
were  shaved  into  thin  slices,  by  means  of  a  common  cabbage 
cutter,  then  spread  on  shallow  trays,  and  exposed  to  the  air  in 
a  drying  room,  temp.  84°  F.,  for  one  week,  transferred  then  to 
a  drying  room,  temp.  125°,  and  left  there  three  weeks,  at  the 
end  of  which  time  it  weighed  724  ounces  avoir.,  thus  losing 
26 -57  per  cent,  of  water  ;  it  was  then  powdered  in  the  ordinary 
chaser  or  Chilian  mill,  and  lost  7  ounces  more  in  the  process  of 
pulverizing,  making  the  total  loss  27*28  per  cent. 
Exp.  2.  960  ounces  avoirdupois  of  the  floating  variety  of  white 
Castile  soap,  after  standing  in  a  moderately  dry  room  for  fifteen 
months,  (losing  224  ounces,  or  23-3  per  cent.)  on  being  further 
dried  and  powdered,  in  a  similar  manner,  lost  56  ounces  more, 
making  a  total  loss  of  280  ounces,  or  29-16  per  cent. 
Exp.  3.  1112  ounces  avoirdupois  of  mottled  Castile  soap  (com- 
mercial) treated  precisely  in  the  same  way,  lost  320  ounces,  or 
28*8  per  cent.  The  average  loss  on  five  previous  lots  was  21 
per  cent.,  the  amount  of  water  present  varying  in  each  case, 
losing  respectively  20,  11J,  18,  27  and  29  per  cent.  The  lots 
which  lost  11J  and  18  per  cent,  had  undoubtedly  been  kept 
some  time,  and  in  the  case  of  the  lot  losing  W\  per  cent.,  half 
of  the  water  which  would  help  to  form  the  ordinary  loss  was  lost 
before  it  was  sent  to  powder.  The  first  and  last  experiments 
were  made  with  soap  recently  imported.  It  will  be  noticed  that 
in  these  experiments  (which  I  may  state  were  carefully  conducted) 
that  the  mottled  Castile  soap  does  not  support  its  reputation 
for  strength,  (its  only  credited  merit  over  the  white.)  Accord- 
ing to  the  U.  S.  Dispensatory,  good  mottled  Castile  soap  should 
not  contain  more  than  14  per  cent,  of  water  ;  this  contained, 
then,  double  the  proper  amount.  The  same  authority  states 
that  white  Castile  soap  should  not  have  more  than  21  per  cent, 
in  both  experiments  with  the  white,  it  was  found  to  contain  an 
excess  of  at  least  6  per  cent,  of  water. 
