THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
FEBRUARY,  1899. 
/   
THE  PHYSICAL  AND  CHEMICAL  PROPERTIES  OF  LITH- 
IUM BENZOATE  AND  LITHIUM  SALICYLATE. 
By  Lyman  F.  KebIvEr. 
Research  Committee  E,  Pharmacopoeia  Revision. 
LITHIUM  BENZOATE. 
Very  little  information  exists  in  literature  concerning  the  above 
chemical,  and  such  as  does  exist  is  generally  of  a  pharmaceutical  or 
medicinal  character.  The  U.S.P.  contains  the  best  information 
extant,  and  is  the  only  pharmacopoeia,  so  far  as  I  know,  by  which 
lithium  benzoate  is  recognized. 
J.  J.  Berzelius1  and  C.  G.  Gmelin  were  the  first  to  make  lithium 
benzoate.  E.  B.  Shuttleworth2  found  it  soluble  in  3-5  parts  of  water 
at  6o°  F.,  and  2-5  parts  at  21 2°  F.  Soluble  in  10  parts  of  cold 
alcohol,  sp.  gr.  0  838. 
As  is  to  be  expected,  lithium  benzoate  will  contain  the  associ- 
ated impurities  of  both  the  lithium  carbonate  and  the  benzoic  acid 
which  enter  into  its  formation.  These  impurities  will  influence  its 
physical  properties  more  or  less.  The  purity  of  lithium  carbonate 
was  commented  on  in  a  previous  paper3,  to  which  the  reader  is 
referred. 
Benzoic  acid  is  derived  from  several  sources,  viz.,  benzoin,  toluol 
and  the  urine  of  herbivorous  animals.  That  prepared  from  benzoin 
is  expensive  and  is  used  for  special  purposes  only.    I  have  met  with 
1  Gmelin 's  Hand-Book  of  Chemistry,  translated  by  H.  Watts,  13,  39. 
2 1875,  Canadian  Pharm.  Jour.,  229;  Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,  47,  113. 
3 1898,  Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,  70,  600. 
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