40  Pharmaceutical  and  Chemical  Notes.    {A X^aryS.111, 
I  also  exhibit  a  wine  of  coca  leaf  (30  grains  to  the  fluid  ounce)  in 
which  the  menstruum  is  muscatelle  wine,  this  making  a  more  agree- 
able preparation  than  claret  wine. 
A  neat  and  quick  way  (first  suggested  by  Professor  White)  for 
determining  whether  a  change  has  taken  place  in  bichloride  of  mer- 
cury gauze,  by  which  it  may  have  been  partly  changed  into  the 
mild  chloride  (calomel),  is  to  pour  limewater  upon  a  small  piece.  If 
a  black  color  is  produced,  the  change  has  taken  place. 
In  our  investigations  we  sometimes  jump  at  conclusions.  Last 
winter,  whenever  I  used  a  certain  mortar  and  pestle  (the  latter  of 
which  had  a  hard  rubber  handle)  for  triturating,  especially  calomel 
and  sugar,  a  peculiar  crackling  sound  seemed  to  be  produced,  like 
that  of  the  u  electricity  of  friction  "  made  by  drawing  a  hard  rubber 
comb  through  the  hair,  etc.  I  repeated  the  experiment  a  number  of 
times;  each  time  the  sound  was  produced,  the  rubber  handle  appar- 
ently acting  as  a  non-conductor,  just  about  the  time  that  I  thought 
I  had  made  a  discovery,  I  found  that  the  pestle  was  hollow,  and 
the  peculiar  noise  was  caused  by  some  of  the  cement  that  had 
loosened  its  hold. 
We  recently  had  in  the  store  a  prescription  calling  for  sodium 
salicylate  dissolved  in  peppermint  water.  My  manager  took  a 
graduate  from  the  rack  and  dissolved  the  powder  in  the  liquid  by 
stirring  with  a  glass  rod.  At  once  a  slight  amber  color  was  pro- 
duced, and  as  he  was  not  favorable  to  this  brand  of  sodium  sali- 
cylate, he  said,  "  It  must  be  contaminated  with  iron."  I  could  not 
think  this  to  be  the  case,  as  it  was  the  product  of  a  well-known 
house  of  excellent  reputation.  I  put  the  prescription  up  myself  in 
a  graduate  that  I  knew  was  absolutely  clean  and  I  obtained  a  color- 
less solution.  Afterwards  I  mixed  a  little  tincture  chloride  of  iron 
with  syrup  in  a  graduate,  then  washed  it  (as  a  boy  would  perhaps 
ordinarily  wash  it)  by  rinsing  it  four  times  under  the  hot-water 
spigot,  and  then  put  up  the  prescription  as  in  the  first  place,  getting 
a  colored  solution. 
Moral:  (1)  Don't  be  too  quick  in  condemning  chemicals  made  by 
a  well-known  house.  (2)  Be  sure  your  prescription  utensils  are 
absolutely  clean. 
I  was  recently  asked  the  question  by  one  of  my  students,  Why 
calomel  was  not  converted  into  corrosive  sublimate  in  the  stomach 
by  the  aid  of  the  hydrochloric  acid  of  the  gastric  juice  ?    As  the 
