118 
REMARKS  ON  THE  ANALYSIS  OF  BRANDY. 
REMARKS  ON  THE  ANALYSIS  OF  BRANDY. 
By  Samuel  P.  Duffield,  Ph.  D. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  : 
Bear  Sir, — As  a  desire  was  expressed  by  the  Committee 
appointed  for  the  Revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  that  there 
should  be  free  contributions  from  all  members,  to  that  end,  on 
the  topics  most  suited  to  their  tastes,  or  on  those  subjects  in 
which  they  had  had  more  than  ordinary  experience,  I  trust  that 
it  may  not  seem  out  of  place  for  me  to  tender  an  article  on  the 
subject  of  "Pure  Brandy,"  the  "  Spiritus  Yini  Gallici  "  of  our 
National  Dispensatory.  When  introduced  by  that  work  as  a 
remedial  agent,  reference  was  had  to  distilled  wine,  not  to  a 
factitious  compound,  which  has  now  almost  the  sole  occupancy 
of  our  market. 
For  the  past  four  years  I  have  made  analyses  of  liquors  in 
those  cases  in  which  they  came,  on  my  order  for  my  stock  for 
dispensing,  &c.  On  these  orders  I  always  distinctly  stipulated 
that  they  should  be  pure  articles. 
I  ordered  from  New  York  and  Philadelphia  importers,  feel- 
ing assured  that  if  I  dealt  directly  with  houses  of  highest  note 
in  commerce,  I  would  be  very  likely  to  find  the  pure  article  in 
question.  To  my  utter  astonishment  every  one  proved  to  be 
manufactured,  either  in  this  country  or  abroad.  I  subjected 
the  articles  to  their  order. 
At  last,  despairing  of  ever  being  able  to  procure  any  article 
suitable  to  use  as  a  remedial  agent,  and  having  actually  lost 
faith  in  the  chemical  reagents,  (for  not  a  single  sample  proved, 
when  tested  by  them,  to  be  genuine),  I  thought,  before  accusing 
importing  firms  any  more,  I  would  prove  the  truth  or  fallacy  of 
Normandy  and  Hassal's  experience.  My  father  had  manu- 
factured some  wine  from  Isabella  grapes,  which  grew  around 
our  piazza,  and  he  gave  me  a  bottle  (at  that  time  two  years  of 
age)  to  experiment  with.  I  distilled  from  one  pint  of  wine  four 
fluid  ounces,  and  as  the  distillate  began  to  lose  in  alcoholic 
strength,  stopped  at  that  quantity.  The  distillate  was  clear  as 
distilled  water,  with  more  marked  ethereal  odor  than  any  com- 
mercial article  I  had  met  with.  On  subjecting  it  to  "  Gay  Lus- 
sac's  dry  distillation,"  "  Molnar's  test,"  and  "  Kent's  sulphuric 
