78 
Abstracts  of  Papers. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(    February,  1911. 
ash  amounted  to  24.9  per  cent.,  the  alcohol  soluble  to  50.86  per  cent. 
The  same  case  was  later  resampled  and  the  average  of  four  results 
obtained  indicated  54.5  per  cent,  of  ash  and  only  23.2  per  cent,  of 
alcohol  soluble  material,  almost  the  reverse  of  the  results  formerly 
obtained." 
To  determine  the  per  cent,  of  alcohol  soluble  material  he  puts 
10  grammes  of  the  sample  and  150  c.c.  of  alcohol  in  a  mechanical 
shaker  for  several  hours,  collecting  the  insoluble  portion  on  weighed 
filter  paper,  washes  well  with  an  excess  of  alcohol,  and  dries  to  con- 
stant weight  at  100°  C. 
Theoretically,  he  says,  powdered  asafetida  should  be  of  the  same 
standard  as  the  whole  gum,  but  it  is  not  convenient  because  of  the 
moisture  and  volatile  material  that  is  present.  If  dried  before  pow- 
dering much  volatile  material  is  lost.  He  shows  the  loss  of  asafetida 
during  the  drying  and  powdering  of  four  different  lots,  the  average 
loss  being  20.25  per  cent.,  the  loss  being  nearly  all  of  the  volatile  and 
alcohol  soluble  portion,  and  this  loss,  he  states,  increases  the  ash 
and  alcohol  insoluble  material  in  the  finished  product. 
He  also  says  that  the  results  of  investigation  of  powdered  sam- 
ples do  not  vary  so  much  as  samples  of  the  gum  because  of  the 
powder's  comparative  uniformity. 
A  definite  standard  for  the  amount  of  soluble  material  in  the 
tincture  should  be  insisted  upon,  he  states  in  closing. 
TiNCTURA  Opii  Camphorata. — By  Wilbur  F.  Horn, 
Penn.  Pharm.  Assoc. 
The  author  is  of  the  opinion  that  substituting  an  equivalent 
amount  of  the  tincture  of  opium  for  the  opium  present  in  the  official 
formula  for  camphorated  tincture  of  opium  possesses  distinct  advan- 
tages, such  as  facihty  of  manufacture  and  saving  of  time. 
A  Method  of  Assaying  the  Ointment  of  Mercuric  Nitrate, 
U.S. P. — By  I.  V.  Stanislaus  and  E.  Arthur  Eaton,  Penn. 
Pharm.  Assoc. 
Stating  that  they  were  unable  to  find  any  assay  for  this  oint- 
ment in  either  standard  text-books  or  journals,  the  authors  proceed 
to  give  a  method  of  their  own  which,  they  remark,  is  accurate  within 
about  0.13  per  cent. 
About  3  grammes  of  the  ointment  were  weighed  in  a  beaker 
