SPIRITUS  iETHERIS  NITROSI. 
539 
from  the  ground,  and  it  is  probable  that  in  this  case  the  place 
■whence  it  started  was  low,  and  it  had  time  to  reach  the  soil  and 
fasten  its  roots  there  before  the  death  and  decay  of  its  foster- 
parent. 
Copey  is,  probably,  the  aboriginal  or  Carib  name  of  the  plant, 
which,  like  many  others,  has  been  retained.  Scotch  lawyer,  or 
Scotch  attorney,  by  which  name  it  is  known  in  Jamaica,  is  not 
altogether  flattering  to  legal  gentlemen  of  Caledonian  extrac- 
tion.— American  Naturalist,  Sept.  1868. 
SPIRITUS  iETHERIS  NITROSI. 
By  J.  W.  Mill. 
Spirit  of  Nitrous  Ether — Sweet  Spirit  of  Nitre — Its  preparation 
on  the  Small  Scale. 
The  history  of  this  preparation  has  already  been  given  in  the 
London  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  July,  1865,  by  Mr.  Robert 
Warrington,  and  in  the  same  journal,  March,  1867,  by  Prof. 
Theophilus  Redwood.  Both  articles  were  reprinted  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  Vol.  xxxvii.,  page  354, 
and  Vol.  xxxix.,  page  321 ;  and  to  them  the  interested  reader 
is  referred. 
The  object  of  this  paper  is  to  give  a  formula  and  process 
adapted  to  the  successful  production  of  sweet  spirit  of  nitre  on 
the  small  scale.  The  preparation  of  this  valuable  remedial 
agent  is  confined  almost  entirely  within  the  laboratory  walls  of 
the  large  manufacturing  chemists.  Hardly  one  pharmacist  in  a 
hundred  ever  dreams  of  preparing  it  himself ;  the  great  majority 
preferring  to  purchase  this,  as  they  do  nearly  all  preparations, 
in  fact,  except  the  very  simplest,  at  the  hands  of  the  large 
manufacturer  ;  this  method  of  keeping  up  stock  being  the  easiest, 
and  considered  cheapest,  attended  with  less  trouble  and  respon- 
sibility. The  writer,  however,  deprecates  this  growing  disposi- 
tion of  the  craft  to  surrender  to  the  large  manufacturer  the  prep- 
arations of  its  compounds.  Such  a  course  tends  more  and  more 
to  commercialize  pharmacy,  and  if  not  checked,  will  soon  make 
of  it  a  mere  trade,  requiring  for  its  successful  prosecution  a 
knowledge  only  of  the  rules  and  method  of  ordinary  business. 
