Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Nov.,  1886. 
Turmeric  and  its  Coloring  Matter.  555 
less  than  38  per  cent,  of  phenol ;  but  seeing  that  his  account  did  not 
concern  itself  chiefly  with  the  chemistry  of  this  new  compound,  a  little 
latitude  of  expression  is  admissible. 
Sahli  claims  that  more  carbolic  acid  may  be  ingested  as  salol  without 
unpleasant  secondary  effects  than  in  any  other  way.  The  dosage  of 
salol  being  30  grains  three-  or  four  times  a  day,  12  grains  of  phenol 
are  exhibited  in  every  dose,  and  the  freedom  from  irritation  and  other 
unpleasant  local  effects  may  be  attributed  to  the  slow  rate  at  which 
salol  is  decomposed  under  the  action  of  the  intestinal  juices. 
For  the  present  it  remains  only  to  state  what  are  the  various  ail- 
ments in  which  Sahli  has  used  salol  with  good  effects.  He  has  used 
it  in  all  rheumatic  affections,  in  chronic  urticaria,  in  sub-orbital  neu- 
ralgia, as  an  antipyretic,  in  diabetes,  in  intestinal  catarrh,  in  typhoid 
fever,  in  cholera,  against  intestinal  parasites,  in  catarrh  of  the  bladder, 
in  ozcena,  in  otorrhoea,  as  a  local  application  in  gonorrhoea,  and  as  a 
mouth  wash. 
Since  the  above  was  written  I  have  learned  from  Messrs.  Kiihn  & 
Co.,  who  represent  the  manufacturers  in  England,  that  the  latter, 
Messrs.  Durand  and  Huguenin,  are  not  in  a  position  to  state  how  salol 
is  made.  The  probability  is  that  the  process  is  entirely  secret,  and  not 
the  subject  of  a  patent. — Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  Oct.  2,  1886,  p.  273. 
TURMERIC  ROOT,  AND  ITS  COLORING  MATTER, 
By  C.  J.  S.  Thompson. 
Turmeric  root  is  still  of  interest  to  us,  as  it  appears  in  the  appendix 
of  the  last  edition  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  for  the  preparation  of  the 
tincture,  and  paper,  of  turmeric. 
Of  the  different  varieties  of  the  plant,  which  grow  largely  in  moist 
districts  of  the  East  Indies,  the  Curcuma  longa  and  Curcuma  rotunda 
are  perhaps  the  most  useful.  These  are  both  the  production  of  the 
same  plant,  the  latter  being  the  central  rhizomes,  and  the  former  the 
elongated  lateral  ones. 
The  first  is  more  especially  used  in  the  East,  for  its  medicinal  and 
aromatic  properties;  the  latter  being  mostly  employed  for  its  coloring 
properties  as  a  dye.  They  differ,  however,  very  little  in  their  compo- 
sition. 
The  official  rhizome,  the  Curcuma  longa,  is  bent  and  knotty,  being 
in  pieces  about  the  size  of  the  little  finger,  and  covered  with  a  thin, 
