14 
Inorganic  Chemicals  of  the  U.S. P. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I    January,  1906. 
Dioxide  for  the  native  ore  recognized  in  the  former  pharmacopoeias, 
comes  a  recipe  for  its  manufacture. 
The  omission  of  the  chemical  processes  of  manufacture  of  solution 
of  soda  and  solution  of  potassa  ; — beg  pardon  ! — Solution  of  Sodium 
Hydroxide  and  Solution  of  Potassium  Hydroxide,  leaving  the  recipe 
for  the  simple  solution  of  stick  soda  or  potassa  in  water,  is  a  wise 
move,  since  very  few  pharmacists  take  the  trouble  to  make  these 
solutions  by  boiling  the  alkaline  carbonates  with  lime. 
As  the  writer  has  already  pointed  out  (Proceedings  A.  Ph.  A., 
1 901,  p.  227)  the  preparation  of  Spirit  of  Ammonia  by  the  process 
of  1890  was  not  feasible. 
The  new  pharmacopoeia  attempts  improvement  by  slight  altera- 
tions in  the  distilling  apparatus ;  but — though  scarcely  fair  to  criti- 
cise without  a  trial  of  the  new  process — the  writer  still  thinks  that 
the  only  successful  way  to  make  this  spirit  is  by  producing  the  gas 
from  ammonium  chloride  and  alkali  and  passing  this  through  alcohol 
under  pressure. 
It  is  with  regret  that  the  writer  notes  that  the  impossible  process 
for  making  Sulphur  Iodide,  given  in  U.S. P.,  1890,  is  perpetuated  in 
the  new  pharmacopoeia. 
CHANGES  IN  TESTS. 
The  tests  of  the  new  pharmacopoeia  are  in  keeping  with  the  high 
standard  of  the  work.  Modern  processes  are  introduced  wherever 
possible,  volumetric  assays  enlarged  and  assays  for  active  principles 
of  crude  drugs  are  largely  augmented. 
In  the  domain  of  inorganic  chemistry  not  so  many  changes  have- 
been  made,  but  wherever  new  tests  are  improvements  over  the  older 
ones,  the  modern  test  is  the  one  accepted. 
Much  space  has  been  saved  by  giving  details  in  the  appendix  for 
the  detection  of  heavy  metals  and  of  arsenic  by  the  modified  Gutzeit 
test,  in  various  chemicals,  leaving  necessary  only  a  short  reference 
to  the  tests  under  the  description  of  each  chemical  in  which  such  im- 
purities are  likely  to  be  found.  This  space-saving  device  could,  it 
seems,  be  carried  still  further.  There  seems  no  good  reason  why 
the  tests  for — say  chlorides — should  not  be  elaborately  discussed  in 
the  appendix  and  reference  to  this  article  placed  in  the  description 
of  every  official  chloride  and  in  a  similar  way  treat  all  other  metal- 
lic and  acidulous  radicals  found  in  official  chemicals.    Of  course, 
