432 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I  September,  1906. 
tion  must  contain  the  name  or  names  of  the  party  making  the  sale 
and  such  party  or  parties  shall  in  turn  be  held  responsible.  This 
provision  would  appear  to  be  ample  to  protect  the  retail  dealer  who 
confines  his  business  transactions  to  responsible  parties,  who,  in 
turn,  are  willing  and  able  to  guarantee  the  purity  and  character  of 
their  wares. 
The  law  itself  is  to  become  effective  on  and  after  January  I,  1907, 
and  retail  pharmacists  can  do  much  toward  popularizing  the  pro- 
visions relating  to  drugs  and  medicines  by  themselves  insisting  that 
the  several  provisions  of  the  act  be  complied  with  by  manufacturers 
and  dealers. 
Denatured  Alcohol. — The  law  providing  for  the  use  of  tax-free 
alcohol  in  the  arts  and  manufactures  is  another  measure  that  has 
been  enacted  by  the  present  Congress  that  bids  fair  to  be  of  great 
economic  importance  to  the  community  at  large,  and  incidentally 
also  to  pharmacists.  While  tax-free  alcohol  will  not  be  available 
for  use  in  pharmaceutical  products  the  use  of  denatured  ethyl  or 
grain  alcohol,  as  a  solvent  in  the  mechanic  arts,  bids  fair  to  replace 
the  use  of  wood  alcohol,  and  probably  other  solvents.  The  law  will 
also  tend  to  stimulate  research  and  experiment  with  the  use  as  also 
the  economic  production  of  alcohol  and  will  eventually  lead  to  more 
liberal  provisions  being  made  for  the  use  of  pure  ethyl  alcohol  in 
the  manufacture  of  chemicals  and  pharmaceutical  galenicals. 
Alcohol  Lamps. — In  connection  with  the  prospective  use  of  tax- 
free  alcohol  it  may  be  interesting  to  refer  to  a  paper  read  by  Messrs. 
R.  Ducheminand  H.  Carrol  at  the  International  Congress  of  Applied 
Chemistry.  The  authors  reported  a  series  of  observations  on  the 
causes  of  chemical  action  on  the  metal  parts  of  lamps  and  heating 
apparatus.  They  found  that  the  quantity  of  acid  in  ethyl  alcohol  is 
sufficient  to  account  for  the  way  spirit  attacks  metals.  The  acidity 
resulting  from  burning  methyl  alcohol  is  slightly  less  than  that  of 
ethyl  alcohol.  Acetone  causes  comparatively  little  acidity.  They 
also  found  that  the  temperature  and  the  quantity  of  air  consumed 
influence  the  proportion  of  acid  yielded  by  the  alcohol. 
The  corrosive  influence  of  burning  alcohol  on  metals  is,  however, 
but  one  of  a  number  of  problems  that  will  present  themselves  with 
the  more  extended  use  of  alcohol  in  the  arts. 
The  International  Congress  of  Applied  Chemistry,  which  met  in  the 
city  of  Rome,  Italy,  on  April  25,  1906,  was  well  attended,  and  by 
