Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Sept.  1,  1871.  j 
English  Chloroform  in  Oermany, 
411 
According  to  Mr.  Schering,  the  presumption  was  natural  that  the 
English  product  had  been  obtained  from  chloral,  and  this  idea  was 
actually  verified  bj  Mr.  Hager's  investigation,  who  found  it  to  be 
chloral  chloroform  with  an  addition  of  -75  to  -80  per  cent,  of  alcohol ; 
but  not  a  word  is  said  as  to  the  manner  in  which  this  result  had  been 
arrived  at.  Mr.  Schering  refers  his  readers  to  his  price  list  of  last 
year,  in  which  he  quotes  chloral  chloroform,  and  he  informs  them 
that  he  now  keeps  an  article  of  sp.  gr.  1485,  identical  with  English, 
or,  according  to  his  own  words,  adulterated  with  alcohol. 
Mr.  Hager  actually  distinguishes  the  two  preparations ;  he  says, 
the  chloral  chloroform  becomes  slightly  colored  on  addition  of  strong 
sulphuric  acid,  whereas  the  pure,  obtained  from  hypochlorite  of  lime 
and  alcohol,  remains  colorless. 
Another  difference  is  said  to  be,  that  ordinary  chloroform,  on  being 
allowed  to  evaporate  on  a  watch-glass,  gives  off,  with  the  last  few 
drops,  a  distinct  foreign  smell,  indicating  the  presence  of  other  chlorine 
compounds,  which  may  be  the  cause  of  the  ready  decomposition  of  the 
chloroform  when  exposed  to  the  light,  and  this  is  not  the  case  with 
the  product  obtained  in  the  new  manner. 
The  manufacture  of  chloral  in  quantities  and  at  a  reasonable  price, 
is  of  so  recent  a  date  that  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  recall  the  fact 
that  seldom,  if  ever,  the  supply  of  any  chemical  compound  responded 
so  readily  to  the  demand,  as  with  the  chloral.  The  price  of  chloral 
hydrate  was,  at  the  commencement  of  last  year,  112s.  a  pound  ;  before 
the  year  was  out  it  had  gone  down  to  12s.,  and  it  is  now  sold  at  5^., 
and  even  less. 
Surely  at  this  time  when  the  hydrate  commanded  such  high  prices 
and  the  manufacture  was  in  its  infancy,  no  English  manufacturer 
would  have  dreamt  of  converting  chloral  into  chloroform,  and  with 
the  present  low  prices  and  the  high  duty  on  alcohol,  he  is  all  but  ex- 
cluded from  the  market ;  it  is  well  known  that  very  nearly  all  chlora] 
hydrate  is  imported  from  Germany,  and  I  believe  I  am  correct  in 
stating  that  only  two  English  firms  do  manufacture  it  in  quantities. 
Mr.  Schering's  whole  argument  necessarily  falls  to  the  ground, 
and  for  the  best  of  reasons,  the  manufacture  as  assumed  by  him  would 
never  pay.  It  would  perhaps  have  been  wiser  if  he  had  prided  him- 
self upon  the  purity  of  his  product  instead  of  boasting  of  selling  an 
adulterated  article.  His  tests  are  of  course  worthless,  because  even 
less  than  1  per  cent,  of  alcohol  will  be  sufficient  to  produce  slight 
