AocSer,Pi905?1J"}     Hot  Alcohol.— Combination  Percolator.  463 
A  SIMPLE  ARRANGEMENT  FOR  PERCOLATION  WITH 
HOT  ALCOHOL.1 
By  H.  M.  Gordin, 
Northwestern  University,  School  of  Pharmacy. 
Most  hot  extraction  apparatus  have  the  disadvantage  of  being 
costly  and  breakable  and  are  generally  suitable  for  small  amounts 
of  drug  only. 
By  means  of  the  following  simple  arrangement  any  reasonable 
amount  of  drug  can  be  exhausted  with  hot  alcohol  in  ordinary  per- 
colators. 
The  arrangement  consists  in  rolling  a  coil  of  rubber  tubing  around 
the  percolator  and  passing  a  stream  of  hot  water  through  the 
tubing  during  the  percolation. 
The  water  can  be  heated  in  a  separate  vessel  or  obtained  from 
any  other  source  and  the  percolator  kept  well  covered  to  prevent 
undue  evaporation. 
Such  an  arrangement  requires,  of  course,  a  much  larger  amount 
of  alcohol  than  a  Soxhlet,  for  example,  but  as  the  alcohol  can  be 
recovered  this  is  no  particular  disadvantage. 
A  COMBINATION  PERCOLATOR  AND  SHAKING  TUBE 
FOR  THE  ASSAY  OF  ALKALOIDAL  DRUGS.2 
By  H.  M.  Gordin, 
Northwestern  University,  School  of  Pharmacy. 
For  the  assay  of  some  alkaloidal  drugs,  for  example,  coca  and 
belladonna,  the  U.S.P.  of  1900  directs  to  shake  the  powdered  drug 
in  an  Erlenmeyer  flask  with  a  mixture  of  ether,  chloroform  and 
ammonia  for  a  certain  length  of  time  and  then  transfer  the  mixture 
of  drug  and  powder  to  a  small  percolator  in  which  the  drug  is 
exhausted  by  percolation  with  a  mixture  of  ether  and  chloroform. 
For  the  assay  of  some  other  drugs,  for  example,  aconite,  the 
pharmacopoeia  directs  to  use  the  same  method,  but  substitutes 
another  menstruum  for  the  exhaustion  of  the  drug. 
1  Presented  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association 
September,  1905. 
2  Presented  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association 
September,  1905. 
