Sweet  Spirit  of  Nitre. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.,  1879. 
cium  and  cautiously  agitate.  Separate  by  means  of  a  separating  funne 
the  lower  solution,  and  immediately  add  5  parts  of  the  ethereal  liquid 
to  95  parts  of  alcohol." 
I  suggest,  however,  that  sulphuric  acid  be  added  to  the  alcohol  in 
the  retort  in  a  small  stream  with  agitation,  then  add  the  nitric  acid, 
then  distill  until  the  distillate  equals  one-third  the  alcohol.  There  is 
no  economy  in  carrying  the  operation  further.  There  is  no  necessity 
for  the  copper  practically,  in  a  manufacturing  way,  and  I  have  discarded 
it,  as  I  get  as  great  a  yield  of  ether  without,  and  the  operation  pro- 
gresses in  every  way  as  nicely.  (The  copper  theory  is  beautiful, 
however,  and  perhaps  it  will  not  do  to  make  too  radical  a  change  ;  the 
copper  certainly  does  no  harm.)  My  ordinary  still  is  22  gallons,  stone, 
with  40  feet  of  stone  coil.  The  charge  of  alcohol  is  6  gallons,  and 
the  yield  of  ether  spirits  is  from  40  to  90  pounds  ;  but  in  a  small  way 
it  may  be  larger,  as  I  use  ice  water  to  separate  the  ether,  which  will 
not  do  this  effectually.  The  use  of  sulphuric  acid  is  necessary  to  take 
water  from  the  nitric  acid.  Change  the  wording  of  the  present 
formula,  at  any  rate,  so  that  it  will  read  that  the  condenser  and  receiver 
both  must  be  kept  cool  with  ice  water.  I  find  even  with  this  precau- 
tion my  yield  of  actual  5  per  cent,  spirit  lessens  one-third  in  hot 
weather.  If  ordinary  water  is  used  there  is  no  ether  separated  in 
summer. 
SWEET  SPIRIT  OF  NITRE— WHAT  IT  WAS,  IS  AND 
OUGHT  TO  BE. 
By  W.  Smeeton. 
Under  the  above  comprehensive  title  appeared  a  paper,  written  by 
Mr.  Rimmington,  of  Bradford,  in  the  November  number  of  the  Jour- 
nal for  1877.1  J*  provoked  a  discussion,  and  the  facts  that  appeared  to 
come  out  were  that  the  ethereal  liquid,  which  is  produced  when  alcohol 
and  nitric  acid  are  distilled  together  by  the  B.P.  process,  is  a  compound 
of  alcohol,  nitrite  of  ethyl,  aldehyd,  and  perhaps  other  unknown  sub- 
stances, and  that  the  B.P.  process  would  always  yield  an  article  con- 
taining the  same  proportion  of  the  same  ingredients.  But  at  the  outset, 
Mr.  Rimmington  condemned  the  B.P.  process  as  being  unnecessarily 
1  See  "Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,"  1877,  p.  620. 
