Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1888. 
Jottings  from  a  Note  Book. 
249 
form  will  keep  for  a  fortnight  as  much  as  three  gallons  of  fresh  infusion 
of  gentian.  Infusions  of  calumba  or  buchu  made  four  times  the  strength 
of  the  B.P.  (  i.  e.,  cone.  1  to  3)  keep  perfectly  when  one  drachm  of 
chloroform  to  the  quart  is  dissolved  in  them.  With  infusion  of  buchu 
I  consider  this  a  distinct  advance  on  using  spirit  (which  the  1  to  7  pre- 
paration of  the  wholesale  houses  contains),  for  the  chloroform  does 
not  throw  down  any  mucilaginous  constituent.  These  are  but  a  few 
examples  of  the  use  of  chloroform  as  a  preservative. 
Salicylic  Acid. — It  will  be  remembered  that  I  have  previously  pub- 
lished some  work  on  this  subject,  wherein  I  stated  that  the  artificial 
acid  reduced  a  dilute  solution  of  potassium  permanganate  much  more 
rapidly  than  that  obtained  from  wintergreen.  In  the  discussion  that 
•ensued,  it  was  hinted  that  my  experiments  were  incomplete,  because  I 
had  not  tried  Schering's  dialyzed  acid  in  this  way,  and  this  must  be 
my  apology  for  raising  the  ghost  again.  I  promised  at  that  time  to 
experiment  and  let  the  Association  know  the  result ;  but  I  have  never 
yet  done  so.  Allow  me  now  to  say  that  Schering's  acid  differs  but  lit- 
tle from  Kolbe^s  in  its  reducing  action  upon  permanganate,  as  the  fol- 
lowing experiments  show  : 
Four  samples  of  the  acid  as  follows  : 
a.  Natural  acid. 
^.  Schering's  dialyzed  acid. 
J.   Kolbe^s  acid. 
d.  An  artificial  acid  of  unknown  source. 
Three  grains  of  each  were  mixed  with  two  drachms  of  distilled 
water  and  ten  minims  of  B.P.  liq.  pot.  permang.  added  to  each.  At 
the  end  of  fifteen  minutes  /9,  and  8,  were  ever  so  many  shades  lighter 
than  a,  and  at  the  end  of  an  hour  the  difference  was  extremely  well 
marked.  After  an  hour  and  a  half  «,  on  being  gently  agitated,  was  of 
a  dark  olive  brown  color  ;  /?,  and  d  were  of  a  light  brownish-green 
y  and  o  being  identical,  and  /9  only  just  the  least  shade  darker. 
This  result  is  quite  independent  of  anything  I  have  previously 
published,  and  it  does  but  confirm  the  opinion  I  have  previously  ex- 
pressed that  there  is  no  synthesized  acid  in  the  market  which  is  chemi- 
cally identical  with  the  natural. 
Ptitlialate  of  Morphine,  according  to  Bombelon  is  a  highly 
serviceable  salt  of  morphine,  soluble  in  5  parts  of  water,  and  causing  no 
irritation  when  injected  subcutaneously.  It  is  obtained  by  evaporation  and 
scaling,  not  by  crystallization,  and  care  is  necessary  in  its  preparation. 
