484  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference.     {Ktqc^t  1913™' 
changed  for  many  weeks  even  when  exposed  to  daylight  in  bottles 
of  white  glass.  No  less  than  a  dozen  authoritative  works  on 
chemistry  contain  statements  to  the  effect  that  solutions  of  this 
salt  are  unstable  and  require  standardization. 
The  authors  give  the  result  of  a  series  of  examinations  under 
varied  conditions  and  prove  that  while  there  may  be  some  de- 
composition on  keeping  it  is  so  slight  as  to  render  unnecessary  the 
elaborate  precautions  advised  in  literature.  After  eight  months 
they  found  solutions  reliable  without  restandardization. 
The    Proportion    and    Composition    of    tpie    Alcohols  in 
Geranium  Oils. 
By  W.  H.  Simons. 
The  principal  constituents  of  the  geranium  oils  are  geraniol  and 
citronellol,  both  free  and  combined,  but  few  attempts  are  made  to 
differentiate  between  them.  The  total  alcohols  are  usually  deter- 
mined and  calculated  as  geraniol.  The  author,  using  the  formyla- 
tion  process  as  recommended  by  Jeancard  and  Satie  confirms  the 
findings  of  these  workers  that  the  Bourbon  oil  contains  more 
citronellol  than  the  African  oil. 
Mercuric  Oxide'  as  a  Standard  for  Volumetric  Analysis. 
By  L.  Rosenthaler  and  A.  Abelmann. 
The  authors  found  that  we  have  in  mercuric  oxide  a  substance 
at  our  disposal  that  is  useful  for  the  four  chief  volumetric  opera- 
tions— acidi-  and  alkali-metry,  iodimetry,  oxidimetry,  and  argen- 
tometry.  They  give  in  detail  their  method  of  use  and  results 
obtained  and  seem  to  prove  their  case. 
Notes  on  the  Polenske  and  Reicpiert  Values  of  Some  Oils. 
By  G.  D.  Elsdon  and  H.  Hawley. 
With  the  exception  of  one*  or  two  edible  oils  there  are  practically 
no  Polenske  figures  available  in  literature;  for  this  reason  the 
authors  thought  it  might  be  of  interest  to  determine  this  figure  on 
various  oils.  They  found  that  the  Polenske  values  for  different 
samples  of  the  same  oil  are  much  more  constant  than  are  the 
Reichert  values. 
