Am  jour  Pharm.  }    Pharmaceutical  Products  in  France.  ?Qi 
June,  1919.       J  Oy  * 
In  preparing  standard  chlorine  solutions,  Ellms  and  Hauser 
found  that  it  was  necessary  to  employ  specially  purified  distilled 
water. 
This  was  not  found  to  be  so  necessary  in  the  case  of  gold  solu- 
tions. The  more  dilute  gold  solutions  should,  however,  only  be  pre- 
pared when  required,  and  should  contain  a  small  amount  of  free 
hydrochloric  acid. 
In  testing  solutions  which  have  been  obtained  by  the  use  of  aqua 
regia,  special  care  should  be  taken  to  guard  against  the  possible 
presence  of  free  chlorine,  or  of  nitrous  acid.  The  latter  not  only 
reduces  gold  solutions,  but  gives  a  yellow  color  with  ortho-tolidine. 
Any  reagents  used  should  always  be  tested  for  reducing  impurities; 
thus,  on  one  occasion  a  sample  of  "pure"  ammonium  chloride  com- 
pletely reduced  a  weak  gold  solution. 
In  presence  of  much  copper  a  green  color  is  obtained  instead  of 
a  pure  yellow ;  colorimetric  comparison  can,  however,  still  be  made 
if  the  standard  gold  solution  is  tinted  with  copper  to  a  similar 
extent. 
Government  Analytical  Laboratory, 
Cairo. 
THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  PHARMACEUTICAL 
PRODUCTS  IN  FRANCE.1 
That  French  manufacturers  of  pharmaceutical  products  are 
confronted  with  the  same  problems  and  difficulties  as  their  British 
confreres  is  disclosed  in  a  well-informed  article  by  Monsieur  A. 
Detoeuf  in  the  February  issue  of  Chimie  ct  Industrie. 
In  discussing  the  future  of  this  industry,  M.  Detoeuf  states  that 
the  pre-war  idea  that  the  French  were  tributaries  to  Germany  for 
the  greater  part  of  their  pharmaceutical  products  did  not  quite  cor- 
respond to  reality.  He  points  out  that  two  distinct  classes  must  be 
recognized  among  medicinal  products,  based  on  the  existence  or 
non-existence  of  patents  and  trade-marks  which  enable  the  manu- 
facturer to  defend  his  products  against  competition.  The  French 
patent  law  of  1844  at  present  in  force  excludes  medicinal  products, 
but  in  practice  this  restriction  is  often  overcome  by  taking  out  a 
1  Reprinted  from  The  Journal  of  the  Society  of  Chemical  Industry, 
April  20,  1919. 
