An>n0eU,ri8P76arm'}  Spiritus  Mtheris  Nitrosi.  259 
ANALYSIS  OF  SPIRITUS  MTHERIS  NITROSI. 
BY  GEORGE  W.  KENNEDY,  PH.G. 
Within  the  last  decade,  or  since  I  first  began  to  take  an  interest  in 
pharmacy,  numerous  complaints  have  been  made  by  pharmacists  as  to 
the  quality  of  spirit  of  nitrous  ether,  as  furnished  by  manufacturing 
chemists,  and  also  that  which  is  found  in  the  market,  and  represented 
to  be  made  by  reliable  manufacturers.  Some  of  the  many  complaints 
are  that  the  preparation  is  deficient  in  nitrous  ether,  and  that  it  con- 
tains too  much  water,  besides  acetic  and  nitrogen  acids,  aldehyd  and 
ethyl  chloride.  My  first  attempt  towards  examining  commercial  spirit 
of  nitre  was  made  about  a  year  or  two  ago,  after  having  purchased  a 
small  quantity  from  a  wholesale  drug  house  in  New  York  city,  which 
I  considered  enjoyed  an  excellent  reputation,  and  from  which  I  thought 
pure  and  unadulterated  preparations  could  be  obtained.  My  attention 
was  directed  to  the  color  and  odor  of  the  article  ;  it  was  almost  color- 
less, and  comparatively  destitute  of  the  nitrous  ether  odor  character- 
istic of  the  preparation.  Pure  nitrous  ether  is  of  a  decidedly  yellow 
color,  and,  as  spirit  of  nitre  contains  between  four  and  five  per  cent, 
of  it,  the  officinal  spirit  must  necessarily  have  a  yellowish  color. 
Although  exposure  to  light  would  soon  make  it  colorless,  I  am  under 
the  impression  such  was  not  the  case  with  the  preparation  just  alluded 
to,  as,  upon  examination,  it  was  found  to  contain  but  1*8  per  cent,  of 
ordinary  ethyl  nitrite,  and  its  specific  gravity  was  but  0*920,  indicat- 
ing a  large  addition  of  water.  The  writer  would  here  take  the  liberty 
to  suggest  to  the  readers  of  the  "  Journal "  that  it  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary that  some  change  should  be  made  in  the  preservation  of  this  highly 
important  and  valuable  preparation.  Those  pharmacists  who  manufac- 
ture it  themselves,  I  take  for  granted,  know  why  it  should  be  excluded 
from  light  and  air,  and  kept  only  in  small  bottles. 
The  blame  cannot  and  should  not  always  be  placed  on  the  manufac- 
turing chemists,  of  putting  a  worthless  article  of  this  kind  in  the  mar- 
ket, as,  by  the  writer's  analysis  of  some  of  the  more  prominent  brands, 
it  will  be  observed  that  one  of  them  was  in  excellent  state  of  preser- 
vation, while  some  of  the  others  bear  a  good  examination,  and  are  thus 
out  of  the  reach  of  critics.  That  obtained  from  retail  sources,  and 
procured  from  pharmacists  living  in  my  vicinity,  was,  in  the  majority 
of  cases,  entirely  unfit  for  use,  and  should  not  be  dispensed  as  a  medi- 
cine. This  would  seem  to  reflect  on  the  probity  of  some  of  our 
wholesale  and  retail  dealers  where  the  sophistication  was  made.  Which 
