548 
Excretion  of  Salicylic  Acid, 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm» 
Dec,  1876. 
uble  in  alcohol,  has  no  caustic,  but  a  slightly  bitter  taste,  and  is  alto- 
gether a  salt  well  adapted,  I  think,  for  medicinal  use. 
Salicylic  acid  and  its  salts  give,  as  is  well  known,  a  striking  reaction 
with  perchloride  of  iron,  producing  a  dark  purple  coloration.  The 
sulphosalicylates  produce  exactly  the  same  reaction,  proving  that  the 
salicylic  acid  radical  is  still  intact  in  these  compounds,  and  it  is  fair  to 
infer  that  the  medical  properties  of  these  sulpho-salts  will  be  found  in 
practice  to  be  identical  with,  or  perhaps  superior  to,  the  simple  sali- 
cylates. 
We  have  in  the  analogous  case  of  the  carbolate  and  sulphocarbolate 
of  soda  an  instance  in  which  the  sulpho-salt  possesses  great  advantages 
over  the  simple  salt,  and  such  may  prove  to  be  the  case  with  the 
sulphosalicylates. 
The  acid  itself  is  crystallizable,  but  deliquescent ;  the  zinc  salt  is 
also  very  deliquescent.  I  have  not  paid  any  attention  to  the  other  salts 
as  yet. 
NOTE  ON  THE  CONDITION  IN  WHICH  SALICYLIC  ACID  IS  EX 
CRETED  BY  PATIENTS.1 
BY   F.  BADEN   BENGER,  F.C.S. 
The  question  whether  or  not  salicylic  acid  ever  exists  in  a  free,  and 
therefore  active  condition,  in  the  urine  of  patients  being  of  some 
importance,  the  following  experiments  were  made,  and  the  results  are 
offered  as  a  small  contribution  towards  a  settlement  of  the  point. 
The  urine  of  a  patient  who  had  taken  60  grains  of  salicylic  acid 
during  the  day  was  collected  in  the  evening  and  the  following  morning, 
It  was  slightly  acid  to  test  paper,  and  gave  the  purple  reaction  with  fer- 
ric chloride  characteristic  of  salicylic  acid  and  its  salts.  A  portion 
shaken  with  bitter  almond  meal  in  the  proportion  of  two  grains  to  the 
fluidounce  immediately  developed  the  odor  of  bitter  almond  oil.  In  a 
similar  portion  treated  with  two  grains  of  mustard  flour  to  the  fluidounce^ 
the  odor  of  mustard  oil  was  at  once  perceptible  ;  mixed  with  forty 
grains  of  sugar  and  half  a  grain  of  German  yeast  to  the  fluid  ounce, 
fermentation  rapidly  took  place.  Five  fluidounces  were  evaporated  to 
half  an  ounce,  thoroughly  shaken  with  its  bulk  of  ether,  the  ethereal 
solution  evaporated  to  dryness,  and  the  residue  dissolved  in  one  fluid- 
ounce  of  sweetened  water ;  to  this  half  a  grain  of  yeast  was  added^ 
^ead  before  the  British  Pharmaceutical  Conference. 
