MEANS  OF  ADJUSTING  APOTHECARIES'  WEIGHTS. 
15 
easily  rubbed  into  a  coarse  powder  in  a  wedgewood  mortar ;  it 
is  then  extracted  in  the  percolator.  Half  a  fluid  drachm  of  this 
essence  imparts  a  delicate  flavor  to  one  pint  of  simple  syrup 
acidulated  by  citric  acid. 
ON  THE  GOLD  COIN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  AS  A  MEANS  OF 
ADJUSTING  APOTHECARIES  WEIGHTS. 
By  Wilson  H.  Pile,  M.  D. 
Several  years  ago,  I  procured  from  the  United  States  Mint, 
through  the  politeness  of  Prof.  J.  C.  Booth,  a  standard  1000 
gr.  weight,  in  order  to  regulate  my  1000  gr.  specific  gravity 
bottles,  which  I  had  then  just  commenced  to  introduce.  By 
means  of  that  standard,  and  a  very  delicate  balance,  I  adjusted 
a  complete  set  of  weights,  down  to  the  one-hundredth  of  a  grain, 
which  I  now  use :  this  by  way  of  preamble. 
In  the  report  on  weights  and  measures,  read  before  the  Ameri- 
can Pharmaceutical  Association,  (1857,)  are  the  following  para- 
graphs: 
"It  required  but  a  very  superficial  examination  of  the  subject,  to  satisfy 
your  Committee  that  there  existed  great  inaccuracy  and  want  of  uniformity 
in  the  weights  and  measures  in  use  by  our  dispensing  apothecaries ;  and 
even  where  government  has  undertaken  the  preparation  of  their  own  chem- 
icals, they  have  not  been  able  to  furnish  their  employees  with  a  standard 
set  of  weights  and  measures  for  their  use,  for  we  believe  we  have  none,  or' 
at  least  not  such  as  are  available  for  chemical  uses." 
"  Having  no  government  standard  to  which  our  own  manufactures  can 
be  brought  for  a  test,  and  most  of  the  scales  and  weights  in  use  in  this 
country  being  of  foreign  manufacture,  this  want  of  correctness  and  uni- 
formity is  an  evil,  however  great,  not  easily  reachable  by  any  means  within 
our  individual  scope  or  power." 
It  occurred  to  me  to  test  a  few  of  our  gold  coin,  to  see  how 
near  their  actual  weight  corresponded  to  the  legal  weight,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  ascertain  whether  the  weights  which  I  had 
myself  made,  as  previously  stated,  corresponded  to  those  now 
used  in  the  Mint,  where  every  gold  coin  is  separately  adjusted. 
The  result  was  very  satisfactory  to  me,  showing  that  if  we 
have  not  a  correct  theoretical  standard  of  weight,  we  have,  at 
least,  a  very  practical  one,  namely,  our  gold  coin,  scattered  over 
the  whole  country  and  in  reach  of  every  one. 
