16 
ADULTERATION  OF  VERATRIA. 
I  therefore  suggest,  to  the  apothecaries  in  our  wide  spread 
Union,  the  employment  of  our  gold  coin  as  standards  by  which 
to  regulate  their  weights,  especially  those  employed  in  dispensing 
prescriptions,  as  they  will  be  found  entirely  within  the  limits  of 
the  balance  generally  in  use. 
The  weight  of  our  present  gold  coinage,  as  established  by  law, 
is  as  follows : 
The  $20  00  gold  piece  to  weigh  516  troy  grains. 
«     10  00      «  «         258  « 
«      5  00      "  «         129  « 
u      3  00      «  «  77|  « 
«      2  50       «  «  64j  u 
«      1  00       «  «  254-  " 
5 
In  my  trials  of  the  2|  dollar  piece,  which  I  prefer  as  a  stan- 
dard, I  found  the  actual  weights  of  several  of  them,  taken  pro- 
miscuously, to  be  64.5  grs.  ;  64.63;  64.43;  64.54;  64.38: 
64.37  ;  giving  an  average  of  64.47  grs.,  which  is  only  three- 
hundreths  of  a  grain  less  than  their  legal  weight. 
By  combining  different  pieces  of  gold,  the  weight  being  shown 
as  above,  the  ordinary  avoirdupois  weight  may  also  be  regulated ; 
thus — a  20  dollar  piece  on  one  side  of  a  balance,  and  a  3  dollar 
piece  on  the  other,  would  give  438  3-5  grs.  difference,  being  only 
1  3-5th  gr.  heavier  than  the  avoirdupois  ounce. 
Eighteen  dollars  and  fifty  cents  in  gold  should  weigh  476.3 
grs.,  or  3.7  grains  lighter  than  the  apothecaries'  ounce. 
The  farther  application  of  this  subject  I  leave  to  those 
interested. 
Philadelphia,  Dec,  1857. 
ADULTERATION  OF  VERATRIA. 
By  John  E.  Carter. 
While  performing  some  experiments  recently  on  commercial 
veratria,  I  found  the  specimen  I  was  operating  on  only  partially 
soluble  in  alcohol.  This  circumstance  led  to  the  supposition 
that  the  article  was  adulterated ;  to  confirm  this  opinion,  the 
following  experiments  were  performed. 
A  small  portion  of  the  suspected  veratria  was  placed  on  a 
