294 
ON  THE  SOLVENT  POWERS  OF  SIMPLE  SYRUP. 
i  Syrupus,'  the  water  now  is  prevented  by  its  attraction  fGr  the 
sugar,  from  seizing  upon  the  alcohol,  and  you  have  the  composi- 
tion of  the  tincture  undisturbed  and  yet  sufficiently  dilute  to  be 
swallowed.  Here  we  have  an  antagonism  of  forces  between  the 
affinity  of  the  water  for  the  sugar  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  of 
water  for  alcohol  on  the  other.  So  again  in  the  chlorine,  iodine 
or  bromine  syrups ;  owing  to  the  affinity  of  the  water  for  the 
sugar  of  the  syrups,  the  former  is  not  easily  decomposed  by 
the  affinity  which  chlorine,  bromine  and  iodine  respectively  have 
for  its  hydrogen  element.  If  we  admit  that  caustic  lime  is  more 
soluble  than  hydrate  of  lime,  we  can  explain  the  ready  solubility 
of  lime  in  sugar  as  compared  with  water.  In  Aqua  Calcis  the 
caustic  lime  is  changed  into  hydrate  by  the  excess  of  water,  and 
this  being  insoluble,  falls  down.  In  syrupus  calcis  the  caustic 
lime  cannot  take  away  the  water  of  the  syrup,  and  is  conse- 
quently held  dissolved.  The  inferior  solubility  of  hydrate,  as 
compared  with  caustic  lime,  also  explains  why,  when  water  in 
excess  is  added  to  Syrupus  Calcis,  the  lime  is  precipitated.  Here 
the  same  quantity  of  sugar  is  present  as  before  the  water  was 
added,  but  a  hydrate  of  lime  is  formed  by  the  excess  of  water, 
and  this  is  precipitated.  From  a  consideration  of  the  truth 
which  we  have  thus  explained,  we  were  able  to  infer  the  per- 
manent solubility  of  many  bodies  in  <  Syrupus'  which  are  insol- 
uble, permanently  at  least,  in  water. 
The  first  substance  which  we  will  notice  is  tartar  emetic. 
Wine  of  antimony  is  a  good  preparation,  but  owing  to  the  poor- 
ness of  the  common  wines  and  the  expensiveness  of  the  good 
ones,  the  preparation  is  generally  unreliable.  Now  we  have  kept 
a  solution  of  tartar  emetic  in  6  Syrupus'  for  six  months  without 
change ;  the  syrup  contained  one  scruple  to  the  ounce.  How 
admirable  a  thing  then  will  a  Syrupus  Antimonii  prove,  especially 
to  country  practitioners,  who  too  often,  on  going  to  the  anti- 
monial  wine  bottle,  find  its  contents  spoiled.  It  may  be  made 
of  the  strength  of  \  gr.  to  the  fluid  drachm. 
Having  failed  in  effecting  a  solution  of  sub-nitrate  of  bismuth, 
it  struck  us  that,  upon  this  same  principle,  we  might  make  a 
syrup  of  the  tris-nitrate.  The  result  proved  our  inference  cor- 
rect. When  tris-nitrate  of  bismuth  (made  by  simply  dissolving 
the  metal  in  nitric  acid  and  allowing  the  solution  to  crystallize) 
