164  Examination  of  ^inia  Pills.  {^""'^Z-J^T' 
was  precipitated  by  water  of  ammonia,  and  the  whole  agitated  success- 
ively with  small  quantities  of  ether,  which  were  removed  each  time  by  a 
pipette  to  a  weighed  watch-glass.  On  evaporation,  the  quinia  was  left  as 
a  gummy  mass,  which  was  dried  at  a  moderate  temperature  and  weighed, 
so  that  the  amount  of  crystallized  sulphate  could  be  calculated. 
Five  of  the  samples  examined  yielded  so  near  the  full  amount  of  quinia 
claimed  for  them  that  there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  honesty  of  their 
manufacture.  The  sixth  showed  an  evident  deficiency,  giving  only  about 
70  per  cent,  of  the  quantity  represented. 
The  seventh  has  rather  a  peculiar  history,  which  probably  some 
readers  of  this  Journal  are  acquainted  with,  as  it  was  referred  to  recently 
in  one  of  the  Pharmaceutical  meetings. 
There  has  been  an  article  of  late  extensively  introduced  and  sold  in 
this  country  under  the  name  of  "  French  quinine,"  a  great  deal  of  which 
is  nothing  more  than  muriate  of  cinchonia.  A  large  lot  of  this 
so-called  quinia  was  sold  by  a  New  York  firm  to  a  well-known  manu- 
facturer in  Cincinnati,  who,  having  made  up  a  very  large  lot  of  one- 
grain  sugar-coated  pills  from  it,  discovered  the  fraud  and  returned  the 
whole  of  it  in  that  form.  These  pills  were  next  bartered  off  to  a  firm 
in  Easton,  Pennsylvania,  who  disposed  of  them  to  one  or  more  whole- 
sale drug  houses  of  this  city. 
One  hundred  pills,  labeled  Quinia  Pills,  i  Gr.,"  were  purchased 
from  one  of  these  last  firms,  with  the  information  that  they  had  been 
manufactured  in  Cincinnati  and  obtained  by  way  of  Easton,  as  above 
mentioned. 
This  placed  the  correctness  of  their  origin  beyond  a  doubt,  and 
when  they  were  examined  and  found  to  contain  nothing  but  muriate  of 
cinchonia,  with  a  little  quinidia,  the  chain  of  evidence  was  complete. 
When  the  solution  was  examined  under  the  microscope  with  sulpho- 
cyanide  of  potassium,  it  gave  the  characteristic  crystals  of  sulphocyanide 
of  cinchonia.  A  few  quinidia  crystals  were  also  observed,  but  no 
quinia.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  several  parties  were  fully 
aware  of  the  composition  of  these  pills,  and  the  fact,  that  they  con- 
tinue to  sell  them  to  the  trade  and  the  public,  is  humiliating  to  every 
conscientious  pharmacist,  as  well  as  disgraceful  to  those  knowingly 
dealing  in  them. 
The  use  of  sugar-coated  pills,  although  very  extensive,  has  many 
evident  disadvantages.  A  very  prominent  one  is  that  of  their  insolu- 
bility.   Several  of  the  samples  examined  were  very  difficult  to  dissolve, 
