4 1  o  The  Adminiftration  of  Phosphorus,    { ^■^^^.  i:^^''^- 
cooling  by  an  excess  of  sulphuric  or  hydrochloric  acid.  The  precip- 
itate is  collected  and  well  washed,  and  then  redissolved  in  ammonia 
water.  This  solution  filtered  and  evaporated  yields  the  ammoniacal 
glycyrrhizin  in  a  friable  varnish-like  residue.  Its  taste  resembles  exactly 
the  taste  of  the  licorice  root,  as  by  this  treatment  the  acrid  matter  nat- 
urally present  in  the  root  is  preserved,  whilst  it  is  almost  entirely 
removed  by  treatment  with  alcohol  and  ether. — Pharm.  Journ.  and 
Trans.  [Lond.],  July  17,  1875. 
THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  PHOSPHORUS.-" 
BY   C.  MEHU. 
The  author  states  that  during  the  past  ten  years  his  attention  has 
been  devoted  to  the  different  modes  of  administering  phosphorus.  The 
problem  he  has  striven  to  resolve  has  been  the  obtaining  of  pharmaceut- 
ical preparations  having  a  constant  richness  in  phosphorus,  and  capable 
of  indefinite  preservation.  In  the  present  paper  he  passes  in  review 
the  numerous  methods  which,  during  the  past  few  years,  have  been 
suggested  in  France,  England  and  the  United  States,  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  free  phosphorus,  and  as  the  result  of  his  earlier  researches 
upon  the  subject  have  been  adopted  as  the  basis  of  the  phosphorated  oil 
of  the  "  British  Pharmacopoeia,"  the  opinions  of  so  competent  a  critic 
will,  without  doubt,  be  of  interest  to  the  readers  of  this  Journal. 
The  first  preparation  referred  to  is  the  phosphoretted  resin,  contain- 
ing 4  per  cent,  of  phosphorus,  proposed  by  Mr.  Gerrard  f  at  an  even- 
ing meeting  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain.  The 
preparation  of  this  resin  Dr.  M^hu  considers  to  be  extremely  dangerous, 
and  nearly  impracticable  in  the  vessels  usually  available  in  a  pharmacy, 
it  being  necessary  to  agitate  during  some  time  a  vessel  heated  to  200^ 
C,  containing  phosphorus  and  resin  in  a  state  of  fusion.  He  states, 
also,  that  during  the  operation  a  portion  of  the  phosphorus  passes  into 
the  amorphous  insoluble  state.  Dr.  Mehu  is  of  opinion,  moreover, 
that  phosphoretted  resin  is  unsuited  to  most  pharmaceutical  uses  for  the 
following  reasons  :  The  resin  is  supersaturated  with  phosphorus  at  a 
high  temperature,  and  in  cooling  the  active  element  separates  into  solid 
fragments — fine  they  may  be,  but  still  solid.    It  being  necessary  to 
*  Abstract  of  a  paper  in  the     Repertoire  de  Pharmacie,"  vol.  iii,  p.  321. 
t"  Pharm.  Journ."  [3],  vol.  iv,  p.  441.    "  Amer.  Pharm.  Journ.,"  1874,  p.  23. 
