BITTER  ALMOND  WATER. 
239 
same  tests  ;  he  has  met  with  a  chloral-hydrate  (not  manufactured 
in  Germany,)  in  loose  glass-like  rhombic  needles  and  of  a  sting- 
ing odor.  It  was  soluble  in  eight  parts  water  ;  heated  in  a  silver 
spoon  ;  it  burned  with  a  yellow-sooty  flame  ;  it  sank  in  concen- 
trated sulphuric  acid  (pure  chloral-hydrate  floats  upon  it),  be- 
came rapidly  liquid,  the  mixture  was  much  clearer  after  shaking, 
and  became  brown  on  heating  to  the  boiling  point ;  nitric  acid 
of  twenty-five  per  cent,  reacted  briskly  with  the  evolution  of 
brown-red  vapors ;  with  potassa  solution,  sp.  gr.  1-3,  it  separated 
upon  the  surface  a  liquid  with  the  odor  of  chloroform  and  alde- 
hyde, from  which,  after  agitation,  chloroform  collected  at  the 
bottom  (pure  chloral-hydrate  at  once  separates  chloroform  and 
does  not  generate  the  odor  of  aldehyde).  No  analysis  was  made 
for  want  of  material. 
No.  21  of  the  Pharmac.  Zeitung  states  that  the  chloral-hydrate 
made  by  Roussin,  of  Paris,  yielded  but  61*7  per  cent,  chloro- 
form and  on  examination  proved  to  be  an  alcoholate  of  chloral 
C^HClgOa-fCJIgOg,  containing  23-7  per  cent,  alcohol.  It  is  a 
semi-transparent  camphor-like  mass  in  long  adhering  needles,  of 
a  sharp  ethereal  odor  and  burning  taste,  not  deliquescent  in 
water,  less  soluble  than  chloral-hydrate.  It  may  be  obtained  by 
adding  31*18  grm.  absolute  alcohol  to  100  grm.  anhydrous 
chloral.  j.  m.  m. 
ON  BITTER  ALMOND  WATER. 
By  Franz  Hubner. 
If  the  directions  of  the  seventh  edition  of  the  Prussian  Phar- 
macopoeia are  strictly  followed  a  good  bitter  almond  water  is 
always  obtained,  unless  the  bitter  almonds  are  adulterated  with 
the  sweet  variety,  which  fraud  is  sometimes  practised  on  ac- 
count of  the  higher  price  of  the  former.  The  press  cakes  of 
bitter  almonds,  from  which  the  fixed  oil  has  been  separated, 
must  be  finely  powdered  and  then  mixed  with  seven  parts,  or  if 
possible,  more  of  soft  water.  After  maceration  for  twelve  to 
fifteen  hours  in  a  close  vessel,  the  water  is  distilled  off  by  inject- 
ing steam,  until  the  requisite  quantity  is  obtained,*  which  is 
*The  press  cake  from  6  parts  of  bitter  almonds,  with  the  requisite 
quantity  of  water  and  1  part  of  alcohol,  yields  at  least  6  parts  distillate, 
containing  1  part  anhydrous  hydrocyanic  acid  in  720  parts. 
