288  Use  of  Wood  Alcohol  Pharmacentically.  {Amj£e,ri9oih.arm' 
hope  to  do  soon,  as  I  have  a  tincture  I  am  keeping  for  several 
months,  distilling  off  fractions  monthly.  The  first  four  of  the  frac- 
tions contained  practically  all  of  the  formaldehyde  and  formic  acid  ; 
the  amount  of  iodine  in  each  increased  progressively,  the  last  two 
fractions  being  very  dark  in  color,  the  tenth  fraction  not  being  dis- 
tilled over. 
A  curious  behavior  of  the  first  two  fractions  seems  worthy  of 
mention.  As  I  remarked,  these  were  light  straw  color  No.  I,  and 
pale  yellow,  No.  2;  when  exposed  to  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun  in 
tightly  corked  vials  they  became  colorless  in  an  hour  or  so  ;  left 
standing  uncorked  over  night,  the  color  returned.  This  experiment 
was  repeated  several  times,  the  color  gradually  fading  until  now,  a 
couple  of  months  later,  the  two  samples  are  water- white  and  do  not 
react  for  free  iodine.  Both  still  give  the  formaldehyde  reaction 
p  ainly. 
Another  point.  Although  there  is  a  small  difference  in  the  spe- 
cific gravities  of  wood  and  grain  alcohol,  the  two  tinctures  I  made 
had  practically  the  same  specific  gravity,  the  difference  in  the  appear- 
ance of  the  two  tinctures  would  lead  one  to  think  that  there  is  at 
least  ten  or  fifteen  points  between  them.  The  wood  alcohol  tinc- 
ture seemed  very  thin — "  watery  "  is  a  term  that  somewhat  describes 
it — and  has  very  little  "  body,"  it  is  more  limpid  and  spreads  on  the 
skin  with  great  rapidity.  Its  color,  too,  is  different  ;  it  has  more  of 
a  greenish-yellow  tint  in  thin  layers  than  the  mahogany  brown  of 
the  grain  alcohol  tincture,  and  is  more  transparent.  One  who  has 
seen  both  tinctures  could  readily  detect  the  wood  alcohol  tincture 
by  its  general  appearance  alone.  However,  if  a  pure  methyl 
alcohol  is  used,  there  is  very  little  difference  between  it  and  the 
U.S.P.  tincture  in  general  appearance  ;  neither  is  it  much  more  irri- 
tating, either  to  the  skin  or  in  its  vapor.  No  doubt  the  great  differ- 
ence is  due  to  the  many  impurities  mentioned  as  being  present  in 
wood  alcohol.  Referring  back  to  specific  gravities,  the  specific 
gravity  of  my  wood  alcohol  tincture  iodine  was  0-877  to  0-875  for 
grain  alcohol  tincture. 
Pure  methyl  alcohol  seems  to  be  well  adapted  for  the  making  of 
resins  from  crude  drugs  ;  its  lesser  cost  would  be  a  great  advantage 
to  the  pharmacist  if  its  use  were  made  permissible.  I  made  a  few 
experiments  in  this  line  with  podophyllin  and  jalap,  and  would 
report  that  I  got  results  every  bit  as  good  in  yield,  appearance 
