3  Copper  in  Galenical  Preparations.  {^/^iSf™* 
pelled  to  take  to  this  resource  is  shown  by  the  number  of  these  manu- 
facturing firms  in  this  country.  Almost  every  wholesale  drug  house 
has  a  department  of  this  nature  attached,  and  it  cannot  be  denied, 
that  the  pharmacist,  especially  in  an  urgent  call,  appreciates  the 
service  of  such  an  institution.  It  is  reasonable  to  assume,  that  in 
the  manufacture  on  the  large  scale,  other  means  than  those  of  the 
retailer  must  be  employed  ;  that,  with  a  view  to  both  economy  of 
time  and  money,  alterations  are  employed  both  in  working  methods 
and  the  various  utensils.  It  is  of  the  latter,  that  our  subject  mainly 
treats. 
Every  pharmacist  is  acquainted  with  the  fact  that  metallic  surfaces, 
when  in  contact  with  liquids  for  some  time,  are  more  or  less  cor- 
roded, and  that  some  of  the  metallic  substance  will  pass  in  solution. 
This  is  also  the  case  with  the  working  utensils  of  the  pharmacist, 
as  well  as  of  the  pharmaceutical  chemist  working  on  the  large  scale. 
The  latter  employs  in  most  instances  vessels  and  general  working 
tools  made  of  copper,  probably  with  a  consideration  as  to  durability 
and  the  facility  of  cleaning. 
Accidentally  the  writer  made  the  observation,  that  a  contamination 
by  copper  was  present  in  certain  classes  of  preparations,  especially 
fluid  extracts.  A  brightly  polished  steel  spatula,  was  left  in  contact 
with  a  mixture  of  several  fluid  extracts,  and  on  removing  the  same 
a  bright  film  of  copper  was  found  to  be  deposited  upon  the  iron. 
Experiments  were  made  to  determine  to  what  extent  this  was  the  case 
in  the  fluid  extracts  of  one  firm,  and  later  this  was  extended  to  those 
of  several  others, 
The  method  employed  is  very  simple.  A  freshly  polished,  un- 
tarnished steel  spatula  is  placed  in  about  half  an  ounce  of  the  suspected 
extract  and  allowed  to  remain  some  time.  In  some  instances  the 
copper  will  deposit  without  the  necessity  of  acidulation.  while  again 
in  others  it  does  not  take  place,  unless  an  addition  of  a  slight  amount 
of  acid  is  made. 
Small  amounts  of  the  metal  are  not  detected  by  this  method, 
The  application  of  reagents  would  perhaps  detect  traces,  but  the 
separation  of  the  vegetable  constituents  meets  with  considerable 
difficulty.    For  a  rough  examination  it  answers  very  well. 
A  number  of  fluid  extracts  obtained  from  eight  different  manu- 
facturing firms  were  examined,  the  number  varying  from  1 6  in  one 
case  to  only  2  or  3  in  others. 
