MISCELLANY, 
Decomposition of Sulphate of Quinine by infusion of Roses. By Charles 
Ramsay. — A common mode of prescribing sulphate of quinine, is in com- 
bination with compound infusion of roses, which, to say the least of it, 
forms a very elegant mixture. As will be known to most of your readers, 
the quinine, instead of being dissolved, is thrown down in flocculi, which 
you, in the Notices to Correspondents in the November number of the 
Pharmaceutical Journal, say, may be re-dissolved by excess of sulphuric 
acid. In dispensing the mixture, I have tried the effect of adding a lit- 
tle sulphuric acid to it, and I have found that m. 20 of the dilute acid 
may be added to a mixture containing six grains of the sulphate, without 
altering or at least bettering its appearance. 
Professor Donovan, in a paper which originally appeared in the Dublin 
Medical Press, treats the subject in question in his usual able and lucid 
manner. After stating that the infusion of roses and sulphate of quinine 
are generally supposed to form an elegant, efficacious, and compatible 
mixture, he says, 
"1 believe that this supposition is ill-founded; the mixture is not ele- 
gant, for it is no longer red and transparent, but becomes muddy and dis- 
agreeable in appearance ; it is not efficacious, for much of the quinine is 
withdrawn in an insoluble state; and it is not compatible, for there are 
two sources of decomposition. Rose leaves contain both gallic and tan- 
nic acids, hence gallate and tannate of quinine will be formed, both are 
insoluble in cold water, and they will remain floating on the liquid, not- 
withstanding the presence of sulphuric acid, which, so far as these salts 
are concerned, effects no good purpose, as it does not dissolve the new 
salts formed. It might be supposed that it is little matter in what state 
the quinine is administered, whether as a sulphate, gallate, or tannate; 
but if the sulphate require the addition of sulphuric acid to hold it in so- 
lution, and if the state of solution be necessary to the exertion of its full 
medical efficacy, it must be improper to conjoin with it any agent which 
eliminates it in the solid form : besides it has never been proved that the 
tannate or gallate of quinine possess medical properties." 
Mr. Donovan proceeds to state, that it is better to prescribe sulphate of 
quinine simply dissolved in water or camphor mixture, by the aid of a 
little sulphuric acid, and gives us his opinion that adjuvants should not 
