Votes of thanks were extended to Senator Gausewitz and Messrs. Kelly, Nelson, Omlum, Johnson and McCollom for their services in the matter of the amendment to the pharmacy law.

OBITUARY.

JAMES M. FARR, manager of the New York branch of the well-known chemical manufacturing firm of Powers & Weightman, died at his home, on Lexington Avenue, in that city, on June 24th, after an illness of about three months.

The deceased was sixty-seven years of age, having been born in Philadelphia in 1832. He was the son of John Farr, one of the founders of the above-mentioned firm, and who was identified with the early manufacture of quinine products in this country, having as long ago as 1826 contributed an article to this JOURNAL, the title of which was "On the Extract of Quinine." It was therefore but natural that the son should take an interest in this branch of manufacture, he having aided very materially in the progress made in a commercial way.

As a young man Mr. Farr entered the employ of Powers & Weightman in this city, going to New York in 1865. He was associated with the firm during the remainder of his business career, with the exception of two years spent in Europe, whither he went in 1869.

Mr. Farr is survived by a widow and three sons.

He was highly esteemed by those who knew him, and has been spoken of as "amiable and gentle, courteous and considerate, upright and honorable."

PROFESSOR JEAN-FELIX JEANJEAN, the Director of the School of Pharmacy of Montpellier (France), died on the 17th of May, after an illness of some months' duration.

Professor Jeanjean was born in Montpellier on January 21, 1829, and had therefore attained the age ordinarily allotted to man. His education, which was classical in character, was obtained in the schools of his native city. Having early evinced a faculty for scientific study, in 1852 he was chosen an assistant in mathematics in the University of Montpellier. In 1853 he was promoted to the assistant professorship in the physical sciences, and in 1859 took charge of the course in physics. Meanwhile, through the advice of his uncle, the eminent chemist Balard, he took a course in pharmacy, graduating in 1857. After several promotions, he became professor of organic chemistry at the School of Pharmacy in 1868, and in 1894, in recognition of his long services, was chosen Director of that institution.

Professor Jeanjean made several noteworthy investigations in organic chemistry, and his toxicological researches brought him into prominence as an expert in questions of jurisprudence.

He was connected with the universities of Montpellier for forty-seven years, and well deserved the distinguished honors of which he was the recipient. In 1870 he was made an officer of the Academy, in 1878, officer of public instruction, and on June 10, 1896, was made a knight of the Legion of Honor, this being the occasion of the unveiling of the bust of his uncle Balard in the courtyard of the School of Pharmacy.

THE AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF PHARMACY

SEPTEMBER, 1899.

WOOD-TAR CREOSOTE.

BY LYMAN F. KEBLER.

Research Committee E, Pharmacopoeia Revision.

Creosote is a complex mixture of phenoloid compounds, the proportions of which are materially influenced by the kind of wood employed for distillation, the methods resorted to for purifying and removing the creosote from the distillate and the amount of certain constituents removed from the creosote proper, by fractional distillation.

The above mixture of compounds consists chiefly of several homol. ogous series, prominent among which are the acid methylic esters of catechol, but any of the compounds contained in the following table may be met with.

Creosote is generally supposed to consist, for the greater part, of

1 After Thorpe, Dict. of Applied Chemistry, Vol. I, 614.

guaiacol and creosol, the former predominating in one case and the latter in another. This idea has become so prevalent among some, that they thought guaiacol to the extent of sixty or more per cent. could easily be obtained by fractionating a good quality of creosote. Such may have been the quality of creosote years ago, but things have changed. It is claimed that when a demand arose for guaiacol and its salts, the proportion of this valuable compound began gradually to diminish, until to-day it has become difficult to purchase creosote containing 20 per cent., and an article containing 60 per cent. is a curiosity. The above demand may have had an influence, but the writer is inclined to look at it somewhat differently. The high percentage of guaiacol reported by some workers was probably due to faulty methods of analysis.

A. Béhal' and E. Choay, on fractionating genuine beechwood creosote and analyzing those portions coming over between 200° and 210° C., and 200° and 220° C., found them to have the following composition:

The above analyses indicate that a specimen of creosote containing 25 per cent. of guaiacol is a fairly good one. Other recent analyses contribute towards this view. But it must be remembered that, while the larger proportion of the guaiacol distils between the above temperatures, not all comes over, This is well shown by the results of the present investigation. Those samples beginning to boil at about 210° C. (corrected) contain the largest amount of guaiacol. The probable reason for finding the guaiacol in higher fractions is that we find it almost impossible to closely separate by fractionation the various components of complex mixtures, like creosote. It has been found that a fraction of creosote coming over between 200 and 210° C. may contain a goodly per cent. of phenol having a boiling-point 20° below the lowest boiling-point. And the same fraction has been found to contain more than one-third its weight of creosol, a body having a boiling-point of 219° C.

1894, Comb. rend., 119, 166.

It is sometimes very difficult to differentiate between the various creosotes. Especially is this the case when slight admixtures are dealt with. Qualitatively, beech and oak creosotes are alike. This is probably true of other creosotes. E. Hirschsohn1 has compared beechwood tar with the tars of birch, fir and juniper. Apparently he has established identity tests for the several products when unmixed. But it is the writer's experience that when mixtures of the above substances are met with, many uncertainties present themselves.

Distinctive tests for creosote itself are found in books, but they are of little service in practice, where positive results only can be relied on. For example, carbolic acid, cresylic acid and creosote can readily be distinguished from one another, but it is quite a different thing if mixtures of these substances have to be dealt with. The simultaneous presence of these substances seriously modifies the identity tests.

Oak wood creosote is much more caustic than beechwood. This is due to the fact that the former contains a larger proportion of the monophenols and a correspondingly smaller amount of guaiacol than the latter. Both contain about the same amount of creosol and its homologues. Pine wood creosote distilling between 200° and 220° C. was found to contain 40 per cent. of monophenols, 20.3 per cent. of guaiacol and 37.5 per cent. of creosol and its homologues.

ous creosotes.

There is also some difference in the specific gravities of the variThe U.S.P. requires a specific gravity not lower than 1070 at 15° C., while the B.P. is more rigid, in that the lowest limit cannot be below 1079 at 15° C. The former can easily 'be met with by a creosote that does not contain any guaiacol. It seems desirable to make this requirement slightly more rigid.

From the above statements, it can readily be seen that the analyst is liable to be confronted with considerable vagueness when he attempts to identify the various creosotes and mixtures of the same. But be this as it may, we are, nevertheless, able to get at the quality of a creosote very closely by careful examination, as the data in the table below will show.

The six samples were obtained directly, as far as could be ascertained, from as many manufacturers. The boiling-points, as well as other tests, show that all of the samples fail to comply with the U.S.P. requirements. There was a slight residue in every case on distillation. The alcoholic potash-creosote mixture proved the most interesting. With Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 the mixture was made at the ordinary temperature, and the last two according to the directions of the Pharmacopoeia.