An ordinary cold saturated solution contains somewhere about one part in three hundred, and such a solution is very convenient indeed, as a vehicle for solutions of alkaloids for hypodermic use. If a drachm of the acid be added to a pint of water, and the mixture be well shaken, such a solution with some undissolved acid at the bottom of the bottle will be the result. Then if this be used entire, or diluted with an equal volume of water, for making hypodermic solutions, such solutions will remain free from growths of all kinds for an indefinite length of time, and will not be more irritant than if made from water alone. Add the Sulphuric Acid gradually to seven hundred (700) parts of Alcohol and allow the mixture to cool. Then add to it the Tincture of Ginger and the Oil of Cinnamon, and afterward enough Alcohol to make the product weigh one thousand (1000) parts. Aromatic Sulphuric Acid should be preserved in glass-stoppered bottles. Aromatic Sulphuric Acid has the sp. gr. 0.955, and contains about 20 per cent. of officinal Sulphuric Acid, partly in form of ethylsulphuric acid. On diluting 9.8 Gm. of Aromatic Sulphuric Acid with 20 volumes of water, and filtering, the filtrate (with washings) should require, for complete neutralization, not less than 36 C. c. of the volumetric solution of soda. In the revisions of 1860 and 1870 this preparation was made from powdered Ginger and Cinnamon by exhausting them with a part of the Alcohol, and then mixing this tincture with the remainder of the Alcohol to which the Acid had been previously added. This yielded a preparation in which a deposit soon formed, and the process was thus far objectionable, although the deposit was small and probably unimportant. It was, however, easily avoided, and a better preparation obtained, by mixing nearly all the Alcohol with the Acid, and percolating the spices with the cooled mixture, reserving just enough alcohol to displace the acid mixture from the exhausted spices. A practice of many years with this method leads the writer to believe that it is unobjectionable, while it is both simple and easy. Now, in the revision of 1880, the spices in substance are replaced by the Tincture of Ginger and the Oil of Cinnamon, or Oil of Cas. sia, at the choice of the operator. But the Committee of Revision must have determined to alter the proportions greatly, or else some mistakes must have crept in. The 45 parts of Tincture of Ginger represent nine parts of Ginger, but the 1 part of Oil of Cinnamon represents about 100 parts of Cinnamon. The new preparation, therefore, represents 20 p.c. Sulphuric Acid, 0·9 p.c. Ginger and 10 p.c. Cinnamon, while the former preparation of 1870 represents about 19 pc. of Acid,-3.16 p.c. Ginger and 4.74 p.c. Cinnamon. The Ginger element is, therefore, reduced by more than two-thirds, while the Cinnamon element is more than doubled. If it was intended to keep the preparation practically unaltered, as it is in the acid element, then the Tincture of Ginger should have been about 158 parts, representing 31.6 parts of Ginger, and 0.474 part of Oil of Cinnamon, representing about 47.4 parts of Cinnamon, since that spice yields about 1 p.c. or less of oil. This is not an important preparation, and might have been omitted from the Pharmacopoeia without great loss. But as it is now it is not so good as that of 1860 and 1870, and the writer will continue to make by the older formula. In loyalty to the U. S. Pharmacopoeia he yields to no one, yet does not feel bound to follow it into its mistakes. The difficulty for him is to ascertain, or to judge which are mistakes. No authority is free from mistakes, but supposed mistakes are not always really such. ACIDUM SULPHUROSUM. SULPHUROUS ACID. A liquid composed of about 3.5 per cent. of Sulphurous Acid Gas [SO; 64.-SO2; 32], and about 96.5 per cent. of Water. Sulphuric Acid, fourteen parts... Charcoal, in coarse powder, two parts. 14 2 100 Pour the Acid upon the Charcoal previously introduced into a glass flask, and mix the two well together. By means of a glass tube and well-fitting corks, connect the flask with a wash-bottle which is one-third filled with water, and fitted with a cork having three perforations. Into one of these perforations insert a safety-tube, which should reach nearly to the bottom of the bottle; into the remaining perforation fit a glass tube and connect it with a bottle which is about three-fourths filled by the Distilled Water. This tube should dip about an inch below the surface of the water. By means of a second tube connect this bottle with another bottle containing a dilute solution of carbonate of sodium, to absorb any gas which may not be retained by the Distilled Water. Having ascertained that all the connections are air-tight, apply a moderate heat to the flask until the evolution of gas has nearly ceased, and during the passage of the gas, keep the bottle containing the Distilled Water at or below 10° C. (50° F.) by surrounding it with cold water or ice. Finally, pour the Sulphurous Acid into glass-stoppered, dark amber-colored bottles, and keep them in a cool and dark place. A colorless liquid of the characteristic odor of burning sulphur, a very acid, sulphurous taste, and a strongly acid reaction. Sp. gr. 1.022-1.023. By heat it is completely volatilized. Litmus paper brought in contact with the Acid is at first turned red, and afterward bleached. On pouring a few drops of the Acid into a test-tube containing diluted hydrochloric acid and some test-zinc, a gas is evolved which blackens paper wet with solution of acetate of lead. If to 10 C. c. of Sulphurous Acid there be added 1 C. c. of diluted hydrochloric acid, followed by 1 C. c. of test solution of chloride of barium, not more than a very slight turbidity should be produced (limit of sulphuric acid). If 1.28 Gm. of Sulphurous Acid be diluted with 20 volumes of water and a little gelatinized starch be added, at least 14 C. c. of the volumetric solution of iodine should be required, before a permanent blue tint is developed. This process is practically the same as that of the former revision, and with the present improvements in detail it leaves nothing to be desired. The description and tests are, however, much extended and improved, as they needed to be; but for some unknown reason the Committee has reduced the strength of the preparation nearly onehalf. In the previous revisions, for twenty years, the strength has been about 6.4 p.c. while now it is reduced to about 3.5 p.c. This is evidently not a mistake, since the change is duly noted in the Table of changes of strength at page 455; but the writer has never seen any reason given for the change. It is quite as easy to make it of the former officinal strength as the latter, and the precautions necessary to adjust the strength and to keep it unchanged are the same in both strengths. It is an article of extensive use, for a great many different purposes, and hence it goes into a great many channels beyond those of the Pharmacopoeia, and in which the Pharmacopoeia is not known, and its uses for twenty years past are based upon, and adjusted to, the former strength of 6.4 p.c. Therefore, the present change will disturb a great many, if not all of its prominent uses, and this without any reason that the writer bas seen stated. That the Committee had good reasons for the change must, of course, be assumed, but neither the writer nor any persons whom he has asked,--some members of the Committee included,— at present know why the change was made. Thus in the absence of known reasons, manufacturers who have a steady demand for the article are not likely to make the change in their product, but if they do not, or if they do, even, they should certainly give their strength upon their labels. And if they adhere to the former strength the label should not only state the strength but give a formula for reducing it from the former officinal strength to the present. The relations of the strength are such that no exact formula can be given. Each part of the 6.4 p.c. requires 0.828591+part of water to be added to reduce it to 3.5 p.c. But a more practical relation or formula is that 1 pound avoirdupois of the 6.4 p.c. strength requires 13+avoirdupois ounces of water to reduce it to 3.5 p.c., or practically 13 ounces. This makes the practical relation of 16 acid to 13 water, as the lowest expression without fractions. Therefore the physician or pharmacist who buys a one-pound bottle of the 6.4. p.c. and wants to reduce it to the present officinal strength, must transfer it to a tared bottle of sufficient size and add to it 13 avoirdupois ounces of water. As it can be made of the former strength very nearly as easily and as cheaply as of the present, the price of the lower strength will not be proportionately less, and should not be, under any circumstances, more than 25 p.c. less,-it will be to the interest of all dispensers and consumers to buy the 6.4 p.c. and reduce it, because by this, not only in price per pound, but in bottles, freight, risk, etc., for the carrying and storing of the 13 ounces of water, there is a very considerable saving, and the requirements of the Pharmacopoeia can be as fully met as though it was bought of the officinal strength, while the other numerous and large uses of the acid, which are now so long established on the former strength, will not be disturbed. For the destruction of all the lower orders of animal and vegetable life there are few agents so simple and effective as Sulphurous Acid, and hence it is one of the best and cheapest antiseptics and disinfectants, and one which is adapted to a great many uses. Being a gas, and one that is given off freely and rapidly from all its solutions and from burning sulphur, it is capable of being made to penetrate into all air spaces wherever germs and foul gases can go. It is, therefore, an excellent deodorizer as well as a disinfectant, and one of easy application, but must always be used in sufficient quantity to be effective, and when in sufficient quantity,-like chlorine gas,-it renders the air irrespirable. It must not be forgotton that in its action it is converted into sulphuric acid by oxidation, and that this acid is corrosive and destructive; and also that sulphurous acid is a powerful bleaching agent and often destroys the colors of fabrics, wall-papers, frescoes, ete. In the treatment of all diseases of parasitic origin it is unfailing if applied properly and of sufficient strength. END OF VOLUME I. |