The next article analysed was a blue fluid containing a considerable blue sediment, and smelling fairly strongly of terebene. The chief ingredient was found to be a blue dye stuff of the oxazine or thiazine group, much resembling methylene blue (which is the only member of these groups ordinarily used in medicine), but differing from it in solubility and in its behaviour with certain reagents. This constituted the greater part of the sediment, and a portion of the dye was also in solution. The liquid further contained a dissolved gum and a trace of terebene; these, with a little magnesium carbonate, were all the ingredients present. No trace of any alkaloid was found, and the solvent was water. The gum showed no difference from ordinary acacia gum, and was probably added to suspend the undissolved dye stuff. Water dissolves very little terebene, and no more of the latter was present than could be dissolved by the water; it was probably employed to give an aromatic taste and smell, and the magnesia was doubtless used to subdivide the terebene in the manner commonly followed by pharmacists when dissolving essential oils in water. It thus appears that the essential ingredient of this medicine is the blue dye stuff; it is possible that this has been used as methylene blue, since the articles sent out under the same name by different dye manufacturers often differ in composition; but, as already stated, it is not identical with the methylene blue usually met with. The total solids in the mixture, after shaking up the sediment, amounted to 13·2 per cent., of which the dye stuff constituted something like one-half.
A third preparation was a brown liquid of syrupy consistence found to consist of wood tar. It was a much purer product than ordinary Stockholm tar, and its peculiar odour indicated that it was derived, at least in great part, from the birch; no other ingredient could be found. This article came from Sphakia, Crete; the label bore no directions for its use, leaving it uncertain whether it was intended for internal or external use, but the latter appears the more probable.
The remaining articles are clearly intended for external application; the first of these consisted of a plaster mass, in the half-pound sticks in which such masses are usually supplied. Analysis showed the principal ingredient to be lead oleate, with a little stearate, and small quantities of resin and soap. These are the ingredients of the resin and the soap plasters of the British Pharmacopœia, and the proportion of soap present showed the specimen under examination to be emplastrum resinae.
The next preparation was an ointment of Dutch origin. It contained large quantities of ammonium alum and zinc sulphate, with a little sodium sulphate, made up into a stiff ointment with a basis consisting of beeswax, soft paraffin, oil, and resin. The quantities of the salts were approximately:
| Alum | 27 | per cent. |
| Zinc sulphate | 37 | ” |
| Sodium sulphate | 8 | ” |
The presence of so large a proportion of mineral salts, of course, leaves very little tenacity in the ointment; particles of the white salts were easily visible to the eye, and the effect of applying the preparation must be practically the same as if the dry salts were rubbed on the skin except that the basis would, of course, act as a lubricant in the rubbing.
The last of these preparations was another ointment; the mineral ingredients in this case, however, were in organic combination. This ointment contained copper oleate and aluminium oleate with a basis of lard and a little resin. The proportions of the active ingredients were approximately:
| Copper oleate | 15 | per cent. |
| Aluminium oleate | 35 | ” |
No alkaloid or other active principle was found.
A bottle of lotion for cancer and other affections, obtained in the ordinary way through a dealer, was examined. The label commences with the statement that the lotion “cures cancerous or malignant sores”; then follows a list of other diseases, with the addition, “even cases that have been under the treatment of doctors and at infirmaries for years.” Analysis showed the composition of the lotion to be substantially as follows:—