MISTURA AMYGDALARUM.—Being a work of some hour or so’s duration to prepare the almond emulsion ab initio, it has been usual to keep the ingredients in the form of paste, from a proportionate quantity of which the mixture is made when required. The paste does not keep, becoming musty and sometimes exceedingly hard. I have therefore adopted the plan of keeping the almonds already bleached and well dried, in which state they do not undergo any change and thus is made all the preparation that can be, to expedite the process.
LIQ. ARSENIT. POTASS.—On taking up, the other day, a shop bottle in which Fowler’s solution had been kept for some half a score or dozen of years, I perceived it to exhale a strong garlicky odor characteristic of free metallic arsenic. On examining the bottle which is of the ordinary flint glass, the inner surface presented the appearance of being coated or rather corroded, and having a metallic lustre so far up as the bottle was generally occupied by the solution, and in the upper part several specks were visible, of the same character, as if they had been produced by the sublimation of the corrosive agent. The coating was not affected by any amount of friction nor by alkalies but was slowly dissolved by acetic acid, from which iodide of potassium threw down a precipitate of iodide of lead.—Deeming, therefore, the decomposition to have arisen from the lead contained in the flint glass I have since then kept the solution in green glass bottles.
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LIQUOR MAGNESIÆ CITRATIS. THOS. S. WIEGAND, PHILADELPHIA.
The attention which has been given to this article by pharmaceutists, both on account of its pleasantness and its great tendency to change, has induced me to offer the following observations.
The advantage of the plan proposed is that a perfectly satisfactory article can be furnished in five or eight minutes, thus rendering unnecessary any attempt to make the preparation permanent at the expense of its remedial value. That this is the manner in which the public are supplied, save at stores where large quantities are sold, there can be but little doubt, from the experiments of Professor Proctor of Philadelphia, detailed in the 23rd volume of the American Journal of Pharmacy, p.p. 214 and 216, which show conclusively that a permanent solution of citrate of magnesia must be a decidedly acid one.
Another method for making a soluble citrate has been devised by Dorvault, which is published in his treatise, entitled “L’officine;” but from certain difficulties in manipulation his process cannot come into very general use.
The formula offered is—
Take, of carbonate of magnesia, in powder, five drachms, boiling water five fluid ounces, throw the magnesia upon the water in a shallow vessel, when thoroughly mixed, pour five sixths of the pulp into a strong quart bottle, fitted with cork and string for tying down; then make a solution of seven and a half drachms of citric acid in two fluid ounces of water, pour it into the magnesia mixture, cork and tie down immediately; when the solution has been effected (which will require but a minute and a half, or two minutes,) empty it into a bottle capable of holding twelve fluid ounces, containing two fluid ounces of syrup of citric acid, add the remaining pulp of carbonate of magnesia, nearly fill the bottle with water, and cork instantly, {133} securing it with twine or wire; if the carbonate be of good quality it will be entirely dissolved in seven minutes.