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 134+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, etc. In the treatment of all diseases of parasitic origin it is unfailing if applied properly and of sufficient strength. END OF VOLUME I. Casamajor, Oil of Wintergreen in Rheumatism. see Discussion, etc. 103 21 268 214 86 164 145 326 141 31 Crude Carbolic Acid, No. 1 and No. 2..... Crystallization of Solution of Subsulphate of Iron.... D Dead Oil... 327 Death from Aconitia 199 Dextrose, Testing for by Fehling's Solution. 387 216 Diluted Acetic Acid 264 66. Hydrobromic Acid.. 365 |