A translation of the Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1836 : with notes and illustrations / by Richard Phillips.

  • Royal College of Physicians of London.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A translation of the Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1836 : with notes and illustrations / by Richard Phillips. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    NOTES. It lias been deemed proper to add short notes, relating chiefly to the chemical preparations, by which their pu- rity may, as nearly as possible, be ascertained. This, for the most part, is less necessary with vegetable and animal substances, and is also attended with more difficulty. For although the peculiar character of each plant and animal is sufficiently defined in books on botany and zoology, yet the extracts from them and the weaker preparations are frequently so much altered in taste, colour, and smell, that they cannot be distinguished by any certain sign, or be briefly described. ♦ AcETUM. Vinegar.—A yellowish liquor, of a peculiar odour, a fluidounce of which is^aturated.bj a drachm of crystallized carbonate of soda. Solution of chloride of barium being added, the sulphate of barytes precipitated does not exceed 1*14 grain. Hydrosulphuric acid being added, its colour is not altered. Heniarlis.—The strongest vinegar contains 5 per cent, of real acetic acid; usually it does not exceed 4'6 per cent.; a fluid- ounce weighs about 446 grains, saturating, when of the strength last mentioned, 58 grains of carbonate of soda ; and two grains of it, making up the drachm, are allowed for saturatmg tlie sul- phuric acid permitted to be mixed with the vinegar, and for de- composing the sulphates of the water used in vinegar-making: the 1*14 gi'ain of sulphate of barytes is derived from the same sources, and proves that too much sulphuric acid has not been used. The non-action of hydrosulphuric acid demonstrates the absence of most metallic oxides. . AcETUM Destillatum. Distilled Vinegar.—Totally vaporized by heat. No precipitate is formed on the ad- dition of acetate of lead, nitrate of silver, nor iodide of potassium. Neither hydrosulphuric acid nor annnonia alters its colour. After the digestion of a plate of silver in it, hydrochloric acid occasions no precipitation. Thir- teen grains of the'crystals of carbonate of soda are satu- rated by 100 grains of distilled vinegar.