PART III'.

Alkalies and Neutral Salts.

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•water, Jour parts. Dissolve the subcarbonate in the water,and filter through part."

Aqua Carbonatis Ammoxi2E. Dub. Water of Carbonateof Ammonia.

" Take of muriate of ammonia, a pound ,■ carbonate of soda,twenty-eight ounces; water, three pints. Distil off two pints,with a fire gradually raised. The specific gravity of this li-quor is, to that of distilled water, as 1095 to 1000."

The formulae of the London and the Edinburgh Collegesfor this preparation are to be preferred, inasmuch as they ob-tain by simple solution the same result as is produced fromthe more complicated process of the other College. Thetheory of the Dublin process is the same as that of the pre-ceding preparation. The soda of the alkali employed, uniteswith the muriatic acid of the muriate, while the ammonia com-bines with the carbonic acid, and the subcarbonate of ammo-nia thus formed is volatilized, and carried over with the wa-tery vapour.

(Qualities. —This solution has the odour and taste of theconcrete subcarbonate; is limpid and colourless; and whenshaken with twice its bulk of alcohol, a nearly uniform coagu-lum is formed. Its specific gravity should be 1150.

Medical properties and uses. — The same as those of theconcrete salt. It is given in doses of from fjjfs to fjy in anybland fluid.

LIQUOR VOLATILIS CORNU CERVINI.' Dub.Volatile Liquor of Hartshorn.

" Take of hartshorn, any quantity ; put it into a retort, anddistil with a gradually raised heat, a volatile liquor, a salt,and an oil; then repeat the distillation of the volatile liquoruntil it becomes as limpid as water, separating, after eachdistillation, the oil and salt by filtration. The liquor will bemore easily purified, if, after each distillation, except the first,there be added to it one-sixth part of its weight of charcoal,previously made red hot, then extinguished by covering itwith sand, and powdered while hot. If a sufficient quantityof hartshorn cannot be procured, the bones of any land ani-mals may supply its place."

In this process the gelatine of the horns, or the bones,is decomposed, and its ultimate principles, which are carbon,nitrogen (azote), hydrogen, and oxygen, entering into newcombinations, form subcarbonate of ammonia, empyreumaticoil, and water, which are the products of the process. Thesubcarbonate is obtained partly in a solid form, and partly

' Alkali volatil fluor (F.) W'assrigler Kohlcnsaures Ammonium liquor (G.) Liquofedis eorno di Cervo {I.) '

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