The fourth sample, when agitated with water, became slightly turbid, and dissolved. It was colorless, had an ethereal odor, and the sp. gr. was .844. This also burned with a _blue_ flame. The price of this worthless article was $6,50 per pound. It was labelled “Ol. Vini Pur,” and bore also the name of the _London_ manufacturer.
It may be well to remark, that the officinal oil of wine, when agitated with water, separates and falls to the bottom, being heavier than water, whence its name. The sp. gr. of the pure oil is not less than 1.05, and it has a yellow color.
The labels on the third and fourth samples above mentioned, are alone not sufficient evidence to prove that they were _imported_, but, in addition to the label, I was informed that one of them _was recently imported_, and also that the manufacturing Chemists in this country do not make or sell the oil of wine.—In view of this statement (if true) the question naturally arises: How did the above worthless articles pass the Custom House under the existing law for “the prevention of the importation of spurious and adulterated drugs?”
I have examined another sample which is not offered for sale as oil of wine, but as it has properties resembling more nearly the officinal oil than either of the four samples above mentioned, it might possibly be confounded with the oil of wine. This sample had an agreeable _vinous odor_, and a _yellow_ color.—When agitated with water a considerable quantity of oil separated, which was _lighter_ than water. A portion of the original oil, distilled in a glass retort with a thermometer passed through a cork, inserted into the tubulare, gave about half its bulk of a colorless liquid below 180º F., which proved to be alcohol containing a small quantity of acetic ether and œnanthic ether.—The residue left in the retort had the properties of a mixture of œnanthic ether and œnanthic acid. The above article has been, extensively used (in connection with acetic ether) for the { 67} manufacture of factitious brandy, and is sold for about $1,50 per ounce.
After having tested samples of all the different articles offered for sale under the name of “oil of wine” by the wholesale Druggists in New York, without being able to find either of them worthy of the name, I prepared a little for my own use, by the following process, which is that of the London Pharmacopœia: