[Footnote A:  100 c.c. water; 10 c.c. alcohol; 10 gr. pyrogallol; 1 gr. salicylic acid.]

The sensitiveness with this developer is at least equal to that when iron developer is used, frequently even greater.

The addition of bromides is superfluous, sometimes injurious.  Bromides in quantities, as added to ammoniacal pyro, would reduce the sensitiveness to 1/10 or 1/20; will even retard the developing power almost entirely.

Must a restrainer be resorted to, 1 to 3 min. of a 1:10 solution of potassium bromide is quite sufficient.

* * * * *

THE PREPARATION OF LARD FOR USE IN PHARMACY.

[Footnote:  Read at an evening meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, November 7, 1883.]

By Professor Redwood.

I have read with much, interest the paper on “Ointment Bases,” communicated by Mr. Willmott to the Pharmaceutical Conference at its recent meeting, but the part of the subject which has more particularly attracted my attention is that which relates to prepared lard.  Reference is made by Mr. Willmott to lard prepared in different ways, and it appears from the results of his experiments that when made according to the process of the British Pharmacopoeia it does not keep free from rancidity for so long a time as some of the samples do which have been otherwise prepared.  The general tendency of the discussion, as far as related to this part of the subject, seems to have been also in the same direction; but neither in the paper nor in the discussion was the question of the best mode of preparing lard for use in pharmacy so specially referred to or fully discussed as I think it deserves to be.

When, in 1860, Mr. Hills, at a meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society, suggested a process for the preparation of lard, which consisted in removing from the “flare” all matter soluble in water, by first thoroughly washing it in a stream of cold water after breaking up the tissues and afterward melting and straining the fat at a moderate heat, this method of operating seemed to be generally approved.  It was adopted by men largely engaged in “rendering” fatty substances for use in pharmacy and for other purposes for which the fat was required to be as free as possible from flavor and not unduly subject to become rancid.  It became the process of the British Pharmacopoeia in 1868.  In 1869 it formed the basis of a process, which was patented in Paris and this country by Hippolite Mege, for the production of a fat free from taste and odor, and suitable for dietetic use as a substitute for butter.  Mege’s process consists in passing the fat between revolving rollers, together with a stream of water, and then melting at “animal heat.”  This process has been used abroad in the production of the fatty substance called oleomargarine.

But while there have been advocates for this process, of whom I have been one, opinions have been now and then expressed to the effect that the washing of the flare before melting the fat was rather hurtful than beneficial.  I have reason to believe that this opinion has been gaining ground among those who have carefully inquired into the properties of the products obtained by the various methods which have been suggested for obtaining animal fat in its greatest state of purity.