Source. - Made by dropping Glycerine into a mixture of Sulphuric and Nitric Acids, washing, and evaporating to a proper density.

Characters. - An oily liquid, colourless, odourless, with a sweet pungent taste. Specific gravity, 1.60. Slightly soluble in water; freely in fats, oil, alcohol, and ether. Highly explosive, and, when mixed with infusorial earth, constitutes dynamite. Never used in the pure state.

Preparation.

Liquor Nitroglycerine. - 1 gr. in 100 min. of rectified spirit. Dose, 1/2 to 2 min.; in water, or as a chocolate tablet.

Action And Uses

This powerful substance closely resembles in its action the nitrites of amyl and soda; its activity being apparently due to nitrous acid formed by its decomposition within the body. It is used for the same class of cases, such as angina pectoris, chronic heart disease, sea-sickness, and asthma and other spasmodic disorders.