hydrogen, but by the use of sulphide of sodium it may be readily recovered; yet, unless the quantity is large, it will not pay. In working with twenty ounces of subcarbonate of bismuth it will require about six gallons of water to free the citrate of bismuth from the nitrate of potassa formed in the process, and in these washings the small portion of citrate of bismuth is found in a very dilute solution.

Boston, Mass.

NOTE ON THE CULTURE OF SAFFRON IN PENNSYLVANIA.

BY CHARLES A. HEINITSH.

Crocus Sativus.-Saffron, until the last few years, was cultivated in Lancaster County, Pa., to considerable extent, particularly amongst the German portion of its inhabitants, for its use as a flavoring and coloring ingredient in soups and tea, and as a domestic remedy for measles and other febrile diseases, besides making an ornamental flower-bed in their gardens.

Saffron requires a rich soil to grow it abundantly. The usual mode of cultivating it is to prepare the bed by digging deep and filling up with manure and rich soil, planting the corms or bulbs, after separating the young from the parent,* about eight inches apart in rows, (similar to onion sets,) in the month of August. Care is necessary to keep the beds free from weeds.

The flowering season commences about the middle of September, and continues until the beginning of October, according to the locality of the bed. The flowers are picked off early in the morning; the stigmas separated and dried in the shade. This continues every day until the season ends. The leaves remain green all winter. The following June the beds are cleansed from the decayed leaves, and left until renewing time in August.

Saffron must necessarily be dear, says Mr. Bently, in an article on adulterations published in last May's number of Journal of Pharmacy, because it takes a great number of flowers to make a pound; and there are other causes, viz., failure of

*The young corms or offshoots are attached similar to colchicum.

crops from excessive rains or drought, and attacks of the field mice, which destroy the bulbs. But withal, when we remember that all our products of the garden and farm are liable to failures from various causes, though probably not to such an extent, I think it can be profitably raised, judging from the following two calculations, taken as an average :-On inquiry from some of the growers, one informed me that about 3,000 flowers, or 9,000 stigmas, can be raised off a bed 12x6 feet 72 square feet. Another, that often in a good season between 2,000 and 3,000 flowers can be had in one morning's picking off about 500 square feet, and this continues for a number of mornings, though not always with so large a number. These two make about the average result of experienced growers.

=

In counting and weighing the stigmas, I find, after several trials, that 300 weigh 13 to 14 grains, which would be a yield of about 420 grains to 72 square feet, or 33 to 36 pounds to an acre. If these calculations only approximate to correctness, at present prices it will be very remunerative to the grower in comparison with many other products.

Specimens of the stigmas and corms are submitted.
Lancaster, Pa.

-Proc. Amer. Pharm. Assoc. 1866.

METALLIC LEAD IN FLOUR.

BY JAMES T. KING.

Within a radius of five miles of Phillipsburgh, near Middletown, Orange Co., N. Y., there occurred, during the months of February, March and April last, about two hundred and fifty cases of sickness, presenting the same symptoms, attacking often all members of a family, and for a while baffling the efforts of physicians to detect the cause; for notwithstanding the symptoms pointed strongly to lead poison, no family would admit the use of anything by which lead might have been taken into the system, in their food or drink.

The physicians' suspicions soon rested on the flour used for bread, and a sample was brought in, with the request that it be examined for lead.

The absence of all soluble salts of lead was first ascertained.

The flour was then examined with a microscope, and minute particles of a dark metallic lustre were observed. These were dissolved in dilute nitric acid, filtered, and divided into three parts. Iodide of potassium added to first, caused a bright yellow precipitate.

Chromate of potassa added to second, gave a yellow precipitate, soluble in potassa, but insoluble in dilute nitric acid.

Sulphuretted hydrogen was passed through the third part, causing a black precipitate, these reactions indicating lead.

By quantitative analysis I obtained 06 per cent. of sulphate of lead, equivalent to 0528 per cent. of neutral carbonate lead, which is equivalent to 041 per cent. of the metal. This would give 2.87 grains of metallic lead to one pound av. of flour.

The flour used in all of the families who were thus affected by lead was traced to one mill at Phillipsburgh, and on investigation, it was ascertained that a few weeks previous to the occurrence of these cases of lead poisoning, the miller had filled a number of the cavities in the burr-stone with metallic lead, some of them being quite large, and requiring several ounces of metal.

The burr-stones used in flouring mills are made of from 10 to 14 pieces or sections, firmly bound together, and the joints cemented with calcined plaster.

They are more or less porous, and by the necessary attrition, or wearing down of the surface of the stone in grinding, cavities are exposed, varying in capacity from a few minims to a fluidounce or more. These being filled flush with the surface of the stone, the lead must have gradually worn down, and fine particles became mixed with the flour; but from the percentage in the sample examimed, it is probable that some of the lead became detached, and was ground into fine thin scales, sufficiently minute to pass through the bolt-cloth and mingle with the flour. This finely comminuted lead, submitted to the action of the carbonic acid, generated during the process of fermentation in preparing the flour for baking, would, in a great measure, be converted into the carbonate, one of the most poisonous salts of lead. The knowledge of the use of lead for such purpose, and of its injurious action, caused quite general inquiries to be made as to a like use of lead in other flouring mills in the vicinity, and a number were found where more or less lead was used.

One object in submitting this statement is to direct attention. to this heretofore unsuspected contamination of an important article of food; and if the practice is but in part followed throughout the country, will not this hidden source of disease aid in accounting for the increased ratio of paralysis noticed by medical men?

Middletown, N. Y.

A DISCOURSE ON TITLES, ETC.

BY EDWARD PARRISH.

By the public acts of this Association and of the several Colleges of Pharmacy, we have repeatedly asserted our claim to the title of a Profession-the Profession of Pharmacy;-but the public, for whom we labor and from whom we claim the fruits of our labor, are no doubt variously impressed with the justness of this claim according to their appreciation of us individually, and their understanding of the term Profession as thus applied.

Do we make good our claim by corresponding actions? The so-called profession of medicine has a well recognized status in the community; it has been for centuries placed in a separate and quite distinguished niche in the social edifice. Doctors were long expected to appear in broadcloth, with well polished shoes,. clean soft hands and well shaven chins. They must carry themselves with a genteel and professional air, and converse in good English with some show of classic lore.

The professional intercourse of such with the public is somewhat reserved; guided by rules of ethics that shut them out in good degree from the ordinary effects of competition, they sit in closed offices, approachable only by a knock or ring at the bell. Neither trafficking in merchandize nor creating material products, their commodities are knowledge and skill, and they exact fees rather in proportion to their reputation than the amount of labor bestowed.

In which of these points, brethren of the pestle and mortar, do we resemble these professional men par excellence? As we look over our Conventions, do we recognize that odor of gentility,.

that professional air, which in popular estimation would entitle us to range with these distinguished classes?

I admit that in regard to dress and manners the old-fashioned distinction to which I have alluded has in good degree disappeared with the progress of civilization and refinement, and he must be ignorant indeed who would found any classification of his fellow citizens upon such unmeaning particulars.

Language furnishes a rather higher grade of distinction, generally giving some clue, if not to the extent and variety of education, at least to early domestic training and culture, yet who has not known most esteemed doctors of the law, of medicine and even of divinity, who have misused and mispronounced the plainest words, and have talked as unpolished English as an ordinary tradesman or mechanic?

The truth is that now-a-days the masses are being brought up in general education and refinement where the learned professions were two generations ago, and if asked to select models of intelligent, influential and even cultivated men we should probably find almost as many in mercantile circles and among master mechanics, bankers, financiers and business men as among those formerly characterized as of the learned professions.

A long recognized difference between the professional man and tradesman has been adverted to in the fact that the former deals in ideas and opinions, and is approached through some formality in a dwelling or office, while the latter, to use the familiar phrase of the English, keeps open shop, buying and selling merchandize for a profit.

If we were to picture a preparer and dispenser of medicines who should justify the public estimate of a strictly professional man we might fit him out somewhat as follows: He should have a neat suit of rooms in a building having no aspect of a shop, no bulk windows or show cases. On entering the reception room the patron should be shown to a seat, furnished with suitable reading matter during the necessary detention. The prescription to be compounded should be taken to the laboratory adjoining, duly registered and prepared. Any medicine or medicinal appliance which should be sought without a physician's prescription could be furnished to order, or might be the subject of con