GLEANINGS FROM THE FRENCH JOURNALS.

BY THE EDITOR.

Strong Liquid Glue.-M. Knaff (Jour. de Pharm., Mai, 1868) gives the following recipe for a liquid glue: Take 3 parts of good glue reduced to little fragments, cover it with 8 parts of water, and allow it to remain during some hours; then add half a part of chlorohydric acid and three-fourths of a part of sulphate of zinc, and expose the whole during ten or twelve hours to a temperature of 178° to 189° F. A mixture is thus obtained which does not gelatinize, which keeps well, and is very convenient for pasting.

Santonin Lozenges.-M. Guyot Dannecy (Jour. de Pharm., Mai, 1868) has observed that when these lozenges are prepared with the santonin in crystals, unpowdered, they are nearly tasteless. In avoiding all trituration in the process of mixing the ingredients, the patient takes them without repugnance; but when, on the contrary, the santonin is powdered in a glass or porcelain mortar, the lozenges are very bitter and disagreeable.

Perfumes.-M. Stanislaus Martin, in a letter to the Societé de Pharmacie (Proces- Verbal, Avril 1er, 1868), remarks on the use of perfumes in ancient and modern times as follows:

Perfumes played a grand part among the ancients. They were esteemed among the Greeks; in the East they were em. ployed in all their sacrifices; and among the Gauls the Druids perfumed their altars with the labiateous plants, resinous woods and juniper berries.

In our day the East is one of the regions richest in odorous resins, and where an immense consumption of perfumes is made in China, Cochin China and Japan.

At Jeddo, in the numerous palaces of the Emperor, during the time of prayer they burn a wood which exhales a delicious perfume, but the name of the tree is unknown, because it has so many synonyms. The essential oil of this wood, of which I have the honor to present a specimen to the Society, has a sweet, tenacious odor, is rapidly diffused, and is excessively dear. M. Chardin Hadancourt, well known for his skilful knowledge of perfumes, has been unable to assign it a place among those already known.

So far, botanists have found but two vegetables which furnish camphor in quantity sufficient for its extraction, the Camphora officinarum, and the Dryabalanops camphora, which grows in Sumatra.

The Chinese gather it on another plant, where it collects under the form of little clots at the bases of the leaves and at the bottom of the corolla.

The odor of this camphor differs but little from that of ordinary camphor, nevertheless it possesses some peculiarity when rubbed between the fingers.

This camphor is so scarce that its price equals nearly that of gold. The Emperor and the mandarins only enjoy the luxury of its use on their persons. If it could be imitated it would be

a source of wealth.

Manufacture of tartaric acid from the mare of grapes. -The only source heretofore utilized for obtaining tartaric acid is the lées of wine casks. Messrs. Inette & Ponteves propose to employ the marc of the grape, and by the following process to remove the acid from the tartrate of lime it contains:

The pressed marc is submitted to an ebullition of some hours with about two per cent. of sulphuric acid, with the intention of liberating the tartaric acid; a portion of cellulose is transformed into glucose, and as the marc contains nearly always some sugar which has escaped fermentation, the liquid may be fermented, and alcohol obtained from it by distillation. The residue is saturated with lime, which produces the tartrate of lime, from which the tartaric acid is separated by known processes. The quantity of marc yielded by a million hectolitres of wine can, according to the authors, produce 200,000 kilogrammes (437,000 lbs.) of tartaric acid; the marcs of the south of Europe contain 3 to 4 per cent. of tartrate of lime.

It sometimes happens that the presence of magnesia or pectinous matters interfere with the decomposition of tartrate of lime by the sulphuric acid. It is then preferable to treat the marc with an alkaline carbonate, in the manner to produce carbonate of lime and an alkaline tartrate. To effect this double decomposition the marc is suspended in four or five times its weight of water, and a quantity of carbonate of soda added, so that

after three hours' ebullition the liquor shall be neutral; then by decanting the liquor, on standing it soon crystallizes.-Rèpert. de Pharmacie, Mai, 1868.

Compound syrup of coffee.-M. N. Severin, pharmacien of Brussels, to gratify a wish that he would give the formula for his anti-rheumatic and gout syrup of green coffee and ash leaves, has published the following in Bull. Soc. Pharm. Bruxelles: Take of Mocha coffee (in its raw state) 40 troy ounces. Ash tree leaves (Fraxinus excelsior), 154 grains. Distilled water, q. s. (about 101 pints.)

White sugar, 261⁄2 troy ounces.

Phenic acid, liquid, 5 drops.

Pulverize the coffee, introduce it into a percolator of such size as to but half fill it, distilled water at 140° F., and maintain it at this temperature during 12 hours, and pour the liquor which passes on the sugar. Continue the percolation with distilled water at the same temperature, till the coffee is exhausted. Mix the last percolates, add the ash leaves, and evaporate until the liquid is so far reduced as to make with the first dense liquid and sugar a pint of syrup, which is to be filtered, and, after cooling, the phenic acid added.

Anilin inks.-The several anilin colors may be used as the bases of inks, according to M. Fuchs. To prepare red, blue, green, or yellow ink, use the corresponding anilin colors of commerce, in the solid state. Take 15 parts, for example, in a well enamelled vessel, and add 150 parts of strong alcohol; allow them to stand three hours, then add 1000 parts of rain or distilled water, heat the whole gently during several hours, until the odor of alcohol is dissipated, add then about 60 parts of gum arabic dissolved in 250 parts of water, and strain. As the anilin colors of commerce vary a great deal in quality, the amount of dilution must vary with the sample used, and the shade determined by trial.-Repert. de Pharm., Mai, 1868.

Sulphates in filtering paper.—M. Kruger has stated that many filtering papers of commerce contain considerable quantities of sulphates, and that it is sufficient to repass the same distilled water several times to render that liquid capable of forming a sensible precipitate with nitrate of baryta.

M. Kruger thinks that the acid enters the paper from the water used in its manufacture as sulphate of lime, because it is not probable that it would be admixed mechanically and intentionally, as is done under the name of annalin in some kinds of paper. This sulphate of lime is not derived from the chloride. of lime and sulphate of soda employed in bleaching, because no soda salt is found in these papers. Whatever be its source, it is important to guard against its presence.-Journ. de Pharm., Avril, 1868.

Bleaching of palm oil.-M. Englehart bleaches palm oil thus: Take 1000 lbs. of palm oil, heat it to 144° F. in a boiler, and let it stand over night, and next day decant it into a clean vessel and cool to 98° to 104° F. In another vessel boil 45 pounds of water, dissolve in it 15 pounds of bichromate of potassa, and when partly cooled add 60 pounds of hydrochloric acid. This solution is then mixed with the palm oil, and agitated rapidly. In five minutes the color of the mixture becomes green, owing to the reduction of the chromic acid at the expense of the coloring matter of the oil. On continuing the stirring the oxide of chrome separates, and it is sufficient to wash the oil with water to get it perfectly white.-Jour. de Pharm., Avril, 1868.

Trimethylamine in wine.-M. E. Ludwig states that the organic basic substance noticed in wine by M. Brucke he has proven to be trimethylamine, which he thinks is due to the decomposition of the ferment,-a source of this base pointed out by M. Muller. The author found this base in other qualities of wine, and inclines to consider it as a principle entering fermented liquors. M. Nickles says it has been suggested that it may exist in the grape, and arise from the animal manures used in its culture. Jour. Prakt. Chemie, and Jour. de Pharm.

Solubility of plaster of Paris in solution of sugar has been shown by M. Sostmann, and that hot concentrated syrups dissolve more than weak ones, but prolonged boiling causes a partial separation of the sulphate of lime in the scum.

On glucose in gentian root, by M. Louis Magnes.-The author has examined gentian root carefully by the cupropotassic liquid process of Barres will, and finds that commercial gentian contains,

when perfectly dried at 212° F., 15 per cent. of glucose, and it before drying retained 17 per cent. of water; so that originally, as taken in commerce, it contained 12 per cent. of glucose. The author also examined extract of gentian.

Adulterated subnitrate of bismuth.-M. Roussin, in a communication to the Society of Pharmacy of Paris, states that he had found 28 per cent. of phosphate of lime in subnitrate of bismuth. The author tests the subnitrate by dissolving 15 grains in a little nitric, or, better, muriatic acid, and adding tartaric acid. If now an excess of solution of caustic potassa be added, no precipitate will follow if the salt is pure, but if phosphate of lime is present it is precipitated.-Jour. de Pharm.

Agave a rubefacient. The pulp of the leaves constituting the bulk of agave is said to act like mustard, and has been used in veterinary medicine.-Rep. de Pharm.

New reagent for nitric acid.-M. Braun suggests the use of sulphate of anilin as a test for the presence of nitric acid. In a watch crystal he puts about a seventh of a grain of sulphuric acid, sp. gr. 1.842, and drop by drop about a fourteenth of a grain of sulphate of anilin, prepared with 10 drops of anilin of commerce, 8 grains of sulphuric acid, and 48 grains of water. Dip a glass rod in the liquid supposed to contain nitric acid, and draw it in the anilin solution; then blow on the surface, when quickly fringes of red, deepening in color with the proportion of nitric acid present, will be seen.

By the aid of this process M. Braun has easily recognized the presence of nitric acid in sulphuric acid, and in drinking waters. -Jour. de Chimie Méd., Avril, 1868.

MEANS OF RENDERING ANIMAL FAT INODOROUS AND WHOLESOME.

According to Prof. Hirzel, animal fats may be preserved in a good condition during a year without their contracting a bad odor, by mixing the recently melted fat, for example, 7 kilogrammes (143 lbs.), with 20 grams. (5 drachms) of table salt and 15 grains of alum in powder, and heating till a scum is formed on the surface, composed of coagulated albumen, membranes,