middle of the day presented a scene of the most varied and interesting character, embracing as it did so many useful and curious arts and processes, from the plaiting of straw and the cutting of corks to the finest processes of the jeweller, watchmaker and lapidary. The seventh group consisted of food, fresh or preserved in various states, such as the cereal grains, bread, pastry, fats, milk, eggs, meat, fish, condiments, sugar and fermented drinks. The eighth group consisted of farm buildings, models and agricultural works, live stock, including horses, asses, mules, bulls, buffaloes, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, poultry, &c. The ninth group related chiefly to horticultural buildings, and products. The tenth, various articles exhibited with the special object of improving the physical and moral condition of the people, as apparatus used in instruction, improvements in furniture, clothing, dwellings, books, etc., having this object in view. To get space for the immense number of articles sent that the main structure would not contain, numerous out-buildings were erected at the expense of the different countries wishing to occupy them, space being apportioned to each, and some of the most interesting processes and objects were to be found in isolated paths and avenues. In fact the visitor required a week to get a reasonably correct impression of the localities before any systematic examination of the Exhibition could be accomplished. The official catalogue, containing a mere enumeration of the articles deposited without any description, and not including many introduced later, embraces more than a thousand closely printed pages, while the special catalogues, gotten up by each country of any prominence, make a pile of voluminous pamphlets perfectly discouraging to any attempt at condensation. The objects of special interest to the pharmaceutist are so limited, when compared with the entire collection, that it has been thought feasible to give a few pages to their notice, and in the coming numbers we propose to introduce a few articles in continuation of this letter. W. P., JR. ON TINCTURA PHYSOSTIGMÆ, BY WILLIAM PROCTER, JR. The tincture of Calabar bean (Physostigma venenosum) is occasionally prescribed in Philadelphia, and, not having seen a formula, the following is offered as affording the active constituents of this new remedial agent: Take of Calabar beans, a troy ounce, Alcohol, seven fluidounces, Water, three fluidounces. Reduce the beans to a fine powder in the mortar, mix the alco hol and water, moisten the powder with half a fluidounce of this menstruum, pack it in a conical tube (the neck of a broken retort), and pour on the remainder of the liquid until eight fluidounces have passed. Should the menstruum indicated not be sufficient, add more, until the measure of half a pint is obtained. When needed to calabarize paper, evaporate two fluid ounces to the measure of three fluidrachms with a gentle heat, and when cold filter. This solution is about equal to that recommended by Mr. Hanbury (Pharm. Journ., July, 1863), and the paper (which should be thin letter paper deprived of its size by boiling in water) is dipped in it and dried three or four times, which will impregnate the paper with a sufficient amount of the extract to perform the needed service when applied within the eyelid. GLEANINGS CHEMICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL. Production of an alkaloid during the alcoholic fermentation. By M. Oser.-In fermenting sugar with washed yeast M. Oser obtained, besides alcohol, an alkaloid to which he attributes the formula C26H20N4. The chlorohydrate of this alkaloid crystallizes in hygroscopic scales, becomes brown in the air, and possesses a pungent bitter taste. The author is assured that this alkaloid does not pre-exist in the yeast, but that it is formed during the fermentation. Attention has already been directed to the presence of trimethylamin in wine (see page 333).-Journ. de Pharm., from Journ. Prakt. Chem. Atropia an antidote to Opium Poisoning.-Dr. M. S. Buttles, of N. York, notices a case in the N. Y. Medical Record, for Aug. 15, in which opium poisoning was caused by the sub-cutaneous injection of half a grain of sulphate of morphia in a bad neuralgia. The lips became purple, the respiration seven per minute, no pulse at the wrist, but one sound at the heart; pupils contracted to a fine point, frothing at the mouth and cold extremities. The usual resuscitating remedies were tried, and among them artificial respiration, without avail, when Dr. Charles A. Budd suggested the hypodermic application of sulphate of atropia, 1-60th of a grain of which was injected after breathing had ceased, and in fifteen minutes she showed signs of life, the pupils began very slightly to dilate, and in ten minutes more she began to breathe and the respiration rose to 12 per minute. The dose was repeated in half an hour, consciousness returned in fifty minutes, and the patient is now living. Pharmacy in Tuscany.—The practice of pharmacy in Tuscany has been the subject of action of a government commission, charged with the care of the new sanitary code adopted in the kingdom of Italy. The practice is left free to competition in principle, but under the double guarantee of the diploma and governmental surveillance. This restriction to absolute liberty, such as it exists in England, appears to be in accord with public opinion, and does not favor the encroachments and inconveniences of the illicit sale of pharmaceutical products.—Gaz. Med., and Rep. de Pharm. Naphthaline to repel insects.-M. Eugene Pelouse proposes to employ naphthaline to protect plants from insects. It does not act as an insecticide, but is so disagreeable to them as to cause them to leave a plant upon which it is sprinkled. It is used in very small quantities and said to be very effectual.-Jour. de Chim. Med. Paraffine as a lubricant for machinery-The need of a lubricant for machinery with heated surfaces has caused a substance of the paraffin class, mélène (Cso Ho), to be suggested for this purpose by M. A. Monnet. It is volatile at 370° C. without change, has the consistence of wax ordinarily, but soon softens by the friction, and when it is much heated it is very fluid and unctious.-Jour. de Chim. Méd. Paraffin to protect vessels in crystallizing.-M. Franz. Stolba, of Prague, suggest the use of paraffin as a coating to vessels of glass or porcelain when these are attacked by certain liquids to be set aside for crystallization. The paraffin is put into the capsules, previously well dried and heated till it commences to boil; the vessels are then turned about so as to bring the paraffin in contact with the whole of the interior surface and then empty out the surplus. After cooling it is found to hold well, and the vessels are ready for use; of course the solutions to be crystallized must not be heated, but left to spontaneous or vacuum evaporation. Jour. de Chim. Méd., Aout., 1868. Lotion of glycerin and cantharides for the hair. Take of aromatic spirit of ammonia 15 drams troy. 8 66 66 2 to 4 66 20 ounces 66 "Mix. Tincture of cantharides from Distilled rosemary water To be applied to the roots of the hair by rubbing in small quantities once or twice a day to stimulate the growth.-Jour. de Chim. Méd., Aout., 1868. Prussian justice for adulterating medicines.-On the 23d of June, the court of justice at Berlin rendered judgment against a Prussian pharmacien, named Coehn, for furnishing bad medicines to the Prussian Army when in Austria, condemning him to five years imprisonment, a fine of 1000 thalers, suspension from his civil rights for six years and the loss of his license (concession) as a pharmacien. Solution of Vleminckx for the itch. This liquid, recommended by Vleminckx, is a solution of sulphuret of calcium made as follows: Mix and boil until reduced to twelve pounds and filter. The medicine is employed as follows:-The patient is put in a warm bath and remains there half an hour, then all the parts affected by the itch are rubbed with a piece of flannel dipped in the solution as above; and the patient returned to the bath for half an hour. The next day this treatment is repeated, and usually is sufficient to cure. Professor Hébra, for women and persons with delicate skins, often employs the following mixture: Petroleum oil (Seneka oil), Balsam of Peru, a drachm, Oil of rosemary, Oil of lavander, Oil of lemon, of each 22 grains. Mix. This physician employs the solution of Vleminckx for psoriasis, prurigo and sycosis.-Bull. Ther. et Jour. de Chim. Med. WHAT IS OPIUM? BY DR. F. A. FLÜCKIGER, OF BERN. This question, in our days, will certainly be looked at as perfectly idle, both by practical pharmaceutists and chemists. The drug, indeed, is well known, and has been universally used since the earliest time, in fact for twenty centuries at least; while to no other product of the vegetable kingdom has so astonishing an amount of excellent chemical research been devoted since the days of that glorious discovery of a modest Hanoverian Apotheker, who the first evolved the idea that there are bodies existing which are thoroughly analogous to ammonia or potash, yet composed of organic elements. Every one looking over the rich chemical literature of opium published from the time of Sertürner (1816) to the recent delicate investigations of Smith of Edinburgh or Hesse of Stuttgart, may well be satisfied with a mass of analytical facts so interesting, useful and complete. The present text-books, indeed, display a very satisfactory knowledge of this important drug, albeit they leave a little doubt regarding some of its numerous constituents. Yet, I venture to say, that science is far from having an exact idea of the nature of opium. The endeavors of so many eminent chemists having failed to supply a thorough acquaintance with the drug, I cannot hope to fill up at once this defect, but merely wish to make it evident, and to contribute some facts concerning the composition of opium, which have escaped the attention of former investigators. Opium contains a dozen of more or less decidedly alkaline bodies, among which morphine and narcotine occur in the largest proportion. The former constitutes very rarely more than 20 per cent. of the dried drug and usually not more than 12 to 15 |