218 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



deposited from corrosive liquids is obvious. The gun cotton employed by 

 Boettger is probably that obtained by the action on cotton of the strongest 

 sulphuric and nitric acids, as that prepared by weaker acids, or by sulphuric 

 acid and saltpetre, is soluble in. a variety of agents. SiUiinan's Journal. 



PREPARATION OF SOLUBLE SPICES. 



Among the most curious of the modern discoveries in chemistry are the 

 methods of producing, from highly noxious and offensive materials, com- 

 pounds which possess the properties of the most agreeable flavors and 

 essences, and which serve in actual use as substitutes for the preparations 

 before made from fruits and flowers. At the present time, some of the 

 choicest extracts for culinary purposes are produced from the fetid fusel oil, 

 which is separated from crude brandies and whiskies in the process of recti- 

 fication, and the most delicious perfumes from substances extracted from 

 the coal-tar of the gas-works, and even from still more offensive products. 



A peculiar disgusting compound of sulphur and carbon, obtained as a 

 liquid by condensing the vapor of sulphur after passing it over red hot 

 charcoal, and known as sulphuret of carbon, has long been known as a 

 powerful solvent of India-rubber, for which purpose it has of late years been 

 manufactured in large quantities. It is distinguished for its pungent taste, 

 and a peculiar fetid odor, due to the sulphureted hydrogen which adheres to 

 it. This compound has recently come into use in France, under a patent of 

 M. Boniere, of Rouen, for making what he designates soluble spices, and 

 other soluble preparations of food. By means of it he dissolves out the 

 active principles of the spices, and also of other strongly flavored articles 

 used as condiments, such as garlic, onions, shallot, and various fruits, and 

 causing these to be taken up by some inert body, as gum, sugar of milk, 

 common salt, or other substance adapted to the particular extract, he pre- 

 pares them for the use of the table, putting them up in vessels intended to 

 be placed upon consoles or etageres, and made attractive by the taste 

 displayed in their ornamentation. 



In his process the first object is to purify and deodorize the sulphuret of 

 carbon. This is done in a peculiar distilling apparatus ; the liquid as it enters 

 the first still, falling upon a concentrated solution of caustic potash, or of 

 soft sulphate of lead, heated to 140 or 145 Fahrenheit. The vapor then 

 passes successively to other stills, each of which contains solutions of some 

 compounds with an alkaline or metallic base, as of potash, salts of lead, 

 iron, copper, etc., or of barytes. It then condenses in the worm of the still, 

 and is collected under distilled water in a small glass vessel. The sulphuret 

 can also be rectified by simply bringing it in contact with concentrated solu- 

 tions of the chemical reagents named, and decanting it successively from 

 these many times. When rectified, the disagreeable smell of sulphureted 

 hydrogen has entirely disappeared, and an ethereal product is obtained, 

 somewhat resembling chloroform in its odor, and possessing solvent pro- 

 perties far superior to the impure commercial article, and leaving no trace 

 after evaporation. It is then ready for the preparation of soluble spices, 

 which, as in the case of pepper, for example, is conducted as follows : The 

 spice being ground to powder, is put in iron wire cages, with sheet-iron 

 bottoms. These cages being set in a cylindrical vessel to which they are 

 fitted, the purified sulphuret of carbon is admitted through the bottom of the 

 outer cylinder, and, flowing up through, the cages, dissolves out the active 



