Foreign Literature and Science. 389 
Take bicarbonate of soda, dry and pure, in fine powder, 
5 grammes. Very white sugar, in fine powder, 95 grammes 
Mucilage of gum adraganth,* prepared with water—q. s. es- 
sential oil of peppermint, pure and fresh, two or three drops. 
he bicarbonate of soda and the sugar are to be put into 
a yery dry bottle and thoroughly shaken, so as to mix the 
powders well together. They are ‘hen poured out and well 
mixed with the gum mucilage and oil of peppermint on a 
marble slab, and converted into pastils or drops, so that after 
being dried in the air, or by a stove, each may weigh about 
a gramme. Having a slight attraction for moisture, they 
should be preserved in bottles well stopped, or kept in a dry 
Wheeiia- desidi 23 
2 Note by the translator—By the advice of the disereet au- 
thor of the above article, the carbonic acid disengaged from 
the fountains of Vichy, is employed in saturating the alkalies, 
and thus preparing, almost without expense, the bicarbo- 
nate of soda, Some of the best shops of Paris are now sup- 
plied with the bicarbonate from that quarter. The copious 
emission of gas from the waters of Balston and Saratoga 
might easily be employed for the same purpose and in 
probability the alkaline pastils of D’Arcet be rendered as 
fashionable and useful there as at Vichy. Bat for the pur- 
pose of obtaining the alkali well charged with carbonic acid, 
a common brewer’s vat er fermenting tub, might answer as 
good a purpose, and be used as cheaply as a natural spring. 
A solution of the common carbonate of soda, suspended in 
a broad vessel over the fermenting liquors, would doubtless 
become thoroughly charged with the gaseous acid. Fre- 
quent agitation would greatly expedite it, gen 
It is further observed by M. D’Arcet, that a glass of the 
water of Vichy, (two decilitres,) contains 1 gramme of bi- 
carbonate of soda, equal to the quantity contained in 20 of 
the pastils. The patients at Vichy commonly take 5 glasses 
of water every morning, besides a bath during the day in 
the same water. Supposing, (which is not the case,) that the 
water of the bath is not absorbed, it is certain that a d ; 
at Vichy, takes in afew hours as much bi-carb. of soda as if 
he had taken 100 pastils in the same time ; bat the experi- 
ence of many ages has proved that the waters of Vichy +g 
salutary to the health. The physician of the place, M. 
Lucas, has never known that those of his patients who have 
* Tragacanth ?—Ed. 
