70 Scientific Intelligence. [JAn. 
If we admit that at least one half of the drowned persons 
underwent a voluntary death, the number of suicides in 1817 will 
amount to 335, or to more than six every week. 
In 1808, 1809, 1810, the annual. number of suicides. was from 
50-to 55. This number has increased progressively smce 1812. 
V. Saffron supposed to prevent Sea Sickness. 
M. Cadet, who spent part of the summer of 1817 in London, 
mentions that when he crossed the channel from Calais to Dover, 
he observed an English gentleman with a bag of saffron sus- 
ended over his stomach. On inquiring the reason, he was 
told by the gentleman that it was a practice which he always 
followed when crossing the channel, because it preserved him 
from sea sickness. The remedy was found out, he said, in the 
following way. A small merchant, who had occasion to make 
frequent voyages, was always tormented with sea sickness when 
on ship-board. One day he embarked, after purchasing a pound 
of saffron, which he put under his shirt in order to avoid paying 
duty for it. He escaped without experiencing any sea sickness, 
though the sea was rough. Ascribing this lucky escape to the 
saffron, he communicated his discovery to several of his friends, 
who made repeated trials of the remedy, and always with success. 
I have translated the above passage from the Journ. de Pharm. 
July, 1817, p. 335, though far from implicitly believing that 
saffron is likely to cure this hitherto curable malady ; but that 
the alleged cure may be generally known, and that its efficacy 
may be tried by those who have occasion for the remedy. 
VI. Purification of Platinum. 
The Marquis of Ridolfi has proposed a method of purifying 
platinum, which seems worth the attention of those who have 
occasion for platinum vessels. for the purposes of manufacture, as 
it would materially diminish the price of that expensive metal. 
It is obvious that the platinum will not be obtained quite free 
from lead ; but it is not probable that the small portion of that 
metal still left in it would render it injurious to the sulphuric 
acid makers, who are the manufacturers that chiefly employ 
platinum upon a great scale. 
Ridolfi separates mechanically such foreign bodies as can be 
detected by the eye in crude platinum. He then washes it in 
dilute muriatie acid, The next step of the process is to fuse the 
crude metal with four times its weight of lead, and to throw the 
melted alloy into cold water. Itis then pulverized, mixed. with 
its own weight of sulphur, and thrown into a hessian crucible 
previously heated to whiteness. A cover is placed on the 
crucible, and it is kept at a red heat for 10 minutes. When 
allowed to eool, a brilliant metallie buttom is found under the 
scone, composed of platinum, lead, and sulphur. A little more 
lead is added, and the alloy is. fused a second time, The sulphur. 
