190 
POPULAR SCIENCE l^EWS. 
[December, 1891. 
creosote solution. To this add the cocaine solu- 
tion and mix. 
Some of the salicylic acid corn cures are simply 
a salicylic acid cerate, made by mixing one part 
of salicylic acid with eight parts of simple cerate. 
Among the corn plasters made without the use 
of salicylic acid is one composed of forty parts of 
resin cerate, forty parts of galbanum plaster, fif- 
teen parts of verdigris, Ave parts of tui-pentine 
(the oleoresin), and three parts of creosote. 
There is also in the market a corn i)laster which 
is ordinary adhesive plaster with about fifteen per 
cent, of salicylic acid and a small percentage of 
benzoin. 
Still another corn plaster is made of salicylic 
acid one part. Burgundy pitch one part, and yel- 
low wax one part. 
A caustic corn salve is made by mixing a hot 
saturated solution of caustic soda or potassa with 
twice its bulk of glycerite of starch. 
A solution for the cure of corns has been made 
by dissolving thirty grains of tannic acid in one 
ounce of a mixture of equal parts of tincture of 
iodine, acetic acid, and glycerine. 
This list could be continued for some time, but 
the above formulas will enable the energetic 
druggist to satisfy his customers and aid in filling 
his money drawers. 
THE LICORICE PLANT. 
In a report on the trade of Bussorah, Consul 
Chenevix-Trench says : 
"The great rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates, 
in the part where the licorice root is found, flow 
through fiat, treeless prairies of uncultivated and 
nearly uninhabited land, capable with irrigation 
of producing any grain. For three months of the 
year hot winds blow, and the temperature reaches 
104°. For six months the climate is moderate and 
salubrious, and for three months bleak and win- 
try, the thermometer going down to 30° at night. 
The licorice plant is a small shrub, with light 
foliage, growing to about three feet liigh invari- 
ably where its root can reach the water. It grows 
without any cultivation. No lands are leased for 
the purpose, and no objection is made to its being 
collected. It is found iu abundance from Ctesi- 
phon, twenty miles from Baghdad, down to Kut- 
ul-Anaia, 178 miles, the latter place* being half- 
way between the ports of Bussorah and Baghdad. 
It grows on red earth soil, and also on light, al- 
most sandy soil, where the wood is best, provided 
it has plenty of water and the ground is not more 
than fifty yards from the actual river or stream. 
The one firm who work it in Baghdad are Messrs. 
Zerlendi & Essayie, and it is well known that the 
business is a prosperous one. The plant is dug 
up by Arab labor, which is, generally speaking, 
plentiful, and the men can be brought by boat to 
where the plant is growing. The laborers need 
superintendence. They are paid according to the 
quantity dug. The wood, after being once dug 
up and cut, grows again better afterward. The 
time of collecting it is, generally speaking, during 
the winter, but it is possible all the year round. 
The root when dug is full of water, and must be 
allowed to dry. This process takes the best part 
of a year, especially in hot weather. After it is 
dry, or during the process, it is sawn or cut into 
small pieces six inches to one foot long. The 
good and sound pieces are kept, and the rotten 
bits removed for fire wood. A local tax of ten 
per cent, is claimed by the government, which 
may be taken in money or kind from roots cut 
from the Sultan's lands, and twenty per cent, 
'from government lands. It is then shipped in 
river native boats for Bussorah, where there is a 
wool hydraulic press. It is afterward shipped in 
pressed bales to London, and again shipped from 
there to America, where it is used largely in the 
manufacture of tobacco. The trade is capable of 
expansion. The demand in ximerica is great, and 
shipments are easily disposed of."' 
AN EARLY PROOF OF THE VALUE OF 
VACCINATION. 
A CORRESPONDENT of the British Medical Jour- 
nal sends to it the following extract from a Fi-ench 
newspaper of October ,3, 1804: "Six black chil- 
dren, the first who had ever been vaccinated at 
the island of Reunion, and from whom five thou- 
sand people were vaccinated, were shipped on 
board the vessel Jeune Caroline, bound for one of 
the Seychelles Islands, to perform quarantine for 
small-pox. The six children were three months 
on board the ship, eating, drinking and sleeping 
with the sick; during the time of quarantine they 
were inoculated with the virus taken from the 
pustules of the diseased passengers, by large in- 
cisions made on both arms. From the report 
made at the time and communicated to the Cen- 
tral Society of Vaccine by the Minister of the 
Home Department, it was found that, although 
these six children had slept under the same 
blankets, and in contact with the pustules of tlie 
sick, eating and drinking out of the same vessels, 
and having been inoculated with pus from the pa- 
tients who ultimately died of the disease, they 
were all preserved from the contagion, and were, 
during the whole time, in perfect health. The 
proof and counter-proof is one of the most severe 
tests ever performed, and ought to have a marked 
place in the history of vaccination. The fact of 
six children having lived in perfect health on 
board a small ship infected with small-pox, having 
on board twenty blacks with confluent small-pox 
— six of whom died — twenty to twenty-five others 
with dry crusts all over the body, with seven 
deaths before their arrival at the quarantine sta- 
tion, all packed in a small space between decks, is 
perhaps the most crucial test ever witnessed of 
preservation by vaccination." 
MEDICAL MISCELLANY. 
A CnRi.STiAN scientist asks a patient whether 
he had ever tried faith-cure for rheumatism. 
" Yes, I am trying it now. I"ve got in my pocket 
the left hind-foot of a rabbit that was killed in 
the dark of the moon, and I'm blamed if I don't 
think its helping me." 
The Other Man Laid On. — Minister: "Who 
is the deceased?" 
Attendant: "Oh, he was a faith healer. He 
used to go about the country laying on of hands, 
but one day he laid hands on the wrong man ; 
there was a reaction, and the result was fatal to 
the healer." 
Color-blindness. — The Lancet publishes a 
curious case of color-blindness. The patient was 
an engine-driver in Russia, about forty years of 
age, whose sight was perfect until 1889. Then he 
began to sufl'er from violent headaches, due to 
over-exertion and insufficient sleep, which were 
followed by a loss of all power to distinguish 
colors. Everything appeared to him to be red, 
and he was obliged to throw up his position. The 
surgeon who examined him co\ild find no disease, 
but found his sight, focus, and sensation of light 
normal. In May, 1890, the man again submitted 
liimself for examination, declaring that his sense 
of color had been restored. This proved to be the 
fact. Tlie Lancet thinks that "this case seems to 
show that sensation of color is perfectly inde- 
pendent of the physiological function."' 
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