SAL AMMONIAC ANACAHUITE WOOD. 277 



fact all he could learn amounted to this that Naou-sha is ises. 

 brought from certain volcanic springs in the province of Sze- 

 chuen, and in Thibet, and that the various kinds of it, differing 

 from one another chiefly in their degrees of purity, are distin- 

 guished by the names Naou-sha, Yen-naou, and SMh-naou. 



The specimens received from Mr. Lockhart were of three Specimens 

 kinds, the purest of which consist of a compact, crystalline, Lockhart 

 colourless, saline mass, which analysis proved to be chloride of shown to be 

 ammonium. The second kind was also chloride of ammonium ammonium. 

 but of different appearance, having more of the aspect of a 

 natural production than the first. The third specimen was 

 likewise chloride of ammonium, but much contaminated with 

 earthy matter. 



There can be no doubt, I think, that this Chinese sal am- 

 moniac is a volcanic product, such as is known to occur on 

 Etna, Vesuvius, and Hecla, as well as in the vicinity of ignited 

 coal-seams. Whether it is by ignorance or design that the 

 Chinese confound it with an impure form of common salt, I 

 cannot affirm; but the circumstance calls to mind the fact 

 proved by Beckmann, 1 that the sal ammoniac of the ancients 

 was common rock-salt, dug from pits near the temple of 

 Jupiter Ammon in Egypt, and that the name was subsequently 

 transferred to chloride of ammonium manufactured in that 

 country from the dung of camels. 



NOTE ON ANACAHUITE WOOD, A EEPUTED EEMEDY 

 FOE CONSUMPTION. 



DURING the past autumn, there have been several inquiries, i86i. 

 chiefly on the part of merchants connected with Germany, for a 

 new drug imported from Mexico under the name of Anacahuite Anacahuite 

 Wood. A single package of this drug was offered for sale in Woodm 

 September last by a London drug broker, and purchased for 

 shipment to the Continent. In Germany the demand has been 

 very considerable, and although 10,000 pounds of the wood 



1 History of Inventions and Discoveries. 



