Miscellanies. 401 



flesh of the calf is not even gelatine, but a viscid and glutinous juice, 

 containing very little fibrine, (which is an animal substance essential- 

 ly nutritious) still less ozmazome, a principle exciting to the diges- 

 ■ tive organs. Hence there are few stomachs capable of supporting 

 such food ; and were it digestible, it would strengthen and nourish 

 the body very badly. More frequently it resists the digestive pow- 

 ers, becomes a foreign and inert substance, which excites the secre- 

 tion of no fluid, traverses rapidly the intestinal canal, and thus cre- 

 ates obstinate diarrhaeas, frequently accompanied with cholic. If 

 such is the eflect of one or two meals of this kind of aliment what 

 must be the result of a habitual use of it ? To what extent does not 

 the public health suffer by such an injurious diet }^-Jlnnales d'Hy- 

 giene publique, Jan. 1830. 



44. Cloth of Amianthus. — The method of preparing Amianthus 

 for the purpose of making incombustible cloth, is thus stated in an 

 Italian Journal. 



The Amianthus is exposed to the action of steam, in a vessel 

 made for the purpose, and which will hold more than 3000 pounds 

 of the mineral, and so that all parts of it may be acted on by the 

 steam. The fibres, by this action, become loosened and require so 

 much flexibility that they are easily separated so as to obtain thread 

 as fine as silk, and of several decimeters (about four inches) in 

 length. — Idem. 



45. Charlatanism. — ^Under this head, the council of salubrity of 

 Paris in their last reports to the Prefects of police remark as follows : 



" The council has already been in the practice of pointing out to 

 the administration the danger of a particular kind of charlatanism, 

 which consists in selling chemical or pharmaceutical preparations, 

 and even raw materials under false denominations. Thus, in the 

 market, soda is sold for potash ', sulphate of soda for sulphate of mag- 

 nesia, under the name of Epsom salts ; impure potash, bleached, for 

 salt of tartar ; cream of tartar for salt of sorrel ; minium for cinna- 

 bar, he. &ic." 



In the sale of medicaments great abuses also exist. 



Every day, there are announced in handbills or newspaper adver- 

 tisements, by a great number of apothecaries, particular medicines^ 

 for the preparing of which they say, they alone have the recipe ; while 

 at the same time, these pretended secret remedies, when examined 



Vol. XVIII.~No. 2. 51 



