SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
91 
at length to Dr. Tuson’s researches, he describes a series of experiments, 
chiefly made with the view to obtain, from the ricinus seeds, an active 
principle suitable for medicinal use. As regards the ricinine of Dr. Tuson, 
prepared by the author in large quantity and according to Dr. Tuson’s 
directions, it is stated that ricinine is not an alkaloid, and, moreover, a sub- 
stance which contains a considerable quantity of ash ; and the author, after 
carefully made analysis, comes to the conclusion that Dr. Tuson’s ricinine is 
a compound of magnesia and of an organic acid, the formula of this body 
being C n H 20 O 10 Mg 2 + 6H 2 0. This abstract has been published in the 
valuable collection of the u Chemical News.” It appeared originally in the 
(i Pharm. Zeitschrift fur Bussland,” No. 2, 1870. 
Bromine in Large Quantities. — The “ Boston Journal of Chemistry ” for 
November gives us some facts of interest. The writer says that five years ago 
Bromine was sold in this country and in Europe as high as eight dollars a 
pound : now the price is less than a dollar and a half the pound, and the con- 
sumption has increased in a thousand-fold ratio. It says : “As a manufacturer 
of chemical substances, we did not have occasion to purchase for manufactur- 
ing purposes twenty pounds a year until after 1805, when a great demand 
sprang up for the bromides of potassium, sodium, and ammonium. Some idea 
of the increase in consumption may be farmed from the statement that we 
have ordered of the salt-makers in Pennsylvania quantities as large as five 
thousand pounds, or two and a half tons, at one time, during the past year. 
Our bromine supply formerly came from Germany, the Stassfurt salt-mines 
furnishing it in considerable quantities after they were opened ; but now our 
own strong salines in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia produce it in 
amounts fully equal to the demand.” 
The Excrements of Egyptian Bats . — Herr 0. Popp has published a 
curious paper, which is also reported by the “ Chemical News.” After refer- 
ring to the curious fact that Egypt, owing to its very clear sky at nights, 
and its sub-tropical climate, is especially suited for bats, of which no less 
than eight different genera are found there, the author proceeds to detail 
tbe methods of analysis at length ; the result of the composition of the ex- 
crements, in 100 parts, being: urea, 77*80 ; uric acid, 1*25 ; kreatine, 2-55 ; 
phosphate of soda (2Na0,H0,P0 5 ), 13-45 ; water driven off at 100°, 3-66; 
substances insoluble in water, 0-575 ; total, 99-285. In a foot-note to this 
paper, Dr. F. Wohler states that very recently the excrements of bats from 
Egypt have become an article of trade, as a sort of guano for manure pur- 
poses. 
Water in Edinburgh. — Upon this subject Dr. Alexander Wood reports as 
follows : — “1. That the Heriot, theTalla, and St.Mary’s Loch all afford water 
of a quality suitable for all the purposes for which it is required in a town. 
2. That the Heriot is a better water for general domestic use than the Talla. 
3. That the spring- water of the Heriot and the Talla is superior to the lake 
water of St. Mary’s. 4. That the construction of the necessary ponds for 
storing the produce of these springs would go far to deprive them of any 
superiority which they at present possess, and would certainly render the 
water supplied from such ponds inferior in some respects to that obtained 
from the natural lake. 5. That the analysis of the water of St. Mary’s Loch 
shows it to contain a sufficient quantity of the salts of lime to remove all 
