230 
THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
and fittings are fine pieces of workmanship, and have bird’s-eye maple panels 
relieved with mountings of kauri pine and cedar, all beautifully polished, and 
reflect the greatest credit on Mr. E. D. Cook, the maker, who has evidently 
gone to great pains to give satisfaction. The arrangements of the dispensing 
department are of the most complete description, and everything in connection 
with it has been well arranged. Both windows contain costly ornamental 
displays, which are very attractive. A very handy and convenient contrivance 
is an electric bell placed at the door, which, on being connected with a switch, 
rings on anyone stepping on the door-mat, and is also connected with the night- 
bell. The gold lettering on the windows is also quite a work of art. The 
reputation Mr. Reeve has so quickly acquired at Ascot Yale has induced him 
to open this branch pharmacy at Essendon, where a good chemist was badly 
required, and now that the residents have an establishment which would do credit 
in its arrangements to Collins-street, it is to be hoped they will give every 
encouragement to the enterprising and courteous proprietor, to whom we wish 
every success. 
NEW PATENTS. 
An application for letters patent was heard and granted by the Attorney-General 
on Tuesday, the 18th May, as follows : — Mr. Alfredo Michael, of Rio de 
Janeiro, Brazil, for an improved apparatus for extracting the fatty acids and 
glycerine from tallow and other fatty matters in an economical manner with 
water only, and without the aid of sulphuric acid or other chemical agents. The 
apparatus consists of a monte- jus or cistern, to which the fatty matters and water 
are supplied, and from thence it is led to two boilers, or autoclaves, which are 
subjected to outside heat, and furnished with outer circulating pipes, fitted with 
cocks to test the condition of the fatty matter, which is led from the boilers to 
a close vessel in which the glycerine falls by gravity to the bottom, and from 
which it is drawn, while the fatty acids are led into a still, which is heated over 
a fire or furnace. The lower part of such still is supplied with superheated 
steam, which is delivered under the fatty acids, and this still communicates with 
a condenser, to which is attached a continuous-action pump to draw off the 
steam and vapours from the fatty acids, which are then discharged into any 
suitable vessel. 
POISONING CASES. 
In Ballarat East, on the 13th May, a young woman, named Lizzie Thompson 
alias Daniels, attempted to poison herself with laudanum. A very weak prepara- 
tion of the drug, however, had been used, and, on being treated at the hospital, 
she was soon pronounced out of danger. 
William Williams, a settler, for thirty -two years resident in Benalla, and 
who landed in New South Wales in 1840, recently committed suicide by taking 
forty grains of strychnine. He was sixty-six years of age. At the magis- 
terial inquiry into the matter it was shown that deceased had been out of 
employment for a long time, and frequently threatened to destroy himself. He 
had also brooded over family troubles. The magistrate found that death was 
caused by poison self-administered. The deceased had a family of fifteen, four 
of whom survive him. He also supported eight children of his son-in-law, 
Glazebrook, who is an inmate of the Blind Asylum in Melbourne. 
William John Cullen, chief clerk in the railway goods shed, Albury, was 
found in a dying condition on Friday night, the 4th June, and subsequently 
expired. Death resulted from an overdose of morphia. At the coroner’s inquest 
the jury found a verdict of accidental death. 
