194 
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
husk and gluten, and is then ground wet, and run through 
revolving sieves to separate impurities. It is afterwards 
made to flow through ways or troughs, in which the starch 
gradually settles as a white powder. The wash water is run 
into a large cistern, and allowed to ferment and produce a 
weak vinegar. The starch from the troughs is put wet into 
the mash tub, and treated wflth water containing one per 
cent, of sulphuric acid, for eight hours. The acid is neu- 
tralised with chalk or carbonate of lime, and the liquid evapo- 
rated to get rid of the gypsum, and afterwards further 
evaporated in vacuum pans, and run into barrels ready for 
crystallisation. — Ibid. 
Icaja. — MM.Rabuteau and Peyre have been experimenting 
with the root of a plant in use at the Gaboon as an ordeal 
poison, and locally known as m’boundou or icaja. It will be 
remembered that it was from this source that the highly 
valuable Calabar bean was obtained and utilised in medicine. 
The authors state that, even in very dilute decoctions, it is 
very bitter, and appears to contain one or more alkaloids, 
since the aqueous decoction is largely precipitated by iodide 
of potassium, and also by phospho-molybdic acid. The poi- 
sonous effects of this substance bear some similarity to the 
effects of brucia ; but the authors state that, under certain 
conditions, this poison does not hurt men. Some of the lower 
animals are readily killed by it ; a dose of three milligrammes 
of the alcoholic extract placed under the skin of a frog kills it; 
and rabbits and dogs are killed by doses of from fifteen to 
twenty-five centigrammes of the same extract introduced into 
the stomach. — Ibid . 
Treatment of Wounds by Pneumatic Occlusion. 
— One of the last numbers of the Gazette Medicate de Paris 
contains a suggestion by M. Guerin for treating wounds by 
the exclusion of the atmosphere. This is accomplished by 
placing over the wound a small sac or cylinder of caoutchouc, 
to the extremity of which a pipe is inserted that is attached 
to a balloon or chest destitute of air, and which consequently 
exerts a constant suction power over the seat of injury. By 
this means, according to M. Guerin, the approximation of the 
edges of the wound, and their consequent healing by first in- 
tention, is facilitated, w r hile it prevents the absorption of pus. 
By this means, in fact, the w T ound is placed in the condition 
of a subcutaneous injury, or, even if this be not completely 
effected, the period of inflammatory swelling of such v^ounds 
when exposed to the air is shortened ; w hilst, if there be 
much loss of substance, it promotes the exudation of plastic 
lymph, and the formation of a cicatrix. He relates various cases 
of injury he has treated successfully by this means. — Lancet. 
