94 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST. 
April, 1882. 
the combustion of coal, such as sulphurous acid. There are 
other products of combustion which have a prejudicial influ- 
ence upon health — namely, carbonic acid and oxide, carbu- 
retted hydrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen, sulphide of ammo- 
nium, bisulphide of carbon, phosphoretted hydrogen, &c. 
So great has the smoke nuisance become in England that the 
National Health Society have appointed a committee to 
examine the question. That committee, presided over by Mr. 
Ernest Hart, has brought up its report. Professor Chandler 
Roberts, F.R.S., chemist to the Royal Mint, undertook to make 
an examination of existing methods of combustion of coal in 
household grates and in furnaces. The committee also made 
complete arrangements for a smoke abatement exhibition at 
South Kensington, for the purpose of trials of apparatus and 
fuels, the objects sought being — 
1. A better utilisation of coal and coal products. 
2. To determine, practically and scientifically, the means 
which are actually available for heating houses as at present 
(and as may be constructed), without producing smoke. 
8. To enable the committee to examine the subject generally, 
and report for public information upon the relative adaptability 
of the various coals and appliances to the different require- 
ments of every class of the community. 
4. To afford reliable information upon which to base suf- 
ficient and equitable amendments of the existing laws regard- 
ing smoke. 
6. To enable the committee to ascertain and make known 
the comparative value of existing appliances for the utilisa- 
tion of gas for heating purposes, and generally bringing 
together the available material for determining how far smoke 
may be prevented, and to test numerous inventions, many of 
which are little known. 
The smoke abatement exhibition has taken place, . and judg- 
ing by the reports — extracts from which I shall give — it has 
been eminently interesting and successful. 
A few words upon the nature of fuel may, perhaps, be fit- 
tingly introduced here, as well as some remarks upon the 
subject of combustion and its products — smoke, &c. First — 
Fuel.— All substances chemically termed combustible maybe 
considered as fuel; but the term is usually applied to organic 
bodies, such as wood, coal, and peat. Now, all these substances 
are chiefly composed of carbon and hydrogen, Both these 
elements combine with great rapidity with oxygen, and the 
intensity of the chemical action is so great that heat and 
light are produced — the carbon producing carbonic dioxide 
and the hydrogen water, the oxygen of the atmosphere being 
the agent or supporter of combustion. Wood is the fuel most 
used in France. In Paris the use of coal is very restricted 
and generally objected to ; indeed, the bright, clean beauty of 
the buildings in that city could not co-exist with coal smoke. 
The French have, also, a great dislike to coal, on sanitary 
grounds. For cooking, charcoal is very generally used ; the 
lire is rapidly lighted, and when done with put out — so 
careful is the French housewife not to waste anything. Of 
peat we need not say anything, as it is not known here. Coal is 
by far the most valuable source of heat, and is compounded 
of chemically altered vegetal matter and mineral substances, 
such as arsenic, sulphur, iron, lime, &c., &c. 
Combustion, or burning, takes place when certain condi- 
tions are favourable ; and when coal, or wood, or gas is burnt, 
the oxygen of the air combines with the carbon and hydrogen, 
as above mentioned. If the oxygen of the air is supplied in 
the exact proportion to the carbon and hydrogen, we get per- 
fect combustion, and no escape of combustible gases could 
then ensue, nor of carbonaceous matters which we generally 
call smoke, and the greatest amount of heat would be 
obtained ; but these conditions are in ordinary grates and 
furnaces never or rarely approached. Coals are thrown on to 
the fire in thick layers, reducing the temperature of the fire, 
and causing at once the production of heavy volumes of 
smoke. This thick bed of superincumbent fuel also impedes 
,the draught of air. The heated air is deoxidised by the 
ignited fuel on the bars, and no oxygen is available for a con- 
siderable time to act upon the dense mass of fuel, although 
the temperature may be sufficient to distil off the hydro- 
carbons, which pass away into the chimney, and so much 
valuable heating power is lost. Smoke is a compound of 
various gases and solid particles in a very fine state of divi- 
sion — nitrogen, steam, carbonic oxide, carbon, and is the 
result of imperfect combustion. 
In early times the citizens of London had a great dislike to 
smoke, as they considered it injurious to health. In 1306 Parlia- 
ment petitioned King Edward I. to prohibit the use of coals, or, 
as it was then called, “ secole.” It was afterwards made a 
capital offence to burn ‘‘secole” within the city. A man was 
actually executed for the crime of burning “ secole” contrary 
to the law. 
Evelyn dedicated a book to Charles II., entitled Fund - 
fugium , in which he affirms his belief that Old Parr might 
have lived more than 150 years if he had not come to London, 
and had his digestion spoiled by “ smoahe" ( Westminster Review, 
January, 1882). Theodore Hook once spoke of London as 
“ that sink of sin and sea-coal.” 
Although Melbourne, as we have said above, is never likely 
to suffer to the extent complained of in London and other 
great cities of Europe, as dense fogs are rare in our warmer 
and lighter climate, yet many people find the prevalence of 
smoke particles very disagreeable indeed, and injurious to 
health ; and if it can be shown that by better methods of com- 
bustion and the more scientific utilisation of fuel, we can not 
only add greatly to our wealth, but render our cities and 
towns more healthy and pleasant to live in, we shall have the 
great satisfaction of knowing that a great public service has 
been rendered ; and although many difficulties may meet us, 
yet undoubtedly intelligent perseverance will ultimately 
triumph over all. 
(To be continued .) 
(Eotxcjspniienxe* 
KILNER’S DRUGGISTS' FORMULARY. 
To the Editor of the Australasian Supplement to the Chemist 
and Druggist. 
Dear Sir — On behalf of the publishers I beg to hand you a 
copy of Kilner’s Druggists' Formulary and supplements 
Nos. 1 and 2 for your review, and be kind enough to add same 
to your library. I bespeak for this work a careful perusal and 
a full review. I shall do myself the honour of handing you 
the other supplements as they are issued from time to time. 
Price, with supplements, as fast as issued, £2 2s. per copy. — 
Very respectfully yours, W. H. H. Lane. 
28th March, 1882. 
REMINISCENCES OF A PHARMACIST (Continued). 
(By J. B. Mummery.) 
Dr. Cronin’s Case. 
It is not my intention to rack my memory for every case of 
poisoning, by accident or design, which came under my notice 
in the old land, and dish them up as news for my readers in 
the new ; but there was one which occurred shortly before my 
leaving England, which caused a great commotion at the 
time, and, as it bears materially on a point which affects the 
interests of pharmacists all the world over, I shall be pardoned, 
I think, for narrating it. 
Dr. Cronin was a medical man in good practice in London, 
not far from Leicester-square, where I was then living. He 
was one of those practitioners (of whom, happily, we have few, 
if any, in the colony), who, though doing a rattling thing by 
the practice of their professions, covet the profits of the retail 
chemist, and yet affect to consider it infra dig. to openly keep 
a shop for the sale of drugs. 
This Dr. Cronin, did virtually keep such a shop, but borrowed 
a fictitious name, under which to carry it on ; and naturally 
desiring to have the dispensing of his own prescriptions, 
resorted to the questionable practice of writing them, in a 
character known only to himself and his assistant, and 
kindly intimating to his patients the fact that the shop round 
the corner was the only one where his prescriptions could be 
made up. This, they found, after presenting them at various 
establishments, to be the case, and were, per force, obliged to 
patronise the doctor’s dispensary. 
On one occasion, Cronin was called in to see and prescribe 
for a young lady of title, about eighteen or nineteen years of 
age, beautiful, accomplished, and on the point of being 
married. 
The prescription was written in the usual way, and the 
parents of the patient, disregarding the doctor’s advice, or 
order, to take it to his own shop, sent it, as a matter of course, 
to their family chemist. The young man into whose hands it 
came for compounding managed to make out, or guess, at all 
the components, except the menstruum, which was indicated 
as peach-water. This article taxed the wits of the dispenser, 
a young and somewhat inexperienced hand ; so calling the 
