Notes on Glycerine. 583 
cry for salvation. It seems to us that the repentance 
of the one malefactor was not a death-hour repentance. 
But even if that were so the other, with the same oppor- 
tunities, did not repent. If then a man is building upon the 
hope that because the “thief on: the cross” was forgiven, 
he may safely do wrong all the days of his life, and yet be 
saved, let him remember that one malefactor did not repent, 
and that he, like that impertinent malefactor, may, in the 
death agony, find the cry for mercy stifled by the anxiety 
for life, and may rail when he intended to pray. Perverted 
Scripture can for a while lull the conscience, but it cannot 
trammel up the consequences of sin. 
J: Bie 
(To be continued. ) 
NOTES ON GLYCERINE. 
BY ABBOTTS SMITH, M.D., F.L.S., M.R.C.P., LOND., 
Physician to the North London Consumption Hospital, &c. 
:. Cae nearly eighty years have elapsed since 
the discovery of glycerine by the eminent Swedish 
chemist Scheele, its value has not been recognised for one 
fourth of that period. Indeed, until some twelve or fifteen 
years ago, hundreds of tons of this important substance 
were allowed to run off as waste from the soap works, and 
to add to the heterogeneous mass of impurities which old 
Father Thames carries away to the sea. Of course we do 
not mean to imply that the waste product in question was 
glycerine in such a state of purity as to fit it for immediate 
use; but, at all events, there it was—Glycerine, which, if it 
had been subjected to the various modes of purification 
now employed, would have possessed a high commercial 
value. 
Its important properties and uses having attracted but 
little attention, so that what was retained for experimenta- 
tion was considered simply as so much waste material 
saved, instead of being thrown away, it will be well un- 
derstood that no great amount of care was attached to its 
production. A sudden revolution was effected in this res- 
pect by the introduction, some dozen years ago, of a new 
method of separating glycerine from the other chemical 
substances with which it is associated. This improved 
