478 
t * _<■; 
PROVINCIAL TRANSACTIONS. 
LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
Fifth General Meeting, held December 10th, 1868; the President, Mr. J. Robinson, 
in the chair. 
Mr. Jonathan Slater, 7, Church Street, was elected a member of the Association. 
Mr. Shaw remarked, that spermaceti ointment, prepared according to the B.P., was 
sometimes considered too soft. 
Mr. Charles Jones exhibited a substance composed of three parts sand and one part 
sulphur, used instead of lead for setting iron in stone. 
Mr. Tate and other members mentioned the use of such a compound or sulphur alone 
as being known to them. 
Mr. Bird then read a paper on “ Whales and Whale Fishing, and the Products Ob¬ 
tained.” He stated that there are a very large number of species of whales, of which 
the most important are,—the sperm whale, which yields sperm oil, spermaceti, and am¬ 
bergris ; the Greenland whale, which gives the best whalebone and the most blubber, 
but which is now becoming scarce ; the Humpbacked whale, and the Rorqual, which 
was the one with the capture of which he was personally acquainted. This whale, of 
an average length of seventy to ninety feet, does not yield so much blubber as the 
Greenland whale, and the whalebone is much shorter. It has only been captured of late 
years, as, owing to its great strength and swiftness, it cannot be caught by the old me¬ 
thod of harpooning. The new method, consisting of the use of a rocket-harpoon with 
explosive shell, which sometimes kills the animal at once, was described, and the harpoon 
exhibited and its use explained. The blubber is stripped off spirally from the body of 
the whale. The lecturer looked upon the blubber rather as a store of food in time of 
scarcity of the minute animals on which the whale feeds, than as a preservative against 
cold. The various methods of extracting the oil were then given, viz. the putrefactive 
method, principally used by the Scotch whalers; the dry pot method ; and a new steam 
process, which he highly recommended, as yielding more oil, of a more pleasant odour 
and higher lubricating power. The average composition of blubber was given as— 
Oil.62-0. 
Gelatine . . . , 11*5. 
Water.26'5. 
The oil on cooling becomes thick, it is pressed in bags, giving a solid fat used for sheep- 
smearing and soap-making, and an oil known as train oil. The nature and uses of 
whalebone were mentioned, and the lecture concluded with an account of an attempt to 
utilize the gelatine in making glue, which, though of good quality, would not sell well, 
owing to its unpleasant smell. 
The lecture was well illustrated by drawings and specimens, and was highly 
interesting. 
A hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Bird concluded the business of the evening. 
Sixth General Meeting, held January 7th, 1869 ; the President in the chair. 
Messrs. H. Caddy and A. Rooke were elected Associates. 
The Secretary announced donations to the Library of the ‘Pharmaceutical Journal,’ 
the‘Chemist and Druggist,’the ‘New York Druggists’Circular,’ Proceedings of the 
Liverpool Architectural Society. 
Thanks were voted to the donors. 
The President referred to a notice of a class for the study of Latin, with especial 
reference to the reading of prescriptions, which was being formed at Queen’s College, 
and expressed his gratification at seeing these facilities for study. 
He then read a report of the Committee appointed to investigate the action of nitrous 
oxide as an anaesthetic. The report was highly favourable as to the ease of administra¬ 
tion, time required for recovery, and its safety, but the action is too evanescent for the 
performance of long operations. 
Mr. Shaw suggested that the difficulty of preparing and storing the gas would pre- 
