NOTE ON INSECT-WAX OF CHINA. 
329 
one ounce of bark, is generally about 1*150, although, of course, varying slightly 
according to the quality of bark employed. 
Brew and Company. 
71, East Street , Brighton. 
LIQUOR BISMUTHI. 
TO THE EDITORS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Gentlemen,—In the course of the discussion which followed the paper upon 
“ Liquor Bismuthi,” at the last evening meeting of the Society, Dr. Attfield 
stated a communication had been published several years ago in the Journal of 
the Chemical Society, by Mr. Spiller, in which the facts upon which the che¬ 
mistry of the solution depended had been announced. Five minutes before I 
had claimed the credit of their discovery for myself, and the statement of Dr. 
Attfield must have appeared to many to render that claim somewhat doubtful. 
Mr. Attfield has since then kindly referred me to the volume and page contain¬ 
ing Mr. Spiller’s paper, and I see it is dated July, 1857. My preparation was 
already being used early in 1855 ; the first written order for it I can now find 
is from the Bristol General Hospital, and bears the date March, 1855. I have 
no doubt, therefore, the experiments which resulted in u Liquor Bismuthi 
(Schaeht)” were concluded at least two years and a half before the publication 
of Mr. Spiller’s paper. 
I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant, 
Clifton , December 8, 1883. G. F. Sciiacht. 
NOTE ON INSECT-WAX OF CHINA. 
Mr. Reynolds wishes to make a correction in connection with his paper upon Bees’- 
Wax, in our December number. 
In speaking of varieties of wax, he named briefly insect-wax of China, stating that 
“ it resembles good block white wax. The price is about 2s. 8 d. per lb.” 
His authority for this account was a paper by Mr. B. S. Proctor, on “ Substitutes for 
Wax” (Chem. and Drug., August, 1863), which stated that a sample answering this 
description had been furnished by Messrs. Hodgkinson, Tonge, and Stead, of London. 
Mr. R. accepted this definite statement as reliable, although his own attempts to meet 
Avith China insect-wax in the hands of wholesale druggists were unsuccessful. It now 
appears that some error has occxurred in the sample sent to Mr. Proctor, who has for¬ 
warded a portion of it to Mr. R. for examination. When thirty grains are digested in 
ether, it leaves thirteen grains of insoluble residue, a quantity corresponding with black 
Japan-wax. The true China inseet-wax is very little affected by ether, and its appear¬ 
ance is almost identical with that of spermaceti. 
This result with ether confirms the opinion formed from a physical examination, viz. 
that Mr. Proctor’s sample is Japan vegetable wax, an opinion in which Mr. Hanbury 
coincides. Since Japan wax has often been sold under the name of “ China Wax,” the 
mistake is not surprising ; and it should also be noted that Mr. Proctor’s account of the 
properties of the wax as found by him agrees perfectly with those of Japan wax, and in 
speaking of the different melting-point which he observed to that given by Miller, he 
says, “ So great a discrepancy as indicated above, for China wax, must surely be the re¬ 
sult of a difference in the nature of the sample.” 
SCIENCE versus SPIRITS. 
The notice which has appeared under the above heading has led many persons to 
imagine that Mr. Manning’s optical illusions are publicly exhibited, and Messrs. Car- 
