54 
PHARMACY AT THE DUBLIN EXHIBITION. 
(Fe 2 0 3 ,3S0 3 + NH 4 0,S0 3 + 2 HO) is very good, in rose-coloured crystals; 
so is Valerianate of Zinc. Citrate of quinine, on the contrary, is of a dirty- 
brown, and looks as if it had been dried at too high a temperature ; and White 
Precipitate sadly belies its name, and is brown also. On the whole, this series is 
good, and is, perhaps, better deserving of notice, since it represents a very large 
number of preparations in their every-day aspect, and not under the too often 
deceptive guise which is assumed by picked specimens. In the same case are 
Aerated Mineral Waters in two different forms of bottle, one the usual egg- 
shaped kind, and the other the convenient “ siphon,” which is so much used on 
the Continent. 
Boileau and Boyd, Bride Street, Dublin (42 a), exhibit a very fair show of 
chemicals, and the only specimens of drugs which the British section of the Ex¬ 
hibition contains. Among the latter are good samples of Opium (Levant) East 
India Rhubarb Root and Sumbul. Castor Oil Seeds also figure in this collection, 
probably because they are pretty, certainly not because they are used in medi¬ 
cine, or because castor oil is not drawn in Ireland. The chemical preparations 
in this case include specimens of Aloine (in good crystals and of the proper 
colour). Iodide of Iron (this dry), Salicine (labelled Saltmine), Piper in, Chloride 
of Chromium , and Mannite. 
Certainly one of the most interesting cases in this part of the Exhibition is 
that of the British Seaweed Company (13). This company has been esta¬ 
blished in order to work the patent of Mr. Stanford, which is based upon a very 
important modification of the usual method of treating seaweed for iodine, bro¬ 
mine, and potash. The ordinary plan consists, as is well known, in incinerating 
the sun-dried seaweed in the open air. The fused residue, or “kelp,” is then ex¬ 
hausted with water, and the different salts which constitute it separated by 
fractional crystallization. It has been observed that when seaw r eed is thus 
burned, a very large proportion of the iodine—on the average, a quantity nearly 
equal to the whole yield—is totally lost; much of the potash also is volatilized. 
In the process of Mr. Stanford this is avoided by carbonizing the seaweed in 
closed vessels at a comparatively low temperature,"and then treating the charred 
product precisely as if it were kelp. This seems a very simple modification in¬ 
deed, but it nevertheless -is stated to completely fulfil the grand object of saving 
the iodine lost in the old process. Nor is this all. The vessels in 'which the 
charring process is conducted are retorts , and it therefore becomes one of de¬ 
structive distillation, and the saving is not confined to the inorganic constitu¬ 
ents, but is extended to a pretty large number of volatile organic products. 
Among these are Acetic Acid, Tar , and Naphtha. The series of specimens exhi¬ 
bited by the company includes the whole range of products which can be ob¬ 
tained by the judicious practice of the principles which have been laid down by 
Mr. Stanford. There appears to be no one of these which is not capable of 
being advantageously utilized; the residue from the washing of the charred 
weed is burned in the furnaces, and the very ash which then remains is said to 
be a valuable manure. 
As I write, the workmen are busy in putting up a new case, in which the 
economical treatment of seaweed is to be further illustrated. A printed paper, 
which I have obtained in the Exhibition, states that the-products which are to 
be shown are obtained under a patent of Messrs. Young and Glassford “for 
drying and incinerating seaweed.” I cannot this month obtain any further in¬ 
formation on the subject, but I incline from a perusal of the prospectus in ques¬ 
tion to the opinion that the method of these gentlemen is very closely allied to, 
if indeed it be not identical with, that of a Mr. Macardle, which caused some 
interest and not a little monetary speculation in Ireland a short time since. 
Hirst, Brooke, and Tomlinson (20) show a very good series of products, which 
are interesting chiefly from the fact that they are nearly all more or less con- 
