MISCELLANEA. 
87 
At Harcourt Place, Scarborough, June 29th, died, John Coverley. He had been a 
member of the Pharmaceutical Society since 1842, and was elected a Local Secretary 
for the present year. 
MISCELLANEA. 
Phesiic Vinegar. —Dr. Quesneville gives the following recipe for an antipestilentiel. 
Take acetic acid (5°), 900 grammes; camphor in powder, 5 grammes; crystallized phenic 
acid, 100 grammes. This combination of three antiputrescents is said to be extremely 
useful, and for hygienic purposes far superior to vinegar of the four thieves , as toilet 
vinegar was once called. It has been used a good deal on board ship to keep the cabins 
of sick persons sweet.— Moniteur Scientifque, 1865, p. bib.—Chemical News. 
Preparation of Gold Purple for Gilding.—Brescius states that gold may be 
easily obtained in this convenient form by precipitation in the cold from an alkaline so¬ 
lution by means of oxalic acid. He dissolves four ounces of gold in a mixture of two 
pounds nitric acid (sp. gr. 1'2) and one pound hydrochloric acid (sp. gr. 1*12). To this 
solution he adds another, made by dissolving pure potash, or, at all events, potash free 
from silica, in five or six parts of distilled water. After filtration, this latter solution is 
gradually added to the gold solution. The mixture is now diluted with eight pounds 
of distilled water, and then a clear and cold solution of one-third of a pound of oxalic 
acid is stirred in, care being taken not to rub the sides of the dish with the rod. In this 
way a bulky, spongy, black precipitate is obtained, which must be allowed to settle, and 
then be weli washed and dried.— Dingier's Polgtech. Journal , Feb. ] 865.— Chemical News. 
Scientific Jottings. —M. de Mortillet has published in the ‘ Sud-Est,’ a Grenoble 
paper, a curious remedy for the sting of a dangerous insect. It is the application of the 
wax of the ear to the injured part. This simple remedy he positively asserts, will cure 
the deadly sting of a poisonous fly, which would otherwise produce carbuncle. What¬ 
ever may be the efficacy of this treatment, there can be no harm in trying, the substance 
being always at hand. Should it not succeed, the patient will always be in time to 
have*recourse to a more radical treatment.—The following is a receipt for an indelible 
black ink to be used for writing on zinc :—Take 30 parts of verdigris, 30 of sal-ammoniac, 
8 of lamp-black, 8 of gum-arabic, and 300 of water ; dissolve the gum in the water, and 
pour it over the other ingredients, well mixed and reduced to powder. A quill pen 
should be used for writing.—It is with great regret we see the flowers of a fine nosegay 
fade away in the course of a day or two, notwithstanding the care we take to change 
the water in which we have put them. The ‘ Memorial des Deux Sevres ’ informs us 
that if a good spoonful of charcoal powder be added to the water the flowers will last as 
long as they would on the plant, without any need of changing the water or taking any 
trouble at all.—It is stated by several agricultural journals that by watering plants with 
sulphate of iron most extraordinary results may be obtained ; beans, for instance, will 
grow to double their size, and acquire a much better taste; the same is the case with 
pears and other fruit. Water kept in a tub with a quantity of old nails in it may also 
be used for watering with good effect.—Dr. Gibert, a few days ago, read a report to the 
Academy of Medicine on a paper sent in by Dr. Chevandier, of Die (Drome), on the use 
of a turpentine vapour bath in cases of rheumatism, gout, pulmonary catarrh, cramps in 
the stomach, etc. The patients are exposed for half an hour to the action of the aro¬ 
matic vapours evolved during the combustion of resinous shavings of the Mugho pine, 
bv means of special fumigatory apparatus. The temperature should never fall below 
45 deg. Reaumur (134° Fahrenheit).— limes. 
•New Remedy for .Dysentery.— Mr. William Kerr, surgeon, in a paper published 
in the ‘ Edinburgh Medical Journal,’ recommends the following combination in cases of 
dysentery, and states that it has been in use for seven years with great success. The 
constituents are as follows:—“Four officinal, viz. opium, stramonium, dulcamara, digi¬ 
talis ; three non-officinal, Sium lineare, Cicuta maculata, Conioselinum canadense.” 
For infants, generally, squill is substituted for digitalis. “ Excepting opium, the part 
employed is the leaf. Digitalis and squill are combined in the proportion of half a part 
each, all the others in that of one part. For infants, opium is reduced to half a part. 
The usual dose to adults is six and a half grains, digitalis or squills being each half a 
grain, all the others one grain each/’ 
