NOTES AND ABSTRACTS IN CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACY. 
359 
acid in a close wooden vessel under steam pressure at a temperature ranging 
from 216° to 230° F. 
Mr. Bell states that the pungency of the spirit is less when the rice.has been 
well freed from husk, and the process of saccharization conducted at the lower 
temperature of 216°. He finds that the principal impurity of this spirit, to 
which its odour is attributable, is acrylic aldehyd. He considers that this sub¬ 
stance is formed from the fatty matter contained in the rice. The fat being 
decomposed by the oil of vitriol, the liberated glycerine yields acrolein by the 
further action of the sulphuric acid. Crude rice spirit freely reduces ammo- 
niacal nitrate of silver on the application of a gentle heat. A very small quan¬ 
tity is also capable of instantly decomposing a solution of permanganate. The 
fact has long been known that rice spirit contains some compound which possesses 
the property of dissolving and keeping in solution certain compounds of mer¬ 
cury which are insoluble in pure alcohol and water. Mr. Bell shows that this 
is due to the acrylic aldehyd, which acts in this respect like acetone. 
Mr. Bell indicates two methods by which this aldehyd may be removed and 
the spirit rendered pure. One is to distil it from caustic potash ; and the other 
is by the action of bisulphite of soda. When the crude spirit is treated in the 
cold with caustic potash, and allowed to stand for some hours, the pungency 
rapidly disappears, and there is simultaneously produced a dark brown resinous 
substance, soluble in alcohol and ether. The spirit recovered by distillation is 
free from acrid odour, and gives the normal reaction with mercury compounds 
for ethylic alcohol. 
The addition of a very small quantity of the acid sulphite of sodium to the 
crude spirit, also rapidly destroys the pungent odour, and the product after dis¬ 
tillation is unobjectionable in quality. 
The Poisonous Action of Fyrog-aliic Acid. 
In a memoir on the use of turpentine as an antidote in phosphorus poisoning, 
M. J. Personne has expressed the opinion that phosphorus kills by absorbing the 
oxygen from the blood. Where the absorption of the poison is rapid, a true 
asphyxia is thus produced, which promptly causes death. According to this 
opinion, the turpentine acts by preventing the phosphorus from burning in the 
blood, in the same manner that it arrests its combustion at ordinary tempera¬ 
tures in the air. Being thus deprived of the power of removing the oxygen 
from the blood, the poison can be eliminated without causing any fatal derange¬ 
ment of the animal economy. 
In order to test the accuracy of this doctrine, M. Personne has conducted 
some experiments with pyrogallic acid, a substance very different from phos¬ 
phorus, but which resembles it in its power of absorbing oxygen very energeti¬ 
cally, while in contact Avith an alkaline liquid. This acid was administered to 
two dogs; to one two grammes, and to the other four grammes were given in 
dilute solution. 
All the symptoms of asphyxia were soon exhibited, and the animals manifested 
the same sufferings that result in cases of phosphorus poisoning. The animal 
which received the larger dose died at the expiration of fifty hours; the other 
ten hours later. The post-mortem indications were similar in all respects to 
those observable in cases of death from phosphorus. 
A New Explosive Powder. 
M. Bruyere has suggested the use of picrate of ammonia for the preparation 
of explosive powders. This salt, when ignited, does not detonate like most of 
the other picrates ; it inflames without explosion, burning slowly with a reddish 
flame, and leaving a deposit of carbon. M. Bruyere associates this body with 
saltpetre, and thus obtains a slow powder, the force of which can be varied 
