JuljJ, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
(4.) To substitute measurement by volume for 
measurement by weight. 
Mode of Operation. —After having verified the 
purity of the alkaloid, reduce it to powder, and 
weigh a quantity corresponding to a determined 
volume. Place the powder carefully in a graduated 
flask holding 10, 20, 50, or 100 cubic centimetres. 
After having added some drops of glycerined water 
to suspend the powder, the acid is poured in of the 
strength indicated above. The solution may be 
made in the cold, but more often it is necessary to 
raise the temperature a little in order to accomplish 
it. When the solution has cooled, it must be made 
up to the necessary volume with the glycerined 
water. Solutions may be prepared by these simple 
means that will be clear and of uniform composi¬ 
tion, and have the advantage of keeping a long time 
without alteration. This result having been recog¬ 
nized, it remains only to indicate a formula which 
will enable the medical man to know the quantity of 
alkaloid contained in the solution, so that he may 
vary the dose at his will. The following proportions 
appear to the author to be the most suitable :— 
Morphia.1 gram. 
Sulphuric Acid (10 per cent.) . . 2'50 grams. 
Distilled Water containing twenty 
per cent of glycerine . q. s. to make 100 c. c. 
If the sjninge be gauged to one centimetre, and it 
require twenty half turns to empty it, then each 
half turn will equal one half of a milligram. By 
augmenting the proportion of the morphia and that 
of the acid, without changing the total volume, 
solutions containing one to two milligrams to the 
half turn may easily be obtained. If necessary, the 
quantity may be increased to ten grams to the 
hundred cubic centimetres, but when the solutions 
are too concentrated they crystallize, and the com¬ 
position of the liquid is thus modified. 
The formula for Codeia is as as follows :— 
Crystallized Codeia.1 gram. 
Sulphuric Acid (10 per cent.) . . T50 „ 
Distilled Water containing 20 per 
cent, of glycerine . . q. s. to make 100 c. c. 
Each half turn of a syringe gauged to one cubic 
centimetre will correspond to half a milligram. 
The other alkaloids may be treated in a similar 
manner. 
The following are the approximative quantities of 
sulphuric acid required to dissolve one gram ol the 
substances named:— 
Alkaloids. Acids. 
Aconitine (Duquesnel) . . 1 gram. 
Atropia. 2'50,, 
Narceia.7‘50 „ 
Strychnia.2‘50 ,, 
Veratria. 2‘50„ 
The author gives the following formula for the pre¬ 
paration of hypodermic injections of the crystallized 
digitaline of M. Nativelle, although he does not 
think that digitaline should be used in this manner, 
since it causes intense irritation. 
Crystallized Digitaline . . 1 centigram. 
Alcohol (05 per cent.) . . 5 cubic centim. 
Dissolve and add 
Distilled water.5 cubic centim. 
One cubic centimetre will contain one milligram 
of crystallized digitaline; by dissolving two centi¬ 
grams of digitaline, each cubic centimetre will con¬ 
tain two millimetres.— Bulletin L'herapcutv[ne. 
DUGONG OIL 
Among the many attractive portions of the Inter¬ 
national Exhibition, none is perhaps more worthy 
of attention than the Queensland Annexe, which 
has, we believe, been erected at the cost of that 
young but vigorous colony. The evidence of great 
material wealth in gold, copper, coal, wool, cotton, 
sugar and tobacco, to say nothing of arrowroot, tea, 
coflee, etc., are enough to show us that much may 
yet be expected of this portion of Australia. On 
one table are exhibited a large number of tins of 
preserved meat, and a case containing specimens of 
the bones, flesh, skin, meat and oil of the dugong. 
As we have received several letters recently, con¬ 
taining inquiries respecting this animal and the 
economical products obtained from it, we take this 
opportunity of laying before our readers such infor¬ 
mation as we have been able to obtain. 
Near the case in question is a specimen of a “Du¬ 
gong sucking calf;’’ lent, as a card attached to it in¬ 
forms us, by Professor Flower, of the Royal College 
of Surgeons, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. This “calf, ,r 
which is between four and five feet long, has a very 
curious head, and flippers instead of fins. 
In the case are the skull and some of the rib bones 
of a full-grown dugong cow, a piece of the dried 
skin, nearly an inch in thickness, several teeth and 
tusks, a piece of dried meat, stated to be a piece of 
a calf, and which looks and, we were assured, tastes 
precisely like bacon, and a few bottles of a white 
substance not unlike lard or dripping, labelled 
“ Dugong Oil,” which is announced as “ the great 
Queensland remedy for consumption.” It appears 
to have been first prescribed for that disease by Dr. 
Hobbs, of Brisbane, who was led to use it in 
his practice through observing the wonderful effects 
the mere eating of the flesh of the animal had on 
the aboriginals when suffering from lung diseases. 
It is claimed for this oil that it is not only quite 
equal to cod-liver oil in the treatment of affections, 
of the lungs, but that it is also a remedy for diseases 
of the stomach and bowels and general debility, 
indigestion and biliousness, as well as chronic coughs, 
and wasting in children. But its chief peculiarity is 
reported to be that,far from partaking of the nauseous- 
ness of cod-liver oil, it is actually pleasant to eat as an 
article of food, and can thus be taken by people of a 
delicate appetite when the stomach entirely revolts 
from cod-liver oil. 
At a dinner given by Mr. Danetree, the Agent- 
General of Queensland, in the Annexe, on the 10th 
inst., dugong oil bore a very prominent part in the- 
menu. Both pastry and biscuits were introduced, ini 
which the oil took the place of butter or lard, and' 
we are informed that the general opinion was that 
it was in every way a success. The London corre¬ 
spondent of the ‘ Newcastle Daily Express,’ in writ¬ 
ing to that journal, says, “ Lighter or more delicious 
pastry than that in which this oil had taken the place- 
of lard, I never tasted. The same thing may be- 
said of the biscuits, which were everything that 
biscuits ought to be.” 
The fish, or, more properly speaking, the animal,, 
from which this oil is procured, is a herbivorous ceta¬ 
cean, and would probably be ranked by naturalists 
midway between the whale and the seal. It is 
found in very large numbers in the waters of 
Northern Queensland, and more infrequently iir 
the southern portions as far as Moreton Bay, beyond 
