July 27, 1372.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
67 
merit of tlie molecular formula of a metallic chloride is the worthy savant detected it even, in colourless hlood ; 
afforded in some instances by a determination of its and after some experiments he fo md that the blood 
vapour density,—tantamount to a determination of the of snails contained as much iron as that of the ox or calf, 
quantity of chlorine by weight, contained in a given and this he thought was sufficient to demonstrate that 
volume of the gas or vapour of the chloride experi- the red colour of the blood is not due, as is generally 
mented on. Thus, having estimated the quantity of supposed, to the presence of iron in that liquid. Cor re- 
chlorine contained in a given volume of heated muriatic 
acid gas, the quantities of chlorine contained in the 
same volume of the vaporized chlorides of mercury, 
bismuth, tin and tantalum, under the same circumstances 
of pressure and temperature, are found to be 2, 3, 4, and 
5 times as great, whence the formuhe HCl^ Hg Cl 2 , 
Bi Cl* SnCl 4 , and Ta Cl 5 , respectively. Now indium 
chloride being volatile at a red heat, there is no reason, 
save that resulting from the rarity and value of the 
body, why the density of its vapour should not be ascer¬ 
tained. As a matter of fact, however, no estimation of 
the vapour density of indium chloride has yet been 
made, and any evidence that might be deducible from 
it is consequently not forthcoming. 
(To be continued.) 
spondent of Medical Times and Gazette. 
BULLOCK’S BLOOD—A NEW REMEDY. 
In the practice of medicine, as in other worldly mat¬ 
ters, certain things are in fashion for a certain time. 
Bleeding and mercury have had their day; cod-liver oil 
und chloral hydrate are already on the wane; alcohol 
and bullocks’ blood are now in vogue among the Pari¬ 
sians,—the former for fevers and all inflammatory affec¬ 
tions, and the latter for anmmia and pulmonary phthisis. 
It is a curious sight to see the number of patients of both 
sexes and of all ranks and ages who flock to the slaugh¬ 
ter-house every morning to drink of the still fuming 
blood of the oxen slaughtered for the table. I was 
struck at the facility with which young ladies take to it, 
and I have heard many say that they prefer it to cod- 
liver oil. I shall not enter into any theoretical specula¬ 
tions as to its modus operandi , but what I can vouch for 
is, I know of several cases of antemia that have been 
cured, and some of phthisis pulmonalis greatly benefited 
-by the treatment,—at least, as much as they would be 
under cod-liver oil. For the more fastidious, however, 
a pharmacien has prepared an extract of blood, which is 
administered in the form of pills, each of which, weigh¬ 
ing about three grains, is said to be equivalent to about 
half an ounce of pure blood. 
M. Boussingault, a distinguished chemist, lately read 
a paper before the Academy of Sciences, giving an ac¬ 
count of his researches on the composition of the blood, 
and expressed his surprise that, containing as it does all 
the constituents of a perfect aliment, it is not more gene¬ 
rally employed as food. This is a subject worthy the 
-consideration of philanthropists, especially in these days, 
when the price of meat is everywhere steadily increasing, 
—at least, among the meat-eating population; and it 
•strikes me that the rivers of blood that are daily spilt on 
the ground in slaughter-houses might be utilized as 
4'ood. In Europe, pigs’ blood is the most generally con¬ 
sumed in the form of sausages ; but that of all animals, 
without distinction, might in this way be more usefully 
employed. It is well known that in the steppes of 
.South America the natives have for a long time used as 
food the blood of the animals they chased, which they 
previously coagulate and season with different condi¬ 
ments. 
Accoi'ding to M. Boussingault, of all nutritive sub¬ 
stances the blood of animals contains the greatest quan¬ 
tity of iron; and, although varying in different animals, 
it is in physiological conditions found in certain fixed 
proportions in the blood. In man, to 100 grammes of 
blood, M. Boussingault found 51 milligrammes of iron; 
in that of the ox, 55 milligrammes; of the pig, 59 milli¬ 
grammes; and in that of the frog, 42 milligrammes. 
But it was not only in red blood that iron was found; 
THE CHEMISTRY OF THE HYDROCARBONS. * 
BY C. SCHORLEMMER, F.R.S. 
(Continued from page 46.) 
Hydrocarbons of the Acetylene Series .—By again ab¬ 
stracting from the olefines two other atoms of hydrogen, 
we obtain the third group of hydrocarbons, of which 
acetylene, C 2 H. 2 , is the first member. This body is re¬ 
markable as being the only hydrocarbon which has been 
obtained by the direct union of its elements. 
A general method of obtaining the hydrocarbons of 
this series is to abstract two molecules of hydrobromic 
acid from the bibromides of the olefines. As this mode 
of formation is quite analogous to that by which pa¬ 
raffins are converted into olefines, it appears most pro¬ 
bable that the acetylene-hydrocarbons have a constitu¬ 
tion similar to that of the olefines. In acetylene the 
two carbon atoms are linked together by three com¬ 
bining units of each atom— 
CH=CH, 
and its homologues contain a monad alcohol-radical in 
place of one atom of hydrogen. 
I have already mentioned that Butlerow has made 
some experiments for the purpose of proving the cor¬ 
rectness of the theory which assumes that the _non-satu- 
rated hydrocarbons contain carbon-atoms linked to¬ 
gether by more than one unit of their combining capa¬ 
city (Journ. Chem. Soc. [2], ix. 214). According to 
him, isobutylene, (CH 3 ) 2 C=CH 2 , could not, by the loss 
of two atoms of hydrogen, yield crotonylene, C^H^, but 
an isomeride with a closed group of three carbon 
atoms. 
He found, however, that by the action ol solium 
ethylate upon monobrom-isobutylene, (CH 3 ) 2 C=CH Br, 
no hydrocarbon is formed, but ethyl-isocrotyl, ethei 
C 2 H 5 } ^ ns ^ ea( ^ hydrobromic acid being taken 
out, bromine was replaced by oxethyl. . 
The number of isomeric hydrocarbons in this series is 
very small. They are hexoylene and diallyl, C 6 H 10 , and 
decenylene and l'utylene, C 10 H 1S . Of these, hexoylene 
and decenylene are strictly homologous to acet} - 
lene— 
C.C 4 H 9 c.c s h 17 
Hexoylene |J[ Decenylene III 
OH OH. 
The constitution of diallyl is also known, as we know 
that of the allyl compounds— 
CH 2 =CH—CH 2 —CHg—CH=C H 2 
Rutylene has been obtained from diamylene; its con¬ 
stitution is, therefore, probably similar to that of the 
latter hydrocarbon, which has already been fully dis¬ 
cussed. 
Hydrocarbons of the Series C n H 2n — 4 . Of this group 
only two have been artificially prepared, by abstracting 
hydrogen from the corresponding members of the pre¬ 
ceding series. One of these, valylene, C 5 H 6 , has been 
studied very little; the other, C 10 H 16 , which has een 
obtained from rutylene, is isomeric with a large number 
*A lecture delivered before the Chemical Society, April 
4th, 1872. Reprinted from the ‘ Journal of the Chemical 
Society ’ for Ju.ne, 1872. 
