January 11, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
547 
the whole evening except the phenomena themselves to 
suggest imposture. We tried our best to detect it, hut 
could find no trace of it. We searched Mr. Home, and 
found nothing whatever upon him hut his clothes. 
“ Yet, even with all this, we are not a Spiritualist, and 
do not even believe in ‘ Psychic Force.’ We remember 
and lay to heart Mr. Gr. II. Lewes’s admirable maxim, 
i Distinguish between facts and inferences from facts.’ 
We are certain that the table rose from the ground, that 
our hand received a sprig under the table from what felt 
like another hand; but how these things happened we 
do not know. The nature of the phenomena and of 
human nature are such as to force us to suspect impos¬ 
ture and legerdemain until we can satisfy ourselves of 
.the true causes, whatever these may be.” 
This communication was followed by a letter from 
Mr. Henry Dircks, urging that the efforts of the 
“ spirits ” were not allowed to be tested openly as an 
ordinary experiment, but that certain conditions were 
always stipulated for; also that the results were un¬ 
reliable and often incorrect. There was also an insinua¬ 
tion that the automaton chess-player at the Crystal 
Palace was worked by a small concealed boy, and that 
a similar artifice might account for the manifestations of 
spiritualism; but the truth of the insinuation was denied 
by the proprietor of the automaton figure. An assertion 
that “no really scientific man'believes in spiritualism ” 
was met by the counter-assertion that two Fellows of 
the Royal Society were believers in “spiritualistic” 
phenomena, namely, Mr. Crookes, who reserves his 
opinion as to their cause, and Mr. Cromwell Varley, 
electrician to the Atlantic Telegraph Company; to these 
names wms added that of Mr. Alfred Wallace. 
In concluding our notice of this subject it will be well 
perhaps to disclaim any sympathy with what is popu¬ 
larly known as “ spiritualism ; ” our opinion is simply 
this, that the time has come for a thorough investigation 
of the subject, with the object of preventing unex¬ 
plained and misunderstood facts being misinterpreted 
and used to take advantage of credulous people. On 
this point we cannot do better than quote the following- 
words from a letter to the Times written by Dr. 
Fenton Cameron, of Derby:— 
“ I am a man accustomed to close and careful exami¬ 
nation of intricate matters. I studied spiritualism for 
about two years with great care, and, I believe, with 
perfect coolness and impartiality of mind. I saw it in 
almost all its phases. I saw its manifestations in private 
and in public, in the light and in the dark; and though 
there is much that is childish, though many of the 
believers are most credulous and would accept almost 
■anything coming in the name of the ‘Dear Spirits,’ 
and though in many of the dark seances there was 
abundant room for trick, if trick were necessary, I was 
yet compelled to believe that there was a power at work 
unknown to science, and which was not under the con¬ 
trol of the so-called medium. 
^ “ I do not, for what seem to me good reasons, believe 
that the spirits of our departed fellow-creatures are the 
•agents in all this, but I have no explanation of my own 
to offer. Faraday’s unconscious muscular action theory 
was quite unworthy such a mind as his. Dr. Carpenter’s 
unconscious cerebration may explain a few phenomena, 
ns may also Serjeant Cox’s Psychic force, but there is 
much, very much, in spiritualism that none of these 
explanations touch at all; and, as the new faith has now 
.spread so widely and has done so much mischief to 
many, the time has, I agree with your reporter in think¬ 
ing, fully come when even our greatest scientists may, 
without loss of dignity, consent to become as little 
children, that they may learn something of this strange 
thing before they pronounce upon it; for many think 
with me that men who have fairly won great names by 
scientific discovery rather detract from than add to their 
reputation by speaking dogmatically concerning that of 
which they are pi’actically in utter ignorance.” 
EXPLOSIVE MIXTURE OF NITRATE OF POTASH 
AND ACETATE OF SODA.* 
BY M. VIOLETTE. 
_ An accident in the author’s laboratory made known to 
him a singular reaction between nitrate of potash and 
acetate of soda, which, under the influence of heat, con¬ 
stitutes an explosive mixture equal in force to gun¬ 
powder. In some researches upon saltpetre he had 
heated moderately in a small phial a few grams each of 
nitrate of soda and acetate of soda, both previously fused 
and anhydrous. The two salts melted formed a colour¬ 
less and transparent liquid, which gave off a few gaseous 
bubbles. At the same moment, a violent explosion oc¬ 
curred, accompanied by flame and smoke, which scat¬ 
tered the phial in fragments all over the laboratory; a 
fresh gaseous combination between the elements of the 
salts had taken place, leaving a slight residue of alka¬ 
line carbonates. 
In repeating the experiment a gram of nitrate of 
potash was melted in a small platinum capsule at a 
gentle heat, and a gram of acetate of soda previously 
fused added to it. At a temperature of about 300° 0. 
the mixture remained fluid, transparent and without al¬ 
teration as long as the temperature remained constant; 
upon raising it to about 350° C. there was slight ebul¬ 
lition followed instantly by a loud explosion, with light 
and smoke, similar to that of gunpowder. As before, 
there was a slight residue of alkaline carbonates. The 
same result followed when a substance in ignition with¬ 
out flame was plunged into the liquid at 300° C. 
If the melted mixture be poured upon a cold surface 
a white substance is obtained, which is hard, brittle, 
rather hygroscopic, more fusable than nitrate of potash, 
and being melted explodes violently. In the solid form 
it does not burn when placed in contact with an ignited 
body ; but reduced to fine powder, it deflagrates violently 
upon the application of a flame. 
The explosive properties of the mixture are only de¬ 
veloped when the nitrate of potash and acetate of soda 
are present in certain proportions,—from 50 to 100 parts 
of the acetate to 100 parts of the nitrate,—the most ex- 
plosible mixture being 100 parts of the fused nitrate to 
60 parts the fused acetate. When the nitrate is in ex¬ 
cess, the combustion is only partial and of short dura¬ 
tion ; when the acetate is in excess, the mixture burns 
slowly and similarly to a light wood. 
A mixture of nitrate of soda and acetate of potash 
was found to have the same explosive properties, but to 
be more hygroscopic. Mixtures of nitrate of potash with 
the acetates of copper and baryta did not yield an ex¬ 
plosive product. 
BETEL NUT CHEWING. 
The Eastern correspondent of the New York Mail 
writes to that paper :—“ There is a fascination in betel 
nut more extraordinary than in a tobacco passion. The 
consumption of the latter in chewing alone, in the United 
States, is a modern phenomenon. An inveterate chewer 
may have moral resolution enough to break off the 
habit, though it rarely happens that an effort is made to 
do so, as an apology is found for continuing a practice 
that is positively destroying the foundations of health. 
Once addicted to chewing tobacco, to abandon it is an 
achievement few have the happiness to perform, not¬ 
withstanding the melancholy mortality of men in the 
meridian of life who are constantly being destroyed by 
the subtle influence of that strange plant on the nervous 
system. Thus, sudden palsy of the heart, palsy of a 
limb, palsy of one-half the tongue, and even instantaneous 
death, are traceable by physicians to excessive use of 
tobacco. But the vice of betel-nut chewing, however, 
is still more remarkable. When the habit is established, 
there seems no retreat. Each victim wears out his 
teeth, gums, digestion, and dies with an unsatisfied 
* * Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie,’ xvi. 333. 
