758 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[March 22, 1873. 
anh (§mw. 
[332.] —FAT T Y OAK Y ARNIS H. —H aving got a quan¬ 
tity of old fatty oak varnish, can any correspondent inform 
me the best mode to adopt to liquefyit and renderis service¬ 
able ?—G. W. - 
MONOCHROMATIC LIGHT FOR ALKALI- 
METRIC OPERATIONS.—The difficulties attending 
the use of litmus by gas or other artificial light, in deli¬ 
cate operations, has been the subject of a communication 
by M. L. d’Henri to the French Academy. He suggests 
the use in a darkened room of the non-luminous flame of a 
Bunsen burner into which a platinum wire, previously 
moistened with a paste of common salt and water, is made 
to pass. In the intense yellow light so produced the red 
colour of litmus appears as colourless as water, while the 
blue appears as black as ink. 
DETECTION OF NITRATE OF POTASH MIXED 
WITH NITRATE OF SILVER.—M. Pollacci ( Bol- 
lettino Farmaceutico ) states that an adulteration of Ni¬ 
trate of Silver with Nitrate of Potash may be detected 
by heating about a gram of the suspected nitrate to 
redness in a porcelain crucible, allowing it to cool and 
adding to the residue a few drops of distilled water. If the 
liquor be alkaline to test-paper, it is proof that the speci¬ 
men contained nitrate of potash. The test is based upon 
the reaction by which nitrate of potash is converted into 
the oxide when heated in presence of metallic silver (aris¬ 
ing from the reduced nitrate), and afterwards into the 
hydrate by combination with water. 
SUCCXJS APARGT7E.—Upon treating the roots of 
A. autumnalis according to the process for succus taraxaci 
I found the yield of juice small, the albuminous deposit 
large, and the product intensely bitter, with a strong odour 
of succus taraxaci. The extract treated with menstrua 
gave nothing crystallizable.—J. B. S. 
SUPPOSITORIA EXTEMPORANEA.—For suppo¬ 
sitories containing cacao butter, a strong jelly of glycerine 
and tragacanth will be found a useful excipient (about 
one part of jelly to two parts of cacao butter). Incorporate 
the active ingredient with the glycerine of tragacanth, add 
the cacao butter in small pieces, and weld into a mass, roll 
and mark divisions on an ordinary pill machine. The 
suppositories can be moulded by the hand, they soon 
harden, keep well in a dry place, require no heat in their 
preparation, and melt at the ordinary temperature of the 
body.—J. B. S. - 
DEPILATORY.—Boettger (Neues Jahrbuch f. Pharm. 
xxviii. 230) recommends as a safe depilatory, one part of 
crystallized sulphydrate of sodium rubbed to a very fine 
powder and mixed with three parts of prepared chalk. 
He states that it should be mixed with water and applied 
to the skin for two or three minutes only, at the end of 
which time the hair becomes soft and is easily removed by 
water. A longer contact is liable to corrode the skin. 
The following journals have been received:—The ‘British 
Medical Journal,’ March 15; the ‘Medical Times and 
Gazette,’ March 15; the ‘Lancet,’ March 15; the ‘London 
Medical Record,’ March 19; ‘ Medical Press and Circular,’ 
March 14; ‘Nature,’ March 13; ‘Chemical News,’ March 
15 ; ‘ Gardener’s Chronicle,’ March 15; the ‘ Grocer,’ 
March 15; ‘ Journal of the Society of Arts,’ March 15 ; 
‘ Grocery News,’ March 15; ‘ Produce Markets Review,’ 
March 15 ; ‘ Scientific American,’ March 15; ‘ New York 
Druggists’ Circular’ for March; ‘American Journal of 
Pharmacy’ for March; ‘Anti-Adulteration Review’ for 
March; ‘ L’Union Pharmaceutique ’ for March; the ‘ Edu¬ 
cational Times’ for March; ‘British Journal of Dental 
Science’ for March; the ‘Practitioner’ for March; ‘Journal 
ef Applied Science’ for March; ‘Florist and Pomologist’ for 
March; ‘ Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie’ for March ; 
‘ Chemist and Druggist,’ March 15; Zeitschrift des allge- 
meinen osterreichischen Apotheker-Vereines,’ March 10. 
*** No notice can be taken of anonymous communica¬ 
tions. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenti¬ 
cated by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily 
for 'publication , but as a guarantee of good faith. 
Benevolent Fund. 
Sir,—In looking down the list of Members of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society, I was surprised to see how few sub¬ 
scribed to the Benevolent Fund. The reason is, I think, 
very evident; viz., the non-subscribers see how little good 
is done at present by means of the Fund. There is upwards 
of £13,000 in the Consols, yielding about £400 per annum 
interest; and the latter sum is divided, I believe, among 
about twelve annuitants, yielding the paltry sum of £30 
each,—about enough to find them in coal at the present 
price. 
Now, Sir, my proposition is that the £13,000 remain 
as at present, and the interest of that sum, together with 
all donations and subscriptions, be distributed every year 
in grants of not less than £50 a year. Then I feel sure, 
when members see such an amount of good being done, 
they will almost all be eager to subscribe, and we shall 
have a report something like the following :— 
2,300 Pharmaceutical Chemists, £1 each . £2,300 
10,000 Chemists and Druggists, 5s. each . 2,500 
Interest on £13,000 . 400 
£5,200 
This would give 100 persons £50 per annum each; and 
surely there must be as many candidates as that for our 
bounty throughout all England, and many of these are 
now rejected with aching hearts. 
It has just struck me that if this scheme is thought too 
radical, we might have two classes of subscribers ; the one 
whose money might go to swell the principal, as at present, 
and the other who might request their money to be imme¬ 
diately bestowed. 
If you think my proposition worthy of . consideration, I 
hope you will use your powerful influence in that direction. 
Reading. J- B. 
The Sale of Poisons. 
Sir,—I trust you will believe me when I say that in 
writing the letter which appeared in Journal of the 8th inst., 
and which you noticed in your leader, I wished not to 
cast the slightest slur upon the sincerity of your motives 
for expressing the views from which I differed, but in.this, 
as in all other matters, whether. agreeable to my own ideas 
or not, I believe you have “in view simply the interests of 
chemists and druggists.” I wish to say this, because, on 
reading your article, it gave me the impression that you 
felt I had entertained a different feeling. And, on the 
other hand, allow me to say that “ interference with trade 
was far from the motive that led me to address you: so far 
as the trouble went, I would register every sale I. made, if 
I could see any real good in it. I desire to see this matter 
discussed simply on principle. I believe the system of 
registering vermin-killers to be not in accordance with, the 
spirit of the Act. “ Charges of negligence in the sale of 
vermin-killer I do not think any sane magistrate would 
make after once reading the Act; and I was glad to see 
the magistrate at Worship Street yesterday made no re¬ 
mark about a brother chemist at Hoxton, who stated he 
sold 100 packets of red precipitate a week, because, as to 
the sale of poisons, witness had complied with the law. 
But I find what I was ignorant of before (having been out 
of business till recently, and not knowing what had been 
done in the way of poisons), that the Pharmaceutical 
Council can add to the schedules whatever they consider 
comes within the spirit of the Act—that, I suppose, if 1 
keep diarrhoea mixture in bulk, that is to be considered a, 
preparation of opium, and must be registered if they will it 
so. And, under this view of the matter only, I must apolo¬ 
gise for alluding to Mr. Kitchin. 
Feeds. Tibbs. 
81, Chalk Farm Road, N.W., March 13 th, 1873. 
