April 19, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
837 
dantly in. the jungles of the district. It is collected in 
the cold season by the Sahars, the tubers pounded and 
washed, and the sediment dried in the sun. By these 
people it is eaten and sold for the manufacture of what is 
called “ Abheer ” in the Jumbulpore, and, to a less 
degree, also in the Cuttuclc district ; the wild arrowroot 
is made into cakes, or boiled with milk, and thus used as 
an article of food. 
(To he continued.) 
Alleged Adulteration of Pea Meal. 
An action has recently been brought in the Birmingham 
County Court to recover damages alleged to have been 
sustained by the death of fifteen pigs, caused by eating 
adulterated meal supplied by the defendant. Evidence 
was given that the stomachs of the dead pigs presented 
symptoms of irritant poisoning. Dr. Hill, the borough 
analyst, said that he had analysed a portion of the meal, 
and had been unable to detect any trace of poison; but 
that there was some sand present, to which, perhaps, the 
inflammation was due. I or the defence chemical evidence 
was given by experts that the meal contained no poison. 
The judge decided in favour of the defendant, expressing 
an opinion that the deaths resulted from the. improper 
manner in which the food was given.— Birmingham 
Gazette. 
Misuse of a Liniment. 
At an inquest held at Preston on Tuesday, April l,.the 
inquiry related principally to the nature of the instructions 
sent out with a liniment. According to the evidence of 
the wife, deceased had been to Dr. Lonie on a Friday for 
treatment for rheumatism. The doctor gave him some 
medicine and a liniment, which lasted him till the follow¬ 
ing Monday. Dr. Lonie again saw him on that day and 
said that he had a “ pleurisy stitchthat he was not to 
have any more medicine of the kind he had been having, 
but fresh medicine with a sleeping-draught for the night. 
Deceased’s son was sent for the medicine, to whom it was 
given by an assistant without verbal instructions, and 
deceased took what he thought was the mixture first and 
the draught afterwards. He immediately commenced to 
vomit, and medical assistance was called in. He died a 
fortnight afterwards. It would appear that the assistant, 
in the absence of instructions, supplied the messenger 
with some medicine and a lotion as before. The bottle 
containing the liniment was produced; it was labelled 
“ poison,” in rather small type, with instructions that its 
contents should be applied outwardly. The wife could 
not, and deceased did not, read the instructions. Ac¬ 
cording to the evidence of the medical man who conducted 
the post mortem examination, there was extensive disease 
of the heart, but no evidence of poison. Some discussion 
followed as to the propriety of the assistant giving the 
medicine without communicating with Dr. Lonie, and the 
jury returned a verdict of “ Death from natural causes. 
—From the Preston Herald. 
getoktos. 
The Forms of Water in Clouds and Rivers, Ice and 
G-laciers. By John Tyndall, LL.D., F.R.S. 
London : H. S. King and Co. 
This little book forms the first volume of ‘ The Inter¬ 
national Scientific Series ;’ a series intended to include , a 
number of inexpensive treatises by distinguished men in 
England, America, Germany, and France on the results 
of modern scientific research. A glance down the list 
of authors is sufficient to satisfy one of the scientific value 
of these works : Huxley, Carpenter, Lubbock, 1 yndall, 
Balfour Stewart, Lockyer, Wurtz, Odling, Berthelot, are 
men so eminent, each in his own branch, that the mere 
statement of their names guarantees at once the character 
of this new series. To those who have read Tyndall s 
former writings, it is unnecessary to say much about the 
style of the little volume he has just given to the 
public. But for the information of some who are as yet 
unacquainted with Tyndall as an author, we may state 
that they will find him throughout Yvriting with a fresh¬ 
ness, forcibleness, and perspicuity, that enable even the un¬ 
scientific reader to grasp his meaning with ease, and make 
him to wonder at finding a subject of much difficulty 
at once interesting and intelligible. As might have been 
anticipated, the greater part of the book is devoted , to 
glaciers. Tyndall’s name is now so firmly associated with 
his Alpine investigations that we should naturally expect 
to hear something new on this subject, when he writes on 
‘ Forms of Water.’ There appears, however, to be little 
that could be called new by a well-informed man ; old facts 
are well connected and seasoned occasionally with new. 
The reader is invited to be an imaginary companion to 
the author in his Alpine tours and work on the glaciers. 
After giving a little preparatory information necessary to 
enable him to understand what he will see on his. tour, 
he is led at once to the Mer de Glace, with him to 
make careful measurements of the rate at which the 
“ frozen rivers ” are irresistibly but quietly winding down 
from lofty peaks to the valleys below. r lhe remarkable 
resemblance to the motion of a river is established in a 
most satisfactory manner ; not only does the ice-stream, 
retarded by friction on its bed, move more slowly in its 
lower than in its upper parts, but retarded by the. rubbing 
of the rocky sides, the lateral portions are outstripped by 
the central, or to use terms commonly applied to a flowing 
river, the current is strongest in the centre. And further, 
where the bed of the glacier curves, it has been established 
by numerous measurements that the part of quickest 
motion lies nearer the convex side of the curve, the re¬ 
semblance here to the movement of a running stream 
being most remarkable. 
The production of “crevasses,” “moraines, 5 and the 
many other remarkable appearances on the glacier are 
explained in a most lucid manner, and throughout the 
interesting and vivid descriptions of scenery are scattered 
little morsels of science, put in so simple and pleasing a 
form that the most ordinary reader would scarcely be 
tempted to “ skip them to go on with the story.’ 
As an example of one of these little passages, perhaps 
rather a choice one, we may mention the explanation, o 
how icicles are formed. At first sight, the formation 
might appear readily explicable and the matter too trivia 
to deserve any profound meditation, but the true exp a- 
nation is founded on facts not so universally known anc 
the true philosopher does not consider any. natural 
phenomenon unworthy of his consideration. It is fount 
that the sun’s heat-rays may pass through air of icy cold¬ 
ness unabsorbed, and yet falling on snow cause it u.o me . 
the mountaineer finds himself scorched by a. burning sun 
and yet treading on thawing snow,, and if temporarily 
sheltered from the sun’s direct radiation, he finds himse 
in air of numbing chilliness. Imagine, then., the sun shining 
on a sheet of snow upon a roof, the snow is melted whilst 
the frosty air around may be many degrees below the 
freezing point, the water trickles from the melting snow 
and hangs in drops from the eaves beneath, here sheltered 
from the sun’s radiation it is exposed to the chilling e eco 
of the cold air and is rapidly refrozen ; the next drop 
trickles down over this solid drop and attaches itself be ow, 
adding to the length of the ice pendant, drop after drop 
causing its further growth in length and thickness until 
the mature icicle is produced. . 
Having mastered the appearances and facts from a visit 
to the glacier, we are then informed briefly, how the re¬ 
markable semblance in the movement of solid, ice to that 
of liquid water has been accounted for. Ice is buttle, a 
sudden blow or strain will break it like glass, how then 
