May 31, 1373.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
955 
will answer for one fluid ounce of the tincture. This is to 
be added to the iron solution before the alcohol, and the 
alcoholic strength of the tincture, when finished, must not 
be more than 30 or 40 p. c. instead of 70 p. c., as usual. 
The sesquisulphate and the sesquinitrate of iron form 
also combinations precisely alike to those described above, 
but present no special interest to be entitled to more than 
a simple mention. 
All these combinations, however, lack the property of 
coagulating the blood, and for that reason cannot be used 
as styptics in cases of hemorrhagia, etc. The old officinal 
preparations will have to be retained for external use, the 
only thing they are fit for in a civilized community. 
THE OLIVE OIL TRADE. 
The trade in olive oil in this country has been an in¬ 
teresting one, regarding it in its past and present charac¬ 
teristics. If we look at the statistics of the importation 
of this article in past years as compared with present, we 
are enabled to perceive the augmentation which has oc¬ 
curred in the trade, and the rapid progress it has made. 
We have some interesting figures before us bearing upon 
this subject, showing the amount of olive oil imported into 
this country during the years 1840-1870—that is to say, 
during three very important decades in our commercial 
history. As these figures have been prepared under official 
authority, their correctness cannot be brought into ques¬ 
tion. Commencing with the year 1840—say thirty years 
ago—we find that olive oil was imported into the United 
Kingdom to the extent of 8783 tuns, while in 1842 the 
amount had increased to 14,095 tuns. After this we note 
considerable fluctuations in the import, the amount having 
dwindled down in 1846 to 8534 tuns. In 1850, however, 
it increased, being in that year 20,784 tuns, thus showing 
a very considerable and rapid augmentation. In the few 
following years again we observe that the imports lan¬ 
guished, but in 1858 they amounted to 25,121, at which 
amount they remained with more or less fluctuation for 
some time. The next important increase we find was in 
the year 1865, when the imports amounted to 32,005 tuns 
—the largest amount imported into this country during 
the period under notice. In subsequent years the imports 
have somewhat declined, as compared with 1865, accord¬ 
ing to the official statistics, although we have every evi¬ 
dence to show that the trade has been of late both brisk 
and healthy. Our readers will bear us out in this assertion. 
Having thus considered the imports of olive oil as re¬ 
gards actual quantity, it will be next interesting to see 
what is their actual sterling value. Going back to the 
year 1856 we* find that the computed real value of the 
olive oil imported into the United Kingdom amounted to 
the large sum of £1,124,755, while in 1865 it was no less 
than £1,684,852. Our readers will perceive from these 
statistics how important this branch of our import trade is, 
considered in regard to its actual sterling value, although 
it may be noted that during the few years subsequently 
to 1865, the amount has somewhat decreased. In 1870 it 
was £1,185,950. Chemists and druggists will assuredly 
view with interest the fact that merely one article of their 
stock-in-trade—an important article certainly, but not 
prominently so—is imported^ into this country annually to 
the extent of over a million pounds sterling. This is one 
of those satisfactory commercial facts which speaks for 
itself, and needs no comment from us. 
The exports of olive oil from this country next invite 
attention. Going back to the year 1840 we note that 
these exports only amounted to the insignificant total of 
517 tuns, which in the year 1845 had further decreased to 
the amount of 303 tuns. Subsequently, however, the 
exports seem to have increased, and were in the year 1854 
1749 tuns, thus manifesting an increase of an important 
character. In the following year there was another con 
siderable increase, the amount of the exports being 2203 
tuns, after which they dwindled down again in 1858 to 
587 tuns. From this time we observe continual fluctua¬ 
tions in the amount exported, sometimes the total showing- 
a decrease, sometimes an increase, until, in 1870, we find 
the total exports reach the comparatively satisfactory 
total of 2168 tuns. With respect to the fluctuations in the 
trade of olive oil, interesting evidence is furnished by these 
statistics giving the exports of the article. Thus, while in 
the year 1845 the exports only amounted to 303 tuns, in 
the year 1870 they amounted to 2168 tuns—certainly a 
very large augmentation, and one which is pertinent in 
the way of comparison. It shows how much this branch 
of the trade is liable to fluctuation; how the exports are 
large one year and small another, and how it is not always 
easy to trace reliable causes of this commercial vicissitude. 
Our readers will naturally feel an interest in the average 
prices of olive oil in past and present years. According 
to the official tables giving these prices, we find that in 
the year 1856, this oil, imported from Italy, fetched 
£51 10s. per tun, whereas the price of that from Morocco 
was £48 10s. In 1860 these prices had increased, the 
Italian oil being quoted at £59 7s. Qd. per tun, and the 
Morocco £55 11s.; and it will be observed that the latter 
had increased in value comparatively with the former. In 
1865 the prices decreased, being as follows:—olive oil 
from Italy, £52 17s. 9d.; from Morocco, £49 6s. 8 d. per 
tun. In the following year, however, the prices increased 
again to the extent almost of £5 per tun, which is to be 
accounted for by reason of the decreased imports. In 
1868 the prices reached a very high point, viz. £68 3s. per 
tun for the Italian oil, and for the Morocco; and we 
do not find these prices equalled in any other year during 
the period under notice. In the year following the 
prices diminished as much as £15 per tun—a not unim¬ 
portant fact. 
AN AIR BATTERY.* 
BY J. H. GLADSTONE, PH.D., F.R.S., AND ALFRED TRIBE, F.C.S. 
The authors describe a galvanic battery which is 
founded on a reaction that they brought under the notice 
of the Royal Society last spring.! They then showed 
that if pieces of copper and silver in contact are immersed 
in a solution of nitrate of copper in the presence of 
oxygen, a decomposition of the salt ensues, with the 
formation of cuprous oxide on the silver and a correspond¬ 
ing solution of the copper, while a galvanic current passes 
through the liquid from copper to silver. They stated 
that this was only one of a large class of similar reactions, 
and that it seemed desirable to examine more fully the 
history and the capabilities of the electrical power thus 
produced. . , , , . . ,. . 
It was previously ascertained that the combination ot 
the oxygen takes place only in the neighbourhood of the 
silver ; and the following formuhe may serve to render the 
chemical change and transference more intelligible . 
Before contact— 
vi Ag -j- O -j - Cu2N0 3 -}- Cu2NO a -f- n Cu ; 
after contact— 
m Ag + Cu 2 O -f Cu 2 NO a + Cu 2 N0 3 + (n - 2) Cu. 
This action is evidently a continuous one until either the 
oxygen or the copper fails. The oxygen of the atmos¬ 
phere is practically unlimited in amount, but there is 
a difficulty in bringing any large quantity of it into 
contact at once with the silver and the dissolved salt. 
To facilitate this, the silver plate should have a hor.- 
zontal position just under the surface of the liquid 111 the 
cell • and in fact, the authors convert it into a small 
silver tray, full of crystals of the same metal which rise 
in projections to the very surface. The copper plate lies 
* Abstract of a paper read before^ the Royal Society, 
April 3 (‘Transactions,’ vol. xxi. p. 24/). 
f Proc. Roy. Soc., April, 1872, vol. xx. p. 290. 
