November 19, 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
405 
of the ashes of land vegetation, as being- sufficiently 
familiar to require nothing further than mere mention. 
In the salt-deposits which underlie the variegated 
sandstone of Stassfurt, Prussia, a mass of carnallite (a 
double chloride of potassium and magnesium) has been 
discovered, equal to 6,000,000 tons of chloride of potas¬ 
sium. Lai’ge quantities of this deposit, amounting to 
150,000 tons in 1866, are worked into chloride of potas¬ 
sium. From 20,000 to 30,000 tons of 82 per cent, chlo¬ 
ride are now annually produced in this locality, and find 
ready sale at about §40 per ton. 
Feldspar, containing about 13 per cent, of potash, has 
been proposed as a source of one alkali. Lawrence sug¬ 
gests its extraction, in the form of caustic or carbonate, 
by mixing the finely-pulverized orthoclase with sawdust 
and straw, and arranging the mixture in heaps, which are 
to be damped from time to time with mine or some other 
nitrogenous liquid. After undergoing for six months 
this process of decomposition through fermentation, the 
materials are mixed with a thick cream of lime, made 
into bricks, and calcined at a high temperature. By 
leaching this residue, the potash dissolves, and silicate of 
lime, etc., remain behind. 
Hack proposes to heat the mineral with lime, and to 
treat the calcined mass with water under a pressure of 
eight atmospheres, for the production of a strong lye, 
through which carbonic acid is passed for the precipita¬ 
tion of silica and alumina, and for the formation of car¬ 
bonate of potassa. Meyer’s plan is essentially the same 
as Hack’s. Ward uses fluor-spar with lime for the de¬ 
composition of feldspar for obtaining the potash. None 
of these methods have as yet been utilized on a practical 
scale, but doubtless, in time, some of them, as well as 
those of Wurtz and Tilghman, for extracting the alkali 
as chloride or sulphate from greensand marl or feldspar, 
will become technically important. 
From about 22 tons of wet seaweed there are, on the 
average, produced somewhat more than 500 pounds of 
chloride of potassium, in addition to bromine, iodine 
and various soda salts. This source of potash has, how¬ 
ever, since the discovery of the Stassfurt deposits, become 
of minor importance ; but the weeds still continue to be 
collected, mainly for the extraction of the bromine and 
the iodine, more especially for that of the latter. 
About twenty-five years ago it was suggested by 
Dubrunfaut that the molasses from the manufacture of 
beet-root sugar could be utilized in the production of 
potash compounds, by first converting uncrystallizable 
sugar into alcohol, which is distilled off, and subsequently 
evaporating the liquor to dryness and incinerating the 
residue. According to Payen, the ash of this molasses 
contains 49‘88 per cent, of potash soluble in water, and 
1*7 per cent, insoluble. This plan was first carried into 
practice at the distillery of Serret and Co., but has since 
been adopted on a large scale at several places in both 
France and Germany. The establishment at Waghause- 
lin, Baden, annually produces upwards of 300 tons of 
commercial potashes, containing from 88 to 94 per cent, 
pure carbonate of potash. 
In 1862, Dr. Hoffmann, in his report on the London 
Exhibition, called attention to a new source of potash 
utilized in certain parts of France, more especially at 
the great seats of the woollen manufacture, as Rheims, 
Fourmies, and Elboeuf. Here the liquors in which more 
than 27,000,000 kilog. of sheep’s wool are washed are 
bought for the “ suint ” they contain. This “ suint ” is 
a compound of potash with a peculiar nitrogenous animal 
acid, about which but little is known, which was first 
pointed out by Chevreul as forming no less than a third 
of the weight of raw merino wool, and a somewhat less 
proportion of ordinary, coarser wools. It forms on the 
average about 15 per cent, of the weight of raw fleece, 
and is exceedingly soluble in cold water. The washings 
of the amount of fleece above given would give, accord¬ 
ing to J. Lawrence Smith, about 1,167,750 kilog. of pure 
potash, worth, at the average rate of American potashes, 
from §400,000 to §450,000. The process of extraction is 
a simple one, and consists simply in boiling the washing- 
liquor down to dryness, and calcining the residue, which 
somewhat resembles baked molasses in appearance, in re¬ 
torts with the production of gas, tar, and ammoniacal 
liquid, together with a coke-like substance which is 
leached. From the solution thus obtained, sulphate, 
chloride and carbonate of potassa, free from corresponding 
soda compounds , are separated by continued evaporation. 
PHARMACY BILL FOR IRELAND, 
PROrOSED BY 
The Governor and Company of the Apothecaries 
Hall, Dublin. 
Draft Bill. 
To regulate the Practice of Pharmacy in Ireland, to in¬ 
stitute a Pharmaceutical Society, and to alter and 
amend the Act passed by the Parliament of Ireland, 
in tfie thirty-first year of the reign of his Majesty 
George the Third, intituled “ An Act for the more 
effectually preserving the health of his Majesty’s sub¬ 
jects, for erecting an Apothecaries’ Hall in the City of 
Dublin, and regulating the profession of an Apothecary 
throughout the kingdom of Ireland.” 
Whereas it is expedient, to enable the governor and 
company of the Apothecaries’ Hall of Dublin to grant 
licences to persons (other than duly qualified Apotheca¬ 
ries), to assume the name of Pharmaceutical Chemists, 
and to keep open shop for the retailing, dispensing, or 
compounding of prescriptions of duly qualified medical 
practitioners, and also to grant certificates enabling per¬ 
sons to be engaged or employed as students, apprentices, 
or assistants, respectively. 
And whereas, it is expedient and necessary that such 
persons should possess a competent practical knowledge 
of their business, and to that end, that from and after the 
day herein named, all persons should, before commencing 
such business, be duly examined as to their qualifications 
and practical knowledge, and that a register should be 
kept, as herein provided, and that there should be insti¬ 
tuted a Pharmaceutical Society for Ireland, and also that 
the Act passed in the Parliament of Ireland, in the thirty- 
first year of his Majesty George the Third, intituled “An 
Act for the more Effectually Preserving the Health of 
his Majesty’s Subjects, for erecting an Apothecaries’ Hall 
in the City of Dublin, and Regulating the Profession of 
an Apothecary throughout the Kingdom of Ireland,” 
should be amended:— 
Be it enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, 
by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual 
and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament 
assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows :— 
1. From and after ‘ one thousand 
eight hundred and seventy-one, it shall be unlawful for 
any person, other than a duly qualified apothecary, to 
sell or to keep open shop for retailing, dispensing, or 
compounding medical prescriptions in Ireland, unless 
such person shall be a pharmaceutical chemist within the 
meaning of this Act, and be registered under this Act. 
2. Pharmaceutical chemists within the meaning of this 
Act shall consist of all persons who shall be duly ex¬ 
amined and licensed in pharmacy, and registered as 
pharmaceutical chemists under the provisions of this Act. 
3. The examiners for the purposes of this Act shall 
consist of the governor or deputy-governor, with six 
members of the Court of the Apothecaries’ Hall, who 
examine on the subjects specified in clause 4 of this Act, 
together with six other examiners selected by members 
of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, provided that 
until said conjoint Board be formed, the examinations 
may be carried on for the time being by the aforesaid 
members of the Com't of the Apothecaries’ Hall. _ 
4. All such persons as shall have been so appointed to 
conduct examinations under this Act shall be, and the 
