5GG 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [January H, 1871. 
With regard to antidotes for administration to animals, 
etc., poisoned with the Tutu plant, I should he inclined 
to think that, in addition to emetics and purgatives, very 
dilute acids would ho beneficial, since, by preventing- 
saponification of the oil, they would tend to keep it in¬ 
soluble and therefore inert. 
As being somewhat related to the subject, I may state 
that the seed of the Karaka-tree {Corynocarpus leevigata ), 
which is also of a poisonous nature, has refused, in a 
similar manner, to yield any alkaloid to my processes, 
but it gives up an oil to alcohol, which resembles the 
above in some of its reactions. It seems to exercise a 
specific effect upon the animal economy when adminis¬ 
tered in small doses, inducing at first great uneasiness, 
and afterwards restless, unwilling sleep, with sudden 
starting. Unfortunately I had not sufficient of it to get 
any decisive results. 
This oil is also soluble in alcohol, acetic acid, ether 
and in hydrochloric acid. 
It is very bitter, and feebly soluble in water. 
In one important respect it differs from the oil of 
Tutu. It evolves ammonia when boiled with potash, 
thus, in regard to its composition, allying itself to the 
alkaloids, though in its reactions apparently distinct.— 
Chemical News. 
IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING HYDROGEN 
GAS. 
MM. Tessie du Motay and Marechal, who have lately 
discovered a mode of obtaining cheap oxygen for illumi¬ 
nating and medical purposes from the manganates of 
soda, have sought a more practical and economical me¬ 
thod of producing hydrogen by the decomposition of 
water by means of carbon, and they have discovered the 
following method, which has given the most extraordi¬ 
nary results. Alkaline and earthy alkaline hydrates, 
such as the hydrate of potash, soda, strontium, baryta, 
chalk, etc., mixed with charcoal, coke, anthracite, pit 
coal, peat, etc., and heated to a red heat, are decomposed 
into carbonic acid and hydrogen, without further loss of 
heat than that due to the production of the carbonic acid 
and hydrogen. The hydrates of potash, soda, etc., and 
more especially the hydrates of chalk or lime, decom¬ 
posed by the coal into hydrogen and carbonic acid, can 
be used indefinitely in this process, provided they are 
moistened each time with water, so as to reproduce the 
decomposed hydrates. In this operation, the hydrogen 
gas is generated without any special production of 
steam, and may thus be produced without any other 
generating apparatus than the retorts themselves. 
These retorts, not being exposed to the direct action of 
the steam, are not subject to any interior alteration or 
damage. It follows, therefore, that the hydrogen gas 
produced by the decomposition of the above-named hy¬ 
drates by means of carbon can be generated at a very 
small cost, and with the same facility as carburetted 
hydrogens from the distillation of pit-coal or rather or¬ 
ganic hydro-carbon matter. These alkaline and earthy 
alkaline hydrates may be mixed with the different mine¬ 
ral or vegetable combustibles, either in a definite che¬ 
mical proportion, or without a fixed or determinate pro¬ 
portion, and in any suitable distilling or heating appa¬ 
ratus, in order to produce, when heated to a red heat, 
hydrogen gas for illuminating and heating purposes. 
The advantage of the production of hydrogen as cheaply 
as oxygen, which has been obtained, is likely to create a 
revolution in many industries, and especially in metal- 
] urgy. A cheap method of producing a great heat in 
order to reduce metals, such as platinum, gold, silver, 
and iron, has long been sought for in Europe, where the 
the poisonous principle of the Cicuta virosa to be an essen¬ 
tial oil, of formula C 10 H S , but “could not find any alkaloid 
in this plant at all. ’ This was one of the plants especially 
selected for examination in the communication alluded to. 
oxyhydric blowpipe is now used to melt the platinum in 
a calcium crucible. By this discovery it becomes possi¬ 
ble to obtain an immense heat which could be regulated 
by a simple tap. Enamellers and porcelain makers may 
thus get rid of one of their greatest troubles .—Journal 
of the Society of Arts. 
PHARMACEUTICAL NOTES. 
BY ALBERT E. EBERT. 
On several occasions we have been requested by phy¬ 
sicians to prepare pills from the oil of yellow sandal¬ 
wood, each containing from five to ten drops. This we 
accomplished to the satisfaction of both prescriber and 
patient, by the following method:— 
Take of Oil of Yellow Sandal Wood, 
Yellow Wax, each half a troy ounce. 
Melt the wax in a capsule and weigh into it the oil ot 
sandal wood ; mix and stir until cold, then roll out the 
mass, and divide it into 80 pills, by means of the pill- 
machine or pill-tile, in the same manner as an ordi¬ 
nary mass, and sprinkle with marshmallow-root powder. 
Each pill contains three grains, or about five drops of 
the oil. The excipient is unobjectionable, as it is readily 
soluble in the juices of the stomach. In the same man¬ 
ner we have made pills of the oils of cubebs, black pepper 
and fleabane. 
Tincture of Calabar bean is frequently prescribed, and 
there is considerable variation in its strength as dispensed 
by different pharmacists. We have been accustomed to 
prepare the tincture, using one part of bean to ten of 
liquid, the menstruum consisting of alcohol, three parts, 
and water, one part. The bean, previously reduced to a 
fine powder, is macerated for several days with the water, 
the alcohol is then added, and the whole is allowed to 
macerate eight days longer. Finally, the mixture is 
thrown upon a filter, and when the liquid has ceased to 
pass, pour upon the residue sufficiency of the alcoholic 
menstruum to make up the original measure. It is dif¬ 
ficult, by means of the mortar and pestle, to reduce the 
whole of the calabar bean to the requisite degree of fine¬ 
ness ; besides, by this means much waste of the valuable 
material must occur. To avoid these difficulties, we 
have resorted to the goodwife’s sanctum and appropriated 
that piece of apparatus so indispensable to a cup of good 
coffee, namely, the coffee mill, which we have found to 
answer to a charm the purpose of reducing the Calabar 
bean without incurring loss and without waste of time. 
We can heartily recommend the purchase of such a mill 
for use in reducing small quantities of many hard drugs, 
as stramonium and colchicum seed, etc. 
Extract of Calabar bean is quoted by certain manu¬ 
facturers of pharmacal preparations at $1.25 per ounce. 
Having had some demand for the article we undertook 
to prepare the article, and after thoroughly exhausting 
the bean, upon evaporation of the solution, were sur¬ 
prised to find the yield of extract to be but a trifle over 
one troy ounce from sixteen troy ounces of the bean. 
We find that other manipulators have obtained even 
smaller results. The query naturally arises, how can 
any manufacturer find it profitable to furnish the extract 
at $1.25 per ounce, when it requires one pound of ma¬ 
terial, costing $4 to obtain that quantity, to say nothing 
of the cost of menstruum, labour, etc. ? 
The dose of the tincture, as usually prescribed, is fif¬ 
teen drops; that would indicate the dose of the extract 
to be about one-twentieth of a grain. 
Lard is an article constantly required in galenical 
pharmacy, and upon its purity and freedom from ran¬ 
cidity depends, in great measure, the preparation of such 
ointments and cerates as will be creditable to the careful 
dispenser. Lard of the requisite quality is within the 
reach of all who will take the trouble to render it from 
the “leaf lard,” which, in the proper season, is always 
