363 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[November 4,1871. 
experiments on frogs, a solution of digitalin did not 
produce such, a decided effect as the tincture upon the 
ventricular contractions. It is possible that the other 
constituents, digitalose, digitalic acid, etc. may possess 
properties peculiar to themselves; and when the impor¬ 
tance of a knowledge of the action of different agents 
on the heart-walls becomes fully recognized—for as yet 
we are only on the threshold of the inquiry—a careful 
investigation of them may not be barren in results. In 
the treatment of chronic conditions, when it is necessary 
to keep up the administration of digitalis until structural 
changes are produced, Dr. Fothergill considers that per¬ 
haps the powdered leaves are the most desirable form. 
In this form, digitalis can be given in pills with the dried 
sulphate of iron, carminatives, laxatives, or both, and in 
this form will keep some time, and can be given twice a 
day without causing the patients to revolt at its nauseous 
taste, or creating any aversion, on aesthetic principles, 
to its muddy-looking combination with iron. For long, 
a favourite form of p>ill with him for persistent use has 
been a combination of half a grain to a grain of pow¬ 
dered digitalis, with an equal quantity of the dried sul¬ 
phate of iron in powder, and a morsel of cayenne, in 
extract of gentian, or aloes and myrrh pill, thus securing 
an action on the circulation, the addition of iron in a 
form which will act locally on the stomach, and thus act 
as an astringent in the gastric catarrh so common 
among sufferers from heart-disease; while the carmina¬ 
tive action of the cayenne is useful, and also takes off 
the griping from the action of the laxative, when an 
action is also necessary, as is commonly the case, on the 
bowels. 
In cases where there is a risk of digitalis disordering 
the stomach, it may be administered by absorption 
through the skin by means of poultices of the leaves or 
flannels soaked in the infusion, or a mixture of the tinc¬ 
ture and water applied to the abdomen and thighs. Hy¬ 
podermic injection is another mode of administering it, 
and Bouillaud pursued an endermic treatment by dust¬ 
ing a blister over the heart with from six to fifteen grains 
of powdered digitalis. 
NICKEL PLATING AS APPLIED TO PHOTO¬ 
GRAPHIC PURPOSES. 
BY JOHFT SPILLER, F.C.S. 
About ten years ago, when visiting the bank-note 
printing establishment of Messrs. Bradbury and Wilkin¬ 
son, of Fetter Lane, I was shown some nickel-coated 
plates from which the “nature printing” specimens had 
been prepared, and had an opportunity of seeing the 
'electro-deposition of pure nickel upon copper and other 
metals practically carried out as one of the branches of 
their printing operations. This process was being ap¬ 
plied conjointly with, or as a substitute for, the method 
of steel facing (acierage) of which they are the patentees, 
and it struck me at once that the permanent quality of 
the nickel deposit so formed was capable of wider appli¬ 
cation, and might serve as a means of protecting steel 
objects from the rusting influence of damp air. 
_ At my suggestion a few steel articles—particularly a 
dinner-knife, spatula, and split-ring—were coated with 
nickel, in order to test the degree of protection which 
such a process would offer when applied to swords, 
bayonets, helmets, breast-plates, spurs, harness chains, 
and steel accoutrements generally. The experiment 
proved perfectly successful, and without prejudice to the 
colour, and steps were then taken with the view of sub¬ 
mitting the idea to the notice of the War Office authori¬ 
ties, particularly as the cost of applying such a process 
did not appear likely to stand in the way of its general 
adoption when the great saving of time in cleaning 
these articles was duly taken into account. 
Beyond establishing the fact, no immediate result fol¬ 
lowed, and from that time to the present year the appli¬ 
cation of electro-deposited nickel has, so far as I am 
aware, been restricted to the specific purposes for which 
Messrs. Bradbury and Wilkinson have continued to 
apply it in their establishment. Within the last two or 
three years fresh attempts in my original direction have 
led to the employment of this process in America, where 
a patent was taken out for the application, and a com¬ 
pany now working under a licence of the American 
patentees has recently commenced operations in London 
and Birmingham, i am indebted to the energetic ma¬ 
nager of the Plating Company (Limited), Mr. Channer, 
of 34 , Kirby Street, Hatton Garden, for the opportunity 
of inspecting a vast collection of objects to which the 
nickel-coating has been applied, and have been fur¬ 
nished likewise with small specimens of copper, brass, 
and steel coated with the metal in question, by which I 
am enabled to substantiate the statements made in their 
prospectus relative to the wonderful degree of protection, 
afforded to the underlying metals by the superficial 
deposit of pure nickel. I have since had my regulation, 
sword coated at their works, and find it now perfectly 
secured against rusting in wet weather, and so easily 
kept in condition that the blade and scabbard require 
only to be wiped with a washleather, instead of under¬ 
going the tedious process of burnishing, to fit it for 
appearance on parade. 
A small square bar of steel similarly coated has been 
repeatedly immersed in water for hours together with¬ 
out showing any signs of rusting, and I find it possible 
to bury it in flowers of sulphur for several days without 
tarnishing the lustre of the nickel surface. Neither has 
this latter severe test any effect upon the copper and 
brass bars upon which the nickel coating has been ap¬ 
plied, and these metals may even be immersed in an 
aqueous solution of nitrate of silver without effecting 
the reduction of that metal. In one of the angles only, 
where the coating seems to be imperfect, was there any 
indication of silver reduction in the case of the brass 
tube, the steel bar being perfectly protected over the 
whole surface against the action of silver and copper 
solutions. Here, then, is a valuable property which I 
was not led to anticipate in the case of electro-deposited 
nickel, for I could not have predicted from my chemical 
knowledge that a metal of the zinc and iron group 
would be proof against the action of nitrate of silver; 
but the experiment proves it to be so, and we must 
regard pure nickel as belonging (from this point of 
view) to the class of noble metals, resisting, like gold 
and platinum, the attack of sulphur and of highly cor¬ 
rosive metallic solutions. 
The nickel facing, when burnished, has a whiter 
colour than polished steel, although not equal to silver 
itself, its aspect being rather that of rolled platinum. 
A chemist to whom I showed the specimens pronounced 
them at once to be very similar to platinum in regard to- 
colour, thus confirming my own impression on this, 
head. It withstands the action of heat also remarkably 
well, for the fusion-point is very high, and oxidation 
occurs only at elevated temperatures. With the view of 
testing its general applicability to laboratory work, I 
am having a brass scale-pan coated with nickel, and will 
report later as to its success. For fine balance beams- 
and weights, lens mountings, reflectors, laboratory mi¬ 
croscopes, Sykes’s hydrometers, still-worms, egg-beaters, 
camera fittings and a variety of apparatus used by the 
chemist and photographer, the nickel coating will pro¬ 
bably find extensive application ; and I have seen some 
oval picture-frames of very pretty effect made from 
stamped brass coated with nickel. It remains to be 
mentioned that burnished and matt surfaces of this metaL 
may be used in combination for ornamental purposes.—- 
Photographic News. 
