November 18,1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
417 
Some few years ago, Mr. David Thom introduced a 
process by which this is effected in twenty minutes; it 
consists in passing the printed mordanted cloth over 
rollers fixed in a machine placed in a chamber about 
twenty feet long, in which a current of air and steam is 
thrown. The temperature of this chamber must not be 
below 100° nor above 108°, and the quantity of steam 
present must be such that fifty yards of calico will take 
up one ounce of moisture during the twenty minutes it 
is passing through the chamber. The printer is able 
to test the state of the chamber by means of wet and 
dry bulb thermometers. The next operation to which 
the cloth is submitted is dunging. The process received 
this name because formerly the calico was passed through 
a mixture of cow-dung with water. Now, however, 
silicates or arseniates of soda, mixed with a little chlorate 
of potash, are substituted. After passing through either 
of these solutions they are washed and ready to be passed 
through the dye-beck. This beck contains water, and 
from five to seven pounds of madder, or one to two and 
a half pounds of garancine, or commercial alizarine, for 
each piece of calico to be dyed. The heat of the bath is 
then gradually raised, by means of a jet of steam, to 180° 
for garancines or 212° for madders. This operation takes 
from one and a half to two hours, according to class of 
goods, style, etc. The fabrics are then washed and 
passed through a cleansing liquor for garancine or com¬ 
mercial alizarine styles, or soaped twice at 180° when 
they are dyed with madder. 
The most permanent and brilliant colour produced 
from the rubia plant on cotton fabrics is Turkey red. 
The details so essential to success in dyeing this colour 
are kept by each dyer a secret, but 1 will attempt, as 
briefly as possible, to give the main features of the pro¬ 
cess. After the bleaching of the fabric is completed, 
they are passed through Gallipoli oil, and then exposed 
to the atmosphere in heated chambers. This operation 
is repeated several times. The next one consists in pass¬ 
ing the cloth through a weak alkaline solution. After 
this, they go through a solution of acetate of alumina, 
and then through a bath of a tannin substance. By 
these processes, no doubt, the fatty acids of the oil com¬ 
bine with the alumina, as does the tannic acid of the 
tannin matter, helping to fix the mordant in the fibre of 
the fabric. On being dyed, the goods assume a rich dark 
red tone, to which brilliancy is imparted by passing the 
dye fabric through heated soap solutions. 
I should occupy too much of your time were I to 
attempt to enter into the details of the methods by which 
chemists determine the relative tinctorial powers of 
roots, madders and garancines, but I may give you a 
very simple method of detecting ordinary adulterations 
of garancine by dye woods and tannin matters. Pieces of 
blotting-paper are dipped into a weak solution of chlo¬ 
ride of tin and sulphate of protoxide of iron, and on each 
of these sheets is sprinkled a little of the suspected garan¬ 
cine. If a dye-wood be present, the chloride of tin-paper 
will assume a red colour, and, if tannin matter be pre¬ 
sent, the iron-paper will be blackened. 
a 
|lttrlranwntarg attii fate frombittp. 
Infringement of the Pharmacy Act. 
The following report of a case which came before the 
magistrates at the Croydon Police Court, on Saturday 
last, is taken from the Croydon Times of that date :— 
Alfred Harrington, chemist, of Queen’s Road, Croy- 
<l6n, was summoned on the information of George Hay¬ 
ward, chemist, of Windmill Road, Croydon, for selling 
•on the 7th of November, to a man named Stent, certain 
poison, to wit, oxalic acid, in a wrapper or a cover which 
was not distinctly labelled with the name of the article 
sold, and the name and address of the seller of the said 
poison. 
George Hayward, chemist and druggist, of Windmill 
Road, deposed that on the 7th of November he sent 
a person named Stent to the defendant. He brought 
him back a packet, on the wrapper of which only the 
word “poison” appeared. The contents of the packet 
were oxalic acid. 
Defendant admitted that the packet contained the acid 
referred to. 
Complainant, in answer to the Bench, said it was not 
a transaction between traders, but was a bond fide one of 
a customer. 
The defendant was not a registered druggist or 
member of the Pharmaceutical Society. 
Stent, who is a bricklayer, said that he received cer¬ 
tain directions from Mr. Hayward, and went to Mr. 
Harrington and asked him for one pennyworth of the 
same stuff as was on the paper, which had written upon 
it oxalic acid. Defendant wished to know what he 
was going to use it for, and witness told him to clean 
brass with. No name was mentioned whom it was for. 
He gave it to witness, who paid him one penny. 
Witness then took it to Mr. Hayward. 
By defendant—Defendant did not say the writing 
was Mr. Hayward’s. He said nothing about Mr. Hay¬ 
ward. 
Defendant denied trading with Hayward, and said it 
was only an accommodation of one from the other. He 
accused the complainant of having a feeling against him 
for some unknown purpose. 
The Chairman told the defendant that there was not 
the least doubt as to his being guilty of what he was 
charged with, and the Bench had no alternative but to 
impose a penalty. The punishment the Bench in¬ 
tended to inflict upon him was that he should pay a 
penalty of 6d. 
The complainant was ordered to pay the costs. 
ttifeks. 
Storia della Farmacia e dei Farmacisti, appo in 
Principali Popoli del Mondo. Per Federigo Kernot. 
Naples. 1871. 
Second Notice. 
The first part of this interesting book gave a general 
outline of ancient history, and we come now to the 
second part, which the author opens with a chapter on 
the often-ventilated question of the proper position of 
the pharmacist; the writer assigns him a high position 
among scientific men, and he deeply deplores the manner 
of bringing out numberless specifics and patent medi¬ 
cines as one of the causes which degrade the pharmacist 
to a trader and shopkeeper, and which profane the sanc¬ 
tuary of the science. 
Passing on to the state of pharmacy in different coun¬ 
tries, the author begins with England, and his descrip¬ 
tion of our institutions, if not correct, is highly amusing; 
after having enjoyed more than once in a hearty laugh, 
we could not but regret, and we must strongly express 
it, that a work written and compiled with so much care 
and diligence, should be disfigured by such ridiculous 
nonsense as many of the statements are. Mr. Kernot 
speaks of what he saw and learnt amongst us, but we 
wonder who his guide and interpreter was, because we 
have learnt a great many things from his book, which 
we never saw or heard of before. There is a strange 
confusion of the names of pharmacists, of apothecaries 
and surgeons, of druggists and chemists and of “ her - 
borists ,” which we may well excuse in a foreigner; the 
apothecary and surgeon holds a position, which, according 
to the author, forms such a scandalous and odd combina¬ 
tion, that it lends a queer and comical side to English 
life. How busy these gentlemen are; how they run 
