THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [December 23,1871. 
504 
black, without bands or spots, and measures from 
tt> to £ inch in length. I have repeatedly taken 
these insects in considerable quantities, by brushing 
or shaking them from the potato vines into a broad 
tin pan, from which they were emptied into a covered 
pail containing a little water, which, by wetting their 
wings, prevented their flying out when the pail was 
uncovered. The same method ma} r be employed for 
taking the other kinds of cantharides, when they be¬ 
come troublesome and destructive from their num¬ 
bers ; or they may be caught by gently sweeping the 
plants they frequent with a deep muslin bag-net. 
They should be lulled by throwing them into scald¬ 
ing water for one or two minutes, after which they 
may be spread out on sheets of paper to dry, and 
may be made profitable by selling them to the apo¬ 
thecaries for medical use.” 
The black blister-fly is one of the species recog¬ 
nized in the United States Dispensatory, and is 
commonly employed in the Northern States. 
Nuttall’s Blister-Fly, Lytta Nuttallii, Say; 
bright green, varied with golden; elytra golden- 
purple ; feet black ; thighs blue; trochanters armed 
with a spine.— L. Nuttallii, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. iii. 
p. 300; Say’s ‘ Entomology,’ i. p. 5. t. iii. f. i.; Wood 
and Baclie, Disp. U. S. p. 207. 
Body glabrous. Head deep greenish, varied with 
golden. Front punctured, subimpressed, and with a 
small rufous spot. Antenme robust, surpassing the 
base of the thorax, black, opaque. Joints turbinate, 
approaching to moniliform; the margin of the tip 
rounded; second joint two-tliirds of the length of the 
third; terminal joints largest near the middle, and 
rapidly attenuated to an acute tip. Eyes oblong- 
oval, emarginate. Palpi black. Clypeus and labrum 
obscure. Thorax golden-green, polished with un¬ 
equal, minute, sparse punctures; a longitudinal, 
dorsal, impressed line, and a transverse basal one. 
Base bluish; anterior angles prominent. Scutel 
blue, obtuse behind. Elytra red or golden-purple, 
somewhat rugose; two indistinct elevated lines on 
the disk and a submarginal one, beneath green, 
polished. Feet black. Thighs beneath blue or 
purplish. Trochanters armed with a conic spine 
near the inner base, obsolete or wanting in the 
female. 
A noble species which, in magnitude and splen¬ 
dour, is said to surpass the famed vesicatoria. It 
seems to have the habit of Lytta, combined with a 
form of antennae allied to that of Mylabris. Say 
writes thus concerning its discovery :—“In company 
with Major Long, I observed it, for the first time, 
near the base of the Rocky Mountains. A very 
numerous flock had there taken possession of the 
few diminutive bushes that occurred within the space 
of a hundred yards, every spray of which was bur¬ 
dened with their numbers. After passing this 
limited district, not an individual was seen during 
the remainder of our journey. On the recent expe¬ 
dition of the same officer to the river of St. Peter, I 
obtained but a single specimen, which was found one 
evening at an encampment in the N. W. Territory.” 
According to the American Dispensatory this 
species bids fair, at some future period, to be an ob¬ 
ject of importance in the Western States. Colonel 
Long ascertained its vesicating powers, and in one 
place is said to have found it so numerous and 
troublesome as to be swept away by bushels in 
order that a place might be found for encamping. 
(To be continued.) 
OBSERVATIONS IN PRACTICAL PHARMACY. * 
BY CHARLES SYMES, PH.D. 
Evening meetings are usually the most unsatisfactory 
part of societies; all feel this to be the case, and yet all 
do not equally endeavour to provide a remedy which we 
know is to a great extent in our own hands. Mr. Vizer, 
in a letter to the Pharmaceutical Journal a few weeks 
since, suggested that on these occasions we should soar 
higher than the ‘objects of every-day life, and invite 
some of the great men of science to enliven our latent 
energies, and so increase the attendance; this idea is not 
altogether a had one, but if we depended on such stimu¬ 
lants, it would soon he evident that the object for which 
we meet would, in a great measure, have become frus¬ 
trated, the resultant good (as affecting the whole pro¬ 
fession) would not be equivalent to our numerical 
strength. One of my earliest associations with the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society was attendance at an evening meet¬ 
ing at Bloomsbury Square, when Dr. Redwood read a 
paper on “ Citrate of Magnesia” (some twelve or thirteen 
years since). I never saw a meeting better attended; 
the subject Avas commonplace enough, but one of prac¬ 
tical importance to the pharmaceutist. Again, when 
two of us meet together and talk over the many little 
difficulties which daily present themselves, the means by 
which we render simple processes more simple, difficult 
processes less so, we return to our duties with renewed 
energy, a better feeling and more loyalty towards the 
cause of pharmacy. Now it is my opinion that our even¬ 
ing meetings should, to a large extent, be a development 
of this communion, and the result a similar profitable 
gratification intensified. 
This then must be my apology for bringing before 
you the folloAving practical subjects this evening. 
Soap Liniment is a preparation which at one time re¬ 
ceived much attention, but which remains \ r ery much as 
it was, an unsatisfactory one. Messrs. Southall and Co. 
were the first to call my attention to a soap which they 
had prepared, which was entirely soluble in the propor¬ 
tions of spirit and water ordered by the B. P. (18 and 2), 
and which remained bright down to a temperature of 32°; 
the same soap, however, kept for two or three months, 
did not fulfil these conditions. A little reflection made 
the cause e\ r ident. In its fresh state, this in common with 
all other soaps contains a large proportion of water, so 
that practically we in using it are adding rather more 
water and rather less soap, and so make the Pharma¬ 
copoeia preparation what it really should be; and in 
using this soap when dry and hard, it is necessary for 
uniformity and for getting a satisfactory preparation, to 
use rather less soap and rather more water. Mr. Wood 
introduced to our notice an almond oil soap, which I 
have prepared, and found to answer admirably, keeping 
bright at any temperature to which I have exposed it; 
but I have no experience of its use when old and hard. A 
liniment prepared with Pharmacopoeia soft soap (using 
the proper proportions of spirit and water) also keeps 
well, and appears to possess as much therapeutic \ T alue as 
that prepared from hard soaps, still we are scarcely jus¬ 
tified in using it when the Pharmacopoeia directs the 
latter. 
Syrup of Phosphate of Iron .—The length of time 
which this preparation might be kept without change is 
said to be entirely dependent on the acid from which it 
is prepared being freshly diluted or otherwise. I have 
found a slight modification of a United States formula 
answer well for the preparation of the syrupy or dilute 
acid. Dissolve 1000 grains of glacial phosphoric acid 
(free from phosphate of ammonia) in 6 ounces of distilled 
water, add 1 drachm nitric acid, and boil down, in a 
porcelain dish, to the consistence of a syrup, or until all 
the nitric acid disappears. When nearly cold, it might 
be diluted if required for immediate use, so as to produce 
* Read at a Meeting of the Liverpool Chemists’ Associa* 
tion, Nov. 23, 1871. 
