5G6 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[January 13, 1872. 
the sawmills, it might he turned there to auxiliary pro¬ 
fitable account, and, indeed, in many other spots of the 
ranges. 
A ton of the fresh leaves and branchlets yielded in 
tw 7 o analyses 4f- lb. of pure potash, equal to about double 
the quantity of the average kinds of pearlash. The 
three species of Eucalypts spontaneously occurring close 
around Melbourne—the red gum-tree ( Eucalyptus ros- 
trata ), the manna gum-tree (E . viminalis ), the box gum- 
tree ( E . melliodora ), produced nearly 3 lb. of pure potash, 
or about 51b. of pearlash, from a ton of fresh leaves and 
branches; while a ton of the wood of the red gum-tree 
in a dried state gave nearly 2 lb. weight of pure car¬ 
bonate of potash, whereas the -wood of the blue gum- 
tree proved still richer. A ton of the dry wood of the 
erect she-oak ( Casuarina suberosa ) furnished the large 
quantity of lb. of pure potash. This result is about 
equal to that obtainable from the European lime-tree or 
linden-tree, which again is one of the richest of all 
European trees in this respect. 
I wash it to be distinctly understood that I do not ad¬ 
vocate an indiscriminate sacrifice of our forest trees for 
any solitary one of its products, such as the potash ; be¬ 
cause by any such procedure w r e would still more accele¬ 
rate the reduction of our woods. On the contrary, good 
timber, fit for splitting or for the sawmill, ought to be 
far too precious for potash or tar preparation. But 
branchwood, bark, roots, crooked stems, and even foliage, 
might well be utilized for this industry, wherever the 
place is too remote to dispose of this material for fuel. 
The recommendation carries with it still more weight, if 
we remember how on many places the close growih of 
suckers or seedlings has to be thinned to allow of space 
for the new and unimpaired upgrowth of actual timber; 
whereas, moreover, now the remnants at places where 
trees have been felled,' often block by impenetrable bar¬ 
ricades the accessible lines of traffic through the forests, 
and are frequently the cause of the extensive conflagra¬ 
tions of the woods, by placing so much combustible, dry 
and mostly oil} 7 material within the easy reach of the 
current of flames. Should, unfortunately, the fiery ele¬ 
ment have anywhere swept through the forest, it may 
then prove advantageous to collect the fresh ashes before 
they are soaked by rain, with the object of extracting 
from them large quantities of potash. The whole pro¬ 
cess of potash preparation being one of the simplest 
kind, and involving only a very trifling expense in casks 
and boiling-pans, can be carried out anywhere as a by- 
work, the profit thus being not reduced by skilled or 
heavy labour or by costly plant. The demand for potash 
must always be considerable, as it is required for the 
factories of nitre (particularly from soda saltpetre), one 
of the three principal ingredients of gunpow r der and 
blasting-powder; it is needed also for glass, alum, vari¬ 
ous kinds of soaps, dyes and many chemicals.* 
Potash, although universally distributed, is best ob¬ 
tained in the manner indicated. I may remark, how¬ 
ever, though deviating from my subject, that it is one 
of the most potent constituents in all manures, being 
especially needed in the soil for all kinds of root crops, 
for vines and maize; nor can most other plants live with¬ 
out it altogether, although the quantity required may be 
small; but I must add that, for manuring, potash by 
itself would be far too valuable. 
Almost every kind of forage affords potash salts, these 
being among the necessaries for the support of herbivo¬ 
rous animals. Their undue diminution in food is the 
cause of various diseases both in the animal and vege¬ 
table world; or predisposes, by abnormal chemic com¬ 
ponents of the organisms, to disease. 
The muscles of the human structure require a compa¬ 
ratively large proportion of carbonate of potash; it is 
also absolutely required in blood, predominating in the 
* Flint-glass contains about a fifth pure pearlash; crown- 
glass, the best of window-glass, rather more than a quarter. 
Same potash-nitre is wanted also in either case. 
red corpuscles. Plants grown in soil of rocks containing 
much felspar—such as granite, gneiss, syenite, some por¬ 
phyries, diorite—are always particularly productive in 
potash, potassium entering largely' into felspathic com¬ 
pounds. The latter mineral yields in most cases from 
12 to 15 per cent, of potash, which, if changed to car¬ 
bonate, w T ould become augmented by nearly' one-half 
more. It is fixed chiefly to silicic acid in felspar, and 
thus only tardily set free through disintegration, partly 
by the chemic action of air, water and various salts, 
partly through the mechanic force of vegetation.* The 
importation of potash into Victoria during 1870 was only 
170 tons, but with the increase of chemical factories we 
shall require much more. 
It has justly been argued, that the chemical analysis 
affords a very 7 unsafe guide to the artisan, as regards the 
quantity 7 of potash obtainable from any kind of tree or 
other plant, inasmuch as necessarily the percentage must 
fluctuate according to the nature of the soil, this again 
depending on geologic structure and the quality and 
quantity 7 of decaying foliage on any 7 particular spot. It 
should, how'ever, not be quite forgotten, that most plants 
have a predilection for that soil which contains, in re¬ 
gions otherwise favourable to them, also due proportions 
of such mineral particles as are essentially necessary for 
the normal nutrition of the peculiar species; for, other¬ 
wise, in the wild combat for space it would succumb or 
give place before the more legitimate occupant of such 
soil. Hence, at a glance, even from 1 ong distances, we 
may 7 recognize in many 7 of our forest regions an almost 
abrupt line of demarcation between the gregarious trees, 
where one geologic formation meets or replaces the 
other. Thus, trees richer in potash, or oils, or any 7 other 
product, may often be traced with ease over their geologic 
area. 
METHODS FOR PREPARING PURE CARBOLATE 
OF POTASH. 
BY M. RAMEL. 
Carbolate of potash may be prepared by mixing to¬ 
gether alcoholic solutions containing 94 parts of carbolic 
acid and 56 parts of caustic potash, and evaporating. 
Upon cooling a crystalline mass, composed of small, very 
thin, transparent, micaceous plates, is deposited. Dried 
over sulphuric acid the product consists of carbolate of 
potash in a very pure salt. 
This salt may also be prepared by fusing together 
37'4 parte of caustic potash and 6 2 '6 parts of carbolic 
acid, the caustic potash being added gradually 7 . 
In whatever way prepared, carbolate of potash absorbs 
humidity from the air, turning first yellow and after¬ 
wards brown. It is very soluble in water and alcohol, 
less so in ether. It contains no water of crystallization, 
but it retains the water of composition of its respective 
constituents, which cannot be separated without decom¬ 
position of the state. 
The author states that this compound is being in¬ 
creasingly used in French medicine, and that as a disin¬ 
fectant it advantageously 7 replaces carbolic acid itself*— 
Bull. Soc. Chim. 
THE ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION OF DULCITE.f 
BY M. G. BOUCHARDAT. 
The relations which exist between the saccharine 
substances obtained by the action of dilute acids upon 
cane-sugar and the hexatomic alcohol mannite are w 7 ell 
known. All these bodies yield similar products by 7 oxi¬ 
dation and particularly saccharic acid. M. Linnemann 
has, within the last few y r ears, established these relations 
* The proverb of chemistry—“ Corpora non agunt, nisi 
fluida ”—is here also applicable. 
f Comptes Rendus, vol. lxxiii. p. 199. 
