958 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS 
[May 25, 1872. 
and an essence of absinthe in commerce beyond the 
absinthe of the liqueur dealers. 
MM. Dubail and Adrian said that in the drug trade 
ihere was a considerable traffic in essence of absinthe, 
which preparation, with the addition of essence of anise, 
fennel, etc., served ordinarily for the manufacture of 
the absinthe liqueur, as the distillers rarely have recourse 
to the production of a true alcoholate. It was thought 
also that the names liqueur and tincture of absinthe were 
Ladly defined, and that it was necessary to settle this 
point before attempting to decide whether they ought to 
be considered as pharmaceutical preparations. 
M. Petit said that he had been able to keep without 
sensible alteration dilute solutions (1 in 1000) of cyanide 
of potassium, cyanide of ammonium, and even of hydro¬ 
cyanic acid. It was well known that cherry laurel 
water, which is a dilute solution of hydrocyanic acid, 
could be preserved without change for a long time, while 
a solution of one part in ten altered rapidly. 
PHILADELPHIA COLLEGE OF PHARMACY. 
At the Pharmaceutical Meeting of this Society, held 
April 16th, Professor Maisch presented the report of the 
Smithsonian Institution for 1870. The Professor also 
read a paper styled “ Pharmacognostical Notes,” which 
was referred for publication. Some remarks were made 
upon the use of Inula for hydrophobia, for which it has 
been asserted to be a positive cure. 
Samples of an herb were exhibited by Professor Par¬ 
rish, which is sold under the name of “ wild tea,” and 
used in cancerous affections. It does not appear to be 
the New Jersey tea Ceanothus americana. It was in¬ 
ferred to Professor Maisch for examination. 
Professor Parrish exhibited a sample of coated pills, 
cent from England, very handsome, but, as compared 
with sugar-coated pills, not so soluble. 
_ Professor Maisch read a paper on the use of the vola¬ 
tile spirit of petroleum as a solvent for Oleoresins com¬ 
pared with Ether, which was referred for publication. 
Mr. Bullock remarked that some oleoresins were nearly 
insoluble in this spirit. 
Professor Maisch detailed the result of his experiments 
on Monobromated Camphor, which he has succeeded in 
preparing without using hermetically sealed vessels, and 
thus doing away with the danger of explosions ; a con¬ 
siderable quantity of hydrobromic acid is likewise ob¬ 
tained by this process, which, by the old method, was 
mostly lost. The experiments not being completed yet, 
the results will be communicated in detail at a subse¬ 
quent meeting. 
Mr. Boring exhibited a sample of purified suet, which 
was very handsome. It was made by treating the 
melted fat with table salt and alum, and after congela¬ 
tion, washing out the salts by large quantities of water ; 
the re-melted, fat is then benzoated. Professor Maisch 
stated that this was essentially the process employed by 
perfumers in purifying their fats for pomade. 
SOCIETY OF ARTS. 
April 24, 1872. 
Nuts, their Produce and Uses. 
BY P. L. SIMMONDS. 
The. subject on which I propose to address you may at 
first sight appear somewhat trivial and unworthy the 
notice of a scientific society. What is there, it may be 
asked, in nuts, of interest, commercially or scientifically, i 
that merits attention or consideration which is not gene- I 
rally known ? But I think, before I have concluded, I 
.shall be able to remove any such superficial idea, and to 
show how large a part nuts play in commerce, and how 
important are the uses of their several products, as evi¬ 
denced by the fact that we pay more than 3^ millions 
yearly for nuts and the products of nuts. 
But first it is necessary to define what a nut is ; and 
here I fear we shall meet with numerous conflicting 
opinions. In the popular sense of the term, it would 
probably be described as some seed, with a hard shell 
enclosing a kernel; but then chestnuts and other thin- 
shelled fruits vary the idea. The strict botanical desig¬ 
nation would probably be a fruit consisting of a hard 
pericarp, surrounded by bracts at the base, of which the 
acorn and the filbert are examples. The seed-vessel, 
enclosed within an involucre or husk of the cultivated 
hazel-nut, is of the same nature as the cup of the acorn 
and the prickly case in which the nuts of the chestnut 
and the beech-mast are enclosed. Most probably my 
learned friend in the chair, if asked to define a nut, would 
state it to be synonymous with gland—an inferior, dry, 
hard, indehiscent, one-celled, one, or rarely two, seeded 
fruit. It is also applied to a superior fruit by some 
botanists, of a similar character in some respects to the 
above, as in the cocoanut. Nut is also applied to such 
fruits as those'of labiate and boraginaceous plants, which 
are properly “ achenes,” and defined as a dry, one-celled, 
one-seeded, indehiscent fruit, with a hard covering. 
Willdenow’s definition was, “ A seed covered with a 
hard shell, which does not burst.” N. Bayloy’s ‘ Dic¬ 
tionary,’ revised by Dr. Scott, and published in 1764, 
defines a nut as “ a fruit or kernel included in a shell, 
or a seed included in a brittle but not stony shell; if the 
shell and kernel are in the centre of a pulpy fruit, they 
then make not a nut, but a stone.” But as I am about 
dealing with the subject commercially, and not botani- 
cally, I shall have to extend the range of definition very 
largely to take in all that are called nuts in commerce. 
The merchant and the broker are very lax in their de¬ 
signations ; all, for instance, are gums to them, whether 
soluble, resinous, clastic, or mere inspissated extracts. 
So with many of the nuts of commerce, such as almonds, 
the seed of drupes, nutmegs, myrobalans, coquilla, cohune, 
candle-nuts, ground-nuts, cum multi s aliis , which are not 
botanically nuts. 
A variety of special dealers have certain so-called nut3 
in their trade. 
The fruiterer and the Italian warehouseman have their 
edible nuts in cocoanuts, Brazil nuts, small nuts (Spanish 
and Barcelonas), cobnuts and filberts, walnuts, chestnuts, 
peccan and hickory, butter-nuts, sapucaya, pistachio, and 
cashew-nuts, seeds of the pine cones, besides the pre¬ 
pared marron glace , candied, burnt, and sugared almonds, 
etc. ; the grocer, his bitter and sweet almonds and nut¬ 
megs, his sassafras and Ravensara nuts ; the oil broker, 
his ground-nuts, candle-nuts, palm-nuts, palm-kernels, 
oil nutmegs, bassia-nuts, and others ; the turner, his 
coquilla, vegetable ivory, cohune, betel-nuts, and others; 
the druggist, his nux vomica, physic-nut, and cumara- 
nuts, or tonquin bean; the tanner, his nut-galls, myro¬ 
balans, also called gall-nuts in India, and bedda-nuts, 
va Ionia, or acorns and cups; even the coal merchant has 
his nuts, in a description of small coal so termed. Then 
there are hundreds of other so-called nuts which have 
limited but special uses, such as the marking-nut, the 
clearing-nut, the soap-nut, and the Bonduc nut. 
To some of these nuts I propose directing your atten¬ 
tion ; and although it is somewhat difficult, from the 
varied uses of many, to strictly classify them, I will en¬ 
deavour to throw them into a few groups which shall 
comprise, 1, the edible nuts; 2, the oil nuts; 3, the 
turnery nuts ; and another group, which may include 
those of a miscellaneous character. 
The following table gives an aggregate view of the 
value of our imports of nuts and their products for the 
latest year for which the official returns are published— 
1870 :— 
Quantities. 
Almonds (sweet), cwt. .. 36,189 
„ (bitter) „ .. 7,618 
Chestnuts, bushels. 31,767 
Cocoanuts, No. 3,546,276 
Value. 
£ 
138,864 
20,966 
22,108 
30,622 
