June 15, 1872.J 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
1009 
present day have a number of exceedingly simple and 
economical processes by -which they obtain tolerably 
pure mercurial and other preparations, of the 1 greatest 
service even in their now unskilled hands. Their appa¬ 
ratus is of the very rudest character, and their materials 
are often of the most unexpected kind, but with these 
they can manufacture calomel and vermilion of the 
most beautiful description. 
The manufacture of enamels and porcelain formed 
another field of chemical research, carrying them to the 
same effective results, produced they knew not how or 
why. The taste for colouring vessels, walls, scrolls, 
and some few other objects led them to the study of the 
metals iron and copper, from which they extracted red 
and blue pigments. The manufacture of fire-works has 
been also a means of increasing their chemical know¬ 
ledge. These artists, called Yen-ho-kia , learnt the use 
of iron, camphor, and other secret substances, by the 
addition of which the flame is altered or intensified. 
It has been long known to these numerous manufac¬ 
turers that by the addition of a small quantity of arsenic, 
the noise of crackers is rendered much louder and sharper. 
The preparation of pigments for artists, of whom there 
are described in authentic works some 1607 celebrated 
names, has been a stimulus to the manipulation of 
minerals. To this day the Chinese White is to be found 
in the colour-artists’ shops all over Europe as the best 
pigment of that description. The manufacture of ink, 
that most potent agent, has led to several curious ob¬ 
servations of a chemical nature, of which more pre¬ 
sently. 
Much trouble is often taken by members of the Sino¬ 
logical order to invent new names for old things to 
China. Chemists have been known for hundreds of 
years in Chinese works as Tan-lu-kia, or Tan-tsau-kia. 
The name Tan-kfa, a shortened form, as well as the 
other terms, is applied in works to what may be called 
the manufacturing chemists of China. 
A very fair chemical nomenclature may be constructed 
out of the plentiful terms quoted in the Fen Ts'ati from 
the writings of these alchemists and physicians. Tan stands 
for oxides, when preceded by some specific character. 
This word does not mean exclusively a red substance, such 
as cinnabar, but may mean some yellow, white, or red 
preparation. The dot in the centre of the character 
stands for the fire, that servant of the alchemist, and 
the rest of the character, sometimes written in the in¬ 
verted form with the legs turned up, will do for the fur¬ 
nace, or crucible of the operator. Fan is the equivalent 
of the old chemical word vitriol, or a sulphate. Other 
similar terms may be found to express many conditions 
of inorganic matter, by those willing to search for them. 
Something like a hint at testing substances is found in 
the Pen Is'an, where the antipathies of drugs are treated 
of. The extrication of ammonia when lime is heated 
along with sal ammoniac, the discoloration of silver and 
salts of lead by sulphur, and other instances might be 
adduced as evidence of some vague notions of the re¬ 
actions of chemical substances. Something like an 
attempt at the statement of the equivalent composition 
of substances is seen in one of the names of -ZEthiops 
Mineral, sometimes called Rh-k'i-sha , or the “two- 
natured salt.” 
It will be better now to proceed to the particular dis¬ 
cussion of the subject in hand—“ Chinese Chemical 
Manufactures,”—by taking them in detail. 
In the making of gunpowder the Chinese have prac¬ 
tised a good deal of chemistry unconsciously. The 
manufacture of nitrate of potash from the efflorescent 
salts which are found on the surface of the soil, and on 
walls and places charged with urine, is carried on on a 
large scale in China. The properties of sulphur are well 
known to Chinese writers. It is procurable in large 
quantities from the sulphur pits near Tamsui and Kelung 
in Formosa, as lately pointed out by Mr. Taintor in the 
Customs’ Reports for 1869. The red amorphous sulphur, 
called Shih-tjng-chi , probably produced by the accidental 
mixture of some fatty substance with the ordinary 
brimstone of commerce, is fairly described in Chinese 
works. The composition of Chinese gunpowder, called 
by them “ fiery medicine,” is not very different, in some 
cases, from that of English powder. The charcoal of 
the willow and the Cunninghamia sinensis or Chinese 
Pine, is used in the manufacture. The Chinese are 
aware of the disinfecting and insecticidal powers of sul¬ 
phur and arsenic. They enter into the composition of 
pastilles for getting rid of mosquitos, and the good effects 
of the gases resulting from the burning of crackers as 
expellers of evil influences are appreciated by the Chi¬ 
nese in some quarters. The alkalies soda and potash 
are turned to some account, although nitre and soda, or 
natron, are often confounded together. Carbonate of 
soda is brought from Mongolia, where the soil is charged 
with this alkaline substance, and requires no manipula¬ 
tion to render it useful as a means of raising bread. 
Potash, or pearlash, obtained by burning the rank 
herbage of inland districts is also to be met with in 
China. Tsi-nan-fu in Shantung is, or was, the seat of 
this rough manufacture. Both of these alkalies are 
used in Pehchihli to make a coarse soap, a branch of 
chemical manufacture which might be well taken up by 
the Chinese, and subsidised by Missionary Societies. 
Ferrocyanide of potassium, a beautiful yellow salt, is 
made in Canton, and by Cantonese in other parts of 
China, by burning dry refuse of animal substances, such 
as horn-parings, to a red heat with pearlash and a quan¬ 
tity of iron filings in a covered crucible. The process 
is kept a profound secret, as far as possible. The im¬ 
portance of this salt, sometimes called yellow prussiate 
of potash, is its employment along with alum and sul¬ 
phate of iron to make that beautiful dye prussian blue—■ 
called “foreign indigo” by the Chinese, who largely 
wear the livery of this Conservative colour. 
[To be continued.') 
THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS OF RHUBARBS. 
BY DR. CAUVET, PHARMACIES MILITAIRE.* 
Conscientious pharmacists, who prepare their own 
powdered rhubarb, know how difficult it is to distinguish 
between the true Chinese rhubarb and the root obtained 
in Europe by the culture of various species of Rheum. 
The dealers in these false rhubarbs prepare them with 
so much skill that they may be easily mistaken for ex¬ 
otic rhubarbs of superior quality. The points of resem¬ 
blance, however, are superficial, all on the exterior; for, 
although it is possible t@ dress a root so as to give jt the 
appearance of a true rhubarb, it is not easy to modify its 
structure, and all the indigenous rhubarbs, whatever may 
be the species cultivated and the care bestowed upon 
their cultivation, present the Rhapontic structure. 
During a sojourn at Toulouse a pharmacien of that city 
submitted to the author a specimen of some rhubarb that 
he had received from a house of undoubted respectability, 
but with which, despite its handsome appearance, he was 
not satisfied. It resembled the variety of China called 
“ flat,” and its only apparent fault was that it was a 
little soft and did not crackle between the teeth so much 
as rhubarb of good quality. After removing the fine 
powder by w'hich it was covered, it was noticed that its 
superior or convex surface did not present the white 
lines arranged in a delicate network that are seen in 
the true rhubarb, and that its inferior or fiat surface was 
devoid of the characteristic stars that are always found 
in the Russian, and more rarely in the Chinese varieties. 
The absence of these two characters seemed to point to 
* Memoir read before the Paris Societe de Pharmacie, 
March 6th, 1872; ( Journ . de Pharm. et de Chimie [4] vol. xv. 
p. 275). 
