1052 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[J une 29, 1872.- 
port in 1866 the cultivation of the rose plant and the 
manufacture of attar have been vigorously carried on by 
the inhabitants, principally Bulgarian and Turkish 
peasantry, but only with partial success as regards the 
quantity yielded; for during the last five years (1867-71) 
the average yield of the crop each year has not exceeded 
400,000 midkals or about 600,000 drachms, whereas the 
yield of an average crop should be about 825,000 
drachms. 
This falling off in quantity Mr. Blunt considers not 
to be the result of a decline in the cultivation of the I'ose, 
for he has been assured by producers that the area of 
plantations has been annually enlarged and improved in 
Kizanlik and elsewhere. It is mainly attributed to at¬ 
mospheric influences: one year the flowering season was 
retarded by sudden frosts : in another the crop was re¬ 
duced by blight and caterpillars, and so on. 
The crop for the year 1871 looked very promising in¬ 
deed in March, but a sudden frost in the budding season 
in April, and hot and dry weather in May, very consider¬ 
ably reduced its yield, and deteriorated the quality of 
the oil extracted. 
It is estimated that the total quantity of oil distilled 
in 1871 amounts to barely 360,000 midkals, equal to 
540,000 drachms. Of this, 305,000 midkals or 457,500 
drachms had at the time of the report (October, 1871) al¬ 
ready been exported, principally to the United Kingdom, 
United States of America, France and Germany. The 
stock in hand for exportation was about 120,000 drachms, 
including 37,000 drachms from the crop of 1870. 
The average price of attar in 1871, free on board at 
Gallipoli, including 1 per cent, customs duty, was quoted 
at 15 piastres per midkal, equal to about 2s. 9 cl. per 1^ 
drachm, the pound sterling equalling 110 piastres. 
The following table gives the average cost of Adria- 
nople attar, free on board, in 1867-70 :— 
Free ox Board at Gallipoli. 
Cost in 
Cost in Including Rate 
Tear. 
Turkish Money, 
English Money, of Customs Duty 
ancl per 
and per 
levied, 
Turkish Measure. 
English Measure. 
ad valorem. 
Per Midkal. 
Per 1^ dram. 
Per cent. 
Piastres. 
s. d. 
1867 
... 20 
3 H 
5 
1868 
... 16 
2 11 
4 
1869 
. • . ] / 2 
3 2 
3 
1870 
... 16 
2 11 
2 
A sketch of the apparatus used in the process of manu¬ 
facturing the attar, drawn by a Turkish engineer of the 
vilaet, and kindly furnished by his Excellency Atta Bey, 
ex-Governor of the province of Philippopolis, accom¬ 
panies Mr. Blunt’s report. 
With reference to the amount of the several taxes 
which Government levy on the manufacture and expor¬ 
tation of attar, Vice-Consul Blunt says that besides the 
tenth part of the produce, or its money value, which 
Government annually levy, an internal duty of 8 per 
cent, ad valorem is also levied on what is sold for home 
consumption. 
The Customs duty on attar, which i 3 exported to 
foreign countries, is 1 per cent, ad valorem. 
Thus Government take 11 per cent., including tithe, 
on attar which is exported, and 18 per cent., also includ¬ 
ing tithe, on what is consumed in the country. 
. A merchant wishing to export attar, on which the 
tithe has already been levied, generally has to deposit 
with the authorities at Kizanlik the internal duty of 8 
per cent, on the quantity to be exported: this is repaid 
to him on his producing, within sixty days, to count from 
the date of the deposit, a declaration of the Custom¬ 
house at the port of exportation specifying the quantity 
of .Turkish attar he cleared and shipped. If this declara¬ 
tion, called “ Ilmi-haber,” is not produced within the 
sixty days, the deposited duty is forfeited, as the attar is 
then looked upon as being for internal consumption. 
DISINFECTANTS. 
A commission appointed by the French Academy to* 
investigate the relative merits of various disinfectants 
for use in hospitals where contagious diseases are treated, 
have made the following report as the result of their 
experiments:— 
Ei/ponitrous Acid .—The members of the commission 
agree that the first place among agents for attacking and 
destroying infectious germs must be accorded to hypo- 
nitrous acid. Extraordinary precautions must, of course, 
be observed in making use of this dangerous gas; the 
doors and windows must be carefully sealed with gummed 
paper when disinfecting a room containing forty or fifty 
cubic yards. The materials are taken in the following- 
proportions :—Two quarts of water, three and a quarter 
pounds of ordinary commercial nitric acid, and half a 
pound of copper turnings or filings. A stoneware vessel 
is employed, holding two or three gallons. The exit 
doors are carefully pasted up, and the room left closed 
for forty-eight hours. The person opening the room at 
the expiration of the time should be protected in some 
way from breathing the gas, by a suitable respirator. 
Carbolic Acid .—This is cheaper, more easily used, less 
dangerous, and has proved equally efficacious. It is best 
employed mixed with sand or sawdust—one pound of 
acid to three pounds of an indifferent substance. The 
mixture, placed in earthen vessels, was used for the same 
purpose as the hvponitrous acid. Carbolic acid, diluted 
with fifteen or twenty parts by weight of water, was. 
found useful for daily sprinkling of the floor and bed¬ 
clothes. 
An interesting case is mentioned in the report where 
neither chlorine nor hypochlorous acid was able to 
destroy or render odourless the gases given off from the 
corpses in the Paris Morgue during the heat of summer. 
The object was attained by dissolving a quart of liquid 
carbolic acid in 500 gallons of fresh water, contained in 
the reservoir and used to sprinkle the bodies. Putre¬ 
faction was entirely stopped. 
Devergie found that water containing only one to four 
thousandth part of its weight of carbolic acid sufficed to 
disinfect a dead house, even in the hottest -sveather, when 
six to eight corpses were in it. 
For fumigating linen, mattresses and other bedding 
with chlorine, Regnault’s latest method was used, 
namely, one pound of chlorinated lime (bleaching 
powder) is sewn up in a strong bag of sail cloth, holding 
about a quart, and put in an earthen pot containing a 
quart of common muriatic acid (sp. gr. P15) and three 
quarts of water. As soon as the acid comes in contact 
with the chloride of lime the room is closed, and the 
things exposed to the action of chlorine gas for twenty- 
four hours ; the room is then aired for forty-eight hours. 
Ten such earthen pots give off 500 litres of chlorine,, 
sufficient to disinfect from twenty to twenty-five, more 
or less, dirty mattresses .—Scientific American. 
A NOVEL METHOD OF COPYING MANUSCRIPTS 
AND DESIGNS. 
A very beautiful application of science has recently 
been made for readily copying writings and designs, 
which we doubt not will receive extensive application by 
men of business. The invention has been elaborated by 
an Italian gentleman, M. Eugene de Zuccato, who has 
not only pointed out the way to be followed in carrying 
out the discovery, but has effectively completed the 
copying apparatus before publishing it to the world. 
Photography may be made to give its aid in producing 
the copy of the document or design in the first place, 
supposing the same cannot be produced direct; and from 
this reproduction is printed off as many facsimiles in an 
ordinary copying press as may be desired. 
The invention consists in decomposing prussiate of 
potash by means of electricity, and causing it to form. 
