ON THE RANCIDITY OF FATS. 
249 
some. It turned out to be an Artemisia , which is collected on the mountains, 
and held in high estimation as an aromatic bitter. 
Another production of the same neighbourhood is a sort of talc, once offi¬ 
cinal under the name of Craie cle Briangon , but now chiefly used as “ Boot 
Powder,” and for taldng out greasy stains. 
Hear Brian^on, the common gooseberry occurs very plentifully in a wild 
state. Its fruit though not larger than a pea, and rather hard and bristly, 
has an excellent flavour, and the plant is doubtless the progenitor of the 
gooseberry of our gardens. It is rather curious how many other of our fruits 
may also be noticed in this part of France, either wild or semi-wild. The 
vine, apple, pear, medlar, quince, raspberry, cherry, and two species of cur¬ 
rant are all to be seen in greater or less abundance. The currants however 
are specifically distinct from our garden llibes. In the alpine meadows the 
chive (.Allium ScJicenojprasum L.) is very frequent, and in August its pink 
flowers are ornamental among the green grass. In England it is only known 
as a potherb, which is also the case with savory (Satureja montana L.), which 
I found on the dry hills of the Val dc Queyras. In this valley I also gathered 
savine, which I had previously seen nowhere else. Here however it is very 
plentiful, covering the rocks with a scrubby vegetation, and diffusing slightly 
its characteristic odour. 
Dauphiny abounds in mineral wealth, including that most precious of all 
minerals, coal. It also posseses several medicinal springs, that of Uriage, six 
miles from Grenoble, being the most frequented. The water is sulphuretted 
alkaline, issuing from its source slightly warm. It is both drunk and used 
for baths. There is also at Uriage a ferruginous spring, the water of which is 
brought to the table d’hote in decanters and drunk with wine by those who 
require a mild chalybeate tonic. 
These, Gentlemen, are the pharmaceutical memoranda of my pleasant ram¬ 
ble, which came to a conclusion soon after I left Uriage. I have offered them 
to you in default of a grave and learned paper, and hope they may have 
afforded, if not amusement or instruction, at least a proof of my interest in 
the welfare of the British Pharmaceutical Conference. 
ON TIIE 11 AN C ID IT Y OF FATS. 
BY THOMAS B. GROVES, F.C.S. 
{Read at the Bath Meeting of the British Fharmaceutical Conference , Sept. 1SG4.) 
Some experiments relative to the action of certain odorous principles in 
preserving the neutrality of fats, commenced in December, 1861, and not yet 
reported on, would, I thought, form the basis of a paper on the above inter¬ 
esting subject. 
To the invalid who suffers from applying to an inflamed surface an irritant 
instead of emollient substance, as well as to the pharmaceutist who sustains 
pecuniary loss from the spoiling of his ointments by rancification, the ques¬ 
tion is doubtless important. 
Rancidity may be defined as the changed condition, assumed sooner or later 
b} r all natural fats exposed to air and moisture, such change being charac¬ 
terized by loss of blandness and neutrality and development of pungency and 
acidity. 
The cause of change being hidden or at best imperfectly understood, the 
change has been termed spontaneous, or classed among those determined by 
catalytic influence. Chemically speaking, it consists in the separation of the 
neutral fat into its components, fatty acid and glycerine,—the latter substance 
