76 
ON YELLOW WAX FOR CERATES. 
and Dr. Lindley mentions the fact of raspberry seeds growing after being boiled for jam, 
in which case, if the sugar were really boiling, the temperature would he above the 
boiling-point of water.” The author considers, however, that the observations were not 
sufficiently exact in either case. 
Balfour states (‘ Class Book of Botany,’ p. 628), “ the seeds of Phytolacca decandra 
and of the Kaspherry have been known to germinate after exposure for a short time to 
the heat of boiling syrup,” but does not give his authority. ’ 
Hemmingway states (Ann. of Nat. Hist., J, viii. 317) that the seeds of Sambucus nigra 
germinated after being twice boiled in making wine, being present during the vinous 
fermentation, and remaining twenty months in the dregs of the cask. 
In regard to the spores of fungi, Berkeley remarks (‘ Outlines of British Fungology,’ 32) 
“ that the spores of certain fungi would bear a moist heat equal to that of boiling water 
without losing their power of germination. They have also considerable powers of re¬ 
sisting frost, but the exact limits in either case under varying circumstances have not at 
present been ascertained.” 
More to the point are the experiments of the eminent cryptogamic botanist Payen, 
on the red mould in the interior of bread, which created such a stir in Paris nearly 
twenty years ago. This mould, the O'idium aurantiacum, was developed in the interior 
of the bread within an incredibly short space of time after it had been baked, especially 
in the barrack-bread (pain de munition), at Paris. He found (Ann. de Chim. et de 
Phys., 3, xxiv. 253) that pieces of bread, and also of dough, upon which the spores of 
this fungus has been sown, and then exposed in tubes of moist air for half an hour to 
the respective temperatures of 212°, 221°, and 248°Fahr., afterwards produced the red 
fungus; while similar pieces of bread and dough, treated in a similar manner, but not 
sown with the spores, did not yield this specific fungus. When the spores were heated 
in tubes to 284° Fahr. they lost their red colour, and then ceased to germinate. 
It seems that in this case, as in that of the cereals, the vitality of the seeds or spores 
is retained under certain circumstances up to nearly or quite the temperature required to 
decompose the chemical substances in the seed, or to disorganize the structure. In the 
still lower Cryptogams we have no data either as to the chemical character of their spores, 
the temperatures required to change their organic compounds, or to disorganize their 
structure, and none whatever as to the temperatures they may withstand and still ger¬ 
minate. It seems, therefore, unsafe to assume, without proof to the contrary, that their 
vitality (germinating power) is destroyed at a temperature much below that required for 
their actual destruction or disorganization. 
One of the most remarkable examples of tenacity of life in the higher plants is pre¬ 
sented by the Lewisia rediviva of Western North America, a large-flowering fleshy plant, 
of the Portulacese, growing in British Columbia, Oregon, and California. Dried speci¬ 
mens that have been two years or more in an herbarium will still grow, and are often 
troublesome from sprouting while between the papers. One specimen, collected by 
Dr. Lyall, of the British Navy, was “ immersed in boiling w'ater ” to stop this growing 
propensity before drying out; and yet, more than a year and a half afterward, it 
showed symptoms of vitality, and in May of 1863 it produced its beautiful flowers in 
the Koyal Gardens of Kew. This plant in flower is figured in ‘Curtis’s Botanical 
Magazine ’ for August of that year. It is very desirable that some special experiments 
should be made to ascertain just how much boiling it may undergo without loss of 
vitality,— SiUiman^s Journal, May, 1866. 
ON YELLOW WAX COMP ABED WITH WHITE AS A CONSTITUENT 
OF CEEATES, ETC. 
BY FERRIS BRINGHURST. 
Having for some time theoretically believed in the superiority of selected yellow wax 
over white wax, in making cerates, ointments, suppositories, etc., and having practically 
and thoroughly tested this theory, I am so well convinced of its correctness as to be 
strongly 1e npted to depart from the strict letter of the Pharmacopoeia, and use the 
yellow to the exclusion of the white, in all compositions, officinal and uon-officinal, of 
which wax is a constituent. 
