476 THE COMBUSTION OP GAS FOR ECONOMIC PURPOSES. 
Of the Moss upon the Human Skull .—The English druggists, especially those of 
London, sell the heads or skulls of the dead, upon which there is a little green¬ 
ish moss, which is called Usnea, because of its near resemblance to the moss that 
grows upon oaks ; and as Mr. Charas stayed a considerable time in England, 
and saw plenty of them, I have only related what he told me on this subject. 
The English druggists generally bring these heads from Ireland, where they 
frequently let the bodies of criminals hang on the gibbet till they fall to pieces. 
You may see in the dru^ists’ shops of London, some of these heads entirely 
covered with moss, and some that only have the moss growing on some parts. 
The same druggists send to foreign countries, especially Germany, these skulls 
covered with moss, to put into the composition of the Sympathetic Ointment, 
which Crollius describes in his ‘ Royal Chemist,’ and which is very available in 
the cure of the Falling Sickness. Some virtues are also attributed to the skulls 
taken from gibbets, but in all probability the heats and colds of the seasons have 
dissipated the greater part. The skulls of criminals newly hanged, stripped of 
the fleshy membrane, and the brains taken out, being well washed and dried, 
and separated with a saw from the lower part, are, or ought to be, what the 
druggists sell by the name of the human skull. 
3. It will seem strange to have included amongst ancient pharmacy, the 
Codex of 1866; yet in what other light can we view the reproduction of 
formulge more consonant with the style of thought which obtained two centuries 
ago, than adapted to the requirements of the age in which w^e live ? 
We have the right to say this, when the preface itself declares that the ten¬ 
dency of modern times is towards simplicity—that men of science trust more to 
an accurate knowledge of active principles, and to the true therapeutic action 
of remedial agents, than to the doubtful security of polypharmacy. We forbear 
to give actual extracts from a standard volume, for which we have such respect. 
In confirmation of these strictures, we refer the reader to the admirable Analy¬ 
tical Review of the Codex, read at Edinburgh by Dr. Scoresby-Jackson, and 
printed in the January number of the Journal. He translates the formula for 
the Theriaca with its happy family of ingredients. We might also point to the 
chapter on Electuaries; to many of the Compound Syrups, and to receipts such 
Alcoolat Vulneraire, and Alcoolat de Fioraventi. We venture to express a 
feeling of regret, that a work of such importance as the French Pharmacopoeia 
should have been issued under the sanction of an imperial Commission wdth these 
blemishes. 
ON THE COMBUSTION OF GAS FOR ECONOMIC PURPOSES. 
BY HENRY LETHEBY, ESQ., M.B. 
[A Lecture delivered before the British Association of Gas Managers^ at St, Martin's 
Hall^ London, on Wednesday, May 23, 1866.] 
{Concludedfrom, p. 307.) 
But we shall find that a still higher temperature is obtained by blowing air into a 
large volume of flame. This is the plan adopted by Mr. Herapath in this blowpipe 
jet. Observe how intensely it ignites a mass of platinum wire; and by putting toge¬ 
ther a number of these jets, as Mr. Griffin has done, in this arrangement, which he calls 
a blast-furnace, you will perceive what a high temperature is obtained; and by sur¬ 
rounding the blast with a case of baked clay, so that the heat may be concentrated, the 
temperature is sufficiently high to melt all the common metals. As much as a quarter 
of a hundredweight of cast-iron can be melted at a time in one of these furnaces, 
and 3 or 4 lbs. of cast-iron or copper can be thus melted in fifteen minutes. aEven the 
very refractory metals, as nickel and cobalt, can be thus fused. 
