NEW SOURCE OF AMMONIA. 
461 
will answer the purpose of the cod-liver oil, not only have 
we a most important addition to our exports—for as the 
demand must be enormous, so will be the supply—but w hat 
is far more desirable, an alleviation is offered to multitudes, 
whose lives are valued beyond rubies, and who may receive 
all the benefits to be derived from the cod-liver oil, and vet 
escape the misery which attends so often upon its use. 
“The cure of consumptive diseases has of late years as¬ 
sumed a new development. It is found that often the catas¬ 
trophe may be arrested or long deferred. Consumption, 
indeed, blights the happiness of millions. Who has net 
marked the stealthy progress of this fell destroyer? Just as 
life opens in its brightest forms, just when the frame has 
attained its perfection, and the cultured understanding is 
prepared for the business of life, the symptoms too well 
known to be misunderstood alarm all but the destined victim, 
wdio is the last to quit hope. Every professional man must 
have witnessed the long agony w hich precedes these domestic 
bereavements, and will hail, as of priceless value, any dis¬ 
covery which can render them less common among us. 
“ A notion long prevailed in England that consumption was 
all but unknown in the colonies. No doubt the climate has 
restored many in whom the progress of the disease has been 
slight; but there are forms of consumption which are acce¬ 
lerated, if not bv the climate, yet by the prevailing habits of 
colonial life. Neither in this nor any other country is im¬ 
punity granted to those who trifle with physical laws; and 
here, as elsew here, the children often perish in the flow T er of 
their youth, and pay, in their untimely death, the inevitable 
penalty entailed by the vices of their ancestors.” 
Dr. Andrews has found the oil of the pitcher fish, which is 
met with in great quantities on the coast of Devon and 
Cornwall, to be an effective substitute for cod-liver oil. He 
adds to every ounce of the oil two grains of the iodide of 
iron, and says this compound is not disagreeable to take, and 
is easy of digestion, and does not rise; while he considers 
that it feeds and gives a general tone to the system, much 
more than cod-liver oil does. 
ON A NEW SOURCE OE AMMONIA. 
Mr. Alexander Williams, of Neath, in a letter to the 
‘Journal of the Society of Arts/ has suggested a means of 
economising the waste nitrogen products escaping from the 
