FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
31 
Extract of Belladonna. — Mr. Squires has proved 
that the extract of deadly nightshade prepared from all the 
soft parts of the plant except the leaves, is the most active, 
although these may be used. The same applies to henbane, 
hemlock, and other green extracts. 
The pharmacopoeia process directs the leaves alone to be 
employed, by which, says Mr. Squires, one third of the 
useful constituents of the plant is lost. 
Extract of Logwood a Deodoriser and Disin¬ 
fectant. —M. Desmartir states that he has employed an 
ointment composed of equal parts lard and extract of log¬ 
wood with extraordinary success in bringing about healthy 
action in sloughing and gangrenous w^ounds, and removing 
at the same time fetid odours. 
Conversion of Iron into Steel. —It is the opinion 
of M. Caron that in the cementation of iron by the various 
forms of carbon employed it becomes a cyanide. Several 
experiments were performed by him with the alkaline 
cyanides, and with decided success. He also thinks that the 
time required for effecting the change would be shortened if 
so be some of the alkaline cyanides were directly employed. 
The cyanide of ammonium he found to be the most effective. 
M. Fremy is also of opinion that nitrogen exercises an 
influence over the phenomena of steeling, not only by pre¬ 
senting the carbon in a gaseous state to the iron, but by 
remaining united to the carbon and combining itself with 
the metal. He further adds, “ Upon the whole, it appears to 
me, at the present time, impossible to admit that cast iron, 
fine metal, and steel, are formed essentially by the combina¬ 
tion of iron with carbon, and that the difference between 
them is due simply to the proportion of this metalloid pre¬ 
sent. The substance which modifies the properties of iron 
so usefully for the arts, may be sometimes a metalloid and 
also sometimes a compound; it is then allied to the deriva¬ 
tives of cyanogen, and, like them, is transformed by the 
action of metalloids; when this substance contains either 
nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, or arsenic, it forms, when 
united with iron, cast iron, either white or gray and spotted, 
fine metal and steel.^^ 
