9 
“ ON UNPROFITxlBLE DETAILS.” 
of Swedish paper, and the filtrates saturated with hydrosul- 
phuric acid. 
The filtrate from Experiment 1 remained unaltered. 
>) )) 3 )} )) 
,, ,, 3 yielded a black precipitate 
of sulphide of mercury. 
The results of these experiments, therefore, show that 
neither dilute hydrochloric acid (2 per cent.) nor pepsin 
alone is capable of dissolving calomel, but that when these 
agents are mixed they do effect its solution, and consequently, 
that the digestion of calomel, so far as its solution in 
artificial gastric juice is concerned, is brought about under 
the same conditions as that of the albumenoids. 
The importance of this observation will become apparent 
when it is borne in mind that it offers an additional explanation 
to those already published of the manner in which calomel 
enters the circulation, in order that it may exercise the many 
therapeutic actions with which it is accredited. 
Whether or not oxide of antimony, sulphide of antimony, 
and other so-called insoluble remedies are dissolved by pep¬ 
sin and dilute acid, is a problem which yet remains to be 
solved. 
The influence of different acids, the chemical characters of 
the dissolved mineral and its behaviour when subjected to 
dialysis, and the action, if any, of peptones on inorganic 
bodies, have also to be determined, but these matters, toge¬ 
ther with many others, will form the subject of future com¬ 
munications. 
“ON UNPROFITABLE DETAILS.” 
By D. B. Howell, M.R.C.Y.S., Reading. 
The Smithfield Club Cattle Show has come and gone, 
and the profession been favoured in the Veterinarian 
with the rules and regulations to be observed by exhibitors ; 
but what advantage its publication was to us, I cannot see, 
unless to show the peculiar way Orders of Council are con¬ 
cocted. That to which I specially refer is the regulation 
about the removal of animals from the show, viz. Section 6, 
Clause 2, which enacts that “ The animals not so affected 
may be moved and dealt with as if a case of foot-and-mouth 
disease had not occurred in the show.” 
Is this at all in keeping with the regulations ordered for 
