170 
Miscellany, 
quantity of sulphuret of soda is obtained. This plan will answer when 
the alkalies and magnesia are combined with other acids. It sometimes 
happens that when an excess of sulphuric acid has been used, and after- 
wards ammonia in excess added, that the solution from which the mag- 
nesia was precipitated by the sulphuret of barium, on the addition of phos- 
phate of ammonia becomes somewhat turbid, this turbidness is owing to 
lime, from which magnesia is rarely exempt. The use of caustic barytes 
instead of the sulphuret gives the same results. 
Journ. de Pharm. 
Ambergris. — It is said that ambergris is the intestinal concretion of 
the whale, and generally the produce of disease. The bills of cuttle fish 
or rather the smaller sepia, are frequently found in ambergris, from which 
one might suppose that they may enter into the formation of ambergris. 
And I was very much struck with the peculiar odour evolved on drying 
some cuttle fish, having a faint trace of musk, or more properly speaking, 
of ambergris ; and the carbonaceous matter particularly, produced the 
smell. A tendency to putrefaction heightens the odour : and several of 
the officers as well as myself recognized the fragrance for which ambers 
gris is valued. 
Webster'' s voyage to South Atlantic, Vol. 1. 
Cape aloes. — In our rambles on shore we found the plant from which 
the cape aloes are extracted. It appears to be abundant, although ne- 
glected. It is from three to six feet in height ; and, when grown has a 
moderately thick woody stem, sending forth numerous flowering branches 
on all sides. The bark is brown ; and the flowers assume the form of a 
spike in an erect position, and of a dense scarlet colour. The leaves are 
fleshy and ovate, and the wood has no concentric rings. The leaves of 
this shrub are cut, and thrown into a sheep skin on the ground. In this 
state the liquor is allowed to drain from them ; it is afterwards poured 
into a copper, in which it is evaporated, the remainder, forming the aloes 
of commerce. 
Ibid. 
Cockroaches. — Sailors have a notion that soy is made from cockroaches, 
because the Chinese at Canton have a large soy manufactory, and they 
are particularly solicitous to obtain cockroaches from ships, from which 
circumstance sailors immediately conclude that it is for the purpose of 
making soy of them. Captain Wm. Owen, well known for his scientific 
attainments, states that the Chinese use cockroaches as bait in their fish- 
ing excursions, and that they answer the purpose admirably. I was 
also informed by him that the infusion of cockroaches is a most powerful 
antispasmodic, and is useful in tetanus, and that his surgeon in the Eden, 
Dr. Birnie, had used it with beneficial effect. I am aware that in some 
