176 
Miscellany. 
thartic, and the decoction for four days as before. On the 11th, the 
course terminates by another cathartic. Should the cure not be complete, 
the entire course, or half of it, must be repeated, at an interval of eight 
days. The most rigid diet must be observed. After the cure, the pa- 
tient must remain in the house for some time, on low diet, returning very 
gradually to his usual mode of living. Some practitioners advise a still 
more rigid discipline, the patient being confined to bed during the whole 
treatment, and a full pint of the strong decoction, warm, given in the 
morning, and the same quantity of weak in the afternoon ; with the same 
attention to diet. 2V". Am. Arch, of Med. & Surg, Set. 
Carbonate of Soda. — Prukner gives the following process. Commence 
by changing the calcined sulphate of soda into sulphuret of sodjum, by 
treating it to redness with pulverized charcoal. Dissolve the sulphuret 
and add oxide of copper to the warm solution. Filter and evaporate un- 
til the specific gravity = 1.41 or 1.48. On leaving the solution for 
twenty-four or forty-eight hours, the undecomposed sulphate of soda crys- 
tallizes. Evaporate the supernatant fluid to dryness. This process gives 
about sixty-five of crude caustic soda for one hundred of sulphate of soda. 
To convert, this into carbonate, heat gradually to redness with charcoal. 
Metallic copper, as well as its oxides, may be used to separate the sul- 
phur from the sulphuret of sodium ; but on the large scale, the protoxide 
is preferable. In order to procure this oxide, heat metallic copper to red- 
ness and plunge it into water containing 0.002 of the nitrate of soda of 
Chili. The sulphuret of copper derived from this manufacture, mingled 
with one-sixth of powdered sulphur is easily transformed into a sulphate 
by washing. Ann. Schweigger. & Amer. Journ. Sci. & Arts. 
Best mode of administering Oil of Turpentine. — A writer in the London 
Medical Journal proposes the following formula for the administration of 
this article : 
B 01. Terebinth 3iss. vel 3ij. 
Magnes. Carbon. ^i. Tere et adde. 
Aqua Menth. sativ. ^v. 
Syrup limonis, 
Spt. lav. comp. aa ^ij. 
■M- et div. in haust iv. capt. j, ter quotidie. 
jV. A. Arch. Med. tsf Surg. Sci. 
