PHARMACEUTICAL  GLEANINGS. 
15 
sugar,  cocoa,  pepper,  spices,  jalap,  rhubarb,  gums,  aloes,  barks, 
mercurial  preparations,  paints,  and  for  mixing  or  kneading  loz- 
enges, pills,  glaziers'  putty,  and  even  bread  and  biscuit." 
The  expense  of  this  kind  of  apparatus,  prevents  its  use  by  the 
majority  of  dispensing  pharmaceutists,  else  they  could  place 
themselves  beyond  the  reach  of  the  dishonest  druggist  and  pow- 
derer,  yet  we  do  not  see  why  those  druggists  and  apothecaries 
who,  residing  at  a  distance  from  their  sources  of  supply,  are  most 
likely  to  be  victimized,  should  not  adopt  such  a  means  to  supply 
their  own  wants.  There  are  few  pharmaceutists  so  ill  educated 
as  to  be  unable  to  tell  good  from  bad  drugs  when  they  see  them, 
but  the  best  of  us  can  be  easily  deceived  when  they  are  reduced 
to  powder. 
Boggett's  Patent  Cfas  Spatula. — The  spatula,  or  plaster  iron, 
(figure  16,)  is  described  in  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal  for  Novem- 
ber.   It  consists  of  a  blade  of  the  ordinary  shape,  but  hollow 
Fig.  16. 
near  the  top,  which  is  pierced  with  a  number  of  small  orifices. 
The  handle  is  a  metallic  tube  mounted  with  wood,  communicating 
with  the  cavity  of  the  blade.  A  vulcanized  caoutchouc  tube  is 
attached  to  the  end  of  the  spatula  handle  by  a  coupling  joint,  the 
other  end  of  the  tube  being  similarly  attached  to  a  gas  burner. 
In  using  the  spatula  the  flow  of  gas  is  let  into  the  tube  and 
lighted  at  all  the  orifices  on  the  back  of  the  spatula.  The  latter 
soon  becomes  sufficiently  heated  by  conduction,  and  then  the 
operator,  by  curtailing  the  flow  of  gas,  can  keep  up  a  regular 
supply  of  heat  during  the  whole  operation  of  spreading  the  plaster. 
The  flexibility  of  the  tube  allows  of  perfect  freedom  of  motion  in 
the  spatula.  Of  course  it  is  necessary  to  avoid  getting  the 
plaster  on  the  back  of  the  spatula  so  as  to  close  the  orifices. 
Renou  and  Gruerin's  Weighing  Machine  for  taking  the  Tare 
of  Vessels.— The  accompanying  figure  (17),  which  is  copied  from 
