112 
PHARMACEUTICAL  NOTES  OF  TRAVEL. 
tic  acid  from  chloride  of  sodium  by  sulphuric  acid,  the  several 
alkaline  products  are  made.  The  sulphate  is  mixed  with  char- 
coal in  suitable  brick  furnaces  and  ignited,  being  constantly 
stirred  with  large  iron  rakes  during  the  burning. 
It  comes  out  a  fused  yellowish  mass,  which  is  broken  up  upon 
the  hearth,  lixiviated  repeatedly,  concentrated  in  iron  vats  ;  for 
soda  ash  the  evaporation  is  carried  on  to  dryness,  calcined  and 
powdered ;  it  meets  a  ready  sale  and  is  one  of  the  chief  pro- 
ductions of  the  works,  averaging  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
tons  per  week. 
The  sal  soda  is  produced  by  arresting  the  concentration  at  a 
certain  point  and  running  the  lixivium  into  shallow  iron  vats,  on 
the  top  of  which,  wooden  strips  are  thrown,  to  promote  crystal- 
lization, and  after  the  carbonate  of  soda  has  been  nearly  all 
separated  in  this  way  the  mother  liquors  are  drawn  off,  by  re- 
moving a  plug,  and  evaporated  to  dryness,  forming  another 
quality  of  the  soda  ash.  The  yield  of  sal  soda  is  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  tons  per  week. 
The  vast  extent  of  the  crystallizing  room,  with  its  numerous 
large  vats,  and  the  immense  expenditure  of  force  silently  ex- 
erted by  innumerable  material  atoms,  marshalling  themselves 
with  mathematical  precision  into  regular  crystalline  forms,  is 
calculated  to  fill  the  mind  with  astonishment  and  admiration, 
and  I  shall  long  recollect  it  as  one  of  the  most  impressive  exhi- 
bitions of  natural  motive  power  it  has  been  my  lot  to  witness. 
Part  of  the  soda  ash  is  rendered  caustic  by  quicklime  and 
consumed  in  another  part  of  the  works  in  the  manufacture  of 
soap.  Tallow  mixed  with  palm  oil  and  cocoanut  oil,  both  of 
which  latter  are  abundant  in  England,  are  used  in  the  soap 
works.  The  boiling  is  accomplished  by  steam,  in  the  usual  way, 
about  sixty  tons  of  a  very  nice  white  soap  being  produced 
weekly.  From  what  I  observed  in  this  branch  of  manufacture 
here  and  elsewhere,  I  do  not  think  soap-making  in  England 
at  all  in  advance  of  the  art  in  our  own  country. 
The  practice  of  pharmacy  in  Glasgow  seemed  to  present  lit- 
tle to  distinguish  it  from  that  of  Edinburgh  or  the  principal 
towns  of  England.  Many  of  the  stores  are  large  and  well  furnished 
and  present  every  appearance  of  a  prosperous  business.  The 
term  apothecary  is  applied,  as  with  us,  to  the  regular  profession 
of  pharmacy,  and  seems  to  convey  no  idea  of  a  practitioner  of 
