260  MERCURY— ITS  OXIDES  AND  ACETATES,  ETC. 
water  obtained  from  them  would  acidify,  and  would  in  time  ac- 
quire a  smell  of  valerianic  acid,  as  M.  Omar  Dabat  has  observed. 
Waters  obtained  from  salted  vegetable  matters  have  an  aroma 
as  strong  and  as  sweet  as  those  distilled  from  plants  gathered 
only  a  few  hours  previously;  that  from  the  rose  appears  to  ac- 
quire even  greater  strength.  I  have  kept  petals  of  the  rose  for 
two  years ;  the  distilled  water  yielded  by  them  resembled  the 
Indian  attar,  or  the  Athenian  essence  of  roses  spoken  of  by  the 
Jesuit  Rapin. 
Salt,  which  has  served  for  the  preservation  of  undried  plants, 
may  be  used  for  fresh  distillations;  it  is  sufficient  to  subject  the 
decoction  to  strong  expression,  to  evaporate  the  fluid  to  a  suita- 
ble consistence,  and  to  allow  it  to  crystallize  by  rest. — Bulletin 
General  de  Therapeut,  Dublin  Hosp.  Cfaz.  and  Pharm.  Joum. 
MERCURY — ITS  OXIDES  AND  ACETATES  IN  REFERENCE  TO 
THE  EXAMINATION  OE  BLUE  MASS,  AND  REMARKS 
ON  BLUE  MASS. 
By  Charles  Bullock,  of  Philadelphia. 
Much  of  the  powdered  blue  mass  of  the  shops  is  prepared  by 
the  simple  process  of  drying  and  powdering.  An  examination 
of  the  character  of  the  mass  from  which  samples  of  the  powder 
were  obtained  was,  therefore,  desirable,  to  judge  properly  of 
the  changes  it  had  undergone  after  pulverization. 
For  this  purpose,  a  sample  of  the  mass  prepared  18  months 
was  examined  for  oxides  of  mercury.  The  process  adopted  was 
that  of  former  examiners.  The  mass,  after  treatment  with  suc- 
cessive portions  of  hot  distilled  water  to  remove  the  soluble 
matter,  was  boiled  with  dilute  acetic  acid.  The  filtered  liquid 
evaporated  to  a  small  bulk,  gave  no  indication  of  mercury  when 
treated  with  sulphide  of  ammonium. 
To  one  hundred  grains  of  blue  mass,  one  grain  of  black  oxide 
of  mercury  was  added,  and  the  experiment  repeated  ;  not  a  trace 
of  oxide  of  mercury  could  be  detected  by  the  process. 
From  results  so  unsatisfactory,  I  was  induced  to  make  some 
examination  to  determine  the  cause  of  error,  and  to  arrive  at  a 
reliable  method  of  detecting  small  amounts  of  oxides  of  mer- 
cury, when  mixed  with  a  large  bulk  of  organic  matter. 
