VARIETIES. 
579 
which  is  rendered  turbid.  Nitric  and  muriatic  acid  yield  a  yellow 
solution,  which  is  precipitated  by  water.  The  aqueous  solution  is 
precipitated  by  protonitrate  of  mercury,  and  by  tannin  ;  sesqui- 
chloride  of  iron  and  bichloride  of  platinum  occasion  a  slight 
turbidity. 
Its  composition  is  expressed  by  C46  024.  Dilute  acids  de- 
compose it  into  sugar  and  convallamaretin  C40  H36  016,  which  is 
a  yellowish  white  crystalline  powder,  of  a  faint  resinous  taste. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  convallamaretin,  minus  one  half  of  an 
equivalent  of  sugar  C6  H5  05,  gives  the  composition  of  the  acrid 
principle  convallarin. —  Wittstein's  Viert.  Sclirift.  viii.  259 — 262. 
J.  M.  M. 
A  new  Disinfectant  for  Dressing  Putrid  Sores  and  Ulcers. — Considerable 
discussion  has  recently  taken  place  in  the  French  Academy,  respecting  a 
new  preparation,  introduced  by  MM.  Demeaux  and  Corne,  for  dressing 
and  disinfecting  putrid  sores  and  ulcers.  It  consists  of  a  mixture  of  one 
hundred  parts  of  commercial  plaster  of  Paris  in  very  fine  powder,  and 
from  one  to  three  parts  of  coal  tar.  This  mixture  forms  a  powder  of  a 
more  or  less  greyish  color,  and  a  slightly  bituminous  odor.  For  applica- 
tion, it  may  also  be  made  into  a  paste  with  olive  oil,  which  binds  the 
powder  together  without  destroying  its  absorptive  power.  The  following 
are  the  properties  of  this  substance,  as  described  by  the  above  gentlemen : — 
A  gangrenous  sore,  with  an  abundant  fetid  suppuration,  treated  with  this 
dressing,  is  immediately  freed  from  all  disagreeable  odor,  and  the  band- 
ages, even  after  24  or  36  hours,  exhale  no  more  odor  than  if  taken  from  a 
simple  fracture.  An  ulcerated  cancer  producing  a  fetid  serous  suppuration, 
dressed  with  this  substance  is  entirely  deprived  of  odor  as  long  as  the 
dressing  remains  on.  So  also  the  linen  saturated  with  pus,  cataplasms 
impregnated  with  the  suppuration,  &c,  placed  in  contact  with  this  sub- 
stance lose  all  their  disagreeable  odor;  the  infectious  liquid  produced  by 
gangrene,  clots  of  decomposed  blood,  tissues  in  a  state  of  advanced  putre- 
faction, treated  with  this  substance  are  immediately  disinfected.  Its  action 
appears  to  be  to  arrest  the  work  of  decomposition  ;  it  removes  the  insects, 
and  prevents  the  production  of  maggots.  The  consistence  acquired,  either 
by  the  powder  alone  or  the  paste  with  oil,  does  not  cause  the  least  pain  to 
the  patient,  or  harm  to  the  sore.  Its  application  may  be  indirect  or  direct, 
the  latter  produces  no  harm,  but  rather  exercises  a  detersive  action  favor- 
