January ri897rm'}     Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  49 
to  the  Japanese  Government  by  certain  native  chemists  that  the 
customs  duty  on  iodine  and  iodides  in  Japan  should  be  increased  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  enable  the  Japanese  industry  to  be  self-support- 
ing.—  The  Journal  of  the  Society  of  Chemical  Industry,  October  ji, 
1896. 
BARIUM  PLATINO  CYANIDE. 
The  text-book  way  of  preparing  barium  platino  cyanide  is  to  pass 
gaseous  hydrocyanic  acid  through  a  mixture  of  platinous  chloride 
2  parts  and  barium  carbonate  3  parts,  suspending  in  twice  their 
weight  of  water.  Schertel,  in  a  recent  issue  of  Berichte,  describes  a 
safer  process,  viz. :  Platinum  chloride  is  precipitated  by  hydrogen 
sulphide  at  6o°  to  700  C,  and  the  well-washed  platinum  sulphide  is 
dissolved  in  a  warm  solution  of  potassium  cyanide.  On  evaporation, 
the  potassium  platino  cyanide  (K2PtCy43H20)  crystallizes  out,  and 
equal  parts  of  potassium  sulphide  and  potassium  thiocyanate  remain 
in  the  mother-liquor.  If  a  solution  of  barium  cyanide  be  used,  the 
barium  platino  cyanide  is  obtained,  and  from  this,  by  double  decom- 
position with  uranium  sulphate,  the  platino  cyanide  of  uranium  may 
be  gotten  in  beautiful  crystals. —  The  Chemist  and  Druggist,  October 
31,  1896. 
PRODUCTION  OF  QUICKSILVER  IN  CALIFORNIA. 
The  Engineering  and  Mining  Journal  (New  York)  states  that 
quicksilver  production  in  California  has  shown  this  year  a  consider- 
able increase,  the  total  receipts  at  San  Francisco  for  the  six  months 
ending  with  June  having  been  18,439  flasks,  a  gain  of  4,743  flasks, 
or  346  per  cent.,  over  the  first  half  of  1895,  and  of  6,033  flasks,  or 
48-7  per  cent.,  over  1894.  While  these  receipts  gauge  the  rate  of 
production  very  fairly,  they  do  not  give  the  whole  amount,  as  the 
reports  do  not  include  the  quicksilver  sold  directly  from  the  mines, 
nor  that  shipped  from  them  to  the  East  by  rail,  which  does  not 
come  to  San  Francisco  at  all. 
The  larger  output  seems  to  have  been  absorbed  without  difficulty. 
In  addition  to  the  greater  demand  from  the  California  mines,  there 
has  been  a  growth  in  exports  very  nearly  corresponding  to  that  in 
the  production.  The  trade  with  China,  which  had  been  suspended 
for  several  years,  has  been  renewed,  and  has  aided  materially  in  dis- 
posing of  the  increased  production. —  The  Journal  of  the  Society  of 
Chemical  Industry,  October  31,  1896. 
