184 
VARIETIES. 
dorfT, Abich, Boudet and Poma, have each in their turn devised methods 
of preservation, which have not been found to answer perfectly. M. Rus- 
pirie having directed his attention to the same subject, and tried several 
processes, recommends the following as the best : — The crystals of the prc- 
tosulphate of iron, perfectly pure, are dried, as quickly as possible, between 
folds of filtering paper, on taking them out of the mother-liquor. They are 
then put into a drying-closet, the temperature of which is 86° Fahr., where 
they soon effloresce. As soon as the salt has been reduced to this state, it 
is rapidly powdered, passed through a fine seive, and put into well-stopped 
bottles. Thus prepared, the protosulphate will keep for any length of time 
in a state of purity, although exposed to air and the influence of light. It 
will form a clear solution, and will contain only a trace of persulphate, which 
will be of little consequence. The preservation of the salt is due, in this 
case, to the abstraction of interposed water not in a state of chemical com- 
bination, which is always present in the crystals in their ordinary state, and 
which under the influence of air, causes the peroxidation of the salt. — Ibid, 
from Journal de Chimie Medicate. 
Notice of the Seed of Simaba Cedron, used by the Indians of South 
America as a Remedy for Snake Bite. — In the Pharmaceutical Journal for 
January (page 344.) we find an account of the cedron from the pen of Sir 
W.J.Hooker. From this it appears that a seed, or the cotyledons of a 
seed, have been celebrated in New Grenada for its medicinal properties, 
under the above name. Dr. Purdie, late botanical collector for the Royal 
Gardens of Kew, writing from the province of Antioquia near the Magda- 
lena, in July, 1846, observes: a 1 have had the good fortune to detect the 
celebrated cedron^ a small tree with the habits of the Jamaica mountain 
pride, (Melia azedarach.) The seeds are here much sought after, and sold 
at one real the cotyledon, being considered an invaluble specific for the 
bite of snakes, for intermittents, and for stomach complaints generally. 
The bark and wood also abound, in a high degree, with the bitter prin- 
ciple." 
■'•'The cedron has an erect stern not more than six inches in diameter, 
crowned by an umbellate mass of branches, with large handsome pinnated 
foliage.'' 
The Brussels Herald informs us that some physiological experiments are 
in proaress to test the antitoxical powers of the cedron; two French gen- 
tlemen having volunteered to be operated upon in reference to snake bite. 
If this statement is correct, we shall probably know more of the real 
merits of this remedy in reference to the most important of its attributed 
powers. 
Dr. Pereira, in a note to Sir W. J. Hooker, observes : " To the taste, these 
seeds are intensely bitter, and doubtless like the bitter bark and wood of 
other simarubaceous plants, (c. g. Quassia and Simaruba) they possess the 
