VARIETIES. 
275 
As pepper pays in England a duty of 60 centimes (12 cents,) per pound, 
and the quantity sold exceeds by a million of pounds that upon which duty 
has been paid, it follows that the English treasury loses annually, thanks 
to these pilferers, the trifle of 600,000 francs, ($120,000.) But this is com- 
paratively nothing to the loss caused by the frauds in coffee, amounting to 
at least 25,000,000 francs ($5,000,000,) annually! — Journ de Pharm,from 
Gazette Medicate. 
Culture of Tea in Brazil. — Late letters from Rio de Janeiro agree in an- 
nouncing the growing progress of the tea culture in Brazil. Many of the 
planters, they say, have given up the culture of coffee, to undertake that of 
tea, and it is very probable that ere long Brazil will be enabled to produce 
not only sufficient of the herb for her own consumption, but also for export. 
Bohea, hyson, and young hyson are the kinds which seem best adapted to 
the country. — Jour, de Pharm. 
On a New Source of Carbonate of Magnesia — By M. Landerer. — In differ- 
ent localities upon the island of Euboa, in the strata of serpentine, there 
is found an abundance of a hard white rock, which on account of its physi- 
cal properties has been called by the inhabitants, leukolite, (t.evx6%i9o$) or 
white-stone. 
The owner of the land supposing this mineral a kind of porcelain clay, 
exported a considerable quantity of it to England, for the purpose of manu- 
facturing porcelain. In attempting to convert it to this use it was soon 
perceived that, being in no respect of an argillaceous nature, it was totally 
unfit for such a purpose, but that it was a magnesite, or more correctly 
speaking a hydro-magnesite, MgOjCO^+HO, which, as I have just learned, is 
employed with great advantage for the manufacture of carbonate of mag- 
nesia. 
The magnesite of Euboa is very white, extremely hard, dissolving in sul- 
phuric and muriatic acids, and evolving carbonic acid gas when exposed 
to heat. It contains magnesia 48, carbonic acid 36, water 14, and traces of 
carbonate of lime, oxide of iron and of manganese. 
To succeed in the preparation of carbonate of magnesia, it is best to dis- 
solve the magnesite in hydrochloric acid, and precipitate the solution of 
muriate of magnesia, by the carbonate of potassa or soda. 
I do not doubt that this mineral which is plentifully obtained, may be 
advantageously employed in the manufacture of artificial tiles, resembling 
fire-brick, for the construction of furnaces. — Jour, de Pharm., Mars, 1851. 
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. — The annual meeting of the Massa- 
chusetts College of Pharmacy, for the choice of officers, was held at the 
Tremont House, Boston, on Wednesday, the 19th of March. A number of 
new members were admitted, and the following gentlemen were chosen 
the officers for the ensuing year : 
