VARIETIES. 
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tions from the factory. The sober and the intemperate are alike subject 
to it. 
It has not been established that causes exist which predispose the work- 
men to this disease, although some persons consider such to be the case. — 
Pharmaceutical Journal, February 1, 1851, from Repertoire de Pharmacie. 
On Sea-Weeds as the Sources of Acetic Acid. By John Stenhouse, LL.D., 
&c. — During the course of some experiments on sea-weeds, Dr. Stenhouse 
ascertained that a considerable quantity of acetic acid was generated during 
their spontaneous fermentation in warm weather. 
Six pounds of fresh, moist Fucus vesiculosus were put into an earthen jar 
with a little quick lime and just sufficient water to cover them, and kept for 
three weeks at the temperature of 96° F., adding small quantities of quick 
lime from time to time, to keep the mixture slightly alkaline. "When the 
fermentation was completed, the liquid portion, which contained a good deal 
of mucilage and some acetate of ammonia, was thrown upon a cloth filter, 
and the clear liquid which passed through was evaporated to dryness, and 
then cautiously heated so as not to decompose any of the crude acetate of 
lime, while almost the whole of the mucilaginous matter was rendered in- 
soluble. The dark brown mass yielded by digestion in water and 
evaporation, 4 oz. 2 drachms of dry acetate of lime, nearly free from organic 
matter, from which 696 grains of anhydrous acetic acid diluted with water 
were obtained, which is equivalent to 1.65 per cent of acetic acid from the 
moist weed. 
Two other experiments somewhat varied gave 1.45 and 1.15 per cent, of 
acetic acid: — the latter trial was in the open air subject to atmospheric 
variations, from June to September. Dr. S. thinks the residue will answer 
nearly as well for manure as the weeds before fermentation. — Pharm. Jour., 
Feb., 1851, from Philosophical Magazine. 
Mites in Sugar. — In the Pharmaceutical Journal, for February, we find a 
figure of the mite peculiar to brown sugars, and which exists in considera- 
ble numbers, in some varieties, both dead and alive. A writer in the Lan- 
cet for January 18th, 1851, states, that of thirty-six samples of sugar ex- 
amined, "The disgusting looking acari were present in thirty-five." The 
cheese, meal and itch mites are also figured, and in the enlarged view present 
a formidable appearance. 
Coffee and its Adidterations. — The London Lancet, within a few months 
past, has been publishing a series of experimental examinations of the more 
prominent articles of diet as found in the London shops and markets, more 
especially those sold by the grocers. The first of them is coffee. The 
structure of the coffee berry is first described very minutely, showing it to 
consist of angular cells closely adherent together, and enclosing an essential 
oil on the presence of which the fragrance and some of the active qualities of 
