\ 
VARIETIES. 
79 
one such "hide " from which you will see that Capitao Pedro's manufacture 
is not despicable. If the bottle-moulds are used, or if a shoe is to be moulded 
on a last, a stick of two feet long is always inserted into the mould to guaran- 
tee the operator's hand from the milk and smoke. Some shoes we saw here 
had thirty coatings apiece of seringue. The Capitao was getting about six mil- 
reis an arroba (32 lbs.) for his seringue, but in Para it sells for as much as ten 
milreis. November is the season of ripe fruit of the seringue, but the trees 
on the Eamos had been completely stripped by the araras, a sort of long- 
tailed parrot. — London Pharm. Journ.,from Hooker's Journal of Botany. 
On the Solution of Carbonate of Lime by Syrup of Lime. — M. Barreswill, 
in the course of some investigations on sugar, has ascertained that the 
compound of sugar and lime, sometimes called syrup of lime, has the pro- 
perty of dissolving carbonate of lime, as carbonate, and probably forms 
with it a double salt. This fact is interesting, and has considerable interest 
in connection with the extraction of sugars. It also accounts for the fact 
that syrup of lime is not rapidly rendered cloudy by exposure to the air 
by the precipitation of carbonate. — Journ. de Pharm, 
Reagent for discoveHng Sugar in Animal Fluids. — A simple and easy 
means of discovering the presence of sugar in the blood, urine and bile, has 
been indicated by an English physician, Dr. Donaldson, viz. : 
Take of Carbonate of soda, crystallized, 5 grammes. 
Caustic potassa, - - - - 5 " 
Bitartrate of potassa, - - 6 " 
Sulphate of copper, crystallized,. 4 " 
Distilled water, . . . . 32 « 
Boil and filter. 
A few drops of this solution, thrown into urine or other liquid suspected 
of being saccharine, and heated over a spirit lamp, will discover the smallest 
quantity of sugar present. After a few minutes application of heat, the 
liquid acquires first a yellowish green color, and becomes more and more 
reddish yellow as the proportion of sugar is more considerable. — Journ. de 
Chim. Med,, Nov., 1851. 
Persulphate of Iron a test for Gum. — M. Lassaigne states that arabin (pure 
gum arabic) dissolvedi n water, produces, with persulphate of iron added in 
small quantity, a gelatinous yellowish precipitate, transparent as animal jelly. 
Syrup of gum diluted with water gives the same reaction, whilst simple 
syrup is not affected. Dextrine is not precipitated by persulphate of iron, 
nor is starch and some other principles which are thrown down by subace- 
tate of lead. Hence the ferruginous sesqui-sulphate taken in connection 
with subacetate of lead and alcohol, is a very good means of determining 
the presence of arabin, or soluble gum. — Journ. de Pharm. 
