EDITORIAL. 
185 
forms the banana flavor — and when modified in other ways produces the arti- 
ficial strawberry and other flavors. We have noticed that the valerianic alde- 
hyde, which comes over with valerianic acid in the distillation of fusel oil with 
sulpho-bichromate of potash, has a strong fruity odor which might be taken 
advantage of in imitating fruit flavors. Pure hyponitric ether is another 
substance that may be used ; and some persons have noticed a resemblance 
between this ether and the flavor of some varieties of apples. This subject 
is just opening to the chemist, and will doubtless admit of a considerable 
expansion. When it is remembered that he can make the delightful tea- 
berry oil (gaultheria procumbens) from wood naphtha and willow bark, and 
the agreeable perfume of the meadow sweet from the bark of the poplar, we 
should not despair of seeing many other natural productions of this class 
rivalled in the laboratory. 
Fruit essences sold as strawberry, pineapple, apricot, quince, raspberry, 
green gage, mulberry, black current, &c, and which are used for flavoring 
syrups, jellies, blanc mange, cordials, etc. — are manufactured in England 
by Mander, Weaver & Co., of Wolverhampton, and to some extent in this 
country. Strawberries, raspberries and some other fruits yield an agree- 
ably odorous product by distillation which way be capable of concentration. 
With butyric ether as a base, these products might afford successful imita- 
tions of the fruit, always of course using a portion of citric or tartaric acids. 
Why cannot some of our young pharmaceutists investigate the subject? 
Keturning to the sugar plumbs, the lemon, orange, vanilla and many other 
flavors are yet derived from natural sources, yet even these are said to be 
much improved by the addition of butyric ether. 
Doctor Weddell. — From an interesting paper on the present condition 
of botanical literature, by Professor A. Gray, in Silliman r s Journal, 
for January, 1852, we learn that Dr. Weddell, whose reputation as the 
author of the best monograph on the Cinchonas of Peru that has yet ap- 
peared, has again returned to South America to continue his explorations 
in the same regions. The success attending his first visit is an earnest of 
a rich contribution to medical botany, should this talented gentleman be 
favored to return safely to his adopted country. Dr. W. is an Englishman 
by birth, but is now one of the aid-naturalists of the Jardin des Plantes. 
Pharmacy in Richmond, Va. — We learn from the Stethoscope that all but 
two of the druggists and apothecaries of Richmond have agreed to subscribe 
to the code of ethics promulgated by the Richmond Medical Society — which 
code closely resembles that of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. We 
hail this as the beginning of a new order of things in the Virginian me- 
tropolis, and hope that steps will be taken to form a society of apothecaries 
before the meeting of the Convention in October. A number of young gen- 
tlemen from Virginia have graduated at our College with marked credit, 
and it will not be surprising if ere many years, some of the staunchest 
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