ON GRECIAN SPONGES. 
259 
constituents is small, it is particularly-necessary that the oil should 
be pure. The high price of alcohol in England, and a defect in 
the directions formerly given for its preparation in the United 
States Dispensatory, are the probable causes of the absence of pure 
oil of wine in New York. In recent editions of the above work,* 
the defective proportions have been substituted by those of the 
London College, and there is now no reason why pure oil of wine 
should not be made in the United States, where alcohol is cheaper, 
probably, than in any other part of the world. I hope that our 
manufacturing chemists will turn their attention to this subject, 
and displace all worthless chemical and pharmaceutical prepara- 
tions by such as will be useful to the public, and creditable to the 
manufacturers. — N. Y. Journ. Pharrn., March, 1852. 
[The United States Pharmacopoeia directs two pints of alcohol (sp. g,. 
•835) to be mixed with three pints of sulphuric acid (sp. gr. 1.845 ;) by 
weight rather better than 3.3 of the acid, to one part of alcohol, and gives 
1-096 as the sp. gr. of the oil. — Ed. JS t . Y. Journ. Pharm.~] 
*The proportions of alcohol and sulphuric acid directed in the U. S. 
Pharm., are not taken from the Lond. Pharm., but are the suggestion of 
the revising committee, founded on experiment. The acid is in greater 
excess, which, by causing the boiling point to rise sooner above the ether 
producing temperature, increases the oily product and decreases that of the 
ether. — Ed. Am. Journ. Pharm. 
ON GRECIAN SPONGES. 
By M. Laxderer, of Athens. 
The sponge trade forms no unimportant branch of Grecian 
commerce, the annual export being 150,000 litres. The prin- 
cipal divers are Hydriots, Spezziots, and Candiots ; these occupy 
themselves especially in this branch of business. Yet more skill- 
ful divers are the Calimniots and the Simiots, inhabitants of the 
little Turkish islands, Calimnos and Simi. 
The sponge fishery begins in May. At that time, from thirty 
to fifty little vessels, with red-brown sails, may be seen at once 
on the waters of the Grecian Archipelago, gliding among the 
09* 
