VARIETIES. 
271 
oxygen ; double that proportion under twice the ordinary pressure ; treble, 
under three-fold pressure ; and if shaken -with pure oxygen, it must receive 
five times as much. It has not yet been proved that the absorbent power 
of the blood varies with the alteration of atmospheric pressure. The re- 
searches of Kegnault and Keiset have demonstrated that in the neighbor- 
hood of the Lake of Titicaco, in Puno (South Peru,) 12,000 feet above the 
sea, 15,000 persons — and at Potosi, in Bolivia, at a height of 12,600 feet, 
30,000 persons live and breathe as well as those who reside on the sea-shore. 
Now, if the oxygen were merely absorbed by the blood, considerable in- 
fluence must be exercised by the great differences in the amount of 
oxygen taken up. — Ibid, from Chimisch-Pharmaceutisches, Central- Blatt, 
December, 1851. 
Adulteration of Borax. — We understand that there is at the present time 
in the market a quantity of adulterated borax, sold by a house at Wolver- 
hampton, to which we think it right to call the attention of the trade. It 
contains twenty per cent, of phosphate of soda, which may be separated by 
exposing the sample to the heat of a drying-room for a few hours, when 
the phosphate effloresces and may be picked out — amounting to one-fifth of 
the whole. As a corroborative proof, solution of nitrate of silver may be 
added to a very dilute solution of 150 grains of the adulterated article, 
and then from the precipitated phosphate of silver the phosphate of 
soda may be calculated, which will equal 19-5 grains. This test is not 
perfectly accurate on several accounts, but affords a near approximation. — 
Ibid. 
On the Scherbets of the East. By Dr. Landerer. — As the prohibition 
of wine imposed upon Mahommedans by the Koran, has induced the use of 
opium as a means of producing intoxication, so it may have probably been 
the cause of the invention of those beverages so generally employed in the 
East, Scherbet and Bosa. 
The Eastern scherbets usually consist of water in which jelly or syrup 
made from fruit have been dissolved, or of an infusion in water of the fruit 
itself ; and their composition varies according to the facility with which any 
fruit can be obtained. In Egypt, a scherbet is prepared from the roots of 
Cyperus esculentus, which are brought to Cairo and Alexandria in consider- 
able abundance, and sold in the bazaars combined with rice, in the form 
of cakes. The Egyptians also use a scherbet made with homy. Various 
ingredients, as vanilla, otto of rose, peppermint, vinegar, and even mastich, 
are used to impart a flavor to scherbet, while an agreeable color is obtained 
by the employment of cochineal, the juice of the berries of Phytolacca cle- 
candra or of cornus mas, the latter an esteemed fruit in Asia Minor. One 
of the chief requisites for the scherbet is cold water, which, in the absence 
of ice, is obtained by the use of a porous earthen vessel, like the unglazed 
water-bottle or Alcarraza of the Spaniards. 
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