276 
VARIETIES. 
to the people. In lecturing, he never had a note before him when we have 
been present, nor did his lectures appear to have been very methodically 
arranged. To what height might chemistry rise in the medical schools of 
this country, if those who teach it possessed the energy, enthusiasm, 
sprightliness, learning and suavity, that distinguish the leading chemist of 
England. — Boston Med. and Surg. Journal. 
Charcoal Cushions for Deodorization. — A. S , a patient under my 
care in the Hackney Union Infirmary, has for some time " passed every 
thing under her," and thereby become a nuisance and cause of complaint 
to the other patients in the ward. Eleven days ago, I adopted the plan of 
placing beneath her a calico bag two feet square, partly filled with Irish 
peat-charcoal, so as to form a sort of a cushion and absorbing medium. 
It has had the happy effect — which continues even now, without any ne- 
cessity for changing the charcoal — of completely neutralizing all unpleasant 
odor ; and if the bed becomes partly wet all the offensive ingredients are 
absorbed and neutralized by the charcoal, which thus is a most simple 
means of remedying a great nuisance, and one that requires the most strict 
attention at best to prevent ; and that attention is often difficult and always 
expensive to procure. In cases of incontinence of urine particularly, and 
indeed all attended with foetid discharges, cancer, compound fractures, &c, 
this plan, or some modification of it, might be adopted with advantage. 
I have been informed that some of the same material has been placed in the 
urinals of the South- Western Railway, with equally good results, in the 
prevention of unpleasant odor ; and that even after it had been unchanged 
for some weeks, the fluid that percolates has been found, by chemical 
analysis, to contain little or no trace of the organic or saline products of 
urine. The fact induced me to try it as above. An argument in favor of 
its adoption in hospitals and lunatic asylums is, that the peat, after its de- 
odorizing properties are exhausted, becomes more valuable for the purpose 
of manure, so that its use is without expense. — Boston Medical and Surgi- 
cal Journal, April 1852, from Mr. Howell, in London Lancet and Dublin 
Medical Press. 
On the Composition of Cocoa-Nut Juice. By Wilhelm M. Loewenich, of 
Erlangen. — In 1000 parts of this cocoa-nut liquid, I found, 
Water . . . 
900.88 
Sugar 
4.43 
Gum 
17,67 
Extractive matters (fat) 
28.29 
Salts soluble in spirits of wine 
5.44 
Salts not 3oluble in spirits of wine 
6.29 
100.0000 
