310 
ON THE GRADUATING OF HYDROMETERS. 
and when this is the case, death must ensue. ' It is incompatible with 
no known substance, and may follow any preceding treatment with perfect 
safety.' The dose is forty drops for an adult, and children in proportion to 
age and temperament. It is given either with or without quinine. It has 
been used alone for chronic rheumatism, in doses of forty drops, three 
times a day, with marked effects. Three or four doses, with a mild cathar- 
tic, will remove the redness and swelling attending inflamed sore eyes. 
Special attention should be directed to the general health and constitution 
of the patient before giving gelseminura. If the bowels be constipated 
they should be moved by a gentle aperient, and kept in a relaxed condi- 
tion. It requires double the quantity to produce the effect on some that it 
does on others ; and should the practitioner ever produce too great a de- 
gree of relaxation, he should lose no time in stimulating and toning up 
his patient." 
The alleged effects of this plant on the human system, taken 
in connection with its medico-botanical relations, mark it out 
as being probably one of the most valuable of our indigenous 
remedial agents, and render it well worthy of the investigation 
of regular physicians. 
ON THE GRADUATING OF HYDROMETERS. 
By W. H. Pile, M.D. 
Having been requested to graduate some hydrometers as stand- 
ards, in which the degrees of Beaume's scale should correspond to 
the specific gravities as proposed by Mr. H. Pemberton (see Amer. 
Jour Phar. Jan. 1852) and sanctioned by the Philadelphia College of 
Pharmacy, I prepared for that purpose, by means of the Sp. Gra- 
vity bottle, a series of liquids of densities corresponding to every 
ten degrees of Beaume's scale. Subsequently, however, upon 
reading over an article on hydrometers (Booth's Cyc. of Chemis- 
try,) and making a few experimental trials,! have ascertained that 
hydrometers can be graduated to any degree of accuracy required, 
without the necessity of using the Specific Gravity bottle, and 
involving the usi of pure water only. Believing that this method 
will prove serviceable to any one wishing to engage in the manu- 
facture of hydrometers, I offer the following plain and practical 
