64 
THE  PRESENCE  OF  IODINE  IN  VARIOUS  PLANTS. 
A  large  proportion  of  the  distilled  fats,  however,  is  pressed, 
to  make  a  better  sort  of  candle,  and  for  this  purpose  fifty  hydraulic 
presses  are  employed. 
Cold-Pressing. — The  fats  are  spread  by  ingenious  machinery 
on  woven  mats,  and  submitted  to  powerful  cold-pressure  between 
iron  plates  ;  the  oleic,  or  metoleic  acid  runs  out,  and  is  collected, 
and  chiefly  exported  to  Germany,  where  it  is  employed  in  soap- 
making. 
Hot-Pressing. — After  cold-pressing,  the  fat  acids  are  subjected 
to  hot  pressure  in  hydraulic  presses,  confined  in  a  chamber  heated 
by  steam.  The  pressed  cakes,  after  the  removal  of  the  edges,  are 
melted  in  contact  with  a  little  diluted  sulphuric  acid,  and  run  into 
blocks.  When  the  reporters  visited  the  works  the  Company  were 
distilling  at  the  rate  of  130  tons  of  palm-oil  per  week. 
Pressed  cocoa-nut  oil  is  largely  employed  to  mix  with  the  pressed 
acids  of  palm-oil  to  make  the  best  composite  candles. 
Price's  Candle  Company  is  the  most  colossal  establishment  in  the 
world  in  this  branch  of  chemical  manufacture ;  possessed  of  five 
distinct  manufactories,  besides  plantations  of  cocoa-nut  trees  in 
Ceylon,  of  a  capital  but  little  short  of  half  a  million  sterling,  and 
employing,  notwithstanding  the  best  arrangement  for  economising 
labor,  800  workpeople,  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  divide  annu- 
ally in  profits  between  .£40,000  and  j£50,000. — Pharmaceutical 
Journal^  Sept.  1852. 
ON  THE  PRESENCE  OF  IODINE  IN  VARIOUS  PLANTS,  WITH  SOME 
REMARKS  ON  IT'S  GENERAL  DISTRIBUTION. 
By  Stevenson  Macadam,  Esq. 
The  Chemical  Gazette  of  August  2d,  1852,  contains  an  article 
under  the  above  caption,  extracted  from  the  proceedings  of  the 
Botanical  Society  of  Edinburgh,  for  July  8th,  preceding,  from 
which  we  extract  the  following  : — 
Mr.  Chatin,  of  Paris,  believes  that  the  atmosphere,  rain-water 
and  soils  contain  iodine  in  an  appreciable  amount :  that  its  pro- 
portion varies  with  the  locality  ;  and  that  its  proportion  in  the  at- 
mosphere is  related  to  the  presence  or  absence  of  certain  diseases. 
As  an  example,  in  the  Swiss  vallies  goiter  and  cretinism  are  fre- 
