270 
VARIETIES. 
specie  has  been  drained  from  China  to  pay  for  this  article  alone,  within  the 
last  half  century.  That  this  pernicious  contraband  traffic  is  upheld  mainly 
by  the  British  government,  through  its  agent,  the  East  India  Company,  all 
are  aware  ;  and  the  stain  which  its  conduct  towards  the  Chinese,  in  forcing 
this  "  flowing  poison  "  upon  them,  is  held  up  to  the  detestation  of  the  civil- 
ized world.  Money,  not  morality,  has  been  its  governing  principle;  and  to 
increase  its  own  resources  and  power,  it  has  legalized  and  upheld  this 
traffic,  which  is  destroying,  morally,  socially,  and  politically,  the  whole 
Chinese  nation  ;  and  which  threatens  to  blot  it  out  from  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth.  Well  might  we  inquire,  what  must  be  the  verdict  of  future  gene- 
rations, as  they  peruse  the  history  of  these  wrongs  and  outrages?  Will  not 
the  page  of  history  which  now  records  ,£20, 000.000  as  consecrated  on  the 
altar  of  humanity  to  emancipate  800,000  slaves,  lose  all  its  splendor  and 
become  positively  odious,  when  it  shall  be  known  that  this  very  money  was 
obtained  from  the  proceeds  of  a  contraband  traffic  on  the  shores  of  a  weak 
and  defenceless  heathen  empire,  at  the  sacrifice,  too,  of  millions  upon  millions 
of  lives? — New  York  Med.  Gaz. 
Mixtures  or  oilier  Medicinal  Preparations,  containing  Gum-resins — The 
gum-resins,  such  as  myrrh,  ammoniacum,  assafootida  and  others,  may  be 
successfully  suspended  in  mixtures  and  other  preparations  by  means  of  the 
following  easy  and  simple  process.  On  adding  sis  or  eight  drops  of  pure 
sweet  almond  oil  to  a  very  small  quantity  of  the  gum-resin  employed,  it 
forms  into  a  mass  by  trituration  in  a  mortar ;  and  when  the  oil  and  gum- 
resin  have  become  thoroughly  incorporated  together,  the  result  is  a  smooth 
paste,  to  which  the  vehicle,  in  which  it  is  intended  the  gum-resin  shall  be 
administered,  is  to  be  added  very  gradually.  By  this  means  an  emulsion 
is  prepared  in  a  very  speedy  manner.  This  method  of  preparing  emulsions 
with  the  gum-resins  admits  of  the  mixture  being  heated,  if  necessary, 
without  causing  the  least  coagulation  ;  whereas  emulsions  prepared  by 
means  of  the  yolk  of  egg  will  not  allow  of  the  application  of  heat,  without 
more  or  less  coagulating  ;  an  advantage  of  which  both  the  pharmaceutist 
and  the  physician  will  on  all  occasions  gladly  avail  themselves. — Annals  of 
Pharmacy  and  Practical  Chemistry. 
Some  remarks  on  Potash  or  Soft  Soap.  By  Dr.  G.  C.  W  ittstein. — It  is  well 
known  that  soda  soap  will  not  dissolve  in  a  solution  of  alkaline  salts,  and 
that  the  attempted  separation  of  potash  soap  from  its  solution,  by  means  of 
common  salt  or  sulphate  of  soda,  produces  a  soda  soap  by  double  decompo- 
sition ;  and  therefore  it  is  impossible,  by  the  methods  employed  in  the  manu- 
facture of  soda  soap,  to  make  potash  soap*. 
From  the  great  analogy  which  exists  between  soda  and  potash  compounds, 
it  would  be  expected  that  potash  soap  would  be  separated  from  its  solutions 
*  For  these  reasons  nearly  all  the  potash  soap  sold  at  chemists,  as  being  the 
article  ordered  by  the  London  Pharmacopoeia,  is  imperfectly  prepared,  containing 
soda,  glycerine,  &c. — Editors  of  the  "  Annals." 
