272 
VARIETIES. 
occasionally,  very  much  open  to  serious  objections,  both  on  the  part  of  the 
physician  and  his  patients.  For  this  reason  Dr.  Becker  recommends  the 
employment  of  saccharated  medicinal  powders  as  substitutes  for  tinctures, 
whenever  the  latter  may  be  considered  objectionable.  He  directs  equal 
proportions  of  the  tinctures  of  hellebore,  cinchona,  hyoscyamus,  or  of  other 
vegetables,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  sugar,  to  be  well  mixed  together,  and 
then  evaporated  so  as  to  drive  off  the  alcohol,  and  then  to  administer  the 
residue  instead  of  the  tincture.  To  this  residue  he  gives  the  name  of 
helleborus  saccharatus,  hyoscyamus  saccharatus,  cinchona  saccharata,  &c. 
&c,  according  to  the  drug  made  use  of. 
This  mode  of  preparation  of  medical  substances  has  evidently  attracted 
the  attention  of  some  of  the  medical  authorities  of  our  own  country,  for  in 
reference  to  this  subject  the  editor  of  one  of  the  medical  journals  makes  the 
following  practical  observation:  "■  Supposing  the  unimpaired  medical  proper- 
ties of  the  tinctures  can  be  thus  fixed  in  these  powders  (which  is  problemati- 
cal), this  mode  of  administration  would  prove  a  great  boon  to  physician  and 
patient.  Not  only  is  alcohol  obviously  mischievous  in  many  cases  wherein 
the  active  principles,  of  which  it  is  the  vehicle,  are  indicated  ;  but  in  others 
in  which  such  contra-indication  is  not  so  apparent,  it  has  often  proved  a 
means  of  inducing  a  habit  of  dram  drinking,  which  prevails  even  among 
respectable  females  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  is  usually  supposed. — 
Annals  of  Pharmacy. 
Butyric  Alcohol. — Among  the  chemical  facts  brought  forward  at  the 
Academy  the  past  month,  we  notice  the  discovery  of  butyric  alcohol  by  M. 
Adolph  Wurtz.  This  alcohol,  (Ca  H9  )  0,  HO,  which  has  been  detected 
by  M.  Wurtz  in  the  caput  mortuum  of  the  oil  of  potatoes,  so  much  studied 
by  chemists,  furnishes  a  new  verification  of  the  beautiful  theory  of  alcohols 
of  Dumas,  in  which  several  lacunes  have  been  recently  filled  by  the  cerotine 
and  melissine  of  Mr.  Brodie,  and  by  the  caprylic  alcohol  which  M.  Bouis 
lias  derived  from  castor  oil. — SiUiman's  Journal. 
On  Pagliari's  Haemostatic.  By  M.  Sedillott. — M.  Pagliari,  a  nharmacien 
at  Rome,  professes  to  have  discovered  a  styptic  liquor  of  great  power ; 
and  several  of  the  officers  of  the  French  army  have  testified  to  its  efficacy. 
M.  Sedillot  has  also,  on  several  occasions,  brought  forward  cases  in  corro- 
boration ;  and  in  the  present  paper  he  adduces  additional  ones,  in  some  of 
which  considerable  vessels,  although  not  those  of  the  first  class,  furnished 
the  blood.  He  says  that  it  has  been  objected,  that  compression  is  em- 
ployed by  means  of  bandages  and  charpie ;  but  this  is  merely  to  prevent 
the  coagula  which  form  being  removed  from  the  mouths  of  the  vessel ; 
and  it  has  only  to  be  continued  for  twenty-four  or  forty-eight  hours.  So 
little  plastic  is  human  blood,  that  compression  alone,  unaided  by  styptics, 
would  have  to  be  so  prolonged  and  forcible,  that  it  would  risk  the  forma- 
tion of  ulcers  or  gangrene  in  the  parts  to  which  it  was  applied. 
