554 
Chinese  Camphor. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm, 
{      Nov.,  1882. 
ducing  complete  anaesthesia,  without  a  struggle  or  a  cough,  and  it  is 
by  no  means  extraordinary  for  a  patient  to  be  "  fully  under within 
the  minute. 
In  the  case  of  short  operations  upon  the  eyes  and  the  like  it  is  hardly 
ever  necessary  to  reapply  the  inhaler  after  it  has  been  once  removed 
for  the  operator  to  commence,  the  patient  remaining  sufficiently  anees- 
thetic  for  an  operation  such  as  I  have  mentioned  to  be  completed  with- 
out hurry. 
Ansestliesia  can  be  prolonged  with  equal  safety,  even  so  far  as  to 
keep  a  patient  in  labor  completely  under  its  influence  for  upwards  of 
fowr  hours,  the  longest  time  which  has  happened  in  my  experience. 
Mythylated  ether  is,  I  consider,  from  this  point  of  view,  the  safest 
and  cheapest  anaesthetic  at  present  in  use. —  Chemists^  Jour.,  August 
18,  1882,  from  The  Lancet. 
CHINESE  CAMPHOE. 
In  China  camphor  is  grossly  adulterated-  with  a  glue  obtained  by 
boiling  a  rattan  creeper,  locally  called  T'engtsai.  This  weed,  growing 
luxuriantly  in  the  interior  of  Formosa,  from  whence,  as  everyone  is 
aware,  all  Chinese  camphor  is  derived,  is  full  of  a  glutinous  matter 
which  boiling  water  converts  into  a  colorless  glue.  Mixing  this  with 
the  pure  camphor  and  a  small  percentage  of  water  prevents  evapor- 
ation, though  naturally  destroying  the  high  quality  of  the  article  itself. 
Camphor  so  adulterated  will  keep,  it  is  said,  for  a  couple  of  months 
Avithout  loss;  indeed,  will  bear  the  journey  to  Europe  without  suffering 
appreciable  diminution.  Experiments  recently  made  have  demon- 
strated the  existence  of  two  parts  of  glue  to  three  of  cam})hor  in  cer- 
tain samples  offered  in  the  Tamsui  market,  rendering  the  article  abso- 
lutely useless.  Happily  fire  will  readily  detect  the  foreign  body.  Mr. 
Walter  Lay,  to  whose  admirable  report  u})on  the  camphor  trade  in 
1880  we  are  indebted  for  this  information,  adds:  "  I  have  obtained  a 
sample  of  the  plant  from  which  the  glue  is  obtained,  but  cannot  find 
out  what  its  botanical  name  is;  indeed,  I  have  not  succeeded  even  in 
obtaining  the  correct  Chinese  characters  for  it.  It  is  called  locally 
T'engtsai,  but  it  doubtless  has  a  more  distinctive  appellation  than  that, 
It  is  not  given  in  the  ^Topography  of  Tamsui.'  Mention  is  made  in 
the  Wahu  Report  for  1878  of  a  plant  which  yields  a  glutinous  sub- 
