220  GLEANINGS  FROM  THE  FRENCH  JOURNALS. 
I  have  tried  this  process  with  cubebs  and  its  oleoresin,  with 
assafoetida,  and  some  other  substances  where  the  chief  virtues 
reside  in  volatile  oil  and  resin,  without  a  satisfactory  result,  but 
there  are  many  others  to  which  it  may  be  applied. 
GLEANINGS  FROM  THE  FRENCH  JOURNALS. 
By  the  Editor. 
Influence  of  Fatty  Bodies  onthe  Solubility  of  Arsenious  Acid. — 
M.  Blondlot,  of  Nancy,  calls  the  attention  of  toxicologists  to  the 
fact  that  arsenious  acid,  in  the  presence  of  even  small  quanti- 
ties of  fatty  oils,  has  its  solubility  in  water,  or  even  slightly  acidu- 
lated or  alkaline  water,  reduced  to  l-15th  or  to  l-20th  of  what  it  is 
under  other  circumstances  where  the  fatty  matter  is  absent.  The 
constant  occurrence  of  fat  in  food  and  its  presence  in  the  stomach 
must  more  or  less  modify  the  rapidity  of  the  action  of  arsenic, 
and  accounts  for  some  discrepancies  in  the  record  of  poisoning 
by  this  agent. 
The  author  deems  it  proper,  in  view  of  this  property  of  the 
fixed  oils,  to  recommend  their  use,  and  especially  in  the  form  of 
milk,  as  an  antidote  in  the  absence  of  the  more  certain  agents, 
or  whilst  they  are  in  preparation. — Journ.  de  Pharm.,  March 
1860. 
Synthesis  of  Salicylic  Acid — MM.  Kolbe  and  Lautermann 
have  succeeded  in  preparing  salicylic  acid  C14H606  by  pass- 
ing a  stream  of  carbonic  acid  gas  into  hydrate  of  phenyl,  whilst 
at  the  same  time  fragments  of  sodium  are  projected  into  it.  Hy- 
drogen is  disengaged  and  salicylate  of  soda  is  formed.  This  is 
dissolved  in  water,  chlorhydric  acid  added  heated  to  boiling,  when 
on  cooling  salicylic  acid  separates  in  crystals. — Annalen  derOhem, 
und  Phar.  in  Joun.  de  Pharm. 
On  the  non-poisonous  nature  of  Methyl-strychnia  and  Methyl- 
brucia. — M.  Stahlschmidt  (Ann.  der  Phys.  und  Chem.)  has  deter- 
mined that  when  an  equivalent  of  hydrogen  in  either  strychnia 
or  brucia  is  substituted  by  methyl  (C2H3),  these  bases  become 
innoccuous.  The  author  by  experiment  found  that  a  rabbit 
which  took  five  grains  of  methyl-strychnia  without  any  bad  symp- 
