396 
ON  KEROSOLENE. 
dilute  acids  produced  a  white  precipitate,  which,  when  dry,  was 
found  to  be  insoluble  in  water  and  dilute  acids,  indicating  the 
presence  of  silica. 
From  the  foregoing  experiments,  the  organic  constituents  of 
Cimicifuga,  are  : — 1,  albumen  ;  2,  uncrystallizable  sugar  ;  3, 
tannic  acid  ;  4..  gallic  acid ;  5,  gum  ;  6,  extractive ;  7,  starch  ; 
8,  resin  soluble  in  alcohol,  and  insoluble  in  ether  ;  9,  resin 
soluble  in  alcohol,  and  soluble  in  ether;  10,  fatty  matter;  11, 
waxy  matter  ;  12,  volatile  oil ;  13,  green  and  brown  coloring 
matters ;  14,  lignin. 
The  inorganic  constituents  are  salts  of  potassa,  magnesia,  lime, 
iron  and  silica. 
ON  KEROSOLENE. 
A  rece^itly  discovered  Ancesthetic. 
By  Edward  Parrish. 
Some  of  the  most  useful  scientific  and  practical  discoveries 
have  originated  in  accidents,  the  first  results  of  which  have  in- 
volved disappointment  or  inconvenience — to  evolve  from  these 
the  lessons  by  which  they  may  be  made  to  subserve  useful  ends, 
should  be  one  of  the  chief  aims  of  the  experimentalist. 
To  the  accidental  anaesthetic  effects  produced  upon  a  work- 
man employed  to  clean  a  cistern  in  a  Kerosene  Oil  Works  in 
Boston,  we  owe  the  recent  discovery  of  a  new  use  for  an  abun- 
dant product  of  the  destructive  distillation  of  coal;  this  product, 
though  heretofore  procured  in  a  crude  condition  at  a  certain  stage 
of  the  process,  in  the  works  alluded  to  and  perhaps  in  others, 
has  not  until  recently  been  rectified  and  thrown  into  the  market, 
because  no  demand  existed  for  it,  for  any  known  use  of  which  it 
was  capable. 
With  the  enterprise  so  characteristic  of  New  England  char- 
acter— a  trait  which  so  happily  gave  to  science  and  humanity  one 
of  the  greatest  blessings  of  modern  times — ether  as  an  anesthe- 
tic— the  Boston  physicians  have  taken  measures  to  investigate 
the  utility  of  this  article  for  similar  purposes,  pending  which  it 
naturally  claims  the  attention  of  pharmaceutists  in  its  physical 
and  chemical  characters. 
