COMPOSITION  OF  THE  AQUA  LAURO-CERASI. 
445 
quested.  After  carefully  trying  the  article,  I  gave  a  report 
condemnatory  of  its  use  in  any  of  the  arts  or  manufactures  in 
which  the  regular  lac  had  hitherto  been  used.  Although  I  was 
little  thanked  for  this  opinion  at  the  time,  I  do  not  think  the 
stuff  I  now  show  continued  long  to  be  made.  Indeed,  it  really 
appears  to  be  little  else  than  a  mixture  of  shellac  and  some 
aloetic  resin,  very  probably  Cape  aloes.  Be  that  as  it  may,  I 
am  satisfied  from  experiment  that  it  could  never  come  into  com- 
petition with  even  inferior  kinds  of  shellac. 
In  closing  these  few  remarks,  I  may  be  allowed  to  express  a 
hope,  that  lac  has  seen  its  highest  price,  and  that  during  1861 
it  will  be  considerably  reduced.  I  am  very  unwilling  to  believe, 
that  native  supplies  have  really  become  extinct  ;  while  the  enor- 
mous comparative  prices  still  existing,  cannot  but  tend  to  in- 
crease that  activity  and  energy  in  searching  for  fresh  supplies, 
which  will,  I  trust,  result  in  sending  more  raw  material  to  the 
native  lac  manufactories,  and  thus  by  increasing  stocks  at  home, 
gradually  reduce  the  market  price  to  something  more  moderate, 
and  approximating  the  steady  prices  at  which  shellac  has  until 
lately  stood  on  the  price  list. — London  Pharm.  Journ.  Jan, 
1861. 
ON  THE  UNCERTAINTY  OF  COMPOSITION  OF  THE  AQUA  LAURO- 
CERASI. 
Br  Harry  Napier  Draper,  F.  C.  S.  L. 
My  object  in  this  paper  is  to  draw  attention  to  the  very  un- 
certain constitution  of  cherry  laurel  water,  and  to  the  importance 
of  providing  some  substitute  in  the  shape  of  the  much  more  stable 
hydrocyanic  acid.  Laurel  water  has  on  its  side  all  the  claim  of 
antiquity,  and  I  am  aware  that  it  is  not  easy  to  persuade  the 
practitioner  who  has  long  been  in  the  habit  of  prescribing  any 
one  remedy,  to  use  another  in  its  stead.  I  am  also  fully  alive 
to  the  importance  of  caution  in  presuming  upon  the  value  of  any 
therapeutic  agent,  solely  from  its  chemical  composition,  seeing 
that  we  possess  many  very  valuable  remedies,  about  the  constitu- 
tion of  which  we  either  know  nothing,  or  nothing  which  will  serve 
to  elucidate  their  mode  of  action.  If,  therefore,  experience 
pointed  out  any  difference  in  the  effects  of  laurel  water  and  of 
