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ON  THE  REMOVAL  OF  STAINS  FROM  SILK. 
careful  to  work  in  perfect  darkness,  and  why  they  are  so  care- 
ful to  obscure  the  glass  windows  which  are  sometimes  placed  in 
their  hives.  The  existence  of  their  young  depends  on  the 
liquidity  of  the  saccharine  food  presented  to  them,  and  if  light 
were  allowed  access  to  this  the  syrup  would  gradually  acquire 
a  more  or  less  solid  consistency;  it  would  seal  up  the  cells,  and 
in  all  probability  prove  fatal  to  the  inmates  of  the  hives  
Chem.  News,  London,  April  30,  186 1,  from  Chronicle  of  Optics, 
"  Quarterly  Journal  of  Science." 
ON  THE  EEMOYAL  OF  STAINS  FROM  SILK. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal : 
Sir, — I  send  you  the  following  particulars,  thinking  they 
may  be  interesting,  if  not  useful,  to  some  of  your  readers  who 
may  yet  be  uninformed  on  the  subject: — 
Being  anxious  to  discover  some  means  by  which  the  color 
could  be  restored  that  had  been  extracted  from  a  violet  silk 
dress  by  acid-juice  having  been  accidentally  thrown  upon  it,  I 
applied  to  more  than  one  chemist  and  druggist,  thinking  there 
must  be  some  chemical  agent  which  would  restore  violet,  as 
spirit  of  hartshorne,  it  is  well  known,  will  restore  black. 
Not  being  able  to  obtain  any  information  on  the  subject,  I 
thought  of  trying  some  experiments  for  myself ;  the  first  proving 
successful  may  be  worth  recording,  if  only  to  amuse  the  more 
learned  with  an  account  of  the  simple  attempts  of  an  amateur. 
Having  recently  superintended  the  "iodine  procsss "  for 
annihilating  a  blot  of  marking-ink  from  linen,  it  occurred  tome 
to  try  it  upon  the  violet  silk ;  the  plan  I  adopted  is  as  follows, 
and  will  serve  as  a  recipe: — Brush  the  portion  of  fabric  with 
tincture  of  iodine,  then,  after  a  few  seconds,  well  saturate  the 
spot  with  a  solution  of  hyposulphite  of  soda,  and  dry  gradually  ; 
the  color  is  perfectly  restored,  and  I  consider  my  experiment 
highly  satisfactory.  M.  A.  B. 
March,  1864. 
P.  S. — I  should  have  stated  that  it  was  knowing  something  of 
the  chemical  composition  and  properties  of  iodine  induced  me  to 
make  the  experiment  which  I  have  described. — London  P harm. 
Jour.,  April,  1864. 
