332 
AN   OIL  LAKE  IN  TRINIDAD. 
of  C i6,  Hi £,  1ST,  and  symbol  of  CoX.  It  is  easily  miscible  with 
alcohol  or  ether. 
I  have  said  that  no  place  has  been  assigned  to  Cicntine  in 
the  British  Pharmacopoeia;  I  find,  nevertheless,  that  Dr.  Grar- 
rod,  of  King's  College,  in  his  last  lecture  on  the  British  Phar- 
macopoeia, has  some  remarks  on  Conium  maeulatum,  where  he 
says  that  it  owes  its  activity  to  its  alkaloid  Conia.  He  speaks 
of  the  tincture,  Succus,  but  we  fail  to  find  any  remark  on  the 
medicinal  effect  of  the  pure  alkaloid  alone. 
I  have  prescribed  Cicutine  for  many  other  patients  besides 
the  two  mentioned,  but  I  must  refrain  from  any  notice  of  them, 
as  to  the  effects  of  the  drug,  as  there  has  not  been  sufficient 
time,  and  one  of  the  patients  I  refer  to  has  gone  to  Dumfries ; 
but  I  considered  myself  justified,  from  what  we  have  already 
seen  of  this  new  remedy,  in  bringing  it  under  the  notice  of  the 
Pharmaceutical  Society. — Pharm.  Journ.,  Lond.;  March,  1864. 
AN  OIL  LAKE  IN  TRINIDAD. 
There  is  in  Trinidad,  only  a  mile  from  the  coast,  a  basin  of 
ninety-nine  acres,  filled  with  asphalt,  yielding  seventy  gallons 
of  crude  oil  per  ton.  There  are  also  springs  of  asphaltic  oil  in 
the  neighborhood,  and  large  pitch  banks  off  the  shore.  It  is 
estimated  that  the  lake  is  capable  of  producing  three  hundred 
million  gallons  of  oil,  and  forty  or  fifty  gallons  are  considered 
equal  to  a  ton  of  coal.  The  Trinidad  Colonist  publishes  a  me~ 
moire  by  Mr.  Stollmeyer,  of  Port  of  Spain,  proposing  the  use 
of  this  liquid  fuel  for  oceanic  steam  navigation:  and  he  states 
that  he  has  been,  at  various  times,  for  these  three  years,  suggest- 
ing this  employment  of  a  distillate  from  the  pitch  lake  of  Trini- 
dad. To  oil  a  ship  would  not  take  above  a  tenth  of  the  time 
it  takes  to  coal  her,  if  pipes  were  employed,  and  the  oil  would 
not  take  above  a  fourth  of  the  space  occupied  by  coals.  He  re- 
commends that  it  be  applied  at  once  as  auxiliary  to  coal,  by 
throwing  jets  over  the  burning  mass,  but  contemplates,eventually, 
upright  tubular  boilers,  the  liquid  fuel  to  be  supplied  as  fast  as 
it  can  be  converted  into  flame.  Of  course,  the  North* American 
oil  springs  are  another  source  of  supply.—  Am.  Drug,  Circular* 
June,  1864,  from  the  London  Times. 
