354 
UTILIZATION  OF  BRINE. 
provisions  of  the  thirteen  Victoria,  chapter  thirty-five,  or  any 
Act  now  or  hereafter  to  be  in  force  relating  to  summary  proceed- 
ings ;  and,  when  recovered,  one-half  thereof  shall  be  carried  to 
the  credit  of  the  general  revenue  of  this  island,  and  the  other 
half  be  given  to  the  informer  or  prosecutor  :  and  such  informer 
shall,  notwithstanding,  be  a  competent  witness  for  the  prosecu- 
tion in  the  case. 
"  The  measure  stands  for  a  second  reading  in  the  House,  and 
we  hope  it  will  meet  with  the  careful  consideration  which  it  de- 
serves from  honorable  members.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
legislation  is  required  in  this  direction,  as  it  is  notorious  that 
there  are  many  individuals  in  different  parts  of  the  island  en- 
gaged in  the  vending  of  drugs  who  are  utterly  unqualified  for 
such  an  occupation.  We  venture  to  say  that  in  no  country  is 
such  license  permitted  in  this  respect  as  is  allowed  in  Jamaica. 
It  is  high  time  that  some  remedy  to  this  state  of  things  should 
be  devised;  and  we  trust  that  the  i  collective  wisdom'  of  the 
country  will  be  able,  without  prejudice  to  existing  interests  of 
a  legitimate  character,  to  impose  some  effectual  check  upon  the 
indiscriminate  and  careless  way  in  which  medicines  are  now 
vended  throughout  the  country." — London  Pharm.  Journal, 
April,  1861. 
UTILIZATION  OF  BRINE. 
At  the  usual  meeting  of  the  Philosophical  Society  of  Glas- 
gow this  week,  a  very  important  paper  was  read  by  Alexander 
White  law,  Esq.,  55  Sydney  Street,  entitled  "A  Practical  ap- 
plication of  Dialysis."     The  paper  set  out  with  a  detailed  ex- 
position of  the  discovery  of,  and  experiments  in,  dialysis  by  Mr. 
Graham,  of  the  Mint,  after  which  Mr.  Whitelaw  stated  the  re- 
sult of  a  process  of  his  own  for  utilizing  the  brine  of  salted 
meat.     When  fresh  meat,  he  said,  had  been  sprinkled  with  salt 
for  a  few  days,  it  was  found  swimming  in  brine.    Fresh  meat 
contained  more  than  three-fourths  of  its  weight  of  water,  which 
was  retained  in  it  as  in  a  sponge.    But  flesh  had  not  the  power 
to  retain  brine  to  that  extent,  and  in  similar  circumstances  it 
absorbed  only  about  half  as  much  saturated  brine  as  of  water, 
so  that  under  the  action  of  salt,  flesh  allowed  a  portion  of  its 
water  to  flow  out.    This  expelled  water,  as  might  naturally  be 
