402 
Varieties. 
{Am.  Jour.  Pharm„ 
Aug.,  1878. 
with  milk  and  sugar.  At  the  present  low  price  of  domestic  rice,  it  is  the  cheapest 
food  obtainable,  not  excepting  potatoes.  Potatoes  contain  about  80  per  cent,  of 
water,  and  do  not  gain  much  in  the  process  of  cooking.  Rice  has  no  waste  what- 
ever, contains  only  22  per  cent,  of  water,  and  in  boiling  gains  three  times  its  orig- 
inal bulk.  Hence,  one  pound  of  rice,  at  6\  cents  per  pound,  makes  three  times  as 
much  when  cooked  ;  equal  to  three  pounds  of  potatoes,  at  2%  cents  per  pound,  or 
7^  cents.  Rice  properly  prepared  should  come  upon  the  table  dry,  each  grain 
unbroken,  and  served  with  the  condiments  used  on  potatoes,  and  be  partaken  of  as 
a  vegetable,  with  meats,  and  not  as  a  dessert. —  The  Sanitarian,  June. 
Camphor  and  Tobacco.— In  an  article  in  the  "  Practitioner,"  Dr.  Edward  Noakes 
says  that  in  cases  of  over-doses  of  tobacco,  as  in  the  sickness  from  smoking,  etc.,  a 
dose  of  camphor  has  repeatedly  proved  antidotal  in  his  hands. — Med.  and  Surg. 
Reporter,  June  8. 
Patent-leather  varnish,  as  we  are  informed  by  R.  Hennig,  consists  of  a  quickly- 
drying  oil  (linseed-oil)  and  Prussian  blue,  and  is  prepared  as  follows  :  Purified 
old  linseed-oil  is  heated  in  a  copper  kettle  to  50 — 6o°C  ,  and  treated  with  fuming 
nitric  acid,  which  splits  the  palinitin  existing  in  it  into  palmitic  acid  and  glycerin, 
The  acids  are  then  removed  by  heating  with  oxide  of  lead  in  the  proportion  of  250 
grams  of  the  latter  to  10  kilos  of  the  oil,  and  the  decanted  oil  is  heated  to  ioo° 
C,  when  a  saturated  hot  aqueous  solution  of  permanganate  of  potassium  is  added  in 
the  proportion  of  2  grams  of  the  salt  to  1  kilo  of  the  oil.  They  are  then  heated, 
stirring  continually,  until  the  mixture  becomes  brown,  when  the  heat  is  raised  to 
i3o°C.  and  all  water  is  evaporated.  The  Prussian  blue  is  then  added  through  a 
sieve  in  the  proportion  of  |  to  1  kilo  of  pure  blue  to  every  10  kilos  of  oil,  and  the 
mixture  is  stirred  and  heated  until  a  little  of  it  spread  on  paper  leaves  a  smooth, 
brilliant  gloss.  To  line  varnishes  finely-powdered  gutta-percha  is  added  in  the 
proportion  of  300  grams  of  the  latter  to  10  kilos  of  the  varnish,  and  they  are  then 
allowed  to  settle  for  one  or  two  weeks,  when  the  clear,  supernatant  varnish  is 
decanted. — Chem.  CentralbL,  May  15th,  p.  317. 
Chrome  blue  is  obtained  by  G.  Bong  by  strongly  calcining  an  intimate  mixture 
of  boracic  acid  and  alumina,  each  15  parts,  magnesium  carbonate  20  parts  and 
chromate  of  barium  2  parts. —  Bull.  Chim,,  1877. 
A  homoeopathic  physician  was  arrested  in  Cologne  pn  the  charge  of  supplying 
a  patient  with  medicine  in  the  shape  of  powders  contrary  to  the  German  laws,  but 
was  acquitted  becai  se  it  could  net  be  proved  by  the  prosecutor  that  these  powders 
were  neither  simple  or  compound  medicines,  since  they  contained  nothing  but  sugar 
of  milk,  according  to  the  defendant's  cwn  statemei  t. — Apoth.  Ztg.y  May  1  it)  ,  p.  78. 
