Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
Dec,  1877.  J 
Varieties. 
613 
irregular  in  their  ratios  one  to  another  5  whereas  the  metric  system,  which  was 
legalized  in  the  United  States  in  1866,  and  has  been  adopted  by  nearly  all  the  gov- 
ernments of  Europe  and  America,  has  decimal  subdivisions,  like  the  federal  coin- 
age, a  uniform  nomenclature  and  very  simple  relations  between  its  several  units. 
That  the  following-named  seventeen  organizations  have  assured  your  memorialist 
of  their  co-operation  in  petitioning  your  honorable  body  to  make  the  metric  stand- 
ards the  only  legal  standards  after  some  date  to  be  fixed  several  years  in  advance, 
viz. :  Boston  Society  of  Medical  Science  ;  Boston  Society  of  Medical  Observation  ; 
the  Belles  Lettres  Society  of  the  Illinois  Wesleyan  University,  Bloomington,  111.  ; 
St.  Joseph's  Medical  Association,  St.  Joseph,  Mo.  ;  St.  Louis  Medico-Chirurgical 
Society;  New  England  Association  of  Gas  Engineers;  Boston  Homoeopathic 
Medical  Society ;  Engineers'  Club  of  St.  Louis ;  San  Francisco  Microscopical 
Society  ;  Middlesex  Mechanics1  Association,  Lowell,  Mass. ;  St.  Louis  Medical 
Society  ;  Alameda  County  Medical  Association,  Oakland,  CaL;  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, Richmond,  Virginia  ;  Mt.  St.  Mary's  Seminary  of  the  West,  Cincinnati,  Q.; 
NewHaven  Medical  Association  ;  Massachusetts  Medical  Society  ;  Maine  Medical 
Association. 
That  the  following  resolution  was  proposed  in  the  forty-fourth  Congress,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  Congressional  Record  for  May  8,  1876,  but  was  never  voted  upon  : 
"  Resolved,  That  the  heads  of  the  executive  departments  of  the  government  be, 
and  they  are  hereby,  requested  to  report  to  this  house,  at  as  early  a  date  as  practica- 
be,  what  objections,  if  any,  there  are  to  making  obligatory  in  all  governmental 
transactions  the  metrical  system  of  weights  and  measures,  whose  use  has  been  author- 
ized in  the  United  States  by  act  of  Congress,  and  also  how  long  a  preliminary  notice 
should  be  given  before  such  obligatory  use  can  be  introduced  without  detriment  to 
the  public  service,  and  that  they  are  also  requested  to  state  what  objections  there  are, 
if  any,  to  make  the  metrical  system  obligatory  in  all  transactions  between  individuals, 
and  what  is  the  earliest  date  that  can  be  set  for  the  obligatory  use  of  the  metrical 
system  throughout  the  United  States." 
Your  memorialist  therefore  prays  for  the  adoption  by  your  honorable  body  of  the 
said  proposed  resolution. 
Silver  Cleansing  Solution — Take  of  ammonium  carbonate  1  ounce,  dissolve  in 
4  ounces  of  water,  mix  this  with  16  ounces  Paris  white.  A  moistened  sponge  is 
dipped  in  the  powder  and  rubbed  lightly  over  the  surface  of  the  metal,  after  which 
the  powder  is  dusted  off,  leaving  a  brilliant  lustre. — Druggists'"  Circular. 
A  New  White  Paint. — Native  barytes,  or  barium  sulphate,  is  mixed  with  pulver- 
ized stonecoal  and  tar,  and  exposed  to  an  intense  heat,  so  as  to  convert  into  barium 
sulphide.  The  latter  being  soluble  can  be  dissolved  out,  and  to  the  clear  solution 
is  added  a  corresponding  quantity  of  zinc  chloride  in  solution,  when  zinc  sulphide 
will  be  precipitated,  while  barium  chloride  remains  in  solution.  To  the  solution  of 
barium  chloride  is  added  white  vitriol  (zinc  sulphate),  when  a  precipitate  of  barium 
sulphate  will  be  formed  and  zinc  chloride  left  in  solution,  which  latter  can  be  filtered 
and  again  employed  to  precipitate  the  barium  sulphide. 
The  two  precipitates  obtained  as  above,  namely,  zinc  sulphide  and  barium  sul- 
phate, are  well  washed,  mixed,  dried,  heated  to  a  cherry-red,  then  thrown  into  cold 
water,  and  finally  ground  in  water  and  dried.  The  white  pigment  thus  obtained 
covers  well,  and  is  well  suited  to  mix  with  oil,  as  a  substitute  for  lead,  especially 
where  sulphur  compounds  exist  or  may  be  generated. — Scientific  American,  Oct.  6 
