310  Substitution  of  Acids  for  Creosote,    j  AMjuty  1,  m*" 
tioned  at  Goodman,  Miss.  Many  of  their  horses  died  from  eating 
sneeze  weed  ;  some  recovered  by  the  use  of  oil."  He  moreover  says 
that  the  soldiers  firmly  believed  that  a  fatal  ease  occurred  in  a  patient 
to  whom  a  strong  decoction  of  the  weed  had  been  administered  by  the 
surgeon  in  charge.  Little,  or,  at  least,  limited,  reliance  can  be  placed 
on  the  authenticity  of  this  case,  as  it  was  only  the  opinion  of  the  sol- 
dier in  attendance.  Dr.  Lewis,  however,  fully  confirms  the  fact  of 
powerful  effects  of  this  plant,  and  believes  that  its  active  principle 
may  be  isolated  and  prove  valuable  in  a  variety  of  nervous  diseases, 
when  properly  investigated. 
4.  Ilelenium  puberulum,  D.  C. — California  and  Sonora. 
5.  Ilelenium  quadridentatum,  Labill.- — Louisiana,  Mississippi  and 
Arkansas. 
6.  Ilelenium  microcephalism,  J).  C— Eastern  and  Western  States 
and  Texas. 
7.  Ilelenium  Mexicanum,  II.  B.  K. — California. 
8.  Ilelenium  Bigelovii,  A.  Gray.— California  ;  a  very  distinct  and 
marked  species,  the  handsomest  and  most  ornamental  of  the  genus. 
9.  Ilelenium  Hoopesii,  A.  Gray.-— Colorado,  California  and  Ne- 
vada. 
Nothing  is  known  respecting  the  properties  of  the  six  last  species, 
but  from  what  is  known  of  numbers  1  and  3,  it  maybe  safely  inferred 
that  some  of  them,  at  least,  possess  active  medicinal  principles,  and  are 
worthy  of  a  better  analysis  than  has  been  accorded  to  those  already 
known. — Detroit  Rev.  of  Med.  and  Pharm.,  May,  1872. 
SUBSTITUTION  OF  CARBOLIC  OR  PHENIC  ACID  FOR  CRE- 
ASOTE. 
Communicated  by  Mr.  T.  N.  R.  Morson. 
The  value  of  the  wood  creasote  of  Reichenbach  as  a  remedial  agent, 
and  its  employment  in  the  preservation  of  articles  used  as  food,  has 
been  fully  proved  during  the  forty  years  we  have  been  manufacturers 
of  this  article. 
Of  late  years  its  reputation  has  suffered  from  the  substitution  of 
carbolic  or  phenic  acid  for  true  creasote ;  and  as  no  good  test  to  dis- 
tinguish these  bodies  has  been  published  (and  those  of  our  Pharma- 
copoeia are  for  this  purpose  useless),  we  shall  feel  obliged  by  your 
publishing  a  very  simple  means  for  distinguishing  these  two  bodies, 
Tyhich  my  son,  Mr.  Thos.  Morson,  has  discovered  in  making  some  ex- 
