318 
MISCELLANY, 
and miscarriages. It has also been used with advantage for leucorrhcea, 
blennorrhea, gleet, &c. The dose in which it has hitherto been employ- 
ed, is a table-spoonful of a mixture composed of from five to ten grains of 
the extract in six ounces of some appropriate vehicle. In leucorrhcea, 
topical injections are recommended of from two to five grains of the ex- 
tract in a pint of barly-water. The presence of this preparation in the 
stomach, gives rise, generally, to a sensation of heat in the epigastrium, 
though this rarely proceeds so far as to become painful ; great thirst, and 
a pulse often as full as in gastritis, also prevail. These symptoms 
are, however, transient, and rapidly quelled by lemonade, or other mild 
drinks. Should the injection irritate the urethra too greatly, it is only 
necessary to suspend its use for a short time. — Ibid, from Gazette de 
Hopitaux and Lancet, 
On the Colouring Properties of Aloetic Acid. By M. Barreswill. — 
Aloetic acid melted with colophony becomes of an intense blue color. 
The author has not, hitherto, been able to extract the coloring matter ; 
but he remarks, that the resin, thus colored blue, dissolves easily in alco- 
hol, in the essences, and in fatty bodies— which allows of its being used 
for coloring these substances, and also for injections. The coloring 
power of the aloes blue is very considerable. A few grains of crude 
aloetic acid, melted with about five drachms of resin, is sufficient to 
color a pound of fat. — Pharm, Jour. 
Adulteration of sulphate of potassa. — Two or three cases have been re- 
cently published in the medical Journals of the Continent, in which the 
sulphate of potassa, prescribed to nursing women, has proved fatal, after 
causing a singular series of symptoms. M. Moritz of Neufbrisach, after 
briefly alluding to another case, in which this salt induced very serious 
symptoms, states that on examination he found it contained a notable 
quantity of the sulphate of zinc. He observes that the sulphate of po- 
tassa of commerce sometimes contains zinc, while other specimens con- 
tain both zinc and copper. The sophisticated salt is procured from 
Germany, where it is the secondary product of the manufacture of nitric 
acid, in which the sulphate of iron has been substituted for sulphuric 
acid. The ferruginous salt contains a variable quantity of zinc, copper, 
&c, according to the sulphurets from which it has been procured* 
Chemists purchasing this salt, therefore, instead of preparing it them- 
selves, should examine and purify it. Lond. Chemist. 
