140 ABSORPTION OP SALINE SUBSTANCES BY CHARCOAL. 
localities where it is constantly exported it is effected by 
means of portions of the roots accidentally left in the ground 
by the Poayeros. Each of these fragments after a certain 
time produces a bud, which forms a fresh plant. The vege- 
tation of the Cephaelis in round clumps is also probably 
consequent on this particular manner of propagation. It, 
therefore, appears from this fact that the exportation of 
ipecacuanha will have an effect contrary to many analo 
gous cases, that of subjecting the Cephaelis to a mode of 
cultivation particularly suited to it, and the fires which oc- 
cur so frequently in the forests, will tend to this favorable 
result, by clearing the surface of the earth of those accu- 
mulations of vegetable matter, which at last frequently 
choke up and kill even the adult plants themselves.— Phar- 
maceutical Journal, January, 1850, from Repertoire de 
Pharmacie. 
ART. XXXI.— ON THE ABSORPTION OF SALINE SUB- 
STANCES BY CHARCOAL. 
By M. Esprit. 
A very remarkable property of carbon is the precipitation of 
certain metallic salts from their solution in water by animal 
charcoal. This curious property, the discovery of which is 
attributed to M. Payen, appears to have been previously noticed 
by Schaub. Subsequently M. Payen announced that charcoal 
removed lime and salts of lime from their solution in water. — 
A few years later Dubrunfaut, confirmed the observations of 
M. Payen, and announced as a general principle that the car- 
bon saturated the alkalies and appropriated them; that it, 
morover, appropriated the salts, and especially the calcareous 
sa'ts which occur in the juice of the beet-root after defeca- 
tion ; and he insisted on the advantages which the two-fold 
property presented in the manufacture of beet-root sugar. — 
Graham, whose experiments date from 1829, examined prin- 
