INFLUENCE  OF  HYPODERMIC  INJECTION,  ETC. 
39 
continues  every  day  until  the  season  ends.  The  leaves  remain 
green  all  winter.  The  following  June  the  beds  are  cleansed 
from  the  decayed  leaves,  and  left  until  renewing  time  in  August. 
Saffron  must  necessarily  be  dear,  says  Mr.  Bently,  in  an 
article  on  adulterations  published  in  last  May's  number  of 
Journal  of  Pharmacy,  because  it  takes  a  great  number  of  flowers 
to  make  a  pound;  and  there  are  other  causes,  viz.,  failure  of 
crops  from  excessive  rains  or  drought,  and  attacks  of  the  field 
mice,  which  destroy  the  bulbs.  But  withal,  when  we  remember 
that  all  our  products  of  the  garden  and  farm  are  liable  to 
failures  from  various  causes,  though  probably  not  to  such  an 
extent,  I  think  it  can  be  profitably  raised,  judging  from  the  fol- 
lowing two  calculations,  taken  as  an  average  : — On  inquiry  from 
some  of  the  growers,  one  informed  me  that  about  3,000  flowers, 
or  9,000  stigmas,  can  be  be  raised  off  a  bed  12x6  feet  =  72 
square  feet.  Another,  that  often  in  a  good  season  between 
2,000  and  3,000  flowers  can  be  had  in  one  morning's  picking  off 
about  500  square  feet,  and  this  continues  for  a  number  of  morn- 
ings, though  not  always  with  so  large  a  number.  These  two 
make  about  the  average  result  of  experienced  growers. 
In  counting  and  weighing  the  stigmas,  I  find,  after  several 
trials,  that  300  weigh  13  to  14  grains,  which  would  be  a  yield  of 
about  420  grains  to  72  square  feet,  or  33  to  36  pounds  to  an 
acre.  If  these  calculations  only  approximate  to  correctness,  at 
present  prices  it  will  be  very  remunerative  to  the  grower  in 
comparison  with  many  other  products. 
Specimens  of  the  stigmas  and  corms  are  submitted. 
Lancaster,  Pa.  — Proc.  Arner.  Pharm.  Assoc.  1866. 
ON  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HYPODERMIC  INJECTION  UPON 
THE  SCIENCE  OF  TOXICOLOGY. 
By  S.  P.  Ddffield,  Ph.  D. 
So  wide  has  been  the  beneficial  influence  of  improvements  in 
chemical  analysis,  that  it  would  be  superfluous  to  attempt  to 
make  any  further  observations  on  the  important  part  performed 
by  this  branch  of  the  science. 
When  medicine,  in  earlier  times,  stepped  forth  and  claimed  pre- 
eminence and  respect,  while  the  untiring  alchemist,  with  his 
