Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
March,  1899.  J 
Reviews. 
149 
fed  on  coru-meal  containing  various  percentages  of  powdered  nux  vomica  for 
several  days. 
On  July  17th,  at  8  a.m.,  it  was  given  meal  containing  0*18  grain  of  nux 
vomica.  At  1.20  p.m.  of  the  same  day,  it  was  again  given  meal  containing 
o-i8  grain  of  nux  vomica. 
On  July  18th,  at  8  a.m.,  the  chicken  was  given  a  mixture  of  cornmeal  con- 
taining 0-36  grain  of  pure  nux  vomica.    At  11  a.m.,  072  grain  was  given. 
On  July  19th,  at  8  a.m.,  2  grains  of  nux  vomica  were  given  it  with  its  meal. 
All  of  the  meal  containing  the  nux  vomica  was  eaten,  and  it  was  considered 
that  the  experiments  afforded  some  evidence  that  nux  vomica  was  not  toxic 
to  the  chicken.  The  chicken  was  allowed  its  freedom  and  watched  for  some 
time,  and  gave  every  evidence  of  being  rather  improved  by  the  treatment. 
This  opens  up  a  rather  interesting  practical  problem.  •  Cannot  some  of  our 
drugs,  after  the  extraction  of  medicinal  constituents,  be  utilized  as  food  for 
poultry,  etc.,  just  as  linseed-  and  cotton-seed  meals  are  fed  to  cattle?  All  of 
our  roots  and  rhizomes,  fruits  and  seeds  are  rich  in  food  materials  which  can, 
no  doubt,  be  utilized  after  the  extraction  of  their  active  principles  for  medicinal 
preparations,  in  feeding  some  of  the  lower  domestic  animals.  This  is  well 
worth  the  consideration  of  large  manufacturing  firms  where  thousands  of  tons 
of  exhausted  drugs  are  doubtless  daily  thrown  away. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Outlines  of  Industrial  Chemistry,  a  Text-Book  for  Students.  By 
Frank  Hall  Thorp,  Ph.D.,  Instructor  in  Industrial  Chemistry  in  the  Massachu- 
setts Institute  of  Technology.  New  York  :  The  Macmillan  Co.  London  : 
Macmillan  &  Co.,  Ltd.    1898.    Price,  $3.50,  net. 
The  author  states  that  the  object  of  this  book  is  to  furnish  an  elementary 
course  in  industrial  chemistry,  which  may  serve  as  the  ground-work  for  a  more 
extended  course  of  lectures,  if  desired.  As  the  whole  range  of  chemical  indus- 
tries, both  inorganic  and  organic,  is  covered  in  the  compass  of  528  pages,  it  is 
necessarily  an  outline  only,  and  yet  it  can  serve,  satisfactorily,  the  purpose 
indicated  for  it  by  the  author. 
The  first  twenty  pages  are  devoted  to  an  account  of  the  general  operations 
necessary  in  most  chemical  industries,  and  we  note  an  excellent  discussion  of 
the  methods  of  evaporation,  calling  attention  to  the  economy  of  fuel  involved 
in  multiple-effect  systems,  the  Yaryan  evaporator  being  given  as  illustration; 
under  distillation,  the  theory  of  fractional  condensation  is  clearly  stated  and  an 
account  given  of  column  stills;  under  filtration,  a  description  of  filter  presses 
with  illustrations  and  the  use  of  centrifugal  machines;  under  refrigeration,  the 
theory  of  artificial  refrigerating  machines,  in  which  a  volatile  liquid  is  alter- 
nately vaporized  and  recondensed,  is  given  with  an  illustration  of  the  condens- 
ing and  expansion  vessels  and  the  method  of  their  connection. 
Fuels  both  solid  and  gaseous  are  briefly  but  well  covered. 
We  note  with  satisfaction  that  many  new  processes  of  importance  are  men- 
tioned, processes  which  have  not  as  yet  been  taken  up  in  text-books  gener- 
ally. Thus  Squibb's  process  for  the  manufacture  of  acetone  by  passing  the 
vapors  of  acetic  acid  through  heated  pumice  mixed  with  barium  carbonate  is 
