Am.  Jour.  Pharm.l 
Nov.,  1891.  j 
Varieties. 
567 
Eighth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Control  of  the  State  Agricultural 
Experiment  Station  at  Amherst,  Mass.    Boston  :  1891.    8vo.    pp.  325. 
No.  33  of  the  Public  Documents  of  Massachusetts.  The  station  is  under 
the  directorship  of  Prof.  C.  A.  Goessmann ;  J.  E.  Humphrey,  S.B.,  is  the 
mycologist. 
VARIETIES. 
Hydrofluoric  acid,  kept  in  gutta-percha  bottles,  becomes  contaminated  with 
other  compounds,  chiefly  iron.  R.  Benedikt  [Chemiker  Ztg.,  June  24,  1891, 
p.  881),  recommends  bottles  of  hard  rubber  (vulcanite)  as  being  very  service- 
able for  the  purpose.  25  cc.  of  an  acid  kept  in  such  a  bottle  for  over  a  year, 
left  a  residue  amounting  to  only  0*0005  gm-  Hydrofluosilicic  acid  can  likewise 
be  kept  in  such  bottles. 
Death  by  antikamnia. — Dr.  E.  P.  Easley,  New  Albany,  Ind.,  has  communi- 
cated the  following  to  the  Am er.  Practitioner  and  News,  L,ouisville,  Sept.  12, 
1891  : 
"On  the  6th  of  last  April,  Mrs.  Z.,  a  stout,  robust  woman,  weighing  one 
hundred  and  sixty-five  pounds,  twenty-two  years  old,  took,  by  mistake,  for  a 
slight  headache,  twenty-four  grains  of  antikamnia.  In  a  few  minutes  she 
became  wildly  delirious,  then  unconscious,  and  died  in  ten  hours  after  swallow- 
ing the  medicine.  A  careful,  methodical  post-mortem  examination  failed  to 
discover  any  lesion,  death  being  the  result  of  the  action  of  the  drug  alone. 
The  greater  portion  of  her  body  was  cyanosed.  The  membranes  of  the  brain 
were  of  a  sky-blue  color,  as  were  all  the  fibrous  structures  wherever  found. 
The  right  ventricle  was  filled  with  clotted  blood  very  much  bleached." 
For  the  results  of  analyses  of  this  mixture,  see  Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,  April, 
p.  181,  and  June,  p.  290. 
For  preparing  tincture  of  iodine,  Vauthier  recommends  placing  the  iodine 
upon  a  glass  sieve  and  suspending  this  in  the  alcohol  contained  in  a  colored 
glass  bottle,  in  order  to  avoid  the  influence  of  heat,  light  and  organic  matter, 
whereby  hydriodic  acid  would  be  formed  ;  moreover,  the  tincture  should  not  be 
kept  on  hand  for  a  long  time. — Pet.  Mon.  de  la  Phar.,  June.  See  also  this 
Journal,  April,  p.  195. 
Hydrastis  canadensis  has  been  found  beneficial  in  night  sweats  of  phthisis 
by  Dr.  Cruse  {Med.  Neuigk.,  July  11)  ;  he  gives  the  fluid  extract  in  the  even- 
ing, commencing  with  thirty  drops  and  increasing  the  dose  if  necessary. 
Microcidin  is  a  new  antiseptic,  recommended  by  Prof.  Berlioz,  of  Grenoble. 
Extreme  solubility,  harmlessness  and  rapidity  of  action  are  claimed  for  it.  It 
is  a  compound  of  naphthol  and  soda,  is  neither  poisonous  nor  irritant,  and  has 
the  form  of  a  grayish- white  powder.  Its  solution  of  three  grams  per  liter  is 
very  slightly  colored,  and  does  not  stain  either  the  hands  or  bandage. — Science. 
Safran  Algeri  {extra),  a  French  substitute  for  saffron,  is  an  orange-yellow 
powder  of  faint  saffron  odor,  soluble  in  water,  producing  a  solution  identical  in 
color  with  one  made  from  pure  saffron  ;  under  the  microscope  small  quantities 
of  powdered  saffron  can  be  recognized.  It  is  a  mixture  of  Martius-yellow 
(dinitro-uaphthol),  and  trop£eolin  000  N.2,  with  a  small  quantity  of  saffron. 
