Ajatf«?ary,Pi903m'}    Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  41 
question  is  one  of  some  interest,  I  also  answer  it  here.  In  the  first 
place,  the  percentage  of  HC1  in  the  gastric  juice  is  small,  only  0  2 
per  cent.;  in  the  second  place,  the  temperature  of  the  stomach  is 
only  100°  F.;  in  the  third  place,  the  food  does  not  remain  in  the 
stomach  subject  to  the  action  of  the  gastric  juice  more  than  two 
or  three  hours.  In  the  experiment  of  Rutherford  and  Vignal  5 
grains  of  calomel  were  subjected  to  the  action  of  the  normal  gastric 
juice  for  seventeen  hours  at  a  temperature  of  ioo°  F.  and  not  more 
than  of  a  grain  of  corrosive  sublimate  was  produced.  What 
does  take  place  is  probably  the  formation  in  the  stomach  of  a  com- 
plex albuminate  of  mercury,  sodium  and  chlorine,  or  if  it  reaches 
the  duodenum  unchanged,  which  probably  is  the  case,  it  is  decom- 
posed and  the  gray  oxide  is  precipitated. 
RECENT  LITERATURE  RELATING  TO  PHARMACY. 
HORSE-CHESTNUTS  AS  FOOD. 
Dr.  Loves,  of  Hanover,  presented  at  a  recent  meeting  of  German 
Naturalists  and  Physicians  a  paper  on  this  topic.  He  said  that  if 
the  ground  seed  be  macerated  in  alcohol,  the  bitter  principles  are 
extracted,  and  the  residue,  a  white,  tasteless  powder,  is  of  high 
nutritive  value.  The  analysis  of  the  seed  gives  8  per  cent,  proteid, 
7  per  cent,  fat,  77  per  cent,  nitrogen-free  extract  and  2-6  per  cent, 
ash.  The  nitrogen-free  extract  contains  about  14  per  cent,  of  cane 
sugar  (in  the  unripe  seeds  invert-sugar  is  present)  13  per  cent,  of 
glucosides  and  o-2  per  cent,  of  tannic  acid.  The  ingredients  that 
pass  into  the  alcohol  include  certain  phenolic  bodies  and  a  sub- 
stance resembling  saponin.  The  process  is  covered  by  patent  (now 
being  operated),  and  it  is  also  proposed  to  utilize  the  carbohydrates 
for  the  production  of  alcohol.  It  is  said  that  25  litres  of  alcohol 
can  be  obtained  from  100  kilos  of  seeds,  and  that  a  plantation  of 
trees  will  yield  yearly  400  marks  per  hectare  (about  $40  per  acre). 
Henry  LeffisIann. 
errors  in  kjeldahl  process. 
C.  A.  Mooers,  chemist  at  the  Tennessee  Experiment  Station 
[University  of  lennessee  Record,  May,  1902)  gives  figures  to  show 
that  in  that  form  of  the  Kjeldahl  method,  in  which  mercury  is  used 
in  the  digestion,  some  of  the  mercury  is  carried  over  in  the  subse- 
