230       Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.     {Am  May?i903arnK 
necessitate  a  very  great  amount  of  thought  and  study  for  its  solu- 
tion, but  when  solved  it  will  represent  a  most  important  step  into 
the  realms  of  the  unknown:  One  interesting  feature  in  this  connec- 
tion is  the  fact  that  practically  all  of  the  elements  that  are  known  to 
possess  radioactive  properties  are  of  high  atomic  weight,  represent- 
ing practically  the  border  line  of  the  unknown  in  the  periodic  system. 
This,  of  course,  suggests  a  possibility  of  discovering  another  series 
of  elements  of  higher  atomic  weight  and  still  greater  radioactivity* 
M.  I.  WlLBERT. 
ALCOHOL  FROM  FECAL  MATTERS. 
At  a  meeting  of  "  Isis"  a  German  society  for  study  of  natural 
science,  a  lecture  was  delivered  by  Dr.  von  Meyer  on  January  22, 
1903,  on  the  production  of  alcohol  by  dry  distillation  of  feces.  The 
methods  are  covered  by  patents,  and  the  results  are,  it  is  said,  unex- 
pectedly favorable  from  a  commercial  point  of  view.  The  lecturer 
reported  the  results  of  an  experiment  that  he  had  carefully  carried 
out  in  the  laboratory  of  the  inventor  of  the  method.  The  yield  was 
80  grammes  of  alcohol  (presumably  absolute,  but  this  is  not  stated) 
from  1,000  grammes  of  solid  feces.  The  degree  of  dryness  of  the 
mass  is  not  given,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  it  was  thoroughly 
dried  ;  225  liters  of  combustible  gas  and  some  extremely  foul-smell- 
ing tar  were  produced.  Some  experimenters  have  obtained  much 
smaller  yields ;  but  a  commission  of  three  chemists,  appointed  by  the 
German  patent  office,  obtained  a  yield  of  70  grammes  of  alcohol 
from  1,000  grammes  of  solid  feces.  On  this  basis,  100  kilos  of  the 
material  would  yield  9  liters  of  alcohol,  a  better  result  than  can  be 
obtained  by  the  fermentation  of  potatoes.  Experiments  on  the  large 
scale  have  not  yet  been  made,  nor  are  the  causes  of  the  somewhat 
discordant  results  of  the  laboratory  experiments  known,  but  the 
practicability  of  the  method  is  probable.  The  lecturer  suggested 
that  the  nature  of  the  method  would  render  the  product  unsuitable  for 
internal  use,  and,  therefore,  enable  it  to  be  sold  under  less  excise 
restrictions ;  but  this  is  doubtful.  When  carefully  purified,  the 
product  might  be  indistinguishable  from  alcohol  from  fermentation. 
The  successful  introduction  of  the  method  on  a  large  scale  might 
have  a  most  beneficial  influence  on  public  hygiene,  since  anything 
which  will  materially  increase  the  commercial  value  of  fecal  matter 
will  be  a  strong  inducement  to  the  substitution  of  other  methods  of 
disposal  than  the  water-carriage  systems. 
