APPLICATIONS  OF  CARBOLIC  ACID, 
159 
stated  to  retain  their  properties  unchanged  for  any  length  of 
time  if  kept  from  access  of  moisture.  To  a  convalescent,  re- 
quiring the  continued  use  of  either  iron  or  quinine,  we  can  hardly 
imagine  a  greater  boon  than  these  will  prove  themselves  to  be, 
*   as,  whilst  retaining  all  the  potency  of  the  drugs,  they  are  as 
pleasant  as  a  glass  of  soda  water  Chemist  and  Druggist,  Nov. 
15,  1861. 
ON  THE  TENACITY  OF  METALLIC  COBALT. 
The  quite  recent  discovery  of  the  exceeding  tenacity  of  me- 
tallic cobalt,  which  is  double  that  of  iron,  promises  to  place  this 
metal  in  the  first  rank  of  mechanical  utility.  Oxygen  being 
cheaply  attainable,  its  ores  will,  in  all  probability,  be  smelted, 
and  the  metal  produced  in  large  quantities ;  and  should  a  cobalt 
steel  exist,  bearing  similar  relation  in  its  qualities  to  those 
which  ordinary  steel  bears  to  iron,  there  seems  no  limit  to  the 
improvement  of  our  tools,  engines  and  every  fabric  in  which 
lightness  and  strength  have  to  be  combined. — (Note  to  Sir  John 
F.  W.  Herschell's  treatise  on  Physical  Geography,  bearing  date 
April,  1861.) 
In  order  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  this  discovery,  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  iron  has  been  heretofore  regarded  as  the 
most  tenacious  of  the  metals,  and  that  copper,  which  ranks  next 
to  it,  has  but  half  its  tenacity. — D.  B.  S. 
ON  SOME  APPLICATIONS  OF  CARBOLIC  ACID,  OR  HYDRATE 
OF  OXIDE  OF  PHENYLS. 
By  Dr.  F.  Crace  Calvert,  F.  R.  S. 
Although  carbolic  acid  has  long  been  known  to  possess  pow- 
erful antiseptic  properties,  its  use  has  been  delayed  in  medicine 
owing  to  the  difficulty  experienced  in  obtaining  it  in  considerable 
quantities  and  in  a  state  of  purity,  as  well  as  to  the  caution  re- 
quired in  introducing  new  substances  in  that  branch  of  science. 
The  success,  however,  which  has  lately  attended  its  application, 
will  tend  greatly  to  increase  its  importance  as  a  therapeutic 
agent.    It  has  been  used  with  marked  advantage  in  the  Man- 
