454 
OBSERVATIONS  ON  FERRIC  HYDRATE. 
fallen  into  a  stream.  And  the  following  items  we  find  in  the 
papers : 
—  Locust  eggs  appear  to  be  very  deadly  in  their  poisonous 
effects.  A  party  of  little  boys  were  recently  killed  by  eating 
mulberries  in  which  they  had  been  deposited,  and  so  rapid  was 
the  work  of  the  poison,  that  they  died  under  the  trees  from 
which  they  took  the  berries. 
—  The  death  of  a  little  girl  at  Kimmswick,  Mo.,  resulting 
from  the  sting  of  a  locust,  is  noted  by  the  local  papers. 
Now,  "  e'en  from  our  boyish  days,"  in  the  south  and 
southwest,  we  were  familiar  with  all  kinds  of  locusts,  handled 
and  played  with  them  constantly,  and  knew  other  children  to  do 
the  same,  and  the  worst  thing  we  ever  knew  or  heard  about 
them  was  their  intolerable  music.  This  idea  of  their  being 
poisonous,  is  a  new  one  to  us — but,  then,  this  is  Presidential 
year,  and  it  may  be  that  the  locusts  have  become  innoculated 
with  the  "  poison  of  politics,"  hence  the  trouble  ! 
If,  however,  the  locust  is  really  poisonous,  it  should  be  known, 
and  our  readers  will  confer  a  favor  by  reporting  their  observa- 
tions on  the  subject. — Editor  Med.  Surg.  Hep.,  Aug.,  1868. 
OBSERVATIONS  ON  FERRIC  HYDRATE. 
By  Professor  Attfield,  Ph.D. 
In  a  memoir,  noticed  in  the  Chemical  News  of  June  12th  as 
having  been  recently  presented  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  M. 
Jeannel,  in  allusion  to  the  fact  that  ferric  hydrate  is  not  always 
soluble  in  acids,  states  that  the  incomplete  solubility  is,  in  his 
opinion,  generally  due  to  the  influence  of  traces  of  sulphates.  He 
says,  according  to  the  Paris  correspondent  of  the  Chemical  News, 
"  sesquioxide,  precipitated  from  the  persulphate,  is  always  to  a 
certain  extent  insoluble,  or  yields  unstable  salts  ;  the  same  is 
the  case  with  the  sesquioxide  precipitated  from  the  perchloride, 
when  this  has  been  contaminated  by  sulphuric  acid,  or  equally 
when  the  alkalies  employed  as  precipitants  have  been  so  contami- 
nated, or,  finally,  when  the  ferric  hydrate,  precipitated  from  pure 
solutions  by  pure  alkalies,  has  been  washed  with  common  water." 
This  explanation  does  not  accord  with  my  experience  of  the 
properties  of  ferric  hydrate  and  oxyhydrates.    Firstly,  in  Eng- 
