1 34  Minutes  of  Pharmaceutical  Meetings.  { A\{™1 
years  ago,  is  at  least  not  unworthy  of  note.  Pea  nuts  vary  with  the  soil  upon 
which  they  are  grown.  The  yield  per  acre  averages  40  bushels,  especially  near 
Wilmington,  N.  C.  They  are  therefore  a  better  crop  at  SL.50  a  bushel  than 
cotton  at  15  cents  a  pound.  Much  land,  however,  which  will  grow  cotton  well,, 
will  not  grow  pea  nuts  to  the  same  extent.  It  is  by  many  considered  best  to 
be  near  the  sea,  and  very  essential  to  have  lime  in  the  soil,  or  to  manure  with 
marl.  As  with  many  other  products,  pea  nuts  have  been  materially  enhanced 
in  value,  and  their  production  economized  by  modern  inventions.  For  years 
before  the  war,  the  old-fashioned  oriental  style  of  threshing  with  a  flail,  and 
winnowing  by  throwing  up  in  the  air,  was  the  universal  custom.  Both  were 
overcome  by  the  skill  and  talent  of  an  ingenious  mechanic  of  Wilmington,  Mr. 
Thos.  L.  Colville,  now  deceased.  When  the  war  commenced,  the  great  de- 
mand for  oil  urged  the  necessity  of  using  pea  nuts  for  this  purpose  ;  but  how 
could  the  hull  be  got  off?  The  same  mechanic  overcame  this  difficulty.  There 
is  something  surprising  in  the  extent  of  the  edible  capacity  of  our  American 
nation,  for  this  one  little  article  of,  we  may  say,  fancy  diet.  Who  eats  them  ?' 
Ask  the  owner  of  that  little  sign,  "  Pea  nuts  fresh  roasted  every  five  minutes/^ 
and  he  will  tell  you  "  Everybody,"  from  the  wealthy  banker  to  the  homeless 
newsboy  ;  and  that  his  own  sales  are  over  a  thousand  bushels  a  year. — H.  M* 
Coltonin,  Journal  of  Applied  Science. 
.  On  the  Transformation  of  Albuminoid  Material  into  Urea — M.  E.  Ritter.— 
M.  Ritter  has  repeated  the  experiments  of  M.  Bechamp  with  success,  and  ex- 
hibited to  the  Society  crystals  of  urea,  of  oxalate  and  of  nitrate  of  urea.  He 
thinks  he  has  discovered  the  cause  of  the  failure  of  M.  Loew,  in  the  following. 
At  a  certain  moment,  the  transformation,  which  has  hitherto  been  slow,  be- 
comes active,  thereby  occasioning  an  increase  of  heat ;  it  is  necessary  then  to 
stop  heating  and  even  to  add  a  little  cold  water,  otherwise  there  is  a  very  abun„ 
dant  disengagement  of  carbonic  acid  and  ammonia,  and  no  crystals  are  ob- 
tained. After  a  half  hour  the  heating  may  be  resumed,  without  fear. — Amer^ 
Chemist,  Nov..  1872,  from  Bull.  Soc.  chim.  Paris. 
On  the  Presence  of  Milk  Sugar  in  a  Vegetable  Juice — M.  Bouchardat. — 
Bouchardat  has  analyzed  saccharine  matter  obtained  from  the  juice  of  the  sapi- 
tillier  (Achras  sapota),  and  has  found  it  to  consist  of 
Fermentable  sugar,  Cane  sugar,     ....  55 
Milk  sugar,       .  .  .  .  .  .  .45 
This  is  the  first  well  established  proof  of  the  existence  of  milk  sugar  in  a  sub- 
stance of  vegetable  origin. — Ibid. 
A  pharmaceutical  meeting  was  held  February  18th,  1873,  Samuel  S.  Bunt- 
ing in  the  chair. 
The  minutes  of  the  last  meeting  were  read  and  approved. 
