88  Sulphurous  Acid:  {^ebaiTsnf"' 
SULPHUROUS  ACID. 
The  value  of  sulphurous  acid  gas  as  a  disinfectant  has  been  estab- 
lished by  many  and  crucial  experiments,  and  is  generally  admitted. 
This  agent  is  specially  recommended  by  medical  officers  of  health. 
There  is  a  want  of  convenient  methods  of  applying  it,  and  especially 
of  applying  it  in  a  limited  space  and  to  a  definite  and  measured  de- 
gree. Mr.  John  Gamgee  has  called  attention  to  the  convenience  of 
employing  it  as  disengaged  from  an  alcoholic  solution.  Cold  alcohol 
will,  he  states,  take  up  three  hundred  times  its  bulk  of  sulphurous  acid 
gas.  Where,  for  example,  it  is  desired  to  saturate  a  box  of  clothing 
with  this  gas,  it  is  sufficient  to  drop  a  certain  quantity  of  its  saturated 
solution  in  alcohol  into  the  floor  of  the  box,  and  a  large  definite 
quantity  is  set  free  by  the  evaporation.  The  suggestion  is  one  of  im- 
portance, and  seems  to  us  worthy  of  attention.  The  solution  of  sul- 
phurous acid  in  alcohol  could  easily,  and  probably  with  advantage, 
become  a  general  article  of  pharmaceutical  commerce  for  medical  and 
sanitary  use. — Fharm.  Journ.  Lond.,  Bee.  10,  1870,  from  British 
Medical  Journal. 
TINTED  HONEY. 
A  specimen  of  rose-colored  honey  has  been  presented  by  Messrs. 
Fortnum  and  Mason  to  the  Food  Department  of  the  South  Kensing- 
ton Museum.  It  is  of  great  beauty  and  delicacy.  The  comb  is  virgin, 
the  wax  almost  white,  the  honey  limpid,  pure  and  of  the  color  of  pale 
red  currant  jelly.  The  secret  of  its  production  is  not  revealed,  ex- 
cept that  it  is  the  result  of  artificial  feeding.  The  Gardeners'  Chron- 
icle^ after  alluding  to  the  various  opinions  held  as  to  the  change  which 
honey  undergoes  between  the  time  of  its  being  taken  from  the  nectary 
and  that  of  its  being  deposited  in  the  comb,  remarks  that  honey  from 
white  clover  has  a  greenish-white  hue,  that  from  heather  a  rich  golden 
yellow,  and  no  doubt  other  colors  might  be  observed  according  as 
certain  flowers  are  in  particular  abundance.  It  is  even  possible 
that  feeding  the  bees  upon  currant  or  raspberry  jelly  or  jam  would 
answer  the  purpose  equally  well.  But  it  is  clear  that  this  step  in 
the  refinement  of  honey  being  reached,  we  shall  not  stop  here. 
With  the  help  of  the  chemist,  the  beekeeper  will  be  able  to  turn 
out,  in  a  few  weeks,  to  order,  honey  of  any  hue,  blue,  pea-green, 
orange,  or  apricot-colored,  or  even, — by  a  little  ingenious  manipula- 
tion of  the  present  system  of  hives,  which  will  allow  of  any  part 
of  the  comb  being  shut  off  or  made  accessible  to  the  bees  at  plea- 
sure,— a  parti-colored  honey,  arranged  in  artistic  patterns  and  de- 
vices.— Fharm,  Journ.^  Land.,  Jan,  7,  1871. 
