^Vavehiasi^-}  Manganese  in  Beech-Nuts,  125 
In  relation  to  the  Confection  of  Senna,  it  is  certainly  a  mistake  to  omit  the 
Purging  Cassia,  and  to  medicate  with  so  variable  a  preparation  of  senna  as  the 
fluid  extract,  when  the  unaltered  senna  can  be  so  readily  obtained.  The  grit- 
tiness  arising  from  the  use  of  powdered  senna  is  due  either  to  want  of  care  in 
powdering,  or  to  inorganic  grit  in  the  senna,  which  should  have  been  separated 
before  powdering.  The  coriander  is  troublesome  to  powder;  yet  the  very 
agreeable  aroma  which  it  possesses  is  difficult  to  replace  by  fluid  preparations 
of  it,  and  hence  the  trouble  should  be  accepted.  In  reply  to  the  remark  of  the 
author  about  the  scarcity  of  Purging  Cassia,  it  may  be  said  that  demand  will 
bring  supply,  just  as  certainly  as  cessation  of  demand  will  eventually  create 
scarcity,  as  in  the  case  in  point. — Editor  Amer.  Jour.  Pharm. 
THE  PRESENCE  OF  MANGANESE  IN  BEECH-NUTS. 
By  Dr.  J.  E.  De  Yrij. 
In  the  introductory  address  of  the  chairman  of  the  last  Pharma- 
<5eutical  Conference*  at  Liverpool,  my  attention  was  fixed  by  the  fol- 
lowing sentence : — "  By  some  authors  it  has  been  denied  that  plants 
absorb  from  the  earth  such  metals  as  are  not  absolutely  essential  to 
their  nutrition.  Experiments,  however,  afford  strong  evidence  to  the 
•contrary.  Mr.  R.  Warington  (Journ.  Chem.  Soc.  1865)  found  in  the 
ashes  of  the  beech  and  birch  0*193  per  cent,  of  manganese." 
This  quotation  of  Warington's  investigation  induces  me  to  mention 
the  fact  observed  by  myself  more  than  twenty  years  ago.  As  at  that 
time  the  investigation  of  the  ashes  of  plants  occupied  a  great  many 
•chemists,  I  also  analysed  some  ashes.  Amongst  them  were  the  ashes 
of  beech-nuts  collected  by  me  in  the  neighborhood  of  Giessen,  in 
Germany.  As  there  exists  a  great  quantity  of  manganese  ore  in  that 
vicinity,  the  presence  of  a  relatively  large  quantity  of  manganese  in 
these  ashes  seemed  to  me  quite  natural.  In  1847,  being  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  British  Association  at  Oxford,  I  visited  the  beautiful  park 
of  Blenheim,  and  collected  there  on  that  occasion  some  unripe  beech- 
nuts. After  returning  home,  I  analysed  their  ashes  and  found  also 
in  these,  although  grown  in  a  very  different  soil,  the  presence  of  a 
relatively  large  amount  of  manganese.  A  third  analysis  of  the  ashes 
of  beech-nuts,  collected  in  the  wood  of  the  Hague,  confirmed  the  same 
fact.  As  I  was  accustomed  to  use  the  ashes  of  beech-nuts  in  my 
lectures  to  demonstrate  the  reagents  for  manganese,  this  fact  has  been 
fixed  in  my  memory, — Lond.  Pharm,  Journ.,  Jan.  21,  1871. 
*  Pharm.  Journal,  Sept.  17,  1870,  p.  234. 
