372 
Varieties. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t     Aug,  1,  1871. 
the  continued  use  of  it  predisposes  to  the  dropsical  complaints  which 
are  said  to  prevail  in  those  islands. 
The  toddy  or  wine  which  is  obtained  from  the  flower-spikes  is 
described  as  being  very  refreshing  and  delicious,  taken  before  sunrise  ; 
it  is  given  by  the  native  doctors  in  cases  of  consumption,  and  if  taken 
regularly  is  said  to  be  an  excellent  medicine  for  delicate  persons 
sulfering  from  habitual  constipation. — Pharm  Journ.  and  Trans. , 
July  8th,  1871, 
Silver  Islet. — Mr.  Joseph  Wharton  remarked  that  a  letter,  received  this  day 
from  Thomas  Macfarlane,  the  discoverer  of  Silver  Islet,  in  Lake  Superior,  near 
the  north  shore,  states  that,  up  to  March  2,  ores  to  the  value  of  $250,000  had 
been  taken  out,  and  it  is  confidently  believed  that  this  will  be  increased  before 
the  opening  of  navigation  to  iS;500,000.  A  cofFer-dam  has  been  built  around 
the  islet,  at  a  cost  of  $60,000,  to  increase  the  area  for  working.  The  ore  has 
thus  far  been  sent  to  the  factory  of  E.  Ballach  &  Son,  Newark,  N.  J.,  but 
works  are  now  about  to  be  buill  at  Wyandotte,  near  Detroit,  for  the  treatment 
of  it.  Although  the  islet  is  in  Canada,  and  the  discoverer  is  a  Canadian,  it 
was  not  found  possible  to  interest  Canadians  in  the  venture  of  opening  the  vein, 
and  this  extremely  promising  deposit  is  therefore  the  property  of  citizens  of 
the  United  States.  The  ore  is  worth  about  $1500  per  ton. — Pro.  Acad.  Nat. 
Sci.  1871. 
Fraudulent  American  Degrees.—Ai  an  inquest  recently  held  in  Dublin,  one 
Mr.  W.  L.  Rrson.  the  medical  attendant  of  the  deceased,  is  reported  in  the 
British  Medical  Journal  to  have  testified  :  "  t  am  a  physician  of  the  College  of 
New  York,  but  I  never  was  in  that  city.  I  have  my  diploma."  It  may  per- 
haps be  well  to  inform  our  English  contemporaries  that  the  only  regular  schools 
of  medicine  in  this  city  are  those  of  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  Bellevue  Hospital,  and  the  Woman's 
Medical  College  of  the  New  York  Infirmary;  neither  of  which,  we  firmly  be- 
lieve, confers  degrees  without  proper  precaution.  In  view  of  the  apparent 
flooding  of  the  British  market  with  fictitious  diplomas  purporting  to  emanate 
from  non-existent  colleges  in  America,  our  respectable  schools,  for  their  own 
sakes,  should  combine  to  detect  and  expose  the  sharpers  whose  nefarious 
trade  is  bringing  our  whole  educational  system  into  evil  odor  abroad. — N.  Y. 
Medical  Gazette,  July  Sth,  1871. 
Muriate  of  Quinia  in  solution  of  25  ctgrm.  in  30  grm.  distilled  water  (gr.  iv 
to  ^i)  is  recommeded  by  Italian  physicians  as  an  excellent  collyrium  in  chronic 
catarrh  of  the  conjunctiva  &c. — Pharm,  Zeitung. 
