Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  "( 
Oct.  1, 1871.  j 
Varieties. 
471 
clumsy  and  inefficient.  Dr.  Beale,  however,  claims  one  exception,  a  process 
described  by  himself  in  1858.  It  simply  consists  in  quickly  drying  the  mucus 
expressed  from  the  pig's  stomach  glands  upon  glass  plates.  The  dried  mucus 
is  then  powdered,  and  kept  in  stoppered  bottles.  It  retains  its  properties  for 
years.  Eight-tenths  of  a  grain  will  dissolve  one  hundred  grains  of  coagulated 
white  of  egg.  From  this  powder  is  easily  prepared,  by  solution  in  distilled 
water,  a  perfectly  clear  and  colorless  digestive  fluid  of  great  activity,  which 
can  be  readily  filtered. — Kans.  City  Med.  Journ.,  Aug.  1871,  from  Med.  Press 
and  Circular. 
Pill  Mass  of  Ferri  Sulph.  and  Potass.  Carl,  (see  also  pages  307  and  373  of 
this  volume). — L.  Creteur  proposes  the  following  manipulation:  500  sulphate 
of  iron  and  the  same  weight  of  carbonate  of  potassa  are  powdered  separately, 
and  then  intimately  mixed  ;  a  hot  mixture  of  100  clarified  honey  and  20  white 
wax  is  now  added,  the  whole  beaten  to  a  pasty  mass  and  set  aside  for  24  hours. 
To  the  brown-green  soft  mass  a  sufficient  quantity  of  powdered  marshmallow 
is  added  to  form  a  pilular  mass. — Bull,  de  la  Soc.  Roy.  de  Ph.  de  Brux.  1871, 
AoiU. 
Manufacture  of  Phosphorus. — Professor  Woehler,  of  Gottingen,  proposed  a 
long  time  ago  to  decompose  phosphates  by  means  of  silicic  acid  and  charcoal, 
but  no  practical  application  was  made  of  the  suggestion  until  recently.  It  is 
now  applied  in  France  on  a  large  scale.  The  furnace  is  similar  to  the  form 
used  for  the  reduction  of  iron,  and  is  fed  at  the  tunnel  head  from  a  hopper  with 
alternate  layers  of  fuel  and  phosphates  mixed  with  quartz  and  soda.  The  addi- 
tion of  soda  facilitates  operations  as  it  produces  a  fusible  double  silicate  which 
can  be  easily  removed  as  slag.  The  vapor  of  phosohorus  is  driven  by  the  blast 
through  condensers  placed  near  the  top  of  the  furnace,  and  the  slag  is  drawn 
ofi'  at  the  hearth  as  in  the  blast  furuace. — Journ.  Applied  Chem.,  Sept.,  1871. 
Nickel  Plating. — The  process  invented  by  Isaac  Adams,  of  Boston,  is  pro- 
nounced by  all  experts  to  be  the  best.  He  employs  a  bath  of  a  perfectly  pure 
double  salt  of  ammonio  chloride  or  ammonio-sulphate  of  nickel.  The  presence 
of  even  slight  traces  of  alkalies  is  said  to  be  injurious,  as  they  occasion  the 
deposition  of  oxide  of  nickel.  From  pure  salts  the  layers  of  metals  are  depo- 
sited with  great  regularity,  and  of  sufficient  thickness  to  admit  of  a  fine  polish. 
According  to  Jacobi,  the  nickel  deposit  succeeds  much  better  if  the  anode  be 
made  of  pure  fused  nickel,  and  Remington  prefers  to  suspend  pieces  of  metal 
in  the  bath.  Nickel  plating  has  now  become  an  industry  of  great  importance 
in  the  United  States. — Ibid. 
Artificial  India  Rubber. — Prof.  Sonnenschein  has  discovered  that  an  elastic 
mass  resembling  caoutchouc  may  be  obtained  by  combining  tungstate  of  soda 
with  certain  organic  substances.  If  tungstic  acid  or  tungstate  of  soda  be 
added  to  glue,  and  afterwards  muriatic  acid,  a  compound  of  tungstic  acid  glue 
is  precipitated,  which  is  so  elastic  at  85°  to  105°  F.  that  it  can  be  drawn  out 
into  very  thin  fibres.    On  cooling  the  mass  becomes  very  solid  and  brittle.  It 
