Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept.,  1888.  . 
Editorial. 
479 
oily  portion  amounting  to  about  60  per  cent.  This  portion  is  described  as 
brownish,  in  thin  layers  transparent,  fluorescent  with  a  green  color,  and  of 
the  specific  gravity  0  8105 ;  the  odor  is  not  unpleasant,  and  is  free  from  the 
pungency  of  acrolein.  It  has  as  yet  been  only  partially  examined;  but  the 
hydrocarbons  pentane,  hexane,  heptane,  octane  and  nonane  have  been  ob- 
tained from  the  lower  boiling  fractions. 
Similar  results,  without  carbonaceous  residues,  are  obtained  from  olein 
and  stearin  if  heated  in  sealed  glass  tubes  of  which  the  branches  for  conden- 
sation are  bent  downward,  and  are  not  immersed  in  the  bath.  These  fats, 
^ind  more  particularly  the  fat  acids,  are  of  such  composition,  that  if  the 
oxygen  be  removed  through  combination  with  the  requisite  hydrogen  for 
the  formation  of  water,  the  remaining  carbon  and  hydrogen  will  be  in  the  pro- 
portion very  nearly  of  87:13,  which  is  also  the  proportion  of  these  elements 
in  petroleum.  Assuming  that  petroleum  originates  from  the  fat  of  fossil  ma- 
rine animals,  the  absence  of  acrolein  and  the  lower  fat  acids  may  be  ex- 
plained by  their  removal  with  water,  and  carbonaceous  residues  cannot  ex- 
ist, because  none  were  formed.  Attention  is  also  drawn  to  the  durability  of 
fatty  substances  in  nature  through  the  formation  of  adipocire.  The  pres- 
ence of  nitrogen  compounds  in  some  rock  oils  is  also  regarded  as  an  indica- 
tion of  the  origin  from  animal  fat  residues. 
Explosive  Mixture. — A  serious  accident  happened  in  Topeka,  Kansas,  on 
the  morning  of  August  14th,  when  Dr.  Detlor,  a  veterinary  surgeon,  attempted 
to  powder  in  an  iron  mortar  a  quantity  of  saltpetre  and  sulphur.  On 
striking  the  mixture  with  an  iron  pestle  a  violent  explosion  took  place, 
shattering  the  mortar  and  resulting,  besides  serious  damage  to  property,  in 
the  wounding  of  the  operator,  whose  left  hand  was  completely  blown  off, 
the  right  hand  pierced  .and  mutilated,  and  a  leg  and  other  parts  of  the  body 
lacerated.  Several  other  persons  were  more  or  less  seriously  injured  and  a 
horse  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  was  wounded. 
An  International  Congress  of  Hydrology  and  Climatology  is  to  be  held  in 
Paris,  France,  in  1889,  the  precise  date  to  be  announced  hereafter.  The 
director  of  the  meteorological  observatory  of  the  Pare  du  Saint-Maur,  Mr. 
E.  Eenou,  is  president  of  the  committee,  and  Dr.  F.  de  Kanse,  Paris,  is 
general  secretary.  Both  national  and  foreign  members  are  required  to  pay 
a  contribution  of  12  francs.  The  questions  which  have  thus  far  been  pro- 
posed for  discussion  are  as  follows  : 
a.  Scientific  Hydrology. 
1.  The  precise  determination  of  the  temperature  of  thermal  springs. 
2.  Micro-organisms  in  mineral  waters,  and  their  influence  upon  the  com- 
position and  properties  of  the  latter. 
3.  Influence  of  bacteriologic  discoveries  upon  thermal  therapeutics. 
4.  Program  of  the  study  of  hydrology. 
h.  Medical  Hydrology. 
The  questions  refer  mostly  to  the  use  of  thermal  and  other  mineral  springs 
in  the  treatment  of  diseases  of  the  heart  and  blood  vessels,  of  kidney  dis- 
eases, neuralgias,  some  forms  of  tuberculosis,  etc. 
