158 
Advances  in  Pharmacy. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
March,  1919. 
mated  that  if  all  the  blast  furnaces  in  the  United  States  installed  this 
process,  nearly  1,000,000  tons  of  potash  could  be  obtained  from  this 
source  alone.  From  the  cement  works,  where  the  potash  is  col- 
lected in  the  same  manner,  the  Bureau  of  Soils  estimated  from  in- 
vestigations carried  out,  that  the  cement  kilns  could,  in  the  aggre- 
gate, yield  nearly  100,000  tons  of  potash  each  year. 
Another  source  of  potash  in  this  country  is  the  salt  lakes,  which 
are  particularly  interesting  and  seem  to  promise  great  things  in  the 
way  of  making  this  country  independent  of  other  countries  for  our 
potash.  One  of  these  wonderful  lakes — Searles  Lake,  in  California 
— consists  of  a  vast  mass  of  salt  crystals  about  twelve  square  miles 
in  area  and  seventy  feet  deep,  all  the  water  having  evaporated.  A 
bulletin  issued  by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  makes  the 
statement  that  the  main  central  salt  deposit  is  a  firm  and  very  porous 
bed  of  salt  crystals ;  indeed  it  is  so  firm  and  hard  that  roads  are  made 
on  it,  and  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  teams  and  motor  trucks  to 
drive  over  its  surface,  and  even  the  concrete  foundations  of  the 
American  Trona  Corporation's  pump  house  were  laid  on  the  sur- 
face. The  average  potash  content  is  four  per  cent,  in  the  form  of 
the  chloride.  This  corporation  is  producing  about  4,500  tons  of 
crude  potash  salts  per  month,  and  is  also  turning  out  about  50  tons 
of  borax  per  day. 
Other  sources  of  potash  which  are  looked  upon  as  promising  are 
the  mineral  silicates,  such  as  feldspar,  sericite,  and  alunite.  In 
Marysville,  in  southern  Utah,  the  Mineral  Products  Corporation  has 
already  put. up  a  plant  with  an  output  at  present  of  about  600  tons 
per  month  of  sulphate  of  potash.  There  are  signs  that  aluminum 
as  well  as  potash  will  ultimately  be  obtainable  from  these  minerals ; 
indeed,  it  is  predicted  by  some  investigators  that  this  may  prove  a 
better  course  of  aluminum  than  bauxite.  With  all  these  sources  of 
supply  for  this  very  necessary  substance  let  us  hope  that  prices  will 
soon  drop  to  reasonable  proportions.1 
Quinine-F ormaldehyde  Solution  in  War  Surgery. — The  advan- 
tages claimed  for  this  solution  are  that  it  is  easily  prepared,  is  stable* 
can  be  readily  concentrated  for  transportation,  the  strength  can  be 
easily  increased  or  diminished,  and  it  can  be  used  in  an  early  stage 
of  wound  treatment,  at  the  field  or  evacuation  hospital.  The 
formula  for  the  solution  is  as  follows: 
1  The  Living  Age,  vol.  13,  1919,  183. 
