AmjuJCi8P76?rm  }  Selections  from  the  Banish  Journals.  315 
1.  In  Rheum  officinale,  we  possess  for  the  first  time  a  plant,  the  root- 
stock  of  which  agrees  with  the  true  rhubarb. 
2.  This  kind  grows  in  Thibet,  the  northeast  district  of  which  prob- 
ably formerly  yielded  good  rhubarb,  but  appears  to  do  so  no  longer. 
3.  Whether  Rheum  officinale  occurs  in  Sui  tschuan,  Schensi  and 
Kansu,  from  which  provinces  the  true  rhubarb  is  obtained,  remains  to 
be  seen. 
4.  Also,  we  require  more  exact  information  respecting  R.  palmatumy 
var.  Tanguticum.  The  ofKcial  rhubarb  formerly  came  from  the  provinces 
mentioned  under  3,  at  one  time  by  land,  at  another  through  Canton, 
reaching  the  sea  at  Ormuz,  Syria,  Asia  Minor  or  South  Russia,  ac- 
cording to  existing  political  relations. 
5.  Only  when  China  became  more  accessible,  this  drug  took  its 
natural  way  to  Hankow,  the  chief  market  of  the  Chinese  Interior,  and 
from  thence  to  the  sea. — Pharmaceutical  Journal  and  Transactions,  18765, 
April  29,  from  Neues  Repe-t.f  Phar.,  Jan. 
SELECTIONS  FROM  THE  DANISH  JOURNALS. 
BY   HANS  M.  WILDER. 
Nitric  Acid. — It  is  customary  to  reject  the  first  thin  distillate  which 
will  contain  the  hydrochloric  acid  present.  O.  H.  Schytt  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  following  method  which  does  away  with  the  trouble  of 
changing  receiver  and  watching  the  distillate  ;  heat,  till  dry,  in  a  sand- 
bath  (in  a  porcelain  capsule),  saltpetre  and  nitric  acid  in  the  proportion 
of  one  fluidounce  of  acid  to  every  five  pounds  of  the  salt.  Every 
trace  of  hydrochloric  acid  will  in  this  way  have  been  removed,  and  the 
distillate  from  the  saltpetre  so  treated  will  be  pure  nitric  acid.  (The 
editor  remarks  that  this  method  has  been  recommended,  among  others, 
by  J.  BischofFin  his  "  prakt.  Arbeit,  im  chem.  Labor.,"  1862). — Archiv 
Jor  Pharm.,  1876,  p.  151. 
Extract  of  Beef — Bouchardat  warns  against  the  incautious  use  of 
this  extract,  under  the  mistaken  notion  that  an  increase  of  dose  will  be 
followed  by  a  corresponding  increase  of  benefit.  Both  he  and  Stuart 
Cooper  have  shown  that  large  doses  of  the  extract  are  quite  injurious. 
He  further  asserts  that  it  cannot  at  all  be  compared  to  meat-juice  (ex- 
pressed in  the  cold  from  raw  meat)  as  a  strength  giver. — Ibid.,  p.  160, 
from  Bull.  Thkrap.,  1875,  Nov. 
