466 
EDITORIAL. 
He  stated,  as  his  belief,  that  commercial  sheet  zinc  generally  contained 
arsenic,  bat  could  give  no  idea  of  the  per-centage  of  that  metal  it  had  been 
shown  to  contain.  When  asked  how  often  he  had  used  Marsh's  apparatus 
to  test  for  arsenic,  he  admitted  about  twenty-five  times.  He  stated  that  he  had 
used  in  these  trials,  both  distilled  zinc  and  sheet  zinc,  and,  when  questioned 
as  to  whether  he  himself  had  thus  detected  arsenic  in  sheet  zinc,  he  admitted 
that  he  never  had  ;  and  that  the  sulphuric  acid  of  this  country  rarely  con- 
tained arsenic.  When  questioned  as  to  whether  a  piece  of  zinc  cut  from  a 
large  sheet,  various  portions  of  which  had  been  found  to  be  free  from 
arsenic,  might  yet  contain  that  metal,  he  believed  it  might;  but  when  asked 
if  a  piece  of  sheet  zinc,  two  inches  by  eight,  after  it  had  been  used  in  vari- 
ous trials  in  a  Marsh's  apparatus,  might  yet  yield  2.92  grs.  of  arsenic  to 
the  liquid  surrounding  it,  he  admitted  that  it  would  not. 
At  the  close  of  Dr.  Rand's  examination,  the  defence  asked  him  whether 
there  was  not  a  preparation  containing  metallic  arsenic  that  was  not  poison- 
ous. Dr.  Rand  answered  that  there  was.  When  asked  to  name  it,  he  replied, 
Cacodyl ;  and  in  answer  to  the  prosecution,  admitted  that  he  had  never 
made  it,  nor  had  he  seen  it,  nor  was  it  to  be  procured  in  the  shops.  Why 
this  statement  was  made  in  view  of  the  unstable  and  decomposable  char- 
acter of  Cacodyl  in  contact  with  atmospheric  air,  and  the  offensive  nature 
of  its  vapor,  was  at  least  singular,  and  calculated  only  to  mislead  the  jury. 
In  conclusion,  we  will  observe  that  this  case  points  to  the  importance 
of  observing  strictly  the  following  rules  when  a  poisonous  material  is 
accepted  for  analysis  :  1st,  to  reserve  a  p  )rtion  of  the  material  intact ;  2nd 
to  take  all  the  preliminary  precautions  in  using  Marsh's  apparatus,  how- 
ever certain  one  may  be  of  the  purity  of  material ;  3rd,  to  make  the  ex- 
periment and  indictment  correspond  as  regard  the  existing  condition  of 
the  poison.  We  have  not  been  able,  even  in  Gmelin's  Hand-book,  to  find 
any  statement  regarding  the  proportion  of  arsenic  in  arsenical  zinc  and 
sulphuric  acid,  and  believe  it  will  be  well  to  have  this  point  settled  by 
analysis  •  and  also  the  extraordinary  statement  made  by  Dr.  Rand,  that 
one  part  of  a  sheet  of  rolled  zinc  may  contain  arsenic  and  the  rest  not. 
Accident  from  Liquor  Ammmonle  Fortior. — A  correspondent  in  Balti- 
more, in  whose  store  an  accident  occurred  in  opening  a  pound  bottle  of 
strong  solution  of  Ammonia,  by  which  two  of  his  assistants  were  seriously 
injured  in  the  eyes  and  face,  requests  us  to  notice  it  with  a  caution.  The 
cause  of  the  accident  is  attributed  to  the  fact,  that  manufacturing  chemists 
usually  make  this  preparation  in  the  winter  and  bottle  it  at  as  low  a  tem- 
perature as  possible  ;  and  when,  as  in  this  instance,  (July  31,)  the  bottle  is 
opened  in  mid-summer  without  any  precaution,  the  expanded  air  in  the 
bottle  is  greatly  increased  in  its  tension  by  the  liberated  ammoniacal  gas, 
drives  out  the  stopper  the  moment  it  is  loosened,  and  a  large  portion  of  the 
solution  is  lost  by  the  rapid  effervescence  which  instantly,  and  almost  ex- 
plosively, ensues  from  the  escape  of  ammoniacal  gas.    Several  accidents  of 
