Am.  Jour.  PharnO 
November,  1895.  J 
Notes  on  Black  Sulphur. 
559 
ADDITIONAL  NOTES  ON  BLACK  SULPHUR. 
By  Lyman  F.  Keblkr. 
In  the  May  number  of  this  Journal  there  appeared  a  few  notes  on 
black  sulphur.  I  there  invited  correspondence  for  further  informa- 
tion. Two  very  interesting  and  valuable  letters  were  received  from 
two  eminent  druggists.  The  object  of  this  paper  is  to  give  the  sub- 
stance of  these  two  communications. 
Mr.  A.  E.  Ebert : — "  We  sell  several  pounds  a  year  to  persons  who 
administer  it  to  domestic  animals,- being  an  ingredient,  usually,  of 
some  private  recipe  they  possess  for  the  treatment  of  diseases  of 
horses,  swine,  etc.  Some  forty  years  ago,  when  I  first  entered  the 
drug  business,  we  purchased  black  sulphur  in  quantities  of  ioo  to 
500  pounds,  and  it  was  much  used  in  domestic  practice  by  Ger- 
mans, English  and  other  old-country  people. 
"  Originally,  black  sulphur  was  powdered  crude  sulphur  or  the 
skimmings  or  the  residue  from  the  purifications  of  the  sulphur  of 
commerce." 
Mr.  Ebert  enclosed  a  sample  of  black  sulphur  from  the  stock  of 
Ebert's  Pharmacy.  The  composition  was  as  follows  :  sulphur, 
85  82  per  cent. ;  charcoal,  9  28  per  cent.,  and  ash,  2  90  per 
cent. 
Mr.  Charles  A.  Heinitsh  : — "  Black  Sulphur,  Sulphur  Cubillinam, 
Roszschwefel  or  Horse  Brimstone,  is  crude  or  native  sulphur.  What 
was  generally  used  years  ago  was  the  dark,  the  black,  and  the 
carbonaceous  parts  as  it  was  mined ;  also  the  refuse  or  residue, 
after  refining  the  sulphur  and  making  the  roll,  either  alone  or  with 
the  iron  which  was  found  in  it  or  mixed  with  it :  the  squamaferri 
or  scaly  iron,  as  it  was  called. 
"  The  sulphur  furnaces  gathered  and  sold  it  as  a  by-product.  For 
years  my  house  sold  it  as  a  cheap  brimstone  or  sulphur,  used  in 
horse  and  cattle  powder,  mostly  for  horse  powder,  as  it  was  then 
considered  more  effectual  in  curing  the  scab  and  other  skin  diseases, 
which  horses  were  afflicted  with,  than  the  refined.  Whether  this  is 
so  or  not  I  am  not  able  to  say,  but  my  father  and  his  predecessors 
sold  large  quantities  of  it." 
The  information  imparted  by  these  two  experienced  druggists 
leaves  no  doubt  as  to  what  black  sulphur  was  in  former  days,  but 
the  black  sulphur  of  to-day  is  evidently  a  modern  production. 
