Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
Dec,  1883.  J 
Algin. 
617 
I  expect  to  find  iodine  in  all,  and,  if  so,  every  man  who  eats  fish  will 
become  his  own  iodine  eliminator.  Specimens  of  true  genuine  unmixed 
whale,  seal,  and  bottlenose  oil  have  been  sent  me  by  my  friend. 
Captain  John  Gray,  a  celebrated  Peterhead  whaler,  to  whom  the 
Arctic  regions  are  a  kind  of  Winter  Garden,"  and  these  are  under 
•examination,  but  I  cannot  yet  report  the  results. 
Since  the  publication  of  the  paper,  the  following  results  have  been 
obtained,  the  respective  oils  having  been  treated  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  cod  liver  oil : 
Per  cent. 
Whale  oil,  cold  drawn,  contains  iodine  '00001 
Bottle-nose         "  "  -00010 
Seal  "  -00005 
— Phar.  Jou7\  and  Trans.,  November  3,  1883,  p.  353. 
ON  ALGIN,  A  NEW  SUBSTANCE  OBTAINED  FROM  SOME 
OF  THE  COMMONER  SPECIES  OF  MARINE  ALG^. 
By  E.  C.  C.  Stanford. 
The  main  object  of  the  present  paper  is  to  introduce  a  new  seaweed 
industry,  the  present  uses  for  this  substance  being  very  limited,  and  in 
some  cases  a  great  loss  of  useful  material  occurs  in  the  preparation  of 
the  products  for  commercial  purposes.  In  the  process  recommended 
by  the  author,  the  seaweed  is  first  macerated  with  cold  water  by  wash- 
ing in  a  number  of  vats  in  turn,  by  which  means  about  one-third  of 
the  weight  of  the  sea-weed  is  removed.  The  weed  is  now  bleached 
with  chlorinated  lime-water,  treated  with  acid,  and  washed.  To 
extract  the  algin,  it  is  acted  on  with  one-tenth  of  its  weight  of  sodium 
carbonate  for  24  hours  in  the  cold,  and  is  then  carefully  heated,  fil- 
tered, and  evaporated :  the  residue  on  the  filter  is  cellulose,  and  can  be 
used  in  the  manufacture  of  paper.  The  result  of  this  treatment  of 
laminaria  is  the  separation  of  the  sea- weed  into  the  following  parts : 
Moisture  20,  extracted  by  water  30,  extracted  by  acid  5,  extracted  by 
sodium  carbonate  (cilgin)  35,  and  cellulose  10  per  cent. 
When  evaporated  to  dryness  the  aqueous  extract  forms  a  viscid  mass, 
consisting  of  the  salts  mixed  with  a  saccharine  matter  resembling  man- 
nite  in  appearance;  this  precipitates  Fehling's  solution  to  the  extent  of 
15  per  ^cent.  glucose;  it  does  not  ferment,  and  would  hence  be  very 
useful,  but  as  yet  there  is  no  process  for  separating  it  from  the  salts. 
The  whole  mass  is  therefore  carbonized  and  treated  in  the  usual  manner 
