ON  A  NEW  SULPHIDE  OF  CARBON. 
415 
clumps  amongst  the  other  trees,  easily  recognizable  by  the  par- 
ticular green  color  of  the  leaves,  and  the  Cascarilleros  find  out 
the  trees  by  ascending  lofty  trees  or  hills,  and  paying  attention 
to  this  fact,  otherwise  the  undergrowth  of  these  immense  virgin 
forests  would  render  it  impossible  to  find  them.  I,  with  others 
to  assist  me,  have  been  half  a  day  cutting  a  way  to  one  of  these 
clumps.  The  climate  is  everywhere  intensely  hot  and  moist,  and 
the  fevers  deadly,  especially  in  the  rainy  season  ;  the  mortality, 
as  may  be  expected,  very  great.  All  the  rivers  abound  in  gold, 
I  believe  as  rich  as  California.  A  friend  of  mine,  Don  Laurento 
Villamel,  took  1200  oz.  of  gold  (23 J  carat)  out  of  about  an  area 
of  30  feet  square  on  the  river  bed. 
"  I  always  was  in  excellent  health,  which  I  attribute  to  being 
always  at  wTork  on  foot,  hunting,  or  pounding  the  rocks  with  a 
hammer.  Still  I  often  took  three  grains  of  sulphate  of  quinine 
in  the  morning. — David  Forbes."  [We  learn  from  Mr.  Howard, 
the  eminent  quinologist,  that  a  plant  reared  from  one  of  the 
seeds  above  alluded  to  proves  to  be  a  new  and  probably  valuable 
kind  of  Calisaya — the  "  verde,"  of  which  an  account  was  given 
in  Mr.  Howard's  important  communication  of  the  Cinchona 
barks  read  at  the  recent  Botanical  Congress.*  Eds.] — Lond. 
Pharm.  Jonrn.,  August,  1866,  from  Gardeners'  Chronicle. 
ON  A  NEW  SULPHIDE  OF  CAKBON. 
Low,  a  German  chemist,  has  described  a  new  sulphide  of  car- 
bon obtained  by  the  action  of  an  amalgam  of  sodium  upon  the 
bisulphide.  When  semi-fluid  amalgam  of  sodium  is  shaken  with 
bisulphide  of  carbon  in  a  well-corked  bottle,  the  temperature  of 
the  mixture  rises,  and  the  process  is  complete,  when  after  re- 
peated addition  of  the  bisulphide  heat  is  no  longer  evolved.  If 
the  mixture  be  then  thrown  into  water,  a  blood-red  solution  is 
formed,  which,  after  filtering,  contains  much  mercury ;  by  pass- 
ing sulphuretted  hydrogen  for  some  time  into  the  solution,  this 
may  be  removed.  The  dark-red  solution  is  then  to  be  poured 
into  dilute  chlorhydric  acid  with  constant  stirring.    A  flocky  red 
*  See  Pharmaceutical  Journal  for  July,  p.  14. — Ed.  Ph.  J. 
