552  Development  of  the  Chemical  Arts.  {"^^^^r^s.^'"'' 
rived  from  the  C^oH^gO  constituent  by  polymerization  and  partial  remova. 
of  the  elements  of  water.  It  was  not  found  practicable  to  cause  the 
separation  of  crystals  of  camphor  from  the  liquid  oil  by  cooling  in  a 
freezing  mixture,  even  when  a  crystal  of  the  solid  was  dropped  in  and 
the  whole  kept  at  a  low  temperature  for  several  hours  ;  it  does  not, 
therefore,  follow,  however,  that  the  C10H20O  constituent  present  in  the 
liquid  oil  is  not  the  solid  camphor  melting  (when  pure)  at  42°,  as  a 
minute  quantity  of  some  permanent  liquid,  e.  g.  alcohol,  wholly  pre- 
vents the  solid  camphor  from  crystallizing  when  once  liquefied  ;  it  is^ 
however,  by  no  means  impossible  that  the  liquid  oil  contains  an  isom- 
eric modification  liquid  at  the  ordinary  temperature. — Phar.  Jour,  and 
Trans. ^  Sept.  25. 
REPORT  ON  THE  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   CHEMICAL  ARTS 
DURING  THE  LAST  TEN  YEARS,* 
BY   DR.  A.  W.  HOFMANN. 
(Continued  from  page  513.) 
The  more  we  must  hope  that  the  manufacture  of  oxygen  may  be 
saved  by  the  metallurgical  demand.  In  medicine  it  has  not  found  any 
general  application.  According  to  Pereira,t  in  spite  of  certain  modern 
eulogies  of  the  healing  power  of  oxygen,  there  is,  in  the  opinion  o 
competent  judges, j  little  to  be  said  on  the  subject.  We  quote  the 
passage. 
"  Soon  after  the  discovery  of  oxygen  gas,  a  strong  feeling  arose  in 
favor  of  its  medicinal  application.  Various  diseases,  e.g..,  scurvy,  were 
ascribed  to  a  deficiency  of  it  in  the  system,  and  it  was  according  em- 
ployed in  many  cases,  and,  as  was  at  first  declared,  with  brilliant  results. 
In  England,  it  was  tried  by  Beddoes  and  Hill.||  The  latter  declares 
that  he  found  it  useful  in  asthma,  weakness,  ulcers,  gangrene,  white 
swellings,  and  scrofulous  affections  of  the  bones.  These  views  have 
been  again  abandoned,  both  on  chemical  and  physiological  grounds.  In 
"Berichte  liber  die  Entwickelung  der  Chemischen  Industrie  wahrend  des  letz- 
ten  Jahrzehends." 
f  Pereira,  "Heilmittel  Lehre  ;  "  Buchheim's  German  edition,  vol.  1,  p.  217 
%  Verbal  communication  from  Professor  Oscar  Liebreich. 
II  "  Considerations  of  the  Use  of  Facticious  Air  and  on  the  Manner  of  Obtaining 
them  in  Large  Quantities,"  by  F.  Beddoes  and  J.  Watt  5  Bristol,  1794-95-  is 
well  known  that,  in  1798,  a  Pneumatic  Institute  was  founded  at  Bristol,  in  which  the 
medicinal  properties  of  gases  were  examined,  and  where  Humphry  Davy  discovered 
the  effects  of  nitrous  oxide. 
