EDITORIAL.  1T9 
Balata  contains  only  few  per  cent,  of  oxygen,  and  therefore 
was  supposed  to  be  mainly  a  carbohydrogen,  mixed  with  an  oxy- 
genated body.  Cut  into  small  pieces,  crude  balata  was  boiled 
with  slightly  acidulated  water,  which  removed  a  small  quantity 
of  a  yellowish  brown  coloring  matter.  The  residue  dried  yielded 
to  boiling  absolute  alcohol  a  colorless  resin.  The  undissolved 
portion  after  drying  was  digested  with  bisulphide  of  carbon,  and 
gradually  dissolved  to  a  colorless  liquid,  leaving  a  little  of  a 
brown  ligneous  body  behind.  The  white  transparent  film  left 
on  distilling  the  bisulphide  of  carbon  was  repeatedly  boiled  with 
spirit  of  ether,  then  dried  and  analyzed  ;  it  contains  88-49  car- 
bon and  11*37  hydrogen,  nearly  the  same  figures  which  Adriani 
obtained  for  pure  gutta  percha. 
In  the  dried  milky  juice  of  the  bully  tree,  the  author  found 
81*31  carbon  and  10*17  hydrogen  ;  the  balance  is  ascribed  to 
oxygen. — Zeitschr.  d.  allg.  oesterr.  Apoth.  Ver.,  1869,  625,  from 
Sitzungsher.  d,  Kais.  Akad,  d.  Wiss.,  lix. 
(Sbitonal  Department 
Case  op  alleged  Aconite  Poisoning  in  San  Francisco. — Several 
pharmaceutists  having  forwarded  to  the  Editor  copies  of  newspaper  arti- 
cles in  which  the  circumstances  surrounding  a  case  of  alleged  poisoning 
are  stated  pro  and  con,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  decide  whether  it  should  be 
noticed  at  all  at  this  late  period  ;  nevertheless,  after  a  careful  weighing  of 
the  evidence  as  therein  produced  by  both  the  coroner  and  the  druggists, 
we  believe  the  cause  of  truth  may  be  served  by  giving  a  brief  account  of 
the  case. 
On  the  morning  of  Sunday,  Dec.  12th,  1869,  George  Murray  Thompson, 
a  young  lawyer  of  San  Francisco,  met  his  physician,  Dr.  Bates,  on  the 
street,  and  they  went  together  to  the  lawyer's  office  at  his  request,  and 
the  physician  finding  him  nervous,  with  symptoms  tending  toward  mania 
a  potu,  gave  him  the  following  prescription  : 
Tincturae  Lupulinae. 
Extracti  Valerianae  Fluidi,         aa  f^j, 
Extracti  Scutellariae  Fluidi,  f^ss, 
Aquae  Camphorae,  f  Jiss, 
Sacchari,  5ss.  M. 
Sig. — Dose,  a  tablespoonful  every  three  hours,  to  produce  sleep.  Dr. 
Bates." 
