GLEANINGS  FROM  FOREIGN  JOURNALS. 
511 
In  conclusion,  except  in  the  ease  of  arsenic^  the  association  of 
sugar  with  magnesia  augments  the  efficacy  of  the  base  employed 
as  a  general  antidote.  Two  and  a  half  drachms  of  magnesia, 
five  or  six  drachms  of  sugar  and  three  fluid-ounces  of  water  (boil- 
ing) appear  to  be  the  most  convenient  proportion. — Repertoire 
de  Pharmacie^  Aout  1870. 
On  a  new  reagent  for  Alkalies.  M.  Boettger  informs  us  that 
the  fresh  leaves  of  Coleus  Verschoffelti,  an  ornamental  plant,  are 
put  in  a  glass  bottle  and  covered  with  absolute  alcohol,  containing 
some  drops  of  sulphuric  acid,  and  macerated  twenty-four  hours, 
when  the  fluid  is  decanted  and  other  leaves  introduced  into  the 
same  vessel  after  the  exhausted  leaves  are  removed  and  the  liquid 
returned.  The  tincture  thus  obtained  is  filtered,  and  is  charged 
with  the  coloring  matter  of  the  leaves,  into  which  strips  of  paper 
are  introduced  and  dried  in  the  air. 
The  test  paper  thus  obtained  has  a  magnificent  red  color  which 
passes  more  or  less  to  a  fine  shade  of  green  by  the  action  of  al- 
kalies and  alkaline  earths.  The  author  considers  it  better  than 
reddened  litmus  because  more  sensitive,  and  is  not  modified  by 
carbonic  acid,  and  should  be  kept  close. — Journ.  de  PJiarm., 
Sept.,  1870. 
Disinfecting  Solution  of  Carbolic  Acid.  The  Paris  authorities, 
according  to  the  Journ.  de  Pharmacie  for  August,  have  fur- 
nished gratuitously  to  poor  families,  where  fatal  cases  of  small 
pox  have  occurred,  a  solution  of  one  part  of  carbolic  acid  in  100 
parts  of  water,  to  bathe  the  corpse,  to  prevent  infection. 
To  Camphorate  Blisters.  M.  Deschamps  d'Avallon  has  sug- 
gested, when  it  is  desirable  to  camphorate  a  blister,  it  may  be 
readily  accomplished  by  dropping  on  its  surface  a  few  drops  of  a 
saturated  solution  of  camphor  in  chloroform,  made  by  adding  two 
parts  of  the  latter  to  four  of  the  former. — Journ.  de  Pharm., 
Aout,  1870. 
New  source  of  Citric  Acid.  Prof.  0.  Silvestri,  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Catania,  has  recently  observed  that  the  fruit  of  Cyplio- 
rnandra  hetacca,  one  of  the  Solaneae,  growing  in  the  gardens  of 
Sicily,  contains  a  great  quantity  of  citric  acid.  It  is  originally 
from  Mexico,  and  is  found  in  Peru  and  other  parts  of  South 
