ON NAPTHA AND ITS USES. 
47 
ART. X.— ON NAPTHA AND ITS USES. 
By Andrew Ure, M. D. ; F. R. S. 
In the last number of this Journal, a notice was inserted 
about the curative virtue of mineral naptha in Asiatic 
cholera, as verified by Dr. Andreosky, physician to the 
commander-in-chief of the Russian army in Circassia. The 
naptha there employed has been long known as the produce 
of springs on the north-west coast of the Caspian Sea, not 
far from the town of Derbend, near the Gulf of Baku, 
which was incorrectly printed Beker. It is surprising that 
in the instructions of the Petersburg police board just pub- 
lished, as to the proper precautions and best remedies 
against cholera, now beninning its ravages in that capital, 
no allusion whatever is made to naptha, or to Dr. Andre- 
osky's testimony in its favour. Are we hence to infer that 
the preceding recommendation of that substance is apocry- 
phal, or that it has since lost all credit with the Russian 
faculty, by whom the police bulletin was prepared? 
The soil near Derbent, from which the naptha oozes into 
wells about thirty inches deep, is a clay marl, which is 
thoroughly soaked with that fluid. It has a pale yellow 
colour, like that of Amiano near Parma, in Italy, but has 
a specific gravity of 0.S53, while that of Amiano is only 
0.836. Their boiling point is about 305° Fahr. Submitted 
to distillation, it affords a colourless fluid of spec. grav. 
0.728, which boils at about 176° Fahr., but has acquired an 
empyreumatic odour, very different from that of the native 
product. Barbadoes tar of the best kind differs from these 
naphthas only in containing a little more bitumen, but it is 
equally fragrant. When distilled it yields a similar lighter 
naphtha, but likewise empyreumatic. The native sub- 
