278 PREPARATION OF CHARCOAL BY STEAM. 
practice, on two different days, were obligatory. After 
these examinations, the candidate was required to recognise 
and define a certain number of plants and medicines, and 
answer queries relative to the doses in which very power- 
ful medicines are administered. The licentiate might prac- 
tise pharmacy throughout the kingdom. To obtain the 
degree of Doctor, the candidate was required to treat on 
any subject chosen by the College, and to answer all argu- 
ments presented to him. Some laws relating to military 
pharmacy completed the code. 
In 1815, Ferdinand VII. remodelled the higher assembly, 
and extended pharmaceutical instruction, which from that 
time has consisted of a course of natural history, of physics, 
of chemistry, practical pharmacy, and of theoretical phar- 
macy. — Pharm, Journ.,from Journ. de Pharm. 
ART. LXIV.— ON THE PREPARATION OF CHARCOAL BY 
HEATED STEAM. 
An interesting and important paper on the above-named 
subject has recently been published by M. Violette, director 
of the powder works of Esquerdes, near St. Omer. It ap- 
pears that the kind of charcoal best fitted for the manufac- 
ture of gun-powder is that which is prepared from the wood 
of the Rhamnus frangula, at a temperature below a red- 
heat. In this condition it has a brown, or reddish-brown, 
color, leaves a yellowish brown streak upon paper, and 
burns with flame when first kindled. It is quite brittle, 
however, easily reduced to powder, and is quite free from 
tarry matter. A more perfect and blacker charcoal than 
this charbon roux, makes inferior powder, being apparently 
more difficult of combustion. 
In the ordinary processes for preparing charcoal, whether 
