VARIETIES. 
183 
my  experience  with  it,  I  am  compelled  to  call  the  attention  of  the  profes- 
sion to  it,  as  a  most  useful  contribution  to  our  materia  medica.  It  is  of  the 
color  and  consistency  of  pure  milk,  (if  my  recollections  do  not  deceive  me), 
but  becomes  transparent  as  soon  as  dry.  Owing  to  its  great  elasticity,  it 
does  not  contract  so  violently  as  the  collodion,  it  adheres  closely  to  the  skin, 
and  allows  entire  freedom  of  motion  and  application  to  any  extent.  In 
burns  it  has  an  advantage  over  anything  I  have  ever  used,  as  also  in  ery- 
sipelas. An  acquaintance  with  it  by  surgeons  will  lead,  I  do  not  doubt,  to 
many  valuable  improvements  in  surgical  appliances. — New  York  Journal  of 
Medicine. 
Deodorizing  Properties  of  Coffee.— The  London  Medical  Gazette  gives  the 
result  of  numerous  experiments  with  roasted  coffee,  proving  that  it  is  the 
most  powerful  means,  not  only  of  rendering  animal  and  vegetable  effluvia 
innocuous,  but  of  actually  destroying  them.  A  room  in  which  meat,  in  an 
advanced  state  of  decomposition,  had  been  kept  for  some  time,  was  instantly 
deprived  of  all  smell,  onj  an  open  coffee  roaster  being  carried  through  it 
containing  a  pound  of  coffee  newly  roasted.  In  another  room,  exposed  to 
the  effluvium  occasioned  by  the  clearing  out  of  a  cess-pool,  so  that  sulphu- 
retted hydrogen  and  ammonia,  in  great  quantity,  could  be  chemically  de- 
tected, the  stench  was  completely  removed  within  half  a  minute,  in  the  em- 
ployment of  three  ounces  of  fresh  roasted  coffee;  while  the  other  parts  of 
the  house  were  permanently  cleared  of  the  same  smell  by  being  simply  tra- 
versed with  the  coffee-roaster  although  the  cleansing  of  the  cess-pool  con- 
tinued several  hours  after.  The  best  mode  of  using  the  coffee  as  a  disinfec- 
tant, is  to  dry  the  raw  bean,  pound  it  in  a  mortar,  and  then  roast  the  powder 
in  a  moderately  heated  iron  plate,  until  it  assumes  a  dark  brown  tint,  when 
it  is  fit  for  uise.  Then  sprinkle  it  in  sinks  and  cess-pools,  or  lay  it  on  a 
plate  in  the  room  which  you  wish  to  have  purified.  Coffee  acid  or  coffee  oil 
acts  more  readily  in  minute  quantities. — Eclectic  Med.  Jour. 
Cultivation  of  Liquorice  in  this  Country. — A  correspondent  of  the  Nei& 
York  Times  (Mr.  William  R.  Prince,  of  Flushing,  L.  I.)  is  of  the  opinion 
that  the  officinal  Glycyrrhiza  glabra  may  be  easily  cultivated  in  this  coun- 
try. He  says:  "The  liquorice  is  one  of  the  most  important  plants  that  is 
destined  to  be  added  to  American  agriculture,  and  merits  at  our  hands  an 
early  adoption,  on  account  of  the  facility  of  its  culture,  its  great  usefulness 
for  various  purposes,  and  fur  the  large  profit  it  yields  to  the  cultivator. 
When  the  high-priced  lands  of  England  are  profitably  devoted  to  it,  how 
much  more  profitable  must  it  prove,  where  land  is  plentiful  and  cheap,  and 
where,  above  all,  as  in  several  of  the  Western  States,  the  soil  is  naturally 
permeable,  free  from  all  stones,  and  no  manuring  required.  It  is,  indeed, 
mortifying  to  American  pride,  to  witness  the  many  thousands  now  paid  to 
