338 
ON  ANTIMONIAL  VERMILION. 
even  to  their  own  neighbors,  small  portions  of  what  they  called 
musk,  but  what  was  merely  some  substance  resembling  it,  with  a 
little  genuine  musk  scattered  over  it.  Of  this  stuff  they  would 
sell  about  a  quarter  of  a  tolah  for  a  rupee,  or  about  twenty  shil- 
lings an  ounce. 
The  substances  commonly  used  for  adulteration  or  to  fill  the 
counterfeit  pods  are,  blood  boiled,  or  baked  on  the  fire,  then  dried, 
beaten  to  a  powder,  kneaded  into  a  paste,  and  made  into  grains 
and  coarse  powder  to  resemble  genuine  musk  ;  a  piece  of  the  liver 
or  spleen  prepared  in  the  same  manner ;  dried  gall,  and  a  particu- 
lar part  of  the  bark  of  the  apricot-tree,  pounded  and  kneaded  as 
above.  The  dried  paste  from  which  common  oil  has  been  ex- 
tracted, called  "  peena,"  is  also  used,  and  lumps  of  this  are  often, 
without  farther  preparation,  thrust  into  a  pod  through  the  orifice 
in  the  skin,  to  increase  the  weight.  Sometimes  no  care  is  taken 
to  give  the  material  employed  in  filling  a  counterfeit  pod  even 
the  appearance  of  musk.  A  gentleman  once  showed  me  a  pod  he 
had  bought  from  a  Puharrie  at  Missouri ;  on  my  telling  him  it 
was  counterfeit,  he  cut  it  open,  and  found  it  filled  with  hookah 
tobacco. — Pharm.  Journ.,  from  Shooting  in  the  Himalayas  :  a 
Journal  of  Sporting  Adventures  and  Travel  in  Chinese  Tartary, 
Ludac,  Thibet,  Cashmere,  $c.  By  Col.  Fred.  Markham,  C.  Bv 
32d  Regiment. 
ON  ANTIMONIAL  VERMILION. 
By  E.  Mathieu-Plessy. 
The  author  has  invented  a  process  which  furnishes  antimonial 
vermilion  of  a  beautiful  color,  and  which  is  sufficiently  simple  to 
be  employed  in  its  preparation  on  a  large  scale. 
Hyposulphite  of  soda  is  best  prepared  by  the  action  of  sulphur 
upon  sulphite  of  soda ;  it  is  not  usually  allowed  to  crystallize. 
The  sulphite  of  soda  must  be  in  the  neutral  state  to  avoid  the 
action  of  the  sulphurous  acid  upon  the  hyposulphite.  The 
sulphite  of  soda  is  most  simply  and  cheaply  prepared  in  the 
following  manner,  recommended  by  Camille  Kochlin.  In  the 
upper  part  of  a  vessel,  the  bottom  of  which  is  broken  out,  a  sieve 
containing  large  crystals  of  carbonate  of  soda  is  fixed.    Into  the 
