plate is then taken from the frame in the dark room and washed with water for five or ten minutes, till the relief is fully developed, after which it is dried with filtered paper and coated with glycerine by means of a camel's-hair pencil, and the excess of liquid is removed with filter-paper. From this plate a cast is made in plaster of Paris of the consist ency of oil, and from the plaster cast a metal one may be taken.-21 A, Sept., 1874, 930.

PHOSPHOR-BRONZE.

M. Delatot, in an article upon "phosphor-bronze," states that it is not an alloy, but a true chemical combination of copper with phosphorus, or a phosphide of copper in definite proportions. The union of the two may be through the cold or the hot process, the cold sufficing for certain applications, being preferable indeed to combinations produced by heat. By the hot process the introduction of simple bodies other than the metals or metalloids is prevented. The copper used in the process must be commercially pure. Of the three kinds of phosphorus the operator may take his choice: the ordinary, the amorphous, and the earthy biphos phates. The amorphous is the most expensive, and is also the best. According to Delatot, the percentage of phos phorus varies from 2 to 4, between which there may be an infinity of degrees, although for industrial purposes five varieties meet all the requirements. These are formed with 2 per cent. of phosphorus, 24 per cent., 3, 3, and 4 per cent. Above 4 phosphor-bronze is useless, but between 3 and 4 per cent. the material is claimed to be superior to any other metal or alloy. The price of phosphor-bronze, unworked, should not exceed that of copper plus 10 per cent.—18 A, April 9, 1875, 97.

N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND

HYGIENE.

THE POISONOUS PROPERTIES OF ALCOHOLS.

Dujardin-Beaumetz and Andigé have made some curious toxicological experiments with the fermentation alcohols of ethyl, propyl, butyl, and amyl. Over sixty dogs were subjected to investigation, and each poison was tested not only through the stomach, but also by administration through the skin. The intensity of the poisoning is greatest when the alcohol is taken into the stomach, and seems, if we arrange the four substances above named in a series, to increase in a serial way. Thus ethyl alcohol (common alcohol), having the lowest molecular weight, is the least poisonous, while amyl alcohol (fusel-oil), at the other end of the list, is the most so.-6 B, July 26.

A NEW SEDATIVE.

M. Bonneville has investigated the therapeutic properties of monobrominated camphor, and finds it to be a decided sedative. Tested upon small animals, like rabbits and cats, he found it to depress the action of the heart, to diminish the number of respirations without disturbing their rhythm, and to lower the bodily temperature very regularly, in a remarkable degree. Tested upon human beings, it gave satisfactory results in cases of chorea, hysteria, cardiac affections of nervous origin, and epilepsy. The new remedy was dissolved, sometimes in alcohol, sometimes in glycerine, but the dose is not stated.-6 B, August 9.

DETECTION OF ARSENIC IN TISSUES.

The problem of detecting arsenic in medico-legal cases is often rendered obscure by the liability the chemist incurs of losing a large part of the poison. Gautier now proposes a method by which almost every trace of the arsenic contained in a quantity of muscle, or other animal matter, can be recovered and estimated quantitatively. The finely chopped muscle, liver, or brain, as the case may be, is treat

ed in a large capsule, first with one third its weight of nitric acid, and warmed. When the mass becomes viscous the heat is withdrawn, and a few grammes of strong sulphuric acid added. Then, after warming again until white vapors begin to come off, half the original quantity of nitric acid is poured in, drop by drop. The mass is now to be heated until it begins to carbonize, and a black residue is obtained. which can be easily lixiviated by boiling water. To the hot, filtered solution sodium bisulphite is to be added, until sulphurous acid is given off, and then the arsenic may be precipitated in the usual manner by sulphureted hydrogen. In a test experiment 0.005 gramme of white arsenic was mixed with 100 grammes of beef muscle. This should contain 0.00378 gramme of the metal, and 0.00365 was act ually recovered.—6 B, August 2.

DETECTION OF FUSEL-OIL IN ALCOHOL.

According to Bettelli, in order to detect. fusel-oil in alcohol it is only necessary to shake the suspected sample, diluted by six or seven times its volume of water, with fifteen to twenty drops of chloroform. The latter takes up any fusel-oil which may be present, leaving it behind after evap oration, to be recognized by its odor. By this method a fraction of one per cent. of fusel-oil is easily detected.—Bull. Soc. Chimique, July 20, 1875.

GROUNDWORT AS A FEBRIFUGE.

Glocener, of Hainault, announces that he has discovered in the groundwort (Senecio arvensis) virtues as a febrifuge superior to those of cinchona and its derivatives. Fifty grammes of the fresh plant, exclusive of the root, are to be boiled for ten minutes in 500 grammes of water, and the solution strained. This is to be taken in three doses, at intervals of two hours, after the attack. In nearly every case positive relief, if not a cure, is claimed as the result.-1 B, January 10, 1875, 240.

EFFECT OF MORPHIA ON SECRETIONS.

From a paper by Kratschmer upon the influence of morphia, and of carbonate and sulphate of soda on the formation of sugar, and the excretion of urea in diabetes, it appears

that in morphia we actually possess a remedy that not only very materially reduces the excretion of sugar in this disease, but decidedly diminishes the metamorphosis of tissue in the body generally. In this respect morphia resembles alcohol and tobacco, and appears to form a valuable means of making up for an imperfect supply of food, provided its secondary influences are not in the way.-13 A, March 21, 1874, 319.

THERAPEUTICAL USES OF HOT BATHS.

Professor Lasègue, in a paper on the therapeutical uses of hot baths, remarks that these should be of short durationfrom twenty to thirty minutes at furthest-the temperature on entering the bath to be lower than that on quitting it, whatever extremes it may reach in the mean time, and the increase of temperature always to be made gradually. The maximum should be 118° Fahr., although 113° is perhaps a better limit. This temperature is easily borne, provided the escaping steam be not felt on the uncovered portions of the body, and also provided that the maximum be not maintained over eight or ten minutes. On leaving the bath the patient is to be placed in his bed, where he soon regains, not his true temperature, which has varied but little, but his apparent temperature. M. Lasègue finds that cold applications. immediately after the hot bath, contrary to what takes place after vapor baths, are neither useful nor agreeable. The disease which yields most readily to this system of hot baths, it is stated, is chronic rheumatism producing deformities of the joints, which usually resists all ordinary modes of treatment.-20 A, November 21, 1874, 588.

INTRODUCING MEDICINES INTO THE SYSTEM BY GALVANISM.

According to Herman Munk, the failures of the various. attempts to convey liquid medicaments into the living human body by means of the galvanic current have been because the current has been sent in one direction alone; as he has found that, if a moist, porous body, between liquids of various conductivity, be traversed by the current, the speed of the conveyance of the liquid into this body rapidly diminishes, and soon becomes zero. If, under the same circumstances, the current is reversed, after a short interval,

the liquid enters anew from the now positive electrode. By frequently repeating this reversal large quantities of the Eşild can be introduced Mr. Mank has in this way transferred fatal quantities of strychnine solution through the unbroken skin of young dogs, and has introduced chinin and iodide of potassium into his own arm in such quantities as to be readily detected in the excreta. The essential points, therefore, in such operations are that the liquid substance be placed at both electrodes, and that the direction of the current be frequently reversed.-18 A, August 23, 1874, 614.

DIABETES HEREDITARY.

According to Dr. Schmitz, diabetes, that much-dreaded disease, is almost always the result of congenital predisposi tion; mental anxiety, severe pain, injuries of various kinds, etc., whether they affect the nervous system or not, being powerless to bring about the affection without an inherited tendency to it.-20 A, December 5, 1874, 635.

ACTION OF JABORANDL

Mr. Martindale, of University College Hospital, England, gives an account of an experiment upon himself of the physiological action of the new Brazilian drug, jaborandi, which has been highly commended as a sudorific and sialagogue. An infusion of sixty grains of the bruised leaf, in five ounces of water, was prepared, and the equivalent of about fifty grains swallowed by Mr. Martindale. In a very short time he felt an increased circulation and an uneasiness in the head, with a rapid secretion of saliva. In a quarter of an hour he perspired freely, and the perspiration and salivation rapidly increased to such a degree as to blur his eyesight. The pulse rapidly rose from 96° to 104°; the perspiration poured out from all parts of the body, the saliva for a time required almost constant ejection, and the speech was affected so that articulation was difficult and indistinct. After a time vomiting came on, which threw off a portion of the solution of the jaborandi. There were many uncomfortable symptoms attendant upon the experiment, which, however, passed off after a time. The saliva collected during the experiment weighed nearly sixteen ounces, in addition to a quantity which flowed on the pillow while the patient slept.