non-gelatinous extractive matter, having an aromatic odour and an acrid taste, and being soluble in water and alcohol. It increased with the age and with the height of the animal in the scale of organization. The fibrine was everywhere the same. The relative proportions of the constituents were as follows:

PRESERVATION OF THE HUMAN BODY.

A GENTLEMAN from Canada died at Philadelphia. To enable his family to take him home Drs. Grant and Sharpless undertook to preserve the body. The weather at the time was very sultry with rain and sun nearly every day. A saturated solution of corrosive sublimate in alcohol was thrown into the aorta below the superior mesenteric artery - a quart upward and a pint downward, and the body was kept damp by a weaker mixture. The next day the same quantity of a saturated solution of the acetate of alumina was injected, which had the immediate effect of giving the whole body a manifest rose colour, making it resemble life in a remarkable degree. The face and hands were kept constantly damp with the solution and the body frequently washed with it. The next day the same quantity, and the day following a pint more, were injected. The body was placed in a coffin, with cotton wadding dipped in alcohol around the face and hands. It was removed the day after, and arrived at home but little changed, the eighth day after death. There was a slight odour, but not of putrefaction, or any other indications of such a change. (Condensed from the London Medical Gazette.)

[A cheap and powerful antiseptic is arsenious acid. Bodies injected with a saturated solution holding in suspension some of the fine powder of this acid, may be preserved for a couple of months even in the height of the summer season.-Ed. Ph. Journal.]

CASE OF POISONING WITH HYDROCYANIC ACID-RECOVERY. IN the month of May last the following case occurred, which shews the absolute necessity of caution in the administration of hydrocyanic acid, Pure coagulable albumen.

+ Insoluble in water after evaporation, Including a peculiar watery extractive.

even when it may be supposed to have nearly lost its efficacy by keeping. The case is reported by Mr. George Garston, Surgeon, Stromness, Orkney. Mr. A. W. had been in the habit of taking a mixture containing opium and hydrocyanic acid, to relieve uneasy sensations about the head and heart. On the 23d of May, being engaged in writing, and the usual dose having failed to give relief, he swallowed nearly a teaspoonful of hydrocyanic acid, which had been some time in his possession, and which appeared almost entirely to have lost its properties. The family were alarmed by hearing a groan, and the patient was found breathing irregularly, the jaws fixed, face covered with cold perspiration, a gurgling noise in the throat, pulse weak and quick. The empty bottle, labelled hydrocyanic acid, being on the table, Mr. Garson, who shortly arrived, proceeded to treat him accordingly; pouring cold water along the spine and over the head, and introducing ammoniated alcohol into the mouth. Solution of chloride of lime was also administered. The temperature of the extremities being very much reduced, mustard cataplasms were applied to the legs, arms, and breast, and hot stones to the feet. Rigors, vomiting, sore throat, and occasional convulsions, continued with variable severity during the day, together with a difficulty of deglutition and an abundant flow of saliva. In the course of a few days the patient entirely_recovered.-Condensed from the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, Jan. 1843, p. 72.

[In addition to the very judicious treatment adopted by Mr. Garston, and to which the patient owes his life, Dr. Pereira strongly recommends artificial respiration. The patient being laid on his back (on a table or the floor) powerful pressure is to be made on the front surface of the chest, with both hands, while an assistant presses on the belly, to force up the diaphragm, In this way the air is expelled from the chest. Then by the sudden removal of the pressure, and the consequent resilience of the ribs, &c., an act of inspiration is effected. From fifteen to twenty respirations should be made per minute. If the air respired be faintly impregnated with chlorine gas (generated by adding muriatic acid to chloride of lime contained in a basin), the beneficial effect is greatly augmented.-ED. PH. JOURN.]

PROCESS FOR THE QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION OF CHLORINE.

BY M. J. L. LASSAIGNE.

SEVERAL methods have been already pointed out for estimating the quantity of chlorine, either contained in a free state in water, or afforded by the decomposition of the hypochlorites in contact with acids. These methods, so useful where chlorine is employed in the arts, are founded on two principles: first, on the quantity of solution of indigo, of known strength, which a volume of dry chlorine gas, at a fixed temperature and pressure, is capable of discolourizing; secondly, on the reaction of chlorine gas, on arsenious acid. The modifications adopted in the latter process by Gay Lussac have rendered it preferable in every respect to the old method, which frequently gave false indications, arising from the alteration which the solution of indigo undergoes under the influence of light, and in the course of time, even when excluded from light.

The process which I now submit for the approval of Chemists, and which I have had occasion to submit to a comparative trial with the indigo process, appears to have a decided advantage over that, in the inalterability of the test liquor employed, and the uniformity of the results which are afforded.

The new process is founded on the exact determination of the quantity of dry chlorine gas which is required to decompose a given weight of pure iodide of potassium, so as to transform it into chloride of potassium and perchloride of iodine, which is soluble in water. The complete decomposition of the iodide is easily ascertained, by means of a small quantity of solution of starch, which, mixed with the solution of the iodide employed, at the moment of adding the solution containing the chlorine, will be immediately coloured successively blue, violet, green, red, and yellow, while there remains the least quantity of free iodine. As soon as the decomposition is completed, the liquor becomes as transparent and limped as distilled water. This completion of the re-action in this case, admits of being determined with much greater accuracy than that which takes place with the sulphate of indigo, which, as is known, always remains more or less of a redish yellow colour.

An equivalent of pure and fused iodide of potassium, requires for its complete decomposition into chloride of potassium and perchloride of iodine, six equivalents of dry chlorine. There results from this re-action, one equivalent of chloride of potassium, and one equivalent of perchloride of iodine, formed by the equivalent of iodine separated, and which combines with five equivalents of chlorine. According to this theory, sixty-one cubic inches (2.1138 pints) of dry chlorine gas, at a temperature of 32° Fahr., and under a pressure of thirty inches, weighing 47 grains, will decompose 32 grains of iodide of potassium.

Thus on dissolving thirty-two grains of iodide of potassium in sixty-one cubic inches (2.1138 pints) of distilled water, a solution is obtained, which requires for its perfect decomposition, a volume equal to its own of chlorine, or sixty-one cubic inches of the dry gas, under the conditions of temperature and pressure above stated, as direct experiment has proved.

This test solution keeps perfectly well in a wide-mouthed stoppered bottle. For using it, a measured quantity is taken with a small graduated pipette, and put into a common glass, and a small quantity of solution of starch added to it. When it is desired to determine the strength of a simple solution of chlorine in water, the graduated tube with a bent neck, such as is generally used in chlorimetry, is filled with the liquid, which is allowed to fall drop by drop into an equal volume of the test solution of iodide of potassium mixed with solution of starch. As the first drops fall, they give rise to the formation of blue iodide of amidou, which becomes more intense as a greater quantity of iodine is set at liberty, but presently, this iodide is, in its turn decomposed, and the liquor, previously to its becoming quite colourless, passes through the various shades to which allusion has already been made.

The quantities of solution of chlorine employed at an operation to produce complete decolouration, is of course in inverse proportion to the chlorine which it contains, thus, when in an experiment we are obliged to use twenty measures of the chlorine solution to decolourize ten measures of the normal solution of iodide of potassium, the solution must contain only half its volume of chlorine, or 0.50.-Journal de Chimie Medicale.

ON THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF LANTHANIUM.

BY CHOUBINE AND RAMMELSBERG.

CHOUBINE has been engaged in the analysis of the lately discovered mineral tschewkinits. It consists of silicic acid, protoxide of iron, cerium, lanthanium, and titanic acid, with a slight admixture of alumina and lime.

To determine the atomic weight of lanthanium, Choubine converted the oxide into a chloride, and into the double salt sulphate of lanthanium and potash. In one experiment he obtained 451.872 as the atomic weight of

lanthanium; in a second, 451.956. The mean of these two is 451.914. In a third experiment, analysis gave 451.879.-Bullet. de Petersburg, 1842.

According to Rammelsberg, the atomic number for cerium is 572.8; for lanthanium, 554.88.-Pogg. Ann. lv. pp. 64-66.

The cause of the uncertainty which still exists with regard to cerium and lanthanium is somewhat explained by Mosander's announcement, that they are constantly accompanied by a third metal, didym.

A notice of the new metal, Didym, appeared in our number for November last, p. 368-ED. PH. J.

ON OPIANIC ACID.

BY LIEBIG AND WOEHLER.

THIS substance is most readily obtained by the oxidation of narcotine in the following manner:

Dissolve narcotine in an excess of dilute sulphuric acid, add to the solution finely powdered binoxide of manganese, and apply heat. It will soon assume a yellow saffron-like colour, and evolve carbonic acid gas. Heat to boiling, which is to be kept up until no more carbonic acid gas escapes. Both the manganese and sulphuric acid must be in excess, for which test, and then filter whilst boiling. In cooling, the fluid will nearly wholly congeal, and form a magma of fine needle-like crystals of opianic acid.

The mass is to be placed on a filter to allow the yellow-coloured fluid to pass off, wash several times with cold water, press as firmly as possible, and remove impurities by treating with animal charcoal, and repeated recrystallization from boiling water.

The opianic acid crystallizes in very small shining silky prisms of indefinite form. It is but slightly soluble in cold water, but the more so in hot; so that a saturated solution, in cooling, nearly wholly crystallizes, like a solution of benzoic acid. It is also soluble in alcohol. It re-acts as an acid, though it has but a faintly sour and bitter taste. It readily melts, and forms a clear oil, which crystallizes on cooling, but remains amorphous, if heated beyond the point of melting, It does not appear to be volatile, although it may be distilled over, a circumstance referable to its adhesion to the sides of the retort.

Heated in the air it emits an aromatic odour, similar to narcotine, which it resembles in combustion, with a vivid flame and deposition of carbon. Opianic acid expels carbonic acid, and forms, with bases, soluble salts. The salts of silver and oxide of lead crystallize in thin shining prisms and flakes. It contains no nitrogen.

On its composition, formation from narcotine, and remarkable affinity for ammonia, the Editor will at a future period more fully enlarge.-Journ, für prakt. Chemie, xxvii., pp. 97, 98.

ON THE CONVERSION OF OIL OF VALERIAN INTO BORNEO CAMPHOR AND LAUREL-CAMPHOR.

BY GERHARDT.

THE Oil of valerian has been proved to consist of at least two oils; the less volatile oil (called Valerol)=is C10 H10 O2 has not, when pure, the unpleasant odour of valerian, but by exposure to the air is converted into valeric acid, and crystallizes in colourless diaphanous prisms, which may be preserved at a common temperature, if excluded from the atmospheric air. Potash very readily converts it into valeric acid with an evolution of hydrogen; treated with a mineral acid, the valeric acid is set at liberty with an evolution of carbonic acid. Hence it is probable, that valeric acid is not a product of vegetation, but a secondary formation, resulting from the action of the air

on the volatile oil of the plant. This light oil of valerian, like all volatile oils containing oxygen, is in the oil obtained from the valerian root, accompanied by a combination of carbon and hydrogen, in the form of oil of turpentine, with which its chemical characters accord.

This combination of carbon and hydrogen, if exposed to moisture, or distilled with a solution of potash, readily acquires the elements of two atoms of water, and is converted into a crystalline camphor, which has all the properties of Borneo-camphor (from Dryobalanops Camphora), as its composition also coincides with that of the latter, as given by Pelouze, viz., C20 H18 O2. Gerhardt gives to this compound of carbon and hydrogen in valeric acid the name of Borneen, which he believes to be identical with liquid camphor, and to the camphor itself the name of Borneol, which he proves to be identical with the camphor of Pelouze, by its conversion, with the acid of nitric acid, into laurel-camphor (Laurus Camphora) with this composition, C20 H16 O2. Re-agents also produce similar results. If Borneen be heated with strong nitric acid, then saturated with carbonate of soda and distilled, laurel-camphor immediately results.-Comptes Rendus, 1842. Pr. Sem. p. 832.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE THERAPEUTIC AGENCY OF THE LIQUOR OF HYDRIODATE OF ARSENIC AND MERCURY.

BY PROFSSOR DONOVAN, OF DUBLIN.

[Abridged from the Dublin Journal of Medical Science for November, 1842.]
(Continued from page 471.)

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.

It may be collected that the elements of which the liquor of hydriodate of arsenic and mercury is composed, do really acquire an increase of efficacy by combination; for we find, that diseases in which arsenic, mercury, and iodine had been separately tried without any good effect, were finally cured by the same agents when they were in a state of chemical union. Amongst the changes of properties induced on these substances by chemical affinity, an increase of medical efficacy seems to be one.

Thus, in Professor Williams's case, Fowler's arsenical liquor had been given for a fortnight without the least effect; and hydriodate of potash had no better success. But after one week's use of liquor of hydriodate of arsenic and mercury, in very small doses, the lepra began to yield, and soon after disappeared.

In Dr. Osbrey's case of psoriasis, the patient had been for two years under trial of various remedies without relief. When placed under Dr. Osbrey's care, Fowler's solution, mercury,hydriodate of potash, sarsaparilla, guaiacum, and soda, were used without making the slightest impression. Within ten days after the patient commenced taking the liquor of hydriodate of arsenic and mercury, the eruption began to decline rapidly; and in two months the woman was perfectly well.

In Dr. Charles O'Reilly's cases, Fowler's arsenical solution, iodine, calomel, corrosive sublimate, sarsaparilla, and the whole tribe of alteratives had been ineffectually employed; yet the liquor of hydriodate of arsenic and mercury succeeded; in one instance three drachms were sufficient, equal to threeeighths of a grain of arsenious acid; in the other four drachms.

Dr. Bigger's patient had used mercury largely, as also Fowler's solution, without the slightest benefit; but under the use of the liquor he speedily got well. Dr. Irvine frequently failed with iodine, arsenic, and mercury, separately employed, but with the combination he succeeded.