lating with the syrups of the phosphates, and inquired whether it might not be accounted for by impurities in the sugar. Some manufacturers of these preparations had assured him that they gave the preference to "Lovering's Sugar," and found no difficulty with it. T. S. Wiegand, Professor Parrish and others dissented from this view, stating that there was, according to their experience, very little difference between the products of the several sugar refineries that supply our market.

Professor MAISCH having observed a crystalline precipitation in mixing solution of morphia with cyanide of potassium, exhibited the results of some of his experiments, and reported that hydrocyanate of morphia is nearly insoluble in water and in an excess of the precipitant, but dissolves readily in diluted mineral acids. The experiments were made with granular cyanide of potassium and with cyanide of ammonium, prepared from hydrocyanic acid and ammonia.

June 23.-Mr. W. M. Torrens gave notice that on the
order for the second reading of the Pharmacy Act
Amendment Bill on June 26, he should move that it be
read a second time that day three months. Petitions
against the Bill were presented from--
Bacup, by Mr. Holt.

Bayswater and Kensington, by Sir Henry Hoare.
Beverley and Bridlington, by Mr. Broadley.
Bishop Auckland, by Mr. Pease.

Brigg, Louth, and Barton-on-Humber, by Mr. R.
Winn.

Cradley, Lye, and Quarry Bank, by Mr. Lyttelton.
Eastbourne, by Mr. Dodson.
Evesham, by Colonel Bourne.
Kendal, by Mr. W. Lowther.
Liverpool, by Mr. W. Rathbone.
Lytham, by Colonel Wilson-Patten.

North London and elsewhere, by Mr. M'Cullagh
Torrens.

Plymouth, by Mr. Morrison.
Reading, by Mr. Benyon.

Scarborough, by Sir H. Johnstone.
Sheffield, by Mr. Hadfield.
Staley bridge, by Mr. Buckley.
Stockton-upon-Tees, by Mr. Dodds.
Swansea, by Mr. Dillwyn.

Todmorden and Selby, by Mr. Fielden.
Warminster, by Lord H. Thynne.

Woolwich and Plumstead, by Sir D. Salomons.

June 26.-The second reading of the Pharmacy Act
Amendment Bill was deferred till Thursday, July 6.
Petitions against the Bill were presented from-
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, by Lord J. Manners.
Ashton-under-Lyne, by Mr. Mellor.
Bewdley, by Colonel Anson.
Bideford, by Sir S. Northcote.

Blackheath, Lee, and Lewisham, by Mr. Mills.
Burnley, by Mr. R. Shaw.

Buxton, by Lord G. Cavendish.

Carnarvon, by Mr. Jones-Parry.

Clitheroe, by Mr. Assheton.

Council of the Pharmaceutical Society, by Mr. Alderman Lusk.

Durham, by Mr. Henderson.

Gateshead, by Sir William Hutt.

Helensburgh and Dumbarton, by Mr. Bouverie.

Heywood and Eccles, by Mr. A. Egerton.

Kentish Town, by Mr. T. Chambers.

Leeds, by Mr. Baines.

Lincoln, by Mr. Seeley.

Middlesborough, by Mr. Bolckow.

Newport, Isle of Wight, by Mr. C. Clifford.

Pembroke and Pembroke Dock, by Mr. T. Meyrick.

Ramsbottom, by Mr. J. Snowden Henry.

Reading, by Mr. Shaw Lefevre and Colonel Lloyd
Lindsay.

Ringwood, by Mr. Cowper-Temple.

Spalding, Sleeford, and Heckington, by Mr. Welby.
Wandsworth, by Mr. Peek.

Whitehaven, by Mr. C. Bentinck.

June 27.-Petitions against the Pharmacy Act Amend

ment Bill were presented from

Aylesbury, by Mr. N. de Rothschild.

Bath, by Sir W. Tite.

Barnstaple, by Mr. T. Cave.

Blackburn, by Mr. Hornby.

Boughton, near Faversham, by Mr. G. Milles.

Bradford, by Mr. W. E. Forster.

Canterbury, by Captain Brinckman.

Carlisle, by Sir W. Lawson.

Cleckheaton and Harrogate, by Mr. J. Fielden.

Coventry, by Mr. Eaton.

Derby, by Mr. Bass.

Dewsbury, by Mr. Serjeant Simon.

Miss Christiana Edmunds said that in September last she bought some chocolate creams at Mr. Maynard's establishment. On that occasion she ate two of them, and, about an hour afterwards, was seized with violent internal pains, and a burning in the throat, which lasted twenty minutes. She did not notice any unusual taste when eating them. On taking some brandy she became On Monday morning, about nine o'clock, Mr. Charles worse, and then took some castor-cil, after which she reDavid Miller bought some chocolate-cream at Mr. May- covered. In March last, she tried some creams again, nard's shop. He gave one of the drops to the deceased, and a friend who was with her also tasted some of them. who complained of its being "nasty," and his brother, They had a strange nauseous metallic taste, and witness Mr. Ernest Miller, spat one out as soon as he put it in had no sooner swallowed a portion of one than she was his mouth. Notwithstanding this, however, Mr. Miller seized as before, but more violently, and in a slightly ate several of the drops himself, and shortly afterwards different way. There was the same burning in the felt very unwell. A feeling of coldness suddenly came throat, and a feeling of lightness in that region. The over him; he shivered all over, and his limbs became saliva kept flowing into the mouth, and she was seized quite rigid. As these feelings recurred to him when he at- with a trembling all over, and felt an indescribable tempted to get from the chair in which he was sitting, a sensation. Her face also looked livid. She again took medical man was sent for. Mr. Tuke, surgeon, on his brandy-and-water with the same effect as before, and arrival, attributed these symptoms to nervousness, and then trying the castor-oil, she gradually recovered. Her said there was no harm in the chocolate. Mr. Miller, friend was affected in the same way, and took a glass of however, continued to feel very unwell throughout the wine, which made her very sick, and she then also re

covered. After the witness had got well, she noticed When the present stock was received in February it was that her taste had gone, and it did not return for some handed over to Miss Page, and it would be proved that little time. On the same day she took back the remainder it was from some of these that Mr. Miller was supplied of the chocolate-creams to Mr. Maynard, and told him with the creams, which he gave to the deceased. When of what had occurred. He assured her that she was mis- he spoke as though he had received complaints pretaken in supposing that it was the chocolate-creams which viously he meant such as of the sweetmeats being had affected her in the way described. Some more were flavoured with the wrong substance. Miss Edmunds' brought and tasted, but they seemed all right. Mrs. complaint was the first of that character that he had reMaynard also tasted one of those which the witness had ceived. He had a young family, and his youngest boy originally bought, and found that there was nothing the was in the habit of continually eating these very chocomatter with it. Mr. Maynard told her he was much late-creams. He had never been troubled with rats nor obliged to her for coming, and he would communicate with mice in the shop, as he kept a cat for the purpose with his French agents. He also said that he should be of destroying them. About a month ago some phosphoric willing for her to have any analysis made that she paste was put in a pot-room, quite away from the shop, desired. As she did not feel satisfied she went from Mr. and on a different story, where the cat could not get. Maynard's to Mr. Schweitzer's, and after telling him the circumstances, asked him to make an analysis. He treated the matter lightly at first, thinking her nervous and fanciful, but, after having tasted one of the creams, he thought differently. He afterwards forwarded her the following result of his analysis:

The cream cocoa consists of small, irregular, round cakes, filled with a soft white sugar composition. After examination, it was found that this white composition of some of these cakes, or balls, had a distinct metallic taste, whilst others were perfectly free from it. This metallictasting sugar composition, when washed out of the cocoa enclosure, gave, when filtered, a clear colourless solution of a sweet but slightly metallic taste; it had also a faint reaction on litmus paper. When somewhat concentrated by evaporation, it gave white flocculent precipitates with lime-water and with carbonated alkalies, the precipitate being soluble in excess of potash or ammonia. The precipitate produced by sulphuret of ammonium had also a white colour. Chlorine and sulphuric acid were only present as traces. The metal with which the so-called cream of some of the cream-cocoa balls is impregnated is, in fact, zine, in combination with a vegetable or organic acid. It appears that this cream must be prepared in zine vessels, where, when left long in contact and acid, those portions which are in contact with the sides of the vessel become impregnated with it, and when scraped off and introduced in the cocoa coating it, imparts to them a highly poisonous character."

In answer to Mr. Penfold, Miss Edmunds stated that she did not communicate the result of the analysis to Mr. Maynard, as he seemed so sceptical and prejudiced

about it.

Mr. Julius Schweitzer, analytical chemist, King's Road, was then called, and stated that the above was the result of his analysis. In answer to the Coroner, he said that the metallic poison he found in the creams was an entirely different substance from the strychnia which Dr. Letheby found in those he had examined. In answer to Mr. Penfold, this witness said that he did not take any steps to have the result of his analysis communicated to Mr. Maynard.

Mr. Penfold then asked that Maynard, and one or two of his assistants might be called to speak to the circumstances under which the chocolate was received and sold in his establishment.

Mr. Maynard accordingly stated that he was a confectioner at 39, 40, and 41, West Street. After Miss Edmunds had complained of the chocolate-creams he caused a thorough investigation to be made, and he and his wife and Miss Page, one of the assistants, tasted a great deal of the stock, and could find nothing the matter. He was always particular to make a thorough investigation if ever a complaint was made. He had never manufactured any chocolate-creams himself, but always obtained them wholesale. Since February last he had obtained all his French sorts from a wholesale dealer in London, and he was positive that there was none of the previous stock now in the shop, for owing to the war they had been completely sold out about a fortnight · before he obtained his supply from the new source.

The Coroner remarked that it was evident that phosphoric paste had nothing to do with the strychnia, and that Mr. Maynard was more fortunate than the chocolate manufacturers in France, for there they found that nothing but sheet-iron would keep the rats out. By Mr. Gell.-When we found, after Miss Edmunds' complaint, that there was nothing the matter with the rest of the stock, and not receiving any communication from her, we thought it was all fancy, and did not have any analysis made. The boxes of chocolate-creams that I have in my shop with the "Cadbury" label are English. The cakes are smaller, and in my shop the two sorts are kept entirely distinct.

Miss Kate Page, assistant to Mr. Maynard, was then called, and said that the French chocolate department was under her management, and after the goods were received from London they were placed in cases in the storeroom. The average sale of French chocolate-creams was about four pounds a week. The English sort is made up in smaller cakes, and is all white, the pink colour being confined to the French. She could speak positively to all the glasses being empty before the fresh stock was received in February, because they cleared them all out for a gentleman.

By the Coroner.-I cannot suggest any way in which the strychnine could have got into the chocolate while it was on Mr. Maynard's premises, for no one had anything to do with it but myself.

Annie Meadows, the assistant who sold the creams to Mr. Miller, said that she took them out of the case which the last witness had filled. She asserted that those she gave to Mr. Miller were all white, but the Coroner stated that that gentleman had said that Mr. Maynard did not sell any with an ornament on the top, like some which it was stated that Mr. Miller had produced on the last occasion.

Mr. Ware, the manufacturer of these chocolate-creams, said that he had been engaged in business since 1839, and had never had any complaint of this sort made before, though they had made hundreds of tons of the chocolatecreams. He then described the process of manufacture. The white or creamy part, he said, was pure sugar boiled down to a certain pitch, and then treated with cream of tartar to "kill the grain" of the sugar. The colouring-matter in the pink kinds was cochineal or carmine, and the flavour was imported by vanilla, otto of roses, or liqueurs. The chocolate of their manufacture was called French because they used French machinery. He admitted that they were troubled with rats, but not to any great extent. They used dogs, traps, and poison to exterminate them, but as the workmen were paid so much for each one they destroyed, he could not say what sort of poison they used. He remembered some paste being spread on bread-and-butter. All the mixing required in the chocolate manufacture was done on marble slabs.

The Coroner then summed up. He said that as to the cause of death there could be no doubt, for sufficient strychnia had been found in the stomach to kill a child of that age, and the quantity found in the stomach after death was frequently but a fraction of the quantity that

Review.

CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS THE MATERIA MEDICA AND NATURAL HISTORY OF CHINA, for the use of Medical Missionaries and Native Medical Students. By FREDERICK PORTER SMITH, M.B. London, Medical Missionary in Central China.-Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press.-London: Trübner and Co., 60, Paternoster Row. 1871. Pp. 237.

This work is the result of the leisure moments of two

had been absorbed into the system. As to the way in which the strychnine was administered, that also was perfectly clear. It must have been by means of the chocolate-creams, but how it got into them could only be a matter of conjecture, and the most reasonable hypothesis was that it was through some misadventure with the vermin poison. But how that got there, there was no evidence to show. They would also have to consider whether any one had been guilty of criminal negligence. The fact of the manufacturer having been established in business thirty-two years, and never having had a complaint previously, was sufficient to show the manner in which his business was conducted, and, therefore, to ex-years spent by the author at the great trading city of culpate him. Mr. Maynard had taken every reasonable precaution, after Miss Edmunds had complained to him; and though it was certainly unfortunate that neither she nor Mr. Schweitzer had thought of communicating the result of the analysis to him, yet, strange to say, the poison discovered on that occasion was evidently quite different from that which had caused the death of the deceased, and must have found its way in a different way. He, therefore, recommended them to find a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence as to the cause of death, and stating that there was no evidence to show how the strychnine got into the chocolate.

Hankow on the banks of the Yang-tse-kiang, some hundreds of miles from the sea. It forms a neatly printed volume in which are arranged in alphabetical order the names either in English or in Latin of a variety of substances, most of which are either found in the drug shops of the Chinese or in the dispensaries attached to the Mission Hospitals. Each name is followed by a Chinese equivalent expressed in native characters. As most of the chemical substances employed in European medicine have no Chinese names, and as the sound of Latin or English words is often inexpressible by Chinese characters, special names framed according to Chinese The Foreman of the Jury said that they fully agreed ideas have been invented. Thus Iodine is termed with the Coroner's remarks, but would wish to add a Hai-tien i. e. Sea-indigo; Sulphuric acid, Liu-hwang-yú suggestion to their verdict, that great care should be i. e. Sulphur-oil; Lunar caustic, Yin-siau i. e. Silvertaken in using vermin poison at the place of manu-nitre. Even Chlorodyne is put into Chinese as Poh-hofacture.

Mr. Penfold wished to state that Mr. Maynard would at once destroy the whole of his present stock of French chocolate.-Brighton Daily News.

SUICIDE BY PHOSPHOROUS VERMIN KILLER. An inquest has been held at Tweedmouth upon the body of Jane Weatherhead. It appeared that the deceased, having had some little difference with her husband, left her home and went to stay two or three days with some friends. Upon returning home her husband noticed that her lips, teeth and tongue were black, and asked her what was the matter. She replied that she had taken poison at Kelso two days previously, in the form of vermin killer. Medical assistance was obtained, but she died the next day.

Dr. Brown said that he found the deceased in a state of collapse, pulseless and breathing heavily; her eyeballs were dilated and she was almost unconscious. He tried to get her to swallow a little milk but she could not. He examined some of her vomit: it was of a dark coffee colour, and had the appearance of containing some undigested blood. He was told that deceased had taken some "vermin destroyer," and that it was a paste. From the appearance and symptoms he was of opinion that the deceased died through poisoning by phosphorus. He considered the case hopeless from the first.

The jury returned that the deceased died from the effects of phosphorus taken while in a state of insanity.

ADULTERATION OF BREAD WITH ALUM. At the City Police Court, Manchester, charges were recently brought against two bakers of having adulterated bread by the admixture of alum. Loaves of bread, which had been purchased at the shops of defendants, were submitted to analysis by Professor Roscoe, who deposed that he had found in the different samples 13, 12, and 4 grains of alum to the pound respectively. In one case it was submitted that in order to convict it must be proved that the defendant was cognizant of the presence of alum in the flour. The magistrate, however, decided that it was the duty of the baker to take care that the flour had no alum in it. A fine of £5 was inflicted in each case.

yoh, literally Peppermint-medicine.

Following the name are remarks descriptive of the history and uses of each article. As a specimen we may quote the following:

"Sal Ammoniac.-Nau-sha, Nung-sha, Peh-ting"sha.-This saline substance, the chloride of ammonium "of chemists, is brought from Lan-chau-fu and Ning"hia in Kan-suh. The country of the Tih, or Si-jung, "and Turfan formerly yielded it. The volcanic moun"tain of Peh-ting in Turfan is said to have yielded some "ammoniacal salt from fissures in its sides, and hence "the name Peh-ting sha, more correctly given perhaps to "volcanic ammonia. The Chinese name Nau-sha is very "like the Hindustani names Naushadar and Nausadar, given to thick, fibrous, translucent cakes of this crude "salt of ammonia obtained in India from the unburnt "extremity of brick-kilns in which the manure of camels "etc. is used as fuel. (Dr. Waring's Ph. of India, p. 309.) "Keferstein affirms that both carbonate and muriate of "ammonia are found in China, but the dirty-white, rough, deliquescent salt commonly sold under this name is "nothing but sulphate of soda, or common salt. Nitre (soda-nitrate) and borax are also confounded with it. "It is used as a flux or solder, or is said to be so employed. Whilst the salt is said to be deleterious, it is "also said to be used in curing meat, or as a condiment. "It is mainly used as a solvent for opacities of the cornea, for which the sulphate of soda acts almost as "well. It acts as a sedative, resolvent, deobstruent, "pectoral and mild escharotic, in Chinese estimation. They use it in veterinary practice. Some of the "samples contain iron, and resemble the Kala Nimuk "of India."

66

Several of the substances used in Chinese medicine described some years ago in the pages of this journal are further illustrated by the researches of Dr. Porter Smith. Thus the seeds called Fe-tsaou-tow are referred by him to Acacia concinna [DC.], with the information that the pods containing them are used instead of soap in the washing of clothes, but from their strong smell are not allowed in the public baths. The root known as Tsing-muh-heang noticed in one of the papers referred to,† is stated by our author to be that of Aristolochia contorta [Bunge], but he does not say how this point was settled, or give any particulars as to the cultivation or collection of the plant. By the Trade Report of Ningpo

we learn however from Mr. Bowra, ioner of Customs, that this drug is in rheumatism, and that it is exto the value of about £26,000 oot, our author remarks-"The orna called by this generic name , is made by grating the root of the n speciosum, grinding it to a coarse ating it in the ordinary way. . . . reddish-white, glistening, unctuous very tenacious jelly of a dark colour. purposes of the best arrowroot, and in the treatment of diarrhoea and he adds that it is so frequently aduluminous farina," that most families it for themselves. No starch appears n Sagittaria.t

dded much to the scientific value and

ter Smith's work had his statements - personal. One is constantly tempted ou make out this? As an example, our author asserts is produced in the kien and Canton. But on what evidetermined? The official Reports on by the Inspector General of Customst as shipped from any one of the twelve Continental China, but only from the sa. Dr. Smith then adds that Borneo to come from Chang chau fu in Fuhree yielding it, the Dryobalanops Camibed as growing in Canton province." y say that such statements as these are and quite unworthy an important book

that the rhizomes of Iris Florentina, (a a to exist eastward of the Mediterranean met with all over China," and a similar ing Oxalis Acetosella indicate a want of scriminating drugs and plants that is calair confidence in other statements.

so raise a protest against the omission of auotanical names which are thus involved in oubt. What plants are Agave chinensis, SmiAmomum amarum, or Salvia multiorhiza ? ith the defects which we have thought it e and which we trust the author will avoid dition, we gladly admit that Dr. Smith's

contain a large amount of interesting and the following prescription to dispense (a photograph of r which it must have required no small which I enclose) :iligence to collect and arrange. The book Debeaux's Essai sur la Pharmacie et la Mae des Chinois (Paris, 1865) in that it gives characters as well as their sounds expressed etters, and is besides far more copious. It so to be of considerable utility to young > may study European medicine."

Lin. Saponis comp., ana 3ij.
M. ft. Linimentum pectore infricandum.

At first sight, it may appear that no particular caution is necessary as to the manner in which the ingredients should be brought together, but such is not the case. If mixed in the same order in which they are written, (in many instances this is likely to be the case,) a black precipitate will be thrown down, consisting of iodide of

TRE DANS L'AMÉRIQUE DU NORD. Par M. J. nitrogen, a highly explosive compound, produced by the UBEIRAN. From the Author.

ELLA FARMACIA E DEI FARMACISTI APPO I
ALI POPOLI DEL MONDO. Per FREDERIGO

Naples. 1871. From the Author.

ts on Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for the , Shanghai, 1869. P. 51.

continental authors, puzzled to explain the origin glish word arrowroot, have adopted the notion that or once was, derived from the Chinese Arrowhead, a chinensis, Sims, overlooking apparently the fact wroot neither is nor was imported from China, but West Indies.

aghai, 1867. Analysis of Chinese Commerce during