giving it a boil or by filtering through it. The latter method is the true one for retaining all of the aroma. When coffee beans are roasted, an empyreumatic oil is produced, which, being very volatile, is expelled if the coffee extract be boiled. It is better to make the grounds as fine as flour, and to extractby filteration, and never to boil.-Jour. Applied Chemistry.

Glycerine to Mask Castor Oil.-It is stated by a correspondent of the "Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," that by employing the following formula a mixture is produced in which the disagreeable taste of the oil is completely disguised:

Glycerine.

Ol. Ricini, aa. 3 ij.;

Ol. Cinnam., m. iv.

The essential oil should be rubbed up with the glycerine; the castor oil added, and the mixture well shaken before using.

Vegetable Carbolic Acid.-We read that a plant called the andromeda leschenaultil, growing in the Neilgherry hills, in India, has been found to yield carbolic acid. Mr. Broughton, the Government medical officer for the district, reports that it is far superior in purity to the ordinary product of coal tar, being less deliquescent and free from any admixture of noxious concomitants. As its cost is far above that of the mineral product, and as the latter can be chemically purified the discovery has no economical or commercial value; but it is interesting as a botanical and chemical fact.-Druggists' Circular.

Kennedy's Concentrated Extract of Pinus Canadensis.Dr. J. Marion Sims thus writes: "I have had but a limited

experience with the new extract of pinus canadensis,

but I am so well satisfied of its value that I am anxious to call the attention of the Profession to it. I have used it for about eight months in some affections of the rectum, vagina, and cervix uteri. I have used it considerably diluted as a vaginal wash, with great success; but I prefer to apply it to the os tincæ on cotton wool, either pure or mixed with glycerine or glycerine and rose-water. Thus applied, it should remain intact

for two or three or even four days, and then be removed. In this way I have seen chronic granular vaginitis remedied in a few days that had resisted the ordinary remedies for weeks; and I have seen granular erosions, with leucorrhoea, disappear very rapidly under its use. I have not time to do more than call the attention of my professional brethren to this new extract, which I am sure will soon be recognized as a valuable addition to our Materia Medica.-Druggists' Circular.

The Tolerance of Chloroform.-Dr. Edward R. Squibb, of Brooklyn, N. Y. (" New York Medical Journal,") remarks that the greatest consumption of chloroform he ever met with was in a patient of Dr. Gustave Morelli, of New York city. This patient was the widow of an Italian physician; her age fortyeight, and her appearance healthy. She was subject to hereditary migratory gout, the sudden pain of which was so severe that she finally gave up all slower means of temporary alleviation for the prompt action of chloroform. Between the 31st of March and the 16th of December, 1865, a record was kept, and during this time, by Dr. Morelli's direction, she was supplied by Dr. Squibb with fifty-three pounds of purified chloroform. During her acute attacks she not infrequently used two pounds a day.

To Make Carbolic Acid Paper.-Carbolic acid paper, which is now much used for packing fresh meats, for the purpose of preserving them against spoiling, is made by melting five parts of stearine at a gentle heat, and then stirring in thoroughly two parts of carbolic acid; after which five parts of melted paraffine are to be added. The whole is to be well stirred together until it cools; after which it is melted and applied with a brush to the paper, in quires, in the same way as in preparing the waxed paper so much used in Europe for wrapping various articles.-Druggists' Circular.

To Make Tungstic Glue.-Tungstic glue bids fair to be an acceptable substitute for hard India-rubber, now so high in price. It is prepared by mixing a thick solution of glue with

tungstate of soda, and hydrochloric acid, by means of which a compound of tungstic acid and glue is precipitated, which, at a temperature of 86 to 104° Fahrenheit, is sufficiently elastic to admit of being drawn out into very thin sheets. On cooling this mass becomes solid and brittle, and on being heated is again soft and plastic. This new compound, it is said, can be used for all the purposes to which hard rubber is adapted.Druggists' Circular.

MISCELLANEOUS.

"Non omnes eadem mirantur ament que."

On The Gelseminum Sempervirens.-By E. P. Hurd, M. D., Newburyport, Mass.-The yellow jessamine is becoming favorably known among regular practitioners. First brought into notice by the Eclectics, it has been proved to possess properties which render it of great value as a medicinal agent.

Having been in the habit, for some time, of using a tincture of the root in my practice, I can from experience speak confidently in its favor. I believe that, as a cardiac sedative, we have not its equal in the whole range of the materia medica. It relieves in a marked manner the shortness of breath and palpitations of all forms of heart disease. I have seen more prompt. and decided benefit from its use in chronic valvular disease, than from digitalis. The dose may be three drops of the saturated tincture every two, three or four hours. A patient with aortic regurgitant disease, has taken, for more than a week, three drops of the tincture every two hours. The relief from dyspnoea and palpitation has been wondertul. It sometimes produces a little giddiness or nausea; these are the only unpleasant symptoms from its use. There is a marked contrast between the present ease and comfort which the patient experiences, and her uneasiness and distress previous to commencing the remedy. The

gelseminum is combined with Hoffmann's anodyne and tincture of lavender. The gelseminum is believed to have a specific effect on the vaso-motor nerves, stimulating them, and thus equalizing the circulation and lessening the labor of the heart. It also allays nervous irritability. I could wish that those of my confreres who have never used the jessamine would give it a trial. I believe it surer than veratrum or prussic acid, and safer than digitalis.

The Eclectics rely much on yellow jessamine as a febrifuge. They give it in all acute sthenic febrile diseases where the antiphlogistic treatment is indicated. I question, however, whether as a febrifuge it has any advantage over veratrum viride, which is now so popular as a remedy.

King, in his Materia Medica, speaks highly of the tincture of gelseminum as a relaxant in rigidity of the os, puerperal convulsions and dysmenorrhoea. The dose in such cases would be large.

The yellow jessamine is a native of the Southern States, where it is much cultivated as an ornamental vine. It has fine yellow flowers, smooth stem, and opposite, perennial entire leaves, growing on short petioles. The root is the officinal part. The active principle is probably its alkaloid, gelseminia.-Boston Medical Journal.

A New Street Lamp.-A new description of lamp for street lighting has recently been experimented on in London, the principle of which is the application of reflectors, in order to bend down and utilize the amount of light which is at present wasted by upward radiation. It is manifest that the rays of light from a street lamp which now strike the eye of a spectator placed on the ground are only a small portion of those actually emitted by the flames. The rays which pass through the upper portions of the sides of the lantern, or through its sloping roof, are entirely dissipated, or at best, if partially and imperfectly reflected by clouds or atmospheric particles, become visible only in the form of the red glow which overhangs a distant Mr. Skelton, the inventor, calculates that about two

town.

thirds of the light given by the gas flame are in this way lost, and he has arranged strips of looking-glass in such a way that the loss will be effectually prevented. The upper half of each side of the lamp, and the whole of each side of the sloping roof, are occupied by a frame, in which the strips are placed with their reflecting surface downward, in a manner somewhat analagous to the laths of a Venetian blind. The precise character of the effect produced will depend upon the distance of the strips apart, upon their width, and upon their angle of inclination; but the general result is, subject to small variations, that the street receives three times as much light as would fall upon it through lanterns of the ordinary kind. The frames holding the strips are glazed on both sides, and made dust-proof, so that the mirrors will not themselves become soiled or tarnished, and the reflector as a whole can be cleansed in the ordinary way, by simply wiping the glass. The plan is equally applicable to every form of lamp, and the patent includes the application of prismatic reflectors, which would present advantages in certain cases.-News.

Mr. Editor: Will you be kind enough to give the accompanying addresses a place in your next Journal, to give it cireulation, and give it such notice as you may see fit.

CHICAGO.

NOTE--See Editorial Department.

Very respectfully, etc.,

F. A. EMMONS.

The Trustees of Rush Medical College to its Alumni, Greeting: The last terrible conflagration which devastated so large and fair a portion of Chicago, swept out of existence nearly all of the material part of your Alma Mater. Rush Medical College exists to-day only in its legal organization, the lot on which the College building stood, the energy of its Trustees and Faculty, and the love and fidelity of the Alumni.

The College edifice, so recently and expensively erected, the chemical and physiological laboratories, the museum, and all the appliances of teaching, are gone, and a sad ruin replaces them.

The Trustees are, however, cheered and encouraged by the