Used by the iii ANHYDROUS AMMONIA. LINDE BRITISH REFRIGERATION Co., Ltd., for their Refrigeration Machines. Of all strengths, adapted for all makes, of Ammonia Refrigerating Machines. NITRATE OF AMMONIA. WRITE FOR PARTICULARS AND PRICES. SULPHATE OF AMMONIA. Manufactured by THE STANDARD AMMONIA Co., Lim., OLD FORD, LONDON, E. K. FRED JACKSON & CO. (Late MOTTERSHEAD & CO.), Balances, General Chemical Apparatus, HEMPEL'S AND ORSAT-MUENCKE'S THE LONDON GAS REFEREES' APPARATUS GAS BURETTES OF VARIOUS KINDS. ORSAT-MUENCKE'S GAS ANALYSIS APPARATUS. ILLUSTRATED PRICE LISTS FREE ON APPLICATION. Oil and Acid Bottles (piain and cased). Troughs. ACID TOWN OFFICES 43, Piccadilly, MANCHESTER. GOLD MEDAL, PARIS. 1878 GLYCERINE BENZOL (Cryst.). SOLUTIONS. CLIFF CHEMICAL FIRE-CLAY GOODS NS Acid Tower Bricks. Cisterns. Slabs for Vats (all sizes). Gas Retorts. Muffes, &c., &c. Plumbago Crucibles. Enamelled & Salt-giased Bricks, &c. Telegrams," Firebrick," Leeds. London: Printed and Published for the Proprietor by EDWIN JOHN DAVEY, at the Office, Boy Court, Ludgate Hill, E.C. Copyright Vol. 70.-No. 1814.] Corg Friday, August 31, 1894. Established Fifty-three Years. [ Fi Registered as [PRICE 4d. a Newspaper. POST FREE, 44d. JUST PUBLISHED. With 63 Illustrations, Crown 8vo., cloth, 6s. 99 THE GAS ENGINEERS' LABORATORY HANDBOOK. On the Constitution of the Acid Amides, by J. B. Cohen, Ph.D. 100 Reduction of Alumina and the Refractory Earths by means of On the Preparation of Potassio-Mercuric Iodide, by E. G. Clay ton Note on the Determination of Silica in Blast-Furnace Slag, by ΙΟΙ 102 102 103 On the Photography of the Bunsen Flame Reactions in the London Water Supply, by William Crookes, F.R.S., and Pro- 103 ....... 104 Notes on Water Analysis, by C. A. Seyler, B.Sc. ....... ............ 109 ......... OBITUARY.-Dr. Karl Heumann C. 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CHEMICAL PLUMBERS. NOTICE. The STUDENTS' NUMBER of the CHEMICAL NEWS will be published on Friday, September 14th. Gentlemen holding official positions in the Universities, Medical Schools, &c., of the United Kingdom, where Chemistry and Physical Science form a part of the education, who have not yet forwarded the necessary information to our Office for publication in that Number, will confer a favour by sending it with the least possible delay. Wanted, Two Steady Hands; must be Advertisements for this Number should reach the Office not later than Wednesday, 12th Sept. L. OERTLING, TURNMILL STREET (OPPOSITE FARRINGDON STREET) STATION. MANUFACTURER OF CHEMICAL, ASSAY, AND BULLION Maker to the Bank of England, Assay Office GOLD MEDALS, Inventions' Exhibition, 1885. FIRST CLASS MEDAL, 1854 and 1862. PHILIP HARRIS AND CO., Lim., 144 & 146, EDMUND STREET, BIRMINGHAM, Revised Price List of CHEMICALS, Reagents, &c., ALSO ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE OF BACTERIOLOGICAL APPARATUS. Copies of the above will be sent post free on application. TOWNSON & MERCER, SOLE AGENTS FOR BECKER'S SON'S (Rotterdam) BALANCES AND WEIGHTS. SHORT BEAM BALANCE, No. 10a, Fig. 3a, to carry 100 grammes in each pan, and turn to 1-10th milligrm. Steel knife-edges, agate planes, two rider apparatus, and new improved arrangement for arrest of pans £8 15 0 Same with agate knife-edges £9 15 0 ANALYTICAL BALANCE, No. 7, to carry 50 grammes and turn to 1-5th milligramme. Steel knife-edges, agate planes, one rider apparatus, and new improved arrangement for arrest of £6 10 0 With agate knife-edges £7 10 0 STUDENT'S BALANCE, No. 69, to carry 30 grammes and turn to milligramme £2 10 0 BALANCE No. 28, to carry 50 grammes and turn to milligramme £2 16 8 SULPHUROUS ACID AND SULPHITES. Liquid SO2 in Syphons, for Lectures, &c. PHOSPHORIC ACID and PHOSPHATES. NITRATES: Nitric Acid, of STRONTIA, BARYTA, &c. CARAMELS for all purposes. A. BOAKE, ROBERTS, & CO. CHEMICAL NEWS, Aug. 31, 1894. THE CHEMICAL Blunder in Medical Chemistry. VOL. LXX., No. 1814. 99 considered. As a bottle of lithia water contains about 5 NEWS. grains of lithia, it is chemically equivalent to about 10 "LITHIC urate is more soluble than any other of these salts [the urates]. Hence lithia water is occasionally prescribed to gouty patients and to others who suffer from a superabundance of uric acid." The above is an extract from p. 773, Part III., of Miller's "Elements of Chemistry," 4th edition, published in 1869, and there is sufficient semblance of truth in it to mislead those who are able to devote but a few months to the study of chemistry, as is the case with the majority of medical students. Although the paragraph quoted was omitted in the new edition published in 1880 it would seem that no attention was called to the subject, for sufferers from a too abundant secretion of uric acid have been treated up to the present time on an erroneous assumption, proceeding from the "little knowledge" which is admittedly so dangerous, and which is also doubtless responsible for the practice of exhibiting chlorate of potash in cases of blood poisoning, "to oxidise and destroy the poison in the blood," whereas every chemist is aware that in an alkaline solution like the blood the chlorate of potassium is practically as stable and inert as the chloride, or as common salt. In these remarks the writer disclaims the idea of censuring the members of the medical profession, because these are chemical subjects, and if blame be due anywhere it must undoubtedly fall upon chemists for neglecting to point out to the members of an allied profession the absurdities involved in these two cases. There is, however, one great consolation for the uric acid and pyæmia patients who have been wrongly treated, viz., that both lithia water and chlorate of potash are (so far as we know) harmless, quite unlike the copious bloodletting and salivation treatments of a by-gone age. At the same time it must be remembered that the use of valueless "remedies," however harmless in themselves, hinders or altogether prevents the search for real and rational ones. The sooner, therefore, attention is drawn to them the better for the patients, even should there be nothing to propose in lieu of those discarded. Although the absurdity of the lithia water "bull" merely requires to be mentioned to a trained chemist to be at once recognised, it may be as well to give a few details. In the first place, the substitution of lithium for sodium in the animal economy would probably be by no means an unimportant change. Physiologists have found that the substitution of the blood of one animal for that of another is possible in the case of allied species, but in that of animals belonging to different genera the change may be followed by immediate death. In all probability, therefore, it would be a very risky proceeding to convert the albuminate of sodium in human blood into albuminate of lithium, even if it were possible. Fortunately for the patient, however, this is as likely to be successful as the notion regarding the medicinal use of free phosphorus, viz., "the brain contains free phosphorus, and the more brain. work the more of that element is excreted. Therefore, to restore brain waste, give phosphorus pills." Such a crudity as this would be scouted, even as regards the mineral kingdom, e.g., in the simple-or comparatively simple-operations of metallurgy. In the second place, the question of quantity may be | grains of soda. The quantity of blood in an adult being about 100,000 grains, and containing about 294 grains of chloride of sodium, equivalent to about 156 grains of soda, it would evidently require 15 or 16 bottles of lithia water to replace the soda by lithia, supposing that sodium salts were absent from the food. From the quantity and composition of the urine, however, we know that about 140 grains of common salt, equivalent to about 75 grains of soda, are excreted every twenty-four hours, derived, of course, from the food. It follows, therefore, that from 7 to 8 bottles of lithia water would be required every day for the sole purpose of dealing with the sodium salts introduced in the food. These results are conclusive as to the value of the present practice. To the chemist, however, the above figures are superfluous. He knows that the tendency is towards the form. ation of the more insoluble, not of the more soluble, compounds; and that for lithia to be of any service in avoiding deposition of urates in the joints or bladder, all bases which form compounds with uric acid of less solubility than lithic urate (potassium, sodium, ammonium) must be absent. If we have a solution containing a phosphate, a magnesium salt, and free ammonia, we know that in a longer or shorter time a precipitate of ammonio-magnesic phos. phate will take place, and the only way to prevent it is to ensure the absence of one of the constituents of the precipitate. We cannot argue "phosphate of potassium is more soluble than ammonio-magnesic phosphate, so by adding a salt of potassium to the solution we shall prevent the formation of the very sparingly soluble magnesium compound," and yet that is the assumption with regard to the medicinal use of lithia water. It is a chemical exemplification of the truth of the old proverb about one man being able to lead a horse to the water, &c. It would be extremely convenient as regards uric acid patients if lithia water could be made to act in this way, but the laws of chemical combination do not admit of it. The medical profession, therefore, must recognise the fact, and seek elsewhere for a remedy or palliative for their patients. An analogous case occurred in the gas world, where gas engineers strove for many years to purify the gas from bisulphide of carbon vapour by means of sulphide of calcium; and, at the same time, endeavoured to make the spent lime inodorous by converting it into carbonate before taking it out of the purifier. Here, again, it would have been very convenient if carbonate of calcium could have been induced to combine with carbon bisulphide, but it is hardly necessary to remark that the attempt was a failure. Although it is a matter for regret that the science of therapeutics should be in such an elementary stage in the Nineteenth Century, still the physician is but in the same predicament as the chemist whose work lies in the vegetable or animal kingdoms. Take, for example, the apparently simple question of water analysis. The intellect of the civilised world for fifty years or more has been unable to devise a process (physical, chemical, microscopical, or biological) which will enable the operator to say with certainty, "This water is wholesome." There are several processes which are capable of detecting a bad water, but in many cases this can be done by the senses alone, and so recourse must be had to indirect methods, such as ascertaining the mortality and sickness amongst the people who use the water, or examining the source as to the probabilities of pollution. Little wonder, then, that medical science is frequently baffled in the attempt to deal with the complex problems of human pathology. Mineral analysis is but child's play compared with the study of morbid actions taking place in closed vessels, suspended in another closed vessel, the walls of all of them being opaque. |