Transportation will undoubtedly be procured at a

following are the members of the committee on transportation. For information, address the one in your section of the country.

S. A. D. Sheppard, Boston, Mass.; A. E. Ebert, Chicago, Ill.; W. J. M. Gordon, Cincinnati, O.; H. M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Mo.; C. A. Mayo, New York, N. Y.; B. Avary Moodey, Atlanta, Ga.; Wm. M. Searby, San Francisco, Cal.; A. K. Finlay, New Orleans, La.; Chas. M. Ford, Denver, Colo.; T. A. Miller, Richmond, Va.; Chas. T. Heller, St. Paul, Minn.; Chas. Caspari, Jr., Baltimore, Md., chairman.

Next Meeting, June 12 to 15.

Prospective Exhibitors for the Pertle Springs meeting of the Missouri Pharmaceutical Association should correspond with Mr. R. L. Hope, of Centralia, Mo., who is chairman of the committee on exhibits.

Everybody Invited to Come.-Hello, there! Are you going to Pertle Springs? You are? Very well, tell your friends to go with you, for the Missouri Pharmaceutical Association has for this year selected the most romantic spot in the State. Pertle Springs is without doubt the most beautiful place for the Missouri Pharmaceutical meeting, to be held June 1215. Talk about the good time in store for everyone attending! Why, really, it cannot be described. Convince yourselves. Remember, the motto of the Missouri Pharmaceutical Association is: Interesting papers, valuable prizes and a royal good time. Yours for better health and new energy when you get back. OTTO F. CLAUS, Chairman Committee on Membership and Attendance, St. Louis, Mo.

The Committee On Papers and Queries, through its chairman, wishes to invite all members of the Missouri Pharmaceutical Association who intend presenting papers or queries at the coming meeting, to have same in the hands of our committee not later than June 1, 1900.

Papers on practical subjects connected with pharmacy are desired.

This year the association will offer its own prizes, in accordance with a resolution offered by the committee on papers and queries, at the last annual meeting at Jefferson City.

Two gold medals and two silver medals will be awarded for first and second-best papers or works on scientific or commercial pharmacy, provided they are, in the judgment of the association, original and sufficiently meritorious.

The gold medals will constitute the first prizes and the silver medals the second.

There will be no special prizes awarded as heretofore, and, therefore, no outside soliciting will be done by this committee; otherwise the general rules heretofore observed will be again followed this year.

Papers should not be too lengthy so as to be presentable within twenty minutes at most. This being the pharmacopoeial revision year, druggists ought to find much to suggest through papers to the incoming revision committee.

Address your paper or title of same to either of the following: Paul L. Hess, Kansas City; T. Albion Layton, St. Louis; J. F. Llewellyn, Mexico; Frederica De Wyl, Jefferson City; Francis Hemm, St. Louis, Chairman.

Dentist-" I see that I shall have to kill the nerve." Patient-" For heaven's sake, don't! It would ruin me in my business. I'm a life insurance agent." -[Michigan Tradesman.

N. A. R. D.

Paid Dues. Since last report, the national treasurer has received dues from the following associa tions: Vermilion County, Ill.; Schenectady, N. Y.; Saginaw, Mich.; Mahoning Valley, O.; Will County, Ill.

The Druggists of Multnomah County (Portland, Ore.) have organized and have sent a rousing appeal to the trade of the State urging similar action. Dr. James W. White is chairman of the executive committee.

The Allen County (Lima, O.) Druggists' Association has joined the N. A. R. D. It is composed of the twenty-three druggists of the county. The Lima association retains its membership in the national body, and becomes also a part of the new organization. The officers of the Allen County Association are: J. P. Harley, president, Lima; F. S. Amstutz, secretary, Bluffton. There is no price-cutting, and the trade is in excellent condition.

The Rolls of the Northwestern Ohio Retail Druggists' Association now contain the names of more than five-sixths of the druggists of Toledo. The membership committee, which is doing excellent work, is composed of C. H. F. Lembke, H. F. Hastings and F. B. Huston. Clayton Reed resigned as secretary, and has been succeeded by M. F. Newcomer. Assistant Secretary Lembke would like to confer with the officers of all Ohio associations that contemplate adopting the Louisville certificate plan.

Agreement On the N. A. R. D. Plan.-Chairman Holliday, of the executive committee, now announces that seventeen of the most prominent manufacturers of proprietary medicines have signed an agreement to limit their sales to the list of recognized jobbers to be drawn up by the joint committee from the retailers', jobbers' and manufacturers' national associations. Five of the proprietors are: Ayer, Greene, Hood, Pinkham and Wells & Richardson Co. Mr. Holliday authorizes the following statement:

"We are pleased to say to the retail druggists of the United States that, at the request of the N. A. R. D., the above-named well-known manufacturers of proprietary medicines have agreed to distribute their goods through the jobbing trade only, and will refuse to include on their sales lists all aggressive cutters. They have also incorporated in their individual contracts a clause declining to sell their preparations to any jobber who supplies his goods to cutters at any price. Therefore, if cutters obtain goods made by them it will be through the retailers themselves or through a jobber who violates his agreement and takes the risk of not being able to buy such preparations -a risk which few jobbers will care to take.

"Moreover, not satisfied with their efforts to assist the retailer in restricting the sale of their own goods in proper channels, they go further and join in a request to the jobber asking him not to sell aggressive cutters any goods whatsoever.

"Thus, they have put themselves on record as giving the full force of their influence in favor of the retail druggist and against the cutter and department store, and in return for it ask the retailer to supply the goods called for, the demand for which has been made by the expenditure of large amounts of money paid for advertising, and not to ask the customer to take something in place of it.”

The manufacturers named have also joined in the following statement:

"1. It is the sentiment of each of the following five proprietors -Ayer, Greene, Hood, Pinkham and Wells & Richardson Company-to render the agreement effective; all jobbers should agree to stop selling all goods, sundries, pharmaceutical and proprietary, to cutters and department stores, immediately upon the adoption of special list of jobbers by the manufacturers; but for the purpose of carrying this plan into practical working, the proprietors will waive their objection to selling of druggists' sundries and pharmaceuticals, if the sentiment of the jobbers shall so favor. If jobbers are to continue to sell cutters for a considerable time while coming to an agreement, the manufacturers should have the same privilege.

"2.-Jobbers, through their salesmen, must refrain from running down proprietary goods, and give instructions to sell what is called for without giving preference to any particular article which may happen to pay a higher profit.

"3.-The jobbers agree to refrain from asking any further discounts than those at present allowed.

"4.-Each jobber for himself will agree to discontinue his nonsecret department.

"5.-All manufacturers as far as practicable-certainly all large manufacturers-must agree upon the same list of distribu

ters.

"6.-Retailers, in exchange for this concession on the part of the manufacturers, to limit the distribution of goods, and on the part of jobbers to refuse all orders from cutters and department stores, and will agree not to substitute when standard proprietary articles are called for, but in each case will give the customer what is asked for, without argument.

Following is the contract proposed between the manufacturers and jobbers, and if rigidly adhered to will mitigate the cutting evil:

"To wholesale houses ordering at one time and for delivery quantities of not less than — gross, or $, who do not quote or sell our preparations either directly or indirectly, or divide the above quantity with another party or parties, or permit them to be disposed of in any way by their salesmen or others, at less prices than those above stated, a discount for cash if paid within days of per cent will be allowed and

a rebate of - per cent on the amount will be allowed on payment of the invoice.

"It will not, however, be considered a violation of these terms, when parties allow a discount not exceeding 11⁄2 per cent on their bills if paid within thirty days.

"Believing that the sale of goods to aggressive cutters and brokers is detrimental not only to our business, but to that of the retail trade as well, we will decline to sell our preparations to firms supplying such houses or brokers, either directly or indirectly, with our goods at any price.

"Should complaints reach us that parties violate these terms, or we have reason to believe they have done so, we shall exercise our right whenever we are satisfied that these terms have been violated, to decline the orders of parties who have refused to maintain them.

"The above conditions are imperative, and the violation of them will be regarded as an abandonment of the rebate plan."

A Little Social Life is good for one. As time goes on, and the old friends have gone to their promotion, it is well to keep up one's interest in the world of to-day by cultivating friendly relations with those about us. [March Ladies' Home Journal.

NEW REMEDIES.

Soson is the name of a new albuminoid nutrient, introduced by R. O. Neumann.

Plasmon is the name of a new remedy introduced by Siebold, of Neubrandenburg.

Lysitol.—A trade name for a new disinfectant, recently introduced by Roessler, of Prague.

Igazol. A name proposed by Professor Cervallo, of Palermo, for a formaldehyde derivative used in vapor form in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Lanthanum Salicylate has recently been proposed as an antiseptic. It is an insoluble powder, and owes its virtues to the salicylic acid contained in it. It is prepared in the same way as the didymium salt referred to elsewhere.

Tritols.-Name given by Dieterich to a series of emulsions, prepared by the aid of diastatic malt extract, in which one part of extract suffices for the emulsification of three parts of oil. Thus, there is a Tritol of cod liver oil, a Tritol of castor oil, etc.[Phar. Zeit.

Nicotiana Soap is prepared from an extract of waste tobacco of cigar factories. The extract is mixed with precipitated sulphur and a superfatted soap mass, and perfumed with oil of bergamot. It is brown soap, containing 5 per cent of tobacco extract and sulphur, and is used for skin diseases and scabies.-[Pharm. Post.

Dose of Scopolamine.-Windscheid calls attention to the fact that the doses of scopolamine (hyoscine) generally given are too high. From his own observations he concludes that the initial dose, whether by the mouth or by injection, should not exceed onetenth of a milligramme. To counteract the nocturnal transpiration in phthisis, he gradually increases this to 0.0004 Gm.-Journ. de Pharm. d'Anvers, 56, 17, after Oesterr. Zeit. für Pharm.

Epichlorhydrin and Dichlorhydrin as Solvents.E. Valenta, who has found the above useful as sol

vents for resins, gives the following recipe for a copal varnish: Manilla copal, 20, is dissolved in epichlorhydrin, 70, on the water bath; absolute alcohol, 100, is added, and the whole filtered. The varnish may be applied either hot or cold, and may be diluted with a mixture of epichlorhydrin, 1, alcohol, 5. It dries hard and bright, and stands well.-[Pharm. Centralh., 40, after Photogr. Corres.

Glaucium Luteum in Glycosuria.-Marpmann some time back (P. J. [4], 8, 91) drew attention to the value of the extract of Glaucium luteum in the treatment of diabetes. Helt confirms this statement, and finds that after fourteen days of treatment with this drug, the blood of the patient becomes rich in hæmoglobin, and the number of the red corpuscles is increased in a degree which is not attained by treatment

with iron. The dose is a teaspoonful of the fluid extract in the evening, or morning and evening, with beer or water. After three weeks of treatment the amount of sugar excreted is reduced, and, in many cases, disappears.-[Pharm. Post, 32, 346, after Südd. Apoth. Ztg.

Tropacocaine for Optical Anesthesia.-R. Hilbert states that the hydrochloride of tropacocaine is preferable to the same salt of cocaine for use in ophthalmic work. Although it rapidly produces a strong anæsthesia, it is absolutely free from irritant action; it acts as a slight antiseptic, it is more stable in solution, does not affect the arterial pressure, and does not dilate the pupil. At the same time it is less toxic than cocaine. The solution employed consists of tropacocaine hydrochloride, 50 centigrammes; sodium chloride, 10 centigrammes; distilled water, 10 Gms. Nouv. Rem., 15, 554.

[E. Merck has shown (P. J. [4], 8, 431) that a similar but even weaker solution of the same ingredients remained perfectly stable for eighteen months.-[Ed. P.J.J

Cuprene: A New Hydrocarbon.-By passing a current of pure acetylene gas over reduced copper or bright copper filings, in a tube heated at first to about 180° C., after a time the metal is observed to swell, and eventually to entirely fill the tube; if a little of this substance be spread in a thin layer in a tube and again heated to 170°-250° C. in a current of acetylene, a further great increase of volume takes place, a yellow bulky solid is formed, consisting of matted filaments resembling amadou in appearance. This is the new hydrocarbon, which, according to Paul Sabatier and J. B. Senderens, has the empirical formula C7H8 and has been named cuprene. It is practically non-volatile, decomposes above 400° C., yielding empyreumatic products, and leaving a solid carbonaceous residue. Cuprene is insoluble in all solvents; sulphuric acid is without action upon it in the cold, nitric acid slowly attacks it, forming nitro-compounds.-[Comp. rend., 130, 250.

Chloretone: A New Hypnotic.-Chloretone, trichlor-tertiary butyl alcohol, has been brought forward by Houghton and Aldrich as an anesthetic and hypnotic. Applied locally, in aqueous solution, to lacerated wounds or burns, it acts very efficiently in lessening pain, while it possesses distinct antiseptic properties. Internally, it relieves gastric pain and vomiting, and has proved specially useful in this respect, in a case of gastric carcinoma. Experiments have shown that it renders the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal insensible to irritants. As a hypnotic, it has been specially successful in cases of persistent insomnia in the aged, and in cardiac diseases with renal complications and high arterial tension. It has succeeded in many instances where morphine, chloral, and other hypnotics have failed. The usual dose given is from 6 to 20 grains in tablets, followed by a draught of water or milk.-[Therap. Gaz., 22, 738 and 758.

A LECTURE ON GELATIN.

BY DR. GEORGE RICHTER.

The following is an abstract of a very entertaining and highly instructive lecture delivered before the Alumni Association of the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and the senior students, March 20. The lecture was well illustrated with blackboard drawings, diagrams and specimens:

Gelatin Is Derived From a substance which forms by far the largest part of our body; of this substance, the connective tissue and its derivatives, it is the essential part, as the water is the essential part of the ocean, or the O of the atmosphere. In the formation of the animal body (the vertebrate), the primitive cell, after fecundation by the semen, divides, multiplies, forms layers. The upper layer is the origin of the nervous system-the brain, the skin. The lower layer forms the intestines, the digestive glands-the liver, for instance-(the inner surface, as it were), just as the upper layer forms the integument, hide. Between the two appears the connective tissue-bones, muscles, tendons or sinews, blood vessels, ligaments, cartilage, and so on. This so-called connective tissue penetrates into the brain, clothing the ganglionic-or nerve cells, sheaths the nerves, supports the skin, binds the glandular cells together to form and shape the secretory apparatus, and so on. It does itself attract certain substances circulating in the vascular system (blood and lymph) and causes their deposit in its own formation, to-wit: phosphate and carbonate of lime (bone) fat, adipose tissues, albumins, muscle substance, etc.

It stands to reason that such a substance, with such manifold organic functions, must be a very complex thing. Still, at its bottom there must be a unit, a so-called principle, else we could not so distinctly comprise it under one single term. This principle is the glutin; its technical preparation, with which every one of you is well acquainted, is the gelatin.

Gelatin, Technically, you know in its dry state to be a thin transparent sheet, like glass; hard, elastic, usually with the design of a wide-meshed net on its surface, due to the process of manufacture. It is also sold in long shreds, or as a coarse powder. The gelatin capsule is familiar to you. You know that gelatin will dissolve in warm water and, on cooling, form a jelly-a "gallerte."

Between Gelatin and Common Glue there is only a difference of quality. Liquid glue is a modification. Glutin (from gelatin) must not be confounded with gluten, one of the most important vegetable albumins in wheat "Kleber." Glutin is an animal product. Its vegetable analogon is the gliadin. Nor should gelatin be confounded with mica, a mineral substance, the glimmer. Worcester and Webster mention mica under the heading of isinglass. Isinglass is the air bladder of certain fish in its commercial appearance, and consists of almost pure glutin. Isinglass (ichthyocolla) is the Hausenblase. Mica (marienglas) is frequently used for windows in stoves. Possibly isinglass was mistaken for Eisenglas, but it is said to mean "iceglass." The German word Hausenblase is derived from huso, a certain large sturgeon; Latin, acipenser stör.

There is an Immense Variety of Practical Uses of Gelatin. Some grades, not exactly inferior, but manufactured for the purpose, serve as common glue. You know the pill-coating, the capsules, the isinglass-plaster, the glutol (glutin and CH.OH). You know its use in the household for jellies, charlotte russe, ice cream, substituting white of egg. It is employed to clarify liquids-beer, wine, etc. In modern photography we have the sensitive dry-plate, a coating of gelatin with bromide of silver. Gelatin is used by the cloth weaver, the cotton printer, the silk manufacturer, the paper manufacturer, the paste maker, etc.; principally for sizing, to increase the weight and improve the touch of same. It is most important in the hectograph process. Moulds for plaster of Paris casts are prepared with it, as they go around the figure and leave no seams. Colored and hardened gelatin furnishes the material for the most wonderful specimens of artificial flowers; also for imitation ivory, turtle

shell, mother of pearl, opal, agate, malachite and other jewels; for trinkets, visiting cards, pocket-cases, even table-plates, etc. Tannin and gelatin make leather.

Gelatin in solution takes up antiseptics, as salicylic acid or formaldehyde, and may be used for injections and to treat wounds. It is preferable to plain water, as it will adhere better to the tissues if concentrated.

Finally, Gelatin Is an Important Article of Diet in spite of the mistaken experiments of former decades. It spares, in proper proportion, the albumin in meat to a large extent. It is contained in remarkable quantities in good beef-broth (bouillon) and renders the latter decidedly nourishing. Its peptone increases metabolism and favors the excretion of nitrogen (in urea); therefore it is, in the shape of wine-jellies and the like, an excellent diet in gout. Its ready digestion recommends it in fevers.

Now, Where Do We Get the Gelatin From, and How Is It Made? The animal tissues enumerated before, on boiling with water, lose their organic structure and are converted into glue-like substances in solution. On cooling, they form a homogeneous viscous, elastic body-jelly. This jelly after drying, preferably in thin layers, becomes quite hard and is the gelatin proper. The simplest process is by soaking isinglass in water, heating it till dissolved, then filtering. Strong alcohol will precipitate glutin, to be purified by washing with ether and alcohol. By dialyzing it is freed from salts. In respect to dialyzation, bodies are divi ded into colloids and crystalloids. Colloid means a gelatinous substance.

The Manufacture of Glue or Gelatin on a large scale, for technical purposes, is most interesting, the process employed var ying very much according to circumstances. For my own experiments I have prepared quantities, imitating generally the process of factories. A lot of calves' feet, small bones, also joints of lar ge bones, bought fresh from the butchers, was freed from flesh and fat and washed with fresh water, then placed in a basin and covered with gasolin (carbon bisulphide would answer). This dissolves marrow and fat. Factories do this at an elevated temperature, and under pressure. The benzin is then drawn off, distilled and again condensed. The remaining fat (eventually after rectifying) is one of the most serviceable oils for cosmetics, and to lubricate watches or delicate machinery. Oil extracted cold has little tendency to thicken in the cold or to become rancid. The hot process produces the ordinary neatsfoot oil.

After removing the benzin, the bones are dried and bleached in the sun, or treated directly with a bath of hydrochloric acid (7%) to be replaced after some time by weaker solutions. This dissolves the phosphates and carbonates of the bones. The solution contains calcium chloride and soluble acid phosphates; it is treated with lime and insoluble phosphates precipitated, used for the manufacture of pure phosphorus or, to a much larger extent, as a most useful fertilizer of wheat fields.

The bones now are nothing but cartilage, everything that constituted their characteristic hardness-the mineral salts-having been extracted. They are washed most thoroughly in water to get rid of all the acids. Our local glue factories find the acid process too expensive and prefer to use them at once for the making of glue. They are boiled till exhausted and then sold to the fertilizer factory or converted into spodium, an animal charcoal, f or they still retain a considerable quantity of organic matter. Spodium is a most excellent clarifyer, used in sugar refineries, etc.

Now, as stated, the bone or the cartilage, or the hide, are boiled in water, where the cartilage dissolves completely. Any fat appearing on the surface is ladled off. The solution, which must not be boiled very long, else it will lose important qualities, is allowed to stand hot for settling sediment, and strained, or boiled with albumen (egg-white), or separated by means of a centri fugal machine (the only rational way). The liquid is now clear, free from fat and solids. It is worthy of notice that this "primary" gelatin does not clarify itself promptly. "Primary gelatin," as I propose to call it, is not sticky enough-not a true glue. It acquires this quality only after it has been dried once. If dissolved and dried again, it will not dissolve so readily again; it is true glue then-I call it "secondary gelatin."

The soup has now a yellowish-brown color. The market asks for clear, white gelatin; therefore, the solution must be bleached. It is usually done by the action of sulphurous acid.

The next step is the concentration, the thickening. It may be done by prolonged boiling-better, however, in an exhauster, a vacuum apparatus. When thick enough it is poured into long boxes and cooled. It forms 'now a firm jelly which may be sliced. The slices are put upon wire nets and fanned with warm dry air to complete dryness. The pattern of the net is the design on the leaf.

The results of all these processes are different according to the materials used. Skin gives better glue, bone better gelatin-to be quite short. Chemically it is the same body.

There is a Chemical Difference, However, Between Gelatin From Skin and Bones (the glutin proper) and gelatin from cartilage (the chondrin). The latter is to-day regarded as a mixture of glutin, albumins and chondroitin-sulphuric acid. To compare these with purified egg-albumen, the chemical constituents of the three bodies average:

Still, doctors disagree-doctors of chemistry, of course. Albumin in solution is precipitated by acetic acid and ferrocyanide of potassium, neutral or basic lead acetate, nitrate of silver or dilute mineral acids. Glutin is not. But chondrin is precipitated by basic lead acetate. After filtering these off, glutin will be precipitated by tannin and also by silicic acid.

Glutin is insoluble in cold water, but soluble in hot water. When pure, it is entirely free from taste and odor, particularly so the pure primary gelatin. Dry gelatin is further soluble in glacial acetic acid. For this reason acid jellies (like Hamburg Eel) must be quite concentrated. In the latter case mucus from the eelskin, congealing with vinegar, assists the effect. Still, eel in jelly requires energetic cooling. Excuse, please, the diversion.

Glutin dissolved in oxalic acid, the acid again precipitated with lime, remains a permanent very sticky fluid. It will not form a jelly. This liquid glue is termed meta gelatin. Glutin is decomposed by ozone. A thunderstorm may spoil a day's output this way.

The precipitate from tannin, as well as that from silicate of sodium, I find to be soluble in excess of hot water-seemingly a forgotten fact and important in case of quantitative analysis. Gelatin and catechu do the same.

Tannin and Gelatin are said to form a chemical compound. The combination does not follow a fixed formula.

Add solution of tannin to solution gelatin; precipitate is 85 tannin, 100 gelatin.

Add solution of gelatin to solution tannin; precipitate is 135 tannin, 100 gelatin.

Again-Add, solution of silicate sodium to solution gelatin; precipitate is 100 silicate sodium, 92 gelatin.

Add solution of gelatin to solution silicate; precipitate is 100 silicate sodium, 56 gelatin.

Our masters say that in such cases a mechanical action is added to the chemical one. I am very much afraid that this is just as logical as some modern medical theories. these to you- rather not!

But to expose

Gelatin precipitates taurocholic acid, not the glycocholic acid. The two are constituents of bile. The taurocholic acid precipitate is a singularly fine powder, occluding filter paper quickly. Paper moistened with bile will allow the filtering of oil through paper. If glutin-taurochol is present, even water won't pass through.

I will spare you the enumeration of the numberless chemical reactions of glutin, and confine myself to the more practical part.

Alum Hardens Gelatin.-Excess of alum prevents the forming of a jelly. Hot alum in gelatin forms a hard, transparent, quite insoluble substance, like horn. Formaldehyde renders jelly insoluble.

Bichromate of potassium and gelatin form a clear solution, which, if dried in the dark, remains soluble, but after exposure to light it is rendered insoluble. (Carbon prints. Artificial skin for Erbswurst with parchment.) Albumin and gum arabic behave similarly. Glutin, boiled for a long time, is converted into a peptone and

will not form a jelly any more; but if dried and heated to 130° C, it is changed again into a true gelatin. This is certa inly quite remarkable.

(Glutin has many reactions like albumin. If present with albumin or peptone, the simplest way to separate would be: First add acetic acid and ferrocyanide of potassium, precipitate albumin. Lead acetate will precipitate the peptones, after filtering; tannin will precipitate the glutin).

A substance very nearly related to glutin and chondr in is sericin C15H25N508, contained in natural silk. Spongin, the chemical body of the sponge, belongs to the same class. Spongin is probably unknown to you.

I Have Only Attempted to Give a General Characterization of the Chemistry of Gelatin and cannot pretend to exhaust this theme. It involves the most intricate points of physiological chemistry, which only a master could explain to your just satisfaction.

The physical properties of glutin are at least as interesting and surely more complicated and difficult to study than the chemical character. There is, for instance, the clarifyin g. Gelatin seems to attach itself to minute solid particles, and, being a little heavier than water, it sinks to the bottom, form ing a sediment. The process is not a chemical one, for there are no fixed proportions observed. The sediment will not dissolve by boiling, nor by the addition of any of the usual solvents, excepting boiling KOH, Digestion with pepsin, I find, frees the solids from the gelatinous embrace.

Gelatin behaves most curiously towards water; the laws pertaining thereto have been studied very little. I have discovered a few interesting facts in this direction. Dry gelatin ordinarily contains a certain amount of water, which is driven out of it entirely only at a very high temperature, about 120° C. The amount it holds is stated to be about 16 to 19% of its weight. Now, this is not so. It contains an amount of water corresponding directly to the moisture of the atmosphere; it follows and responds to the changes of the atmosphere most rapidly, more so than any other substance, even hair. I have proven this by careful weighing of sheet gelatin suspended from the one arm of a Westphal balance, following the experiments up for over three weeks and recording the weight for several days every half hour; and often, simultaneously, I have observed the moisture of the atmosphere by means of an improvised august psychrometer, using a thermometer divided into tenths C. The chart here shows the result. Gelatin keeps up an equilibrium with the atmosphere, which may be made use of as a self-recording hygroscope.

There are many more substances that will hold moisture, but none of them will give it up so readily. Silk and woolen goods are such. And as they are sold from the factory with reference to their weight, the Italian Government has, for instance, in Milan, an establishment where the moisture contained in such goods is examined and their price regulated accordingly.

One could not very well do this with gelatin. On a changeable day gelatin weight changes with rising and falling temperature The difference in one instance, I observed, was 7.5% of the weight within twenty-four hours, to-wit: 3.027 grammes June 27, at 10 p. m., and 3.487 on the following evening at 8 p. m. The same piece of gelatin weighed 5.110 on July 16, at 9 p. m. By the way, such changes take place only with sheets suspended in the air. Plain wrapping in paper prevents such enormous changes.

Gelatin exposed to atmosphere saturated with moisture will not take up more water than a certain quantity-it is stated about 40% of its own weight. I observed over 64%. It will remain apparently firm and spring-like elastic. But as soon as immersed in water it will at once take up a very much larger amount, even as much as ten times its own weight. There is a difference, however, in the quality of the gelatin; one variety or make, for instance, will take up only four times, another perhaps seven or eight times its weight.

Such soaked gelatin possesses that quality as a constant factor, independent from temperature up to a certain degree. It is no longer elastic, but limp, flaccid, easily torn. In this condition it will remain unaltered until you raise the temperature, when it begins to dissolve, or rather melt, in water. The temperature is different for different kinds or brands; it varies between about 25° and 30° C. While this melting goes on, none of