reported, so recently as to be within the memory of our readers, as having turned on the gas in a drug store where the alkaloid was refused him, with the design of asphyxiating the clerk, in which attempt he nearly succeeded. Another doctor, within a space of some sixteen months, has gone insane from the cocaine habit and has been removed to an asylum, leaving his wife also ill from the effects of the same drug, with which he had experimented on her.

If the cases continue to multiply, there may be room for questioning the utility to man of the discovery of this anæsthetic. It is doubtful if all the services in local anæsthesia rendered by it can compensate for the ill it has already done.

Pyrofuxin—a New Tanning Substance from Coal.

A new extract of coal is being introduced in Germany for industrial purposes, especially for tanning leather and disinfection generally, to which the name "pyrofuxin" is given by the discoverer, Professor Paulus Reinsch, of Erlangen, Bavaria. Unlike the generality of such compounds, this new material is not a derivative of coal tar, or of any of the distillates of coal, but is obtained directly from coal itself. Pit or bituminous coal contains most of it, and is prepared for treatment by being broken into nuts. The crude pyrofuxin is extracted by repeated boilings in a solution of caustic soda. The pyrofuxin enters into solution, and is allowed to stand for a time. It is then poured off, and a carbonic acid gas is passed through it. The resultant liquor has a specific gravity of 1.025 to 1.030, and holds from 10 to 15 grammes of pyrofuxin to the liter. In its purified form the compound is a fine, non-triturable substance, without taste or smell, non-poisonous, and in appearance like catechu. Some Russian coals contain 18 per cent of pyrofuxin. After the extraction of this material the coal remains combustible. It is described as being one of the most powerful and effective antiseptics known to science. On this account it is expected to be most valuable for tanning, as being twenty-eight times quicker in action than bark, and producing a better result at decreased cost.

It will be soon enough to give credence to this alleged leather tanning agent when specimens of good leather are produced.