THE ANALYST. 363 The foll. wiug are abstracts of some further papers read before the British Pharmaceutical Conference : - ON NECTAR I N VARIOUS FLOWERS. BY A. S. WILSON, M.A. MR. WILSON reported the proportions of sugar he had found in many flowers, and calculated that in order to obtain 1 kilo. of sugar 7,500,000 distinct flowers must be sucked. As honey contains roughly about 75 per cent.of sugar, a bee has thus t o make about two-and-a- half millions of visits in order to collect a pound of honey. It is rather a curious fact that nectar should contain cane sugar, seeing that honey never does, indeed, were a vendor to sell honey containing cane sugar he would probably be prosecuted under the Adulteration Act, A change must, therefore, take place while the sugar is in the bees possession-possibly through the action of the juices with which it comes in contact while in the honey bag, which is an expansion of the esophagus of the insect.As nectar is acid in its reaction, it is, however, possible that the process of inversion may take place spontaneously. ON THE DETECTION AND ESTIMATION OF MINERAL OIL. BY W. THOMSON, F.R.S.E. THIS referred to a procese which Mr.Thctrnson hod contrived for detecting mineral oil in animal, vegetable, or fish oils, with which he said it was often mixed to form a lubricating oil. He boilcd some of the sample with an alcoholic solution of caustic soda, which converted all the animal, vegetable, or fish oils into soap. This was then mixed with sand and treated and washcd with petroleum spirit, and distilled at a temperature under 190° Fahr., which dissolved out the mineral oil, leaving the soap insoluble.The spirit is then distilled off from the spirit solution of mineral oil at a temperature not exceeding 2200 Fahr., and the residue of mineral oil weighed and calculated on the weight of the original mixed oil taken. NITRITE OF AMYL, BY D. B. DOTT. THIS paper embodied the results of an examination of several samples of nitrite of amyl procured from different makers, with the view of ascertaining the degree of purity of the article i n the market, The samples examined had a specific gravity varying from 0864 to -876, the proper specific gravity being ,877.By a Pingle rectification thcy gnye a yield of 6.7, 11.5, 33.3, 47.5, and 65.0 per cent.respectively, boiling at 90° t o loo0 C., while a sample prepared by the author i n the ordinary may gave 85.0 per cent. One of the samples had an odour quite distinct from that of genuine nitrite of amyl, and produced little effect on the heart’s action by the inhalation of its vapour. It will thus be seen that there is a great variation in the quality of the amyl nitrite of differeut makers, and that some of it is of very inferior quality. The author considers that some standard of purity less rigid than that of the Pharmacopceia ought to be adopted, as it is impossible to prepare a nitrite of amyl boiling constantly at 205O F. Indeed, there seema to be some doubt as to whether that is really the correct boiling point. The process for preparing nitrite of amyl, by passing nitrous acid gas through amylic alcohol is held to be the best, bcing decidedly preferable to that by the direct action of nitric acid on the alcohol.