SEIDLITZ POWDERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 245, 15 October 1891, Page 2

SEIDLITZ POWDERS.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—lf you will allow me, I shall have pleasure in enlightening the darkness of " Cβ" mind in reference to the above. Ib would seem I have to some oxtenii disturbed the equanimity with which he has hitherto enjoyed his imported Seidlitz powder or quaffed his post-prandial draught of "baking soda." In answer to his first question, it should bo sufficient to reply thafc the fact of the police authorities in the ca3e referred to having prosecuted the vendor of the factitious Soidlitz powders would seem to show thoy were unwholesome, bub I would further remind him that while a medicinal dose of say 10 to 30 grains of pure bicarbonate of soda ia under some circumatancos beneficent, 120 grains (the weight of an ordinary Seidlitz powder) oi what is often sold as baking soda,'and consisting largely of dried washing soda, is, if often taken, very likely to con verb the stomach into a condition in which iit will be of more value to the leather merchant than to its original owner—and this after making all allowance for that portion of the soda converted into tartrate by action of the acid taken with it.

" C." is aware that bicarbonate of soda is an ingredient in all honestly - made Seidlitz powders, but surely ho does not mean to suggest that this is a reason for leaving out all the other ingredients and making the powder entirely ot this substance. 1 wonderif " C." ever takes a glass of "whisky toddy" before going to bed. No doubc he doe 3; and in preparing it he probably puts a little sugar in the bottom of his tumbler, then a slice or two of fresh lemon, cut evenly and thinly, adding next a littlo boiling water, and stirring till the sugar be dissolved, and then say a wineglassful of good old whisky, finally filling up with boiling water. This would give him an excellent night-cap, but if he lefb •out the whisky, thev'eault might not be so palatable nor so satisfactory; and yet this is about the position he would be in with his Seidlitz powders made entirely of bicarbonate soda—the main defect in the analogy being that while in the opinion of many excellent people his toddy would be more wholesome without the whisky, his Soidlitz would certainly be more beneficial with the Rochelle salts he proposes leaving out. ; In regard to his second question—" What is the standard for a Seidlitz powder ?"—it "is surely an extraordinary thing, and must be nob a little humiliating to ono who claims to be " well acquainted " with the subject, that he should have to declare his ignorance of the standard formula for the substance he is writing about. If he will refer to the British edition 1890, he will find the particulars he asks for, viz:—ln blue paper-y-120 grains tartarated soda 'Rochelle salts); 40 grains bicarbonate of soda. 'In white paper —28 grains tartaric acid. As to the resemblance of this formula to the Seidlibz Spring in Bohemia, that is a matber outside the present discussion, and while the history of Seidlitz powders and' their origin is interesting in itself, you, Mr Editor, would no doubt object to further encroachments on your space.—l am, etc. , , Vekb. Sap.