Of course, the septic germs, in cases of small- 3 pox, diphtheria, etc., fall upon the floors and walls of rooms, upon the bed, and upon the clothing of attendants. Upon these deposits the usual solid or liquid disinfectants exposed in the room There are numerous patented antiseptics" 6 disinfectants, will expel them. The best method minous covering, and they do not yield their to disinfect clothing is by the use of heat. Ex- vitality readily, and never to improper agents. periment has shown that no form of contagia There are good deodorants which arrest putre- can withstand a temperature of 220° F.; there- faction and fermentation, and yet completely fore, clothing placed in a hot box two hours, with fail to destroy contagious particles. 8 dry heat above that of boiling water, is thor- oughly disinfected; or it may be soaked in boil- ing water with the same results. Vaccine matter may be taken as the type of 11a virulent material, and experiments upon this 12 poison prove that disinfectants, to be eff ctual, must be used in much larger quantity than has usually been considered necessary. If the de- stroying agent is of an acid nature, the virus must be rendered permanently and strongly acid. The end desired is to destroy the infective power completely. It is not genera ly known that car- bolic acid, in quantity equal to two per cent. of the virus, is incapable of doing this work upon vaccine virus. It deprives it of its infective power for the time being, but this returns as MODERN science has let in a flood of light The contagious principle of fever is a cork- Malarial fevers, measles, diphtheria, scarlet We may premise, for the benefit of those who markably in its properties from ordinary oxygen, being far more energetic in its action. It at- tacks many metals and other substances which are not affected by oxygen. It is ou account of is one half greater than that of oxygen. As oxygen has been liquefied, we might ex- ing ozone in a more concentrated form than had suddenly, a blue mist appears, which consists of liquefied ozone. To reduce oxygen to the same condition a pressure of three hundred atmospheres is required. ture. The same investigators have found that the production of ozone in oxygen by the silent electric discharge in M. Berthelot's apparatus for that purpose is greatly influenced by temperaIf this be raised from 20° to 55° C. the proportion of ozone obtained is nearly quintupled. Increase of pressure has a like effect, but much less in amount for each temperature. According to a German authority, ozone may be produced by the rapid evaporation of certain liquids. A few drops of ether or alcohol are let fall upon paper moistened with a solution of potassium iodide and starch (the ordinary test for the presence of ozone), and the volatile liquids set on fire. After their combustion the paper is found to be turned blue from the formation of This would make a simple and pretty ozone. experiment for school or lecture room. SCRATCHING THE FACE OF MOTHER EARTH. THE material universe is built on a scale which our finite powers are absolutely incapable of comprehending. The immense spaces that separate the members of our own solar system tax our powers of conception to the utmost; and yet these are insignificant almost infinitesimal - when compared with the distances between the sun and the fixed stars, its fellow suns, and the vaster intervals that divide this stellar system from others. The velocity of light in a second nearly two hundred thousand miles becomes too small a unit for measuring these grander stretches of space, and we have to use instead the distance its rays can fly in a year; but though we may use this enormous unit in our calculations, we cannot comprehend it, much less the multiples of it. Of course the depths to which man has succeeded in penetrating the earth are like very fine scratches on our varnished globe. A recent writer, in order to give an idea of the vast scale of Western mining operations, used the following illustration: portion of the land surface of our world, the than other men of their class, they would suffer the Imagine a shaft as tall as Bunker Hill Monument, and of the same proportion all the way up as at the base; dig a square hole in the ground just big enough to drop the monument in, and you have a perfect idea of a mining shaft. Then put fifteen monuments of that height each upon the other, and you have a fac-simile of one of the Comstock mining Down every fifty feet of this shaft are long tunnels running from it into the earth, each about must be wheeled, and then raised to the surface by as large as the shaft itself, through which the ore shafts. elevators. Even in estimating the scale of some of nature's operations, it is important to bear in mind how big this little earth really is. Here is a paragraph from a daily paper of this week: The Honolulu volcano, Mauna Loa, broke out November 5th, about six miles from the summit of the crater, throwing out two great streams of lava, one of which is 30 miles long, 100 to 200 yards wide, and about 20 feet deep. Terrible explosions accompany its flow. The exercise is scarcely possible when any part of the system is severely fatigued. Verily, great are the works of man, if we only This is undoubtedly true if the exercise be compare them with other things he has done! violent or long continued, or if it be taken under But when we measure them by the grander unfavorable circumstances. In the case which scale of nature's works, when we take the diam-furnishes a text for the Lancet's homily, a man eter of the earth as our foot-rule in estimating of advanced age takes a long walk in very cold them, how infinitesimal do the most stupendous weather, after being confined for hours in the bad of them become! And yet, as we have seen, air of a London court-room, and it proves to the diameter of the earth is a unit too insignifi- much for him. If the walk had been shorter or cant for any but the smaller measurements with- the weather more comfortable, he might have in the limits of our comparatively small solar found it refreshing and invigorating, as similar system. exercise had often been before. After long and wearisome sedentary labor we know of nothing more restful to body and mind than a quiet strol in the open air. The gentle muscular exercise. the stimulating influences of the pure fresh air. the varied sights and sounds of outdoor life that divert our thoughts from the work on which we have been engaged, without taxing or tiring them anew, all do us good like a medicine; or rather they are like wholesome and nutritious food that gives us strength for fresh labor. It is not necThat seems a mighty outburst; and when we essary, as many suppose, that exercise under such Even when we limit our thoughts to our own visit Vesuvius, and see how its lava streams have circumstances should be either protracted or setiny planet, which bears a smaller proportion to at one time and another deluged large portions vere. On the contrary, as the writer in the Lan the aggregate of worlds than a grain of sand of the vicinity, burying villages and towns, we cet intimates, this may make it an injury instead does to its own bulk, we find it difficult to get a are amazed that such vast quantities of matter of a benefit. It should be a recreation rather clear idea of its size, or of the relation between have been poured out from the mountain. But than an exertion, if we would have it prove a its dimensions and distances with which we are when we consider the magnitude of the earth, re-creation indeed, a renewal and not an exhaus more familiar. When the child is told that the we see that the mischief done by the volcano, tion of vigor. There are times when we want earth is "round like an orange," he is puzzled like the mountain itself, is absolutely insignifi- muscular exercise for its own sake, when we may to understand how the ups and downs of the cant. Vesuvius is at best but a minute pim- take long and rapid walks or tire ourselves in land about him can be portions of the surface of ple on the face of Mother Earth, and the "mat- other kinds of bodily activity, but not when we a sphere no rougher than an orange; but we ter" it discharges is proportionately trifling. are already worn out with sedentary or mental should have to pick out a very smooth specimen All the volcanoes in the world, if all active labor. The distinction is an important one, but of the fruit, or that comparison is a grossly ex- at once, would constitute but a trifling "erup-it is liable to be overlooked. aggerated one. If we represent the earth by a tion" on that gigantic visage. To animalculæ school globe eight inches in diameter, the var-like ourselves, it seems as if her mighty frame nished surface, unless more nicely polished than must be shaken and convulsed, if, indeed, she be is usual with such globes, is not smoother than the earth would seem to a hand big enough to handle it as we handle the pasteboard sphere. This is no loose statement, but a strictly mathematical one. If the globe is eight inches in diameter, the earth being about eight thousand miles, the "scale" of the former is a thousand miles to the inch. A mountain a mile high would then be represented by an elevation of a thousandth of an inch, and the highest mountains of the earth would rise only the two hundredth of an inch above the smooth surface. It is evident that such inequalities would not produce a greater roughening of the globe than we The judges are compelled to take muscular exerhave supposed; while to represent the greater cise when they can, and if they did not walk more not sick nigh unto death; but in reality how We intended to draw other suggestions from EXERCISE AFTER SEDENTARY LABOR. SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ON ANTS. SIR JOHN LUBBOCK has been continuing his investigations of the habits of ants, and reports the results in Nature. They show that ants are in some respects very much "like other people." One of their characteristics is a decided dislike to any change in their government. If the queenant is removed from a nest, the tiny politicians settle down soon into a steady-going republic, as THE Lancet, commenting on the death of Sir they are of course bound to do for lack of any Alexander Cockburn, the immediate cause of recognized ruler; but after they have got acwhich appears to have been a long walk on an customed to this new form of government, if a excessively cold day after a judicial session, re-queen-ant is introduced, the whole community marks: sets upon the intruder and pulls her to pieces. This shows that custom is as potent among ants as among their human superiors. However, Sir John Lubbock was not willing to allow his wellmeant endeavors to turn a republic into a limited monarchy to be thus thwarted; so he selected at first a few ants to be the body-guard of the queen, then gradually a few more, until at last a respectable phalanx of devoted servants were gathered round her majesty. After this, she was introduced into the nest, along with her retinue, and the result proved satisfactory. "I was enabled," says Sir John Lubbock, with pardonable pride," to secure her the throne." Another thing that shows a strong resemblance to men is the reluctance of the ants to believe travellers' tales. Sir John found that in every instance the volunteers who went to assist a comrade, who had brought back news of a great "find" of fresh meat, journeyed very leisurely, and were always outstripped by their enthusiastic pioneer, who had actually seen the treasure. As soon as they caught sight of the blue-bottle, or whatever it might be, all was changed the greatest activity was instantly shown, and the corpse was speedily dismembered; thus showing that the maxim that "seeing is believing" holds good in the ant as well as in the human king dom. NITROGEN. or to be oxidized and dissolved as a nitrate, and finally to reach the plant in its second cycle. The problem of how the first plant obtained its nitrogen, and whether nitrogen is being slowly removed from the atmosphere to be stored up in compounds, is not easily solved. Oxygen and nitrogen will combine under the influence of an electric spark. After a thunder shower, nitric acid has been detected in the air. Possibly some nitrogen is thus rendered available for plant life, and slowly but surely the great store of nitrogen is being drawn upon, and insensibly diminished. That it will ever be consumed seems unlikely, for plant life will have ceased upon the earth, for the want of carbonic acid, before the supply of nitrogen has perceptibly diminished. SCIENTIFIC BREVITIES. H. Having sought to explain the presence of nitrogen in the atmosphere, we come next to the questions of its mission there, and whether the amount is gradually decreasing or the reverse. Nitrogen is an essential constituent of every being that lives and moves upon the surface of the earth, that swims in the sea or floats in the air above. Not a germ, not a spore, not even the animalculæ and the fungi, are able to exist without nitrogen. In short, we may ment upon spontaneous generation involves the use exclaim, "Without nitrogen no life!" Every experiof nitrogenous liquids. A large quantity of nitrogen TRANSFORMING SOUND INTO LIGHT. — M. enters into the composition of the animal, yet it is Trève has described to the French Academy of not supposed that any of it is absorbed directly from Sciences an experiment with an apparatus which the atmosphere. It is true that nitrogen is absorbed he calls a singing condenser, by which he believes by the blood in greater quantities than by pure he effects the transformation of sound into light. water; yet the quantity respired from the lungs dif- When a current of electricity is brought to bear fers so little from that taken in during an inspira- upon his condenser a sound is produced, which he tion, that it probably plays no other part in respira- attributes to the vibrations of the air in the contion than to wash out the carbonic acid brought to denser, produced by the shock of the electric current. the lungs by the venous blood. Hydrogen would an- Reversing this experiment, he placed the condenser swer as well for this purpose. Whence, then, does in a Geissler tube, and brought the two poles of the animal obtain its supply of nitrogen? Evi- the electric current to bear upon the condenser dently not through the lungs, but by means of the through the electrodes of the table. The tube was stomach, from articles of food and drink; in other then connected with an air-pump. The condenser words, we get our nitrogen from plants, in some of sounded as usual when the current was directed which it is present in considerable quantity. The to it under the ordinary atmospheric pressure; plant alone seems to possess the power of building but when the air was withdrawn the sound beup, out of mineral substances, those complex organic came more and more feeble, until, as a vacuum was compounds which are suited for the food of man and produced, it ceased entirely, and a clear, bright animals. The nutritive value of a given article of light appeared, sparkling like pearls, from the leaves food depends principally upon the quantity of nitro- of the condenser, quite unlike the ordinary pale, gen it contains in a form ready for assimilation. vague light of the Geissler tubes. Gluten, vegetable albumen, and caseine are some of ELECTRICITY AND THE GROWTH OF BAMBOOS. the proximate principles formed in the plant and In bamboos the flow of sap takes place at the prepared for the use of the animal kingdom. The beginning of the rainy season, but vigorous shoots broad assertion has been made that non-nitrogenous rarely grow before the thunder-storms, which generfood contains no nutriment, because it is unable to ally precede the harvest. The rapidity of their contribute to the formation of blood or flesh. growth increases with the violence of the storm, amounting sometimes to as much as seventy feet in thirty days, the vegetation being most active during the night. Captain Sleeman suggests that the cause of this sudden growth may be the increase in the quantity of nitrogenous compounds, which greedily absorbed by the humus that surrounds the roots of the bamboos. are WHENCE came the great ocean of nitrogen in which we live, and what is its mission on earth? Were all the nitrogen in our atmosphere to settle down upon the surface of the earth, it would form an ocean over four miles deep, above which would project a few of our highest mountains, like islands from the sea. Estimating the surface of our globe at two hundred thousand square miles, we have a great reservoir representing eight hundred thousand cubic miles of nitrogen. Has this great quantity of inert gas been present in the atmosphere from the beginning? we would ask. Science tells us that our little ball of solid earth was once a molten mass, the temperature of which we can scarcely estimate. Chemical research proves that no compound is able to endure a very high temperature without suffering The plant possesses the power of absorbing nitrogdissociation. Hence we may suppose that there has enous compounds of very simple structure (such as been a time when the elements which enter into the ammonia and nitric acid), of assimilating their nitrocrust of the earth were in a free state, uncombined gen, and building up from them bodies of the most with each other. The protuberances observed dart- complex structure, such as albuminoids. The free ing out from the chromosphere of the sun consist of nitrogen of the air is of no more avail to the plant hydrogen gas, and show that this element exists than to the animal; the plant must obtain it from there in a free state. When our earth was at a other sources, which are usually found in decaying EQUINE ENDURANCE. Some experiments have white heat, free hydrogen existed in its atmosphere vegetable and animal matter, particularly the latter. been made in Paris with a view to determining the likewise, while now it can rarely be detected there. The agriculturist recognizes the necessity of furnish-capacity of the horse to undergo the privations inIn the general marriage of the elements, the insa- ing the growing plant with nitrogen. This is accident to a state of siege. They showed: (1.) That a tiable oxygen was successful in wooing the refrac- complished by the use of manures which contain horse may hold out for twenty-five days without any tory carbon, silicon, and most of the other elements. decomposing animal matter, or fertilizers containing Nitrogen, an indifferent coquette, refused his ad- ammonia or nitrates. The ammonia for this purpose vances, and still remains, for the greater part, in is either obtained as a by-product in making gas single blessedness. from coal, or is applied in the form of guano. In Various reasons have been given for the presence either case the origin of the ammonia has been orof such a large proportion of nitrogen in the air. ganic life. If nitrates are employed, such as nitre The older books tell us that its principal use is to and saltpetre, which are found in great quantities in dilute the oxygen and prevent its burning up every- some parts of the world, it is probable that they thing, and also to fit it for the respiration of man. have resulted from the oxidation of ammonia, which Yet the researches of competent physiologists, like in turn is the product of putrefying animal and vegeMüller and Regnault, have proved that the present table matter. So seldom is ammonia or nitric acid composition of the atmosphere is not the only one found under conditions that lead us to doubt of their favorable to normal respiration. The percentage organic origin that it would seem almost as if plants of oxygen is about 21, whereas 15 per cent. of oxy- and animals were quite independent of the atmosgen is amply sufficient to sustain life. On the pheric nitrogen. We may say that there are two other hand, the quantity of oxygen might be very totally distinct stores of nitrogen, the one existing largely increased without injury to life. If a diluent free, the other in combination: the latter travelling were necessary, hydrogen could have been employed around a closed circle from the soil to the plant, in place of nitrogen, without detriment to animal life. thence to the animal; from the animal out into the Instead of assuming that the atmosphere was made atmosphere, not in a free state but as ammonia, to up especially to suit our individual wants, would it be carried back to earth with the next gentle rain, - solid nourishment, provided it is supplied with sufficient good drinking-water. (2.) That a horse can subsist for barely five days without water. (3.) If a horse is well fed for ten days, but insufficiently provided with water throughout this period, it will not outlive the eleventh day. One horse, from which water had been entirely withheld for three days, drank on the fourth day sixty liters (fifteen gallons) within three minutes. A horse which had received no solid nourishment for twelve days was nevertheless in a condition on the twelfth day of its fast to draw a load of 279 kilograms (625 pounds). PRESERVATION OF THE COLORS OF DRIED PLANTS. - The Journal de Pharmacie states that this is most effectually done by passing the plant slowly through a solution of one part of salicilic acid in six hun red parts of alcohol, heated to boiling point in an evaporating vessel. The superfluous liquid is then to be shaken off, and the plant placed between blotting-paper and pressed as usual. blotting-paper must be frequently renewed, espe The brilliant white light, and to throw out brilliant sparks in all directions. Carbon is soon deposited upon the walls of the cylinder, while the heavier magnesia falls to the bottom of the vessel. The phenomenon forms a very interesting lecture experiment. A PHENOMENON OF ELASTICITY. - If elastic gum is warmed, then expanded and wound in a spiral upon a glass tube or wire, and placed for a short time in a cooling mixture, it shows no tendency to contract; but when it is immersed in hot water it returns quickly to its original length. This phenomenon can also be noticed without the use of the cooling mixture. If one holds heated gum a second in an expanded condition it shows no disposition to return to its original length; but if one immerses it in hot water it contracts to one fourth or one fifth, and remains contracted to the third or fourth of its original length. Maxwell found similar phenomena in gutta-percha, when this was subjected to expanding influences while in a cool condition. These are very marked phenomena of the secondary effects of elasticity. HOUSEHOLD RECIPES. Practical Chemistry and the Arts. for any other. The meat is unsurpassed for sweet- tons. The number of vessels that have passed THE STEAM POWER OF THE WORLD. MR. RUSKIN, in a recent characteristic letter The maintenance of the canal proves easy; it requires, on an average, a yearly dredging of 950,000 cubic metres, which is effected with economical and powerful engines. The avernal in 1878 was about 40 hours (17 hours' passage), time occupied by British troop-ships in the cacalculated from 49 voyages. age Process patented in England, paper for bank checks, etc., is dipped in an aqueous solution of sulphate of copper and carbonate of ammonia, and then dried, after which it is dipped in an alkaline solution of cochineal or other coloring matter. The ink to be CLEANING WHITE LACE. A German industrial creation of man. The actinic force of the sun-used consists of 3 oz. bichromate of potash, 3 oz. paper gives the following processes: — beams, stored up in those ancient plants until copperas, 4 oz. oxalic acid, 1 oz. red prussiate of they were converted into coal, is awakened from potash, 3 oz. extract of logwood, 2 oz. glycerine, and its sleep of ages in the form of heat, and fur- a suitable quantity of any convenient red, blue, or mishes the motive power of Mr. Ruskin's "shriek- other pigment. ing fiend." But the fiends are the "sons of darkness," while this, as we have seen, is the offan "angel of light" rather spring of the sun, White silk lace is to be sewed over small, clean slips of wood to keep it evenly spread out; laid over night in warm milk, to which a little soap has been added; rinsed in fresh water, laid for the same length of time in warm soap-lye, and finally rinsed without any friction. If a supplemental bleaching is still necessary, put the lace, while still damp, in the rays of the sun. Linen lace is best cleaned by covering the outside of a large glass bottle smoothly with stout linen or white flannel, upon which the lace is sewed in a number of coils, and over the whole some coarse open tissue is secured. The bottle thus dressed is allowed to soak for a time in lukewarm soft water, and the outside wrapping is then rubbed with soap and a piece of flannel. After this process the bottle is laid to steep for some hours in clean soft water. It is then rolled between dry towels, dipped in ricewater and rolled again. Finally, the damp lace is unfastened from the bottle and ironed at once be tween linen cloths. FOR CURING MEAT. The Germantown Telegraph gives the following as a well-tested and highly commended recipe for curing beef, pork, mutton, hams, etc. To one gallon of water take 1 lbs. of salt, lb. of sugar, oz. saltpetre, oz. potash. In this ratio the pickle can be increased to any quantity desired. Let these be boiled together until all the dirt from the sugar rises to the top and is skimmed off. Then turn it into a tub to cool, and when cold pour it over your beef or pork. The than of darkness. But we took our pen not to illustrate "the INDUSTRIAL AND LABORATORY NOTES. meat must be well covered with pickle, and should A FRENCH FIRE-RESISTING PREPARATION. The French Society for the Encouragement of National Industry has lately awarded a sum of 1000 francs to M. Martin, of Paris, for his preparations, which have been variously tested by a committee of the society. The report briefly is that M. Martin's mixtures render tissues and the superficial parts of wood uninflammable, that they do not alter the tissues nor the colors, and that stuffs so rendered uninflammable retain this property after having been exposed several months, either in a stove at 36° C. or on the stage of a theatre. M. Martin's mixtures are not in a sense new. For all light tissues he uses pure sulphate of ammonia (8 parts), carbonate of ammonia (2.5), boric acid (3), pure borax (2), starch (2), water (100). Another mixture applied to painted decorations consists of muriate of ammonia, boric-acid, glue, gelatine, water, and lime. Two other preparations are specified. M. Martin's preparations are said to have been used with success for decorations in several theatres in Paris, and in the play of La Venus Noire, for rendering uninflammable the masts of vessels in which a fire is simulated every night by means of oakum wrapped round the masts. TESTING PICKLES FOR COPPER. The Jour nal of the American Chemical Society states that Mr. Edwin Hawley has analyzed fifteen samples of grocers' pickles for copper and other poisonous metals. They were obtained in Michigan, except two samples, which were furnished by Chicago dealers. Only one sample was found to contain copper, and this was in an enormous amount. From 5.909 grammes of pickle (drained, but not dried), the weight of cuprous sulphide was 0.0755 gramme. This gives over four per cent. (4.58 per cent.) of crystallized copper sulpbate in the pickle. The pickles of this sample left a decided copper deposit upon a bright knife, upon a few minutes' contact. In the examination, the pickle was dried, and ignited in a porcelain crucible, with addition small kettle over a fire, and stir until the paste is of sulphuric acid. copper. The unripe Baldwins gave 87 per cent. water, The residue was treated with perfectly homogeneous, without lumps. As soon as with a less amount of albuminoids and sugar dilute nitric acid and water, and the resulting solu- the mass has become so stiff that the stirrer remains than the others, and considerable free hydrated tion charged with hydrosulphuric acid gas. Nega- upright in it, transfer it to another vessel and cover malic acid. The sugar varied from about 5 per tive results showed absence of lead, etc., as well as it up, so that no skin may form on its surface. This cent. in the Baldwins to 9 per cent. in the paste is applied in a very thin layer to the surface Sweets. A NEW COPYING APPARATUS. A recent Eng-of the table; the cloth, etc., is then laid and pressed skin, seeds, pectine, ash, etc., averaged about The total insoluble matters, including upon it, and smoothed with a roller. The ends are cut off after drying. If leather is to be fastened 3.25 per cent. on, this must first be wetted. The paste is then apThese results show how largely preponderplied, and the leather rubbed smooth with a cloth. ating in apples is the water, which in amount is PARAFFINE AS A WOOD PRESERVER. - A about 85 per cent. of their weight. Therefore, German scientist recommends paraffine as an effi- a tree bearing 30 bushels (46 pounds to the cient means of protecting wood against damp, acids, bushel) holds up in the fruit about half a ton and alkalies. The wood is first well dried, and of water. The nutritive value of apples is of then covered with a solution of one part melted course not in the water, but in the solids, alparaffine in six parts petroleum, ether, or bisulphide buminoids, sugar, and gum. In a bushel of Hubof carbon. The solvents evaporate quickly, leaving bardstons there is about six pounds of soluble the paraffine in the pores of the wood. must be taken in the use of this preparation, since nutritive material at the period of ripening; in paraffine, as well as petroleum, ether, or bisulphide Tolman's Sweets, about seven pounds; in Baldof carbon, is very inflammable; and even the vapor wins, five pounds; and this material will vary to of the last two mentioned substances, if mixed with a considerable extent in value. Sugar is a carair, may give rise to dangerous explosions. Paraf- bonaceous substance, and nutritive in a certain fine melted, with equal parts of linseed oil and direction. It is mainly useful as fuel, and by rapeseed oil, is also very useful to protect iron from oxidation serves to maintain animal warmth. rust. The albuminoids are nitrogenous, and therefore are foods proper; the gum is also a food. lish patent is for a means of producing copies of written matter in black instead of colored inks, as heretofore. The apparatus consists of a pad, copying ink, and an inking roller. The writing is executed on paper with copying ink of an aluminous solution, and left to dry without blotting; it is then placed face downwards on the pad, and evenly rubbed for about three minutes. The paper being removed, a negative is left on the pad; printing ink is then applied by a roller to the negative, and the superfluous ink washed carefully off. Copies can be taken from the negative in a similar manner to that adopted in lithography, but without any mechanical STEEL AND GAS.-M. Aube has patented in France a method of converting iron into steel, and at the same time producing illuminating gas. Iron is placed in a retort with charcoal or coke in layers, and heated to 900° C.; fatty matters are then injected, and as soon as decomposition has taken place, a jet of dry steam is passed over the incandescent mass. The result is said to be that the pressure. Great care iron is converted into steel, and carburetted hydro-like those given off in the preparation of silver gen is given off from the retort. PRACTICAL RECIPES. ACID-PROOF CEMENT. How to make paste or cementing material that is proof against acid fumes nitrate, for instance is well worth knowing. Finely-powdered glass, mixed with soluble silicate of soda, will give a material of this description. Agriculture. APPLES AS FOOD FOR ANIMALS. We may conclude from these investigations that apples of the varieties best known have a positive food value, but it is small. The albuminoids are seldom found above half of one per cent. in any varieties, and this would give us less than four ounces in the bushel; of sugar we find in a bushel about two and a half pounds in acid fruits, and considerably more in sweets. This exhibit shows that the statements made by some farmers that they are able to obtain a pound of butter from feeding a bushel of apples A full consideration of this impor AQUEOUS VARNISH AND STARCH GLOSS. Dr. Geissler, according to New Remedies, gives the following recipe for such a varnish: "It is most simply and rapidly prepared by shaking a saturated solution of borax with powdered shellac without heat. THE enormous crop of apples the past season One part of shellac is soluble in two parts of a has awakened much inquiry with regard to their saturated solution of borax, after frequent shaking food value for animals, -cows, pigs, horses, etc., during two or three days. In three parts, however, it and many statements have been made in the is not true. is easily soluble. The bleached shellac must be pre- papers which are erroneous, and calculated to lead tant matter demands more space than we have served under water, and must be dissolved imme- farmers and others astray upon the subject. We to spare at present, and the topic will be condiately after being powdered; for, if it is allowed to could not find at hand any reliable analysis of tinued in the next number. be exposed to the air, in a powdered condition, for the fruit, of the varieties such as are raised several days, it will either not dissolve at all, or largely in our Northern States, and this circum- MASSACHUSETTS STATE BOARD OF AGRIonly with great difficulty. If a higher temperaCULTURE. ture than 50 or 60° C. is used in preparing the varstance determined us to make analysis of several nish, it is apt to assume a faint reddish color, the prominent kinds, as the Tolman's Sweets, Hubcause of which I have vainly tried to ascertain. bardston Nonesuch, and Baldwins. The apples The finished varnish, however, bears heat very well. selected were in different stages of ripeness, the Now this varnish may not only be used for render-Hubbardstons being more advanced than the ing pictures, maps, prints, etc., glossy, but it is a others. Very important modifications are promost excellent starch-gloss, and its preparation would duced by the chemical changes in apples as they therefore be also remunerative for many pharmacists. approach the stage of maturity, or the period In fact, this varnish is much more appropriate and serviceable for this purpose than all other known commercial 'starch-glosses.' INK FOR LABORATORY USE. A German pharmaceutical magazine gives the following recipe for a fine black ink, which flows easily from the pen, and may be used in laboratories, drug stores, etc., for labelling objects which are liable to get wet, or for producing writing which will resist acids and caustic liquids: 20 grams of brown shellac are dissolved in a warm solution of 30 grams of borax in 300 to 400 grams of water, and filtered hot; to the filtrate is added a solution containing 7.5 to 10 grams of water-soluble nigrosin, 0.3 gram tannin, 0.1 gram picric acid, 15 grams water of ammonia, and 7 grams water. TO FASTEN CLOTH ON WOODEN SURFACES. The following is a German process for fastening cloth to the top of tables, desks, etc.: Make a mixture of 21 pounds of wheat flour, 2 tablespoonfuls of powdered rosin, and 2 tablespoonfuls of powdered alum; rub the mixture in a suitable vessel, with water, to a uniform smooth paste; transfer this to a when they become mellow and ready for the The results of the analysis were as follows: of unusual value. The ex THE Country meeting of the State Board, at Southboro, in December, was one of great interest and profit. The attendance was large, and the character of the papers presented was It was a great disappointment to be unavoidably prevented from attendance. We were under engagement to lecture upon the " Chemistry of the Farm House," on Tuesday evening, December 1st, but a sudden atWe hope to be tack of illness kept us at home. able to have the address ready to publish in the forthcoming report of the secretary. hibition of corn at the meeting was very large, and the specimens were fine. There is manifestly a growing interest in this magnificent crop, and the influence of the JOURNAL has aided in no small degree in creating this interest. It is now known to be a profitable crop; perhaps, taking all things into account, the most profitable in New England. The new secretary of the Board, Mr. Russell, is very efficient in his duties, and the success of the meeting is due in a large degree to his efforts. CHEMISTRY AND ACORNS. In England, and many parts of the continent. of Europe, acorns are extensively utilized as food for pigs and sheep, especially when other fodder |