148 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



which is so dangerous to the ordinary process. First, sulpho- 

 glvceric acid is made by treating glycerin of 30 by three 

 times its weight of sulphuric acid of GG. Second, nitro- 

 sulphuric acid is made by mixing equal weights of nitric acid 

 at 48 and sulphuric acid at GG. After cooling these liquids 

 separately, they arc mixed so as to get 100 parts of glycerin, 

 280 of nitric acid, and GOO of sulphuric acid. The temperature 

 never rises more than 10 to 15, and the nitroglycerin may 

 be directly decanted and washed. The yield is from 1G0 to 

 195 per cent. 



A paper has appeared by Bischof, giving the results of his 

 examination of a considerable white efflorescence upon the 

 outside of a tube which had been employed for eight months 

 in conveying aqueduct water into a cistern, the tube being 

 alternately exposed and immersed. The powder was lead 

 carbonate and sulphate. On analyzing the tube itself, it 

 was found to contain 1.7 per cent, of antimony. The author 

 attributes the rapid corrosion to the presence of this metal, 

 and considers the use of lead alloys for tubes for conveying 

 drinking-water to be reprehensible. 



Heeren has examined various kinds of caoutchouc to ascer- 

 tain their solvency in coal-tar benzene. He finds the most 

 soluble to be that of Guayaquil, of which benzene dissolves 

 20 per cent. ; while that of Para has only 17 per cent, of sol- 

 uble matter; Africa, 12.7; Rangoon, 9.1; and Madagascar, 

 5.7. Obviously this gum must be, therefore, a mixture of 

 several different chemical substances. 



Berthelot has given a description and an analysis of an an- 

 cient wine, fifteen or sixteen centuries old, obtained from an 

 hermetically sealed earthenware vase in the Borely Museum 

 at Marseilles. It came originally from Aliscamps, near 

 Aries, in a vicinity used as a cemetery during the Roman 

 epoch. It contained about twenty-five cubic centimeters 

 of a yellowish liquid of a vinous aromatic odor and a hot, 

 strong taste. On analysis it yielded, per liter, 45 centimeters 

 of alcohol, 3.G grams fixed acids (calculated as tartaric), 0.6 

 hydropotassium tartrate, 1.2 acetic acid, calcium tartrate and 

 acetic ether, traces. The wine appears to have been buried 

 with the dead. 



Baudrimont has given a simple method for recognizing the 

 presence of fuchsin (aniline-red) in wine. A drop is placed 



