lxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



sand, 15 of copper oxide, 25 of chalk, and 6 of dry sodium 

 carbonate. 



Musculus has obtained what he calls soluble starch by 

 heating ordinary starch with water and very dilute sulphuric 

 acid to complete solution, the liquid still being colored violet 

 with iodine. After neutralizing the acid, and evaporating 

 the liquid to the consistence of a sirup, it deposits, after pro- 

 longed standing, minute grains of from 0.01 to 0.02 millimeter 

 in diameter. After decantation, washing, and drying, it ap- 

 pears as a brilliant white powder, like starch, insoluble in 

 cold water, but entirelv soluble in water at 50 C. When 

 dilute the solution is colored red by iodine; concentrated, it 

 is turned violet. 



Gal has submitted to examination the rare essential oil of 

 the Anona odoratissima, ordinarily known in perfumery as 

 ylang-ylang. He finds it to be a benzoic ether of one or 

 several unknown alcohols. 



M. Lamy has made a report to the Societe d'Encourage- 

 ment upon the Asnieres establishment for the commercial 

 manufacture of ammonium phosphate, for use in refining 

 beet-sugar, as originally proposed by M. Kuhlmann twenty- 

 four years ago. M. Peligot has also made a valuable report 

 to the same society on the alloys in use for coinage. 



Hatzfeld has proposed the injection of tannin or sodium 

 tannate into wood, as a means of preserving it from decom- 

 position. Dr. W. W. Keen has given the results of some 

 striking experiments on the antiseptic powers of chloral hy- 

 drate, and on its use in preserving animal tissues for ana- 

 tomical purposes. 



Pasteur has himself given us, in a pretty full paper, the 

 details of his new process for rendering beer unalterable in 

 the air. From his investigations he had concluded : (l) That 

 all alterations in beer, whether finished or in progress, or in 

 the wort, are produced simultaneously with the development 

 and increase of microscopic organisms ; (2) that the germs of 

 these organisms are carried in the air, or are left from pre- 

 vious operations either in the beer or attached to the vessels 

 employed ; (3) that a beer which does not contain these liv- 

 ing germs is unalterable, whatever be the temperature of its 

 production or preservation ; and (4) that in actual practice 

 all the worts, yeasts, and beers contain these germs. He 



