208 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



paratus, which is somewhat complicated, was supplied for 

 her service, and since that time two sets have been obtained 

 from the maker, for the use of the United States Navy De- 

 partment and the United States Coast Survey. In connec- 

 tion with this apparatus, Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, the chemist of 

 the Challenger, has devised a convenient process of analyzing 

 the gases on shipboard ; the principal desideratum being 

 freedom from the necessity of using a mercurial trough. In 

 the January number of the Edinburgh Philosophical Maga- 

 zine is a description of this apparatus, which is said to ac- 

 complish its object satisfactorily. The apparatus of Jacobsen 

 is figured in Vol. CLXVIL, of Liebig's Annalen. 



CAUSE OF ACETOUS FERMENTATION. 



While the investigations by Knieriem and Meyer as to the 

 cause of acetous fermentation in the main agree in their re- 

 sults with those of Pasteur, they also reveal a complete 

 analogy as to the cause between acetous and alcoholic fer- 

 mentation. They regard the action of the Mycoderma ctceti, 

 or vinegar ferment fungus, as most probably physiological; 

 that is to say, the formation of acetic acid is intimately con- 

 nected with the general organic changes of the plant. 18 C, 

 October 15, 1873, 666. 



QUICKSILVER PRODUCT OF CALIFORNIA IN 1873. 



According to the mining and scientific press of California, 

 the quicksilver product of the state amounted to 31,881 

 flasks in 1871, to 30,306 in 1872, and to 28,600 in 1873. 

 About half the total yield is from the New Almaden Mine, 

 and next to that the New Idria, the two furnishing the value 

 of a million and a quarter dollars. The price of quicksilver 

 has ranged during 1873 from 90 cents (gold) in January to 

 $1 20 in December. San Fran. Mining and Scient. Press, 

 January 24, 1873. 



ELECTRICAL DEPOSITION OF IRON. 



. From a recent elaborate article on this subject, it seems 

 that great progress has lately been made by Klein, of St. 

 Petersburg, in electrotyping iron. He has succeeded in pro- 

 ducing masses that can be worked as well as steel plates from 

 engraved copper plates, combining all the softness of copper 



