214 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



when allowed to flow slowly from an aperture of given size. 

 If the size of this aperture is constant, so too will be the 

 number of drops corresponding to each alcoholic mixture 

 which flows through it in a given time. The difference be- 

 tween the numbers thus found is said to be large enough to 

 furnish the basis for a very sensitive alcoholmetric method. 

 A pipette of given volume is to be employed, the number of 

 drops escaping therefrom counted, and the alcohol percentage 

 estimated by tables prepared by the author for the purpose. 

 The process is claimed to be extremely delicate. 



DETECTING FUCHSINE IX WINE. 



The extent to which fuchsine has lately been used in color- 

 ing wines, candies, etc., renders it a matter of some impor- 

 tance to detect the existence of this poisonous principle. Ac- 

 cording to a recent French writer, the simplest method of 

 doing this is to place a portion of the suspected liquid in a test 

 tube, and to add first 150 grains of subacetate of lead, and 

 then 200 grains of amylic alcohol. If, after agitation of the 

 mixture, the amylic alcohol, on separating, appears colorless, 

 it shows that fuchsine has not been used ; if, on the contrary, 

 it exhibits a red tint, it indicates that this poisonous sub- 

 stance has been added. 3 B, July 30, 1874, 503. 



HOT FILTERING. 



A method of hot filtering, which may often be found serv- 

 iceable in the laboratory, is thus described : A tube of soft 

 sheet lead is wound about the funnel containing the filter, in 

 the form of a spiral. One end of the tube passes through a 

 cork in the neck of a flask, in which water or other liquid is 

 brought to the boiling-point. The other end terminates in 

 a receiver, into which the condensed liquid flows. 



SPECTROSCOPIC CHEMISTRY. 



Lockyer, in a recent communication to the Roval Societv, 

 states that he has shown that when different degrees of dis- 

 sociating power are employed the spectral effects are differ- 

 ent; and, in continuation of this same idea, he now proposes 

 to give the reasons which led him to the conclusion that, 

 starting with a mass of elemental matter, such mass of mat- 

 ter is continually broken up as the temperature, including in 



