INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS FOR THE YEAR 1871. xxxi 



zinc, etc., have been announced and brought into considera- 

 ble use. For further details in this department we must re- 

 fer to the pages of the Record. 



The department of Hygiene has been enriched by import- 

 ant papers upon the microscopic fungi and their relationship 

 to disease. Dr. Calvert shows us that the clothing and other 

 objects infected with the germs, and, as such, liable to propa- 

 gate infection of one character or another, must be exposed 

 to a temperature of at least 400 before their vitality is cer- 

 tainly destroyed ; this heat, indeed, being in many cases suf- 

 ficient to char cotton cloth. 



The subject of carbolic acid has also been discussed as to 

 its efficiency, and it seems to have lost somewhat of the favor 

 with which it was originally greeted. A long-known sub- 

 stance, called chloralum, recently brought forward as an anti- 

 septic by Dr. Gamgee, has also received a varying degree of 

 commendation and approval. 



In the department of 31ateria Medica much interest has 

 centred, as far as the United States is concerned, in the ques- 

 tion of the virtues of cundurango, the supposed remedy for 

 the cure of cancer. Much speculation has been indulged in 

 in regard to the actual value of this substance, many persons 

 believing it to be a success, and others considering it entirely 

 inefficient. The decision of this question, however, we must 

 leave to pharmaceutical specialists. 



Among the Miscellaneous subjects, or those that can hardly 

 be assigned to one branch rather than another, we may men- 

 tion that of psychic force, brought forward by Mr. William 

 Crookes as the result of certain experiments made with the 

 aid of the celebrated medium, Mr. David D. Home. Mr. 

 Crookes is a chemist of much eminence in the science, and the 

 announcement made by him, as the result of numerous exper- 

 iments, that he can not resist the belief in the existence of a 

 new and hitherto unrecognized force, has been received with 

 much surprise. The principal manifestations of this law, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Crookes, are, that the gravity of certain bodies 

 can be measurably or even greatly increased, under certain 

 circumstances, at the will of a particular individual, the ex- 

 tent varying with the nerve-power of the person and the 

 particular circumstances of the experiment. Very few of 

 Mr. Crookes's colleagues concur with him, and the great body 



