540 ANNUAL KECOHD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



loosed. Caustic soda, among other substances, is said to be 

 best adapted to the purpose. A solution of the soda is made, 

 and lumps of coke moistened with it, which are then placed 

 in vessels so arranged that the smoke of the furnaces passes 

 through them, and the gases, in their passage, enter immedi- 

 ately into combination with the soda, forming a carbonate 

 and sulphite. 16-4, July, 331. 



INHALATION OF DUST BY WORKMEN. 



The injurious effect of exposure to the dust of various man- 

 ufacturing establishments has not unfrequently been dwelt 

 upon with more or less force, but we are hardly prepared for 

 the result of certain specific investigations on this subject. It 

 has long been a disputed point whether the particles of iron, 

 silica, etc., merely lodge within the air-cells of the lungs, or 

 penetrate through their walls into the tissue before them. 

 But Professor Zenker informs us that, on examining the lung 

 of a woman who had been exposed to the dust of iron oxide, 

 used in preparing books of gold leaf, he found the powder in 

 the tissue between the air-cells and in their walls, as well as 

 in their cavities. From less than two ounces of this lung 

 over twelve grains of iron oxide were obtained by chemical 

 methods ; so that, if equally distributed through both lungs, 

 there must have been at least three quarters of an ounce in- 

 haled. In another case that of a workman exposed to the 

 dust of a mixture used in preparing ultramarine substances 

 he found a quantity estimated at fully an ounce. 21 A, 

 June, 424. 



DUST AS A FERMENT. 



The lectures by Professor Tyndall upon atmospheric dust 

 have stimulated much research on that and kindred subjects, 

 and they have been very productive of good in the attention 

 that has been drawn to the relationships of dust to the con- 

 ditions of health and disease. In a late paper Mr. Tichborne 

 furnishes some suggestions in regard to dust and ferment, 

 and gives the result of numerous experiments with atmos- 

 pheric dust taken from the bed of the street-way in Dublin, 

 the gallery and upper seats of certain theatres, the top of 

 Nelson's Pillar, at a height of one hundred and thirty-four 

 feet, and other localities. He found that from one third to 



