5 74 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



and placing in different parts of the room several plates con- 

 taining a quantity of common salt on which a little vitriol 

 has been poured. The vapor of chlorine will be instantly 

 evolved, and will annihilate all infection with which it comes 

 in contact. It may be used even in rooms containing sick 

 persons, if the quantity evolved be so slight as not to incon- 

 venience the lungs of the patients. 18 A, August 25, 5*71. 



liebreich's pepsin. 



A recent German writer, in referring to some new chemical 

 preparations, speaks of the formula for preparing pepsin as 

 published by Dr. Liebreich, and remarks that until lately this 

 substance, once so frequently prescribed, has gone almost en- 

 tirely out of use in consequence of the readiness with which 

 it undergoes decomposition. He adds, however, that the ex- 

 perience of a year with the article as prepared by the new 

 process has shown that this is perfectly unchangeable, and 

 when compared with pepsin made freshly by the other for- 

 mula is far superior to it in its efficiency. One somewhat 

 unexpected application of the new pepsin is based upon its 

 tendency to destroy fungous growths, on which account it has 

 lately been used in diphtheria by painting the inner surface 

 of the mouth with it. Some most extraordinary cures have 

 already resulted from this application, and it is commended 

 earnestly by the writer in question to farlher experiment. It 

 is also said to exercise a beneficial effect, when mixed with 

 foul drinking-water, in destroying those fungous germs which 

 are so productive of mischief in causing diarrhoea and cholera. 



EXTRACTION OF PEPSIN BY GLYCERINE. 



Among the many applications of glycerine, not the least 

 important is that which has recently been made of it in the 

 extraction of pepsin and other ferments found in animal and 

 vegetable bodies. If the mucous membrane of a pig's stom- 

 ach be well washed, and, after the removal of the water, be 

 reduced to fine shreds and bruised, and the whole be then 

 covered with pure glycerine, this will be found, after stand- 

 ing twenty-four hours, to have extracted the pepsin in an ap- 

 preciable quantity so as to readily digest fibrine. The oper- 

 ation may be repeated several times successively with a sim- 

 ilar result. 



