588 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



the excrement with which they are laden into the reservoir. 

 From this it is taken up by means of a pump into a specially 

 arranged air-tight wagon, and carried off to be manufactured 

 into a fertilizer. 14 C, CCL, 86. 



UTILIZATION OF SEWAGE. 



A report, published by a committee of the British Associ- 

 ation, relative to the treatment and utilization of sewage, 

 takes the ground that it is only by filtering this material 

 through the earth itself that the dissolved and suspended sub- 

 stances which are the food of vegetable and the poison of an- 

 imal life can be kept out of our rivers and applied to the pro- 

 duction of growths. After this straining, the liquid matter 

 that escapes may, according to the report, be allowed to en- 

 ter into the rivers without producing any of the deleterious 

 effects that accompany the introduction of the original sew- 

 age matter. Light, porous, and gravelly soils, and even 

 blown sand, thus treated with sewage, furnish crops of great 

 richness, and meadows watered with this substance yield an 

 astonishing growth of grass. 15 A, 1871, January 7, 22. 



INFLUENCE OF THE SEWING-MACHINE ON THE HEALTH OF 



FEMALES. 



Dr. Decaisne, in the Union Medicate, after a careful exami- 

 nation of 661 female operatives upon the sewing-machine, 

 reached the conclusion that these persons are not, as has been 

 alleged, more subject than other working-women to diseases 

 peculiar to their sex, and that the cases which have been re- 

 ported are evidently simple coincidences, and the results of a 

 labor too severe for women's strength. 3 J5, May 26, 1870, 

 175. 



CUEE OF COLD IN THE HEAD. 



Dr. Franc, of Munich, informs us that coryza, or cold in the 

 head, with severe sneezing, can be cured perfectly, in from 

 two to four days, by preparing a solution of permanganate 

 of potassa in the proportion of about one and a half grains to 

 two fluid ounces of water. Of this solution some twenty to 

 sixty drops are to be poured into a tumblerful of water, and 

 every two hours a table-spoonful is to be snuffed up the nos- 

 trils ; and if there be any soreness the same may be used as 



