246 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



not disturb the patient's sleep, and is incomparably less than that 

 caused by other caustics, such as sulphuric or nitric acids, nitrate of 

 silver, corrosive sublimate, caustic potassa, &c. According to Dr. 

 Heller's experiments, all organic compounds are soluble in the easily 

 deoxidable chromic acid, their ultimate elements being raised to a 

 higher degree of oxidation, and partly uniting with the acid. An 

 elevated temperature accelerates this process. Smaller animals, mice, 

 birds, &c., were so completely dissolved by chromic acid in fifteen or 

 twenty minutes, that no trace of their bones, skin, hair, claws or teeth 

 could be discovered. 



WHY BREAD BECOMES STALE. 



'Ax a late meeting of the French Academy a discussion took place 

 respecting the grave yet apparently simple question why bread 

 becomes stale. M. Boussingault laid down that stateness is not, as is 

 generally supposed, caused by the proportion of water diminishing ; 

 but arises from a molecular state which manifests itself during the 

 cooling, becomes afterwards developed, and persists as long as the 

 temperature does not exceed a certain limit. M. Thenard said, that 

 it is cause by bread being a hydrate which heat softens, and to which 

 a lower temperature gives more consistency. 



PRESERVATION OF ANIMAL SUBSTANCES. 



THE following is an abstract of a communication to the French 

 Academy, by M. Blandet : 



The hyposulphite of soda and the chloride of zinc are both employed 

 for the preservation of dead bodies by injection. I placed blood in a 

 concentrated solution of each of these salts, and in about a fortnight, 

 after exposure to the air, the blood appeared bad in the hyposulphite, 

 though still liquid and black ; while the chloride of zinc gave a precipi- 

 tate, but without bad odor. I experimented with another* salt, a 

 chloride like the salt of zinc, and alkaline the same as the salt of soda 

 the chloride of barium. This salt maintains the blood liquid the 

 same as the salt of soda, and preserves it without odor the same as the 

 salt of zinc. The author thinks that by employing it for the injection 

 of the human subject, we may preserve the aspect of the living body, 

 the blood being rendered imputrescable by the chloride of barium 

 Comptes Rendus. 



A NEW STYPTIC. 



A PHARMACIEN, at Rome, Signer Pagliare, has recently succeeded 

 in discovering a liquid possessing so extraordinary a power of coagulat- 

 ing blood, that if to a large basin containing this fluid one drop of the 

 styptic be added, complete solidification ensues, so that the basin may 

 be inverted without causing any blood to be lost. The practical 

 advantages of this styptic are consequently very great, inasmuch as, 



