52 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



of humidity. M. Weltz's ideas are confirmed by the following fact : 

 In the south of Spain there exists an ancient copper-mine (Mina de 

 Riotonto), which dates from the first years of the Christian era. The 

 woodwork which sustains the galleries, is still in a perfect state of 

 preservation. It is charred, a circumstance which is explained by the 

 quantity of crystallized sulphate of copper and of metallic copper in 

 regulus which covers it. The wood has remained exposed nearly 

 18 centuries to the action of the atmosphere and its humidity, hav- 

 ing been charred by the sulphate of copper while depositing metallic 

 copper on its surface. Repertoire de Chimie. 



NEW METHODS FOR PRESERVING MEATS, FRUITS, VEGETABLES, &C. 



At a recent industrial exhibition at St. Petersburg, the following 

 mode of preserving fruits, invented by the maitre d' hotel of the Grand 

 Duke Nicholas, attracted great attention. Quicklime is slacked in 

 water, into which four or five drops of creosote for each quart of 

 water have been mixed : the lime must be neither too much nor too 

 little slacked ; there is a certain knack which practice alone can teach. 

 Take a box and lay in its bottom a bed of the slacked lime, above this 

 spread a layer of the materials to be preserved ; at the four angles and 

 elsewhere lay packages of powdered charcoal; then make another lied 

 of the lime, followed by another Liver of the fruit. When the box is 

 full put on the lid, and close it air-tight. Thus preserved, the fruits 

 will last a whole year. Cosmos. 



A new process for preserving uncooked meat, recently brought out 

 in Europe, is to extract the atmospheric air by means of a vacuum, 

 and then to admit nitrogen or azote. This permeates the substance of 

 the flesh, and prevents the putrefactive changes which would otherwise 

 ensue. 



Pagliari Process for Preserving Meed. A new process for pre- 

 serving meat, proposed by M. Pagliari, has been reported to the 

 Academy of Sciences by M. Pasteur. It consists in enclosing the 

 meat in a layer of benzoin and alum, a mixture at once anti-hygro- 

 metric and antiseptic. The meat thus enclosed and abandoned to the 

 air loses the greater part of the liquids which, by their tendency to 

 decompose, contribute most actively to putrefaction. In the office of 

 the Ac:idemy were deposited a leg of mutton and several other pieces 

 of meat, which had been sent from Italy. The mutton had lost much 

 of its freshness and gave, out a little odor ; but a fine piece of beef 

 did not give the least sign of alteration and seemed to preserve its 

 original freshness. 



More/ail's Plan of Preserving Meat. The following plan of pre^erv- 

 ing meat has also been devi-ed by Prof. Morgan, Professor of Anat my 

 in the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, and by him is explained 

 in a recent number of the (Dublin) Agricultural Review. In this paper, 

 after arguing that salted meats cause scurvy and other diseases, in conse- 

 quence of the phosphoric acid and other substances being removed by 

 solution in the brine, he says : 



"I shail first d"t;iil the modus operandi of my process. The animal is 

 killed in the usual manner by a blow on the head, causing instantaneous 

 death. It is then turned on the back, the chest opened, the bag of peri- 



