78 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



A New Adhesive Gum. M. Stalil recommends a new process for 

 the consolidation of friable fossils and other articles liable to break. 

 Hitherto, in order to give sufficient solidity to such fossils preserved 

 in museums, they used to be dipped into glue. Pieces thus prepared 

 with due care acquire sufficient hirduass to allow of their being han- 

 dled at lectures, and will keep a long time, provided they are not ex- 

 posed to damp. But in the case of fossils containing salts, glue loses 

 all its power, and in such cases no attempt has been made to consoli- 

 date them. Pie 'es treated with glue do not admit of good plaster 

 casts being- taken of them. The glue, swelling under the wet plaster, 

 either splits the model or raises up the pieces of the mould ; or, if 

 there is too little, glue to effect this, a chemical action takes place by 

 which the surface of the plaster, in contact with the model is decom- 

 posed, and the finer details are thus obliterated. 



M. Stahl obviates these inconveniences as follows : 



He takes four parts of common rosin, and as many of spermaceti, 



which he melts and mixes together. While the mixture is boiling, 



he applies it with a brush on the surface of the fossil, which becomes 



hard as soon as it is cold, when casts may immediately be taken of it. 



* 



In the case of brittle but compact substances, spermaceti alone will 

 do. When the fossil is still sticking in the earth, and there is dan- 

 ger of breaking it in getting it out, the mixture may be applied ; but 

 as it gets cold on the surface and makes a kind of crust, M. Stahl then 

 passes a ball of cotton steeped in burning spirits of wine over it ; the 

 crust immediately melts, and is absorbed by the fossil. 



Rattan Splints. These splints have been invented and used in 

 England for the treatment of fractures and other injuries where the 

 use of such appliances is indicated. They are constructed of from 

 four to seven pieces of cane cut of equal length and fixed parallel to 

 each other by means of copper wires passing through the sides at 

 given distances. The advantages of these splints are their lightness 

 and flexibility, admitting air between the rods, and thus favoring the 

 functions of the skin. 



Large Lithograph. The largest lithograph ever worked from a 

 single stone has been shown in Paris, during the past year. It was a 

 life-sized picture of Napoleon III., and the print measured upwards of 

 six feet high by three broad. The stone was eight feet by four, and 

 unilornily excellent in all qualities desirable for lithographic pur- 

 poses. 



Reproduction of Pencil Drawings. Some time since, M. Villains, an 

 officer in the Russian service, observed that if a sheet of paper on 

 which a plan or any drawing or writing has been executed with pen- 

 cil, be moistened with acidulated water, and afterward inked, the pen- 

 cil marks alone will take the ink, and the whole drawing may then be 

 transferred to metal or stone. Captain Sytenko, director of the pho- 

 tographic service of the staff at St. Petersburg, has introduced very 

 ingenious modifications into this process, and contrived a portable 

 military press, by means of which it does not require more than ten 

 minutes to effect the transfer of the drawing upon a zinc plate or lith- 

 ographic stone. 



