CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 193 



sistant-surgeon army medical staff, took advantage of a voyage to China 

 to make a series of observations on the relation between air tempera- 

 ture and the secretions above mentioned, as carried on in his own per- 

 son. He found a constant increase of the secretions with the rising 

 temperature from 50 to 70, and an equally constant falling off, with 

 the further rise of temperature from 70 to 90. From Proceedings 

 of the Royal Society. 



Causes of Coagulation of the Blood. Prof. Lister observes, " that 

 the coagulation of the blood is in no way connected with the evolution 

 of ammonia any more than with the influence of oxygen or of rest. 

 The real cause of the coagulation of the blood, when shed from the 

 body, is the influence exerted upon it by ordinary matter, the contact 

 of which for a very brief period effects a change in the blood, inducing 

 a mutual reaction between its solid and fluid constituents, in which the 

 corpuscles impart to the liquor sanguinis a disposition to coagulate. " 

 Proceedings of the Royal Society. 



The Effect of Petroleum upon Health has lately been made the 

 subject of investigation. A memorial was sent to the Liverpool Health 

 Committee, signed by several hundred citizens, and complaining of the 

 storage of petroleum in their neighborhood as " a nuisance and prejudi- 

 cial to health." The question was referred to Dr. French, the medical 

 officer of the Board of Health ; and, after a very thorough personal 

 examination of the case, he reported that, while he had no hesitation 

 in pronouncing the oil a nuisance on account of its strong, offensive 

 smell, his investigation satisfied him that petroleum was not prejudicial 

 to health. In order to make a full investigation, he visited 153 houses 

 in the vicinity of the oil stores, and found no cases of sickness arising 

 from the petroleum. 



New Application of Chloroform. M. Graw, a French physician, 

 proposes to destroy the taste of intensely-bitter medicines, by mixing 

 chloroform with them in certain proportions. He claims that the taste 

 and odor even of assafcetida can be annihilated. 



New Substitute for Albumen. In consequence of a prize having 

 been offered in France, for the invention of a substitute for albumen 

 prepared from hens' eggs, an albumen equal in quality and much 

 cheaper has been discovered, which is made from fish-roe. 



Artificial Manufacture of Ice. M. Nickles, in his correspondence 

 with Silliman's Journal, states that an invention J)y M. Carre's for the 

 artificial production of ice is finding its way into various branches of 



o ^ 



French industry. Brewers use it to freeze the wort of beer destined 

 to undergo fermentation ; coffee-house keepers for making ices and 

 sherbets ; vine-growers to concentrate wine, etc. The principle of this 

 apparatus is based upon the great quantity of heat which ammonia, 

 liquefied by condensation absorbs in becoming again gaseous, as this 

 body contains an immense amount of latent heat. 



Ammonia in the gaseous state is readily obtained, as is well known, 

 by boiling the ammoniacal liquid known in commerce as " volatile al- 

 kali," to reproduce which it is only necessary to expose ammonia in 

 the presence of water : to liquefy the gas, simple pressure is adequate. 

 As it so readily takes the gaseous form, it is sufficient simply to remove 

 the pressure which retains it as a liquid, and as this change of state is 

 possible only on the condition that the liquefied ammonia retakes the 



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