INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1875. lxxix 



fermentation and putrefaction, following out some experi- 

 ments made by Dumas. He finds that borax acts promptly 

 upon the protoplasm within living vegetable cells, causing 

 it to contract, to separate from the cell walls, and to con- 

 dense. All movement is at once stopped within the cell, and 

 the chlorophyll grains are changed in form. The cells of 

 yeast, of mould, etc., lose their vitality in a solution of borax. 

 Infusoria, rotifers, entomostracans, tadpoles are killed in such 

 a solution. In the infusoria the contraction of the sarcode 

 can be distinctly seen. Grapes and currants are perfectly 

 preserved by borax ; milk containing one grain of borax in 

 thirty cubic centimeters remained sweet for three months ; 

 and beef was preserved for a year and a half in a concentrated 

 solution, which was renewed three times, without the least 

 odor of decomposition. Borax is, therefore, strongly recom- 

 mended for the preservation of anatomical preparations and 

 for dressing: wounds. 



Schutzenberger and Bourgeois have sought to throw some 

 light upon the production in plants of the so-called carbo- 

 hydrates by an investigation of the products resulting from 

 the solution of white cast iron (in which the carbon is com- 

 bined) when conducted at ordinary temperatures. They find 

 that the residue obtained on treating 100 grains of this iron 

 with a cold solution of copper sulphate is, after removal of 

 the copper, a brownish-black pulverulent substance weigh- 

 ing 7.135 grains, and consisting of carbon, 64 per cent. ; wa- 

 ter, 26.10; silica, 7.1; undetermined, 1.8. It appears to be 

 a hydrate of carbon, having three molecules of water united 

 to eleven atoms of carbon. Nitric acid oxidizes it to a red- 

 dish-brown amorphous substance, which the authors call 

 nitrographitoic acid. 



Delachanal and Mermet have proposed a method for de- 

 termining the amount of carbon disulphide contained in the 

 alkali sulphocarbonates of commerce which are now coming 

 into quite general use for the destruction of the phylloxera. 

 The solution is precipitated with acetate of lead, the lead 

 sulphocarbonate decomposed into lead sulphide and carbon 

 disulphide by heat, the latter being carried over into sul- 

 phuric acid to retain the accompanying vapor of water, and 

 then into a tared portion of olive-oil, where it is retained. 



Heumann, in a paper upon the cause of the luminosity of 



