.26 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



odor, in all respects as inviting as at first. 

 It is partially cooked, and needs but little 

 treatment more to prepare it for the table. 

 A German government commission has 

 made experiments with this process, and 

 two naval vessels dispatched on a voyage 

 of circumnavigation were provisioned with 

 this kind of meat. An establishment has 

 been set up in Hungary for preserving 

 meats in this way. 



Causes of Putrefaction and Fermenta- 

 tion! A year or two ago, Dr. J. Dougall, 

 of Glasgow, at the Social Science Congress, 

 held in that city, announced, as the result 

 of investigations made by himself, that the 

 presence of an alkali determines putrefac- 

 tion in organic matter, while the presence 

 of an acid determines fermentative changes. 

 The same line of inquiry has been taken up 

 since by Dr. John Day, of Victoria, Austra- 

 lia, who finds in Dougall's discovery an ex- 

 planation of the presence in hospitals of 

 septic poisons, giving rise to pyasmia, ery- 

 sipelas, and puerperal fever. The Sanitary 

 Journal, of Toronto, has a paper by Dr. 

 Day upon this subject, the purport of 

 which may be briefly stated as follows : 



Hospitals, as usually constructed, have 

 alkaline ceilings, alkaline walls, alkaline 

 floors (owing to the use of soap in cleans- 

 ing them). Experience has shown that 

 pyasmia is of extremely infrequent occur- 

 rence in temporary hospitals consisting of 

 rough wooden sheds. The incessant gen- 

 eration of peroxide of hydrogen by the tur- 

 pentine of the wood doubtless prevents 

 putrefactive changes, but, as turpentine 

 always gives an acid reaction, this circum- 

 stance must greatly increase the disinfect- 

 ing power of the peroxide, by determining 

 the fermentative instead of the putrefactive 

 decomposition of the pus-cells and other 

 organic matter given off from the patient. 



Dr. Day proposes the following method 

 of counteracting the evils of hospital-life: 

 The boards of the floor he would first cover 

 with a coat consisting of equal parts of gas- 

 oline and boiled linseed-oil, to which is 

 added a little benzoic acid. When dry, the 

 surface is polished with a paste of bees- 

 wax, turpentine, and benzoic acid. Boards 

 so prepared are, in his opinion, rendered 

 permanently disinfectant. The walls and 



ceilings might be rubbed smooth, and coated 

 with a varnish of paraffine or oil of turpen- 

 tine ; or, better still, they might be coated 

 with silicate paint, then rubbed down and 

 varnished. For the purpose of keeping the 

 air pure, and destroying the pus-cells float- 

 ing in it, he recommends, in addition to 

 ventilation, the use of certain volatile sub- 

 stances, such as gasoline, benzine, and eu- 

 calyptus oil. The furniture should be oc- 

 casionally brushed over with either gasoline 

 or benzine, in which a little benzoic acid 

 has been dissolved. 



Cnltivation of Caontchonc-yielding Trees. 



In 1870 Mr. Clements R. Markham advo- 

 cated the planting of caoutchouc-yielding 

 trees in India, and in 1873 the first at- 

 tempts were made, but without success, in 

 the Darjiling Terai and in the district of 

 Goalpara, Assam. In the following year 

 two plantations were made in the Kamrup 

 district of Assam and at Charduar, at the 

 foot of thus Himalayas, in the Durrung dis- 

 trict. The latter plantation now covers 

 180 acres, and in 1875 there were in it 

 16,401 live cuttings. The species here cul- 

 tivated is the native Ficus elastica. Sev- 

 eral plants of the caslilloa tree of South 

 America are now in a very flourishing con- 

 dition at Kew Gardens, and a good supply 

 of this species has been thence forwarded 

 to India, where they will form the nucleus 

 of extensive plantations. In June of the 

 present year an agent was to have been 

 sent out to Brazil to collect healthy young 

 plants of the hevea, the tree which yields 

 the famous Para India-rubber. Thus pro- 

 vision will be effectually made against the 

 extinction of these valuable species of 

 plants. 



Inspecting Railways by Machinery. 



Attached to the rear of the paymaster's car 

 on the Pennsylvania Railroad, says the 

 American Manufacturer, is an apparatus 

 which it is thought will work much more 

 satisfactorily than the telegraphic instru- 

 ments formerly used by the officers while 

 making their tours of inspection. A roll of 

 white paper, 700 feet in length, encircles a 

 cylinder, from which it is paid out at the 

 rate of three feet to the mile run by the 

 car, its forward movement being regulated 



