654 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



boat hands, 10 ; dray-drivers, teamsters, 

 etc., 196 ; newspaper-carriers, 7 ; pilot, 1 ; 

 undertakers, 20 ; bell-foundery operatives, 

 4 ; brass-founders, 102 ; brewers, 8 ; brick- 

 makers, 14 ; carriage-trimmers, 32 ; char- 

 coal and lime burners, 5 ; cigar-makers, 

 1,844 ; clock-makers, 75 ; curriers and tan- 

 ners, 60 ; distillers, 6 ; engravers, 29 ; fish- 

 ers, 35; gas-works employees, 4; gun and 

 locksmiths, 33 ; printers, 1,495 ; shingle 

 and lath makers, 84 ; tinners, 17 ; wood- 

 turners and carvers, 44. 



t 



Effects of Freezing on Wine and Spirits. 



Some experiments on the freezing of 

 wines and spirits are recorded as follows 

 by M. Melsens in the Comptes Rendus of 

 the French Academy of Sciences. Brandy 

 cooled to as low as minus 35 C. was pro- 

 nounced exquisite, and some connoisseurs 

 pronounced it all the mellower in propor- 

 tion as the temperature was reduced. 

 About 30 C, alcoholic liquors, contain- 

 ing 50 per cent, of absolute alcohol, become 

 viscid, syrupy, and sometimes opaline. The 

 author solidified spirits (cognac, rum) at 

 40 and 50 C, and says that if they be 

 then taken as ices, or sherbet, with a spoon, 

 it is surprising what little sense of cold 

 there is. A spoonful of this ice when 

 placed on the tongue appears to be less cold 

 than ordinary ices, and many persons who 

 have tasted such frozen cognac or rum 

 could scarcely bring themselves to believe 

 that they had on their tongues ices which 

 might be served on dishes of frozen mer- 

 cury. In fact these ices must be reduced 

 to 60 C. before the one who tastes them 

 pronounces them "cold;" and scarcely 

 ever will any one pronounce them " very 

 cold." The lowest temperature at which 

 M. Melsens experimented with these frozen 

 alcoholic liquors was 71 C. If a con- 

 siderable quantity at that temperature be 

 taken into the mouth, the effect is like that 

 of a spoonful of soup a little too hot. In 

 this case a wooden spoon must be employed, 

 one of metal producing a blister. Placed 

 upon the dry forearm this solid eau de vie 

 produces a slight cauterization, without 

 burning, as would a fragment of solid ether 

 or carbonic acid. 



The author's experiments on wines were 

 undertaken with a view to discover the 



means of preserving them. On placing them 

 in a vessel surrounded with a freezing mix- 

 ture, they were reduced to the condition of 

 a mass of ice-crystals permeated with a 

 colored fluid. This he transferred to a wire 

 sieve, and, by agitating it there, expelled the 

 liquid. The ice on being melted was found 

 to be tasteless, with the merest traces of 

 alcohol. Thus the percentage of alcohol 

 in the wine when deprived of its water is 

 increased, and its keeping quality greatly 

 improved. The author suggests freezing as 

 a method of improving the body of light 

 wines, which otherwise will not bear trans- 

 portation, and says that if in France wine- 

 growers will adopt the plan of heating their 

 wines in order to check the " diseases " to 

 which they are subject, and of freezing 

 them, so that they may keep, the trade in 

 wine will be rendered far less fluctuating 

 than it now is. It will be possible to keep 

 on hand a large quantity of wine, so as to 

 offset the effects of bad harvests. 



What Darwinism means. From our es- 

 teemed contemporary, the Lens, of Chicago, 

 we take the following correction of current 

 misapprehensions as to the true meaning of 

 Darwinism: "Prof. Edward S.Morse," says 

 the Lens, "delivered, early in March, two 

 lectures in Chicago, the one with the title 

 1 From Monad to Man,' the other on ' Evo- 

 lution.' In the lecture on Evolution ' Prof. 

 Morse makes two statements worthy of 

 special note. In the one he alleges that the 

 prejudice against Darwin, and the ridicule 

 so freely expended upon him, are based on 

 an entire misapprehension. Darwin has 

 never taught that man is a development 

 from a monkey, or from any lower species. 

 Nor is there any thing in his philosophy that 

 even admits of inference to this effect. He 

 simply teaches, or suggests the probability, 

 that man or monkey is simply 'evolved' 

 from a lower basis of life. The several 

 streams, all starting from one source, as 

 they branch the one goes to the monkey, 

 and there stops ; and the other to man, and 

 there stops. It is not Darwinism that man 

 himself, or the monkey itself, shall keep on 

 till there is development into something 

 higher and different. The other statement 

 was to the effect that science deals with 

 phenomena, not with the intelligent cause. 



