Scientific IiitelUgence. — Chemistry. 393 



first separately diffused in water to the consistence of thick 

 cream, and, when mixed in due proportion, are reduced to a 

 proper consistence by evaporation. During this process, if the 

 evaporation be not rapid and immediate, or if the ingredients 

 are left to act on each other, even for twenty-four hours, the 

 flinty particles unite into sandy grains, and this mass becomes 

 unfit for the manufacturer. In this case there is apparently a 

 chemical action. 



9. Chloride of Lime as an Antiseptic, — The chloride of 

 lime is remarkable for its antiseptic powers : thus, if an animal 

 body, already offensive owing to putrefaction, is drenched in an 

 aqueous solution of this salt, the smell entirely disappears ; fur- 

 ther, if fresh flesh is drenched in it soon, that is in a few days, 

 it becomes converted into a mummy-like whitish substance, and 

 does not give out any unpleasant smell ; hence it has been re- 

 commended to use chloride of lime, in preference to all other 

 substances, in the embalming of bodies. 



10. Ammoniac in Alder Water. — Mr Gleetsmann has detected 

 ammonia in the aquae distillatae Sambuci. In a former Num- 

 ber we mentioned the occurrence of ammonia in Chenopodium 

 faetidum, Viola odorata, the flower of Stapelia, &c. &c. 



11. Acids and Salts of Soil. — Dr C. Sprengel, private 

 teacher of chemistry and economics in Gottingen, has published 

 in Karsten''s Archiv, a long memoir on the characters of vege- 

 table soil ; on the peculiar acid it contains, especially when in 

 the state of peat, and on the various natural combinations of 

 this acid of soil, met with in soils of different descriptions. 



GEOLOGY. 



\%. Quader Sandstone belongs to the Greensand. — Hausmann 

 and Von Schlotheim have ascertained that the quader sandstone 

 of Pima, Quedlenburg, Blankenburg, &c. belongs to the green- 

 sand formation, and is essentially different from the sandstone 

 with coal on the Weser, which is a lias sandstone. 



13. Structure of the Swiss Alps. — From the foot of the Ce- 

 vennes, by Marseilles, Gap, Grenoble, Geneva and Bex, similar 

 and very simple geognostical relations occur. The lowest rock 

 is blackish marly limestone, which, from its fossils, and other 

 characters, appears to be a lias limestone ; to this succeeds a 



