CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 227 



gas mixture. In two minutes he was asleep, with accelerated respi- 

 ration and abundant perspiration from the face. This last phenome- 

 non, Dr. Ozonam observes, appears to be the result of a specific action 

 of carbonic acid, which produces it if directed upon the skin as a 

 douche, or in a bath. The patient evinced no consciousness when 

 the incision was made, but the inhalation of the gas was suspended 

 just before the last cut, which was felt, and the young man awoke. 

 When the gas is properly administered, consciousness is recovered as 

 soon as the process is suspended, and Dr. Ozonam claims for his 

 method greater safety than belongs to chloroform. 



NEW USE FOR CARBOLIC ACID. 



Dr. J. G. Ashby, in a communication to the London Mechanics' 

 Magazine, thus notices a remarkable property possessed by carbolic 

 acid in relation to practical mechanics. He says : " Carbolic acid is- 

 one of the products of the destructive distillation of coal, and till 

 within a few years vast quantities of it were utterly wasted. When 

 perfectly pure it is a white crystalline solid, which by absorbing water 

 soon changes into a colorless refractive liquid, having a faint odor of 

 roses and tar. It is not an acid in the popular sense, not being either 

 sour or corrosive, and should therefore, perhaps, be generally desig- 

 nated by its other title of phenole. Crude carbolic acid may be ob- 

 tained in bulk for about a shilling a gallon, and is a dark tarry liquid, 

 containing, perhaps, from ten to twenty different substances, in a 

 state of mechanical admixture. Fortunately, this crude acid is avail- 

 able for the purposes to which I invite the attention of your readers. 

 Just as oil is an anti-frictional liquid, so is phenole pro-friction al ; or, 

 to state it more correctly, as oil appears to keep surfaces in motion 

 asunder by interposing a thin film between them, so phenole appears 

 to make them bite and bind, by bringing them into absolute contact 

 (after a manner of speaking), and removing even the finest film from 

 between them. Any one may convince himself of this by placing a 

 little upon a perfectly clean and dry oil-stone, and then rubbing up 

 the face of a broad chisel upon it. The sensation of the bite I 

 know of no other word to express it is very curious, and renders 

 any further explanation unnecessary ; it seems as if the stone and the 

 steel had absolutely nothing between them, or even as if they were 

 positively brought together by some attractive force. I have applied 

 this property of carbolic acid to the following operations, viz., grinding, 

 filing, boring, and sawing in metal, with great apparent advantage. 

 When dissolved in fifteen parts by measure of methylated alcohol^ it 

 forms a milk-white emulsion if poured into water, and it may be worth 

 while to ascertain whether such carbolated water would facilitate the 

 ordinary work of the grindstone, a point on which I am not able to 

 speak with certainty." 



THE MANUFACTURE OF COLOR PRODUCTS FROM COAL-TAR. 



f 



From a lecture recently delivered to a popular audience at the 

 Royal Institution, London, by Prof. Playfair, we make the following 

 extracts, in which this celebrated lecturer on science thus clearly 



