284 Annual Report of the Consulting Chemist. 



portion of the niglit-soil with lime, and at the same time to 

 extract from it ammonia. 



Putrid urine, it is well known, contains an appreciable 

 quantity of carbonate of ammonia. On distillation with quick- 

 lime, it yields caustic ammonia, which, being passed through 

 sulphuric acid, produces sulphate (jf ammonia. A French 

 engineer, of the name of Kuenze, has recently constructed a 

 distilling apparatus in which the fuel is so effectually econo- 

 mised that liquid which contains not more than two per thousand 

 of ammonia may be profitably distilled for ammc^nia. This 

 apparatus has been at work for several years at Courbevoie, near 

 Paris, where annually many tons of sulphate oi ammonia are 

 produced from the putrid urine of a small district of Paris ; and 

 before long the whole of the liquid contents of the cesspools of 

 Paris will be subjected to the same process of distillation which 

 I have lately seen in actual operation at Courbevoie. 



A large number (fifty) of drinking waters have again been 

 submitted to me for examination in 1873. Amongst them 

 several were found to be contaminated with drainage products, 

 and unfit for drinking purposes. 



Good drinking waters contain hardly any unoxydised organic 

 matter ; and, with the exception of hard waters in the chalk- 

 formations, containing sometimes as much as 48 to 50 grains of 

 inineral constituents (chiefly carbonate of lime), they generally 

 contain from 15 to 25 grains of solid constituents in the imperial 

 gallon. The following analysis of a sample of water lately 

 analysed by me, therefore, will give a good idea of the extent to 

 which water is occasionally contaminated with organic and saline 

 impurities. 



An imperial gallon of this water contained : — 



Grains. 



Oxydisable organic matter 1*17 



Oxides of iron and akuuina *70 



Carbonate of Hme 27-02 



Sulphate of Hme 20-71 



Sulphate of soda .. 69-02 



Chloride of sodium 24-65 



Nitrate of soda 9-36 



Carbonate of soda 2-21 



Soluble silica '98 



Total amount of solid matter per gallon . . 155 - 82 



About a fortnight ago I received a note from one of the mem- 

 bers of the Society, who writes to me : " Last month Lord Kosslyn 

 very kindly informed me that he has been assured that grass not 

 mown or grazed, but allowed to seed, does sometimes lorm an 

 ergot, which acts on mares, and produces in some cases abortion. 



