GO The MicRoaciotE, 



furnish good benzole, faithless. But benzole I must have, and 

 triumphantly I carried home from that druggist a bottle of beau- 

 tiful, colorless benzole, a four ounce bottle for fifteen cents, as 

 against a two ounce vial by express for fifty cents. I was elated. 

 And best of all, I could obtain all I wanted, and at a moment's 

 notice, with no tedious waiting for European invoices to arrive- 

 Rising early the next morning to secure a long day's work with 

 my new benzole, great was my disappointment to find in place 

 of the transparent fluid which had attracted my admiring 

 glances the evening before, a fluid which, judging from external 

 appearances, might have been milk. 



A visit to the druggist took the precedence of work. He could 

 not explain the mystery, his benzole he knew was pure, his bot- 

 tle perfectly dry, etc., and he gave me a second vial which was 

 sure to be all right. By the time I reached home the second vial 

 was like unto the first. '' Pure benzole is a delusion," I bitterly 

 said to myself, and deeming it useless to return the second bottle 

 of milky fluid, I contented myself by merely telling the drug- 

 gist that his benzole, like that of all the others, was worthless- 

 Judge of my surprise when he brought out the first bottle 

 almost brilliant in its transparency ! 



A wad of filtering cotton placed in the benzole in my vial had 

 performed the miracle. Though the vial was as clean as a vial 

 could be, there had lurked in it enough moisture to spoil the 

 benzole, but the cotton had a sufficient affinity for the water to 

 absorb it from the benzole. Since then I have experimented 

 with my " infirmary " samples, and from the poorest and most 

 discolored specimens produced faultless benzole. These wads of 

 cotton are very useful, too, in bringing down and retaining sedi- 

 ment in place of filtering, in case of very volatile liquids. Put 

 a wad into the vial and let it remain several days, then put a fresh 

 wad to hold down the light particles which float w^ith the slight- 

 est motion, and after a little time decant, when it will be found 

 that the cotton has retained the sediment and color, and that a 

 beautiful fluid results. Vials which are to hold benzole should 

 be rinsed with alcohol to remove all traces of moisture. Wads 

 of absorbent cotton placed in vials of discolored or turbid fluid 

 rtve susceptible of considerable service in clarifying them. 



