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large holes, screwed on the lid. Result : After twenty-one days, 

 opened the box ; colour good, some mouldy spots on the surface, dis- 

 agreeable musty odour ; decomposition had commenced. 



Experiment 2. — Filled a large bottle with clilorine; immersed, for a 

 few seconds, a piece of beef weighing about eight ounces; after immer- 

 sion, freely exposed to the air. Besidt : The beef immediately shrank 

 in bulk on coming in contact with the gas, and assumed a disagreeable 

 livid colour ; possessed the odour of chlorine, at first very strong ; 

 odour during several days diminished in intensity ; at the end of 

 twenty-one days, smell very disagreeable — a mixture of chlorine and 

 the gaseous produxits of decomposition. 



Experiment 3. — Placed a piece of beef in a bottle of chlorine, and 

 kept it fourteen days carefully stopped. Result : At the end of four- 

 teen days had greatly diminished in size, was tough, had a dark livid 

 colour, strong odour of chlorine; after free exposure to the air for 

 twenty-one days, it became dry and hard ; did not putrefy. 



Experiment 4. — Confined a piece of beef of about eight ounces in a 

 stoppered bottle of ammonia. Result : It gradually darkened in colour, 

 and became so soft that when moved from place to place within the 

 bottle, it readily assumed the form of the surface of contact ; when 

 taken out at the end of fourteen days, it was very soft, smelled strongly 

 of ammonia, and soon dried up to a hard shining mass without putre- 

 fying. 



Experiment 5. — Placed a piece of beef, of about eight ounces in 

 weight, in a stoppered bottle, supporting the beef on a piece of wood 

 thrust through it; filled the bottle with biuoxide of nitrogen. Restdt : 

 At the end of twenty-one days the colour not changed ; faint odour of 

 nitrous acid ; appeared perfectly fresli and good. 



Second Series. 

 Experiment 1. — Placed a piece of beef weighing about six pounds, 

 in a large glass jar, supporting the beef on the point of an inverted 

 glass funnel, the broad end of which rested on a deep plate, on which 

 the glass jar was inverted ; filled the jar with binoxide of nitrogen. 

 Result : The exuding juice dropped into the plate, forming a scum on 

 the surface of the water, and a white fatty-looking substance which 

 sank. At the end of twenty-eight days the water had an excessively 

 ofi'ensive odour ; took out the beef at the pneumatic trough, without 

 removing the gas ; found it perfectly fresh ; replaced it in the jar, and 

 added fresh water. During three months the water gradually rose in 

 the jar; it was then necessary to add more binoxide of nitrogen. At 

 the end of 150 days the meat was taken out. In colour and consist- 



