PRE 



PRE 



tTibutrd on cither side, and the beat- 

 ing; of the foetal heart is most phiinly 

 heard at the very t)ase of the abdo- 

 men. 'I'he fwtus of the cow is luid- 

 dk'd up on the rif,d)t side of the belly. 

 Tiiere its motions are most seen, and 

 the beatings of its iieart best heard. 

 Tlie enormous paunch, lying princi- 

 pally on the left side, presses every 

 other viscus. and the uterus among 

 the rest, into the right flank. This 

 also explains a circumstance familiar 

 to every breeder. If the cow should 

 liappen to carry twins, they are crowd- 

 ed together in the left flank, and one 

 seems absolutely to lie upon the oth- 

 er. Whenever the farmer notices the 

 kicking of the fcetus high up in the 

 flank, he at once calculates on twins. 

 "To return from this digression. 

 If half the period, or more, of utero- 

 gestalion had passed, and I could get 

 the little stranger to move by my gen- 

 tle tapping, and it was a cow with 

 which we had to do, and a quiet one, 

 I would have her carefully held by 

 the cowherd, while I stooped and ap- 

 plied my ear flat upon the flank, and 

 then, slowly, and with gentle pressure 

 upward and downward, and forward 

 and backward, over the flank and the 

 lower part of it, until I heard — and 

 which I should do in a great majori- 

 ty of cases — the pulsations of the fes- 

 tal heart. I should recognise it by 

 their quickness, the pulsations of the 

 foetus being double, or more than 

 double, those of the mother. 



"If it was a mare, I would have a 

 halter put on her, and an assistant 

 should hold up one of her legs, while 

 some person interested reached un- 

 der, or, perhaps, knelt under the belly 

 of the mare, and, passing one ear 

 along an imaginary Ime from be- 

 tween the teats to the chest, and de- 

 viating a little from one side to the 

 other, he would then also recognise 

 the quick pulsation of the fcetal heart. 

 " These observations are address- 

 ed to practical men, and will be speed- 

 ' ily put to the test by them. The ob- 

 ject of the author is to get rid of the 

 vulgar and inefficient methods of de- 

 tecting pregnancy which are now in 

 general use, and to introduce others 

 638 



that are founded on a surer and more 

 scientific basis." 



PKE.SERVATION OF FOOD. 

 The process of salting, rubbing with 

 nitre, and smoking or drying, is that 

 usually performed by tiie farmer, and 

 it is successful. The exclusion of air, 

 mechanically or by chemical means, 

 is another certain means of preserv- 

 ; ing food. Drying perfectly, so as to 

 separate the water necessary for pu- 

 trefaction, is also a perfect process, 

 and much used in keeping fruits, as 

 dried apples, peaches, &c. Sugar, 

 alcohol, molasses, alum solution, are 

 also serviceable in preserving some 

 kinds of food. They do this by remo- 

 ving their interior water. Coldness 

 and absence of air, or moisture [irocu- 

 red by mechanical means, are also 

 sufficient. 



PRESERVATION OF TIMBER. 

 Careful drying and'preservation from 

 moisture is the commonest process ; 

 but, for a perfect preservation, it is 

 necessary to saturate the pores of the 

 wood with metallic salts. This sat- 

 uration has to be made in a press, 

 and is hence very expensive. The 

 fluids used are solutions of blue vit- 

 riol (sulphate of copper), pyrolignite 

 of iron, sulphate of iron, corrosive 

 sublimate. M. Boucherie, three years 

 since, recommended the immersion 

 of the trunks of newly-cut trees in 

 these solutions, vvliich, under these 

 circumstances, rose through the stem 

 and branches to the leaves, and im- 

 pregnated them thoroughly. The in- 

 convenience of this process for large 

 trees has induced him to modify it to 

 the following : 



" The ingenious process of impreg- 

 nating wood, by the way of vital as- 

 piration, is not without certain ob- 

 jections. In the first place, it can 

 only he performed at those periods of 

 the year when the sap is in motion 

 and the trees are covered with leaves. 

 This time is limited to a few months 

 of the year, and the usual practice 

 being to fell timber in the winter, 

 usage is opposed to cutting down 

 trees in the spring and autumn. To 

 meet these objections, M. Boucherie 

 engaged in new experiments, which 



