POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



135 



contains, one of which is analogous to pep- 

 tones and is a putrefacient, while the other 

 is akin to globuline and is a much more 

 fatal poison, probably attacking the respir- 

 atory centers and destroying the power of 

 the blood to clot. The third proteid resem- 

 bles the albumens, and is probably innocent. 

 The poisons of the rattlesnake, copperhead, 

 and moccasin are capable of being destroyed 

 by bromine, iodine, bromohydric acid (thirty- 

 three per cent), sodium hydrate, potassium 

 hydrate, and potassium permanganate. 



Antiseptic Qualities of Copper. — A few 



years ago copper was universally regarded 

 as a deadly poison, and any questioning on 

 the subject would, as M. Gautier observes, 

 have been regarded as absurd. This opin- 

 ion has been shaken by recent investiga- 

 tions. M, V. Burq claims for copper bene- 

 ficial properties as a disinfectant and pro- 

 phylactic. He has observed for thirty years 

 that workmen in copper and players on musi- 

 cal instruments of brass, who were liable 

 daily to absorb notable quantities of pure 

 copper-dusts, enjoyed a remarkable immu- 

 nity from infectious diseases. This was es- 

 tablished in the case of the cholera in 1869 

 and 1873, during the epidemic which pre- 

 vailed in Paris in IS'je and 187'7, and in 

 the recent visitation of typhoid fever, which 

 was the immediate occasion of M. Burq's 

 making a communication to the French 

 Academy on the subject. M. Burq has 

 been encouraged, by his own experiments 

 and those of other physicians whom he 

 cites, to recommend the administration of 

 salts of copper as a preventive and remedy 

 in cases of infectious disease. M. A. Gautier 

 has recently published a book on " Copper 

 and Lead in Food and Industry," in which 

 he denies that copper is as dangerous a 

 substance as it has been considered to be. 

 Citing the observations of Burq, Galippe, 

 and other authors, he discusses, in substan- 

 tial agreement with them, the effect which 

 copper has in industry and in general use 

 upon workmen engaged with it, and upon 

 public health. He represents it as a normal 

 constituent in many of our foods. Wheat, 

 barley, rice, beans, coffee, etc., constantly 

 contain of it quantities varying from four to 

 ten milligrammes per kilogramme. Prepared 

 foods — greened pickles, chocolate, etc. — con- 



tain much more copper, from ten to two 

 hundred milligrammes per kilogramme ; 

 and the author shows that, as a rule, we 

 consume five milligrammes of metallic cop- 

 per a day without receiving any serious in- 

 jury from it. These quantities could be in- 

 creased without much danger, but the taste 

 of the salts of the metal is so disagreeable, 

 and their color so conspicuous, that stronger 

 doses would make the food nauseous and 

 repulsive, so that the danger of one taking 

 a fatal dose of copper is really quite remote. 

 All food becomes uneatable when it con- 

 tains four grammes per kilogramme of cop- 

 per salts ; even voluntary poisoning by cop- 

 per is almost impossible. A practical infer- 

 ence from these observations would be, that 

 the care we take to tin our copper cooking- 

 vessels is useless. M. Gautier maintains, 

 that it is even dangerous ; for most tin con- 

 tains lead, a deadly poison even in small 

 doses ; and it is this metal, in M. Gautier's 

 opinion, that is guilty of the damage that 

 has been attributed to copper. It meets us 

 everywhere, and always leaves its mark in 

 some damage to our system, slight in the de- 

 tail, but cumulative in the aggregate. We 

 absorb it with our preserved foods, from 

 glazed papers and oil-cloths, from paint, 

 from enamels and crockery, from tin-ware, 

 and from cosmetics, a little every day, till 

 at last enough of the poison is accumulated 

 in the system to make its strength very 

 plainly felt. 



How Raisins arc dried. — Malaga raisins 

 are made from two distinct kinds of grapes 

 — the Muscat, which is indigenous ; and the 

 Pero-Ximenes, which was imported from 

 Germany two hundred or more years ago. 

 Opinions differ concerning the respective 

 merits of the two varieties. The vines are 

 strongly manured, and are allowed to stretch 

 themselves over the ground and absorb all 

 atmospheric heat. The fruit is not all gath- 

 ered at one time, but the same piece of 

 ground is gone over three times, so that all 

 the grapes may have the necessary ripeness. 

 The raisins are prepared by washing, by dry- 

 ing by steam, or by simple drying in the sun. 

 To dry the grapes by the washing method, 

 furnaces of feeble draught are made in which 

 wood is used as fuel. A round kettle of 

 three or four hundred quarts' capacity r©- 



