Vol. XXII. No. 3.] 



POPULAE SCIENCE NEWS. 



39 



Ji^ome, iFarm, anu €5art>en. 



HOUSEHOLD HINTS. 



As already stated in the News, recent inves- 

 tigations render it doubtful whether " sewer- 

 gas " is in all cases so dangerous to health 

 as zealous sanitarians have urged ; but that 

 the emanations from sewers are sometimes, 

 if not often, poisonous, cannot be doubted. 

 Serious if not fatal consequences have oc- 

 casionally been due even to the indirect in- 

 fluence of these pernicious gases. Persons 

 have sometimes been poisoned, from eating 

 food that had been exposed to the effluvia from 

 a sewer. Cases have been known in which 

 the waste-pipe of a refrigerator communicated 

 directly with a sewer, affording perhaps the 

 readiest means for the escape of gases there- 

 from. 



It is a familiar fact that milk is a singularly 

 favorable vehicle for receiving and transmit- 

 ting infection, and on this account special care 

 should always be taken to keep it in a clean 

 and well-ventilated place. Foul and ill-smell- 

 ting emanations are rapidly absorbed by the 

 surface of the fluid, and the development of 

 noxious organisms is liable to follow. Even 

 if this secondarj- evil result does not ensue, 

 the taste and odor of the milk are rendered 

 more or less offensive. 



Infants are naturally sensitive to the mis- 

 chievous effects of milk which has become 

 contaminated in this waj- ; disease and death 

 are not unfrequently the consequence. If the 

 milk is pure, and kept in a proper place, it 

 may be rendered poisonous by the use of feed- 

 ing-bottles which are not clean and sweet. 

 Lactotoxine and other dangerous ptomaines 

 may be formed in the decomposition of rem- 

 nants of stale milk in various parts of the ap- 

 paratus, — some forms of which are apparently 

 designed with special ingenuit}- to render a 

 thorough cleansing impracticable, — and the 

 unlucky baby that has to put up with this 

 murderous sort of stepmother is the helpless 

 victim, sucking poison, and perhaps fatal 

 poison, with every mouthful of its daily food. 



To turn to another familiar fact in house- 

 hold sanitation, the wholesome and beneficent 

 influences of sunshine are known in these days 

 to every intelligent person ; and yet the bad 

 old fashion of excluding the life-giving beams 

 from our houses is too often followed. Per- 

 haps the most common reason for this is the 

 fear that the direct sunlight will fade the 

 carpets ; but our own observation and expe- 

 rience have satisfied us that the danger of 

 injury from this cause is greatly exaggerated 

 by housekeepers. We have known carpets of 

 various kinds — ingrain, brussels, Wilton, 

 etc. — and of almost every combination of 

 colors to be freely exposed to the sunshine 

 from one j-ear's end to another ; and in nine 

 cases out of ten the portions thus exposed 

 were faded very little, if any, more than other 

 portions. Certain colors, especially blues and 

 browns — but even these only in exceptional 

 instances — appear to suffer more than others ; 

 but these same colors are apt to fade, though 



less rapidly, in diffused sunlight. We 

 honestly believe, that, if our friends will test 

 the eflTect of the sun upon their carpets, they 

 will generally be surprised to find how well 

 these endure the exposure. The same is true 

 of most furniture coverings and upholstery 

 materials of all kinds, except with aniline 

 dyes, which are singularlj' fugitive in direct 

 sunlight, even when they bear diffused light 

 tolerably well for a long time. 



The mention of upholstery reminds us of a 

 minor hint which may be useful to many of 

 our friends in these daj-s, when portieres have 

 so commonly taken the place of inside doors. 

 We were amused the other day in hearing a 

 lady dilate upon " the dreadful time " she 

 had with the portieres in a new seaside cot- 

 tage last summer." The things would not 

 work, and the servants had to take a broom- 

 handle sometimes to slide the rings on the 

 poles." We told her that, when we had had 

 similar trouble, it occurred to us to try the 

 effect of occasionally wiping the pole lightly 

 with an oilj' rag. This worked like magic, 

 and the refractory rings slid as easily as an 

 urchin on the ice these zero days. Wipe the 

 dust from the pole first, and the slightest film 

 of oil answers the purpose : a few drops of 

 sweet-oil on a rag or bit of soft paper are 

 enough, and the dose need not be repeated for 

 several weeks, whether the pole be of wood or 

 brass. 



We had in mind other little things of this 

 kind, which, trivial though they be, have much 

 to do with the comfort of the household ; but 

 we must leave them to another day. 



A DEVICE FOR MEASURING BLOSSOMS. 



The Journal of Horticulture illustrates a 

 device by which the actual or comparative size 

 of flowers can be quickly and easily measured. 

 It consists of a piece of thin wood or paste- 



OEVICE FOR MEASURING BLOOMS. 



board, on which a series of circles is drawn, 

 with the diameter of each marked upon it. A 

 slit is cut in this, extending to the centre ; 

 and to measure the diameter of a blossom, it is 

 only necessary to pass the stem of the flower 

 to the centre of the board, when its size can 

 be measured at once by noting how manj' of 

 the circles are covered by it. We think many 

 persons will be surprised at the difference 

 between the apparent and actual size of many 

 flowers. 



SCIENTIFIC FACTS FOR HOUSEKEEPERS. 



The cooling effect of ice is actually depend- 

 ent upon its melting, as in this process the 

 heat which causes it to melt is absorbed from 

 the surrounding bodies. A pound of ice in 

 melting will absorb sufficient heat to cool a 

 pound of water from 174° F. to the freezing- 

 point, or to cool 142 pounds of water one 

 degree. 



The heating power of steam is due to the 

 converse of this principle. A pound of water 

 converted into steam, and passed into a radia- 

 tor, will, upon condensing, give out enough 

 heat to raise one pound of water, or about 4.2 

 pounds of air, from 32° to 1,C04°. Reducing 

 these quantities to more familiar figures, a 

 pound of steam will heat about 1,000 cubic 

 feet of air, or a room ten feet square and ten 

 high, from 32° to 80°. 



Glass dishes crack when suddenly placed in 

 hot water, on account of the unequal heating 

 of the glass. It is a very poor conductor of 

 heat, and the part first placed in the water 

 expands before the heat can reach the other 

 parts, thus causing a strain which results in 

 its fracture. Very thin glass is less likely to 

 crack from this cause, as the heat is more 

 quickly transmitted. For chemical laborato- 

 ries, where the glass vessels are exposed to 

 great variations of temperature, they are pur- 

 posely made as thin as is compatible with the 

 requisite strength. 



The pungent vapors which arise from an 

 ovei heated frying-pan are due to the formation 

 of a substance known as acrolein. It is formed 

 by the destructive distillation of fats or gl3'cer- 

 ine, belongs to the class of substances called 

 by chemists aldehydes, and has the formula 

 C,H,0. 



Another disagreeable substance is formed 

 by the incomplete combustion of bodies rich 

 in carbon, as oil or wax. It is known as 

 acetylene (C^Hj), and the suffocating odor of 

 a smoky lamp or candle is largelj^ due to this 

 hj-drocarbon. If the flame of a lamp is turned 

 so high that the air passing through the chim- 

 ney is not sufficient to cause a complete oxida- 

 tion of the oil, acetylene will be formed in 

 considerable quantity. It unites with copper 

 to form an explosive compound, which is rarely 

 deposited in brass or copper gas-pipes. 



The property of liquid albumen (white of 

 egg) , of becoming coagulated at a certain tem- 

 perature into an insoluble solid mass, is of 

 great value in culinary processes. Coffee, 

 jellies, sirups, etc., are clarified by mixing the 

 albumen with them, and heating ; all the fine 

 impurities are enveloped in the coagulated 

 mass, and can readily be removed by strain- 

 ing. By mixing the white of egg with sugar, 

 beating to a froth, and then heating, the light, 

 spongy mass, comnionlj- known as mMngue, 

 is hardened and made permanent. 



Yeast, although generally called a plant, is 

 actually' more closely allied to the animal king- 

 dom. In these lower organisms the line sepa- 

 rating the plant and animal is a very uncertain 

 one. Fermentation cannot take place except 

 between the temperatures of 41° and 86°, and 



