954 Transactions of the American Institute. 



Pkepakation of Oxygex, 

 According to M. Delaurier, oxygen may be made very economi- 

 cally b}^ subjecting manganate of liuie to heat, in ^vhicll case oxygen 

 gas is given oiF in great abnudance. ' 



CmifxVBAR IN Borneo. 

 A vein of nearly pure sulphide of mercury has been found in the 

 district of Sarawak, Borneo, A large quantity of the ore has been 

 tested and found to yield from seventy to eighty per cent of quick- 

 silver, showing that this cinnabar ore is richer than any other now 

 known. 



Bronzing Copper. 

 M. Zalewski lately stated before the French Academy of Sciences, 

 that wlien objects made of copper are immersed in molten sulphur 

 wherein lamp-black is kept suspended, tlie objects so treated obtain 

 the appearance of bronze, and can be polished without losing that 

 aspect. 



Pyrogallic Acid a Poison. 

 According to M. Personne, of Paris, pyrogallic acid produces the 

 same effects in the system that phosphorus does, in withdrawing 

 oxygen. Animals to which this acid had been given died, exhibiting 

 symptoms like those manifested when poisoned by phosphorus. 



IS'ew Coincidences of Metallic and Solar Spectra. 

 The Comtes Rendus announces that Mascart has, by the aid of 

 photography, compared the ultra violet lines of the solar spectrum 

 with those made by the burning of diflerent metals and revealed by 

 the spectroscope. In the case of iron, Mascart found more than 100 

 new coincidences with solar lines, in addition to the 450 lines pre- 

 viously observed by Angstrom in the visible spectrum. 



Nutritive Yalue of Common Roots. 

 M. Coremwinder has estimated tlie quantity af nitrogen contained 

 in the following roots, and found the per cent in yellow beet-roots, 

 1.087; in sugar beet-root, 1.044; in rutabaga, 1.41; in pulp of sugar 

 beet-root, 1.86. The quantity of nitrogen contained in vegetables of 

 this kind, although not an absolute criterion, will express very nearly 

 their average value as food, taking otlier constituents in consideration. 



