980 Transactions of the A me etc an Institute. 



New Food for Infants. 

 M. Nestle of Yevaj has prepared anew food for infants, called 

 lacteal farina, which is composed of perfectly pure " condensed 

 milk," of sugar, and of bread after it has been submitted to a high 

 temperature ; these are mixed in certain proportions to produce an 

 article of diet similar in composition to human milk. The College 

 Courant, after noticing the above, adds : " If some other benefactor 

 of his race would supplement Monsieur Nestle's contrivance by a 

 patent automaton to administer the maternal fluid, wonderfully results 

 might be obtained. The old and tedious system of bringing up 

 orphans by hand would be superseded, fashionable mothers would be 

 relieved from the onerous task of nursing, and no one can doubt that 

 the crop of aristocratic infants would be largely increased in conse- 

 quence. It would only be necessary to consign the babe to the 

 tender embrace of the machine, All the tank with ' lacteal farina,' 

 connect a hose provided with a valve opening outward, place the end 

 of it within the youth's reach, and instinct and suction miglit be 

 relied on for the rept. By judicious apportionment of the aqueous 

 and lacteal elements of the mixture, moreover, a fat or lean article 

 of children — according to the taste of the doting parents — could be 

 produced to order." 



New Mode of Setting Boilers. 



Some of the boilers of Slieffield, England, have been set upon a new 

 plan. It consists of an arrangement of fire clay plates, by which the 

 gases are thoroughly intermixed at four successive stages in their pro- 

 gress through the flue, and thrown in thin streams against the surface 

 of the boiler. The capacity of the flue is not contracted, yet no part 

 of the gases can escape this repeated, forcible contact with the boiler, 

 and in the process the heat they contain is so nearly absorbed by the 

 iron of the boiler that a series of careful tests show an average evapo- 

 ration of twelve ix)unds of water for each pound of bituminous coal 

 used. The improvement can be applied to any ordinary boiler with- 

 out resetting it, and the fire clay plates can be furnished at so mode- 

 rate a cost that the expense is soon repaid by tlie saving of fuel. 



Mr. C. E. Emery said that any plan that served to break up the 

 currents of a flame will undoubtedly have a good effect. We are 

 taught l)y practical experience that it is of value to make a number of 

 bridge walls under a cylinder boiler, forming several chamljers into 

 which the gases expand, and then turn up again in forcible contivct 



