942 Transactions of the American Institute. 



two per cent. This sugar, on being fermented and distilled, yields a 

 brandy having a very agreeable flavor. 



Kkmedy for a Vine Disease. 

 A French consul in China has communicated to his government 

 the tact that the Chinese employ a remedy which seems to be effec- 

 tual in preventing and removing the new vine disease, said to be due 

 to a peculiar insect. They cctet the bark and stems of the vine with 

 a mixture of flowers of sulphur and aluminous clay, formed into a 

 thick paste. Sulphur has long been used in this country for diseases 

 of plants, but it has generally been applied alone by means of a hand- 

 bellows containing flowers of sulphur. 



The Positiox of Mines. 



The highest mine in the world is the Potosi silver mine in the 

 Andes of Peru, which is 11,375 feet above the level of the sea. The 

 deepest mine is the new Salz Werk, a salt mine in Westphalia. It is 

 2,050 feet below the surface of the ocean. The average depth of tlie 

 coal mines of Great Britain greatly exceeds that of a like number of 

 any other kind of mines in the world. 



Importance of Life Boats. 



The Life Boat Institution has 189 life boat stations on the coast of 

 Great Britain and Ireland. In eleven months of last year 697 lives 

 have been saved by their means, raising tlie grand total to 17,68L Mr. 

 Jeula, Secretary of tlie Statistical Committee of Lloyds, has compiled 

 tables which show that the wrecks and casaulties on the coast of the 

 United Kingdom during the past year, exceed by about three per 

 cent the average of the previous eight years. 



A IsTew Mode of Causing Death. 

 A startling discovery has been made by Prof. Casturani, the cele- 

 brated OGCulist of Turin. He has found that by forcing air into the 

 eyes of animals and pressing the brain, they will be killed in a few 

 seconds, and, it is thought, without much pain. At the Eoyal 

 Vetei-inary School, four rabbits, three dogs and a goat "vvere killed in 

 this manner within a few minntes. There is said to be no outward trace 

 of injury left by this method ; but as it is, evidently, not easy of appli- 

 cation, for. an air-tight covering must flrst be fitted to the skull, 

 around the eyes, human life is not endangered by this invention. 



