668 Transactions of tee American Institute. 



II. Colza Oil. 

 Messrs. "Wurtz and Willm have ascertained that colza oil, after 

 being subjected to a current of steam heated to about 250° Fah., 

 loses its peculiar acrid taste and smell. Any trace of fatty acid which 

 remains after this treatment can only arise from the adulteration of 

 the oil, and may be removed by washing with a weak solution of 

 carbonate of soda. The oil is then fit for table use, as a substitute 

 for olive oil. 



III. Variation in the Solar Spectrum. 



Zollner, in a recent lecture, said new evidence has been found that 

 the motion of a shining body alters its spectrum lines. Dr. Yogel 

 had recently shown, by means of an improved spectroscope, that the 

 lines derived from one side of the sun were different from those of 

 the opposite side; that is, as the sun rotates, the parts approaching 

 give a different spectrum from the parts receding. 



IY. Influence of Brass and Copper against Cholera. 

 Dr. Burg, in reviewing the statistics of deaths from cholera, finds 

 that out of about 32,000 artisans in copper, brass and bronze, 

 employed in Paris and other cities during the last outbreak of 

 cholera, only sixteen deaths resulted from that disease. Another 

 interesting fact bearing on this question is that the city Mio-Tinto, 

 surrounded as it is by copper mines, has never been visited by this 

 epidemic. 



V. Chemical Reactions. 

 Berthelot, from investigations of changes of pressure and volume 

 produced by chemical combination, deduces the following proposi- 

 tion, viz. : That the heat invariably produced in a chemical reaction, 

 supposing it to be applied exclusively and without loss to warm the 

 products, is such that an augmentation of pressure always takes 

 place at a constant volume ; or, what is the same thing, augmenta- 

 tion of volume at a constant pressure. 



YI. Animal Phosphorescence. 

 M. Panceri has recently given to the Congress of Naturalists and 

 Physicists at Turin an account of his investigations of animal phos- 

 phorescence. He concludes that this phenomena is due to the slow 

 combination of oxygen with the adipose tissue, since it immediately 



