36 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Febrines 
Butter tests corroborated.—The correctness of butter tests is a matter of interest 
to every citizen of Iowa, and the course of the Government officials in this matter 
has been closely watched. The results of the recent tests made in the city had a 
very beneficial effect upon public sentiment, which will be emphasized by the knowl- 
edge that Dr. Field, of this city, has made a careful microscopic test of the same sam- 
ples and fully corroborates every one. In conversation with a register scribe yester- 
day, Mr. Schermerhorn made the following statement of these last tests: ‘In view 
of the fact that the reliability of butter tests has been brought into question, I desire 
to state that I furnished to Dr. A. G. Field, of this city, eight packages of butter and 
mixtures for microscopical testing. They consisted of various mixtures of lard, salt, 
and butter, butterine, and also pure butter of various ages and modes of manufacture. 
With the exception of one package of genuine butter four years old, they all had the 
appearance of good butter. They were numbered, and the composition of each re- 
corded, but of which Dr. Field knew nothing before making the examination. In 
every case his report was correct. He stated that he followed the method of Dr. 
Thomas Taylor, of Washington, D. C., relying principally upon the form of crystal 
and the use of polarized light.—/owa State Register, Jan. oth, 1887. 
The Scientific American, published by Munn & Co., New York, presents weekly 
to its readers the best and most reliable record of various improvements in machinery, 
and the scientific progress of the country can at the same time be kept pace with by 
the regular perusal of its pages. It presents in popular form the discoveries in all 
departments of natural science, so far as they would be likely to interest a general 
reader, and is a well conducted periodical. 
Heat destructive to comma-bacillus.—At a recent session of the Academy of 
Sciences in Amsterdam, Prof. Forster stated that he and Dr. Van Geuns had found 
that the comma-bacillus was destroyed by heating the substance containing it to 55° C. 
In their work, Les Bactéries, Cornet and Babes state that the comma-bacillus is destroyed 
by exposure to a temperature of 50°C. for a few days; also that a culture of comma- 
bacilli can be sterilized by slowly heating to 65° or rapidly to 75° C.—Lonudon Lancet. 
— We note the death of Dr. C. C. Field, of Easton, Pa., graduate of the University 
of Pennsylvania in 1837. His father and grandfather were physicians and surgeons, 
He was a very successful operator, and particularly in the region of the neck, having - 
extirpated the parotid gland, ligated and incised considerable portions of the jugular 
vein, and removed tumor which entirely compassed the carotid artery.— Easton Datly 
Argus, Dec. 3, '86. 
— From the Medical Gazette of Nantes we learn that the Japanese have a remedy 
for hydrophobia which they call hoang-nan. It has recently been tried in 24 suspected 
cases. The daily dose of the drug in the form of the powdered root was from a hun- 
dred to a hundred and fifty grains. It is stated that up to the time of the last report 
none of the patients had died. The histories of the cases are so incomplete that no infer- 
ences of value can be drawn from them.—<Sczence, viii, 511, 1886. 
— The extreme delicacy of the sense of smell in man has been shown by a series 
of experiments by Messrs. Fischer and Penzoldt. In an empty room of 230 cubic 
metres’ capacity, and tightly closed, a small quantity of the substance to be detected was 
thoroughly mixed with the air, and the observer then admitted. Among different sub- 
stances it was found that the smallest amount recognizable was .o1 of a milligram of 
mercaptan. This quantity diffused through the room sufficed to make its distinctive 
character appreciable in the small volume of air coming in contact with the nerves of 
the nose, from which it was estimated that a four hundred and sixty millionth part of 
a milligram of this substance was recognizable. Hitherto the spectroscope has been 
considered the most delicate of all means of analysis, indicating less than the millionth 
part of a milligram of sodium; but the sense of smell, in the case of mercaptan at 
least, is seen to be at least two hundred times more delicate.—Sczence. 
— Prof. Samuel P. Langley, of Allegheny, Penn., has been awarded the Rumford 
Medal of the Royal Society for researches on the spectrum by means of the bolometer. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
[We take pleasure in doing our share to circulate the following.—ED. ] 
To THE Eprror: At its last meeting, September, 1886, at Bethlehem, N. H., the Hay- 
Fever Association decided to offer a prize for the best esssay on some question relating 
to .Astivis, or Hay-Fever. 
