304 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



last, a daguerrotype likeness of a Chimpanzee belonging to the menag- 

 erie of the Museum of Natural History, and remarked upon the im- 

 portance of this method of taking designs of animals. 



10. Climate of Italy. — M. Dureau de la Malle closes an elaborate 

 investigation into the climate of ancient and modern Italy, with the con- A 

 elusion that the limits for different agricultural products were the same 



in the earlier as in more recent periods, and that from the time of Au- 

 gustus till the present, there has been no sensible modification of tem- 

 perature either as regards the months or years. 



11. Goitre due to Magnesian Salts in water. — The waters of the val- 

 ley of Isere, have been chemically and geologically examined by M. 

 Grange, with the conclusion that the goitre or cretinism of Switzerland, 

 is due to the deleterious action of magnesian salts in these waters, or 

 perhaps at times to the presence of magnesia and the absence of the 

 lime required by the animal economy. The author suggests as a rem- 

 edy, the filtration of water in large reservoirs filled with carbonate of 

 lime and a thin bed of lime. 



12. Motive Power, (Athenagum, No. 1106.) — M. T. nE Beauvegard 

 has constructed a steam-engine to be moved by the vapor of water in 

 the spheroidal state, the elastic force of which being very great ; and an 

 experiment is in progress in London on a large scale. The same prin- 

 ciple was made use of by Mr. J. C. C. Ruddatz, in 1825, and a patent 

 got out : and subsequently, Mr. Thomas Howard constructed an engine 

 in which water was projected in small quantities upon a plate of iron 



resting on hot mercury. But these earlier projects were not successful. 

 In Whitechapel, at Messrs. Home's, there is an engine worked by the 

 combined influence of steam and chloroform. The steam after doing 

 its work in moving the piston in one cylinder, escapes into another in 

 which there is a quantity of chloroform in small flat tubes. This sub- 

 stance volatilizes at a very low temperature ; it is thus converted into 

 vapor by the heat of the waste steam, and in this state is employed to 

 work a second piston. There are, indeed, two engines combined in ac- 

 tion, one moved by steam, the other by chloroform. The proposed ad- 

 vantages are the saving of 50 per cent, of fuel. The first engine of 

 this kind was constructed in 1846 in Paris, in which ether was employ- 

 ed, and this engine is still working in a glass factory at Lyons, chloro- 

 form being substituted. A Parisian paper states that a powerful and 

 efficient engine of this description has been constructed by M. Charles 

 Beslay, by order of the Minister of Marine. The English patentees 

 propose to use a volatile fluid which is much less expensive than chlo- 

 roform, equally efficient and less obnoxious. 



13. Coal in the Straits of Magellan. — There has been a recent an- 

 nouncement of the discovery of coal in the Magellan Straits ; if abund- 

 ant and of good quality, it will prove of great importance to steam nav- 

 igation. Samples of the coal have been transmitted to the English 

 Board of Admiralty for scientific examination. 



14. Gun Cotton for tooth ache. — Gun cotton dissolved in ether, con- 

 stituting what is called collodion, has become an important material for 

 dressing incised wounds. It has been also ascertained that it may be 

 successfully used for the tooth ache. The cavity of the tooth being 

 cleaned out, a little asbestus saturated with collodion, to which a little 







