Disinfecting Powers of Increased Temperatures. 111 
summer,” in place of the three or four weeks with which we are 
commonly favored. The last of November, winter commenced with 
the rigor of the northern regions, and quite as unexpectedly to our 
farmers and boatmen, as the winter of 1812 to the armies of Napo- 
leon ; nearly half the potatoe and corn crops being yet ungathered. 
By the fourth of December the rivers were full of ice, and steam- 
boats ceased running. By the tenth of the month the Ohio river was 
frozen over, and for the rest of the month could be crossed and trav- 
eled on by the heaviest teams, the ice being from twelve to eighteen 
inches in thickness. On the eighth of January, 1832, after a heavy 
rain and thaw, the river rose ten or fifteen feet, and the ice gave way, 
destroying a great many steam-boats, which lay along the shores in 
exposed situations, and hundreds of ‘“‘ Orleans ” or flat boats. Some 
idea of the intensity of the cold may be formed, when it is known 
that the Mississippi river was frozen over one hundred and thirty 
miles below the mouth of the Ohio, a circumstance before unknown 
since the settlement of the western States. ‘The river was loaded 
with floating ice below Natches, and the boys in New Orleans were 
surprised and delighted with the sight of water sufficiently frozen to 
afford them skaiting. ‘The winter thus far has been one of great se- 
verity : the snow has not been more than six or eight inches deep, 
but the thermometer has been on several mornings from 5° to 10° 
below zero, and for whole days only a few degrees above. 
February 3d, 1832. - 
Art. X.—Further Experiments on the Disinfecting Powers of In- 
creased Temperatures; by Witt1am Henry, M.D. F.R.S. &c. 
From the Philosophical Magazine and Annals for Jan. 1832. 
In the Phil. Mag. and Annals, for November, I described a se- 
ries of experiments, which established the following conclusions :— 
I. That raw cotton, and various kinds of piece-goods, manufac- 
tured for clothing from that or other materials, sustain no injury 
whatsoever, either of color or texture, by exposure for several 
hours to a dry temperature of nearly 212° Fahrenheit.* 
* The temperature, I have since found, may in most cases be safely raised forty 
or fifty degrees higher. 
