December 12, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



329 



both black and ted cherries are used ; but the former are pj'efera- 

 ble, as producing a spirit of finer quality, and in greater quantity. 

 According to the Journal of the Society of Arts (London), there 

 are no special methods of cultivation, the cherry-trees being gen- 

 erally in the same orchards with apple and pear trees; but, as 

 this is the first fruit on which the farmers can realize money, they 

 naturally pay great attention to their cherry- trees. The process 

 of manufacture is as follows: The cherries are first carefully 

 cleansed, great importance being attached to this point; the stems 

 are then removed, and the fruit packed in very thick wooden 

 casks, and left to ferment for a period of from five to eight weeks, 

 according to the weather; after which it is ready for distillation. 

 In large distilleries the stills contain from 220 to 364 gallons, 

 while in the smallar ones the quantity varies from these figures 

 to 1 1 gallons. The large distilleries, with one or two exceptions, 

 make use of indirect steam as a means of heating, the stills being 

 constructed with double bottoms, through which steam passes. 

 The others employ naked fires, the fuel consisting of peat or the 

 lefuse of cherries and pears after distillation, which is compressed 

 into bricks, and dried. Both methods of heating have numerous 

 advocates, who each claim the superiority of their system. 

 JKirschwasser is placed on the markeli in litre (1.76 pints) bottles, 

 in carboys containing from 10 to 60 litres, and in casks. The 

 wholesale market \alue of kirschwasser varies very much, ac- 

 ■cording to good or bad crops, and consequently according to the 

 price of fruit in good seasons; the price of new pure, kirschwasser 

 being sometimes as low as two francs per litre, while in bad sea- 

 sons it is sometimes as high as four francs, the average being 

 about three francs. All distilleries, it is said, even the best with 

 one exception, adulterate their kirschwasser by the addition of 

 cheap spirit of wine or spirit of potatoes (which is imported from 

 Germany), accoi'ding to the price offered by the buyer, the cheaper 

 ■qualities consisting of about three parts of spirit to one part of 

 kirschwasser. All distillers guarantee the purity if the full mar- 

 ket price is paid. It is impossible to state with any accuracy 

 what is the annual production. Different statements put down 

 the average at from 300,000 to 500,000 quintals (a quintal is equal 

 to 1.9 hundredweight). The principal markets for kirschwasser 

 are North America, South America, and British India. France 

 also imports a considerable proportion of the kirschwasser of 

 Switzerland. 



— Mr. William Hamilton Gilson, the well-known artist and 

 illustrator, has accepted charge of the illuslration class of the New 

 York Institute for Artist Artisans. 



— The efforts which have been made to open commercial com- 

 munication between England and the heart of Siberia by way of 

 the Arctic Seas have at last been successful, according to Nature 

 of Nov. 37. A correspondent of the London Times, who signs 

 himself, "One who knows all about it," explains the circum- 

 stances connected with this remarkable triumph of skill and en- 

 ergy. Two ships and a tug for river- work were despatched from 

 London at the end of July and beginning of August. Owing to 

 north-easterly winds, the Kara Sea was exceptionally full of ice, 

 so that the ships were detained for some days among ice-floes. 

 Nevertheless, in thirty-nine days the ships and tug reached 

 Karaoul, 160 miles up the Yenisei, without accident. They re 

 mained there nineteen days, and took twenty-six days to return. 

 They were thus only eighty-four days, or two months and twenty- 

 three days, away from the London Docks. At Karaoul they met 

 the river expedition, which " returned safe to Yeniseisk a few 

 days ago, and is now landing and warehousing there the valuable 

 cargo sent out from England." The same correspondent points 

 out that the real cnuc of the expedition lay in the 160 miles of 

 estuary between Golcheka, at the mouth of the Yenisei, and 

 Karaoul, at the head of the estuary, which the Russian Govern- 

 ment had assigned as the port of discharge. Last year the " Lab- 

 rador" would not ascend to Kaxaoul, because Capt. Wiggins 

 thought there would not be water enough to take him there, and 

 had no steam-launch to enable him to feel his way up. On the 

 other ban.], the riier-ship did not dare to descend on account of 

 the gales that then prevailed. This year it was disovered that 

 through the entire estunrv there was a channel with sufBcient 



water for ships of any draught, and the ships proceeded up the 

 river to tlieir destination without hinderance. It is unfortunate 

 that Capt. Wiggins was accidentally prevented from completing 

 the work with which his name has been so intimately associated ; 

 but it was he who showed the way, and to him, more than to any 

 one, belongs the honor of having provided this new outlet for 

 British commerce. That it may become an outlet of the highest 

 importance is the conviction of no less an authority than Baron 

 Nordenskiold. In a letter congratulating the promoters of the 

 undertaking, he says, "I am persuaded that its success will once 

 be regarded as an event rivalling in importance the return to Por- 

 tugal of the first fleet loaded with merchandise from India. Si- 

 beria surpasses the North American continent as to the extent of 

 cultivable soil. The Siberian forests are the largest in the world. 

 Its mineral resources are immense; its climate, excepting the 

 tundra and the northernmost forest region, healthy, and as favor- 

 able for culture of cereals as any part of Europe." He goes so far 

 as to say that the future of Siberia may be " comparable to the 

 stupendous development which we at present see in the New 

 World." 



^-The many instances of strange doings by excited men are 

 matched by an incident said to have occurred recently in England 

 during a run with the hounds of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn. 

 In passing a cottage the fox suddenly found himself among a lot 

 of fowls. Absolutely regardless of possible consequences, he 

 snatched up one of the birds, and carried it in his mouth to the 

 end of the run, and was killed with it in his mouth. This is given 

 for what it is worth. 



— A discovery which may lead to important results has been 

 made by M. Chabrie during the course of his experiments upon 

 the properties of the recently isolated gaseous fluorine substitution 

 products of marsh- gas, as we learn from Nature of Nov. 37. The 

 intimate relation between these bodies and chloroform, and the 

 possibility of their possessing even greater physiological activity, 

 led M. Chabrie to investigate the action of one of them, methylene 

 fluoride (CHjFj), upon specific microbes, with the result, that, in 

 the case of the particular bacillus experimented upon, the gas is 

 found to absolutely destroy them. The bacteria in question, which 

 have formed the subject of these first experiments, were those 

 discovered by M. Bouchard, in 1879, in urine. Two eprouvettes 

 of equal size were taken and filled with mercury over a mercury- 

 trough. Equal small quantities of urine containing colonies of the 

 bacteria were introduced into each, and afterwards a mixture of 

 air and methylene fluoride admitted into one of the eprouvettes, 

 and an equal volume of air alone into the other. The two vessels 

 were both maintained at the temperature of the body, 35°, for 

 twenty-four hours. At the end of this time a few drops of the 

 urine from each of the vessels were introduced into separate flasks 

 containing sterilized culture medium, and both maintained at the 

 same stove temperature for twenty-four hours, and again for 

 forty-eight hours. At the expiration of this period the urine which 

 had stood in contact with air alone was found to have given rise 

 to a flourishing colony of the bacteria, while that which had been 

 in contact with the mixture of air and methylene fluoride had not 

 given rise to a trace of a culture. According to MM. Albarran 

 and Halle, twelve hours are ample for the development of this 

 bacillus, hence methylene fluoride had evidently been fatal to the 

 germs. The experiment was again repeated without the use of 

 mercury, in sealed tubes, but with the same result It appears, 

 therefore, that methylene flu iride possesses the property of de- 

 stroying the urinary bacteria in (luestion. M. Chabrie lias made 

 special experiments in order to determine whether the gas possesses 

 any local irritant action; and the results, as far as 'they go, aijpear 

 to be eminently satisfactory. He is now du-ectin.; his experi- 

 ments upon the microbe of the hour, that of tuberculosis, and his 

 results will doubtless be watched with considerable interest. 

 Methylene fluoride is easily ijrepared by heating silver fluoride 

 with methylene chloride in a sealed tube. M. Chabrie has also 

 succeeded in preparing the higher homologue, CaH^Fo (ethylene 

 fluoride), by the analogous re-action with ethylene chloride, and 

 is extending his observations to the antiseptic properties of this 

 latter gas. 



