nt 3 Scientific Intelligence. 
aye CueEmist 
9. Test for Pusel Oil ; by W. Srer.—Small bits of porous chlorid 
of calcium having been plac ced in a beaker glass, portions of the spirit 
which is to be tested are added until the mass is moistened to such an 
extent that it appears wet. The beaker is then covered with a glass plate 
and left to itself. If the spirit contains fusel oil, the odor of the latter 
detected after a while in the beaker, being still more strongly 
en only minute traces of 
ay b 
anion, after the lapse of several hours. 
fusel oil are present, one —— allow the mixture to stand for a condi 
le time, before smelling 
According to Stein, this ae is only a modification of the eom- 
mon test in which the spirit to be investigated is thrown into warm 
water. Since the impossibility of perceiving small portions of fusel oil 
in spirit docuits upon the fact that the odor of this substance is masked 
by that of the alcohol vapor which is evolved at the same time, 
the formation of the latter must be prevented if one wishes to smell 
the alcohol with water, or better, as previously stated, by mixing wit 
it an excess of chlorid of calcium, Bras which substance the alcohol 
combines so strongly, that its odor o longer interfere with that 
of the fusel oil—From aipmdlatahe | Centralblatt, 1859, p. 1627; ip 
eggs — Journal, cly, 158. 
ue of different Hale of Soap ; by R. Gr arene ee 
of consumers in regard to the value, or rather efficacy of sam mples of 
soap, which to the best of the manufacturer’s knowledge, have been well 
prepared, are not uncommon 
It is very probable that the usual explanation which is offered, Pies 
ever a soap fails to fulfil the expectations of its consumer, viz: 
contains too much water, ma b ei cases correct. ae 
ing upon the value of a soap, “there appears to be another obvious rea 
son why different soaps containing equal amounts of water may still po 
differen of effi ae 4 : 
sess different degrees of efficacy. 
It is evident from the different equivalent weights of the various fatty — 
acids, that the amounts of caustic alkali taken up by them in the form® 
tude, a 
tion * soap must be of unlike magnitu 
true, that the detergent er of soap is pasa depend . 
ent Bo the amount of alkali chick ae contain me f cou i t follows 
that those soaps which contain the largest proportion of aks ae im 
other words, those containing a fatty acid, the equivalent weight 4) a 
which is small,—must be the most efficacious, 
Since the difference between the equivalents of the common fatty acids 
are not large, — cotierations are it’ heile or io pe 
ance in so ei as concerns the consumption of soap in household 
my—the total a cians used in a single family, beg but small. In “as : 
EF tactnsitin pore however, where fifty or a hundred 
n ‘ a 
For example, the equivalent ig oat of several soaps, (regarded as at 
hydrous,) in common use, are as follo 
