290 Scientific Intelligence. 
metallurgical subjects. Among its contributors are Warrington W. 
Smyth, Robert Hunt, H. W. Bristow, James Napier, J. A. Phillips, Pro- 
fessor Ansted, and others who are well known to both scientific and prac- 
tical men. It also contains translations of valuable memoirs from the 
Annales des Mines and other foreign journals. It is well illustrated with 
maps and plans of mines, furnaces, etc. We trust that this magazine 
will meet with the success it deserves, as it fills a want that has long 
been felt by miners and metallurgists. 
III, PHYSIOLOGICAL AND AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
On the Chemistry of Germination—Dr. Max Scnvziz has published 
ai fiir Prakt. Chem., \xxxvii, p. 129) an extended investigation on this 
subject. He directs attention to the insufficiency of elementary analysis, 
as employed by earlier experimenters, for determining the chemical changes 
3 aes : ’ _ 
methods. Various seeds, viz: those of Lepidium sativum, Lupinus al- 
bus, Vicia faba, and I beris amara, were made to germinate in pure water 
contained in sealed glass flasks. ‘The chemical changes that took place 
were stu mee by analyzing the air of the flasks after a suitable interval. 
. The first rey e a ger ny a vat is set up or made possible 
decomposition of albuminoid substan 2, This decomposition is pro- 
duced by the absorption of water ad a oxygen. 3. In its progress, mt 
gen and carbonic acid and afterward hydrogen are set free. By several 
xperiments made with crushed seeds, Schulz found that, in decay oF 
putrefaction, aiogen « and carbonic acid were evolved, pie less rapidly 
anin germination; but that free hydrogen did not a Se 
hence canntieide that the rcs of hydrogen, in his exporitiits,# 
belonged to the germinative process, and was not a result ¢ 
ing decay. From the crenaaies that seeds will be develope in sea 
— of suitable dimensions, beyond, or but little beyond, the first stag® 
owing to the accumulation of carbonic acid, Schulz was not able ve 
vestigate fully what happens in the later periods of eon In ue 
few trials that partially succeeded, he obtained the same results as ¥ 
manifested in the first stage, though the liberation of Pe byae mI 
peared to be less copious, relatively to that of the nitrogen an carboule 
acid. 
> 
gion 
_ Pugh, —- hon the Ag. College a Penn., obtained a Jarge amount! 
nitrogen iD, v ere 
sachong barley, beans and t aul nf ve: they were placed in water over MC, 
atmospheric air being removed by communicating the vessel containing ag roger 
the Torricellian vacuum, (Lawes, Gilbert and Pugh on the Sources of the N¥ 
of parcel Phil. Trans, part 11, 1861.) ial roe 
pear to be exper simentally established, that in the chem 
Ee ee is absence, and nit iy as 
“8 wv 
