236 Scientific and General Memoranda. 



vised a cheap and effective mode of protecting firemen. Their 

 articles of dress are dipped in a solution of alumine and sulphate 

 of lime ; and when dry, are saturated with soap water. Fire- 

 men thus equipped have remained a quarter of an hour, exposed 

 to an intense heat, without being in the least injured. These 

 dresses do not cost more than ten dollars each. Flames may be 

 extinguished also, by playing on them with a common engine, 

 with a solution of sulphate of alumine, and common clay. 



JVew Method of Multiplying Dahlias. — Some dahlias belonging 

 to M. Jacquemin, having been injured by the wind, in the first 

 days of June, and some branches broken off, he placed them in 

 the ground, in hopes of developing the flower. This did not take 

 place ; the vegetation languished, but the plants appeared good, 

 and being carefully taken up, were found furnished with tuber- 

 cles. Hence a new means of multiplying these flowers, and the 

 illustration of a curious physiological fact. — Jour. Roy. Inst. 



Smell of Paint Removed. — The offensive smell of oil cloths, var- 

 nishes, and paints, are said to be removed by chloric fumigation 

 in a close room. 



Remedy against Flies. — The odour of the oil of laurel is not 

 disagreeable, and the stalls of butchers rubbed with it, are said 

 not to be frequented with flies. The frames of glasses and pic- 

 tures might be preserved in this way. 



Want of Forethought in the Lower Animals. — The Barbary ape, 

 (Macacus Sylvanus, Lac^) which, though a native of Africa, has 

 established a colony on the Rock of Gibraltar. Here it is occa- 

 sionally so cold in winter, that these poor apes are fain to huddle 

 about any chance fire that may be hghted out of doors and left 

 burning ; but though they are seen sitting close to the dying em- 

 bers, they have never been known to add a single chip of fuel to 

 continue the fire. — Scott. Intell. Phila. iv. 1. 



Snakes in the Water. — Extract of a letter from a correspon- 

 dent : — " I will relate to you a curious fact, about the water- 

 snake, told to me by General G. He said, that fishing one day 

 in a small stream for trout, he observed a water-snake lying on 



