THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
27 
made adhesive to glass by doing it over with an 
alcoholic shellac solution. 
Professor Boettger mentions the following 
salts as adapted to produce the most beautiful 
crystalline coating : sulphate of magnesia, ace- 
tale of soda, and sulphate of tin. Paper must 
first be sized, otherwise it will absorb the fluid, 
and prevent the formation of crystals on its sur- 
face. Visiting cards with a mother-of-pearl 
coating have for some time been in use. Colored 
glass is well adapted for such a coating, which 
has a good effect when the light shines through. 

Mistakes of Letter Writers.— The follow- 
iiif? are some of the reasons why a letter does 
not go : 
Because you forget to address it- 
Because you forget to stamp it. 
Because you forget to write the town or State on 
the envelope. 
Because you used a once cancelled stamp. 
Because you cut out an envelope stamp and 
pasted it on your letter. 
Because you used a foreign stamp. 
Because you wrote the address on the top of the 
envelope, and it was obliterated by the post office 
dating, receiving, and canceling stamps. 
And because you put your letter in a blank 
envelope, and sealed it and forwarded it to— the 
Dead Letter Office, where thousands upon thous- 
ands of valuable letters are daily destroyed be- 
cause the people are either careless or ignorant 
.of the postal laws. 
And to the above we would add a few reasons 
why an answer don't come : 
Because you do not sign your name. 
Because you sign it so indistinctly it cannot be 
read. 
Because you do not give name of post office. 
Because you do not give name of State. 
Because you write with a pencil, which is ruljbed 
off and illegible. 
Because you use ink so pale and dim it cannot 
he read. 
Because you write so poorly no one can read it. 
Because you do not enclase stamp to prepay 
postage on the answer —Saturdaij Night {Cincin- 
nati). 
■ To Soften Hard Putty.— A correspondent of 
The G-arden says: After many trials, and with a 
variety of differently-shaped tools, with various 
success, I at last accomplished my end by the 
simple application of heat. My first experiment 
was with a soldering iron, when, to my great de- 
light, I found the putty became so soft that the 
"broken glass could be removed by the fingers and 
the putty be easily scraped away. All that is re- 
Quired is a block of iron about two and a half 
inches long by one and a half inches square, flat 
at the bottom, and drawn out to a handle, with a 
wooden end like a soldering iron. When hot (not 
red) place this iron against the putty or flat on the 
broken glass, if any, and pass it slowly round the 
sides of the square. The heat will so soften the 
putty that it will come away from the wood with- 
out difficulty. Some of it may be so hard as to 
require a second application of the hot iron. 
A New Mode of Treating Burns.— The re- 
moval of infiltration of the skin is easily accom- 
plished, according to M. Ungerer, by osmose. He 
had occasion to prove this lately in having to 
treat an extensive scald on the hand, which re- 
sulted in a large and exceedingly painful swelling 
without wounds. Cold water treatment for 12 
hours did not relieve the swelling in the least, 
and the pain was almost unbearable when the 
hand was removed from the water only a few 
seconds. He, therefore, made a diffusion experi- 
ment, dipping the hand in a saturated salt solu- 
tion, and the success was surprising. Though 
the salt solution had not the temperature of the 
ice water, the pain diminished almost immedi- 
ately, and in four hours blister and pain were 
both entirely gone. The hand next day differed 
from the other only by a very slight swelling and 
redness. 
Inlaying.— Inlaid wood is held in place by the 
tightness and completeness with which the inlaid 
parts are mortised into the main body or bed of 
the wood. They are also held in by pins or pegs 
when the pieces are large and the hold given by 
the sides of the mortise is insufficient. When 
thick slices, or masses of ivory or metal, or even 
thin metal are used, as in Boulle work, the metal 
should have the help of small pins at intervals. 
But the chief agent in connecting surfaces of wood 
to slices of ivory, bone, horn or thin shell is glue,, 
which, when good and properly applied, holds 
with a degree of strength that is sufficient on 
almost any requirement. 
Moire Metallique.— The following is given as: 
a method of crystallizing tin plate. Heat the 
plate till the tin begins to melt, and dip it into a 
solution of 1 part of bichromate of potassa in 3 
parts of w^ater, 2 parts of muriatic acid and l part 
of nitric acid. After rinsing well, muriatic acid 
is poured over the tin plate, and then a solution 
of 10 parts hyposulphite of soda in 120 parts of 
water. The crystalline flowers produced hereby 
display a great variety of colors, according to the 
time of contact. Einse well with water, then with 
alcohol, and lastly lacquer. 
Pocket Mucilage.— Boil one pound of the best 
white glue and strain very clear; boil also four 
ounces of isinglass, and mix the two .together : 
place them on a water-bath with half a pound of 
white sugar, and evaporate till the liquid is quite 
thick, when it is to be poured into moulds, cut, 
and dried to carry in the pocket. This mucilage 
immediately dissolves in water, and fastens paper 
i very firmly. 
