SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
389 
which experience lias shown to be useful under such circumstances. By 
gently warming the glass stopper of a bottle, and then rubbing a little solid 
paraffin (not the liquid oil) over the contact surface, and afterward moving 
it round a few times in the neck of the bottle, both being perfectly clean 
and dry, there will never be any danger of the stopper sticking in its place. 
The strongest acid or alkaline solutions in ordinary use have no effect 
upon the thin film of paraffin, which forms the lubricant. Tallow or lard 
is sometimes used for this purpose ; but owing to the chemical nature of 
these substances they are soon attacked and rendered useless by caustic 
liquids, whilst the solutions themselves are injured by the introduction of 
fatty. impurities. Neither of these objections applies to paraffin. 
Some interesting experiments have lately been made by M. Maumene, 
Professor of Chemistry at Rlieims, on the aeration of wines by different 
gases. Ordinary effervescing wine owes its sparkling qualities to the 
presence of carbonic acid gas, produced by fermentation, and dissolved in 
the liquid under a pressure of five or six atmospheres. The cork being 
removed, the greater portion of the gas escapes, communicating to the 
wine its much-admired sparkling qualities. M. Maumene has prepared 
wines by forcing oxygen gas into them, under a pressure of seven or eight 
atmospheres. The wine, when sufficiently old, undergoes no chemical 
change, even when kept saturated with condensed oxygen for more than a 
year, and the preparation of the oxygenated liquid is a matter of no 
difficulty. Wine thus prepared is much more sparkling, or foams more 
than ordinary champagne. When a bottle is opened it disengages pure 
oxygen, which rekindles the red-hot spark of a blown-out taper. The 
taste of the wine is not changed, but it produces, after being drunk, a very 
sensible warmth, like the better kinds of old wine, and a general and 
well-marked agreeable sensation. The employment for some days of 
oxygenated water as a beverage, produces an improvement in the func- 
tions of respiration and digestion. A curious result is obtained by charg- 
ing wine with protoxide of nitrogen (laughing gas), instead of oxygen. 
The liquid so charged possesses, in a high degree, the power of producing 
the hilarious effects attributed to the gas itself, it having been found that 
it was only necessary to drink half a glass of wine, previously saturated 
with protoxide of nitrogen, at a pressure of six atmospheres, to produce 
the transitory' intoxicating effects attending an inhalation of laughing gas. 
It is not improbable, that the powerful stimulating properties of oxygen 
gas, or protoxide of nitrogen, might be of considerable medicinal value, if 
administered in the convenient form of a daily glass of aerated wine. 
New Manganese Dye . — An invention has been provisionally specified, 
by Mr. P. Morin, of Paris, which consists in the production of a green 
colour or pigment, by the treatment of oxide of manganese. Protoxide of 
manganese is transformed into a crystalline transparent substance, and 
takes a very rich green colour and diamond-like brilliancy when treated 
with hydrochloric acid in a gaseous state. The pigment or colouring 
matter thus produced may be applied to painting, dyeing, and the decora- 
tive arts, and may also be applied for industrial purposes. 
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