522 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Chloride of lime is daily used as a disinfecting and deodorizing agent ; 
but its value as an insecticide is not so generally known : by scattering 
some of it on a plank in a stable, all manner of -flies — even the bitin cr 
flies — are quickly got lid of. Sprinkling beds of vegetables with even a 
weak solution of this salt effectually preserves them from the attacks of 
caterpillars, butterflies, mordella, slugs, &c. ; and it has the same effect 
when sprinkled on the foliage of fruit-trees. A paste made of two parts 
of powdered chloride of lime and one part of some fatty matter, placed in 
a narrow band round the trunk of a tree, prevents insects from creeping up 
it. It has even been noticed that rats and mice quit places in which 
chloride of lime is occasionally spread. This salt, finely powdered, can 
no doubt be employed for the same purposes as flour of sulphur, and be 
spread by the same means. 
A very ready means of purifying chloroform has been suggested by 
some experiments recently published by Hardy. Perfectly pure chloro- 
form is not attacked by metallic sodium ; but alcohol, wood spirit, 
hydrochloric acid, and other substances either intentionally added to, 
or spontaneously generated in chloroform by keeping, are at once acted 
upon by the alkaline metal with evolution of hydrogen, marsh gas, and 
oxide of carbon. This reaction takes place in the cold, and is almost 
instantaneous. After all disengagement of gas has ceased, the chloride of 
sodium and excess of metal remain at the bottom, and the chloroform, 
thus freed from foreign matters, is pure. 
One of the most novel and important improvements which has been 
effected for several years in the manufacture of lucifer matches has lately 
been patented by Messrs. Bryant and May. The protection afforded by 
the use of this match is based upon the circumstance that it will only 
ignite upon the prepared surface of the box, no ordinary kind of friction 
being capable of inflaming the combustible materials with which the 
wooden splints are tipped. The match does not itself contain any phos- 
phorus, but is coated merely with oxidizing substances, such as chlorate 
of potash in conjunction with "binoxide of lead or manganese, and the 
ingredients are in this manner so divided that it is necessary to employ 
the special friction surface prepared with amorphous phosphorus in order 
to secure the inflammation of the match. The security against accidental 
conflagration is thereby reduced to a minimum ; the splints have, indeed, 
so little of the dangerous character of the ordinary match that this manu- 
facture enjoys the exclusive privilege of being sanctioned and admitted 
within the building of' the International Exhibition. The matches are 
not coated with sulphur in the usual way, some kind of wax or fatty 
matter being employed for impregnating the wood. No phosphorus being 
employed in the match composition, they are, of course, quite free from 
the unpleasant odour and poisonous character of this substance. The 
dangerous practice of carrying loose matches in the pockets and about the 
house, and the common habit among servants of striking them upon the 
wall to the disfigurement of the paper-hangings, will be altogether avoided 
by the introduction of this match. 
Mr. C. O’Neill has published some valuable experiments undertaken 
with a view to determine the origin of paraffin-oil explosions. The way in 
