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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
cent, was injected into tlie stomach through the exposed oesophagus, and 
this tube at once ligatured. The results at which he arrived were : That, 
during the first five hours after the introduction of alcohol into the stomach, 
a considerable amount escapes by the skin, lungs, and kidneys ; that at 
least twice as much escapes by the lungs and skin as by the kidneys; that 
the amounts he obtained, showing that from 6*79 to 7*4 per cent, were 
thus eliminated, were, from various considerations, certainly below the 
quantities really discharged from the system. These conclusions he arrived 
at in 1870. Quite recently, however, he instituted another series of experi- 
ments, the object of which was mainly to determine for how long a time 
after ingestion alcohol continued to be excreted by the skin and lungs. In 
one of these experiments he found that 12*6 per cent, of the alcohol was 
eliminated in eleven hours and a half through all these channels.; in another 
instance 16 per cent, was eliminated in twenty-four hours, either in the un- 
altered condition or only changed into aldehyde. Subbotin maintains that 
alcohol cannot be regarded as in any sense a food, since, under its influence, 
the metamorphosis of tissue diminishes, the temperature falls, the amount 
of carbonic acid -excreted lessens, and a smaller quantity of urea is discharged. 
Its action, he thinks, is direct upon the nervous system. 
METALLURGY, MINERALOGY, AND MINING. 
An Improvement in Blowpipe Operations. — MM. Armin, J unge, and Mit- 
zopulos, of Freiburg, have .greatly improved the blowpipe by an apparatus 
of which the following is a description : — A common wide-mouthed bottle is 
carefully fitted with a caoutchouc cork bored with two holes, into each of 
which passes a piece of glass tube bent at a right angle. On to one of these 
tubes is slipped the caoutchouc tube coming from an ordinary caoutchouc 
bellows, whilst the other is put in communication with the blowpipe nozzle 
by means of four pieces of caoutchouc tubing joined by three pieces of glass 
tube, drawn to a fine point at each end. This forms the main peculiarity 
of the arrangement. When air is forced into the bottle by the blower, in 
jerks, it finds a difficulty in escaping as fast as it comes in, on account of 
the six fine openings in the glass tubes that it has to pass through on its 
way from the bottle to the nozzle, and it thus acquires a certain pressure in 
the bottle, and flows out towards the nozzle as a regular blast. The bottle 
may be about 6 inches high by 3* inches wide, with a neck 1| inches in 
diameter ; but of course the dimensions are of no great importance. On 
the whole a somewhat large bottle is better than a small one. The pieces 
of glass tubing used are 2 inches long by f of an inch in diameter. The 
apparatus will be stronger if instead of a glass bottle a tin cylinder is used, 
about 4 inches high by 2 inches in diameter, with two tin tubes opening 
into its top. Small metal cylinders, with a fine hole at each end, may be 
used instead of the little glass tubes. A blowing apparatus constructed in 
this manner will deliver a perfectly regular blast, and will be of practical 
interest to those who are thinking of working in places where it is impos- 
sible to repair the ordinary instruments. — See Chemical News, June 7th. 
