FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
121 
locality are infected. Hence he concludes that the disease 
may be communicated to man from animals.— Popular Science 
Review. 
Wool. — The importation of colonial wool into London for 
the year ending December 3 1st, 1869, was as follows : 
New South Wales and Queensland 
Victoria 
South Australia 
Western Australia 
Tasmania . 
New Zealand .... 
Cape of Good Hope . 
1869. 
120,541 bales. 
206,188 „ 
66,097 „ 
4,861 „ 
17,362 „ 
85,329 „ 
134,163 „ 
Total 634,544 bales. 
From India, the importation was 57,524 bales, against 
53,853 bales in 1868. — Journal of the Society of Arts. 
Nitrous Oxide Gas as an Anaesthetic. — The British 
Medical Journal has ascertained that the use of nitrous oxide 
gas as an anaesthetic continues steadily to increase over the 
country, and that the amount made by manufacturers in 
London cannot be much under 60,000 gallons per annum, 
representing on the rough the production of anaesthesia in 
about 15,000 individuals. This increase arises almost en- 
tirely from its popularity among dentists. The gas has 
received comparatively little encouragement from surgeons. 
This may be easily explained by the great expense of the gas 
in even slightly prolonged operations, and the cumbrous 
nature of the apparatus required for its use. Its undoubted 
safety and rapidity of action, as compared with chloroform 
and other ethers, and the minimum of annoyance resulting 
from its after-effects, have been duly appreciated and practi- 
cally recognised by dentists. — Ibid. 
The Manufacture of Iron. — It is estimated that in 
England 500 blast furnaces are reducing, by their intense 
heat, nearly 12,000,000 tons of iron ore to 4,800,000 tons of 
metallic iron, which, at its place of production, has a value 
of about £11,000,000 sterling. Those blast furnaces con- 
sume more than 14,000,000 tons of coal; and, to convert the 
pig-iron obtained into bars, rails, &c., a like quantity of coal 
is required. In France the great iron industry is no less 
active. The works of Messrs. Schneider and Co., at Le 
Creusot, the largest in France, have fifty acres under cover. 
Here are fifteen blast furnaces, with tw T enty-seven steam- 
engines blowing air for them, and forging iron besides. At 
the mines and works over 3500 men are employed. In 
