418 
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
such appears to be the opinion of Professor Tuson, whom 
we learn will be engaged during the vacation in translating 
and editing the above-named work for the use of the English 
medical student. 
The Pennsylvania Oil Trade. — The statistics of the 
American Pennsylvania crude oil industry for the past year 
are now published. The total production of the year was 
the enormous amount of 4,215,142 barrels, being a daily 
average of 11,548 barrels. The production of 1868 was 
3,715,741 barrels, the increase of 1869 over the previous 
year thus being 499,401 barrels, the increase per day being 
about 1460 barrels . — Journal of the Society of Arts. 
Albumen. — The consumption of albumen, as applied to 
different purposes, is enormous ; in calico printing alone 
for fixing on cloth the new aniline colours, Alsace, in France, 
uses 150,000 kilogrammes, or about 330,000 lbs. a year of 
egg albumen, representing 37,500,000 eggs, or the product 
of 250,000 hens. — Ibid. 
Warehousing Petroleum. — At Antwerp some in- 
teresting experiments are now being made, for the purpose 
of testing a suggestion of the possibility of escaping the 
danger of a conflagration from the ignition of petroleum, by 
warehousing it under water. — Ibid. 
Curious Instance of Spontaneous Combustion of 
the Human Body — Dr. Bertholle. — This paper relates a 
duly authenticated case of this rare phenomenon. The 
victim, a woman, aged 37 years, was a confirmed drunkard. 
Many of our readers will recollect, perhaps, that Professor 
Liebig wrote a paper on this subject some years ago, when 
the medico-legal question arose concerning the death of a 
noble lady in Germany . — Chemical News. 
On the Use of Ether as an Intoxicant in the 
North of Ireland. — We have received from Mr. H. N. 
Draper a pamphlet on the above subject, from which we 
learn that the use of methylated ether instead of alcohol 
is very general in the counties of Londonderry, Antrim, 
and Tyrone. The quantity taken at one time is from two 
to four drachms, and the dose is repeated twice, thrice, or 
even four and six times daily. Mr. Draper treats the subject 
in its relation to the Inland Revenue and also to insurance 
companies, the former suffering by the practice to the extent 
of £5666 per annum, while the risks of the latter are increased 
by such an inflammable liquid being stored and handled by 
people ignorant of its properties. — Ibid. 
