FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
621 
weighing, say 700 lbs., which two months ago was selling 
for 550 f. or 600 f., now fetches scarcely 350 f. ; cows which 
were worth 300 francs may now be had for 135 f., and even 
lower; and average size calves have fallen from 150 f. to 70 f. 
The butcher is the principal gainer by this unhealthy de- 
preciation. As I mentioned lately, good meat may be bought 
retail at the Halles and some few shops at wonderfully low 
rates. But the butchers in fashionable quarters do not lower 
their prices, assuming, perhaps rightly, that when the terrible 
rise which inevitably awaits in the winter shall come, their 
regular customers will not like to pay much more than they 
have been accustomed to do. The force of habit will for a 
long time produce, in small transactions, results apparently 
at variance with the law of supply and demand.” 
The Production of Ozone. — We have heard so much of 
late years about the beneficial influence exerted by the 
presence of ozone in the atmosphere, that even non-scientific 
readers may like to know how it can be artificially produced. 
Hitherto electricity, phosphorus, and permanganate of potash 
have been the recognised sources of production ; but Pro- 
fessor Mantegazza has discovered that it is developed by 
certain odorous flowers in a still greater amount. A writer 
in Nature states that most of the strong-smelling vegetable 
essences, such as mint, cloves, lavender, lemon, and cherry- 
laurel, develop a very large quantity of ozone, when in con- 
tact with atmospheric oxygen in light. Flowers destitute of 
perfume do not develope it, and generally the amount of 
ozone seems to be in proportion to the strength of the per- 
fume emanated. Professor Mantegazza recommends that, 
in marshy districts and in places infested with noxious exhala- 
tions, strong-smelling flowers should be planted around the 
house, in order that the ozone emitted from them may exert 
its powerful oxidizing influence. So pleasant a plan for 
making a malarious district salubrious only requires to be 
known to be put in practice . — Journal of the Society of Arts. 
A New Anodyne. — Dr. Oscar Liebreich, to whom we 
owe protagon and the now well-known chloral, is said to have 
discovered a new anodyne, to which the name of chloride of 
aethylide {JEthylidenchlorid) has been given. This substance 
is said to be more rapid and agreeable in its effects than 
chloroform, and has been repeatedly used with perfect success 
in the clinical hospital of Dr. Langenbeck. Its chief merit is 
that it can be administered without interfering w 7 ith the free 
and natural breathing of the patient. Its effect being tran- 
