766 
Notes. 
November, 
Chemistry and Technology. 
In the International Exhibition, now being held at Sydney, a 
collection of soils, manures, and agricultural products is shown 
by the Imperial College of Agriculture in Tokio, Japan. Accom- 
panying the collection is a descriptive catalogue, compiled by 
Mr. Kinch, the Professor of Chemistry at the College, in which 
a short account is given of the various products exhibited, with 
about eighty chemical analyses. The catalogue opens with some 
analyses of soil. Then follow analyses of manures, including 
lime, wood ashes, nitre, waste vegetable substances, and residues 
frorq various manufactures, fish manure, bone, superphosphate, 
birds’ dung, and hair. Next in order come analyses of foods. 
Then a summary of the dye-stuffs, and also of the various oils 
and resins. 
In a paper on “ Measures for Disinfecting,” read at a Meeting 
of the German Public Health Association, at Stuttgart, reported 
in the “ Sanitary Record,” Prof. Hofmann said that disinfection 
can only be said to have been carried out when the following 
conditions have been fulfilled ; — (a.) By considering the objeCtor 
poisonous germ which is to be destroyed, (b.) By considering 
the place or objeCt where the poisonous germs may be found or 
must exist, (c.) By a thorough knowledge of the mode of aCtion 
and the qualities of the disinfectant that is being used. 
At the Manchester Meeting of the Social Science Congress 
Mr. C. T. Kingzett read a paper on “ The Eucalyptus and the 
Pine considered in relation to their Sanitary Properties.” The 
aCtion of the eucalyptus is stated to be of a positive type, and, 
like the pine tree, its properties are of a healthful nature, upon 
whatever soil or in whatever climate it may grow. The Euca- 
lyptus cimygdalina is the most abundant oil-giving tree, ioo lbs. 
of the leaves giving from 3 to 6 lbs. of the oil. This oil is prac- 
tically identical in composition with the oil of turpentine derived 
from pine trees, and with rfiost of the so-called essential oils or 
perfumes. By the investigations of Mr. Kingzett it has been 
ascertained that all these oils, when subjected to the aCtion of 
atmospheric oxygen and moisture, produce peroxide of hydrogen 
and a number of camphoraceous substances having marked anti- 
septic powers. Taking New South Wales and South Australia 
alone, Mr. Kingzett calculates that the eucalyptus forests contain 
at any given moment sufficient oil in the leaves to form by con- 
tact with the atmosphere no less than 92,785,023 tons of pure 
peroxide of hydrogen, and 507,587,945 tons of camphoraceous 
principles. If it be remembered that in Nature all matters of 
animal and vegetable origin are oxidised by the atmosphere, 
which is thus kept free from the pernicious products of putre 
faCtion, and that peroxide of hydrogen is a much more powerful 
oxidant than ordinary oxygen, and if it be also borne in mind 
