175 
MISOELLAE-SA. 
Poisoning by Carbolic Acid.—At Liverpool, the relative of a patient in the hos¬ 
pital, who had died from cholera, went in a state of intoxication to see the bodj. Per¬ 
ceiving a bottle of carbolic acid that had been left in the room, he mistook it for rum, 
and swallowed a quantity. Death took place almost immediately. 
The Explosive Force of Hitroleum, or Hitro-giycerine. — A highly-inter¬ 
esting official report has just been made by Colonel Shaffner of a series of experiments 
conducted by him at Washington for demonstrating the use of nitroleum (which, it 
should be explained, is the new and far preferable name by which the Colonel designates 
the compound which has hitherto been called nitro-glycerine) in the explosion of mines. 
The results fully confirm the fact that the explosive qualities of nitroleum are far in ad¬ 
vance of gunpowder. Two similar cast-iron pieces, weighing each 300 lb., had a hole 
1 in. diameter and 15 in. deep bored in them, and were charged, one Avith powder and 
the other Avith nitroleum. The powder discharged through the fuse-vent, in. 
diameter, did no injury. The nitroleum tore the iron to pieces, the force extending 
downward from the bottom of the charge, leaving a cone with its apex at the bottom of 
the drill-hole. Four musket barrels Avere placed in Avrought-iron cylinders, tAvo filled 
AA’ith gunpowder and two filled one-third full Avith nitroleum. The musket barrels 
charged with poAvder were exploded by electricity; they burst open, tearing the iron to 
pieces. The explosion of the barrels charged Avith nitroleum produced a very different 
effect; they were flattened, and not so much broken to pieces ; the force Avas so sudden 
and great that after the barrel had irregularly broken up and doAvn the iron appeared 
like rolled plate, even and polished. The experiments appear to demonstrate that ni¬ 
troleum can, with ordinary precautions, be handled and employed without greater 
danger than is common to gunpoAvder, and for blasting operations, at least, it presents 
undoubted advantages .—Mining Journal. 
The Danger o£ using SSetropolitaix Pump-water. — The folloAving letter, 
signed by Dr. Miller and Professor Frankland, appeared in the ‘Times’ of July 30:— 
We hav’e just heard with surprise that the Broad Street pump, after having been 
closed for several months, has been again opened to the public since the outbreak of 
cholera in the metropolis. 
The water from this pump has been repeatedly analysed and pronounced unfit for 
drinking and domestic purposes. One of us examined it as lately as July, 1865, and 
found it to be little else than filtered sewage, notAvithstanding its brightness and freedom 
from offensive smell and taste. 
We have no hesitation in saying that the use of this and other similar pumps in the 
metropolis, supplied as they are by surface and seAver drainage, is at the present juncture 
fraught Avith extreme peril to the community. It is well known that the pump in 
Broad Street was, in the cholera visitation in 1854, the centre of a terrible outburst of 
the disease; while an isolated fatal case in Hampstead was clearly connected Avith the 
use of Broad Street pump water. 
During the autumn of last year a startling outbreak of cholera occurred on the borders 
of Epping Forest, to Avhich attention has again recently been called in the daily papers. 
The disease appears to have been brought to the spot by a member of a family who had 
been travelling in the west of England, and in this case it rapidly attacked other mem¬ 
bers of the household Avith great severity. All these persons used Avater from a par¬ 
ticular pump, and it Avas ascertained by one of us, from the chemical analysis of the 
water, that it was largely contaminated with drainage from the AA^ater-closet. Inde¬ 
pendently of this analysis, a leak from the closet into the Avell was discovered by the 
medical officer sent down to examine and report upon the case. 
The instances just cited distinctly show the danger of allowing the discharges from 
cholera patients to find their Avay into waters used for dietetic purposes. Indeed, it can 
scarcely be doubted that a single case of cholera occurring within the drainage area sup¬ 
plying the Broad Street pump Avould, owing to the infected discharges from the patient 
finding their way into the well, provide the certain means of spreading disease and death 
among the surrounding inhabitants. 
For similar reasons we would most earnestly recommend the closing of all pumps in 
the metropolis during the continuance of cholera, since most of them derive their water 
