356 
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
prepared shortly became sick, and many of them died. On 
being opened by a veterinary surgeon strong traces of 
violent inflammation were visible, and the entrails having 
been subjected to a chemical analysis it was ascertained that 
death'was caused by the presence of sulphate of iron in the 
pulp. No doubt could be entertained on the subject, as 
other sheep, fed on beetroot-pulp, to which no sulphate of 
iron was applied, continued to be perfectly healthy. It is 
believed in some agricultural districts that sulphate of iron 
acts more powerfully on sheep than on oxen. The veterinary 
surgeon who was employed to examine the sheep poisoned 
observed in the same farm that cows had eaten with im¬ 
punity of the same beetroot-pulp which had poisoned the 
sheep. 
Alcohol obtained from Coal-gas. —In the Inter¬ 
national Exhibition, French Department, there was exhibited 
a litre of alcohol, produced by M. Bertholet from the ele¬ 
ments of coal-gas, or rather olefiant gas, one of its consti¬ 
tuents. The manner in which the conversion was effected 
was as follows :—M. Bertholet introduced into a flask twenty- 
six litres of bicarburetted hydrogen, a quantity of concen¬ 
trated sulphuric acid, and three kilogrammes of mercury. 
These he agitated together for a considerable time, and after 
about‘53,000 agitations he found that the whole of the gas 
was absorbed by the acid, producing a new compound, to 
which the name of sulpho-vinic or sulpho-ethylic acid was 
given. 
On treating this acid with water, a new reaction was set 
up; the bicarburetted hydrogen set at liberty combined in 
its nascent state with the water, forming alcohol, leaving the 
sulphuric acid in a diluted state, from combination with a 
certain quantity of water. The alcohol thus formed was ob¬ 
tained from the liquid by distillation. 
Since this successful experiment was performed by‘Ber¬ 
tholet, M. Cotelle has really obtained alcohol from coal-gas, 
•and the expense of its being manufactured thus is the only 
barrier to its general adoption. 
Differences in the Temperature of the Air.— 
At the last sitting of the French Academy of Sciences 
M. Becquerel communicated further researches of his on the 
temperature of the air at a great height, compared with that 
of the superficial strata in contact with the earth^s surface. 
These researches, conducted with both the electric and 
common thermometers, led to the following result. — That 
