916 
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
size^ altered form and changed colour, led at first sight to its 
being mistaken by several persons for a large fibrinous tumour. 
Its pathological condition appears to have consisted originally 
of a rupture of the tissue of the middle lobe, associated neces¬ 
sarily with the escape of a considerable portion of blood, 
which, however, by clotting,prevented fatal haemorrhage. This 
extravasated blood seems afterwards to have been surrounded 
with effused fibrine, which in turn was covered with a fresh 
effusion, and so on until the whole organ was brought into a 
similar morbid condition. 
The animal from which the liver was taken was an aged Irish 
cow, the carcase of which attracted Mr. Rayment^s attention, 
on his visit to the slaughter-house, by its emaciated and 
dropsical state. The carcase was condemned as being unfit 
for human food; and on Mr. Rayment making inquiry re¬ 
specting the viscera, he was shown the liver in question, 
which had been thrown into the yard with [a quantity of 
refuse matter from the slaughter-house. 
Facts and Observations. 
Creosote Oil as a Source of Heat. —We have it on 
the authority of our contemporary, the Journal of the Science 
of Arts, that Mr. W. D. Dorsett has brought out a system 
by which not the creosote oil but its distilled vapour, which 
is more pow'erful, is made to do the work of coal in beating 
iron plates to the heat necessary for bending them for ships^ 
armour-plating and other similar purposes, w^here the ad¬ 
vantages sought are very high and at the same time so equal 
a temperature as that, while producing the required amount 
of ductility in the material to be operated upon, it shall not 
be deteriorated in its fibrous tenacity. For some two or 
three months Mr. Dorsett has been experimenting with his 
patent fuel in Woolwich Dockyard, and so satisfactorily to 
the Admiralty authorities, that they have instituted tests at 
Chatham, with a view to the preparation of the armour¬ 
plating of the Sultan armour-plated ship now^ building in 
that dockyard. The advantages may thus be shortly summed 
up as compared with coal :—A greatly diminished cost and 
saving of time in producing the required heat of iron, as 
W’ell as a saving of labour; an absence of refuse, and a sur¬ 
face altogether free from scale. As regards the effect of this 
