228 
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
orders of this official renders the offender liable to a penalty 
of five pounds. Railway and canal companies and common 
carriers may refuse to carry diseased cattle, and the cleansing 
and disinfecting of boats, trucks, and other vehicles in which 
such animals might have been carried is effectually provided 
for, to be enforced under penalties. 
New test for Nitric Acid. —Mr. R. Kestings asserts 
that the alkaloid brucine is a most delicate test for nitric 
acid, being coloured rose-red by w*ater containing only the 
100,000th part. 
Spectrum of the Lightning. —M. L. Grandeau, 
analysing, by means of the spectrum, the lightning flash, 
observed in it rays indicative of the presence of nitrogen and 
hydrogen. These he refers to the production of ammonia 
and nitric acid, known to result from the passing of elec¬ 
trical discharges through the air. Otherwise, and at first, 
the spectrum afforded nothing beyond the electric spark. 
Pleuro-pneumonia and Scab in Australia. —From 
the Sydney papers sent us we learn that pleuro-pneumonia 
has been spreading in the Muscumbidgee district. It ap¬ 
pears now to have set in so virulently, and extends over such 
an immense tract of country, as to make any attempts to 
check it almost hopeless. 
The prevalence of scab amongst the flocks in the interior 
continues to excite the apprehensions of those who are in¬ 
terested in pastoral properties. Several numerously attended 
meetings of the largest squatters in the country were recently 
held in Sydney, and as the result of their conferences, a bill 
was drafted, the main principle of which was—the imme¬ 
diate destruction of all infected sheep, and the compensation 
of the owners at the rate of five shillings per head, with 
threepence per month for the growth of the wool. At a 
meeting of squatters held at the Exchange, the attendance 
at which represented about two millions of sheep, the bill 
was almost unanimously approved of. The bill was intro¬ 
duced into the Assembly by Mr. Robertson, but it met with 
very strong opposition, on the ground that it would cause a 
ruinous destruction of property, and it was rejected by a very 
large majority. A temporary bill has since been rapidly 
passed through both houses, suspending the operation of a 
portion of the present Scab Act, as otherwise a large number 
of sheep would have to be destroyed. Another bill is about 
to be introduced, providing for the adoption of curative 
measures. 
