VARIETIES.  565 
boxes  or  rooms,  through  which  I  circulate  currents  of  hot  air  or  super- 
heated steam,  till  each  piece  is  heated  to  the  required  degree. 
This  process  offers  the  following  advantages :  Greater  simplicity, 
greater  cheapness,  requiring  no  expensive  chemicals,  greater  expedition  of 
the  work. 
As  is  well  known,  the  albuminoids  are  highly  hygroscopic,  and  in  con- 
sequence expand  or  contract  with  every  change  of  moisture  in  the  air. 
Wood  treated  as  above  is  no  longer  subject  to  such  changes. — Drug.  Cir., 
Oct.,  1866,  from  Scien.  American. 
Introduction  of  Shad  in  Southern  Rivers. — Dr.  W.  C.  Daniell,  writing 
from  Savannah  to  the  editor  of  the  Southern  Medical  and  SurgicalJoumal, 
says : 
"  I  am  gratified  to  say  that  I  have  fully  established  the  White  Shad  in 
the  Alabama  River,  where  they  are  as  large  and  as  fine  as  our  own  shad. 
"  Now  that  it  has  become  a  fixed  fact  that  shad  prosper  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Alabama  River,  we  may  readily  infer  that  they  will  equally  prosper  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River,  and  probably  of  all  the  rivers  discharg- 
ing into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  I  hope  to  test  this  in  another  year.  I 
would  have  done  so  this  spring,  but  that  my  fishermen  disappointed  me. 
As  soon  as  I  was  satisfied  that  there  were  distinctive,  though  minute, 
differences  between  the  shad  of  Savannah  and  the  Ogeechee  Rivers,  I  felt 
confident  of  establishing  the  White  Shad  in  the  Alabama  River.  These 
differences  were  pointed  out  by  our  fishermen  in  1846,  and  1848  I  planted 
the  fecundated  eggs  in  a  small  tributary  of  the  Etowah,  and  in  1851  or  '52 
the  fish  were  taken  in  the  traps  at  Wetumpka  and  Tuscaloosa/7 — Drug. 
Circ,  Oct.,  1866. 
A  Powerful  Microscope. — The  most  powerful  microscope  ever  constructed 
has  been  made  by  Messrs.  Powell  &  Leland,  and  described  in  a  paper  read 
before  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  England.  The  power  of  this  instru- 
ment is  fully  double  any  which  had  ever  been  constructed  previously,  and 
altogether  supersedes  what  had  before  been  considered  the  utmost  attain, 
able  limit  of  perfection  in  this  instrument.  This  powerful  microscope 
magnifies  3,000  diameters  with  its  lowest  eye-piece,  and  15,000  diameters 
with  its  piece  of  the  highest  power — the  latter  being  equivalent  to  magni- 
fying no  less  than  1,575,000,000,  or  making  an  object  appear  that  number 
of  times  larger  than  it  really  is!  How  immensely  must  such  an  instru- 
ment increase  our  knowledge  of  the  lower  organisms  j  may  it  not  even 
enable  us,  eventually,  to  determine  the  ultimate  constitution  of  matter;  it 
must  at  least  greatly  aid  the  scientist  in  his  researches  in  that  direction. 
— Drug.  Circ,  Oct.,  1866. 
The  Virtues  of  Borax. — The  excellent  washerwomen  of  Holland  and 
Belgium,  who  "  get  up  n  their  linen  so  beautifully  white,  use  refined  borax 
