}  Chemical  Notes.  365 
the  formations  round  the  edge  will  be  more  pronounced.  Arachis  oil 
gives  a  circular  drop,  accompanied  by  a  great  quantity  of  fine  little 
globules,  as  does  oil  of  sesame,  in  which  the  globules  are,  however,, 
still  more  minute.  Colza  oil  makes  a  precise  and  well  defined  circle. 
If  there  are  one  or  more  spurious  oils  mixed  up  with  the  true  olive 
juice,  the  forms  of  the  drops  will  resemble,  more  or  less,  the  types 
above  indicated,  according  to  the  greater  or  lesser  proportion  of  the 
various  adulterating  substances.  Oil  which,  when  shaken  in  the  bot- 
tle, assumes  a  permanent  chaplet  of  air  bubbles,  is  not  pure  olive  oil, 
for  in  the  latter  air  bubbles  are  only  transitory.  It  may,  therefore,  be 
set  down  as  a  mixture  in  which  rape  oil  predominates.  Finally,  there 
is  an  adulterant  extracted  from  cotton  seed,  now  largely  employed  by 
dishonest  manufacturers,  and  which  is  about  to  engage  the  special 
attention  of  the  Academy.  This  oil  can  be  rendered  colorless,  and,  as 
it  possesses  neither  taste  nor  smell,  affbids  great  facility  in  falsifying, 
olive  oil.  But  it  is  of  very  little  use  for  the  Academy  of  Sciences  or 
any  other  learned  institution  to  expose  these  tricks  of  trade  unless  the 
laws  are  enforced  against  the  adulterators. — your,  of  Applied  Science^, 
Jan.  I,  1880. 
CHEMICAL  NOTES. 
By  Prof.  Samuel  P.  Sadtler,  Ph.D. 
Inorganic  Chemistry. —  On  the  Forjnation  of  Sulphuretted  Mineral 
Water. — A  French  chemist,  Eugene  Planchud,  claims  to  have  shown 
that  the  presence  of  sulphur  m  mineral  waters  is  due  to  the  reducing, 
action  of  living  vegetable  matter  on  the  sulphates  contained  in  these 
waters.  On  examining  under  the  microscope  the  long  delicate  threads 
found  clinging  to  the  stones  in  the  neighborhood  of  sulphur  springs  and 
which  are  generally  supposed  to  be  threads  of  sulphur,  the  author  dis- 
covered them  to  be  composed  of  hollow  cylindrical  tubes  mattfd 
together.  Most  of  these  tubes  were  filled  with  spores,  which  when 
liberated  moved  about  with  a  rapid  motion,-  finally  came  to  rest  and 
developed  hair-like  processes  like  those  from  which  thev  had  been 
discharged. 
M.  Planchud  conjectured  these  hair-weeds  to  be  the  cause  and  not 
the  consequence  of  the  sulphur  in  the  water.  To  prove  this  he  made 
the  following  experiment :  He  filled  three  flasks  with  a  solution  of 
sulphate  of  lime  \  into  one  of  these  he  put  dead  organic  matter  ;  into 
the  other  two,  hair-weeds  obtained  from  a  sulphur  spring.     One  of  the: 
