SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
in Sweden. Synthetic alcohol from acetylene has been developed in Germany 
and Switzerland during the war; but it remains to be seen whether the industry 
will be permanently established. Mr. Simmonds is one of the senior analysts in 
the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, and, by reason of his experience, 
is well qualified for the compilation of the book, which is well arranged and 
‘printed, while the information is lucidly presented and up-to-date. ' 
SOME PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 
Nitrogen Products Committee, Final Report.—This Committee was appointed 
in June, 1916, as a committee of the Advisory Panel of the Munitions Inventions 
Department to consider, generally, what steps could with advantage be taken 
to conserye and increase the national resources in nitrogen-bearing compounds, 
and to limit their wastage and to examine the relative advantages of the various 
methods for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. 
Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales (March).—iVhe articles include a 
_ paper by H. Wenholz, B.Se., on the factors making for soil improvement for 
maize, and deals particularly with manures and fertilizers. F. B. Guthrie, A. A. 
Ramsay, R. M. Petrie, and F. J. Stokes have prepared a list of fertilizers 
obtainable in New South Wales, together with their composition. “The com- 
position of various lead arsenates” is contributed by A. A. Ramsay. 
The Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Victoria (March) —The 
principal articles are “The Goroke Crop and Fallow Competitions,’ by H. A. © 
Mullet, B.Ag.Se.; “Agriculture in Denmark,” by R. T. McKenzie; “Pear Grow- 
ing in Victoria,” by E. Wallis, and “Some French Sweet Wines,” by F. de 
Castella. ‘ : al 
Journal of the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers 
(January).—This issue forms the initial number in the new monthly plan of 
publication authorized by the society. F. W. Staley, writing on “Oil Fuel,” 
sets out the advantages of liquid fuel. E. R. Knowles, in an article on 
“Pulverized Fuel,” points out that, although great improvements have 
been made in the methods of utilizing coal as a fuel—from the first 
crude use in varying sized lumps, hand fired in crude and _ inefficient 
form of boilers, to the present-day practice of using finely-graded coal, 
mechanically fired in the most efficient type of boilers—yet notwithstanding all 
this advancement present boiler practice with the best equipment wastes from 
25 to 35 per cent. of the heat value of the fuel consumed. Diagrams showing 
the various types of furnaces are given, and various combustion problems are 
dealt with. An advance in air conditions in school buildings is described by BE. 
S. Hallett. To sum up the results of a year’s tests with ozone, the following 
facts are indicated:—Ozone destroys all odours resulting from the respira- 
tion, bodies and clothing of the children. It produces a mild exhilaration 
resembling that of a sea breeze or the air on a morning after a thunderstorm. 
It removes smells from the building due to lodgment of dust in ducts and the 
like. It destroys. toilet room odours.. When used in proper concentration for 
ventilation it has no odour itself. It reduces weight in persons corpulent from 
inactivity. It appears from limited data to be a preventive of influenza, It 
undoubtedly is of great value in the treatment of influenza and pneumonia, as 
demonstrated in the influenza hospital in St. Louis last year. To this should 
be added the evidence adduced by the medical authorities of, France that ozone 
increases greatly the oxyhemoglobin of the blood, thereby increasing the oxygen- 
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