- SCIENCE. AND. INDUSTRY. 
bulletin of the Department of Trade and Commerce, Canada, he haying 
been commissioned to investigate the operations, and to make careful 
observations of the various stages of the process. The method consists 
essentially of three. stages—(1) the immersion of the flax straw in 
water at 82 to 86 degrees F.-in suitable vats; (2) the addition of a. 
certain quantity of the culture bouillon of the bacillus; and (8) in the 
passage of a current of air through the water in the vats during the 
whole of the retting process. Mr. Renouard considers that the Rossi 
process can furnish the best possible results from flax straw of any 
kind which can be treated. Moreover, as the process can be checked 
at any moment, the action can be so controlled as to give products 
answering to all requirements of the flax spinners. The yield of fibre 
amounts to about 20 per cent. of the flax straw. The Rossi process can 
also be applied to hemp and ramie, and according to tests made by 
Professor Rossi it appears that Sisal leaves, when crushed and retted 
by this method, furnish a good white fibre of better quality than that 
produced in the usual way. ot 
ELECTRICAL STERILIZATION OF MILK. 
The British Medical Research Committee has recently, according 
to commerce reports, published results of experiments in sterilization 
of milk by Professors Beattie and Lewis, of Liverpool University, who 
largely carried on the work. They enumerate the results of fifteen 
experiments under varying conditions, with different. degrees of current, 
and with several qualities of milk. The final conclusions arrived at 
by the investigators are:—Milk can be rendered free from B. coli and 
B. tuberculosis by the new electrical method without raising the 
‘temperature higher than 63 or 64 degrees C, This temperature effect 
is very short in duration, and in itself is not the principal factor in 
the destruction of the bacteria. Though the milk is not sterilized in 
the strict sense of the word, the percentage reduction of the bacteria. 
over a forimight period is 99.93. The keeping power of the milk is 
considerably increased. The taste of the milk is not altered, and so. 
far as careful chemical examination can determine the. properties of 
the milk are not in any way impaired. The milk may accurately be 
described as “raw milk” free from pathogenetic bacteria. 
| LIGHT CREOSOTE OILS IN WOOD PRESERVATION. 
Experiments conducted by the Forest Products Laboratory, U.S.A., 
have shown that light creosote oils properly injected into wood will 
prevent decay until the wood wears out, or checks so badly that the 
untreated portions are exposed. Creosotes used in ties from 25 to 50 
years ago were, for the most part, oils having 50 per cent. or more 
distilling below 285 degrees C., with a residue not to exceed 25 per 
cent. at 315 degrees O. The ties so treated lasted fifteen to twenty 
years, and failure was traceable in most cases to mechanical wear, such 
as rail cutting and spike killing. Im no case was failure found -to be 
the fault of preservative. Of 1,558 telegraph poles in the Montgomery- 
New Orleans line, which were pressure-treated with a light creosote 
oil, 1,049 poles were still.sound after sixteen years. In 91-pér cent. of 
the cases of decay, the fungi had entered the wood through chécks* and 
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