Volume 18 (1869) (430 pages)

The Mining and Scientific Press. Mechanteal, Heatox’s Process AGAtin.—We have more than once spoken of the Heaton process for making stcel from low cluss iron ly means of sitrates; and have ouco referred to Prof. Miller’s favorahle report uponit. In Engineering for Oct. 30th, we find a page containing fuwr articles, the writers of which, one after the other, indulge iva quiet ‘dig’ at the ‘*process,” aud which articles tend to put a different color upou the wholeaffair. The first laughs at the ‘*Solon,”—as the writer calls him,— who insists that tho Heatou is to supersede the Bessemer process, and that the result of the operation is malleable iron of the purest quality, containing 1,830 per cent. of carbon ! ‘The second article saysthat the Heaton proecss does essentially tho same thing that the puddling process does, hut not as well, The third shows that it would cost considerahly more to make etcel by this process than by any other;—and that the article made is not so good after all. The fourth of these articles is hy a writer who himself took ont a patent in 1860, which involves, ns he claims, Mr. Heatou’s of 1866; and edds that the lawyers will have to deeide the matter. Worse than all, au editorial in the same number of the journal aforesaid, saye that the use of nitrate of soda has heeu open to all eiuce the lapse of the patentof Sir Francis Kuowles, taken out in 1857! In thesame journal again is reprinted a paper read by Mr. John Gijers, hefore the Cleveland Institution of Engineers, in April last, iu which, after alIndiug to the experimeutof Mr. Hargreaves in the same direction, the author says: ** We can come to no other couclusion than that the nitrate process, as at present carvied out, isa fallacy and a deception.” It would appear, therefore, that the Heaton process is hy no means likely tocarry everything before it. THEory oF Pupprine.—It has been generelly assumed, that iu puddling, the oxygen of theair from the draught combined with, aud thus removed, the impurities contained in the iron,—snch as silicon, carbon, etc. Butin the peper recently read by Mr. Siemens, before the British Association, to which we haye before referred, he asserts thet he found tho same effects produced with a perfectly neutral flame—that is, one with no excess of oxygen. Ho therefore concludes that the oxygen required is furnished by the fettling itself,— which isoxide of iron introduced to form aslag. This he considers to be proved by the fect that some of thefettling is reduced jn the operation, The weight of wrought iron produced was fully equal, he says, to that of the pig employed. Bours ann Nurs.—We gave a short time since the uniform system proposed for ecrew-threads. Here is the uniform standard for bolt-heads and nuts, which was reeommended in December, 1864, by a committee of the Franklin Institute: ‘“ The distance between the vyarallel sides of a bolt-head and nut, for a rough bolt, shall be equal to one and a half diameters of the bolt, plus one-eighth of an inch, The thickness of the heads, for a rough boli, shall be equal to one-half the distance hetween its parallel sides, The thickness of the nut shall be equal to the diameter of the bolt. The thickuess of the bead, for a finished bolt, shall he equal to the thickness of the nut. The distauce between the parallel sides of a bolt-head and nut, and the thickness of the uut, shall be Youe-sixteenth of an inch’ less for finished work than for rough.” Meouanican Exuipition in Lerestc.— In May of the preseut year, 1869, will be held an exhihition of machines ‘‘pertaining to mills, bakeries, and husbandry connected with such,” under the direction of the Association of German Millers. All interested in mills in the United States are invited to tako part. Tue Brice ackoss THE CHANNED.—Engineering heads au article upou tho projected bridge from Dover to Culais, “ Poxs Astvonum;” and in allusiou to tho projector, M. Boutet, says: Sone six or seven ycars ago, we rememher reading a leader in L’ludependence Belge, ia whieh the dawu of a new era was announced. Locomotives and steamboats were to he disposed of as old iron, coal was to bo employed for doinestie purposes alone, the steam horse was to he sent finally to grass, sinco we had but to retrace our steps to fiud that in the passage of the two primitive elements, air and water, from oue india rmmbber bag to another, sufficient force was developed to make the world, or anything else, revolve as fast as the most go-ahead Yankee could desire. The benefactor of our species, then as now, was M. Charles Bontet. We add a portion of the conclusion of the article: ‘‘Wo have given much spate to investigate the project and criticiso the projector with the vain hope of finding on grain of seuso to leaven tho wholo mass, But the very magnitude of M. Boutet’s projected bridge, as showu npon his fairly executed drawings, will tako with many, and we onrselves havo seen an audience of moro or less influeutial men impressed by the projector’s well conued, oft-repeated lecture, run off the reel as glihly as the rattle of a panorama expositor, and we have heard members of such an audience argue that the constructive details of this fallacy are correct, and that a great new principle of construction has been inaugurated by which powers of reeistauce are created —another phase of perpetual motion. Toe ‘‘ser” or Twistrp Wrires.—M. Coulomb suspended a ball by a wire twenty inches long, connected with an index which would point out theamountof torsion. He found that when it was twisted ten times, the index returned to its primitive position, if repeated a thousand times, and the oscillations were made in equal times, whether wide or narrow. Butifitwes twisted eleven times, the index did not return to its place, hut wauted nearlya whole turnof it. Here, then, the parts of the wire had taken new relative positions, in which they were again etrest. But what was most remarkable in Coulomb’s experimeuts wasthis: Hefound that efter the wire had taken this set (as it is termed by the artisans,) it exhihited the same elasticity as before. It allowed a torsion of ten turns, and when let go, it returned, and after its oscillations were finished, it rested in the position from which it had heen taken.—Prof. Mayer, in Jour. Frank, Institute. Proorive Ipea oF A Locomorrve.—Sir Isaac Newton, in 1680, figured a spherical generator supported on wheels and provided with a seat for a passenger in front, end a long jet-pipe behind, stating thatthe “ whole is to he mounted on little wheels so as to move easily on a horizontal plane, and if the hole or jet-pipe be opened the vapor willrush out violently one way, and the wheels and the sphere will at the sametime be carried the contrery way.” Tue longest artillery range on record, viz., 10,301 yards, was attained at Shoeburynese, hy Mr. Whitworth’s 9-inch muzzle-loader gun of fourtcen tons, firing a ehot of 250 lhs, with a charge of fifty lbs. This range is 225 yards over that of the 6-inch Lynall Thomas gun, which iu 1861 ranged 10,075 yards. For Oars orF tHe Track.—Mr. ©. H. James, of Canada, has taken outa patent for a machine which he calls the ‘‘ Dominjon Reverse Repeating Rail.” It is used for assisting engines and railroad carriages back to the rail. The rail can he carried on every train, and two men can move it to any point required.— Railroad Register. Tron anv Steev Instrrure.—The ironmasters of Great Britain are moving towards the establishment of an Institute “for the discussion of practical and scientific questious counected with the manufacture of iron and steel.” Ssarpentne Saws.—‘‘After tiling your saw, lay it on a level board and pass over the side of the teeth with a whetstone until all the wire edge is off the teeth. This will make your saw cut true and smooth, and remain sharp longer. Your saw must be set true with a sawset.”—Cor, Sci. Am. Iron Props ror Muines,—Au Euglish patent has been taken out for wrought iron tubes, plugged at their ends with wrought jron, to he nsed as props in mines instead of the timbers geuerally employcd. Scicutific Miscellany. Occlusion of Hydrogen by Metals, We gavo some timo since an account of Mr. Graham’s intcrosting experiments upon this subject. In those tho metal plate was heated, and then cooled in an atmosphere of the gas. Tho Chemical News gives, in a recent number, a paper hy Mr. Graham, describing a new method of charging the metals with the hydrogen at low temperatnres, Wo give a part of that portion which refers to palladinm: ‘‘If a plate of zinc be placod in dilute sulphuric acid, hydrogen is evolved from the surfaco, but none is occludod. Buta thin plate of palladium immersed in the same acid, and brought into metallic contact with the zinc, soon becomes largely eharged with the hydrogen, which is then transferred to its surfaco. Tho charge taken up in an hour by a palladium plate, rather thick, at 12° amounted to 173 times its volume. The absorption of hydrogen was still more obvious when thepalladium plate was constituted the negative electrode in acidulated water to a Bunsen battery of eix cells. The evolution of oxygen gas at the positive electrode continuing copious, the effervoscence at the negative electrode was entirely suspended-for the first twenty seconds, in consequenee of tho hydrogen being occluded by the palladium. The final absorption amounted to 200°4 volumes, and wes greater in emount than the volume of hydrogen occluded by the same plate heated and cooled in an atmosphere of the gas, which did not exceed 90 volumes. It is worthy of remark that the’ gas exhibits no disposition to leave the metel at the temperature of its absorption. Thus a thin plate of palladium, charged with hydrogen, was washed, dried and sealed up in an exhausted glass tube. On breaking the tube under mercury after two mouthe, the vecuum was found perfect; but on the application afterwards of a heat of 100°, 333 volumes of gas were evolved. The occluded hydrogen is readily extracted by reversing the positionin the hattery, so as to cause oxygen to be evolved on the surface of the metal. The hydrogen is then drawn out as rapidly as it had previously entered. Srrsin.—The poison generated in putrefactive fermentation hes recently been isolated by Drs. Bergmann end Schmiedeberg, inthe form of a crystalline salt which they have named “‘ sulphate of sepsin.” The London Lancet, says: Itis obtained by diffusion through parchment paper, precipitation with corroeive sublimate from an alkaline solution, removal of the mercury by eilver, of the silver by sulphureted hydrogen, evaporation, and purification of the residue. Large, well-defined, acicular crystals are thus obtained, which are deliquescent in the air, and, exposed to heat, melt and carbonize. They possess a powerfully poisonousaction. A solution containing scarcely more than one-hundredth of a gramme was injected into the veins of two dogs. Vomiting was immediately induced, and after a short time diarrhoea, which in the course of an hour became bloody. After nine hours the animals were killed, and, on examination, their stomachs and large iutestines were found ecchymosed, and the emall intestine congested. ‘‘Tvietrtn’—A New Minersn.—Theo. D. Rand describes a new mineral for which he proposes the ahove name, on account of the locality where itis found. Itoccursin films and seams through massive cryolite. The color is pale yellowish-green, eometimes yellow. Hardness 2-2.5, sp. gr.2.05: Fuses rather easily before the blowpipe; with carb. soda fuses readily aud with effervescence toa greeuish bead. In borax disselyes readily with an iron reaction, In microcosmie salt dissolyes readily except silica skeleton; bead yellow while hot, Decomposition or Om or Turrentinn, Prof. Wurtz, in tho Gas Light Journal, trauslates from the proceedings of tho Vieuua Academy, an account of the experi. ments of Hlasiwetz and Hinterherger npon tho repeated distillation of the products resulting from the subjecting of oil of turpentine toa red heat. WVapore of turpentine were passed through a red-hot iron tuho filled with fragments of porcelain. The products were a gas, some carhon (as a mirror-liko hlack crust on the porcelain) and considerahle dark brown oily liquid of henzole-like odor, lighter than water. The gas hurnt like illumiuating gas. One hundred measuree of turpentine gave on an average 60 of liquid, and ahout 16,800 of gas; and the carhon amounted to ahont 2.3 per cent. of tho material employed. The hrown liquid distilled with water, gave 81 volumes per 100 of a gold-yellow oil of a much purer and pleasanter smell than hefore, and atarry residuum, This rectified product was nearly one-half (in volume), of the turpentine omployed. It was dried hy fused chloride of calcium, and subjected to fractional dietillation. Prof. Wurtz, eays: ‘It may be douhted whether any field more richly pregnant of results of economical value presents itself to-day to competent chemists, than investigations of the products of various chemical treatments of oil of turpentine and common rosin. * * Chemists will agree in the importance of findiug some liquid, cheap and obtainable in ahundauco, which will vie in solvent power and yolatility with the expensive henzole (that is, true coal-tar benzole, not the commoa cheap petroleum naphtha or ‘“‘benzine,” which is almost universally confounded in commerce with benzole), and that still more expensive, hutnoble solvent, chloroform.” Fossiu Horss In NEBRASKA.—In the November number of the American Journal of Science and Aris, Prof. O.C. Marsh gives a uotice of the remains discovered in Nobraske during the past eummer, of a new species of fossil horse, very much smaller than any heretofore known. The newspapers, in their first puhlished eccounts, described them as human remains. They were found at Antelope Station, on the Union Pacific Railroad, 450 miles west of Omaha, and were thrown out from a depth of sixty-eight feet, during the digging of a well. Some of these remains were described hy Prof. Marsh, at the meeting of the National Academy of Sciences et Northampton in August last. ‘‘ They indicate,” says the Professor,—‘‘an animal ecarcely more than two feet, or possibly two and a half feet in hight, although full grown, as the ossificatiou of the various hones clearly proves. The species may be named Hguus parvulus. This makes seventeen species of fossil horses uow known to have lived in North America, although until quite recently it was very generally believed that there was none indigenous to this eontinent.” Tho bones were found in a stratum of gray arenaceous olay lying uearly horizontally, and apparently of later Tertiary age. Auconon as Foop.—The following is a paragraph from a lecture on food recently delivered by Dr. Letheby before the Society of Arts (Englaud): Liebig is of opinion that alcohol is bnrnt or oxidized in the system, and is therefore a calorific agent; but the researches of Lallemand, Perrin aud Duray, as well as those of Dr. Edward Smith, have demonstrated that a large portiou of it passes through the systom unchanged, and appears in the breath and perspiration, a8 well as in the urine. They, therefore, conclade that alcohol is uot a food, but isa mere excitor of the nervous ceuters. On the other hand, Dr, Thudicum ina rather large experiment on the studeuts of his class (83 in number), found that of the 4,000 grammes of alcohol in the 44 bottles of wine wuich they drank at one sitting, ouly 10 grammes appeared in the urine; and assuming that abont 10 grammee more were exhaled by the breath and skin, he coneluded that ouly 0.5 per ceut. of the alcohol escaped unchanged. He therefure bluish opalescent when cold. In closed} peljevesthat alcohol is oxidized in the budy, tube yields acid water. and is ‘a true food, ot

The Mining and Scientific Press. Mechanteal, Heatox’s Process AGAtin.—We have more than once spoken of the Heaton process for making stcel from low cluss iron ly means of sitrates; and have ouco referred to Prof. Miller’s favorahle report uponit. In Engineering for Oct. 30th, we find a page containing fuwr articles, the writers of which, one after the other, indulge iva quiet ‘dig’ at the ‘*process,” aud which articles tend to put a different color upou the wholeaffair. The first laughs at the ‘*Solon,”—as the writer calls him,— who insists that tho Heatou is to supersede the Bessemer process, and that the result of the operation is malleable iron of the purest quality, containing 1,830 per cent. of carbon ! ‘The second article saysthat the Heaton proecss does essentially tho same thing that the puddling process does, hut not as well, The third shows that it would cost considerahly more to make etcel by this process than by any other;—and that the article made is not so good after all. The fourth of these articles is hy a writer who himself took ont a patent in 1860, which involves, ns he claims, Mr. Heatou’s of 1866; and edds that the lawyers will have to deeide the matter. Worse than all, au editorial in the same number of the journal aforesaid, saye that the use of nitrate of soda has heeu open to all eiuce the lapse of the patentof Sir Francis Kuowles, taken out in 1857! In thesame journal again is reprinted a paper read by Mr. John Gijers, hefore the Cleveland Institution of Engineers, in April last, iu which, after alIndiug to the experimeutof Mr. Hargreaves in the same direction, the author says: ** We can come to no other couclusion than that the nitrate process, as at present carvied out, isa fallacy and a deception.” It would appear, therefore, that the Heaton process is hy no means likely tocarry everything before it. THEory oF Pupprine.—It has been generelly assumed, that iu puddling, the oxygen of theair from the draught combined with, aud thus removed, the impurities contained in the iron,—snch as silicon, carbon, etc. Butin the peper recently read by Mr. Siemens, before the British Association, to which we haye before referred, he asserts thet he found tho same effects produced with a perfectly neutral flame—that is, one with no excess of oxygen. Ho therefore concludes that the oxygen required is furnished by the fettling itself,— which isoxide of iron introduced to form aslag. This he considers to be proved by the fect that some of thefettling is reduced jn the operation, The weight of wrought iron produced was fully equal, he says, to that of the pig employed. Bours ann Nurs.—We gave a short time since the uniform system proposed for ecrew-threads. Here is the uniform standard for bolt-heads and nuts, which was reeommended in December, 1864, by a committee of the Franklin Institute: ‘“ The distance between the vyarallel sides of a bolt-head and nut, for a rough bolt, shall be equal to one and a half diameters of the bolt, plus one-eighth of an inch, The thickness of the heads, for a rough boli, shall be equal to one-half the distance hetween its parallel sides, The thickness of the nut shall be equal to the diameter of the bolt. The thickuess of the bead, for a finished bolt, shall he equal to the thickness of the nut. The distauce between the parallel sides of a bolt-head and nut, and the thickness of the uut, shall be Youe-sixteenth of an inch’ less for finished work than for rough.” Meouanican Exuipition in Lerestc.— In May of the preseut year, 1869, will be held an exhihition of machines ‘‘pertaining to mills, bakeries, and husbandry connected with such,” under the direction of the Association of German Millers. All interested in mills in the United States are invited to tako part. Tue Brice ackoss THE CHANNED.—Engineering heads au article upou tho projected bridge from Dover to Culais, “ Poxs Astvonum;” and in allusiou to tho projector, M. Boutet, says: Sone six or seven ycars ago, we rememher reading a leader in L’ludependence Belge, ia whieh the dawu of a new era was announced. Locomotives and steamboats were to he disposed of as old iron, coal was to bo employed for doinestie purposes alone, the steam horse was to he sent finally to grass, sinco we had but to retrace our steps to fiud that in the passage of the two primitive elements, air and water, from oue india rmmbber bag to another, sufficient force was developed to make the world, or anything else, revolve as fast as the most go-ahead Yankee could desire. The benefactor of our species, then as now, was M. Charles Bontet. We add a portion of the conclusion of the article: ‘‘Wo have given much spate to investigate the project and criticiso the projector with the vain hope of finding on grain of seuso to leaven tho wholo mass, But the very magnitude of M. Boutet’s projected bridge, as showu npon his fairly executed drawings, will tako with many, and we onrselves havo seen an audience of moro or less influeutial men impressed by the projector’s well conued, oft-repeated lecture, run off the reel as glihly as the rattle of a panorama expositor, and we have heard members of such an audience argue that the constructive details of this fallacy are correct, and that a great new principle of construction has been inaugurated by which powers of reeistauce are created —another phase of perpetual motion. Toe ‘‘ser” or Twistrp Wrires.—M. Coulomb suspended a ball by a wire twenty inches long, connected with an index which would point out theamountof torsion. He found that when it was twisted ten times, the index returned to its primitive position, if repeated a thousand times, and the oscillations were made in equal times, whether wide or narrow. Butifitwes twisted eleven times, the index did not return to its place, hut wauted nearlya whole turnof it. Here, then, the parts of the wire had taken new relative positions, in which they were again etrest. But what was most remarkable in Coulomb’s experimeuts wasthis: Hefound that efter the wire had taken this set (as it is termed by the artisans,) it exhihited the same elasticity as before. It allowed a torsion of ten turns, and when let go, it returned, and after its oscillations were finished, it rested in the position from which it had heen taken.—Prof. Mayer, in Jour. Frank, Institute. Proorive Ipea oF A Locomorrve.—Sir Isaac Newton, in 1680, figured a spherical generator supported on wheels and provided with a seat for a passenger in front, end a long jet-pipe behind, stating thatthe “ whole is to he mounted on little wheels so as to move easily on a horizontal plane, and if the hole or jet-pipe be opened the vapor willrush out violently one way, and the wheels and the sphere will at the sametime be carried the contrery way.” Tue longest artillery range on record, viz., 10,301 yards, was attained at Shoeburynese, hy Mr. Whitworth’s 9-inch muzzle-loader gun of fourtcen tons, firing a ehot of 250 lhs, with a charge of fifty lbs. This range is 225 yards over that of the 6-inch Lynall Thomas gun, which iu 1861 ranged 10,075 yards. For Oars orF tHe Track.—Mr. ©. H. James, of Canada, has taken outa patent for a machine which he calls the ‘‘ Dominjon Reverse Repeating Rail.” It is used for assisting engines and railroad carriages back to the rail. The rail can he carried on every train, and two men can move it to any point required.— Railroad Register. Tron anv Steev Instrrure.—The ironmasters of Great Britain are moving towards the establishment of an Institute “for the discussion of practical and scientific questious counected with the manufacture of iron and steel.” Ssarpentne Saws.—‘‘After tiling your saw, lay it on a level board and pass over the side of the teeth with a whetstone until all the wire edge is off the teeth. This will make your saw cut true and smooth, and remain sharp longer. Your saw must be set true with a sawset.”—Cor, Sci. Am.

Iron Props ror Muines,—Au Euglish patent has been taken out for wrought iron tubes, plugged at their ends with wrought jron, to he nsed as props in mines instead of the timbers geuerally employcd. Scicutific Miscellany. Occlusion of Hydrogen by Metals, We gavo some timo since an account of Mr. Graham’s intcrosting experiments upon this subject. In those tho metal plate was heated, and then cooled in an atmosphere of the gas. Tho Chemical News gives, in a recent number, a paper hy Mr. Graham, describing a new method of charging the metals with the hydrogen at low temperatnres, Wo give a part of that portion which refers to palladinm: ‘‘If a plate of zinc be placod in dilute sulphuric acid, hydrogen is evolved from the surfaco, but none is occludod. Buta thin plate of palladium immersed in the same acid, and brought into metallic contact with the zinc, soon becomes largely eharged with the hydrogen, which is then transferred to its surfaco. Tho charge taken up in an hour by a palladium plate, rather thick, at 12° amounted to 173 times its volume. The absorption of hydrogen was still more obvious when thepalladium plate was constituted the negative electrode in acidulated water to a Bunsen battery of eix cells. The evolution of oxygen gas at the positive electrode continuing copious, the effervoscence at the negative electrode was entirely suspended-for the first twenty seconds, in consequenee of tho hydrogen being occluded by the palladium. The final absorption amounted to 200°4 volumes, and wes greater in emount than the volume of hydrogen occluded by the same plate heated and cooled in an atmosphere of the gas, which did not exceed 90 volumes. It is worthy of remark that the’ gas exhibits no disposition to leave the metel at the temperature of its absorption. Thus a thin plate of palladium, charged with hydrogen, was washed, dried and sealed up in an exhausted glass tube. On breaking the tube under mercury after two mouthe, the vecuum was found perfect; but on the application afterwards of a heat of 100°, 333 volumes of gas were evolved. The occluded hydrogen is readily extracted by reversing the positionin the hattery, so as to cause oxygen to be evolved on the surface of the metal. The hydrogen is then drawn out as rapidly as it had previously entered. Srrsin.—The poison generated in putrefactive fermentation hes recently been isolated by Drs. Bergmann end Schmiedeberg, inthe form of a crystalline salt which they have named “‘ sulphate of sepsin.” The London Lancet, says: Itis obtained by diffusion through parchment paper, precipitation with corroeive sublimate from an alkaline solution, removal of the mercury by eilver, of the silver by sulphureted hydrogen, evaporation, and purification of the residue. Large, well-defined, acicular crystals are thus obtained, which are deliquescent in the air, and, exposed to heat, melt and carbonize. They possess a powerfully poisonousaction. A solution containing scarcely more than one-hundredth of a gramme was injected into the veins of two dogs. Vomiting was immediately induced, and after a short time diarrhoea, which in the course of an hour became bloody. After nine hours the animals were killed, and, on examination, their stomachs and large iutestines were found ecchymosed, and the emall intestine congested. ‘‘Tvietrtn’—A New Minersn.—Theo. D. Rand describes a new mineral for which he proposes the ahove name, on account of the locality where itis found. Itoccursin films and seams through massive cryolite. The color is pale yellowish-green, eometimes yellow. Hardness 2-2.5, sp. gr.2.05: Fuses rather easily before the blowpipe; with carb. soda fuses readily aud with effervescence toa greeuish bead. In borax disselyes readily with an iron reaction, In microcosmie salt dissolyes readily except silica skeleton; bead yellow while hot, Decomposition or Om or Turrentinn, Prof. Wurtz, in tho Gas Light Journal, trauslates from the proceedings of tho Vieuua Academy, an account of the experi. ments of Hlasiwetz and Hinterherger npon tho repeated distillation of the products resulting from the subjecting of oil of turpentine toa red heat. WVapore of turpentine were passed through a red-hot iron tuho filled with fragments of porcelain. The products were a gas, some carhon (as a mirror-liko hlack crust on the porcelain) and considerahle dark brown oily liquid of henzole-like odor, lighter than water. The gas hurnt like illumiuating gas. One hundred measuree of turpentine gave on an average 60 of liquid, and ahout 16,800 of gas; and the carhon amounted to ahont 2.3 per cent. of tho material employed. The hrown liquid distilled with water, gave 81 volumes per 100 of a gold-yellow oil of a much purer and pleasanter smell than hefore, and atarry residuum, This rectified product was nearly one-half (in volume), of the turpentine omployed. It was dried hy fused chloride of calcium, and subjected to fractional dietillation. Prof. Wurtz, eays: ‘It may be douhted whether any field more richly pregnant of results of economical value presents itself to-day to competent chemists, than investigations of the products of various chemical treatments of oil of turpentine and common rosin. * * Chemists will agree in the importance of findiug some liquid, cheap and obtainable in ahundauco, which will vie in solvent power and yolatility with the expensive henzole (that is, true coal-tar benzole, not the commoa cheap petroleum naphtha or ‘“‘benzine,” which is almost universally confounded in commerce with benzole), and that still more expensive, hutnoble solvent, chloroform.” Fossiu Horss In NEBRASKA.—In the November number of the American Journal of Science and Aris, Prof. O.C. Marsh gives a uotice of the remains discovered in Nobraske during the past eummer, of a new species of fossil horse, very much smaller than any heretofore known. The newspapers, in their first puhlished eccounts, described them as human remains. They were found at Antelope Station, on the Union Pacific Railroad, 450 miles west of Omaha, and were thrown out from a depth of sixty-eight feet, during the digging of a well. Some of these remains were described hy Prof. Marsh, at the meeting of the National Academy of Sciences et Northampton in August last. ‘‘ They indicate,” says the Professor,—‘‘an animal ecarcely more than two feet, or possibly two and a half feet in hight, although full grown, as the ossificatiou of the various hones clearly proves. The species may be named Hguus parvulus. This makes seventeen species of fossil horses uow known to have lived in North America, although until quite recently it was very generally believed that there was none indigenous to this eontinent.” Tho bones were found in a stratum of gray arenaceous olay lying uearly horizontally, and apparently of later Tertiary age. Auconon as Foop.—The following is a paragraph from a lecture on food recently delivered by Dr. Letheby before the Society of Arts (Englaud): Liebig is of opinion that alcohol is bnrnt or oxidized in the system, and is therefore a calorific agent; but the researches of Lallemand, Perrin aud Duray, as well as those of Dr. Edward Smith, have demonstrated that a large portiou of it passes through the systom unchanged, and appears in the breath and perspiration, a8 well as in the urine. They, therefore, conclade that alcohol is uot a food, but isa mere excitor of the nervous ceuters. On the other hand, Dr, Thudicum ina rather large experiment on the studeuts of his class (83 in number), found that of the 4,000 grammes of alcohol in the 44 bottles of wine wuich they drank at one sitting, ouly 10 grammes appeared in the urine; and assuming that abont 10 grammee more were exhaled by the breath and skin, he coneluded that ouly 0.5 per ceut. of the alcohol escaped unchanged. He therefure bluish opalescent when cold. In closed} peljevesthat alcohol is oxidized in the budy, tube yields acid water. and is ‘a true food, ot