New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-05-12
Scientific.
ADuLTEBA7EoNs OF Foop EXPOSED BY THE MICRO.


Scientific.
ADULTEEApEoNS OF FooD, EXPOSED BY THE MICRO.
sCOPE.
French writer publishes an able article en-.
titled Les MeTveilles du Monde Invisible in which
ne shows how people may discover frauds prac-
USED upon them by dishonest dealers simply by
general acquaintance with the microscope Thus, |
while genuine coffee ground to powder dsplays
under that instrument a quantity of polygonal
cells, any adulteFation of the Arabian berry by /
means OF torrefied sawdust will become evident |
because OF the hbrous texture of the latter. Pure
milk, seen through a microscope between two
glass lumina, appears formed OF sperical
gloDulas more or less adherent to each other, |
and even separated from each other by consider
able intervals. But if we examine the LIQUID dis
honestly sold for milk we at once perceive the |
hbres OF some ingredient which have resisted all
manipulation. Let us take chocolate, which is
manufactured with cocoa. Through the micro
scope we see that it contains fragments Of cellular
tissue, with bits of the outer skin Of reteuleted
shape, then remnants of the germ and grains of
| fecula. Adulterated chocolate contains guam
tity of potato-fecula the shape of which is radi.
| caly different from that of the genuine article.
The leaf of the tea plant is extremely character
\ istic when seen through the microseoDe: and
adutered tsa may be easily detected, for it will
be found to contain not only grains of sand, but
| tecula derived from beans or other pulse; frag-
mens OF rice cellules OF turmeric bits of indigo,
etc. The use of the microscope REQUIRES how
ever, some preliminary study to make it applicable
to the purpose the author has in view thus it
would be necessary to take several kinds of -four
examine them through the instrument, and iot
| DOWN Tne principal shapes we see. The -four of
rye for instance contains grains of fecula which,
being too large to pass entire between the mill
stones, are crushed and burst, so that under the
microscope we see what has the appearance OF
number Of small bags each having darkish star
at the top, from being torn asunder, Wheat flour
does not present this appearance.
UTILIZATION OF THE MARSHES OF FRANCE,
a French savant has proposed to the Society of
Acchmation, Of Paris, plan of utilizing the
marshes OF France, which at present producing
nothing but fever and ague. He proposes sowing
them with Canada rice, and turning down lot OF
beavers both the plant and the animal can live
in any climate both would be equally useful and
one would support the other. At present large
sums are annually sent from France to America
to purchase beaver skins, which might thus become
articles of home production.
WHAT IS OXYGEN?
Professor Schoenbein writes, by invitation, his
views on the subject to the Scientific Association
of France in lengthy communication, from which
we extract the following statements
| You know, says the Professor, that for the last
| thirty years have been almost exclusively and
uninterruptedly engagedin investigating oxygen,
and that in this long series of researches l have
collected, with respect to that elementary body q
considerable number of new facts, from which |
think | can deduce the following conclusions
l. Oxygen can exist in three different allotropic
states.
2. Two of these states are active and opposed
to each other; | distinguish them by the names of
ozone and antoZone.
8. Equal quantities of ozone and antozone neu-
tralize each other in order to form inactive or
neutral oxygen.
A. Neutral oxygen may be decomposed or trans
formed into equal parts of ozone and antozone.
| But must add that the experimental demon
stration of the correctness of these propositions is
not so simple as, for example, that of the compo-
siton or decomposition of water and in order well
to understand their logical concentration It is abso
utely necessary to know good many facts re!at-
ng to them. Ozone and antozOne are always
mingled with certain quantity of neutral oxygen,
a consequence intimately connected with the gen
GRAFTON of the two active notifications of oxygen.
THE HARDENING OF IRON.
A French eXperimentalist found, q few years
since, that by heating iron toerably free from
carbon, with small quantity of boron, to very
high temperature, he obtained product which
could not be forged, but which possessed extraor-
binary hardness. He has now found than an
equally hard metal may be obtained by adding to
ordinary cast iron, in fusion, phosphate of iron
and peroxide OF manganese; he does not mention
in what proportions The product cannot be
forged, but it casts easily, and is therefore, appli
cable to the construction of such machines paTt
Of machines as require in their material extreme
hardness rather than tenacity. The metals, more
over, singulaEly sonorous, and the diseoVerer pro
poses it material for bells He finds that ;
Still harder metal is producible by the addition
| tun5SGen--agam ne OmltS TO say IN what amount
to ordinary cast iron. He states that this tangste
iron surpasses everything previously known as
material for tools for cutting rocks and that erys
tails Of it will cut glass as readily as the diamond
+ A CHINESE PROTECTION AGAINST a sHIPwoRas. p
Lieut.. Marriott, of the French navy, states frel
experience that the Chinese preserve their shin
+ admirably from the ravages of the shipwerl
(IeTedO Ndua6s1 by means of two kinds Of r9s
which are obtained from native trees. One
. them is called by the Annamites Cdydlu whiC
mn bntlt tpE4rr l.. p
two hundred to two hundred and forty feet
single tree will yield from two to three ltres of
by inesion. The natives cut large boats for
many as thirty men out of this trunk, and thes
boats are SO durable as TO descend by inhefitanc
from father to son for many generations. Th
+; other tgee is much of the same kind, but not s
! good. Vessels having their keels coated with
y mixture OF the resinous substance obtained frot
these two trees will resist the attacks of the shlE
U worn3 for many years, and all Chinese and Ann
mite barks and junks are SO preserved.
: THE RAILRoAD BETWEEN ooNsTANTINoPLE AM
SMYRNA.
n telegram from Smyrna reports that ne cross
n ing Of the Ephesus pass on the Adm ~
the temporary line over the mouphlh lpsnHHine
the completion of the tunne> w's suecessluiy y
1f effected by locomotive which passga tuto ~ ~
Adm plain, and proceeded beyeaa Azi4Le As 'ts 4
"A main Wsy had been for some Weehs completed 70
le H. Town of Adm. through communication witt
" Smyrna is thus practically accomplished. The
,e tnnel is progressing rspdly, and will be open ii
a couple OF months.
n A NEW ANEsTHETIc.
IN In the last number of The Boston Medical ant
v Surgical Journal we find new anesthetc des
e. crbed in paper communicated by DIR. Henry ]
Bigelow. The name "rhigoene,n based on III
L Greek word which means extreme cold) is pro
Il posed by DR.. Bigelow for petroleum naphtha
boiling at 70 deg Fahrenheit; it is one of t. mo.
volatile liquids obtanedb by the distllatiop Of pe
+ eum, and is applied to the production of cold
evaporation. II is hydroearbon, wholly destitut
50 of oxygen and is the lghtest Of al fhown liquid
ii having a specific gravity of e.625.
to Mr., Bipelow, afterspeaking Of tie different DR.
r. ducts of ofpetrole,.m' says