The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-03-15
Scientific Gossip.

The best disinfecting agents, accord
ITO Mr.W. M. Hamlet, are in general
$50 capable of exerting an immediate
d powerful oxidizing action, and that
is active oxygen, whether from the
ton of chlorine, nitric oxide, or n.y.
ogen peroxide, which must be regarded
the greatest known enemy to bacter-
life.
Les MondeS reports that M. Dufourcet
IS in the exposed court of his house
70 bars Of iron planted in the earth, to
.ch Of which is fixed a conductor of
,ated wire terminating in telephone
ceiver Ee consults the apparatus
vice or thrice every day, and it never
ills, through its indications of earth
lrrents, to give notice of storm twelve
fifteen hours before it actually arrives.
Some researches on the development
cryptogamic vegetation within and
,ithout hens eggs have been made by
4. Dareste. Such vegetation he found
n most of sixty eggs submitted singly
0 artificial incubation in small vessel
,ermetically closed with caoutchouc
topper. The spoons had probably en-
cred the egg during its passage from
he oviduct. The resulting vegetation
nay prove fatal to the embryo in GER
.ain circumstances.
At meeting of the Royal Society,
Edinburgh. DR.. ID. j. Hamilton read q
paper on the circulation Of the corpus
cles of the blood. The rapid gliding
central motion of the colored corpuscles
and the slower rotational peripheral
motion of the colorless corpuscles were,
he held, to be explained by the fact that
the latter were specifically lighter than
the blood plasama, while the former
were Of the same specific gravity as
the fluid in which they were borne
along.
In Remnants process for rendering
cloth waterproof the fabric Is passed
slowly by machinery through tank
divided into three compartments, the
first containing warm solution Of alum,
the second warm solution of lead ace
tate, and the third pure water, which is
constantly renewed. The cloth on pass
ing from the latter is brushed and beaten
TO remove the salt adhering TO the sur
face, and finally hot pressed and brushed.
In this case lead sulphate is deposited
on the tibres.
To prevent the cracking Of cast steel
in hardening, correspondent Of the
Metal Arbeiter places the article in a
tin box, where it is packed with clean
wrought iron drllings, and, after luting
the box carefully, he heats the whole
slowly to dark red heat. After cool
ing il very gradually he finds that all
internal strains which otherwise would
have developed cracks in the tool dur
inc hardening are removed, and when
steel TO be hardened is thus annealed nc
further trouble is experienced.
A matter of importance to oyster
eaters has been disclosed by Mr.. c. A.
Cameron. He lately examined some
oysters taken from the beds on the north
ern shore of the Bay of Dublin, where
the water Is very much polluted at pres
ent with excrementitious and other OF
fensive substances. The oysters whicl
Mr.. Cameron tasted were taken from ,
place where the tide covered them Il
the height of ten feet, and which wa.
nearly dry at low water. From tn
brine of most of the oysters no offensive
odor was emitted, but that of larg'
portion gave forth distinctly feti'
smell, and in few cases the brine CAV
unmistakable evidence to the nostrils o
sewage contamination. The micro
scope revealed in the fetid liquid of tn
oysters whole swarms of micrococci ant
other low organisms like those usual.
present in sewage. Water taken iron
the bay at low tide was found to b
highly charged with sewage. 1t is no
unfairly considered, therefore, that tn
illness which so many persons have OK
perienced after eating oysters believed +
have been stale was really due to tn
sewage in the juice of the shelliish.