A NEW BATHING MACHINE.

use of hot-air baths practicable and cheap among families and physicians, and avers his belief that when this process is generally understood and applied, it will help much toward the disuse of drugs.

This portable chamber consists of a detachable top made in three parts or sections, and the walls made up of four corner sections and eight doors. The doors are hung upon lift or loose hinges to the free edges of the swings, which, joined together in pairs by strap hinges, make up the connections. By means of spaces or recesses cut, one in a door and another in one of the top sections, the chamber can be put up around a heating or cook-stove without at all disturbing it or its pipe, and after use its light parts being detached, it may be set up and used as a child's bedroom or carried to another room or house for bathing pur- | poses. All this setting up, taking down, and removal can be done by a woman without the aid of a hammer even.

As will be seen in the engraving, the superstructure is furnished, when desired, with a base containing a heating apparatus for the use of those who do not desire to utilize the heat of some stationary stove.

One or more of the doors contain glass lights, and the plan of construction throughout is so simple and perfect that each part, whether door, corner, or top section, is interchangeable with all other like parts, and thus the windows, etc., may be changed from one side to either of the other three sides at will. This ingenious device is adaptable to all times, places, and circumstances, and will make the hot-air and Turkish baths practicable and cheap everywhere.

Perhaps the most singular and valuable feature of this invention is its capacity for being set up so as to inclose a hot stove and allow the pipe to pass out, whether vertically or horizontally.

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SPOILING vs. COOKING IN OUR DIET.

NEW YORK litterateur has been | quality, every mass of potatoes ruined in going the rounds of the restaurants, the kettle, every muddy cup of coffee and trying the food which they daily made, every dish of every sort that spread before their customers. He re- might be palatable and nutritious, but ports a dismal list of failures in attempt- which by carelessness, ignorance, or neging to find a good meal, and that, too, lect is made tasteless and mediocre—if all irrespective of prices. His experience these could be written down in a book, accords with our own in restaurant diet; with dates and specifications, and the the fault not being on the side of the average cook confronted with them once materials, but on the part of the cooking. a year, what consternation would or should We do not wonder that there are so many fill her heart, and what a fearful aggregate dyspeptics, when the cooks of society of material wasted beyond redemption seem to be bent more upon spoiling than would appear in the account. preparing good food for the table. well-informed writer on the subject truly

says:

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"To ascertain just how much really good material is spoiled in the cooking would form an interesting and quite fruitful subject of research, and set some housekeepers at least to thinking. If every loaf of bad bread manufactured from good flour, every overdone or underdone piece of meat prime in original

The fact is that cookery is entitled to rank among the exact sciences, and that happy accidents are of rare occurrence in the culinary domain, while unhappy accidents are constantly happening. There is continually the golden mean to be sought in the admixture of all the elements that are to make up a savory meal, and such is 'the total depravity of material things,' as one of our witty writers once phrased it, that if there is one chance

1881.]

NOTES IN SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE.

99

in ten of things going wrong, that chance portant as quality, and if those who cook is sure to befall.

"To cook a potato exactly right, so that it will be just done, and no more, be mealy, white, perfect, requires an exercise of talent little short of genius, so one would think who eats that vegetable at ordinary tables. The same is true of onions, that odorous bulb, which is almost always served underdone; of beans, which are either burned in the baking or dried to a choking consistency. Now a hungry epicure even can make a good meal off three or four things-nicely cooked meat, perfectly prepared potato, a dish of ripe fruit, and exemplary bread and butter. It is not variety or quantity that is so im

could only realize this and precipitate all their powers upon the perfect preparation of only two dishes at each meal, those who feed at their hands would certainly be the gainers. It is a great deal easier, when one has really made up her mind to it, to have everything just right than it is to let things drift, for one right thing fits into another right thing, and then the whole is right. Badly cooked food is not only sheer waste in nerve, muscle, soul power; the hungry body vainly attempts recuperation in trying to digest and assimilate food not 'convenient' for it, so that what might have been accomplished had the food been right remains undone."

NOTES IN SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE.

Poisonous Principles in Tobacco.-A scientific writer says in the London Times:

this gas, as has been maintained in Germany."

Recognition of an Acid although ALMOST INFINITELY DIFFUSED.-In December the people of Newark, N. J., were annoyed by a taste of carbolic acid in the city water, supplied from the Passaic River. The matter was investigated, and the contamination was traced to a paper-mill ten or twelve miles up the river, where an incredibly small amount of carbolic acid had been allowed to get into the water. Mr. Page says, in a letter to the Tribune:

"In further research on this subject Dr. LeBon finds that collidine, the new alkaloid existing in tobacco smoke (with other aromatic principles, and prussic acid, as well as nicotine), is a liquid of agreeable and very penetrating odor, and as poisonous as nicotine, the twentieth part of one drop sufficing to paralyze and kill a frog. It is the prussic acid and various aromatic principles that cause headache, giddiness, and nausea in smoking certain tobaccos that contain little nicotine. Other tobaccos, rich in nicotine, have no such effects. The tobaccos containing most prussic acid and collidine are those of Havana and the Levant. The dark semi-empties into the Passaic. From the latter liquid matter which condenses in pipes and cigar-holders contains all the substances just named, as well as carbonate of ammonia, tarry and coloring matter, etc. It is very poisonous; two or three drops of it will kill a small animal.

"The combustion of tobacco destroys but a small portion of the nicotine, and most of this appears in the smoke. The proportion absorbed by smokers varies according to circumstances, but hardly ever falls below fifty centigrammes per one hundred grammes of tobacco burnt. About the same quantity of ammonia is absorbed at the same time. Naturally, more of the poisonous principles are absorbed where the smoke is breathed (as in a room); less in the open air. A frog placed in a receiver containing a solution of nicotine, with about one drop of that substance to a little of water, succumbs in a few hours. Tobacco smoke contains about eight millilitrees of carbonic oxide per one hundred grammes of tobacco burnt. The poisonous properties of tobacco smoke are not due to

"The paper-mill of the Messrs. Kingsland is located on the Third River, a stream of considerable magnitude, two miles from where it

point to the pumping station of Newark Water-Works is also two miles. The volume of water in the Third River is not less than 2,000,000 gallons per day, and in the Passaic 150,000,000 gallons per day. The Messrs. Kingsland, among other specialties, carbolize paper by immersion in a bath of the best liquid carbolic acid of a quality such as is used in medicinal preparations. In the process of manufacture there is a small percentage of waste paper. No paper has been carbolized since last June, when not over a hundred pounds of waste or torn paper were placed in the loft of the mill, where it remained until the last of December. It is well known to chemists and many intelligent persons that carbolic acid (really an alcohol and not an acid) evaporates rapidly when exposed to the air. To the sense of smell there was no evidence of carbolic acid in this waste paper when the Messrs. Kingsland_decided, in December, to work it up again. Dust having accumulated on it, washing in the mill-pond was necessary.

"A few days after this a perceptible taste of carbolic acid was noticed by the people of Newark, not only in the drinking water, but also in tea and coffee made with boiling water. As an absolute fact, not over ten pounds (a gallon) of carbolic acid had been used in this paper when treated. Certainly 30 per cent. had evaporated, leaving not over seven pounds to permeate 200,000,000 gallons of water, a portion of which was aerated by passing over rapids and dams, through four miles of river, seven miles of pipe, and countless taps. It would seem incredible had we not the evidence of chemists and medical men in Newark perfectly familiar with the peculiar taste of carbolic acid."

The Late Eclipse.—The total eclipse of the moon at midnight of June 12th had its very interesting features, which were described by a correspondent of the Sun in this pleas

ant manner:

But the slow increase in brightness brought out one familiar feature after another, as a sunrise on the earth gradually reveals the details of a landscape.

"So the shadow crept slowly off, uncovering region after region, until the whole round face of the moon was shining again."

How to Color Pine Floors.-The Art Interchange instructs its readers how to color a pine floor which is to be partly covered with rugs-a fashion which prevails to a great extent just now. Obtain at any housepainter's store turpentine and linseed oil (not boiled). Ask the clerk to put a little Japanese drier in the turpentine. Buy either burnt sienna or Vandyke brown, or both, according to the color of the rugs and the tint on the walls. After the floor has been washed thoroughly clean and dry, begin by mixing in another receptacle the oil, turpentine, and paint. The mixture should be so thin that it will run with liquid readiness. Lay it on with a brush, stroking the brush the way of the grain of the wood. Protect your hands with old gloves, and go over the floor with a rag. In fact, you will need two rags, one pretty well charged with paint, to rub in every crevice, and another rag to rub off any superfluous paint. Do not stop in a straight line across the grain of the wood, but carry the brush irregularly down, taking a hint. from nature's lines in the wood. By mixing the burnt sienna and Vandyke brown a rich color will be produced without using the

"To the naked eye, and even with an opera-glass, the convex outline of the earth's shadow seemed pretty sharply defined as it swept across the moon's face. In a telescope of considerable power, the edge of the shadow was seen to fade off gradually until it required sharp inspection to distinguish the line between sunshine and shade. The absence of air on the moon makes all the shadows there sharp and black, so that the lunar scenery never appears in a twilight. But the gradually deepening edge of the shadow in the eclipse furnished a twilight effect under which some of the familiar features had a new and interest-paint thick. The mixture should be so thin ing appearance. This was well seen as the shadow was passing off. The telescope directed near the end of the total phase to the eastern edge of the moon had in its field the Ocean of Storms, part of the Sea of Showers and the Sea of Clouds, and the craters of Aristarchus, Kepler, and Copernicus. All these, and other plains and mountains, could be easily distinguished in the reddish light of the eclipse.

that the grain of the wood will show through. If too much turpentine is used the paint will rub off. If too little, your room will need more days to dry. Use twice as much oil as turpentine. Do not economize the oil, and be as prodigal in rubbing as your strength will permit.

How to Make a Good Garden.— Mr. Harris writes to the Evening Post:

"The soil must be well drained, either naturally or artificially. It must be rich. And the manure should be thoroughly worked into the soil. Plow the land in the autumn, and plow it again as early as possible in the

"Presently, along the eastern edge of the moon's globe, which stood out against the sky with stereoscopic roundness, the returning sunlight began to break in a bright, narrow line which rapidly lengthened and grew broader. In a few minutes it had shot north-spring. If there is any rubbish, remove it ward until it illuminated the peaks around or dig holes and bury it below the reach of the Land of Hoar Frost, and southward to the plow. Then plow again, or work the the furthest confines of the Ocean of Storms, land with a cultivator. I take off some of beyond which it streamed across the Sea of the inside teeth of the cultivator, so that the Moisture to the borders of the great mounthorse can draw the cultivator as deep or ain district of which Tycho is the center. nearly as deep as the land has been plowed. Then the brilliant mountain Aristarchus be- This work should be done when the soil is gan to shine like a star in the advancing light, dry and the weather warm. You can not and a few minutes later the sunshine flooded possibly stir the soil too much while the sun the shores of the Bay of Rainbows. Here is shining. It lets in the sun's rays and warms the gradual brightening of the light on the and mellows the soil. On light, sandy soil, cliffs and the long headlands at either end of thoroughly and deeply plowed and manurthe waterless bay formed a striking contrasted the autumn previous, there are many crops to the usual illumination of objects on the moon. The shadows of the hills were not extended across the levels as during the ordinary sunrise on the moon, for the illumination covered objects on all sides at once.

which can be sown to advantage without again plowing in the spring. It often happens in this latitude that five or six inches of the surface soil in the spring is thawed out and dry enough to work, while underneath the ground

NOTES IN SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE.