"ENSOUFFLAGE" APPARATUS FOR PERFUMES.
ORGANIC MATTER IN SEA-WATER.
At a recent meeting of the London Chemical Society, Mr. W. Jago read a paper "On the Organic Matter in Sea-water." On p. 133 of the "Sixth Report of the Rivers Commission," it is stated that the proportion of organic elements in sea-water varies between such wide limits in different samples as to suggest that much of the organic matter consists of living organisms, so minute and gelatinous as to pass readily through the best filters. At the suggestion of Dr. Frankland, the author has investigated this subject. The water was collected in mid-channel between Newhaven and Dieppe by the engineers of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway in stoppered glass carboys. The author has used the combustion method, the albuminoid ammonia, and in some cases the oxygen process of Prof. Tidy. To determine how the various methods of water-analysis were effected by a change of the organic matter from organic compounds in solution to organisms in suspension, some experiments were made with hay-infusion. The results confirm those of Kingzett (Chem. Soc. Journ., 1880, 15). the oxygen required first rising and then diminishing. The author concludes that the organic matter of sea-water is much more capable of resisting oxidizing agents than that present in ordinary fresh waters, and that the organic matter in sea-water is probably organized and alive.
BACTERIA LIFE.
W. M. Hamlet, in a paper before the London Chemical Society, said: Flasks similar to those of Pasteur ("Etudes sur la Biere," p. 81), holding about ¼ liter, were used. The liquids employed were Pasteur's fluid with sugar, beef-tea, hay infusion, urine, brewers' wort, and extract of meat. Each flask was about half filled, and boiled for ten minutes, whereby all previously existing life was destroyed. The flask was then allowed to cool, the entering air being filtered through a plug of glass wool or asbestos. The flask was then inoculated with a small quantity of previously cultivated hay solution or Pasteur's fluid. Hydrogen, oxygen, carbonic oxide, marsh-gas, nitrogen, and sulphureted hydrogen, were without effect on the bacteria. Chlorine and hydric peroxide (about 7 per cent, of a 5 vol. solution) were fatal to bacteria. The action of various salts and organic acids in 5 per cent, solution was tried. Many, including potash, soda, potassic bisulphite, sodic hyposulphite, potassic chlorate, potassic permanganate, oxalic acid, acetic acid, glycerin, laudanum, and alcohol, were without effect on the bacterial life. Others--the alums, ferrous sulphate, ferric chloride, magnesic and aluminic chlorides, bleaching powder, camphor, salicylic acid, chloroform, creosote, and carbolic acid--decidedly arrested the development of bacteria. The author has made a more extended examination of the action of chloroform, especially as regards the statement of Müntz, that bacteria cannot exist in the presence of 2½ per cent, of chloroform, which substance is therefore useful in distinguishing physiological from chemical ferments. The author concludes that amounts of chloroform, phenol, and creosote, varying from ¼ to 3 per cent., do not destroy bacteria, although their functional activity is decidedly arrested while in contact with these reagents. To use the author's words, bacteria may be pickled in creosote and carbolic acid without being deprived of their vitality. The author concludes that the substances which destroy bacteria are those which are capable of exerting an immediate and powerful oxidizing action, and that it is active oxygen, whether from the action of chlorine, ozone, or peroxide of hydrogen, which must be regarded as the greatest known enemy to bacteria.