172
SCIENTIFIC.
SCIENTIFIC
ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS
READ BEFORE THE KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE BY PROF. E. H. S. BAILEY.
COMPOSITION OF SOME CULINARY UTENSILS.
The work of city and state boards of health include among other things the examination of food for adulteration and poison. It often happens that improper vessels are used for cooking food. A brief discussion of these shows that iron can generally be used with impunity, also tin, if of good quality, copper and brass if kept well cleaned, and not used for acid, alkaline or strong saline solutions. The danger of using brass kettles in making pickles is illustrated by an instance in which the author found one twenty-fourth of a grain of copper in a small pickled cucumber.
In regard to earthern-ware, with "lead glaze," a series of experiments undertaken with both old and new vessels, proves that neither water, sugar, apple-sauce nor milk is perceptibly injured by being cooked in the vessels, while vinegar of 3.3 per cent. strength dissolves in a short time from .77 to .25 grains of oxide of lead, the most in the case of old vessels.
"Granite-ware" is usually of good quality and free from poisonous metals, though cases are on record where much zinc and lead has been found in the glaze. A careful consideration of the whole subject is invited.
UTILIZATION OF MINERAL WATERS.
This paper is largely suggestive in its character. It is difficult to draw the line sharply between a mineral water and an ordinary potable water, but in general the former may be defined as one containing an
abnormal amount of solids, or some unusual constituents. Again, in regard to natural and artificial mineral waters, a celebrated case is cited in which the water was salted and surcharged with carbonic acid and still imported as a natural water. The waters of this state will no doubt, in the near future, prove as valuable as those of neighboring states, both for medical and industrial purposes. Already our brines are being used for the manufacture of common salt, and with new discoveries and larger investments this may be made an important source of revenue. Mineral waters may also be utilized for the manufacture of bromine, iodine, lithium salts, and perhaps borax. While we may not have extensive deposits of valuable minerals, in the wells and springs of the state may be valuable undeveloped resources.
QUININE PROVEN GAS TAR.—The last contribution of modern chemistry to science is the production of quinine from gas tar. Professor Fischer of Munich has succeeded in obtaining from distilled coal, a white crystalline powder, which as far as regards its action on the human system, cannot be distinguished from quinine, except that it assimilates even more readily with the stomach. Its efficacy in reducing fever heat is remarkable, even rendering the use of ice unnecessary.
The importance of such a discovery as this consists, not so much in the actual fact achieved, as in the stimulus given to scientific research by the opening up of a new channel of investigation.
The romance of gas tar is evidently far from being exhausted. In addition to the sweetest scents, the most brilliant dyes, the