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of aluminium to the pint, or about 15 grains to the ounce, and is sold in a fluid and solid state. Slightly diluted, the former will disinfect secretions in the utensils of a sick room; and, exposed in a saucer in its concentrated form, I have found it to remove even the smell which is given off by a newly painted room. In its powdered state it may be sprinkled in cellars, larders, dustbins, ash pits, stables, piggeries, poultry houses, and wherever a smell is continually arising. In the deodorization of sewage, while being pumped over the garden, one gallon of the fluid, or three pounds of the powder, will suffice for 150 gallons of sewage.

As regards the disinfection of clothing in the laundry, Mrs. Meredith, the patroness of the Discharged Female Prisoners' Aid Society, lately wrote to the Standard newspaper as under:

"The articles taken in for the wash are fairly sprinkled with chloralum powder; they are then packed in sacks, in which they remain for about two hours, when they arrive at the wash house. They are then unpacked and shaken singly. After this they are put in a large tank, where a great quantity of water flows over and through them. In this way they rest for at least twelve hours. They are then wrung out, and undergo the ordinary process of washing. It is highly satisfactory to add that not the least deterioration of texture or color results."

At the wash houses referred to by this lady, a great number of women are employed, and nothing but the washing of the sick is carried on.

 

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN.

A COURSE OF LECTURES AT THE IMPERIAL ASYLUM OF VINCENNES.

By A. DE QUATREFAGES,

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, PROFESSOR AT THE MUSEUM, ETC.

TRANSLATED BY ELIZA A. YOUMANS.

I.—The Unity of the Human Species.

GENTLEMEN: Each of my fellow laborers in science comes here to lecture to you; they each select the subject which habitually occupies them. Some tell you of the heavens, the earth, the waters; from others you get the history of vegetables and animals. As I am Professor of the Natural History of Man at the Museum, I ask myself why I should not speak to you of man.

There is evidently as much interest for us in our own species as in the history of animals, even of those most useful to us. Indeed, at this time, the mind is drawn toward this study by an irresistible move-