the fabric is allowed to remain until the vegetable fibers are sufficiently friable. The treatment _in vacuo_ is as follows: The hydrochloric acid gas passes into a vessel of suitable material provided with a perforated false bottom. From under this false bottom a pipe connects with a second similar vessel connected itself with a vacuum pump having a let-off pipe. As soon as the maximum vacuum is attained, the gas is turned on through a three-way cock at a pressure of 40 mm. mercury. The gas fills the first vessel and saturates the cloth. The warmth set free (about 500 calories per kilo, gas) is taken up by the combined water in the wool, as, owing to the low pressure, a quantity of vapor is formed sufficient to take up the heat. This vapor streams through the second vessel at a temperature of 35° Cent., penetrates the material, and passes out through the pump. After saturating the contents of the first vessel the gas passes into the second. AS soon as this is one-quarter or one-third saturated the first vessel is taken out and replaced by a third, which receives the overplus from No. 2 in like manner, and so on. This plan of working prevents gas passing through and damaging the pump. Instead of working under reduced pressure, the desired low temperature can be maintained by passing alternately with the gas currents of air which absorb heat in evaporating the moisture of the material. The cloth, after saturation by these processes, is left from six to twelve hours in the vessels, after which it is freely exposed to the air until the vegetable particles are friable. As soon as this occurs, the fabrics are washed. It is advantageous to add to the wash water powdered carbonate of baryta, strontia, magnesia, or preferably lime, and subsequently to rinse in pure water. Phosphate of lime containing carbonate may also be employed for neutralizing the acid, and the residue recovered and separated from the organic residues mixed with it.--"_H. J.," Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry._ * * * * * APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY TO THE BLEACHING OF VEGETABLE TEXTILE MATERIALS. It is a recognized fact that chemical bodies in a nascent state are characterized by peculiarly energetic affinities, and the results of numerous experiments permit us to affirm that animal and vegetable fibers are rapidly bleached when they are placed in contact with oxides and chlorides which, when submitted to electrolysis, permit oxygen and chlorine to disengage themselves in the nascent state. The coloring matter that impregnates the majority of vegetable textile substances, such as cotton, flax, and hemp, to cite only those most generally known, is in fact completely destroyed only by the combined action of oxygen and chlorine, which always act in the same manner, whether the fibers be in a raw or woven state.