We need not here discuss the mooted question between chemists, whether fermentation and decay result from slow combustion (eremacausis) or from the presence of living organisms (bacteria, etc.); but having in the preceding pages detailed the results of the application of various antiseptics, we may now indicate under what circumstances they can economically be applied. _(To be continued)_. * * * * * THE SPAN OF CABIN JOHN BRIDGE. _To the Editor of the Scientific American Supplement:_ Your issue of 17th October contains the fifth or sixth imprint of Mr. B. Baker's, C.E., recent address at the British Association of Aberdeen which has come into my hands. In speaking of stone bridges, he alludes to the bridge over the Adda as 500 years old. It was never more than 39 years old as stated in the same address, and he belittles the American Cabin John Bridge by making its span _"after all only 215 ft."_ As the builder of this greatest American stone arch, I regret that on so important and public an occasion the writer was not accurate. The clear span of Cabin John Bridge is 220 ft. The difference is not great, but in the length of a bridge span it is the last foot that counts, as in an international yacht race to be beaten by one minute is to fail to capture the cup. M.C. MEIGS. Washington, D.C., Oct. 16, 1885. * * * * * THE GERMAN CORVETTE AUGUSTA. On the 3d of June of this year, the German cruising corvette Augusta left the island of Perrin, in the Straits of Bab el Mandeb, for Australia; and as nothing has been heard of her since that day, the report that she was destroyed in the typhoon on June 3 is probably correct. The vessel left Kiel on April 28, with the crews for the cruisers of the Australian squadron; 283 men were on board, including the commander, Corvette Captain Von Gloeden. There is still a possibility that the Augusta was dismasted, and is drifting somewhere in the Indian Ocean, or has stranded on an island; but this is not very probable, as the Augusta was not well adapted to weather a typhoon. During her cruise of 1876 to 1878, all the upper masts, spars, etc, had to be removed, that she might be better adapted to weather a cyclone or like storm. If the Augusta had not met with an accident, she would have arrived at Port Albany in Australia by the 30th of June or beginning of July. She was due June 17. The Augusta was built at Armands' ship yards at Bordeaux, and was bought in 1864 by Prussia. She was a screw steamer with ship's rigging, 237½ feet long, 35½ feet beam, 16 feet draught, and 1,543 tons burden. Her engines had 400 horse-power, and her armament consisted of 14 pieces. [Illustration: THE GERMAN CORVETTE AUGUSTA.]