[Footnote 1: The accompanying engravings have been made from drawings of
the apparatus in the laboratory of which Mr. Muentz is director, at the
Agronomic Institute.]

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--FIRST DISTILLATORY APPARATUS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--SECOND DISTILLATORY APPARATUS.]

Mr. Muentz's method of procedure is as follows: He submits to
distillation three or four gallons of snow, rain, or sea water in an
apparatus such as shown in Fig. 1. The part which serves as a boiler,
and which holds the liquid to be distilled, is a milk-can, B. The vapors
given off through the action of the heat circulate through a leaden tube
some thirty-three feet in length, and then traverse a tube inclosed
within a refrigerating cylinder, T, which is kept constantly cold by a
current of water. They are finally condensed in a glass flask, R, which
forms the receiver. When 100 or 150 cubic centimeters of condensed
liquid (which contains all the alcohol) are collected in the receiver,
the operations are suspended. The liquid thus obtained is distilled anew
in a second apparatus, which is analogous to the preceding but much
smaller (Fig. 2). The liquid is heated in the flask, B, and its vapor,
after traversing a glass worm, is condensed in the tube, T. The
operation is suspended as soon as five or six cubic centimeters of the
condensed liquid have been collected in the test-tube, R. The latter is
now removed, and to its liquid contents, there is added a small quantity
of iodine and carbonate of soda. The mixture is slightly heated, and
soon there are seen forming, through precipitation, small crystals of
iodoform. Under such circumstances, iodoform could only have been formed
through the presence of an alcohol in the liquid. These analytical