Analysis of Dolomites — Suberic Acid, 21 1 



PHOSPHATE OF POTASH FOUND IN VEGETABLES. 



Th. de Saussure has found in the ashes of the seeds 

 t)f maize, wheat, beans, and several other plants, a large 

 quantity of the phosphate of potash united to a small quan- 

 tity of lime or magnesia* 



ANALYSIS OF DOLOMITE. 



M. Klaproth, in a letter to M. Vauquelin, dated Berlin, 

 January 22, 1804, says : Ci The object of my last analysis 

 was a more exact knowledge of the constituent parts of do- 

 lomite. The analysis of this stone of the St. Gothard, hy 

 Saussure, is false ; and the division of Hauy, founded on 

 this analysis of aluminiferous carbonated lime, can no 

 longer subsist, as this stone does not contain an atom of 

 alumine. It is composed of carbonated lime 52, carbonated 

 magnesia 0*25. The case is the same with the primitive 

 lime which constitutes the mass of the Alps (of Juliers and 

 Rhaetica) : it contains 48 per cent, of the carbonate of 

 magnesia, and 52 of the carbonate of lime. All these dif- 

 ferent stones form only one family with the bitter spar and 

 miemite. 



c> We have not yet been able to succeed in the synthesis 

 of the palladium announced by Mr. Chenevix." 



SUBERIC ACID. 



When nitric acid is made to act upon paper, a large 

 quantity of suberic acid mixed with oxalic acid is obtained, 

 which seems to prove that Fourcroy was right in placing 

 cork among the immediate principles of vegetables. For 

 this discovery we are indebted to Bruffiiatelli. 



■J o 



VACCINATION. 



By letters from Russia we learn. that this practice is mak- 

 ing a rapid progress in that country. In the year 1803 about 

 15,000 children were inoculated in Lesser Russia, not one 

 of which died. Drs. Ramm and Hahn have lately published 

 an account of the progress of their vaccine institution at 

 Riga ; by which it appears, that in the course of five months 

 they inoculated 444 children and adults, none of whom 

 died, nor were exposed afterwards to the least illness. The 

 exertions of these meritorious physicians to introduce this 

 practice in Livonia are entitled to the greater praise, as in 

 one parish alone of 436 children born, 1 96 were carried off 

 by the small-pox. Above a thousand children belonging to 

 the peasants have been inoculated in Livonia, Esthonia, and 

 Courland, with matter distributed by these physicians, and 

 all with the best success. 



3 M£TE,OItQ- 



