Oil the Arhor Diance. 143 



35 shoulders of mutton weighing 350 O 



Lost in roasting i0<) lO 



The loss oF weight in shoulders of mutton, by roasting, 

 is about 3 Ji per cent. 



lis. ozs. 



J 6 loins of mutton weighing 141 



Lost in roasting 49 14 



Hence loins of mutton lose, by roasting, about 35] per 

 cent. 



II"!. CZ.<!. 



10 necks of mutton weighing 100 O 



Lost in roast-ins 32 6 



The loss of necks of mutton, by roasting, is about 32-J- 

 pcr cent. 



We shall only draw two practical inferences from the 

 foregoing statement : — 1st. In respect of ceconomy, it is 

 more profitable lo boil meat than to roast it. 2dly, Whe- 

 ther we roast or boil meat, it loses, by being cooked, from 

 one- fifth to one-third of its whole weight. 



XXIV. Letter from M. Vitams, Vrofessor of Chemistry at 

 Rouen, to M. Boi >llon Lagrange, oti the Amalgam of 

 Mercury and Siluer, called Arbor Diance *. 



JL he process described by Bannie, and which is generally 

 adopted for obtaining the amalgam of mercury and silver, 

 known in chemistry by the name of arbor Diance, is not 

 the onlv one which is capable of exhibiting the beautiful 

 crystalline forms which characterize this curious produc- 

 tion. I attained the same object, by modifying the com- 

 mon method ; and this modification admits of our extract- 

 ing with facility the metallic vegetation from the liquor, and 

 preserving it, without any alteration, out of the vessel in 

 which it has been formed. 



The operation is very simple. In the nitric solutions of 

 mercury and silver, both being well saturated and diluted 

 with the quantity of water prescribed by Baume, I suspend 

 a small knot of fine linen rag doubled up, and containing 

 five or six drachms of very pure mercury. 



The metallic solutions soon penetrate to the mercury, 

 which is inclosed in the rag, and we soon see some beauti- 

 ful spiculae formed and grouped around the rag, adhering 

 to the nucleus of mercury, which serves as a kind of sup- 

 port to them. 



• Annates tit Chimie, tome ixiii. p. 93. 



These 



