28 The Progress of Physical Discovery. L^ A ^. 



table of the time taken by the principal metals to cool at the same 

 degree ; and, in comparing this table with that of capacities, he obtained 

 the external conductibility. Lead possesses the highest degree ; then 

 iron, tin, zinc ; and, lastly, brass. The new nomenclature had placed 

 what was called liver of sulphur in the general class of sulphurs ; but 

 since the brilliant discovery of Sir H. Davy, that fixed alkalis are nothing 

 else than metallic oxides, it became interesting to know if they entered 

 into sulphur, as oxides or metals : in other words, whether, in entering 

 into it, they preserve or lose the oxygen to which they were united. 

 M. Gay-Lussac now confirmed the former of his opinions, which had 

 indeed been previously adopted by Vauquelin. 



The efficacy in medicine of particular roots or herbs depends fre- 

 quently not upon the whole of their component principles, but upon some 

 one in particular, which the action of the others as often weakens as it 

 assists. When chemistry, therefore, can discover and extract the peculiar 

 principle, it is of eminent service, as was exemplified by the analyzation 

 of ipecacuanha by Majendie and Pelletin. The root of brown ipecacu- 

 anha contains 16 per cent, of the emetic property, while the woody part 

 within the same root only possesses 1 per cent. In the bark of grey 

 ipecacuanha, there are 14 per cent, of emetic, and 5 per cent, in the 

 whole of the root of white ipecacuanha. The analyzation of opium by 

 Dr. Sertiirner, of Eirnbeck, in Hanover, led to the discovery of a new 

 alkali in it, united to a new acid ; the former of which has received the 

 name of morphine, the latter of meconic ; and it is in the morphine that 

 the soporiferous qualities of opium are found to reside, for opium divested 

 of it is wholly inefficacious. 



(The Conclusion in our next.) 



THE CLUB-ROOM. 

 THE CARICATURES. 



A dining room,, magnificently furnished. The cloth removed. 



The conversation has gone on for some time in a whisper. The bottle 

 before Mummy, who seems to have been drinking bumpers to himself. 

 The Chairman is thrown back in his chair ; he is asleep, and murmurs 

 a word now and then in a dream. 



Mummy. I think, in the interval, we might order in a dozen more 

 of Burgundy. The Chairman's health ought to be drunk, now that he 

 is absent. For by his last words, I think his soul must be taking a 

 survey of the stars. 



Rat. Then let me propose it. And we can make a minute of the 

 whole to present to him on his awaking. No man likes those little 

 attentions better. Gentlemen Che rises}, I never found myself under a 

 more serious difficulty than at the present moment. The presence of this 

 Honourable House ; poh ! I meant this honourable table, the conscious- 

 ness of the infinite magnitude of the task imposed upon me, the inap- 

 proachable dignity of the subject, the inexhaustible variety of 



Pounce. Ha ! ha ! ha ! Come, my dear Rat, say something to the 

 purpose, unless you mean to kill us with laughing ; and there's Culverin 

 yawning like the gateway of Pimlico House. 



Rat. Pounce, you must allow every man to know his own talent best. 

 Mine is for perplexity. I never could utter a straightforward sentence 



