the Poisonous Gases on Vegetables. 141 



ed is no less than the third or fourth instance in Scotland of 

 the same kind of manufactory having subjected the proprie- 

 tors to a prosecution on the ground of its destructiveness to 

 vegetation, while nevertheless no data have hitherto been made 

 public, except those derived from the very equivocal and con- 

 tradictory testimony of unscientific witnesses as to the actual 

 mischief done around the works. We have therefore conceiv,. 

 ed that a succinct account of our observations may be useful 

 to others who may chance to be similarly circumstanced with 

 ourselves.— Since the trial, besides repeating our original ex- 

 periments, we have tried the effects of other gases ; and we 

 have annexed the results, not that we imagine them to be im- 

 portant in themselves, but for the purpose of drawing the at- 

 tention of the botanist to this little tried, but probably valua- 

 ble instrument for investigating the physiology of plants. The 

 interesting experiments of M. Marcet on the effects of solid 

 and liquid poisons on vegetable life,* and those related in the 

 subsequent remarks regarding the effects of the gases will 

 show, that the operation of poisons may furnish the attentive 

 inquirer with as many useful facts in the case of vegetable as 

 in that of animal physiology. 



It was at first our intention to give an account of the lead- 

 ing facts brought out upon the several jury-trials alluded to. 

 But on inquiry, we have found the evidence, as in most pro- 

 secutions for this description of nuisance, so opposite and irre- 

 concilable, that we must rest contented with an abstract of our 

 personal researches. The black-ash, we may simply observe, 

 has been for many years a most important and extensive arti- 

 cle of manufacture, being one of the substances formed in the 

 course of the process for converting into soda the Glauber''s 

 salt, and more particularly the refuse in the making of bleach- 

 ing powder. In the course of the process for preparing it, 

 some chlorine and a good deal of sulphurous acid are evolved, 

 and in those manufactories in which the black-ash is converted 

 into carbonate of soda, an additional quantity of sulphurous 

 acid is disengaged. It was to these gases, therefore, and more 



• Ann. de Ckim. et de Phys. xxix. SOU. See this Journal, No. vi. p. 293. 



