Carhm.'-Orj the Muhiplicathn of Experiments. ."ZOg 



the caufes whicli have promoted this fpecies of fermentation have ceafed, the vegetable fub- 

 "^ance will remain with more or lefs of its firft principles, and with more or lefs vifible car- 

 bonic matter, according to the degree of putrefa£lion which has prevailed, and the vegetable 

 fubftance will confequently have the appearance and properties of wood which has been 

 ' charred more or lefs. 



To this caufe, therefore, I am inclined to attribute the formation and appearance of the 

 Bovey coal and furturbrandv; and I believe that the portion of oily and bituminous matter, 

 which I have obtained from them'by diflillation, is nothing more than the remainder of the 

 vegetable oils and juices which have been partly modified by mineral agents *. 



' \_To be continued. "^ 



III. 



New Methods of affording^ at an inctinfider-ohle E>:pence, the Heat and the Water required^of 

 performing Experiments in Che?ni/}ry. By Citizen GorTONf. 



HERE is but one fure road to arrive at truth in natural philofophy, namely, by con- 

 fulting nature herfelf by experiment. Independent of the fagacity neceflary to dire(5l thefc 

 to objects precifely determinate, and to combine the means of operating, there is likewife an 

 art of performing them, or, to fpeak more properly, of giving facility without diminifhing 

 the certainty of their refults. To awaken the induftry of philofophers \*ith regard to fuch 

 refources as may be obtained for the multiplication of experiments at the leaft poflible coft, 

 muft therefore be a labour of utility to the advancement of fcience. When Franklin was 

 afked how he could afford the charges of his experiments on ele£tricity, at a time when he 

 was far from being in circumftances of independence, he replied, that a man who could not 

 faw with a gimblet, and bore with a faw, was not fit for an experimental philofopher. The 

 fervices which Bergman has rendered to chemiftry, and particularly to mineralogy, by the 

 introduftion of the blow-pipe, are well known. What a number of valuable obfervations 

 would ftill be wanting, if he had not put this inftrument into the hands of thofe who were 

 unable to procure, or have accefs to the furnaces of the elaboratoryl 



It is in confequence of thefe refleftions, and the invitation I have received for thatpurpofe, 

 that I have determined to defcribe thefmall manipulations by which I obtain a very confider. 

 able faving of fuel and of diftilled water in chemical experiments, to which I may add the 

 'faving of time, that raoft ineftimable of all the defiderata for experimental rcfearch. 



* " Coal not only forms the refiduum ef all vegetable fubflances that have undergone ailow and fmothereS 

 combuftion, that is, to which the free accefs of air has been prevented, but alfo of all putrid vegetable and 

 animal b«t\ies : hence it is found in vegetable and animal manures that have undergone putrefaftion, and is the 

 true bafis of their ameliorating powers : if the water that paffes throHgh a putrefying dunghill be examined, it 

 will be found of a brown colour; and if fubjefted to evaporation, the principal part of the refiduum will be 

 ^onnd to confift of coal. All foils fteeped in water communicate the fame colour to it in proportion to their 

 fertility} and this water being evaporated, leaves alfo a coal, as Meflrs. Haflenfraz and Fourcroy atteft."^ 

 Kirwan on Manur«s, p. 154, vol. v. of the Tranfaftions of the Royal Irifli Academy. 



+ Read before the National Inftitute of France, the 16th Brumaire, ii» the year 6, and infcrted in the »4tk 

 volume of the Annales dc Chimie, page 3 11, 



Vot. II.— August 1798. f * -jEa 



