1835.] Scientific Intelligence . 475 



diploma, granted after a strict examination. The Japanese keep up 

 a constant commerce with the Chinese ; and obtain most of their 

 showy plants from China. — (Wickstrom*8 Jahrsbericht der 

 Botanik, 1831. 145, and Brandes' Pharm. Zeit. 1835, 2.) 



XI. — Phloridzin, a new Substance. 

 Konninck and Stas give this name to a substance which they have 

 found in the bark of the wild apple, pear, plumb, and cherry. It 

 possesses a yellowish white colour, crystallizes in silky needles, has at 

 first a bitter and then astringent taste. It is soluble in water, very 

 soluble in alcohol and ether, without action on test paper ; soluble 

 without decomposition in concentrated sulphuric and muriatic acids. 

 The sulphates of iron colour its solution in water deep brown, ace- 

 tate of lead produces a copious white precipitate. Lime water, 

 ammonia, tartar emetic, corrosive sublimate, and isinglass have no 

 action on Phloridzin. ^-f Journ. de Chim. Medic i. 259, NS.) 



XII. — Greatest ascents in the atmosphere. 



M. Boussingault, in company with Colonel Hall, on the 16th of 

 December, 1831, ascended Chimborazo, to the height of 6,006 metres 

 (19,699 feet) the greatest elevation which has yet been attained on 

 land, Humboldt having been able to reach as high only as 19,400 feet. 

 M. Gay Lussac, in a balloon, rose to 22,900 feet at Paris. The 

 barometer carried by Boussingault fell to 13 inches 8 lines. The 

 temperature in the shade was 7*8 C (45'6" F.) This chemist thinks 

 it possible to live in ratified air. Thus, at a height almost equal to 

 that of Mount Blanc, where Saussure had scarce strength to con- 

 sult his instruments, young women may be seen in South America, 

 dancing during the whole night. The celebrated battle of Pinchinca 

 during the war of independence, was fought at a height, little infe- 

 rior to that of Mount Rose. The guides who accompanied Saussure, 

 assured him, that they had seen the stars in broad day. Boussingault 

 never witnessed them, although he reached a much greater altitude. 

 (Journ. de Chim. Medic, i. 33. NS. ) 



XIII. — J)iamonds in Africa. 

 Pliny says in his natural history, (lib. xxvii.) that the diamond 

 existed in mines in ^Ethiopia, between the temple of Mercury and 

 the island of Meroe. This precious stone was an article of traffic 

 between the Carthaginians and Etrurians. Heeren stated, that it 

 was brought by caravans from the interior of Africa, being extracted 

 from the earth in mines or from auriferous sand. According to M. 

 Vellecotte, an officer in the 16th French regiment, lying at Algiers, 

 and M. Peluzo, Sardinain consul at Algiers, diamonds' exist in the 

 auriferous sand of the river Wa del Kebir or Kumel (Ampsaga 

 of the ancients) which rises at the north-east extremity of the chain 

 of Atlas. The diamonds were found in November, 1833, near the 

 town of Constantine (the ancient Eitra.) M. Peluzo sent three of 

 these diamonds to France. They are now in different collections. 

 One of them is in the collection of the Royal School of Mines. 

 Another, in the museum of Natural History, and a third, in a large 

 private collection — {Blendes' Pharmaeeutische Zeitung l \S35. 9.) 



