iiB Staps of WqoU if Gluet of Ptat, (^e. 



top, in the form of white foap : below in the wafte ley was the brown-coloured woolly matter. 

 This experiment (hews the impoflibility of combining woolly matter and tallow to form hari 

 foap. I next endeavoured to combine glue with tallow, and to form a hard foap. 



Glue Soap. 



I took a quantity of common joiner's glue, and boiled it with cauftic potaflj, until it was 

 diflblved ; during the boiling, a confiderable quantity of ammonia was feparated, which gave 

 the combination a pretty dark colour. This compound was again boiled with a frefli portion 

 of cauftic potafh, along with a quantity of tallow ; and the boiling was continued until, 

 upon cooling, a fine yellow-coloured foft foap was formed. This foap had a very ftrong fmell, 

 fomewhat like putrefying fifti. When it was boiled with fea fait, to form a hard foap, a 

 decompofition was immediately efFe6led ; the tallow rofe to the top, in the form of white foap, 

 and below in the wafte ley was the glue of a brown colour and curdled. 



- Peat Soap. 



Having found from the preceding trials, that neither the mufcular fibre, g!uc, or wool, 

 would remain united with tallow in the common procefs of hard foap making ; it occurred 

 to me, that difFerent vegetable fubftances might be ufeful. Accordingly I endeavoured to 

 combine peat and tallow together, fo as to form a hard foap. I diflblved a quantity of peat 

 in cauftic potafti, and continued the boiling until the compound had acquired the confiftencc 

 of common foft foap. In this ftate it was foluble in water, and lathered with it. With tallow 

 it formed a brown-coloured foap, which was not decompoftd by boiling with fea fait. I was 

 in hopes, from this circumftance, that it might enable us to introduce an ufeful manufadlury 

 into the Highlands of Scotland, where peat is to be got in great quantity. I found, however, 

 that it gave a brown colour to cloth which was wafhed with it, fo that my attempt at rendering 

 it ufeful was fruftrated. 



Prfervatlon of Jnimal Subjiances by Alkaline Solution. 



Sir John Dalrymple, in his examination before the Houfe of Commons, claimed, as a 

 difcovery of the greateft importance, the method of preferving fifh by immerfmg them in 

 a folution of alkali. This is fomewhat furprifing, for we find this faft mentioned long ago, 

 and in difFerent publications. Thus, in one of the early volumes of the Tranfaflions of the 

 Royal Society of London, feveral experiments are related, on the power of lime water in 

 preferving animal fubftances, and it is remarked, that fifti immerfed in lime water, were 

 prefervcd frefti for a confiderable time. Sir John Pringle alfo made feveral experiments 

 on the antifeptic power of cauftic alkalies ; and more lately, in one of the volumes of the 

 Tranfa£tions of the Royal Irifti Academy, there are feries of experiments on the antifeptic 

 power of cauftic alkalies. 



Sheriff Bra, Leith, ROBERT JAMESON, F.L.S. &c. 



May iithy 1799. 



