46 REPORT— 1853. 



end nor on the other sides; the brickwork with the mortar and cement had not pro- 

 (lerly set, and when the first quantity of water let into the reservoir was withdrawn, 

 these substances were found upright on the brick slope; they consisted of irregular 

 tubes terminated by a sort of expansion or bulb. They stood erect in many cases, 

 from the joints of the brickwork having strange shapes ; but some closely resembled 

 tulips, the tube having a sort of bulb about the size of a small egg ; some of the tubes 

 were found prostrate, that showed they had attained the altitude of 14 to 18 inches. 

 They were all of a gray-white colour, of a rough exterior; inside the tubes and 

 bulbs they were much whiter, and the substance appeared in concentric layers; they 

 were formed, it was supposed, from the soft mortar, by the pressure of the water and 

 filtration of fluids and air tlirough (he side, as on that part of the reservoir the whole 

 excavated earth had been thrown up more than 20 feet above the surface of the water 

 in the reservoir. 



These substances at their base showed the tubular portions attached to the brick- 

 work, the mortar, and the cement ; they dissolved readily with effervescence in diluted 

 nitric acid. 



These substances were not observed until the water had been withdrawn, they 

 were then found in parallel lines to an extent of 150 to 200 feet, and so numerous 

 that a small cart might have been filled with these brittle exudations. However much 

 the pressure of water and the passage of air and gases might have in some way contri- 

 buted to these forms, one learned naturalist had considered it probable that some species 

 of Flustra might have lent its assistance to some of the shapes. Mr. Pearsall stated 

 he had not heard of similar formations. 



On the Employment of Pentasulphate of Calcium as a Means of preventing 

 and destroying the Oidium Tuckeri, or Grape Disease. By Astley 

 Paston Price, Ph.D., F.C.S. 



Of those substances which have been employed to arrest the devastating effect* of 

 this disease, none appear to have been so pre-eminently successful as sulphur, whether 

 employed as powdered or flowers of sulphur, or by sublimation in houses so affected. 

 But notwithstanding the several methods described for its application to the vines, I 

 am not aware that any has, or had, appeared prior to 1851, when these experiments 

 were instituted, by which sulphur might be uniformly distributed over, and become to 

 a certain extent firmly attached to the vines. 



Three houses, situated at Margate in Rent, in the vicinity of the one in which 

 the disease first made its appearance in England, having been for five consecutive 

 years infected with the disease, and notwithstanding the employment of sulphur as 

 flowers of sulphur, no abatement in its ravages could be detected, I was induced to 

 employ a solution of pentasulphide of calcium, a diluted solution of which, having been 

 found to act in no way injuriously to the young and delicate shoots of several plants, 

 was applied to the vines ; the object in view being that the pentasulphide should be de- 

 composed by carbonic acid, and that 4 atoms of sulphur, together with the carbonate 

 of lime formed, should be deposited in a uniform and durable covering on the stems 

 and branches of the vines affected. Although but few applications were made, the 

 stems became coated with a protective deposit of sulphur, and the disease gradually 

 but effectively disappeared, insomuch that the houses have been, and now are, entirely 

 free from any disease or symptoms of infection. 



The young shoots are in no way affected by its application, and the older wood 

 covered with the deposited sulphur continues exceedingly healthy. 



The specimens exhibited to illustrate the durability and pi-otective influence of the 

 deposited sulphur were from vines which in the autmnn of 1851 were covered with the 

 disease, but which since the autumn of 1852 have received no further treatment. 



The vines in the immediate neighbourhood, and adjoining one of the houses, are 

 covered with the disease, but, notwithstanding their close proximity, no indication of 

 the disease has at present been detected in either of the three houses. 



A solution of pentasulphide of calcium is prepared by boiling 30 parts by weight of 

 caustic lime with 80 parts by weight of flowers of sulphur, suspended in a sufficient 

 quantity of water ; heat is applied until the solution has acquired a dark red colour, 

 and the excess of sulphur ceases to dissolve. The clear solution is drawn off, and after 



