Mechanical and General Sotence. 363 
A kilogramme (2.2 Ib.) of chloride of calcium is dissolved in sixty 
litres (126.8 pints,) of water. The ground intended for experi- 
ments is watered with the solution; the seeds are then sown, or the 
plants set in the ground, and ultimately the watering is repeated a 
third or fourth time.with the solution. 
M. Dubuc sowed some Indian corn in a light soil, watered six or 
eight days before with the solution, Ata distance of six feet, but in 
the same soil, and with the same aspect other maize was sown and 
watered with common water. The first, which was watered from time 
to time with the solution of the chloride, attained to double the size 
of the second. Specimens of both were presented to the academy at 
Rouen. He has also hastened and favoured the developement of the 
great pyramidal campanula, of the lilac, and other trees, and also 
of fruit-trees, §c. He has also made experiments on market vege= 
tables ; onions, and poppies, which grow to a large size in the soil of 
Rouen, have doubled in volume by the action of the chloride, He 
has observed the great annual sunflower rise as in Spain to a height of 
twelve or fifteen feet, whilst in ordinary circumstances this large herb 
did not rise more than six or eight feet. He has seen the stems of 
these vegetables three or four inches in diameter above the earth, the 
leaves from eighteen to twenty inches long, the discs of the flowers 
twelve or fourteen inches in diameter, producing seeds from which 
haif their weight of good oil has been extracted, and ultimately ex- 
uding from their centres a transparent secretion analogous to turpen-~ 
tine, very odorous, and easily drying in the air. 
Finally, M. Dubuc made his experiments on potatoes, taking such 
as in size and weight were nearly alike. These were planted May 1, 
1822, in the same soil, and with the same aspect but in two beds, 
separated from each other by a path six feet wide. One of these beds 
was watered with the vegetative liquor, the other with water from a 
cistern, They were all gathered the 10th Nov. 1822. The first 
gave tubercles six inches long, twelve inches in circumference, and 
weighing nearly 2lbs. each ; the others were generally about half that 
size. These large potatoes were equally nourishing with the ordi~ 
nary potatoes, and were equally well preserved until the following 
April. They were watered only three times with the solution during 
the time they were in the earth, and their leaves were developed in an 
equal proportion. ' 
It appears that in general it is sufficient to water the vegetables 
submitted to the action of chloride of calcium three or four times with 
the solution at long intervals. The electro-organic power of this 
substance seems very singular, for, as M. Labarraque, of Paris, has 
observed, when applied to the animal organization, it in a short time 
arrests the progress of gangrene, chancres, or ulcers, and powerfully 
favours the production of fleshy pimples, which cicatrize the sore, — 
Ann. de Chim, xxv, 214. 
