166 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



oak-bark, and six-sevenths as much colouring; matter as log- 

 wood. Leather tanned with it is described as superior to that 

 tanned with oak-bark. Ink made with it is admirable, and in 

 dyeing it seems to have a greater affinity for wool than either 

 galls or sumach, causing, therefore, a more permanent colour. 



The inspissated aqueous extract of the chesnut wood very 

 much resembles catechu ; except that, according to Professor 

 Dewey, of William's College, it precipitates a fourth more of ge- 

 latine ; and in dyeing it is infinitely superior, for it gives the finest 

 black, whilst the colour obtained from catechu is only a meagre 

 olive. 



Mr. Sheldon concludes his letter by some details and obser- 

 vations, which will perhaps induce many to receive the more 

 important part of it with caution. On making solutions of 

 the wood, one from the trunk of a tree three feet thick, and ano- 

 ther from a limb about three inches in diameter, and precipitating 

 them by the same quantity of solution of gelatine, the precipi- 

 tates appeared in congeries, bearing a proportion in size to the 

 sticks from which tliey were obtained. Mr. Sheldon thinks 

 this may lead to a new nomenclature of precipitates, and to the 

 illustration of the compound nature of bodies, and of chemical, 

 or electro-chemical, affinities ; and further, that even the size 

 of a stick may probably be ascertained with almost as much 

 precision as by actual admeasurement. 



The editor of Silliman's Journal states having verified the 

 most important of Mr. Sheldon's experiments. 



9. MajAe Sugar. — Experiments were made some years since 

 in France, for extracting sugar from the maple-tree, but they 

 were subsequently abandoned. It appears, however, that in 

 Bohemia better success has been obtained, and that M. Bodard 

 has received important information on the subject. An incision 

 was made in a maple-tree, from which a quantity of syrup issued, 

 which afterwards produced sugar, rivalling, as it is said, that of 

 the beet-root, or the cane. 



10. Preservation of Water at Sea. — M. Pcriuet, after an cxa- 



