332 Progress of Foreign Science. 



prepare a new extract of opium, the operation is by no means so 

 costly as would at first sight appear. 



Dyeing. " Simple and easy method of clearing from their 

 tawny pigment, dyeing infusions made with Brazil woods of in- 

 ferior quality, and of substituting them with success, for 

 true Fernambuco, by Dr. Dingier, manufacturing chemist at 

 Augsbourg." The watery infusions of these poorer dye woods 

 are to be evaporated, till from 4 kilogrammes of wood there 

 remain only 12 or 15 of liquid. When this liquid is cooled, we 

 must pour into it, after 12 or 18 hours, 2 kilogrammes of 

 skimmed milk. After stirring this mixture well, we boil it for 

 a few minutes, then pass it through a piece of thick flannel. 

 The tawny colour will be then seen to attach itself to the caseous 

 part of the milk, which spontaneously precipitates from this 

 decoction, without occasioning the least loss in the quantity of 

 red colour. The remaining red is of a pure tint. Perhaps this 

 process might be useful with madders, which consist of the 

 same two colours. Two kilogrammes of milk are sufficient for 

 6 or 8 kilogrammes of young woods *. 



Paste for dressing Webs. — It is well known that weavers are 

 obliged to work in damp shops, to prevent tlie dressing of the 

 web from drying and hardening. M. Dubue has read lately a 

 Memoir before the Academy of Sciences of Rouen, on the sub- 

 ject of pastes, &c., in which he shews that a very minute ad- 

 dition of muriate of lime to them, renders them so retentive or 

 absorbent of moisture, that webs dressed with such pastes, 

 may be wove in the upper and drier chambers of a house, as 

 well as in the lower and ill-aired with the usual dressing. The 

 plan is undoubtedly judicious. Muriate of lime may be had at 

 a very trifling expense from those apothecaries who prepare 

 water of ammonia. The waste whitening steep of the bleacher 

 is merely a solution of muriate of lime. 



Agriculture. — Professor Gazzeri, of Florence, has lately pub- 

 lished an Essay on Manures, and their most useful mode of 

 employment in Agriculture. To the English farmer, acquainted 

 with the agricultural practice of Mr. Coke, and the Treatise of 

 Sir H. Davy, the above work offers little novelty ; but its pre- 

 cepts must be very useful in Italy ; and, indeed, his experi- 

 ments seem so judicious, as to deserve a brief notice in this 

 place. " I shall demonstrate," says he, " both by reasoning 

 and facts, that the previous fermentation of manures is not well 

 fitted to make their substances enter into plants during vege- 

 tation, if that fermentation takes place at a distance from the 

 soil which the manures are meant to fertilize; but that, on the 

 contrary, the application of manures in their entire chemical 

 state is advantageous, especially if they have been subjected 



* Jnitrnal Polt/teeknique iVAug^hotirg. 



