314 
fourth more weight, accomplished ina 
much shorter time ; consequently 
these profits mast be immense, because 
capitals are returnable thrice a-year, 
instead of once a-year, or year and 
a half, 
No manufacture in England, or any 
other part of Europe, appears to have 
defied improvement so much as lea~- 
ther; because tanners are wealthy 
and careless. One circumstance I 
must notice, however ; which is, that 
it formerly required several years to 
tan thick sole-icather; and, if the time 
has been reduced to eighteen months 
instead. of three yenrs, surely it may be 
also possible to tan leather in a few 
months: but during a few months the 
hides will reqaire more labour than 
they have generally received in years 
under the present practice,—which is 
both blind and foolish. 
After devoting several years to the 
‘most active but irksome perseverance, 
attended with ruinous expenses, I have 
at length resolved to publish a “'Prea- 
tise upon the Art of Tanning Crop 
Hides, or the Right Use of Oak-bark,” 
&c. and, when my hand, which now 
celebrates the dawn of tanning, shali 
have mouldered into dust, I have no 
doubt but my principles will be uni- 
versally practised, with many improve- 
ments; and will not prove an unwor- 
thy legacy to posterity, as the advan- 
tages will extend over Europe, because 
leather has become a necessary article 
of life, 
However, I always hoped to find 
substitutes for oak-bark, notwith- 
standing my extraordinary success 
with it; because the salyation of the 
shipping of this empire appeared 
always paramount to every other 
object. The British navy was for- 
merly built with native oak, hewn in 
the winter, aud proverbially styled 
“old England’s wooden walls.” Ame- 
rica is now building a navy on the 
principles: we have abandoned; and 
America abounds with excellent tim- 
ber, while Britain is exhausted. 
To check the dry-rot, coal-tar has 
been geacrally applied in the navy, by 
means’ of forcing-pumps; and to such 
excess, in many instances, has it been 
injected into ships’-bottoms, as tohave 
started the bolts and tree-nails, and 
driven the planks nearly an inch 
asunder from the timbers. Nor is this 
the least of the misfortunes which are 
discovered to attend this wonderful 
~ operation ; for Admiral Rowley is 
Mr. Burridge on Dry-rot and Tanning. 
[ Nov. 1, 
reported to have asoribed the sickness 
and mortality now prevalent on the 
West-India station entirely to the 
noxious effluyia exhaled in tropical 
climates from that mineral extract. 
The poisonous effects of coal-tar are 
notorious, and it has even become 
questionable whether gas-works ought 
not, for the sake of public health and 
safety, to be removed from the metro- 
polis, as appears from the printed 
evidence given before the Parliamen- 
tary Committee. At page 56, a possi- 
ble case is put, of an incendiary drawing 
off the manhole plate of a gasometer, 
to let the gas escape, and cause ex- 
plosion:~ | 
Could any man get into tle house, to 
stop the mischief so brewing ?—-No: de- 
struction was inevitable. 
The man could not Jive in that house 
after the man-hole was off?—No, not for a 
minute. 
Nole.—This case supposes the gasome- 
ter-honse to have little or no ventilation ; 
which much resembles the lower gni- 
decks of ships, withont ventilation, during 
the night, when the ports are all closed, 
In corroboration of these reports, 
the Esk, of fifty guns, has lately 
arrived from the West ludies with fift 
invalids, several of whom died on their 
passage home; and she was placed 
under quarantine at Portsmouth. I 
cannot dwell on such melancholy 
events and prospects ; but leave them 
to abler hands and heads, by express- 
ing my sincere hope, that the Navy 
Board will recal all ships from tropical 
climates that have undergone the 
mortal experiment with coal-tar. 
turn from this gloomy view, with 
unspeakable satisfaction, to announce 
that I have succeeded, beyond all my 
original hopes, in discovering native 
substitutes for oak-bark; aud, in con- 
sequence, sent the following letter to 
the Adiniralty Board, which I insert as 
briefly expressing the nature of my 
discovery :— 
London; Sept. 1, 1825. 
My Lorps,—I beg leave to acquaint 
your lordships, that I have discovered 
that pyro-ligueons acid is the best native 
substitute for oak-bark; and, if oak cop- 
pices be cut at bark harvests, and not in 
winter (when useless to tanners,) to sup- 
ply distilleries, L have no doubt the neces- 
sary demands may be duly answered, 
without hewing naval oaks in summer,— 
in order to prevent the recurrence of dry~ 
rot in his Majesty’s navy. j 
Permit me to assure your lordships, E 
am not actuated by any motives except 
the preservation of the navy for my king 
. % . aD 
-~_s, 
