218 Observations on sorne Dutch Processes 



with yoi'i" friend M. Britgnians, and, after visiting every 

 thing curious in his cabinet and that of the academy, we 

 conversed on your ideas respecting the preservation ot eggs. 

 This celebrated professor is of opinion that your process is 

 the only method proper for the projwsed object. The ship 

 captains whom I consulted assured me, that when going 

 on long vovages they took on board a very large quantity 

 of hens without cocks, and that to preserve tbe eggs v.hich 

 they laid they put them in large wooden boxes, or pots of 

 earthen ware, arranging them u\ strata and covering each 

 of tbem with half an uu:h of chaff of sarazin, conmionly 

 called in French boqiiette. The boxes, when well filled and 

 shut, are inverted every day. The bran of w heat, some- 

 times employed for this purpose, does not seem to be so 

 proper. The ashes of turf, w ood, &;c. may be substituted 

 in the room of these two matters. 



'* Eggs which have been fecundated by intercourse with 

 a cock, cannot be kept so long by the same processes as the 

 preceding; but if thev arc put into an earthen-ware pot, or 

 any other vessel capable of holding melted butter in order 

 to cover them, they mav then be secured from putrefaction 

 for a very long course of time. Some inclose them in small 

 barrels with successive strata of sea salt, 'i'he vessels are 

 inverted every two or three days, to change their position. 



** From Leyden I went to the Hague, where I visited 

 several cabinets of natural history. The most remarkable 

 are those of Messrs. Voet and Froost, and especially the 

 former. One of the members of the Batavian council, to 

 whom M. Rrugmans was pleased to recommend me, showed 

 me tbe central dispensary of the military hospitals of that 

 nation, as well as the laboratory where the chemical pre- 

 parations are made. Besides the good order which 1 re- 

 marked in that establishment, it appeared to me that every 

 thing was prepared with exactness; and that the simple drugs 

 employed were well chosen and of the best quality. 



" One thing which interested me much was the machine 

 used for pounding the greater part of the roots, bark, &cc. 

 It consists merely of mason-work, covered with a plate of 

 cast iron having a rim of about nine inches in height. The 

 plate is about eight feet in diameter, and from the middle 

 of it arises an axis having at the extrcmitv a pinion which 

 communicates with a large horizontal wheel moved by a 

 horse. From the axis proceed two iron arms which are fixed 

 to two vertical millstones, placed opposite to each other, 

 and which, by the motion communicated to them, reduce 

 to powder the substances they meet with in their pas^sage. 



Each 



