Plaiina In the Silver Mines of Guadalcanal. 335 



substance the root contains : bat \vc ouiiht not to forget to 

 add that it has one great advantage, of being at a very low 

 price in comparison with that of real coffee. 



Succory root is not the only substance employed for alter- 

 ing coffee, by diminishing the g.oodness as w ell as the price : 

 beans, pease, lupines, Sec. arc often employed : the culture 

 of these last is pursued even on a large scale in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Mons, Brussels, Sec. for ihis very purpose. 



In the manufactories where the succory is prepared as a 

 substitute for coffee, carrots and beet-roots are also indiscri- 

 minately used. I saw in Holland a plantation of beet-roots 

 raised for the purpose of obtaining sugar from them, and- 

 the proprietor informed me, that after he had expressed the 

 juice from these roots he afterwards converted them into 

 coffee; and that turnips and maple fruit had yielded him a 

 similar result. It is probable from this that an infinity of 

 other vegetable substances would serve the same purpose, 

 since it is only necessary to obtain, by a last analysis, the 

 most fixed jiroducts of vegetables, or of their different parts, 

 still combined with a small portion of empyreumatic oil 

 strongly charged with carbon. 



LV. Nulice upon the Existence of Plaiina in the Silver 

 Mines of Guadalcanal, in Estramadurn, in Spain. By 

 M. Vauquklin *. 



XLATiNA has not been found hitherto, except at Santa-Fci 

 and in thebailliage of Choco, in South America, among the 

 gold mines. There has been a report in circulation, for 

 some years past, that platina has been discovered in Siberia ; 

 but this repon has been as ill confirmed as that which vi'as 

 circulated, (ifteen years ago, respecting the existence of it in 

 a ferruginous sand of St. Domingo. 



Having been latelv charged with the task of analysing 

 the celebrated mines of Guadalcanal, in Estramadura, (mines 

 which, after having been long abandoned, are again opened 



• From AiinaUs ile Clmnie, torn. lix. p. ;U7. 



Vol. 27. No. 108. Maij IS07. Y at 



