serve as a Sulstilutefor Oak Bark. ^ 141 



Used in tanning. It is surprising that the experiments on 

 vcliith this discovery is founded h;ive not been made sooner, 

 ■Js tliey are cxeeediugly easy, and the various methods prae- 

 tised by other nations, and even by the most savaoe ones, 

 for making leather^ pointed out the way to them. In fact, 

 be it owing to tlie want of bark, or to old practice, it is 

 usual in several countries to tan leather with leaves, roots, 

 fruits, and juices. We shall not enter now into all the; 

 historical details of which the subject is susceptible ; but it 

 is proper, how ever, to give a sketch of them. 



Some of the Caimue Tartars, that rove about towards the 

 great wall of China, tan the skin? of their horses with sour 

 mare's milk. In Persia, Kgypt, and some countries bor- 

 dering on Africa, goats' skins are tanned with the astringent 

 and leguminous fruit of the true acacia, which is gathered 

 before it is ripe. In several parts of the Turkish empire 

 the same skins are made into Moro^-co leather by the means 

 of sralls. The green nuts of the turpentine tree, and, ac- 

 cording to some, even the leaves, as likewise those of the 

 Itntisk tree, serve for the saiiie piupose in many parts of 

 tile Levant. The sinak, or bundles of the leaves and voung 

 branches of sumach, is very well known, and is used iu 

 all countries for the making of Cordovan leather. It is also 

 well known that in several provinces of Italy, Spain, and 

 I'Vance there are actually used several plants, which may be 

 failed phntcp vor'iar'ue, sucii as tlie urb/itus, the celtis, the 

 tumurisk, the rhuiitnus, Hxcrhus niyrt'ijhlia, 8cc. In Sweden, 

 ilicy use the bark of one of the small species of mountain 

 sallow, as also a wild plant known by the name of una 

 ursi. The Silesians use in tanning a sort of myrtle called 

 rausili. But for tanning, nothing is used in Germany but 

 the bark of oak and birch tree, with some acorn shells ; and 

 a< to the makinsT of Cordovan and iMorocco leather, they 

 use sumach and ealls, as almost all other nations do. 



When the eight new methods of preparing leather al- 

 reaily alluded to shall be once introduced, all the other ar- 

 ticles will be no longer necessary ; and there will be found 

 in his majesty's donunions tlie plants fit for tanning, among 

 which are some that will serve also for dyeing skins. We 

 have already about sixty species of such plants ; and if, after 

 having iiftide an exact choice, there should remain but 

 twenty of them, our object will be attained, both as to the 

 preservation of wood, and the doing without foreign ar- 

 ticles. 



Skins dilTer from each other according to the species of 

 animals, ai» likewise accordthg to ilieir age, food, and thii 



cliuiate 



