103 On Oxalic Acid. 



higher, the grain is situated cooler on them. This, bow* 

 ever, contrary to what is stated against it in the evidence by 

 the watering party, produced no irregularity in the vegeta- 

 tion, for the corn situated the coolest is worked the deepest ; 

 and in this way, the workmen, from practice, can keep the 

 pieces very nearly at the same temperature. I paid particu' 

 lar regard to this fact, and being provided with a thermo- 

 meter, it enabled me to determine it very exactly. 



The malting rooms were kept remarkably open and airy, 

 by throwing all the doors and windows open, and allowing 

 the wind freely to blow over the corn. In several houses 

 even flocks of sparrows were feeding upon the floors, and 

 so tamely as to show that they were familiar with the place, 

 and visited it without interruption. I was already well aware 

 of the great importance of fresh air in malting, but did not 

 imairine that it could be so freely admitted in the process 

 where watering upon the floors was not practised, without 

 inducing a loo great expenditure of the cistern water by 

 evaporation. 



[To be continued.] 



XVflT. On Oxalic Jc'td, By Thomas Thomson, JSLD. 

 F.R.S. Ed, Communicated hj Chaules HATCHtTT, 

 £sg., F.R.S.* 



OxAtic acid, froiTi the united testimony of Ehrhart, 

 Hermbstadt, and Wcstrumb, appears to have been dis- 

 covered by Scheele ; but it is to Bergman that we are in- 

 debted for the first account of its properties. He published 

 his dissertation on it in 1776, and since that time very little 

 has been added to the facts contained in his valuable treatise. 

 Chemists have chiefly directed their attention to the forma- 

 tion of that acid, and much curious and important informa- 

 tion has resulted from the experiments of Hermbstadt,West- 

 rumb, Berthollet, Fourcroy, and Vauquelin, &:c.; but the 

 properties of the acid itself have been rather neglected. 

 My object in the following pages is not to give a complete 



* From Philosophical Transactions for 1608, Parti. 



history 



