Prefervation qfU^ood, &c. — Cure for the Itch.. igt 



<:emext for preserving wood and brick, &c. 

 The compofition, or cement, is compofed of the following 

 materials; vi%, tar, pulverifcd coal (charcoal is elteemed the 

 bcli), and fine, well flacked lime ; the coal and lime to be 

 well mixed together, proportioned at about four- fifths coal 

 and one-fifth lime; the tar to be heated, and, while hot, 

 thickened with the mixture of coal and lime, until it be- 

 comes fo hard as that it may be eaiily fpread upon the fur- 

 hice of a board, and not run off when hot. Turpentine or 

 pitch will anfwcr nearly as well as tar, and plallcr of Paris 

 will anfwer inftead of limej to be ufed in the fame manner, 

 and in about the fame proportions. The cement muft be ap- 

 plied warm, and is found to be ufed eafieil with a trowel. 



NEW REMEDIES FOR THE ITCH. 



It has been obfervcd that the workmen employed in the 

 nianganefc mines at Macon, in France, are always free from 

 the itch, and that thofe even attacked by that difeafe in the 

 neighbourhood, are accuftomed to work in thefe mines in 

 order to get rid of their malady. The itching, it is faid, iii 

 ihat cafe loon ceafes, the eruption dries up, and the fkiu in 

 a few days becomes perfcihUy clean. 



C. Grille having remarked that the clothing of the labour- 

 ers in thefc mines, and particularly articles of linen, became 

 ^.\ccedingly white in the courfe of a little time, expofcd fe- 

 vtral pieces of coloured cotton cloth to the air dilengaced 

 from the interior of thefe mines, and found, that in the 

 courfe of a few days they had lolt a great deal of their colour. 

 This led him to conjedlure that manganefe itfelf might be 

 employed as a remedy for the itch. He therefore took fix 

 parts of pulvcrifed manganefe and fixteen of liog's lard and 

 formed them into an ointment, w hich he cauied feveral per- 

 fons troubled with the itch to rub over their bodies; he ad- 

 miniftered alfo at the fame time the ufual internal medicines, 

 and the patients in a few days were perfedly cured. 



Parmentier, who has made known this obfervation of 

 C. Grille, adds, that in the courfe of his refearches refpe<St- 

 ing the means of obviating the unpleafant evaporation which 

 proceeds from cojimion fcwcrs, he oblirvud that this evapo. 



ration 



