52 Inslituie of France. 



Interior and of War having consulted the Institute on this sub- 

 ject, the Committees of Cheinistrv and Medicine found that 

 zinc is too sohil^le bv tl^e weakest acids, by grease, and even h\ 

 pure water: and that the salts which it forms are very acvid, 

 and in certain cases mcne the bowels too much to admit of this 

 metal being used without danger. M. Sage also individually 

 made experiments, which convinced him that di-^lilled water 

 when kept in zinc utensils assumed a very decided styptic tastej 

 and that the juice of fruits cooked in these vessels dissolves a 

 portion of them, and forms salts disagreeable to the taste : this 

 is the more vexatious, because the mines in quc-tion contain no 

 arsenic as others do, and in this respect there is nothing to ap- 

 prehend. Of this M. Sage has furnished a new proof by a series 

 of experiments which he laid before the Class. 



Messrs. ^'auquelin and Thenard have given an analysis of the 

 mineral \vater of Provinz, from which it results that one litre 

 contains 



Carbonate of lime 0-.S.54 



Oxide of iron 0*07(i 



MagTiesia 0"035 



Manganese 0*01 7 



Silex 0-026 



Sea salt 0-042 



Carbonic acid 27 inches 8-lOths 

 and an inappreciable quantity of muriate of lime and of a fatty 

 substance ; but the sulphuric acid, as has been supposed, does 

 not exist in it at all. 



M. Thenard has published the first volume of an elementary 

 Treatise on Chemistry, in which this science, which daily makes 

 such rapid progress, is exhibited imder its present aspect. The 

 author arranges the i'acts according to the degree of simplicity 

 of the bodies to which they belong. After having spoken of im- 

 ponderable agents, he treats of oxygen, and of the theory of 

 combustion ; atid passes afterwards to combustible bodies, their 

 combinations with each other, and those which they contract one 

 by one with oxygen. The-e last are divided, according to their 

 properties, into oxides and acids, and the fluoric and muriatic 

 acids are arrviged according to the ordinary ideas, which refer 

 them to oxygenated bodies. At this point ends the first part 

 of a work which tlie rapid progress of science has rendered ne- 

 cessarv so scon after other excellent works on the same subject, 

 and of whi?:h we cannot refrain from wishing to see the speedy 

 termination by M. Thenard. 



The metliwd of positive and direct observation becomes daily 

 more prevalent in geologA', and more precise notions are hourly 

 acquired as to the soils of various countries, the general laws of 



their 



