Acorns a Sulstitute for Coffee. 73 



rock srilt will answer as well as marine salt, and the quantity 

 should be varied from 20 to 30 bushels per English acre. It 

 would be extremely desirable that the result of anv further ex- 

 periment tried should be communicated to the public, that the 

 question may, if possible, be put to rest." 



FREEZING SWEET WORT. 



To Mr. Tilloch. 



Sir, — From repeated observation, 1 have found that it requires 

 a much greater degree of cold to freeze sweet wort, which of 

 course has not been fermented, than it does to freeze water. Can 

 any of your ingenious correspondents explain on philosophical 

 principles, why frost so operates as to produce the effect above 

 mentioned ? 



Boston, Jan. 1820. g_ y^ 



ACORNS A SUBSTITUTE FOR COFFEE. 



Dr. Maex, a German physician of some eminence, ascribes 

 great medical virtues to an Infusion of acorns used in the same 

 manner as coffee. In 1793 he published some experiments on 

 this subject, and gave the following directions for preparing and 

 using the acorns : 



Take sound and ripe acorns, peel off the shell or husk, divide 

 the kernels, dry them gradually, and then roast them in a close 

 vessel or roaster, keeping them constantly stirring; in doing v/hich 

 especial care must be taken that they be not burnt or over-roast- 

 ed, either of which would be hurtful. The Doctor recommends 

 half an ounce of these roasted acorns, ground and prepared like 

 coffee, to be taken morning and evening, either alone or mixed 

 with coffee and sweetened with sugar, either with or without milk. 



Th"? author says that acorns have been always esteemed a 

 wholesome nutriment for men, and that by their medical quali- 

 ties they have been found to cure slimy obstructions in the fw- 

 ceray and to remove nervous complaints. 



QUESTIONS BY A CORRESPONDENT. 



What effect will compressed air have on the lives of animals ? 

 Injurious of course, but with what symptoms attended, as well 

 as what affection it induces ? 



What is that by which the ratio of sidereal to solar time can be 

 determined, if we have only the data of cither's revolutions ? 

 General Axiom. 



To a spectator on a body which turns round its axis whilst re- 

 volving in an orbit, things without the orbit will appear to make 

 a? many circuits around that body as it really performs revolu- 

 tions ; but the number of circuits which things within the orbit 

 will ajjpear to make, will be either one more or one less than 



the 



