228 New Metal.—Smut in Wheat. 
‘their angles of the same value as the finest specimens of carbo- 
nate of lime. Their double refraction and their polarising force, 
were of the same character and the same intensity as the purest 
Iceland spar. D. B.—( Edin. Phil. Jour.) 
NEW METAL, 
Counsellor Giesse of Dorpat has communicated to the world 
the discovery of what he at present thinks to be a new metal, ex- 
tracted from the residue of English sulphuric acid, on distilling it 
to dryness. One variety left, out of 16 ounces, 91 grains of a 
white residuum, in which there was nosulphate of lead. It 
changed colour several times during the experiments made upon 
it, and he thinks it was formed of the sulphur employed in ma- 
nufacturing the acid. It is susceptible of oxidation, and its al- 
kaline combinations form double salts with acids. _ Still the pro- 
fessor’s details are judged, on the whole, to be inconclusive. 
SMUT IN WHEAT. 
“Take a double handful of good clean wheat, wash it well in 
clear water in a hand-bason or other utensil, rub the seed well 
between the hands zm ¢he water, and change the water several 
times until it comes from the seed quite clear ; then sow half of 
the washed seed in a corner of the farm garden, or on some other 
convenient spot, but be careful not to use a rake for covering the 
seed, that had been recently used in the barn or elsewhere amongst 
smutted wheat, or even amongst the straw of that wheat. The 
first part of the wheat being disposed.of, procure some smut balls, 
having no kernels of wheat amongst thein ; break the balls in a 
sample-bag, and put the other half of the washed wheat into the 
same bag ; shake the wheat and the smut powder well together, 
and allow the wheat to remain in the bag one or two days, when 
it will have become dry, and the smut powder have effected the 
inoculation ; then sow that seed upon a spot of ground conti- 
guous, but not immediately adjoining to where the former hand- 
ful of seed had been sown. The reason for not depositing one par- 
cel of seed immediately adjoining to the other is, to guard against 
the probability of the two parcels of seed becoming intermixed, 
through the agency of birds, mice, &c. as an accident of that na- 
ture would render the experiment incomplete ; whereas, if it is 
properly conducted, the result will assuredly be satisfactory : so 
much so, that the produce of the first sample will be without 
smut, and that of the second will be smutted, more or less (pro- 
bably half smut balls) according to the state of the smut powder 
at the time the inoculation was effected. Smut balls taken from 
old wheat are not so liable to communicate the disease, as those 
taken from new wheat: this phenomenon is owing to the S89. 
o 
