386 Scientific Intelligence. [May, 



germination. From these considerations the following experi- 

 ments were made. 



A number of turkeys were caused to swallow ripe olives ; the 

 dung was collected, containing the kernels of these olives, the 

 whole was placed in a stratum of earth, and was frequently 

 watered. The kernels were found to vegetate, and a number of 

 young plants were procured. In order to produce upon olives 

 an effect similar to that which they experienced from the digestive 

 power of the stomach, a quantity of them was macerated in an 

 alcaline lixivium ; they were then sown, and olive plants were 

 produced from them as in the former experiment. 



This ingenious process may be regarded as a very important 

 discovery, and may be applied to other seeds besides that of the 

 olive, which are, in the same manner, so oily, as that, except 

 under some rare circumstances, the water cannot penetrate 

 them and cause their development. Of this description is the 

 nutmeg, which will seldom vegetate in our stoves ; but which, 

 perhaps, would do so, was it submitted to the action of the 

 stomach, or of the alkaline solution. 



II. On the Gas Blow-Pipe. 



(To Dr. Thomson.) 

 SIR, Glasgow, Nov. 20, 1817. 



If you judge the following ideas worth a place in the Annals 

 of Philosophy, or otherwise useful, they are at your disposal. 



I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



James Watt, M.D. 



The powers and facilities of chemical analysis have been of 

 late much improved. Heat and chemical mixture being the 

 great agents in this analysis, whatever augments those powers, 

 or facilitates their application, must also aid in effecting this 

 process. The powers of the solar burning lens, or mirror, had 

 long ago produced effects far beyond the reach of fuel and 

 furnaces. The expensive nature of this apparatus, however, 

 limited its use, and chemists had to regret that the same zeal 

 and munificence which had been employed to extend the powers 

 of the telescope, had not been also employed to furnish a che- 

 mical instrument of analogous power in the solar lens and mirror. 



The powers of galvanism, as an instrument or aid in analysis, 

 left little room for regret in this respect. The alkalies and 

 several of the earths were decomposed, and their metallic bases 

 discovered. This power, however, is both expensive and of 

 limited application. But though galvanism is so expensive, and 

 capable of operating on only small quantities of matter, its suc- 

 cessful application to chemical analysis was deservedly hailed as 

 marking an era in science, and celebrated over the civilized 

 world. 



So rapid, however, is the progress of improvement, that t he 



