1825.] New Scientific Books. 317 



air, when the fihii is in its usual state ; and from this circum- 

 stance it derives that peculiar softness which renders it so well 

 adapted for the purposes to which it is applied. When the film 

 is exposed to polarised hght, the longitudinal septa of the cells 

 depolarise the light like other vegetable membranes. 

 ''• Among the three specimens of rice paper which I have pro- 

 duced, there is one from which all the air has been expelled by 

 the boiling oil ; another in which some of the air bubbles still 

 appear in the vesicles, the air having been only partially expelled 

 by boiling water ; and a third, which is in contact with water, 

 without having been deprived of any of its air bubbles. 



Upon mentioning to Mr. Neill the preceding experiments, he 

 informed me that the lady in Edinburgh, Miss Jack, who had 

 employed rice paper with such success in the manufacture of 

 artificial flowers, had learned from her brother, who was in 

 China, that it was a membrane of the bread fruit tree, the arto- 

 carpus incisifolia of naturaUsts. — (Edinb. Journal of Science.) 



Article XIII. 

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