466 Scientific Intelligence. [Dec. 



given of the rules, according to which fruit trees ought to be 

 trained and pruned in the Netherlands, in order to increase and. 

 improve their produce ; and what are the physical principles on 

 which these rules are founded ? " 



Article X. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE, AND NOTICES OF SUBJECTS 

 CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE. 



I. Gelatine from Bones. By Mr. John Murray. 



(To Dr. Thomson.) 

 SIR, 



You are aware that the French have laid claim to the first 

 extraction of gelatine from bones by the aid of diluted mu- 

 riatic acid, and its employment as a nutritious aliment in hos- 

 pitals, Sec. Signer Carlo di Gimbernat, Counsellor of Legation 

 to the King of Bavaria, however, assured me that the first sug- 

 gestion was made by him, and carried into efl:'ect during the 

 siege of Strasburgh. The besieged were hence enabled to 

 extend their resistance beyond that period to Avhich they had 

 seemed reduced by the horrors of famine. It is but justice to 

 award the merit where it is due. 



II. Naphtha in Coal. By the Same. 



In your very interesting researches on coal and its varieties, 

 you state it as your opinion that naphtha is a proximate produce 

 of coal, and exists in coal gas. Mr. Intow, of Intow Hall, put 

 into my hands a specimen of quartzy sandstone, which had 

 been obtained from a considerable depth in one of the White- 

 haven collieries, and on which the coal was incumbent. This, 

 when broken, or abraded, exhaled the peculiar smell of naphtha, 

 and yields that substance on distillation. 



III. Primitive Conglomerate. By the Same. 



I have not witnessed for a long time any geological pheno- 

 mena that have interested me more than the primitive conglo- 

 merate near the " General's Hut," on the road from Inverness 

 to Fort Augustus. I call it primitive, for the cement is well- 

 defined granite, and the enclosed pebbles are variously sized 

 masses of granite, mica slate, quartz, &c. The imbedded nodules 

 must have undergone attrition by water, and it seems difficult, if 

 not impossible, to conceive that the materials of the paste could 

 have been consolidated otherwise than by the agency of water. 

 It appears to me powerfully conclusive as to the aqueous forma- 



