CULTURE OF BEETS IN LOMBARDY. 



come much cooled down, and, among other 

 efTects, moisture is depositee! from the lit- 

 tle portion of air, cooled by contact in the 

 immediate vicinity of the bodies. The 

 human body, when exposed offers no ex- 

 ception to the law, and if the circumstanlces 

 of the case are such as to preclude tiie 

 generation copiously of animal heat, the 

 consequences are very serious; persons who 

 incauliously sleep, sentries on duty, &c. 

 become occasionally even victims. When 

 attentively examined in this state, they 

 seem like icicles, cold and wet, shrunk 

 and livid, all the blood has left the super- 

 ficial vessels, and become engorsied in the 

 large veinous trunks; congestion takes 

 place in the brain, producing a state pre- 

 cisely similar to that from apoplexy, 

 which occurs in peisons perishing in 

 snow storms, and 1 have known cases 

 where apoplectic condition has termina- 

 ted in paralysis either of the face or of the 

 limbs, and in one instance in death. When 

 interrogated, those who have suffered 

 slightly from it state the consciousness of 

 extreme cold against which they could 

 not make head, then insensibility to cold, 

 and afterwards a drowsiness, which grad- 

 ually overpowered them: — a descriplion 

 which tallies exactly with that of Banks 

 and Solander, in relation to their suffering 

 from excessive cold in South America, 

 and to which the latter nearly fell a victim 

 The means, also, of recovering them is 

 precisely similar, a gradual approach to 

 natural temperature, with a cautious use 

 of stimulants. Officers on night duty in 

 India, leaving their warm quarters on 

 pickets, Jiave sometimes suffered similarly 

 from the carrying power of the damp 

 air, in which they have been forced to re- 

 main for some time, serious illnesses have 

 been entailed on them. May not this be 

 looked upon as a primary, or at least 

 as an auxiliary agent in the production of 

 agues, from its tendency to lower the ani 

 mal powers? 



From the same. 

 ON THE PROPORTION OF NITROGEN IN DIF- 

 FERENT VARIETIES OP WHEAT. BY M. 

 PATAN. 



The Philomathic Society of Paris hav- 

 ing been consulted by the Agricultural 

 Society of La Marne, concerning the 

 quality of four different kinds of wheat 



which are cultivated in the same manner 

 and on the same lands. M. Payan explain- 

 ed to the society that he had discovered 

 very considerable differences in the pro- 

 portions of the nitrogenous matter, as well 

 as in the distribution of that substance in 

 relation to the mass of perisperm or \\\t 

 integument of the seed. The maximum 

 of gluten and of two other nitrogenous 

 matteis in the varieties which were of 

 moderate hardness, is concentrated in the 

 parts which adhere to the integuments or 

 which approach it the most ; whilst in the 

 centre of the grain the nitrogenous sub- 

 stances are in the smallest proportion. 



The author has also determined the re- 

 lation between the weight of the external 

 integument, and that of the mass of the 

 grain; and finally, he has ascertained that 

 between the most nitrogenous grains, and 

 those which are least so, the proportion of 

 nitrogen varies from 0.022 to 0.029. The 

 varieties thus experimented upon were 

 the Polish wheat, the March wheat, the 

 wheat de. la Trinite and de pays. M. 

 Payan being desirous of investigating, if 

 still greater differences could be found in 

 the hardest corns, and those which are the 

 softest, subjected to analysis the wheat of 

 Taganrock, of Odessa, and of Poland, on 

 tlie one hand, and the whitest wheats 

 that are employed in La Mennerie of 

 Paris on the other; and he found that the 

 former contained from 0.029 to 0.031 of 

 nitrogen, whilst the others only gave from 

 0.019 to 0.020. M. Pay en adds, that he 

 means to continue these researches on the 

 maxima and minima of nitrogen, by pro- 

 curing samples of the hardest corns of 

 southern countries, and the softest that are 

 raised in the northern regions. 



Fi'om the Journal of Uie Franklin Institute. 

 CULTURE OF BEETS IN LOMBARDY. 



There have been some remarkable pe- 

 culiarities in the cultivation of sugar beets 

 in this country during the three past 

 years. Its light and sandy soil suits them 

 well, if the temperature, which under- 

 goes a sudden change on the first rains, do 

 not loo long protract the sowing. Exces- 

 sive droughts are also injurious, causing 

 the portion of the root which is above the 

 ground, to become green ?ind acrid. Irri- 

 gations, so easily made in this country, 

 and so favourable to rice, wheat and corn, 



