126 



COUNTERFEIT COINS. 



tuce, and most of the other lactucas yield 

 a milky juice, which when inspissated has 

 the characters of opium, and probably con- 

 tains the same narcotic principle. 



11. The hitter principle is very ex- 

 tensively diffused in the vegetable king- 

 dom; it is found abundantly in the hop 

 {Humiuhts lupilus ;) in the common 

 broom {^Spartiinn scopariimi;) in the 

 chamomile [Jintheniis noblis ;) and in 

 quassia, amara, and exrelsa. It is ob- 

 tained from those substances by the action 

 of water or alcohol, and evaporation. It 

 is usually of a pale yellow color; its taste 

 is intensely bitter. It is very soluble, 

 both in water and alcohol, and has little 

 or no action on alkaline, acid, saline or 

 metallic solution. An artificial substance, 

 similar to the bitter principle, has been 

 obtained by digesting diluted nitric acid, 

 on silk, indigo, and the wood of the white 

 willow. This substance has the property 

 of dying cloth of a bright yellow color; it 

 differs from the natural bitter principle in 

 its power of combining with the alkalies; 

 in union with the fixed alkalies it consti- 

 tutes crystallized bodies, which have the 

 property of detonating by heat or per- 

 cussion. 



The natural bitter principle is of great 

 importance in the art of brewing; it checks 

 fermentation, and preserves fermented 

 liquors; it is likewise used in medicine. 



The bitter principle, like the narcotic 

 principle, appears to consist principally 

 of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a 

 little azote. 



12. Wax is found in a number of 

 vegetables; it is procured in abundance 

 from the berries of the wax-myrtle [My- 

 rica cerifera,) it may be likewise obtained 

 from the leaves of many trees; in its pure 

 state it is white. Its specific gravity is 

 9.662; it melts at 155 degrees; it is dis- 

 solved by boiling alcohol, but it is not 

 acted upon by cold alcohol; it is insoluble 

 in water; its properties as a combustible 

 body are well known. 



The wax of the vegetable kingdom 

 seems to be precisely of the same nature 

 as that afforded by the bee. 



From the experiments of M.M. Gay 

 Lussac and Thenard it appears that 100 

 parts of wax consist of — 



Carbon 81.784 



Oxogen 5.544 



Hydrogen 12.672 

 or otherwise. Carbon 81.784 



Oxygen and hydrogen in 

 the proportions neces- 

 sary to form water 6. 300 

 Hydrogen 11.916— which 

 agrees very nearly with 37 proportions 

 of hydrogen, 21 of charcoal, 1 of oxygen. 



Fly {Hessian or wheat). — The follow- 

 ing are the remarks of Joseph Cooper, 

 Esq., of New Jersey, on the subject of 

 guarding wheat from this insect; after 

 stating the advantages of late sowing in 

 fertile soil, he says: 



"/«?72 convinced, from the above and 

 other experiments, that if the farm,ers 

 all through a neighbourhood would 

 prevent us much us possible such grain 

 as is nutritive to the Hessian Fly from 

 vegetating in the period between harvest 

 and. the latter end of September, have 

 their land in a good state of cultivation, 

 and sow about the beginning of Oc- 

 tober, or even later, and of the kind of 

 grain which comes forward most rapid- 

 ly in the spring, they loould receive 

 little injury from wheat fly;^^ and as the 

 early Virginia wheat was produced from 

 a plant selected by an observant farmer 

 from his other wheat, there is no doubt 

 that other sorts of grain might be im- 

 proved by a selection of such particular 

 plants as ripen earliest and are superior 

 in other respects. 



EASY METHOD OF DETECTING THE COUNTER- 

 FEIT COIN NOW IN CIRCULATION. 



The following simple experiment, which 

 has laid the foundation of one of the most 

 splendid of modern sciences, readily ena- 

 bles any person to discover spurious coin. 

 Take a clean slip of common sheet zinc, 

 about two inches by one-half, and lay it 

 upon the tongue; place a genuine silver 

 coin under the tongue, and on bringing 

 the silver and zinc together a pungent 

 and disagreeable taste will be perceived. 

 Substitute now a coin suspected to be 

 counterfeit in place of the genuine coin, 

 and a very slight, if any, taste will be per- 

 ceived. The false coin of half dollars, 

 dimes, and half dimes, is made mostly of 



