130 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF IRON. 



bor required in the present process of 

 brick-making, and consequently to re- 

 duce the price at which they can be af- 

 forded; a circumstance of great public 

 importance. We therefore recommend 

 its adoption wherever it can be conve- 

 niently used. 



any appearance of germination, and pos- 

 sessing their original freshness, firmness, 

 goodness, and taste. 



Poppy, a Preventive of the Wheat 

 Fly. — S. Beden of Michigan in a letter 

 to the editor of the Cultivator, recom- 

 mends the common poppy to be sown, 

 METHODOF APPLYING A FILTERING-STONE I either in the fall or early in the spring, 



FOR PURIFYING WATER. 

 By Mr. William Moult. — Trans. Society of Arts, vol. 28. 



The method of using the filtering stone 

 which is here proposed is that of placing 

 it in the water to be purified, by which 

 means the water presses against the out- 

 side of the filter, and, oozing through its 

 pores, fills the stone, from which it is to 

 be conveyed into a proper receptacle. In 

 the drawing of the apparatus which Mr. 

 Moult sent to the society, the stone is 

 suspended in the cistern by a ring round 

 the inside of it, upon which a projecting 

 part round the top of the stone rests. 

 " By this mode of filtration, the impuri- 

 ties of the water are deposited in the bottom 

 of the cistern, instead of being left in the 

 bottom of the stone, as in the usual mode." 

 Mr. Moult also states, that double the 

 quantity of pure water is procured by 

 this method in the same time; and that 

 he has used an apparatus of this kind with 

 great success for more than three years. 



Observations. — The above may be con- 

 sidered in many respects as operating 

 upon the same principle as filtering by 

 ascent, which is highly preferable to that 

 in common use, in which the filtration is 

 performed in a contrary direction. 



The Society voted to Mr. Moult a sil- 

 ver medal for the above communication. 



Retrospect. 



among wheat, as a preventive of injury 

 from fly ; and states, that, for twenty years, 

 he has sown poppies in his garden, and 

 where they were, he had not been troubled 

 with fly, bug, nor insect, on any vegetable 

 even in his field, among his wortzell and 

 ruta bagas. 



The common poppies have prevented 

 the ravages of all flies, bugs, and insects. 

 He also gives it as his opinion, that grain 

 soaked in brine, and then rolled in wood 

 ashes, would be protected from the in- 

 sect; and that ashes is preferable to lime 

 for this purpose. 



USEFUL EFFECTS OF IODINE AS A 

 MEDICINE. 



Dr. Cotndet has been employing Iodine 

 in the treatment of goitres and scrofulo 

 with a success surpassing his most san- 

 guine hopes. 



It is introduced into the system by 

 means of rubbing, in the same manner as 

 other mineral ointments — out of twenty- 

 two patients, who had all very large 

 goitres — half of them were completely 

 cured in the space of from four to six 

 weeks, and the others in a greater or less 

 degree. — Reg. %/lrts. and Sci. 



THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE I\ PRESERV- 

 ING VEGETABLES. 



Potatoes at the depth of one foot in the 

 ground, produce shoots near the end of 

 spring ; at the depth of two feet they are 

 very short and never come to the surface, 

 and between three and five feet cease to 

 vegetate. In consequence of observing 

 these effects, several parcels of potatoes 

 were buried in a garden at the depth of 

 three feet and a half, and were not re- 

 moved till after intervals of one and two 

 years. They were then found without 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF IRON. 



Iron is one of the most valuable articles 

 of the Materia Medica. The protoxide 

 acts as a genial stimulant and tonic in all 

 cases of chronic debility, not connected 

 with organic congestion or inflammation. 

 It is peculiarly efficacious in chlorosis. — 

 It appears to me that the peroxide and 

 its combinations are almost uniformly 

 irritating, causing heart burn, febrile heat, 

 and quickness of pulse. Many chalybeate 

 mineral waters contain an exceedingly 

 minute quantity of protocarbonate of 

 iron, and yet exercise an astonishing 

 power in recruiting the exhausted frame. 

 I believe their virtues to be derived 



