26 Advantages of discovery to Birmingham. 



Scheele. .Physicians and their patients are receiving 

 the reward of the labours of Soubeiran, Liebig, and 

 Dumas, in the discovery of chloroform ; of the 

 researches of Fourcroy, Vauquelin, Pelletier, and 

 others, in the discovery of quinine ; and of many 

 other chemists who discovered numerous remedial 

 substances. By means of the discoveries of Oer- 

 sted and others, embodied in the telegraph, manu- 

 facturers are enabled to anticipate the state of the 

 markets and of the weather, and editors are enabled 

 to obtain the earliest news. 



Suppose that Gay Lussac, in 1815, had not dis- 

 covered cyanide of potassium, and that it had never 

 been discovered, it is highly probable that the manu- 

 facturing returns of Birmingham and Sheffield would 

 be much less in amount at the present time than 

 they are, simply because there is no other known 

 substance with which the electro-plating of base 

 metals with gold and silver can be satisfactorily 

 effected. Or suppose that sal-ammoniac, chloride 

 of zinc, or other soldering agents had not been dis- 

 covered, the extensive and so-called "galvanizing" 

 process could not have been effected, because without 

 those substances the iron articles immersed in the 

 melted zinc would not have received an adhesive 

 metallic coating. 



On the other hand, science has in various cases 

 rendered obsolete some manufactures and superseded 

 old customs, comforts and conveniences. We have 

 ceased, or almost so, to use tinder-boxes, snuffers, 



