VOL. XXXVUI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 663 



sp. of wine, provided that the ambergris be broken into small pieces, and that 

 the alkohol be subjected to a degree of heat sufficient to make it boil. In this 

 manner he found that 9ij of pure ambergris might be dissolved in fj of highly 

 rectified sp. of wine. By distillation he obtained from 3i of ambergris 9iiss of 

 oil, 5 grs. of water and 1 grs. of salt. The powdery residuum amounted to 

 about 1 gr. In this operation there was a loss of 1 grs. 



Dr. N. subjoins a remark respecting the white suetty matter commonly de- 

 posited by the spirituous solution, or tincture of ambergris, and which Lemery 

 supposed to be wax. Dr. N. says, that this deposition, or precipitation, only 

 happens when a part of the alkohol evaporates, in consequence of the bottle, in 

 which the solution or tincture is kept, being only i or 3 parts full, or being 

 provided with a stopple that does not closely fit; and that the precipitate itself 

 is pure ambergris.* 



On Ambergris. By Caspar Newman, M. D. Professor of Chemistry, at Berlin, 



and F. R. S. Part. II. N° 434, p. 37 1 . 



The substance of this paper has been incorporated with the abstract above given. 



An Account of a New Engine for raising Water. By f falter Churcliman, the 

 Inventor of it. N° 434, p. 402. 



In this engine, the horses draw horizontally in a straight line, and at right 

 angles, by which they exert their utmost force. By these advantages a far 

 greater power is gained from their strength, than by their going round in a 

 circle; for by the twist and acuteness of the angles, they draw in towards the 

 centre, which wastes their power, and also shortens their levers: besides, their 

 muscles and tendons, from their hinder legs all along their sides to their necks, 

 are unequally strained, as the duty is liarder on one side, even though their 

 walk be large. So that each of those inconveniencies must be attended with 

 pain to the animals when at work, and a great loss of their strength. 



A crank does not rise quite -i- of its circle ; neither do the regulators or rods 

 rise or fall perpendicularly, but obliquely, by which an oval figure is made by the 

 piston's motion in every cylinder, which occasions great friction and a loss of 

 water, and every arm of it is continually varying in its power while working, 

 as its lever is distant from the perpendicular line, and two of the arms (sup- 

 posing it a quadruple one) as they cross the perpendicular, are always drawing 

 to and from their own centre; by which the power is not only lost, but the time 

 also ; and further, by the shortness of the strokes, all the adjacent water is 



* According to Mr. B Lagrange, who has recently analyzed ambergris (Ann. de Chimie, Vol. 4.7 ), 

 the abovementioned precipitate consists oi what is termed by the French chemists adipocire. 



