AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 263 



tWs, however, I can obtain from friends in China, and will do so, 

 if deemed desirable. Very respectfully, 



RICH'D T. ALLISON, 

 Purser, U. S. Navy. 

 To Henry Meigs, Secretary. 



William Benjamin presented a tin case of fresh salmon which 

 he has been possessed of. about five years. On examination the 

 salmon was found to be entirely unchanged, and as fresh as on 

 the day it was'encased. A valuable evidence of the destructive 

 power of common air, which in warm weather in three days would 

 have corrupted the fish, but shut out, the fish has kept its exact 

 condition for more than eighteen hundred days. Mr. Benjamin 

 has, in the pursuance of his mercantile business, crossed the 

 Atlantic ocean forty. tilhes^ and generally provided with a conve- 

 nient conservative stock of eatables to go through accidents 

 with! 



MUSCAN HAIR. 



A new article for mattrasses was exhibited by A. S. Jones of 

 this city, which is manufactured from the long moss, or, as it is 

 sometimes called, Spanish Moss, which has been used for the pur- 

 pose, with but little preparation, ever since this country was 

 settled. The moss grows in unmeasured abundance upon the 

 lowland forests of several of the southern states. The objection 

 to it is that it cannot be freed from its inner bark, which wears 

 off by constant attrition, and forms a fine dust. Its advantage is 

 that it never harbors vermin, is perfectly inodorous, and entirely 

 free from any animal impurities, such as sometimes get in with 

 hair. In the present process of manufacturing the moss, which 

 has commenced upon a large scale in this city, under a patent 

 process, the fine, black, hair-like fibre of the moss is freed from 

 its covering by steeping in some mineral solution, and afterward 

 in a solution charged with iron, that gives it a glossy black 

 appearance, like iron threads, and being very curly when dried, 

 it is one of the most elastic, cleanly, durable and bug-proof mate- 

 rials for beds, and withal very cheap, the present price being $18 

 a ewt Mr. Jones stated that a sample was sent to a house in 



