Miscellanies. A401 
30. Lithographic Stones.—A new locality affording a superior quality 
of lithographic stone has been opened at Belbéze, Haute Garonne, in the 
French Pyrenees. According to M. Leymerie they are inferior to none 
before known, being even superior in hardness to the stone from Munich. 
This locality belongs to the cretaceous formation, while all previously dis- 
covered have been found in the jurassic system of rocks—L Institut, 9 
July, 1845. p. 245. 
dl. On the Leaves of the Coffee Tree as a Substitute for Tea—Prof. 
Blume of Leyden laid before the meeting of naturalists of Bremen sam- 
ples of tea prepared from coffee leaves, which in appearance, odor, and 
taste of the decoction agreed entirely with that from genuine Chinese tea. 
It has long been employed as such by the lower classes in Java and 
Sumatra.—Chem. Gaz., July 15, 1845, p. 299, from Buchner’s Repertor. 
fiir Pharm., xxxvut, p. 34. 
32. Upon Anastatic Printing. (Translated from Dingler’s Polytech- 
nic Journal, June, 1845.)—Prof. Faraday lately delivered a lecture at 
the Royal Institution upon Anastatic printing, the recent discovery which 
enables us to reproduce to an unlimited extent and in a very short time, 
the impressions of any kind of printing, whether ordinary type work, 
engravings on copper, or lithographs. ‘The theory of Anastatic printing 
is based upon the well known properties of the substances employed in 
the process. For instance there is, as we are aware, an attraction in 
water for water; oil, as we know, attracts oil, whereas these two sub- 
stances repel each other. Metals are far more readily moistened by oil 
than by water, but more readily still by a weak solution of gum; and with 
even yet greater facility by water in which phosphoric acid is dissolved. 
In addition to these properties thus possessed by water, oil and the metals, 
the following may be looked upon as the fundamental principle of Anas- 
tatic printing, namely, the facility with which the ink of a newly printed 
book or engraving may be transferred by pressure to another even surface. 
The impression of a recent newspaper, for instance, when laid upon a 
white sheet of paper may be transferred to the latter by pressure, so that 
all its letters will be distinctly reproduced thereupon. This will enable 
us to comprehend readily the process of Anastatic printing. 
The printed paper, be it type or an engraving, is first to be moistened 
with dilute nitric acid and then powerfully pressed by means of a roller 
into the surface of an even zinc plate, by which means every part of the 
sheet is brought into immediate contact with the zinc. The acids with 
which the white portions of the paper are saturated attack the metal, the 
printed portions thereof being simultanéously transferred to its surface, so 
that the zinc plate after this process presents a reversed copy of the printed 
object. The principles above alluded to are now brought to bear. The 
