14 Mensiruum for Biting-in ow Steel Piute. 
ien, or to have cotton for its hasis, and silk for its outside.— 
Ibid. 
43. English Opium.—'i he cultivation of the poppy for 
the manufacture of opium, continues to be prosecuted with 
success in England. It was mentioned in Vol. VIII of this 
Journal, that Messrs. Cowley & Staines, of Winslow, in the 
year 1822, raised one hundred and forty-three pounds of 
opium from eleven acres and five poles of land. Inthe year 
1823 the same gentlemen raised one hundred and ninety-six 
pounds of opium froma little more than twelve acres of land. 
The English opium continues to be generally approved by 
the medical profession and now sells at two shillings per 
yound above the best foreign. The soil on which the poppy 
is most advantageously raised, consists of a good loam; and 
a porous sub-soil is deemed a circumstance of prime impor- 
tance ; it being observed that however good a soil may ap- 
pear, if it be situated immediately above clay, no profit can 
be extracted from it by the growth of poppies. A tolerably 
correct idea of the fitness of any particular soil for the growth 
of poppies may generally be formed by observing the shape 
in which it produces the capsules of the poppies. On suita- 
ble land they generally assume the oblate spheriod form, 
while in unfavourable situations they constantly degenerate 
roto an oval shape, an accident which may usually be traced 
to disease of the root; and which invariably diminishes the 
product of opium, and, in a lesser degree, that of seed also.— 
‘Trans. Soc. Arts, Man. and Com. Lond. Vol. XLII. 
43. Menstruum for Biting-in on Steel Plate.—A gold 
medal has been presented by the society for the encourage- 
ment of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, to Mr. E. Tur- 
rell, for his Menstruum for biting-in on steel plate. The di- 
rections for preparing this menstruum are: Take four parts, 
by measure, of the strongest pyroligneous acid, and one part 
of alcohol; mix these together and agitate them gently for 
about halfa minute; then add one part of pure nitric acid ; 
and when the whole are thoroughly mixed, the menstruum is 
fit to be poured upon the etched steel plate.—J/bal. 
Ce 
