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PART III. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Foreign Notices. 



FRANCE. 



PATENT Ice House at St. Ouen, near Paris. This immense repository 

 is a hundred feet in diameter, and the interior is said to be contrived 

 in a very superior manner to prevent the thawing of the ice, of which it 

 will hold upwards of ten millions of pounds. It has hitherto been supplied 

 from the Seine and the canal of St. Denis, but experiments have been 

 made which prove, that even in the mildest winters the ice establishment 

 of St. Ouen will collect enough from its own territory (probably by ex- 

 posing a thin sheet of water in an isolated porous basin,) to supply a very 

 great consumption. The directors of this establishment have also occupied 

 themselves with plans for rendering the use of ice more commodious, 

 and less expensive to the consumers. Instead of the latter having to send 

 for the ice, it will be sent to them, in vessels calculated to prevent all loss 

 by thawing. They offer to the public, 1 . A fountain, which will preserve 

 wine, water, or other liquids at the temperature of 52° Fahrenheit from 

 morning till evening. 2. Portable ice-vessels, to contain from one hundred 

 to five hundred pounds of ice, and which will preserve it from twelve to 

 fifteen days. £ -3. Refrigerators, for cooling the chambers of sick persons, 

 offices, and workshops. — The glacieres portatives, maybe seen or pur- 

 chased at Paris, rue Neuve-Saint-Augustin, No. 3. {Revue Encycl. Avril, 

 1826. p. 264.) 



Paragreles. A report on this invention has been made to the Academy 

 of Sciences at Paris, which is favourable to their utility. "A society of 

 assurance against the effects of hail is already formed on the faith of the 

 success of paragreles. (Bull, des Sciences Agricoles. Juil. 1826, p. 61.) 



Copperas. This metallic salt is known to be poisonous to plants ; so 

 much so that it is said the roots of weeds may be killed by mowing them 

 with a scythe, the blade of which has been sharpened with a stone pre- 

 viously steeped in sulphate of iron. We notice this as a specimen of 

 absurdity founded in fact. (See Bull, de la Soc. d'Agric. de VHerault. Mai t 

 1825, p. 163.) If weeds can be so killed, then ground may be manured by 

 being dug with a spade stuck every now and then in a dunghill. 



To destroy the weevil among corn. Lay fleeces of wool, which have not 

 been scoured, on the grain ; the oily matter attracts the insects among the 

 wool where they soon die, from what cause is not exactly known. M. B.C. 

 Payrandeau related to the Philomathic Society of Paris, that his father had 

 made the discovery in 1811, and had practised it on a large scale since. 

 (Bull, des Sciences Agricoles, Juitt. 1826, p. 24.) 



A Society for the Amelioration of Domestic Animals has been proposed 

 by M. Senae, Editor of the Bulletin des Sciences Agricoles. (See that Work 

 for May, 1826, p. 303.) 



An Agricultural Establishment under the patronage of the king, and 

 the administration of a council of ten persons, has been formed for the 



