Retrospective Criticism. 231 



the injury done to the flowers by the fall into their florets of the heavy 

 drops of warm water which fall from the surface of the flat horizontal plate 

 when the sun is bright upon it ; by giving to the roof a pitch of about ] 3°, 

 the same plate which now forms the flat ceiling will, when cut lengthways 

 into two, admit of a ridge pole or astragal of suflicient strength to carry the 

 plates securely. I hope the little work you mentioned as being in prepa- 

 ration by Mr. Ward will soon appear. I find that Mr. Maconochie (son of 

 Lord Meadowbank) has during nearly 15 years been making experiments on 

 plants in glass cases, and has at present plant cases and their contents of 

 nearly that standing ; he is going to write a communication on the subject 

 to be read to the Royal Society. I shall not fail to send you an abstract of 

 It. — John Robison. Edinburgh, March 5. 1840. 



Braithwaite's Kitchen-Tlange. — A friend has handed me your valuable and 

 extensively circulated Magazine of January last, in which, at p. 40., you have 

 unintentionally given an account of a cooking apparatus exhibited here, 

 which is so erroneous, as to have a tendency to prejudice the pubhc against 

 its adoption ; the account bears the address of W.Wild, Hertford, Dec. 1839. 

 I trust you will kindly make a counter statement, particularly as regards 

 the means of roasting (the extract stating " that the means are dispensed 

 with," which I take to imply that the apparatus will only bake) ; the ovens 

 are Roasting Ovens, upon the same principle as that described in your No. 

 for December, 1839, p. 727., differing only in having the proceeds of com- 

 bustion to descend and pass under them, before going into the chimney, 

 instead of passing directly upwards ; the same small fire working both the hot 

 plate and boilers, as well as communicating sufficient heat to the closets 

 below, before its exit. The chief novelty in the apparatus is, that the upper 

 flues and sides of the ovens next the fire are coated with Stourbridge bricks, 

 which not only modify and equalise the heat, but retain it ; by which a most 

 important saving of fuel is effected, the apparatus being capable of cooking 

 more than double the quantity that any range of its size can do, at consider- 

 ably less expense of fuel, as well as being more cleanly and more easily 

 worked. — G. M. Braithivaite. White Lion Court, Cornhill, Feb. 26. 1840. 



Vilnius fulva, the slippery Elm, J;-5. Brit., vol. iii. p. 1407. — In my opinion, 

 the inner bark of the branches of this tree ranks as the first demulcent in the 

 American materia medica ; and, as long since as the year 1803, I proclaimed 

 its merits, in an article added to that on the elm, in ray edition of Dr. Wil- 

 lich's Domestic Encyclopcsdia (of which a large edition was sold), and also in 

 the Philadelphia Medical Museum, vol. i., in which I noticed it among other me- 

 dicinal trees and shrubs, natives of the United States. Since that, the delight- 

 ful mucilage of the inner bark has been extensively used, in cases where 

 a powerful emollient was required. Nothing can equal a poultice of the 

 pounded bark with water, to bring a gunshot wound to a healthy suppura- 

 tion. The Indians taught the frontier medical men this secret, and they 

 informed the United States' army surgeons, from whom I acquired the know- 

 ledge of the remedy in this case. In dysentery it is eminently beneficial, and 

 operates like a charm ; and yet, with the most ample public testimony in its 

 favour, the editor of the materia medica part of the American Dispensatory 

 speaks slightingly of it ; a full proof that he has had no experience of its good 

 qualities, I will send you a packet of the powdered bark, that you may try it 

 in catarrhs and bowel complaints, as a poultice to hasten the maturation of 

 boils, and as a wash in inflamed eyes. — J. Mease. Philadelphia, Nov. 1. 1839. 



Vopuliis grcB'ca. — In the Arb. Brit., vol. iii. p. 1631., you say : " According 

 to the Nouv. Du Hamel, it is stated by some to be a native of North America, 

 and more particularly of a township there named Athens." There are eleven 

 post towns in the United States dignified with the name Athens, and doubt- 

 less others, with several townshifjs (as I know). The tree may have ob- 

 tained its name from growing abundantly at a village on the Mississippi called 

 Athens, as unlike the Athens of old as possible. I presume this tree was intro- 

 duced into the Atlantic States from the West ; but when, and by whom, I am 



