'^14! General Notices. 



On the Preparation of Timber hy M. Boucherie's Method. — All the journals 

 have been much occupied with the valuable discovery of M. Boucherie. It is 

 known that this physician has endeavoured to profit by the vitality which re- 

 mains in trees for a short time after they have been cut down, to make them 

 absorb liquids which penetrate with facility through their wood, and, that by 

 making use of conservative liquids, he has communicated very important pro- 

 perties to the timber ; but this method, however good it might be, had this 

 disadvantage, that it could only be put in practice at certain seasons of the 

 year, when the trees manifested the greatest vital activity. M. Boucherie now 

 announces to the Academy that he has found a very simple method, which 

 allows of his making use of his preparations at all seasons. According to his 

 new method, the liquid which is to be absorbed is poured on one of the ends 

 of a piece of wood recently cut, and after a longer or shorter period of time, 

 according to the sort of wood operated on, the liquids peculiar to this wood 

 are first seen to flow out of it at the lower extremity, and the preparation is 

 complete when the liquid used for filtrating appears at the same end. This 

 fortunate discovery is attended with excellent results ; as, by making use of 

 this method, the liquids peculiar to trees, such as resins, for example, may be 

 extracted with great facility, and without losing anything ; thus, M. Boucherie 

 says in his letter, that in one day, by operating on two trees, he was enabled, 

 with the assistance of two workmen, to extract 4830 quarts (litres) of liquid. 

 M. Arago further states that M. Boucherie affirms that the wood which had 

 absorbed liquids saturated with salts of iron presented a much greater re- 

 sistance to projectiles impelled by gunpowder. We shall conclude what 

 relates to M. Boucherie, by saying that he has found the means of making fruit 

 absorb liquids, which he had not hitherto been able to do. To obtain this 

 result, it is only necessary to place the fruit in a medium entirely deprived of 

 humidity ; by this means M. Boucherie has been able to make certain sorts of 

 fruit absorb a great quantity of sweetened water, (ie Temps, Feb. 1841.) 



Disinfecting Night-Soil and Stable-Dtmg. — Mr. Brabyn, in a communication 

 to the Royal CornivaU Gazette, has pointed out the disadvantage of the com- 

 mon practice of mixing lime with night-soil, in order to render the latter a 

 valuable manure. He states that by this process the anmioniacal salt, Avhich 

 constitutes one of the most valuable parts of the night-soil, is decomposed ; 

 the lime robs it of its carbonic acid, and caustic ammonia, a still more vola- 

 tile compound, flies off in gas : thus we have got rid of all the nitrogen the 

 organic compound contained, and the efficiency of the night-soil is greatly 

 impaired. Mr. Brabyn recommends the following process : — To every 100 lb. 

 of night-soil, add 7 lb. of sulphate of lime (gypsum) in powder. A double 

 decomposition will ensue; and the result will be, instead of sulphate of 

 lime and carbonate of ammonia, carbonate of lime and sulphate of ammonia, 

 the latter a soluble salt which cannot be volatilised. It might now be mixed 

 with other compost, or dried in any way thought proper, and applied to the 

 root of the vegetable. I would also suggest that the floors of stables be 

 strewed from time to time with a little sulphate of lime, whereby they will 

 lose all their offensive smell, and none of the ammonia which forms can be 

 lost, but retained in a condition serviceable as manure. In close stables the 

 horses' health would be better preserved, and they would not be so liable to 

 get blind as now. {Gard. Chron., March 20. p. 183.) 



Hoarfrost. — " On the localities affected by hoarfrost, the peculiar 

 currents of air affected by it, and the temperature during its occurrence at 

 high and low stations," by J. Farquharson, LL.D., was resumed and con- 

 cluded. The author states that he has been accustomed, for the last forty 

 years, to make observations on the occurrence of hoarfrost, and the circum- 

 stances under which it takes place, with a view of obtaining a correct 

 explanation of the causes of that phenomenon. It is well known, he observes, 

 that the localities chiefly affected with hoarfrost are the bottoms of valleys, 

 and land-locked places of all kinds, whether natural or artificial. The alti- 



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