«C1ENTIFIC NEW3, HS^ 



foreign opium. I recommend the poppy seeds to be sown 

 in March, in drills. 



Beside the advantages from the poppy heads as a medi- and for oil. 

 cine, the seeds y>eld a valuable oil. Two pouuds of the 

 seeds furnish by expression seven ounces of a pure bland 

 oil, useful for portrait painting and other purposes. It has 

 been proved in Holland to be equal in quality to fine salad 

 or olive oil, and it would probably be advantageous to pro- 

 pagate largely so valuable a plant*. 



I am. Sir, your humble servant, 



SPENCER COCHRANE. 



I, 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 

 Decomposition of the Earths* 



.N a paper lately read before the Royal Society Mr. Davy Metals obtain- 

 has detailed a number of experiments, made by means of ed from most 

 Voltaic electricity, on the common and alkaline earths, °^*^h^^'^'*is, 

 by which he has succeeded in effectuig their decomposi- 

 tion, and obtaining metals from most of these refractory 

 bodies. 



His method of decomposing the alkaline earths is by elec- Revived in al- 

 trifying inixtures of them and metallic oxides, such as those loys by mixing 

 of quicksilver, silver, and tin. The common metals and ^ith metallic 

 the metals of the earths are revived together in alloy. oxides. 



He has succeeded in obtaining the pure metals of barytes g r , ^ 

 and strontites, by distilling their amalgams: and in the j^tes&stron' 

 same way has procured the metals of lime and of magnesia tkes. 

 nearly pure. Limeandmag 



He has obtained marks of the decomposition of alumine "esia. 

 and silex, by electrifying mixtures •f these earths and pot- ^i "^J"'"^ ^'^'^ 

 ash, but has not yet succeeded in obtaining their metals pure. 



Mr. Davy has repeated a remarkable experiment of Hidrogen and 

 Messrs. Berzelius and Pontin, of Stockholm, from which it nitrogen form 

 appears, that hidrogen and nitrogen are capable of com- ^'^ amalgam 

 bining with quicksilver, and of forming with it a metallic ^'* mercury, 

 amalgam, which by oxidation produces ammonia. 



Mr. George Singer will commence his lectures at the Lectures ori the 

 Scientific Institution, No. 3, Princes Street, Cavendish nature, use, & 

 Square, early in November, with an extensive course, on P^^P^^^^ 

 the nature, use, and properties, of the atmosphere, an his- 

 torical sketch of the progress of atmospherical discovery, 

 and an experimental elucidation of every interesting pheno- 

 menon dependent on the agency of air, including pneuma- 

 tics, hydrostatics, natural chemistry, and meteorology, il- 

 lustrated by an extensive and appropriate apparatus. 



* Qn this subject see our Journal, vol, XIX, p. 2^2. 



