606 Earthenware. 



Dr. O'Shatjghnessy's Experiments on Pottery. 



Along with the foregoing papers we also received a pamphlet en- 

 titled, " On the Improvement of Bengal Pottery, by W. B. O'Shaugh- 

 nessy, M. D. Assistant Surgeon," from which we learn that four parts 

 of Colgong Khari, and one part of the Saloon Muttee of the same place 

 afford a good stoneware, which may be glazed with borate of lime, 

 and thus made to supersede the imported earthenware. 



In our endeavours to see the stoneware thus made, we were only 

 fortunate enough to obtain inspection of a single specimen, and that 

 a very small eight ounce jar ; which, for ought we have been able to 

 learn, seems to be the only one manufactured. Nor is there any 

 thing to shew or explain why, after having discovered the right pro- 

 portion of his materials, and the proper method of treating them, 

 the Doctor did not make at least several jars, large and small, of the 

 different kinds required ; particularly as he was provided, as appears 

 from his pamphlet, with all the necessary practical resources for 

 doing so. The furnace erected for these experiments cost 650 rupees, 

 and there was probably an equal outlay for mixing vats and other 

 similar appliances on a large scale, which ought to have enabled the 

 experimenter, with the aid of the workman who we also learn from the 

 pamphlet was employed under his orders, to have produced results of 

 corresponding proportions. He has not done this, and it would be 

 impossible for any one else to follow up his experiments without in- 

 curring the same preliminary expense as if no previous trial whatever 

 had been made. The next conclusion, and indeed the only other to 

 be gleaned from Dr. O'Shaughnessy's pamphlet, is the following, 

 which we purposely print in italics, because it appears to be at variance 

 with the results which follow, and which were obtained in another 

 quarter. " To glaze the common Kedgeree ware of Bengal, I look 

 upon as a vain attempt. It is so fusible itself that no glaze but 

 one containing an unusually large proportion of lead could be employed 

 at all." 



Experiments made at the Honorable Company's Dispensary , Calcutta, 

 to obtain common earthen Jars. 



The jars required for the issue of medical stores, and which it was 

 the object of the Medical Board to have provided when the sub- 



