110 Scientific Intelligence. [March, 



VI. — Scientific Intelligence. 



[Extracts from European correspondence, communicated 



by G. Swinton, Esq. Calcutta.] 



I. — Burmese Varnish. 



"I have long been putting off writing to you in the hope of being able to give you 

 some intelligence regarding your black varnish, which I was in great hopes would 

 have been considered an important acquisition to the arts, I have however been 

 baffled in all my attempts to get what I should consider a fair trial made of 

 its merits. All the artists employed in the varnishing and japanning business are 

 so wedded to their common routine and to the manipulation of materials which are 

 familiar to them, that I have found great difficulty in getting trials made, and have 

 very little confidence in the statements made to me of the results. I am not losing 

 sight of the matter, however, and have still hopes of getting a trial made on a 

 considerable scale by a great house at Birmingham. The managing partner of 

 this house honestly told me, that although a better varnish than that which they 

 now use were to be offered to them for nothing, they could hardly bring it into 

 use, if it presented any considerable difficulties in its application, as that which is 

 now prepared from Coal-tar, besides being so cheap (2s. per gallon), is easily 

 worked, and produces the most beautiful skin imaginable. The beauty of the 

 higher kinds of papier-mache ware is now very remarkable, and except in 

 some of the gold ornaments, surpasses the best specimens of Chinese manufacture. 

 It has occurred to me that canvas prepared in this way with your varnish would 

 make indestructible grounds (as far as damp is concerned) for oil paintings. 



A varnish has been discovered at Paris, which is used for preparing canvas and 

 oak for painting on ; it is of a most durable nature, and is sold in prepared squares 

 of any dimensions. 



2. — Fishes of the Ganges. 



" I spent some time in Paris this summer, and saw a good deal of M. Cuvier. 

 I used the freedom of mentioning your name to him, and your desire of taking 

 advantage of your position to forward the interests of science. I asked him if 

 there was any particular object in natural history which I might suggest to you 

 as a desideratum, which could be supplied from India. He immediately replied 

 emphatically, " Ah certainement, les poissons d'eau douce ;" he added that some 

 gentlemen in Calcutta had already sent a good many of those of the lower rivers 

 and parts of the country, but that they had no accounts of those of the higher parts. 



3. — Carton-pierre. 



Along with this I shall send a packet containing some letters, which I have 

 received from persons with whom I had correspondence about your specimens. 

 I have added one which I got a few days ago from a civil engineer now in Paris. 

 It contains some account of a substance (Carton-pierre), which I think peculiarly 

 calculated for forming ceilings for Bangalos, and even for the best pucka houses in 

 India ; it forms pannels or compartments of any size, and could with great ease 

 be put up between the beams of the ceiling. The art of making the carton-pierre 

 was lost in France for 300 years : it is as white as marble, but much lighter : there 

 are some curious accounts of it in the Memoirs of the Academy of St. Peters- 

 burg. Its composition is kept a secret here. The following is extracted from a 

 French journal. 



" L'art d'ex^cuter en carton des ornemens de cette substance florissait en France 

 au seizieme siecle. La perfection alaquelle il £tait parvenu a cet £poque est attestee 

 par les beaux plafonds qui decoraient au Louvre les appartemens du Roi Henri II. 



