1834.] Miscellaneous. 595 



Every one must have remarked, that silk dresses imbihe a powerful odour, from 

 which cotton ones are comparatively free : — woollen cloth appears to be interme- 

 diate. The intensity of the smell however must evidently depend on the celerity with 

 which adours are given out, not imbibed : to this third point therefore the author 

 gave his last attention, and it was satisfactory to find that the radiation, if it may 

 be so termed, of odours obeyed exactly the same law as its absorption. Thus, 

 the sets of cards, after having been exposed as above to the vapour of cam- 

 phor and weighed, were left in an open apartment for 24 hours ; the losses sustain- 

 ed were in the following ratio. 



Exp. 1. Experiment 2. 



Black lost 1,0 



Dark-blue 1,0 0,9 <£ | 0,03 J§ g 0,87 



Dark-brown 0,9 J 0,8 -go 0,1. *" & 3 0,70 



Orange red 0,8 f 0,6 a "2 0,2. S * * 0,40 



Yellow | 0,5 g^ 0,1, g'S 8 0,40 



White 0,5.. 0,4 § £ 0,3. |o| 0,10 



The practical conclusions to be derived from this valuable train of observations 

 are numerous. The use of airing clothes and linen : — the advantages of wearing 

 light-coloured and especially white dresses i ■ all countries where contagion is rife ; 

 — the danger of close assemblies of sombre costumes ; such as courts of justice, fu- 

 nerals, &c: — the advantages of white-washing walls ; are all too palpable to need 

 comment. Dr, Stark gives instances of the baneful effect of black dress in ab- 

 sorbing the hurtful emanations of fever patients in a public hospital : and he cites 

 the sessions of Oxford in 1577, where the smell of the jail imbibedfrom the numer- 

 ous prisoners caused the death of the judges and several of the black-robed coun- 

 sellors. At the Old Bailey, in 1750, four judges, three or four counsel, the under 

 sheriff, several of the jury, in all forty persons were attacked and died of jail fever, 

 imbibed in a similar way. May it not be from an experience of the unfitness of 

 dark dresses for hot climates that they are so seldom seen among the natives, and 

 may not their healthiness and freedom from plague be attributable in part to this 

 cause as well as to the cleanliness wisely prescribed by their lawgivers ? Certainly it 

 would behighly agreeable to the temperament of Europeans in this country were some 

 wholesome regulation promulgated, dispensing with sable habiliments under all cir- 

 cumstances. The offensive odour they exhale, as well as imbibe — the impossibili- 

 ty of washing them — their imparting a stain to other clothes, and to the body, wben 

 •n a state of moisture, render them disagreeable alike to the spectator and to the wear- 

 er. The disciples of Hygeia in this country have long since lain aside their Europe- 

 an livery, and there seems no reason why the other twain of the " three black sis- 

 ters, law, physic, and divinity," should not extend the same indulgence to their 

 votaries of the cloth and of the gown, whose occupations peculiarly expose them to 

 the pernicious influences of bad air and crowded assemblies. 



2. — Chinese Method of making Gongs and Cymbals. 



[Extracted from the Chinese Encyclopedia called Tian-kong-kai-we, by Stanislas 

 Jdlien. Annales de Chimie, Nov. 1833.] 



' Copper, for musical instruments, must be alloyed with pure mountain tin, per- 

 fectly devoid of lead. The proportion for gongs* (to) is eight lbs. of copper and two 

 * The French word is tam-tam, but in India we understand by that expression a 

 native drum. — Ed. 



