Dec. 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 237 



buildings in the centre of the whole plan, engaged with the middle one 

 of the three cross or connecting ranges of building. The upper porticn 

 of the theatre will be seen, over and beyond the screen, from the Crom- 

 well road. This group and range are now in course of erection, and, 

 while the design repeats the character of the residences, Captain Fowke 

 is using terra-cotta for the cornices and strings where he had in the 

 previous case employed Portland stone. The terra-cotta is unusually free 

 from the defects of burning ; and while in the first-built front the stone 

 is much discoloured, the other material maintains its original character. 

 Few architects have seen this front. It deserves attention, not only from 

 the use of terra-cotta, but from the general decorative result of the 

 design. Other work in progress is that of a range of buildings skirting 

 the eastern side of the ground where the separate entrance to the 

 National Gallery is. 



What " Brocade " is. — Originally this term was applied only to 

 those silks into which gold or silver threads, or a mixture of these, were 

 interwoven. r lhey were highly esteemed by our ancestors, but now 

 their use has been discontinued. The richest brocades appear to have 

 been made in Italy, where an extensive manufactory was carried on in 

 the thirteenth century. In the manufacture of gold brocade a silver 

 wire is gilt, drawn out to a great fineness, and flattened. This is twisted 

 around a silk thread, dyed of a colour as near as possible to the metal, 

 and interwoven in the fabric. Latterly the term brocade has been applied 

 to rich stuffs adorned with raised flowers, foliage, or other ornaments. The 

 plan of introducing metals into the composition of fabrics was a taste 

 originally Oriental, where a love of rich and splendid stuffs prevails so 

 extremely. In China and India it has long been the fashion to ornament 

 silk and muslin with threads of gold and silver. 



White Ants. — In the Lucknow central gaol, the walls, built 

 of sun-dried bricks, are plastered with clay mixed up with cow- 

 dung, a system very frequently used by natives of India. On the site 

 where the central gaol is erected, the white ants exist in unlimited 

 numbers, and they eat through the plaster in order to get at the cow- 

 dung, so that the walls require to be constantly replastered. Some time 

 ago, the gaoler was getting some floor mats made from the fibre of the 

 American aloe (Agave Americana). The way the fibre is extracted by 

 the prisoners in the gaol is by beating the green leaves by means of 

 wooden mallets, and so separating the pulp from the fibre. The gaoler 

 mentioned to me on one occasion, while I had temporary medical charge 

 of the gaol, that he found white ants did not touch mats made from the 

 aloe fibre. On the contrary, they always destroyed mats made from 

 other materials. I suggested it would be a good plan to place a piece of 

 the aloe fibre-mat in a spot where he knew white ants swarmed. He 

 did so, and still found that they did not touch that kind of mat. I then 

 asked him what use he made of the pulp which is separated from the 

 fibre of the aloe-leaves. He said it was thrown away. It struck me 



