86 Balances for Delicate Weighing. [Jan,, 



inaladieSo The baric of the root of the Asckpias gigayttea, as it appears 

 in the bazars of lower India, is of a pale colour, and has a bitter, and 

 somewhat nauseous and pungent taste the natives consider it as al- 

 terative; also as a gentle stimulant, taken in decoction to the quantity 

 of two table-spoonfuls twice daily : and Rheede, in his Hortus Mala- 

 bariciis* where the plant is mentioned under the appellation of Ericu, 

 says, that a decoction of its root is given in intermittent fever, and i.ii 

 those swellings of the limbs which women sometimes have after con- 

 finement. The powder of the bark of the root of the asckpias gigan- 

 I'eff, called in Bengal ffi«c/ar powder, has been highly extolled of late 

 as a valuable remedy in lues venerea, leprosy, and cutaneous diseasets 

 in general. Mr. Playfair, in a paper ah'cady mentioned, and which 

 may be seen in the first volume of the Edinburgh Medical Transacti- 

 ons, goes so far as to say that it is one of the most useful medicines 

 hitherto derived from the vegetable kingdom ; and it would seem, by 

 an excellent paper on Ekphantiasis as it appears in Hindustv.n,^'' 

 by Mr. Robinson, that he also bears witness to its powerful eliects as 

 a deobstruent and sudorific, in almost all cutaneous eruptions ; the 

 dose of this powder is from three grains to ten."t 



IV. — 4 description of a set of Balances made for the fvr pose of 

 delicate weighing; illustrated by drawings. By Lieut. J. 

 Braddock. 



Editor of the Madras Journal of Literature & Science, 

 Sir, 



I have the pleasure to send you a description and draw- 

 ings of a set of balances which I made a few years ago for 

 the purpose of delicate weighing. My object in constiuct- 

 ing them being efficiency with simplicity of parts they are 

 not so elaborately finished as delicate balances usually are, 

 but they are fully adequate to all the purposes of the private 

 experimentalist, who is not supposed to have his finer ba- 

 lances in continual daily use. 



2. The mechanical principles of the balance are too well 

 understood to require a detail of them. I shall therefore sim- 

 ply mention that the knife edge of the fulcrum and the points 

 suspending the scale pans must lie in a right hne ; and that 

 the centre of gravity of the beam must not be above this 

 line or the beam will overset, nor must it be too much below 

 the line, or the vibrations of the beam will be too rapid, and 

 the delicacy of the balance will be diminished and impaired. 



3. I have four balances for weighing all quantities from 



* See Hortus Malabancus part ii. page 55^ 



t Trans.ictions ot the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Ent^in, Vol. \ 

 Page 300. 



