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The following are some of the uses to which it can be 
applied : — 
Uses to which Infusorial Earth is applied. 
I. Article of food. Lapps mix it with bark of trees — in 
famine time Indians of Amazon eat certain white earths 
found on banks. 
II. Manufacture of dynamite. The vehicle by which 
nitro -glycerine is capable of being transported. “After 
careful preparation, which consists in thorough removal of 
all organic matter by heat, &c., the earth is rolled and 
pressed and sifted, when it is ready for use. Fifty pounds 
of the earth is put into a flat wooden tank and covered with 
loOlbs. of nitro-glycerine, which is then thoroughly mixed 
with it. After half an hour has elapsed it is ready for 
removal to the cartridge moulds, in which parchment paper 
is used.” 
III. In agriculture. 
IV. Floating bricks may be made of infusorial earth. 
Forms a suitable covering for ice, beer cellars, fire-proof 
safes, steam boilers, powder magazines, &c. 
In pottery infusorial earth has received several important 
applications, ex. : when fused with borate of lime an excel- 
lent glaze is produced. 
It has been of service in the manufacture of sealing wax, 
soap, paper, ultramarine, &c. 
Infusorial earth will take up three times its weight of 
nitro-giycerine without becoming more than damp to the 
touch. 
Mr. Plant next showed a specimen of very fine clay 
occurring under a deposit of dark chocolate-coloured basalt, 
50 feet deep, and on a gold-bearing gravel or ancient river 
course. The clay is filled with leaves or the impression of 
leaves of a gum tree (eucalyptus) like the living species. 
It is a meiocene deposit. 
Mr. Marcus M. Hartog, B.Sc., F.L.S., exhibited, on 
account of a visitor, Mr. Chadwick, a new organism, different 
from a foraminifer, which he had found in Levant mud. 
