General Science. 
temperature of 50°, and that one pound avoirdupois must con- 
tain 7000 of these grains. 
6. That the standard ale and corn gallon should contain exactly 
ten pounds avoirdupois of distilled water, at 62° of Fahrenheit, 
being nearly equal to 277.2 cubic inches, and agreeing with the 
standard pint in the Exchequer, which is found to contain ex- 
actly 20 ounces of water. The customary ale gallon contains 
282 cubic inches, and the Winchester corn gallon 269, or, ac- 
cording to other statutes, 272J cubic inches ; so that no incon- 
venience can possibly be felt from the introduction of a new gal- 
lon of 277.2 inches. — The Commissioners have not decided up- 
on the propriety of abolishing entirely the use of the wine gal- 
lon. 
The report, of which the preceding is a brief abstract, was 
signed, on the 24th June 1819, by Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., 
Sir George Clerk, Bart., Mr D. Gilbert, Dr Wollaston, Dr 
Young, and Captain Kater; and we have no doubt that its 
conclusions will be gratefully adopted by Parliament, and by 
the country at large. To the Report is annexed a very able 
and interesting Appendix, drawn up by Dr Thomas Young. 
40. Preparation of Opium in India . — In the article on the 
preparation of opium, published in this Number, the author was 
not aware of the changes which had been adopted in the manu- 
facture of it after the year 1799, when, under the government 
of Marquis Wellesley, the plan of having it procured by agen- 
cy, under the charge of a civil servant, was introduced. All the 
abuses that had prevailed in the preparation of the drug, adul- 
teration, fallacious envelopes of the cakes, short weight, &c. 
were at that period abolished, and, ever since, the utmost care has 
been taken, that the opium put up at the Company’s sales shall 
be in the utmost state of purity, that the envelopes shall be of 
the due degree of thickness, and the drug of the proper consist- 
ence. Dr John Fleming, M. P. then President of the Medical 
Board at Calcutta, had the merit of having formed and recom- 
mended this plan of providing the opium, and, on his return to 
England in 1803, he received on this account a remuneration 
from the Honourable Court of Directors, of Sicca rupees 50,000, 
or L.6250 Sterling. 
