£6 Mr Ramsay on the Antiseptic Power 
it would be safe to pack fish in bulk which have been immersed 
in the pyrolignous acid, when caught at a distance from land, 
must be the subject of experiment by those who are interested 
in this business. If it is tried, I would advise, that after the 
fish are well cleaned, they be merely fully dipped into the acid, 
and then laid on a drainer, so constructed that none of the 
acid is lost. When fully drained, they may be packed into a 
cask in the common manner ; and when it is perceived that the 
texture is not injured, a slight sprinkling of salt may be given 
to them, to render them more palatable. If the fish are in good 
preservation, it would prevent vessels which remain long at sea 
in the prosecution of the fishery, from being lumbered with the 
stowage of salt. 
When the pyrolignous acid seems too impure for further use, 
it may be clarified by the following simple process : A dozen of 
fresh eggs, after being well beat up in the common manner as used 
for clarifying liquids, may be added to every twenty gallons of 
the impure acid, which is to be heated in an iron boiler. Be- 
fore boiling, the eggs coagulate, and bring the impurity to the 
surface of the boiler, which must be carefully skimmed off. The 
acid must then be withdrawn from the boiler, as it is a solvent 
of iron, which would darken its colour. 
It may not be foreign to the present subject, to mention an 
improvement made by me in the repacking of white herrings, a 
branch of trade which is now of so much importance to this 
country. 
About six years ago, I was applied to by an extensive dealer 
for a method of purifying the brine used as a pickle in repacking 
herrings. He told me, that it had been customary with him to 
boil the brine, and to skim off what was supposed to be the im- 
purities contained in it, but that it still remained impure as for- 
merly, and continued to retain its putrid smell. 
On trial of a portion of the impure brine, I found that this 
was the case, and that the matter thrown to the surface of the 
liquid, when boiled, was in reality salt combined with the im- 
purities contained in it by evaporation. The brine with which 
white herrings are surrounded in the casks in which they are 
packed, is always at saturation ; hence the cause. Avhy salt crys- 
tallises on the surface almost as soon as it boils. 
