608 
M. BIOT— A NEW BRANCH OF SCIENCE. 
113 ” From the following statement made by 
Mr. Davis, late Chief Superintendent at 
Canton, it appears that the money laid out 
by the Chinese on their favourite drug far 
exceeds wiiat they receive for their tea ; — 
Imports in 1833. 
Dollars. 
Opium n,6l8,l67 
Other Imports 11,858,077 
23,476,244 
Exports in 1833. 
Dollars. 
Tea 9,133,749 
Other exports 11,309,521 
20,443,270 
The Chinese smuggle all this opium , and 
pay the difference between the price of it and 
4hat of the tea they export in silver. — Ihid. 
TELEGRAPH. 
A new telegraphic system, applicable to 
nautical purposes, invented by M. Claude 
Sala, has just been presented as laying claim 
to the Monthyon prize. It is described as 
remarkable for its simplicity; for, by the 
aid of eight signs, it produces, without diffi- 
culty, all the w'ords of the vocabulary, and, 
by means of two lanterns, it can carry on a 
nightly correspondence. — Athenfeum. 
ARSENIC. 
M. Schweiger Seidel has invented a very 
simple method of ascertaining the presence 
of arsenic in food, &c. however small the 
quantity may be. He puts a portion of the 
matter to be tried, and double its w’eight of 
soda, into a little glass tube ; he closes the 
open extremity of the tube with blotting pa- 
per, and heats the other end with a taper : 
the arsenic is sublimated in a few moments, 
and adheres to the sides of the tube in the 
part which is not heated. — Ibid. 
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 
An instance of spontaneous combustion is 
reported in the French paper, to have taken 
place at Aunay, in the department of Avalon. 
A very fat woman, aged 74 years, and ad- 
dicted to drinking l^randy at 27 degrees, 
lived alone, and one evening returned home as 
usual, but, as she did not appear among her 
neighbours the next morning, they knock- 
ed at her door. No answer being returned 
to repeated demands, they summoned the 
mayor, who forced the door, and exposed a 
hoiTible spectacle, accompanied by an ex- 
traordinary smell. Near the chimney laid a 
heap of something burnt to cinders, at one 
end of whichwas a head, a neck, the upper part 
of a body, and one arm. At the other end 
were some of the lower parts, and one leg, 
still retaining a very clean shoe and stocking. 
No other traces of fire were to be seen, ex- 
cept a blue flame which played along the sur- 
face of a long train of grease, or serous 
liquor, which had been produced by the com- 
bustion of the body. The mayor found it 
impossible to extinguish this flame, and sum- 
moned all the authorities ; and, from the 
state of the apartment and comparison of 
circumstances, it was concluded among them, 
that, previous to going to bed, for which she 
had evidently been making preparations, the 
woman had been trying to ignite some embers 
with her breath. The fire communicating 
with the body by means of the breath, com- 
bustion probably took place, and would ap- 
pear! to confirm an opinion enterained by 
several learned men, that that which is called 
spontaneous combustion of the human frame 
never takes place without the presence of 
some ignited body near the person predisposed 
to combustion. A surgeon, who bled an 
habitually drunken person, accidentally put 
the blood extracted near a candle, when im- 
mediately a blue flame appeared on the sur- 
face, which he found extremely difficult to 
extinguish.— Mccft. Mag. 
M. BIOT. 
The learned and scientific M.Biot has been 
delivering some very remarkable lectures at 
the College de France. He has proved, that, 
by means of polarised rays, it is possible to 
ascertain the chemical action which takes 
place between bodies held in solution, in va- 
rious liquids ; an action which has not yet 
been discovered by less delicate means. 'J’his 
is a new branch of science, created as it were 
by this great natural philosopher, from which 
the most important and curious results may 
be expected. — Ibid. 
CORN AND COTTON-PLANTING MA- 
CHINE. 
A free man of colour, Henry Blair by 
name, has invented a machine called the 
corn-planter, which is now exhibiting in the 
capital of Washington. It is described as a 
very simple and ingenious machine, which, as 
moved by ahorse, opens the furrow, drops (at 
proper intervals, and in an exact and suitable 
quantity,) the corn, covers it, and levels the 
earth, so as, in fact, to plant the corn as 
rapidly as a horse can draw a plough over 
the ground. The inventor thinks it will save 
the labour of eight men. He is about to 
make some alterations in it to adapt it to the 
planting of cotton . — Neio York Paper. 
DR. ARNOTT’S NEW STOVES. 
At a meeting of the Philosophical Society 
of Edinburgh, which took place lately, one of 
Dr. Arnott’s new stoves was exhibited, it 
is an oblong box, about three feet long, two 
broad, and two deep, carefully made air-tight 
on every side. A partition within divides it 
into two parts, apertures above and below 
enabling them to communicate with each 
other. An aperture is arranged for the free 
admission of air, and another for carrying off 
the smoke ; an air-tight door admits fuel. 
