CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. 
and then they are to he placed on tiieir 
edges in a box, which is suffaciently close 
to prevent the evaporation of the smoke. 
In die middle of the box is an earthen ves- 
sel containing sulphur, which is set on fire, 
and the box covered over for several hours. 
The straws are next to be split, which ope- 
ration is performed by a small machine 
made chiefly of wood. When split, the 
straws are denominated splints, and of these 
each braider has ,a certain quantity, which 
they hold under the arm, and draw them 
out as wanted. The rules laid down are 
these : platters should be taught to use their 
second fingers and thumbs, instead of the 
fore fingers, which are often required to as- 
sist in turning the splints, and very iiiuch 
facilitate the platting ; and they should take 
caie not to wet the splints too much. Each 
platter should have a small linen bag, and 
a piece of pasteboard to roll the plat round. 
When five yards are worked up, it is wound 
about a piece of board, fastened at the top 
Tvith yarn, and kept there several days to 
form it in a proper shape. Four of these 
parcels, or a score, is the measurement by 
which tlie plat is sold. When the straw is 
platted it comes into the hand of the per- 
son who sews it together into the form of 
hats, bonnets, &c. of various shapes and 
sizes. These are then put on wooden blocks 
for the purpose of hot pressing : and, to 
render them of a more delicate white, they 
are again exposed to the fumes of sulphur. 
STURGEON, a species of the Acipenser 
genus, is referred to, and being omitted in 
its place, we may briefly observe, that it is 
a very large fish, of eighteen or twenty feet 
long, an inhabitant of the northern seas, mb 
grating during the early summer months 
into the larger rivers and lakes, and return- 
ing to the sea again in autumn after having 
deposited its spawn. It is a fish of slow 
motion, and is easily taken ; it is admii ed 
for the delicacy and firmness of the flesh. 
From the roe is prepared the substance 
called caviar. In this country the sturgeon 
annually ascends rivers, but in no great 
quantities, and is occasionally taken in sal- 
mon nets. In its manner of breeding the 
sturgeon forms an exception among carti- 
laginous fishes, it being oviparous. The 
sturgeon was a fish in high repute among 
the ancients, and was brought to table with 
much pomp, and ornamented with flowers, 
tlie slaves who carried it being likewise 
adorned with garlands, and accompanied 
with music. The flavour of the sturgeon 
is said to vary with the food on which it is 
chiefly fed ; hence it is distinguished in the 
North of Europe into mackrel-sturgeon, 
herring-sturgeon, &c. See Shaw’s “ Zoo- 
logy.” 
SUBSTANCES, simple. To this article 
references have been made, and it having 
been omitted in the alphabetical order, we 
must not pass it by here. In other cases 
we are grieved that haste or negligence 
should have required these additions and 
corrections, in this w-e have reason for dif- 
ferent emotions, having by the omision an 
opportunity of stating some facts, and some 
results, which have not been made public 
more than two or three days. 
In the language of modern chemistry, 
the term simple substances has a different 
signification from that attached to it in an- 
cient philosophy. By elements, or simple 
substances, was formerly understood prima- 
ry principles, which were essentially simple 
and indestructible, whicli, by modification 
of form, or by mutual combination, formed 
the different substances which compose the 
material world. Modern philosophy pur- 
sues a different mode of investigation : it 
analyses substances, and endeavours to de- 
compose them, or separate them into their 
constituent parts, and when it arrives at 
any which it cannot decompose, and be- 
yond which analysis cannot be carried, and 
whose properties can only be changed by 
causing them to combine with otheis, then 
such substances are denominated simple. 
This term does not imply their absolute 
simplicity, because new experiments, or 
new agents, may be able to reduce certain 
bodies that at present have not been de- 
composed into others that are more sim- 
ple. Till very lately the fixed alkalies, the 
boracic, fluoric, and muriatic acids were 
reckoned among the simple substances : to 
these may be added the metals, the several 
earths, sulphur, phosphorus, and the dia- 
mond. .... 
By the Voltaic battery, m the hands 
of Mr. Davy, Professor of Chemistry at 
the Royal Institution, many of these sub- 
stances, which- where deemed simple a tew 
months since, have been decomposed. For 
his experiments on tlie alkalies, we re- 
fer to the articles Alkali and Potas- 
sium : and on Saturday last, Dec. 17th, 
he announced in his public lectuie, that 
he had decomposed sulphur and phospho- 
rus, the component parts of whicli are 
oxygen and hydrogen, and a metallic base ; 
that charcoal he had found to consi.st of 
hydrogen and the carbonaceous principle. 
