(Cornet Alexander on the Saline Lake of Loonar. 31 1 
1. The chief use to which the sediment of the water was ap- 
plied, was in cleaning the shawls of Cashmere, an alkaline soap 
being manufactured out of the muriatiferous clay, (which had 
the property of giving them that softness of texture which 
European artists are unable to imitate), and sent to that distant 
region. 
2. It was also used as an article of food by Musselmen, and 
formed an ingredient in the pupree-khar or alkaline cake. 
3. It was employed as aqua regia in the solution of gold ; 
and, lastly, 
4. Medicinally. 
From the small portion of the bed which is now annually left 
dry, it is applicable to a very few of these uses *. 
I have to remark, that no noxious effluvia arise from the wa- 
ters, which are asserted to be unfathomable, and uninhabited 
by fish ; but, by a strange antithesis, it is affirmed that the lake 
is the abode of numerous large-sized alligators. 
A small tract, of a few acres in extent, consisting of rich ve- 
getable mould, on the eastern margin of the lake, is cultivated, 
and employed in raising culinary vegetables. 
Art. XII. — Experiments on the Application of Professor Dee - 
bereiner's recent Discovery , to Eudiometry . By Edward 
Turner, M. D., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 
and Lecturer on Chemistry, Edinburgh. (Concluded from 
p. 31 1.) 
It appeared from some experiments related in a preceding part 
of this paper, (p. 101. et seq.) that the presence of certain ga- 
ses has a positive influence in diminishing, or even preventing 
the action of platinum. A nearer investigation of this point 
was of course connected with the immediate object of the 
present inquiry, but was undertaken, not with this intention 
alone, but with the view of drawing a parallel between Platinum 
and Electricity relative to their action on explosive mixtures. 
* The fracture of a portion of the salt which I obtained indicated an imper- 
fectly foliated structure ; it was crystallised in cubes, and had a greyish-white 
colour.— E dit, 
