288 
PEPPER. 
testing the illuminating power of gas, for I find that a flexible tube of about 30 feet 
in length will reduce the power of a weak gas to the extent of nearly 25 per cent. 
9. It is not an unimportant fact that these hydrocarbons consume very different pro¬ 
portions of oxygen, and, therefore, vitiate very different proportions of atmospheric air- 
and, again, the explosive power of coal gas, when mixed with air, is much affected by 
the proportions of the richer hydrocarbons present. The explosive power of hydrogen, 
when mixed with its proper proportion of oxygen and fired, is about 26| atmospheres • 
of marsh gas, about 3b atmospheres ; of olefiant gas, nearly 44^ atmospheres ; of propy¬ 
lene, about 6G atmospheres; and butylene, nearly 89 atmospheres ; common coal gas, 
in exploding with its proper proportion of oxygen, exerts a pressure of about 34 atmo¬ 
spheres on the walls of the containing-chamber; and the proportion of air which is 
capable of giving the strongest explosion is times the bulk of the gas. 
(To be continued .) 
PEPPEB. 
BY JOHN R. JACKSON. 
Of all the senses with which we are endowed, that of taste is perhaps the most fas¬ 
tidious ; unlike the senses of sight and hearing, it is not so varied or widely affected by 
le iorce of education, lo hear and appreciate the eloquence of an oration, needs some 
cultivated refinement, and is, in consequence, the belonging of a class. As applied to 
the sight, the same may be said of a fine picture or other work of art; but with the 
senses of taste and smell the case is different, though refinement and education un¬ 
doubtedly lend a helping hand to the full appreciation of both. With the former, how¬ 
ever, the likes and dislikes are more affected by nations than classes, and this, in a great 
measure, is doubtless to be attributed to the diversity of the products of each clime, the 
love tor which is inherent in its people. For example, where can an Englishman find 
a l e 7°!}. sul ^ e ^.palate as in his own land? And a similar question may be 
asked of other nations; and yet there are countless productions of foreign lands, the uses 
or which have not become general with us solely through prejudice; and this applies not 
a one to articles of food, but also to materials useful in the arts and manufactures. It 
needs a persevering energy to bring new products into the English markets, and it needs 
even more to peisuade the British public to give a fair trial to such products, many of 
v ich might become a source of commercial profit besides being advantageous to the 
consumei. As an example of this, the most familiar illustration is tea, which but 200 
years since was scarcely known in this country, the Dutch East India Company having 
sent, in 1GG4, two pounds as a present to the king. When, however, an importation of 
a few pounds took place three years later, there was probably some prejudice against its 
general adoption. We venture to doubt that, as a new commodity in our own day, the 
pure aroma of tea would find little favour at first with the general public, though 
now, thanks to the energy and enterprise of modern commerce, the tea trade employs 
upwards of GO,000 tons of British shipping besides bringing an enormous revenue to the 
overnment. What we have said of tea, might also be said of many other products, in- 
c u mg pepper, with which we now propose to deal; even Pliny of old expresses some* 
surprise that an article, as he says, possessing neither flavour nor appearance to recom¬ 
mend. it, should become of such general use as it had in his day. 
In a commercial sense, the word pepper has scarcely any restrictions or limit: nearly 
everything hot or pungent comes under the designation. Thus, we have cayenne 
pepper, which m reality is produced from various species of capsicum; melagueta 
. e se ®^ s °i Amomum Melagueta, and Ethiopian pepper, the fruits of Habzelia 
^ Ul \°P} ca ‘ 1 “ es ® 111 *he customs returns, are all classed under the head “pepper,” so 
that it is difficult to tell the exact amount of true pepper imported ; but in a botanical 
sense, pepper is known as the product of one plant only, and that the Piper nigrum. To 
s off the importance of this article in British commerce, as well as the large revenues it 
wrings to the Treasury, we cannot do better than briefly trace the historv and develop¬ 
ment ot the pepper trade. It seems pretty clear that its uses were well known to the 
