ON CHEMISTRY. 
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3 
of a pound of common soil, and of turning, when loaded with a grain ; 
a series of weights from a quarter of a pound Troy, to a grain ; a 
wire sieve, sufficiently coarse to admit a pepper-corn through its 
apertures; an argand lamp and stand ; some glass bottles; Hessian 
crucibles ; porcelain or Queen’s ware evaporating basons ; a Wedge- 
wood pestle and mortar; some filters made of half a sheet of blotting 
paper, folded so as to contain a pint of liquid, and greased at the 
edges; a hone knife, and an apparatus for collecting and measuring 
aeriform fluids. The chemical substances, or re-agents required for 
separating the constituent parts of the soil, are muriatic acid, (spirit 
of salt,) sulphuric acid, pure volatile alkali dissolved in water, solu¬ 
tion of prussiate of potash, soap-lye, solution of carbonate of am¬ 
monia, of muriate of ammonia, solution of neutral carbonate of potash, 
and nitrate of ammonia.—The re-agents are sold, together with the 
instruments mentioned above, by Mr. Knight, Foster lane, Cheap- 
side, arranged in an appropriate chest.” 
Most of the above articles may now be obtained, at a quarter of 
their former prices, of respectable chemists and druggists ; but still, 
Mr. Knight, of Foster-lane, or his successors, keep every re-agent, 
and appropriate apparatus, and may be, at any time, referred to. 
I shall arrange the processes under their respective heads—thus : 
1st. Drying .—When this has been effected by the air, till the 
mass be reducible to powder, let an ounce weight be gently triturated 
in a mortar till the bulk will pass through the sieve; by this means 
the larger stones, bits of wood, or of vegetable matters, will be separ¬ 
ated. If the first be found sufficiently hard to scratch glass, they 
may be considered siliceous or flint stones. If they effervesce when 
acid is poured on them, they are calcareous, or of the nature of chalk ; 
but if they be soft, easily broken up, and do not evince any hissing, 
or disturbance in strong acids, they are of an aluminous or clayey 
nature. These stones and fibres ought to be weighed, in order to 
find what is their comparative proportion with any known weight of 
soil. Four hundred grains of the siftings, by accurate weight, are to 
be put in a saucer, with a small piece of shaving; and this vessel is 
then to be exposed to the heat of a gentle charcoal fire or lamp, (the 
contents being often stirred with a wire,) till the chip becomes slightly 
charred; at which period the drying must cease, otherwise the vege¬ 
table portions of the soil may be burnt; and in that case the chemi¬ 
cal properties of the soil will be materially affected. It is calculated 
that the heat which will thus render a bit of shaving somewhat brown, 
is about 300 deg. of Farenbeit. The soil thus dried, ought to be 
accurately weighed again, and its loss in weight will show the quan- 
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