1801. 
the moft part, tranfplanted into our cli- 
mates; and no one was’better qualified to 
make us acquainted with them than Ci- 
tizen Michaux, who has obferved them in 
their natal foil, and’ who has cultivated 
many of them himfelf, in the eftablifhment 
which he fuperintended in the United 
States. 
TECHNOLOGY. 
A new Method of bleaching 
Linen. 
_ We gave an account, eighteen months 
ago, of the procefs recommended by Ci- 
tizen Chaptal to bleach cotton, which 
confifts in impregnating it with an alka- 
Iine lye, and expofing it, in that condi- 
tion, ‘to the vapour of boiling water. We 
have fince made ment‘on,y after the fame 
learned man, of the fuccefs which his pro- 
cefs had obtained, and of the improvements 
made upon it in Ireland, where the public 
papers had carried the accounts of it; at 
Paris, in the manufacture of Citizen 
Bawens; and in many fimilar eftablifh- 
ments, which -this manufacturer has 
formed, in partnerfhip with another dif- 
tinguifhed artitt, Citizen Bourlier, in dif- 
ferent parts of France, fimple machines 
have been contrived to turn the ftuffs_ 
in the apparatus, and to prefent them 
on all fides to the vapour. It has been 
found, that linen requires only a weak 
lye; but that, to bleach it completely, 
the aétion of the lye fhould operate al- 
termately with that of the atmofpheri- 
calair; and, at length, they have been 
enabled to produce, in two or three days, 
a perfect whitenefs on the coarfeft linens, 
and for a price lefs, by half, than that of 
ordinary bleaching. ; 
Citizen Chaptal, wifhing to carry as_ 
far as poflible the utility of his procefs, 
has made an experimental ufe of it for the _ 
wafhing of linen. Trials have been 
made on fome hundred pair of fheets taken 
from the Hotel Dieu, at Paris, and fe- 
legted from among the dirtieft ; and it is 
~ allowed that they have been perfeétly 
wafhed in two days, at feven tenths only of 
the ordinary expence. Another advantage 
attends it, that from their not’ being fub- 
mitted to batting, or the other operations 
of wafher-women, they are much lefs worn 
away, and the extreme heat to which they 
are expofed, muft totally deftroy in them 
every contagious principle. 
Improvements in the Art of making Paper. 
* Citizen Seguin, who has: been em- 
ployed, for five years paft, in the art of 
making paper, has obtained for his firft 
refults the means of performing in fome 
Houfehold’ 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
AG) Wad 
420 
hours what before required a procefs of 
{everal months; he has, at length, fuc- 
¢eeded fo far as to fubftitute ftraw for 
rags, in this. manufacture; and he has 
,prefented to the Clafs a number of [{peci- 
wiens of paper formed with this fubftance. 
This paper is not yet as white as that 
made with well-forted rags: but Citizen 
Seguin remarks, that this imperfection is 
owing to the little care taken in making 
it, and not to the nature of the firf ma- 
terials ; and that in its prefent condition 
it-may very well fuffite for counting-honfe- 
writings, law-writings, and all printing 
of a common nature. : 
The author has not, as yet, communi- 
cated his procels. 
NOTICE of the LABOURS of the CLASS 
of MORAL @ud POLITICAL SCIENCES, 
during the THIRD QUARTERLY sIT- 
TING of the YEAR g, by CiTi ZEN LE- 
VESQUE, SECRETARY. 
Citizen ANQUETIL, in a Memoir on 
the Merovingian Franks, and the manners 
of the Franks, has prefented the pi&ture 
of the principal political, military, and 
religious events, which occupy, in the 
French hiftory, a period of 147 years, 
from Clovis to Pepin. ‘The former Prince, 
by force of arms, by a fubtle policy, by © 
perfidy and affaflinations, acquired an ex- 
tenfive empire in Gaul. Seconded by the 
ferocious valour of a handful of Franks, 
ihe was more powerfully fo by the pious 
intrigues of the Catholic bifhops. ‘Thofe 
prelates preferred an idolatrous conqueror? 
to thofe Chrifttan kings who did not think 
like them on the myfterious fubje&t of 
the Frinity. ‘They preached to the peo- 
ple difobedience to -the Arian Princes of 
Gaul; and by their means, and by his 
own ieafonable converfion, he fuccefsfully 
eftablifhed his fortune. But although 
Clovis aéted with confummate prudence, 
in various refpects, Citizen Anquetil 
fhews that he did not employ the moft 
proper means to fecure the duration of his 
empire. The powerful dominion of which 
he was the founder, was confidered by 
him as a patrimony to be divided between 
his four. fons; he parcelled it out, and 
bequeathed them four feeble fovereignties. 
Forty years after, partly by good fortune 
and partly by fuccefsful villainy, Clotaire, 
the youngelt of his fons, regained the en- > 
tire empire—but he followed the example 
of his father. .To this finifter policy 
may be traced the imbecility of the Mero- 
vingian race, who became, in fact, the 
flaves of the firft officer of- their palace, - 
and, at length, faw one of thofe officers, - 
the 
