TSer | 
tering hope for the future. The bread- 
tree-plant, he obterves, is full of lite. Cr- 
tizen Martin has extraéted from it ne lefs 
than eght fhoots, thie vegetation of which 
is admwvable. He expects that-by the end 
of the year this tree will produce fruits, 
and that the firft fhoot, which already fur- 
paffes it in growth, will perhaps outlirip it 
in the amplitude of its productions, ‘The 
crop of cloves for the year will not be 
abundant, fcarcely amounting to feven 
thoufand pound weight. This is but a 
{mall crop. That of la& year amounted 
to twenty-fix thoufand pound weight. It 
would have been much more confiderable, 
he adds, if the Enghfh had not arrived 
about that time, to carry on a fort of war, 
which has deranged all the fhrubbertes ; 
and ne eftimates, that there remain on the 
trees more than fix choufand pound weight 
of cloves,for want of hands togather them, 
Citizen Martin proceeds to fhew the quan- 
tity of pepper that may be gatheredon a 
fingle plant. A pepper-tree, at the refi- 
dence ot Cit. Larorer, produced at leat 
twenty-nine pounds. It was, however, 
yet green when it was weighed, and half 
of its weight will be diminifhed by the 
time it gets dry. The pepper was quite 
beautiful, Jarge, well grown, of a fine co- 
Jour, and very pungent and aromatic. 
What is brought from the Indies, fays 
Citizen Martin, does not come near it—a 
recent trial was made of both, an opportu- 
nity having offered by means of an ene- 
my’s veflel, partly loaded with India pep- 
per, taken on its return to Europe, and 
brought into Cayenne. Citizen Martin 
infers from this, that the culture of the 
pepper-planc merits all poffible encourage - 
ment at Cayenne, and applies the obferva- 
tion toall the {pices there, which, accord- 
ing to him, at leaft, equal in goodnefs thofe 
of the Moluccas. In another letter of the 
fame date, Citizen Martin fpeaks with ad- 
miration of the rapidity of vegetation in 
that country. Among the trees which he 
had tranfplanted on the banks of the rivers 
in the colony, he has feen, in the {pace of 
eighteen months, a caoutchouc anda dur- 
via grow, the former to twenty feet eight 
‘inches in height, and the fecond to fixteen 
feet fix inches. Citizen Martin ‘con- 
cludes, by announcing a journey he was 
preparing to make in the interior of the 
country, to infpeét the foil in general, and 
the different dittriéts proper for cultivation; 
to examine the trees which may be advan- 
tageoufly employed, either in marine con- 
ftruStion, or for the arts ; at the fame 
time, he propofes to augment the coliec- 
tions of natural hiftory, which he has been 
Literary and Philofophical Intelligence. 
343 
long preparing for the Mufeum at Paris, 
as alfo to colle&t fome new plants, and new 
feeds, which he intends for the Jardin 
des Plantes. 
_ A Memoir, by Mr. Cruickfhank, of 
Woolwich, is inferted in the lat numbex 
of Mr. Nicholfon’s Journal, which, for its 
importance, merits a particular analyfis, 
Dr. Priefiley’s experiments, in his late 
work on the fubjeét of Phiogifton, were 
attended with fuch unexpected refults, and 
apparently fo formidable to the French 
theory of chemiftry, that the philoto- 
phers of Europe feemed, as if by common 
confent, to have agreed tocconfider them as 
incorrect or unanfwerable; Mr. C. how- 
ever, to his own credit, and that of fci- 
ence, has repeated the moft ftriking expe- 
riments, completely confirmed Dr. Prieft- 
jey’s accuracy, diicovered a new gatieous 
fubftance, and has adduced frefh proofs 
of the truth of WLavoisizr’s fyftem. 
Dr. Priefiley, by heating together {cales 
of ivon (the grey oxyd) and charcoal, or 
the fame oxyd and carbonat of barytes, 
obtained, ‘befides carbonic acid, a large 
quantity of inflammable gas. The infe- 
rences deducible from thefe experiments 
again{ft the decompofition of water by hot 
iron, andin favour of the doftrine of phlo- 
gifton, are fufficiently obvious, and have 
occafioned confiderable embarraflment to 
‘the fupporters of the anti-phlogiftic theory. 
Mr. Cruickfhank, in confequence, initi~ 
tuted a feries of experiments, in which, by 
heating together perfectly dried oxyd of 
iron and charcoal, he obtained, befides 
carbonic acid, a large quantity of inflam- 
mable gas ; fimilar refults were perceived, 
when oxyds of zinc, of copper, of lead, of 
manganefe, were fubitituted for the iron. 
Hence he concludes, that all metallic 
oxyds, capable of enduring ared heat, will, 
when heated with charcoal, yield carbonic 
acid, and inflammable gas; that thofe 
oxyds, in which the affinity between their 
component parts is the frongeft, yield the 
greatett quantity of inflammable gas ; that 
the carbonic acid is dilengaszed principally 
atthe beginning of the procefs, and the 
inflammable gas at the latter end. From 
experiments with metallic oxyds and char- 
coal, Mr. C. proceeded to examine the 
other fource of the gas; here, by heating the 
carbonats of barytes and lime with. iron, 
he obtained, as Dr. P. had done, catbonic 
acid and inflammable gas. For afcertain- 
ing whether this gas was the fame with 
hydrogen, or any of the known, hydro- 
carbenats, the following proofs were made: 
—1. The fpecific gravity of the gas in 
yueition is, to that of atmofpheric air, as 
93 
