426 Proceedings of Learned Sacieties. 
PROCEEDINGS or tue PHILOMA- 
THIC SOCIETY oF PARIS. 
“NITIZEN Sy._vestre has read a 
Note on the long two or three 
years old wool of the fheep of Rambouillet. 
The facts the moft eafy to verify, are 
fometimes, notwithftanding, in rural 
economy the fubje& of confiderable mif- 
takes. For example, it has been long 
thought that fheep lofe their wool every 
year, and this affertion, though deftitute 
of foundation, has been advanced in 
works which otherwife- enjoy a well-me- 
rited confideration. The members of the 
Council of Agriculture of the Minifter of 
the Interior, charged with the details of 
the national flock of Rambouillet, wifhed 
to verify this aflertion: in confequence, 
they left, during two or three years, fome 
fheep without fhearing them, and they 
obtained, without any diminution, a long 
wool, of equal finenefs, and which at- 
fords, in weight, a quantity equal to 
that which two or three fhearings would 
have produced. This experiment like- 
wile opens a new branch to the national 
induftry : fome long wool, obtained from 
fine-woolled animals, was put into the 
hands of different French manufacturers, 
and produced caflimeres, which were 
Shown at the generalexhibition of the pro- 
duéts of French induftry, and advantage- 
oufly fupported a comparifon with the 
fineft Englith caffimeres. It was obferved, 
that animals loaded with this long and 
heavy fleece had not fuffered materially ; 
and this new fpecies of indufiry may be 
practifed without inconvenience by the in- 
habitants of the country on fome indivi- 
duals of their flocks. 
Citizen VAUQUELIN has communicat- 
ed a Note on the nature of the earth which 
is eaten by the inhabitants of New Caledo- 
niae We have already noticed, in a for- 
mer number of this Magazine, a letter of 
M. Humboldt to Citizen Fourcroy, in 
which that learned traveller makes men- 
tion of an earth which the Otomagues eat, 
when they are diftreffed by a fcarcity of 
viétuals. Citizen Labillardiére has fhewn, 
by an obfervation made in -a part of the 
world very“diftant from that which the 
Otomagues inhabit, a faét equally fingu- 
Yar. When the inhabitants of New Cale- 
donia are prefled by hunger, they eat a 
pretty large quantity of a greenifh, tender, 
and friable fteatite. We may eafily con- 
ceive how the frightful practice of eating 
prifoners of war has been introduced 
among favage hordes, reduced to fuch a 
fcacity, that they are obliged to fulpend 
[Dec. Tyr. * 
their hunger by diftending their ftomach } 
and inteftines with an earthy fubftance, » 
which has no other alimentary quality in 
it, than that of being light and triable.— 
Citizen Vauquelin wifhed to examine the , 
nature of this earth, and to fee whether it 
contained any thing nutritious. He has. 
analyfed, by the ufual methods, fome par- 
cels of it which have been tranfmitted to 
him by Citizen Labillardiére. This earth . 
is foft to the touch, formed of {mall 
firingy portions, eafy to be divided ; it 
becomes red in the fire, and lofes 74, of. 
its weight. It is compofed of 37 parts 
of pure magnefia, 36 of filiceous matter, 
17 of oxyde, 3 or 4 of water, and 2 or 3. 
of lime and of copper. It does not con- 
tain, therefore, any nutritive paris, and. . 
can only be confidered as fand or ballaf@—. 
a fort of mechanical method of fufpending 
the anguifh caufed by hunger. 
The fame Citizen has read a notice on- 
blue oxydated iron. ‘This fubftance, fent. 
to the Council of Mines, by M. the Ba- 
ron de Molt, has a light-blue colour ; it 
prefents itfelf under the form of {mall ifo- 
lated maffes, in cavities or clefts of quartz,, 
and of hard greenifh fteatite. It is friable, 
but a little unctuous to the touch. It is — 
difcoloured in the fire of the blow-pipe, 
and melts afterwards into a white greenifh. 
glafs. It is not difcoloured either by 
acids, or by weak alkalis ; which diftin- 
guifhes this fubftance from /Japis laxulis 
and from pruffiate of iron. 
This blue fubftance communicates to 
muriatic acid, in which it has been 
put for digeftion, a faftron yellow colours 
and it becomes difcoloured a little ; but 
we cannot difcolour it entirely without 
difiolying it at the fame time 5 then there 
remains only a {mall quantity of filiceous 
matter. In examining the muriatic acid . 
which has ferved in this operation, we 
find that it has diffolved alumine, calx and 
oxyde of iron. We do not difcover, be- 
fides, in this matter, either manganefe, or 
fulphurated hydrogen, or phofphoric acid, 
fubftances to which the blue colour of this 
oxyde of iron might naturally be attribut- 
ed. It remains, then, to determine what 
may be the caufe of the remarkable co- 
lour of this oxyde, a colour which it hag 
not been poffible hitherto to give to this 
metal by any chymical operation. It ap. 
pears only that the iven is carried in this 
oxyde to the degree of oxygenation next 
to the maximum. . 
The fame Citizen has read.a Note on thefa- 
line fubftancenamed muriacite of Saltzburg. 
This matter, named by Cit. Hatiy gypfite- 
rous muriated kali, or foda, has been pots 
Wie 
