1808.] 
lected more easily. A globule about the 
size of a small tare being thrown on 
paper moistened, instantly became ap- 
parently red hot, and running off the 
surface of the water, fell luminously 
through the air. Mr. Allen has also re- 
peated the experiments of Mr. Davy,. 
and obtained both-the mettalloids by 
four troughs of fifty pairs, each of 16 
inches surface. 
Mr, Taunron, among some observa- 
tions on the utility of dispensaries, states 
this interesting fact, that in three insti- 
tutions of that description in the metro- 
polis, upwards of nine thousand diseased 
poor are annually admitted and attended 
(those persons being visited at their own 
houses, who are too ill to go to the cha- 
rity) for the annual sum of two thousand 
pounds, a sum not more than adequate 
to the maintenance of four hundred and — 
seventy in an hospital. 
Lord SomervILLe has again called the 
attention of the Jand-owners to the im- 
portance of growing upon our own soil, 
an ample supply of that valuable com- 
modity—hemp. Ile estimates our an- 
nual consumption at thirty-five thousand 
tons, independently of what may be re. 
quired for seed, and he points out the 
means of raising this quantity with great 
facility, without any material derange- 
ment of our present system, so far as re 
sards the growth of corn. 
The following directions are given in 
the foreign journals, for preparing a com- 
position for resisting the action of fire 
and water. Take half a pint of milk, 
and mix with at an equal quantity of 
vinegar, so as to coagulate the milk. Se- 
parate the curds from the whey, and mix 
the latter with the whites of four or five 
eggs, after having beat them well up. 
The mixture of these two substances be- 
ing complete, add quick-lime to them 
which has passed through-a sieve and 
_make the whole into a thick paste of the 
consistency of putty. If this mastic is 
carefully applied to broken bodies or to 
fissures of any kind, and dried properly 
afterwards, it resists water and fire. 
GERMANY. 
Lemon-juice has generally been em- 
ployed for taking stains out of linen, bnt 
a German journal gives a more cecono 
mical method, by means of aqua fortis. 
One or two drops are sufficient for taking 
out a large spot of ink without damaging 
the linen. It is necessary previously to 
moisten the spot with water, and to rinse 
it afterwards in water. 
Monturxy Mac. No, 170, 
Literary and Philosophical Intelhgence. 
345 
‘ FRANCE, “ 
The cultivation of Indigo has taken 
place on a large scale and in the open air 
at an estate in Vaucluse. It appearsthat 
this plant may be naturalized in the de- 
partnient, and become a source of 
wealth. 
In the present interruption of com- 
merce, the writers of France are likewise 
turning their attention to the possibility 
of introducing the culture of cotton into 
that country. Froma comparison ofthe 
climate of the regions in which this plant 
is cultivated with that of the southern 
provinces of France, one of these writers 
deduces the probability of its succeeding 
in the latter. In support of this opinion, 
he quotes the authority of two curious 
old works, to prove that the cultivation of 
cotton has already been carried on there 
to a considerable extent. The first of 
these, printed at Toulon, in 1566, is en- 
titled, Recueil et Discours du Voyage du 
Roi Charles LX. de ce nom a present reg- 
“nant, accompagne de Chuses dignes de Me- 
mowre, &c. by ABEL Jouan. It is akind 
‘of journal, in which we find the following 
passage :—“ This day the king entered 
Yerres, a large and fine town. Around 
it thére is such a number of orange, palm, 
and pepper trees, and other trees which 
bear cotton, that they look like forests.” 
The same fact is certified by Peter de 
Quiqueram de Beaujeu, bishop of Senez, 
in the curious and scarce werk which he 
published in 1606, entitled, La Nouvelle 
Architecture, ou Instruction générale pour 
ensemencer toutes sortes d’ Arbres fruitiers, 
&c.° In the fifty-second chapter of the 
second book, we find this passage:— 
‘‘ Have we not enough to admire in the 
larities of our province, who is so kind 
and liberal as to grow most successfully 
the sugar-canes, planted within these few 
years. We now equal other countries, 
and like them possess a great quantity of 
cotton plants.” The testimony of these 
two authors is confirmed by J. Bauhin, 
who informs: us, that in his time cotton 
was grown in France, and that it had 
been brought from Italy. 
M. Curaupav, professor of chemis- 
try, in a memoir on the theory of soap= 
making, read to the Institute of France, 
has demonstrated, that oxigen is one of 
the component parts of soap ; that to this 
principle oxigenated oils, or those which 
easily oxigenate, owe their property of 
niaking the best soap.. He has also 
pointed out a very simple process, by 
which the fabrication of soap may be 
Le accelerated, 
