516 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
ROM the communicatien which you 
permitted me to make to the public, 
on the virtues of stramonium, I have de- 
rived that sincerest of all gratifications 
which arises from the consciousness of 
having been instrumental. im ““ doing 
good.” The number of letters which 1 
have received on the subject, from .per- 
sons who have discovered my address, 
added t» that of Mr. Willis, which ap- 
peared i yourtJast..Number, render it 
incumbent upon me to make mere gene- 
xally Known the method of raising thts 
plant of divine virtue, which has hitherto 
heen considered as a noxious weed, dif- 
ficult toeradicate where it has once ta- 
ken root; but which I hope will be seen 
growing, in the course of avother year, 
in every § varden in the empire. , 
When I first inguired for it at a herb- 
shop in Covent-garden, f obtained a large 
bundle for three-pence; and fnowlearn, 
with equal surprise and indignation, thet 
it has of late been sold atythe enormous 
rate of twenty-four shillings per pound. 
JT have experienced, Mr. ahh, in the 
course of a mingled life of business and 
amusement many instances of baseness, 
and | have. heard of many others. I 
mever, however, met with such an im- 
position as Iam about to notice. I 
iad with infinite difieulty procured some 
seed of the stramonium, which I gave to 
the proprietor of a large nursery carden, 
an the immediate neighbourhood of Tazi- 
stock-square, and agreed with him to cul- 
tivate it; its produce exceeded 1000 fine | 
plants, and it was almost weekly shewn 
40 me and my servants by the master, 
who congratulated me upon the prospect 
of the crop. 
ted that I should have an abundant sup- 
ply, so much so, that I promised a por- 
tion of it to half the poor sofering mvalids 
that I had heard of in London.) Will 
you believe, Sir, that this man, hearing 
of my communication to-your Magazine, 
and having’ numerous applications for it, 
has actually sold the major part of it, at - 
twenty-four shillings per (b. and has refused 
to deliver me any of it, expecting (as ne 
more can be procured till next year) to 
exact astillanore extravagant price for it. 
1 am happily placed hevoud the reach of 
the intended injury, by a supply trom 
the kind friends who undertook to raise 
the small portion of the seed I luekily 
reserved andgavethem. But, for public 
benefit, I beg leave to make it known, 
that the seed is to be sown in the months 
Mode of cultivating and using Stramonium. 
I remained perfectly. satis- 
_ (Sane, 
i March and April, on light rich earth, 
exposed to the sun ; that it arrives at ma- 
turity the latter end ‘of August or heginning 
of September, and is called the rH0R N AP- 
PLE. Itgrows spontaneously, 1s reckoned 
a common weed in many gardens, and: 
has hitherto. been universally thrown 
away... I bave been frequently asked as; 
tothe method of smoking it, It requires 
merely to be dried gradually, the mould 
brushed off, the roots cut into smalk 
‘pieces, and put into a common tobacco- 
pipe, the smoke to be forced into the 
‘stomach by swallowing, without holding, 
the nostrils, or any other effort; and &. 
continue, by the blessing of, Providence, 
to experience its excellent effects, ever 
in an increased degree, so much so, that 
at this moment f anrinthe habit of riding, 
backwards aud forwards to a rural resi-. 
dence in Essex, a happiness which I bad 
long ago lost sight of. I ought not, to 
omit to state that the stalk _proves equally, 
efficacious withthe root., han 
London, December 7, 1810. VEBARs 
a 
Zo the Editor of the Monthly Magarin 
SIR, 
ys answer to. a query in the Maga 
zine for April, concerning the de- 
tection of sulphuric or vitriolic acid in 
vinegar, £ send you the following: A 
servant of mine bought a gallon of very 
strong vinegar for pickling; the pickles 
proved unpalatable, and soon became 
unfit for the table. Suspeeting this tc 
be occasioned by the adulteration of the. 
vinegar, I put a portion thereof, which 
remai™«d in the bottle, into a wine glass. 
I also diluted to abuut the same degree 
of acidity as the vinegar, a fike portion: 
of sulphuric acid ; and into a third glass _ 
F put. vinegar of-known purity. uy 
I then dissolved in, water a small. quan-. 
tity of acetite or sugar of lead, and drop- 
ped iuto each of the three glassés con- _ 
taining the acids some drops of the.clear | 
solution; the result was that a copious: 
white precipitate turned the suspected 
vinegar and the diliitéd Sulphuric acid . 
as opaque and white as pulk, while the 
pure vinegar, for reasons obvious to the 
7 
chemist, eeinei near unchanged and transe 
parent. 
Acetite or sugar of lead is therefore 
a.simple, easy, and pleasing, test of sul- 
pharic_or viteiolic acid, &c. in vinegar, 
spirits, &c. and such as ought to be al 
nerally known and ‘kept in every family, 
since the practice of adulterating vinegar 
with sulphuric acid prevails. 
On 
