SELECTED ARTICLES. 
ART. VII.— RESEARCHES ON THE COMMERCIAL POTASH 
OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. By Lewis C. Beck, M. D., 
Professor of Chemistry in the University of the City of New York, &c. 
Potash is one of those articles, the manufacture of which, 
it has been deemed advisable to regulate, by inspection laws, 
the avowed object of which is to protect the consumer against 
the negligence or frauds of the manufacturer. In this state, 
the propriety of legislative action on this subject is, perhaps, 
more apparent than elsewhere, in consequence of the value of 
the manufacture, which may be estimated at more than a mil- 
lion of dollars annually. But from the nature of the article in 
question, it became difficult to devise an unexceptionable 
mode of inspection, without the employment of some chemi- 
cal processes, which although sufficiently simple, have not 
been hitherto adopted. Hence potash of an inferior quality, 
has sometimes passed through the ordinary inspection, and 
found its way into our own markets and into those of foreign 
countries. This fact, which was in a good degree attributable 
to the erroneous notions which prevailed in some parts of the 
state, concerning the principles of the manufacture, upon be- 
ing communicated to Gov. Throop, induced him to present 
the subject to the consideration of the legislature. The result 
was a formal investigation, during the sessions of 1832 and 
1833, by the committee on trade and manufactures of that 
body; and as the inquiry involved chemical details, I was 
honoured with a commission to examine into the various pro- 
cesses adopted in the manufacture of potash, and to analyze 
samples of the various kinds brought to market. That duty 
I endeavoured faithfully to discharge, and made full reports of 
