such anomalies are more apparent than real; for, according to the experiments of M. M. Gay Lussac and Thenard, on vegetable chemistry, the same elements, with very small variations of proportion, are differently grouped, and produced different combinations, the effects of which on the nervous system may be diametrically opposite. BATTLES AND LOVES OF LEECHES. MANKIND are more indebted to the labours of the husbandman than they in general confess; for not only their comforts but their morality depends on his exertions. It is found by experience, that humanity and hunger cannot exist together; and in spite of the tirades of ascetic philosophers against enjoyment, it is clear that full bellies are the great source of peace and love and good-will amongst men. it is quite a mistake to suppose that CANNIBALS eat their brother men out of pure love to human flesh, and a natural delight in cruelty. They only do it as the half-starved sow is known to feed on her young-out of hunger; and wherever they can find somewhat to satisfy this craving, though it be by toils and dangers, amidstquaking ice-bergs, like those of the Esquimaux, and though their food be only whale blubber, they prefer this to steeping their hands in human blood. The effect of full bellies in promoting harmony and tranquillity is wonderfully apparent at present in this country. We now and then feel a little puff of religious discord, but the fierce spirit of sectarianism is gone to sleep in the lap of animal indulgence. Radicalism and terrorism have both been choked by cheap bread; and it is plain, if there were plenty of potatoes and rags in Ireland, we should hear nothing of either Orange or Catholic Associations, White-boyism, Blue-boyism, and the other isms and schisms of that unhappy land. All have their origin in the people having incautiously multiplied faster than the mur-phies; and the emptiness of their stomachs is the cause of the dis content in their hearts. It is well known that the same law applies to animals as well as men; and dog will only eat dog when he is on the point of starving. A French author, M. Noble, has lately shown that the same fact is true of leeches. As long as these little water serpents can find the blood of man or beast to suck, they live in great harmony with one another, go on depositing their eggs, and propagating their kind, nine, ten, eleven, and even as many as fourteen in a family.When, however, they have exhausted their stock, like the Irish, they turn on one another, and, like cannibals, feed on their own dead. 66 Among the causes (says this physician) which augment very much the mortality of leeches, must be placed those battles (of course they are naval battles, though the physician has not described their Nelson or their Van Tromp,) which they fight when they are too numerous in the same vessel, or when their food is not sufficient; the weakest fall, and the others feed on them. To obviate this inconvenience, it was found only necessary to place them in a large reservoir, supplied with a stream of fresh water. -When -- er winter came, like Laplanders, they buried themselves in the mud; and when the returning warmth of spring brought them forth, they were attended with a great number of young ones. Holes were found in the sides of the reservoir, and in each of these there was deposited a cocoon of an oval form, and as large as the cocoons of the silkworms. They were of the texture outside, and had the appearance of very fine sponge. Several of them were opened; some were found empty, and their interior was compact and polished, as if covered with a coat of varnish; others were filled with a transparent and homogeneous jelly. In the most advanced, nine, ten, and even fourteen young leeches were found." Bulletin des Sciences Technologiques. To Correspondents in our next. London: Published by KNIGHT and LACEY, 55, Paternoster-row.-Printed by B. Bensley, Bolt-court, Fleet-street, Search, undismayed, the dark profound, Jeny, mai * Where Nature works in secret; trace the forms Of atoms, moving with incessant change Their elemental round; behold the seeds Of being, and the energy of life, Sift prim It is then slowly heated in a covered platinum crucible, till it is made red hot; the bydrogen combines with the oxygen, and the silicum will no longer burn in oxygen, while chlorine attacks it rapidly. The small quantity of silica produced may be dissolved by fluoric acid. If the silicum has not been strongly heated, as the acid dissolves it, a slow disengagement of hydrogen gas takes place. According to my experiments, si lica must contain 0.52 of its weight of oxygen, Zirconium is obtained in the same manner. It is black as charcoal, is not oxidated either by water or muriatic acid, but aqua regia and fluoric acid dissolve it, and with the last, hydrogen gas is disengaged. It burns at a low tem perature with great intensity. It combines with sulphur, forming a brown chesnut coloured substance, insoluble in muriatic acid and in alkalies, but which burns with splendour, forming sulphurous acid and zirconia." but fluoric acid, particularly if a little nitric acid is added, speedily dissolves it. Silicum does not decompose nitre, unless exposed to an intense heat; but it detonates with carbonate of potash at a red heat. When silicum is heated with saltpetre, and a piece of dry carbonate of soda is plunged in the mixture, a detonation immediately takes place. By passing the vapour of sulphur over red hot silicum, the metal becomes quickly incandescent. When the combination is complete, which rarely happens, the resulting substance is of a white earthy appearance, and decomposes water with extreme rapidity Water dissolves the silica, and sulphuretted hydrogen gas is cooled. By this means, a solution of silica may be obtained so highly concentrated, that during the evaporation it coagulates, and deposits portions of this earth in the form of transparent masses, like gum. When silicuret of potassium is heated with sulphur, it burns ra pidly, and leaves, when dissolved, the silicon in a state of purity. In chlorine, silicum takes fire at a red heat; a liquid, colourless, or slightly tinged with yellow, results, extremely volatile, having the odour of cyanogen, and which, with water, deposits silica in the form of jelly. It is very easy to produce silicum. The fluates of silica and of potash or soda, heated to redness, to dissipate the water, is introduced into a glass tube, closed at one end." Small pieces of potassium are then put in, which are mixed with the powder, by heating them till the metal melts, and by lightly striking the tube. Apply the heat of a lamp, and before a red heat is obtained, a detonation takes place, and silicon is reduced. It is allowed cool, and then washed with water as long as any thing is dissolved. At first hydrogen gas is set at liberty, because silicuret of potas sium is obtained, which cannot exist in water. The substance washed is a hydroguret of silicum,ceiving further elucidation from which burns with rapidity in oxygen gas at a red heat, though the silicum is not completely oxidated. QUERIES. MR. EDITOR,If the following be suitable for your pages, I shall be obliged by their speedy inser tion. 1st. What is the best method of obtaining sulphur from native g sulphuret of iron, upon a largeb scale, so that sulphuric acid may s be obtained from the disengaged/ sulphur, and sulphate of iron from the residue? 2d. What is the best method to obtain carbonate of ammonia from " the ammonia disengaged during the 2 manufacture of coal gas? sie ansa In reading your Analysis of Scientific Journals for May, I per ceive you have r have made some obser -vations on an article.in the Annals: "Remarks on Solar Light and Heat, by Baden Powell, M. A. Withe the import of those remarks I cordially agree; but as the subject is of great importance, being cons nected with most of the phenomena ? of nature, and is capable of the luminous rays which are every where emanating from the orb of reason, I request you will not dis miss the subject from the pages of the Chemist without some further remarks: and as none of the prevailing theories that I am acquainted with on this subject are satisfactory, or reconcilable with the laws of nature, I propose for your solution, or that of any of your correspondents, the following questions:--Is the sun the primary or secondary source of light; or, in other words, is light emitted or reflected from the sun? Does heat proceed from the same source, and in the same manner? ༄།༔་༑ Is solar light different in its nature from the light emitted during combustion, animal decomposition, electricity, percussion, and friction? An answer to all or any of the above questions, with any further remarks upon the same subjeet, will greatly oblige, Your humble servant 9000 and well wisher, Elland, Yorkshire, June 20. JUVENIS. I shall be very glad to see in the Chemist, as soon as convenient, an article on distillation, giving a de-scription of the most approved, stills and lutes." 700 1 2190191 zuilt to hoqing (17 What method is best adapted to obtain acetate of tin, upon an extensive scale and at a cheap rate? JUVENIS. MR. EDITOR,-I understand that at present there is among fashionable people a great rage for bright bay horses, and that horses of this colour fetch a much higher price than of any other. Jockies, Sir,. are knowing kiddies; and it is said, that some of them have found out a means of colouring horses of a most beautiful bright bay,I have frequently read of washes to make ladies' hair of different colours; and have heard even of a learned professor in a celebrated university of the north, having car ried this art so far, that he appears before his admiring pupils with his hair stained of a different colour almost every day, To such perfection has he attained, that there is no colour, it is said, from the bright sandy locks of his own country-women to the blackest shade of the African wool, including all the varieties of purples and pinks which he cannot imitate. I beg, Sir, through the medium of your entertaining miscellany, to inquire of your numerous readers, the best means of colouring hair, whether of horses, of women, or of professors; and at the same time, I should wish to learn the best means of ascertaining whether the colour of their hair is the work of art or of nature. One would not wish, Sir, to be taken in, either by the cupidity of jockies, the petit maitreism of professors, or the cooq quetry of ladies.d bas zilom lateat Itam, Sir, A odu啦 Your obedient servant, bus endast notPRISM. 6 bomber &TD9 TO PRESERVE GRAIN. 11 B A THE reason why a people who Perhaps our Correspondent A. D., D., of live chiefly on potatoes are subject, the distillery at Wandsworth, would fa- like the Irish, to severe vicissitudes d vour: us with some information on this of famine, and of momentary plenty, subject. We are slow to engage in it is, that the crop will scarcely keep ourselves, because we know a neigh from harvest to harvest, and there w bouring nation has recently made some discoveries with which we are not ac- is no means of preserving it, so as quainted-ED moti gribas Po to make the exuberance of one!? -zib ton lliw noy tesuporI 02291 Dujsbízo visi iqmos Jou ai muoilie season compensate the deficiency of another. In this point of view, wheat and grains of all kinds, which can be kept for two or three years, are much the most valuable articles of food. Whatever serves, therefore, to preserve grain in a state of perfection, tends to equalize the quantity of food which can be obtained every year, and thus to relieve society from the alternate vicissitudes, which the seasons bring, of dearth and plenty. There are also, probably, few of our readers who have not seen those immense granaries on the borders of the Thames, in which, when grain is stored up, it has to be frequently moved and turned, at a considerable expense, to preserve it. Under these points of view, it appears of some importance to know how to preserve grain in the greatest perfection, and at the least expense. In many parts of the Continent, this is done by depositing it in holes constructed in the earth for this purpose; and this has always been done on the idea that if air and moisture could be completely excluded, the grain might be preserved for any length of time. It has, in fact, long been known that grain or flour so stowed in casks as to be perfectly air-tight, has been preserved for years unaltered. Under the influence of this same idea, in 1819, the Count Dejean, according to the Annales de Chimie, caused some casks to be made, which were covered with lead, and into which grain of different kinds, properly dried, was put, and then the casks were hermetically sealed. They were opened at the end of three years, and the grain found to be in a perfect state of preservation. As grain in this state sustains no loss, and requires no attention, it is supposed that the expense of the casks and of the lead will not be equal to the cost of preserving grain not so guarded. There can be no doubt of the accuracy of the principle on "which this process proceeds; and was little doubt, we believe, that in this country it might be brought into practice by some still cheaper method than that recommended by Count Dejean. zbog bin. EXTRAORDINARY FALL OF THE BAROMETER." The journals of Germany remark an extraordinary fall of the barometer on January 230, 1824. On that day it stood at 26° 11' at Leipsic, it having been (says the Journalist) only three times as low, namely, in 1799, 1782, and 1783, during the whole of the eighteenth century. On referring to the meteorological journals kept in England and France, we observe, that in both these countries also the barometer stood very low on the same day. By the meteorological diary given in the Quarterly Journal of Science, it appears to have been at 289 70; and by the meteorological observations in the Annales de Physique et Chimie, it stood at 730° 71', being in both cases considerably the lowest of the month, and much below the average of the year. At Paris and Leipsic the wind was S.W.; at Althorpe, in Northamptonshire, W.S.W. and N.W.; and it rained somewhat both at Paris and Leipsic." POISON OF THE UPAS TREE. THE poison of the upas tree has lately been subjected to analysis by Messrs. Pelletier and Caventou. It appears there are two species of the upas poison; one is the produce of a plant, called by M. Leschenaut, strychnos tieute; the other, the terrible upas tree, is called the anthiaris toxicaria. These chemists have made experiments on both poisons, and state the following facts as the result: The poisonous principle of the strychnos tieute is that alkali which has before been detected in the strychnos nur vomica, and to which these chemists give the name of strychnia. From the upas they obtained it very pure; and half a grain of it, diluted with water, injected into the pleura of a rabbit, destroyed the animal at the end of fifteen seconds, by one terrible attack of tetanos! A quarter of a grain dissolved in diluted acetic acid, given to another rab |