4

the currents. The first of these motions may be easily perceived, by bending the leaf of the chelidonium, still in the ground, or taking it out with its root, so that it may not be injured. He reflected a ray of light by a mirror to that part of the under side of the leaf which he desired to examine, and then observing the upper part with a microscope, soon saw a yellow trembling fluid flowing rapidly through little branches of transparent vessels with which the green substance of the leaf was nearly covered. The bundles of transparent vessels are composed of distinct tubes, and where they intersected each other, the velocity and progress of the fluid was most easily seen. Some of them come from the upper part of the leaf to the lower, while others go from the lower to the upper. The currents were sometimes intermitted and irregular, but the author did not discover regular periodical pulsations. The action is checked as the leaves begin to fade; and stops first in the small vessels, and, at length, in the large ones. Dr. Schultz observed, that the motion lasted much longer in the leaves of the calyx than in other parts, and there was always both an ascending and a descending current, though the latter stopped much sooner than the former. The author remarked a great analogy between the structure of the vessels of the leaves of the calyx and of the vessels of animals. The two contrary currents are no where better seen than in the branches; and of them, those which are yet soft and full of sap are the best. According to the opinion of Dr. Schultz, the ascending vessels become, descending ones after reaching the extremities of the branches; there they mingle and anastomose, so that it would appear, the points of union of all the circulating vessels are in the extremities, or in the leaves; while in animals the blood flows to and from the heart as the common parent and reservoir. In plants, therefore, the life may be said to exist independent in every part,

DICTIONARY OF CHEMISTRY.

BALSAMS. Vegetable juices, both liquid and solid. Their charac teristics are, to be insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol or ether.

BATH, in chemistry, signifies any means, such as heated sand, steam, or boiling water, of applying an equal degree of heat to substances. They are immersed in the sand, steam, or water, and the temperature of the latter is sometimes raised beyond the ordinary boiling point for particular purposes, by dissolving various salts in it. Water saturated with muriate of lime may be heated up to 250 Fahr. BDELLIUM. A gum resin, of African origin, not unlike myrrh.

BEAN is only included in chemical dictionaries from having been, like many other vegetable substances, analyzed, and found to contain, volatile matter, starch, albumen, extractive gummy matter, and earthy phosphates.

BEE. Of this insect the same remark may in part be made; its poison has been found to resemble that of the viper.

BEER is a true chemical product, being the result of a chemical process. It has been, not inappropriately, called the wine of grain.

BELL METAL. An alloy of copper and tin with lead, zinc, or arsenic.

BEN, OIL OF, obtained from the ben-nut, by pressure.

BENZOATES. Salts formed with benzoic acid and a base.

BENZOIC ACID. Flowers of benzoin; a peculiar acid, obtained from the styrax benzoe, a tree which grows in Sumatra. It is a compound of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, and is used by perfumers, and as a cosmetic.

ANSWER TO QUERY. TO PURIFY WATER CON TAINING IRON.

MR EDITOR,-Having observed in the Chemist, No. XVI, that your Correspondent A. B.D-~y wishes to be informed of a method to purify water containing iron, I request, if it meets your approbation, that you will insert the following reply to him. What he asks for has long been desired by other people, for water containing iron is of no use, or rather, is mischievous if used by bleachers, dyers, and calico printers; and as a great deal of water contains iron, it has long been a desideratum with those manufacturers to find out a cheap and expeditious method of getting rid of the iron, The metal is always held in solution by some acid; most generally it is either the sulphuric or the carbonic acid. In either case, the water gives, with a small addition of tincture of nutgalls, a purple or black colour; and if the solvent be sulphuric acid, the same test gives the same colour after the water has been boiled as before; while, if the solvent is carbonic acid, the test gives no colour after the water has been boiled. Having ascertained the solvent by these means, if it be, sulphuric acid, by adding a small quantity of a solution of barytes the earth will seize the sulphuric acid, and precipitate it, while the iron, losing its solvent, will also be deposited. After this operation has been performed, if the water be allowed to remain at rest for a few hours, it will be fit for use. Great care must, however, be taken not to add more of the barytic solution than is necessary to combine with the sulphuric acid, as this substance is of a poisonous nature, and might be more injurious than the iron. However, by allowing the water to remain exposed to the air, the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, or that of the water itself, will combine with the barytes, and precipitate it. When the acid is the carbonic, a little fresh burnt lime will separate the iron; but no more of this should be added

than is necessary, as this, too, is noxious. If more be added, exposure to the atmosphere will also precipitate it; but if there is not a sufficient time for this, the addition of a small quantity of sulphuric acid will precipitate the lime in 24 hours, when, if filtered, it will be fit for any purpose, either of manufacture or of domestic economy. Recommending your Correspondent first to try the above methods on a small scale, if he has any large quantity of water which he wishes to purify,

I remain, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
AQUA VITE.

CURIOUS DISEASE IN POLAND

CRACOW may be considered the centre of that singular and revolting disease the weichselzopf, or plica polonica. It derives its name from the most prominent symptom, the entangling of the hair into a confused mass. It is generally preceded by violent head-ache and tingling in the ears; it attacks the bones and joints, and even the nails of the toes and fingers, which split longitudinally. I saw such furrows in the nails of a person twelve years after his complete cure. If so obstinate as to defy treatment, it ends in blindness, deafness, or in the most melancholy distortions of the limbs, and some times in all those miseries together. The most extraordinary part of the disease is its action on the hair. The individual hairs begin to swell at the root, and to exude a fat slimy substance, frequently mixed with suppurated matter, which is the most noisome feature in the malady; their growth is at the same time more rapid, and their sensibility greater than in the healthy state; and notwithstanding the incredulity with which it was long received, it is now no longer doubtful, that where the disease has reached a high degree of malignity, not only whole masses of the hair, but even single hairs, will bleed if cut off, and that too throughout their whole length as

well as at the root. The hairs growing rapidly amidst this cor rupted mass, twist themselves tous gether inextricably, and at last are plaited with a confused, elotted, disgusting looking mass. Very frequently they twist themselves into a number of separate masses like ropes; and there is an instance of such a zopfe (tail) growing to the length of 14 feet on a lady's head before it could be safely cut off. Sometimes it assumes other forms, which medical writers have distinguished by speeific names: such as, the bird'snest plica, the turban plica, the Medusa-head plica, the long-tailed plica, the club-shaped plica, &e.

The hair, however, while thus suffering itself, seems to do so merely from contributing to the cure of the disease, by being the channel through which the corrupted matter is carried off from the body. From the moment that the hair begins to entangle itself the preceding symptoms always diminish, and frequently disappear entirely, and the patient is comparatively well, except that he must submit to the inconvenience of bearing about with him this disgusting head-piece. Accordingly, where there is reason to suspect that a weichselzopf is forming itself, medical means are commonly used to further its outbreaking on the head; and among the peasants, the same object is pursued by increased ees filth and carelessness, and even by soaking the hair with oil or rancid butter. After the hair has continued to grow thus tangled and noisome for a period, which is in no case fixed, itgradually becomes dry, healthy hairs begin to grow up under the plica, and at last “push it from its stool." In the process of suppuration, however, it unites its self so readily with the new hairs, that if not cut off at this stage it continues hanging for years, an entirely foreign appendage to the head. There are many instances pub of Poles, who, suffering under ail-1991 ments, the forerunners of an ap-3" proaching weichselzopf; have in vainimo a sought aid in other countries from (999!

foreign physicians, and on their return have found a speedy though very disagreeable cure in the breaking out of the plica.

But till the plica has run through all its stages, and has begun of itself to decay, any attempt to cut the hair is attended with the utmost danger to the life of the patient. It not only affects the body, by bringing on convulsions, cramps, distortions of the limbs, and frequently death, but the imprudence has often had madness for its result; and, in fact, during the whole progress of the disease, the mind is in general affected no less than the body. Yet, for a long time, to cut off the hair was the first step taken on the approach of the disease. People were naturally anxious to get rid of its most disgusting symptom; and they ascribed the melancholy effects which uniformly followed, not to the removal of the hair, but merely to the internal malady, upon which this removal had no influence; medical men had not then learned that this was the natural outlet of the disorder. Even towards the end of the last century, some medical writers of Germany still maintained that the hair should be instantly cut; but the examples in which blindness, distortion, death, or insanity have been the immediate consequence of the operation, are much too numerous to allow their theoretical opinion to have any weight. The only cure known, is to allow the hair to grow till it begins to rise pure and healthy from the skin, which indicates that the malady is over; it is then shaved off, and the cure is generally complete, although there are cases in which the disease has been known to return. The length of time during which the head continues in this state of corruption, depends entirely on the degree of malignity in the disease.

Two instances of the wonderful disposition of the hairs thus to intertwist themselves with each other were mentioned to me, which I would not have believed had I not received them from an eyewitness, and would not repeat were not

that eyewitness among the most respectable citizens of Cracow in character and rank, the historian of its fate, and a member of its senate. The first occurred in his own house. A servant was attacked with the weichselzopf; at length his hair began to rise in a healthy state from the head; it was shaved off, and the man wore a wig. But the cure had not been complete ; the malady speedily returned, and the new springing hairs already diseased, instead of plaiting them selves with one another, made their way through the lining of the wig, and intertwisted themselves strongly with its hair that it could not be removed until the the natural hair itself, from the extremity of which it depended, had returned to its natural state. The other case was that of a young lady, whose relations had cut off her hair at the commencement of the disease; the consequences were violent, and threatened to be mortal. Fortunately, the lady, with the liking which every girl has for a head of beautiful hair, had ordered her ravished locks to be preserved, and it was resolved to try an experiment. The hair was again bandaged on the head; as the new and corrupted hair sprang up, it united itself so firmly with it, that they formed but one mass; the convulsions and distortions disappeared, and in due time the cure was complete.

The weichselzopf, at once a painful, a dangerous, and disgusting disease, is not confined to the human species; it attacks horses, particularly in the hair of the mane, dogs, oxen, and even wolves and foxes. Although more common among the poorer classes, it is not peculiar to them, for it spares neither rank, nor age, nor sex. Women, however, are said to be less exposed to it than men, and fair hair less than brown or black hair. It is contagious, and may, moreover, become hereditary. In Cracow there is a family, the father of which had the weichselzopf, but seemed to be thoroughly cured; he married shortly afterwards, and his wife was speedily

subjected to the same frightful visitation, and ofthree children whom she bore to him, every one has inherited the disease. Among professional persons, great diversity of opinion prevails regarding its origin and nature. The more ignorant classes of the people believe that it is a preservation against all other diseases, and therefore adorn themselves with an inoculated weichselzopf.-A Tour in Germany.

SPINNING UNNECESSARY.

"LIEUT. HEBENSTREIT has invented a process, by which he makes a species of caterpillar spin a kind of wadding, which is of a fine white colour, and water-proof. He made a balloon of this stuff, and raised it by means of a chafingdish, with spirits of wine, in the large warehouse where he keeps his caterpillars at work. He makes them trace ciphers and figures in the wadding, He accomplishes this by moistening outlines of figures or letters with spirits of wine. The caterpillars avoid these tracings, and spin their web around them. Thus, any figure which has been drawn is represented in the stuff. A piece of wadding seven feet square, perfectly clean, and as brilliant as taffeta, was made by about 50 caterpillars, between the 5th and 26th of June." This invention is said to have been made at Munich, the capital of Bavaria; and all persons must wish it should succeed, as it will convert a noxious insect into an intelligent cloth manufacturer.

THE stones called lapis lazuli are made red hot and thrown into the water, to make them pulverize easily; they are then reduced to fine powder, and intimately combined with a varnish formed of resin, wax, and boiled linseed oil. It is then of the consistence of paste, and is put into a linen cloth and repeatedly kneaded with hot water. The first water is thrown away, the second gives a blue of the first quality, and the third yields one of

less value. This process is founded on the property of the earthy matter of the stone adhering more firmly to the resin than the colouring matter, which is by this means extracted.

CHALY BEATE CURRANT
WINE.

WE have no doubt all our readers remember the story told by Sancho Panza of the excellent judgment given by two of his ancestors as to wine; but in case they should not, we will repeat it, as far as our memory serves us. These two great uncles of Sancho's were the two greatest topers of the village, and were called on, like some toadeaters of the present day, to give their opinion of some wine which had just been broached, most probably by the priest, for that class of men generally, in those days, broached the oftenest and had the best. One of the judges, after taking a second hearty draught, for no liquid ever tastes well with one, smacked his lips, and declared it excellent, only it had a small twang of leather. This excited a smile in the owner of the wine, which was increased considerably, when Sancho's other uncle, having gone through the like process, also pronounced it excellent, but with a twang of iron. The company positively laughed;" but who," says Sancho, were triumphant, when it was found, on emptying the cask, that there was lying at the bottom a leather loop, having a rusty iron nail driven through one end?" Our recollection of this anecdote has been revived by observing, in the last Number of the Philosophical Magazine, an analysis of Mr. Harley's black currant wine, which was found to contain 20 grains of iron in each pint, being more iron than is contained in the steel wine of the Pharmacopoeia. Did Mr. Harley look after the rusty nails? We are afraid not; if he had, both he and his scientific friend, Mr. Cufande Davie, might probably have found some rational cause for their black currant wine being a good chalybeate.