mud, without windows, but neat and clean, encompassed by a spacious compound, full of cocoa nut and lofty fruit trees, which lessen the glare and the force of a scorching sun. The public buildings are none of note. Pagodas there are many, ill constructed, and few large; likewise choultras, or rather resting places on the high roads, small, and not kept in good repair. The bridges are very indifferent, old and crazy. The public roads in the southern parts are the upper and lower; the first over a deep loose sandy beach; the other over hills and dales, both bad and fatiguing enough. The inward road to the northward of Quilon is level, tolerably wide, and shaded by trees, whose branches meet, and are interwoven. A Nair is a soldier by birth-not that he always acts in that station, but the soldiery are chosen from this caste alone, and he must be one if called upon. They are the nobles of the country; never profess trade, nor follow mechanical employments. Their food is rice, roots and fish. Sometimes the chace affords them a repast of hog and deer.. Are generally landholders, and such time as can be spared from the plough and the spade, mending the fences, and collecting provisions for the Bramins-an almost continual round of occupation-is devoted to hunting. Their weapons are bows and arrows, spears and musquets. The country affords plenty of game, but it is such a wilderness, that they are not always successful. The woods for a certain distance around a village, are considered the property of that village-i. e. it has the exclusive privilege of clearing and cultivating; and is entitled to all game found thereon. So if the people of another village should huut on this ground, and kill a deer or hog, it must be divided between both. This is the only kind of game law they have. The pepper vines are generally planted at the foot of a Mango Jack, Beetle-nut, or other large tree, manured with dry cow dung, four vines to each tree. As soon as they begin to shoot of a sufficient length, they must be gently tied to the trees with coir or twine, they will then shortly fasten of themselves, and in the space of three years produce berries. They must be daily watered in the dry season, until they produce, and if this be afterwards continued, it will greatly add to their growth and product. Tho above-mentioned trees are those preferred in this country, but others will answer. When the tree dies, another young one should be substituted, taking care to root up the old one without injuring the vines. With regard to the soil, the best is a dark brown or black mould, free from gravel, yet a light sandy soil is not inimical. The method of planting is, to cut layers of about a foot and a half long, to be placed in the earth in a slanting position. They will continue to produce thirty to forty years, and bear, upon an average, from ten to twelve pounds. I shall conclude this tract of Travancore with the following remark, that the gentle, the timid, the humane Hindoo has all the merit of introducing tyranny and oppression under multifarious forms, in a part of the world where Europeans never possessed the least influence, and to which they have scarcely, at any time, had unrestrained access. MEMOIRE UPON UNALTERABLE COLOURS TO BE USED IN DYEING. We are by much too well acquainted with the French manner of expressing discoveries made, and of claiming attention to novelties, to place implicit faith in articles such as the following, or to take them lite They consult augurs and soothsayers, are particularly observant of lucky and unlucky days, by which they regulate their mar-rally; yet, as we have reason to know that riages, births, journies, and almost every material occurrence of their lives: believe in evil spirits, to whom they sacrifice, to deprecate their wrath: make frequent oblations at the pagodas, and are to appearance very respectful to the Bramins, but rament their numbers as a grievous burthen on the state. When the Rajah journeys, he enriches himself by the mean, base method of exposing his person to public view, in order that his vassals may approach him with the customary presents. By this he has raised a lack and a half of rupees; a good round sum for contemplating Majesty! in these pretensions, there is nothing be yond the power of plants, &c. natives of our own country; and, it is more than possible, should this French gentleman realize his proposals, that our dyers, manufacturers, &c. may meet him on his own ground. In the mean time, the first may prove valuable to some individual who knows how to profit by it; and, therefore, we think it our duty to reprint the article from the Times newspaper of January 11, 1815. C 741] AFTER a sentence or two complimen- | to turn yellow, which I have succeeded in tary to the French National Institute, M. de la Boulaye proceeds : The problem in chemistry which propose to resolve is a great one. it has for its object to render all the colours used in dyeing capable of resisting the injuries of time; and to find the means of composing both in wool and silk, tapestries, whose freshness, brilliancy, and harmony of tone, shall preserve themselves against the effects of the atmosphere, as well as paintings on canvas. You know, Gentlemen, better than the rest of the world, what difficulties lay in the way of such a purpose; that I had to discover new mordants, to qualify and multiply them according to the nature of the substances to be dyed, and to that of the dyeing substances; and to arrive at the power of fixing and maintaining them in the same state of cheinical equilibrium, against the continued re-action of the air, of calorique, and of light. I might even add that, in the number of these colours, there are some whose adhesion to their respective stuffs seemed at first almost impossible, since the colouring matter always weakens the mordant, without which it is impossible to dye them; and recourse must be had to counteragencies hitherto unknown, to remedy the evil. But to form an idea of it, one need only reflect on the attempts made for two whole centuries, upon the red of Adrianople, and upon Indigo, not to mention the numberless experiments and operations (even after the principle of the discovery has been explored), by which we must ascertain the most simple process, for assuring ourselves always of the same results, and bringing them within the reach of ordinary manufacturers. giving to wool as well as silk, and which spreads much more than their natural white if we only add to this, the fastest colour of the ancient dye, or the fine red yielded by alkermes, to fill the pallette; the problem will be solved. "Of these twelve unchangeable colours, eight have been subjected to the action of the sun under glass, during the four latter months of last summer (1813), without undergoing the least alteration; as is proved by the subjoined procés verbaux of the Commissioners of Government. Fire has no effect upon the ninth colour, and the three last are the fruits of my industry through the preceding winter. "The object of my Memoire may then be considered under a double point of view. First, as the application of science to the progress of the arts, in enabling us,-1st, to make all colours unchangeable,—2d, to obtain all their shades in a regular scale, by an exact and simple method,-3d, to heighten at pleasure their native brilliancy, without injuring in the smallest degree by this operation, the fibre of the silk, wool, thread, or cotton. “Secondly, as ministering to the prospe rity of manufactures and of commerce, by the employment of indigenous substances, much more economical than those now in use, such as my blue instead of indigo, and my crimson upon silk, in place of cochineal; indeed, I have not thought myself justified in disregarding other colours, though too dear for general commerce, but whose complete unalterability renders them fit for the decoration of palaces, &c. since it is the duration combined with the brilliancy of colour, whence the richest stuffs derive their principal value. "The art of dyeing, illustrated by the learned work of the Senator Berthollet, appeared hardly susceptible of farther improvements after those which had been added to the greater part of the operations by Chaptal, Hansman, Raimond, and Roard. "The specimens of new unalterable colours which I have now the honour to present to the Institute, and the composition of which is perfect, are blue upon wool and silk; green, yellow, violet, and nine other colours; to wit, a yellow upon wool, as "I confess, therefore, Gentlemen, that strong and more brilliant than the former: it would have been presumptuous in me, two greens, one of which will resist the acmen, to attempt any such tion of fire itself; two fine blacks one with- above all out copperas, which can neither burn nor improvements with regard to the brilharden silk, any more than wool; and ano-liancy, vivacity, or purity of the colours alther, which resists sulphuric acid and pot-ready known, or of their shades. But with ash in a state of ebullition, as well as the action of the sun and air; an unalterable a crimson on silk, much puce colour; cheaper and more durable than cochineal; and lastly, a pure pink, completely unalterable through all the shades of flesh colour. "Add to these, twelve new colours, which may be obtained pure in all their shades, a very beautiful white, never liable respect to their fixity, almost every thing remained to be done; since most colours are injured in a very little time, and all of them, after a length of time, by the continual action of the air and sun upon their particles. The clear light, and the different shades of them upon silk, are still more exposed to such injuries, probably because the colouring particles do not penetrate so འ lour which he aims at; but his course is defective when the mordants are colourless; and when they are coloured, he must necessarily guess from the colour of the liquid tint, what it will become in its dry state; which is always attended with uncertainty. But science offers us a more ex deeply into the pores of silk as into those of wool, whose concave and transparent scales protect them better from the inroads of the atmosphere, as varnish does the coJours of enamel. It was by considering the art, therefore, in a novel point of view, and by discovering either new and more powerful mordants, or new dyeing sub-act and easy mode, which I also beg perstances capable of producing by the liquid process, colours equally durable with those obtained through the dry process, that one might hope to bring this beautiful art to perfection. This mine rich as it was ori ginally, could surely be no otherwise explored than by borrowing the light of chemistry for our guide. mission to detail to you. Let us suppose a vesse! charged with a quantity of mordant, double what is necessary to communicate the deepest shade of any given colour, to 24 skains of wool or silk, in 24 hours; suppose likewise that we want to procure 24 or even 48 graduated shades in arithmetical proportion: it will be sufficient to "I have stated, Gentlemen, that an im- plunge in the 24 skains all at once, taking provement of the utmost importance was care to keep up the same regular tempethat of dyeing wool and silk, and commu- rature in the vessel, and so draw out the nicating to them the highest brilliancy, skains in succession, at an hour's or half without at all weakening the strength of their an hour's interval from each other. This fibre, nor hardening it on the other hand, process affords the means of obtaining at as by the action of the mordants already will all possible shades of colour, in varyknown. I flatter myself that the rigorousing the scale of time, which I have speciexperiments of the casses-fil [Threau-break-fied; and I pledge myself for the effect, ers] will prove to the committee that silk dyed according to my new process, retains the same strength as before it was dyed, on which depends the preservation of its natural brightness. And here I beg leave to explain myself by a sensible illustration of this idea. It is a well known principle in physics that the polish of surfaces increases their lustre; and that the same lustre disappears in proportion as the surface becomes more ragged: whence it follows, that if silks dyed by the old methods Tose, as we know they do, a fifth, or even a fourth of their strength, by the action of the mordants, they must become less glossy in the same proportion by the corrosion of their surface, like a glass whose polish is rubbed away by the graver. "If, then, the fibre of the silk when dyed, loses nothing of its strength by this re-action, as the experiment of the cessefil has already proved, it will be, cæteris paribus, one-fifth more brilliant than under the antient methods, i. e. the fifth which it has hitherto lost. I may farther assure you, that science has furnished me with infallible means of increasing at will the natural brightness of silk as well as wool, and of bestowing upon them the most brilliant and durable lustre. "I have described as one of the new improvements in the art of dyeing, that of a sure method of obtaining all the various shades of the same colour, in a graduation of equi-distant tints, as numerous as can be desired. "I know, Gentlemen, that the practised coup d'ail of a dyer by profession obtains, by a sort of habitual tract, that tone of co which I have seen confirmed without failure in all my numerous experiments." * [Here follow some chemical observations, which the author admits do not bear immediately, or with certainty, on the practial part of his subject and which I therefore will not trouble you by inserting here.] "RECAPITULATION. "To arrive at a method of dyeing stuffs without injury to their fibre-to heighten at pleasure their natural gloss-to procure by an exact and easy process all the shades that one can wish for and to render all the colours unalterable;—such are the improvements of which the art of dyeing, which constitutes the richest branch of commerce, has appeared to me to be susceptible. The colours on which I desire more particularly to fix your attention at this sitting, are, "1st. Blue upon wool and silk; a blue which resists the air, the light, and all the decomponents of boiling acid. I believe I may venture to assert, moreover, that supposing the price of indigo reduced by the peace to the rate of the year 1789-that is to say, to 12 francs (10s.) per lb. the use of my indigenous blue will be found to effect a saving of more than three-parts in four. This fundamental colour serves for the basis of the black called paguon, of green, and violet, with those which I have substituted for copperas, woad, and cochineal. "2d. The golden yellow, which resists air and light, as well as the boiling solutions of alum, lees, and soap: imitating and replacing the dye called rocou, whose beautiful tint is so soon destroyed by the sun. ❝3d. The green, produced by two former, This green may, by its chemical nature, be a little less lively than the old colour composed of indigo and of the pure yellow of the woad. In fact, the small reddish portion of the golden yellow forms, in combination with the blue, a shade of violet, which must diminish, in some trifling degree, the purity of the mixed colour; but this slighting decomponents, common sense forbids disadvantage will appear to you, Gentlemen, sufficiently balanced by the superior durability which it offers. "After this test, three or four times longer and more severe than those to which the old colours had ever been subjected, the Commissioners declare that they have not remarked the slightest difference bes tween the specimens exposed, and those of the same colours which had not been exposed. As to the proofs derived from boil "The violet of Dalberg, which the Institute has already done me the honour to adopt, as an unchangeable colour for painting; and whose shades afford the Hortensiu, lilac, gray, &c. tints otherwise so fugi. tive: this violet resists for ever both air and sun, as well as the boiling solutions of sulphuric acid, of alum, lees, and potash. us to expect that any colour whatever should have the property of resisting all these agents without being decomposed; since in that case they must be actually new elements; but, generally speaking, the best are those which resist most powerfully the action of such agents as are appropriated to their chemical nature, as ap pears in the classification of those decomponents, given by the Senator Berthollet. This rule, however, is not without its exception: since the green of Scheele, well known to be unchangeable in painting, has not the property of resisting either acids or alkalis. "I propose to communicate shortly to the Committee some other colours, as soon as their process shall have been completed. "The proofs to which I have subjected my colours are two-fold. 1st, that of a long "Besides, the most rigorous experiexposure to the direct rays of the sun under ments made with the boiling solutions, and glass,-2d, that of the boiling solution of tried at the Gobelines by M. Roard, have chemical decomponents. Messrs. Roard fully confirmed the results of those which and Desmazis, Commissioners of the Go- were tried in 1812, by the committee of vernment, have exposed under glass from chemists of the town of Clermont, and have 24th March to 27th July, 1815, eight of my all resisted triumphantly according to their new colours, on wool and on silk, woven nature. It is after this long series of douand not woven, of which the 27 numbered ble proofs, that the Commissioners of Gosamples which I submit to you, together vernment have drawn their conclusion with the original samples to compare them" that these new colours present a degree with, represented different shades both light and dark, viz. six of golden yellow --eight of the violet of Dalberg-four of three distinct greens differing in their chemical nature-two of blacks, and seven of blue, of durability much greater than that of any colours antecedently known;" and it is this, Gentlemen, which emboldens me to submit them to your protection, and to beg that you will stamp them with your authority. "LE COMTE DE BOULAYE MARILLAĆ." "Paris, 30th Mai, 1814. NOXIOUS INGREDIENTS USED IN BEER: In our last number we reported, on the authority of a speech attributed to Mr. Giffard, that, among the noxious ingredients employed by the Irish brewers to intoxicate their customers [and, we fear, not by them only] one was the Coculus In dicus, which is the fruit of the Menispermum Corulus; a tree originally of the East Indies. As few persons are acquainted with the analysis of this drug, we think it our duty to state so much of it as may prove a preservative against the practice, among those who might be tempted to adopt it; if not a correction and cause of reformation among those who have heretofore used it. These seeds are sometimes employed by unfair and dishonest persons to obtain a quantity of fish at little trouble; but, they ought to know, that these seeds not only destroy the fish, in great numbers, but that they communicate poisonous qualities to the fish so caught, which become a real poison to men or animals who may afterwards feed upon them. M. Boullay, a French Chymist, found in analysing the poisonous principle, which he found means to obtain separate from the other constituent parts, that it was of the most dreadful bitter taste, and closely resembled that of the Upas-ticuté: whose extremely fatal venom is famous. The chrystals it forms are perfectly white, and resemble a chrystalized salt, in quadrangular prisms: boiling water dissolves them in part. Ether dissolves more. Potass and soda dissolve them almost entirely: but oils have no sensible effect on them. The result of his observations was, that the grain is extremely dangerous in every state. COMETS: OF THEIR PERIODS; AND EVIDENCES OF THEIR PERMANENCY, AND RETURN, AFTER LONG DISAPPEARANCE. [Extracted from the communication of a Correspondent.] cor In our last we hinted at the supposed vaporous, or loosely combined composition, of comets; we are reminded by a respondent, that these bodies must possess much greater degrees of density than we appear to allow them; since some of them have lasted many ages; for aught we know, as many as our own earth. Supposing the comet of 1811 to have a period of 510 years, it is, in all probability, the same as appear ed 510 years before, that is to say in 1901, in the sign Virgo; and again in 791, according to Ekstoronius, Labienez, Zahn, and others; also by the appearance of a comet in the month of December, A. D. 281, which was observed in China, in the sign Leo, cited by Pingré in his Cometographie, Vol. I. p. 594. These comets of 281, 791, 1801, and 1811, appearing at intervals of 510 years, suppose a body capable of preserving the same orbit, and not subject to speedy or casual dissolution. If we go higher into history, we find a comet described as half the size of the moon, seen in China, in the sixteenth year of the Emperor Chun, successor of Gao, who ascended the throne in the year 2284 before our era; this fixes the year 2269 for that of the comet's appearance, and consequently the year 1811 was the eighth time of this meteor's radiant visibility to our earth. This correspondent will accept our best thanks for his communication: after all, it should seem that, if this body were so large formerly, it is much diminished in size at present; whence may be inferred, with some plausibility, that it is in a state of progressive degradation; and perhaps it may be entirely dispersed, before it has made many more (possibly before one more) of its appearances to the wonder-struck sous of Earth. The Gatherer. NO. IV. NEW SERIES. "I am but a Gatherer and Dealer in other Men's Stuff." Description of the Atheneum at Paris, by a Professor. The Atheneum is a great literary cabinet, where the journals, the pamphlets of the day, and a library are collected for the amusement of the public: in addition to a good fire, dirty benches and straw bottomed chairs, there are three great halls; one for the newsmongers, who swallow equally whatever is repeated to them; and for the journalists, who prefer novelty to truth in their reports; another for men of learning, who discourse rather of what is true than of novelties; and a third for literati and poets, who propagate neither novelty nor truth. |