minerals, or to the preservation of substances from the attacks of
insects. To be applicable to the preservation of plants, of course it
is necessary that the agents to be used should not exercise on them
any materially injurious effects. This must be determined by
experiments made expressly for the purpose. The few trials I have yet
made on seeds seem to shew, that the steeping them in a solution in
water of sulphuretted hydrogen has not prevented their germination.
The seeds tried were mignonette, cress-seed, and that of a Nemophila:
analogy--namely, that of steeping the seed of the cerealia in a
solution of the white oxide of arsenic, is in favour of the same
conclusion. Further, for the preservation of articles, whether of
clothing or furniture, it is hardly less necessary that the substances
to be employed should have no offensive odour. Judging from the
effects of attar of roses, and from what we know of scented woods not
being liable to be attacked by insects, the probability is, that any
volatile oil of agreeable perfume will answer the purpose required,
and prove a true instance of the _utile et dulce_ combined.

'As carbonic acid gas, and some of the other agents mentioned, produce
merely a temporary torpor, it may be a question whether this gas, or
simple immersion in water, may not be advantageously substituted for
the fumes of burning sulphur, destructive of life, at the yearly
gathering of honey; the former, indeed, may be said to be in use in
the Levant, where the smoke of the fire of leaves, in which the
carbonic acid generated may be considered as chiefly operative, is
employed to stupify the bees preparatory to the spoiling of their
hives.'


CHILDREN SUCKLED BY WOLVES.