for this purpose! How greatly would it increase the cost of
bleaching to pay interest upon this capital, or to hire so much land
in England! This expense would scarcely have been felt in Germany.
Besides the diminished expense, the cotton stuffs bleached with
chlorine suffer less in the hands of skilful workmen than those
bleached in the sun; and already the peasantry in some parts of
Germany have adopted it, and find it advantageous.

Another use to which cheap muriatic acid is applied, is the
manufacture of glue from bones. Bone contains from 30 to 36 per
cent. of earthy matter--chiefly phosphate of lime, and the remainder
is gelatine. When bones are digested in muriatic acid they become
transparent and flexible like leather, the earthy matter is
dissolved, and after the acid is all carefully washed away, pieces
of glue of the same shape as the bones remain, which are soluble in
hot water and adapted to all the purposes of ordinary glue, without
further preparation.

Another important application of sulphuric acid may be adduced;
namely, to the refining of silver and the separation of gold, which
is always present in some proportion in native silver. Silver, as it
is usually obtained from mines in Europe, contains in 16 ounces, 6
to 8 ounces of copper. When used by the silversmith, or in coining,
16 ounces must contain in Germany 13 ounces of silver, in England
about 14 1/2. But this alloy is always made artificially by mixing
pure silver with the due proportion of the copper; and for this
purpose the silver must be obtained pure by the refiner. This he
formerly effected by amalgamation, or by roasting it with lead; and
the cost of this process was about 2l. for every hundred-weight of
silver. In the silver so prepared, about 1/1200 to 1/2000th part of