PENNY WISE AND POUND FOOLISH.

AN EPIGRAM.

POOR John had bought him half a hog, And thought it would be glorious prog, To eat with cabbage, peas, and beans, Or with a dish of winter greens:

But Nelly thought it far too dear;
Indeed it cost her many a tear,
She used (for saving was her boast)
But half a pound of salt at most.
But see how Nelly was mistaken;
She saved her salt-but lost her bacon.

SOCIETY OF ARTS.

Method of preserving Fruit without Sugar, for Home Use, or Sea Stores.

THIS is the discovery of Mr. Thomas Saddington, of Lower Thames street, who, with his communication to the society, enclosed a box containing the following fruits in bottles, preserved without sugar: viz. apricots, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, cherries, Orleans plums, green gages, damsons, and Sibe rian crabs; but the same mode is applicable to all English fruits. Mr. S. describes the process which he uses, to the follow ing effect:

The bottles for this purpose are selected from the widest necked of those which are used for wine or porter, these being the cheapest. Being properly cleaned, and the fruit, which should not be too ripe, ready picked, the bottles are to be filled as full as they will hold, to admit the cork going in. The fruit while they are filling, is to be frequently shook down. The corks afterwards must be so lightly stuck into the bottles as to be taken out easily when the fruit is lightly scalded, which may be done in a copper, a kettle, or sauce-pan, over the fire, first putting a coarse cloth of any kind at the bottom, to prevent the heat from cracking the bottles. Then the copper, the kettle, &c. is to be filled with cold water sufficiently high for the bottles to be nearly up to the top of it. They are to be put in sideways, to expel the air contained in the cavity, under the bottom of the bottle. If the copper is used, care must be taken that the bottles do not touch the bottom or sides of the copper, which would endanger their bursting. Then the heat must be increased gradually, till it comes to about 170 degrees, by a brewing thermometer, which generally requires about three quarters of an hour. Those who have not such a thing, may judge of the proper degree of heat when the water feels very hot, but not hot enough to scald the fingers. If too hot, a little cold water may be added to temper

it. When the heat is proper, it must be hour longer, which will always be long kept at the same degree for about half an enough, as a longer time, or greater heat, will crack the fruit. While the bottles are thus getting in heat, a tea-kettle fall of water must be got ready, boiling, by the time the fruit is done. If one fire only is used, the kettle containing the bottles must be removed half off the fire, when it is at the full heat required, to make room for boiling the water in the tea-kettle. As soon as the fruit is properly scalded, and the water boiling, take the bottles out of the water, one at a time, and fill them within an inch of the cork, with the boiling water out of the tea-kettle. Cork them down immediately, doing it gently, but very tight, but you must not shake them by driving the cork, as that will en danger the bursting of the bottles. When corked, the bottles must be laid down on their sides, as by that means the cork keeps swelled, and prevents the air escaping out. When cold, the bottles may be removed to any convenient place of keeping. During the first month or two, it will be necessary to turn them a little round, once or twice a week, to prevent the fermentation that will arise from some fruits, from forming into a crust. By thus properly attending to the fruit, and keeping it moist with the water, no mould will ever take place. Afterwards it may be necessary to turn the bottles round once or twice a month, only.

In order to diversify the degree of heat, Mr. S. states, that he has done some fruits in 190 degrees of it, and continued them in it for three quarters of an hour; but this heat be found too powerful, and the time too long, as the fruit by these means was reduced to a pulp. In 1807, he preserved 95 bottles of fruit, the expense of which, exclusive of bottles and corks, was 17. 98. 5 1-2d. or, upon an average, about 4 1-2d. a bottle. In winter, they may amount to 18. per bottle. The vessel for scalding the fruit in, should be a long wooden trough of six, eight, or ten feet

in length; two or three in breadth; and one in depth; fitted with laths across, to keep the bottles upright. This trough of water is to have the heat communicated to it by steam, through a pipe from a closed boiler at a distance; or if the boiling water wanted to fill the bottles with, is convey ed through a pipe and a cock over the trough, many hundreds of bottles might be done this way in a short time. Five guineas were voted by the society to Mr. Saddington for his communication.

Mr. E. Thomason [Birmingham] has taken out a Patent for a new Method of manufacturing Umbrellas, Parasols, &c.

The hearth brush is made upon this principle, and at present much used. The patentee's object has been to conceal the brush part, by means of a convenient apparatus, excepting during the time of its using. The same principle being applied to the parasol and umbrella, the spreading part of the latter, when not used as a defence against the weather, is concealed in a walking stick. Though the head of the cane, stick, &c. containing this apparatus, is rather larger than those of common walking sticks.

The French Mode of Fining, or Clarifying

Wine.

The complaint among the wine trade with respect to the difficulty of clearing wine is so general, that we conceive the following extract from a valuable work fately published at Paris, will prove not unacceptable to many of our readers. "Of all materials used in clarifying wines and other liquids," says M. Parmentier, "I think that the whites of eggs are best calculated to bring them to that degree of perfection, and confer upon them that limpidness which they can acquire neither by rest nor by filtration." When, however, the whites of eggs are made use of for the purpose of clarifying wines, &c. it is necessary to be particularly careful in using the freshest eggs only; and in breaking and examining them, great caution and circumspection are to be observ. ed, since it has often happened that a single egg, however slightly tainted, has given a disagreeable flavour to a whole pipe of wine, an evil which, when once incurred, is irremediable. It is best, adds the au

thor already named, to employ such eggs only as are laid by hens which do not associate with cocks, because the intercourse of the male renders the eggs more liable to putrescence, and gives them a very bad

taste.

Next to the white of eggs M. Parmens tier places isinglass; because, as he justly observes, it does not alter the true colour of the wine, or communicate a disa greeable flavour to it.

Experience has proved that white wines in particular, which have been clarified through the medium of isinglass, are more transparent, and preserve their limpidness much longer than those to which the whites of eggs have been applied, the latter being invariably injured by a contact with the atmospherick air. As to red wines, a very small portion of isinglass will clear them, and consequently a species of economy is added to the other advantages derived from the use of it, as thereby an immense quantity of eggs is

saved.

M. Parmentier contributed a paper to the Annales de Chimie, in 1792, by which he undertook to prove, that, in many cases, a sort of jelly, prepared from the raspings of bones, might be substituted for isinglass. But might we not with greater facility procure a much better substitute for isinglass, than that which he makes mention of, from our indigenous productions, from our fisheries of every description?-Most of the fish which are but thinly covered with scales, and which live in our lakes, ponds, and rivers, furnish great abundance of gelatinous substance,' both wholesome and pleasing to the smell and taste, which might be prepared for the purpose already mentioned with very little trouble. In adopting this mode we should confer a benefit upon the nation at large, by curtailing the importation of isinglass, for which such immense sums are paid to the merchants of the northern parts of Europe.

This paper may give rise to more than one philosophical question. First, what is that principle in an egg become stale and tainted, though but little, which is so powerful in its nature and properties as to taint a whole pipe of wine? Consider the smallness of an egg itself in proportion to the quantity of liquor: Consider the expression "however slightly this small quantity be tainted;" and when the principle, or portion tainted is limited, in fact, to a small portion of this small egg. Such is the power of the tainting principle! the principle of corruption! Is there any be neficent principle that is equally capable slightly diffused throughout its parts?— of meliorating its subject when only so Secondly: It is remarkable, that an extract from fish, a commodity sufficiently remote, it should appear, from the nature of any production of the grape, or its

juice, should clarify the liquor innocently, while an egg slightly tainted, injures it. Isinglass is a kind of glue, prepared from a fish. Whether any other glue, prepared from any other kind of fish, might answer the purpose as well; and if not, why not? is also a matter of curious inquiry. The other query which a naturalist will discern in this communication may deserve discussion, but rather in a learned language, and in a direct dissertation, than in a popular and widely circulating periodical publication. Why are red wines more easily and effectually clarified by isinglass than white wines; and whence is the sediment that subsides from them more easily acted on by this apparently feeble agent?

Few persons in this country know any other use of the aloe than the medicine which it affords; but it serves for a number of other beneficial purposes in the countries where it grows. In the East Indies, aloes are employed as a varnish to preserve wood from worms and other insects; and skins and even living animals are anointed with it for the same reason. The havock committed by the white ants in India first suggested the trial of aloe juice, to protect wood from them; for which purpose the juice is either used as extracted, or in solution by some solvent. Aloes have also been found effectual in preserving ships from the ravages of the worm, and the adhesion of barnacles. The ship's bottom, for this purpose, is smeared with a composition of hepatick aloes, turpentine, tallow, and white lead. In proof of the efficacy of this method, two planks of equal thickness, and cut from the same tree, were placed under water, one in its natural state and the other smeared with the composition; when, on taking them up after being immersed eight months, the latter was found to be as perfect as at first, while the former was entirely penetrated by insects, and in a state of absolute rottenness. An aquatick solution of hepatick aloes preserves young plants from destruction by insects, and also dead animals and vegetables from putrefaction; which renders it of great use in the cabinets of naturalists. The spirituous extract is best for this purpose, though in this respect it is inferiour to that of cantharides, prepared by infusing two grains in one ounce of spirits, which has been found to be so effectual in the extirpation of bugs. Pærner asserts, that a simple decoction of aloes communicates a fine brown colour to wool. Fabroni, of Florence, has extracted a

beautiful violet colour, which resists the acids and alkalis, from the juice of the fresh leaves of the aloe exposed to the air by degrees. The liquid first becomes red, and at the end of a certain period turns to a beautiful purple violet, which adheres to silk by simple immersion, without the aid of acids.

Richard Walker, esq. of Oxford, has proposed an alteration in the scale of the thermometer, which suggested itself to him during a long course of experiments, and which has been adopted by himself and his friends from the persuasion of its being founded on the truest principles."The two fixed points, the freezing and boiling points of water as they have hither. to been, will," he observes, "probably ne ver fail to be continued, as being perfectly sufficient for the accurate adjustment of thermometers. The commencement of the scale, and the number of divisions only appear to claim attention. With respect to the first, since neither the extremes of heat or cold are likely to be ascertained, the hope of fixing 0 at either of these may be entirely relinquished, and it remains to fix it at the fittest interme. diate point. Here I propose the following mode of graduation. Having ascertained that the temperature of 62° of Fahrenheit is the temperature at which the human body in health is conscious of no inconvenience from heat or cold, and that a deviation from that point of only one or two degrees, above or below, actually produ ces that effect under ordinary circumstan ces, I fixed my zero or 0 there. I adopted the divisions of Fahrenheit, considering those of Reaumur, the centigrades, &c. as too few, and decimal divisions unnecessary. Hence it will follow that 0 being placed at 62° of Fahrenheit, 150° will be the boiling, and minus 30° the freezing point of water; and all other points on Fahrenheit's scale may be reduced to this, by subtracting 62 for any degree above 0 of Fahrenheit, and adding 62 for any degree below 0. For ordinary meteorologi cal purposes, a scale of this kind extending to 65° above, and as many below 0, will be sufficient."

them, having much decreased, which is attributed in a great measure, if not entirely, to this alteration. The different mode of drying the lead adopted is (if I understand the matter right) that instead of laying it on chalk it is now poured into earthen-ware pans, and left to dry in them. The lead does not undergo nearly so much handling as before, and the fine particles of it, which used to float in great abundance about the room, are not perceived in such dense clouds as they used

to be; this dust entering the mouth was one principal cause of the diseases to which the workmen were liable. By means of your miscellany, I wish to give publicity to the above circumstance; and should any of your readers be able and willing to give me any further particulars respecting this manufacture, which may be conducive to the health of those employed in it, they will much oblige A CONSTANT READER.

RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.

By C. and A. Conrad and Co. Philadelphia, Published,

The American Register, or General Repository of History, Politicks and Science. Part II. for 1808. Vol IV. Price $3 25.

The American Artillerist's Companion, or Elements of Artillery. By Louis de Toussard. No. 6, price $2.

Third Supplement to the Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal. By B. S. Barton, M. D. Price 50 cents.

By Jane Aitkin, Philadelphia, Republished,

a

Letters addressed to Clarinda, &c. never before published in America: with choice selection of Poems and Songs. By Robert Burns, the Scottish Bard. To which is prefixed, a Sketch of his Life and Character. Price 75 cents.

By William P. Farrand, Philadelphia, Published,

Reports of Cases, adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, vol 1, part 3. By Horace Binney. This part completes vol. I.

Also, Cranch's Reports, vol. IV.

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Intrigues of the Queen of Spain with the Prince of Peace and others; written by a Spanish Nobleman and Patriot. Price 75 cents bound.

PROPOSED AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.

William P. Farrand, Philadelphia, Proposes to republish-Bacon's Abridgment, Comyns' Digest, and Coke's Reports. John Wood, Author of Elements of Per

spective,

To publish by subscription-A new Theory of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation, demonstrated upon Mathematical Principles from the Properties of the Cycloid and the Epi-Cycloid.

Williams and Whiting, New York,

To republish by subscription-The whole Works of the Rev. John Newton,

late Rector of the united Parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Mary Woolchurch Haw.

Lincoln and Gleason, Hartford, Connecticut,

To republish-The Use of Sacred History; especially as illustrating and confirming the great Doctrines of Revelation. To which are prefixed two Dissertations; the first, on the authenticity of the History contained in the Pentateuch, and in the Book of Joshua: the second, proving that the Books ascribed to Moses were actually written by him, and that he wrote them by Divine Inspiration. By John Jamieson, D. D. F. A. S. S. Minister of the

Gospel, Edinburgh.

Hudson and Goodwin, Hartford, Connecticut, To republish, in four volumes royal octavo-Coke upon Littleton, with the Notes of Hargrave and Butler, from the fifteenth, collated with the thirteenth edition: with

Memoirs of an American Lady.

The Works of Mrs. Anne Steele. 2 vols. 12mo.

By Oliver C. Greenleaf, Boston, Republish

Day, Esq. and other professional gentlemen associated with him.

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To republish by subscription, in ten volumes octavo-The Works of the late celebrated William Robertson, D. D. consisting of The History of America, 4 vols. Of Charles V. 3 vols. Of Scotland, 2 vols. Of India, 1 vol.

WE understand that this book is written by Henry Beaufoy, Esq. son of Mark Beaufoy, Esq. of Hackney Wick, F. R. S. and colonel of the 1st royal regiment of Tower Hamlets' militia. The earl of Moira has been properly selected as the patron of this work, both as an eminent mili. tary character, and as being constable of the tower of London, and lord lieutenant of that portion of the county of Middlesex which comprehends the Tower Hamlets.

The perusal of this volume has given us great pleasure. Its contents are truly interesting. They are the result of science combined with practice; and bear honourable testimony to the ingenuity and perseverance of Mr. Beaufoy; to the judicious selection of experiments, and to the acuteness with which conclusions have been drawn, and corollaries deduced.

The author by no means runs riot with his subject. He does not ascribe to the rifle barrelled gun, properties which it does not possess; nor does he wish to substitute it for all other offensive weapons. He certainly wishes to make expert riflemen of all our volunteers; but then he would not rely upon riflemen only in a pitched battle. He would mix them, in due

VOL. II.

proportion, with regular troops armed with our English muskets, and, above all, our English bayonet; a weapon irresistible, when urged home by the muscular arm of our gallant countrymen-witness Maida;-witness Vimeira ;-witness Corunna !— Mr. Beaufoy says, it is not intended to urge the indiscriminate use of riflebarrelled guns, "but to render troops armed with them, as a distinct and cooperative force, more general and important; where the musket ends or begins, the rifle commencing or leaving off. For the fact is, that in any other view they become a nullity. The moment a rifleman suffers himself to be closed, his weapon becomes of less use than the common musket; since the delay in loading would now be injurious, and the exactness unnecessary." Again, in another place, he observes:

"To conceive their excellence, nevertheless, it is not necessary, with the ordinary spirit of enthusiastick theorists, to attribute to them more than their own certain qualities; to render the extensive use of rifle corps, here recommended, effectual, it must be unfailingly kept in view, that they are to be regarded as a species of troops entirely distinct from every other, though acting with, and perhaps mutually dependent on all of them. He who shall expect from them the ordi

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