mighty strides.

rush'd on,

art; it appears from the writings of Arnold de Ville Neuve [Arnoldus de Villa Nova] Raymond Lully, and Theophrastus Paracelsus; and it is without sufficient reason, that some ascribe the invention to Arnold. Alexander Tassoni relates, that the Modenese were the first, who, in Europe, on occasion of too abundant a vintage, made and sold brandy in considerable quantities. The German miners had first acquired the habit of drinking it; and the great consumption of, and demand for, this liquor, soon induced the Venetians to participate with the Modenese in the new lucrative art and branch of commerce. However, it appears, that brandy did not come into general use till towards the end of the fifteenth century; and then it was still called burnt wine. The first printed books which made mention of brandy, recommended it as a preservative against most diseases, and as a means to prolong youth and beauty. Similar encomiums have been bestowed on tea and coffee; and people become so much habituated to these liquors, that they at last daily drank them, merely on account of their being pleasant to their palate. In the Reformation of the archbishopric of Cologne, in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, no mention is made of brandy; although it must certainly have been named there, if it had then already been used in Westphalia. William II, landgrave of Hesse, about the commencement of the sixteenth century, ordered that no seller of brandy should suffer it to be drunken in his house....and that no one should be allowed to offer it for sale before the church doors on holidays. In 1524, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, totally prohibited the vending of burnt wine. But in the middle of

the sixteenth century, when Baccius wrote his History of Wine, brandy was everywhere in Italy sold under the name of aqua vitis or vita. Under king Erick, it was introduced into Sweden. For a long

time this liquor was distilled only from spoilt wine; afterwards from the dregs, &c. of beer and wine; and when instead of these, the dis tillers employed rye, wheat and barley, it was considered as a wicked and unpardonable misuse of corn; it was feared that brandy made from wine, would be adulterated with malt-spirits; and an idea prevailed, that the grains were noxious to cattle, but especially to swine; whence originated among men, that loathsome and contagious disease, the leprosy. Expressly for these reasons, burnt wine was, in January, 1595, forbidden to be made in the electorate of Saxony, except only from wine lees, and the dregs of beer. In 1582, brandy was prohibited at Frankfort, on the Mayne, because the barbersurgeons had represented, that it was noxious in the then prevalent fatal disorders. From the same cause, the prohibition was renewed in 1605. With astonishing rapidity has the love of brandy, and ardent spirit in general, spread over all parts of the world; and nations the most uncultivated and the most ignorant, who can neither reckon nor write, have not only comprehended the method of distilling it; but even had ingenuity enough to apply to the preparation of it, the products furnished by their own country. Malt spirits and French brandy, which, when both are pure, are however alike in their component parts, may, with the greatest certainty, be distinguished by the taste which is left after burning them. Of the latter, this watery remainder is sharp, nauscous, and almost sour; but what is left after burning the malt spirits, excites a taste of burnt, or at least roasted, meal.

Memoir on the Wax-Tree of Lou

isiana and Pennsylvania. By CHARLLES LOUIS CADET, of the college of Pharmacy".

A number of plants, such as the Croton cebiferum, the Tomez

sebifera of Loureiro, the poplar, the alder, the pine, and some labiati, give by decoction a concrete inflammable matter, similar, in a greater or less degree, to tallow or wax; that is to say, a fixed oil asturated with oxygen. The light down, called the bloom of fruits, and which gives a silvery appearance to the surface of plums and other stone fruits, is wax, as has been proved by M. Proust. But the tree which furnishes this matter in the greatest abundance, and which in many respects deserves the attention of agriculturists, chemists, physicians, and commercial men, is the Myrica ceriferut or

wax-tree.

We read in the History of the Academy of Sciences for the years 1722 and 1725, that M. Alexandre, a surgeon and correspondent of M. Mairan, observed in Louisiana, a tree of the size of the cherry-tree, having the appearance of the myrtle, and nearly the same odour, and bearing a seed of the size of coriander. These seeds, of an ashgrey colour, contain a small osseous stone, pretty round, covered with shining wax, which is obtained by boiling the seeds in water. This wax is drier and more friable than ours. The inhabitants of the country make tapers of it. M. Alexandre adds: "This seed has commonly a beautiful lake colour, and on being bruised with the fingers, they acquire the same tint; but this takes place only at a certain

season."

The liquor in which the seeds have been boiled, and from which the wax has been taken, when evaporated to the consistence of an extract, was found by M. Alexandre to be an effectual remedy for checking the most obstinate dysenteries.

The advantageous properties exhibited by this tree, could not but induce scientific men to make researches for the purpose of ascer

* From the Annales de Chimie, No. 131.

taining the varieties of this vegetable production, and what care was required in its culture. It was long considered as a mere object of curiosity.

Linnæus, in his Vegetable System, speaks only of the wax-tree of Virginia (Myrica cerifera), with leaves lanceolated as if indented, stem arborescent.

Having requested C. Ventenat to inform me how many species there are of it, he replied that Ayton has distinguished two, viz.

1st. Myrica cerifera angustifolia, which grows in Louisiana. This tree is delicate, flowers with difficulty in our green-houses: its seeds are smaller than those of the following.

2d. Myrica cerifera latifolia, which grows in Pennsylvania, Carolina, and Virginia. It does not rise to such a height as the former, and is perfectly naturalized in France. These two Myrica are of the family of the dieci.

They are both cultivated at the Museum des Plantes, and in the gardens of C. Cels and Lemonier.

C. Michault admits a third species of Myrica cerifera, which he calls the dwarf wax-tree. C. Ventenat thinks that wax may be ex, tracted from all the Myrica.

The authors who have spoken of these trees with some details, are C. Marchal, translated by Leferme, Lepage-Duprat, and Toscan, librarian of the Museum of Natural History. A memoir inserted by the latter in his work entitled L'Ami de la Nature, makes known the manner in which vegetable wax is collected in the colonies.

"Towards the end of autumn," says he, "when the berries are ripe, a man quits his home, with his family, to proceed to some island, or some bank near the sea, where the wax-trees grow in abundance. He carries with him vessels for boiling the berries, and an axe to build a hut to shelter him during his residence in that place, which is generally three or four weeks. While he is cutting down the trees,

and constructing the hut, his children collect the berries: a fruitful shrub can furnish about seven pounds. When the berries are collected, the whole family employ themselves in extracting the wax. A certain quantity of the seeds are thrown into the kettles, and water is poured over them in sufficient quantity to rise to the height of half a foot above them. The whole is then boiled, stirring the seeds from time to time, and pressing them against the sides of the vessels, that the wax may more easily be detached. A little after, the wax is seen floating in the form of fat, which is collected with a spoon, and strained through a piece of coarse cloth, to separate the impurities mixed with it. When no more wax detaches itself, the berries are taken out by means of a skimmer, and new ones are put into the water; taking care to renew it the second or third time, and even to add more boiling water in proportion as it is consumed, in order that the operation may not be retarded. When a certain quantity of wax has been collected in this manner, it is placed on a piece of linen cloth to drain, and to separate the water with which it is still mixed. It is then dried, and melted a second ime for the purpose of purifying it, and is moulded into the form of cakes. Four pounds of the seeds give about a pound of wax. That which detaches itself first, is generally yellow, but in the last boilings it assumes a green colour, in consequence of the tint communicated to it by the pellicle with which the nucleus of the seed is covered."

Kalm, the traveller, speaking of the vegetable wax, says that in countries where the wax-tree grows, it is employed for making excellent soap, with which linen can be perfectly washed.

Such was the knowledge naturalists had of the myrica, or at least no other observations, as far as I know, had been published respecting it, when a naturalist gave me half a kilogramme of the vegetable wax of Louisiana. I was de

sirous to anylyse it, and compare it with the wax made by our bees, but before I undertook this labour, I wished to be acquainted with the nature of the shrub, and of the seeds of the myrica. I saw this valuable production in the Jardin des Plantes, and wrote to C. Deshayes, a zealous botanist, who superintends at Rambouillet the cultivation of the Myrica pennsylvanica, to beg he would give me a few details on that subject. He was so kind as to return an answer, accompanied with some of the seeds, which I took the earliest opportunity of examining.

This seed is a kind of berry, of the size of a pepper-corn; its surface, when it is ripe and fresh, is white, interspersed with small black asperities, which give it the appearance of shagreen. When rubbed between the hands it renders them unctuous and greasy.

If one of these small berries be strongly pressed, it divests itself of a matter in appearance amylaceous, mixed with small round grains, like gun-powder. The nucleus, which remains bare, has a very thick ligneous covering, and contains a dis cotyledon kernel. By rubbing a handful of the berries on a hair sieve, I obtained a grey dust, in which I could distinguish, by the help of a magnifying glass, the small brown grains already mentioned, in the middle of a white powder.

I put this powder into alcohol, which by the help of a gentle heat dissolved all the white part, and left the black powder which I collected apart. Water poured over this alcoholic solution, disengaged a substance which floated on the

surface of the liquid. I melted this substance, and obtained a yellow wax similar to that brought me from Louisiana. This experiment was sufficient to prove that the wax of the myrica is the white rough matter which envelopes the seeds.

The black powder which I separated, appeared to me to contain a colouring principle, and I did not