that little is from picked fruit, gathered before the general vintage *. All the remainder of the white grapes are mixed with the red. In addition to the ordinary wines of this district, all the cultivators prepare a choice sort, which they term vin de dessert. Each family has a particular secret for making it; and into these mysteries the present author, though he lived some years in the country, was not initiated. After having stated the prices of different kinds of wines, he makes this general observation: While the vines of the hills of Tuscany enjoy an immense superiority over all those of the northern parts of Italy, they are not surpassed by any of those of the South. Yet the Lachryma Christi of Naples, and even the wines of Champagne, Burgundy, and Bourdeaux, are imported at a great expence. into Florence: but it is owing to fashion, and to their scarcity, that they are so much in request.'

We must not only pass over the author's digression on the vineyards and wines of the Cisalpine, but must now dismiss,. with more brevity than we could wish, the remaining topics which immediately relate to his proposed subject.

The fields on the Tuscan hills are cultivated with the spade: but the drought to which they are subject prevents the adoption of the same system of crops which prevails in the plains. "I had thoughts (says M. SIMONDE) of making a trial on the borders of the Val de Nievole, of some of the English crops, as the radish and the annual grasses, such as are to be seen in the artificial meadows in France: but the disasters of the war prevented my experiments. It was impossible to adopt the English practice of depasturing cattle, on account of the steepness of the hills, and of the vines and olives which are scattered over them.'

The English agriculturist will be surprized to find, in the section which treats of the size of farms, that in Tuscany farms are generally less than many of our fields. In the hills of the Val de Nievole, farms vary in size from four to six coltras †, but the most usual extent is that of five coltras, or 193,270 square feet. Placed in the middle of this scrap of land, is a house for the peasant and his family; who have only one half of the harvest for their subsistence, as the other moiety is the property of the landlord. For a calculation of the produce of a farm of 5 coltras, or of 202,935 feet square, on the half of which a

*To the juice of the white grape, the Italians do not give the name of wine; they call it Trebbiano, from the plant yielding the par ticular grape from which it is made.

+A Coltra is considerably less than an English statute acre, being only 38,654 square feet.

peasant

peasant with his family lived for thirty years, and brought up five sons and two daughters, we must refer to the work itself. However this account may stand, it will afford us no very favourable idea of the condition of the peasantry, who appear to be in a deplorable state; and the author may justly comment on the disadvantages of that mode of occupancy, by which the tenant covenants to share the harvest with his landlord.

This part of the work concludes with an enchanting delineation of one of these small farms, which the narrowness of our limits alone restrains us from extracting. It must be a little paradise!

An account of the Mountains constitutes the last division of this volume; and it is subdivided into seventeen sections. Here the author describes the culture of these regions, and the state of society among the mountaineers. It appears that the chesnut trees, which cover these elevated spots, form the chief riches of the inhabitants; the fruit, after having been dried on kilns or stoves, is ground into a kind of meal, of which sweet cakes are made; and these not only serve as food for themselves, but are sold as a luxury to the people of the plains.-The condition of these mountaineers is preferable to that of the other peasants, and their figure is strikingly beautiful.-To the sheep, the forests, and the fruits of the mountains, distinct sections are assigned by M. SIMONDE: but objects of more importance are the Manufactories, which are situated in their gorges: viz. those of paper, of silk, and of glass. Of the former it is observed; few manufactures contribute less to the prosperity of a nation than that of paper, because it does not encourage the production of any primary article, and does not lend its aid either to the arts or to agriculture, in replacing their capitals.' (p. 263.) The silk manufacture, however, is stated to be of importance to the country; and the author laments that the use of cotton should have so generally superseded it.

M.SIMONDE remarks with concern that the gentry abandon the country, and live wholly in the towns and cities; because their residence on their estates is necessary to the prosecution of agriculture with taste and with science, and to the removal of those evils under which it labours. As the country is thus deserted by the rich, it is scarcely necessary to repeat the former observation, that the art of gardening is scarcely known in Tuscany; though its climate, of all others, invites to the enjoyments of rural life. Even in the depth of winter, myrtles and pomegranates flourish; and in the middle of January the earth smiles, the fields look green, flowers blow, the birds are in full choir, and perfumes embalm the air. How much it is to be lamented that a country possessing such abundant charms,

and

and capable of such infinite improvement, should be possessed by a people so insensible of its value!

Mr. Arthur Young having fallen into an error respecting the origin of the opulence of Italy, the present writer takes a view of its antient commerce; and while he wishes to promote agricultural improvements, he renders ample justice to trade, by evincing its importance to national energy and prosperity.

The Volume is concluded by an useful comparative table of monies, weights, and measures.

We cannot lay aside this work without thanking its ingenious. author for the entertainment which he has afforded us. The people of Italy, and of the southern parts of France, may reap much profit from the numerous hints and observations which are here communicated; and though the hills of Britain are not clad either with vines or with olives, her sons partake of their produce by means of her extensive commerce, and will gladly receive the knowlege here conveyed respecting their cultivation. Let them benevolently wish in return, that this view of Tuscan agriculture may tend to produce some good effects on the people of that delightful country."

ART. V. Annales de Chimie; i. e. Chemical Annals, Nos. 112117. 8vo. Paris. 1801. Imported by De Boffe, London.

ACCIDENT prevented us from paying our usual attention to this work in our last Appendix: but we now resume our analysis at the point at which we broke off in the Appendix to our 34th Volume.

Report of M. M. Guyton and Vauquelin, concerning a Memoir of M. THENARD, intitled, Observations on the Combination of the Tartareous Acid with the Salifiable Bases, and the Properties of the Salts which are thus formed.It has been long known that the Tartareous Acid has a great tendency to form triple combinations, of which we have examples in the Emetic Tartar and others. M. THENARD has considerably augmented the number of these combinations; and he has proved, by the experiments here reported, that the greater part of the Tartrites may be combined together, so as to produce simple salts which have peculiar properties. Some of these salts have two alkalies for a base, and others have an alkali and an earth, or an alkali and a metal, or an earth and a metal. It is also remarkable that, although the greater part of these bases can be separated by the alkalies from their simple combinations with the Tartareous Acid, yet they cannot thus be separated when they constitute triple salts,

Some

Some Reflections on the Difference of the Acetous and the Acetic Acids. By M. DABIT of Nantes.In opposition to the opinion of M. Adet, this author concludes from his experiments, 1. That there is a difference between the acetous and acetic acids. 2dly, That this difference is owing to a larger, proportion of oxygen in acetic acid than in acetous acid. 3dly, That the acetous acid may be converted into the acetic. acid by an additional quantity of oxygen. 4th, That the acid is in the state of acetous acid in acetate of potash. 5th, That the acetic acid, obtained when this salt is decomposed by sulphuric acid, is owing to a portion of oxygen which the acetous acid takes from the latter.

Experiments on the Ashes of some Kinds of Wood. By M. PISSIS. These experiments are intended chiefly to shew that, contrary to general opinion, a considerable quantity of potash may be obtained from the ashes of the white poplar.

Experiments on Platina. By M. PROUST.In the first chapter of this memoir, the author enumerates the extraneous substances which are found mixed with Platina; these are quartzose and ferruginous sand, pyrites, gold, and quicksilver. Chap. 2. The sands may be separated mechanically (when spred abroad) by the blast of hand-bellows. Chap. 3. Gold, being frequently whitened by the quicksilver which is present, may be discovered by heating the Platina in a proper vessel. In chap. 4. the writer observes that Platina, in its natural or crude state, is in reality a sulphuret of the metal. In chap. 5. some experiments relative to the oxidation of the mineralized Platina are related. Chap. 6. contains an examination of the mineralized Platina by pure nitric acid :—which had no effect upon the Platina, and only separated the quicksilver from the gold that was present. Chap. 7. informs us that 400 grains of three different samples of the ore, or mineralized Platina, being separately treated with nitro-muriatic acid, left a resi duum of a black substance in the following proportions :

400 grains of what M. PROUST calls black ore of Platina left a residuum amounting to 7 grains: another sample left 9 grains : and a third left 3 grains. In chapter 8. these residua are proved to be graphite, or plumbago. The 9th and 10th chapters contain observations on the solutions of Platina. In the 11th are reported some experiments on what the author calls the black powder of Platina: from which he infers that a part

of the mineralized Platina is in the state of a phosphuret. Chap. 12. treats of the crystallization of the solutions of Platina. The 13th states that nitro-muriatic acid, composed of three parts of muriatic with one of nitric acid, is the best menstruum for dissolving Platina. The 14th treats of the utility which may be derived from the products obtained by distilling the solutions of Platina; and the 15th and last chapter relates some observations on the solutions of Platina made by nitromuriatic acid, composed of nitric acid and common salt; the specific gravity of the nitric acid being 1,279.

In this Memoir, several remarkable facts are related, and we have only to regret the want of perspicuity in some parts of it. M. PROUST promises a continuation of these experi

ments.

Account of the Oil extracted from the Cornus Sanguinea of Linnaus. By M. MARGUERON.From the experiments here related, it appears that this oil may be of use to the arts, and perhaps to medicine.

Memoir on the Acid Water of the Starch Makers. By M. VAUQUELIN.-It has long been known that the water, in which the starch makers macerate their flour, passes gradually into an acid state: but hitherto no attempt had been made to as certain the nature of the acid. M. VAUQUELIN was therefore induced to perform various experiments on this liquor; and he states the composition of it to be as follows; 1. Acetous Acid. 2. Ammoniac. 3. Phosphate of Lime. 4. Animal Matter. 5. Alcohol. He observes that only one of these substances (namely phosphate of lime) was contained in the ffour previously to fermentation, and that all the others are results of this natural process. He proposes it as a question, whether the acetous acid might not be separated with advantage to the manufacturers, since it certainly might be employed in white lead and similar preparations.

Experiments on the Reduction of Metals by Charcoal, on the Anomaly which this Process creates, and on the Discovery of a New Gas. These experiments were made under the direction of 'M. Guyton, in consequence of, a paper written by Mr. Woodhouse of Pennsylvania, and published in the Medical Repository, under the title of "Observations on certain Objections of Dr. Joseph Priestley to the Antiphlogistic System of Chemistry." We do not deem it necessary to enter into an account of the experiments of the French chemists, because they have been anticipated by those of our ingenious countryman Mr. Cruickshank of Woolwich, which have been published in

No.