The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-15 00:00:00

MEMORIALS NOW IN PROGRESS.

THE MEMORIAL TO WEDGWOOD.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has promised, if his
engagements permit, to lay the first stone of the Wedgwood
Memorial at Burslem, on the 20th October. The Committee
of Council contribute £5OO in aid of the building. The
Potteries district has honoured itself by taking up the fame
of its great benefactor in a thorough way. The recently
placed statue of Wedgwood, by Mr. Davis, is, we are glad
to see, only an instalment of gratitude.
THE MEMORIAL TO THE HARTLEY ST:ITERERS.

A plain but massive monument is about to be erected in
Hartley churchyard over the graves of the sufferers by the
Hartley calamity. The names of the 204 men and boys who
lost theft lives so terribly will be inscribed on it, with a
suitable inscription recording their fate. The work will be
executed by Mr. Elliot, of Hartley, from a design by Mr.
A, Dunn, architect, of Newcastle,—Building News.

THE MEMORIAL TO MULREADY.

The memorial to Mr, Mulready already alluded to in our
columns is to consist of a tablet on his tomb at Kensal
Green, to be supplemented by a statue in the National
Gallery.

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TILE MEMORIAL TO HAMPDEN.
A memoral, consisting of an obelisk eight feet high, sur-
mounted by a Maltese Cross, is to be erected by public sub-
scription to John Hampden, in the field at Stoke Mandeville,
where the first assessment for ship-money was made. An
inscription, as follows, will be placed on the cross:--“For
these lands, in Stoke Mandeville, John Hampden was
assessed in twenty shillings, ship money, levied by com-
mand of the King without authority of law ; the 4th of
August, 1635. By resisting the claim of the King in legal
strife he upheld the rights of the people under the law, and
became entitled to grateful remembrance. His works on
earth ended after the conflict in Chalgrove Field, the 18th
of June, 1643, and ho rests in Great Hampden Church."
We may record this as a singular improvement in taste
over the fact that several professed lovers of Hampden did
not scruple to dig up a body they. believed to be his and
mutilate it, in order to decide how he was killed.—
Atheneum.
THE MEMORIAL TO THE LATE LADY CANNING,
designed by' Mr. G. G. Scott, has been erected over
her grave. It is of Sicilian marble, composed of a massive
plinth supporting a coffin-shaped, horizontal slab, the top
of which is wrought with a floriated cross ; a shield of arms
is placed on either side of the stem of the cross. At the
head of the tomb a tall stone rises, wrought at the top into
a richly-earved cross, having an appropriate inscription
beneath it.

SUGAR FROM SERPENTS' SUINS.—In 1861 M, do
Luca made some experiments, from which it ap.
peared that the skins cast off by silkworms might be trans-
formed into sugar• The same chemist has sent in a paper
to the Academy of Sciences, in which he describes a similar
Process for changing serpents' skins into sugar. These
skins contain a small quantity of a substance resembling the
cellulose of plants, soluble in ammoniuret of copper, and
transformable into glucose, which reduces the tartrate of
copper and potash, and ferments under the influence of
yeast, yielding thereby carbonic acid and alcohol. Concen-
trated sulphuric acid and a solution of potash aro the best
re-agents for depriving serpents' skins of their nitrogenous
matter; the residue, although very refractory to chemical
agents, may nevertheless be transformed into fermentable
glucose, recognisable from its property of reducing the
tartrate of copper and potash. Thus, M. de Luca boiled 50
grammes of serpents' skins in a litre of water containing
40 grammes of caustic potash, the skins having been pre-
viously treated with concentrated sulphuric acid. The
liquid having been allowed to cool, a great deal of water was
added, and the malissr,lvei residue was several times washed
by decantation, and then treated with ammoniuret of
copper, whereby an alkaline solution was obtained which,
on being neutralia•eel by hydrochloric acid, yirlded a white
precipitate; this, heated in slightly acidulated water, re-
duced the tartrate of copper and potash, thereby showing
that it was glucose, or the base of sugar. In another some-
what similar operation, glucose was obtained which fer-
, mented in contact with yeast, producing carbonic acid and
alcohol. The former was completely absorbed by caustic
potash ; the alcohol extracted from the solution by distil-
lation, and insulated by means of crystallised carbonate of
potash, was nearly pure, since it would burn without leav-
ing any residue ; rubbed between the hands it evaporated,
emitting an agreeable smell, though still partaking of that
of animal matter. From all this it may be concluded that
serpents' skins contain a very small quantity of sugary
matter or glucose,--04(ignani.