Star.
London, England, 1831-06-20 00:00:00

water, and no ways unpleasant to the taste : the common tar
separates and has a darker tint.
In the distillation of the spurious and the Barbadoes tar,
the latter yielded more naptha, and left a very small resi-
duum ; what came over did not retain the rich dark olive
green which characterises the pottery ; to what cause may
be attributed this peculiar colour, I have not yet satisfac-
torily ascertained. I have already noticed the existence of
a chalybrate spring highly charged with iron, contiguous to
the pottery, and hence it might be reasonably suspected that
the colour arises from some ferruginous impregnation; all
my examinations have not evinced any such metallic com-
bination.
The specific gravity of naptha is 867, estimating water
at 1000, petrolium 178 ; maltha varies from 1460 to 2088,
and asphaltum from 8070 to 1850 the pottery tar 020.
The excellent experiments of Mr. Faraday most satisfac-
torily demonstrate many distinctive properties between the
green tar and the spurious tar, although analysts resolves
the Barbadoes oil into carbon and hydrogen, yet there is sea-
son to suppose some other principles which elucidate she.
apical investigation.
From thedescription of the varieties of naptha given to us
•by Wallerius, as natural productions, they are reducible to
men :-
1. White naptha.
2. Red naptha.
S. Green or dark naptha.
4. Petroleum mixed with earth.
5. Petroleum exuding from stones.
8. Petroleum floating on water.
7. Mineral pitch or malths.
I have bad specimens of naptha ftom Penis and Italy ;
I have not as yet seen any with the dark green tinge of the
pottery, and with a similar corresponding flavour.
In the Tines Capitia, or those scurvy eruptions of the
head, more particularly observable in children, the Unguen-
tum Pixie,' combined with mercury, has been long em-
ployed. I have lately substituted an =maniacal solution of
the liarbadoes Tar with the greatest advantage; and ftom
the result of trials made by different practitioners in this
city, we feel justified in recommending its employment in all
he and impetiginous complaints.
r Ainslie says, that the Tamool doctors, in the East
Indies, order rock oil (which resembles Barbadoes Tar), as
an external remedy in rheumatic complaints, as also in
cases of epilepsy, hysteria, and palsy. It is rubbed on
the part with the hand, in the fonts of a liniment; and
In chronic rheumatism, Dr. Fleming declares he can,
from his own experience, recommend it as an efficacious
remedy.
When the liarbadoes Naptha is either externally em-
ployed or internally taken, it is by the absorbent system
quickly distributed through every part of the animal frame,
as is evidenced by the odour imparted to all the secretions.
From this principle of active diffusibility, the Barbadoes
Naptha embrocation, and the Naptha taken internally,
would be likely to produce the desired effect, particularly
those affections of the bronchial glands and urinary btaMer
noticed by Dr. Treader and Mr. Lawrence.
There are few medicines whose agency extends beyond
the stomach and the alimentary canal, hence the gene-
rality of diseases may be considered as remedied by sym-
pathetic influence ; but Naptha possesses the advantage
of being conveyed to every part of the human frame
wherever the absorbent Teasels are present, and to this
more immediate influence on the seat of affection may be
attributed the admirable effects which have already been

experienced.
Since the printing of these sheets, Dr. Msycock, to whom
I referred at the commencement of this work, has published
an interesting Catalogue of Plants, indigenous, naturalised,
and cultivated in Barbadoes ; to which is prefixed a concise
geological description of the island. He observes, that the
calcareous deposits are the results of the spoils of zoophytes,
as several portions of the Madreporse, Millepone, Continuo,
Alcyonia, are found, and that reliqute of humau bodies similar
to those in Ouadaloupe, are found in sandstone incrustations.
He remarks, that in that part of the island which has been I
denominated Scotland, and below the Cliff, is the base of the
clay hills, from whence the Green Mineral Oil arises, and
particularly notices its beneficial effects in leprosy and tots.
nus ' externally employed acting as a stimulant, and inter.
ternally as an aperient, diaphoretic, and diuretic.
I noticed in my chemical observations, that the Barbados,
Naptha derived, probably, some of its virtues from an ins.
pregnation of iron. This supposition appears now to be
satisfactorily confined, by the account given by Mr. Cal.
deeot, of large masses of clay, finely divided silex, and
iron, in the vicinity of these springs ; and the specimens he
has brought to England evince their progressive formation
by deposits on a Nucleus, so as to prevent a laminated ap-
pearance, not unlike the concentric partitions of an onion;
the layers differently] tinged, some with a deep' rich red,
calculated to form the basis of a valuable colour, and others
of a brilliant yellow. Some interesting specimens may be
seen at the Kingston Pump Room, Bath.
Mr. Thomas Roscoe has prefixed to the first vo-
lume of his Novelist Series, a Life of Defoe, for
which the nation will feel thankful to him. Defoe
was one of those original thinking geniuses, who
could not be endured by the common-place men,
and the small thinkers of his day ; and it required
the lapse of a century to arrive at such a focal dis-
tance as would enable mankind to view him dis-
tioctly. Mr. R. has done him justice, and the
world yet owes him a long arrear of debt. How
could Mr. R. however appeal to the feeble time-
serving creatures whose testimonials he has put in
a string—might he not, with more effect, have
quoted Rousseau, himself another Defoe, or have
appealed to human nature, or even to the magical
words Robinson Crusoe ? Defoe was the Cobbett
of his day, and a-sort of man who never would
bare been elected into the Royal Society of Litera-
ture, charitably supported by the Literary Fund, or
countenanced by any close corporation. Yet such
a man was put in Newgato, and three times in the
pillory ; and we still laud Queen Anne and her
Whig ministry ! We need not recommend Robin-
son Crusoe—but we earnestly recommend Mr.
Roscoe's Life of the Author, except where he
quotes stars of the fifth magnitude as authorities
for the splendour of the sun !
II Cu EMICAL SCIENCE.—AnimaI and vegetable
substances may be arranged under three classes—
'acids, alkalies, and neutrals. The class of acids
presents many substances of great utility, either in
the arta, or for seasoning food. The alkalies con-1
tale almost all the powerful medicines that are
drawn from the vegetable kingdom. The neutral
bodies are important as articles of food, and am
applied, too, to many other purposes of first-rate
utility. All these bodies are compos ed (chiefly, at
least) of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and azota.--
substances easily procured abundantly at a cheap
rate. Should chemists, in consequence of the know
ledge acquired by future investigations, ever arrive
at the knowledge of the mode of forming these
principles from their elements at a cheap rate, the
prodigious change which such a discovery would
make upon the state of society must be at once evi-
dent. Mankind would be, in some measure, iude-
pendent of climate and situation ; every thing could
be produced at pleasure in every part of the earth ;
and the inhabitants of the warmer regions would no
longer be the exclusive possessors of comforts and
conveniences to which those in less favored regions
of the earth are et:angers. If, however, the science
advance for another century with the same rapidity
that it has done during the last fifty years, it,will
produce effects upon society of which the present
race can form no adequate idea.
Our PANORAMA has recorded at least twenty
incendiary fires within the last month, and some
of them of great extent. They indicate, beyond
doubt, the existence of dissatisfaction, from causes
which hanging and transporting do not cure.—
The disease and the remedy will, we trust, come
under the consideration of Parliament ; for it is
an infatuation of pride to affect blindness to the
evils of the cause, and the greater evils of the
present Consequences.