The great variation in composition which the different fish present, would seem to explain why certain fish produce serious gastric derangements when they form part of the food of some persons, while many other fish produce no such effect. There must undoubtedly be great difference of action upon the organs of digestion between such fish as the sole or the barbel, which contain in their natural state less than 23 parts in 1,000 of a consistent fat, and the eel, which contains 232 parts, or one hundred times more of an oily fat.-Des substances alimentaires et des moyens de les améliorer, de les conserver et d'en reconnaitre les alterations. 8vo. pp. 329, 2nd ed.; through Comptes Rendus de l'Academie, 14th August, p. 318.

ART. VIII.-Bulletin of Industrial Statistics.

COMMERCE OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

Imports.-The total amount of imports for 1853 has exceeded those of 1852, by 522,082,064 dollars. From the United States they amounted to 954,919,093 dollars, which is more than three-fourths of the whole amount imported. The following are the imports for the past four years:—

Giving an average for the four years of 1,225,175 02. The amount of imports for 1853 exceeds the average of the past four years by 56,776,16 dollars.

Foreign Exports.-Comparison for four years.

Dollars.

Cents.

Of the whale ships some have touched at two or more ports, consequently the number of different vessels are not so great as the figures seem to show. The preceding tables show the great lack of a domestic export to anything like the amount of our imports, and calls for some renewed efforts to create or increase it. An export is now the great desideratum.

Value of Goods Imported into the Sandwich Islands during the year 1853.

Of the goods liable to duty, 587,770-29 dollars' worth were from the Atlantic side of the United States, and 367,149-64 dollars' worth from the Pacific side, in all, 954,919-93 dollars from the United States. The country from which the next largest amount of goods was imported is China, from which the imports only amounted 42.056:36 dollars; from Chili, 38,099-30 dollars; Great Britain, 20,471-74 dollars; Bremen,12,225 91 dollars; Phillipine Islands, 12,038 57; France, but 30 dollars.

Receipts from Customs in 1853.-The total duties received at Honolula was 146,964 52; at Lahaina, 8,138 27; all other parts, 537-38. Total in the kingdom, 155,640-17 dollars.

Of the total receipts 58,114-86 were for duties on goods; 70,209-68 on spirits; and 8,361.75 for harbour dues.

Export of Domestic Produce in 1853.-The total value was 281,599-17 dollars, the chief items of which were as follows:

Of the total of 281,599 17 dollars, but

Fresh beef
Salt beef

10,824

...

2,500

...

lbs. 38,000

13,260

154,674 17 was really exported, the remainder, 126,925, having been furnished as supplies to the 154 merchant vessels and 246 whalers that stopped at the Island.

Oil and Bone transhipped free of duty in 1853.-Spring Season.—

Arrival of Merchant Vessels in 1853; their Nationality.-The total number of merchant vessels that visited the Islands in 1853 was 211, of whom

Of these vessels, 137 were American, with a total tonnage of 45,234; 17 Hawaian, tonnage, 2,672; 32 British, tonnage, 6,185; 5 Danish, tonnage, 866; 5 French, tonnage, 1,034; 3 Russian, tonnage, 1,223.

Arrival of Whalers and their Nationality.-During the same year arrived 535 whalers, viz.:

Of the total, 500 were American, 19 French, 12 Bremen, and 4 Russian.

Coasters. The total number of vessels engaged in coasting among the Islands is 32, with a tonnage of 1,338.

THE

JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.

No. XI.-NOVEMBER, 1854.

ART. I.On the recent Improvements in the Construction of Ovens for Baking Bread; and on the different Experiments recently made to determine the relative Quality of different Breads, &c.

"A DAY will doubtless come when our descendants, who shall read the technology of the nineteenth century, will ask themselves, if at this epoch of industrial progress we prepared the chief of our aliments by the rude way which we now witness-in plunging the arms into the dough, lifting it up and crushing it down with such efforts that they exhaust the energy of the half-naked arms, and make the perspiration run down into the food. If, truly, at that time the baking was effected in the very hearth itself from whence the coal and the cinders had just been almost withdrawn. If it should be believed that during these fatiguing operations the chief part of the heat appeared destined to heat beyond measure, to roast we might almost say, the workman, rather than to bake the bread." If this quotation, from a report read to the French Institute by M. Payen, in the name of a commission composed of MM. Poncelet, Boussingault, and himself, be applicable to France, how much more so is it to our circumstances.

We may say, without fear of exaggeration, that in all that concerns the preparation of food, we in Ireland are perhaps below every nation in Europe. We do not speak here so much of the wealthier classes as of the working people, whose social misery is considerably increased by the total disorganisation which prevails in their domestic economy. To such an extent is this the case in Dublin, for example, that skilled artizans often prefer lower wages in Manchester, Bradford, &c., than in Dublin, in consequence, not so much of the absolute price of provisions being higher in Dublin, but because among several other causes, in their retail, the peculiar circumstances of the working classes are utterly lost sight of. Even in Great Britain, where such gigantic strides have been made in all branches

Y

of manufacture, it is singular how little progress comparatively has been there effected in the economical preparation of articles of food, as, for example, in the baking of bread. In illustration of this, we may point to the fact that, while the French miller purchased largely of corn in our markets last year, wheat having been at that time cheaper in these countries than in France, the price of bread was much lower in the latter country than here.

The extraordinary disproportion which always appears to exist between the price of bread and the price of wheat has often struck us, and led us to seek for the cause. Among those which presented themselves most strongly to our notice was the imperfect and expensive process of manufacture in common use. The preparation of the dough is very imperfect -indeed we might almost say it is barbarous-and the waste of labour enormous. But the operation of baking is still more objectionable, not alone on account of the great expenditure of labour, but also because it exhausts the strength and shortens the life of the workmen. Many attempts have been made from time to time to substitute machinery for human labour, and thus render the manufacture of bread at once more economical and salubrious. Except in the manufacture of ship biscuit, such as it is carried on at Portsmouth, these attempts have not been hitherto very successful. We are now, however, about to bring under the notice of our readers at least one exception which has been eminently successful-namely, the kneading-trough and oven of M. Rolland, a baker of

Paris.

M. Rolland's Kneading-Trough and Oven.-M. Rolland's system was made the subject of a highly laudatory report to the French Academy of Sciences, in June, 1852, by the Commission already mentioned, and since then the company formed to work the project have set up ovens upon this system in Italy, Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Belgium, Spain, Holland, Switzerland, Piedmont, in Africa, America, and even in Oceanica; and has sold its patents for Sardinia, Austria, Spain, and the exclusive privilege of working the system in Algeria and in thirty departments of France; and finally, during the first seven months of this year, it realised a net profit of 230,000 francs (£9,200). It is strange that such a successful system should not be adopted in these countries, for we have been unable to ascertain the existence of even one of them. The company sent nicely executed models of its oven and kneading-trough to the Dublin Exhibition of 1853, but they attracted no attention, having had the misfortune to be placed in a rather out of the way place. We wrote a short notice of them at the time for a publication, but it was not published. We shall now, however, direct the attention of the public to the system, and hope to be able before long to present our readers with engravings illustrative of it.

The kneading-trough, which resembles in some degree those already invented-such as the one invented by a baker of the name of Fontaine, and improved by M. Moret, and the other by another baker and very ingenious man, M. Boland-consists of a semi-cylindrical trough, provided with a a semi-cylindrical cover, which may be attached to the wall. A horizontal axis works in the trough in gudgeons supported by the ends of the trough

itself. This axis has two curved wings, or rather frame-works, the whole length of the trough, attached in opposite directions, the curvatures being also in opposite directions. These wings consist of parallelograms of wood, of which the axis forms one side, with a number of curved cross bars radiating from the axis; between each of these bars is a short bar, only half the length of the first, and attached to the outer side of the parallelograms, with its point directed towards the axis. This agitator is set in motion by a large toothed wheel, working in a pinion, and moved by a handle. Such - a machine, requiring less force than that of a man, will work up dough to supply the repeated batches of a continuous oven 13 feet in diameter. A sack of flour may be worked into a perfectly homogeneous, perfectly fermented and aërated mass of dough in 20 minutes, or, if necessary, even in 15 minutes. It is thus simple and economical, and does away completely with the laborious and disgusting operation of kneading the dough by the hands or feet as usually practised.

The oven of M. Rolland combines a number of advantages found isolated in the inventions of others. The oven is circular; its floor consists of plates of cast-iron covered with tiles, and is supported upon a vertical axis capable of moving in a collar and socket. The latter is capable of being moved up and down by means of a vice screw, so as to increase or diminish the height of the oven space according as the bread to be baked is in large or small loaves. By means of a bevelled pinion upon the vertical axis geering with another fixed upon a horizontal axis, which is capable of being set in motion by means of a pulley fixed upon its other end, and connected by a Vaucanson chain with another moved by a handle, the floor may be made to revolve at the will of the workman. The idea of constructing an oven with a revolving floor was first proposed by the Count Chabrol de Volvic and Legallois, for the use of the French army, but was abandoned from the difficulty of regulating the heat.

Rolland's oven is heated by means of a fire-place built in the masonry under the revolving floor. The smoke and heated air passes by vents and six cast-iron pipes radiating upon a slightly inclined flooring of tiles, and thus heats the floor of the oven; from these horizontal flues the smoke passes up through a corresponding number of vertical flues, and thus heat the wall of the oven. These vertical flues discharge into an open space between the cast-iron roof of the oven and a second plate, which is covered with a thick layer of cinders or other bad non-conducting material, and from this space it passes off by means of a chimney. M. Rolland's oven is thus heated like a mufille, but without direct contact with the fire. Many other ovens heated by means of hot air have been proposed at different times, such, for example, as that of Mr. Coveley, which is still in use, and which has also the peculiarity of having four floors or platforms, which are made to move up and down, like one of those machines at fairs provided with seats which are made to revolve vertically; in this way each floor may brought opposite the door, and the heat of the whole oven equalized by the motion. Another aërothermal oven, which was invented before that of M. Rolland, was that of Lemare and Jamatel, which was considerably improved by MM. Grouvelle and Mouchot. The system of arrangement

be