agriculture and the sanitary condition of towns. The problem which M. Payen proposed to himself in these investigations, was to find some cheap substance, easily procurable, which would possess the property of preventing the evolution of those noxious effluvia which are given off from decaying animal substances, and at the same time form the basis of some active manures. Some time since M. Payen recommended the use of dried clay as litter, for absorbing the excrementitious matter of cattle, and experience has since confirmed his view of the value of this application. This result has led him to examine several other substances from the same point of view, as for example the action of clay, caustic lime, and carbonate of lime, in the form of marl, &c. Our space does not permit us to give in detail the numerical results of M. Payen's experiments, so we shall content ourselves with a summary of the conclusions to which he has arrived, as to the action of the three substances just mentioned upon animal matter, such for example, as urine: 1. Well dried clay mixed with urine, has the property of preserving it to a great extent from decomposition, even when the mixture is exposed to the air in thin layers. But moist clay does not possess this property; on the contrary, the decomposition of the urine and the escape of the ammonia formed take place with great facility. 2. Caustic lime mixed with urine or other azotized matters prevent decomposition even more perfectly than dried clay. 3. Carbonate of lime or marl, on the contrary, hastens the decomposition of animal substances, by favouring the disengagement of ammoniacal compounds. A mixture of clay with the carbonate of lime weakens this decomposing action, hence rich clay marls are less active in this way than light shell marls. The facts established by these experiments are directly applicable to many useful purposes. For example, the spontaneous putrefaction of urine may be prevented by impregnating the sides of the vessel containing it with lime. Sand also when mixed with about 5 or 6 per cent. of caustic lime, acts in a very satis factory way, in preventing this species of decomposition; hence such a mixture might be advantageously employed for the absorption of liquids in stables, privies, slaughtering houses, &c. As the chief object of adding lime to animal substances is to prevent fermentation, which its presence does not arrest when once commenced, it is unnecessary to add, that once the putrefaction has commenced, an addition of lime would not only not be useful, but highly prejudicial, as it would decompose all the ready formed salts of ammonia with the evolution of free ammonia. These antiseptic properties of lime might be turned to great use in the evaporation of urine, which while fresh may be converted into a dried mass without decomposition, by the addition of a small quantity of it; or in the drying in the sun of large masses of animal offal. Many other applications will suggest themselves to our readers, as for example, the preservation of fish offal, &c. M. Payen has also made several new experiments to determine the comparative value of wood, peat, and bone charcoals in preventing the decomposition of animal fluids. These charcoals, although preventing to a certain degree the decomposition of animal substances, do not possess that power in the same degree as dried clay or lime, when properly used; great as is the power of absorbing gases possessed by charcoal, it always allows a certain amount of decomposition to take place, and a similar quantity of ammoniacal compounds to escape. Wood charcoal is less effective than peat charcoal, and the latter less than animal charcoal. The addition of sulphate of iron (copperas) to peat charcoal, renders it capable of arresting the putrefaction of urine in the most perfect manner, although it may, as in the experiment of Payen, be exposed to the air for 35 days. This fact, which had been already well known, affords an easy means of preventing the evolution of noxious and fœtid gases arising from the accumulation of filth in crowded cities; and in no country in the world could such an application be more easily or more economically made than in Ireland, where peat charcoal could be had at a very trifling cost.-Comptes Rendus de l'Academie. ART. V.-Bulletin of Industrial Statistics. STATISTICS OF BELGIAN COMMERCE IN THE YEARS 1851 AND 1852.、 Condition of the General Commerce of Belgium in 1851.—The foreign commerce of Belgium maintained in 1850 very nearly the same position which it had attained in 1849, a year of great commercial prosperity. In 1851 there was a slight diminution to the extent of about one per cent. The exportations in the latter year, exceeded the importations to the extent of about 13,000,000 of francs, or £520,000. The total declared value of the importations and exportations of Belgium in 1851, was represented by the sum of 903,800,000 francs, or £36,152,000, which shews a diminution of 8,700,000 francs, or £348,000, compared with those of 1850; but if we compare the results of the commerce of 1851, with the mean results for the quinquennial period included between 1846 and 1850, we shall find that there was an augmentation of 138,300,000 francs, or £5,532,000, or 18 per cent. The following table represents in round numbers the trade of Belgium in the year 1851, and in the three quinquennial periods preceding that year: Official Values expressed in Millions of Francs. Importations and Exportations together. General Speci al Commerce. Commerce. Years. 1836 to 1840, 1841 to 1845, 1846 to 1850, 229-0 ... 245.7 162.4 ... 401.4 336.5 548-6 378.1 765.5 ... 1851, 441.0 903.8 494.9 This table proves that a rapid development of Belgian commerce has taken place since its separation from Holland; this development is particularly remarkable in the general commerce, which has more than doubled, in consequence of the facilities of transit afforded by the system of railroads. According to the new estimation of the values of the imports and exports, or the real values, the general commerce of Belgium in 1851 was only 819,700,000 francs, or £32,788,800, that is, a difference of 84,100,000 francs, or £3,364,000, or 9 per cent. on the old valuation. This reduction principally affects the exportation, the old valuation of 459,000,000 of francs, being reduced to 401,000,000, being a reduction of 58,000,000, or 13 per cent., the reduction on the imports being only 6 per cent. This reduction does not effect the relative value of the preceding table, the numbers for the previous year having been also founded upon the declared value estimated upon the old system. CLASSIFICATION OF THE SPECIAL COMMERCE OF BELGIUM FOR THE YEAR 1851.* If we divide the special commerce of Belgium in 1851, into the following three classes of Raw Materials, Articles of Food, and Manufactured Articles, and represent the whole Importation and Exportation, each by 100, the following will be the per-centage of each of the three classes of articles: We thus see, that the exportation of manufactured articles produced in Belgium, is more than double the importation of foreign manufactured articles consumed in the country. Under the term special commerce, is to be understood the importation of articles which went into consumption in Belgium, and the exportation of the products of the soil, and of the industry of the country. General commerce being the term applied to the whole trade, transit, and otherwise of the country. SPECIAL COMMERCE OF BELGIUM IN 1852. The documents containing the results of the general commerce of 1852 not having as yet come to hand, we are unable to draw any comparison between that year and 1851. The following table contains very full details of the special commerce for 1852, and in order to enable our readers to form a correct opinion of the present position of Belgium, we have added similar tables for 1850 and 1851. Exports of Belgian Produce and Manufactures in the Years 1850, 1851, and 1852. An examination of the previous table shews that in 1852, compared with 1851, there was an augmentation in the importation of the following articles-sawn timber, coffee, cotton, skins, and leather, corn, raw and dressed flax, rice, salt, raw sugar, unmanufactured tobacco, woollen fabrics, lace, muslin, &c. of cotton, linen, silk, and silken fabrics. On the other hand, there was a diminution on ansawn timber, linen yarn, clothes, cotton fabrics, and wine. There was an ... 477,551 633,264 379,621 46.3 727-5 1,549.8 1,843,280 1,920,457 1,708,149 183,621 130,860 146,692 ... 6,907 4,852 6,937.8 6,637.4 augmentation in the exportation of the following articles-cattle, coal, leather, horses, tow, refined iron, works in wrought iron, linen yarn, corn, raw flax, machinery, cotton fabrics, woollen fabrics other than cloth, linen fabrics, lace, lawn, &c. of cotton, linen and silk, cut and engraved flint glass, and window glass, nails, and rolled zinc. There was a diminution in the exportation of the following articles-fire arms, castings in iron, woollen fabrics, flint glass (blown and moulded), and spelter (raw zinc). The exportation of raw flax was greater than in any preceding year, the augmentation in 1852, over 1851, being 3,494 tons. The augmentation in the export of coal in 1852, over that of 1851, amounted to 47,463 tons. The linen manufacture of Belgium seems to be again recovering from the great depression under which it laboured in 1851, the augmentation in the exportation of yarn in 1852, over that of 1851, having amounted to 472,922lbs., and of linen fabrics, to 617,591lbs. In 1851 the linen manufactures of Belgium were losing ground in all the markets of the world without distinction, especially in France and in the Spanish Antilles. The hopes which were founded upon the manufacture of russias, gantes, listados, and the similar articles for the Cuba market were not realised. In 1849 the exportation to that island was 402,909 kilogrammes, which fell in 1850 to 135,584 kilogr., but rose in 1851 to 155,102, and finally fell again in 1852 to 34,349 kilogr. This great diminution in the exports to Cuba was more than compensated for by an increase in the exports to France, which rose from 519,307, in 1851, to 1,004,640 kilogrammes, in 1852. From the great exertion now made to develop this branch of industry in Belgium, by the introduction of spinning machinery and industrial schools, (Ecoles d'Appren tissage,) there can be no doubt that it will again become prosperous. One of the causes of the decay of this branch of trade in Belgium, was not introducing flax machinery, without which it would have been hopeless to attempt to compete with the Irish and English flax spinners. Some idea may be formed of the want of machinery in the linen manufacture of Belgium, by the fact that in 1849 the steam power engaged in flax spinning was only equal to 923 horse-power, or only 2 per cent. of the whole steam power of the country. On the whole, therefore, as far as can be judged from the preceding tables, the special commerce of Belgium was in a very prosperous condition in 1852. COAL MINES OF BELGIUM. Belgium has 331,136 acres of coal, or 5 per cent. of the whole surface of the country. The following tables shew the rapid development of the coal mining industry since 1830: Mean quantity of Coal raised for each of the Quinquennial periods, from 1830 to 1850. These tables shew that the increase in production from 1830 to 1850, was more than 100 per cent., and of exportation 125 per cent. * A metrical ton is equal to 1,000 kilogrammes, and an English ton to 1,015-98 kilogrammes. |