dry lumps, of convenient size to be used as coal, or in the form of charcoal, to be used principally in the manufacture of iron. Important as these applications of peat undoubtedly are, they by no means exhaust its useful capabilities, for, as we have seen, valuable chemical products may be obtained by submitting the peat to distillation. For instance, the prepared peat will be found to yield, upon distillation, large quantities of carburetted hydrogen or illuminating gas, of the best quality, giving also as a product the peatgrease above mentioned, and charcoal for fertilizing or deodorizing purposes. Apparently, however, much remains to be done before the delicate chemical processes required to obtain many of the valuable chemical products alluded to can be made commercially useful; but the employment of peat charcoal as a manure or fertilizer, as well as a valuable disinfecting agent, is now established, and is extensively used.

"As a deodorizer of feculent matter, peat charcoal is the most effective substance known to chemists; it absorbs all noxious gases arising from such matters or from putrescent bodies, and therefore to the sanitary chemist it is as important as to the agriculturist. The very strong affinity of the noxious gases and odours evolved from feculent and putrefying substances for peat charcoal led Mr. Rogers to inquire whether this substance might not be beneficially employed for some medical purposes, and, with the assistance of one or two medical friends, he carried on for some time a number of experiments, commencing by applying the charcoal in the form of a poultice or dressing for offensive ulcerous sores. The charcoal

had a highly beneficial effect in such instances, not alone in totally destroying the smell by absorbing the gases, but also in cleansing the wounds. It was also found useful for absorbing the odours arising from consumptive patients in the latter stages of the disease. The first experiments being so successful, naturally led to the use of the charcoal internally; it was found to correct putrescence and absorb those gases within, which, if they do not produce evil to the health, at least destroy comfort. The result of these experiments, and a continuous and pretty extensive use of the charcoal, have demonstrated that it may be used with advantage as a remedial agent in indigestion or dyspepsia, and its results, viz., flatulence, heartburn, acidity of the stomach, waterbrash, sick headache, impurity of the breath, palpitation of the heart, throbbing of the brain, distension and sense of fulness, giddiness, and the other usual attendants of a disordered stomach. In all diseases of the chest, sore throats, diphtheria, or chronic bronchial affections, peat charcoal has been found highly useful, as well as in cases of diarrhoea, colic, and English or Asiatic cholera. Dr. Hawkesley states that he has ' used carbonized peat most extensively in the treatment of various disordered states of the digestive powers, with the most gratifying results.' Dr. Fergusson, formerly of King's College, says :-' I have used the peat charcoal extensively in the wards of King's College, and invariably with excellent success.' He further says 'In some instances hitherto it has been almost impossible to keep patients in any degree of comfort, the offensive smell of their wounds causing

the utmost annoyance. the powdered peat charcoal with the poultice-the effect was in a manner perfect. There was no longer that offensive stench so peculiar in such cases. Again, he says-'In sloughing sores, and in certain forms of cancer (in which cases the smell is usually bad), I have been equally well pleased, and I have this preparation in almost constant use.' Such is the testimony of two eminent physicians in this country.

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"In France, also, the subject has been investigated, and the highly beneficial effects of peat charcoal have been proved by a scientific commission appointed by the Government. The use of peat as a fuel and for metallurgic purposes will, after all, be its most extensive application.

"The superiority of iron made with charcoal over that made by the use of pit-coal, is so well known that it will be altogether unnecessary to insist upon it here ; and yet for our best brands of charcoal iron we depend on the foreign manufacturer, when we have, at our own doors, every requisite to produce iron of the finest quality, and materials in abundance to produce charcoal in every way fitted for metallurgic operations.

"It is to be hoped, now the means have been pointed out of obtaining peat and converting it into charcoal at a very moderate expense, that iron manufacturers will turn their attention to the application of peat fuel to this important manufacture, and that we may not henceforth be obliged to go abroad for the iron nesessary for making steel, and for other purposes where iron of the best quality is required."

Let us pass now to the consideration of waste animal substances, and we will first deal with

OLD WOOLLEN RAGS AND SHODDY.

Mrs. Traill, in her "Canadian Settlers' Guide," tells us that rag-carpets are among the many expedients adopted by the Canadian settlers' wives for procuring comforts at a small cost, and working up materials that would, by the thrifty housewives of England, only be deemed fit for the rag-merchant. Let us see how a careful settler's wife will contrive out of worn-out garments—mere shreds and patches—to make a warm, durable, and very respectable covering for the floor of her log-parlour, staircase, and bedroom. "I asked the wife of the resident minister of P. what she was going to do with a basket of faded, ragged clothes, old red flannel shirts, and pieces of all sorts and sizes, some old, some new, some linen and cotton, others woollen. 'I am going to tear and cut them up for making a rag-carpet,' she replied; they are not good enough to give away to any one.' I fancied she was going to sew the pieces like patch-work, and I thought it would make a poor carpet and last no time.

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"I will show you,' she said, 'what I am going to do with these things.' She then took a piece, and with the scissors began cutting it into long narrow strips, about a quarter of an inch wide, not wider; and, indeed, the narrower the strip the better. She did not cut quite through when she came to the end, but left just as much as would serve to hold it together with the next strip, turning the piece in her

hand, and making another cut; and so she went on cutting or tearing, till that piece was disposed of; she then proceeded to a second, having first wound up the long strip; if a break occurred she joined it with a needle and thread, by tacking it with a stitch or two. Sometimes she got a bit that would tear easily, and then she went on very quickly with her work. Instead of selecting her rags all of one shade for the ball, she would join all kinds of colours and materials. The more lively the contrast the better the carpet would look,' she said. Some persons, however, wind all the different colours separately, in large balls, and then the carpet will be striped. A white and red ball wound together makes a pretty chain pattern, through dark stripes.

"My friend continued to cut and tear, join the strips and wind up, till she had a ball as big as a baby's head; and I continued to watch her, still puzzling my brains to think how these big balls could be turned into a carpet, till she lightened my darkness, by telling me that these balls, when there was a sufficient weight of them, were sent to the weavers with so much cotton-warp, which should be doubled and twisted on the spinning-wheel.

"If you double and twist the warp yourself, the weaver will charge 6d. a yard for the weaving, but if he doubles and twists he charges 8d. A pound and a half of rags will make one yard of carpet with the warp. Many persons dye the warp themselves: lye of wood ashes, with a little copperas, makes a deep yellow; logwood and copperas make a black; and indigo and lye from the house give a pale blue. Made