heavy woollen frocks and coarse-sack aprons. Ladles and spoons are dispensed with, and their place supplied by pitchforks. As I stand at a respectful distance, and, peering through the rank mist that fills the kitchen, see the great cauldrons foaming, pitchy black, and their heavy lids heaving and stirring uneasily, I find my faith in the innocuous quality of the business flagging, staunch Dr. Wynter even serving as an imperfect comforter. I am not reassured by the proprietor; for, says he, "Don't go closer; you may find the ammonia too much for you." Yet there were the cooks as contented and as cheerfully busy as bees in a hive.

Another department was the mill-room, where the bones, after their gelatine had been extracted in the boiling process, were reduced to atoms. Here there was nothing to offend the nose, for the material divested of its fatty matter is as innoxious as wood chips; but the ears suffer dreadfully. The mill is simply an arrangement of toothed iron rollers, among which the bones are swept by a man who stands by a sort of slanting stage above, on which the bones are heaped, and from which he scrapes them with an iron scraper. Nevertheless, the unfortunate particles of skeletons, in passing through the revolving teeth, emit a sound of crushing, and crunching, and grinding, impossible to anything but bones, and terribly suggestive of corporeal suffering, the extraction of firmly-bedded molars and incisors not to be forgotten.

The value of bones as a manure, although discovered more than a hundred years since, has only been taken full advantage of since about 1815, when bonemills were

established in Yorkshire. Previous to that, on farms where bone manure was used, the material was reduced to handy bits by the application of a hammer, or else it was strewn in the cart tracks to be crushed by the action of the wheels. How it is that the chief substance that enters into the composition of bone is good. to fatten the land is easy of explanation. The principal chemical ingredient in bone is phosphate of lime -fifty-three in a hundred of its parts are so composed. Vegetable life is largely dependant on phosphates for its growth and maintenance; so largely, indeed, that should the soil become exhausted of that principle, the crops raised thereon are sickly and weak, and scarcely worth the harvesting. This was the case in Cheshire at the end of the last century, and was doubtless occasioned by the constant and long-continued drain of the soil of its phosphorus in the shape of corn and dairy produce. The rich red sandstone loams of the district were worn out-sucked dry, as farmers say. More by way of experiment than as a certain remedy, the exhausted pasture land was dressed with bone manure, at the rate of a ton to the acre, and in less than three years the value of the said land was doubled. The turnip hungers for phosphates more than any other vegetable. It has so small a seed that the quantity of phosphates stored round it for the nourishment of the roots and leaves of the young plant is in a poor soil by no means adequate to the demand; hence the necessity of concentrating by artificial means the vital element about the tiny seed, else those other essentials to turnip life -carbonic acid, water, and ammonia-may abound to

as little purpose as a windmill without wind. So it comes about that your discarded mutton bone of today nurses and comforts next spring's vegetation, and the ox eats thereof-the tender grass, the matured hay, and the juicy turnip-and waxes sturdy and stout of limb, and fat enough to be brought to market, and to be bought by Mr. Brisket, your butcher, who sends you a joint of the beast, and you are afforded an opportunity of renewing acquaintance with an old friend.

In 1839 Liebig suggested that the efficacy of bonedust as a manure might be vastly increased if it were dissolved in sulphuric acid. A part of the Lambeth manufactory is set apart for this purpose. Here is sunk a deep pit containing a great iron tank, in which the mixing takes place; 15 cwt. of the acid being added to every ton of bone-dust. The result of the incorporation is a heavy, slate-coloured soft powder, worth from five to eight guineas per ton. As, however, the animal matter still remaining in the bone-dust is a hindrance to the blending of the acid with the earthy matter, there is mixed with it a considerable proportion of bone-ash, from which every particle of gelatinous matter has been extracted, and which materially assists the sulphuric acid in its action. Bone-ash is obtained by the complete combustion of bones in an open furnace, where the oxygen of the air burns away the organic matter, and leaves the earthy constituents as a white friable mass. If, on the other hand, the bone-say a shinbone-be immersed in an acid sufficiently diluted to prevent its injuring the animal membrane, and yet strong enough to dissolve the

phosphate of lime, the remaining matter will still retain the exact figure and dimensions of the original bone, and yet be rendered so flexible that it may be tied in a knot.

It must not be supposed, however, that all the bones that pass through the gates of the Lambeth factory are either ground or dissolved for manure. Some of them are much too valuable to be so used; as, for instance, the leg bones of the ox. I was shown tons of these with the knobs at the ends sawn off, some in cisterns sunk in the floors and still undergoing the bleaching process, and others stored in great barrels, as beautifully white as ivory. Large quantities of these are sent to France and other parts of Europe and converted into handles for tooth and shaving brushes, children's gum-rings, knife-handles, and cheap combs.

A considerable portion of the Lambeth boneworks is adapted to the manufacture of soap from the fatty material obtained from the bones. Did space permit, much interesting matter might be written concerning the various processes; of the coppers, broad and deep enough to drown a dozen men, and of the mysteries of "mottled," and "yellow," and "primrose," together with their comparative merits. One little bit of information that I gleaned concerning soap may be of value to the thrifty British matron, and she is heartily welcome to it. Beware of cheap soap, however proper its 66 be. appearance may This," said the worthy soapmaker, handling a "bar" of unexceptionable "yellow," "is as good as the article can be. This" he took down another sample, seemingly of equal quality "is cheaper by at least a third."

"Inferior material, of course." "Nothing of the sort, Sir! The same material exactly, with this difference -the cheaper sort (people will have cheapness, you know) contains a compensating amount of water. It is so full of it that it is a difficult matter to cut the great block into bars, but the bars are immediately subjected to such a heat as dries the outer surface and cakes it hard, giving it the sound and substantial appearance it now wears."

EMPLOYMENT OF BLOOD.

How seldom is any attempt made to save the blood when animals are slaughtered in large cities and towns, on the farm, or by village butchers. Blood is, however, occasionally collected and sold to refiners of sugar and other classes of manufacturers. It is made into animal charcoal and albumen. Coagulated, it is bought by calico printers for dyeing, and in some of the agricultural districts it is esteemed as a fertilizer.

Some people use the blood of cattle largely as food, mixed with meal of one kind or another. When intended for this purpose it is stirred briskly as it flows from the veins, whereby its coagulation is prevented, and it is then stirred into the meal, and boiled or cooked in any other way. The coagulating property of blood renders it of considerable use in clarifying thick mucilaginous liquors.

Cider is sometimes fined by this method, being simply beat up cold with the blood and put into a barrel. On standing a day, the entire coagulation of the blood with the impurities of the cider, are found