PROVINCIAL HOSPITAL.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3352, 14 April 1868, Page 4

PROVINCIAL HOSPITAL.

Return of sick treated during the week ending Saturday, April lltb, 1868 : — .Remained last return, 89 ; admitted since, 3 ; discharged, 9 ; died, 0; remaining, 83 (of whom 15 are females, and 68 males). Fever, 2 ; syphilis, 2,• dropsy, 1 ; cancer, 1 ; scrofula, 2 ; phthisis, 7 ; abscess and ulcer, 4 ; heart; and arteries, 3 ; brain and nerves, 25 : respiratory, 6 j digestive, 5 ; urinary, 1 j bones and joints, 2 ; rheumatic, 9 ; ocular, 5 ; cutaneous, 1 ; fractures, 3 ; infirm and aged, 4. No death occurred during the week.

Notwithstanding all our improvements in arts and ■manufactures, it may still be said with truth that " there is nothing like leather.' 1 This valuable substance has often been imitated, bat it has never been superseded, and probably never wilL To facilitate and cheapen (its manufacture is, by consequence, a matter of considerable importance. The tanning principle obtained from vegetables is more or less limited in supply, and therefore costly; and a natural attempt to economise it results but too often in the production of an inferior leather. Artificial tanning has been proposed, ( but, as it has hitherto been best obtained from resin, it also is expensive. Recent experiments have shown that it may be formed with great facility, and at a trifling cost, from bituminous coal or lignite j the latter answering best on account of its permeability by liquids, a property of some importance from the nature of the process employed. This consists merely in heating the coal or lignite for a considerable time with nitric acid, and then evaporating to dryness. . The residuum, a dark brown substance, is entirelysoluble in alcohol, ether concentrated sulphuric acid, the alkalies and their carbonates ; but it consists of two portions, one of which only is soluble in water, the solution having an acrid and bitter taste, and being capable of precipitating albumen and gelatine. Should it be found an efficient substitute for the tanning principle 'of vegetables, which is not unlikely to be the case, the cheapness and abundance of the source whence it may be obtained will considerably affect the economio I production of leather.