An enquiry into the natural history, cehmical properties, and medical virtues, of the rock oil, or green mineral naphtha, of Barbados : particularising the successful experiments ... observations on digestion ... / by C.H. Wilkinson.

  • Wilkinson, C. H. (Charles Henry)
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An enquiry into the natural history, cehmical properties, and medical virtues, of the rock oil, or green mineral naphtha, of Barbados : particularising the successful experiments ... observations on digestion ... / by C.H. Wilkinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    l*ally of broken portions of coral, vegetation is more luxu- riant than when the coral is one solid mass. This appears to depend on the retentive power for water being greater in the former than in the latter. The lower part of the hills are more productive than the elevated portions, the soil being deeper from the disintegration of the surrounding hills washed down by the occasional rains; to which may be added, that the rich vallies and gullies have their coral- line beds in detached broken masses, whilst, in the more elevated districts, it is one uniform stratum of the calca- reous substance. The best soil in Demerara is from eight to ten feet deep, and requires from 100 to 150 gallons ot juice to make a pot of sugar (about 10 gallons); whilst, at Barbadoes, on the coral soil, the same quantity will be pro- duced from 50 to 80 gallons of juice. In St. Vincent^ 400 gallons of juice, evaporated to 100, will average one- third of a hogshead of sugar, or 5 cwt. Each year one- third of the plantation is left to fallow, which appears to arise from not having manure sufficient. From the present improved state of agriculture in Great Britain, the fallow- ing system is not adopted. The earthy ingredients which enter into the composition of soils undergo no diminution by the growth of vegetables on their surface. 1 he pur- poses to which they are subservient are, to give support to the young plant; to be properly retentive of water ; neiJher so firm as to resist the extension of the roots, and whic i w ould be the result, if entirely of clay, nor of so little tena- city as sand; not only incapable of affording the adequate support, but the water containing the nutrient matter wou percolate so quickly, as not to allow time to the tender fibrils of the root to effect the requisite absorption. V ege- table, as wellas animal life, require for support the recre- ments of matter which has been previously organised ; for the former having no digestive organ as the stomach which forms the line of distinction between the animal and