made at the Hôtel Dieu. Helvetius first made known its use in dysentery, for which Louis XIV. munificently rewarded him by a douceur of 1,000!. sterling.-(Thomson's Dispensatory; Thomson's Chemistry.)

IRON (Dan. Jern; Du. Yzer; Fr. Fer; Ger. Eisen; It. Ferro; Lat. Ferrum, Mars; Pol. Zelazo; Por. Ferro; Rus Scheleso; Sp. Hierro; Sw. Jern; Gr. Zidnços: Sans. Loha; Arab. Hedeed; Pers. Ahun), the most abundant and most useful of all the metals. It is of a bluish white colour; and, when polished, has a great deal of brilliancy. It has a styptic taste, and emits a smell when rubbed. Its hardness exceeds that of most other metals; and it may be rendered harder than most bodies by being converted into steel. Its specific gravity varies from 7.6 to 7.8. It is attracted by the magnet or loadstone, and is itself the substance which constitutes the loadstone. But when iron is perfectly pure, it retains the magnetic virtue for a very short time. It is malleable in every temperature, and its malleability increases in proportion as the temperature augments; but it cannot be hammered out nearly as thin as gold or silver, or even as copper. Its ductility is, however, more perfect; for it may be drawn out into wire as fine at least as a human hair. Its tenacity is such, that an iron wire 0.078 of an inch in diameter, is capable of supporting 549-25 lbs. avoirdupois without breaking.

Historical Notice.-Iron, though the most common, is the most difficult of all the metals to obtain in a state fit for use; and the discovery of the method of working it seems to have been posterior to the use of gold, silver, and copper. We are wholly ignorant of the steps by which men were led to practise the processes required to fuse it and render it malleable. It is certain, however, that it was prepared in ancient Egypt, and some other countries, at a very remote epoch; but it was very little used in Greece till after the Trojan war.-(See the admirable work of M. Goguet on the Origin of Lutos, Arts, &c., vol. i. p. 140.)

Species of Iron.-There are many varieties of iron, which artists distinguish by particular names; but all of them may be reduced under one or other of the 3 following classes: cast or pig iron, wrought or soft iron, and steel.

1. Cast or pig iron is the name given to this metal when first extracted from its ores. The ores from which iron is usually obtained are composed of oxide of iron and clay. The object of the manufacturer is to reduce the oxide to the metallic state, and to separate all the clay with which it is combined. This is effected by a peculiar process; and the iron, being exposed to a strong heat in furnaces, and melted, runs out into moulds prepared for its reception, and obtains the name of cast or pig iron.

The cast iron thus obtained is distinguished by manufacturers into different varieties, from its colour and other qualities. Of these the following are the most remarkable :

a. White cast iron, which is extremely hard and brittle, and appears to be composed of a congeries of small crystals. It can neither be filed, bored, nor bent, and is very apt to break when suddenly heated or cooled.

b. Grey or mottled cast iron, so called from the inequality of its colour. Its texture is granulated. It is much softer and less brittle than the last variety; and may be cut, bored, and turned on the lathe. Cannons are made of it.

c. Black cast iron is the most unequal in its texture, the most fusible, and least cohesive, of the three 2. Wrought or soft iron is prepared from cast iron by a process termed a refinement or finery. The wrought iron manufactured in Sweden is reckoned the finest in the world.

3. Steel consists of pieces of wrought iron hardened by a peculiar process. The Swedish iron imported into this country is mostly used in the manufacture of steel. (See STEEL.)—(Thomson's Chemistry.)

Uses of Iron.-To enumerate the various uses of iron would require a lengthened dissertation. No one who reflects for a moment on the subject, can doubt that its discovery and employment in the shape of tools and engines has been of the utmost importance to man; and has done more, perhaps, than any thing else, to accelerate his advance in the career of improvement. Mr. Locke has the following striking observations on this subject:-"Of what consequence the discovery of one natural Lody, and its properties, may be to human life, the whole great continent of America is a convincing instance; whose ignorance in useful arts, and want of the greatest part of the conveniences of life, in a country that abounded with all sorts of natural plenty, I think may be attributed to their ignorance of what was to be found in a very ordinary, despicable stone-I mean the mineral of iron. And whatever we think of our parts or improvements in this part of the world, where knowledge and plenty seem to vie with each other; yet, to any one that will seriously reflect upon it, I suppose it will appear past doubt, that, were the use of iron lost among us, we should in a few ages be unavoidably reduced to the wants and ignorance of the ancient savage Americans, whose natural endowments and provisions came no way short of those of the most flourishing and polite nations; so that he who first made use of that one contemptible mineral, may be truly styled the father of arts and author of plenty."-Essay on the Understanding, book iv. c. 12.)

Manufacture of Iron in Great Britain.-Iron mines have been wrought in this country from a very early period. Those of the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, are known to have existed in the year 1066. In consequence of the great consumption of timber which they occasioned, they were rectrained by act of parliament in 1581. Soon after this, Edward Lord Dudley invented the process of smelting iron ore with pit-coal instead of wood fuel; and it is impossible, perhaps, to point out an instance of another invention that has proved more advantageous. The patent which his Lordship had obtained in 1619, was exempted from the operation of the act of 1623 (21 Jac. I. c. 23.), setting aside monopolies: but though in its consequences it has proved of immense value to the country, the works of the inventor were destroyed by an ignorant rabble, and he was well nigh ruined by his efforts to introduce and perfect his process; nor was it till about a century after, that it was brought into general use. In the early part of last century well-founded complaints were repeatedly made of the waste and destruction of woods caused by the smelting of iron; and the dearth and scarcity of fuel that was thus occasioned, led, about 1740, to the general adoption of Lord Dudley's process for using pit-coal, which was found to be in every respect superior to that previously in use. (Report of Committee of the House of Commons on Patents, p. 168. &c.) From this period, the progress of the manufacture has exceeded the most sanguine expectations. In 1740, the quantity of pig iron manufactured in England and Wales amounted to about 17,000 tons, produced by 59 furnaces. The quantities manufactured at the undermentioned epochs, in Great Britain, have been as follows:-

The extraordinary increase that has taken place in the production of iron since 1823, is principally to be ascribed to the high prices of 1824, 1825, and 1826, when pig iron met with a ready sale at from 91. to 127. and 131. a ton. But, in consequence partly of the failure or postponement of most of the projects as to rail-roads, &c., that were then on foot, and partly of the vast additional supplies which the extension of the manufacture threw on the market, the price fell in 1828 to from 51. to 71. a ton: and continued gradually to decline, till in 1832 it was only worth 41. 158. So heavy a fall had the effect of introducing the severest economy into every department of the manufacture. In despite, however, of all the saving that could be effected in this way, many of the manufacturers were involved in much distress, and the production of iron is believed to have been considerably diminished. This, coupled with the increasing demand for iron, naturally led to a reaction. Prices began to rise early in 1833; and the advance has been such, that at present (January, 1534), pig iron fetches 61. a ton, and the manufacture is in a state of great activity.

The following statements as to the number of furnaces and the quantity of iron produced in the dif ferent districts where the manufacture is carried on, in 1823, 1825, 1828, and 1830, appeared originally in the Birmingham Journal.-We have been assured that their accuracy may be depended upon.

About 3-10ths of the total quantity of iron produced are used as cast iron, being consumed principally in Great Britain and Ireland; the exports, not exceeding 12,000 tons, go chiefly to the United States and British North America. The other 7-10ths are converted into wrought iron, being formed into bars, bolts, rods, &c. The exports of the different sorts of iron amount at present to about 145,000 tons, which, at 81. 10s. a ton, would be worth 1,232,500.

The increase of the iron manufacture has not only led to its exportation in very large quantities, but has reduced our imports of foreign iron for home consumption from about 34,000 tons, which they amounted to at an average of the 5 years ending with 1805, to about 18,000 or 20,000 tons, consisting principally of Swedish iron, which is subsequently manufactured into steel. The following is

An Account of the British Iron (including unwrought Steel) exported from Great Britain in the Year 1835.- Quarters of a Hundred Weight and Pounds are omitted in the printing of this Table, but they are taken into account in the summing up.

Tons.cut. Tons.cut. Tons.cut. Tons.cut. Tons. ct. Tons.cvet. Tons.cwt. Tons.cut. Tons.cut. Tons.cut.

Anchors
and Hoops. Nails.
Grapnels.

cept Ord

53 15

1,270 19

294 6

921 10

10 12

Holland

168 15 5,223 5 5,317 1

Belgium

15 16

284 6
1,815 17
808 2 2,982 15
39 0 1,997 10
240 6 10,324 5

170 6

814 4

5 15 131 17 738 15 28 13 187 6

172 11 76 14 105 0 7 18 11 4

Spain, and the Canaries

Gibraltar

139 13
527 2

In 1767, the iron exported from Great Britain amounted to only 11,000 tons. At an average of the 3 years ending with 1806, the exports amounted to 28,000 tons; being less than a fifth part of their amount in 1832.

Supposing the total quantity of pig iron produced in Great Britain in 1833 to have amounted to 670,000 tons, and to have been worth at an average, 77. a ton, its total value will have been 4,690,000%. ; and the additional labour expended in forming the pig iron into bar iron, that is, into bars, boits, rods, &c., may probably have added about 1,250,000l. more to its value; making it worth in all about 5,940,0001.

Prices of Hardware.-We noticed, under the article HARDWARE (which see), the extraordinary fall which has taken place in the price of that description of goods since the peace. Since that article was printed, we have obtained from Mr. William Weston, accountant, Birmingham, the following Table of the prices of hardware articles, on which, we believe, every reliance may be placed.

Comparative Prices of Hardware in and near Birmingham, in 1818, 1824, 1828, 1832; and in Jan., 1834.

Articles.

6

d. L

1828.

1832.

L.

0 16

0 12

4 9

1834.

L. 1. d.

0 14 0

0 1

0 6 0

6

1824.

20
2

2 11

4 0

5 0

10

0 18

0 19

0 15

0 14

16

5

8

[Iron ore occurs in great abundance in the United States. Immense masses of it have lately been discovered beyond the Alleghany mountains, especially in Kentucky and Missouri. But it is, perhaps, in Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, that it has hitherto been chiefly worked.

Extensive, however, as has been the production of American iron, there can be little or no doubt that this branch of our home industry is shortly destined to a very great expansion. In every successive year, iron is applied to uses never dreamed of by the preceding generation: only a few years have elapsed since an extraordinary demand for it was created by the constructing of rail-roads; and it is not improbable that vast quantities of it will be wanted, before long, as the most desirable material for the building of houses and ships.

But the enlarged demand for iron would have comparatively little effect in altering the relative proportions of it produced in the country itself and imported from abroad. The former of these will be augmented in a remarkable degree, at the expense, so to speak, of the latter, on account of the success which has attended the experiments lately made, on the Lehigh, in Schuylkill county, and elsewhere in Pennsylvania, for smelting the ore with anthracite coal instead of wood. This improvement, on account of the vicinity of the anthracite to the ore, cannot but diminish considerably the cost of producing iron, and therefore its price; which will, of course, be followed by an augmented production and consumption of it.

Any diminution of the importation of iron into the country, which may be consequent upon the introduction generally of the improvement just mentioned, ought not to be regarded as in itself a national advantage. It can have no permanent effect in preventing the existence of an undue excess of importation above exportation. These, as every one in a slight degree only conversant with political economy is aware of, have a certain determinate average relation to each other,--a relation which is preserved, by whatever restrictive or forcible measures either the amount of the commodities imported, or that of the commodities exported, may be attempted to be diminished. If less iron than heretofore shall hereafter be procured from other countries, the inevitable result must be that the exports of the products of American capital and labour will be lessened in the same proportion. The indebtedness of the United States to Europe, in an embarrassing and more than ordinary degree, can only be prevented from recurring, at intervals of a very few years, when some mode shall have been devised of effectually guarding against an undue expansion of our currency, which, by causing a general rise of prices, offers an inducement for importing more from abroad, as well as for exporting less to foreign countries.

The importations of iron and steel have been very considerable. They have amounted, in the last five years, to nearly fifty millions of dollars. And the duties remitted on iron,chiefly rail-road iron,--from the 1st of January, 1832, to June 30th, 1839, exceeded the sum of three millions and a half of dollars; “being in fact," says the Secretary of the Treasury, "a donation, or free subscription, by the general government, to that amount, chiefly in aid of rail-roads."-Am. Ed.]

IRON-WOOD (Ger. Eisenholz; Du. Yserhout; Fr. Bois de fer; It. Legno di ferro; Sp. Palo hierro; Lat. Sideroxylon, Lignum ferreum), a species of wood of a reddish cast, so called on account of its corroding as that metal does, and its being remarkably hard and ponderous,-even more so than ebony. The tree which produces it grows principally in the West India islands, and is likewise very common in South America, and in some parts of Asia, especially about Siam.

ISINGLASS (Ger. Hausenblase, Hausblase; Fr. Colle de poisson, Carlock; It. Cola

di pesce; Rus. Klei rübüi, Karluk), one of the purest and finest of the animal glues. It is a product, the preparation of which is almost peculiar to Russia. It is made of the airbladders and sounds of different kinds of fish which are found in the large rivers that fall into the North Sea and the Caspian. That prepared from the sturgeon is generally esteemed the best; next to that the beluga; but isinglass is also prepared from sterlets, shad, and barbel, though not so good. The best is usually rolled in little ringlets; the second sort is laid together like the leaves of a book; and the common sort is dried without any care. When fine, it is of a white colour, semi-transparent, and dry. It dissolves readily in boiling water, and it is used extensively in cookery. It is also used for stiffening silk, making sticking plaster, &c. The imports, in 1831 and 1832, amounted, at an average, to 1,984 cwt. a year. The price varies at present (January, 1834) from 5s. to 148. 6d. per lb.-(See Thomson's Chemistry; and Tooke's View of Russia, 2d ed. vol. iii. p. 343.)

ISLE OF MAN. See MAN, ISLE OF.

JUICE OF LEMONS, LIMES, OR ORANGES. The 9th section of the act 6 Geo. 4. c. 111. is as follows:-" For ascertaining the degrees of specific gravity or strength, according to which the duty on the juice of lemons, limes, and oranges shall be paid, it is enacted, that the degrees of such specific gravity or strength shall be ascertained by a glass citrometer, which shall be graduated in degrees in such manner, that distilled water being assumed as unity at the temperature of 60° by Fahrenheit's thermometer, every degree of the scale of such citrometer shall be denoted by a variation of parts of the specific gravity of such water."

JUNIPER BERRIES. See BERRIES.

IVORY, the name given to the teeth or tusks of the elephant, and of the walrus or seahorse. Each male elephant come to maturity has 2 tusks. These are hollow at the root, tapering, and of various sizes, depending principally on the age of the animal. Colour externally yellowish, brownish, and sometimes dark, internally white. The best are large, straight, and light-coloured, without flaws; not very hollow in the stump, but solid and thick. The most esteemed come from Africa, being of a closer texture, and less liable to turn yellow, than those from the East Indies.

The trade in London thus divide them :

First sort, weighing 70 lbs. or upwards; second sort, weighing 56 lbs. to 60 lbs. ; third sort, weighing 38 lbs. to 56 lbs. ; fourth sort, weighing 28 lbs. to 37 lbs.; fifth sort, weighing 18 lbs. to 27 lbs.

All under 18 lbs. are called scrivellves, and are of the least value. In purchasing elephants' teeth, those that are very crooked, hollow, and broken at the ends, or cracked and decayed in the inside, should be rejected; and care taken that lead or any other substance has not been poured into the hollow. The freight is rated at 16 cwt. to the ton.--(Milburn's Orient. Com.)

Supply of Ivory.-The imports of elephants' teeth, in 1831 and 1832, were, at an average, 4,130 cwt., of which 2,950 cwt. were retained for consumption. The medium weight of a tusk may be taken at about 60 lbs.; so that the yearly imports of 1831 and 1832 may be taken at 7,709 tusks; a fact which supposes the destruction of at least 3,854 male elephants! But, supposing the tusks could only be obtained by killing the animal, the destruction would really be a good deal greater, and would most probably, indeed, amount to 4,500 or 5,000 elephants. Occasionally, however, tusks are accidentally broken, one lost in this way being replaced by a new one; and a good many are, also, obtained from elephants that have died in the natural way. Still it is sufficiently obvious, that the supply from the sources now alluded to cannot be very large; and if to the quantity of ivory required for Great Britain, we add that required for the other countries of Europe, America, and Asia, the slaughter of elephants must, after every reasonable deduction is made, appear immense, and it may well excite surprise, that the breed of this noble animal has not been more diminished. The western and eastern coasts of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, India, and the countries to the eastward of the Straits of Malacca, are the great marts whence supplies of ivory are derived. The imports from Western Africa into Great Britain, in 1831, amounted to 2,575 cwt.; the Cape only furnished 198 cwt. The imports during the same year from India, Ceylon and other Eastern countries, were 2,173 cwt. (Parl. Paper, No. 550. Sess. 1833.) The Chinese market is principally supplied with ivory from Malacca, Siam, and Sumatra.

The chief consumption of ivory in England is in the manufacture of handles for knives; but it is also extensively used in the manufacture of musical and mathematical instruments, chess-men, billiard-balls, plates for miniatures, toys, &c. Ivory articles are said to be manufactured to a greater extent, and with better success, at Dieppe, than in any other place in Europe. But the preparation of this beautiful material is much better understood by the Chinese than by any other people. No European artist has hitherto succeeded in cutting concentric balls after the manner of the Chinese: and their boxes, chess-men, and other ivory articles, are all far superior to any that are to be met with any where else.

Historical Notice.-It is a curious fact, that the people of all Asiatic countries in which the elephant is found, have always had the art of taming the animal and applying it to useful purposes, but that no such art has ever been possessed by any native African nation. Is this owing to any difference between the Asiatic and African elephants, or to the inferior sagacity

of the African people? We incline to think that the latter is the true hypothesis. Alex ander the Great is believed to have been the first European who employed elephants in war. It appears pretty certain, that the elephants made use of by the Carthaginians were mostly, if not wholly, brought from India; and that they were managed by Indian leaders. Some of the latter were captured by the Romans, in the great victory gained by Metellus over Asdrubal.-(See, on this curious subject, two very learned and valuable notes in the Ancient Universal History, 8vo ed. vol. xvii. p. 529. and p. 549. Buffon's Article on the Elephant is a splendid piece of composition.)

The price per cwt., duty (11. per cwt.) included, of elephants' teeth in the London market, in December, 1833, was

£
s. d. £ s. d.
29 0 0 to 31 0 0
25 0 0 23 0 0
23 0 0- 26 0 0
20 0 0 24 0 0

K.

KELP. A substance composed of different materials, of which the fossil or mineral alkali, or, as it is commonly termed, soda, is the chief. This ingredient renders it useful in the composition of soap, in the manufacture of alum, and in the formation of crown and bottle glass. It is formed of marine plants; which, being cut from the rocks with a hook, are collected and dried on the beach to a certain extent; they are afterwards put into kilns prepared for the purpose, the heat of which is sufficient to bring the plants into a state of semifusion. They are then strongly stirred with iron rakes; and when cool, condense into a dark blue or whitish mass, very hard and solid. Plants about 3 years old yield the largest quantity of kelp. The best kelp has an acrid caustic taste, a sulphurous odour, is compact, and of a dark blue greenish colour. It yields about 5 per cent. of its weight of soda.(Barry's Orkney Islands, p. 377.; Thomson's Dispensatory.)

The manufacture of kelp is, or rather was, principally carried on in the Western Islands, and on the western shores of Scotland, where it was introduced from Ireland, about the middle of last century. Towards the end of the late war, the kelp shores of the island of North Uist let for 7,0001. a year. It has been calculated that the quantity of kelp annually manufactured in the Hebrides only, exclusive of the mainland, and of the Orkney and Shetland isles, amounted, at the period referred to, to about 6,000 tons a year; and that the total quantity made in Scotland and its adjacent isles amounted to about 20,000 tons. At some periods during the war, it sold for 201. a ton; but at an average of the 23 years ending with 1822, the price was 101. 9s. 7d.—(Art. Scotland, Edinburgh Encyclopædia.)

Unluckily, however, the foundations on which this manufacture rested were altogether factitious. Its existence depended on the maintenance of the high duties on barilla and salt. Inasmuch, however, as kelp could not be substituted, without undergoing a very expensive process, for barilla, in a great many departments of industry in which the use of mineral alkali is indispensable, it became necessary materially to reduce the high duty laid on barilla during the war. The ruin of the kelp manufacture has been ascribed to this reduction; but though barilla had been altogether excluded from our markets, which could not have been done without great injury to many most important manufactures, the result would have been perfectly the same, in so far as kelp is concerned, unless the high duty on salt had also been maintained. It was the repeal of the latter that gave the kelp manufacture the coup de grace. The purification of kelp so as to render it fit for soap-making, is a much more troublesome and expensive process than the decomposition of salt; and the greatest quantity of alkali used, is now obtained by the latter method. Had the duty on salt not been repealed, kelp might still have been manufactured, notwithstanding the reduction of duty on barilla.

The manufacture is now almost extinct. Shores that formerly yielded the proprietors a rent of 2001. to 5001. a year, are now worth nothing. The price of kelp since 1822 has not been, at an average, above 41. a ton; and the article will, most probably, soon cease to be produced.

This result, though injurious to the proprietors of kelp shores, and productive of temporary distress to the labourers employed in the manufacture, is not to be regretted. It could not have been obviated, without keeping up the price of some of the most important necessaries of life at a forced and unnatural elevation. The high price of kelp was occasioned by the exigencies of the late war, which, besides obstructing the supply of barilla, forced government to lay high duties on it and on salt. The proprietors had not the vestige of a ground for considering that such a state of things would be permanent; they did right in profiting by it while it lasted; but they could not expect that government was to subject the country, during peace, to some of the severest privations occasioned by the war, merely that they might continue to enjoy an accidental advantage.

KENTLEDGE, the name sometimes given to the iron pigs cast in a particular form for ballasting ships, and employed for that purpose.

KERMES (Ger. Scharlachbeeren; Du. Grein, Scharlakenbessen; It. Grana, Chermes, Cremese, Cocchi; Sp. Grana Kermes, Grana de la coscoja), an insect (Coccus ilicis Lin.) of the same species as the true Mexican cochineal, found upon the quercus ilex, a species of oak growing in Spain, France, the Levant, &c. Before the discovery of America, kermes was the most esteemed drug for dyeing scarlet, and had been used for that purpose from a very remote period. Beckmann inclines to think that it was employed by the Phoenicians, and that it excelled even the famous Tyrian purple.-(Hist. of Invent. vol. ii. p. 197. Eng. cd.) From the name of coccum or coccus, cloth dyed with kermes was called coccinum, and persons wearing this cloth were said by the Romans to be coccinati.-Mart lib i.