tinned vessels AO, and the other tinned vessel BO; the vessels which are to contain the mixture is in this description called tinned vessel A aud tinned vessel B. He has a circular frame, which is put into the tinned vessels A and B, and which has seven holes, so that it will contain seven tinned vessels, each of which will hold more than 16lb. of water; their length is 22 inches, their diameter is six inches: there is no occasion to have the bottom frame on which they receive the circular motion perforated.-He has also a tinned C, whose dimensions are 15 inches diameter, depth 23, and a tinned vessel D, whose dimensions are at top diameter 12 inches, bottom 10, depth 201; and in this he has a frame of tin, so that be can give the tubes he puts in It a circular motion.-Across the tinned vessel C, he has a slight wooden frame, as it is necessary in the last operation, hereafter described, to tie it down to the wooden vessel B. Hair or wool is put at the bottom of C, to prevent its communicating external heat. The tops of all are covered with country cumblies, eight folds thick.-The copper tinned vessel AO is placed in the wooden tub, which has a hole in it to let out a screw tube, soldered to AO, two inches diameter; when this is put in, he caulks round the brass tube to prevent leakage; his tinned vessel A has also a tube which goes through the tube of AO 14 inches diameter, on which he has a screw, with a leather washer, to make it water tight ;--none of the subtances in one vessel can therefore communicate with the other, and the tinned vessel AO is always kept dry on the inside. The tubes for freezing the mixture, are 1932 inches long and 1 diameter at top, and 1 inch at bottom.

PROCESS. The materials used

are salt petre and sal ammoniac; the proportions are equal quantities of each, as ascertained by Mr. Walker, and in the proportion of 5lb. of each substance to 16lb. of water; he has taken Mr. Walker's proportions for granted, as the best. In the hottest season of the year, when the thermometer at night is 90, and a land wind blows, water, which has been exposed in the common earthen porous pots used at Madras, and throughout the Carnatic, will be about 10 degrees below the heat of the atmosphere, and be 80 degrees by keeping the sal ammoniac pounded in metal vessels; and in water contained in earthen porous vessels, these substances will be cooled to the same degree; the vessels B, and tinned vessels BO and B, are to finish the process; he therefore wishes to have them as cool as possible in the first instance, and he puts water, which is 10 degrees colder than the atmosphere, into the wooden vessel B, at the commencement of the operation; the same may also be done with the wooden vessel A. In the very hot weather he always prefers four operations, beginning the first with his evaporated substances as follows:-Put into the tinned vessel A, five of the tin vessels, each containing 16lb. of good water; put into the tinned vessel B, seven tin vessels each containing 16lb. of good water, the purer and freer from air or salt the better, put into each of these tinned vessels A and B 50lb. of old stuff, that is sal ammoniac and salt petre, once used and evaporated, and about 90 or 95lb. of water, as much water as will admit the circular mo❤ tion to take place without any chance of injuring the purity of the water in the five vessels in A, and the seven vessels in B; in the first operation, instead of old stuff, he

uses the same quantity of salt petre. In about two hours the water in the small vessels and the cooling mixture are at an equilibrium of heat; he then takes out the water from the wooden vessel B, and substitutes the cool mixture which has been in the tinned vessel B. He takes out as speedily as possible the 5 vessels of water from the tinned vessel A and puts them into the tinned vessel B, and to this 80lb. of water he adds 25lb. of pounded salammoniac and 25lb. of pounded salt petre, the change takes about 5 minutes, and this operation requires one hour and three quarters; when he has taken the water vessels out of the tinned vessel A, he puts the salt petre and sal ammoniac, being 10lb. of each, for the last operation, into the tinned vessel A, to be made cool, and he also puts the substances he means to freeze into the same vessel for the same purpose; at the end of an hour and three quarters he draws off the water from the wooden vessel B, and replaces it by the salts and water in the tinned vessel B. He then takes out five of the water vessels out of the tinned vessel B, and pours the contents into the tinned vessel B; he also adds the same quantities of salt petre and sal ammoniac as before, being 25lb. of each; he takes the two vessels containing 10lb. of salts from the tinned vessel A, and places them in the tinned vessel B. He also takes out all the vessels containing the substances to be frozen, and places them in the tinned vessel B. The tinned vessel B then contains two vessels of water, two of salts, and all the intended ices. This operation takes also one hour and three quarters; and at the end of that time there are large quantities of ice above half an inch thick in the two water vessels,

and he believes the ices are nearly frozen. At this period he takes out the apparatus which gives the circular motion, and places the vessel C and D in the vessel B, he always puis the vessel D into the last mix'ture in B, to make it as cool as ice. before he puts the last mixture in it; he then puts into the vessel D all his vessels containing ices, and puts among them 10lb. of salt petre and 10lb. of sal ammoniac, and pours out the water from the two vessels, and the ice which they contain, in D:-D then contains 32lb. of water and ice, and 20lb. of salt petre and sal ammoniac in equal quantities, and all the tin tubes. Mr.R. then turns them gently round; this operation will be completed in one hour and three quarters, and the ice ready for use. None of the changes, if properly done, take more than five minutes,

REMARKS. It is to be observed that the salts once used may be evaporated to dryness, but they no longer possess the same power of producing cold, as they lose one-fourth of their effect; 16 parts of water by weight, and 5 of sal ammoniac and 5 of salt petre, will reduce the temperature 40 degrees; but when these substances are re-produced in a joint body after solution, they only reduce the temperature 30 degrees. In the course of the evaporation and exsiccation there are some very curious phenomena which will not escape the attentive chemist, and which he will find it very difficult to account for; the subject is worthy of, and requires much investigation; he will also perceive a very considerable diminution in the quantities of the salts which he has re-produced by evaporation which he will very easily account for.

BEFORE explaining the origin of Pongal, an anniversary feast of the Hindoos, which it is curious to know, it may be necessary to say something of their computation of the periods of time, by way of preambles, as follows ;--

A twinkling of the eye is by them denominated Nemasha;* 15 Nemashas make 1 Casta; 30 Castas, 1 Cala; 15 Calas, 1 Nadeca: 2 Nadecas, 1 Moohoorta; 30 Moohoorta, 1 Ahoratra (Nychthymeron); 15 Ahoratras, 1. Patcha (half month); 2 Patchas, 1 Massa (mensis); 2, Masas, 1 Rutoo (a season of two months); 3 Rotoos, 1 Ayana (the sun's northern or southern course); 2 Ayanas, 1 Varsha (annus): this is a Manusha-varsha, that is, a human year, or a year of mortals. Witness Veshroo Pooranua, Book 2. Chap. 4. Book 6. Chap. 3.

A human year is a day and a night of Devas or Gods---360 human years make one Devarvarsha (a divine year), and 12,000 divine years, 1 Catoor-yooga, i. e. a vicissitude of four yoogas or ages, called Koota, Treta, Dwapara, and Calee, that is, the Golden, the Silver, the Brazen, and the Iron age. Witness Vedaramya Mahatmya in Scanda Poorana.

The first six months of a human year, commencing from the month of Pooshyo or Ty (i. e. January), and ending Iyasta or Anne (i. e. June), are called Ottarayana : which is a day of Gods: vice versa,

the last six months, commencing from Ashadha or Audee (i. e. July) and ending Margasera or Margalee (i. e. December), are called DacheDayana which is a night of Gods. Ottarayana is so called, because the sun passes through 180 degrees of the ecliptic, in course of the first six months of a year, beginning his northern road; Dutchenayana is so called because the sun passes through 180 degrees of the ecliptic, in course of the last six months, beginning his southern road; or, in other words, Ottarayana begius in the winter solstice, and Datchenayana in the summer one. end of Ottarayana coincides with the beginning of Datchenayana. Witness Goloscandha in Arayabhata Siddanta.

The

It is observable, that the sun's stay in Sagittarius is the morning twilight of Gods ;--- his star in Capricornus, their morning ;---his stay in Aquarius and Piscis their forenoon;---his stay in Aries their mid-day;---his stay in Taurus and Gemini their afternoon ;---his stay in Cancer and Leo, their evening ;--and his stay in Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio their night.

It is also observable, that on the 11th lunar day of the Indian May or June, the God Veshnoo is said to repose on the serpentine bed of Adesesha, in the milky ocean, which is called Sayanayacadasee; that on the 11th lunar day of the Indian July or August, the slumbering Veshnoo is said to

turn

:

turn on his side, which is called Parevartana - yacadasee that on the 11th lunar day of the Indian October and November, Veshnoo is said to rise from his long slumber, which his called the Ottanayacadasee; and, that on the 11th lunar day of the Indian December or January, the gates of Svargaloca, the celestial mansion of Endra, ruler of the good spirits, are said to be kept open for the reception of the departed souls of the virtuous persons from this lower world: which is called Savarga-dwerayecadasee. It was, therefore, that Bheeshma, the grandsire of Pandavas, having been darted and tumbled down from his car, on the bed of harrows, in the field of battle, by the magnanimous Arjoona, during Datehenayana, miraculously postponed his soul in her mortal frame till the 11th lunar day of the Indian January, in Ottarayana, when he gave up the ghost joyfully. Hence it his evident, that Ottarayana is auspicious, and Datchenayana inauspicious. Witness Siddanta Saravalee in Agamus, Bheeshma Parva and Santee Parva in Mohabharata, an

epic poem of Vyasa Maha

Moonee.

The day on which the sun enters Capricornus, the seventh sign of the Zodiac, is called Macara-Sancrantee, which, according to the grammatical construction of the Sanscrit language, signifies the sun's entrance into the tropic of Capricornus: which MacaraSancrantee, being the morning of gods, is accounted as a Tekupha, when the Bramins, and other classes of the Hindoos, are enjoined to perform ablution, and offer trapana, or libation of water mixt with tela and cusa (i. e. rape-seed and long grass), to the

manes of their deceased ancestors called petroos; and when the Hindoos are likewise enjoined to make the oblation of raw rice and milk, boiled together in a new pot, with banana-fruits and sugar (offering incense) to the sun, as a visible emblem of God whom we do adore. Witness Pooranas, Darma Sastris, and Siddentaga

mas.

Why the sun is worshipped with the offering of the milky food and sacharine fruits, on the day of Macara Sancrantee, as above set set forth, is 1st, Because that a ray of God is said to reside in the orb of the sun, who is of course luminous and capable of enlight the world, and constituting day by his presence, so that the adherents to Seva and Veshnoo religions, do pay homage to the sun, as a visible form of their respective gods, styling him promiscuously Seva Soorya, or Soryca Narayana, although the Souras adore the sun as a God self-existence and selfglorious ---2dly, Because the sun is the physical cause of heat, which contributes to produce the Towth of orrizza or rice (the principal aliment of the Hindoos), as well as of other vegetables, so that they are ordained to offer rice (boiled in milk) to the sun on the day of Macara Sacrantee; and, Sdly, or lastly, because of this Saperantee being the beginning of Ottara. yana, the space of six months, commencing from the sun's passage through the first degree of Capricornus, and ending his depar ture from the last degree of Gemini; a happy period, making a day of Gods, when the best kinds of grains, such as samba, pasanam, &c. are grown; when the most delicious fruits and odoriferous flowers are gathered ;---when the