have mentioned. As the result of these experiments I believe that an aqueous solution of carbolic acid, in the proportion of from two to four per cent. of the acid, is the best steepsolution hitherto known.

Carbolic acid is one of the products of the destructive distillation of coal. When perfectly pure it is a white crystalline substance resembling camphor in appearance; the presence of a very small quantity of water is sufficient to cause the liquefaction of the crystals; even the warmth of the hand will produce the same effect.

Carbolic acid is largely employed as an antiseptic agent. The experiments of Lemaire prove that it is the most powerful means known of arresting the spread of contagious maladies, such as typhus, cholera, and small-pox. In medicine, its use is no less valuable, especially for the treatment of gunshot wounds and purulent sores. In reference to the services that carbolic acid has rendered to surgery,-J. Lister, Esq., F.R.S., writes as follows in the Lancet, 25th Sept., 1867: "The material which I have employed is carbolic or phenic acid, a volatile organic compound, which appears to exercise a peculiarly destructive influence upon low forms of life, and hence it is the most powerful antiseptic with which we are acquainted." A detailed account of its value as a remedial agent then follows. In his "Report on the application of disinfectants in arresting the spread of the cattle plague," William Crookes, Esq., F.R.S, enumerates a series of experiments, with a view of ascertaining the antiseptic properties of carbolic acid, from which it appears that 1-1000th and even 1-1500th part is sufficient to prevent the decomposition and putrefaction of blood, glue solution, size, flour-paste, &c., &c. ; whilst its vapour alone is sufficient to preserve meat, in confined spaces, for many weeks. In reference to its efficacy as an antidote to the cattle plague, Mr. Crookes states, "I have not yet met with a single instance in which the plague has spread on a farm, where the acid has been freely used." Experiments made with carbolic acid upon the lower forms of life show that a solution containing one per cent. of the acid is instantly fatal to the various infusoria, such as bacteria, vibriones, vorticellæ, and others. The experiment is easily made by adding a drop of the dilute solution to the warm water in which the vibriones tritici are disporting themselves upon a glass slide under the field of the microscope. If the experiment be watched, the addition of the dilute solution of the acid will be seen to be instantly fatal to the animalculæ, and arrest their contortions at once. Lemaire states that carbolic acid

vapour will kill flies, ants and their eggs, acari, aphides, woodlice, and other insects of this size.

I have said enough to prove how powerful is the action that carbolic acid exerts upon the minute forms of animal and vegetable life. Now as it is precisely in this form that the blights, with which the agriculturist has to contend, attack his crops, it follows that we have here an efficacious remedy, and one which is inexpensive, simple, and harmless in its application. From experiments that I have made, I have ascertained that a solution containing from two to four per cent. of acid will suffice to destroy the sporules of the various fungi that adhere to the seed-corn, without affecting the vitality of the seed. The mode of employing it is as follows:-the seed-corn having been placed in a tub, sufficient water to cover it is poured on it, to which previously carbolic acid has been added in the proportion of a wineglass full of acid to a gallon of water. The grain is allowed to soak in this solution for fifteen or twenty minutes, and after being well stirred so as to ensure its being thoroughly wetted, it is spread out upon the barn floor to dry, when it is ready for the drill. The particular preparation of carbolic acid recommended is that known commercially as "Calvert's ordinary quality," and which is sold in bottles containing one pound, at a shilling a bottle.

It is not asserted that the use of the steep-solution that I have been advocating will entirely exterminate the various blights to which our corn-crops are liable: some of the fungi that have been described do not confine their ravages to cereals, but affect also the grasses that occur in our hedge-rows and waste places, and consequently an abundant supply of the sporules of these fungi will always be kept up; neither can any steep-solution for the seed prove a specific against the attacks of rust, of mildew, of the fungus known as Kladosporium herbarum, whereby the ears, especially of white varieties, are dusted over with a black soot-like fungus; nor will it avail against the inroads of aphides, or of the wheat midge. Experience tends to show that these different blights occur in far greater abundance on land that is under inferior cultivation; proper drainage, the removal of superfluous hedge-rows, and the extermination of noxious weeds, is the only palliative we at present possess for these evils. Yet we may feel assured that precautionary measures, such as that which I have been advocating, will greatly mitigate an evil which cannot wholly be avoided. The worst forms of blights and the most common, are those known as bunt and smut;

now, as the sporules of these two fungi adhere to the seed, and are deposited in the ground along with it, it follows that the destruction of these sporules by some mode of seed-dressing must be so far advantageous. Let us hope that the time may not be far distant, when the natural history of the various forms of blight will be taught in the village schools of our agricultural districts; and, when once familar with them, intelligent boys might be employed to walk through the fields of growing corn, and remove the diseased ears. The agriculturist would then be led to see the advantage of cultivating some particular portion of his farm as a seed-nursery; whilst the benefits that would accrue to him, in securing sound and clean seed, would more thin repay the slight additional outlay incurred. It is to the careful selection of seed, that the horticulturist looks for improvements in the growth and beauty of the plant that he raises; if the agriculturist would follow his example, and select his corn for seed, he would obtain both a more healthy and abundant crop.

I make no apology for bringing this subject before the Devonshire Association for the advancement of Science, Literature, and Art. Its national importance will be admitted by everyone who looks at the agricultural returns for the present year, lately put forth by the Board of Trade. The following is a summary of it, so far as refers to our present subject:

EXTENT OF LAND IN GREAT BRITAIN UNDER

In a letter to the Times, dated October 5th, 1868, Mr. Caird culculates, that at four quarters an acre, the wheat crop will yield in round numbers 15,500,000 quarters. This single item of produce, therefore, at 50s. per quarter, will amount to nearly £40,000,000 sterling. Barley and oats may be reckoned at 25,000,000 quarters, and will represent a money-value of £40,000,000.

The moral to be drawn from these statistics is simply this; that if, in the words of Lord Palmerston, we can make two blades of corn grow where one grows now, that is to say, if by any improved process it is possible to add, even in so small a proportion as five per cent. to the average produce of our crops, this increase, small as it may seem, would in fact be a large addition to our national wealth. Assuming the above figures to be correct, and supposing the increase to be such

as I have stated,-a supposition by no means exaggerated, when it is remembered, that these various blights impair the quality of that which they do not destroy,-we should by this apparently small improvement have added to our national income about £4,000,000 yearly.

MEMOIR OF THE EXAMINATION OF THREE BARROWS AT BROAD DOWN, FARWAY, NEAR HONITON.

BY THE REV. R. KIRWAN, M.A., RECTOR OF GITTISHAM.

IN accordance with the terms of a resolution passed by the Council of the Devonshire Association, I propose to describe in the present memoir the results of an examination of three Tumuli, situate at Broad Down, Farway, near Honiton, and which were visited by the members of the Association on 31st July, 1868.

It is desirable on many accounts to place on record the leading facts connected with the discovery of the interesting pre-historic relics that were then brought to light; partly because, whilst the disinterment of such remains connected with primitive deposits has been of common occurrence in the adjoining counties of Cornwall on the one hand, and of Wiltshire and Dorsetshire on the other, they have hitherto been of very rare occurrence in this county. I have a further inducement to follow this course by the occasion it affords of giving illustrations of the objects thus discovered, for the benefit of those who have not had an opportunity of inspecting the originals. In addition also to their rarity, a further interest gathers around these sepulchralia, from the fact that they supply a link in the chain of the pre-historic archæology of this county. The two extremes of the series, which have been worked out with much ability, may be stated thus. The discoveries made at Brixham Cavern and Kent's Hole, near Torquay, carry back the existence of man upon the soil of Devonshire to a time cotemporaneous with the cave-men of France and Germany. Very different conditions of climate, of coast-line, of relative land and sea-level then prevailed; probably the rigour of the glacial epoch still existed, whilst the mammoth, the cave-bear, the tichorine rhinoceros, and other extinct animals roamed over the district which now forms the shores of Torbay. We

start then with this fact, that when man existed upon the continent of Europe in the glacial period (that is to say, at the most remote period of his history yet disclosed), he also existed in Devonshire. Here we have the one extreme of a series of which the other is limited by the first dawn of the historic period. Of this we have numerous examples in Devonshire; nor need I refer to any other than that of the Roman Isca (Exeter), which has yielded abundant evidence of man possessing a knowledge of the metals, and a certain amount of civilization. The intermediate period, however, so far as regards this county, has been but imperfectly worked out; and yet surely it is not from want of materials. The cromlechs, sacred circles, dolmens, maenhirs, upright stones disposed in avenues, and other antiquities of a similar character on Dartmoor, the hill-fortresses of East Devon, and the antient burialmounds which are to be found dotting the summits of the higher ground in this and other parts of the county, are so many landmarks of the history, the national customs, the social habits, and, it may be added, testify to the warlike character of the primeval inhabitants of Devonshire. So abundantly are these time-honoured remains scattered over the hill-tops that frown down upon the vale of Honiton, that probably no district in England is richer in them. Almost every swelling prominence has its intrenched fortress, and of these some are so extensive that they would have required a small army to defend them against attack on all sides. I may cite as examples Hembury Fort, three miles distant from Honiton : it is of ovate form, and measures about 400 yards in length, and 130 yards in breadth; within a mile of Broad Down is Blackbury Castle, measuring from east to west 220 yards, and from north to south 115 yards. The same district also abounds with the sepulchral remains of its early inhabitants. And yet up to the present time, these memorials of a people, the very name of whom is lost, have attracted but little attention. Many barrows have been destroyed by the advancing plough of the agriculturist, but in no cases have the cinerary urns and other mortuary remains been preserved. Scarcely even has their discovery been recorded, or any relics of the period been figured. And yet, time was when these grave-mounds were regarded with far different feelings. So long as they were held to be the receptacles of treasure, a royal license must be obtained before their exploration was permitted, but no sooner is that illusion dispelled than they come to be regarded with indifference. The following curious document occurs in the Patent Rolls of 17th Edward II. It secures