which the winds tend either obliquely or directly, is one which is likely to occupy considerable discussion before there is a general agreement on the subject. The sea-breeze blows toward the land, and the diminished pressure over the land is constantly maintained by the sun's rays rarefying and rendering the air over the land lighter, and therefore, like the heated air in a chimney, liable to be forced upward by the colder air. But, unless the sea-breeze, as it rose over the land, was swept away by an upper current, the mere heating of the air would not make it lighter. The sea-breeze on the east coast of Scotland only occurs when a westerly upper current prevails; and as the strength of the sea-breeze gradually decreases as it travels into the interior, the air which forms the breeze must only be gradually absorbed into the upper current. There is, therefore, no focal area over which the seabreeze rises in a body, but the area over which it is absorbed extends nearly over the whole area swept by the breeze. The principle of a gradual rising into the upper current, I believe, is the one which takes place in storms; but I agree with Professor Espy, that the diminished pressure is maintained by the extrication of latent heat, as the vapour of water is precipitated in consequence of the air expanding as it ascends, and, in doing so, cools below the dew-point of the vapour which it contains.

The Rev. Mr Clouston, Sandwick Manse, Orkney, writes me that "there was a great fall of the barometer on the 6th without any of the storm," and "at midnight the barometer stood at 28.49 inches ;" nor did the storm extend beyond the Grampians, although the barometer stood lower there than in the south of Scotland. Towards this immense area of diminished pressure the winds were all directed, and, as I believe, they were rising over the whole space that they prevailed. As they rose into the higher strata of the atmosphere, they were swept away by the westerly upper current which frequently prevails in this latitude in winter. The concluding winds of this and of other storms is the descent of this upper current, which imparts the westerly precession to the rise of the barometer in the winter storms of Europe.

To enter into a minute analysis of the mode in which I conceive the low barometer is propagated from west to east in

the storms that are similar in their action to the February one, would require a very lengthened discussion. The few remarks which I have made here, may serve to impress upon meteorologists the enormous area over which the winter storms of Europe extends, and the necessity which exists of combining observers not only in this country, but over the Continent. Many errors have arisen in consequence of drawing conclusions from observations collected within too limited an extent of country, whereas the law of storms can only be fully elucidated by simultaneous and wide-spread observations.

I take this opportunity of thanking Professor Hansteen, Christiania; M. Quetelet, Royal Observatory, Brussels; Rev. C. Clouston, Sandwick, Orkney; Mr Stevenson, Dunse; Rev. S. King, Jersey; and Mr Martin, Dorchester, for the ready manner in which they furnished the observations for making these few remarks on the February storm.

On the Preparation of Sugar and Arrack from Palms in Ceylon. By ALEXANDER SMITH, M.D., Staff-Surgeon, 2d Class. Communicated by the Director-General of the Army Medical Department.

The flowers of all the palm tribe yield a sweetish juice, which might be turned to account, either by extracting its sugar or by fermenting it, and distilling the resulting spirit; but I am not aware that, at least in Ceylon, it is collected from more than three of the order. These are the Cocoa-nut palm (Cocos nucifera), the Palmyra palm (Borassus flabelliformis), and a third known in the island by the various names of Kittûl, sugar, or Jaggery palm (Caryo taurens). Of the palms of Ceylon, the coco-nut is by far the most abundant. It is found in all parts of the island, with the exception of the very high land in the interior; but it is met with in greatest abundance along more than a hundred miles of coast, extending from considerably to the northward of Colombo to a little beyond Matura, in the south of the island. Along the range of coast above indicated, it forms almost uninterrupted groves, bounded towards the sea by the high-water mark, and varying in breadth on an average from a few yards to a quarter of a

mile. Within these limits, the cocoa-nut palm occupies the ground almost to the exclusion of other trees; but as the distance from the sea-shore increases, it becomes mixed with various timber trees, and its importance among them as regards relative numbers, although it is still found in abundance, rapidly diminishes. The Palmyra palm is chiefly confined to the northern and north-eastern parts of the island, and is met with in large numbers near Jaffna; whilst the central provinces, at a moderate elevation, form the peculiar locality of the Kittûl palm.

From each of these three palms the juice of the flowering stalk is collected under the name of toddy; and from it, sugar, known in the East as jaggery, is regularly prepared; but it is from the Palmyra that almost the whole palm sugar of commerce is obtained. It is usually exported in the soft form, in baskets made from the leaves of the tree which yields it. The jaggery made from the cocoa-nut and Kittûl palms is almost entirely consumed by the natives of the island, who use it with their coffee. It is sold in the form of small cakes of a circular form, and slightly cup-shaped. They weigh about half-a-pound, are very tough, and when broken across present an imperfectly crystalline fracture. All the varieties are capable of purification, but are seldom so prepared, excepting in the form of a tolerably pure sugar-candy. Whilst the juice of each of the above named palms yields jaggery, and might therefore be employed in the manufacture of arrack, it is, practically speaking, from that of the cocoa-nut palm alone that the whole arrack made in Ceylon is prepared; and as the same mode of collecting the juice, and extracting jaggery from it, is, with the exception of a few unimportant local modifications, followed in every case, a description of the process used in that of the cocoa-nut will suffice for all; whilst what follows will explain the manufacture of arrack.

Cocoa-nut palms, when planted in favourable soil, and with a due proportion of space for each tree, generally come into flower and bear fruit between the fourth and fifth years; but when closely planted, they shoot up with greater rapidity, and do not become productive before the sixth or seventh. If toddy is not collected from it, it is generally calculated that a good tree will bear fruit for more thon sixty years; but

when otherwise treated, it becomes exhausted, and soon dies. To avoid the latter accident in trees made to yield their juice, it is customary to collect it for eight months, and afterwards to allow the fruit to come to maturity during an interval of one year before the process is repeated,-an arrangement by which the strength of the tree is much longer preserved. The flower of the cocoa-nut, as well as of the other two palms under notice, is a branched spadix, at first inclosed in a spatha: and in order to collect toddy, the latter is stripped off before it has fully expanded. The flowering branches are then bound with strips of cocoa-nut leaf into one firm round bundle, and afterwards smartly beaten between two pieces of hard wood. The mass is then bent downwards by means of a cord attached to the lower part of the tree. A thin slice is cut with a sharp knife from its extremity, and a small earthenware pot attached to it for the purpose of collecting the toddy. A piece of bark is then generally tied over the upper part of the whole to protect it from the sun, and to prevent rain from mixing with the contents of the pot. After an interval of about a day, juice begins to drop from the cut end of the flower; but it is not until after a somewhat longer interval that the proper sweet toddy begins to make its appearance. Each flowering spadix so prepared continues to yield juice for about forty days, at nearly the average rate of half-a-gallon in twenty-four hours the quantity yielded during the night slightly exceeding that collected in the course of the day; and in order to promote its flow, it is necessary daily to cut a fresh slice from the extremity of the flowering branches. A good tree will admit of toddy being drawn, as above, from three flowering spadices at the same time; but it is more common to prepare only two, and in some trees not more than one can be so employed.

When it is intended to prepare jaggery from the toddy, great care is taken by burning pieces of wood in the small earthen vessels attached to the flowers, and rubbing their interior with charcoal, to remove any impurities likely to promote fermentation; and, as an additional precaution, chips of bark are placed in each. This bark is procured from the Vateria indica, or Hal-tree, which has a bitter and slightly astringent

taste, and is believed by the natives to retard fermentation. So soon as the receiving vessels are taken from the trees, the contained toddy is roughly filtered, to separate the pieces of bark and accidental impurities, and at once boiled in a common earthen pot. Impurities are from time to time removed in the form of scum, and when concentration has been carried to the necessary extent, it is poured in small quantities into cocao-nut shells. From these, when cooled, it is removed in the form of small cakes, as has already been noticed, and these are stored in a dry place to which the smoke of a wood fire has free access.

The jaggery of the Central provinces is entirely made from the Kittûl juice, which yields a much larger quantity of sugar than that of either of the other two palms, and of a quality much more highly prized by the natives. The Kittûl does not come into flower until between its tenth and fifteenth years, and only one spadix is at a time prepared on each; but that, being of very large size, continues to furnish toddy for a period of between six and eight months. Unlike the sugar of the other palms, the Palmyra jaggery is not preserved in the form of cakes, but is broken down into the form of soft sugar convenient for packing in baskets, in which it is exported.

When toddy is collected for the purpose of making arrack, no care is taken to prevent fermentation, and as it is brought from the trees, it is poured into wooden vats, in which that process rapidly advances, the mean annual temperature (not under 80° F.) of the districts in which arrack is made highly favouring its progress. In the vats it is allowed to remain until enough toddy has been collected to fill the arrack still, or until it may suit the convenience of the manufacturer to distil it, so great is the indifference manifested in actually conducting that stage of the process, which of all others ought to be watched with the greatest care. Want of attention to the fermentation of the toddy is the cause of the presence of a large quantity of acetic acid, not only in the toddy when undergoing distillation, but also in the arrack—a condition which cannot but play a very important part in causing arrack to remove a trace of lead from any portion of that metal with which it may, in the course of preparation,