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CLASS IV.

EE POET OX ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES, CHIEFLY USED INMANUFACTURES, AS IMPLEMENTS, OR FOE ORNAMENTS.

[The figures after the Names (between parentheses) refer to the Exhibitors* Numbers ami to the Pages in theOfficial Descriptive and Illustrated Cat a i.ogue.]

Jury.

Professor Richard Owen . F.R.S., Chairman and Bejtorter on the Animal Substances, College ofSurgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields; Curator to the College of Surgeons.

A. Paves, Deputy Chairman, France; Member of the Institute , Professor to the Museum ofArts and Sciences, Member of the Central Jury, &c.

Judge E. S. Duncan. United States .

Dr. J. F. Koyle, F.R.S., Ileathfield Lodge, Acton; Professor of Materia Medica, King’s Col-lege.

Kamos de la Sacra, Spain ; Corresponding Member of National Institute of France .

Professor E. Solly, F.R.S.. Reporter on the Vegetable Substances, 15 Tavistock Square; Lec-turer on Chemistry at Addiscombe.

N. Wallich , M.D./F.U.S., 5 Upper Gower Street, Bedford Square ; formerly Curator of theBotanical Gardens, Calcutta.

F. Weyiie, Zollverein ; Councillor of Home Economy.

Associate.

George Peterson, Russia ; 22 Craven Street, Strand; Member of the Scientific Committeefor the Administration of the Domains of the Empire. (Juror in Class XXVIII.)

Preliminary Remarks.

For the “ Raw Materials ” from the Vegetable and AnimalKingdoms mankind owes more to the powers and opera-tions of Nature than to the inventions and appliances ofArt, and in the series of the various organic products ofalmost every climate which are exposed to view in the“ Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations/’ therelative excellence of the objects to be compared mightbe deemed to be due rather to peculiarities of soil andsky than to the individual merits of the Exhibitors.

Almost every vegetable or animal substance may, how-ever, be modified, and, in relation to its utility to man,improved by a change of the circumstances under whichit is naturally developed, the modifications being sug-gested by a patient study of the respective influences ofthose circumstances upon the useful properties of suchsubstance.

A further improvement may be effected by carefullydefending the raw material during the progress of itsdevelopment from all external influences calculated todeteriorate or injuriously affect it.

The value of every organic product in commerce ismuch influenced by the mode of its collection, or removalfrom the animal or plant when developed, and by theprocesses for separating tlic useless or less valuable partsor heterogeneous matters from the marketable consti-tuent. In the sense in which the term ‘Raw Material’has been extended in its application to that section of theExhibition assigned to the Jury of Class IV., great scopefor both chemical and mechanical skill has been affordedin the extraction and preparation of several of the vege-table and animal substances applied “ in Manufactures, asImplements, or for Ornaments .”

In the examination and comparison of the very nume-rous and diversified substances confided to their judgment,this Jury have been guided and influenced by the con-sideration of the invention, ingenuity, skill, and industrymanifested in the amelioration and perfection of theseseveral substances, and by the degrees in which unfavour-able conditions of soil and climate have been therebyovercome: and in deciding on individual merit, they have ;carefully taken into account the natural facilities which .may have favoured, and the natural difficulties whichmay have opposed, the realization of the desired qualitiesin the raw produce transmitted for exhibition.

After a preliminary general survey of their field ofoperations had shown its vast extent and the great prac-tical importance of the objects to be compared, the Jury,having regard, also, to the earnest desire expressed forexpedition in their decisions, resolved themselves iuto twoCommittees, one for the Vegetable, the other for theAuimai Kingdom; reviewing and testing from time totime in general meetings the evidence of the special ex-aminations confided to those Committees. In preparingtheir Report of the results of these labours, it has beendeemed advisable to divide it into corresponding sections,the classification of the subjects in each being made, asfar as it was practicable, in accordance with that of theoriginal “Jury Lists;” the chief differences being, that—“ Dextrine ” or starch-gum, and “ Starch ” as employed inmanufactures, have been added to the “ Gum and Resin”series, at the recommendation of the Jury of Class III.,and that spermaceti, stearine, stearic acid, with the con-sideration of the various processes, partly chemical andpartly mechanical, employed in the preparation of thesesubstances, have been referred to the Jury of ClassXXIX., in relation to the manufacture of candles andother practical applications of these substances, alreadyunder the review of that Jury. The “ Vegetable Char-coal ” has been added to the “ Animal Charcoal/' at therequest of the Jury of Class I. “ Quills ” were transferredto other articles of stationery, the subjects of Class XVII.Lastly, the subdivision C, including the “ VegetableAcids,” such as acetic, citric, tartaric, oxalic, and otherorganic acids employed in the arts being, in almost allcases, the products of distinct chemical operations, havebeen brought under the consideration of the Jury of ClassII. Subject to these changes, therefore, in the list ofobjects originally assigned to this Class, the presentReport will be subdivided, as respects the VegetableKingdom into eight heads, and as respects the AnimalKingdom into five heads; with a preliminary sectionexplanatory of the grounds on which the awards of theCouncil Medal have been recommended.

Recommendations for the Council Medal.

Among the numerous samples of Raw Produce con-tributed by different countries, there are several collec-tions of especial value, which derive additional merit fromtheir completeness, and from the fact that they illustrate