rte! i eee ae kK " Ki ig * NG ese os Onn \y \ dy: Ss } v¥) BA Gm BS = pe } ot - ae ( ~~ . + ’ ’ > ~* = ~ 1% . na ‘ ‘ % r L - A” A _ - ~ re ae te “s be Uy = awn ? in . : , q ; anges a Nabe , b rs +t _* ~~, : » ‘ a asa iy Vedas ae May mir, Ah oil aa i, Py ie Y. é ip i) " er uy A ‘ THE EDINBURGH NEW PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL, Vee 8S : ees 7 9 EXHIBITING*A VIEW OF THE ™ Ss ers pec” PROGRESSIVE DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SCIENCES AND THE ARTS. CONDUCTED BY ROBERT JAMESON, REGIUS PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY, LECTURER ON MINERALOGY, ‘AND KEEPER OF THE MUSEUM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 5 Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh; of the Antiquarian, Wernerian and Horti- cultural Societies of Edinburgh; Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy, and of the Royal Dublin Society; Fellow of the Linnean and Geological Societies of London; Honorary Member of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta; of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, and of the Cam- bridge Philosophical Society; of the York, Bristol, Cambrian, Northern, and Cork Institutions ; of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle; of the Royal So- ciety of Sciences of Denmark; of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin; of the Royal Aca- demy of Naples; of the Imperial Natural History Society of Moscow; of the Imperial Phar- maceutical Society of Petersburgh; of the Natural History Society of Wetterau ; of the Mine- ralogical Society of Jena; of the Royal Mineralogical Society of Dresden; of the Natural His- tory Society of Paris; of the Philomathic Society of Paris; of the Natural History Society of Calvados; of the Senkenberg Society of Natural History ; of the Society of Natural Sciences and Medicine of Heidelberg; Honorary Member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York; of the New York Historical Society; of the American Antiquarian Society; of the Aca- demy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York; of the Natural History Society of Montreal, §c. Se. JULY...OCTOBER 1830. TO BE CONTINUED QUARTERLY. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR ADAM BLACK, NORTH BRIDGE, EDINBURGH ; AND LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, & GREEN, LONDON. , 1830. Neill § Co. Printers, Edinburgh. CONTENTS. Arr. I. Journal of a Voyage to Spitzbergen and the East Coast of Greenland, in his Majesty’s Ship Griper. By Doveuas CHARLES CLAVERING, Esq. F.R.S., Com- mander. Communicated by James Surru, Beg. of Jordanhill, F.R.S.E. With a Chart of the Disco- veries of Captains CLAVERING and ScorEssy, I. Voyage from the Thames to Hammerfest in Nor- way, & - = - = Il. From Hammerfest to Spitzbergen, - - III. Unsuccessful attempt to reach from eg a high Northern Latitude, - IV. From Spitzbergen to the East Coast of Old ak. land—Exploration from Cape Parry to Roseneath Inlet—Meeting with the Natives—Account of them —Finally quit the Coast, and return to England, IJ. Analysis of the Vegetable Milk of the Hya-hya Tree of Demerara. By Rosperr Curistison, M.D. Pro- fessor of Medical Jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh. Communicated by the Author, III. On the Physiognomy of the Vegetable Kingdom in the Brazils. By Dr C. F. Pury. von Marrivs, Knight of the Bavarian Order of Merit, &c. - IV. Lectures on the History of the Natural Sciences. By Baron Cuvier, = ~ - - Lecture IV. Greece,—concluded from p. 349. of former Volume, - e 2 bs Lecture V. Schools of Philosophy before Socrates, Lecture VI. Socrates and his Epoch—State of the Sciences up to the time of Aristotle, - Lecture VIII. Aristotle’s History of Animals, — - Lecture IX. Theophrastus, - - - Page 12 i4 31 ii Art. V. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. CONTENTS. A Monograph of the Family of Plants called Cuno- NIACEHZ. By Mr Davin Don, Librarian to the Linnean Society ; Member of the Imperial Aca- demy Nature Curiosorum ; of the Royal Botanical Society of Ratisbon ; and of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh, &c. Communicated by the Author, . Discourse delivered by Baron ALExanpER Houm- BOLDT at the Extraordinary Meeting of the Im- perial Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg, held on the 28th November 1829, - = . On Artesian or Overflowing Wells, - VIII. On the Botany of India, and the Facilities afforded for its investigation by the Hon. East India Com- pany. By M. De Canpou.e, - - . On the Subtropical Zone. By Baron Lxoroip Von Buca, : - - = = - On Milk, and its Adulteration in Paris, - . Remarks on Sir Humpurey Davy’s Opinions re- specting Volcanic Phenomena. By Mr W. J. Gr- RARDIN, - = “ = ‘ . On Changes of Temperature in Plants, - XIII. Naturgeshichtliche Reisen durch Nord Africa, &c. Natural History Travels in Northern Africa and Western Asia, from 1820 to 1825 ; by Drs Hemp- rich and EHRENBERG. Historical part, with Maps and Views, - “ “ On the Irritability of the Stamina of the Barberry, Chronological Series of the more important Changes made upon the Coasts by the Sea, from the Eighth Century to the present day, - eo Notice of a Memoir read by Dr Hrzzerr to the Scot- tish Society of Antiquaries, on the Caves occupied by the early Inhabitants of the West of Europe ; with illustrations of some still remaining in France and Italy, 3 « é ‘s New Societies,— 1. Geographical Society of London, = 2 2. Geological Society of France, = = 3. Statistical Societies in France, - 3 Observations on the Cause of the Spouting of Over- flowing Wells or Artesian Fountains, - 84 97 11] 123 129 134 136 140 CONTENTS. iii Arr. XIX. Observations on the Snake called Yellow Tail (Coluber flavicolis, Linn., belonging to the di- vision of Cerberus of Cuvier), and on the sup- posed power of Fascination in Serpents. By Dr J. Hancock, Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society, and of the Society of Arts of Scotland, &c. Communicated by the Author, 165 XX. Description of several New or Rare Plants which have lately flowered in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and chiefly in the Royal Botanic Garden. By Dr¢Grauam, Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh, - 170 XXI. Celestial Phenomena from July 1. to October 1. 1830, calculated for the Meridian of Edinburgh, Mean Time. By Mr Grorce Invgs, Astrono- mical Calculator, Aberdeen, - 178 XXII. Proceedings of the Wernerian Natural History Society, ~4 - - - 181 XXIII. Screnriric INTELLIGENCE, - 182 METEOROLOGY. 1. Professor Hansteen’s J ourney to Siberia, ~ - ib. HYDROGRAPHY. 2. Colour of Water and Ice. 3. Quantity of Water in the River Clyde, = - - - - - 183-4 ~ CHEMISTRY. 4. Freezing point of Spirits of Wine. 5. Note on Robert Brown’s Microscopical Observations on the Particles of Bodies. 6. Brewsterite, - - - 184-5 GEOLOGY. 47. A Village Lighted by Natural Gas. 8. Diluvial Furrows and Scratches. 9. Origin of the Air in Air-Volcanoes. 10. Origin of Diluvium. 11. Overflowing or Spouting Springs. 12. New Work on Geology. 13. Humboldt’s New Journey. 14. Works on Petrifactions. 15. Me- moirs of the Society of Strasburg. 16. On the Alluvium of the Nile, - . - - - 185-8 iv CONTEN'IS. BOTANY. 18. Notice respecting the existence of Fraxinus excelsior, as an Indigenous Tree in Scotland, - - - 189 STATISTICS. 19. Religious Toleration in Russia. 20. Annnal Quantity of Sugar consumed in Britain. 21. Foundling Hospitals. 22. Scottish Societies. 23. Early Discovery of America by the Scandinavians. = - - 189-192 ARTS. 24. Invention of Stereotyping. 25. Important Experiments, 193-4 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 1. An Outline of the Sciences of Heat and Electricity. By Dr Tuomson, Regius Professor of Chemistry, Glasgow, &e. - - - - - - 197 2. A Treatise on Poisons in relation to Medical Jurisprudence, Physiology, and the Practice of Medicine. By Roserr Curistison, M.D. Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh, &c. - - ib. 3. The Influence of Climate in the Prevention and Cure of Chronic Diseases, &c.; comprising an account of the prin- cipal places resorted to by Invalids in England, the South of Europe, &c. By Jamus Cuarx, M. D. &e. = ib. 4. The Teignmouth, Dawlish, andTorquay Guide. By N. T. Carrineton. The Natural History by W. Turron, M. D. and J. F. Kineston, - - - 198 5. Elements of Practical Chemistry. By Davin BosweLu Rep, Chemical Assistant to Dr Hope, - - ib. Arr. XXIV. List of Patents granted in England, from 29th November 1829 to 6th February 1830, ib. XXV. List of Patents granted in Scotland from 16th March to 14th June 1830, - - 200 CONTENTS. Page Art. I. Biographical Memoir of M. Gravy Louts RIcHARD. By Baron Cuvier, - - - 201 II. Description of Luminous Bodies which were observed attached to the Vane-staff, at the Mast-head and Yard-arm of H. M.S. Cadmus, while cruizing in the River Plate. By Lieutenant ALExanpER Mine, R.N. Communicated by the Author, - 214 III. Private Journal of a Voyage to the Western Coast of Africa, including Observations on the Preservation of the Health on that Station. Communicated by the Author, - - - ~ 216 IV. On making Artificial Pearls, - - - 230 V. On Improvements in Black Writing Ink. By Joun Bostock, M.D. F.R.S. E. - - 231 VI. Additions to the Natural History of British Animals. By Joun Cotpstream, M.D. M.W.S. &c. Com- municated by the Author, = - - 234. VII. On Polishing Metals, - - - - 24] VIII. On the Phenomena and Causes of Hail-storms. By Denison Oxmstep, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Yale College, - 244 IX. Ararat, Pison, and J erusalem, a contribution to Bibli- cal Geography. By Cuartes Von Raumer, 255 X. 1. Visit to the Graphite or Black Lead-Mine in Glen Farrer in Inverness-shire. 2. Walk from Aberdeen to Castleton of Braemar.—Country around Castle- ton.—From Castleton to Spittal of Glen Shee, and Blairgowrie. 3. Blairgowrie,—Craighall,—Forneth, —Linp of Campsie,—Perth, - - 266 ii CONTENTS. Ant. XI. Descriptive Memoir of the Imperial Forest of Bia- lowieza. By the Baron De BrinxeEn, Conserva~- tor in Chief, - “ - - 287 XII. On the Development of the Vascular System in the Foetus of Vertebrated Animals. By ALLEN Tuomson, M. D. late President of the Royal Me- dical Society. Communicated by the Author, 295 XIII. On Changes observed in the Colour of Fishes. By Mr James Srarx. Communicated by the Au- thor, - - - - . 327 XIV. Notice in regard to the Actinia maculata, - 332 XV. On the Nervous System of the Crustacea. By MM. V. AupovurIn and Mitne Epwarps, - ib. XVI. Description of a new species of Salix found in Brae- mar. By Mr W. Maceriuivray, A.M. Com- municated by the Author, - - 335 XVII. On the Lacustrine Basins of Baza and Alhama, in the Province of Grenada in Spain. By Colonel Cuar.es Sinvertor. Communicated by the Author, - - - ~ - 336 XVIII. On Valleys of Elevation, and their connection with the Origin of Acidulous Springs. By M. Frepr- Rick HorrmaNNn, - - - 349 XIX. Arrangement of Rocks. By Dr K. C. Von Leon- HARD. Communicated by the Author, - 355 XX. On the Geological Relations of the South of Ireland. By Tuomas Weaver, Esq. F.R.S.&c. - 356 XXI. Notice of Plants observed in an Excursion made by Dr Grauam with part of his Botanical pupils, accompanied by a few Friends, in August last, 360 XXII. Description of a Species of Aira found on Loch-na- gar, in Aberdeenshire. By Mr W. Macer.ur- VRAY, - - - - . 363 XXIII. Description of several New or Rare Plants which have lately flowered in the neighbourhood of Edin- burgh, and chiefly in the Royal Botanic Garden. By Dr Grauam, Professor of Botany in the Uni- versity of Edinburgh, - - - 366 XXIV. Celestial Phenomena from October 1. 1830 to Ja- nuary 1. 1831, calculated for the Meridian of Edin- burgh, Mean ‘Time. By Mr Grorce Innes, Ase tronomical Calculator, Aberdeen, . = 371 CONTENTS. iii Art. XXV. Screnriric INTELLIGENCE, » 2 374 METEOROLOGY. 1. Thunder-Storm at Inchkeith. 2. On Sounds on the Peak of Teneriffe. 3. Magnetizing Power of the Solar Rays. 4. Radiation from Trees, ~ - - 374-376 GEOLOGY. 5. Eruptions of Water. 6. Eruptions of Gas. 7. Fossil Trees in an erect position. 8. Crustacites and Cidarites in Mountain Limestone. 9. Connexion of Diseases with the Rock Formations of a Country. 10. Coprolite found in the Tyrol. 11. Fossil Fox. 12. Fossil Floras. 13. Boué on the relative Age of the Secondary Deposites in the Alps and Carpathians. 14. Journal de Geologie, par MM. A. Boué, Jobert, et Rozet. 15. Flint in Scotland. 16. Blackpots Clay, near Banff, = - 376-382 . MINERALOGY. 17. Prunnerite. 18. Pinguite,’ - ~ - 382 f ZOOLOGY. 19. Motions in Water occasioned by the process of Respiration in Animals. 20. Migration of the Common Cockle (Car- dium edule) and Donax anatinum. 21. Nerita glaucina. 22. Proof that the Stomach is still the best Distinctive Character of Animals from Vegetables. 23. On the Power of Horses ; by B. Bevan, Esq. 24. Fertility of the Unio Pictorum. 25. Traditional Story regarding the last of the Wolves in Morayshire. 26. The Lacerta agi- lis ovo-viviparous in Scotland. 27. Phosphorescence of the Sea in the Gulf of St Lawrence, - 382-388 ANTHROPOLOGY. 28. The Norwegians. 29. Natives of New Guinea are Can- nibals, - - - - - 389-90 GEOGRAPHY. 30. M. Gerard’s Journey in the Himala Range, - 391 ARTS. 31. Enormous quantity of Iron manufactured, and of Coal con- sumed in Wales. 32. Importance of the Discovery'of the Curing of Herrings. 33. On the setting of Plaster; by M. Gay Lussac, - - - - 394, 395 iv CONTENTS. STATISTICS. 34. German Universities, - - “ - 396 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 1. Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumber- land, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Vol. I. Part I. 4to, pp. 130. With Eleven Plates, - - 396 . Principles of Geology ; being an Attempt to explain the for- mer Changes of the Earth’s Surface, in reference to Causes now in Operation. By Cuarites Lyexu, Esq. F.R.S., Foreign Secretary to the Geological Society of London, &c. Vol. I. pp. 511, = ~ _ = 399 3. The South African Quarterly Philosophical Journal. No. 1. from October 1829 to January 1830; and No. II. from bo January to April 1830. Cape Town, - . 400 4. Report of the Council of the Banff Institution for Science, Literature and the Arts, - - - 402 5. First Report of the Scarborough Philosophical Society, ib. 6. Transactions of the Plymouth Institution, - ~ ib 7. Zoologieal Researches. By Jonn V. Tuompson, Esq. F. L.S., &c. Surgeon to the Forces. No. III. =~ 403 Arr. XXVI. List of Patents granted in England, from 6th to 27th February 1830, - - ib. XXVII. List of Patents granted in Scotland from 21st July to Gth September 1630, - - 404 ; { i ) } wath a) 1 at - Leos non gt at ree ™, CURE RE NR — a ao a MD 1). 1 | J | HF 1 Ang uopyoiuy 2 1] 3 ae, S 4 q | 127) | purypsy que 5 & | PS | “ | - 4 ? # = aaysanagy fay Hoult Mm E 1 ite | < fe t ; inode Dy = unydoy sdog Gx : Ry | x | A iad | y | ; i auopspopa edo) € | | 2, g 5 | | 4 | | | punysy farming — ) <, >) ‘S) : | I Te > { J 1 | : = Saas | x | y % / = | aQNnOsS sxiva & iS y T is = = f s—s — 3 | . none a PUD PS] POL, mt: i] s M + > BS 8 | 5 N | % 2 \ / = | a % | S J ao : L | | i} > . 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Journal of a Voyage to Spitzbergen and the East Coast of Greenland, in His Majesty's Ship Griper. By Dovcras CuHartEs Cravenine, Esq. F.R.S., Commander. Commu- nicated by James Smiru, Esq. of Jordanhill, F.R.S.E.— With a Chart of the discoveries of Captains CLavERINe and Scoresby. Mx late lamented friend Captain Clavering, previous to his departure for the coast of Africa, drew up, at my request, a journal of his voyage, and left it with me, with permission to publish it in any manner I saw proper. I delayed doing so, in the hopes that, upon his:return, he might make it more fit for publication ; but that event was destined never to take place. He sailed from Sierra Leone in the summer of 1827,, and, it is conjectured, that, soon after, his ship was. lost, and all on board perished ; part of the wreck was found on the coast, but no other tidings were ever received of the unfortunate Redwing, or _ ~her gallant crew. In her commander, whose short but bright carreer-was thus premature y termmated, his country lost an officer who, by his zeal in the performance of his duty, and high professional acquirements, gave every promise of future eminence, and his friends one who was not less distinguished for his upright and honourable feelings, than for the most amiable and affectionate disposition. Douglas Charles Clavering, the eldest son of Brigadier-Ge- neral Henry Clayering and Lady Augusta Campbell, daughter of John, fifth Duke of Argyll, was born at Holyrood-House, 8th ‘September 1794. He entered the navy at an early age, and served APRIL—JUNE 1830. A Q Notice of Captain Clavering. as midshipman, under Sir Philip Broke, in the Shannon frigate, on the American station, In the brilliant action of that ship with the Chesapeake, he distinguished himself for his coolness and gallantry, and his name was honourably mentioned in the Gazette. He afterwards served as lieutenant in the Mediter- ranean in the Spey sloop-of-war, and, in 1821, was appointed commander of the Pheasant, then on the coast of Africa. On his passage to join his ship, he met with Captain Sabine of the Royal Artillery, who was proceedmg out to commence that re- markable series of observations on the length of the seconds pendulum, which extended from the equator to the most north- erly accessible station on the surface of the earth. He formed a friendship with that distinguished officer and man of science, which continued without interruption till his death ; and, at his request, the Pheasant was appointed to the service of ‘conveying him to the different stations. And such was the able and zealous manner in which Captain Clavering co-operated with him, that he was not only enabled to make the observations at every station in the most satisfactory manner, but without the slightest accident ever having taken place in moving the numerous and delicate instruments to and from the ship. The observations were made on this voyage at Sierra Leone, the Island of St Thomas, Ascension, Bahia, Maranham, Trinidad, Jamaica, and New York. In the course of the voy- age, Captain Clavering, in conjunction with Captain Sabine, executed a valuable and extensive series of observations on the direction and force of the equatorial current, which, following the course of the trade-winds, is deflected by the coast of Ame- rica to the northward, into the Gulf of Mexico, from which, passing between Cuba and Florida, it returns again into the At- Jantic, under the name of the Gulf Stream. The results of these experiments, illustrated by a chart, have been published by Captain Sabine in his Account of the Pen- dulum Observations. Much of the value of such observations must depend on the accuracy with which the ship’s reckoning is kept. Captain Clavering, by his judicious arrangements and personal superintendence, introduced such a degree of precision into the reckoning, that it became little inferior as an element in the deduction of currents, to the observed difference of latitude and te chronometrical difference of longitude. Masscy’s self- Notice of Captain Clavering. 3 registering log was used as a check upon the estimated reckon- ing, and proved the value and efficacy of the attention paid to the latter, by its being a rare circumstance to find a difference between them amounting to a mile in twenty-four hours. Upon the return of the Pheasant to Great Britain, the Board- of Longitude determined that Captain Sabine’s Observations on the Pendulum should be continued to the most northerly lati- tude to which it was possible to reach. For this purpose the Griper, which was one of the vessels that had been engaged in Captain Parry’s first expedition in 1819-20, was selected, and Captain Clavering appointed to the command.. It will be seen that he availed himself of every opportunity that presented itself for prosecuting discoveries, and enlarging the boundaries of geographical science. A considerable part of the east coast of Greenland explored by him, was seen in the preceding year by Captain Scoresby ; but, from his distance from the land, that able navigator had not the same means of laying it down correctly to the north of Cape Parry which he had to the south of that headland, when he was close in with the land. In the chart the discoveries of both navigators are laid down, and form an actual survey of the coast from Lat. 69° to Lat. 76°; for, although Captain Clavering did not reach far- ther north than Shannon Island, yet the positions of the bluff head lands to the north of Roseneath Inlet, and the islands named, from their appearance, Haystack and Ailsa, were determined by astronomical bearings from two hills, one on the outermost, and the other on the innermost, of the Pendulum Islands; and the distance between the two stations was ascertained by a trigono- metrical operation. Although the principal object of the woyage was to convey Captain Sabine to the different stations, Captain Clavering did not consider it necessary to give any of the results of his obser- vations in his account, as they were already published, and well known to the scientific world. I. Voyage from the Thames to Hammerfest in Norway. 1823, March 1.—This day I received my commission to command the Griper Sloop-of-war, then lying at Deptford, and AR a On the Local Attraction of the Griper. immediately commenced fitting her out for the intended voyage ; and, in consequence of her having been already strengthened for an Arctic voyage, little delay took place in the equipment. I had the vessel fitted with a patent capstan, which afterwards proved of essential service in warping amongst the ice. The Griper was originally a gun-brig of 180 tons ; but having been raised upon six feet, when the coals, water, and provisions were on board, the buttocks and the whole of the dead work were completely immersed in the water. Under these circum- stances, swiftness in sailing was not to be expected. To aid us in exploring the coasts of Greenland, I applied for a cutter to accompany us; but this the Lords of the Admiralty did not think fit to grant. We were ready for sea by the beginning of May, and on Sa- turday the 3d, cast off from the Hulk at Deptford. We tided it down to Galleor’s Reach, where we took on board our guns and powder. In the evening received Admiralty orders to pro- eced to the Nore. May 4.—On the following day weighed with the tide, and worked down, with a strong easterly wind, a few miles below Woolwich, where we anchored. Soon after, a collier came athwart our hawse, and I feared would have carried away our masts; we, however, cleared without any material damage. Monday, May 5.—The wind still easterly, weighed and worked down with the ebb as far as Gravesend. I found the ship to stay and work well. We anchored at the Nore on the 7th ; and, as this was a fair trial in smooth water, I considered her to stand tolerably well up under her canvass. 'The three following days were employed in repairing the damages we had sustained, and in preparing for sea. My attention was also directed to ascertain the local peenaesiia of the ship, by swinging her round to every point of the com- pass, and. taking the bearing of a distant object, and then ascer- taining the true variation of the place. The difference is the deviation caused by the attraction of the ship, which we found here to be 26° when the ship’s head was at right angles with the magnetic meridian, and diminishing till the line of the ship co- incided with it, when there was no deviation. ‘To correct this, Mr Barlow’s plate was applied, at such a distance behind the Admiralty Instructions. 5 compass as to compensate for the attraction of the ship. This was ascertained by taking the compass on shore, and placing the plate at such a distance as produced the same effect which the iron did on board. , At that distance it is then placed abaft the compass. With us it was placed with its centre 73 inches below the horizontal plane of the compass card, and 8} inches from the perpendicular line which passes through its point of support. Qur compass, with its plate affixed, is placed on a three-legged stand, so high that the distant bearings can be taken from it. This, ef course, the helmsman cannot see. We have therefore another, or steering compass; the courses are, however, to be registered from the one with the plate. It will be seen how completely successful this plan proved. It had not hitherto been tried in high latitudes, where, however, it is of most essential consequence. In these experiments I was principally assisted by Mr Henry Foster, one of my midshipmen, who had formerly made trials by Mr Barlow’s desire, but being in low latitudes the results were less remarkable. May 9.—This day I received my instructions, which were to the following effect :— ' You will put to sea withthe sloop you:command, and proceed to Nor- way, about the latitude of 70°, where-Captain Sabine will make observations upon the pendulum. Upon his having completed them at that station, you will make the best of your way along the west coast of Spitzbergen, and in the best part you can find, about the parallel of $0°, he will again make far- ther observations. He is to have every assistance afforded him that he can require, or you can give. Upon their being completed, you will proceed, if the ice will permit, to endeavour to make the eastern coast of Greenland, along which you will proceed northerly, as far as the season will allow, con- sistent with the safety of the vessel, in order'to afford Captain Sabine oppor- tunity of repeating his experiments on that coast in the highest latitude which can be safely reached; and, when the obstructions you may meet with from ice shall induce you to return, you are to make the best of your way to Deptford, and report your arrival to us. “ Although it is our intention and desire that you should return to Eng- © land at the close of this season, yet, a8 it is possible that unforeseen circum. stances may occasion your being caught in the ice, and unable te extricate yourself, we have thought it prudent to order the sloop you command to be fitted and stored in such a manner as will enable her to winter in those high latitudes, if you should find yourself obliged by the circumstances before al- luded to, todo so. In such an event you will choose the safest and most convenient port you can find, using every possible precaution for the preser. vation of the ship’s company from the effects of cold, and by proper exercise 6 Voyage along the Coast of Norway. and diet, and the use of the means with which you are furnished, prevent those diseases most prevalent in cold climates. “ Qn the supposition of your having wintered on the coast of Greenland, you are, in the succeeding summer, as soon as the navigation shall be open, to make the best of your way to England. If, however, on your return, either in the present or following year, Captain Sabine should be desirous of visit- ing Cape Farewell, or any other part of Iceland, for the sake of repeating his observations at either of those places, you are at liberty to do so.” We weighed anchor early in the morning of the 11th, and made sail, running through the King’s Channel, and proceeded without any material occurrence till Saturday 17th, when we descried the coast of Norway, distant about thirty or forty miles. From this time, till our arrival at Hammerfest, we had a good sight of the land, having ran along it for upwards of 300 miles. It is from 1500 to 2000 feet high, rismg abruptly from the sea. The mountains are caped with snow, without the least appear- ance of vegetation. The coast is indented with numerous fiords, or arms of the sea, that run forty or fifty miles inland, and, from the similarity of the head -points, are difficult to be made out, and easily mistaken by those who are not cautious and correct in their reckoning. It seems but little known to most navigators, and apprehended as dangerous ; but, although it is an iron-bound coast, without soundings, it lulls in-shore, and, even should the gale blow home, situations for shelter will generally be found among some of the numerous openings. Anchorage may not always be obtained, but, in general, will be found pointed out by that land which terminates in a level. Whatever dangers there may be on the coast, will, with a very few exceptions, show themselves, particularly in bad weather, when the sea breaks high. We had favourable winds as far as the Laffoden Islands, and I was in hopes of reaching Hammerfest by the 22d; but a suc- cession of calms and contrary winds lengthened our passage till the 2d June. By speaking with fishing-boats, we were enabled to grope our way along a coast so difficult to distinguish, and on the charts of which we could place no dependence. I was particularly unwilling to commit any error by running into a wrong inlet, as the Griper’s sailing would hardly have compen- sated for the time we must necessarily have lost. On the 18th, in taking azimuths, found a variation of 16° Arrival at Hammerfest. 7 between N.E. and N., which was attributed to the local attrac- tion of the ship, agreeing nearly with that found at the Nore. The true variation was considered to be 25° W. Till the 26th we had a succession of calms and light winds, which, though accompanied with delightful weather, was ex- tremely irksome, as we all anxiously looked forward to the more distant objects of the voyage, and considered we had but little time to spare. May 31.—A boat came alongside and informed us, as nearly as we could understand, that we were about fifty miles from Hammerfest. Bore up and made all sail along the land. Next day we hoisted out a boat, which was sent ashore for a pilot. In rounding the north end of the Island of Soroe, we experien- ced heavy squalls off the land, which reduced us to double- reefed topsails. On Monday the 2d June, entered Hammerfest harbour, and anchored in sixteen fathoms, clay bottom. No time was lost in disembarking the instruments, and erect- ing the observatory, tents, &c., the whole of which were found to answer exceedingly well, and Captain Sabine was ready to commence his observations the third day afterwards, had the weather continued clear. We saluted the fort with eleven guns, which were returned. The natives here are kind and hospitable, and pleased at the idea of a visit from even such a man-of-war as the Griper. The women are fair and pretty, and dress much like our own. Remote from the civilized world, they are untainted by either its vices or its wants. Morality and religion strictly predomi- nate, and deviations from either are rare. Mr Crowe, an Eng- lish merchant, who also acts as consul, resides here, and paid us much attention. By a vessel of his which had been at Cherry Island early in March, we learn that the sea was more than usually open, and clear from ice, which generally extends in a compact body from thence to Cape Look-Out. We may therefore expect an open season, and hope to reach Magdalene Bay without any obstruction. This place, built on a small island, named Qualoén or Whale Island, consists of about a dozen of houses. 'The bay is small, but the anchorage good and safe. There are no provisions to be got here, with the exception of reindeer, which were cheap, 8 Killing a Whale. and afforded a seasonable supply, as the parties which had been ‘sent out in search of game were by no means successful, killing but a few brace of grouse, and some wild ducks. The trade of the place’is entirely in fish and oil. ‘On the 14th “I dispatched the boats, with four days provisions, in search of whales, but a gale of wind coming on, with sleet, prevented ‘them from being successful. A short time before our arrival one was found stranded in a bay. When the tide left it, the fisher- men who found it immediately began to flench it, and had .ac- ‘tually cut a quantity of blubber off the back, when a person who resided near the spot, persuaded them it would be more profitable if it was towed into Hammerfest. ‘They accordingly fixed two grapnels through its nostrils, and a hawser round its tail, with which they hauled it off at high water, and made it fast to two-boats. It had not ‘been long in deep water before it began to evince evident signs of life, and soon after made a start off with the boats, which it dragged for twenty miles, al- though there was a smart breeze at the time, and the fisher- ‘men, in order to obstruct its progress, hoisted the sails, and Jaid them flat a-back to the mast. They were in the end com- pelled to cut the rope, being in danger of swamping, and thus lost the fish. They were so much enraged with the person who persuaded them to remove the whale, that they actually prose- cuted him for-the advice he had given them. Captain Sabine having finished his observations, I sent a party on shore, on Monday the 23d, to strike the tents and ob- servatory, and hoisted the launch in. The situation of the obser- vatory, Lat. 70° 40/0” N.; Long. 23° 45/ 45” E. Variation 11° 26 W. Dip 77° 40’. This day I swung the ship round the-points of the compass, to ascertain the amount of the local attraction, and noted the differences with a compass on the mast-head, as well as on the deck atthe standard compass. The amount of deviation, which was at the Nore 26°,.ishere 56°; whilst the variation of the place, as found by Captain Sabine, is only 11° 26°. During the whole of our run to this station, we had most-sa- tisfactory experience of the utility of Mr Barlow’s plate. “The course steered by it agreed very nearly with our astronomical observations ; whereas that deduced from the compass without Deviation of Compass cause of Loss of Ship. 9 the plate, gave us sometimes an error of thirty miles even in a short run. ‘Whe deviation of this ship is greater than any of* those in the former voyages. We attribute this to the patent capstan, which stands but eight feet from the compass, and has an iron spindle. We have also two chain-cables, and both of them present a surface that is perpendicular, which is consi- dered to have more effect than a horizontal one. I am convinced upon serious reflection, that the loss of ships, particularly in the North Seas, is more to be ascribed to the de- viation of the compass, than to currents, tides, or other unusual causes. All the Greenland traders acquire from experience the knowledge that the same course steered going out will not take them back again, and they therefore allow three-fourths, or a point more. How far Mr Barlow’s invention may come into general use, I am not prepared to say ; the utility of it on board this ship is incontestible, and must be proportionably so in all vessels having patent capstans, -iron-tanks, and chain-cables. Within the tropics its effects are not so perceptible ; but, in high latitudes, every man-of-war ought to be provided with one. Il. From Hammerfest to Spitsbergen. We left Hammerfest on the evening of the 23d June, and had scarcely cleared the land before a favourable gale sprung up, and carried us rapidly towards Spitzbergen. We fell in with the first ice on the 27th, when abreast of Cherry Island, in Lat. 75° 5’ N., being then scudding under a close-reefed main topsail and foresail; but as the sea was smooth, owing, I pre- sume, to a considerable body of ice lying to windward, I did ‘not hesitate in continuing to run. It was principally a loose open stream, extending for a distance of about sixty miles. We were obliged, although the gale still continued, to set the close-reefed fore topsail, the ship requiring more head-sail, that she might better answer the helm, it being necessary to keep her under full command, to steer clear of the ice. At this time the gale was at its height. This being the first introduction to the ice to most of us, the novelty of the scene rendered it intensely interesting. The ship received several se- ek Capture of Walruses. vere shocks ; but from the mode in which she was strengthened, “did not seem to feel them. On one occasion, from bad steer- age, we ran bump against the middle of a floe that completely stopped her way,, and almost threw us off our legs; even this did not seem to affect her, though we were careful not to repeat the experiment : by making all snug, and getting the top-gallant- masts on deck, she went boldly through it at her extreme rate of seven knots, with the wind a-beam. Notwithstanding the se- verity of the gale, with the thermometer at 32°, not the slightest inconvenience was felt, but rather a cheerful bracing effect, as the weather had become clear, with the sun shining brilliantly, such as we have in the clear frosty mornings of October ; splicing the main brace, and issuing the extra warm clothing, seemed to produce general good will and activity fore and aft. Had. the weather been favourable for such a purpose, it was my inten- | tion to have made Cherry Island, and laid down its true posi- tion, but I did not consider it a matter of sufficient consequence to risk any delay, especially as the wind was now so favourable for our ulterior destination. Towards the evening it became more moderate. At 7 P. mM. we saw Spitzbergen, N. E. per compass, distant 50 or 60 miles ; the land drift-ice completely surrounded the ship, but, by car- rying sail, an hour's forcing brought us into a clear sea. Our Greenland pilots considered it to be heavier, and ina greater quantity than usual in this latitude, and at this season. The following days the weather was moderate, and we met with no farther obstruction during our run along the coasts of Spitzbergen. On the 28th we hoisted out the jolly boat, to try if there was any current, but found none. Sounded in 65 fathoms, muddy bottom. On the 29th we passed many pieces of land-ice, upon one of which we observed several walrusses, about twenty in number, and dispatched a boat to endeavour to capture some of them. They allowed the boat to approach quite close to them, only a few jumping into the water. The rocket-gun was fired, but missed. ‘They were then attacked with rifles, apparently with more effect, as appeared from the blood flowing copiously from their wounds, and a harpoon was struck into one of them, which held but a few seconds. They were pursued for some dis- ee Disembark on Spitzbergen. 1] tance, but being unaccustomed to behold these huge animals plunging around us, we were all more intent upon preparations to repel their attacks, than to think of reloading, and they finally escaped. We were more fortunate in the afternoon, and captured one. The animal, after it was harpooned, attacked the boat, and once struck its tusks so hard, as to start two of the planks ; the others tamely looked on while their comrade was killed. “On other occasions, when, from experience, we learnt not to dread them, no accident occurred, and I consider that the cir- cumstance of several uniting in attacking a boat is rare. They are extremely slow and unweildy in their actions, and may be _ easily boomed off with a boat-hook, when presence of mind is retained. Should they, however, succeed in getting their tusks over the gunnel of the boat, it must be capsized, as the weight of the crew on the opposite side would not be sufficient to re- tain the balance. 30th.—Moderate breezes, with a thick fog, through which we had occasional glimpses of the land. At 9, saw the North Fore- land, distant four or five miles. We kept running along shore at the distance of about five miles. ‘The land high, rugged and barren; the tops and valleys were covered and filled with snow. At 6 p.m. we braced up, rounding Hackluyt’s Head, until which period we did not discover that we had passed Magda- iene Bay, which we intended to have made the station for Cap- tain Sabine’s observations. I again made sail, with the inten- tion of anchoring between Vogel Sang and Cloven Cliff. At 8 the fog totally dispersed, and the sea, from the mast-head, perfectly clear of ice, from west northerly to north-east, and only loose land-ice in the eastern quarter, all of which appeared penetrable. I sent two boats to examine: the islands, as well as to select the best station for the observatory. Anchored at midnight in 17 fathoms. The following morn- ing weighed and towed the ship, about 23 miles farther in, and brought up in 7 fathoms, a-breast of a small island, one of the Inner Norways, the same upon which Captain Phipps made his observations in 1773, and steadied the vessel, with a warp to the shore. We immediately proceeded to disembark the tents and ipstruments, and sent parties on shore to erect them. Two 12 Leave Spitzbergen for the North. reindeer and a walrus were killed on the Island of Vogel Sang. ‘The weather was calm, and the air mild and agreeable. Temperature 45°. On the 2d June, the parties on shore were employed in erecting the tents and observatory, and also two huts, for the greater convenience of the party I proposed to leave behind, to assist Captain Sabine during my absence,—having determined to employ the time requisite for completing the pendulum obser- vations in endeavouring to push as far as I could towards the north. The favourable circumstances of our passage hither, and the open appearance of the ice, gave me flattering hopes of advancing as far as any former navigator. On the two following days we were engaged in the necessary preparations for the party which was to remain behind. Our sportsmen were successful in procuring game. Much loose ice about the ship, which was occasionally so completely blocked up as to prevent communication with the shore, and one of the whale-boats, was severely crushed by its suddenly setting in upon the ship. ‘ I left a party of six men to assist Captain Sabine, under the command of Mr Foster, with Mr Rowland, assistant-surgeon, with our largest boat (the launch), which could have carried them to Hammerfest had any accident happened to the ship, and six months’ provisions and fuel. Mr, Foster was instructed, in the event of the ship’s not returning by the 20th, to prepare for sea, but not to quit the present station before the 15th of August, after which he was at liberty to act as might seem best for the safety of his party. III. Unsuccessful attempt to reach from Spitzbergen a high Northern Latitude. Every thing being ready by the evening of the 4th June, I sailed with a favourable breeze next morning. No ice was in sight from the mast-head. At 1 p. m. sounded in 16 fathoms, sand and shells, passing two small rocks even with the water’s edge, the sea breaking over them. ‘They bore from Cloven Cliffs per compass N. E. by E. 3 E. 4 miles. About 3 p. m. it became hazy, and we lost sight of the land. A thick fog came on Attempt to reach a High Latitude. 13 when we had just cleared the islands ; and when we had run due north 25 miles from Cloven Cliff, and were in the act of heay- ing the ship to, we found ourselves suddenly embayed amongst the ice, and, before we could wear, the ship struck: failing in backing her out, and the ice beginning to beat against the rud- der, we forced her about two cables’ length farther in, where she lay quiet from the influence of the swell for 24 hours. We attempted imeffectually to warp the head round to seaward. In the evening, however, we succeeded, and were ready to take advantage of the first opening. Sounded in 115 fathoms, fine sand. On the 6th, after a light air from the N. W., the fog dis- persed, and presented to our view packed ice, extending nearly east and west as far as the eye could reach, bemg apparently driven upon the main body by the late southerly gales. We observed this day in 80° 20' N., which proved to be our highest | latitude. A shift of the wind from the eastward enabled us to warp out, and we made all sail, ranging along the ice in a westerly direction. We skirted the margin in a line nearly east and west, for about 60 miles, but did not proceed farther to the west, as the ice began to trend towards the south. During this run, the ice was everywhere closely packed and cemented,, with- out any appearance of an opening, and no signs of clear water beyond it from the mast-head. I have no doubt but northerly winds would have dispersed it, and, had the nature of the ser- vice admitted of a delay, no doubt but I would have reached as far as Captain Phipps or Captain Buchan. Had I reached the main body of ice, it was my intention to have attempted to proceed a degree or two nearer the pole, having, for this pur- pose, been provided with a light Portsmouth wherry, which could have been dragged over the ice. On the morning of the 8th, finding we were led so much to the southward without any prospect of getting to the northward, we tacked and stood off to the east. Next day we again found the ice to trend to the S. E., and finally joing the land without any appearance of an opening. \ We fell in with the land 15 miles E. N. E. of Fair Haven, for which we made sail. On the night of the 10th, we passed close to some small rocks lying off the outer Norway, and bearing from Cloven Cliff E. N, E. from ” 14 _. Forced back to Spitsbergen. 3 to 4.miles; they are quite bold. The shoalest water we had was 7 fathoms, at the distance of 50 yards. They would be dangerous to strangers, as they would hardly be looked for at that distance from land ; and without a good look-out they are not to be seen till close upon them. 11th.—We reached our former anchorage early this morning, and found our party well, and in good spirits. The remainder of our stay in Spitzbergen was employed in overhauling the ship’s rigging, and preparing for the further prosecution of our voyage. Our surveys of Fair Haven and the adjoining islands corroborated that of Captain Beechey, which was found, in every instance, to be remarkably correct ; but we found them rhuch at variance with that of Captain Phipps. Captain Sabine, besides completing the observations on the pen- dulum, measured the height of the nearest accessible hill, both barometrically and trigonometrically, the results agreeing with. in two feet. During our stay our sportsmen were very successful, and we killed nearly fifty reindeer, which gave us an ample supply of fresh provisions. Fair Haven has been so often visited and described as to render any remarks of mine unnecessary. IV. From Spitzbergen to the East Coast of Old Greenland— Exploration from Cape Parry to Rosneath Inlet-—Meet- ing with the Natives—Account of them—Finally quit the Coast and return to England. The observations * having been completed, every thing was re-embarked on the 22d June. _ Wednesday 23d.—Although a considerable fall in the baro- meter indicated an approaching gale, upon opening the point of Hackluyts Head we experienced some heavy squalls, with a head sea; and finding we could not beat up to Smeeren- berg, bore up for our former anchorage, where we remained till the 24th, when we again sailed with favourable weather, passing through Smeerenberg Sound. We sounded occasion- ally with the hand-lead, in the middle of the channel; no bot- tom. At a mile distant from the west shore, we had from 5 to 20 fathoms; at six rounded the §.E. point of Danes * Latitude of Observatory 79° 49’ 58” N. Longitude 11° 40’ 30” E. | 2 Leave Spitzbergen for Old Greenland. 15 Island in 5 fathoms, a shoal extending nearly half a-mile off the point. The leading mark for hauling round the Danes’ Island is a small rock off Bluff-pomt, on with the middle of two others to the S.W. of Wolf Island. This clears the shoal off the point. At this time, though almost calm, the tide set up about 13 knots through the channel. We passed through the south gut, which is a passage ths of a mile broad. When passing Wolf Island, the soundings were ‘various, being from 5 to 6 fathoms in the middle, and deeper on the sides. Very irregular, being from 3 to 30 fathoms; it is however, a good and safe channel, and no dangers but what the lead and eye may discern. It being now our object to reach the coast of Greenland as expeditiously as possible, I resolved to steer a course that would take me clear of the ice, although, had I not been restricted in time, and by the heavy sailing of the ship, I should have deemed it desirable to have examined the margin of the main body of the ice to the S.W. Being, however, determined not to be detained by any researches however interesting, I made a S. W. by S. course (true) from Hackluyts Head. A Dutch chart, published at Amsterdam in 1664, placed Gael Hamke’s Bay in Latitude 74°. This I considered the best authority, for Greenland being known so far to the north, and accordingly I made for that part of the coast. We proceeded on our voyage with favourable winds, the weather moderate, but foggy. When it cleared away, we fre- quently saw the ice, and on the 29th passed much heavy ice which obliged us to luff and bear away; occasionally in the evening, a heavy swell from the S. E. often caused it to close the passages that but .a few minutes before presented themselves as easy for the ship to pass through. We were obliged to tack and trace our way back for above a mile, when we hauled round a floe and stood to the S. E., which brought us, after some trov- ble, into a clear sea, when we found a heavy cross swell, as if it had recently been blowing a gale. The weather, however, con- tinued to favour us. On the 2d July, upon the fog partially clearing, and the ice appearing to run into a deep bight to the westward, in the Latitude of '75° 10’, we hauled up with ‘the in- tention to penetrate through the barrier, and endeavour to make 16 Reach the Coast of Greenland. the coast of Greenland. We now pushed due west, and soon found ourselves hampered amongst immense fields of ice. On the 3d, the light winds and fog continued, we found ourselves frequently in very narrow channels; and not being able to see our way we received some shocks, though not of great import- ance. The water being smooth, and the ship having but little way upon her, my anxiety to get forward made me continue to advance, when perhaps it would have been better to have made fast to a floe. l In the afternoon the sum began to appear, and the fog dis- persed. We found ourselves close to an extensive field of ice, the termination of which we could not discover. Hauled up to the S.W. and §. The winds continuing light and favourable, set the studding-sails, and, by tying the tacks along the yards, were able to brace all round together when necessary, to alter our course for the ice. From the appearance of the sky, we concluded there was clear water beyond it to the westward. On the 4th the weather was clear and favourable. Continued’ to advance along the edge of the ice, the termination of whicly we could not yet observe. Beyond it we discovered land N.W. by W. Estimated distance 50 miles. At noon hove-to, and sent a boat to a piece of ice to observe the latitude, which was found to be '74° 4 4'7”. At one, our course was impeded by a narrow channel; shortened sail and warped through it, and again made sail in the evening: it was foggy ; but having observed the chan- nel to lead in with the land, before it came on, we continued our way close along the edges of the fields of ice, making or short- ening sail when necessary. Tuesday 5th.—Impeded by the ice we shortened sail and cut our way into a narrow channel, when we made sail, but were again interrupted,—clewed up and furled with the yards at the mast-head, and were employed several hours in warping, track- ing, and towing, the ice being close and heavy, with a few pools of water apparently leading in with the land, which appeared to be about 7 or 8 leagues distant. Latitude observed, 74° #. The three following days we were engaged in the same manner, foreing our way through the barrier from one lead to another; fre- quently stopped altogether for several hours at a time. During these four days we were engaged passing the barrier of ice, our 3 ee Appearance of the Coast of Greenland. 17 patent capstan proved of signal service, heaving aside floes of ice which astonished every person on board, although we rarely put our whole strength to it, as we were sure to break any hau- ser we had on board, the largest being 7 inches. We gained the shore on the 8th: we found a channel of several miles in breadth within the barrier; there was much loose ice, but nothing to prevent navigation; sounded in 51 fathoms, brown sand. I went ashore at night to examine the land. Never was a more de- solate spot seen ; in many places not a vestige of vegetation ; the land high, from 2000 to 3000 feet, near the coast; in the inte- rior much higher. There was not so much snow as at Spitz- bergen, nor did the mountains present the same angular and broken appearance, being rounder and flatter on the summits ; but no reindeer, no birds, or whales—indeed we had not seen a whale since we left Hammerfest. Spitzbergen was, on the whole, a paradise to this place. The point on which we landed was named Cape Borlase Warren. The shore appeared bold and safe ; some remains of the huts of the natives were found, and signs were observed of their having been recently in the neighbourhood. We returned to the ship early next morning. Soundings 11, 13, and 14 fathoms, sandy bottom, about 24 miles off shore ; the land too much obscured by the fog to admit of bearings being taken. It being nearly calm the ship drifted tothe N. E. We observed, on landing, that the tide was go- ing to the N.E.; and during the time we were ashore it had fallen '7 inches. About noon, made fast to a floe a-ground, the tide seeming to drift the ship in a contrary direction. _When the tide turned, cast off and sent a boat a-head to tow. As the whalers have dwelt much ona strong current invariably setting to the southward on the east coast of Greenland, I shall merely observe, that, with the exception of one day, in which the difference of latitude was 18 miles more than the reckoning gaye us, we never had reason to think there was any strong current, and certainly none in-shore. .The tides, too, were scarcely perceptible, the rise and fall not exceeding 8 feet. The coast here trending to the N. E.,. we coasted along shore in that direction, working to windward amongst floes of ice. On the 10th, we discovered two islands which we afterwards APRIL—JUNE 1830. B 18 Land on Shannon ILsland. named Pendulum Islands, having been the station on which the observations were made. -11th.—Strong breezes from the N. N. E.; the sky being per- fectly clear we had a good view of the land; the interior at a considerable distance, very high. The nearest land seemed to consist: of a'group of islands with deep bays, between which there. was no passage from the ice. At 10 «a.m. shortened sail and made fast to an iceberg a-ground in 7 fathoms, off shore about half a-mile. Senta boat on shore to make observations and to examine the state of ice round a point of land. Latitude observed ‘74° 55° N. We again made sail in the afternoon, and proceeded to the northward with a fair wind; we were, however, impeded again by greater ‘quantities round the ship than usual, the passage near the land becoming much confined. At 11 p,M. we shortened sail, and made fast to the level ice, the pas- sage being completely obstructed, with no appearance of water to the northward or N. E. I sent a party on shore to ascend the hills, and: to examine the state of the ice. '12th.—Next morning, the ice begining to set in upon the ship, we cast off and made sail to the southward ; at six hove-to and sent a boat for the party on shore, and fired a gun as a signal ; at eight the boat returned, and reported that the ice to the north formed a solid and compact field, with no open water except by the way we came. However anxious I felt to explore the coast farther to the north, my instructions imperatively required me to land Captain Sabine for his observations. I therefore reluc- tantly bore up for a secure anchorage, which was not afforded in our present situation. We had now reached what I considered the N. E. point of Greenland, which is formed by an island in Latitude 75° 12’ N., and Longitude 17° 45’ E. We ascended the heights on shore, from which we plainly saw very high land due north, at least as far as 76°. The island we were on being low and lying off the main 30 or 40 miles, I named Shannon Island, and: the cape at its S. E. extremity Cape Philip Broke, from the ship it was formerly my good fortune to serve on board, and her gallant commander. Two remarkable rocks or islands were named, from their resemblance, the Haystack and Ailsa, and an inlet within them Roseneath Inlet. An extensive opening which bore due west from Shannon Island was named Ardencaple In- Land on Pendulum Island. 19 let, from the residence of my friend and relative Lord John Campbell. Having hoisted the boat on board, we made all sail to the S.W. In the afternoon the wind increased, with heavy squalls off the land, and the ship was reduced to close-reefed top- sails; hauled to the wind on the starboard tack, the ice having changed its former position ; set the mainsail to prepare to’ wea- ther a floe of ice. At four we ran through a narrow passage be- tween the land and ice, in one place forming scarcely more than a ship’s breadth off shore; we sounded a quarter less 4. At five sent a boat to sound, and stood off and on till her return. We anchored in 33 fathoms a quarter of mile from thie shore, between two islands. 13th.—Strong gales, with heavy squalls off the land ; the ship drove, but raraieiit up by letting go the small bower. Upon the gale moderating, hove in the starboard cable, and found the best bower gone by the ring. I dispatched a party on ‘shore to take distant bearings from the hills, and a boat to sound for a secure berth for the ship. In the afternoon we weighed, but the ship almost immediately grounded in 24 fathoms; and be- fore the stream-anchor could be laid out to heave her off, the tide fell so much as to give a considerable heel to port. We landed several articles to lighten her ; the night was fortunately calm ; we laid out another warp to heave her off at high water. 14th.—We hove the ship off next morning, and towed her about a mile farther up the bay, where she was safely moored, We proceeded immediately to land the observatory and tents, and parties were employed on shore setting them up. 15th.—Next day was employed in landing the instruments, and in preparing the yaw] and wherry for a distant excursion, to examine the coast whilst Captain Sabine was engaged in his observations. ~ 16th.—I left the ship at noon, with two boats, provisioned for three weeks. Our party consisted of three of my officers and sixteen men. The weather being calm, we pulled along shore till 8 pv. m., much impeded by the bay-ice, the sure companion of a calm in these latitudes. Having come a distance of eighteen miles, we landed at Cape Borlase Warren, which forms the northern entrance of a large bay, where we pitched our tents for the night. With a stove in each of theni, and wrapped up : BR 20 Find Traces of the Natives. in our boat-cloaks and a blanket, we lay down to sleep in our clothes, and found no inconvenience from the cold. ‘The exter- nal temperature was 28° Fahrenheit. The same method was adopted for twelve nights, and we never found ourselves the least incommoded by the cold. ‘The average temperature was 37°, the extremes 53° and 23°. At this station, which was named Cape Borlase Warren, we found traces of the natives, and also several graves, and hoards of blubber, which are piled up all along the shores, and are marked by heaps of stones being placed over them, and which also keep the birds of prey from devouring them. Their graves did not remain free from our curiosity ; we opened some of them, but nothing but a few mouldering bones was discovered. August 1'7.—Next morning, after taking the necessary angles and making observations for our survey, we embarked at 9 in the morning, and proceeded westerly along the shores of the bay, still pulling. In the afternoon a fresh wind sprung up off the land, and the wherry coming in contact with some hard bay-ice, had her bows cut through, and the water rushed in so fast, that we had much difficulty in preventing our provisions from being spoiled. After an hour’s constant bailing, we reached the first headland, where we hauled the boat on shore to repair, having made a distance this day of sixteen miles. On examining the boat’s bows, both were found to be much cut by yesterday’s expedition. We took out the old planks and replaced them by others, doubling them, which we found to be the most effectual security against farther accidents. We found here more recent traces of the natives, so that we began to look anxiously for them ; it rained and blew hard during the night, but as our tents were under the lee of some high rocks, we remained both dry and warm. 18th.—In the morning several whales were seen for the first time *. The weather moderating in the afternoon, we continued our voyage, still coasting along the shores of the bay, which will be better understood by reference to the chart. We reached * I cannot but consider our having seen so fewas somewhat remarkable. From the appearance of the sea and ice, the Greenland Pilots thought we were upon good ground, and were continually expressing their astonishment at the absence of these animals. 4 Meet with the Natives. , oF our third station at 11 p. m., a distance of seventeen miles, which was also found a convenient spot for encampment. On the yawl’s coming up, which had been left much behind, I was informed the natives had been seen about a mile from our present situation. I immediately proceeded to the spot, and found a small tent, made up of seal-skin, pitched upon the beach, within a few yards of the high water. There was nobody in it ; the inhabitants, having become alarmed on seeing us, had re- treated to some high rocks at a short distance. We observed two of them watching our motions. Accompanied by one of my officers, I advanced towards them, making such signs of goodwill and friendship as occurred to us. They allowed us to approach the base of the rocks, which were about fifteen feet high. We deposited a looking-glass and pair of worsted mit- tens, and retired a few steps, upon which they immediately came down and took them up, withdrawing immediately to the top of the rock. After allowing them a few minutes to examine them, we again approached, when they permitted us to come close to them and shake hands,—a ceremony they by no means seemed to comprehend, trembling violently the whole time, in spite of our best endeavours to inspire them with confidence. We now led them to their tent, which we examined more minutely, and which we gave them to understand we greatly admired. The tent was small, occupying a space about twelve feet in circumference, and about five in the highest point in the middle ; the frame-work was composed of wood and whalebone ; the for- mer they must have picked up along the shore. There was a small canoe, capable of containing but one per- son at a time, which was also of seal-skin, and in no respect dif- ferent from those described by Crantz or Egedé.. Their har- poons and spear, were lying at the side of it ; the handles were of wood, the points tipped with bone, and some of them with iron, which had all the appearance of being of meteoric origin. We now shewed them our boat, which they were unwilling to get into from fear. Leaving them for the pyerents we returned to our tents for the night. 19th.—-Next morning we were very anxious to renew our in- tercourse with our Esquimaux friends, and were happy to find that we had been successful in inspiring them with confidence. In 22 Bay of Gael Hamkes. the.course of the day, men, women, and children found their way to our tent. They brought with them large pieces of blubber, being the flesh of the seal and the walrus, which they offered for our acceptance, tearing off large pieces with their hands and teeth in the most disgusting manner. We gave them in return biscuit and salt meat: the latter they immediately spat out. They were much surprised at my ordering one of the children to be washed, for they were so stained with dirt and oil, it was impossible, without this proceeding, to know what was their real colour, which now exhibited a tawny coppery appearance. They had black hair and round visages; their hands and feet very fleshy, and much swelled. The expression of their coun- tenances was extremely stupid and unmeaning ; but this was in all probability much increased by their astonishment at every thing they saw. They were clothed in seal-skin, with the hair inwards. ‘ Knowing that we should again meet them on our return, and being desirous not to lose farther time, which, from the lateness of the season, was now becoming valuable, we left them about 4in the afternoon. We were at this time considerably advanced up the extensive bay or inlet, which, as it agrees exactly in lati- tude with that laid down in the contemporary chart, formerly méntioned, I am convinced is the same which was discovered by Gael Hamkes in 1654 *. At this point it opened into an ex- tensive basin, the circumference of which could not be less than fifty miles. Into this basin we now entered, and found it per- fectly free of ice; not a piece of it could be seen in this immense sheet of water. We pulled along the northern shore for a dis- tance of twenty miles, and pitched our tents at night on a low sandy beach, being the worst station we had yet occupied. * Note by the Editor.—The Dutch chart referred to isin my possession, and is entitled “De Custen van Noorwegen, Finmarken, Laplandit, Spitzber- gen, Jan Mayen, Englandt, Ysland, als mede Hitland,” engraved at Am- sterdam by Peter Goos, 1666, being only twelve years subsequent to the voyage of Gael Hamkes, and forms an inlet corresponding so well hoth in latitude and in the general trending of the coast, from Cape Broer Ruys to Cape Desbrowe, that there can be no doubt of its being the same with that explored by Captain Clavering. The entrance of this inlet was seen the pre- ceding summer by Captain Scoresby, and by him named Scott’s Inlet; and Gael Hamkes’s Inlet, laid down in Latitude 75°, to which it had been shifted by the caprice of modern chart makers. ° so Keli eee ee as Jordanhill island. 23 August 20.—Next morning I walked about six miles up an inlet trending to the E.N.E., which I have little doubt leads again into the opening between Cape Borlase Warren and Cape Mary, making the land. We were now upon an island, as will be best seen from the chart. Our time not permitting us to explore every opening, we again started in the afternoon, and pulled for a high rocky island, about eight miles distant. The mountains here were of great height, ending in immense glaciers on both sides. I determined to ascend the highest of them, hoping to have an extensive view of the different openings and arms of the sea that surrounded us on all sides. I accordingly started next morning, and reached to the height of 4500 feet by baro- metrical measurement, but was at least 500 feet from the top of the mountain. Several openings were observed to the west, and one of greater extent to the south, which I determined to explore. I returned to the tents, after a fatiguing walk of six- teen hours. Some foxes and white hares were seen, and two of the latter shot; imnumerable traces of grouse were seen, but only one bird, which was perfectly grey. I named this island Jordanhill, after the residence of my friend James Smith, Esq., and named the capes, which form the southern and northern extremities of this extensive bay, Cape James and Cape Mary, in honour of the same gentleman and his lady. August 21.—We now pushed for the Fiord or opening to the south, which I expected would lead us again to the coast. After pulling a distance of sixteen miles, we encamped at our sixth station. 'The inlet was from a quarter of a mile to a mile and a half in breadth, but of a sufficient depth of water for a vessel drawing 14 feet ; the sides were more level than the shores we had hitherto passed—the mountains not rising so abruptly from the sea, and the face of the country presenting a less bar- ren and heath-like appearance. We shot some swans, which we found excellent eating. August 22.—Proceeded up the inlet, the head of which we soon reached: it terminated in low marshy land, about eigh- teen miles from its entrance from the bay; named it Loch Fine. Up to this period, with the exception of the gale on the night of the 17th, we had had a constant calm, accompanied with the Q4 Account of the Esquimaue. most beautiful and serene weather, so that the whole distance we had hitherto come, we had always occasion to make use of _our oars. After refreshing ourselves at our seventh station, we started on our return, with a fine breeze from the southward, and made such progress, that we were enabled to reach our -Esquimaux friends the same evening, although it had again fallen calm, and we were obliged to ply our oars for the last seven miles. August 23. and 24.—These two days were eel with the natives, whom we found to consist of twelve in number, includ- ing women and children. We were well received by them, but our attempts at making ourselves understood were very unsuc- cessful. They are evidently the same race as the Esquimaux in the other parts of Greenland and the northern parts of Ame- rica. Our intercourse was of too short duration to acquire any of their language ; but the descriptions given by Captains Parry and Lyons of the natives at Igluleik, in many particulars re- sembled those of our friends. I observed particularly the same superstitious ceremony of sprinkling water over a seal or walrus before they commence skinning it. Their amazement at seeing one of the seamen shoot a seal was quite unbounded. They heard for the first time the report of a musket, and turning round in the direction in which the animal was killed, and floating on the water, one of them was desired to go in his canoe and fetch it, Before landing it he turned it round and round, till he observed where the ball had penetrated, and, putting his finger into the hole, set up a mest extraordinary shout of astonishment, dancing and capering in the most absurd manner. He was afterwards desired to skin it, which he did expeditiously and well. Wishing to give them farther proofs of our skill in shooting, several muskets were fired at. a mark, but without permitting them to sce us load. A pistol was afterwards put into their hands, and one of them fired into the water ; the recoil startled him so much, that he immediately slunk away into his tent. The following morning we found. they had all left us, leaving their tents and every thing behind, which I have no doubt was occasioned by their alarm at the firing. August 26.—We now pursued our way towards the ship, Re-embark from Pendulum Island. 25 and took up our 9th station at Cape Mary, near the same spot which we had occupied on the 17th, after a most fatiguing row, our progress having been much impeded by the bay ice. Some whales were again seen this day. August 27.—Made for an inlet leading to the WNW. into which we entered, and after pulling fifteen miles encamped at our 10th station. I walked a few miles farther, where it turned to the westward, and I have little doubt but that it joins the inlet formerly mentioned as leading from the basin up Gael Hamkes’s bay. As the ascertaining of this point could lead to no important result, and as the short period of an Arctic sum- mer was fast elapsing, I reluctantly gave up any farther exami- nation of it, though I may truly say that there was none of the party that was the least tired of the expedition ; on the contrary, the whole party were as fresh, and in as good spirits, as the first * . day they started. A large bear was seen at a distance upon a hill which we all eagerly pursued ; the animal, however, as soon as he saw us, set off at a gallop much exceeding our ideas of his speed, having imagined these animals to be slow and un- weildy ; this was the first bear we had seen. August 28.—Made a distance of seventeen miles, and en- ole at the same place we had halted the first night. August 29.—After a fatiguing pull of eighteen miles, our progress being much impeded by bay ice, we reached the ship, after an absence of thirteen days. We were happy to rejoin our friends whom we found all well. The fine weather had been favourable for Captain Sabine’s observations, which were about completed. August 30.—The observations were this day concluded, and we lost no time in re-embarking the tents and instruments. La- titude of the Observatory on Pendulum Island, 74° 32’ 19” N Longitude 18° 50’ 00” W. Sunday, August 31.—After performing divine service, we got under weigh: the light winds still continuing, worked out of the harbour, which we named Griper Roads after the ship ; and the group of islands on which the observations were made, received the name of the Pendulum Islands. A bold headland, rising almost perpendicularly from the sea to the height of 3000 fect, marks the outermost of the Pendulum Island’. This cape 26 Pass Hudson's ‘* Hold with Hope.” it was my wish to have named after my friend Captain Sabine, but on his particular request it was named Cape Desbrowe in honour of the late Edward Desbrowe, Esq. M.P. We pro- ceeded along the coast to the SW., occasionally making fast to the land ice. The calms and light winds continued for several days. Had there been a fresh wind it was my intention to have run again to the northward, and endeavoured to have got sixty ora hundred miles farther if the ice would have permitted. This I have reason to think would have been the case, because in our absence the sea towards the north had.been observed from the hills to be quite clear of ice as far as the eye could reach, close in with the main, though the channel towards it was still obstructed. I have no doubt, however, but the heavy equinoctial gales we soon after experienced would have broken up the barrier, and I think that as long as there is a continuance of land, perseverance will get along it, but the land must be kept on board. We could not ave made the attempt without wintering, and however pleased I would have been to have done so, I saw no adequate motive to bear me out in breaking the tenor of my instructions. It was now the 4th of September, and the reappearance of the stars warned us how rapidly the days shortened at this season. A breeze springing up from the north we pursued our course slowly to the southward, working our way amongst a quantity of loose ice. At noon this day the ‘boat was sent on shore to ob- serve the latitude on a small island lying off Cape James, and which was found to be in 73° 56. September 5.—The light winds and favourable orchids still continued ; the land high and much distorted by refraction ; that part of the coast lying between Cape James and Cape Broer Ruys I consider the most northerly seen by Hudson, and named by him “ Hold-with-Hope *.” , * That Hudson gave this quaint name to the most northerly of his disco- veries there can be no doubt. I apprehend, however, that it would more pro- perly have been given to the land running west of Cape Broer Ruys, and forming the north side of Foster’s Bay, than to that assigned to it by Cap- tain Clavering. Hudson was evidently in Foster’s Bay when he discovered it, and he thus describes his situation,—“ The two-and-twentieth in the morning it cleared up, being calm about two or three of the clocke, after we had a prettie gale, and we steered away E, and by N. three leagues, our Work Up towards Cape Parry. Qn September 6.—Light airs still continued with clear weather. Advancing slowly to the south, I landed in the morning with Captain Sabine, at a headland which we considered to be the Cape Broer Ruys of the old charts. We ascended the moun- tain, which we ascertained by barometrical measurement to be nearly 3000 feet high. Having observed for the latitude we returned on board. September ,—Still calm, we stood into a large bay to the south of Cape Broer Ruys, which, in compliment to Mr Henry Foster, I named Foster’s Bay ; at the bottom of it several inlets or fiords were observed. Passed within an island which answers to the situation of the Bontekoe Island of the Dutch charts. We passed several icebergs fifty or sixty feet in height. | September 8.—Kept running along the edge of the laind-ice, which extended from the shore five or six miles; at noon sent a boat to observe for the latitude on the ice, and to take bearings of the land. Latitude observed 72° 31’ N. In the afternoon we kept working up towards Cape Parry, discovered by Mr Scoresby last summer, in a narrow line of water, the floes being much closer than usual. At seven, when between two floes which were about 100 yards asunder, they suddenly closed together before the ship could ‘be backed out; she was pressed by the tongues that projected underneath from each, and lifted abaft considerably out of the water. Her weight immediately broke the tongues with an immense crash, we then backed her out, and made her fast to the land-ice for the night. The fine weather observation was in 72 degrees 38 minutes, and changing our course, the wind at SE. a prettie gale. ‘This morning, when it cleared up, we saw land trend- ing neere hand ENE. and WNW. esteeming ourselves from it twelve leagues: it was a mayne high land, nothing at all covered with snow, and the north part of that mayne high land was very high mountains, but we could see no snow upon them. We accounted by our observation the part of the mayne land lay neerest hand in 73 degrees. - * ® " Sd « On the one-and-twentieth day in the morning while we steered our course NNE. we thought we had embayed ourselves, finding land upon our larboard and ice upon it, and many great pieces of drift-ice. We steered away NE. with diligent look out every cleare day for land, having a desire to know whether it would leave us to the east, both to know the breadth of the sea and also to shape a more northerly course. And considering we knew no name given to this land, we thought good to name it Hold-with-Hope, lying in 73 degrees of latitude.”—EpsT or. 28 Finally quit the Coast of Greenland continued till the 13th; constantly engaged through the day in warping and heaving through the ice which seemed to hang about Cape Parry, and forced us off the land. We now finally quit- ted the coast of Greenland. The whole line along which we had sailed is high, averaging from 2000 to 3000 feet, with mountains in the interior of perhaps double that height. The soundings partook of the character of the land, being deep close - to, excepting when it slopes gradually towards the sea. It may almost be said there are no dangers whatever in the whole ex- tent of our survey. It was now dark at night, for about eight hours, during which time we always made fast to a floe. On the 12th we observed three bears, an old one and two cubs, on a floe of ice; two of them we shot and captured the third alive, being taken whilst swimming in the water, which he jumped into on the death of his comrades. This animal lived till after our arrival at Drontheim, when, in endeavouring to remove him from the long boat where he had got loose, he was unfortunately strangled. He was an amazingly strong and powerful animal, and, without being well secured, there was no possibility of ap- proaching him. September 13.—The weather which had been so fine during the whole period of our stay upon this coast now broke, and we had this day a strong gale from the NNE. The weather being very thick with sleet, we secured the ship toa piece of ice, along with which she drove and received several severe shocks, and caused a heavy strain on the hawsers and stream-cables, which frequently broke. We then got out both chain cables and two large hawsers. During the night large floes were con- tinually coming in contact with that to which we were fastened. Towards the morning the pressure became so violent that one of the chains and both hawsers snapped. 'The ship rode by the remaining chain for about two hours longer, when it also parted about an hour before day-light. Our situation was now a most anxious one, the gale continued with unabated violence, and the ship drove to the southward amongst loose ice and heavy floes, which, from the darkness of the night, we could neither sce nor avoid. We received many severe shocks, but, from the admirable manner in which our little vessel was strengthened, without any serious injury. At day-break the gale moderated Land at Drontheim in Norway. 29 in some degree, and we set the storm staysails to sheer her clear of the floes. Upon heaving up the chains and hawsers, found we had lost three ice-anchors and the kedge. We now conti- nued our course to the SE. and southward, frequently interrupt- ed by streams of closely packed ice. - At ten we were able to carry close-reefed topsails and foresail. In the course of the day we experienced one of the heaviest shocks we had expe- rienced, and such as must have knocked a Greenlandman to pieces. I now determined to penetrate the barrier, and at- tempt to bore the ship through. We accordingly entered it about three in the afternoon, and by alternately backing and fill- ing and forcing the ship against the floes, we opened a passage for ourselves, and in less than two hours succeeded in gaining the open sea. From this period till the 20th we had a succes- sion of heavy gales. On the 23d, in Latitude 63°55’, we made the coast of Norway ; the breakers were observed a considerable distance off the land. Having fired several guns for a pilot, without success, we tacked and stood out to. sea. September 24.—At day-light land in sight, consisting of nu- merous small islands with breakers off them. We observed a fishing-boat standing off; we received a pilot, and, hoisting up his boat, proceeded along the coast. The following days the ‘weather was moderate. On the 1st October, in running amongst a number of small islets, the pilot ran the ship upon a sunk rock, on which she struck hard and remained fast till the tide rose, when we backed her off. We discharged our pilot and anchored till the 3d, when we got another and made sail. The following day we entered Drontheim Fiord, and worked up against easterly winds; at length, on the 6th, we anchored in the harbour. The attentions we here received from Count Trampe, Gover- nor of the Province, Mr Schnitler, the British Consul, and other respectable inhabitants of this place, under any circumstances could not have failed to excite the most grateful sentiments ; but the contrast between the difficulties and fatigues we had under- gone with the comforts and indulgencies of civilized life, ren- dered them doubly so. Through the kindness of the Consul, a villa belonging to Mr Wensel, his father-in-law, was allotted to Captain Sabine and myself, and here we experienced all the comforts which kindness and hospitality could bestow, and I 30 From Drontheim to Deptford. could not help feeling a degree of thankfulness and content- ment on reaching’ this point, when I looked back at the success of two years’ labour without an accident of any sort, particularly when there are so many nice and valuable instruments, the breaking or injuring any one of which would have tended so materially to destroy our confidence in the accuracy of the whole series, Captain Sabine having completed his observations, the instru- ments were re-embarked, and we were ready for sea on the 10th of November, on which day the Governor visited us on board, and was saluted with 13 guns. Latitude of the Cathedral of Drontheim, 63° 25’ 50” N.; Longitude 10° 24’ 50” E. The weather proving unfavourable, we were detained till the 13th, when we weighed anchor and worked down the Fiord. In the evening we anchored in a narrow part.of the Fiord, and were detained by fresh gales till the 19th, when we again made the attempt, but were shortly obliged to bear up for the nearest anchorage. ‘The westerly winds setting in strong, we continued wind-bound till the 3d December, when we again got under weigh with a fair wind, and ran down the Fiord. On the fol- lowing day we were clear of the Fiord, and discharged the pilot. The favourable winds continued till the 5th, and gave us an off- ing of about 30 miles to the west of Stadtland. 'The wind now shifted to the westward, and soon after began to blow with great violence. The gale lasted without intermission for the three fol- lowing days. On the 8th, we found ourselves much nearer land than we expected from our reckoning, and were obliged to keep the ship under a press of canvass to carry us off a lee-shore. From this time till we passed the Naze of Norway our situation was very critica], we had no room for drift, and the ship, under the reefed courses, was so much pressed down, and shipped so much water to leeward, as to be at times nearly water-logged. We, however, made good our course till we had the entrance to the Baltic under our lee. We had, during this gale, much lightning and frequent fire-balls at the mast heads and yard- arms, and it was remarkable how little effect it had on the ba- rometer, indicating that the cause of it was entirely electric. We now proceeded on our voyage without farther incidents worthy of being recorded, and reached Deptford on the 19th December. 2 ( 31 ) Analysis of the Vegetable Milk of the Hya-hya Tree of Deme- rara. By Rozerr Cunistison, M. D., Professor of Medi- cal Jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh. Commu- nicated by the Author. In a paper lately read before the Wernerian Society, and published in The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for January last, Mr Smith has given an interesting account of a new kind of vegetable milk procured from a tree in Demerara, which the natives term the hya-hya ; and which, according to Mr Arnott’s examination of the specimens sent to this country, is a species of Taberneemontana,.a genus of the natural order Apocynee. A portion of this vegetable milk having been sent by Mr Smith to Professor Jameson, the chemical analysis of it was entrusted to me, for the purpose of determining whether any similarity exists between it and the singular vegetable milk of Caraceas, lately made known to European chemists by Hum- boldt, and analyzed by Bousingault and Mariano de Rivero. The following is an account of the observations I have made on its properties and composition, which, it will be seen, are totally different from those of the vegetable milk of Caraccas, and such as render its nutritive quality doubtful. In the state in which the juice arrived in this country, it con- sisted of a small portion of a clear watery-like fluid, and a white, concrete, cellulated substance, not unlike pressed curd, which filled nearly the whole bottle. It had an odour somewhat like that of Dunlop cheese, with a slight peculiar aroma, and scarcely any taste. The watery portion reddens litmus paper, and appears to con- tain a little acetic acid ; for the fluid procured from it by distil- iion has the odour of vinegar, and an acid reaction. But the quantity of fluid was too small to allow me to determine its con- tents more positively. The concrete matter is of snowy whiteness, brittle and pul- verizable when cold, but easily softened by an increase of tem- perature. At 100° F. it becomes ductile and viscid, and does not recover its original firmness and hardness for more than a day. At higher temperatures, it gradually becomes softer and 32 Prof. Christison’s Analysis of the Vegetable Milk softer; and at 212° its consistence is soft enough to allow it to flow, like very thick mucilage. A greater heat adds little to its fluidity, but produces brisk effervescence, during which acid vapours are discharged, and the whole mass becomes translucent and yellowish, like a resin. When allowed to cool after this change has taken place, it retains its translucency, and for some days is soft and extremely viscid ; but at length it acquires the consistence and firmness of bees-wax. A still higher tempera- ture applied to it in a tube, causes the usual decomposition which vegetable substances in general undergo, and a large quantity of pyro-acetic acid is formed. When a light is applied. - to it, it catches fire, and burns entirely away, with a large white flame, and much black smoke. Water, cold or boiling, has no action on this substance. It merely fuses and rises to the surface of the water. Alcohol acts slightly on it, and only with the aid of heat: a small portion is dissolved by boiling alcohol, and the greater part separates in the form of a white cloud, when the spirit cools. Sulphuric ether acts on it with rapidity, dissolving the greater part of it, and leaving about four per cent. of a soft viscid mass. It is unnecessary to mention any of the other chemical pro- perties of the compound substance, as they are almost entirely the same with those I shall presently relate, as sunenene that part of it which is soluble in ether. The portion insoluble in ether, when left exposed to the air for some hours till the adhering ether had evaporated, became'a greyish, viscid, elastic, ductile substance, which, when heated to 212°, so as to remove the whole ether, and then left for some days exposed to the air, lost its viscidity, became brownish black, and acquired the external appearance and all the chemi- cal and physical properties: of caoutchouc. It is ductile and elastic, insoluble:in water, alcohol, or caustic potass ; is merely softened and swelled up in sulphuric ether; is easily dissolved by oil of turpentine ; has a density of 934; undergoes imper- fect fusion at a temperature above 212°, and does not after that. recover its solidity on coolmg; and when held to the flame of a candle, it takes fire and burns with a bright white flame, and much smoke. The portion of the concrete juice which is dissolved by. the of the Hya-hya Tree of Demerara. 33 ether, is deposited by spontaneous evaporation in the form of a white powder, which, as I have already remarked, differs little in chemical properties from the original juice. It has neither smell nor taste; but it softens in the mouth, and becomes very adhesive. Its density is about 955. When heated in a tube, it softens into a thick fluid at 140°, retaining, however, its whiteness and opacity. At 160° it becomes grey- ish, more fluid, and translucent. At 212° it is greyish brown ; and if it be kept some time at this temperature, and then redis- solved in sulphuric ether, a black powder is separated, which possesses the properties of charcoal. The temperature of boil- ing water, therefore, evidently effects a slight decomposition. When it has been heated to this degree, and then allowed to cool, it is no longer brittle, but soft, ductile, and extremely vis- cid. It recovers its brittleness and white powdery appearance, however, on being redissolved in ether, and separated by spon- taneous evaporation. Water does not act on the white powder in the cold. At 212° the powder merely fuses into greyish globules, which rise to the surface of the water, and form a stratum of a substance precisely the same in nature with that procured by the same degree of heat without the contact of water. _ Alcohol scarcely acts on it in the cold. In boiling alcohol, it fuses into an opaque white mass, which, on cooling, concretes into a white brittle solid, presenting a resinous fracture, and re- taining its original properties. At the same time that it fuses, however, the alcohol dissolves about a 250th of its weight, which is recovered partly by refrigeration, and entirely by spontaneous evaporation, without having undergone any sensible change. _ Sulphuric ether, at the temperature of 60° Fahr., dissolves between a sixth and seventh of its weight, and rather more when boiled on it. A colourless, transparent solution is thus pro- cured, from which the powder separates unchanged, while the ether is evaporated spontaneously. Oil of turpentine dissolves it in large quantity. I have not examined the changes which then take place. A strong solution of caustic potass, even when boiled on it, dissolves only a trace, which is thrown down unaltered on the alkalki being neutralized. Fhe portion not dissolved by the APRIL—JUNE 1830. € 7 34 Prof. Christison’s Analysis of the Hya-hya Tree. boiling potass undergoes no farther change than what ogcurs in boiling water. Ammonia does not act on it. Muriatic acid has no effect on it. Strong nitric acid, either cold, or aided by heat, has also hardly any effect ; it merely im- parts a yellowish tint, and a slight increase in hardness, but does not alter any other property. Strong sulphuric acid dis- solves it readily, and acquires a dark brownish-black colour. . The preceding experiments show that the concrete juice of the Hya-hya tree consists of a small proportion of caoutchouc, and a large proportion of a substance possessing in some re- spects peculiar properties, which appear to place it intermediate between caoutchoue and the resins, to the latter of which it bears the greatest resemblance. It differs, however, from the resins in being more easily fusible, in undergoing partial decom- position at 212°, in being very sparingly soluble in hot alcohol and caustic potass, and in resisting the action of strong nitric acid. "Fhe information thus obtained from the chemical analysis of the juice, will naturally raise considerable doubts with regard to its possessing any nutritive quality. There is every reason to believe that caoutchouc, wax, resin, oil, and other vegetable principles, which resemble these in containing a large proportion of carbon, and im being insoluble in water or acidulous fluids aided by the action of heat, are very slightly nutritive, because the stomach can digest but a small quantity of them, and that only with great difficulty.. The concrete juice of the Hya-hya’ evidently belongs to this class of substances. It is soluble in — fewer menstrua than any of them, except caoutchouc ; and it evidently contains a large proportion of carbon, as it burns with» a dense white flame and much smoke. There is great reason to suspect, therefore, that it is not nutritive, and that, as an ar- ticle of food, it can be useful only by rendering other aliments’ agreeable. J I need scarcely add, that the juice of the Hya-hya differs to~’ tally from that of the Palo df Vaca, the plant described by . Humboldt as supplying the vegetable milk of the province of? ~ Caraccas, in South America *, as well as from the juice of fhe * Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. vii. 182%. = Prof. Christison’s Analysis of the Hya-hya Tree. 35 papaw tree. The former, the vegetable milk of Caraccas, is said by Humboldt to be an agreeable beverage when taken alone, and to be so nutritive that the inhabitants fatten sensibly while it is im season. It has been lately analyzed by MM. Boussingault and Mariano d{ Rivero *, who found its solid con- 2 tents to be wax, with’a little sugar, and a large proportion of a substance analogous to fibrine. Hence, they remark, when it is heated’ in a vessel over the fire, the fibrine separates in a solid mass from the wax, which liquefies; and, at a higher tempera- _ ture, the fibrin is fried in the wax, exhaling the odour of fried meat. As to the juice of the papaw tree, it appears, from the researches of Vauquelin, to contain two principles analogous to albumen and caséin-++. It is easy to perceive, from their che- mical nature, how these two vegetable juices are nutritive. They contain, in fact, principles analogous to the most nutritive of those belonging to the animal kingdom. On the Physiognomy of the Vegetable Kingdom in the Brazils. ‘By Dr C. F. Prit.. Von Martius, Knight of the Royal Bavarian Order of Merit, &c. Accounts have been transmitted m dark traditions, and in songs, of a happy Island which, in ancient times, arose, far to the west, out of the ocean, and appeared even to later antiquity, only in the uncertain light of a glory then unknown. Atlantis, thus runs the story, unfolded, in near alliance with the sun, whatever there is great or dignified in the productions of our planet. Incalculable was the quantity of precious metals and gems brought to light from its bowels, in wonderful variety ; thousands of the most fragrant plants flourished and bloomed there; the animal creation aroseypowerful, lively and gigantic ; while a noble race of men enjoyed the happy riches of such a country, under the blessings of wise laws, and well regulated in- stitutions. Once, however, as the tradition goes on to say, the Earth being convulsed by internal commotions, the foundations. * Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. xxiii. 21% + Ann. de Chim, xliii, 275, and xlix, 250 and 304- e2 36 Martius on the Physiognomy of the of the happy isle gave way, and it was swallowed up in the awful depths of the ocean by which it was surrounded. ; The auspicious genius and undaunted resolution of Colum- bus have, i in modern times, restored the long lost region; but the history of the long period which America passed in seclusion from the old continent is involved in obscurity. The accounts of its ancient and mighty kingdoms, of its religion, philosophy, and poetry, cannot be connected with our history by any certain documents.. The scanty monuments of these early epochs stand like enigmas before the contemplative eye of the inquirer, of which, in the present state of this quarter of the world, he la- bours in vain to find the solution. America, such as it has been opened up to us by the experience of three centuries, represents, in its state of savage wildness, the complete victory of the ele- ments over the race of men who inhabit it, and the suppression of history by the rude productive powers of a luxuriant nature. Thus here, as every where else, man and his domestic history is less intelligible to man than the other parts of nature, whieh, always remaining the same, readily present themselves for exa- mination ; and the inquirer dwells with double satisfaction upon the investigation of the many great natural phenomena which fairly entitle America te pass under the designation of the New World. There the history of the formation of mountains is de- lineated in huge characters. The summit of the chain of the Andes, towering above the clouds, and undermined by subter- raneous fires—the wide extended ramifications of the Brazilian mountain range, in whose bosom the sparkling diamond and immensely rich veins of gold are concealed—and the wonderful coal-strata of North America—open to the naturalist an exten- sive prospect into the early history of our globe. The animals, too, at present existing, present us with a very peculiar and strange assemblage of extraordinary forms of living beings; while the remains which attest the early formative powers of the new world are beheld with astonishment, of which we have spe- cimens in the colossal elephant-like sloth of the La Plata, or in another found by us in the caves on the Rio de St Francisco, and in the innumerable mammoths on the Ohio, or in the moun- tains of the district of Bahia, which the Rio de Contas rolls to the sea. But the peculiar character of this content seems to Vegetable Kingdom in the Brazils. a | manifest itself in the vegetable kingdom ; and if plants, as indi- cative of a general relation to the sun, be of importance in the history of the earth, of its climates and countries, this is pecu- liarly the case with America, where they are found either undis- turbed by the influence of man, or triumphing over it. The various circumstances affecting the vegetation in a great part of South America, viewed under this aspect, may be an object not unworthy of the attention of this naturalist; and I venture, in consequence, to draw a sketch of the physiognomy of the plants in that part of Brazil which we ourselves had an opportunity of visiting. f ‘The flourishing kingdom of Brazil comprehends almost a third part of the whole South American continent. Washed by the ocean for a length of many hundred miles, it opens, in this wide space, numerous havens to friendly Europe. On the south and north, two seas, as it were, of fresh water, the La Plata and Amazons, form its boundaries. On the west it is sur- rounded by the mighty tributary branches of these two streams, the Paraguay and Madeira, the sources of which approach very near to each other. This yet unmeasured land presents, in an extent from 4° 18’ north to 34° 55’ south latitude, and from the ocean to the meridian of 67° west longitude from Paris, a won- derful variety of surface, being at one time elevated to stately mountains, at another stretching out either as a level or hilly country, covered with woods and fields—iutersected. by mmnu- merable streams and branching rivers —watered by large ‘lakes, or changed into immense marshes by the overflowing of the waters. It enjoys, however, everywhere the blessings of a happy climate ; everywhere the riches of the tropics abound, and the salutary abundance of milder latitudes. There the earth is never benumbed by the breath. of winter ; with the continual vigour of youth, it sends forth, at the same time, from its bosom, the products of the autumn and of spring, and the vegetable kingdom celebrates, as it were, in a perpetual hymn, ‘the creative power of the sun, by a thousand living forms, coloursand odours. Whoever approaches Brazil from the sea, receives almost every where these impressions of the majesty and grandeur of the vegetation. Barren wastes of sand bound the. ‘ecean only along a comparatively small part of the northern provinces, es- 38 Martius on the Physiognomy of the pecially the Landes Grandes of Cear4, between the 2° and 3° of south latitude; and in the south, principally between Porto Alegre and Monte Video, from the 29° to the 34° of south. lati- tude. Frequent sheets of salt water within the land, and a suc- cession of lakes parallel to the sea, indicate a gradual recession of the latter ; and, in consequence, large tracts present nothing but dry sand, upon which are a few plants of scanty growth, pe- culiar to the sea-shore. But, with these exceptions, a luxuriant vegetation covers the confines of this quarter of the globe, either immediately on the margin of the sea where the shore rises abruptly, or separated from it by small intervening banks of sand, When the shore ascends precipitously, it is crowned by a dark green wood, whose overtopping palms already salute the stranger from afar. Where, on the contrary, the beach slopes gently, or, in the deep slimy bays, there appears a ve- getation quite peculiar to the shores of the tropics, consisting of those trees which propagate themselves by the branches, forming thick bushes, which spread themselves far over the often un- fathomable deep mud. Their succulent foliage surrounds the - low shore with a wreath, whose cheerful green is frequently heightened by the red plumage of the ibis reposing on it *. Advancing into the interior, we come to the foot of a mode- rately elevated ‘chain of mountains, which, at one time, only a little removed, at another from 150 to 190 miles distant, from the coast, and almost always parallel to it, run through a great part of the country ; on which account they nearly every where go under the name of the Serra do Mar, or Sea Cordilleras. This chain, consisting for the most part of granite and gneiss, begins ~ im the southern part of the province of Pernambuco; sinking considerably, and often continued only in the form of swells, it proceeds through the eastern part of Bahia, whose hot and parched plains it supplies very sparingly with. fountains, and again appears in a much higher and grander scale to the south of the Rio Peruaguacu, in the Comarca dos [lheos. From this latitude onward, only occasionally interrupted by the Rios de Contas, Patype, Belmonte, Doce, Pariba, &c., it stretches south through the provinces of Porto Seguro, Espiritu Santo, Rio de Janeiro, and St Paulo, in an extent of more than twelve * Tantalus ruber. Vegetable Kingdom in the Brazils. 39 degrees, Its conical rocky summits, seldom terminating in plains of any extent, sometimes reach a height of. more than 3000 feet, and are distinguished by a character of wildness, in evident contrast with the usual contour of the primitive moun- tains. To the south they become low, part branching off to the west, under the name of Serra Geral, divides the waters of the Panama from those of the Uruguay; while the southern ra- diations are lost in the sandy plains north of Monte Video. The soil which covers the rocky masses of the Serra do Mar is either dark rich vegetable mould, or a heavy reddish loam containing gold. Large tracts in the valleys are frequently filled with marshes. The ground, however, here never becomes so dry as in our pine forests, because it is watered by many fountains, and moistened by the exhalations of the overhanging woods. This entire chain, the bulwark of the land towards the sea, is almost in its whole extent clothed with a thick tall forest, as old as the rocks on which it spreads its roots, and which, as it were, exhi- bits the creative power and luxuriancy of this continent. It would be a vain attempt for the traveller to endeavour to -excite in others, even in the faintest manner, the impressions which here overpower him. The magnitude of the heaven-tow- ering trees; the fulness of the variegated foliage ; the splendid _ display of colours, from an innumerable variety of flowers ; the luxurious entanglement of dense bushes and entwining Lianes, or climbing plants* ; and the singular forms of parasites which establish around the old stems their youthful empire. What a great, rich, and sublime scene! The wanderer finds himself here at once elevated and struck with awe. The horror of the soli- tude of the woods and dark shade, is associated with the sweet delight of such a novel scene, and with the most reverential ad- miration of that Almighty power which here conjures up a new world to the view, and speaks to us ina language that never be- fore reached our ears; and, even in the unobtrusive life of the ve- getable kingdom, unfolds the power and the majesty of its creation. These woods occupy in a continuous tract, in the eastern pro- vinces of Brazil, many thousand square miles, and are designated by the name of Matta Geral, or Universal Forest. ‘They afford shelter to those wild hordes of Indians who, never hitherto sub- * Chiefly of the genera Bignonia, Banisteria, and Aristolochia. 40 Martius on the Physiognomy of the jected to the Portuguese yoke, roamvabout in them as unsettled wanderers. 'Thié is-the‘abode of the sluggish Coroado, of the wild Puri, of the cannibal:Botocudo, and other less numerous tribes, who live by hunting and fishing, upon nuts and other fruits, or from an inconsiderable cultivation of maize, mandioca, and bananas. ‘Large portions on the borders of this enormous forest, as well towards the side of the sea as towards the districts inhabited by the Portuguese in the interior, in the direction of Minas Gerats, are already brought under cultivation ; but, in the depths of it, colonists have only settled here and there along the large rivers. The fertility is incredible of such virgin woods (matto virgem), in which the stroke of an axe was never heard before. When the trunks have been burnt, and the cleared ground planted with French beans, maize, mandioca, coffee, cotton, or sugar-canes, a return of from 150 to 500 fold is cal- culated on. If the cleared wood be again left to itself, it returns, in a few years, to a state of wildness, and is covered with a thick growth of rapid growing trees and bushes, in Brazil called ca- poeira. These primitive woods, according to the accounts of the na- tives, are not prevalent in the northern provinces of Pernambuco, Paraiba do Norte, and Ceara, to an equal extent, as upon the mountains, hills, and valleys of the Serra do Mar,'in the middle part of Brazil. The soil of these parched districts, consisting of granite or limestone, appears to be less favourable to such majestic woods, which are here more insulated, and alternate frequently with the Catingas, or woods which periodically shed their leaves. The nearer, however, we approach to the equator, on the north of the rapid river Parnabyha, the more frequently are the pri- mitive forests to be met with. It seems as if the vertical sun lent here double strength to the earth, to send forth from her bosom the largest and most enormous products. Dark as night, and intricate as chaos, an impenetrable wood of gigantic stems ex- tends from the mouth of the Amazons, till far beyond the Por- tuguese territory ou the west. The same exuberance, greatness, and majesty of forms as in the more southern provinces prevails also here; but the vegetation, under the influence of the most intense heat, of heavy and almost daily rains, and of the wide inundations of rivers, seems to be involved in perpetual change Vegetable Kingdom in the Brazils. 41 and fermentation. . Forthwith: the lofty trees, as well as the ten- ‘der plants, solemnize, by the unfolding of their majestic tops, and by the innumerable flowers with which they array them- selves, the returning season of their development. At the time of their maturity, the most extraordinary forms of seeds and fruits fall off, and cover the earth, teeming with life, in various places, almost a foot deep. Huge columns of carbonic acid gas then ascend from the sprouting or corrupting germs, and a thick heavy atmosphere hangs in vapour over the woods. The suc- culent glittering foliage, and the tillandsia, like a beard hanging down from the boughs, drop rain continually ; the bushes of the bromelia stand like pitchers filled with water ; and. warm intervals of sunshine speedily dry up the moisture of the wilderness, so that decomposition and corruption follow immediately on the most violent vital excitement. The sober nature of the vegeta- ble kingdom seems all at once to indulge in an inordinate desire to assume strange and grotesque forms. Bushes with thorns that cause malignant sores ; palms, armed with dreadful prickles; _closely-entangled lianes, yielding a milky juice*, confound the senses of the wanderer, who, being seized by the stunning exha- lations of the osassacu, anxiously longs to escape from this noxious chaos into the peaceful majesty of the primitive woods on the Serra do Mar. No wonder if, in these regions, a gloom be cast over the spirit of the wandering Indian, who, awed by the horror of the dark lonely woods, sees, or thinks he sees, every where the ghostly phantoms which his own wild fancy has conjured up. Lectures on the Natural History of the Sciences. By Baron Cuvier. ~ Conclusion of Lecture IV. from page 349 of former Volume. Tre oldest, the Ionian school, was founded by Thales, about the year 600 before Christ. It possessed a great number of adherents in the cities of Asia Minor, Ephesus, Miletum, &c. The most celebrated of all was Anaxagoras, who modified its principles, and introduced them at Athens, about the year 500 before Christ, * Such as Allamanda cathartica. 42 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. The second school is that of Pythagoras, who was born in 584, and flourished about the year 550 before our era. He also ‘had received his doctrine from the Egyptian priests, and separated less. from them than Thales had done. He even tried to establish their constitution; for, having gone from Samos to Crotone, he there founded secret societies, which soon caused - disturbances, in which most of his partisans were massacred. The third, or Elean school, derived its name from a small town of Lucania, where it was first established. It had for its founder Xenophanes, who was born at Colophon, in Asia Mi- nor, but who afterwards passed over to Italy, This philosopher does not appear to have borrowed any thing of the Egyptians. His doctrine, which was that of pure idealism, rather resembled that of the Indians. The fourth, or Atomistic school, founded by Leucippus, em- braced a system entirely opposed to that of the Eleans. It saw nothing in the universe but matter and motion. Along with these four purely speculative sects subsisted the family of the Asclepiades, who cultivated the sciences solely with a practical object. 'They attached themselves chiefly to facts, and their method served, at a later period, as a model, and con- tributed greatly to the progress of the positive sciences. Leorure Firru.—Schools of Philosophy before Socrates. We have seen that there were instituted in Greece, or rather in the Greek colonies, four great sects or schools of philosophy, which, in consequence of political events, were eventually con- centrated at Athens. There was established among them a, useful emulation; and at length their labours being resumed ‘ by Socrates, gave rise to a new school, which, by the judicious method adopted in it, opened a way to the sciences, in which it was not possible afterwards to retrograde. But, before coming to that remarkable period, we must return to the four primitive schools, which as yet we have only mentioned. Tonian School:k—~The Ionian sect, the most ancient of all of them, is that whose dogmas approximate nearest to the domains of the natural sciences. Its philosophy was at first almost en- tirely material; which proves, we may observe, that, at the Thales—Anaximander—Herachtus. 43 time when Thales went to study in Egypt, the priests of that country had already forgotten in a great degree the metaphy- sical doctrines, which in former times were kept up in their col- leges. At that time the experimental method being entirely unknown, the philosophers of the Ionian school devoted their attention to the discovery of a principle,—that is to say, a thing pre-existent to every thing. Thales thought he had found it in water. This was an idea which, without doubt, he had bor- rowed from the Egyptians, but which he so modified as to suit his views." According to -him, water is the original matter from which the world was formed. But this water could exist in different states of density, and in every one of these states it formed a secondary principle, an element. These elements com- bining with one another in different proportions, gave rise to all bodies. Thales gave a soul to the world, to animals, to plants; but by this word sow! he means nothing more than an internal cause of motion. Anaximander considered water only as a second principle ; the first, in his system, was infinity. It is not easy in our day to know precisely what he meant by that term. Did he mean to say, that infinite space was pre-existent to matter? That is scarcely probable, since the ancient philosophers have, all of them, regarded matter as eternal. Be it as it may, Anaximan- der, having placed his second principle in water, maintained, that, originally, men were fish, and that they had arrived at their last state only by a series of transformations. This singular idea was many times revived, and has been so even in our days. Anaximenes, a disciple, it is thought, of Anaximander, placed his principle in air, which, by different degrees of condensation, and by means of various combinations, gave rise to all beings, and even to the gods. Finally, Heraclitus, who may be regarded as belonging also to the Ionian school, placed his principle in fire; but perhaps he considered it rather as the source of animation and. motion, than as forming the real matter of bodies. There is a percep. tible resemblance between his system and that of the physio- logists, who have placed their principle of life, in all animals, in the heat produced by the act of respiration. 4A, Baron Cuvier’s Leciwres on the Natural Sciences. Italic School.—The second school, the Italic School, was founded by Pythagoras. This philosopher was born at Samos, about 584 years before Christ. He was contemporary with Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Heraclitus. It is even said that he was, like them, a disciple of Thales; of this, however, there is no positive proof. After having travelled into Egypt, into Magna Grecia, and perhaps into India, he returned to his ‘native country, which he found governed by the tyrant Poly- crates. Discontented with the changes this chief had intro- duced, he went into Italy, and settled at Crotona, a city built . about 120 years before by a colony of Achaians. He very soon founded secret societies there, to which he an- nexed institutions, of the same plan with those of the Egyptian sacerdotal tribe. He received none as disciples until they had submitted toa long noviciate. He imposed on them fastings, and different modes of absti- nence, and singular practices, with the design of which we are utterly unacquainted. The societies which he founded were soon dispersed, because they were charged by the people with ambitious views; they were not revived till long after his death. Pythagoras left no work of any kind; and it is not even known whether he ever wrote any thing. He had learnt in Egypt the first elements of geometry; and tried, it is said, to discover the principle of things in the powers of numbers. Every thing relating to this part of his doctrine has been so disfigured. by those who revived his school, after the time of the persecutions, that it is difficult to judge of his real opinions. Perhaps he wished to inculcate, that it is possible to estimate by numbers all powers, all dimensions, and of thus rendermg them comparable, and susceptible of bemg reduced to calculation. In this case, his idea would be the same with that which serves, in our day, as the basis of all physical mathematics. Pythagoras divided all beings into equal and unequal: the last were composed of -monades, or unites; the other of diades, or dualites. He extended the language of arithmetic even to morals, and said that justice was always divisible by two. It is impossible not to consider this as an allegorical expression ; and, with equal justice, it may be said, that, in many instances, ideas Pythagoras.—Empedocles. 4d have been attributed to this philosopher which he never enter- tained, and just in consequence of taking in a literal sense what he said figuratively. In other respects, ‘even through all these singularities, a progress in science cannot fail to be discovered. The Ionian school placed every thing in matter ; the Italic school sought it elsewhere, and thought it had found it in the power of numbers. According to Pythagoras, the Universe was a harmonious whole, and on this account the number of the planets was equal to that of the notes of the gamut. In the centre of this har- mony was the sun, the soul of the world, and the principle of. motion. ‘The souls of men and of animals participated in the nature of this celestial fire ; and also those of the gods, who were themselves only animals of a superior order. This pantheism, which admits of beings of different degrees, became also a part of the system of Empedocles. This philo- sopher, born at Agrigentum 442 years before Christ, was con- temporary with Socrates. He wrote a poem on Nature, in six books. He speaks in it of the four elements. He does not, like the other Ionian philosophers, regard any of them in particular as a principle. It is a confused mixture of all things ; it is their chaos, which, according to him, is the pre-existent substance. Empedoeles did not confine himself to speculations ; he was just such an observer as Alemeon had been. He established an ana- logy between, the eggs of animals and the seed of plants; he discovered the amnios ; and one would even suppose, from a verse of his which has been preserved, that he had a knowledge of the labyrinth of the ear. He applied his learning to the good of the people in general; he improved his country by draining of the waters; he purified the air by fires, and put a stop, as is said, to an epidemic, by closing a hole in a rock, whence unwholesome vapours were exhaled. These were nearly all the philosophers of the Italie School, who engaged in the sciences. The Pythagoreans, by the form. of their associations, and the mystery which enveloped them, al. most always inspired the people with inquietude. On this ac-. count the propagation of their doctrine was far from being ex- 46 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. tensive. It became extinct, but was taken up again by’ Plato, who adopted a part of it. Eleatic School.—Besides the Pythagorean school, another was established, that of Eea, founded by Xenophon, who, about 500 years before Christ, came from Colophon, his native country, and settled in Sicily. This philosopher is the first who com- bated the anthropomorphism of the Greeks. ‘Fhe divinity was, according to him, wntty, every thing ; but his pantheism, in- stead of being of a material sort, like that of the Ionians, was purely spiritual. Parmenides, his scholar, went much farther, | and maintained that the whole of nature was a sensible illusion. : ' ‘This is precisely the system which, in the present day, we find among the Indians. Parmenides and Zeno came to Athens about 460 years before , Christ. Anaxagoras came thither about the same time. So- crates was then ten years old, and thus had the opportunity of receiving instructions from all the three. . Atomistic School.—Leucippus, founder of the atomistic sect, was cotemporary with the two eleatics we have just mentioned, and a declared antagonist of their doctrine. Disgusted with idealism, by the abviise he saw made of it, he ran precipitutaly into the opposite excess, and was a complete materialist. He rejected alike the intelligent unity of the eleatic school, the whole neither material nor immaterial, and the numbers with the har- monic proportions of the school of Pythagoras. He allowed no- thing beyond a vacuum and atoms; these very atoms he deprived of thé propérties which other philosophers admitted they posses- sed, and assigned to them only figure and motion. The different properties of bodies, their colour, consistence, heat, and cold, depended at once on the figure and arrangement of these mole- cules ; the external alderastions of the iheeshsittide and reproduc- tion of beings resulted from their motion ; the soul itself was only an ageregation of atoms in a particular mode of combina tion. Alcmeon had studied the anatomy of many animals, but De- mocritus of Abdera was certainly the first who practised com- parative anatomy. He observed differences of organization in 3 Democritus.— Asclepiades.— Anaxagoras. AT a great number of species, and tried to deduce from them dif- ferences also in their manner and habits. He was. acquainted with the diary process, and investigated the causes of madness, which he»placed in an alteration of the viscera of the belly. The character of the atomistic sect is peculiar and decided, whereas the other three being only derivations of the school of Thales, bear in many poimts a resemblance to each other, Medical School.—Besides these four, there was the Medicak School, and it was the most ancient of all. It continued in one single family, that of Asclepiades, from time immemorial. The two principal branches of it were those established at Cnidus and Cos. Most of the temples of Esculapius were served with priests out of this family. In these temples they received in- valids, made them observe certain religious practices, adminis- tered remedies to them, and carefully attended to the effects they produced. Moreover, those who had been cured of any: disease, even at great distances from these places, often sent thither, as if, ea voto, an account of their illness. One of these collections, continued nearly for 800 years, was examined by Hippocrates, and his works give as it were a summary of the enquiries of the Asclepiades. But, all the works which bear the name of this illustrious physician, do not belong to him. This fact is discernible from the difference of style, and the con- tradictions which occur, in the different treatises. It appears that three men of the same name and family contributed to them. The first lived about the time of Miltiades ; to him is attributed the book of fractures, or of articulations. The second and most celebrated was cotemporary with Socrates. _ Anaxagoras unites the school of Thales with that of So- crates, of which he was made master. When the Persians subdued Asia Minor, he. came from Clazoménz, his native place, and settled at Athens, He was the friend of Pericles, and shared the hatred which was entertained against him. Accused of atheism by the enemies of this great man, he was obliged to retire to Lampsacus, where he died at the age of 72, 428 years before Christ. It was he who first made a clear distinction between mind and matter. After his time. phi- losophers regarded motion as inherent in bodies, or rather re- 48 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Scrences. garded bodies themselves as mere illusions. Anaxagoras main- tained the reality of matter, and at the same time that of mind, which rules and directs it. The principle we see is like that of natural theology, which, in our day, serves as the basis of all religions. Nothing, therefore, was more unjust than the charge of atheism, directed against aman wlio was the first theist that ever existed among the Greeks. | Anaxagoras does not at all admit as a principle, either fire or water, or even the reunion of the four elements. According to him there was diversity in matter ; every sort of matter was com- posed of corpuscules like to itself, and by consequence like to one another. From ‘the singular objections made by the ancients against the system of homceomérias, the name given to those composing molecules, it appears they have not understood it. They ask, for example, if a man is composed of small men; as if Anaxagoras had ever admitted this mode of composition in any other case than in that of simple bodies. None of the works of Anaxagoras has reached us; a few of his apophthegms are however preserved. He said that noth- ing comes out of nothing; that every thing is in every thing, and can produce every thing; thereby meaning, undoubtedly, that every composed body contains all the species of simple molecules, which, combined in different proportions, would pro- duce different mixed beings. This philosopher traced the reason of things in observation. It is told, that the people having considered as a horrible pro- digy, a ram which was born with only one horn, Anaxagoras dis- sected the animal, and explained the cause of this monstrosity. He was far from being sufficiently strict in the examination of facts, if it is true that he believed that weasels, storks and crows produced their young by the mouth. In his time a very large stone fell from the air, near Acgos-Potamus. He tried to ex- plain this fact, and it is pretended that the conclusion to which. he came was, that the heaven was a vault of stones. He be- lieved the moon to be inhabited, and regarded the sun as an in- flamed metallic mass ; this constituted one of the chief accusa- tions which the Athenians urged against him. . Anaxagoras was the precursor of Socrates, whose opinions: will be considered in our next lecture. - ata ( 49 ) Lecture SrxtH—Socrates and his Epoch——State of the Sciences up to the time of Aristotle. Socrates—Plato; analysis. of the Timzeus—Herodotus—Xenophon; his treatise on Hunting—Hippocrates ; his errors in Anatomy and Physi-« ology—Ctesias. We have seen the origin and development of the philosophic spirit among the Greeks, and the separation of the Grecian Hee crs into several sects. In the most ancient of these sects or schools, gross physical ideas formed the basis of all their speculations. ‘In the second, something beyond matter wasalready sought for ; some of the laws which goyern it were discovered ; the power of numbers and of harmony was invoked. In the third, metaphysical ideas obtained the ascendency. Matter was no longer thought worthy of consideration, its very exist- ence was denied : bodies were but illusions, and the whole world was in the intellect. The fourth, disgusted with these abstrac- tions, went into the opposite extreme, and refused to admit any thing but matter and motion. Lastly, Anaxagoras raised him- self to the idea of an intelligence which arranged matter. Of the disciples of Anaxagoras, the most celebrated. was So- crates. _ The history of this sage is too well known to render it necessary for us to speak particularly of it. Selecting from the doctrines of his master all that was elevated and useful in them, he tried to establish a more complete reform, and to force philo- sophy into a path from which it should never afterwards deviate. Rejecting all a priori positions, he endeavoured to subject me- taphysics to logical reasoning, and phage to common sense and observation. " Socrates, after presenting during his hile life a model of virtue, afforded by his death an example of the respect that ought to be paid to the laws, by refusing to withdraw himself from the unjust sentence by which he had been condemned. He had been accused of impiety, and although no one had ever before formed a more sublime idea of the Divinity, he fell under the weight of the accusation. Perhaps his death was less the work of religious fanaticism than of political animosity. After the expulsion of the thirty tyrants, it was remembered that he APRIL—JUNE 1830. D 50 ~=Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. had been the friend of one of them, of Critias. ‘This connec- tion, however, which the love of science alone had formed, never induced the philosopher to deviate from the rule of conduct which he had traced to himself, and at all times he had been as impregnable to the suggestions of friendship as to threats or violence. Socrates did not cultivate the physical: sciences ; yet he con- tributed more than any person to give them the direction which they presently assumed, and it may be said that he paved the way for Aristotle. The Eleatie School introduced at Athens had there by its degeneration produced the sophists, who, by dint of subtleties, had succeeded in throwing uncertainty over the clearest notions. It was to combat them that Socrates chiefly laboured. To force them to relinquish the subterfuges to which they habitually had recourse, one of his chief means was defining precisely the value of terms. In this manner he creat- ed a rigorous language, and thus rendered an important service to the positive sciences, by furnishing them with the instru- ment which was indispensable to them. . It is to Socrates that we owe the introduction of a very broad principle, by which the natural sciences have greatly benefited, the principle of final causes, or, as it is now called, conditions of caistence. He tells us himself that this idea was suggested to him by the reading of a work of Anaxagoras, on the intelligence which has arranged the world. If the universe, thought he, is the work of an intelligent being, all its parts must be in accord- ance, and disposed so as to concur toa common end. There results from this, that every organized being must be connected with all the others by necessary relations, and, moreover, that it, must contain in itself all the conditions which may enable it to perform the part assigned to it. The principle of final causes has sometimes led into error spe- culative minds who have too easily believed,themselves, by means of this rule, to be freed from the necessity of direct observation ; yet, it must be allowed. that it has still more frequently led to useful discoveries; and that, in all cases, it has thrown interest upon researches which, without it, would have been very dry. Socrates was the first who explained this principle, and he even Socrates and his Epoch. 51 declares his regret that he was not sufficiently versed in the na- tural sciences to have frequent occasion of applying it. Socrates was born in 469, and died in 399, three years after the war of the Peloponnesus. _He was contemporary with Pericles, Alcibiades, Xenophon, and Hippocrates. The pupils of Socrates, after the death of their master, left Athens, where their residence was not without danger, and re- tired to Megara, and some other cities, to continue the philoso- phical labours in which they were engaged. They founded different schools. Of these, the best known are the Cyrenaic School, the School of Megara, the Cynic School, and, especially, the Academic School, whose influence has been so powerful. Antisthenes, the founder of the Cynic sect, asserted that the object of philosophy was to teach man to find the true good, which he placed in virtue; and maintained that it could only be acquired by overcoming all the propensities. The Cyrenaic sect, founded by Aristippus, also engaged in the search of the chief good ; but held that it was by moderate- ly indulging the natural propensities that man could obtain it. The Megaric sect trode in the steps of the Eleatic school, and lost itself in the subtleties of dialectics. The Academic sect was founded by Plato, the cia of the disciples of Socrates. Plato was only twenty-nine years old when his master died. After in vain attempting to defend him, he retired to Megara, and then to Cyrene. Anxious to apply the time of his exile to the best purpose, he resolved to travel. He went first to Egypt, and there became a pupil of the priests; who, notwithstanding the state of degradation to which they had been reduced in the reign of Cambyses, still retained traces of their ancient science. He passed from thence to Magna Grecia, and studied at the school of the Pythagoreans under Timeeus of Locris and Archytas of Tarentum. Before leaving Megara, he had exercised himself in dialectics under Euclid, who had been like himself a pupil of Socrates, but at an earlier period. Thus when, on his return to Athens, he opened a new school, he had derived from those which already existed, all that could be useful to him for arranging his doctrine, and pre- senting it under the most advantageous form. The natural bias of Plato’s mind inclined him to poetry ‘ond pz 52 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. fiction more than the sciences of observation and calculation. Yet he retained, in consequence of his connexion with the Py- thagoreans, a great respect for geometry, and intended that it should form an introduction to philosophy. It is not always easy to determine what are his peculiar doctrines, for he has not explained them in a didactic manner. It may, however, be supposed that in his Dialogues, in which he generally introduces Socrates as interlocutor, the opinions he places in the mouth of his master were, for the most part, his own. Plato, in most of his writings, speaks of the human faculties, the formation of ideas, and the nature of the soul. Although he borrowed many metaphysical ideas from Anaxagoras, the Pythagoreans, and even from the Elean School, yet the greater part of his doctrine is new. He admits, for example, that the general ideas in man are not formed by the method of abstrac- tion, but that they are a recollection of those our mind had when it was united to the Divine mind, of which it is an emanation. The general ideas, therefore, pre-exist in the Divinity. Ata certain period, they penetrate matter, which was itself eternal, and from this impregnation results the soul of the worid, and the soul of the different organized beings. It will easily be seen that, with bases like these for his philo- sophy, Plato would necessarily be led to an @ priori system of physics and natural history, which would consequently be very far from the truth.. The results of his speculations on these matters are given in the Timeus, a treatise which, although somewhat obscure, is interesting, because it is the oldest that re- mains to us of all those written by the Greek nee on the natural sciences. The Dialogue commences with a recital which Critias sup-) poses to have been made to Solon, by an old priest of Sais, a city of Lower Egypt, considered in Greece as the country of Cecrops. This priest, therefore, relates, that Sais had been founded 10,000 years before by a colony which had issued from: Athica. Since this time, said he, numerous deluges had super-- vened and destroyed all the monuments of men; but, in the midst of these disasters, Egypt alone had been spared and still preserved her annals. It is not necessary to shew all: the ab- surdity which there is in supposing that a country scarcely ele- Plato—his Timaus. 53 vated above the level of the sea, could have been preserved during an inundation which covered higher countries. All that can be admitted is, that there was a confused tradition of great geological revolutions, a tradition which has been found in all countries. Other traditions are seen in the history of the At- lantis submerged by the waters, and no doubt still more would have been found, had not Plato disfigured the original account, by adding to it ornaments suggested by his own fancy. Assu- redly, when he speaks of the wars of the inhabitants of that island, their constitution, &c., he merely yields himself up to his imagination, and does not express his actual belief. After Critias finished his recital, Timeeus speaks, and enters on a still higher cosmogony. The world, he says, was arranged by the Divinity. It proceeds at once from the Son, who formed it, and the Father, who furnished the model of it. When in- telligence, which existed from all eternity, penetrated matter, which itself had no beginning, there resulted from the mixture the soul of the universe. The world has thus in itself its prin- ciple of motion. It has besides all the conditions of existence of organized beings. It is a true animal. Timezus, therefore, admits matter as pre-existent to creation, and this opinion was in general that of all the ancient philoso- phers, even of those who did not believe in a distinct divinity of the universe. The substance of all bodies, adds the Pythagorean, is com- posed of four elements, air, earth, fire and water. Each of these elements owes the properties which it possesses to. the form of its molecules, which are pyramidal in fire, cubical in earth, octahedral in water, icosihedral in air. Each of these solids re- solves itself into tetrahedrons, so that the universe is definitively composed of triangular pyramids. These ideas, it will be seen, bear a great resemblance to those which at the present day furnish the basis of crystallography ; nor is there a fundamental principle of science that has not thus been guessed by the ancients. At the same time these principles have aided the advancement of science only when they were de- duced from experiment and observation. Whenever they were established a priori, they have been found completely sterile. Timeus at length comes to the psychological and physiolo- 54 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. gical part of his doctrine, for he establishes no distinction be- tween these two orders of phenomena, which we now think widely separated. It is to be recollected here, that previously to Aristotle the greatest confusion prevailed in stience. It was that wonderful man who first devised a classification of human attainments, and gave an example of it in his works, God created the soul of the world by introducing into the formless material substance the ideas which existed by them- selves. From the mixture were formed the souls of organized beings, which are in relation to the universal soul as the drops attached to the side of a vessel are to the fluid contained in it, the human souls were distributed in the different planets. Those which had the earth for their habitation were there in a kind of state of trial. The infernal gods were charged with providing bodies for them, of which previously they had no need. Man has received three souls: the reasonable soul, the sen- sitive or passionate soul, and the coarse or vegetative soul. The reasonable soul resides in the highest part of the body, in order to be nearer Heaven, from which it derives its origin: The head, which is its place of abode, is rounded after the form of the world. The passionate soul is placed in the breast, the heart being its principal seat. By its impetuosity, it would tend to prevail over the reasonable soul. ‘To prevent this disorder, their communications with each other have been rendered diffi- cult, by the contraction of the neck. The coarse soul, occu- pied with material objects, resides in the lower belly. These two latter souls have each their moderator. 'The lungs, cooled by the air which they receive, are placed near the heart. ‘The liver is placed in the neighbourhood of the stomach, the prin- cipal seat of the coarse soul, and has near it the spleen, which is destined to receive the impurities that hinder it from properly performing its functions. After this singular system of physiology, comes what might be called the zoological part of the treatise. 'Timzeus seeks the cause of the diversity of the form of animals, and explains the system of the Pythagoreans respecting metempsychosis. At the first transformation, trifling and unjust men are changed into women ; at the second, they are. metamorphosed into ani- 2 —_— , ‘ q Plato—his Timeus. 55 mals; and, according to their degre of culpability, become birds or quadrupeds; the most depraved, those which are no longer worthy of respiring pure air, are transformed into fishes. By means of successive transformations, Timeeus explains the re- semblance which is observed between animals of different classes. This resemblance does not come solely from the circumstance that all have a similar soul, but from the circumstance that each of them retains in its present state something of the former state. The soul of plants (and it must be remembered that, in its general acceptation, this word signifies nothing more than an in- ternal principle of motion) superintends their preservation, their growth, and their reproduction. Besides this vegetative soul, animals have the sensitive or passionate soul; man alone has a reasonable soul. We thus find very clearly expressed in the Timeus these three principles of motion, which correspond to what have since been named organic life, animal life, and intellectual life. This, however, is not, properly speaking, science, or at least it is a science a priori, and such as might have been expected from a system of metaphysics like that of Plato. If, in fact, human knowledge be nothing but reminiscences, it is by retiring from the external world that there would be the best chance of ob- taining them; and, in the search of truth, it is to meditation, and not to observation, that we ought to give ourselves up. It will be imagined, that, with such a mode of procedure, the Pla- tonic School could not have greatly benefited the natural scien- ces. It may even be said that it injured them, by opposing to a certain degree the propagation of the doctrines of Aristotle. _ In the Timezus, Plato explains his own doctrine, which is easily gathered from the Dialogue. Thus, the words which he puts in the mouth of various interlocutors, are to be considered as the true expression of his sentiments, excepting in some evi- dently allegorical parts. The fictions which are met with in various treatises of this philosopher, are owing partly to the poetical turn of his mind, and partly to the necessity of veiling certain doctrines, which it would have been dangerous to divulge more clearly. Notwith- standing this precaution, Plato was accused of impiety, as An- axagoras and Socrates had been before him ; but he was treated. more favourably, and continued to teach at Athens to an ad. 56 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. vanced age. He died at the age of eighty-one, in the 348th year before Christ. Aristotle, the disciple of Plato, was his successor in philoso- phy. Before undertaking the history of the labours of this great man, which form so remarkable an epoch in science, it is necessary to advert to those of some of his predecessors, of which we have not yet. had occasion to speak. Some of them belong to no sect of philosophy in particular; others are of the school of the Asclepiades, who, as we have said, cultivated the sciences. only with a practical object. Among the first, we must in par- ticular notice Herodotus and Xenophon. Herodotus, the oldest prose writer whose works have come down to us, was born at Halycarnassus in Caria, about the year 484. He was a great traveller, having visited successively a part of the East, Egypt and Greece, and it is in his writings that we find the first positive facts in natural history. He has given a tolerable description of the crocodile of Egypt, and of several other animals of the same country. He also speaks of the hippopotamus, but what he says of it is less correct. Aristotle took advantage of these descriptions, ‘and even copied some of them almost verbatim. Xenophon engaged more particularly,in natural history. He was born in 445, that is to say fifteen years later than Socrates, whose pupil he was, and whose apology he published. He de- voted only a part of his time to the study of philosophy. He was a soldier and a statesman. He was present in that famous expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks, which the young Cyrus had called to his aid, and, after the death of. the principal: offi- cers, it was he who ‘commanded the little band in its retreat to- wards Greece. | Besides the account which he has left us of this expedition, we have various moral and historical works of his ; but the most interesting in reference to science is his ‘Treatise on Hunting (the Cynegetics), which he composed with the view of inspiring the Grecian ‘youth’ with a taste for that exercise, as calculated to fora them, during peace, to the labours of war. Xenophon, in this treatise, gives us accounts respecting cer- tain animals, which we in vain search for elsewhere. He treats of the.different races of dogs which were employed in hunting, and of the two species of hares which occurred in the Pelopon- i. ippocrates. 57 nesus. He makes known the various kinds of game, points out the habitual retreats of wild beasts, describes their stra- tagems to escape pursuit, and, lastly, their means of defence. Without this book, we could only conjecture a very important fact in zoology, which is, that certain races of wild animals have lived in climates very different from those in which they are now observed. In his time, in fact, Macedonia and the northern provinces of Greece had lions, panthers, jackals, and some other species which at present are to be found only in Africa. We have yet two writers whose labours might have been useful to Aristotle, and who both belonged to the family of Asclepiades : the one is Hippocrates, the other Ctesias. Hippocrates, as we have already said, is not the author of all the treatises which bear his name; but he is certainly the author who has most contributed to that admirable collection, which must be considered as a general view of the researches of the Asclepiades. He was born at Cos, in the 460th year before Christ, and died in Thessaly, at the age of nearly a hundred years. During this long life, he might have known Socrates, Plato, and even Aristotle, who lived at the Court of the King of Macedonia, when he was himself called there on account of the illness of Perdiccas. . We have very few authentic facts re- specting the life of this great physician. It is seen by his works that he had travelled much, but it does not appear that he had ever been in’ Egypt.» It is related that he resisted the splendid offers made to him by the King of Persia, and that he wished to devote himself: entirely to his country. It is also said that he delivered the Athenians from a very cruel epidemic disease ; but it is to be supposed that this was not the great plague of 430, for Thucydides, who had traced the history of that disas- trous period, makes no mention of Hippocrates, who was then living in all the vigour of his intellect. Hippocrates is too well known. to require any eulogium from us. It is known how skilful he was in the knowledge of dis- eases,—how he could distinguish them by their signs, and de- duce indications of treatment from the consideration of their symptoms. In what relates to medicine properly so called, he is almost always admirable ; but, on the other hand, in all that relates to anatomical knowledge, he is feeble in a surprising de- gree. is ignorance in this respect appears still greater than - 58 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. that of Plato; at least it shews itself more, from his being obliged to enter more into details. Some of ‘his errors are evidently the result of imperfect ae servation ; but there are others which are absolutely founded upon nothing. His description of the veins, for example, is . altogether imaginary. He speaks of a vein which goes from the forehead to the anterior face of the arm, and of another which goes to the posterior part, and rises upon the lateral parts of the head. From end to end there is the same inaccuracy ; and yet it is according to this imaginary distribution of the bloodvessels that he is guided in prescribing the different bleed- ings; for, according to him, the place to be selected varies ac- cording to the symptoms of diseases. Hippocrates considered the brain asa spongy organ, destined to absorb the moisture of the body. He had no knowledge of the nerves; and when the word nerve occurred in his writings, it designates the tendons, ligaments, and, in general, the various white tissues. In his time, it was almost impossible to acquire in Greece any accurate ideas respecting the internal organiza- tion of man. To touch a dead body with any other intention than that of rendering the last duties to it, was considered as a horrible profanation. It is true that, in Egypt, the practice of embalming bodies was ina certain degree favourable to the stu- dy of anatomy ; but we have said that Hippocrates did not tra- vel in that country. He did not, however, neglect to study all that could be known without the aid of dissections. The prac- tice of surgical operations, and the treatment of diseases of the bones, would have pretty frequently afforded him opportunities of making observations in osteology ; and of all the departments of anatomy, it is in this that he has made the nearest approach to truth. The physiology of Hippocrates is by no means better than his anatomy. It is founded in a great measure upon the theo- ry of the four elements, and upon their properties, heat, cold, dryness, moisture. It is a system formed entirely @ priori, a mere production of the imagination. But the moment we ar- rive at the medical treatment, then the great observer appears again, and we find reflections as just as profound on the influ- ence of climates, seasons, and kinds of food. Hippocrates and his Epoch. Ctesias was, like Hippocrates, one of the Asclepiades, but he belonged to a family that had settled at Rhodes. He had fol- lowed the army of the Ten Thousand, and after being made pri- soner in that expedition, had become physician to Artaxerxes, at whose court he resided seventeen years. On his return to Greece, he published a history of Persia and Assyria, which he said he had taken from the archives of Ecbatan, and an account of India, which was also borrowed from Persian writers. In the latter work, of which there remain only a few frag- ments preserved by Photius, we find several facts in natural history. Mention is made of the elephant, an animal with which the Greeks were not acquainted until after the conquests of Alexander ; the parrot, and the facility which that bird had for pronouncing words. Lastly, the bamboo is spoken of, which the author describes as a reed so thick that two men could searcely clasp it. * Ctesias does not confine himself to such exaggerations as this, but is full of absurd stories. However, we should not consider as entirely false all the extraordinary recitals which ‘are met with in his book, many of them being founded on dis- torted traditions, or on erroneous figures. As an example of the latter, we may mention the history of the mauticore, an ani- mal with the head of a lion, three rows of teeth, and the tail of ascorpion. It is evident that Ctesias, in this case, had de- scribed as a real animal the symbolical one whose figure he had seen represented on the monuments of Persepolis. His descrip- tion of the unicorn is in like manner founded on the rhinoceros’ figures which occur often in these sculptures. As to disfigured natural facts, they also may be pretty frequently recognised. Thus, it is judged that it is not with oil, but with naphtha, that the surface of certain lakes is covered; that it is not gum- lac but amber, that certain rivers carry in their waters at de- terminate periods. Ina similar manner may be explained the history of insects and flowers that dye purple; that of white and horned wild asses, &c. But we also meet with fables which are entirely without foundation, and which it were useless here to repeat. These fables, perhaps, more eagerly received than the true descriptions given by Ctesias, infect almost all the works that have since appeared. — ( 60) Lecrure SEVENTH—Arislotle—His Opinions and Writings. ArisToTLE was born at Stagyra, in the year 384 before Christ. His father Nicomachus being physician to Amyntas III, king of Macedonia, he was brought up among the young princes, and was in some measure the companion of Philip, who, shortly after ascending the throne, appointed him preceptor to his son Alexander. The philosopher was then only twenty- eight years of age, and was still in the number of Plato’s disci- ples; so it may be supposed that he owed this distinction as much to the early connexion which had existed between him and Philip as to his merit, which could not at that period have been sufficiently appreciated. It would appear that at this time he had not yet opened school, and it is even doubted if he taught publicly before the death of his master, which happened in 348. » Aristotle remained at Athens until the period when war broke out between the king of Macedonia and the Athenians. He then retired into Mysia near his friend Hermias, the sove- reign of Atarne, and, after the death of that prince, to Mytilene, whence Philip brought him in the year 348 to take charge of the education of his son Alexander, then thirteen years of age. Philip died in 336, and, shortly after, Aristotle returned to Athens. It has been alleged, it is true, that he accompanied Alexander as far as Egypt; but this does not seem probable, as the descriptions of the animals of that country which are found in his works are borrowed from Herodotus, and contain the same errors. Aristotle opened his school at the Lyceum ; he went there twice every day, exposing in his morning lectures the elements of philosophy and the matters that did not require preliminary study, and in his evening lectures developing the higher parts of his doctrine. He thus taught publicly for twelve or thirteen years, and during the whole of this time did not cease to correspond with Alexander. It would appear how- ever, that, towards the end of his life, that prince grew cool to- wards him. In some of his letters he seems to endeavour to pique him by exalting the merit of Xenocrates, Some writers Aristotle. . 61 have even advanced that, after putting Callisthenes to death, he reserved the same fate for Aristotle, but that Antipater, to whom he sent the order, refused to execute it. Notwithstanding this coldness, Aristotle continued to enjoy an appearance of protection which ensured his tranquillity ; but scarcely was Alexander dead when the Athenians made amends for the constramt which fear had imposed upon them. The demagogues, who confounded in one common feeling ha- tred to the king of Macedonia and to his preceptor; the so- phists, whose miserable quirks he had refuted, the platonists whom he had deserted, and whose doctrines he had afterwards combated ; all leagued against him, and excited a priest named Eurymedon, who accused him of impiety. Aristotle, warned by the example of Socrates, withdrew, wishing, he said, to spare the Athenians a new attempt against philosophy. He retired to Chalcis in Eubcea, and there died very soon after, at the age of 63, in the year 322 before Christ. Before speaking of the labours of Aristotle, it was necessary for us to mention the principal events of his life, as it is cer- tain that the position of this great man in society was wonder- fully favourable to his genius. He had inspired his pupil with a love of the natural sciences, and thus each victory of the con- queror enlarged the field of observation to the philosopher. It appears that, in the course of his expedition, Alexander sent to Aristotle all the most remarkable productions of the countries which he visited. He did not even confine himself to assisting him in this manner, but, in order to facilitate the means of col- lecting the materials of his History of Animals, gave him the enormous sum of 800 talents. Pliny adds, that he placed at his disposal more than a thousand persons for hunting, fishing, and collecting the observations which he required. Such resources are no doubt immense, and yet the account to which Aristotle turned them, is still infinitely above all that could have been expected. Not only did he give to the natural sciences a method which could alone ensure their advancement, but he also, in a life which was not long, collected more particu- lar observations, and deduced more general Jaws, than all his. successors together did in the space of several centuries. Let it be added, that we can only yet judge imperfectly of the whole * 62 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. extent of his knowledge, as a part of his works is entirely lost to us, and the other we have received only in an altered state. Strabo, in the third book of his Geography, informs us what was the destiny of these books. Aristotle, when dying, had be- queathed them to Theophrastus, his favourite pupil, and his successor in the school. Theophrastus, in his turn, left them to Neleus, who carried them to Lepsis, a city of Asia Minor, then dependent upon the kingdom of Pergamos. The heirs of Neleus fearing that they should be carried off by Attalus, who, at this period, was forming a library on the plan of the Alexandrian, concealed them in a vault, where the damp destroyed a part of them. Appelicon, who afterwards became possessor of them, had the gaps filled up; but unfortunately the persons whom he employed in this work were not very well qualified for it, and their inappropriate restitutions have been more injurious than useful. Appelicon carried these books to Athens, where Sylla found them, when he took possession of that city. They were then transported to Rome, and a grammarian named Pyrranion had numerous copies made of them. Andromicus, the Rho- dian, superintended the publication, and divided the work into chapters. This division was very ill done, and the titles have’ frequently no relation to the subject, or are derived from the most frivolous circumstance. Of the two hundred and sixty works of Aristotle of which Diogenes Laertius has preserved the titles, many are only known to us by their names. Among the latter, we have especially to regret a series of anatomical descriptions in eight books, accom- panied with painted figures, which corresponded to the text by references, and a collection of natural things arranged in an alphabetical order,—a real dictionary of natural history, which, without doubt, contained nearly all the matters of which Aris- totle gave a brief account in his other works. It consisted of thirty-eight rolls, and would form’a large quarto volume. Ano- ther great loss to those who are interested in the history of the Greek republics, is that of a collection of the constitutions of a hundred and fifty-eight independent states. It was a kind of preparatory work of the author to his book on politics. Aristotle, in his works, embraces nearly the whole range of human knowledge; but he does not, like his predecessors, con- Aristotle. 63 found its different departments. He assigns their precise limits to the sciences; and the manner in which he classes them is so judicious, so accordant with nature, that the labours of twenty centuries have not improved upon it. We must confine ourselves to the examination of such of his works as have reference to natural history ; but we cannot dispense with mentioning the others, to give an idea of the prodigious extent of the acquire- ments of this man of truly universal genius. - His first works relate to Logic or Psychology ; and it was natural in fact that the study of the human mind should pre- cede every other study. It is in these books that we find for the first time exposed the rules of syllogism, an art, by means of which it may easily be discovered, if a reasoning be deficient in some points, by giving it certain determmate forms. Plato, it is true, in his Dialogues, has made use of the syllogism, but it is in a manner instinctively. Aristotle, on the contrary, treats of it in a didactic manner. » Next come the works on Rhetoric and Poetry. aiatosle here gives rules which he derives. from observation, and which, for this reason, have not yet become obsolete ; while all those which have been since laid down in an arbitrary manner, have been found false or insufficient, and have been successively aban- doned. It is also by the method of observation that the author pro- ceeds in his works on Morals and Polities.. In the latter, we find some ideas which would not be admitted now, especially those which refer to slavery. But these ideas were so much those of the period, that to render more humane sentiments prevalent, it cost Christianity several centuries of continued efforts. _ In Metaphysics, Aristotle treats of the being considered as existing by itself. Here we do not find the same clearness of expression as in his other works, which partly depends upon the circumstance of the subjects being more abstract, and is partly eaused by the author’s ideas being less precise. However, in this matter also, we do not find that Aristotle has been surpass- ed by those who have come after him ; and it is even to be re- marked, that of all the parts of his works, it is this which most contributed to extend his influence, and to make it prevail in the schools during the middle ages. ; 64 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. We now come to the part which more especially requires our attention, the books which treat of the Physical Sciences, These are numerous and. varied; there being, Ist, Eight books on phy- sics, properly so called; four books on meteorology, in which mention is also made of mineralogy ; one book on colours ; 2dly, Two books on the generation and the corruption of bodies, that is to say, on the motions of decomposition and recomposition of organised bodies ;_ ten on the history of animals, four on their parts, one on their means of progression, two on their genera- tion, and various treatises on waking and sleeping. In all these works, Aristotle follows the same course as in his poetics, ethics and politics ; that is, he lays down no rule a priori, but deduces them all from the observation of particular facts, and from their comparison, This method, besides, is only the application of his theory respecting the origin of general ideas, a theory which is the opposite of. Plato’s. That philosopher, as we mentioned, in analysing his Timeus, admitted that gene- ral ideas exist by themselves, and maintained that they are in- nate in man, that is to say, that his soul possessed them when it was united to the divinity, and that when it recovers them, it is by a true reminiscence. The evident consequence of this sys- tem is to condemn the senses to inactivity, in order to favour by contemplation the return of the mind towards its original state. Aristotle justly opposes this doctrine. With him there are no innate ideas. If the divinity has in itself all the general ideas, it is because this belongs to its nature; but, as to man, he can only acquire them by means of abstraction, and, as no- thing is found in his mind which has not first passed through his senses, all his. knowledge necessarily takes its source in ob- servation and experiment. From the single fact of baving laid down this principle in logic, there results a peculiar character which his whole philosophy. possesses, and a mode of proceeding which is always the same in the moral sciences and in the physi- cal sciences.. When, for example, he has to speak on politics, in place of first. creating to himself an ideal republic, which serves him as a type, a term,of comparison for judging of the goodness of the different existing governments, he begins with bringing together a great) number of constitutions, compares them with each other, examines their influence upon the nations Socrates and his Epoch. 65 such as history has disclosed it, and finally arrives at general views of the effects of social institutions, and the springs of states. This is the general course followed by Aristotle. It was necessary that we should digress a httle from our subject to make it known, and we now return to the examination of the particular treatises on the natural sciences. Of those which we have enumerated, the first, which relates to general physics, is the weakest of all, and such it ought to be. In fact, in that science great progress cannot be made, if the attention be confined to the facts which naturally present them- selves. It is necessary to make new facts arise, in other words, to experiment. Now, in the time of Aristotle, this could not possibly be done, for the arts were not sufficiently advanced to furnish the means. There were only some observations in un- connected. groups, and it was therefore impossible to rise to very - high generalities. Many principles laid, down by our philoso- pher have been found false cr imperfect, but then they were truly the general expression of the pkenomena then known. He saw, for example, solid or fluid bodies fall towards the ground when they ceased tu be supported, gaseous bodies rise from the bottom/towards the surface of water, and flame direct itself to- ward the sky; and he concluded that air and fire had a ten- dency to ascend, earth and water to descend. We now know that these motions, although inverse, are the result of a single power; but we have arrived at this discovery after the insuffi- ciency of the first explanations were rendered manifest by new facts. 'The same remark applies to the so-much vituperated principle of the horror of a vacuum. Aristotle did not establish it a priori, he only announced it as the general expression of the facts then known. If he had seen water stopping in pumps at a height of 32 feet, and mercury rising to 28 inches in the Toricellian tube, perhaps, on comparing the specific weights, the heights of the two columns, he would have been led to dis- cover the true cause of the phenomenon. We may remark, that so long as experiment had not shewn the contrary, it was just as rational to suppose that bodies had a disposition to carry themselves wherever a vacuum tended to form, as to admit that they attract each other, as is now believed. The principle of the horror of a vacuum is found false ; but it has nothing ab- APRIL—JUNE 3830. E 66 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. surd in itself, and can only seem so to persons who take in the literal sense a figurative expression, an expression perfectly si- milar to twenty others which we employ without scruple, be- cause language does not furnish us with any that are perfectly: rigorous. | Aristotle made a much happier application of his method to the study of living beings... His History of Animals in parti- cular, is a true master-piece- LecrurE E1reutu.—Aristotle’s History of Animals. The History of Animals is a very remarkable performance. On reading this treatise, one can hardly comprehend how the author could have found in his own observations so many gene- ral rules, so many perfectly accurate aphorisms, of which his predecessors had not the slightest idea. This book is not, pro- perly speaking, a treatise on zoology: it is a general work on that department of natural science, similar to what the Philo- sophia Botanica’ of Limnzus is in another department. The first book treats of the parts which compose the body of animals, describing them not by species, but by natural groups, and making known what belongs to‘each group. An éssay of this kind could*not have been written without the author having’ had very. precise ideas respecting the classification of animals. However, as he did not judge it necessary to trace'a zoological system, some: persons have alleged that the book is deficient in method: Such a reproach manifests a — superfi- cial mind in those who offer it: The commencement of this first book is in a manner devachint from the rest, and is intended to serve as an introduction. A great part of it consists of general propositions offered without — details, but ina manner'sufficiently clear to enable any one to comprehend it, and make application of it to the natural objects which he knows. The object of the author was evidently to fix the attention, by thus bringing together within a small space’ a great number of remarkable results, and to give beforehand :an idea of the interest which must be found in the study of nature. Most of these aphorisms’ suppose the observation of an immense number of particular facts, as may be judged of from those which we proceed to quote. All animals, without exception, are furabshed with a einai Aristotle's History of Animals. 67 and possess the sense of touch ; but these two-characters are the only ones that are indispensable, and one cannot fird a third that is not wanting in some species. ' Of the land animals, there is none that is fixed to we ground ; of the aquatic animals, on the contrary, several are known. Every animal which has wings has also feet. The author, on the faith of this general observation, denies the existence of the dragon, which was represented as a winged serpent. Of the winged insects, several are furnished with stings. Those which bear that organ at the anterior part never have more than two wings; those which bear it at the posterior part have four.. Propositions like these, it is well known, cannot be laid down a priori: they are necessarily founded upon the minute obser- vation of facts, and suppose 4 very pineal observation of ani- mals. In this sito Aristotle lays the Load wal a his clas- sification. He divides animals into those which have blood, and those which are destitute of it: mother words, he separates the red-blooded animals from the white-blooded. The red-blooded animals are quadrupeds, serpents, birds, fishes, and the cetacea. Although the last two classes live equally in the; water, and re- semble each other a little in their external structure, Aristotle is far from confounding them, when he places them near each other. He was as well acquainted with the nature of the ceta- cea as we are at the present day. He knew that,;they. are warm-blooded animals, which bring forth Jiving,-young,, and nourish them with milk from their mamme. . He also, propdses a very distinct separation among the quadrupeds;, between the viviparous and oviparous.. The latter, he says; have a great resemblance to serpents, in the internal organization and | tegu- mentary system. In this method, the different groups are formed in a-very natural manner, and it is only/in . yeaetenah ment that some improvement is to be made. | The white-blooded animals are the mollusca, yp OT tes- tacea, and inseets. This division is certainly not without fault; but no better one was proposed until the time of Linnzus. . Of the mollusea, Aristotle designates in particular the cuttle-fish, the octopus, the loligo, and the argonaut; and remarks, that E2 68 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. the latter is not attached to its shell. He briefly describes all the parts of these animals, and even speaks of their brain, which isa very remarkable circumstance, as the existence of such an organ’ in the mollusca has only been demonstrated within these few years. The subdivisions which he proposes among the whittled animals, are still better than his principal divisions. In the class of Insects, for example, it is precisely the same: as that of Linneus. ‘He distinguishes inseets according as they have wings, or are destitute of these organs, and forms of those which are winged, three sub-orders, according as their wings are two or four, or are covered with horny plates. After this, he explains what he means by genus .in zoology, and gives, as anexample, that of the Solipeda, which consists of the horse, the ass, ‘and the wild mule of Sytia (Hemionus). This is, in fact, a perfectly distinct genus, and one of those which we should at the present day adduce in preference. Aristotle, after this introduction, which, as he himself says, is presented as an excitement to the study of natural history, passes to the description of the different parts of animals, taking as a point of departure the human body, which he uses as a term’of comparison, and as a basis for his nomenclature... He first treats of the great regions, and of all that can be seen at the exterior ; and then passes to the examination of the internal parts. Here his observations are not so correct as before. "Fhe great features of the organization, however, are. pretty. well known to him; and it would even appear that, with respect to certain points of detail, he knew more than most of his succes- sors. He knew, for example, the Eustachian tube, and speaks of it in the passage in which he refutes Alemeon, who main- tained, as we have already said, that goats respire by the ears. He commences his description with that of the brain, and:says, that that organ occurs in all the red-blooded animals, without exception ; but that among the white-blooded animals, the mol- lusca are the only ones in which it is found. Man, he adds, has of all animals’ the largest brain... He gives a pretty good description of the two membranes which envelope that organ, and the different nerves which issue from it to be distributed to the eye. His neurological observations go no farther, however ; ee ee Aristotle's History of Animals. 69 and he is ignorant of the distribution and uses of the nerves. Herophilus was the first who had any correct ideas on this sub- ject. Aristotle speaks of the vems, of which the principal trunks have their origin in the heart. He distinguishes correctly be- tween the vene cavee and the pulmonary vein, and describes the aorta from its origin to its division at the lower part of the trunk. He did not know that the arteries contain blood, and seems to think that the air penetrates into the heart, which he describes as only presenting three cavities. He treats of the stomach, omentum, liver, spleen, bladder, kidneys, and the parts connected with them, and says that the right kidney is placed higher than the left. All the descriptions, although in- complete, and even false in several points, prove, at least, that he had seen the viscera of which he speaks. He then treats more particularly of animals, and first. speaks of their limbs. Describing those of the elephant, he remarks how difficult the length of the fore-legs and the disposition of their joints render in that animal the actions of drinking and laying hold of its food on the ground. He shews that: the pro- boscis makes up for this disadvantage, and forms a convenient organ of prehension. He also knew that the proboscis is;a true nasal organ. In continuing, he gives very interesting details respecting the mode of reproduction of that quadruped, the difference of the sexes, &c. Buffon has contradicted him in several instances, but almost always erroneously, as-has been shewn by observations recently made in India. Aristotle then considers animals with reference to the distri. bution of their hair. Of those which are furnished: with amane he mentions the bonassus, which is the awrochs, and then three Indian animals, the hippelaphus, the hippardium, and the bu/- falo. The hippelaphus, or deer-horse, has lately been observed by MM. Diard and Duvaucel; the hippardium (the hunting tiger) has only been known within these few years. It existed in the Royal Menagerie, but Buffon did not see it. As to the buffalo, it is well known that it was introduced into Europe at the time of the crusades.. Aristotle describes it so as that he cannot be misunderstood. He speaks of its colour, and of the direction of its horns, and says that it differs as much from the domestic bull as the wild boar differs from the hog. In speak- 70 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. ing of the camel, he designates the two species, the one peculiar to Arabia, the other to Bactria. The latter could only be known to the Greeks through the conquests of Alexander, After finishing what relates to the hair, he speaks of the horns, and, on this occasion, exposes general rules, the accuracy of which has been confirmed by all subsequent observations. We shall mention some of them. No animal has horns unless it has the foot bisuleated, but the reverse is not true, and thus the camel, which has the foot cleft, does not bear horns. The animals with bisulcated feet, which have horns, and have no teeth in the upper jaw, all ruminate ; and, on the other hand, there is not a single ruminating animal that does not present all these characters. ; Horns are hollow or solid. The former are persistent, the others are cast and renewed every year. After this, he speaks of the teeth, the manner in which they are renewed in man and animals, the different forms which they assume in the different species according to their kind of food, being sharp and pointed in the carnivorous animals, flat and grinding in the herbivorous. In some animals, certain teeth protrude, and form weapons; but no animal is armed with horns and tusks at the same time. In the elephant, the tusks of the female are small, and directed towards the ground. This, also, is one of the propositions of Aristotle which has been attacked as erroneous. The Indian elephants, i in fact, present in this respect no difference with respect to sex ; but the African ele- _ phant, which was the species described by our philosopher, has actually the disposition described. Then follows the description of the hippopotamus, which agrees indifferently with the rest. It is probable enough that it is only the description of Herodotus, which had first been written in the mar gin by one of the possessors of the book, and afterwards inserted in the text by an indiscriminating copyer. We have many examples of similar interpolations. Before concluding what relates to the viviparous quadrupeds, Aristotle speaks of monkeys, which he considers as intermediate between these animals and man. He gives a very good account of the principal features of their organization, the structure of | i ‘ Aristotle's History of Animals. 71 their hands, and designates several species, some of which have a tail, and othérs have none. He then passes to the oviparous quadrupeds, gives the characters which are common to all, speaks of the nature of their teguments, and, on this occasion, describes the crocodile of Egypt, remarks the hardness of its scales, the length of its teeth, their form, the disposition of the organ of hearing, and lastly describes the principal habits of that animal. 5 "; The classification which Aristotle proposes for birds is excel- lent, with reference to the principal sections, and: is precisely that of Brisson. He shews the analogy between their wings and the fore feet of quadrupeds. He then speaks of the form of their feet, and the differences which are observed in them, of their third eye-lid, and of the faculty which several of these ani- mals, especially those which. have a fleshy tongue, possess of pro- nouncing words. He remarks that no bird has at the same time spurs and hooked claws. ‘This is another of those general pro- positions which one is surprised to find in the infancy of science. He at length arrives at the fishes ; and here he is truly admi- rable, his knowledge being, on some points, superior to what we possess at the present day. He makes known, im various parts of his book, 117 fishes, although his object is not to enumerate species, but only to present general views. Of the facts which he relates, several are still considered'as doubtful. New obser- vations, however, have from time to time made known the ac- curacy of some of his assertions, even of those’ which seemed the least accurate. He says, for example, that 'a fish named phycis makes a nest like birds. ‘This was long ‘considered as a fable, but M. Olivi has lately found a fish, named gow or gaw (Gobius niger), which has similar habits.’ The male, at the period of impregnation, digs a hole in the mud, surrounds it with fuci, orming a nest of it, near which he meets the female, and from _ which he does not stir until the eggs that have been deposited in it are hatched *. Aristotle, in the part where he speaks’ of the sensations, takes care to point out the animals which are destitute of some organ of sense, or those in which these organs present certain peculia- * Fishes nests built of fuci have been observed in this country, as men- tioned in a former number of this Journal,.—Eprr. . G2 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. rities. Thus, on the subject of vision, he speaks of the eye of the mole, which is concealed beneath the skin, but which is si- anilar in its conformation to that of other animals, and equally furnished with a nerve, which is evidently that of the fifth pair. In treating of taste, he speaks of the fleshy palate of the carp. He speaks of the organ of hearing of fishes, and shews that the skin may serve for the transmission of sounds. He shews that insects also Popiess the faculty of hearing, and even that they have the sense of smell, as they are driven off by certain smells, and attracted by others. In speaking of the voice, he distin- guishes correctly between the true voice, which is produced by air expelled from the lungs, and the various noises which some animals emit. He describes, on this occasion, the musical ap- paratus of the cicadz and paniclinugcl which consists of quite a different mechanism. He then speaks of the voice of the par- rot, and the disposition of the tongue in frogs, which, instead of being, as in most animals, free anteriorly and fixed behind, has its base attached to the fore part of the jaws, and the point di- rected towards the palate.. In treating of waking and sleep, Aristotle speaks of the hy- }ernation of several animals, and the sleep of fishes; and, on this point, gives details which it would be very difficult for us at the present day to verify. But he was placed in very fa- vourable circumstances for obtaining information respecting these animals. Greece abounds in gulfs and straits full of fishes, and the inhabitants of the’coasts must therefore have en- gaged at an early period in fishing. It would indeed appear froth some passages in Homer, that this profession was anciently held in disesteem, but the prejudice did not last long. Exten- sive fisheries were established, and salt fish became an important article of commerce. It was on account of the riches which this occupation procured to the inhabitants of Byzantium that i port received the name of the golden horn. In the part in w yhich generation is spoken of, we find very ex- ¢ensive and accurate observations. Aristotle there speaks of the membranes in which several mollusea envelope their eggs, and describes them in the octopus and loligo.. He explains the me- tamorphoses of insects, which, before acquiring their last form, pass through the larva and chrysalis states. He also knew the Aristotles History of Animais.’ 13 incomplete metamorphoses, in which the larva differs from ‘the perfect insect only in the absence of wings, and only undergoes a single transformation. He speaks of the insects which occur in snow; and, in short, enters into a multitude of very interest- ing and perfectly accurate details. He admits spontaneous ge- neration, however, in these animals, and thinks, that, when the constituent elements present themselves in the necessary propor- tions, and in favourable circumstances, they are capable of giving rise to living beings; but, at this period, such an error was al- most inevitable, and it was not until the invention of the micro- scope that the truth could be known. He speaks of the econo- my of bees, and says that some persons consider the king as a -female. He describes the kind of cell constructed for these privileged individuals, which shews that he had observed the in- terior of their hives, although he certainly could not have had the use of glass, which greatly facilitates an examination of this kind. He also treats of the domestic economy of wasps, hornets, ~mason-bees, and drones; describes the singular covering in which the larva of the Phryganea is enveloped, and speaks of spi- ders which carry under their belly the bag which contains their eggs. In speaking of animals of a higher order, he makes a very accurate distinction between the eggs which have a hard envelope, as those of crocodiles and tortoises, and those with a soft envelope, as in serpents. He says that serpents which bring forth their young alive, have yet eggs, but that these eggs are hatched within them. He was perfectly acquainted with the development of the chick during incubation, describes it day af- ter day, speaks of the heart as the first point’ that appears, of the veins which afterwards stretch towards the upper and lower parts of the body, and, lastly, of the alantoid membrane which presently envelopes the whole egg. It ought to be remarked, that all these observations were made with thie unaided eye, and that the slight errors which may be marked in them depend solely upon the cireumstance that Aristotle had no magnifying glasses. He remarks, in speaking of the eggs of fishes, that the alantoid membrane does not exist in them, nor in those of any other animal that respires by branchie. He admits spon- taneous generation in fishes, as he had done in insects ; and, in support of this opinion, adduces facts which appear conclusive 74 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. such as those sudden appearances of an immense quantity of small fishes, which. the Greeks, on account of their supposed origin, named aphia, and to which, in the south of France, a name is still given which originates from.the same idea, they being there called nonnats, that is non nati. What he says of eels is certainly incorrect ;, but we ourselves, in respect to the reproduction of that animal, have still much to learn, notwith- standing the labours of Spallanzani. Aristotle examines the changes produced by age in animals and in man, and. on this occasion gives excellent advice to mothers. He then passes to the actions of animals, and endea- vours to explain the influence of their kind -of life, that of the external circumstances, climate and seasons, in the midst of which the different species live. He also points out the food that agrees with each. What he says of. fishes is particularly interesting, and might be very useful to us, were it not that in consulting it we are frequently put to a stop, his nomenclature | being different from ours. _ He treats of the influence of tem- perature on the migrations of birds, speaks of those which travel, the time at which they set out,,and the order which they follow in their flight. He also speaks of the migrations of fishes, of that of the tunny, the mackerel and sardine, and says, that shoals of fishes come from the Black Sea and enter the Bosphorus, He follows them in their route through the Propontis and. into the Archipelago. It appears that he had cbserved them on the coasts of Thrace, and especially at Byzantium. He says that the same fish receives different names at different periods ; for example that the fish which is known in the Euxine Sea by the name of cordylus takes in spring the name of pelamis, and last- ly that of thon when it has arrived in the Archipelago, He treats of the fishes which in winter do not shew themselves, and of other animals which appear at certain seasons of the year, as the boback or Pontus rat. He speaks of the diseases of fishes, and on this subject he appears to be better informed than we are at the present. day. In describing the different acts of ani- mals, he makes known the means by which the frog-fish attracts small fishes in order to devour them, and speaks of the com- motions which the torpedo causes. when one lays hold of it, and of the manner in which the cuttlefish escapes the pursuit of its a ne ee ee Aristotles History of Animals. 45 enemies by darkening the water with its ink. He pursues this examination into the class of insects, and speaks particularly of some of them, and especially of the spiders. Then, passing to birds, he points out the different ways in which they construct their nests ; says that there are species which make no nests ; and, finally, gives the history of the cuckoo, which lays its eggs in the nest of another bird. From the above account it will be seen how rich and abundant in matter is the History of Animals. There is a defect in it, how- ever, which renders it much less useful to us than it might otherwise be, for Aristotle, like all the ancient naturalists, seems to have thought that the language which he spoke was never to change, and generally contents himself with naming the species. He gives no descriptions properly so called, excepting in refe- rence to the elephant, the camel, the crocodile, and the cameleon. Some other animals, it is true, are indicated by characteristic traits, and cannot be misunderstood ; but in most cases we are reduced to conjectures founded on some circumstances in the history of the animal, or the properties which the author assigns to it. We have to bring together the different passages which refer to it, to compare them with each other, and with those which occur in contemporary authors, and even to confront them with passages that occur in authors of an after date. But, in the latter case, great caution is necessary, the signification of words being liable to vary with time. In fact, it is evident that names have changed from the time of Aristotle to that of Athenzeus, and the changes which they have since undergone must necessarily be still greater. The zoological nomenclature of the modern Greeks may, however, assist us in retracing the animal of the ancients. Scaliger has published a good edition of the History of Ani- mals, but the best of all is the one published in 1811 by Mr Schneider. The Latin translation of Theodore of Gaza is often quoted, but it is very inaccurate. This translator was a Greek, who went to Italy when Constantinople was taken by the Turks. He was a bad Latin scholar, so that, whenever he found a_pas- sage in Pliny that had been borrowed from Aristotle, he trans- cribed it literally. It also appears that he had only a bad copy of the Greek text. "6 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. There is a French translation by M. Camus, of which the text is nearly the same as that of Scaliger. The translation is as good as might be expected of a man who was not a naturalist ; but the volume of notes which is added to it only renders the subject more obscure. The other books of Aristotle, relating to natural history, are much less perspicuous than that of which we have been speak- ing. ‘They are more mingled with discussions respecting tech- nical terms.. The Greek language encourages these discussions, and the same inconvenience is attendant upon all languages that are faithful to etymology. Each word, in fact, presenting as it were an abridged definition of the thing, necessarily bears the impress of the false ideas which were entertained when it was formed. Whence arises the necessity of defining each expres- sion. Accordingly, the Greek writers are continually explain- ing their terms, distinguishing and subdividing without end. They carry the thing to excess, and Aristotle himself, as we have said, sometimes “falls into this error. Those of his works against which this charge is to be made, appear to be much an- terior to the History of Animals, and probably are merely a preparatory undertaking. This applies especially to the Won- derful Recitals, which are merely a collection of notes put toge- ther without order, but which are interesting on account of their containing extracts from lost books. There is a good edi- tion by Beckmann. A book on plants has been attributed to Aristotle, but it ap- pears to be apocryphal. Lecrure Nintu.— Theophrastus. Aristotle died, as we have already said, 322 years before Christ, in the same year with Demosthenes, who committed suicide that he might not fall into the hands of Antipater. After this period, the Macedonian yoke became still more oppres- sive to Greece than it had been even in the time of Alexander. Athens, though retaining its own laws and internal administra- tion, was, in reality, subjugated. . But so long as the turbulence of the times allowed, the Athenian ‘schools continued. to flourish. These were, the Portico, which was a separate branch of the Cynic sect ; the Academy, where the doctrines of Plato, some- i : t : Sey Theophrastus. 17 what modified, were professed ; and, finally, the Lyceum, in which were continued the labours of Anstotle. Among the philosophers of the Lyceum, the most famous was Theophrastus. He was born at Evesus, in the island of Lesbos, 370 years be- fore Christ, and 22 before the death of Plato, whose pupil he is supposed for some time to have been before entering the school of Aristotle. His eloquence, from which he took the name of Theophrastus, for he was at first called: Tyrtamus, gained him a number of disciples, and he had, at one time, more than two hundred. It issaid, that when Aristotle was about to leave Eubcea, his pupils insisted on his appointing one among them, who should succeed him in the school. The philosopher, without speaking openly, said enough to let them know the man of his choice, for, having produced some wine from Rhodes, and some from Lesbos, the first sort, he said, was stronger, but the other was sweeter, and appeared to him preferable; making thus an illusion to the two persons, between whom the choice might appear doubtful, namely, to Theophrastus, who, as we have already said, was born in the island of Lesbos, and to Me. _ nedemus, who was born in that of Rhodes. Theophrastus, like his master’, was subject to some persecu- tions. Attacked by Sophocles, he, along with other philoso- phers, was driven into exile, about 306 years before Christ; but he was soon recalled, and the person who had accused him, was himself banished. Ptolemy Lagus endeavoured to attract him to Alexandria, but he preferred remaining at Athens. Eloquent, mild, beneficent, upright in his conduct, and neat in his external appearance, he gained the good will and respect of every body. He died at the age of 85 years, according to some, and of more than 100, according to others. The whole body of the people attended his funeral. His house, he bequeathed to his friends, on the conditions that they should not sell it, and that they should meet in it for the prosecution of the study of letters and philosophy. This is the first legacy which was left to the seiences by a private man. He left them also his garden, in which he had reared a great many native and foreign plants, such, at least, as would grow in the climate of Greece ; for, as glass was not in use at that time, there were no hot-houses. Thus the descriptions which Theophrastus has 78 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. given of the plants of warm countries, lie under a disadvantage, from this want.of the means of observation. His botanic gar- den, however, notwithstanding this imperfection, was still a very useful institution to science: it was the first of the kind that had been established. Theophrastus wrote on different subjects, on general philoso- phical questions, on manners, and on natural history. -He left, it is said, more than two hundred treatises, the titles of which have been partly preserved to us by Diogenes Laertius. The most considerable of these, as well as some inferior ones, are still extant. In all these works, there is a good deal of spirit, much justness and elegance of expression, and great clearness of method. The most important work of Theiphiastias is his History of Plants, a work somewhat similar in design to Aristotle’s History of Animals. Thus, according to his model, he begins by treat- ing of the parts of plants, which, first of all, he divides into roots, stems, branches, and shoots. He remarks, and with pro- priety, that there is not one of these parts which is common to every plant—a circumstance which is very true, if truffles and mushrooms be excluded, as it is proper they should be. In every part, he distinguishes the bark, the wood, and the pith. He goes on to shew the exterior organs of the vegetables, the leaves, the flower, the peduncle, the tendrils,—and, on this sub- ject, he speaks of gall-nuts. Then, he treats of the interior parts of the flesh, that is to say, of the parenchyma, vems, and juices. After these preliminary observations, he divides plants, and forms a sort of method, similar to that of Aristotle in treating of animals. But his task was a more difficult one te accom- plish, as the characters necessary for establishing, to a classifi- cation, are less easily met with in vegetable than in animated beings. Theophrastus contents himself, therefore, with divid- ing plants, according to their size and consistence, into trees, shrubs, plants, and herbs. This mode of division has been of very long continuance. He speaks of the different qualities.of wood and pith, and of the different forms assumed by the root, namely, the fusiform, the ramous, the tuberculous, or bulbous ; and illustrates his de- | | NN —————— Theophrastus. 79 finitions by examples. He says, that the root goes no farther into the earth than the point to which the heat penetrates from the surface. In treating of leaves, he, first of all, makes the very just re- mark, that the inferior face of these organs is more absorbent than the superior. He divides them, according to their size, si- tuation, and form. He speaks of the organs of fructification, and makes a distinction between the upper and lower flowers, and points out the different sorts of seed. He proceeds to exa- mine the means of reproduction in vegetables, which are perpe- tuated not only by seeds, but often also by suckers, roots, and slips. He next considers wild and cultivated plants ; says that the latter are not the produce of a degenerescence caused by the culture; and that, therefore, it is false that barley can be transformed to oats. He speaks of the effects which the sun, climate, and various other circumstances have upon the fecun- dity of plants; and, on this subject, relates many curious facts. Thus, he speaks of caprification, an operation, by means of which the bulk and richness of the fruit of the fig-tree are increased, and which consists in breeding upon it very small insects, which in- troduce themselves into the hollow of the nascent fruit. He de- scribes also the way in which female date-trees were made to bear fruits, namely, by putting them near enough to receive the in- fluence of the male dates. He does not, however, look upon this as a real fecundation. In this place, he speaks of different palm-trees in warm countries; and, among others, of a palm- tree having a forked, or dichotomous stem, which belongs to upper Egypt. He tells by what means forest-trees are propa- gated at a distance, namely, by the aid of winds, inundations, &c. He next considers trees as they inhabit plains or moun- tains, as they remain always green, or are divested of foliage ; and, in this last case, he points out many sorts which lose their foliage at certain periods, and mentions these periods. He speaks also of the time of the sap, and of that of fructification. Finally, he considers the slowness or the rapidity with wities plants grow. Theophrastus, in speaking of trees, often distinguishes them as male and female; but these terms, as used by him, do not convey the idea of sexes. He describes different species: in 2: 80 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. speaking of the trees in warm countries, he describes the real acacia, which is a mimosa, a sensitive plant, different from that small species which is cultivated in our greenhouses; the le- mon-tree (the thorny apple-tree of the Medes), the fruit of which was used at that time for perfuming clothes; the banana- tree, the large leaves of which resemble a bunch of ostrich feathers ; finally, the fig-tree of the Brahmins, the branches of which, descending to the earth, take root in it, and send forth new shoots. He speaks also of the ebony and cotton-tree, a shrub which was known from the time of the expedition of Alexander, but which had not yet been transported into Greece: Theophrastus speaks of plants which grow in water, such as the fucus and sponge. He remarks, that in these last there is something approaching to animals. In treating of vegetables which growin rivers, he describes the papyrus, a plant so im- portant during the time when parchment was undiscovered ; and of the lotus, a sort of mymphza, very common in every Egyptian canal. He treats of the length of the hfe of plants, their diseases, and, among others, of those which attack wood ; also of the in- sects that gnaw it. On this subject, he describes the larva of the horn-beetle. He shews the places m which forest-trees- attain the greatest height; and mentions Corsica in particular. These are nearly all the subjects treated of in the first five books. The sixth treats of shrubs, bushes, and garden flowers ; the seventh, of culinary vegetables, and also of some field plants ; the eighth, of the cerealia, and of leguminous plants; and, in the ninth and last book, he treats of the juices which’ are’ ex- tracted, from plants, namely, pitch, tar, rosin, frankincense, and myrrh. .In this book, he treats also of certain aromatics, particularly of cinnamon, and of several medicinal plants, of hellebore, for example, which was much more in use among the ancients than it is among the moderns. From what has been said, it,is obvious, that the history of plants is a sort of counter- part of the history of animals. But Theophrastus, though he had a good deal of talent and information, was far from having the genius of Aristotle. Nor do we find in his works those enlarged views, and that abundance of general rules, which we admire in the other. 3 ee eS le - Theophrastus. Si Theophrastus has noticed in -his work about 260 plants. There are mentioned. in it a good many forest-trees, and fruit- trees, most of the culinary vegetables, the cerealia, and, lastly, a great many Indian plants, which have been discoyered again only since the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries. Theophrastus wrote another work relating to botany. It is his treatise on the Causes of Plants. In it he treats of some questions in vegetable physiology, but principally on the influ- ence of external circumstances on plants. _ He proposes a cer- tain number of questions, which it is not always easy to answer. He asks, for example, why the best fruit does not always con- tain the best seed ?—why the fruit of wild trees has not so sweet a relish as that of cultivated trees? He puts other physical questions. He would have it explained, for instance, why ani- mals have not in general a pleasant odour; while many plants diffuse a very agreeable fragrance? It is, says he, because animals, being of a hot, dry constitution, and having a thin breath, throw off by evaporation the superfluous parts of their aliment. : _ The physics of Theophrastus are worse than those of Aris- totle. Theophrastus, like his master, studied almost all the branches of natural history. He wrote some small treatises on different points in zoology. There is one of them which treats of fish which live without water, in which he gives proof of extensive knowledge of the productions of India. He speaks of flying-fish; of those which the sea’ in ebbing leaves upon the rocks; of those which lie buried in the mud of lakes, as the loach, and comitis fossilis, which is sometimes found in slime when thickened and dried. He speaks of an Indian fish that comes out of the water. This fish, which was unknown to us till about twenty years ago, when we were made acquaint- ed with it through, the account.of M. Hamilton Buchanan, is the ophicephalus., It lives m the Ganges; but it is found sometimes at so great a distance from every appearance of wa- ter, that it has even been thought, to have fallen from heaven. Theophrastus gives a pretty good description of it, and says APRIL—JUNE 1830, F 82 Baron Cuvier’s Lectures on the Natural Sciences. that it resembles the mullet, in the round form of the head, in its colour, and the disposition of its scales. Theophrastus wrote also a small treatise on animals that change their colour. In this treatise, he speaks of the various colours assumed by the cameleon, and the change of tint which takes place in the hair of the remdeer,—a change which he considers as dependent upon the will of the animal, but which, in reality, is only an effect of the seasons. In another little work upon animals of sudden appearance, he seems not much disposed to admit spontaneous generation; and if he does not altogether reject it, at least he limits it a good deal more than his master did. ; The most important of the works of Theophrastus, next to his two books upon botany, is his treatise on stones, a work valuable on account of the number of mineral species that are pointed out in it. Theophrastus wrote also a treatise on metals, but this treatise is lost. He considers metals as deriving their origin from water, and stones as produced by the earth. He makes a division among stones, distinguishing them as fusible and infusible; and these last, again, as calcinable stones, and stones which are unalterable by fire. He groups all the mineral substances which have a common property, as amber and the loadstone, both of which have a power of attraction. He shews the uses of the touchstone, speaks of the different kinds of petri- faction, and of petrifying waters. From these general considerations, he goes to particular de- scriptions. He ahtake of different Fonte’ of the Parian-marble, pentelic marble, alabaster, and a good many others that are used by architects and sculptors. He treats of the stones which are reduced for extracting metals, of pit-coal and its dif- ferent species. He compares amber with a variety of this mine- ral which is found in Liguria, and it is a very just comparison. He mentions also pumice-stones ; he knew their volcanic ori- gin, and gives to one of the species the name of Lipari-stone. He gives a description of the amianthus, which is indestructible by fire; and of another substance, like rotten wood, which, when soaked in oil, burns with a flame. Next came the stones fit for engraving; the carnelian, the jasper, &c. Mention is made of a sapphire, which has a blue Theophrastus. 83 ground, with veins of gold. It is therefore not the gem which is now designated sapphire, but the lapis-lazuli. Theo- phrastus speaks of emeralds, and, in doing so, relates, that an Egyptian king had received emeralds from a prince of Ethiopia, which were not less than four cubits in height, and that four of them would have served to erect an obelisk. The thing, though strange, is not altogether incredible; for it is known that, near Limoges, emeralds are found of very large dimensions, but without either brightness or transparency.* Besides the ancients confounded, under the name of emeralds, tourmalines and many other greenstones. Theophrastus speaks also of the hyacinth ; of the amethyst, which is called the Heraclean-stone; of rock- erystal ; of the onyx, which is found on breaking certain rocks ; of the Agate, which takes its name from the river Achates; of the jasper of Bactriana, which is met with among sand. He speaks of the magnetic stone; and by this name he designates, not what has since been designated by it, the loadstone, but a stone which has no attractive power, of a silvery lustre, and which was then used for making cups. In treating of precious stones, Theophrastus speaks also of pearls, but without confounding them with mineral productions. He says that they are got from a shell-fish which is fished in the Indian seas. He speaks of the remains of organized bodies which are found in the earth, of petrified reeds, of fossil ivory, of Armenian blue, &c. In treating of the use of mineral substances, he describes the process of the manufactory of glass. He mentions the different colours that painters obtain from minerals; natural ochre, burned ochre, white lead, verdigris, vermilion, cimnabar, which the Pheenicians brought from Spain; it was brought also from Colchis, and was found, it was said, on the top of certain steep rocks, from which it was separated by the shots of arrows. This was undoubtedly a story invented by the merchants, to warrant their raising its price. Finally, Theophrastus speaks of marl, and its uses; and of plaster, which, even in his time, was used as it is now, for moulding ornaments for the interior of houses. * In North America beryls weighing 240 pounds have been met wither Eprr, K 2 ( 84 ) A Monograph of the Family of Plants called Cunontacee. By Mr Davip Don, Librarian to the Linnean Society ; Member of the Imperial Academy Naturz Curiosorum ; of the Royal Botanical Society of Ratisbon ; and of the Wer- nerian Society of Edinburgh, &c. Tur Cunoniacee were first proposed as a separate family by Mr Brown from the Sawvifragee, to which they had been referred by Jussieu, and to which they are’ intimately related, being chiefly distinguished by habit alone. M. Kunth consi- ders them merely as a section of the Saxifragea, but it appears to me preferable to regard them as a separate family; for the advantages arising from dividing extensive families and genera, are, that the individuals composing them become better under- stood, and their characters more accurately investigated. In Willdenow’s Species Plantarum, there are only two species of true Weinmannia; while in the present monograph they amount to nearly thirty. The Sawifragee are almost exclusively con- fined to the northern, as the Cunoniacee are to the southern hemisphere. Some pass beyond these limits, but their number is very small. Both families agree in having entire and. divided petals, and a superior and inferior ovarium. I have occasion- ally met with instances in Savifraga decipiens of trifid. petals. In the series of natural affinities, the Philadelphee clearly follow the Cunoniacee, with which they correspond in habit; and in Bauera and Polystemon the stamens are indefinite ; and the seeds of Caldcluvia have a. striking analogy to those of Philadelphus. The styles, both in Saxifragee and Cunoniacee, are often three ; and in Cornidia of the Flora Peruviana, a genus closely related to Hydrangea, that number is always constant. ‘The leaves of Bauera, Mr Salisbury, who established the genus, and referred it to the Sawifragee, regarded as ternate, with an abbreviated axis; but they appear to me to be more properly simple, and that the two lateral leaves are really modified stipules,—an opi- nion which is confirmed by the presence in Caldcluvia of a pair of stipules to each leaf; and, were they more developed, we should have precisely the same structure as in Bauera. M. Kunth, who Mr Don on the Cunoniacew: 85 first suggested the propriety of separating Caldcluvia from Weinmannia, states the seeds to amount to 50 in each cell; but in all the specimens I have examined, both from Cavanilles himself, and also from Ruiz and Pavon, I have never found them to exceed 10. I regret that I have not. had an opportu- nity of seeing authentic specimens of the species described in the Nova Genera, &c. by M. Kunth, but I could not omit in- serting the characters of them in the present monograph, as the greater part of them are evidently distinct from those of the Flora Peruwviana. CUNONIACEA, Brown. Catyx pluridivisus, zstivatione valvatus. Perata laciniis calycinis numero zqualia, iisdemque alterna, zestivatione imbricata ; quandoque nulla. 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Irregularities, which appear in these statements, will probably disappear by a mean of many years. When we consider that this law is revealed in Louisiana, Cairo, Benares, and in Macao, we cannot doubt that it will also be observed in Owaihi, and hence be general over the earth. Rio Janeiro and the Cape-town are already so far removed in longitude, and even in meteorological situation, from each other, that we may expect a similar character for the south- ern hemisphere. But this phenomenon has determinate limits. It disappears, not gradually, but in a sharp transition; and in the apparent inequalities, towards the pole, of the mean barometric heights, there is revealed the temperate zone. In Palermo, Cadiz, Mafra, we find no longer the deepest mean heights in the summer, and still less in places having a higher geographi- cal latitude. As it appears to be proved, that the different barometric heights and their irregularities depend on the nature of the prevailing winds, it is probable, also, that the regular course of decreasing mean barometric heights also depends on changes of the wind; and this is proved by phenomena in India. For there it is that the rainy south-west monsoons cause the sinking of the mercury, and this in proportion as they touch from above downwards the surface of the earth. The north: east wind raises, with equal uniformity, the mercury in the ba- rometer. It is also observed, where the law of the barome- tric heights no longer appears, that, in summer, the trade, or the regular north-east or north wind, is sometimes overcome by the south or south-west wind. But these are the upper equa- torial currents, which in high latitudes come from above. As they ascend everywhere in the torrid. zone, and flow towards the poles, they will be forced, the farther they come, from great circles of the earth’s surface, into circles of smaller diameter, and so the farther they go into smaller and narrower limits. They will therefore increase\in height, as also in velocity. . Lastly, they will force the north-east. wind to yield ; and; in place of Bsa bol ~ 132 Baron Leopold Von Buch on the Subtropical Zone. flowing perpendicularly over one another, flow alongside each other. 'The shape of the land and of the sea, different tempera- tures of the soil, different velocities of the wind, and frequently their crossing one another, change these polar and equatorial streams in very short periods, aud:the barometer continues in a constant state of agitation. - The law of these vibrations will no longer be general,. but belong to every individual part of the surface of the earth in which they occur. The limits of the subtropical zone, on the side towards the equator, will be deter- mined’by the tropical rains, which-is, at the same time, the far- thest limit which the upper equatorial current flowing towards the pole, in the winter, touches the surface of the earth. The boundary of ‘the zone, on the side turned from the equator, is determined by the disappearance of the law of the regular de- crease and increase of the mean barometrical heights. In sum- mer, they would be where the upper equatorial current some- times descends down, but, in winter, dispute the place with the north-east wind to the surface, and flow with it, for the most part, alongside each other, but in opposite directions. These limits may be determined, in the northern hemisphere, in the following manner. The southern limit will fall somewhat to the north of the Cape de Verd Islands, about the 20° of latitude; in the in- terior of Africa somewhat more: to the south; for Denham ex- pressly remarks, that the tropical rains begin on. the west coast, in the 16° of latitude. In Nubia, also, according to Ehrenberg, they first begin in north latitude 16°... The northern limit will be placed over Cairo, yet not directly by Algiers; therefore in the 32° of north latitude. In the southern hemisphere, this boundary extends nearer to the pole, as is. sufficiently proved by observations made at the Cape,. in south latitude 33°. But it does not extend much farther, for the few observations made at Buenos Ayres appear to assign that place a situation beyond the boundary of the effect of the law of the medium barometri- eal heights. ‘That Santa Fe’ de Bogota, although in the north- ern hemisphere, yet follows in the mean barometrical heights the curve of southern places, is a beautiful confirmation of the encroachment of southern climatic relations beyond. the equator. The boundary of the southern trade wind passes, in summer, from 7° to 8° beyond the equator; and in the estuary of the Baron Leopold Von Buch on the Subtropical Zone. 133 viver Amazon, and in French Guiana, the tropical rains are conformable with those on the south side of the equator, not those on the north side, notwithstanding their northern latitude. The subtropical zone is admirably characterized in the north- ern part of theold world by the date-tree (Phenix dactylifera). If this tree were also found on the opposite-side of the Atlantic sea, the whole zone might well be named the Date Zone. For on the-opposite side of its northern limit, the date-tree no longer ripens its fruit ; and the tropical rains prevent-a single date-tree ripening its fruit beyond its southern limit. Hence this:palm does not occur in India, and therefore is not met with in Mo- sambique or Melide. It first appears again in Mckran, in the 27° of latitude, where the south-west. monsoon ceases; and be- fore the north-east wind has obtained the ascendaney, at the end of August and the beginning of September, there occurs a time of very continued ‘heat, which is~ called the Date Ripening ‘(Khoormu Puz), without which the fruit does not acquire its full ripeness. The caravans, in the interior of Africa, provide themselves with dates for many weeks, when they travel from the south to Bilma, in the 18° of latitude. The soil does not prevent the farther spread of the date, but the tropical raimssoon appear. Browne found the Date but rarely in the Darfur, and only with bad fruit. On the Senegal, in Guinea, in the Congo, it is never'seen. The Date-is as peculiar to this zone, as the-Cocoa is rare in it. It is truly remarkable how the cocoa trees no longer thrive when the tropi- cal rams cease. Even in Mekran they are no longer met with, and neither on the coasts of the Arabian nor Persian Gulfs.— Another distinguished production of this zone is Ceratonia sili- qua, the Carob-tree. It oversteps in its distribution the northern and southern boundaries, but only in a-small degree, and only as a shoot from the zone itself. . The tropical rain also prevents its ripening its fruit. Hence we-in vain look for it in India. And probably many other trees will be found and de- termined, which require for the growing and ripening of their fruit the intensity and uniform increase of the subtropical heat, and therefore will be characteristic for this zone. 3 (194) On Milk, and its Adulterations, in Paris. By the extension of the use of coffee, the quantity of milk now consumed is at least double that which was used eighteen or twenty years ago. . But the number of milch cows in the vicinity of Paris has not increased in any thing like the same proportion. Much of the milk sold by certain milkmen at the corners of streets, has none of the properties of common milk, except the whiteness. ‘The quantity of milk which proceeds from the same cow, isvery different at different times ; and that of different cows varies also in quality. Some of the more wealthy inhabitants, who obtain their milk directly from the dairies, at a good price, have it pure; but the mass of milk sold in Paris is more or less altered, The most common adulteration is that of water. But as this can be detected by the taste and colour, brown sugar is added to restore the sweetness, and wheat or some other kind of flour the whiteness and consistency. Hence the areometer, which merely determines the specific gravity of the fluid, is of nouse in detecting these impurities ;— and besides, milk which is rich in butyraceous matters, is much lighter than that which is less rich in butter, but more rich in case- ousingredients. To prevent the flour which is used in thickening the skimmed and watered milk from settling to the bottom, it is previously mixed with water and boiled, which renders it, when cold, soluble in milk. ‘Thus, flour is easily detected by the tincture of iodine, which gives it a wine or violet colour. More especially, if this floured milk be treated with a little sulphuric acid, and the coagulum separated by a filter, the serum acquires a fine blue colour by the.tincture of iodine. Thus detected, the milk sellers sought for some substance which would not produce the blue colour with iodine, in which they doubtless obtained the aid of some chemists. They resorted to an ewulsion of sweetalmonds, with which, for the cost of about one frane, they can give a milk white to 30 pints of ‘water, and communicate no unpleasant taste. Some of these pretended milk dealers, less serapelaiela employ On Milk and its Adulterations. 135 hemp seed in lieu of almonds, because of its greater cheapness. They thus dilute the milk of cows to almost any extent they please, without altering its colour or opacity, and correct its taste by a little coarse sugar. This fictitious milk may be detected, however, by the oily nature of its curd. When the latter is pressed between the fingers, or on paper, the oil exudes from it, which is not the case with the curd of pure milk. That portion or part of the milk which is least influenced by variation of food, &c.in the cow, is the caseous portion, or curd. Four specimens of milk were obtained by the author from dairies on different sides of Paris, and one other was taken from a -cow, and immediately brought tohim. Three hundred grammes of each of these were warmed, and treated with equal quan- tities of vinegar. The curd of each being drained, and equally pressed between folds of soft paper, afforded, those from the dairies, each twenty-nine grammes of cheese, and that from the ‘cow, thirty grammes. A second experiment, gave within a small fraction, the same result. Taking the quantity of this caseous matter as a type of the purity of milk, other equal proportions of milk were mixed, each with an equal weight of water, and treated in the same manner, when it was found that the quantity of cheese was ex- actly one-half. In a third experiment, the milk was diluted with twice its weight of water, and the cheese was precisely one-third. The last experiment was repeated, with the addition of sugar tothe milk and water. When the cheese was extracted, the whey cautiously evaporated to the consistency of extract, treated with boiling alcohol, filtered and evaporated, the sugar which had been added was recovered. To distinguish the milk which is adulterated with emulsion of almonds or of hemp-seed, 150 grammes of pure milk were ‘united with 150 grammes of emulsion of sweet almonds, and the curd was separated by vinegar, with the aid of heat. Being well pressed, it weighed 16 grammes 4%. Then another mixture was made, in the proportion of 100 grains of milk to 200 of emul- sion, and this furnished 10 grammes. and 18 decigrammes of curd, which, it will be observed, is proportionate to the prior ‘136 Mr J.:Girardin’s Remarks on Sir H. Davcy’s quantity. Besides, the curd or caseum of pure milk can ‘be easily distinguished from that with the emulsion, by its consis- tency, and by the grease which the latter yields when exposed for some time to white paper. "To prevent the milk from turning sour and curdling, as it is .so apt to do ‘in the heat.of summer, the milkmen add a small quantity of sub-carbonate of potash, or soda, which, saturating the acetic acid as it forms, prevents coagulation or separation of the curd; and.some of them practise this with so much success, as to gain the reputation of selling milk that never turns. Often when coagulation has taken place, they restore the fluidity by a greater or less addition of one or other of the fixed alkalies. The acetate which is thus formed has no injurious effects; and, be- sides, milk contains naturally a small quantity of acetate of potash, but not an atom of free or carbonated alkali. It is proposed from the-result of these investigations, that the authorities should ordain, 1s¢, That no milkshould be sold.except in sealed measures; and, 2dly, That, in each quarter of the city, one or two pharmaceutists should be charged with the duty of examining from time to time the quality of the milk offered for sale, and that penalties should be exacted for every fraudulent alteration of quantity or quality.—Annales. 7 Hygiene Publique et de Medecine Legale, July 1829. Remarks on Sir Humphrey Davy’s Opinions respecting Vol- canic Phenomena. By Mr W.J. Girarpin. - Avren presenting a succinct account of Sir H. Dayy’s ideas on the subject of volcanoes, M. Girardin makes the following re- marks. In the first place, is it indeed demonstrated that the sea com- municates with the volcanic foci ?, Geologists of all ages have attributed a great degree of importance to the circumstance, that volcanoes are situated near the sea, or in islands. It is difficult to give a satisfactory reason for this fact, and still more difficult to account for the manner in which the communication may take place. There is every reason to believe, that the infiltrations of the sea advance but a very short distance into the interior of the = opinions respecting Volcanic Phenomena. 137 jand, and in general, what has been said on this subject has been exaggerated. Besides, were it true that this communication of the waters of the sea with volcanoes was oneof the causes of their erup- tions, how should the present state of rest of certain of them, although always placed in the same circumstances, be accounted for? The islands of Ischia, of Procida, and the Pumice Isles, are always surrounded by the sea; the bases of the craters of Averne, Gauro, Astroni, &e. are still bathed by it; and yet none of these places at present exhibit any signs of action. Will it be said, that the subterranean canals by which’ the waters in- troduced themselves into the volcanic abysses are now closed, or that the masses of alkaline and earthy metals which existed in these different localities are exhausted ? It would be difficult, indeed, to conceive such reasons. Besides, a great number of voleanoes are situated in the interior of continents: we may mention, for example, those of the Andes of Quito, Sanguay, Pichincha, Cotopaxi, &c. What means of communication can be supposed to exist over a space of more than 40 leagues? It is true, that the waters of the sea are supplied by great subter- ranean lakes, whose existence is attested by immense mud erup- tions, great inundations, and especially by the fishes (pimelodes cyclopum) sometimes ejected in prodigious quantity ; but many circumstances prove that these lakes have no communication with the volcanic focus itself. Many of these fishes are found alive at the moment of their ejection, and. almost all of them are in so entire a state, notwithstanding the great softness of their flesh, that it is impossible to admit their having been exposed to the action of heat. The water ejected along with them is commonly cold. It is easy to account for these extraordinary facts, the first knowledge of which we owe to M. de Humboldt, by the forma- tion of subterranean lakes which are peopled by fishes ejected during eruptions, the latter, besides, only taking place at long intervals. It therefore remains highly probable, that the alleged commu- nication of the sea or of subterranean lakes with the foci of vol- canoes, is altogether imaginary. And besides, were it admitted, it would remain as difficult to explain certain facts, to the dis- eussion of which we now proceed. One of the most important consequences of the action of water upon the alkaline and earthy 138 Mr J. Girardin’s Remarks on Sir H. Davy’s ‘metals, would be the production of an enormous quantity of hydrogen, and, in consequence of the combustion of that gas on coming into contact with the air, the disengagement by the vol- canic' crater of a prodigious mass of aqueous vapour. Abun- dance of such vapour is, in fact, observed during all eruptions ; but it is difficult to conceive that all the hydrogen rendered free is burnt ; for, however large the subterranean cavities may be which Sir H. Davy admits under the ignivomous mountains, itis more than probable that there does not exist in them a quantity of air sufficient to produce the combustion of the enormous vo- lume of hydrogen which must be disengaged. Besides, it is impossible, supposing the two gases to be in suitable proportions, that a part of the hydrogen should not. escape ignition, being carried. away by the aqueous vapours, the acid gases and the saline sublimations, which are formed at the same moment. From these circumstances, there ought to be found a pretty large quantity of hydrogen among the aeriform products which issue from the craters. Now, observation proves that the disengage- ment of this gas is very rare in eruptions. It might then be supposed that this gas, at the moment when it is about to issue from the volcanic caverns, combines with some other combustible body. Of all the hydrogenous compounds with which we are acquainted, the only ones observed in volcanic places are ammo- niacal salts, sometimes sulphuretted hydrogen, and always hydro- chloric acid. 'The ammoniacal salts, whose base would be de- rived from the combination of hydrogen with the azote of the decomposed air, and the sulphuretted hydrogen, are in too small quantity for us to calculate upon a great absorption of hydrogen by these compounds. It would, therefore, be with the chlorine that nearly the whole of the hydrogen would unite; but then it would be necessary to admit that the metals are partly in the state of chlorurets in the interior of the earth, as has also been advanced by some chemists. In the first place, according to this supposition, the quantity of hydrochloric acid produced ought to be considerable. This is not the case, however. All the naturalists who’ have observed the phenomena of volcanoes on the spot, have been sensible, that, at the moment of the erup- tions, this acid was produced, but none of them have stated it to have been in extraordinary proportions. Moreover, the me- opinions respecting Volcanic Phenomena. 139 tallic chlorurets of the two first sections, when placed in contact with water at a high temperature, powerfully unite with it, but do not decompose it. The chloruret of iron alone presents this fact ; so that of all the oxides that occur in lavas, iron is the only one that could be originally in the state of a chloruret._ In the neighbourhood of burning craters, there are found a considerable number of metallic chlorurets. ‘These compounds, so far from existing previous to the eruptions, are, on the contrary, formed under our eyes by the reaction of the free hydrochloric acid upon the volcanic rocks. It is true, that Sir H. Davy has discovered that the white fumes which are disengaged from lavas in a state of fusion, are in a great measure composed of chloruret of sodium, and a little chloruret of potassium and iron; but the quantity of these chlorurets is so small in proportion to the mass of the ejected matters, that they cannot be supposed to exist in very large proportions in the interior of volcanoes. Besides, they ought to form the greater part of the substance of lavas, in which, however, only traces of them are found. From this discussion, there results, that water has not been satisfactorily demonstrated to perform the part in voleanic reactions which Sir H. Davy at- tributes to it. Another consequence of the theory of the English chemist is, that the internal parts of the globe would have a very small spe- cific gravity, it being known that the earthy and alkaline metals are generally lighter than water. Now, this great lightness is contrary to all the opinions and all the experiments of natural philosophers, who are generally agreed in attributing to the in- ternal rocks of our planet, a density superior to that of the earth and rocks which compose its surface. According to the calcula- tions of Clairaut, Boscowich, Laplace, and Maskelyne, and the experiments of Cavendish, it may be established that the mean density of the internal nucleus of the earth, compared with that of water, isas 5 to 1. Consequently, it may be admitted that this nucleus is formed by substances whose specific gravity is inferior to that of water. | From all these facts and reasonings, to which we could add many others, it appears to us evident that Sir H. Davy’s inge- nious theory is insufficient for the explanation of those natural phenomena, whose magnitude and periodical occurrence present 140 On Changes of Temperature in Plants. something so surprising. The recent investigations of the most celebrated. geologists, tend to prove that the phenomena of vol: canoes are intimately connected with the state of fusion and in- candescence of the internal nucleus of the globe; nor does their explanation present any difficulties. The hypothesis of central heat, at first so keenly contested by the greater number of na- turalists, now rests on so great a number of facts, collect- ed by men entertaining such different opinions, in countries so remote from each other, and under such diversified circum- stances, that it is very difficult to combat it with success. Sir H. Davy himself, at the end of his memoir, admits that this - theory possesses much probability. Such is almost always the fate of great truths, moral as well as natural. After exciting the contempt, frequently the sarcasms and persecutions, of party- spirit (for the sciences, unfortunately, are not free of it), they always end, after a greater or less period, with triumphing even over the most exaggerated ; and often he whom it has been found most difficult to convince, becomes one of the most ardent enthusiasts in the cause which he formerly repelled with so much obstinacy *. On Changes of Temperature in Plants. Iw a thesis sustained at the University of Tubingen, Dr W. Neuffer has presented the results of a number of interesting researches into the changes of temperature which plants undergo. In a thesis presented by M. Halder in 1826, on the same sub- ject, the author asserted that trees are in winter ata lower tem- perature than the freezing point, and even pass to the state of congelation, without injury to their life. The winter of 1827 and 1828 being very severe, the necessary observations were made at Tubingen for confirming those of M. Halder. ‘The temperature of a poplar was observed during the whole. of the year 1828, and the results of this examination differ little: from those obtained in the Botanic Garden of Geneva, and. published in the first volume of the Bibliotheque Britannique. » The tem- perature of the air and'that of the tree were about equal in Fe- “In the former Number of the Journal, we gave Sir H. Davy’s own ac- count of his desertion of the metalloidal theory of volcanoes, and his tracing volcanoes to the action of the central heat.—Ep. On Changes of Temperature in Plants. 141 bruary ; that of the tree was higher in March, April, and May, and again the temperature of the air was higher during the other months of the year. At the beginning of January, the tempe- rature of the tree was higher by 10° than that of the external air, which would appear to announce a great disengagement of heat at the time when the aqueous juices of trees congeal. When it thawed, the heat of the tree was 4°, and even 8° above that of the air. It is to the greater evaporation of trees in summer, that the author attributes the less elevated degree of their tempera- ture. The reason of their heat being greater in spring is, that they then lose very little by evaporation, and retain the mean temperature of the earth, which at that season is a little higher than that of the air. The observations made during two suc- cessive winters have shewn that the thermometer, in the interior of trees, may descend below zero, without the vegetation suffer- ing. It even descended so low as + 5° Fah., and + 13 Fah. in some young trees. On the 26th January 1828, the thermometer indicated +14 Fah. ; the day after, it suddenly rose to +344 F.; the change was not so sudden in the tree, which, the second day, was still below 32° Fah. Several trees were cut, and they were found frozen in concentric circles to a certain depth. The frozen wood was easily known by the greater resistance which it offered to cutting instruments. In the six trees that were cut, the wood was frozen to the following mean depths :—2sculus Hippocas- tanum, 8.2 lines; Pinus Abies, 12.5 limes; Acer Pseudo-plata- nus, 15.2 lines; Fraxinus excelsior, 16.8 lines; Corylus Avel- lana, 16.9 lines; Saliz fragilis, 17.3 lines.. The water ina pool near these trees was frozen to the depth of 8.8 inches. _ Experiments made with care prove, that the cold had pene- trated into the trees partly in direct proportion to the quantity of water which their wood contained. But much more cer- tain results were obtained by the examination of the concentric layers of different trees, and the result was, that the cold had penetrated least into the trees whose layers were closest. In spring, the cold often causes trees to perish, without their having been injured by it in winter. On this subject, the author apprises us that nearly all trees contain, at the beginning of April, 8 per cent. more of aqueous parts than at the end of Ja- nuary. Water being a better conductor of heat than dry wood, the deleterious action of cold upon trees will easily be accounted 142 On Changes of Temperature in Pianis. for by its greater abundance. ‘The young branches, containing a much greater quantity of water, suffer more from cold. The results of experiments made upon a great number of plants, with the view of discovering the quantity of water which their leaves contain, are then detailed. ‘Trees and shrubs have much less water than herbaceous plants. If the former contain from 54 to 65 parts in the hundred, the latter contain from 65 to 70, and even 88 parts. Succulent plants present from 90 to 95 per cent. The floral leaves generally contain more watery parts than the stem leaves. The quantities of water contained in the leaves of a great number of plants are presented ina table. Another table shews a certain number of vegetables, on which observations have been made for determining the velocity with which their leaves emit their aqueous parts. The species which present the most rapid evaporation, are those which require the greatest quantity of water in vegetating. If the carices, the graminez, and the aquatic plants, evaporate in a short time, the large quantity of water which they contain ; the succulent plants, on the contrary, give it out but very slowly, for which reason they vegetate easily in the warmest countries. The conifers, and shrubs with coriaceous leaves, resemble the succulent plants in respect to the slowness of their evaporation. Very interest-~ ing researches by the author have proved that the quantity of water given out by evaporation in the graminez, is, in a given space, in somecases, two or three times more than that evaporated by an equal surface of water. Sedum alhum, on the contrary, submitted to the same experiment, did not evaporate more than half the quantity given off by water. In three tables, there are given inquiries respecting the thick- ness of the concentric layers, in 24 species of trees of the forests of Esslingen, where M. Neuffer examined them; the weight of: newly cut wood, compared with that of wood carefully dried ; and the specific weight of each kind of wood. ‘The treatise con- cludes with a table, indieating the degree of cold which a consi- derable number of plants can support in our climates. Professor Schubler has made most of these experiments, and has compared them with those made in different botanic gardens. This trea~ tise has afforded us the greatest pleasure, and we think it de- serving of the attention, not only of physiological: botanists, but also of agriculturists. ( 143) Naturgeschichtliche Reisen durch Nord Africa, &c. Natural History Travels in Northern Africa and Western Asia, from 1820 to 1825; by Drs Hempricn and Eurenserc, pub- lished by the latter. Historical part, with maps and views. Tx the preface, the author gives an account of the preparations for the journey, and of the persons who were useful to him. The height of Mount Sinai, as determined by thermometrical obser- vations, is also given. 'The monastery is 5400 feet above the Red Sea; the summit of Mount Sinai 7400 feet ; and the high. est summit of the chain, St. Catherine’s Mount, 8400 feet. It is to be regretted that the travellers had no barometer with them. The expedition occasioned the death of nine Europeans. ‘In the first chapter, the authorstates that, in the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas, their vessel was covered with insects carried off by the wind. Blasts of this kind might account for the winged insects discovered in an isolated state in secondary formations, as at Solenhofen. Around Castelnuovo and Cattara in Dalmatia, the mountains, of about 3000 feet high, or the Monte Negro, are composed of grey compact limestone, with veins of calcareous spar, and without fossils. M. Partsch considered them as Jura lime- stone, while M. Ehrenberg thinks they belong to the alpine lime- stone. At the base of these mountains, there are hills composed of marl and sandstone, sometimes containing impressions, and . subordinate to the limestone. He does not agree with Partsch, in thinking that the islands of the Adriatic have been produced by the destruction of marly masses interposed between the lime- stone beds. At Trieste, a formation of breccia is at present going on under the sea. To the south of the Morea, the travellers felt an earthquake on the 29th August 1820, and. afterwards saw at a distance the snowy summit of Ida in Crete. In Dongola, there. is a bed of iron-ore capable of being worked. At the cisterns of El Matar, the coast is formed of low hills of white limestone. The plain of El Matar is bordered to the south by a chain of horizontal secondary limestone, which some- times attains a height of about 500 feet. Hills come off from them which descend to the west, towards the sea, and under the sand of the coast. The Katabathmus Minor, or Akabetes Sghire, 144 Travels in Northern Africa and Western Asia. is one of the largest of these branches. From Bir-el, Ghorallant to the S. W., they traversed an undulated plain, covered with a thin layer of sand and limestone debris, and reached the foot of the Katabathmus Major, or El Akaba el Kebire. This plain is the boundary of Egypt and the country of Cyrene ; it is 300 feet above the sea, extends to the west and south to a great distance, and is composed of strata of the same whitish secondary lime- stone. In passing from thence to Siwa, they had opportunities of examining the sand, which covers the plain, but is not deep, and is sometimes replaced by remains of silicified shells; among which, however, they did not find nummulites. The descent from the plain to the basis of Siwa is over seven terraces, and among grotesque rocks. The slopes of this plain present specimens of siliceous woods near the plain of El Gatara, and in the part called Gebel Scha- tar, the ground is.covered with a saline crust in an oasis not far from this. At Bir-Haie, there are also fossil woods and aétites with quartz crystals at the foot of the slope of the plain. They followed. the route from Siwa to Alexandria, where the ground is saline as far as Wadi Lebuk, where the sandy or rocky ground recommences. Farther on, the author found many petrified trunks of palms and of dicotyledonous: plants, some of them from five to six feet long. The'bark was preserved in the dico-~ tyledones, but not in the palms. A coloured geological map. gives an idea of the geological constitution of the country. tra- versed. There are first seen the alluvia of the Delta of the Nile between Alexandria, Cairo, and Damietta.. To the east, between the two last cities, the Delta is bordered with sandy and pebbly hillocks. Between the pyramids of Cairo and the Lake Mareotis, they point. out to the south the dried up bed. of ancient streams. . Farther to the south, between Lake Meeris and Karb-Scha- mamel el Scharkie, the lower desert is covered with an alluvial. formation, characterized by pebbles of Egyptian jasper, siliceous woods, and nummulites, which have come from the higher lime- stone mountains of Egypt, and perhaps even from Mokattam. The high plain of the desert, between Bir-Lebuk, Katabathmus. Parvus, the other promontory called by the ancients Catabath~ mus Magnusor Kasreschdachi, Siwa and Bir-Haie, is tertiary, tn i « « —— Oe a er re Travels in Northern Africa and Western Asia. 145 and composed of horizontal strata of shelly limestone, slaty clay, and gypsum. ‘The fossils which are observed in it are different from those of the nummulitic limestones-of the Pyramids and Mokattam. There arefound polyparia, echinodermata, bivalve and univalve shells, but no nummulites. There is no Egyptian jasper, and little sand, unless in crevices. The Nile is bordered, from Siout or Lycopolis to Cairo, at least on its western banks, by nummulitic limestone, which there forms the eastern slope of the desert, and rises to the height of 50 or 150 feet above the river. From Siout to Kineh, Dendera, and Esne or Latopolis, the same bank of the Nile presents only Jura limestone, without fossils, and rising to the height of about 300 feet. It is well known that these heights have the appearance of having once formed an island between Farschiout, Dendera, and Luxor, at a time when the waters of the Nile were higher. Opposite Den- dera, on the other bank of the Nile, the same limestone forms the heights of Birambar and Legeta, and farther on, there rise mountains of breccia and greenstone, around Maksur-el-Benat and Bir-Hamamat. To the east of Cairo, the. nummulitic limestone constitutes the heights of Mokattam ; and on the east- ern bank of the Nile, red sandstone occurs near Cairo, not far from the town, at Gebel-Achmar, in the mountain of Gebel- Chesche on theroute.to Suez; and, before that city, the Jura limestone predominates in the heights, around Emschsalis-el- Bahhara, in the oase of Actahka, Touerik, and Wadi Amfuone. The Gulf of Suez is bordered to the west, from Buko to the pro- montory opposite the island of Jubal, by dolomitic limestone, which forms prominences of 500 or 600 feet. Limestone exists in Gebel Goaebe, Gebel Saferane, and Gebel Setie ; but be- tween the two last groups, along the coast, rises behind, to a height of 6000 or 8000 feet, the porphyritic group of Gebel Ghareb. On the eastern shore of the Gulf of Suez, there are mentioned as occurring near the sea only mountains of limestone and marl, and tertiary deposits, excepting between Scheratihb and Tor, where there is red sandstone again at the foot of the porphyritic group of Sinai. The tertiary hills rise to the height of from 300 to 500 feet. The red sandstone forms the shores of the point of Ras Muhamed, in the peninsula of Sinai. ‘The same colour is given to the shore of Machmud APRIL—JUNE 1830, K 146 On the Irritability of the Stamina of the Barberry. to beyond Scherm el Moie. The porphyry colour occupies all the mountains between Wadi Firan, Scherm-es-Scheech, and far to the north of Wadi Bedda. ‘The same formation re- appears in Arabia, between Magne and Moile in the high Gebel Schar, a chain estimated at from 6000 to 8000 feet.. The islands of the Gulf of Akaba and that of Schedoan are terti- ary. Petroleum and mineral pitch are indicated at the eastern base of Gebel Setie in Egypt. Between Ras Muse and Suez is marked the passage of the Jews through the Red Sea. It is still frequented at low water, and is called Dorb el J ahudi, or the Jews’ Road. ‘This map is accompanied with profiles of the two shores of the Gulf of Suez, the islands of Sanafer, Remahn, | Schusche, Maksure, Jcbe, Wale, Schedoan, Jobal, and Barean. The latter is a coral bank, while all the others are composed of a limestone which the author doubtfully refers to the tertiary class, probably on account of their recent characters. That of Tiran differs from the above, in having its principal mass. com- posed of a tertiary marl, associated with tertiary sandstone and limestone. On the Irritability of the Stamina of the Barberry. M. Gorrrert of Breslau, has published, in the Linnea, July 1829, a memoir on the irritability of the filaments of. Berberis ~ vulgaris, in which he first gives an historical account of: the ob- servations made on the phenomenon in question by Linnzus, Covolo, Kelreuter, Smith, Schkuhr, Humboldt, Rafn, J. W. Ritter, and Nasse. Linnzus was first informed of it by a gar- dener of Montpelier, named Baal, of whom little else is known. M. Goeppert, after confirming most of the observations of au- thors, made three series of experiments, with the view of deter- mining the influence of various poisonous and other substances upon the irritability of the stamina. 1. In the first experiments, he deposited clusters of barberry flowers in different substances; he then observed that prussic acid, and other concentrated acids, aromatic waters, alcohol, and ethers, destroy the irritability of the stamina more or less rapid- ly. Metallic salts produce the same effect, whereas the property ~ On the Irritability of the Stamina of the Barberry. 14% is in no degree altered in flowers immersed in concentrated in- fusions of narcotic poisons, such as nux vomica, opium, &c. This last fact is in perfect accordance with all that M: Goeppert had previously observed as to the innocuousness of narcotics with respect to vegetation. 2. In the second series of experiments, M. Goeppert brought the substances, whose influence he wished to determine, into di- rect contact with the stamina only. He found that pure water does not hurt the irritability of the stamina, and that the nar- cotic infusions already mentioned have no prejudicial effect, provided they be deprived of extractive principles. Phosphorus, dissolved in almond oil, was equally harmless. A drop of prussic’ acid deposited upon the flower, caused, in ten seconds, a motion of contraction in the stamina towards the pistil. Some hours after, the chemical action of the acid began to manifest itself in the plant by a more or less complete destruction of its parts. - The same phenomenon is preduced under the influence of alco- hol, ethers, essential oils, aromatic waters, some concentrated acids, &c. None of these substances, however, stimulate the stamina with so much rapidity as prussic acid. It is hardly ne- cessary to add, that these organs lose all irritability in this last act of contraction, and, soon after, are decomposed like the rest of the plant. 3. Lastly, M. Goeppert exposed barberry flowers to the va- pours of several volatile substances. Those of the narcotic principles had no action as infusions. The vapours of hydro- cyanic acid, those of mercury in the metallic state, and those of the volatile substances mentioned in the preceding experiments, by destroying the vegetable tissue, also put a stop to the phe- nomena of irritability. Chronological Series of the more important Changes made upon the Coasts by the Sea, from the Eighth Century to the pre sent day. . Year. 800.—About this period the sea carried off a large portion of the island of Heligoland, which is situated between the mouths of the Weser and the Elbe. Kk 2 148 ~— Chronological Series of the Changes made 800-900.—In the course of this century, the coasts of Brittany were consi- derably altered by storms; valleys and villages were swallowed up. 800-950.—Violent storms agitated the lagoons of Venice, and destroyed the islands of Ammiano and Constanziaco, mentioned in the old chronicles. 1044-1309.—Dreadful irruptions of the Baltic sea on the coasts of Pomera- nia; produced great ravages there, and gave rise to the popular tales respecting the submersion of the pretended city of Vineta, the exist- ence of which is merely hypothetical, notwithstanding the imposing authority of Kant and other celebrated philosophers. 1106.—Old Malamocco, a large city on the lagoons of Venice, was over- whelmed by the sea. 1218.—A great inundation formed the Gulf of Jahde, so named from the small river which watered the fertile country destroyed by this catas- trophe. 1219, 1220, 1221, 1246, and 1251.—Dreadful hurricanes separated the present island of Wieringen from the continent, and made preparation for the subsequent disrupture of the isthmus which connected North Holland of the present day with the country of Staveren, which is at present in Friesland. 1277, 1278, 1280, 1287.—Inundations swallowed up the fertile district of Reiderland, destroyed the city of Torum, fifty towns, villages and monasteries, and formed the Dollart. The Tiam and the Kche, which watered this little country, disappeared. 1282.—Violent tempests broke down the isthmus by which North Holland was united to Friesland, and formed the Zuiderzee. 1240.—An irruption of the sea produced a considerable change in the western coast of Schleswig; many fertile tracts were swallowed up, and ‘the arm of the sea, which separated the island of Nordstrand from the continent, was greatly widened. 1300, 1500, 1649.—Violent tempests carried off three-fourths of the islan of Heligoland. ; 1300.—This year, according to Fortis, the city of Eiparum, in Istria, was destroyed by the sea. 1303.—According to Kant, the sea carried off a great part of the island of Rugen, and covered several villages on the shores of Pomerania. 1337.—An inundation carried off fourteen villages in the island of Kadzand in Zealand. 1421.—An inundation covered the Bergseweld, destroyed twenty-two vil- lages upon it, and formed the Biesbosch, which extends from Gertrui- denberg to the island of Dordrecht. , 1475.—The sea carried off a large piece of ground eituated at the mouth of the Humber: several villages were destroyed. 1510.—The Baltic Sea formed the opening of the Frisch-Haff, near Pillau, 1800 fathoms in width, and from 12 to 15 in depth. 1530-1532.—The sea swallowed up the town of Kortgene in the island of North Beweland in Zealand. In the last mentioned year, it also car- ried off the eastern part of the island of South Beweland, with several villages, and the towns of Borselen ad Remerswalde. upon the Coasts of the Sea, &c. 149 1570.—A violent tempest carried off half of the village of Scheveningen to the north-east of the Haye. 1625.—The sea detached a portion of the peninsula of Dars, in former Swe- dish Pomerania, and formed of it the island of Zuigst, to the north of Barth. 1634..—An irruption of the sea covered the whole island of Nordstrand; 1338 houses, churches, and towers were destroyed ; 6408 persons, and 50,000 head of cattle perished. Of this island, once so fertile and flourishing, there only remained the three islets named Pelworm, Nordstrand, and Liitze-Moor. 1703-1746.—During this period the sea carried off, from the island of Kadz- and, more than 100 fathoms of its dikes. 1726.—A violent tempest changed the salt-marsh of Araya, in the province of Cumana, a part of Colombia, into a gulf several leagues in breadth. 1770-1785.—The currents and storms formed a canal between the high part and the low part of the island of Heligoland, and converted that island, which, before the eighth century, was so extensive, into two islets. 1784.—According to M. Hoff, a violent tempest formed the lake of Aboukir in Lower Egypt. 1791-1793.—New irruptions of the sea destroyed the dikes and carried off other parts of the already so reduced island of Nordstrand. 1803.—The sea carried off the last ruins of the priory of Crail in Scotland. Notice of a Memoir read by Dr Hizzerr to the Scottish So- ciety of Antiquaries, on the Caves occupied by the early In- habitants of the West of Europe ; with illustrations of some still remaining in France and Italy. Dz Hieserr commenced by stating that his paper had for its object, to prove that natural caves were the temporary resort of the earliest and rudest inhabitants of Europe ; that even at a more advanced stage of civilization, caves had been used for human habitations ; that, in certain localities, they had afforded pro- tection to the chiefs and vassals of the feudal times; and that even at the present day, whole villages of Troglodytes might be found in the civilized countries of the Continent. The subject of caves had lately attracted considerable notice on the Conti-e nent; but more on the part of the geologist than of the anti- quarian. It had been incontrovertibly established, that, in the caves in the South of France, human remains had been found along with bones of different mammifere. As the particular 150 Dr Hibbert on the Caves occupied by the species of animals found in this juxtaposition were now no longer to be met with, they had been assumed to be antediluvian, but upon insufficient evidence. The destruction of the forest in which they found shelter, the drying up of the lakes on the borders of which they found their food, and partial convulsions of nature, sufficiently accounted for their extinction. In this view the investigation of the caves in which human bones had been found, was as much the province of the antiquary as of the geologist. Dr Hibbert assumed as an hypothesis, that the tribes inhabiting Europe, previous to the historical times, were in a state similar to that of the Fins described by Tacitus, as lead- ing an almost brutish life, destitute even of the earliest rudi- ments of the arts. Such beings might well be conceived to contend with the beasts, above whom they were so little ele- vated, for places of shelter they knew not how to construct ; or, at all events, they might crawl like the beasts into holes, to con- ceal their dying agonies. At this period the bones could scarce- ly have been deposited in caves for the purpose of inhumation —the idea of sepulture belonging to a more advanced state. The rude fragments of earthenware found in the same caves, strengthen the conjecture that the bones belonged to an ex- tremely rude and early period. The Celtic and Gothic tribes who supplanted the aborigines of Europe, seem to have reached the agricultural state. The Germans are described as inhabit- ing houses built of gross and unhewn materials, constructed without the aid of mortar, and also caves, into which they re- tired for shelter from the inclemency of the winter, or from the attacks of a powerful enemy. ‘Traces of these ancient subter- raneous habitations are still to be met with in Germany, but much more frequently in France and Italy, where the nature of the rock is in general more favourable to the task of excava- tion. They are most numerous in the south of France. Each cave appears to have been entered by a low chink or fissure, situated almost half way between the floor of the cave and its roof, and differing as little as possible from the level of the avenue by which it was approached. ‘The entrance seems in- tended to have been closed, from the invariable presence of a narrow opening, reaching the external air in an oblique direc- tion for the purpose of ventilation. Sometimes these caves are —— — Se ye, Oe Early Inhabitants of the West of Europe. 151 insolated, sometimes they are found in groups. It has been conjectured by French antiquaries that these are the latebre of the Roman historians, in which the Gauls so often eluded pur- suit, and re-appeared as suddenly to harass the enemy. Dr Hibbert next proceeded to remark that these caves continued to be used even during the feudal period. At Ceyssac, in the province of Velay in France, the castle of the lord crowned the summit of a hill, all of which was excavated into caves, that seemed either to have been used as chambers, or to have con- tained regular stalls for horses, and one has evidently been em- ployed as a chapel. The entrance and lower apartments of a castle which flanks Mont Perrier, in Auvergne, has been scooped out of the solid rock ; and on the opposite eminence is a system of grottoes, which served for the abodes of the retainers. At Conteaux, in Velay, is a system of caves, one of which, ap- parently the baron’s hall, is twenty yards long, by six and a half broad. Attached to it is a kitchen, opening to the top of a superjacent terrace, and almost as spacious as the famous one of the Abbot of Glastonbury. Among the caves of Roche Robert is a hall twenty yards by five, lighted by a well-shaped window. The period when these caves were abandoned by their feudal proprietors cannot be ascertained. ‘They became subse- quently the haunts of banditti. The next portion of the memoir was intended to shew that, even in the present day, whole villages of Troglodytes were to be found even in the civilized countries of Europe. In the neighbourhood. of Bagnovea, in the Pope’s territories, is a vil- lage, of which an Italian traveller has observed, that a few stones for the purpose of closing the entrance of the cavern, a hole for _the smock to go out of, and an aperture to admit the light, suf- fice to complete each habitation. In the Island of Ponza, near the Bay of Naples, is another town of the same kind, the inha- bitants preferring to reside in caves, although the island a- bounds with the best materials for building. ‘The caves are described as being refreshing in summer, warm in winter, and without the least humidity. In France, many villages of in- habited caverns still exist, as at Cuzolo in the Cantal, at Mount Perrier in Auvergne, and many other places. Swinburne has described a village of the same kind, which occurs in the pro- 152 Geographical Society of London. vinee of Andalusia in Spain. In Transylvannia, the places which the nomadic gipsies inhabit during the winter, ought to be called holes or burrows, rather than caves, which, for farther security from the weather, are covered over with branches of trees, with moss and turf. Dr Hibbert concluded his memoir by recommending the history of European, and particularly of Scottish caves, to the attention of the Society ; and by describ- ing the geological formation in which the search for them was most likely to be attended with success. NEW SOCIETIES. 1. Geographical Society of London. 2. Geological Society of France. 3.. Statistical Societies in France. 1. Geographical Society of London. WE are happy in having an opportunity to lay before our readers, the following interesting document, in regard to a pro- jected Geographical Society in London. Such an institution will, we feel confident, assist in raising the scientific character of Geography in this country, where at present it 1s too much in the hands of popular and unscientific writers. It will also excite a more decided taste for geographical researches among geolo- gists, zoologists, botanists, and also those travellers who visit countries, not with the view of gossip, or the sheer greed of the little money which may be extracted from a publisher, or for the purpose of personal exhibition, but with the desire of en- larging our knowledge of the physical, statistical, and moral condition of different and distant lands. «* At a numerous meeting of the Members of the Raleigh Travellers’ Club, and several other gentlemen, held at the hatched House, on Monday the 24th May, John Barrow, Esq. in the Chair, it was submitted, that, among the numerous literary and scientific societies established in the British metro- polis, one was still wanting to complete the circle of scientific institutions, whose sole object should be the promotion and dif- - ; fi j Geographical Socvety of London. 153 fusion of that most important, useful, and interesting branch of knowledge, Geography : That a new Society might therefore be formed under the name of The Geographical Society of Lon- don: That the interest excited by this department of science is universally felt; that its advantages are of the first import- ‘ance to mankind in general, and paramount to the welfare of a maritime nation, like Great Britain, with its numerous and ex- tensive foreign possessions : That its decided utility in confer- ring just and distinct notions of the physical and political rela- tions of our globe must be obvious to every one; and is the more enhanced by this species of knowledge being attainable without much difficulty, while at the same time it affords a co- pious source of rational amusement: That, although there is a vast store of geographical information existing, yet it is so scat- tered and dispersed, either in large books that are not generally accessible, or in the bureaus of the public departments, or in the possession of private indiividtals; as to be nearly unavailable to the public. The object, then, of such a Society as is now suggested would be, 1. To collect, register, and digest, and to print for the use of the members, and the public at large, in a cheap form and at certain intervals, such new, interesting, and useful facts and dis- coveries, as the Society may have in its possession, and may from time to time acquire. 2. To accumulate gradually a library of the best books on Geography—a selection of the best Voyages and ‘Travels—a complete collection of Maps and Charts, from the earliest period of rude geographical delineations, to the most improved of the present time; as well as all such documents and materials as may convey the best information to persons intending to visit foreign countries; it being of the greatest utility to a traveller to be aware, previous to his setting out, of what has been already done, and what is still wanting, in the countries he may intend to visit. 8. To procure specimens of such instruments as experience has shewn to be most useful, and best adapted to the compendious stock of a traveller, by consult- ing which, he may make himself familiar with their use. 4, To prepare brief instructions for such as are setting out on their travels ; pointing out the parts most desirable to be visited ; the best aud most practicable means of proceeding thither; the re- 154 Geographical Society of London. searches most essential to make; phenomena to be observed ; the subjects of natural history most desirable to be procured ; and to obtain all such information as may tend to the extension of our geographical knowledge. And it is hoped that the So- ciety may ultimately be enabled, from its funds, to render pe- cuniary assistance to such travellers as may require it, in order to facilitate the attainment of some particular object of research. 5. To correspond with similar societies that may be established in different parts of the world ; with foreign individuals engaged in geographical pursuits, and with the most intelligent British residents in the various remote settlements of the Empire. 6. To open a communication with all those philosophical and li- terary societies with which Geography is connected; for as all are fellow-labourers in the different departments of the same vine- yard, their united efforts cannot fail mutually to assist each other. ‘7. And lastly, in order to induce men of eminence and ability in every branch of Science, Literature, and the Arts, and in particular those who have travélled by sea and by land, and all such as are skilled in geographical knowledge, and likely to become useful and efficient members, it was suggested that the admission fee and annual contribution should be on as moderate a scale, as, with the number of subscribers calculated upon, would be sufficient to enable the Society to fulfil the im- portant objects herein alluded to. _ The meeting then proceeded to nominate the following gentle- men as a Provisional Committee, to draw up certain leading principles, as the groundwork on which such-a society may be established. The Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone. Henry Ward, Esq. Lieut-General Sir Thomas Macdou- Lieut.-Col. Colby, R. EF. gal Brisbane, K. C. B. Thomas Murdoch, Esq. Sir Arthur De Capell Brooke, Bart. Commander Mangles, R. N. John Cam Hobhouse, Esq., M. P. Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq. Robert William Hay, Esq. Captain Sir John Franklin, R. N. Colonel Leake, Captain Smyth, R.N. Robert Brown, Esq. John Barrow, Esq. Captain Beaufort, R.N. George Bellas Greenough, Esq. Captain Basil Hall, R. N. Commander M‘Konochie, Provi- Major The Hon. George Keppell. sional Secretary. At a meeting of the above-mentioned Committee, held on the Geographical Society of London. 155 26th May, the following resolutions were agreed to. 1. That the Society be called the Geographical Society of London: 2. That the number of ordinary members be not limited; but the number of honorary foreign members to be limited as hereafter shall be determined. 8. That, as soon as the num- ber of Subscribers shall amount to three hundred, a general meeting be called to appoint a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, Secretaries, and a Council, to conduct the af- fairs of the Society ; and for approving, altering, and, if ne- cessary, establishing such other regulations, in addition to those herein recommended, as may appear to be necessary to the well- being of the Society. 4. That the election of the Council and Officers of the Society be annual. 5. That the office of Presi- dent be not held by the same individual for a longer period than two consecutive years; but that he be eligible for re-election after the lapse of one year. 6. That the two Vice-Presidents be subject to the same regulation as regards the President ; but the Treasurer and the Secretaries may be re-elected. 77. That the officers above mentioned, with fifteen other members, constitute the Council, and that five of the fifteen are to go out annually at the period of the general election of the officers of the Society. 8. That the admission fee of members be L. 3, and the annual subscription L. 2; or, both may be compound- ed on for the payment of L. 20. 9. That all admission fees and compositions be placed in the public securities, to be hereafter applied as the Society may direct. 10. That the funds and property of the Society be vested in the names of three Trus- tees. 11. That these three Trustees be supernumerary Mem- bers of the Council. 12. That so soon as five hundred mem- bers shall be entered on the list, a second general meeting will be called to decide upon such further regulations and by-laws as shall appear beneficial and useful for the management of the Society. 13. That Commander M‘Konocnie, R.N., be ap- pointed Provisional Secretary to the Society. ARTrnuR DE Care, Brooke, Chairman. Those who may be desirous of becoming Members of the Geographical Society of London are requested to send their names to any of the gentlemen of the Provisional Committee, or to the Secretary, No. 99, Quadrant, Regent Street.” 156 Geological Society of France. 2. Geological Society of France. A Geological Society has just been established in Paris, under the name of the Geological Society of France. Cordier is Presi- dent; Vice-Presidents are Brongniart, Blainville, Prevot, and Brochant ; Secretaries, A. Boué and El. de Beaumont; Vice- Secretaries, Desnoyers and Dufresnoy ; Treasurer, Michelin ; and Archivist, De Roissy. Already one hundred members have been enrolled. Among these many Frenchmen, also geo- logists of Prussia, England, Holland, Italy, South America, &c. The following laws or regulations of the Society have been or- dered for circulation :—1. The Society assumes the title of “ Geo- logical Society of France.” 2. Its object is to aid in the advance- ment of geology in general, and in particular to make known the geology of France, and its relations with the arts and agricul- ture. 3. The number of members not limited ; foreigners as well as Frenchmen admitted: no distinction of members into honorary, &e. 4, The administration of the Society committed to a Board and Council. 5. The Board consists of the President and four Vice-Presidents, two Secretaries, two Vice-Secretaries, Treasurer, and Keeper of Archives. 6. The President and Vice- President chosen annually; Secretaries every two years; Trea- surer every third year, and the Archivist every fourth year. ”. The Council consists of twelve members; of these four go out annually. 8. The Members of Council and Board, with exception of President, are chosen by a majority. 9. The Pre- sident is elected by a plurality among the four Vice-Presidents of the preceding year. 10. The Meetings to be held in Paris from November to July. 11. Extraordinary Meetings from July to November. 12. Society to contribute to the advance- ment of geology by its publication and its bounties. 13. A pe- riodical bulletin of the labours of the Society to be delivered gratuitously to each member. 14. The Society to form a Li- brary and Museum. 15. The gifts to the Society to be inserted in the Bulletin, with names of the donors. 16. Each member to pay as entrance-money 20 francs; annual contribution 30 francs: any member may compound by paying 300 francs. We are informed, that during the meetings a general view is taken of the geological labours of other Socicties during the pre- Statistical Societies in France. 157 vious fortnight (the Society to meet every fortnight). On par- ticular days geological subjects proposed by the members are discussed, and memoirs are read. A publishing Committee is entrusted with the charge of publishing speedily extensive me- moirs and maps, and separately. Each memoir will have two paginations, one for the memoir, and the other for the volume : by this arrangement memoirs cannot remain long unpublished, and the memoirs will form a series of volumes. 8. Statistical Societies in France. Two Statistical Societies have lately been established in France, one by the celebrated Caesar Moreau, in which we find as members many of the higher ranks in Paris ; the other under the direction and auspices of that active, enterprising, and ac- complished person the Baron Ferrusac. The Society of Fer- rusac is divided into seven sections. 1. Civil Arithmetic. 2. Physical Geography, and Natural Resources of the Soil. 3. Po- litical Geography, Public Works, &c. 4. Medical Topogra- phy, Public Salubrity, Charitable Institutions. 5. Agriculture and Rural Economy. 6. Manufactural Industry. 7. Commerce. The central commission is composed of 65 members, and the whole Society already consists of 100 members. The Society has had already six meetings. Observations on the Cause of the Spouting of Overflowing Wells or Artesian Fountains. Accorp1ne to some philosophers, the theory of the spouting waters of Artesian springs has been referred, sometimes to that of jets @eau, and sometimes to that of syphons, a bored well being, as they say, only the second branch of a large syphon, of which the first branch is the subterranean course, between impermeable strata, followed by the compressed waters coming from a higher country than that in which the bored well has been formed. According to others, such a well can only be considered as a tube, which shows the pressure of water upon an earthy or stony stratum, at which the bored well terminates. 158 Observations on the Cause of the Spouting Mr Dickson of New Brunswick, after showing that, by means of bored wells, water may be procured in any place whatever, and that it will rise to the surface of the earth, independently of all gravitating pressure, says, that masses of water, precipi- tated into the abysses of the interior of the earth, are thrown out to its surface by an innate expansive force, through the ac- tion of the central fire; and again admits, as a second cause for the ascent of water, the effect of capillarity,—forgetting that, if this action could bring subterranean waters to the surface, it yet could not make them spring beyond it. According to M. Azais, the springing of the water of bored wells seems to be unamenable to any common law, and can only be accounted for by the universal principle of expansion : “« For,” says he, “ every body which contains in its central parts an expansive focus surrounded by envelopes of greater or less thickness or condensation, is a body in @ state of resilience, that is, in a state of continued effort against the resistance of these envelopes. It incessantly labours to drive them outwards, to break and dissolve them; and not being able to do this, it at least exercises its expansive action upon the internal substances, agitates them, divides them, attenuates them, and projects them as much as it is possible for it through the pores of the external envelopes. This action of resélience and transpiration is in na~ ture the first and essential vital action.” After distinguishing three kinds of transpiration, viz. 1st, the vital transpiration, which emanates from the central regions of our planet, and pro- jects outwards by radiation the subtile fluids, such as caloric, the magnetic fluid, electricity, &e.; 2dly, the middle transpira- tion, which emanates from the intermediate regions, and pro- jects, under a vague and semi-impetuous form, the various gases of which the mass of the atmosphere is composed; and, 3dly, the weak or indolent transpiration, which emanates from the layers nearest the envelope, a soft transudation like sweat, and under an aqueous form, M. Azais says, that, like the blood, which, through the impulsion of the central focus, is continually making an effort to exhale, by supplying our habitual transpira- tion, and which springs out the moment the lancet has burst the envelope which retained it, the central water springs out 2 of Overflowing Wells. 159 under the borer in obedience to the universal principle of ex- pansion *. In his Recueil Industrice Manufacturier, M. Moleon has inserted an article on the Essay published at New Brunswick by Dickson, which had been communicated to him by one of his London correspondents. This correspondent says, that, without profoundly examining the question, he ventures to as- sert, that, in his opinion, the waters which spring from a depth of 400 or 500 feet (of which there are examples in England, in parts at a great distance from any hills of a similar height), are not the product of, infiltrations from above, which feed small springs and wells, but that these wonderful and inexhaustible jets are projected by great subterranean arteries, which are acted upon by great reservoirs of air which the earth contains, and which are often met with in boring. The author of this article rests his opinion, 1st, on the disengagement of hydrogen gas which took place during a boring in America; 2dly, on the vacuities which are often met with in forming wells; and, * On this subject, M. Azais, after observing that in the globe, taken as a whole, each of the three modes of transpiration always preserving the same measure, there always emanate from it the same quantities of subtile fluid, gases and water ; whence it follows, that, wherever the aqueous transpiration is precipitated, by the aid of a bored well or a bleeding, a local intensity is’ ~ given to it, by which there is drawn off a more or less extensive mass of the. aqueous transpiration, which, in ordinary cases, makes its way slowly, with difficulty, and under a very divided form by the pores of the envelope. Thus there is substituted a small, but rapid and continued torrent, for a vague and confused fumigation, occupying much more time and space. Now, it is extremely probable that this fumigation through the pores of the enve. lope is the principal food of plants. The large trees especially, the magnifi- cent forests, which no external drought can wither, have, without doubt, the mouths of their roots open towards the aqueous transpiration, which ascends towards them from the interior of the earth. This vital source of vegetation would be cut off, or at least greatly diminished, were too many vertical foun- tains opened in their neighbourhood, and in the ground which bears them.— Unpublished Memoir on Artesian Wells, by M. Azais. + This boring was made at the bottom of a dry well in the brewery of Messrs Bord and Collok, at Albany. This well was in depth ...... 30 feet. The sound passed through gravel and clay, ........-.sseeseeseeeees Il Me id Set neat) a So a A 41 Carry over,... 82 160 - Observations on the Cause of the Spouting 3dly, on the circumstance that the quantity of spouting water is not diminished, when several wells have been bored quite close to each other, whith induces him to think that the pres- sure of the air must there be the cause of motion. The workings of mines and quarries have shown, that, in certain kinds of ground, the waters spread out into veins, stripes, brooks, and even sometimes torrents, running through the cracks, fissures, and natural perforations of the interior of the rocky strata*; while, in other kinds of ground, they form sheets or expanses of various extent, in beds of sand, earth or permeable stones,—and the moment the upper stratum is per- forated, they rise and spring out with greater or less rapidity, until they have attained the level from which they come. Such is the basis of our theory of the spouting of subterra- nean waters: it is merely the result of what we daily see in the workings of mines. It is the application of the theory of jets deau and syphons. It is, in fine, so simple, and so natural, that it is hardly possible to offer one more satisfactory. The thermal waters which rise to the surface from the inte- rior of primitive formations, owe their springing to the dis- engagement of compressed gases which react upon the surface of these waters, in the same manner as vapour acts upon the water in the Eolypile. | Brought over,... 82 feet. At this depth of 82 feet water was found; but as it was not abundant, the boring was continued. Black slate, <.s.csce. saneu'dsnsb swe space cwescenpans svcvaciysecddsncpapeeece 168 J ‘ 250 At the depth of 250 feet there was a plentiful disengagement of hydrogen gas in the black slate, ....s.s.cccccsessseencesseeeee 32 282 At the depth of 282 feet the water sprung up to the height of four feet above the surface of the ground. * The quarries of Paris, and, in general, all large quarries, present fre- quent examples of vestiges of subterranean brooks or currents now dry, which must formerly have traversed the limestone mass at different heights, by means of the fissures and tortuous cavities which intersect it in all directions. of Overflowing Wells. 161 The springing of cold mineral gaseous waters may be assimi- lated to that of the compression fountain. The circumstances of springs which flow out upon the decli- vities of hills, nearly at a constant height in stratified countries, and particularly in those composed of alternate layers of sand and clay, establish and characterize that disposition of water which we have said to be in sheets, and whose origin is due either to subterranean effusions coming from higher countries, or to infiltrations of snow and rain water arrested by these claybeds. This sheet of water has been likened by Professor Hachette * to a layer of ice of a similar form to a layer of clay, sand, or chalk. If the water is considered as occurring there between two curved surfaces, such as two sections or basins of different diametcrs, whose upper edges are in a plane, or irregularly in- dented, or partly closed, the liquidity of the water is the cause of the pressure which the tube of the bored well measures ; but if, in place of a sheet of fluid water, there be supposed a layer of ice, the pressure would resist, and would not be indicated by the tube, and it would be changed in its power of cohe- sion. Whatever be the manner in which water spreads under ground, in descending from higher to lower grounds, whether in sheets or in veins, stripes or torrents, when it happens to meet, with an issue of any kind in the ground, it insinuates it- self into it, and rises to a height corresponding to the level of its point of departure, or rather to a height which balances the pressure which the water exercises against the walls of the ca- nal which contain it +. Hence arise the spouting fountains or natural jets-d’eau, which occur in secondary formations. Whence it follows, that, to obtain a spouting fountain, we must, Ist, Try, according to the nature of the ground, at a greater or less depth, to reach a flow of water coming from higher basins, and passing along, in the bosom of the earth, * M. Hachette, Considerations sur l’ecoulement des liquides. + Memoir by M. Barrois, on Bored Wells: Societé des Sciences de Liile, 1§25. - APRIL—JUNE 1830. L 162 Observations on the Cause of the Spouting between compact and impermeable rocks; 2dly, Afford this water, by means of a well artificially bored, the possibility of rising to a height proportional to that of the level from which it comes; and, 3dly, Prevent, by tubes inserted into the bored well, the spreading of the ascending water in the surrounding sand, or in the cracks and fissures of the rocks traversed by‘the bore. From this it will be seen, that spouting springs may be ob- tained by means of boring, in almost every country that pre- sents in its interior subterranean sheets of water, between the al- ternating and continuous beds of permeable and impermeable deposits, extending to the country or mountains which contain the reservoirs of these water-sheets, and whose bases or slopes are covered by these beds. But it is essential to repeat here, that we must not expect to find wells of this description everywhere, as has been thought- lessly asserted ; for, on the one hand, the nature of the ground sometimes absolutely prevents it, asin granite districts ; and, om . the other hand, it is possible that a perforation, made even at a very small distance from a bored well affording water, may not yield any, should the latter, for example, be fed by a subterra- -nean current, in place of being supplied by a sheet of water, or should the perforation be made upon the extremity of a basin with inclined strata resting upon a formation of a different na- ture. / We shall not here enter upon any details respecting the art of boring artesian wells, such not being our object. M. Gar- nier’s Manuel du fontenier-sondeur contains all that can be de- sired on the subject. Taking a general view of what we have said, we deduce the following consequences, which we believe to have been suffi- ciently demonstrated. There exist great subterranean sheets of water at various ‘ depths. These sheets are more commonly met with in the plane of superposition of strata of different formations. They however frequently occur at various heights in the great masses, such as those of clay, chalk, and even marine limestone containing cerithia, when these masses are entire, and of great thickness. 3 of Overflowing Wells. 163 According to the slope, the undulations, or the declivity which are presented by the plane of superposition of the permeable deposits in which the waters flow between impermeable strata, these great sheets of water are met with at all depths ; but it is impossible to lay down any constant rule with respect to them. Tn order that these waters be capable of ascending, it is neces- sary that the formations among which they occur be entire, in the state in which they were originaily deposited, and that they be not intersected by large valleys, or deep ravines, in which the waters would find a free and easy exit. It would be in vain to search for springs in deposits which, at no great distance from the place of boring, are intersected by deep valleys, or when the formations are internally cracked, filled with tortuous separations, and greatly disturbed, whether by the contraction attending the desiccation of the mass, or by internal shocks, swellings or earthquakes ; or, lastly, when these neptunian fermations, such as plastic clay, chalk, oolite and shell-limestone, are raised up, and present precipices at the sur- face, as is the case, for example, with the plastic clay at Issy, Vauvres, Auteuil and Passy, and with the chalk at Meudon, Sevres, Auteuil, Bongival, &c., In these different localities, we need not expect success in boring for springs, unless by penetrating deeply into the mass of the chalk, in search of the sheets of water in its lower part, or even by traversing it entirely, in order to come upon those in the clays, oolites, and shell-limestones ; or, lastly, unless by pe~ netrating deeply into the latter, when they happen to be raised to the surface, and present cliffs, or are intersected by valleys of greater or less depth. On this subject it is necessary to observe, Ist, That if in a country composed of elevated plains, such as those of Cham- pagne, Normandy, Picardy and Beauce, or any other of the same nature, or of similar formation, in place of boring to the necessary depths for reaching the different water-sheets which are commonly the most abundant, and, at the same time, those which rise highest, the boring is stopped at higher levels less distant from the surface, it is more than probable that, in that case, the ascending waters would stop more or less beneath the surface of the ground, according to the depth of the borings. 42 164 Observations on the Cause of the Spouting Then also, so far from considering the operations as having failed, because in this case the water does not rise above the surface, we are of opinion that, according to the localities and the nature of the ground, steps might be taken to remedy the deficiency. Thus, for example, when the water of a boring only rises to within a certain number of yards from the surface, but in sufh.. cient quantity, it might be conducted from the point to which it reaches, by a small gallery, into some neighbouring well, or ‘ into one dug on purpose, and there might thus be produced a kind of artificial fall, which might be employed to make the water ascend to the surface of the ground, and even beyond it, by employing for this purpose either a hydraulic engine (belier hydraulique), which would always give a third of the volume of water, or a wheel, which might be placed at the point of the fall, and which, working a pump suitably placed, might raise the third, or perhaps even the half of the volume of water, or, in short, any other hydraulic machine of the kind. But these means would be practieable, only in so far as the wells into which the waters should be precipitated, might not allow them to run off into strata of permeable deposits. In concluding these considerations, and the consequences which we haye deduced from them, we shall mention the cir- cumstances which it is necessary to examine and appreciate be- fore resolving upon boring a well. Ist, It is necessary to examine the physical constitution, or the nature of the ground, and the disposition of the surface of the country, with reference to the mountains which overlook it, the valleys by which it is intersected, and the springs which rise in these valleys. The latter it is particularly necessary to examine, before deciding upon boring a well, as many of them are real natural wells. Qdly, It is of importance to select a fit person for boring, the art not being merely mechanical, and such as can be practised 5 by any borer *. * A borer who has no experience may entirely fail in the operation confided to him; and such an occurrence.may suffice to prejudice a whole country against bored wells, if it be the first time that. they have been. tried in it. Too frequently the borers are nothing but common labourers, who follow a of Overflowing Wells. 165 Lastly, Besides attending to these circumstances, it is neces- sary to be possessed of perseverance and courage, which will lead us to disregard the delays and difficulties often unavoidably connected with the operations of boring —Hericart de Thury. Observations on the Snake called Yellow Tail (Coluber flavi- colis, Linn., belonging to the division of Cerberus of Cuvier ), and on the supposed power of Fascination in Serpents. By Dr J. Hancock, Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society, and of the Society of Arts for Scotland, &c. &c. (Communicated by the Author.) T wave examined several specimens of this serpent, and the following are some of the results of my observations. The head is rather small, oblong, angular, and pointed, and has large scales; two rows of fine teeth on each side the upper jaw, and one row on each side the lower. It has 211 abdominal blind routine, and are apt to be discouraged, when ina different country they do not see the sound bringing up the kinds of earth and stone to which they have been accustomed. The levels of water, and the manner of determining their rise, are often unknown to them. Sometimes by their haste to sink the tubes, they prevent the sheets of water from ascending to the surface ; and they are frequently discouraged, because they do not find succeeding each other the formations in which they have been accustomed to see water springing. Lastly, some of them having no knowledge of the art, have been seen ex-’ posing their workmen, without any. precaution, in the bottom of deep wells, where they run the greatest risk when they approach impermeable beds covering the sheets of compressed water. These waters sometimes coming from distant and very elevated reservoirs, often rise at the very moment of boring, in such,quantity and with such impetuosity, that the workmen scarcely have time to ascend to the surface, and have even perished before they were able to give any signal of distress. Frequently the irruption of the compressed waters is accompanied with a disengagement of air, which escapes with such noise and impetuosity, that the workmen are thrown over, and others have compared the effect of this disengagement of air to a violent ‘blow upon the body or arms. It is this disengagement .of air which has led some persons to think that the ascent or springing of the water of bored wells is owing to the pressure of the atmospheric air in great subterranean ca~ vities. If this cause be admitted for the rising of water at the very moment ‘when the impermeable stratum is perforated, it remains to be examined why, the air once disengaged, the water continues to springs although it no longer undergoes pressure from the air. 166 Dr Hancock’s Observations on scuta, and 69 pair of subcaudal scutella ; the back is dark grey, and the hind part yellow. It grows to 7 or 8 feet in length. One of these serpents had 204 abdominal scuta, 68 pair of . subeaudal scutella, and two longitudinal cavities behind the vent, probably the receptacles of the ovaries ? Another had 206 abdominal scuta, with 2 whole scuta, and 76 pair of half scuta under the tail, which was yellow, long, and tapering, one-fifth of the whole length, the snake being 5 feet long. The tail, being constantly of a deep yellow colour, forms the most distinctive character and appropriate name possible for this serpent. I have, in several instances, observed both whole and half: scuta behind the vent in this serpent (as occurs in the kind with 206 abdominal scuta), as also in some individuals of the rattle- snake. In the boas, also, we find this variation occurs not un- frequently. I, therefore, consider the modern distinction of * Pythons,” so far as depends on this character, as altogether nugatory, and an affectation of novelty only calculated to aug- ment the confusion .of an almost unintelligible jargon. This character I find to be common in serpents of the most opposite and ‘contrary natures possible *. Being told, in 1815, by Captain Mackenzie of Desens that he had killed a snake on the shore of the Orincko, of the kind mentioned by Mr Bunting of Pomeroon, with horns or ears, as Mackenzie called them, the horns being contractile, and project- ing about an inch and a half, having along tapering yellow tail, and brown body ; and having had a similar account from Mr John Brumwell, of a serpent approximating very nearly in ap- pearance to the snake called Yellow Tail in Demerara, with the * Since my stay in London, I have examined some living Pythons, so called, from Java and Ceylon, and I find them to approximate very nearly to the Boa Constrictor, or Conluconaru of Guiana. The Conluconaru and Camudi have each a pair of nails or claws, #.e. one on each side of the anus, and so have all the other species of Boa, so far as I have had opportunities of observing. It appears, however, that in the female these claws are much less developed than in the male, and in some are scarcely visible without dissec- tion. This appendagé appears to be the most certain and constant charac- teristic of the Boa kind, and we know of no poisonous serpent, I believe, possessing this character. Horned Serpents. 167 exception of the peculiar appendage above mentioned, I was led to investigate it further, and took the opportunity, for this pur- pose, of examining one of these serpents killed at St Ann of the Orinoko. Observing then that the eyes were sunk so deep in their sockets as to impede the animals seeing in a direct line before, the idea occurred to me that it must possess the power of push- ing them out at pleasure, and that it might be this circumstance which had given rise to the idea of the horned snake. To ascertain whether the animal had this supposed faculty, I “passed an instrument through the arch of the jaw into the orbit, and, with much facility, pushed forward the eyeball about an inch from the head, without using any force. I then observed a muscular coat, or strong membrane, attached laterally to the tunic, which envelopes the globe of the eye, and on withdrawing the instrument, the eye again retired into the head by the re- traction of the muscle; their eyes being, by this mechanism, rendered both protractile and versatile, enabling them to see at once in every direction, and especially to escape the fangs of the rattle-snake, which is said to be their mortal enemy. I feel strongly persuaded, therefore, that it is identically the yellow tail, or, at least, a variety of it, with pedunculated eyes, which has been taken for a horned serpent, or with moveable horns, all of them agreeing that it carries the horns in and out of its head occasionally. Finally, it seems to me a construction of sight in this serpent similar to that of crabs, and that that which has been taken for horns is no other than the organs of sight, thus formed by the allwise Author of Nature for some particular purpose unknown to us. I intended to have made further inquiries, after my return to Demerara from the Orinoko, respecting the peculiarities of this horned or stylephorus serpent, but have hitherto neglected Se An old friend of mine (Mr Thomas of the Kitty Estate, Po- meroon) having killed a yellow tail, on going out to see it, I ob- served all the fowls, Guinea birds, and turkeys in the yard, as- sembled around, and approaching close to the dead snake to examine it, timidly chirping in a low feeble note, the nictitating membrane drawn over their eyes, and seeming, as it were, half 168 Dr Hancock’s Observations on ‘deprived of animation. Had the animal been alive at the time, it might easily have made a prey of one of these birds at least. | It appears to me that that property of serpents which has obtained the name of fascination, does not exclusively belong to any certain species, but that it is in some measure “common to all the serpent race; and that there are a few of the more subtile and cunning ones, who know how to improve by their natural endowments, and to turn those powers to advantage in their predatory pursuits. I am decidedly of opinion, from the observations I have been able to make, as well as from the testimony of others, that there is in reality no such property as fascination in serpents. It is not a faculty of charming or of fascinating, in the usual accep- tation of the term, which enables certain serpents to take birds; but, on the contrary, their hideous form and gestures, which strikes the timid animals with impressions of horror, stupifying them with terror, and depriving them of their proper sensations, which renders them unfit for any exertion. How, indeed, is it possible that a form so terrific and for bid. ding as that-of the crotalus, should be possessed of a power to render itself agreeable or inviting. It is, on the contrary, na- tural to suppose that it is the terrifying, not the charming, principle by which serpents of the most disgusting or hideous forms are most successful in taking birds; and this we find to be actually the case, for those serpents to which has been as- cribed the power of fascinating, are among the most terrific of the tribe. : - The torpedo benumbs its prey with an electrical shock ; but the serpent disables the more timid birds by the mere presenta- tion of its horrible front. ‘The one hurtful or destructive agent is communicated by the touch, or some conducting medium, as water, and acts with energy upon the muscular fibre; the other finds its way by the organ of vision, and exerts its influence up- on the sensorium commune or brain, and thence paralyzing the whole nervous and muscular system. No wonder than these small birds, so feebly constituted, and the most sensible perhaps of all animals to impressions of fear, should fall insensibly mto the devouring jaws of their terrific adversary. - Thus the fascinating power attributed to serpents, if properly the Fascination of Serpents. 169 viewed, falls entirely to the ground. It is not the timid little bird or rabbit alone which are thus overcome, but the larger animals also, and even man in some instances. An occurrence of this kind is related of a Negro, belonging to Mr John Henley, -who, in the swamp of Pomeroon, fell in with a serpent of great magnitude, as the Negroes asserted, and was so dreadfully ter- rified that he fainted away, and was picked up for dead by his companion. The serpent was said to be a camudi (Boa Scytale), and might have made an easy prey of the man, but was over- gorged. They rarely, however, attack man, unless much. pro- voked. Providence has so mercifully ordered it, that serpents of mor- tal venom are very slow to bite; they must first be much irri- tated. Itisa rare occurrence that an Indian is bitten by the bush-master or rattlesnake ; when this happens, however, they seldom attempt a cure, as they consider it absolutely impossible, and the unfortunate patient dies in a short time. Some of the inland tribes, however, have a method of obvia- ting the fatal effects of their bite, by scarifying the wound, imme- diately applying the mouth, and diligently sucking it, squeezing the bitten part from the bottom, so that both the force of suction and pressure are exerted at the same time. Some use withal, salt, honey, juice of the aristolochias, &c. ; however, without the scarifying and suction, nothing would avail in these cases. There is also a spinose species of solanum, called Burabara, which is reputed at Demerara, and among the Indians living near, to be an antidote; as also the root of the arum, called Labaria Plant *, the stem of which is spotted like the snake of that name, and there are many other reputed remedies of this sort. I was informed at Angostura, that the bark of the Chapara Manteca ( Malpighia crassifolia), the bark of which is very thick and astringent, is among the best or most certain remedies as an antidote, bruised and applied to the wound, and. the decoction or infusion taken inwardly. M. Machan said the cascabel or rattlesnake was very numerous on his estate, to the southward of the Orinoko, and very frequently bit and killed animals, and * This appears to be the Dracontium polyphyllum of Linn, 170 Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants. that the remedy there is the bark of the chapara*. He also said that the bark of the alcornoco is a good remedy. In the Orinoko, cats are said to be a mortal enemy to the serpent tribe; that they kili the crotalus, and even the coral snake, which is considered by the Spaniards to be very poison- ous, though, I believe, it is harmless; and it is said are not un- frequently killed in a conflict with the former. I was told that, on some of the Llanos, where rattlesnakes abound, cats are fre- quently kept for this purpose by the inhabitants. * He added at the same time, that this bark, as well as that of the Alcornoco, is esteemed a grand remedy for abscesses in the lungs. They are both powerful astringents. Description of several New or Rare Plants which have lately flowered in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and chiefly in the Royal Botanic Garden. By Dr Grauam, Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh. 10th June 1830. Brachystelma crispum. B. erispum ; foliis elliptico-lanceolatis ; corollz laciniis tubo duplo lon- gioribus, pedunculis seepius aggregatis. Descripti0on.—Tuber (4 inches in diameter) round, flattened, slightly de- pressed; in the centre is a rugged crown or neck, divided at top, and permanent, about 4 or } of an inch high, from which the stems spring when the plant begins to vegetate. Stems several, slightly flattened, ascending, much branched, forming a dense round tuft (in the spe- cimen described 6 inches high and 10 inches broad), covered with short glandular pubescence. Leaves opposite, decussating, elliptico- lanceolate, dark green in front, paler behind, covered on both sides with glandular pubescence, crisped, on short petioles, with a strong middle rib and few veins prominent behind ; at the flowers, the pairs oc- casionally approach, so as to give the appearance of a 4-leaved verticel. Pedunceles (nearly $ths of an inch long), simple, rarely solitary, generally aggregated, situate on the side of the stem between the leaves, 2 or more frequently apy te together in the luxuriant specimen described. Bractee small, awl-shaped, at the base of the peduncles. Calyx small, 5- parted, pubescent, segments awl-shaped, and very much resembling the bracteze. Corolla monopetalous, pubescent within, naked without ; limb 5-parted, plicate, occasionally twisted, forming to the bud an angular blunt beak (about an inch long), of the same colour as the back of the leaves, seg- ments afterwards spreading wide, their edges revolute, upper surface of dark olive-green; faux devoid of pubescence, yellow, especially on the inside, crowded with deep purplish-brown, oblong, transverse spots, which, on the outside, are fewer and more rounded; tube campanulate ; crown deep purple, included, menophyllous, with five teeth, which are connivent over the stigma. There is an emarginate erect border on the outside of each, and between them five pits, over which are placed the truncated stamens, each having two distinct pollen-masses, and a depend- . Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Plants. 171 ing, central, double beak. Germen of two smooth, green, conical follicles, each with many ovules attached to their inner side. Stigma common to both follicles, large, flat, white. Several bulbs of this plant were collected in Southern Africa, by Mr Bowie, and sent, with many other roots, in spring 1829 to Mr Neill, in whose stove at Canonmills it flowered last month. It approaches Brachystelma spathu- Zatum, Bot. Reg. t. 1113, but it seems to me to be evidently distinct. Mr Neill has received another plant, which has not yet flowered, from the same quarter. The leaves are fiat, elliptico-spathulate, and the bulb is somewhat elevated in the centre. It seems probable that it will turn out to be the B. spathulatum. in the natural group of plants to which Brachystelma belongs, there are many fetid species, but I am not acquainted with any whose smell is so decidedly stercoraceous, as that of B. erispum. + Pal pdliz hybride. It is with no slight feelings of disappointment that I have lately seen sent to the Botanic Garden some very fine hybrid varieties of Calceolaria. The species lately introduced into cultivation in this country seemed so well marked, and so entirely agreed with native specimens which have accompanied the seeds, that I did not fear a confusion of species in this genus ; a confusion which in other genera seems to have rendered a dis- tinction of species impossible, and has given colour to the opinion that natural genera form the ultimate divisions of plants with permanent characters. Mr Morrison, gardener to Lord President Hope at Granton, being aware that several of the finest species of Calceolaria were shy in producing seed, suspected that this defect might be corrected, by applying the pol- Jen of certain kinds to the stigmata of others; and he first has had the merit of presenting to the florist, hybrids thus produced, which equal, if they do not surpass, in beauty, any ef the species of this handsome genus. Mr Morrison’s experiments have been confined to four species, all her- baceous, viz. C. corymbosa, C. arachnoidea, C. piantaginea, and C. Fother- gilli. He has succeeded in crossing the whole of these. C. plantaginea he finds most apt to produce seeds of itself, and most readily to fertilize others. The hybrids which Mr Morrison has sent to the Botanic Gar- den are the following : 1. C. plantaginea-corymbosa, raised from seed of C. corymbosa ; produced by the pollen of C. plantaginea. This is an exceedingly handsome plant, with the foliage of C. plantaginea, and the outline of its flowers, but they are larger than these, and with fewer spots externally ; the mouth is open, as in C. corymbosa, but small- er, and the dark marks on the inside of the throat are round, not in streaks; in its flowering stem there is the mode of branching of C. co- rymbosa. Looking at it only with a florist’s eye, it is really a splendid plant. A specimen of this hybrid having been sent by Mr Morrison to the meeting of the Caledonian Horticultural Society on 3d June 1830, the Society’s Silver Medal was voted for it. 2. C. plantaginea-arachnoidea ; raised from seed of C. arachnoidea, pro- duced by the pollen of C. plantaginea. This is a large healthy plant, having acquired little from C. arachnoidea, except a dirty brown colour in the corolla, the mode of branching in the flower-stalk, and the number of its flowers. There is very little woolli. ness upon the plant, but there is none of the polished surface of C. plan- taginea, and the leaves are much smaller, and very much resemble those of C. purpurea. 172 Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants. 3. C. arachnoidea-plantaginea ; raised from seed of C. plantaginea, pro- duced by the pollen of C. arachnoidea. This plant is almost identical in appearance with the last, the parents be- ing only transposed. The flower is rather smaller, its colours darker, more decided, more speckled, and, on the whole, certainly handsomer. 4. C. corymbosa-Fothergillii ; raised from seed of C. Fothergillii, produced by the pollen of C. corymbosa. @ This plant being produced by a cross between species much more dissimi- lar, is quite unlike any of the others, has little of the family features of either of its parents, and apparently the delicate health of a badly orga- * nized mule. The leaves are like those of C. Fothergillii, but they are more numerous, and extend farther, upon a more robust stem. The form of the flowers considerably resembles those of C. Fothergillii, but they are larger, and yellow. Its habit is such that I thought it was probably a mule between C. Fothergillit and C. integrifolia, before I was informed by Mr Morrison of its origin. 5 « _ Eutoca sericea. E. sericea; suberecta, foliis utrinque sericeis pinnatifidis, laciniis extror- sum incisis, superioribus linearibus integerrimis ; ovulis placentz sin- gulz numerosis, multis abortientibus; staminibus corolla triplo lon- gioribus. DEscripTion.—Root perennial. Stem (10 inches high) herbaceous, sub- erect, angular, red, hoary, leafy, branched at the bottom. Leaves very numerous, spreading-in a stellate manner from the crown of the root and lower part of the stem, or scattered along the stem, smaller and more entire upwards, the lower with their petioles 5 inches long, the upper linear, entire, and about 1 inch long, pinnatifid, covered on both sides with subadpressed whiteshairs, channelled, subdecurrent along the petiole ; segments incised on their outer edges, and each section has a strong central nerve, prominent below, and channelled above. Spike ter- minal, solitary, compound, dense, about half the height of the whole plant. Spikelets erect, gradually elongating, hairy. lowers erect on the upper side of the spikelets, expanding from below upwards. Calyx 5-parted, segments linear, nearly smooth on the inner side, on the outer, covered like the pedicels with long, spreading, somewhat matted white hairs. Corolla (about 3 lines long, 43 across), inferior, subcampanulate, bluish purple, equal to the length of the calyx, segments 3-nerved, blunt, entire, smooth, paler towards the base, and there on the inside some- what hairy, and each having two overlapping membranous, nectariferous wings. Stamens 5, nearly thrice the length of the corolla, connected with its base, and alternating with its segments; filaments straight, distant, tapering, purple, slightly hairy at their origin, every where else smooth ; anthers yellow, placed transversely, attached by their middle, bilobular, lobes somewhat crescent-shaped, furrowed in the centre. .Germen green, ovate, subcompressed: covered with loose white simple hairs, unilocular ; style erect, subangular, purple, nearly as long as the stamens, bifid at its apex stigmas 2, small, 3-angled, green. Ovuies, attached to each parietal receptacle, numerous. Seeds ovate, compressed into a keel along one side, dark brown, and covered with many round depressions, placed in longitudinal rows. ‘This pretty and perfectly hardy alpine was raised at the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, in' 1828, from seeds: collected in Captain Franklin’s second expedition to the arctic coasts of America, and presented by Mr Drum- mond. It flowered for the first time in spring 1829. This year it is much strenger, and was in full flower in the open border in May. 4 Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants. 173 Ferraria elongata. F. elongata ; caule simplice ; laciniis corollze interioribus maculatis. Descrierion.—Bulb large, smooth, shining red, flattened on the sides, and tapering at both extremities. Stem (above 2 feet high in the speci- men described, which, however, was probably drawn up from its situa- tion) erect, simple, round, flexuose, pruinose, as is every other part of the plant except the peduncle, germen, and flower. Stem leaves few (about 3 inches long), lanceolate, strongly nerved and plicate, erect, green or scarcely pruinose; sheaths very long but variable, devoid of leafy expansion at the top and bottom of the stem. Spathe (14 inch long) elliptical, coriaceous, bivalvular, many flowered, closed at the apex, where the valves are thin, transparent, membranous, blunt. Flowers expanding in succession, one expanded at a time. Peduncles (projecting half an inch above the membranous apices of the spathe) round, pale-green, naked. Corolla (fully # of an inch long, 1} inch across) bright-blue, yellow at its origin, white immediately above, the white spot drawn to a point near the middle of each segment, and or- namented on the inside with numerous rather oblong spots of deep-blue, subrotate, 6-parted, segments elliptical, slightly undulated, nearly equal, the inner rather the narrowest and slightly pointed, the outer blunt. Stamens united, shorter than the corolla. Filaments pale-blue, with 3 pro- minent angles, short, toothed on the outside, teeth curved, erect be- tween the base of the anther-lobes ; anthers erect, twice as long as the filaments, sagittate at the base, slightly twisted, bilocular, bursting along their outer surface. Pistid shorter than the stamens; germen green, naked, cylindrical, tapering a little near the pedicel, 3-locular ; ovules very numerous, attached to a central receptacle, which is double, in each loculament, and continued from the extremities of the dissepiments ; style deep-blue, enlarging upwards ; stigmata slightly dilated, projecting a little way between the anthers, hairy on their upper surface. A single bulb of this very pretty plant was sent to Mr Neill from Buenos Ayres by Mr Tweedie, in a ball of clay, in 1828. It was planted in the open border in spring 1829, and stood till the middle of winter without having flowered. It was then taken up and put into the stove, where it flowered in June. The flowers expand about 6 o’clock in the morning, and become involute and decay about 3 in the afternoon. It may pro- bably be found sufficiently hardy to bear the same treatment as Tigridia pavonia. ~ Habenaria obtusata ? H. obtusata 2 labello lineare, integerrimo, germen zequanti, cornu brevi- ore ; folio unico radicale elliptico, undulato. Habenaria obtusata ? Goldie, MS. 4 Orchis obtusata; Pursh, Flor. Americ. Sept. ii, 588 ? Description.—Root consisting of a few strong, simple, fleshy fibres. Leaf (24 inches long, 1} broad) radical, solitary, elliptical, undulate, keeled, many nerved. Scape (5 inches high) erect, angular, 15-flowered in the specimen described. Bractee green, linear-subulate, smaller up- wards, the lower longer, the upper. shorter than the flowers. Flowers small, cernuous. Perianth 5-parted, 3 outer segments green, the upper cordato-suborbicular, slightly pointed, cucullate, the lateral spreading, linear, somewhat tapering, slightly twisted, inner segments smaller, dis- tant, lateral, 1-nerved, greenish, linear with a dilated white margin on their lower side, for above half their length. Labellum* linear, entire, green, pendulous, dilated and white at its base, shorter than the Spur, which is white, tapering, green, and blunt at the apex. Colwmn emargi- nate, green in the centre, with an expanded wing projecting forward on each side, along the edges of which the anther-case is placed. Anther- case nearly globular, with a prominent edge in front. Pollen masses yel- 174 Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants. low, granular, stipitate, arising from small brown glands, pollen granules course, angular, elongated. Stigma small, round, green, placed on the inside of the column, and connected to the glands from which the pollen masses arise by the uppermost of two parallel green ribs, which pass for- ward to the edges of the column. Germen green, curved, furrowed, scarcely twisted, about as long as the lip, and rather shorter than the spur. The specimen described flowered in a cold frame in the collection of P. Neill, Esq. of Canonmills, in May last. The flowers have been expanded about six weeks, and will not immediately fate. It was received by Mr Goldie from the neighbourhood of Montreal in autumn 1829, and com- munieated by him to Mr Neill in March last, under the name of Habe- naria obtusata 2? the specific name being given with some hesitation ; and I have the same plant, under the same name, with the same uncer- tainty, from my liberal friend Dr Boott, gathered in woods on the - White Mountains, North America. I have some doubts as to its being the species mentioned by Pursh, but having no means of certainly de- termining this, I do not feel myself at liberty to act with more decision than Dr Boott and Mr Goldie, the last of whom, if not both, I believe, examined the plant in its native stations. My doubts arise from the form of the leaf, the number of the flowers, and the comparative length of the segments of the perianth, to none of which the expressions of Pursh apply. On the specimen of Dr Boott, however, there are but 7 flowers, and the leaf is more attenuated at the base, than in Mr Neill’s plant. Haleni« Fischerii. H. Fischerii ; corolla 4-partita, calcaribus rectis, patulis ; laciniis calycinis subulatis; caule ramoso-erecto; foliis subsessilibus, trinervibus, infe- rioribus obovatis, superioribus ovate-lanceolatis, carinatis; pedunculis solitariis, terminalibus. DeEscrrPiToNn.—Foot annual. Stem (3 inches highyerect, enlarging upwards, purple below, green above, with 4 sides of unequal breadth, which alter- nate at the joints. Leaves opposite, decussating, and at the top of the stem, four in a verticel, from approximation, and therefore imbricated at their base, subpetioled, decurrent, 3-nerved, glabrous on both sides, the lower obovate, blunt and nearly flat, the upper ($th of an inch long, jth ofan inch broad) ovato-lanceolate, acute, keeled. Peduncles (4% lines long) solitary, one rising from the apex of a minute branch in the axil of each leaf, and one terminating the stem, therefore five at the top, always sin- gle-flowered, shorter than the leaves. Calyx 4-parted, segments awl- shaped, imbricated, sparingly provided with minute glandular pubescence (every other part of the plant being glabrous), spreading, shorter than the peduncles along which they are decurrent. Corolla yellow or brownish- yellow, ovate, equalin length tothe peduncle, 4-cleft, 4-spurred; segments broadly ovate, acute, always connivent, at least T have never observed them to expand in any weather, or at any hour of the day; spurs rather shorter than the calyx, straight, spreading, conical, compressed laterally. Stamens 4, arising from the corolla at the base of the fissures, and there- fore alternating with the segments, occasionally an abortive fifth stamen rises from below the middle of one of the segments at the mouth of the spur; filaments awl-shaped, shorter than the spurs, approximating at their bases, the upper part being erect ; anthers 2-lobed, bursting early along their fronts. Germen elliptical, subtetragonous, unilocular, bival- vular, and empty at the apex. Stigmata 2, diverging, sessile. Ovules large, round, attached to the sides of linear, parietal receptacles. The plant was raised from seed transmitted through Mr Hunneman in March 1829 to the Botanic Garden by Dr Fisher, as a species of Ha- lenia gathered in Dahurica. It flowered very freely in the opem border in June, and probably will ripen its’ seeds. * Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants. 175 Hibiscus splendens. H. splendens ; frutex, aculeis rectis, base tuberculatis ; corolla expansa, extrorsum costis pluribus flexuosis tomentosis ; calyce 5-fido, laciniis acutis, 3-nervibus, carinatis; involucro multipartito, laciniis lineari- subulatis, interdum ramosis, calyce paulo brevioribus; pedunculo su- pra medium oblique articulato ; foliis palmatis, 3-5-lobatis, lobis lan- ceolatis. H. splendens, Fraser, MS. Descrivtion.—Slem woody (in our flowering specimen 10 feet high), erect, round. Bark every where green, covered with short stellate pu- bescence, interspersed with short, spreading, nearly straight aculei, arising from large callous bases, which are red on the young parts of the plant. Branches axillary, woody, scattered, ascending, round. Leaves (6-7 inches long, 6 broad,) spreading, palmate, 3—5-lobed, light green, reticu- ~ lated, thickly covered with rather harsh, stellate, unbranched pubes- cence on both sides; lobes lanceolate, unequally serrated; ribs and veins prominent, and aculeate below. Petioles (3-5 inches long) near= ly as long as the leaves, slightly flattened above, filled with pith, which is continued into the ribs of the leaves. Stipules (1 inch long) green, subulate, linear, unconnected with the petioles, pubescent on the out- side. Peduncle solitary, single-flowered, longer than the petiole from the axil of which it springs, and resembling it, filled with pith, ob- liquely articulated and bent about three-fourths of an inch from the ca- lyx. Involucrum (about 1 inch long) green, divided to its base into many linear-subulate segments which are occasionally branched, smooth on the inside, covered on the outside with long, harsh, simple, spreading hairs, arising from glandular bases. Calyx yellow, deeply 5-cleft, rather longer than the involucre, densely covered with softer shorter hairs on the outside, smcoth within ; segments tapering, 3-nerved, two of the nerves lateral, the other forming a strong keel. Corolla (in our flowers 33 inches long by 6 inches across when expanded) rose coloured ; petals with many colourless flexuose nerves prominent on the outside, and there especially pubescent, connected to each other and to the lower part of the united filaments near their base, white towards their lower part, each having two dense tufts of dark red wool on the inside of its callous: base, within a large obcordate, slightly orange coloured spot, having a dark rose coloured margin. In the entire flower, the margin forms a continuous line round the centre, inclosing a space about half an inch in diameter, and 5 tufts of red wool produced by the confiuence in pairs of the tufts on the petals. Stamens numerous, united filaments at the lower part pale, above rose coloured ; anthers dark crimson, arranged in a pyramidal form; pollen granules very large and spherical. Style pro- jecting beyond the stamens, as is usual in the genus, but much shorter than the petals, supporting 5 deep red hairy round stigmas. Germen covered with erect silky hairs, quinquelocular ; ovules numerous, at- tached to the central receptacle, and arranged in two rows in each locu.. lament. Seeds ash coloured, wrinkled, warted, and angular. This noble plant was raised, I believe, in various collections, from New Holland seeds sent by Mr Fraser in November 1828; but I am not aware that it has flowered anywhere before the present month (May 1830), when it blossomed in the stove of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. Its only fault, as a cultivated plant, is its great size ;. but in its native situation, it must present a most brilliant appearance. Mr Fraser writes of it, “ This I consider the king of all the Australian plants which I have seen. I have it 224 feet in height. The flowers. this season measured 9 inches across, were of the most delicate pink and crimson, and literally covered the plant.” Salvia rhombifolia. S. rhombifolia; caule herbaceo, bifariam piloso, erecto, ramoso ; foliis sub- 176 Dr Graham’s Deseription of New or Rare Plants. rhomboideo-cordatis, subacutis, rugosis, subtus pracipue pubescenti- bus, crenato-serratis ; racemis terminalibus, solitariis, verticillatis, subcapitatis ; corellze labio inferiore ampliato, patente, bilobato. Sta- minibus longe exsertis. Bracteis ovatis, acuminatis, deciduis. : Salvia rhombifolia, Ruiz et Pavon, Flor. Peruv. et Chil. i. p. 26. t. 36. fig. b. ' DeEscrirtTr10on.—Séem herbaceous, branched, 4-sided, pubescent ; hairs short recurved, and most numerous in two broad lines along two sides, alter- nating at the joints; hairs with several joints. Branches green, spread- ing. Leaves petioled, veined, rugose, subacute, pubescent on both sides, but especially on the under, crenato-serrated, the serratures mucronu- late, in the more luxuriant plants (which are 14 foot high, 1} across) of dark green, the larger ones (4 inches long, 34 broad) being subrhomboi- ‘deo-cordate, and often unequal at the base, in the smaller plants (where they are 14 inch long, and rather more than 1 inch broad,) pale green and cordate. Petioles spreading, channelled, ciliated, shorter upwards. Ra- cemes terminal, solitary, verticillate ; peduncle without flowers for a con- siderable way above its origin, and resembling the stem in shape and the . bifarious arrangement of its hairs; verticels 2-6-flowered, according to the luxuriance of the plant, collected into a lax capitulum ; pedicels slightly hairy, spreading on all sides. . Calya with three mucronate erect teeth, and eleven primary nerves, three running along each of the lower teeth, and five along the upper, hairy, especially along the ribs, and sprinkled, as well as the stem, and both sides of the leaves, but more abundantly, than these, with minute, shining, subviscid glands; tube subcylindrical ; limb, after the corolla falls compressed laterally, closing the throat. Corol/a azure-blue, the tube only and two parallel linear streaks in the centre of the lower lip being white; tube glabrous, nearly filling the calyx, and equal to it in length, compressed laterally, curved ; limb pubescent on the outside, upper lip shorter than the tube, nearly straight, lower lip spreading, twice as long as the upper, 4-lobed, lobes obtuse, spreading. Stamens closely enveloped by the upper lip, but double its length; filaments smooth, rather paler than the corolla; an- thers darker, bursting along their lower sides, pollen yellow. Style simi- lar to the filaments, but more slender, and rather shorter, bifid at the apex, the lower segment revolute, and,by much the broadest and longest, the stigmatic surface being arranged along its edges, and awanting alto- gether on the small, subulate, upper segment. Lobes of the germen pale yellow, obovate, slightly mutually impressed, veined, obscurely dotted, placed around the base of the style on a large fleshy yellowish.white receptacle. , The plant was raised from seed communicated by my valuable correspon dent Mr Cruckshanks from Lima this season, and flowered in the stove of the Botanic Garden in May and June. I do not hesitate to refer this species to S. rhombifolia of Ruiz and Pavon, though the upper leaves are less sessile than in their figure, the branches and calyx always green, the peduncles always solitary in our specimens, which are in every degree of luxuriance, and the verticels fewer and more capitate. Schizanthus Hookerii. S. Hookerii ; corollz tubo limbum zequante, labio inferiore longe bicor- nuto, labii superioris lobo medio longe acuminato. Schizanthus Hookerii, Gillies, MS. Descriptrion.—Biennial ? Stem herbaceous, stout, branched. Branches diffused, whole surface covered with glandular pubescence. Leaves va~ riable, once or twice pinnatifid, laciniz incised. Pedicels (3ths of an inch long) both in flower and in fruit secund, erect. Flowers in large branch- Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants. 177 ing, terminal, bracteated panicles. Calya persistent, 5-parted, 4 of the ser- ments suberect, the two upper rather shorter than the next, and the low: est, which is closely applied to the under side of the tube of the corolla, is considerably longer than any of the others, at least in the cultivated spe- cimens. Corolla fully an inch across in both directions, slightly pubescent on the outside, bilabiate ; upper lip, as in the other species, 3-lobed, of which the central is much narrower than in S. porrigens, or S. pinna- tus of our gardens (which is certainly different from S. \pinnatus of Ruiz and Pavon), entire, with prominent edges forming the throat, revolute in its sides towards the apex, and drawn out to a long erect point, which, as well as its base, and the whole of the remainder of the corolla, is of uniform pale rose-lilac, rather darker and somewhat streaked on the outside, the centre being orange coloured, with a few dark purple streaks; lateral lobes biparted, and each segment bifid : lower lip tripartite, lateral segmerits linear, very narrow, spreading, and half the length of the central, which is notched, and each seg- ment is drawn out into a long beak: tube slightly curved, compressed laterally, and longer than the limb. Stamens four, filaments pubescent at the base, the two upper very short, abortive, and projecting forwards from the edge of the central lobe of the upper lip at its base, the two others rising from the base of the lower lip, nearly reaching to the fissure in its central lobe, and, as in the other species, retained within this till the pollen is ripe, after which they advance, and pass forward in straight parallel lines from the centre of the flower ; anthers large, green, tiruailly elliptical, notched at their base, bilobular, bursting along their inner surface; pollen greenish-yellow. Stigma very minute, terminal. Style rather longer than the stamens, ascending at its extremity, lilac. Germen small, conical, yellow, bilocular. Ovwles numerous, attached to a central receptacle in each loculament ; capsule ovate, longer than the calyx, bivalvular, valves bifid. Seeds brown, dotted, somewhat scaly, reniform, or so much bent round that their extremities meet. This remarkably distinct species of Schizanthus was raised by James Boog, Esq. in his garden at Portobello, from seed brought to this country by my excellent friend Dr Gillies, having been gathered by him in various places on the Chilian side of the Cordillera of the Andes, at an elevation of 8000 or 9000 feet above the level of the sea. The seed was sown in May 1829 in the open border, and the plants not having flowered, were taken into the house during winter, but planted out again in March. They began to flower in the beginning of June, and I doubt not will produce abundance of blossoms during the summer. The plant, when thus treated, has therefore proved to be biennial at least; whether it may be longer lived, or whether, if raised in a greater degree of heat, it might not have flowered during the first year, and died, I cannot say. Dr Gillies obligingly wrote to me when the plant came into flower, ex- pressed his conviction that it was a nondescript species, narrated its most characteristic features, and inclosed a specimen. ren Seilla pumila. S. pumila ; corolla patente ; folio solitario vaginante, apice calloso; race- mo erecto; bracteis pedicello multo brevioribus. Scilla pumilla, Broter, Flora Lusitanica, i. 527. Description.—Leaf (2 inches long, 4 inch broad) generally or always, as in the specimen described, solitary, involute, ovato-acuminate, with a callous subcylindrical apex, subcarinate, waved, glabrous. Scape about the same length as the leaves, erect, filiform, glabrous, green, racemose (5-flowered in the specimen described), pedicels purplish, gradually elongating (to about half an inch), springing from the axil of a small sheathing bractea, which is occasionally drawn out into a point, projecting from some part of a truncated ragged extremity. Corolla bright lilac (half an inch across), APRIL—JUNE 1830. M 178 Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants. segments spreading, subunguiculate, ovate, slightly undulate, having a blue thickened middle rib, and an inflected mucro. Stamens inserted into the base of the corolla, and rather more than half the length of its seg- ments; filaments light lilac, dilated towards their base, but contracted immediately above their insertion ; anthers erect, blue, pollen greenish. Germen blue, ovate, 3-lobed, with a distinct light coloured suture along _ the front of each lobe. Style furrowed. This pretty little species flowered in the garden of David Falconar, Esq. of Carlowrie, near Edinburgh, in May 1830. It is a native of Portugal, and is said rarely to vary with white flowers. Celestial Phenomena from July 1. to October 1. 1830, caleu- lated for the Meridian of Edinburgh, Mean Time. By Mr Georce Innes, Astronomical Calculator, Aberdeen. The times are inserted according to the Civil reckoning, the day beginning at midnight. —The Conjunctions of the Moon with the Stars are given in Right Ascension. JULY: D Oey an) D- Hy ou 2 12745 Spr 16. 62127 ¢)238 ea 41519 4) 9 Oph. 16 W457 ¢)es 4. 12 34 41 Em. III. sat. 2/ | 17. 1 26 18 d6)@ 4. 201310 Em.IV.sat.2/ | 18 159 5. = dd 4, Dae ore © §.32.8 18 172043 Im. III. sat. 7/ ae 1 Oe . & © ¥ 20 0 6 54 @ New Moon. 6. 1 1} 52 rom) 21 1132 3 Im. IV. sat. ?/ 6. 21552 (©FullMoon. }21 1546 2 ¢g)h 6 7 69. oe DiGud 220° 3753 92) od QE 7 18 518 ¢6)H 22 211834 S)eK % 111548 dYoft 23. 5 448 dod 8. 15 24 7 SOEs 23. 10 18 29 © enters §2, 8. 1, 23) 25523 on Em. 'T. sat. 2 24. 944 3 Im.I. sat. 9. : % greatest elong.| 24. 1236 9 d)eatmy 19 54435 of Jase 25. 25620 fd)” 10. 152926 dg)ose 2. 152635 dd) ity Ty 1l 519 8 d)e¢ 25. 204841 Em.II. sat. ¥ ll 13 20 50 Im. III. sat. 7 | 25. 2) 20 39 Im. IIT. sat. 2/ 13. 3 28 44 ( Last Quarter. | 27- 714 6 dY1 +f ‘ 13. , 222838 464 Ir 27.0 15 25°80" 9 4') x 14. 12 53 8 3 ) # Ceti 27. 20 29 1 ) First Quarter. 15. 640 8 40-0 29 93147 g)yx 15. 82110 g)fB 30. 24722 49 lL. » 18,0 Ihe GBs B 30. 123222 4) 9 Oph. 16. 12016 = Im.TI. sat. 2/ 30. 20 44 21 go) vase 16. 43820 Sp)yvB 31. 45320 6Pu% 16 Hie ok d)13B8 33 23 39 12 Im. I. sat. 2/ i oe pee & PRASRARR RPI ey Celestial Phenomena from July 1. to Oct. 1.1830. 179 51 59 AUGUST. D. 69° 15. Em. II. sat. 2/ 16. Im. III. sat. 2/- | 16. dg) ¥ 18. 2 © H 18. djyaft 19. ro) y 19. © Full Moon 20. Sup. 6 © $ 20. Fad) ee 21. 6 )oss 21. } y 3 23. 6220 23a Im. ITI. sat. 2/ 24, hd &h Me li d Dr 25. d ) # Ceti. 26. ( Last Quarter. | 96, d DFS 26. 6 930 26. d)xrB 28. d GaN 28. d)138 30. d) 2238 30. d)«8 31. dOh SEFTEMBER. D. Em. I. sat. 2/ 173 (omy) omen 18. © Full Moon. | 18. d)eosws 19. d)¢ 19. Sd Dr 19. Im. III. sat. 2/ 20. d ) # Ceti. 223 SDL 22. d)7& 23. S)23%8 23. d)2z28 24. Em. IV. sat. 2/ | 25. ( Last Quarter. | 25. 2 near h 26. d)h 27. d)DeZVN 27. 3 DP 29. de KX 30. greatest elong. | 30. 9 @ New Moon. H 6 21 6 11 5 15 5 20 ll 23 15 16 19 17 4 13 20 20 17 20 ] 20 14 Boe 6 23 9 1} 15 1 0 47 53 30 9 ONT? 22 13 22 41 0 58 29 10 58 44 32 25 4 45 — 33 57 37 17. 51 57 18 39 46 56 56 38 49 30 49 TF 51 0 27 29 57 30 52 50 7 50 1 24 40 5 58 6 ”" 4 “ 19 515 32 34 15 51 54 36 30°°= 5 = 20 1) 12 11 41 4 23 51 13 31 8 20 33 SL 6 31 30 19 58 7 10 3 26 20 9 44 23 42°50 8 10 51 11 17 15 56 « 28 55 db)? 5 Pest Im. I. sat. 27/ d)h @ New Moon. d VER Hn Ov YYY = o bn | a % OG AX OO. OO. © penne Hwy 42 I? rst Quarter. ~ WOWAanknnanarmvan a0 AWA%.2AAWwOW OW VY OQVeCyy oO, wo aS 3 ie 20 +2 d ) ¢ Oph. © enters = Em. I. sat. 2/ ) First Quarter. 5) zx d)dt Em. IT. sat. 2/ Celestial Phenomena from July 1. to October 1. 1830. 180 6é 8I Cl 61 | 02 02 €F Sl | sh 6 9% 6€ 9 O€ €& 8¢ 8 FE OL 6G €1| 6I €IT |e FL GL | OF 06 rE ST L. 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He a “ TimMeYi0n,...cseceeseeeseececesere Vegodeaab we 16. 11 46 4 at 193° EXMersion, «..,eeecesenseesseecesceeeeerescen ees 12 13 30 at244 The angle denotes the point of the Moon’s limb where the phenomenon will take place, reckoning from the vertew of the limb towards the right hand round the circumference, as seen with a telescope which inverts. On the 2d and 3d of September there will be a total Eclipse of the Moon: D He ‘ “ The Eclipse begins, ......ssesecrseeseressees SEPte 2 20 36 32 Beginning of total darkness, .....,..s00+«« 21 34 26 End of total darkmess,......cneeee escscsseses 23 15 14 End of the Eclipse,.......s.-s+se0+ seavaacs’ ‘ 3. 013 8 Proceedings of the Wernerian Natural History Society. (Continued from preceding volume, p..385.), 1830, March 6—Hewry Wirnam, Esq.. Vice-President, in the chair.—The Secretary read a notice concerning the Hya-hya or Milk-tree of Demerara, contained in a letter from James Smith, Esq. to Professor Jameson. (See No. 16. of this Jour- nal, p.315. et seg.) After which the Rev. Dr David Scot, read an essay on the question, Whether Domestic Poultry were known among the ancient Jews ? , March 20.—Dr R. K. Grevitte, V. P. in the chair—There was read an essay on the origin of our Domestic Poultry, com- municated by James Wilson, Esq.; and specimens of several kinds of the wild poultry were placed on the table. ‘The Rev. Dr Scot then read an essay, shewing that the Hyzena of natu- ralists is most probably alluded to in three different passages of the Sacred Writings, although this has been denied by critics. April 3.—Rozsert JamEson, Esq. Pres. in the chair.— There was read by David Craigie, Esq. surgeon, an interesting account of the internal structure of the Sturgeon, Acipenser 182 Proceedings of the Wernerian Natural History Society. - Sturio, particularly of the organs of digestion ; the description being illustrated by preparations and drawings. April 17.—G. A. Watxer Arnott, Esq., formerly V. P. in the chair.—The Secretary read notices regarding the ap- pearances and probable effects of the Aurora borealis in Scot- land, in August and September 1829, communicated by Mr Blackader. The Rev. Dr Scot read an essay on the Copher of the Song of Solomon, or Henna of the Arabians, the Camphire of the English translation ; Lawsonia inermis of botanists.—Dr John Gillies then read an account of an eruption of fine ashes from the Volcano of Penquenes in the Andes of Chile, which he witnessed during his travels. May 1.—Rosert Jameson, Esq. Pres. in the chair.—The Secretary read a communication from the Rev. Dr John Fle- ming of Flisk, on the Superposition of the Strata on the banks of the Tay, and on the occurrence of Scales of vertebrated ani- mals in the old red sandstone of that district—Dr Walter Adam then read a paper op the different forms of the Human Skull, and illustrated his remarks by the exhibition of specimens.— There was then read an account of a new species of Arvicola, found in the eastern parts of the middle division of Scotland, by Mr William Macgillivray; and, lastly, an Analysis of the Milk of the Hya-hya tree of Demerara, by Professor Christi- son. (For adetailed account of this analysis, see p. 31. e¢ seq. of the present number of this Journal.)—After which the Society adjourned for the season, having completed its twenty-third session. . SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. METEOROLOGY. ay Proftssor Hansteen’s Journey to Siberia. —Professor Han- steen, in a letter to. Professor Shumacher, dated Jrktuz, 11th April, states, that “ itis difficult to find a sky more favourable to astronomical observations than that of eastern Siberia. It is * Scientific Intelligence.—Meteorology. 183 - constantly serene from the moment when the River Angara, which flows out of Lake Baikal, is covered with ice, to the month of April. Ina cold of from 30° to 35° of Reaumur, the sun rises and sets clear, free from the red mist in which its disk appears enveloped to us, when near the horizon, during the winter. Moreover, its action is so powerful, in spite of the intense cold, that the roofs of the houses are often seen dripping in a temperature of from 20° to 30° below zero. The latter de- gree of cold is more supportable here than that of 15° with us, seeing that the air is always calm and dry. When we left To- bolzk, on the 12th December, the cold was constantly from 20 to 30 to 34°. We are obliged to cover our instruments with thin leather, otherwise, on touching them, a pain was felt like that from a burn, and a white blister was produced on the skin.” HYDROGRAPHY. 2. Colour of Water and Ice.—Not only the water, but also the ice of different rivers, has a peculiar colour ; and this appears to depend not on accidental causes, as conjectured by Davy, be- cause, if so, it could not be the same every year. ‘I have,” says Ritter von Wurzer, in Karsten’s Archives, b. xviii. p. 103, “< often observed this in the ice of the Rhine, which is always bluish ; while, on the other hand, the ice of the Moselle is al- ways greenish. The ice of the small rivers that pour into the Lower Rhine, for example the Ruhe, &c. is either white, or only pale greenish. More than seventy years ago, Leidenfrost first re- marked this circumstance. This difference of colour is so strik- ing, that the boatmen guide themselves by it, as they know by it whether it is Rhine or Moselle ice they have to do with. That decaying vegetable matter is the cause of the green colour is by no means evident, for the clear.and transparent ice of the Rhine is sky-blue, the clear and transparent ice of the Moselle is green; and why is this appearance the same, year after year ? Why is the water of streams in woods in general not green ? Why is the sea-waters green, even in places hundreds of miles from the land? I am not of opinion that iodine and bromine give to sea-water its colour, for those sea-plants which, by their decomposition, afford these substances, does not contain them in 184 Scientific Intelligence.—Chemistry. an uncombined state. ‘The truth is, we have not. hitherto dis- covered the cause of the colour of ice and water.—Karsten’s Archiv. b. xviii. 3. Quantity of Water in the River Clyde. —The breadth of sip Clyde, at the new bridge, Glasgow, is 410 feet, and its mean depth 33 feet. The velocity of the water at the surface is 1:23 inch, and the mean velocity of the whole water is 0°558,132 inch per second. . From these data it may be inferred that the quantity of water discharged per second is 763 cubic feet. This amounts to 2,417,760,000 cubic feet, or 473,017,448 imperial gallons, or 1,877,053 tons. The river Clyde drains about ,',th of Scotland, or about ,4,d part of Great Britain. Hence, if the water discharged into the sea by the Clyde afforded a fair ave- rage of the whole island, the total amount of the water dischar- ged annually by all the rivers in Great Britain would be only 155,795,399 tons, which does not amount to one-hundredth part of the excess of the rain above the evaporation.— Thomson on Heat and Electricity, p. 268. CHEMISTRY. 4, Freezing Point of Spirit of Wine.—The following state- ment on this curious topic is given by Muncke and Gmelin :— 1. Good Coniac Brandy froze or sustained in Melville Island, according to Captain Parry,.a temperature of — 48°.5 cent. 2. Alcohol of 801 sp. gr. at 20° cent., had its point of great- est density, according to first experiments, at — 56°.6 cent., consequently the conjectural freezing point was — 58° cent. 3. Nearly pure alcohol of specific gravity 789, froze at — 79° cent. 4. According to second experiments, alcohol of 791 sp. gr. attained its point of greatest density at — 89°.4 cent. Therefore the conjectural freezing point was — 92° cent.—Pog- gendorf’s Annalen, No. ix. 1829. 5. Note on Robert Brown’s Microscopical Observations on the Particles of Bodies—Muncke of Heidelberg finds the follow- ing a simple and easy mode of shewing the motions of the par- ticles.. If we triturate a piece of gummi gutte, the size of a pin-head, in a large drop of water on a glass-plate, take as much of this solution as will hang on the head of a pin, dilute it again with a drop of water, and then bring under the microscope Ee ee Scientific Intelligence.— Geology. 185 as much as amounts to half a millet-seed ; we observe in the fluid small brownish yellow, generally round (but also of other forms) points, from the size of a small grain of gunpowder, in distances from one another of 0.25 to 1 line. ‘These points are in perpetual slower or quicker motion, so that they move through an apparent space of 1 line, in from 0.5 to 2 or 4 seconds. If we employ fine oil of almonds in place of water, no motion of the particles takes place, while in spirit of wine it is so rapid as scarcely to be followed by the eye. This motion certainly bears some resemblance to that we observe in infusory animals, but the latter shew more of voluntary action. The idea of vitality is entirely out of the question. On the contrary, we are disposed to view the motions as of a mechanical nature, caused by the unequal temperature of the strongly illuminated water, its evaporation, currents of air, and heated currents, &c. . If the diameter of a drop is placed at 0.5 of a line, we obtain, by mag- nifying it 500 times, an apparent mass of water of more than a foot and half the side, with small particles swimming in it, and if we consider their motions magnified in an equal degree, the phenomenon ceases to be wonderful, witbout, however, losing any thing of its interest. 6. Brewsterite.—Since my former notice on the constitution of Brewsterite, I have completed an analysis of a portion of one of the specimens mentioned in that notice, consisting of a con- cretion of Brewsterite partly crystallized, and partly amorphous ; and have found it to contain, besides silica, alumina and water, 7.709 per cent. of strontia, 5.27 of baryta, and 1.007 of lime, the strontia and baryta being in the proportion of two atoms of the former to one of the latter. Before, however, publishing a statement of the proportions of all the constituents, I wish to repeat the analysis, which different avocatious have prevented me from as yet accomplishing.—Arthwr Connell. GEOLOGY. 4. A Village lighted by Natural Gas.—The village of Fredo- nia, in the western part of the State of New York, presents this singular phenomenon. I was detained there a day in Oc- tober of last year, and had an opportunity’of examining it at lei- sure. The village is forty miles from Buffalo, and about two 186 Scientific Intelligence.— Geology. from Lake Erie; a small but rapid stream called the Canada- way passes through it, and, after turning several miles, dis- charges itself into the lake below; near the mouth is a small harbour with a light-house. While removing an old mill, which steod partly over this stream in Fredonia, three years since, some bubbles were observed to break frequently from the wa- ter, and on trial were found to be inflammable. A company was formed, and a hole, an inch and a half in diameter, being bored through the rock, a soft fetid limestone, the gas left its natural channel, and ascended through this, A gasometer was then constructed, with a small house for its protection, and the pipes being laid, the gas is conveyed through the whole village. One hundred lights are fed from it ; more or less at an expense of one dollar and a-half yearly for each. The flame is large, but not so strong or brilliant as that from gas in our cities; it is, however, in high favour with the inhabitants. 'The gaso- meter, on measurement, collected 80 cubic feet in 12 hours du- ring the day ; but the man who has charge of it told me, that more might be procured with a larger apparatus. About a mile from the village, and in the same stream, it comes up in quantities four or five times as great. The contractor for the light- house purchased the right to it, and laid pipes to the lake, but found it impossible to make it descend, the difference in ele- vation being very great. It preferred its old natural channels, and bubbled up beyond the reach of his gasometer. The gas is carburetted hydrogen, and is supposed to come from beds of bituminous coal. The only rock visible, however, both here and to a great extent on both sides, along the southern shore of the lake, is fetid limestone. 8. Diluvial Furrows and Scratches.—In a late number of the American Journal of’ Science, there is a notice of informa- tion laid before the New York Lyceum, relative to the worn appearance of rocks im sitw, with parallel scratches (such as heavy harrows might make in soft clay), and the writer speaks of them as being in a south-easterly direction. Appearances precisely similar occurred in excavating the Erie Canal above Lockport, on hard limestone, with a direction of the lines about north 15° east. Similar marks were found on uncovering hard sandstone in the Erie Canal, not far from Brockport, and nearly Scientific Intelligence.—Geology. 187 80 feet below the former level. At my request Dr Whippo, the resident engineer, ascertained the direction of the lines north 80° east. Nearly on the same level with the last, on the east side of the’ Genessee River, and also on the line of the Erie Canal, similar scratches occurred on the hard limestone ; but I know not the direction. I have also found similar traces on the Montrose and Milford turnpike, south of the Great Bend of the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania, probably 1000 feet above any of the before-mentioned localities, and in all cases on hard rock in situ. I see no difficulty m referring this attrition of the surface of rocky strata to the Deluge,—a period when all the loose matter of the globe appears to have been in violent commotion ; but on the cause of lines so regular, and so deeply engraved, I have nothing to offer. 9. Origin of the Air of Air-Volcanoes.—An account has been lately published of a salt named Kniester Salz, brought from Wieliczka by Dr Boué, which contains much carburetted hydrogen. When dissolved in water, the carburetted hydro- gen escapes ; hence it is inferred that the gas evolved in many salt-mines, and also in salses in air-volcanoes, may have this origin. 10. Origin of Diluvium.—Rozet maintains, in a memoir just published, ‘that the diluvium of geologists was produced by the rising through the earth from below of vast quantities of water and carbonic acid. 11. Overflowing or Spouting Springs.—M. Mallat, by an ingenious contrivance, is enabled to make use separately of two kinds of water; sometimes found in a single boring, such as hard , and soft water. 12. New Work on Geology.—That excellent man Omalius will soon publish a work on geology, which cannot fail to prove highly interesting and instructive. 13. Humboldt’s New Journey.—This distinguished philoso- pher and traveller, will, we are informed, undertake a new sci- entific journey to the southern parts of Russia, with the Empe- ror of Russia. 14. Works on Petrifactions—Mr Witham of Lartington is preparing a work on the structure of the fossil trees found in our secondary strata, to be illustrated by numerous engravings, illustrative of ate a various structures exhibited by these fossil 188 Scientific Intelligence—Zoology. organic remains.—Major Zieten has begun the publication of a work on the Fossils‘of Wurtemberg, (iiber die Versteinerungen Wurtembergs), to be in 12 numbers. The first number con- tains the Ammonites. Each will cost about 6s. in black.— Deshayes of Paris continues his excellent work on the fossils, shells, &c. of France.—Goldfuss of Bonn is advancing with his interesting series of plates of Fossil Organic Remains.—Chil- dren’s work on Fossils does not appear. 15. Memoirs of the Society of Strasburg.—The first volume of the new memoirs of the Society of Strasburg has. just appear- ed. It contains, 1. An extensive paper on Belemnites, with plates by Voltz. 2. On the Jura Limestone, and caves of the Haute Saone, by Thirria. 3. On the fresh-water gypsum of Hegau (Baden) by Dr Althaus. 4. On the pea iron-ore of Randern by Walchner. 5. On the fibrous boracite found in keuper-gypsum. 6. On vertical strata. '7. On the mineral wa- ters of Sulz. 8. On the primitive floras of the earth, by Voltz; it is an answer to Brongniart’s observations on the subject. 16. On the Alluviwm of the Nile.—It is mentioned by au- thors, that the tract of country between Damietta and the sea, a distance of about two leagues, is a work of the Nile: that Damietta, during the first crusade of St Louis, was on the bor- der of the sea, hence that this alluvial formation must have been the produce of at least 600 years.—The work of Mr Reinaud, entitled, “ Kxtraits des Historiens Arabes, relatifs aux guerres des Croisades,” shews that the influence of these alluvia has been exaggerated ; for in that work it is said, in conformity with the testimony of oriental writers, that immediately after the departure of St Louis, the Egyptian Emirs, wishing to pre- vent a new invasion on the same side, razed Damietta, and founded a new city in the interior of this district. This is the. present city of Damietta. ZOOLOGY. 17. Mortality among Leeches during Storms——That atmo- spheric changes have a remarkable influence upon leeches, is a well-established fact. In 1825, M. Derheims of St Omer, ascribes the almost sudden death of them at the approach of, or during storms, to the coagulation of the blood of these creatures, caused by the impression of the atmospheric electricity. This Scientific Intelligence.— Botany. 189 opinion, which at that time was the result of theory, he con- firmed by direct experiments. BOTANY. 18. Notice respecting the existence of Fraxinus excelsior, as an Indigenous Tree in Scotland.—As the occurrence of the ash and beech in Scotland, in a truly indigenous state, has been consi- dered doubtful, I have been induced to consult the notes which I have been accustomed to write during excursions. made into various parts of the country, for the purpose of examining its natural productions. If the subject be considered of any 1m- portance, perhaps the following facts, extracted from the notes of three journeys, may be found worthy of a place in the Journal. . The beech I have no where seen wild in Scotland ; but the ash I find marked as frequently as most of our native trees, excepting the birch, the alder, the oak, and the hazel. The passages that refer to it I extract without alteration. For two miles above Upper Banchory, there were considerable quantities of Betula alba, Alnus elutinosa, Fraxinus excel- sior, Quercus robur, and Ilex aquifolium. In the space be- tween Charlestown and the Pass of Tulloch, there is very little wood by the river; but at the upper end of the valley, a con- siderable quantity along the hills: Betula alba, Quercus Robur, and Fraxinus excelsior, are the species which occur here. In Glen-Nevis, the trees seen were Alnus glutinosa, Fraxinus ex- celsior, Pinus sylvestris, the latter to appearance planted. Be- tween Fort-William and Ballachulish, the trees and shrubs were Alnus glutinosa, Betula alba, Pyrus Aucuparia, Quercus Robur, Corylus Avellana, Fraxinus excelsior, Prunus spinosa, Mespilus oxyacantha, Hypericum Androsemum, Hedera Helix, Lonicera Periclymenum, &c. At Cladach, on Lochawe: Cory- lus Avellana, Quercus Robur, Fraxinus excelsior, Prunus Pa- dus, Betula alba, Mespilus oxyacantha. In the Forest of Aray : Quercus Robur, Corylus Avellana, Fraxinus excelsior, &c. The woods on Lochlomond consist chiefly of Quercus Robur, the other species which I observed, are Pyrus Aucuparia, Alnus glutinosa, Pyrus Malus, Prunus spinosa, Ilex Aquifolium, Mespilus oxyacantha, Fraxinus excelsior, Betula alba, and these undoubtedly wild. Specimens of some of them also appeared planted, particularly the ash, which is a very beautiful tree, and 190 Scientific Intelhgence.— Statistics. here grows to a great size. Between Dunbarton and Glasgow : Prunus Padus, Quercus Robur, Fraxinus. excelsior, &c. In Glenappe on Loch Ryan, the woods consisted of the following species: Betula alba, Corylus Avellana, Fraxinus excelsior, Alnus glutinosa, Mespilus oxyacantha, Prunus spinosa. At the fall of Foyers, Pinus sylvestris, Betula alba, and Fraxinus excelsior, grow upon the brinks, and along the precipices.. The country between this (Pollewe) and Inverness is but thinly wooded. In the higher or central parts between the two seas there is no wood at all; but the moors every where bear evi- dence of the former existence of very large trees. In common the Betula Alnus grows along the rivers and lakes, the B. alba on the sides of the mountains, and the Pinus sylvestris in a si- milar situation. I have seen the Ilex Aquiiolium on the face of a rock; Quercus Robur, Fraxinus excelsior, Populus tre- mula and Pyrus Aucuparia thinly scattered along the sides of the hills. At Ord in Skye, the woods, which are pretty ex- tensive, are composed of Corylus Avellana, Betula alba, Betula Alnus, Fraxinus excelsior, Prunus Padus, Prunus Cerasus, Mespilus oxyacantha, and perhaps some others.. From Inve- rary to Cairndu, there was a good deal of natural wood, con- sisting chiefly of Quercus Robur, Corylus Avellana, Prunus spinosa, Fraxinus excelsior, Populus tremula, and several wil- lows. Among the plants observed here (at Aberfoyl) were Quercus Robur, Alnus glutinosa, Fraxinus excelsior, Betula alba, Populus tremula, Sorbus Aucuparia, &c. To these four- teen stations might be added as many more, but perhaps more than enough has already been said on the subject—W. M‘G. STATISTICS. 19. Religious toleration in Russia.—Independently of the people who profess the orthodox religion in Russia, there are in the country, Roman Catholics, Unitarians, Lutherans, Calvinists, Armenians, Mennonists, Mahomedans, Jews, worshippers of the Grand Lama, and Idolaters. . The number of Roman Catholics may be estimated at seven millions, and of other Christians rather more than two millions and a-half.. The Mahomedans of Kasan, Astracan, Siberia, Orenburg, the Crimea, Caucasus, Lithuania, and other places, have mosques in the places where they have fixed their abode. Their number amounts to more than three Scientific Intelligence. — Statistics. 191 millions. Synagogues have long existed in the cantons and ci- ties inhabited by the Jews, the total of whom is about five hun- dred thousand. With respect to Paganism, we must add to the gross idolaters who wander in the deserts of Siberia, and the steppes of Kirgius-Kaissaks, the worshippers of the Grand Lama, and those of Fetishes and Schahmans. We should not omit either the heretics and schismatics of the different sects, whose religion seems limited to vain prejudices and superstitious practices. In the midst of such a variety of worship, religious toleration has always been maintained in Russia. During the ten centuries of the existence of the Empire, its history does not produce a single instance of persecution by the Russian govern- ment against a foreign religion, and the bloody name of religi- ous wars is not found in its annals. Tt would seem that, in its ancient attachment to the spirit of the Eastern Church, it has learned the moderation which characterized true Christians in the origin of Christianity. 20. Annual Quantity of Sugar consumed in Britain.— The quantity of sugar at present consumed in Great Britain may be estimated at 160,000 tons, or about 360,000,000 Ib. ; which, taking the population at 16 millions, gives, at an average, 22% |b. for each individual. In work-houses, the customary allowance for each individual is about $4 lb.; and in private families the smallest separate allowance for domestics is 1 lb. a- week, or 52 Ib. a-year. t 21. Founding Hospitals In Catholic countries, nume- rous asylums have been opened to all new-born children, le- gitimate or illegitimate, which it may please the public to abandon, or to place in them. Austria has many such insti- tutions: Spain reckons 67 ; Tuscany 12; Belgium 18: but France, in this respect, excels other countries; she has no less than 362. Protestant countries, on the contrary, have suppressed the greater part of those which had been specially founded for this purpose."—To form an idea of the advantage of the Pro- testant system over that of Catholic countries, Mr Gouroff states *, “* That, in London, the population of which amounts to 1,250,000, there were, in the five years from 1819 to 1823, * From prospectus of a projected work on the History of Foundling Hos- pitals, in 3 vols. by M. Gouroff, Rector of the U niversity of St Petersburg. 192 Scientific Intellgence.— Statistics. only 151 children exposed ; and that the number of illegitimate received into the 44 work-houses of that city, of which he visited a large number in 1825, amounted, during the same period, to ’ 4,668, or 933 per annum; and that about one-fifth of these are supported at the expense of their fathers. By a striking contrast, Paris, which has but two-thirds of the population of London, enumerated, in the same five years, 25,277 enfunts trouvés, all supported at the expense of the state.”-—To ascer- tain the contagious influence of these houses on the abandon- ment of new-born children, Mayence had no establishment of this kind, and, from 1799 to 1811, there were exposed there 30 children. Napoleon,, who imagined. that, in multiplying. foundling hospitals, he would multiply soldiers and sailors, opened one in that town on the 17th of November 1811, which remained until March 1815, when it was suppressed by the Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt. During this period of three years and four months, the house received 516 foundlings, Once suppressed, as the habit of exposure had not become rooted in the people, order was again restored ; and in the nine succeeding years but 7 children were exposed. 22. Scottish Societies—The publishing Literary and Philo- sophical Societies, in this part of the United Kingdom, are the following: 1. Royal Society, instituted in 1739, and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1783, and which has published ten and a-half volumes 4to. of Memoirs. 2. Antiquarian Society, in- stituted in 1780, and has published two and a-half volumes 4to. of Transactions. 3. Wernerian Natural History Society, in- stituted in 1808, and has published five volumes of Memoirs in 8vo. 4. Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society, instituted in 1821, and has published three volumes of Transactions in 8vo. 5. Highland Society, founded in 1784, and has published eight volumes in 8vo. 6. Caledonian Horticultural Society, founded in 1809,and has published four volumes of Memoirs, in 8vo. 23. Early Discovery of America by the. Scandinavians.— “ Tt is known,” says M. Rafn, in a letter to Dr Silliman, in the American Journal of Science, ‘* that the inhabitants of the north of Europe visited, long before Columbus's time, the countries on the coasts of North America. The greatest part of the in- formation on this subject has not hitherto been published. At Scientific Intelligence. —Arts. 193 ; a time when the researches concerning the former times of America have gained a greater interest, I hope the effort to ex- tend this information will meet the approbation of the American antiquarians. I have now gone through all the old MSS. on this subject, and have made a corals collection of several pieces, showing the knowledge which the old Scandinavians had of America. I intend now to ed this collection, with a Latin translation. ‘The accounts of the voyage cf the old Scandina- vians to America have lately gained a new confirmation, by a Runic stone, which, in the year 1824, was found under 73° N. Lat., on the westérn.coast of Greenland; translated, it is as follows: —‘ Erling Sigvalson, ‘and Biorne Hordeson, and En- dride: Addson, Saturday before Gagnday (25. April), erected these heaps of stone, and cleared the place in the year 1135,’ ” ARTS. 24. Invention of Stereotyping:—The honour of this import- ant invention is at present claimed by Holland, apparently with justice. Baron Van Westreemen Van Tiellandt, encouraged by the government, has made very active researches on 1h sub- ject, and has received from the booksellers Luchtmans of Leyden, a stereotype form of a Bible, in 4to, from which impressions have been taken since 1711. At Haarlem also, the booksellers Enschedé have furnished him with another stereotype form of a Dutch Bible, which dates from the first years of the 18th century. These are two substantial proofs ef sterectyping in ' Holland before it was thought of in France. It is well known that, in a note annexed to No. 1316. of the catalogue of Alex- ander Barbier, a note extracted from the papers of Prosper Marchand, it is affirmed that John Muller, minister of a German church at Leyden, contrived, about 1701, a new, method of printing, similar to stereotyping as now practised. ‘The method of John Muller consisted in composing the letters in the com- mon way, correcting these forms very exactly, binding them in _ avery solid manner in frames of iron, then inverting the letters, and riveting them with metal, or, still better, with mastic. The first essay of this method wag a small prayer-book, entitled Gebeede-Bookjen, Van Johan Haverman, printed in 1701, by APRIL—JUNE 1830. N 194 Scientific Intelligence.—Arts. J. Muller, son of the inventor. ‘This method-of printing was afterwards transported to Halle. In a letter of the 28th of June 1709, Muller acknowledges that he had printed in this manner, a Syriac New Testament, with a Lexicon.—Ferrusac. ‘In June 1801, the Messrs Iuuchtmans addressed the following letter to M. Renouard of Paris, which has been published by M. Camus, in his History of Stereotyping :—“* We have sent youa copy of our stereotype Bible, which we take the liberty of offering you as a work truly interesting in regard to the history of the art. All the plates of it are now in our possession, and notwithstanding that many thousand copies have been. printed from them, they are still in very good condition. They are formed by soldering the bottoms of common types together, with some melted substance, to the thick- ness of about three quires of writing paper. The plates were made about the beginning of the last century, by an artist named Wan der Mey, at the cost of our.late grandfather, Samuel Luchtmans, bookseller. The same ar- tist, at the same time, and in the same manner, also prepared for our grand- father the stereotype plates of a folio Dutch Bible; these plates are at pre- sent in possession of the bookseller Elwe; and afterwards of a Greek New ‘Testament, on Brevier, and of 24mo size, the plates of which are still pre- served by us... The last work which this artist executed in this manner, was the Novum Testamentum Syriacum et Lexicon Syriacum, by Schauff, 2 volumes 4to; a work sufficiently known. The plates of this last work have been. de- stroyed. ‘These instances comprise, as far as our knowledge extends, all the attempts of this kind which have yet been made in this country.” The plan of stereotyping here described,—‘ by soldering the bottoms of common types together by some melted substance,”—is very different from that now in use. A mould of plaster of Paris is formed from a page of common type, in which a thin plate is cast, containing a fac simile of the face only of the page, and which is afterwards mounted on wood to the necessary height for the press. There is no means of accurately ascertaining by whom this im- portant improvement in the art was first effected. Our neighbours across the Channel claim.it upon the authority of some old plates of a Calendar to a Prayer-Book, very rudely and imperfectlyjformed of copper, and without a date, but supposed to have been made about 1735. We cannot think, how- ever,. of yielding on such proof the merit of the improvement in the inven- tion, when on this side the water we. have positive names and dates of about the same period, to shew that the art was then practised in this and the sis- ter kingdom; by Mr Ged of Edinburgh, in 1725, and by Mr Fenner and Mr James of London, who absolutely cast plates fur Bibles and Prayer-books in the University of Cambridge, in the year 1729-30.—Epir. 25. Important Experiments.—We have received the follow- ing account of the experiments made with the new marine boiler on Messrs Braithwaite and Ericsson’s construction. It is a low pressure boiler ; and, from these experiments, it is evident that. the following important advantages will arise to steam naviga- Scientific Intelligence.— Arts. 195 tion by the introduction of this principle: 1. The total absence of all smoke; 2. The dispensing with the chimney ; 3. A saving of at least 120 per cent. in the cost of fuel, and 30 per cent. in the space to stow it; 4. A saving of about 400 per cent. in the space occupied by the boilers. The same principle is now ap- plying, by Messrs Braithwaite and Ericsson, to the new loco- motive engines constructing for the Liverpool and Manchester railway, which are to be delivered at mid-summer ; and a simi- _ lar combination of vast power, in a small space, with a great saving of fuel, will be applied to them. Memoranda relative to the Experiments made at Mr Laird’s works at North Birkenhead, with the new Low Pressure Boiler, on the exhausting principle of Messrs Braithwaite and Ericsson, by Alexander Nimmo, C.E. Dublin, and Charles B. Vignoles, C. E. London.—The exhausting apparatus consisted of a fan- wheel, with broad radial leaves, revolving within a close box or chamber, placed a little apart from the boiler, but connected with it by a passage lead- ing from the flues traversing the boiler: a short tube above the exhausting chamber passed out to the atmosphere. The furnace was attached to and placed at the end of the boiler, opposite to the exhausting apparatus, which latter being put to work, drew through all the turns of the boiler the hot air from the fire, which passed over the throat of the furnace through the bridge flue, and then successively through the other five turns of the flue arranged through the boiler, and finally was drawn through the exhausting chamber and passed into the atmosphere. The heat, which in the furnace was ex- tremely intense, was absorbed by the water in the boiler as the air rushed through the flues, and, when passing up the tube or funnel from the exhaust- ing chamber, was so far cooled that the hand or arm might be placed with impunity down the tube, the temperature probably not exceeding 180° of Fahrenheit. Not the slightest smoke was ibe oe The following are the corkin dimensions measured : ity 0 deep | The openings of the fire bear Ash Pit | 2 6 long equal to about half the area of the bottom. 1 0 deep Furnace ~ 2 6 long 2 6 wide 2 6 wide t. In. Diameter of Exhausting 3 6 wide * 5 Wheel, -. . f oda | oy gd 3 6 long Dimensions .| Breadth of the same, acl p( OA LO Bridge flue or throat from the furnace 2 feet 6 inches broad, 4 inches wide, 2 feet deep. 5-16th inch iron plate. First turn of the flue 4 inches wide, 2 feet deep, Pee LB 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th turns, 3 isiphed wide, 2 fet deep, yit? ich icon eee Whole length of the flues through the boiler, . . . 45 feet. Superficial area of the heating surface, : : - 247 square feet. The contents of the water in the boiler when filled were from é : . 85 to 90 cubic feet. The apentictdiad area of the biatininiioe a in the boiler, 33 square feet. Ft. In. 4 Exhausting 1 2 6 wie Outside 196 Scientific Intelligence.—Arts. The proportion of the heating to the evaporating surface nearly 74 io 1 Steam ey 0 wile ras : | @hakkes 1 4 10 average depth containing about 65 cubic feet. 4 6 long Diameter of the safety valve very nearly 5 inches, being 19 square inch . area, which was loaded for a pressure on the square inch of 4 Ib. Giving 76 for the load. Of this, 66 Ib. of iron were placed in the boiler, and 10 Ib. allowed as the weight of the valve, rod, hook, handle, &c. The water used was the salt, water from Wallasey Pool, and filled into a Jarge iron tank, the area of the surface of which measured 323 superficial feet. The boiler was placed under an open shed; the day was very cold, with thick rain. No engine being at- tached to the boiler, the exhausting apparatus was worked by a wheel and band from Mr Laird’s turning engine. The velocity of the circle of percus- sion of the leaves of the exhausting wheel was determined to be about 77 feet per second, or upwards of 52 miles an hour. Mr Laird’s engine is stated to be a four-horse power. No determinate measurement was made, but the en- gineers present computed that the power applied to turn the exhausting wheel was equal to that of two horses. The fire being lighted, the steam was got up to 4 Ib. pressure in 45 minutes, with a consumption of 2} ewt. of coke. The expenditure at first was 8 lb. per minute, and gradually decreased to 5 lb., averaging about 6} Ib. per minute for getting up the steam. The steam began to rise in 27 minutes, after which the consumption of coke was little more than 5 lb. per minute; and at this period there would have been a sufficient supply of steam to work the cylinders of an engine. ‘The coke employed was gas-coke of very bad quality, of which 34 cubic feet weighed 105 lb., giving 30 lb. for the weight of a cubic foot, or 3000 lb. as the weight of 100 cubic feet. The same’ weight of St Helen’s coal (that principally used in steam-boats) measures 63 cubic feet. The cost of the coke used was 8s. 6d. per ton, delivered in Liverpool; the cost of smithy coke being 25s. per ton, of which 3} cubic feet weighs 115 1b., giving very nearly 33 lb. for the weight of a cubic foot. When the steam was up, the water in the thick glass gauge attached to the boiler standing at 74 inches, the two men stationed for the purpose began to pump, a fresh supply of weighed fuel was placed on the floor, and the following observations were made:—At 3h. 32m. began to pump ; at 3h. 54m. 16 cubic feet of water were evaporated ; at 4h. 12m. 27 cu- bic feet of water were evaporated; at 4h. 19m. 38 cubic feet of water were evaporated, and 2 cwt. of coke consumed ; at 4h. 32m. 41} cubic feet of wa- ter were evaporated, with a consumption of 252 lb. coke. From which it ap- pears, that only 6 1b. of coke per cubic foot of water per hour was consumed ; . and the evaporation of a cubic foot of water per hour being generally con- sidered the measure of a horse power, the conclusion is, that the boiler was a forty-horse boiler, and that the quantity of fuel requisite to work it is 2} cwt. per hour, the expense of which is 122d.; and as the consumption dimi- nishes after the first hour, the expense of fuel will probably not exceed 1s. . per hour for the forty-horse boiler. (Signed) ALExanpDER Nimmo, C. E. Cuanxes LB. Vicnoves, C. E.— [Vuterloo Hotel, Liverpool, 29th May 1830. NEW PUBLICATIONS. 1. An Qutline of the Sciences of Heat and Electricity. By Dr Tuomson, Regius Professor of Chemistry, Glasgow, &c. &c. 1 vol. 8vo. 600 pages.—This excellent treatise is an abridgment of the Author’s Lectures on Heat and Electricity, which he an- nually delivers in the College of Glasgow. No English work with which we are acquainted contains so beautiful, at the same time so luminous and interesting, an exposition of the important doctrines of heat and electricity. 2. A Treatise on Poisons in relation to Medical Jurispru- dence, Physiology, and the Practice of Medicine. By Rozserr Curistison, M. D. Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh, &c. 1 vol. 8vo. '700 pages.—On the continent, particularly in Germany and France, Medical Juris- prudence has long occupied the attention ‘of medical men; while, in Britain, a few years only have elapsed since this import- ant branch of medicine was held in any esteem. Now, how- ever, it is viewed otherwise, for no practitioner can be said to have had a thorough education, without an acquaintance with medical jurisprudence. The work of the Edinburgh Professor is just what we expected from him, being throughout distinguish- ed by extent of information, accuracy of detail, luminousness of arrangement, and soundness of judgment. We have, therefore, no hesitation in recommending it to the particular attention of the medical student and practitioner. We would even venture to hint, that our legal practitioners might be benefitted by an acquaintance with the facts and reasonings in Dr Christison’s work. 3. The influence of Climate in the Prevention and Cure of’ Chronic Diseases, Sc. ; comprising an account of the principal places resorted to by Invalids in England, the South of Europe, &c. By James Crarx, M.D. &c. Second edition, 400 pages. —This edition of Dr Clarke’s valuable work is much improved, and considerably enlarged. The article on the climate of Eng- land is rewritten. The climate of the Canaries, the Azores, the Bahamas, the Bermudas, and also of the West Indies, are here given for the first time. Much additional important informa- 198 New Publications. tion will be found dispersed through this volume, now become one of our standard works on climate. 4. The Teignmouth, Dawlksh, and Torquay Guide. By N. T. Carrineton. The Natural History by W. Turton, M. D., and J. F. Krneston. In 2 vols. Published at Teign- mouth.—We have lately examined several of the guides to different districts in England, and consider this as one of the best. The first volume contains full and accurate accounts of the antiquities and descriptions of the scenery ; the second vo- lume, which is entitled Natural History of the District, con- tains full, and we think very interesting lists and notices in re- gard to the animals, vegetables, minerals, and geological appear- ances. We can safely recommend these volumes to the atten- tion of our travelling friends. 5. Elements of Practical Chemistry. By Davin Boswr.i Rep, Chemical Assistant to Dr Hope. 1 vol. 8vo. 500 pages, with numerous Wooden Cuts.—From the style and execution of Mr Reid’s former work, we were entitled to expect that the present one would sustain the reputation he had obtained as an active and skilful chemist. That he stands equally high in our estimation as formerly, may be inferred from our recommend- ing the present volume of practical instructions to the student of chemistry, and also to those who may wish to become practi- cally acquainted with this ail-engrossing and delightful branch of science. List of Patents granted in England from 26th November 1829, to 6th February 1830. 1829. Nov. 26. To F. Westsy, Leicester, cutler, for his “‘ improved apparatus for the purpose of whetting or sharpening razors, penknives, or other cutting instruments.” Dec. 10. To J. Marsuatz, Southampton Street, Strand, Middlesex, tea- dealer, for his “‘ method of preparing or making an extract from ny cocoa, which he denominates Marshall’s Extract of Cocoa.” 14. To B. Courson, Pendleton, Lancashire, surgeon, for his ‘* im- provements in the manufacturing of farina and sugar from ve- getable productions.” To C. Derosye, Leicester Square, Middlesex, gentleman, for “ certain improvements, communicated from abroad, in ex- List of English Patents. 199 tracting sugar er syrups from cane-juice and other substances 1830. containing sugar, and in refining sugar and syrups.” Jan. 12. To W. Hare, Colchester, Essex, mechanist, for his ‘ method of raising or forcing water for propelling vessels.” 18. To J. CarrENTER, Willenhall, Wolverhampton, Stafford, and J. Young, Wolverhampton, locksmiths, for their ‘‘ improvements on locks and other securities applicable to doors and other pur- poses.” Jan. 18. To W. Parr, Union Place, City-road, Middlesex, gentleman, for his “ method of producing a reciprocating action to be applied to the working of pumps, mangles, and all other machinery to which reciprocating action is required or may be applied.” 21. To E. Dakeyne, and J. Dakeyne, Darley Dale, Derby, merchants, for their “‘ machine or hydraulic engine for applying the power or pressure of water, steam, and other elastic fluids to the pur- pose of working machinery, and other uses requiring power, and applicable to that of raising or forcing of fluids. 26. To J. Yates, Hyde, Chester, calico-printer, for his “ method or process of giving a metallic surface to cotton, silk, linen, and other fabrics.” ToG. Srocxer and A. STOCKER, Somerscé. for a “‘ cock for drawing liquor from casks, which produces a stop superior to that which is effected by common cocks, and will continue in use for a longer time.” To J. ARNoLD, Sheffield, for ‘‘ an improved spring-latch or fasten- ing for doors.” To G. F. Johnson, Canterbury, for ‘a machine which: is intended as a substitute for drags for carriage-wheels, and other purposes.” To Dr T. Bulkely, Richmond, Surrey, for “ a method of making candles.” To J. Consine, Bury St Edmunds, for “ certain improvements in skaits.” To J. WerceuT, Shelton, Staffordshire Potteries, for “‘ a manufac- ture of ornamental tiles, bricks, and pan-tiles for floors, pave- ments, and other purposes.” To R. Busk, Esq. Leeds, for “‘ improvements in apparatus for dis- tilling and rectifying. 28. To Dr T. Revere, New York, America, for “ a new alloy applica- ble to the sheathing of ships, and various other useful pur- poses.” Feb. 4. To J. Lamzerr, Esq. London, for an “ improvement in the pro- cess of making iron applicable ta the smelting of ore, and at various stages of the process, up to the completion of the rods or bars, and a new process for the improving of the quality of inferior iron.” 4 To G. Pocock, Esq. Bristol, for ‘ improvements in constructing globes for astronumical, geographical, and other purposes.” 200 List of Scotch Patents. 1830, Feb. 4. To J. ‘Gray, Beaumoris, Anglesea, for “ a new and improved me- thod of preparing and putting on copper-sheathing for shipping.” To C. T. Miller, Middlesex, for “* certain improvements in ma- nufacturing candles.” To T. J. C. Daniel of Limphley Stoke, in the parish of Bradford, Wilts, clothier, for “* certain improvements in the machinery applicable to the manufacturing of woollen cloths.” List of Patents granted in Scotland from 16th March to 14th June 1830. 1830. Mar. 16. To ANDREW SmitH of Prince’s Street, Leicester Square, in the Parish of Saint Martin in the Fields, in the County of Middle- sex, machinist, for “‘ certain improvements in the construction of window frames, sashes or casements, sun-blinds, shutters, and doors, designed to afford security against burglars, as well as to exclude the weather.” To Tuomas Arriecx of the town of Dumfries, in the county of Dumfries in Scotland, Gent., for “ certain improvements in apparatus and machinery for cleansing and deepening rivers, and in the method of applying the same.” Apr. 13. To James Canricx of Mossley Vale, near Liverpool, in the county- palatine of Lancaster, Esq. for “‘ certain improvements in ma- chinery for spinning cotton, silk, linen, and other fibrous sub- stances,” communicated to him by a certain foreigner residing abroad. ‘ 29, To Samurt Brown of Billeter Square in the City of London, Esq. for “certain improvements in making or manufacturing bolts or chains.” To Wirtram ArTxEn of Carron Vale in Scotland, Esq. for “ cer- tain improvements in the means of keeping or preserving beer, ale, and other fermenting liquors.” May 3. To Ricnarp Witty of Basford, in the Parish of Wolstanton, in the county of Stafford, engineer, for “‘ certain improvements in apparatus for making and supplying coal-gas for useful pur- poses,”’ 12. To James Viney of Piccadilly, Colonel of Artillery, for “‘ certain improvements on steam-boilers, and in carriages or apparatus connected therewith.” June 14. To Epwarp Turner of Gower Street, in the county of Middle- sex, M. D., and Witu1am Suanp of the Burn, in the county of Kincardine in Scotland, Esq. for ‘‘ a new method of purify- ing and whitening sugar, or other saccharine matter.” THE EDINBURGH NEW PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. Biographical Memoir of M. Cravve Louis Ricwarp. By Baron Cuvier. M., Ricuanp presents one of the few examples of an agree- ment of the inclinations with the circumstances of birth. The condition of his relations and his natural genius seemed alike to destine him for becoming a great botanist; and no obstacle could prevent him from obeying this twofold impulse. For more than a century his family had been, in some measure, de- voted to the service of natural history. The name of his great- grandfather, who had charge of the Menagerie of Versailles under Louis XIV., had acquired a certain celebrity from the humorous pleasantries of the Count de Grammont. The repu- tation of Anthony Richard, his grandfather, was of a better kind. He it was who, under the orders of Bernard de Jussieu, had charge of the beautiful botanic garden of Trianon, to which Louis XV. daily resorted, to forget for a moment the pomp of his court and the cares of state. The governors of the colonies and naval men made it a duty to offer, as a tribute to the mo- narch, the rarest vegetables of distant countries; and the prince in his turn made it his duty to distribute these treasures among the most celebrated botanists. It was thus that Richard the gardener corresponded with the Linnzuses, the Hallers, and. the Jacquins, and all the men of genius and talent whom science at that time possessed. His sons also were engaged in this scientific commerce. The youngest, who was named An- thony after his father, was one of the travellers whom Louis JULY-SEPTEMBER 1830. ra) 202 Biographical Memoir of M. Claude Louis Richard. XV. employed to augment his collection of live plants. He visited Auvergne and the Island of Minorca, where he made rich acquisitions. Botany owes to him some valuable species. His eldest son Claude Richard, the father of our academician, was placed at the head of a garden which the king had pur- chased at Auteuil, and which was a kind of auxiliary to that of Trianon. At this garden was born M. Claude Louis Richard, the subject of our present memoir. He was therefore born in the midst of plants; he learnt to know them sooner than the letters of the alphabet ; and before he was able to write correct- ly, he could draw flowers, or plans of gardens. Thus it may be literally said of him that he sucked in botany with his mother’s milk; he did not recollect a moment of his life in which he had not been a botanist; and if he ever engaged in other studies, botany was always the object of them. It was for botany that he improved himself in drawing, and almost for it alone that he gave himself the trouble of attending his classes, and learning Latin and Greek. Yet his progress was scarcely less backward than that of children who learnt these things only for their own sake. At the age of twelve he had the Georgics by heart. The delicacy and correctness of his drawings were surprising. But this early display of talent, which ought to have attached his parents to him, and secured for him a happy childhood, were the very causes of the first misfortunes which he experienced, and which, perhaps, by altering his disposition and his health, led to those of his future life. The archbishop of Paris, M. de Beaumont, sometimes visited the garden of Anteuil, and was fond of its director. The intelligence and proficiency of the child excited his interest, and he promised. advancement should he devote himself to the church. This was opening to him the only career in which talent, without birth or fortune, could then expect to arrive at honours and independence, and opening it, too, with the most favourable prospects. There was nothing that he might not have hoped from the bounty of the prelate, seconded by the protection which the king extended to his fa- mily ; and M. Richard, the father, who had nine other children, and who was not rich, even for a gardener, could not fail to seize such hopes with ardour ; but his son had determined other- wise. Nothing could bend the inflexible resolution of the child- Biographical Memoir of M. Claude Louis Richard. 208 He unhesitatingly and unvaryingly declared that he would be a botanist; that he would be a gardener at all hazards, and no- thing else. Neither entreaties nor threats had any effect on him; and his father’s anger rose to such a pitch, that he ba- nished him from his house, allowing him only ten francs a-month for his support. Young Richard was then not quite fourteen, and how many children of that age would not such a treatment have led to the most degrading irregularities, or perhaps to a miserable death ! He, however, showed the courage and prudence of a grown up person. He betook himself quietly to Paris, hired a cor- ner of a garret, went through the town in search of an ar- chitect, who gave him plans of gardens to copy, devoted to this labour a part of his nights; and after having thus se- cured the means of subsistence, occupied himself through the day in regularly attending the lectures in the College of France and the King’s Garden. But he did not confine himself to these first precautions. The beauty of his drawings, and the punc- tuality with which he fulfilled his engagements, obtained him a great deal of work. By degrees he was entrusted to direct by himself the execution of the plans which he had traced; and while he was thus gaining considerable profits, he established so much order and economy in his manner of living, that, at the end of a few years, not even asking of his father the miserable aid that had been promised him, he not only supported himself with decency, but had accumulated upwards of 80,000 livres. But his savings had the same object as his studies, and al- ways referred to botany. Like most men captivated with a love of nature, he wished to enlarge the sphere of his observations, and to visit distant countries in quest of plants. It was for the purpose of attaining this end, without the help of any one, that, from the age of fifteen to that of eighteen, he lived in the midst of Paris like an anchorite, giving himself no other relaxation than mere change of labour. He was, in particular, constant in his attendance on the lectures and botanical walks of Bernard de Jussieu, the most modest, and perhaps the most profound botanist of the eighteenth century, who, although he scarcely published any thing, is, nevertheless, the inspiring genius of 02 204 Biographical Memoir of M. Claude Louis Richard. modern botanists, like those legislators of old whose laws were but the more religiously observed that they were not written. Bernard de Jussieu was not a great man only, he was also a benevolent man, adored by his pupils, because he loved them, and interested himself in their welfare not less than in their in- struction. A young man so devoted to science as M. Richard, and who showed at the same time so much judgment, could not escape his notice. He admitted him to his mtimacy, initiated him in his views, and even directed the first researches which his able pupil ventured to make into the numerous families of the vegetable kingdom, whose organization was not yet entirely known. The encouragements of so great a master, at length embold- ened our young gardener fo shew that he also was a bo- tanist. He ventured to read to the Academy a memoir on one of the most difficult questions in the science, and by this fortu- nate temerity, placed himself in some measure, all at once, in the first ranks of its cultivators. The genera Cynanchum and Asclepias, in the family of Apocynez, were, at that time, the subject of the keenest discus. sions. ‘The interior of their flowers presents, around the pistil, various circles of organs, none which has very decidedly the ordinary form of an anther. Those of the outer row exhibit each a small horn, from the bottom of which rises a bent thread. Between them is a pentagonal body formed by the union of five vertical scales, which open, each at its upper part, into two small cells. This body is surmounted by a kind of pentagonal capital, hollowed above, with five small fissures, and on the sides with five small fossee, tallying with an equal number of small black bodies, divided and prolonged each into two yellow and gra- nulated filaments, resembling two clubs or two small spatulee, and which sink into the cells of the vertical scales which correspond to them. The problem was to determine which of these com- plicated organs are the true anthers; and so much the more importance was attached to it, that the sexual system founded upon the stamina and pistils was then exclusively received in botany. There had been almost as many opinions on the sub- ject as there were celebrated botanists. Linnzeus considered the Biographical Memoir of M. Claude Louis Richard. 205 scales as the stamina ; according to Adanson, the scales were only the anthers, and the small horns were their filaments. Jacquin regarded the anthers as’placed in the interior of the cells of the scales. According to M. Desfontaines, the black corpuscules were the true anthers; and the slits of the pistil, opposite which they are placed, performed the office of stigmata. Amid these dif- ferent opinions of the most celebrated men, M. Richard fear- lessly brought forward his own. He endeavoured to shew that the capital is the stigma ; that the little black bodies which ad- here to it are parts or divisions of it; that the cells of the pen- tagonal body are the anthers, and that it is their agglutinated powder that forms the small masses of threads which terminate the little black bodies. If all botanists have not yet considered these determinations as demonstrated, most of them at least ad- mit that they are the most probable that have been proposed. An opportunity now presented itself to M. Richard of rea- lizing the scheme which he had nourished from his childhood. M. Necker and M. de Castries were desirous of sending, to our American colonies, a man qualified to propagate there the pro- ductions of India, which Poivre and Sonnerat had obtained for them at the risk of their lives, as well as to make known such of their own native productions as it might be possible to con- vert to some use. The Academy, on being requested to point out to them such a man, made choice of M. Richard ; and Louis XVI., who had seen him when quite a child, and was personally acquainted with most of the individuals of his family, approved, with pleasure, of his nomination. It is well known that that unfortunate prince was fond of and cultivated geogra- phy. He did M. Richard the honour of several times sending for him to his cabinet, and shewing him on a map of Guyana, the districts whose examination seemed to him likely to present the greatest interest ; the rivers whose course he wished to be better laid down, and other objects, to the knowledge of which he attached importance. These audiences, these directions, given by the king himself, together with the promises of the mi- nistry, could not fail to raise, to a still higher pitch, the natural ardour of our young naturalist. Full of courage and hope, and without caring, in the smallest degree, about the precautions and formalities which would have rendered the engagements entered 206 Biographical Memoir M. of Claude Louis Richard. into with him more positive, he did not hesitate to draw upon his small capital for the purpose of fitting himself out for his travels; and during them, he was not more attentive to his in- terest : what occupied his attention least was what was taking place in France during .this interval, and the influence which these events might have on his circumstances. He was soon however to learn, that neither the personal pro- tection of a king, nor the orders of his ministers, are always sufficient guarantees against the caprices of personages of a much lower rank. It is related that a pasha, on being threat- ened by one whom he had oppressed, with the wrath of the sul- tan and of God, replied, “ The sultan is very far off, God is very high, and here Iam master.” The Governor of Cayenne, although he did not make use of the same language, conducted himself according to the same principle—the most sordid inte- rest was his only motive. He had filled with pulse, for his own use, the royal garden intended for the culture of spices; and M. Richard, whose principal office at Cayenne was to be the di- rection of this garden, and who had caused himself to be con- ducted there on his arrival, could not so muchas obtain entrance into it. What he experienced with respect to the clove-trees did not less excite his surprise and indignation. 'The governor, thinking he might imitate, for his own advantage, the tyrannical proceedings for which the Dutch have been so much reproached, had pretended that the colonists neglected too much the culti- vation of these trees, and in consequence had ordered all the single trees dispersed over their estates to be removed to a dis- tant and solitary place, where, in the king’s name, he assumed monopoly of them to himself. So absurd a command had in- censed the proprietors to such a degree, that the greater num- ber had chosen rather to destroy their trees than to give them up. But at length the governor was become master of all that remained. He guarded them like the dragon of the Hesperides, and M. Richard, who had been sent by the King of France into a French colony, for the express purpose of propagating clove- trees, and distributing them through our other islands, could not even get near the place where they were confined. He was obliged, in order to get some seeds of them, to do at Cayenne as Poivre and Sonnerat had done in the Moluccas ; and it cost SSS Biographical Memoir of M. Claude Louis Richard. 207 him nearly as much trouble to give the clove-tree to Martinique, as it had cost these courageous citizens to procure it for the Isle of France. It even happened that a ship coming from the Isle of France, having brought over a certain number of plants, which were supposed to be the true pepper-tree, this governor was not ashamed to make it be understood, that if they were to be propagated, it should be for himself, and on his own estate. He even avowed, that he had already caused a piece of ground to be prepared for this purpose by the king’s ne- groes. I need not say how such an insinuation was received by a young man, who at the age of thirteen had shown so much firmness of character. Every day something new occurred to thwart him; but he resolved to do good in spite of his superiors, as he had made himself a botanist in spite of his relations; and his activity prevailed so much over the obstacles opposed to him, as to enable him eventually to be of great service to the colony. He was at least permitted to cultivate and distribute some vegetables which the governor had not thought worthy of his exclusive solicitude. The litchi (Scytalia litchi), the sago- tree (Sagus palma-pinus ), the rose-apple (Eugenia jambos ), and the mangrove (Mangifera indica), required for their pro- pagation only that the indolence natural to the colonists should be overcome. The bamboo, whose utility was more readily ap- preciated, was generally cultivated, and is now abundant, and of enormous size. In 1785, finding an opportunity of going to Brazil, M. Richard brought from it to Cayenne the talin, or pourpier du Para ( T'alinwm oleraceum ), a fleshy, tender, some- what acidulous and cooling plant, which yields a pleasant salad. He afterwards went to the Antilles, where he remained from February 1786 to November 1787. He succeeded in procu- ring in the island of St Croix the Eugenia expetita, a delicious fruit, which now forms the ornament of the finest desserts. Better times at length arrived. Another Governor, M. de Villebois, turned out to be a benevolent and enlightened man. Scarcely had M. Richard spoken to him, when he abrogated the odious restrictions laid upon cultivation by his predecessor ; and during the short time that our botanist remained under his orders, no restraint was put on his operations. Even before, when he was so much harassed by the vexations which he ex- 208 Biographical Memoir of M. Claude Louis Richard. perienced under the former governor, he consoled himself by researches in pure natural history. The rural habits of his old trade enabled him to make excursions which would have fright- ened cabinet naturalists. An excellent hunter and marksman, he dreaded neither the thickest forests nor the most unhealthy marshes. ‘Twice his dogs were devoured by those enormous serpents which from the trees lie in wait for animals, and even sometimes cast themselves upon men. He had, in particular, a talent for gaining the friendship and confidence of the savages. They assisted him in his huntings, admitted him into their dwellings, and did not conceal from him their most secret prac- tices. He thus discovered, that if they had long been con- sidered beardless, and if numerous and absurd theories have been founded on this error, it is merely because they pluck out, with superstitious care, the slightest germ of hair as soon as it makes its appearance. For this purpose, instead of pincers, they employ the valves of a particular kind of mussel. These prolonged excursions, together with those which he made to Brazil and the Antilles, procured for M. Richard ex- tensive collections in the three kingdoms of nature. His herba- rium was remarkable, not only for its beautiful preservation, but for the care which he had taken to join to it drawings from nature of all the details of the flower and of the fruit. Nothing could be more valuable, nor even at the present day is any thing more so, than this series of drawings. Travelling botanists had too long given only superficial descriptions of plants. Since the time of Linnzus, more attention had been paid to the sexual organs; but the relative position of the parts, the attachment of the seed in the interior of the fruit, and the interior of the seed itself, were neglected; and in plants which could not easily be procured in Europe, there was no means of supplying the de- ficiency. Herbaria and dried fruits afforded but uncertain or insufficient information. Of this deficiency in the science, M. Richard had been sensible, since he had attended the lectures of Bernard de Jussieu, and he had determined to supply it. Thus, at the same time when Gertner was with so much assi- duity labouring in his cabinet, at his celebrated Carpology, our botanist, in a more favourable situation, was describing and drawing in the woods and savannahs of Cayenne the fresh fruits, eee Biographical Memoir of M. Claude Louis Richard. 209 in which the most delicate parts were distinctly seen, in which each tegument, pulp, and seed, retained its colour and consist- ence. But in the midst of these wild scenes, so rich and so new to him, the plants were not the only objects which were calculated to arrest his attention. The singular birds, the fishes and reptiles of strange and extravagant forms, which presented themselves to his view, rendered him, almost in spite of him- self, a zoologist, and even an anatomist. In that climate, at once moist and scorching, in which the lapse of a few hours changes a dead body into an infectious carcass, he col- lected skins and skeletons of animals, and made drawings and descriptions of their viscera. Among his papers we have seen observations, new for the time, on the organs of voice in birds, and on those of generation and digestion in various qua- drupeds. ‘The sea and rivers had supplied him with the most singular mollusca. He had especially observed with much care, and in the living state, the animals which form and inhabit shells, a class which had until then been almost always neglected, at- tention having been paid only to their brilliant integuments. With these treasures he returned to France, after an absence of eight years, and landed at Havre in the spring of 1789. Unacquainted as he had remained in the midst of his woods, with all that had taken place during his absence, he doubted not that the most honourable reception would be the reward of his labours: philosophers and ministers, he imagined, would be equally eager to throng around him, the former to learn his dis- coveries, the latter to repay the debt of the public. But, as we have just said, this was in 1789. M. de Buffon had died the year before ; his place had been given to a courtier of a gentle and upright character, but without energy, and entirely desti- tute of the knowledge essential to the discharge of such import- ant duties. ‘Thus natural history had no longer a protector ; and, besides, of what importance could the most powerful protection have been in the midst of the embarrassments which on all sides crowded on a government as unskilful as it was unfortunate ? Our poor traveller, with a report from the Academy in his hand, setting forth the extent and importance of his labours, knocked 1 210 Biographical Memoir of M. Claude Louis Richard. at every gate; but the ministers, and even the functionaries down to the lowest degree, were all changed: no one remem- bered that any promises had been made to him. It was a light matter to men whose lives were daily in jeopardy, that a few more cloves had been grown at Cayenne, or that litchis and eugenice had been propagated there. Scientific discoveries af- fected them still less). 'Thus M. Richard found that he had spent his time, impaired his health, and sacrificed the small for- tune which he had so laboriously acquired, without any one deigning even to hold out to him any future prospects. There only remained for him to begin again the kind of life to which he had devoted himself at the age of fourteen. Natural history perhaps requires in him who gives himself up to it, more study than any other kind of study, not only for confronting the hidden and continual dangers which menace him in his researches, but also for supporting reverses of fortune or neglect. Amid the material equipage without which he can do nothing, the naturalist is in a manner attached to the soil. That the genius of the poet, the metaphysician, and geometrician, may support itself, and even rise to a higher pitch in solitude and poverty, is easily conceived: their thoughts are independent of the things of this lower world ; but in a science which is found- ed on the inspection and comparison of so many thousands of beings and parts of beings,—in a science whose general propo- sitions are elicited only from the approximation of thousands of particular facts, the finest genius, without numerous subjects of observation, without all that can render observation easy and of daily occurrence, would either be annihilated, or would lose it- self in fantastic and idle theories. Who, then, can be surprised that M. Richard, restrained in his inclinations in childhood by his relatives,—overburdened with labour in his youth,—thwart- ed at Cayenne by a petty despot in all his projects, in the very exercise of the duties which had been prescribed to him,—ne- glected and repelled at Paris by those who ought to have nobly recompensed his services,—should have harboured a misanthropy which only rendered the rest of his career more painful, and de- prived him of the little aid which, with patience and gentleness, he might still have hoped to obtain ? The more faults men in power commit, the less must be Biographical Memoir of M. Claude Lowis Richard. 211 spoken about these faults, if the reparation of them be desired. But all oppressed persons are not of a character to bend them- selves to this maxim, and M. Richard was less so than any one. After some unsuccessful attempts to obtain his due, he shut himself up in his retreat, living and studying only for himself, communicating the objects which he had collected, and the ob- servations which he had made, only to a few persons, and by preference to strangers. It might be said that each of his fel- low countrymen whom he saw better treated than himself, ap- peared to him to have usurped his rights. This much is cer- tain, that the obstinate silence in which he persevered, has been an immense loss to all the branches of natural history.