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NUMBER CLXXXV. For SEP TEMBER 1813.
€ONTAINING THE FOLLOWING ENGRAVING:
ell Interior of Volcano in the Island of Java, and Figures to illustrate & es Mr, Watxer’s Paper on the Electric Fluid.
BY ALEXANDER TILLOCH, =e M.R.I,A, F.S.A. EDIN. AND PERTH, &c. [Fe CNN aes WEN i SccaLD)
mi =
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Vo). XXKIIL. Mr. James Exmes’s Portable Bridge—Mr. KniGur’s ‘new Method of training Fruit Trees— Mr. Herscuet’s Figures of the Comet of 1807.-——Two Plates to illustrate Dr. Wittiam: Ricwarpson’s - Paper on the Basaltic Surface of the Counties of Derry and Antrim = viz. A View of P oxtmoon, —A View of Peskin, on the N. W. Sideof Ben- gore Promoentory.— Mr. Ciece’s Apparatus for making Carbonated Hydro- gen Gas rom Pit-Cowii—Mr. Ricuarpson’s Machine for raising large Stones out of the Earth ;—and Mr. Goveu’s new Hygrometer.—Pitron’s Light Fence for Inclosures, which becomes invisible at a short Distance,— Proposed Improvements in Telescopes, by M. BurcKkuarvrand by Dr, Brewster; and M. BoutLay’s Apparatus for Phosphoric Ether.—Major Le Harpy’s Telegraph.—Capt. Botron’s improved Jury Mast; and Capt. Baxuv’s Method of Fishing Anchors.—Plan and Section of the Thames ‘Archway.—Plan of Stonyhurst Scientific Establishment.—Mr. Tap’s Me- thed of causing a Door to open over a Carpet ;—and Mr. Bartow’s Wrench for Screw Nuts of any Size.
Vol. XXXIV. ‘Two Plates to illustrate. M. Hauy’s Crystallography.— Apparatus to illustrate Mr. Davy’s Bakerian Lecture——A Quarto and an Octavo Plate descriptive of Mr, Troucuron’s new Dividing Instrument.— A Plate to illustrate Mr. VarLey’s Paper on Thunder Storms.—Another Plate to illustrate Hauy’s Uheory of Crystallization.—A Quarto Plate to illustrate Mr. Kirwan’s new Anemometer; engraved by Porter.—An Octavo Plate to illustrate M. Havy’s Crystallography; engraved by Lowry. —A Plate to illustrate Messrs. ALLEN and Peprys’s new Experiments on Respiration, Exgraved by Porrer.—A Plate to illustrate M. Havy’s Crystallography.—A_ Plate illustrating the Construction of Mr. Crece’s Rotative Steam Engine.— Another Plate on the same Subject.—A Plate of Crystals to illustrate M. Havuy’s System.
Vol. XXXV. A Head of M. Hauy, engraved by T. Wootnotn from an original Drawing by I’. Massarp.—A Plate illustrating M. Havy’s Crystaliography.—Dr. Woxttaston’s Goniometer: Dr. Heary’s New Cupping Instrument: and a Diagram to illustrate Mr. Warxer’s Theory of Vision.—A Plate to illustrate Hauy’s Crystallography.—Mr. Caven- pisu’s dividing Instrament.--New Electrical Apparatus.—A Plate to illus- trate MM. Hauy’s System of Crystallography.—Mr. Accum’s Hydro-pneu- matic Table—A Piate to illustrate Vi. Hauy’s Crystallography.—Captain Pasvey’s ‘Velegraph, and Mr. Jouns’s Apparatus for Decomposing Potash and Soda.—Diagrams to illustrate M. Monee’s Paper on the Composition and Decomposition of Forces.—A Plate to illustrate Havy's Crystallo- graphy.—Two Pilates of Apparatus employed by Mr. Davy in the Elect chemical Experiments detailed in his Bakerian Lecture.
Vol. XXXVI. Design for a Cast-Iron Tunnel to cross the Thames, by Col. Lennon —T'wo Plates to illustrate Hauy’s Crystallography—A Head of Buchanan, from an original Portrait by Titian: engraved b Woo tnoru,—A Plaie to illustrate the Paper on Musical Intervals.— Plate to illustrate Mr. Sarmon’s Paper on Building in Pisé, and his Ma- | chine for securing Depredators without injuring them.—A Plate to illustrate — a, Memoir by M. Massenrratz on the Alterations which the Light of the Sun undergoes in passing through the Atmosphere,—Mr. SrENCER’S 5 — Camp Telegraph, —Section of Timahoe Bog in Ireland. —A Transverse | Section of Lullyn.ore Bog,—part of the Great Bog of Allen.—Berthollet’s Manometer. 5 lite Lay
Vol. XXXVII. Plates 1 and 2, Representations of Luminous Animals, to illustrate Mr.Macartney’s Paper on that Subject.—Quarto Plate of the Orbits of the newly discovered Planets, —A Quarto Plate to illustrate M.PeyRrarp’s
fax y!
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oN A Plate to illustrate M. Linx’s Memoir on the Anatomy of . ef Plants ; and Dr. WoLvasron’s Cryophorus. hi
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Vol. XXXV. A Head of M. Hauy, engraved by T. Wootworn: from an original Drawing by F. Massarp.—A Plate illustrating M. Havy’s Crystallography.—Dr. Wottaston’s Goniometer; Dr. Heary'’s New Cupping Instrument: and a Diagram’ to illustrate Mr. Wauker’s Theory of Vision.—A Plate to illustrate Hacy’s Crystallography—Mr. Caven- pisu’s dividing Instrament.—-New Electrical Apparatus.—A Plate to illus- trate M. Havy’s System of Crystallography. —Mr. Accum’s Hydro-pneu- matic Table.—A Plate to illustrate M. Hauy’s Crystallography.—Captain Pasvey’s Telegraph, and Mr. Jonns’s Apparatus for Decomposing Potash and Soda.—Diagrams to illustrate M. Monce’s Paper on the Composition and Decomposition of Forces.—A Plate to illustrate Hayvy’s Crystalle- graphy.—Two Plates of Apparatus empioyed by Mr. Davy in the Electro- chemical Experiments detailed in his Bakerian Lecture,
Vol. XXXVI. Design for a Cast-Iron Tunnel to cross the Thames, by Col. Lennow.—T'wo Plates to illustrate Havy’s Crystallography.— A Head of Bucuanan, from an original Portrait by Trt1an: engraved by Wootnotn.—A Plate to illustrate the Paper on Musical Intervals.—A Plate to illustrate Mr. Satmon’s Paper on Building in Pisé, and his Ma- chine for securing Depredators without injuring them.—A Plate to illustrate a Memoir by M. Hassenrrarz on the Alterations which the Light of the Sun undergoes in passing through the Atmosphere.—Mr. Spencer’s Camp Telegraph, —Section of Timahoe Bog in Ireland. —A Transverse Section of Lullymore Bog,—part of the Great Bog of Allen.—Berthollet’s Manometer.
Vol. XXXVII. Plates r and 2, Representations of Luminous Animals, to illustrate Mr.Macartney’s Paper on that Subject—Quarto Plate of the Orbits of the newly discovered Planets—A Quarto Plate te illustrate M. Peyrarp’s Paper on Burning Mirrors. —A Plate to illustrate Mr. Donovan's Paper on Electro-chemical Agency. —Mr. Accum’s New Mineralogical Apparatus, —Mr. Ler’s Thrashing Machine.—Mr. Coox’s Apparatus for making Gas and other Products fram Pit-Coal; and Mr. Way’s Method of procuring Turpentine from Fir-Trees, —A Plate to illustrate Dr. Brewsrer’s Paper on the Power of the Lever, :
“Noveaarr 1818.
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HE SEAT of VISION Determined; and, by the Discovery Of anew | Function in the Organ, a Foundation laid tor explaining its Mecha- nism, and the various ’hanomena, on Principles hitherto unattempted.
Py ANDREW HORN. London: Printed for Gale, Curtis, and Fenner, Paternoster-Row.
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HE Public derive the following most extracrdinay advantages by the vse of THE PATENT ANTI-ATTRITION COMPOSITION: For instance, to work a Steam Engine of Fifty Horse Power, with Tallow, it requires in packing the Piston at least Twelve Shillings worth, after which it will require the same quantity every Twelve Flours till the Engine is fresh pack’d, which it must be «t the end of six weeks, if the work is heavy and continued twelve hours each day; consequently beside the Cost of Oil, Packing, Labou’, Loss of Time, Wear and Tear, the Zxpeuse wiil exceed Twenty-two Pounds. ‘The same Engine, to perform the same work, will require to pack the Piston, Eight Guineas worth of the Composition, with which it will work cool and well, for upwards of a Quarter of a Year, without either Tallow, Oil, or any kind of Grease, and without eny other Application than about Two Shillings worth of the Composition daily: therefore the Expense of working | bree Months with tle Composition will not exceed Fifteen Pounds Twelve Shillings; whereas, to work with Tallow, the Expense in that Arts cle only, will exceed Forty-‘our Pounds. And the Public have still greater Advantages, by using the Composition to the Rigging of Ships, instead of © Tar, Parceline, and Service; to Cables, instead of a Piat, Service, or Rounding ; to preserve Wood and wooden Buildings from the Weather, Worm, and Dry-Rot; to Mills, Machinery, Carriages, Coaches, Carts and Wagons ; and if applied to Ships’ Bottoms, instead of Copper, 250/. worth of it is equal to 1700/. worth of that Article; and it also saves Fuel in working Steam !ngines, and renders them perfectly Steam Tight. Sold, Wholesale and Retail, for the Patentees, at 40, Charing-Cross, near the Admiralty, London ; and, by their Appointment, at most Ship-Chand- lers, Printers, Booksellers, Libraries, Stationers, Druggists, Medicine Ware- houses, Perfumers, [ronmongers, Cutlers, Coachmakeis, Innkeepers, Coach and VV agen Offices, Oil and Colour Shops, Sadlers, and Shop-keepers, in the United Kingdom, in Boxes, Price 2s. €d.5 5s. 6d.; 108, Od. One Guinea and Two Guineas each. The smallest size Box contains a Quantity sufficient to prime a Four- / wheeled Carriage four times, with which it will run upwards of Six Thou- sand Miles, without applying any thing else to the Axletrees, and one Half-| Guinea Box contains a sufficient Quantity for a Stage Waggon to travel 33,000 Miles, and it will work with Wood Axletrees, or with cemmon Boxes and Axletrees of any kind.—The most satisfactory Proofs of ‘he Merits of the Composition may be seen at the Patentees’ Office, No, 40, Charing-Cross. Directions are given with each Box, which are signed W. LD). Bertamy.
ENGRAVINGS.
Vol XXXVI. Plates 3 and 2, Representations of Luminous Animals, to illustrate Mr. Macartney’s Paper on that Subject —Quarto Plate of the Orbits ofthe newly discovered i'lanets.—A. Quarto Plate to illustrate M. Peyrarn’s Paner on Burning Mirrors—A Paceto illustrate Mr. Donovan's Paper on Electro-chemical Agency —Mr. Accum’s New Mineralogical Apparatut, —Mr. Leet’s L'hrashing Machine.—Mr, Cook’s Apparatus for making Gas
No. 188,
DECEMBER 1813.
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A A Buoy * { 2B say A. Plate to illustrate Mr. T. Jones’s Sectograph,—-a new Instru- S89 icig ment for dividing right Lines into equal Parts, measuring ie Angles, and inscribing Polygons in the Circle, &c.
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ConTENTS « OF No oe 188,
Sones e Tee 4 eek tay and “Mathematical cea, Mak Pe otic: No. aq, Oxendon-Street. bee te - SS iy LXVIU. Some Experiments and Observations ont iy a a cans produced i in different chemical Processes on Fluo Cea + By Sir Homrnay Davy, LL.D. F.R.S. V.P. B.I. ye a ‘LXIX. A new ‘Theory of Light ; with Experiments 3e% hae See ae that Blackness arises from the Reflection of Indigo Cee aN arate ed-orange on the seven prismatic ee of. Light. By Jos: <i > s a Reaper, Mepis = Ean ri a pet NS es ac Stee -- L&X, Some Particulars respecting. the reheat ‘State ae rss a EY Persia, Communicated in a Letter to the Hon. Colonel i nee ; 2 GREVILLE Howarp. By Sir Gore Ouse.ey. Pak. 12 LCGAT aoe LXxI. On artificial Cold. ‘By Rp. WatLkeER, Exq. -
pe tek LXXII. On a saline Substance from Mount Vesuvius. ane’ ioe A, James SMITHSON, Esq. PER Set Arg oak a ea dni hae Se ‘LXXIII. On a Phenomenon of St. Michael's Mount in ate he. _ Cornwall. By J. A. Dexuc, Esq. F.RS. - °- - i? ty anteie ARP Mrs We 4. 4 NE An Attempt to determine the definite and sicnpl gaa Mae des ‘Proportions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganic a APe _ Substances.ate united with each other. By Jacop Berze- Ser NY gh CNRS, Professor of egeuon and Pharmacy, and M,R.A. RS Fee ride = eo betlihobanir a 5 on sce Seah aa ise Ea) ae a ae os te: LXXV. Final Letter from Mr. Witi1aM Jonzs on Dr. aes: 3 —— Woxzasron’s Periscopic Spectacle aan 5) mein rete ie ime foe Ae: , pt ORR Nai ee Researches into the Anatomy of. Plants. | By Pee ed ’ LF. Linx, of Breslau, formerly of Romer. ee aaa 466° = LXXVII. On Galvanic Electricity eda ee: a Sarr Te yh eee Nee VARA Proceedings of Learned Secitis Roya So- ne ae hse tg ee: ciety,— Geological Society, tea mn iE) iS a 1s -- LXXIX, Intelligence: and Miscellaneous Anticles —Me- eae _ tearological Table, &c. - 9) - Brae ee ss 484 >
ae ot, . A Ss) CRA a he, es RAE Re NY, rat ‘Orr aneatons for this Work, aearesaaias an 'E ditors, ;
3 one ary will meet w ith every as Sa th a : 4 F re J Ais : ai
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: ADVERTISEMENT. ee seventeen years have elapsed since Tur PutLosopnicaL JourNAL was commenced by Mr. Nicwovson, and sixteen since the appearance of the first number of the PHILosopHICAL MaGazine,
During this period the sciences and arts have made the most rapid progress. Numerous philosophical and mechanical instruments and ma-* chines have been invented and improved ;---the theory and practice of astronomy has been greatly advanced ;---new planets have been dis- covered, and the structure of the sun more clearly ascertained. The rays of light have been subjected to new experiments, which have de- monstrated their separate and distinct powers of illuminating and of heating; and that wonderful property upon which the phenomena of the island crystal depend, but which is now known to be inherent in both kinds of rays, and universally operative in all the cases of re- flection and refraction. Chemistry has a second time within the above period become a new science---by the discovery of the effects of gal- vanism upon its processes, and the development of elementary sub- stances of higher simplicity than were before known;---by the definite proportions of the component parts of bodies ;---by the laws of elective attractions and of crystalline forms ;---and, even to a certain extent, by a discovery of the remoter causes of those laws and forms. The cultivators of the sciences, the directors of the operations of the arts, with public institutions and societies, have become every year more numerous and rapid in their increase ; at the same time that new roads, bridges, canals, and other national works, as well as private under- takings, have been every where established to an unprecedented extent.
Under such circumstances of national vigour and exertion, we have found that the situation of Journalists of the discoveries and improve- ments made by philosophers and men of research in every part of the civilized world, is most honourable and truly gratifying. Public ap- probation, private friendship, and a reasonable remuneration, have con- stituted our reward. Upon many occasions, however, our correspon- dents have complained that the same academical papers, and articles of.information, have been printed in both J ournals; and they have, in their separate letters, requested us to consult together upon some means of remedying this inconvenience, and increased expense upon many of our readers. But it seemed impossible to obviate this inconvenience in two distinct works ; both equally under engagements to present to the public every thing that might prove new, interesting, and valuable. We have conferred upon this and other considerations which might render our intercourse with the public more effectually useful; and the result of our deliberations has been that it would certainly be best that we should unite, and that the joint product of our exertions and our correspondence should be consolidated in one periodical work ; affording all that has hitherto been considered as desirable in the plans and conduct of-both ; but free from the objection just stated, and per- haps one or two more upon which it is needless ¢o enlarge.
The Philosophical Journal will henceforth be discontinued; and The Philosophical Magazine will be conducted by Witi1am NicioLson and ALEXANDER TILLocH, in the same manner as it has always been carried on; but with every attention to improvement which the joint exertions of the Editors, and the communications of their friends and correspondents can afford.
Communications, addressed to the Editors, Picket Place, Temple Bar, will meet with due attention.
London, Dec, $1, 1813,
VoL. 42. a
CONTENTS
OF THE
FORTY-SECOND VOLUME.
MEMOIRS of the Life and Works of the late Dr. MasKE~ LYNE; read at the Public Meeting of the National In- Sitimbeef Brance ss: os. us) jew ult aes ea ae
Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner .. 15,91
Discovery of the Composition of the Arragonite.. .. 25
Report of the National Vaccine Establishment .. 27, 132
On the Production of the brown Oxide of Lead, under Cir- cumstances which have not been hitherto observed $5
On Electrical Influence .. .. +. «+ ee 36, 261
On a supposed Error in M. Laruace’s ‘* Mécanique Cé- Bg he al Sink iy ann heh ate, WPithe 4 gyda eslind on $, ape aR
An Attempt to determine the definite and simple Proportions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganie Substances are united with each other 40, 135, 171, 265, 371, 371, ; 440
Description of an Atmometer, and an Account of some Photometric, Hygrometric, and Hygroscopical Experi- ments wae cs, bis\s,) isle irniaig: pre teguuedatyh ale .
Cursory Geological Observations lately made, in Shrop- shire, Wales, Lancashire, Scotland, Durham, York- shire N.R., and Derlyshire. Some Observations on Mr. Bakewell’s Gevlogical Map, and on the supposed Identity of the Derbyshire Peak, and ihe Craven Limestone Rocks, {eT ae ee me Ce
Case of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Internus .. 60
The Bakerian Lecture. On the elementary Particles of cer- Sam iGraystals. i.) Oe A A Oe
On the Fine Arts: an Essay founded on a Discourse de- livered by the Cavaliere Furro # Ferro, President of the Accademia del Decernimento of Trapani at Cee
Observations, in Objection to some new Arrangements, and Simplifications of the Strata of England, proposed by Mr. BakeweLt.—A Defence of the Reality and Cir- cumstances slaied, respecting three great Faults or Dis- locations of the Strata in and near Derbyshire.— On Mr. Sitverwoon’s intended Section of all the Der-
byshire Strata—On Mr. Haut’s Survey and Models of
CONTENTS.
the high Peak of Derbyshire-— The Slate of Charnwood Forest ndt stratified, (Sc... aes iegh. ae, one On Freezing of Alcohols ia, as Brean et due hi | On a §1 ystematic Arrangement of Caliurs «» 119, 327 Mr. BAKEWELL in Reply to Mr. Farry, on the Great Der- byshire Fault .. .. tuck HOE Description of a Lake of Sulphuric ‘Acid at the Bottom of a Volcano of Mount Idienne, situated in the Province of Bagnia-Vangni, in the Eastern Part of the Island of Ia Mais) aa Sse yale, ae tae! Se) Re On Electricity ai He sis ale: NOE Mr. FarEy’s Reply to Mr. Baxrwext’s Letter on the great Derbyshire Fault.—Mr. B’s Lectures.—Stuge-coach Geo- logy —The great Southern Denudation. Limestone resl= ing on Slate.—The great Limestone Fault, Sc. .. 164 Inquiry concerning Magnesian Limestones in Somersetshire,
Shropshire, and Nottinghamshire Hehe OM Sy tg! ES On a new detonating Compound .. bay OO Particulars of the successful Treaiment of a Case of Hydro-
phobia; with Observations, Sc. .. -- 494 Experiments on capillary S2 ee with electrified and with
heated Liquids. .. «3, 202
On a Substance from the Elm Tr ee, called ee -» 204 On the Duration of the germinative Faculty of Seeds 208 Additional Remarks on the State in which Alcohol exists in fermented Liquors... omer soh ae sae On Electricity ly Position or Induction Phe si ere An Account of a Journey by the Gentlemen attached to the New York Fur Company, from the Pacific Ocean to the Missouri .. wee its ae he & Observations on the Stratification of Slate ip ee hia, eee Memoir on the Usefulness of Time-Keepers in the Service of the Navy; and a Plan for introducing them with the lest Prospect of Success to ensure their Accuracy at the least Expense .. .. pe acaba iy et? | Notes and Observations on Mr. Rozert? BakEweuu’s“ In- troduction to Geology ;?—emlracing incidentally, several new Points of Geological Investigation and Theory 246, 356
Researches into the Anatomy of Plants .. 276, 390,'466 On a Method of Freezing at a Distance .. . 262 Climate and Diversions in the Northern Paris of British India... Sie ties esatg SPY ls) one OE On some Properties of ‘Light nV URE Nar se Sa On changeable Colours and Glories. ~» 299
Researches upon the Heat developed in Combustion, and in the Condensation of Vupours .. «2 + «+ «+ 266
CONTENTS. Some further Observations on anew detonating Substance 321 On a new systematic Arrangement of Colours eta 4
Observations relative to the near and distant Sight of difs ferent Persons... 5. 00 ee oe eee Cal ee 2890 An Appendix to Mr. Wane’s Paper on Vision ., 343 The Correctness of popular Observations illustrated in the Directions commonly given for making Tea . .. 345 Additional Observations on the Effects of Magnesia in pre- venting an increased Formation of Uric Acid ; with Re- marks on. the Influence of Acids upon the Composition of Phe rine oi > vie | Sian ct e's wie) et ae A short Account of some Discoveries in Chemical Philosophy 367
Letter.from Dr. Wovraston on the Periscopic Construction of Spectacles ; with Observations ly M. Bior on a new Kind of Spectacles invented by Dr. WoLLASTON — 387 Description and Use of an Instrument called ** The Secto- graph,” principally intended for the Purposes of dividing right Lines into equal Parts, measuring Angles, and in- scribing Polygons in the Circle, Sc. &c. 2. +... 401 Some Experiments and Observations on the Substances pro- duced in different chemical Processes on Fluor Spar 407 A new Theory of Light; with Eaperiments to prove that Blackness arises from the Reflection of Indigo and Red- orange on the seven prismatic Rays of Light .. 418 Some Particulars respecting ihe present State of Persia 422 On artificial. Cold wnat 25, SRR, SsaS 5 at eee On a saline Substance from Mount Vesuvius .. .. 495 Final Letter from Mr.Wwm. Jones on Dr. WOLLASTON’S Periscopic Spectacle Glasses .. 0. se oe «s 464 On: Galvanic Electricity sass. a.) “sak i ee Notices respecting New Books .. .. .. 69, 392,486 Proceedings of Learned Societies .. .. 72,142,393, 479 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles 76, 144, 224, 307, Z 399, 484
Piast ry Waters SF ers, Js) oh e76, 495.1, Ree kegs. Meteorological Table .. 80, 160, 240, 320, 400, 489
THE
THE
PHILGSOPHICAL MAGAZINE.
¥, Memoirs of the Life and Works of the late Dr. MasKr- LYNE; read at the Public Meeting of the National In slitute of France, January 4, 1813, by A. DELAMBRE, Secretary ; translated from the French and communicated by a Correspondent, Juze 1813.
Nevi Masxetyne, D.D.F.R.S. Astronomer Royal at Greenwich ; member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and also one of the eight foreign associates of the Class of Philosophy and Mathematics of the Imperial Institute ; was Both | in London, the 6th of October 1732, of an Aen cient family long settled in the West of England. At nine years of age he was placed at Westminster school, where he soon distinguished himself. At an early period of his life he showed a taste for optics and astronomy ; but what attached him to the prosecution of these studies was the eclipse of the sun in 1748, of which ten digits were eclipsed at London. It is very remarkable that this eclipse pro- duced the same effect on the mind of Lalande, who was only three months older than Maskelyne; and it may with truth be observed that no celestial phenomenon was ever more useful to science than this eclipse, which gave her two such very distinguished astronomers, who . pursued this science under different views, each taking the depart- ment most agreeable to his own taste. One wrote largely in all the branches of astronomy, and instructed others with great success, but made few observations; the other has written comparatively little, but his numerous observa- tions are universally acknowledged to possess an unrivalled degree of accuracy. Maskelyne perceived how much the gcience-of mathematics was necessary in the line his in-
Vol. 42. No, 183, July 1813, AZ clination
a Memoirs of the Life and Works
clination led him to pursue; he therefore applied to the study of it, and in a few months became master of the elements of geometry and algebra. This success was an earnest of that distinction to which he afterwards rose ia the knowledge of plane astronomy, and the deeper parts of physical. About this time he went to Cambridge, where he was first admitted at Catherine Hall, and afterwards re- moved to Trinity College, and he there greatly distinguished himself at his examination for his Bachelor’s degree.
In 1755 he accepted a curacy in the neighbourhood of London, at which he resided during some years, devoting all his leisure to his favourite study. He now became inti- mate with the great astronomer Bradley, whom he assisted in making many important calculations. In 1756 he be- came fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the fol- Jowing year fellow of the Royal Society of London. -
But his astronomical career may properly be said to commence in 1761, when he was chosen to go to St. He- Jena to observe the transit of Venus. And to obtain further advantage from this voyage, he proposed to the Royal So- ciety to make observations on the parallax of Sirius. La Caille had frequently observed this fine star at the Cape of Good Hope; and calculating these observations, Dr. Masker lyne thought he perceived a parallax of 45 the result of which made the distance of Sirius from the earth much less than it is usually considered. Nevertheless, though he did ample justice to our celebrated astronomer, and to the excellent work containing his observations ; yet he remarked with truth, that these observations, made with another view, were neither sufficiently numerous, nor attended by circumstances suitable to verify the parallax; and the varia- tions observed, though sufficiently regular in general, might in part arise from inevitable errors in the observations,
The Abbé La Caille, hearing of Maskelyne’s undertaking, wrote to Warton, their common friend, recommending him to make observations on the meridian passages of the moon, in order to verify the parallax of this heavenly body, in the determination of which he had, himself, been en- gaged at the Cape of Good Hope. He also sent him a Jist of the observations be thought most useful, thus giving a striking proof of that Jove of truth which he always made his first object,
Dr. Maskelyne, on his part, had taken similar precau- tions ; and, without knowing he was anticipated, sent to the French astronomers a list of the observations he recom- mended. Cloudy weather prevented the observation of the
transit
of the late Dr. Maskelyne. $
transit of Venus, which had been the occasion of the voy- age; but Dr. Maskelyne, who was furnished with an ex- cellent clock of Shelton’s regulated at Greenwich by Brad- ley, and which had been removed with all possible care, determined the number of vibrations it made less at St. Helena than at London, to judge from thence the diminu- tion of gravity.
The second object of the voyage was the parallax of Sirius: this observation, like the other, failed, but it gave occasion to a curious and useful remark. To judge whether the star Sirius had any sensible parallax, it was requisite to have a better instrument than~La Caille’s, and to observe the star in favourable circumstances. The last point des pended on the astronomer, the first on the artist. The Royal Society had a sector made on purpose, which was completed only at the moment of departure, and therefore could not be tried at'Greenwich. What was Dr. Maske- lyne’s surprise when he found that this instrument, in- tended for the most delicate researches, gave him daily dif- ferences of 10”, 20” and 39” in the measure of the same angle! Carefully examining what might be the cause of these extraordinary variations, he ascertained it by certain trials, and endeavoured to correct it; but succeeded only in part. He reduced the error to 3”, yet this was insuffi- cient for the object he had in view*. He was therefore obliged to give it up: but this disappointment was the oc-
* This error was occasioned by the plumb-line, at the top, being in a loop and hung over a cylinder of 1-20th of an inch in diameter, fixed to the centre of the sector. The telescope could not be directed to a star without giving this cylinder a motion of rotation equal to the distance of the star from the zenith: this motion, by the effect of adhesion to the cylinder, deranged the line from its first position; and the are which had passed undér the line was not then the true zenith distance of the star. Dr. Maskelyne had the cylinder filed to 1-70th of a line, and then the error was reduced to 3”, On this occasion no doubt the actual suspension was thought of, which consists in attaching the top of the plumb-line to a fixed point, trom which it might hang freely, opposite the point marked on the outer sur- face of the axisof the cylinder. By this means the plumb line will keep the same position, without variation, and the observed distance may be depended on. Jt may be asked whether the sector with which Bradley made his fine discoveries of aberration and nutation, had-not this defect. ‘he answer would be the same; for Bradley’s sector, made by Graham, was the model of the sector constructed by that celebrated artist and taken to Lapland, Bradléy could not then rely on the distances he had measured. Fortunately the error would be very nearly the sume for each star that he observed; he only wanted relative distances, and the sector gave them nearly as exact as if there had not been any error, This defect, which certainly existed in the sector of Lapland,did not prevent Lemonnier, 9n his return to France, from observing, like Bradley, all the variations produced by aberration, and hence fully to confirm the brilliant discoveries of the English a:tronomer. See Degré du Méridien entre Paris et Amiens, Paris 1740. ‘
A3 casion
6 Memoirs of the Life and Works
easion of an important improvement in the construction of astronomical instruments. He inquired whether La Caille’s sector had not the same fault, and his suspicions were just. Instead of a cylinder, LaCaille had only a very fine pin,which eould not produce an error of more than 2”. He further inquired whether the sector which the academicians took to the polar circle in 1736 was not of a similar construc- tion, and this conjecture also was right; but the dimen- sions of the cylinder being only half a line, the errors re- sulting from it could not be more than a fonrth of what that experiment has been reproached with, since it has been tried again by M. Svanberg with. the repeating cir- ele.
_ He therefore could not attend to the parallax of the moon, any more than to that of Sirius: nevertheless, to en- ter as much as possible into the views of La Caille, he had recourse to observing the right ascensions. He knew doubtless that this method could not be compared with that of the French astronomer; for he never mentioned the results he had obtained, although he repeated these obser- vations in his voyage to Barbadoes.
if be had the vexation to see all his plans overturned,. without any fault on his part, he knew at least, like La Caille, to make his voyage useful to the science of longi- tude; he made trial of the different methods which had been proposed for this problem, he confirmed all the con- clusions drawn by La Caille, in favour of the distances of the moon from the sun; and as he had more exact instru- ments, he could be certain that any errors of this method were confined in much narrower limits. He gave new tables to calculate these observations, and was even so scrupulous as to calculate first the effect of refraction, and then that of parallax.
On his return he published his British Mariner’s Guide *,. in which he proposed to adopt the plan of the Nautical Al- manac deseribed by La Caille after his yoyage to the Cape of Good Hope.
The same year he made a voyage to Barbadoes, the ob- ject of which was to try Harrison’s watches. The report
he made on his return, though favourable in general to the, celebrated artist, whose invention he had been obliged to.
submit to the most rigid trial, was far from convincing Harrison; who.attacked him ina pamphlet. Dr. Maske- lyne replied. The seamen and the learned took part for or
* British Mariner’s Guide, 180 pages, 1763, against,
~
of the iate Dr. Maskelyne. v | avainst, according to their ideas or connections. M. de Fleaurin, intimate with F. Bertoud, and devoted to the cause of watches, perhaps forgot on this occasion his usual moderation. It was a great dispute between two useful methods calculated to give assistance to each other. Dr. Maskelyne found watches could not be sufficiently de- pended on. Flarrison said, not without some reason, they were within the limits prescribed by the act of parliament. He therefore demanded the whole reward; which was’ ‘granted him afterwards, but of which at that time he ob- tained only half. Pleading his cause he attacked the astro- nomical methods, and took advantage of La Caille’s re- marks, when extolling the method of distances he yet owned the errors to which it was subject. Maskelyne proved, by his experience, that the errors would be less with better instruments than those of La Caille, and such they then began to make in London. It is probable, that in this struggle between mechanics and astronomy each party might be carried a little too far. The watches did all that was required of them by the act of 1714, and if at that time Harrison had presented his machine, he would‘ doubtless, without difficulty, have obtained the whole re- ward. But fifty years afterwards, when instruments had been improved, and ihe tables of the moon had received unhoped-for improvements, was it not excusable to require something more? | Watches, by the facility they offered, were likely to please seamen, enemies to long calculations 5 but their exactness could not be depended on, except in short voyages; in long voyages the method of distances had an incontestable advantage: thus Dr. Maskelyne ap- pears to us to have shown as much justice as discernment, in awarding one half of the sum to Harrison for bis watch 5 and the other half to the second Lunar Tables, which Mayer had before his death sent to the Board of Longitude in London. The English nation afterwards yielded as much to motives of generosity as of justice, in completing the re- ward to Harrison to which he had a right when the literal meaning of the act of parliament is considered. Dr. Maskelyne, who was then endeavouring to get the plan of the Nautical Almanac adopted, had reason to fear that the nation, after having magnificently rewarded one fine in- vention, might be more indifferent and ceconomical with respect to a yet more useful work, It was his duty to plead the cause of science, and he acquitted himself ho- nourably: both parties gained their cause. Dr. Maskelyne established that plan which La Caille could not get adopted A4 in
* Memoirs of the Life and Works
im France, and the English had the glory of first realizing ite This is an obligation which seamen and astronomers” of all ages and all nations will owe to Dr. Maskelyne ; to succeed in which required all his perseverance, and the high estimation he was universally so justly held in. Un- doubtedly we partly owe to bim the successive improve- ments of the theory of the moon, in which he was con- stantly occupied. He was the editor of Mayer’s Tables, and added to them tables of horary motion which were wanting to the copy which came from Gottenburgh: he compared these tables with his daily observations, and under his direction Mason gave a corrected and enlarged edition of those tables, which have since been improved by M. Burg, and lately by M. Burckhardt, who have been assisted partly by Dr. Maskelyne’s last observations, and partly by the analytical discoveries of M. de la Place, who furnished them with the equations which would have been difficult to discover among so many others, if they had not received other assistance than that of observations.
The office of Astronomer Royal, to which Dr. Maskelyne was appointed in the beginning of 1765, enabled tim to render this great service to science. The Royal Observatory is situated in Greenwich Park, a few miles from London. Jn this retreat during forty-seven years, Dr. Maskelyne ob- served the heavens, and has in consequence left the most complete set of observations with which the world was ever presented, and thus Jaid the foundation for the im- provements of astronomical tables; for it is not sufficient for an astronomer to have zeal in the service, he must also possess the means of exerting it to the best advantage: those can only be met with in establishments founded by govern- ments, This acknowledged truth occasioned the observa- tories of Paris and Greenwich to be built nearly at the same time; but in these two establishments one essential cir- cumstance was equally forgotten. Dr. Maskelyne first thought of supplying this omission, and by so doing has rendered science a most important service, and constituted the principal difference in the two rival observatories. At Paris architecture was principally considered, and at a great expense a fine edifice was raised, but which was not well calculated for making observations. The astronomers, all academicians, there formed a sort of republic without ma- gistrates, where each emploved himself in works which certainly were useful, but without any general or connected plan. ‘The Cassinis, the La Hires, the Maraldis, published irom time to time their discoveries, or some interesting re-
sult 3
of the late Dr. Maskelyne. 9
sult; but they did not publish their observations : the world was therefore obliged to rely entirely on them for the just- ness of their conclusions thence deduced.
At Greenwich the building was less splendid, but better adapted to astronomy; one astronomer and one assistant. _ The law which established the observatory imposed on the astronomer royal the obligation of observing every day the sun, the moon, and whatever could be interesting to geo- graphy or navigation.
Flamstead filled the office for thirty years: part of his observations were published during his life, and his heirs afterwards gave a more complete and correct edition of them. At his death, in 1720, he was succeeded by the celebrated Halley, who continued the same plan with better instruments until 1750; but none of his observations were ever published. In this establishment they had neglected to order the observations to be published annually.
Bradley succeeded Halley ; got new instruments, and by his delicate and important discoveries immortalized him- self, but did not publish any thing; and his heirs main- taining that his manuscripts belonged to his family, it was not until forty years after his death that astronomers were put in possession of this treasure. In France the same in- attention produced like effects. About 1740, Lemon- nier wished to publish “wne Histoire Céleste” in imitation of Flamstead’s. He brought out one volume, comaining the observations of Picard and La Hire to the year 1685: this collection appearing fifty years too fate, lost nearly all its value. Lemonnier promised a second part, but the small sale of the first prevented him from fulfilling his pro- mise. As a particular favour, bis own observations were printed at the Louvre; but there was an interval of sixty years which has not been filled up. M. Cassini bad an- nounced © une Histoire Céleste,’? which should contain the works of his three. predecessors ; but perhaps the example of what happened to Lemonnier, or the misfortunes of the revolution which pressed so heavily on him, prevented his doing it. La Caille not finding any other means of publishing his “ Fondemens de I’ Astronomie,” calculated gratis twenty years of the Ephemeris for a bookseller, who printed for him as many copies of his work as he wanted iw make presents of to the astronomers of his time. All the observations he made afterwards remain unpublished.
It is related that the queen of England, struck with the smallness of the salary of the astronomer royal, for so ja- borious a situation, offered to increase it. Bradley op-
posed
10 Memoirs of the Life and Works
posed it, fearing that, if the place of astronomer royal weré worth any thing, it would no longer be given to am astro- nomer. One must admire the disinterested precaution of Bradley; but if, in refusing for himself, he had taken this opportunity of obtaining a fund for printing the observa- tions, the queen would doubiless have granted his requests and he would have prevented the disputes which during forty years rendered his works nearly useless. Bradley missed a favourable opportunity ; Maskelyne created one. He procured his observations to be published annually at the expense of the Royal Society, and for doing this he deserved to be for forty years at the head of astronomy. Piazzi, who has alone possessed similar advantages, has only published the smallest part of his numerous obser- vations; probably, from the unsettled state of affairs in Sicily. oa
Since the establishment of a Board of Longitude in France, the observatories of Paris and Greenwich have been conducted on nearly the same plan, and furnished with similar instruments ; collections of observations are annually published, which serve to verify each other; and when the clouds which overshadowed one of the observa- tories have not equally extended to the other, they supply the deficiency. The communication is uninterrupted, and the obligations reciprocal: if our tables are in great mea- sure founded on the English observations, the English cal- culations are partly founded on our tables; but the last of these tables have been corrected by an equal number of French and English observations.
Dr. Maskelyne in 1769 observed the transit of Venus at Greenwich, although only one phase was visible; but be prepared instructions for the astronomers sent by England to different places; he collected their ubservations, and from them settled the parallax of the sun and his distance from the earth. His conclusion was the same as that which Du Sejour obtained by the mean of the two observations of the two transits of 1761 and 1769.
He never omitted to make the most difficult and in- teresting observations himself, as those of the moon, trust= ing to his assistant only when the observations were more easy and less important. He followed with the greatest attention the methods established by his celebrated prede- cessor Bradley, whom he even excelled in the correctness of his daily observations ; he improved Flamstead’s method of determining at once the right ascensions of the stars, and of the sun; he made a catalogue of the stars, not very
numerous,
of the late Dr. Maskeiyne. 1t
numerous, but corrected in the most careful manner, and ‘which has served during thirty years as the basis of all astronomical inquiries. In short, it may be said of the four volumes of observations which he has published, that if by any great revolution the works of all other astrono~ mers were lost, and this collection preserved, it would con- tain sufficient miaienala to raise again, nearly entire, the edifice of modern astronomy ; which cannot be said of any other collection, because to the merit of a degree of cor= rectness seldom equalled, and never surpassed, it unites the advantage of a much longer series of observations ; and it must increase in value as it becomes older; which un- fortunately cannot be said of the observations of Tycho or Helvetius, nor even of those of Flamstead and La Hire, whose observations possessed all the correctness which in their times could have been expected, but cannot enter into competition with the more modern, and are too near the present age to be of any great use to the astronomers of the eighteenth century.
Dr. Maskelyne corresponded with all the eplahinten astronomers of his time: to be convinced of this, it is suf- ficient to look over the papers of the learned of all nations, which he has presented to the Royal Society. He himseif did not write so much as could have been wished: but it is difficult for an astronomer engaged in constant observa- tions, with the care of the Nautical Almanac, to undertake great theoretical inquiries, in which he would be con- tinually imterrupted ; and yet from the papers he has left it appears that he had been deeply engaged in cultivating physical astronomy. The few writings ‘he has published are distinguished by correct and just ideas, and great depth - of knowledge. Such is his treatise on the equation of time, in which he has corrected, with due attention, a mis- take which had escaped La Caille, and a smaller error of Lalande’s. [fin our turn we may be allowed to make any remark on his formulary, we should observe, that what little he has omitted, he well knew could not have any sensible effect.
Lalande took in good part the lesson which was given him; but Bernouilli haying seven years afterwards inserted translation. of Maskelyne’ $ memoirs in his ** Recuetl pour les Astronomes,” one of Lalande’s pupils (d’Agelet) took the part of his master in a manner that might have caused a coolness between the parties concerned; but it had no effect of that kind, and the two astronomers corresponded as before. Some doubis, were entertained respecting the
jatitude
12 Memoirs of the Life and Works’ - :
latitude and longitude of Greenwich. Dr. Maskelyne, to whom the memoir was sent, showed with his eloquence and usual moderation, that the doubts were without founda- tion; but he did not oppose the means used by others to remove them. On this occasion the English, who had at that time done little in the way of great geographical ope- rations, in which the French had distinguished themselves, in their turn became eminent, and surpassed all that had hitherto been done. At this time also MM. Cassini and Legendre made trial of the circle of Borda.
Bouguer, at the conclusion of his measure of the degree in Peru, had attempted to determine the attraction of mountains, by the quantity which the plumb-line of the astronomical sector was affected. He found a sensible at- traction, but it was only half the quantity it should have been from the size of the mountains hence he conclude! it must be hollow, and internally mined with volcanoes: The result, from the incorrectness of his instruments, was not to be depended on. Bouguer had himself expressed a wish that the experiment should be made again in Europe, with better instruments. Dr. Maskelyne undertook this with the sector he had at St. Helena, but of which he had corrected the suspension, and changed the divisions. He made choice of the mountain of Schehallion in Scotland. In his account wil! be seen the care and trouble this work, which appears so easy, cost him. He found 5:8 for the quantity the line was affected by the attraction of the mountain; from thence he concluded the density of the mountain was the mean density of the earth: the result deduced was, that the density of the earth is greater towards the centre than at the surface, which has been also proved by the measure of degrees, and by the pendulum : in fact, the density of land is four or five times greater than that of water. Cavendish, by experiments of another kind, has- found five and a half; but he had some doubts of the cor- rectness of his own conclusion ; and as that of Maskelyne is also established on some circumstances necessarily sub- ject to some degree of uncertainty, we may, until we have further experiments, take the density of the earth at very near five times that of water. In short, Dr. Maskelyne admits it as very possible, that the unequal density of the surface may have occasioned the difference in the several degrees which have been measured. 7
These are the principal works published by Dr. Maske- lyne; he has left many others which have not yet appeared,
and the learned will undoubtedly hear with pleasure, that the
of the late Dr. Maskelyne. 13
the care of giving them to the public has been committed to Mr. Vince, professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge, known by a Treatise on Plane and Physical Astronomy, and the Description of Modern astronomical Instruments. We shall perhaps find in them some further particulars of the prismatic micrometer, in some respects similar to those of M. Rochon and P. Boscovich. If we credit the Jatter, Dr. Maskelyne is the first who invented it; Boscovich claims to be the second. It has been found that the same invention has been made about the same time by persons who have not had any communication with each other. But hitherto M. Rochon is the only one who has published observations made with this micrometer ; the idea of using a double refraction be- longs incontestably to Dr. Maskelyne, and Boscovich him- self acknowledges it. Dr. Maskelyne used only common glass, and it seems certain that he first thought of making the prism move in the inside of the telescope; it remains therefore for us to learn what results he has drawn from this construction.
Dr. Maskelyne, who valued the excellent instruments which he constantly used, did his utmost to preserve and improve them, and made those additions which his ex- perience and love of optics suggested to him. He had the eye-glass of the transit instrument made moveable, to avoid all parallax, by bringing the eye opposite each of the five wires that the star successively passes. He found the inconvenience of narrow openings, then used in all observa- tories, and therefore had those of Greenwich enlarged. Notwithstanding all this caution, it has lately been su- spected that his quadrant has become less exact by the wearing, from the constant friction of the parts for more than fifty years, It was likely that the astronomer, who always paid the same attention to his observations, and besides did not perceive any sign of age in his instrument, should not be the first to perceive these trifling alterations. Other more modern instruments placed in the hands of attentive astronomers occasioned the first idea of it. Not but that the small yariations they think they have remarked, may be explained in a manner that will clear the Green- wich quadrant. MM, Besset and Ottamans had given some probable explanation ; but the most certain plan was to get new instruments, and this Dr. Maskelyne adopted. He ordered a large and fine circle of the celebrated Trough ton, which he had not himself the pleasure to place “4 his
obser
a4 Memoirs of the late Dr. Maskelyne.
observatory, but which he bas left in the hands of his suc» cessor.
My. Pond will show the defects which age has produced in the quadrant, and we shall know what corrections we are to make to the last Greenwich observations, to render them as exact as the former ones.
Dr. Maskelyne died the gth of February 1811, in the 79th year of his age.
His works are the four folio volumes of observations ; the papers we have spoken of} the first fifty volumes of the Nantical Almanacs, calculated under his direction and revised by him; the tables requisite for the use of the Nautical Almanac; the British Mariner’s Guide; some treatises on nautical astronomy ; the use of the qnadrant ; and his posthumous works, the contents of which we are at present ignorant of, and which astronomers will be anxious to possess.
We have hitherto described his scientific character ; but as aman, a father, a friend, he was not less estimable. Every astronomer, every man of learning found in him a brother. M. Chabert gave this account of him on his re- turn from London, where he had taken refuge in our trou- blesome times, and where he had experienced from the astronomer royal the kindest reception accompanied by the most delicate and liberal attentions. His disposition was mrild and amiable; he gained the affection of all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance, and his death was lamented as his life was honoured. Intended at first for the ecclesi- astical profession, he always preserved the virtues and sentiments which are more peculiarly a duty belonging to that profession; and “he died as he had lived, a sincere christian, in the joyful hope of being admitted into the pre- sence of the Creator, whose works he had so long contem- plated and admired.” :
He has left an only daughter, Margaret Maskelyne, who sent us some materials, of which we have availed our- selves ; and we trust she will see with some satisfaction, the sentiments of esteem and gratitude which her respected and worthy father’s confreres of France, and we may add of all countries, fee] for him, ;
YI. Re»
me.
II. Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner. By Tuomas AuLan, Esq. F.R.S. Edin.*
Acrnovcn we have many writers on geological subjects, whose works are distinguished by ingenuity of doctrine, and novelty of opinion, and, among them, some who have made advances towards arrangement; it was reserved to the celebrated Werner, to introduce means, by which rocks might be described with some degree of precision, Man ingenious theories were invented, to account for their for- mation; but little or no attention was paid to the ac- guirement of an accurate knowledge, cither of their com- position, or their relative position in nature; although these certainly appear to be the bases, on which such speculative opinions ought to be founded.
But while we acknowledge these obligations. to the Pro- fessor of Freyberg, we cannot extend our unqualified ap-
robation to the systematic arrangement he has imtroduced. tt was not to be expected, that the labours of one indi- vidual, who, from peculiar circumstances, was confined within certain limits t, were sufficient to attain perfection; nor could it reasonably be supposed, that any district, how- ever extensive, should be so singularly favoured, as to con- tain all the variety of facts, that occur in other parts of the world, from which deductions are to be drawn, and eluci- dations afforded, investing phenomena with characters which they do not present elsewhere.
An forming his arrangement, Werner may have exhausted the means he possessed; he, therefore, ought not to be re- proached; for although his conclusions are more general, than are warranted by the circumscribed field to which he was confined, yet he has formed a groundwork, on which the labours of future geologists may rear a system more capable of affording satisfaction.
It is greatly to be wished, that arrangements of this kind were less dictated by theory. The pupils of the Wernerian
, school have been peculiarly fettered, by an ideal necessity of supporting the principles of their master; but the blend- ing of theory with description, is an error common to all
* From the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.—I am de- sired by Mr. Allan to state, that the insertion of this paper in another Monthly Journal, before the regular publication of the Edinburgh Trans- actions. was without his concurrence or knowledge.—A. ‘Il’.
+ In Werner’s Preface to his Theory of Veins, he states, that his limited fortune, and the nature of his present situation, prevented him from travels ling into more distant countries.-.-Anderson’s ‘L'ranslation, xxiii.
speculative
16 Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner.
speculative geologists; the support of preconceived opi- nions being very generally the principal object in view.
Hence we find, that collections of those facts which are supposed favourable ‘to certain doctrines, have been eagerly prrsued, and others, equally’ interesting in themselves, en- tirely overlooked ; while that minute detail, which is alone capable of placing the student in a situation to draw con- ehisions of his own, has been totally neglected...
The part of the Wernerian system, which ii. my inten tion to notice at present, is the class of rocks termed Trans- ilion. After stating the grounds on which this distinction has been established. and the particular rocks of which the series is composed, with their extent and importance, I shall endeavour to show, that those which constitute its principal members, are similar in different districts ; and, finally, that they are of an older date than granite, which maintains the first place in point of priority in the system of Werner.
It is well known, that one of the principal arguments brought forward by Dr. Hutton, is drawn from the pene- tration of the stratified rocks by veins extending from the mass of granite, which he considered as affording a deci- sive proof, of the subsequent formation of that rock. It miust not, therefore, be supposed, that I aim at any thing original in the above assertion, or that I even wish to limit the term alpine schistus, as applied by that ingenious phi- losopher ; there can be no doubt, that, under this name, he included both the primitive and transition stratified rocks of Werner; but itr his time no distinction had been drawn between them: it is only later discoveries that have im- posed the necessity of, more specific language, which may at onee account for that want of precision by which his writings are so much obscured, and the deficiency of mi- neralogical knowledge, with which he has been so frequently charged, ’ ane nin:
Werner, in the construction of his systematic arrange- ment, thought that he perceived grounds for considering all rocks, from granite down to clay-slate, as bearing marks of having been deposited from the original chaotic fluid, i a certain determinate order. In them no detritus, or any thing like organised nature, was to be observed; and to this point every rock remained exactly in the same _ state yn which it was at the period when it first acquired solidity. To these alone the title of primitive was attached,
In the rocks immediately following, of which limestone is said to be the first, he remarked an essential difference ; the limestone not only abounded in organic remains, but
; . other
Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner. 17
other members of the series were composed of fragments, which must have existed previously in a different state: hence he inferred that these rocks were formed at a sub- sequent period, which, from their constituent parts, he concluded, must have been after the creation of living ani- mals, and nearly at the time when the earth passed from its chaotic to its habitable state*; and on these grounds he distinguished this class by the name of Transition.
To this another class succeeded, also presenting new and distinct characters, one of the most remarkable of which is position, They are never found conformable with the transition rocks: while these present an uneven or serrated. outline, either from the natural contortions of the strata, or the broken edges of the highly inclined beds; the rocks which succeed fill up the inequalities, and assume an ho- rizontal position. To them he gave the naine of fleetz rocks.
Thus the system is divided into three great classes—the © primitive, transition, and floetz.
Although the transition has been known in this country as a separate class, only within a few years, yet it occupies a larger superficial extent in these islands than any other rock-formation. But before I proceed to trace its limits, it may be proper to explain what is understood by the transition series.
In doing this, and indeed in whatever else I have stated with respect to the Wernerian geognosy, I beg to be un- derstood as having taken it from that work, which I con- sider as containing the most authentic account of the sy- stem taught at Freyberg; 1 mean the third volume of Pro- fessor Jameson’s Mineralogy. As Werner has published no account of it himself, it is only from the works of his pupils that we can become acquainted with his system. After the intense labour which has been bestowed on bringing it forward, it cannot be supposed to contain any errors, according to the strict notions of Werner; and it his pupils find it necessary to introduce any material altera- tions, and so to mould it as to suit their own subsequent observations, it will no longer be the system of that philo- sopher,—which the arguments in the present paper are alone intended to meet.
The transition series is composed of limestone, grau-
* Jameson’s Mineralogy, vol. iii. p. 146. )
++ Werner, “after the most ardyous and long-continued investigation, conducted with the most consummate address, discovered the general struc« ture of the crust of the globe,” &c.---Jameson’s Mineralogy, vol, iii. p. 42.
Vol. 42. No. 183, July 1813, B wacke,
18 Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner.
wacke, and grauwacke-slate, trap and flinty-slate. Limes stone is placed first, as being the oldest member, and is said to rest immediately on the newer elay-slate*. Of this we have no instance which I am acquainted with in Scot- land, where, indeed, transition-limestone may be considered as rather of rare occurrence. Grauwacke and grauwacke- slate are with us the principal members. he first of these is a stone usually of a blueish colour, passing into gray, and sometimes grayish-red ; it is composed of fragments, often of considerable size, but sometimes so minute as to be scarcely distinguishable ; these fragments are quartz, clay- slate, flinty-slate, and occasionally jasper, which are agelu- tinated by a basis of clay-slate, through which minute par- ticles of mica are also sometimes dispersed.
Grauwacke-slate differs from the fine-grained granwacke only in its minute stratification and fissrle character; it bears so strong a resemblance to clay-slate in hand-speci- mens, that even an experienced eye cannot distinguish it ; in the rock it is not so easily mistaken: it usually alternates with grauwacke, and is often remarkably contorted. Both substances are traversed by quartz veins, which are some- times of enormous dimensions, but generally very minute and abundant.
The only limestones of this class that I know of are three: First, that of Rae Quarry, near Crook in Peebles- shire, where it is mterstratified with grauwacke, and con- tains abundance of shells. The second is that of Cumber- land, on the lakes of Windermere and Coniston, which also contains organised bodies. The third is the Plymouth limestone, which, according to the account of Professor Playfair, corroborated by Dr. Berger, is also transition- limestone; and in it Mr. Playfair states that he found a petrified shell +. ‘I have not myself visited the spot; but it is of consequence to observe, that the limestones of all . these diferent districts exhibit traces of organie remains. The other transition-rocks are trap and flinty-slatet; but I bave had no opportunity of observing either of them in their natural position. Such, according to Werner, is the extent of the transition series; but it does not comprehend all the rocks which occur in some of the transition districts, particularly that of Cumberland, although, with little ex- ception, it is adapted to the south of Scotland in a very remarkable manner.
* Jameson’s Mineralogy, vol. iii. p. 147.
+ Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, p. 165.
$ Isuspect both these abound in the mountains of Cumberland, from spe-~ cimens I have picked up among the loose fragments,
(>) ‘ I may
Remarks on-the Transition Rocks of Werner. 19
I may now notice the extent of country occupied by rocks of this description ; but such is our limited acquaint ance even with our own island, that it can be done only in an imperfect manner. We know too little of the north of Scotland, to be able to say what rocks occur beyond the Moray Frith; but it is by no means improbable, that when ‘these regions have been more fully examined, the transition series will be found among them. Indeed I have learnt from Dr. Macculloch, that it occurs in great abundance in the north.
Tam inclined to consider that it occupies a large propor= tion of Forfarshire ; and if I be correct in an observation made on the banks of Loch Katrine several years ago, the transition rocks extend in that direction. IT have likewise found traces of them on the right bank of the Clyde, near Dalnotter Hill in Dunbartonshire. But the transition country we are best acquainted with is that of the south of Scotland, which stretches entirely across the island. |
On the one side, it begins near the boundary between East Lothian and Berwickshire, and continues along the coast to a little beyond the river Tweed. Extending a line from the first, to a point on the west coast, between. Girvan and Ballantrae ; and from the second, another which shall pass by Langholm, to a point between Annan and Carlisle, we shall find nearly the whole of the intermediate space to be transition, excepting where granite comes in, and some partial deposites of later strata, which occupy the lower parts of the valleys of Nith, Annan, &c.
The mountainous district of Cumberland, Westmore- Jand, and the north of Lancashire, which is divided from the transition of the south of Scotland only by a small pro- portion of parallel strata*, belongs to the same, at least we know o£ none other with which it can be classed, al- though it contains a variety of rocks which cannot be re- ferred to any in the series of Werner.
Adjoining to this, in the western part of Yorkshire, the same rocks occur: it is on these that the limestone of In- gleborough and Whernside rests. To this succeeds the extensive district of parallel strata, including the coal-fields of Warrington and Wigan, and the great alluvial de- posite of Cheshire. These bring us to the neighbourhood of the Welch mountains, which I believe are all of the
* This term has been applied to distinguish the sandstone strata, and in ‘that sense 1 now use it: it is objectionable, however ; for all stratified rocks Present the phenomena of parallelism ; consequently, without qualification, — this term affords no distinction,
Be same
20 Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner.
same nature, some specimens having been given me by @ member of this society, taken from the summit of Snow= don. Grauwacke, according to Mr. Aikin, makes its ap- pearance at Church Stretton in Shropshire*; and near Hay, on the border of Hereford, I observed it myself.
A great part of Somerset, and, finally, the whole of Devon and Cornwall, again excepting the granite, and a small portion of serpentine, and some other rocks, are all composed of transition strata. Thus, by extending a line almost due south, from Berwick to the English Channel, we shall find a large proportion of the country to the west composed of transition rocks; while, so far as I know, none occurs to the east of it; although it is probable that at Mount Sorrel in Leicestershire some of the same series may be found.
We are still fess acquainted with the precise limits of its extent in Ireland: we know, however, that it occupies the coast from Belfast Lough to the mountains of Morne, which are of granite; it also extends westward as far as Monaghan, and probably much beyond that point. From what Mr. Weld states, in his account of Killarney, it ap- pears to be the principal rock of the Kerry mountains, and T know it occurs in great abundance in the county of Cork.
Hence, even with the little information we possess re- specting its exact limits, we have enovgh to know, that ‘the transition rocks form a very large proportion of the su- perficial extent of Great Britain and Ireland, and also com- prehend the principal mining districts.
Having thus imperfectly chalked out the boundaries, or rather localities, of the transition districts in these islands, T shalt endeavour to show that some of the rocks of Corn- » wall are grauwacke, ‘in all respects similar to some of the south of Scotland; and if strata may be compared to the leaves of a book, a few decided and indisputable specimens are sufficient to characterize a district.
It was in consequence of some observations during a tour through Cornwall and Devon last summer, that I was led to suspect this class stood in a different relation in point of period, with respect to granite, from that which I had hitherto conceived : greater experience, or perhaps sufficient attention to the writings of Dr. Hutton, might have pointed out this before. Had I looked more attentively into his description of the granite district of Galloway, and at the
* Geological Transactions, vol. i. p. 212. same
-
Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner. 94
same time attended to the nature of the stratified rock of which that country is principally composed, this fact would
-not have been new to me now. There were other circum-
stances, however, which severally contributed to prevent me from supposing that grauwacke could occur in this po- sition. ;
First, the unlimited use to which Dr. Hutton applied the- term alpine schistus, left us quite uncertain with respect to the species of rock he meant: secondly, the alteration in- duced on grauwacke, near its junction with granite,—a cir- camstance so strikingly exemplified in Galloway, that [own it deceived myself; and, lastly, the assertion I have so often heard repeated by the Wernerian geognosts, that granite veins never occurred excepting in rocks formed of the same constituents, alluding to gneiss and rica-slate.
Before I visited Cornwall, [ knew that granite abounded in the Stannaries, and that tin and wolfram, metals which are considered nearly of the highest antiquity, were there common productions. I therefore expected to mect with a perfect epitome of the Wernerian system, containing the usual series of primitive rocks, descending from granite, through gneiss, mica-slate, and clay-slate, with all the ef ceteras of serpentines, traps and porphyries; but in this I was mistaken.
On my approach to Exeter through Somerset, I first ob- served the transition strata between Bridgewater and Taun- ton; (Nos. 1 and 2*) and from thence traced them, more or less distinctly, till {£ crossed the river Teign, which bounds Dartmore on the east. Thus far great part of the country is very flat, some of it extremely hilly as a road, but none of it mountainous. The transition strata are by RO Means continuous, and im many places appear only ia
small projections above the surface.
On the right bank of the Teign, the road winds up the side of a steep hill; and where the rock is cut, there is a considerable display of strata, having all the external ap- pearance of grauwacke. On examining it, I found some of the strata coarser than others; but, in general, the grain was extremely fine, (Nos. 5, 6,7.) the texture solid and compact, the colour very dark-gray: it was very tough un- der the hammer, it broke with a smooth and somewhat conchoidal fracture, and did not split into the thin laminz of the grauwacke-slate. This appearance puzzled me at first; the rock presented all the external characters of grau-
* The numbers refer to the Appendix, at the end of this parer. B3 wacke,
2e Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner.
wacke, and yet internally it was different. I had not pro- ceeded many paces, however, when J came upon granite, (No. 8.) the proximity of which, as before mentioned, is always marked by a very material alteration in the con- sistence of the adjoining rock. This alteration, I observe, was not unnoticed by Dr. Berger, in his interesting paper* on the physical structure of Devon and Cornwall. In mentioning grauwacke, which he distinguishes from grau- wacke-slate only by its compactness, he says, ‘It is-found higher ap than the granwacke-slate, it may be supposed ta have been precipitated more slowly, and under less power- ful pressure; whereby the mass has been allowed to con- tract, and to assume a kind of crystallization. It rests im- mediately on granite.” The conclusions ‘he draws are dif ferent from mine; but from the above quotation it appears, that the circumstance f observed at Teign Bridge is usual in similar situations all over Cornwall.
ear St. Austle, on the road leading to Carclaze mine, I found grauwacke, (No. 23,) in my opinion extremely well characterized ; also on the road to Cambourn, not far from Dolcoath, (No. 31.) 3 likewise on the shore near Penzance (No. 42, 43.). Here it is also fine-grained, and tough un- der the hammer, and at no great distance from granite. Near Oakhampton, I found it along with grauwacke-slate, in the most unequivocal state, (No. 57.) ; and on the shores of the Bristol Channel, near Ilfracombe, the rocks are all of the same material f.
Here, on the beach, to the west of the town, I spent some hours the evening hefore I crossed to Swansea; and found nothing among the rocks, to lead me for a moment to question taal they were wholly composed of grauwacke. Indeed | even remarked some of the contortions which are so comman in this rock, Next morning, however, when walking down to the boat, under a point where a small battery is built, | found on the trodden surface of the rock, ab appearance very similar to mica-slate, for which sub- stance it might readily be mistaken (No. 61, 62.) ; but this resemblance appears to be owing to the friction of the feet, and the action of the weather, on a variety of grauwacke containing an unusual proportion of mica.
By casting an eye over the map of Cornwall, it will be observed, that the above specimens are selected from the
* Geological Transactions, vol.i. p. 112.
+ The specimens alluded to were examined by the gentlemen present when this paper was read, who considered those frei the road leading to. Carclaze mine, and from near Oakhampton, as grquwacke; and those from the vicinity of Penzance as greenstone,
most
Remarks ‘on the Transition Rocks of Werner 28
ynost remote corners of the peninsula. On examination, I think they will be found sufficiently similar to the grau- wacke of Werner, to be entitled to be classed along with that rock. Dr. Berger, in bis paper on the physical struce ture of Cornwall, gives them no other name ; and if autho- rity is to be qualified by experience, the opinion of one who has traced the footsteps of Saussure, and who has Studied the geognosy of Werner with the utmost en- thusiasm, cannot fail to be received with respect.
I have thus endeavoured to show by the selection of spe- cimens, and by the opinion of a very scientific observer, that the stratified rock of Cornwall is grauwacke. It would be uncandid, however, not to acknowledge, that the general texture of this rock was different from the grauwacke of the south of Scotland; it was more of the slaty variety, and frequently seemed, from its smooth and soft feel, to contain a large proportion of magnesian earth *, /
I understand, that in a course of lectures now delivering, a very material alteration has been proposed upon the Wer- nerian system, in order to introduce this rock in a position distinct, and very distant from grauwacke. It appears to me much more simple to suppose, that rocks of the same class, in different districts, may present peculiar characters, than that the operations of nature should have been so multiplied and complicated, as to afford the endless distinc- tions which are thus required. Indeed, I cannot help thinking, that if the killas of Cornwall had been sufficiently known, it would have excluded entirely the introduction of that harsh-sounding German term Grauwacke. Killas ap- pears to me to be as proper a translation of that word as Specolar [ron-ore is of Eisen-glanz, and | think may be used with great propriety; distinguishing grauwacke and grauwacke-slate, by amorphous and schistose killas.
The only other rock of any importance in Cornwall is granite, termed Growan by the common people,—a name also given to clay-porphyry, a substance found pretty fre- quently in large veins (Nos. 16 to 19, 28, 48.}. The shades of distinction chronicled by the mineralogist cannot be expected Lo attract the attention of the miner, who knows but two rocks, growan and killas, throughout the Stan- naries, It has been thought that a distinct rock was un
* Since I read this paper, I have had occasion to pass through the trans- ition country of Peeblesshire, &c. On former occasions, | was in the habit of searching for characteristic specimens of the grauwacke ; I now looked for such as ressembled the killas of Cornwall, which I found in abundance (Nos. 62, 63).
B4 derstood
24 Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner.
derstood by the term Elvan; but this is a mistake: elvan may sometimes be greenstone, but in general is either killas or granite, and is so termed by the miner when he finds the rock harder to work in one place than in another.
Before TI entered Cornwall, I was led to believe that it abounded in two kinds of oranite, Primary and Secondary. Never having had an opportunity of comparing them in situ, 1 was anxious to do so here, and different localities were pointed out to me: these I examined with care, but eould discover no grounds to justify any distinction. Dr. Berger makes no mention of secondary granite ; and an- other gentleman, whose opinion on this, as on most sub- jects, will be received with the utmost deference, and who had the same object in view, during a visit made since I was there, informs me that he could discover no distinction at all.
Jt is therefore of importance to ascertain whether the
ranite of Cornwall be new or old; which will easily be anne, by comparing the appearances it presents, with the descriptions of these rocks as given in the Wernerian school ; it is there taught, that three formations of granite have been ascertained. :
The oldest is the basis or nucleus, round which all other rocks have been deposited. The second occurs only in veins, traversing only the granite of the older formation. The third rests on some of the older primitive rocks, in unconformable and overlying position, From this de- scription of its external relations, it is evident that the
ranite of Cornwall can neither be the second nor third, Vith respect to its internal structure, we have the follow- ing definition: Granite is a granular agevegated rock, com- posed of felspar, quartz, and mica. These alternate from Jarge to small, and even to very fine granular. The large and coarse granular usually belong to the oldest; the small and fine grannlar to the newest granite formations, Be-» sides’ felspar, quartz and mica, other fossils sometimes occur in it; of these, schorl is the most frequent, then garnet and tinstone*. ~ At Penzance [ observed some buildings constructed of a remarkably fine-grained granfte; but this | nowhere saw in situ: otherwise, from Teign Bridge, where I first set my foot on granite, to the Land’s End, it is generally of that character which entitles it to be ranked with the-oldest va- ricty (Nos. 8, 21, 27, 34, 35, 54, 55.), [nm many places it
* Jameson's Mineralogy, vol. iii. p. 102, &c,
has
Discovery of the Composition of the Arragonite.
has scffered to a most wonderful extent by decomposition ; bni «here it retains its freshness, no granite can possibly be better characterized. The specimens which [I was able to bene away, and which are now before the Society, are by mo means adequate to convey an idea of the coarse tex- ture it sometimes presents. In the granite of Dartmoor, the crvstals of felspar are uncommonly large, often four inches tn length. 1 believe it was from this neighhourhood that the favs of the footpath on Westminster Bridge were broueht; in these, crystals of felspar nearly as large may be observed. [To be continued.]
=
Ill. Discovery of the Composition of the Arragonite. Ina Letter from Professor StrROMEYER of Gottingen to Pro- fessor Gitwert of Leipzig. Dated 23d Feb, 1813.
Tu: arragonite is one of the minerals on the analysis of which I have been employed this winter. You will be sur- prised that I have attempted to submit this substance to a new analysis, when it had been already investigated by Klaproth, Vauquelin, Fourcroy, Bucholz, Thenard, and Biot, who had unanimously declared it to be carbonate of lime, differing neither in the quality, nor in the quantity of jts component parts from the common rhomboidal crystals. However accurate and demonstrative their experiments ap- peared to be, I confess I have always entertained some doubt of their sufficiency ; since such a case of a structure totally different, without any difference in the composition, would be completely singular, and at variance with every ether fact in crystallography and crystallotomy. [ am therefore particularly happy in being able to announce to you, tbat I have at last succeeded in discovering an essential difference between the arragonite and the crystal'ized car- bonate of lime, and to remove this striking contradiction from the science. The arragonite contains, besides car- bonate of lime, also carbonate of strontia, chemically united with it in a constant proportion, and constituting a true natural triple combination of the carbonic acid with lime and strontia. The quantity of the carbonate of strontia in the arragonite amounts to between 3 and 4 per cent. That so great a quantity of carbonate of strontia should escape the notice of those who have examined this mineral, I can only atiribute to this circumstance ; that they have consi- dered the sulphate of strontia as equally insoluble in water
with
26 Discovery of the Composition of the Arragonite.
with that of baryta, and hence supposed that, if the arra- gonite contained strontia, it must infallibly be precipitated from the solution in muriatic or nitric acid, by the sulphuric acid, or by a salt contaming it, when the solution was only diluted in such a degree that the lime would not be separated from it.. This supposition is however not true, as I have formerly had occasion to remark in my analysis of the sul- hate of strontia from Suntel.
There is in general a great resemblance in the chemical relations of strontia and lime. It is therefore very difficult to separate them, and I have only been able to do it effec- tually, by dissolving the arragonite in pure nitric acid, eva- porating the solution to crystallization, and treating the crystalline mass with alcohol, in which the nitrate of strontia is not soluble. In the evaporation of the solution, we may be convinced that it contains strontia. If we carry the evaporation nearly to the point of crystallization of the nitrate of lime, the nitrate of strontia is deposited while it 3s cooling, and often during the evaporation, if it was nearly neutral, in small octabedral crystals which are left unaltered when alcohol is poured on the mass.
You will naturally ask if this quantity of the carbonate of strontia can be sufficient to produce the striking pecu- Jiarity of the appearance of the arragonite ; and I believe £ may safely answer that itcan, Many experiments which I have made in analysing the natural magnesian limestones, seem to show that even small proportions of substances possessed of strong powers of crystallization may cause other substances to assume their form. For example, I have analysed a specimen of perfectly rhomboidal magne- sian spar from St. Gothard, which contained only 7 per cent. of carbonate of lime. In the same manner I have found reason to think that many of the sparry iron stones derive their rhomboidal fora trom the carbonate of lime which they contain. May it not therefore be imagined, that the crystalline form of the arragonite depends on that of the carbonate of strontia, which has certainly stronger powers of crystallization than the carbonate of lime? As far however as I know, the strontianite has not yet been found perfectly crystallized; hence its proper structure is unknown, and nothing can be decided positively respecting it. But may not the circumstance of the frequent confusion of the arragonite with strontianite be considered as favouring my opinion ?
My experiments on the magnesian limestones were un- dertakcn with a view to investigate whether the laws laid
down
Report of the National Vaccine Establishment. 97
down by Professor Berzelius, for the mixture of the artifi- cial triple compounds, or “‘ double salts,” take place also in natural combinations. The results which I have hitherto obtained, from more than ten analyses of different mag- nesian limestones, agree beyond all expectation with the views of Berzelius.
T shall also observe in the last place, that T have found both in the Saxon strontianite from Braundorff \ near Freyberg, and in the Scotch strontianite analysed by Pel- letier and Klaproth, several parts in 100 of carbonate of lime. It was this occurrence of small portions of carbonate of lime with the carbonate of strontia, that led me to the examination of the arragonite, which has furnished the re- sults that I have had the pleasure of communicating to you.
{It appears also from the correspondence of the gentle- man who has favoured us with a manuscript copy of this letter from the continent, that some traces of strontia had before been observed in Carrara marble by a pupil of Ga- dolin in Abo, who extracted it by digesting a large quantity of powdered marble with a little muriatic acid: but our correspondent remarks that Carrara marble does not possess the properties of the arragonite.]
=
IV. Report of the National Vaccine Establishment, Dated 22d April, 1813.
To the Right Hon. Viscount StpmMoutnu, Principal Secre- tary of State, Home Department, Sc. &c. ec,
National Vaccine Establishment, Leicester-Square, April 22, 1813,
My Torn T ik Board of the National Vaccine Esta- blishment have the honour of informing your lordship, that during the year 1812 the Surgeons appointed by their au- thority to the nine Stations in London have vaccinated 4,521 persons, and have distributed 23,219 charges of vac- cine lymph to the public, The number vaccinated this year exceeds that of 181] by 1,373, and the demand for lymph has heen often so great that it could not without difficulty be supplied. The Board had last year reason to think that nearly two-thirds of the children born in the metropolis were vaccinated by charitable Institutions, or private practi- tioners. ‘There is now reason to believe that three-fourths of those born are submitted to that salutary operation. But though the prejudices against the cow-pock, which have been artfully encouraged by ignorant and interested men,
appear
38 Report of the
appear generally to decline in the metropolis, as well as in ether parts of these dominions, yet it is with concern that the Board have noticed the increase of mortality from small- pox in this city, last year, to the number of 1,287.
Previous to the discovery of vaccination the average number of deaths from small-pox, within the Bills of Mor- tality, was 2000; and though in the last ten years 133,139 persons were added to the population of this great city, yet in 1811, by the benefit of vaccination, the mortality was reduced to 751. The increase in the last year we have rea- son to ascribe to the rash and inconsiderate manner in which great numbers are still inoculated for the small-pox, and afterwards required to attend two or three times a week, at the place of inoculation, in every stage of their illness. This practice of inoculation, and of promiscuous intercourse of the patients at the same time with society, is the great means by which this disease is kept in existence, and its in- fection propagated to persons and places where it would not otherwise be seen. This is not only the opinion of this Board, founded on observation, but it is a fact confirmed by communications to them from the best authorities, and by the most unprejudiced characters. ‘
The respectable College of Surgeons of Dublin allege that the practice of inoculation not only supplies a constant source of infection, but prevents the extinction of the dis- ease for even a short interval.
The populous city of Norwich was never free from it till the discovery of vaccination, but since that period it has experienced occasional remissions from ‘its ravages. In 1807, after its disappearance for some time, the disorder was brought into that city by a vagrant from London, who, before the Magistrates were apprized of it, or before the salutary advice given by the Faculty to provide a place where such person might be secluded from intercourse with the mihabitants could be adopted, communicated the conta- gion. Of 1,200, who took the infection, 203 died. At that period, viz. 1807, the prejudices against vaccination had-not subsided. But in 1812, when that city was threatened with a similar visitation, by the appearance of the small-pox in the neighbourhood, the Magistrates, the Faculty, and the Clergy, concurred in recommending vac- emation, Between the 10th of August and 22d of Octo- ber following, 1316 persons were vaccinated. The result was, that ous one gentleman, whose child the Faculty refused to inoculate, procured matter of small-pox, which
he
National Vaccine Establishment. ag
he applied himself, and from this source sevem persons took the infection, yet by means of this seasonable vaccina- tion not a life was lost.
This result, so different from the events of 1807, cannot but make an impression on every mind open to conviction: when vaccination was not performed 1,200 persons took the small-pox, of which number 203 died: when speedy recourse was had to vaccination there was not a single vice tim to the disease.
But it is not at home only that lessons so much to the eredit of this new art may be learned. The Board have abundant communications from every quarter of the world equally to its advantage. To detail all the evidence which they may have received as to its efficacy, not only in pre- venting the small-pox, but its power to suppress its ravages under the most unfavourable and threatening circumstances, would extend this Report to an improper and an unusual jength. They will content themselves with mentioning a few particulars, which they trust will recommend it to the favour and confidence of their countrymen, and to the fos- tering care of Government.
On the continent of India vaccination has been hailed as the greatest blessing, and. has been practised with the greatest success and in the most extensive manner.
In the islands of Ceylon and Bourbon it has been reeeived in a manner no less favourable, and been practised with an éffeet no jess beneficial. Jn the isle of Ceylon, since its first introduction, more than 200,C00 persons have been vaccinated ; 30,191 in the year 1811 only, as appears by the subjoined table from Mr. Anderson, the superintendant- general, to whom but one case of failure in preventing the small-pox (and the circumstances of this case render it very doubtful) has occurred, in the great numbers which he has seen.
At the Cape of Good Hope the small-pox is dreaded as much as the plague, and it has proved there little less de- structive to human life. Lord Caledon, the late governoz, established at Cape Town a vaccine institution, which was soon called into activity under his successor Sir J. Cradock. The colony consists of a population of 80 or 100,000 indi- viduals, of which number it was supposed 15,000 were sub- ject to take the infection of the small-pox, which appeared there on the 12th March 1812. Between that time and the 4th July following 233 persons caught the disease, of which number 100 died. The remaining part of the in- habitants liable to the disorder were preseryed by au active
vaccination,
‘
30 Report of the
vaccination, in which all the faculty in the place, as well as the regimental and garrison surgeons, sirenuously ex- erted themselves.
From the various details with which the Board have been favoured, we think it our duty to select one instance, as tending to show in a most pointed manner the power of - the vaccine lymph to arrest the contagion of the small-
Ox.
Four hundred negroes from Mosambique were on the Ist of March landed at Cape Town, one of whom, a woman, was on the 5th succeeding afflicted with the confluent small- pox in its most virulent form. This female was at that time inhabiting a large room, in common with 200 more of ber companions, not separated either by day or by night. On the report of this case the whole of these victims of «* avarice and cupidity,” as the surgeon terms them, were immediately subjected to vaccination, and on the following day removed to a small island (Paarden Island) at a httle distance from the town. A few days after this the woman fell a sacrifice to the most aggravated character of that dreadful disease. Of the aggregate number of negroes, 78 individuals received the vaccine disorder, and underwent the regular course of its action. From these subjects the re- maining portion were vaccinated. ‘* They remained on the island 50 days, during which no further case of small-pox made its appearance, although they had been exposed to the whole strength of the contagious atmosphere, nor is there a single instance wherein any of this large proportion of persons became subject to the small-pox.” It is added by the professional gentleman who writes this account, that throughout the entire course of this arduous struggle’’ (the general vaccination) not a single instance had come to his knowledge of the failure of vaccination in protecting the individual from the small-pox, where the former was ascertained to have taken effect.
At the Havannah, by the account written by Dr. Thomas Romey, Secretary to the Committee of Vaccination, 13,447 persons were vaccinated in 1810; 9,315 of these persons had been vaccinated in the city of Havannah alone, with so good an effect, that for two years not a single person had been interred in the public burying-ground of that city who died of the small-pox, which befcre was a great cause of mortality in it.
In the Caraccas, and in Spanish America, the small-pox bas been extinguished by vaccination.
The accounts from yarious parts of Europe are almost as
fayourable
National Vaccine Establishment. Si
favourable. In the Report of last year it was observed, that the small-pox was extinguished at Milan, and at Vienna, in which latter place for many years the average mortality from it had amounted to 800.
From Malta information has been received, that not only His Majesty’s ships are supplied with lymph to vaccinate such sailors as may not have had the small-pox, but that the children of the artificers of the Dock-yard, and nearly 3000 Maltese children, have been vaccinated by the Insti- tution there (gratis): and itis added by Mr. Allen, the surgeon of the Dock-yard, that daring a residence.of seven years at Malta, he has never known an instance of one of them being afterwards afflicted with the small- pox.
Russia has likewise participated in the benefit of vacci- nation. It was introduced into the Russian empire in 1804; and since that time, in its various provinces, 1,239,637 have been vaccinated ; and so uniformly successful has yaccina- tion been, that it bas been termed, in the language of that country, the pock of surety. Dr. Crighton, physician to the Emperor of all the Russias, observes, supposing (ac- cording to a well-founded rule of calculation) that before the introduction of yaccination every seventh child died annually of the small-pox, vaccination has saved the lives, in the Russian empire, of 176,519 children, since the year 3804.
The Government of France appears to have taken the greatest pains to secure to the people all the advantages which could be derived from this discovery. A central institution was soon established at Paris, to encourage and to promote the practice of vaccination, and a similar plan for the same purpose was adopted in every considerable provincial town. These provincial institutions were not Jong ago ordered to make a return to the Government, of the state of vaccination in their several districts. From these documents a Report has been drawn up by Mr. Ber- thollet, Percé and Halle, philosophers of the first reputation, and submitted to the class of physical sciences of the Im- perial Institute; in which it is afirmed, that of 2,671,662 subjects, properly. vaccinated. in France, only seven cases appear of patients having afterwards taken the small-pox ; which is as 1 to 381,666. It is added, that the well- authenticated instances of persons taking the small-pox after inoculation for that disease had perfectly succeeded, are proportionably far more numerous; and also that in Geneya, Rouen, and several other large cities, where the
Jennerian
33 | Report of the
Jennerian system has not been circumscribed by popular prejudice, the small-pox is no longer known ; and the re- gisters exhibit strong evidence of consequent increasing po- pulation. The report concludes with expressing great hopes that this pestilential disorder will ultimately disappear from society. 3
This object will doubtless be greatly forwarded by the line of conduct adopted by the Royal College of Surgeons in London; in which city, notwithstanding the artifices practised, and the falsehoods * even propagated to discretlit vaccination, it is even now gaining ground. The Royal College of Surgeons have resolved not to inoculate with variolous matter. The College of Surgeons of Dublin have formed the same resolution. In Gloucestershire sixty-three surgcons, convinced of the pernicious tendency of inocula- tion to support and propagate the small-pox, associated, and pledged themselves to decline the practice of it.
The National Vaccine Establishment have recommended the imitation of such examples to the members of the pro- fession in every part of these dominions, and they have no doubt but that the good effects of such advice’ will soon ap- pear, in the diminished mortality and the increased popus Jation of the country.
It may be proper to add, that the surgeons at nine sta- tions of this metropolis reposted to us on the 14th of last January, that they had no complaint of any person vacci- nated by them having afterwards had the small-pox.
The Board have again the pleasure of stating, that the money granted by Parliament during the last session has been sufficient to defray the expenses of the year 1812; and they are of opinion that the same sum will be adequate to the expenditure of the current year.
Fr. Miuman, President. By Order of the Board,
James Hervey, M.D. Register.
# In the bills of mortality for the last year, the death of two persons was said to have been occasioned by the cow-pock ; but, upon investigation by the Board of the National Vaccine Establishment, they were found to have died from other-causes, and the assertion was proved to be without foun- dation.
Ox
National Vaccine Establishment. 33
On the Vaccine Disorder, ly Dr. Servanpo DE MEIr ¥ NorirGca, an Ecclesiastic*. Dated London, 10th January 1813.
The small-pox, as well as the measles, were unknown in New Spain before the conquest. They were brought there, says Torquemadat, by a negro from Pamfilo of Narvaez, and they occasioned such destruction, that he does not he- sitate to affirm that the greatest part of the Indians died, among whom was the emperor Cuitlahuatzin, who succeeded Montezume. It is stated, that according to the reports which Cortes ordered to be made to him, there died in the einpire of Mexico alone three millions and a half. It was not long before fresh variolous infection was brought over, and according to Torquemada eight hundred thousand In- dians perished,
Europe has continued to communicate this scourge at intervals of thirty, twenty, or a less number of years, and the infection extending itself from Vera Cruz to the most- remote parts, has like a destructive plague spread terror, death and desolation, over that continent. The longer it is retarded, the more fatal it becomes, because the danger increases with the age of the sufferers. Thirty-three years ago there were carried off more than ten thousand persons in the towns of Mexico and Puebla alone by this contagion,
which was the last but one that has visited4bat kingdom,
and was brought there after an interval of nineteen years, Jt was from this last attack that I was a sufferer in my native country, Monterry, the capital of the new kingdom of Leon: and there was not a family who did not put on mourning. Some of these families disappeared al- together, because they were all adult persons, and had been seized by the epidemic in the city. Toose who lived in the country were preserved from its influence by banking the dung-hills of the Jarge and small catile around their dwellings.
The small-pox acts with the greatest virulence upon those parts of the body most exposed to the sun, such as the face and hands; and as the Indians are more exposed by their habit of life and manner of clothing, the havoc which it makes amoung them is more horrible.
Torquemada says, speaking of the first introduction of the infection, that the reason why it killed so many, was,
* From “ Report of the National Vaccine Establishment, 2¢th April 1813. + A Spanish historian,
Vol. 42. No, 183. July 1813, C because
34 On the Paccine Disorder.
because the Indians were ignorant of the nature of the dis~ ease, and bathed and scratched themselves.
In the new kingdom of Leon there were several wander- ing nations, so warlike that the Spaniards could not with arms in their hands resist their attacks upon their towns : the small-pox, however, extirpated almost all of them; and fifty years ago heaps of bones, like so many trophies of the disease, were to be seen under the old tufted oaks in the fields. At this present time, when a savage sees one of his companions attacked with the infection, he leaves him, his horse, and his provisions, and flies to a great distance in the woods.
It_has never happened that the Spaniards have secured themselves against infection by stopping their communica- tions with the Indians.
As soon as the inoculation for the natural small-pox was introduced into Europe, the Archbishop of Mexico, Haro, ordered the curates and ecclesiastics to perform it through their several towns with their own hands; and although the prejudices and scruples of some hindered the practice becoming general, it is certain that to this inoculation i 1s to be attributed the diminisbed evil which the small- -PoOx oc- casioned fourteen years ago.
The King of Spain having sent the art of vaccination with Dr. Balmis, it was received with such pompous cere- monies, both civil and military, that the people caught the enthusiasm. J believe that not a person remained at that time unvaccinated. The Viceroy’s lady herself, Dona Jues de Toregui, employed herself in vaccinating the Indian children. And as the vaccine is found in the cows of the provinces of Puebla and Michauacan, every body having it at hand, all the children are now vaccinated, and the small-pox has not appeared for fourteen years. They already believe their country to be free from such a scourge ; and should its contagion appear again in Vera Cruz, it would be easy to counteract it in the ‘beginning by employing the vaccine, al- though its use might have been for some time laid aside.
The celebrated Dr. Unamie also writes at Luna, that in the two towns of the Sierra of Peru there had been na small-pox, because the inhabitants inoculated themselves by milking the cows who actually had the vaccine. Upon being asked, whether they had ever the small-pox, they an- swered, they only had a few pimples on their hands.
(Signed) Dr. Senvanpo pe Meir y Nonigca. V. On
{ 35 ] V. On the Production of the brown Oxide of Lead, under
Circumstances which have not been hitherto observed. By M. CHEVREUL*.
I+ is well known that lead is susceptible of combining with oxygen in various proportions, and of forming Ted, brown, and yellow oxides which have not the same affinity for the acids. It is from this affinity of lead for different quantities of oxygen, and from the disposition of the yel- Jow oxide to form salts, that the cause of the phenomena which we have observed must be deduced. When we mix red oxide of lead with nitric acid, we may observe that one
rt of the oxide is brought to the state of yellow oxide, which is dissolved, while the other part is combined with the oxygen abandoned by the former to form brown oxide, which is not dissolved. Hitherto only two cases have been remarked, in which the brown oxide of lead was produced ¢ that to which I have alluded, is where the red or yellow oxide of Jead is in contact with the oxygenated muriatic acid: accident brought another under my notice, which £ shall now communicate. I had been treating some plate- glass (crystal) reduced into a fine powder with nitric acid, with a view of analysing it. The matter which was insolu- ble in the acid had been washed and calcined, and then heated in a platina crucible with three times its weight of otash. When we diluted with water the mass which had eas fused, an alkaline solution was obtained, plenty of silex and yellow oxide of lead, and it was ‘remarked that the platina spatula which remained in the crucible during the operation contained at its extremity a button of an alloy of platina and lead; the bottom of the crucible was covered with a cimilar alloy. The alkaline mass diluted. with water deposited a brown crystallized powder which had a metallic appearance : 1 took it at first for iridium 5 bat afier haying washed it, and poured nitric acid upon it, the latrer assumed a fine red colour, which it lost by filtra- tion: as the brown oxide of lead presents the same phe- nomenon, [ thought that the brown powder might be this very oxide. The following experiments proved that | was right: this powder exposed to heat in a glass tube was re- duced to litharge with effervescence; when treated with the muratic acid, it exhaled abundance of oxymuriatic gas, and formed muriate of lead, which crystallized in brilliant flakes. According to these results, it 1s evident that in the
* Annales de Chimie, tome lxxxiv. p- 315. R C3 treatment
36 On Electrical Influence.
treatment of glass with potash, a part of the yellow oxide of lead which enters into its composition, had been decom- posed into metallic lead and brown oxide ; that this decom- position was produced in virtue of the affinity of lead for. platina, and of that of the yellow oxide of lead for an excess of oxygen.
I am of opinion, that in this case the patash does not determine the hyperoxidation of the lead, by the affinity which it can exercise over the oxide at the maxi- mum, as happens with the oxide of tin at the minimum dissolved in potash. I found my opinion upon the circum stance of the potash having more affinity for the yellow oxide of lead than for the brown oxide; for, in the operation which I have described, the latter oxide had not been dis- solved in the water. with the alkali; whereas the portion of yellow oxide which had not been altered was dissolved al- most entirely. To conclude: the crystalline form of the brown oxide of lead proves clearly, that it bad been at first in solution, and that it was afterwards separated from its solvent, probably upon cooling.
It results from what I have detailed, that the platina which is in contact with yellow oxide of lead performs 4 part analogous to that of the nitric acid which acts upon the minimum ; with this difference, howeyer, that the platina, not being capable of being combined with the oxide of Jead, determines the complete reduction of the oxide which it attracts; whereas the nitric acid only determined, in the minimum, the scparation of that part of the oxygen which refuses to combine with the yellow oxide: in both cases, the affinity of the yellow oxide and of the red oxide for an excess of oxygen concurs in the result. .
VI. On Electrical Influence. ByGrorcE Joun SINGER, Esqe Lecturer on Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry.
To Mr. Tilloch.
Sin,— Lue phenomena observed by your correspondent E. Walker, Esq. with Mr. Bennet’s gold-leaf electrometer have been long familiar to electricians, and are illustrated in most elementary works by experiments with electrome- ters attached to mmsulated metallic rods: With such an apparatus anomalies are Jess likely to accur than by the employment of the limited surface of an electrometer-cap, and the fecbly excited body necessarily employed with it.
. Such
On Electrical Influence. 37
Such experiments prove (and have been long considered as proving) that there are two methods by which electrical effects may result from the action of an electrified surface en any insulated conducting body: Ist, by the communt- cation of its own electric state by immediate contact ; and, adly, by its influence on the distribution of the natural electricity in the insulated conductor when approximated to it. :
By the first method, a positive surface can only com- municate positive electricity, and a negative surface, nega- tive electricity; and in either case the original electrified surface has the intensity of its electrical state diminished, and the communicated electricity is permanent (the insu- lation being supposed perfect).
By the second method (approximation without contact) the insulated conductor is contrarily electrified at the ex- tremity nearest the electrified surface, but evinces the same electricity as that surface, at its remote extremity.
This method of producing the contrary electrical states at the opposite ends of an insulated conductor, depending entirely on the unequal distribution of its natural electricity by the approach of an excited surface (with which it has no conducting communication), does not diminish the in- tensity of that surface; and for the same reason produces no permanent effect; the electrical appearances that were produced by its approach being destroyed by its removal.
Electricity by approximation is therefore as transient as the cause by which it is produced.
As direct contact of an electrified surface communicates permanent electricity of a similar kind} so the opposite electricity may be communicated by combining the me- thods of approximation and contact. Let the different states of electricity be excited in an insulated conductor by the approach of an electrical surface. Touch the conductor (during the continuance of these effects) with any tnin- sulating substance; its electric appearances vanish, though it still remains in the proximity of the electrical surface. Remove it from that proximity, it again appears electrified ; but it is now uniformly and permanently so, and its electri- city is opposite to that of the excited surface to which it was first opposed, and is therefore got derived from that sur face ; but from the uninsulated substance with which it came in contact during the disturbance of its natural elec- tricity.
It is by this last method vey the opposite W goeady 8,
,3 that
38 Onan Equaiion in Laplace’s Mécanique Céleste..
that of the excited surface obtains in the leaves of Mr. Walker’s electrometer. The imperfect insulation of the instrumcnt, or the striking of the gold-leaves against the tinfoil on the sides of the glass, are the sources of uninsu- Jated contact ; and in a perfectly insulated electrometer of any size the effect does not take place unless the excited surface is brought so near the cap, as to occasion the gold- leaves to strike the sides of the instrument.
I have elsewhere* stated some objections to the term in- duction as applied to electric phenomena; and I believe it will be quite unnecessary to expatiate on that subject, as a reference to ils literal interpretation by our best Lexico- griphers will sufficiently demonstrate its insufficiency and absurdity.
T am, sir, yours, &c.
Princes Street, Cavendish Square, G. J. SINGER. July 9, 1813.
VII. On a supposed Error in M. Lapnace’s ‘* Mécanique
Céleste.”
To Mr. Tilloch.
Sir,— An admirer of Laplace ventures to affirm, that the equation quoted by Mr, Thompson (in the Philosophical Magazine for last May), from the Mécanique Céleste, is by no means an error or oversight in the author of that in- comparable work, but may be easily deduced from the following train of reasoning on the subject. Should you think this elucidation worthy a place in your valuable work, by inserting it you will oblige, Sir, yours respectfully, MaATHEMATICUS.
By referring to the Mécanique Céleste, it will be found
ly —yd that Laplace has not put the equation c=3.m,—2—"*
at : ‘—2x) (dy—dy')—&e. under the form ¢.3m=23.m.sm @=2) (eee ; but at tai! _ ante under the following, ¢.3m= 2mm’ ee ee ; r
which is very different. For ¢ being a constant quantity, (x — x) (dy—dy')—&c.
we haye Scm=c.Xm, but = t being a * Nicholson’s Journal, vol, xxxi. p. 216. é variable,
On an Equation in Laplace’s Mécanique Céleste. 39
variable, we have not .mm’=X.m.3'm. In the first place, there is only one sign of integration in the first member, and there are two in the second; and each of these signs affects the whole of the quantities which follow it; conse- quently the operations which are made upon the same va- riables in the two members are not the same. Secondly, the number of bodies designated by m and m’, &c. are not the same in the two members. In the first member these: bodies are combined two by two without any of them being combined with itself; on the contrary, in the second member each body is combined with itself, as well as with all the others. In order, therefore, that the preceding equation be just, we must subtract from the second member all the terms which give the combination of each body with itself; this is expressly what Laplace has performed, p. 130, where he subtracts from 3.m. 3m een dx Thee
Tt now only remains for me to prove that these two terms are those which were formed by the combination of each dz dy ah? dg If this variable be extended to different bodies, it would be necessary to designate them by different accents. Thus we
the two terms
++ &.mx. Sm. _. —S.my.X.m
body with itself. a, y, belong to the same body.
dx d ie find 2, y, =-5 -, belong exclusively to the body m, 2’, 1, 2, &, to the body m’, and Cc ly WaT ppe eae Te to the body m, and soon. onsequentiy, we can neither give the accent to the variables attached to
pad! ~ dy”
; eb Se ‘ m, nox designate by 2”, y”, >-, —-, the variables attach
ed to m’, m’”, &c.
Now mm’ shows the combination of two different bodies, consequently .mm’ expresses the whole of the combina- tions of each body with all the others, we have then Semi! = mn! + mm" + m'm” + mm” 4+- &e. On the con-
. . d dy trary, in the expression Xm.xXm. =; x and have not
any accent; these two variables then belong to the same
body. Besides, each has its particular sign of integration ;
they ought then to be combined each to each, bearing the
same accent, and not each of them with all the others. In
the same manner we may ar on the yariables y, and wi 4
40 On definite Proportions,
Kk
os in the expression 3m.y.X.m. >. hy —X.my Xm = express that which is given by combining each body with itself. Thus we may perceive that these two terms ought not to be considered equal to zero; which obviates Mr. Thompson’s objections, and redeems Laplace’s analyses from the imputation of in- consistency.
July 1, 1819,
Fhus the two terms:
+ S.mx.y.m
Vill. An Attempt to determine the definite and simple Pro-~ portions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganic Sub- stances are united with each other. By JacoB Brrzk- Lius, Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy, and M.R.A. Stockholm.
[Continued from vol, xliv p. 415.] XVIT. ANALYSIS OF FHE MuniaTE OF AMMONIA.
1.) Tes grammes of sal ammoniac were dried on @ very hot sand bath, and then dissolved in water: nitrate of silver was added to the solution, and the precipitate was dried on a filter in a temperature far exceeding that of boil- ing water, It weighed 26-5 gr. and consequently contained
_4°955 gr. of muriatic acid. According to this experiment, 100 parts of dry sal ammoniac contain 49°55 of muriatic acid; which nearly agrees with Rose’s result, that 100 grains of sal ammoniac afford 266-87 of horn silver,
2.) I mixed ten grammes of pure caustic lime in a glasa retort with four of sal ammoniac, very finely powdered, and then dried on a very hot sand bath, and luted to the retort a receiver filled with melted muriate of lime, in the tubu- iated aperture of which I fixed a glass tube filled with the same salt. ‘The receiver and the tube, as well as the retort, were weighed. The retort was gradually heated in a sand bath until it became ignited: hence the receiver and the tube hoth became warm, yet no ammoniacal gas whatever escaped from the tube. After the conclusion of the ex- periment, the whole had lost only a few centigrammes 1n weight; but the retort weighed 1-485 gr. less, or 37°12 per cent. of the weight of the sal ammoniac. Instead therefore of 464 [492] per cent. of acid, which ought to have remained behind with the lime; in this case nearly 63 per cent. were retained; and when the retort was again heated until the mass began to melt, it Jost only a few centi-~
: grammes.
On definite Proportions. 4i
grammes. In this experiment, several unexpected circum- stances occurred. It is particularly remarkable that the ammoniacal gas was completely absorbed by the dry salt of lime. When this salt was afterwards exposed to the air, the ammonia evaporated; but so slowly, that the salt in the receiver smelt very strongly of it after several weeks.
' 3.) The experiment was repeated with the same quan- tities of the materials in a similar apparatus ; but the re- ceiver and the tube were filled with coarsely powdered fused caustic potasss The retort was heated in the sand bath, until the mass of salt was completely melted; when cooled, it weighed 1°5675 gr. less. The potass in the re- ceiver had gained *2825 gr., and the tube not quite -01 gr. consequently both together -2925, which, deducted from the total loss of the retort, leaves i275 gr. for the ammo- niacal gas which had escaped from the four grammes of sal ammoniac. Hence the quantity of pure ammonia in sal ammoniac appears to be 31°75 per cent. But in this experiment too the salt of lime had retained 61 per cent. of the weight of the sal ammoniac. Was this water, which in the closed apparatus could not evaporate at the temperature which had been applied to the mass? I cut off the bulb of the retort, weighed it together with the mass of salt in a platina crucible, and melted it in the crucible. There was a !oss of +466 gr., the lime having retained 1-966 gr. of muriatic acid, which is 49-15 per cent. of the weight of the sal ammoniac, [or rather, taking the mein of the second and third experiments, 1°992 gr. and 49:8 per cent. Gillert 3} a result which agrees very nearly with the result of the first experiment found by precipitation with a sale of silver.
According to this experiment, 49°55 parts of muriatic acid must require for their saturation 31°75 of ammonia, which allows for sal ammoniac 18°70 per cent. of water. Consequently 100 parts of muriatic acid would be saturated by 64-2 of ammonia; and in these 64-2 parts, according to the analogy of the other bases, there must be 30°49 parts of oxygen; whence 100 parts of caustic ammonia Tust consist of 47°57 oxygen and 52°43 basis. This agrees so little with the analysis of the ammoniacal gas, that [ placed no confidence in the experiment, and repeated it again.
4.) Five grammes of sal ammoniac and 15 of lime were. mixed in an apparatus like the former, in a heat which was raised to complete ignition, and in which the mass wag
melted
42 On definite Proportions.
melted into one substance with the glass of the retort. Long before the conclusion of the operation, the evolution of ammoniacal gas-had completely terminated. The retort had lost 1°6525 gr., the potass in the receiver had gained 0525, and that in the tube ‘0025, which gives, for the dry ammoniacal gas that bad escaped, 1°5975 gr. and conse- quently for the sal ammoniac 31°95 per cent. of pure am- monia. Since in this experiment the mass was only melted at the bottom, it had retained 66 percent. of water; but the ammoniacal gas which escaped was the same in both experiments, within ‘002 of the weight of the salt. Hence these experinents confirm each other completely, and the more so, as the greater quantity of water, which passed over in the third experiment, had probably retained a little more of the ammoniacal gas in the potass.
5.) The high temperature, which had been employed for driving over the last portion of water, might possibly have decomposed the ammonia, and formed some water from its oxygen and a part of its hydrogen, and this water remain- ing with the salt of lime might have lessened the loss of weight. In order to put this conjecture to the test, I re- peated the experiment with sal ammoniac, which I had mixed with three times its weight of finely powdered caustic potass, in a similar apparatus. The retort was heated over the flame of a spirit lamp, and the decomposition took place immediately upon the first operation of the heat, so that the ammoniacal gas rushed out with violence. As the heat was continued, no more ammoniacal gas was dis-. charged, but only the water of crystallization of the potass | and of the muriate of potass. During the expulsion of the aqueous vapours from the neck of the retort, it acci- dentally cracked, and a little water visibly evaporated through the fissure. But notwithstanding this circum- stance, and although the ammoniacal gas passed so rapidly: through the potass, that it could not be completely dried, yet the loss of weight amounted to no more than 33°5 per cent., or only 14 per cent. more than in the former experi- ment ;-a proof that my supposition respecting the decom- position of ammonia was unfounded.
It was therefore established by all these experiments, that the muriate of ammonia consists of
Muriatic acic .... 49°55 100°00 Caustic ammonia. 31°95 64°48 UP GETe st se 18°50 [37°34] .
» And if we proceed on this foundation to calculate the / quantity
On definite Proportions. 43
quantity of oxygen in ammonia, we shall find that ammonia must be composed of Base, oiisiegs oe 82-794 100°000 Oxygen........ 47°286 89°623.
A doubt however still remained respecting this result, Sal ammoniac, sprinkled on moist litmus paper, reddens it, as I have often observed, ina few seconds, as strongly as an acid would do; I therefore imagined that cal ammoniac might be a supersalt, although its taste is not acid. In or- der to try this, I dissolved some sal ammoniac in water, and tried to saturate it with caustic ammonia very much diluted, and of known specific gravity. But when I added a little tincture of litmus to the solution, it was but very slightly reddened, and a single drop of weak ammonia was more than sufficient to restore its blue colour. Sal am- moniac must therefore still be considered as a neutra! salt. The reddening of the litmus paper probably depends on a decomposition, in which the ammonia evaporates, and the substance that colours the litmus recovers its original red- ness, which had been changed to blue by the addition of lime or ashes in its preparation. Every attempt that I made to obtain a submuriate of ammonia completely failed, so that ammonia agrees with the other alkalies in being in- capable of combining with the muriatic acid in more than one proportion.
After I had completed the series of my experiments on ammonia, I received, in May 1809, an essay obligingly sent me by Mr. Davy, in which he treats of the decom- pestiion of the base of ammonia by potassium. He had
urnt 350 parts of potass with 205 of dry ammoniacal 2as. These 350 parts, according to the analysis above related, take up 73 of oxygen, Consequently the ammonia had contained 381 [354] per cent. of oxygen; although little dependence can be placed on this number: for Davy ob- served in these experiments an evolution of hydrogen gas, which was very nearly as great as if the potassium had been oxidated by water; and the product of the combustion of potassium in ammoniacal gas, besides hydrogen gas and potass, was also a combination of the basis of ammonia with potassium ina solid form. How then are we to ex- plain this evolution of hydrogen gas? Was it an effect of the decomposition of ammonia, so that nitrogen was con- densed with a smaller portion of hydrogen in the potas- sium? But in fact Davy obtained, by heating the mass, both these substances in the same proportion that they have in ammonid. Davy drew from his experiments the conclusion
At Hygrometrical Experimeitts.
eonclusion that nitrogen had been decomposed, and had formed hydrogen and oxygen ; and J cannot see how it is possible to reconcile, in any other manner, the apparently accurate analyses of ammoniacal gas with the exhibition of oxygen in these experiments.
[To be continued]
IX. Description of an Almometer, and an Account of some Photometric, Hygrometric, and Hyzroscopical Experi- ments. By Professor Lustie, of Edinburgh*.
I, appeats that steam, however formed, has probably double the elasticity of common air, and under the same pressure would occupy twice as much space. In uniting with that fluid it must hence communicate an expansion propor- tionate to the quantity dissolved, or to the portion of mois- ture required for the complete saturation of the air. This law suggests the principle of the hygrometer. But the pro- cess of evaporation is still misconceived. The depression of temperature which always accompanies it, has been hastily supposed to be proportional to the rate at which the moisture is dissipated, and to be therefore augmented by every circumstance that can accelerate-this effect. But if water be exposed fo a current of air it will cool to a certain point, and there its temperature will remain stationary ; the rapidity of the current may hasten the equilibrium, yet the degree of cold induced will be thé same, as the medium which supports the vapour furnishes the heat necessary to its formation. In fact, after the water has been oncé cooled down, each portion of the ambient air which comes to touch the evaporating surface must, from its contact with a substance so much «denser than itself, be likewise cooled down to the same standard, and must hence com- miunicate to the liquid its surplus heat. Every shell of air that in suecession eneircles the humid mass, while it ab- sorbs along with the moisture which it dissolves the mea- sure of heat necessary to convert this into steam, does at the same instant thus deposit an equal measure of its own heat on the chill, exbaling surface. The abstraction of heat by vaporization on the one hand, and on the other its deposition at the surface of contact, are theresore opposite contemporaneous acts, which soon produce a mutual ba- lance, and thereafter the temperature induced continues
* Abstracted from “ Ashort Account of Experiments and Instruments depending on the Relations of Air, Heat, and Moisture.” j without
Photometrical Experiments. 45
without the smallest alteration. Hente the dryness of air is indicated by the depression of temperature in a humid surface exposed to its action. But the air also communi- cates heat to water by pulsation: this would derange the results, were not the discharge of vapour subject to the same conditions as the emission “of heat, and in both cases the proximity of a vitreous or metallic surface produces effects entirely Similar, Nor is this mode of transmission by the play of alternate pulses confined to heat and moisture ; odours appear to be conveyed through the atmosphere by a similar azency. Jt is known that although the wind di- sperses widely odorous particles, yet their scent will pene- trate some distance against the current, and they may be concentrated by a tapering tube or reflector. This is proved by the action of the odour of ammonia on the colours of flowers, when exposed in the focus of a reflector. In this case the odorous substance, while dissolving i in the air, must have excited a sort of pulsatory impression like that of sound. The chief difference appears to be, that odours and moisture, consisting of matter sensibly ponderable, somewhat resemble wrecks floating on the waves, and are consequently not carried forward with the same accuracy, or to such a great distance, as heat, which possesses the in- herent and extreme subtility of lieht itself,
The differential thermometer, by having one of its balls diaphanous, and the other coated with Indian ink or rather blown of deep black glass, will become a photometer, and indicate the comparative force of the light to which it is exposed. The rays falling on the clear ball pass unob- structed; but those striking the dark one are absorbed at its surface, where, assuming ‘2 latent form, they act as heat. This heat continues to accumulate till counteracted by an opposite dispersion, caused by the rise of temperature which the ball has acquired. JJence the space through which the coloured igi sinks in the stem will measure the moe mentary impressions of light, or its actual intensity. To prevent agitation, the instrument is covered with a bell- mie The photometer exhibits distinctly the progress of
lumination from the morning ’*s dawn till noon, and thence its gradual decline tll evening. At Edinburgh the direct impression of the sun at noon during the summer solstice amounts to gO degrees ; but it regularly declines as his rays become more oblique, and at the altitude of 17° it is reduced to one half, at 3° above the horizon the whole effect exceeds not one degree, In winter the greatest
force
46 Description of an Almometer.
force of the solar beams measures only 25 degrees. Between a fourth and fifth of the whole solar light is lost in its ver= tical descent to the earth’s surface, and in a hazy sky it often amounts to a third. We usually form false estimates of the guantity of indirect light reflected from the sky; in our climate it may amount to 30 or 40 degrees in summer, and 10 or 15 in winter. This secondary light is most powerful when the sky is overspread with thin fleecy clouds; it is feeblest either when the rays are obstructed by a mass of thick congregated vapours, or when the atmosphere 1s pers fectly clear and of an azure tint. The photometer in the open air is not only affected by light from the sky, but also by what is reflected from surrounding objecis. This may be entirely prevented by sereens. This instrument fur- nishes a ready mode of ascertaining the various degrees of transparency. Of 100 parts of the whole incident light, eambric transmits 80, and when wetted 93; fine paper suffers 49 to pass through, But when oiled 80. It also en- ables us to ascertain the relative density of lights. An or- dinary wax candle placed two inches from the balls of the photometer gave an impression of six degrees; on drawing it back the effect diminished according to the square of the distance. At the distance of four feet, where the flame presented the same visual magnitude as the sun, its action was reduced to the 96th part of a degree. But the full im- pression of the solar rays, if not enfeebled ip passing the atmosphere, would be 125 degrees: therefore the sun’s light is 96 limes 195, or 12,000 times more powerful than that of a wax candle. Ifa portion of the luminous solar matter, rather less than half an inch in diameter, were transported to our planet, it wonld emit light equal. to 12,000 candles. °
The separate and distinct effects of evaporaiion, the cold- ness it occasions, and the quantity of moisture it abstracts, are rendered very obvious by the hygrometer when contrasted with an instrument which Professor Leslie has lately in- vented to measure the quantity of exhalation from a humid surface in a given time. This instrument* be calls an Atmometer (ftom arpos, exhalation or vapour, and jerpov, a measure) see fig. 16, Plate I. It consists of a thin ball of porous earthenware, two or three inches in diameter, with a small neck, to which is firmly cemented a long and ra- ther wide tube, bearing divisions, each of them correspond: ing to an internal annular section, equal to a film of liquid
® Jt is made under the direction of its inventor by Mr. Cary, optician.
that
Experiments on Evaporation with the Atmometer. 47
that would cover the outer surface of the ball to the thick- ness of the thousandth part of an inch. These divisions are ascertained by a simple calculation, and numbered downwards to the extent of 100 or 200; to the top of the tube is fitted a brass cap, having a collar of leather, and which, after the cavity has been filled with distilled or boiled water, is screwed tight. The outside of the ball being now wiped dry, the instrument is suspended out of doors, and exposed to the free action of the air.
‘« Evaporation is always proportioned to the extent of the humid surface. If a sheet of wet paper be applied to a plate of glass, it will, in a close room, lose its weight exactly at the same rate, whether it be held vertically or horizontally, and whether it-occupies the upper or the under side of the plate. The quantity of evaporation from a wet ball is the same as from an equal plane surface, or from a circle having twice the diameter of the sphere. In the atmometer, the humidity transudes through %he porous substance, just as fast as it evaporates from the external surface; and this waste is measured, by the corresponding descent of the water in the stem. At the same time, the tightness of the collar, taking off the pressure of the column of liquid, pre- vents it from oozing so profusely as to drop from the ball; an inconvenience which, in the case of very feeble evapora- tion, might otherwise take place. As the process goes on, a corresponding portion of air is likewise imbibed by the moisture on the outside, aud, being introduced into the ball, rises in a small stream, to occupy the space deserted by the subsiding of the water in the tube. The rate of evaporation is nowise affected by the quality of the porous ball, and continues exactly the same when the exhaling sur- face appears almost dry, as when it glistens with abundant moisture. The exterior watery film attracts moisture from the internal mass with a force inversely as its thickness, and will therefore accommodate the supply precisely to any given degree of expenditure. When this consumption is excessive, the water may be allowed to percolate, by un- screwing the cap, avoiding however the risk of letting it drop from the ball.
‘© In still air, the indications of the hygrometer, and those of the atmometer, bear the same proportion; and the quantity of evaporation for every hour is expressed, in thousandths of an inch in depth, by the twentieth part of the hyyrometric degrees. For example, in this climate the medium dryness in winter being reckoned 15°, and in sum-
mer
48 Aimometric and Hygrometric Experiments.
mer about 40°, the daily exhalation from a sheltered spot will amount in winter to a thickness of ‘018, and in sum- mer to °048 decimal parts of an inch. If we reckon the mean daily evaporation from the ground while screened at "030, the waste during the whole year will amount to near eleven inches, being scarcely the half perhaps of what, un- der the circulation of the. atmosphere, actually obtains. The dissipation of moisture indeed is vastly accelerated by the action of sweeping winds,—the effect being sometimes augmented five or ten times, In general, this. augmenta- tion 18 proportional, as in the case of cooling, to the swift- ness of the wind, the action of still air itself being reckoned eqnal to that produced by a celerity of eight miles each hour. Hence the velocity of wind is easily éomputed, from a comparison of the indications of an hygrometer with an
tmometer, or of a sheltered, with those of an exposed, at- mometer. Thus, suppose the hygrometer to mark 40 de- grees, or the column in a Sheltered atmometer to subside at the rate of two divisions each hour, while in one ex- posed to the current the descent is 12 divisions; then, as 2 is to 10, the superadded effect of the wind, so is 8 to 40 miles, its velocity during the hour.
** It is curious to remark, what a small proportion of any stream of air can acquire heat or moisture, by flowing over a warm or a humid sarface. Supposing the air to have 20 degrees of dryness, the ordinary evaporation would every hour equal a film of the thousandth part of an inch er But this portion of moisture would be sufficient,
ce have seen, to saturate 800 times its weight of air at cach a low state of dryness ; or, reckoning the air 850 times Jighter than water, this weight would correspond to that of
a cylinder of air 574 feet high, and having its base equal to the surface of the humid ball,—or to a cylinder 230 fect bigh, and of the same diameter as that ball. Now, since the ordinary evaporation at 20 degrees of the hygrometer is equal to the increased effect occasioned by a current of air moving with the velocity of eight miles in the hour, and forming therefore against the ball a cylinder of 42,240 feet in height ; it hence follows, that not more than the 164th part of this advancing column can be humified by its streaming over the surface of the ball. Such commnu- nication of moisture is no doubt confined within the nar- row limits of physical contact. Each minute poruon of air which comes to graze along the humid surface has its
velocity retarded, aad acquiring new elasticity from the moisture
Atmometric and Hygrometric Experiments. 49
moisture which it dissolves, it is quickly thrown back into the current. On the rapidity of these successive contacts will depend the absolute quantity of evaporation.
*¢ But, in perfectly calm air, the power of evaporation, if it be very considerable, will yet, as in the case of a heated surface, create an artificial stream, which mingles its in- fluence with the ordinary dissipation of moisture. When the hygrometer marks 75 degrees, this current will have a corresponding velocity of one mile every hour, and must therefore augment the regular effect of evaporation by an eighth part. In general, “to find the correct hourly evapo- sation in a medium of still air, as expressed in atmometric divisions, or the thousandths of an inch of superficial thick- ness, after having divided by 20. the number of degrees in= dicated by the hygrometer, let the quotient be increased in the ratio of that number to 600. Thus, if the hygrometer were to mark 30 degrees, then 1°5 is the approximate meas sure of evaporation ; and sipce 50 is contained 20 times in 600, the correction to be added to 1°5 is likewise its twen= tieth part, or (075; so that the hourly evaporation, esti« mated in atmometric divisions, amounts to 1°575, and the daily to 18°9. . This correction is however in most instances so small, that it may, without material inaccuracy, be en- tirely overlooked. Kut, in confined hydrogen gas, at the same state of dryness, the atmometer is ‘as much affected as if 1t were exposed in open air to a wind having the velo= city of 12. miles an bour; and consequently the dispersion of moisture in such a powerful medium is, like that of heat under such circumstances, two and a half times more profuse than in almospheric air.
“The atmometer is an instrument evidently of extensive application and of great. vtlity in practice. To ascertain with accuracy and readiness the quantity of evaporation from any surtace in a given time, 1s an important acquisi-= tion, not only in meteorology, but in agriculture, and the various arts and manufactures. The rate of exhalation from the surface ot the ground ‘is scarcely of less conse- quence than the fall. of rain, and a knowledge of it might often direct the farmer advantageously in his operations. On the rapid dispersion of moisture, depends the efficacy of drying houses, which are too frequently constructed
most unskilfully, or on very mistaken principles. But the purposes to which the atmometer so ‘aptly apples, were hitherto supplied in a rude and imperfect manner. The joss that water sustains, in a given time from evaporation,
as commonly been estimated by weight or measure. If a Vol, 42. No. 183, July 1813. D piece
50 Atmometric and Hygrometric Experiments.
piece of flannel, stretched by a slender frame, be wetted and suspended in the free air, its dissipation of moisture, after 2 certain interval, is found by help of accurate scales; or if water in a shallow pan be exposed in a similar situation, its daily waste is detected by the application of a finely divided rod or gauge. But these methods are extremely trouble- some, and are subject besides, especially the latter one, to great inaccuracy. Both the flannel and the sheet of water require to be sheltered against the wind and rain, and con- sequently they will not exhibit, like the atmometer, the real exhalation which takes place from the ground. The bottom and sides of the pan must also, from their extent of dry surface, affect the temperature of the water, and con sequently modify the quantity of evaporation. ‘ . An. atmometer suspended in still ain might there-
fore, on_ taking into: account the time intervened, answer nearly the purpose of the hygrometer; and this mode car be employed with advantage, in discovering the mean dry- ness of an apartment after the lapse of hours or days. But the delicacy of the hygrometer indicates directly, and al- most spontaneously, the actual dryness of the medium. This instrument is hence indispensable in alli meteorological observations, and may contribute essentially towards laying™ the foundation of a juster and more comprehensive know=" ledge of the various modifications which take place in the lower regions of our atmosphere. Heat and moisture are the chief agents which nature employs in producing those incessant changes; and if the invention of the thermometer bas tended so much to correct and enlarge the views of physical science, may not the introduction of an accurate hygrometer be expected to confer a similar benefit, and to direct our rescarches into many departments that are still’ unexplored? To possess the means, for instance, of com-
- paring distant climates, must be deemed highly important.
<< Even in this island, the several winds have their distinct characters. If it blows from: the northern quarter, the hy- grometer generally inclines to dryness ; but'a southerly wind,
. along with warmth, invariably brings an excess of humidity, |
_ . oO” . In clear and calm weather, the air is always drier near the
surface during the day than at a certain height above the
~ ground, but it becomes damper on the approach of evening, -
while, at some elevation, it retains a moderate degree of dryness through the whole of the night. If the sky be clouded, less alteration is betrayed in the state of the air, both during the progress of the day and at different distances. from the ground; and if wind prevail, the lower strata “
als ; ; ‘ ‘ the
Atmometric and Hygrometric Experiments. 51
the atmosphere, thus agitated and intermingled, will be res duced to a still nearer equality of condition,
‘In the regulating of many processes of art, and in di- recting the purchase and selection of various articles of produce, the application of the hygrometer would render amaterial service. Most warehouses, for instance, require to be kept at a certain point of dryness, and which is higher or lower according to the purposes for which they are “dea signed, The printing of linen and cotton is carried on in very dry rooms, but the operations of spinning and weaving succeed best in air which rather inclines to dampness. The manutacturer is at present entirely guided by observing the effecis produced, and hence the goods are often shrivelled, or otherwise injured, before he can discover any ahietelicnn in the state of the medium. But were an hygrometer, even of the most ordinary construction, placed in the room, it would exnibit every successive change in the condition of the air, and iminediately suggest the proper correction. The Same means could be ‘employed most beneficially, in ate tempering the atmosphere of public hospitals.
“That wool and corn have their weight considerably augmented .by the presence of moisture, is a fact well known. Without supposing that any trawdubent practices are used, this difference, owing merely to the variable state of the air in which the substances are kept, may yet in ex- treme cases amount to 10 or even 15 per cent Grain or _ paper preserved inva damp place, will be found to swell nearly after the same proportion, Bunt the real condition of such commodities might easily be detected, by placing the fygrometer within a small wired cage and heaping over this, for a few minutes, a quantity of the wool or grain which is to be examined.”
+ Ifa piece of cambric or linen be intensely dried, rolled around the bulb of a delicate thermometer, placed within a deep glass, and a stopped phial of water set beside it im a room, after one or two hours the whole will have ac- quired the same temperature. A little of the water in the phial is then to be poured ov the cambric; when the bulb of the thermometer will become instantly affected, and in- dicate the extrication of heat amounting to three. or four degrees of Fahrenheit. The heat evolved is always in pro-
ortion to the previous dryness of the absor ing substance. With oak saw-dust, previously parched, the effect is still more striking. The tact of recently baked biscuits feeling hot in the mouth must be attributed to the same principle.
“ The presence of heat likewise augments very considera-
De bly
59 Atmometric and Hygrometric Experiments.
bly all those absorbent powers. Thus, while in winter the .
introduction of sulphuric acid under a receiver and in a room without fire, scarcely sinks the hygrometer 40 de- grees, it will, even in our feeble summers, occasion a dry- ness of 100 or 120 degrees. On this principle, water may be rendered cool in the sultriest climates, and in every state of the atmosphere; for nothing more is required than to expose it to evaporate from a porous vessel, in a medium of confined air, and near the action of a large surface of sulphuric acid. Nay, with that arrangement, artificial con- gelation is produced, if the external temperature should ‘come but as low as 38 or 40 degrees, on Fahrenheit’s scale. Wine also could be cooled, by casing the sides of the bottle with wet flannel, and shutting it up in a wide shallow box, which is lined with lead or composed of glazed earthen- ware, and has its bottom covered, perhaps to the thickness
‘of half an inch, with a stratum of the acid. If this box,
with its contents, were placed in a cellar, the wine would, at all times in this island, have its temperature reduced, in the space of four or five hours, to 40 or 42 degrees by Fahrenheit’s scale. By the same very simple contrivance, wine or water might, in the tropical countries, be cooled, from 80 degrees on the same scale, to 55, or even lower.
" Nor is the desiccating efficacy of the acid sensibly impaired, till it has absorbed an equal bulk of moisture, and has con- sequently on successive days occasioncd the moderate re- frigeration of more than fifty times its weight of wine or water.
“The influence of warmth in augmenting the dryness of the air, or its disposition to imbibe moisture, explains most easily a singular fact remarked by some accurate ob- servers. If two equal surfaces of water be exposed in the same situation, the one in a shallow, and the other in a deep vessel of metal or porcelain ; the latter is always found, after a certain interval of time, to have suffered, contrary to what we might expect, more waste by evaporation than ‘the former. This observation was once made the ground of a very absurd theory, although the real explication of it appears abundantly simple. Amidst ail the changes that happen in the condition of the ambient medium, the shal- Jow pan must necessarily receive more completely than the deeper vessel, the chilling impressions of evaporation, since it exposes a smailer extent of dry surface to be partly heated up again by the contact of the air. The larger mass being, therefore, kept invariably warmer than the other, must in
consequence support a more copious exhalation.” . | X. Cursory
—
dese
X. Cursory Geological Observations lately made, in Shrop- shire, Wales, Lancashire, Scotland, Durham, York- shire NR., and Derbyshire. Some Observations on Mr. Bakewell’s Gevlogical Map, and on the supposed Identity of the Derbyshire Peak and the Craven Limestone Rocks, Sc. Be, By Mr. Joun Farey Sen,
To Mr. Tilloch.
Sir,— I HAVE for a long period been prevented from ‘communicating to your’ useful work, although I have fre- quently in the interval been reminded by my friends, that’ a letter in your xith vclume, p. 45, required an answer. from me.
Several weeks before this letter appeared, I left home, spent two or three days near Ludlow, in examining the Clee Hills to the E, and the two Limestone Rocks (besides. that under Clee Hills) which I found ranging on the west and north-west sides of that Town. From hence I pro- ceeded to Hafod, and spent several days in examining the strata and ranges of the Cum-ystwith and several others of the Mineral Veins of that curious district. I then pro- ceeded by Aberystwith, Shrewsbury, Liverpool, Kendal, and Carlisle, to Edinburgh, where I took a hasty view of Ar- thur’s Seat and a few other objects in the vicinity, and then proceeded for Perth, Aberdeen, Banff, Fochabers, Nairn, and Inverness, where I spent a day in examining the exca- vations for the eastern end of the Caledonian Canal, &c. and then went through Tain and Dornoch to Dunrobin Castle, in whose neighbourhood I spent several weeks, examining the strata thence into Caithness, and as far SW as Bonar Bridge, and particularly within the Coal-feld,which has been worked* since 1598, with some intervals, and was lately resumed (Phil. Mag. vol. xxxix. p. 337), on the banks of the Brora River, near its mouth.
On my return, | came by sea to Banff, spent a day there, and examined the coarse slate on the shore near MacDuff and that Town, then again through Aberdeen and Bervie to Perth ; here I spent two days examining Kinnoul Hill, &c.
* In Edinburgh, the hot-bed of Geological speculation and contention, a learned Doctor lately edited a 2d edition of the Jate Mr. John Williams's very valuable work on the “ Mineral Kingdom,” and has affixed a Life of the Author, wherein he has shown his ignorance of the fact, that Mr. Williams was for several years prior to 1770, the Lessee under the Earl of Sutherland, and worker of these Coal-pits (although in his work Mr, W, scarcely alludes thereto), and the Doctor strongly insinuates, jf not asserts, there are no Coals in Sutherland!
D3 whose
54 Mr. Farey’s Geological Observations in Durham, &c.
whose massive straia appear to me to form part of the cone tinuous edge of Basalt, stretching (generally with a north western dip I believe) from near Montrost on the German Ocean, to Dunbarton on the Clyde, (and perhaps thence across Arran, &c to Rothlin and Antrim?) covering and limiting the great Coal-field of the Forth and Clyde; great part of which, it seems once to have covered, before the vast and complicated denudations were performed, which have in many parts cut deep into the Coal measures, and left numerous detached Hummocks of Basalt, like that, of Arthur’s Seat, and all others which I saw thence to near. Kinross, idan From Edinburgh [ returned by Haddington, Dunbar, Berwick, and Belford, to Newcastle; a day which I spent here, was lost as to any observations on the strata, owing to a dismal thick fog: next day I was more fortunate at, Sunderland and Durham: at West Bolden, I lett the Coal- Measures and ascended the regular edge of the lower yellow Limestone Rock, which I at once recognised, and descended it_again a mile NE of Houghton le Spring. At Ferry Hill f again ascended the edge of the lower yellow Lime- stone Rock, and was there hospitably entertained and much tastructed, by Mr. Thomas Arrowsmith, who works a, colliery through the lower Limestone Rock, as at Parling~ ton, Knitaker, Skegby, Nuthall, Bilborough, &c. are or hag been done, Derb. Rep. 1, 156, and Phil. Mag. vol. xxxix. p- 99 and 103. South of Ferry-Hill, I seon ascended an indistinct edge of the Red Marl between the Limestone Rocks, such as had often deceived me in Notts, and Der- - byshire, as mentioned Phil. Mag. vol. xxxix. p. 104, and then the edge of the upper Yellow Limestone, which dips. into. a trough at Rushyford, and is there covered by a clayey soil (perhaps alluvial?) which trough and covering Stratum, seems tome from my inquiries, to extend east-. waid by Sedgefield, or south of it, to the coast SW of Hartlepool ;-but these are points on which I am extremely desirous of precise information from your Correspondents. On the S of Aycliff I again descended the edge of the upper Rock, and came upon the Red Marl, here not am- biguous or doubtful, being thicker than at Fairburn (Phil, Mag. vol xxxix. p. 104), and thereon (or its imbedded grit- stone) I travelled, through Darlington, Croft, North-Cawe ton, Catterick-Bridge,, Leeming, and Ripon; soon after which, I descended again on to the top of the lower yele. Jow Lime Rock. (left on the S of Ferry Hill), and after seeing several large Lime-works therein, which Ne
Mr. Farey’s Geological Observations in Derbyshire, &'c. 55
NNW and SSE for many miles, as I was told, T obliquely descended the edge of this lower Rock, passed through Ripley, and was proceeding on Coal-measures towards High Harrowgate, when unfortunately it grew dusk, and wight soon prevented my seeing the very interesting country thence to Leeds, as it had previously done through several miles of my approach to Newcastle, and to Perth in my: return, and to Nairn, and to Bank-house in the southern extremity of Edinburgh county, in my way North: inter- ruptions to the course of my Observations, which I much Jament, but could not avoid without the loss of a day in each case (which I could not spare) and much extra expense for post-chaises, which Talways avoid, also, when I can obtain a much more favourable seat for observation om a mail ot stage coach, with the privilege secured, of a seat inside in case of night coming on, or of rain, &c. which would pre- yent the constant recording of my observations.
From Leeds I hastened to Ashover, and with my son’s assistance (William F.) who had previously resumed the Survey of Ashover and its vicinity, (that we began in the preceding year) by the middle of November, we had so far proceeded, that a Report thereon could be made up, my Maps copied, &c.* which, and those relating to my ae
lan
_* Thave great reason now to wish, that I could recall or expunge the Jast paragraph in page ix of the preface to vol. ii. of my Derby Report, published in February last: a paper, of 120 closely written folio pages having been prepared by me, under the advice and copied after the repeated perusal of G. B. Greenough, Esq. the late President of the Geological Society, was presented through him to that Body on the 4th of February last, ac- companied by a Mineral Map, filled up with the strata of more than thirty square miles including Ashover, on a scale of 14 inch to a mile; these were in addition, and by Mr. G.’s desire prepared, for explaining a jatge Section from actual survey, of the strata for more than seven miles in length of surface, crossing Ashover, and an attached and corresponding Mop of the strata and every object on the surface, half a mile wide, on a scale of 10 inches to a mile, which Section had been conditionally presented and left with the Society since March 1812, by desire of Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., formerly a member thereof.
I heard nothing from the Society, until towards the end of April, when I received a Letter acknowledging (according to a printed form) the receipt of my paper, &c. and a few days after there appeared in yours and the Journal of Mr. Nicholson, a similar paper (sent officially as I have been informed) from the Geological Society, as a Report of their proceedings. About a month after this, in consequence of aremonstrance on my part to Mr. G. on some reports and circumstances of a novel kind that had reached me, regarding my paper and Maps, he introduced a Gentleman to me, who a short time after called on me, and among other things told me, that the forth-cuming volume of the Society's Transactions was intrusted to him, and nothing would appear therein but what he approved; that the ideas of the Council were averse to the ge fay of my paper, he believed he could
4 say
56 Mr. Farey’s Geological Observations in Scotland, Se..
land business and other urgent matters, have occasioned the iuteriuptions to my occasiona! contributions, through your valuable work, towards the knowledge of the stratification of the British Isles.
Before any leisure occurred to me for adverting to Mr.. Bakeweil’s Leiter in your Number for July 1812, he had announced his being engaged on an *¢ Introduction to Geo- logy,” and T have since waited until I could give a very at- tent ve reading to his Book. Now we are more fairly at
issue, on the points in our Letters in your xxxixth vol. p- 425, and xlth vol. p. 45.
The precise nature of Mr. B’s original ** Geological Map of England” is now seen, in his 4ih plate. Asan ‘¢ Outline”
say 80 of crery individual thereof, of this fact he produced however no proof, nor have I the opportunity to the present hour of learning in a regular way, any -pinion r decision whatever vf the Council (much less of the Suciety) respecting my Paper, Section, or Maps, or the nature of the objections that have privately been raised to any parts of either !
This learned Editor and caterer for the Geological taste, went on to per- suade me, that he himself was a well wisher to my pursuits and communica- tions (with what truth the circumstances best tell) and had therefore taken immense. pains (o write a new paper for me, which after perusing (as 1 did with great care) 1 would do well he said to adopt and allow my signature to be placed as my original communication! 1 scarcely need say more, to convey an idea of this performance, to my Friends, who know the facts of Derbyshire and its strata, than that the Report in the Phil. Mag. vol. xli. p- S03 to /05, and its many misconceptions and blunders, was made from this Editors Paper, instead of my original paper; and perhaps this only was Read (not on a regular meeting day) instead of my original paper? The above fact as to the original of the printed Report, appeared clearly to me, from their perfect coincidence in the erroneous points.
—On my objecting to this course to Mr. Editor, and attempting to-show, that the first part of my paper (near half of it and by far the most important part) would be injured greatly by the total change of arrangement and in- ordinate compression it had suffered (the Report on this part is accordingly compressed into 4 lines, p. 303), aud my Mineral Map greatly spoilyd by the a].eration (from whim only,as far us I could learn) that was insisted on therein 1 was coolly told, that the Se refaries would immediately velurn my
apers, if / uppiied fir them ; and so they did, on ihe 21st of June, without the east explanation of or apology for, the extraordinary circumstances pointed out to them or referred to, in my Letier of the 19th of June. J have not at- tempted to quote the precise words which passed on the above uaprecedented and disagreeable occasions, but to give the substance, as concisely and as cor- rectly as I could.
It appeared unnecessary above, in referring my Derbyshire Friends to the Geological Report on my pzper, p 303, vol. xli. to stave, that the loose and inapplicable Anglo. Wernericn terms therein, were not used by me, bui sone of them expressly disclaimed in my paper as being contrary to more proper terms, previously in use among EBngiist Geologists, and to which J adhered: this was ii) Consequence of being actually told by au individual Men.ber of the Geological ouicil, while my paper was 10 hand, that if'/ did not use Werne- rian Terms nobody would read my poper! It was rather unfortunate, chat! could not then see the full import of this hint, and have avoided the loss of ‘many wecks of my time this spring, and some subrequent vexation.
it.
Mr. Farey’s Observations on Mr. Bakewell’s Mop. $7
it is rather materially incorrect in two or three places: viz. to the north and north-east of York, the Oalite Limestone, § distinctly described in your xxxixth vol, pages 97 and 98, is omitted in the ow district,” a name of his, which cere tainly ill befits this elevated Limestone tract. Mr. B’s Alpine or ** Devonian Range” of Primitive and Transition Rocks, has been carried a great many miles too far to the north-east, on the shore of the Bristol channel, as Mr. B. might have Jearnt, from Mr. f/m. Smith’s Report on the Nailsea Coale field, &e. iti your xxxviiith vol: p. 32! 3 had not this Gen- tleman, and his pursuits, been denied all mention or even allusion, in this work, containing so much * Original infor- mation’’ (page xi), and whose arrangement of particulars on the Geology of England, had not ‘“been before noticed” (p..13).
Mr. B. seems not aware, that the Chalk extends, on and near to the south Coast, considerably to the west of bis ** low district,” and that the large tract called Blackdown, is co- vered by Sand, &c. from under the Chalk, very different from any thing in his ** middle district,” as he might have gathered from Mr. James Sowerby’s « Mineral Conchology,” pages 4', 57, 58, 60, &c. The inhabitants of Exeter and all its vicinity, would doubtless be much obliged to Mr. B., if he could find there, the characteristic minerals of his «middle district,” viz. **coal*, ironstone, and rock-salt,”” (p. 274 and 11).
The Flintshire Cocd-field on the SW shore of the Dee is not shown, although mentioned, p- 295, nor that of An- glesea (alluded to p. 275 note,) of whose situation (on the Cetni River) he might have learned something, from Mr, Aikin’s Tour, p. 132, and Mr. Parkinson’s Ory. Rem. i. 178,
In Mr. B’s “ northern Alpine range,”’ some of the small Coal Basins or Swilleys occur, which I have mentioned in your xxxixth vol. p. 30 Note, and had I time, I could I think mention several Collieries in different and more central parts, of this primitive and transition tract of Mr. B.
Mr. B asserts, p. 264, that ‘*no metallic veins” are found east of his line C C C, in any part of England. 254 and 270 and 407 of the Deiby Rep. vol. 1. | have men- tioned iwo contrary instances, another is mentioned in your
At pages
* The Wood. Coal of Bovey, occurring, **in alluvial ground,” p 141, “separated by strata of clay and gravel,” p. 159, underlaid (as | have heard) by alluvial sand and gravel, on a district of coarse Sia/e, has vo pre*ensions to rank with the regular Coal-fields of the “middle district,” wherein slate has no place, being a “ Transition” Rock, p- 58. Phe Coal of Portland Isle and Kimeridge, seem to have better claims to be placed in the middle disiriet, than that of Bovey has,
as is very usual with this substance,
xXxxixth
58 Mr. Wiiliam Smith’s Geological Map. ‘
xxxixth vol. p. 498, and J could I think from other districts, increase the list. What Mr. B. calls ‘‘ subterranean” Forests,» p. 11, 205, and 269, viz. stumps of Trees buried in peat, are. not peculiar to the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Coast, or even to his ‘ low district,” but in every situation from the: Land’s-end to John o’ Groats’, on both sides of the Island; . on flat shores which have neither wasted or increased by the action of the currents, in modern times, the same pheno- menon and others occur, indicative of the gradual rise of the Sea. In Sutherland this is proved, by the waves having lately covered with Beach, the hillocks of Coal-pits worked in Queen Elizabeth’s Reign. In the Manuscripts of the late ingenious Lecturer, Mr. Waltire, his observations on this phenomenon, on the various Coasts of England, and also of Holland, which he went to examine, are detailed, as J have been informed. Westminster Hall, Boston Church, and perhaps other fine old buildings, being now often flooded some feet deep by the increasing tides, furnish other proofs of the same thing. }
The contemptuous boast by Mr. B. (p. 45 of your xlth val.) of his ignorance of what Mr. Smith may bave done, towards a Map of the Strata of England, (for as to faults, he had no ground for coupling me and Mr. Smith, as ap- pears from your xxxviith vol, p. 441) surely does not seem much calculated to raise his character as a philosophical enquirer after ¢ruth, or as a liberal historian of the labours of his cotemporaries *, to say nothing of the interested views which might be taken of such conduct, from one profess sional man towards another.
I am extremely happy, however, to be able to state, that the public are not likely to remain long ignorant of Mr.
* Mr. B’s eagerness to renew his attacks on the subject of Faulls (p. 212 and 283) would not permit him to appear totally to overlook me as he has done Mr. Smith, and it is not unworthy of remark, that in the only instance in which Iam expressly referred to, for a single Geological fact or inference, #t has been done in an unfair way.—After the account of the Derbyshire . Mineral Veins had been written for my Report, Mr. Joshua Gregory, the very able and respectable overseer of the Gang Mine near Wirksworth, happening to be in town, I either read orrelated to him all the most material points therein; on which occasion, and after [had any opportunity of making inquiries of other Miners throughout the county, 2s in most, if not on every other material point was expressly done; Mr.Gregory stated, that “some of the thickest of the clay waytoards” divide even the largest Veins, as com- pletely as the Toadstone strata do” (Report I. 245), and for the reasons. above stated, I added, “as I am informed by Mr. Joshua Gregory, an expe- rienced miner.” Yet Mr. B. p. 226, thus refers to the passage, ‘* Mr. Farey” says, “ that where the beds of lime-stone are divided by seams of clay, these seams frequently cut off the vein as eftectualiy as the thick beds of Yoad- stone,” omitting all mention of Mr. Gregory, or his and my distinction that only ‘ some of the thickest” wayboards, were here spoken of.
>
Sratth’s.
Mr. Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakewell. 59
Smith’s meritorious labours on this important subject, since “Mr. John Cary of the Strand has the publication now in- band, and the greater part of a Map of England, Wales, part of Scotland, France, and Treland (for the sake of shew- ing the connections of strata) 1s already engraved, ona scale of 5 miles to an inch, for Mr. Smith’s ‘intended publication.,
Mr. B. will I conceive find it difficult to shew, that I have asserted that the metalliferous limestone (in the sin- gular) in Derbyshire is the very lowest stratum of Rocks in England: for although to suit the purposes of the transi+ tion part of his new Theory, Mr. B. chuses always to speak of the four regular calcareous Rocks, which Mr. Whitehurst and myself have described in the Peak Hundreds, as one Rock, yet this won’t prevent our seeing, that should the top of the first or upper of these Rocks “be proved to appear, from under Shale- grit and Millstone-grit near Burnsal (as I rather believe it does), yet that the top of the second, the third and the fourth of these Rocks in succession, bbe more so the Lottom of the last or lowest of them, 1 in short the whole Series appearing in Craven or near it, may still safely be doubted, since no new light is thrown, or confirmation offered in Mr. B’s recent work, of such his opinion ; it is true ‘he has ‘ repeated the assertion again,” at pages 274, 279 and 281.
After having seen the different ranges of Limestone be- tween Lancaster and Kendal, overlieing a Slate, which Mr. B. has admitted ‘to be the same Slate with that of Craven; I have now better reasons than when I first wrote, oe agreeing with Mr. Mushet (vol. xl, p. 53) in thinking these to be very different Rocks from any in the north of Derby- shire; and to me they seemed, well to answer to the Rocks I had observed W and NW of Ludlow (as already mene tioned herein) and had more recently crossed when again leaving the sfate,near to Welsh-pool,in my return from Wales.
Mr. B’s assertion, that I had nothing to advance in sup- port of my opinion, as to the Peak and the Craven Lime- Stones, but the existence of my ‘* imaginary great Fault,’’ and his gbestion in the next page, as to . haw the Limestone has passed ‘¢ over or under” the Fault, too well proves, that this Gentleman is but slightly acquainted, or rather not at all, with my investigations, on the principles of Faudis: but as this is a subject on which J must further enlarge, | shall introduce the same in a future Letter, and remain
Your obedient servant,
Upper Crown-strect, Westminster, Joun Farey Sen. re 16th July, 1813,
XI. Case
OP Borah
XI. Case of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Internus. By ~Joun Taunton, Esq. Surgeon to the City and Finsbury Dispensaries, and to the City of London Truss Society, Lecturer on Anatomy, Surgery and Physiology, @c. &c.
Mas. Harrtson of Grange Court, Carev Street, consulted we concerning her son, aged three months, on account of a tumour upon his loins, which was observed at his birth.
It was acase of spina bifida. The tumour was about the size of an orange, and was situated over the lumbar vertebrze, and the contained fluid was very evident. The sac seemed to be thin; but the surrounding integuments as’ well as those covering the tumour were perfectly free from inflammation, and the child had nv symptoms of general disease.
In this favourable state of the infant’s health, it was thought advisable to puncture the tumour in the manner recommended by Mr. Astley Cooper in the Medical and: Chirurgical Transactions. Accordingly g puncture was made with a needle ia three different places. The fluid discharged was transparent, thouch not very limpid, and’ the discharge continued for some days, when the punctures closed. By this treatment the tumour was reduced in size, and no inflammation, took place; neither was there any unfavourable change in the infant’s health.
The operation. was repeated in a similar manner, and with similar results, excepting that the fluid discharged was thinner and more like serum. .
The operation was repeated seven times in the course of five months, and during this period a very great quantity of fluid was discharged. About two weeks before the infant’s death one part of the sae had become very thin and trans- parent; another part partially ulcerated, and thus the con- tained fluid was more freely discha-ged.
About two weeks also before his death, he was seized with occasional startings ; his forehead projected; his eves seemed small; and his eyes and eye-brows expressed a pe- culiar frown. The head continued to enlarge rapidly, and the general health became worse and worse, though he seemed to suffer from no particular symptom. The bowels were regular and the stools natural during the whole pro- gress of the disease ; and it was not suspected that the child had any affection of the head till a very short time before _his death, which took -place rather suddenly under convul- sions, as soon as the whole of the fluid was discharged from the spine.
Examination
On the elementary Particles of certain Crystals. 61
» Examination by dissection. ~The sac was formed by an expansion of the membrane of the spinal marrow, passing between the spinous processes of the vertebra. The nerves passed from the spinal marrow across the cavity of the sac, and were distributed by many filaments on its internal sur- face. There was not any inflammation on the sac or nerves.
The bones of the head were much separated; and a pint and a half of a very limpid and pale-coloured serum was found in the lateral ventricles. There were no other marks of disease either in the brain, its membranes, or blood-vessels.
When did the hydrocephalus take place? Was it at the time in which the child’s health began to decline, i. e. fourteen days before his death ? or, Was the morbid con-
dition Of the brain and spinal marrow coeval ?
Greville Street, Hatton Garden, June 13, 1813.
XIU. The Bakerian Lecture. On the elementary Particles of certain Crystals. By WitLt1am Hypz Wo ttasron, M.D. Sec. R.S.*
Aone the known forms of crystallized bodies, there is no one common to a greater number of substances than the regular octchedron, and no one in which a corresponding difficulty has occurred with regard to determining which modification of its ‘form js to be considered as primitive; since in all these substances the tetrahedron appears to have equal claim to be received as the original from which all their other modifications are to be derived.
The relation of these solids to each other is most di- stinctly exhibited to those who are not much conversant with crystallography, by assuming the tetrahedron as pri- mitive, for this may immediately be converted into an oc- tohedron by the removal of four smailer tetrahedrons from jts Solid angles. (Plate I. fig. 1.) :
‘The substance which most readily admits of division by fracture into these forms is fluor spar; and there is-‘no dif- ficulty in obtaining a sufficient quantity for such experi- ments. But it is not, in fact, either the tetrahedron or the octahedron, which first presents itself as the apparent pri- mitive form obtained by fracture.
If we form a plate of uniform thickness by two succes- sive divisions of the spar, parallel to each other, we shall find the plate divisible into prismatic rods, the section of
-* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, part i.
which
62 On the elementary Particles of certain Crystals.
which is a rhomb of 70° 39% and 109° 29’ nearly; and if we again split these rods transversely, we shall obtain a number of regular acute rtiomboids, all similar to each other, having their superficial angles 60? and 120°, and presenting an appearance of primitive molecule, from which ‘all the other modifications of such crystals might very sim- plv be derived. And we find, moreover, that the whole mass of fluor might be divided into, and conceived to con- sist of, these acute rhomboids alone, which may be put to gether so as to fit each other without any intervening vae cuity.
But, since the solid thus obtained (as represented fiz. 2.) may be again split by natural fractures’ at right angles to its axis (fig. 3.), so that a regular tetrahedron may be detached from each extremity, while the remaining portion assimes the form of a regular octohedron ; and since every thom- boid, that can be obtained, must adinit of the same division into one octohedron and two tetrahedrons, the rhomboid can no longer be regarded as the primitive form; and since the parts into which it is divisible are dissimilar, we are left in doubt which of them is to have precedence as primitive.
In the examination of this question, whether we adopt the octohedron or the tetrabedron as the primitive form, since neither of them can fill space without leaving va- cuities, there is a dificulty in conceiving any arrangement in which the particles will remain at rest: for, whether we suppose, with the Abbé Hatiy, that the particles are tetra- hedral with octohedral cavities, or, on the contrary, octo- hedral particles regularly arranged with tetrahedral cavities, in each case the mutual contact of adjacent particles is only at their edges; and although in such an arrangement it must be admitted that there may be an equilibrium, it is evidently unstable, and ill adapted to form, the basis of any permanent crystal.
More than three years have now elapsed since a very simple explanation of this difficulty occurred to me. As in the course of that time I had not discovered it to be lable to any crystallographical objection, and as it had appeared satisfactory to various mathematical and philosophical friends to whom I proposed it, I had engaged to make this the subject of the Bakerian Lecture of the present year, hoping that some further speculations, connected with the same theory, might lead to more correct notions than are at prer sent entertained of crystallization in general.
At the time when I made this engagement, I flattered myself that the conception might be deserving of aie we
rom
° A
On the elementary Particles of certain Crystals. 63
from its novelty. But I have since found, that it is not altogether so new as I had then supposed it to he; for, by the kindness of a friend, I have been referred to Dr. Hooke’s Micrographia, in which is contained, most clearly, one essential part of the same theory.
However, since the office of a Jecturer is properly to dif- fuse knowledge already acquired, rather than to make known new discoveries in science, and since these hints of Dr. Hooke have been totally overlooked, from having been thrown out at a time when crystallography, as a branch of science, was wholly unknown, and consequently not ap- plied by him to the extent which they may now admit, I have no besitation in treating the subject as I had before designed. And when I have so done, I shall quote the passage from Dr. Hooke, to show how exactly the views which I have taken have, to a certain extent, corresponded with his; and I shall hope that, by the assistance of such authority, they may meet with a more favourable recep- tion.
The theory to which I here allude is this, that, with re- spect to fluor spar and such other substances as assume the octohedral and tetrahedral forms, all difficulty is removed by supposing the elementary particles to be perfect spheres, which by mutual attraction have assumed that arrangement which brings them as near to each other as possible.
The relative position of any number of equal balls in the same plane, when gently pressed together, forming equila- teral triangles with each other (as represented perspectively in fig. 4.) is familiar to every one; and it is evident that, if balls so placed were cemented together, and the stratum thus formed were afterwards broken, the straight lines in which they would be disposed to separate would form an- gles of 60° with each other.
If a single ball were placed any where at rest upon the preceding stratum, it is evident that it would be in contact with three of the lower balls (as in fig. 5.), and that the fines joining the centres of four balls so in contact, or the planes touching their surfaces, would include a regular te- trahedron, having all its sides equilateral triangles.
The construction of an octohedron, by means of spheres alone, is as simple as that of the tetrahedron. For if four balls be placed in contact on the same plane in form of a square, then a single ball resting upon them in the centre, being in contact with each pair of balls, will present a tri- angular face rising from each side of the square, and the whole together wil! represent the superior apex of an octo-
hedron ;
64 On the elemeniary Particles of cerluin Crystals.
hedron; so that asixth ball similarly placed underneath the square will complete the octohedral group, fig. 6.
There is one observation with regard to these torms that’ will appear paradoxical, namely, that a structure which In this case was begun upon a square foundation, is really in- trinsically the same as that which is begun upon the tri- angular basis. But if we lay the octohedral group, which consists of six balls, on one of its wiangniar sides, and consequently with an opposite triangular face uppermost, the two groups, consisting of three balls each, are then situated precisely as they would be found in two adjacent strata of the triangular arranzement. Hence in this posi- tion we may readily convert the octohedron into a regular tetrahedron, by addition of four more balls. (fig. 7.) One placed on the top of the three that are uppermost forms the apex; and if the triangular base, on which it rests, be en« larged by addition of three more balls regularly disposed around it, the entire group of ten balls will then be found to represent a regular tetrahedron.
For the purpose of representing the acute rhomboid, two balls must be applied at opposite sides of the smallest octo- hedral group, as in fig. g. And if a greater number of balls be placed together, fig. 10 and 11, in the same form, then a complete tetrahedral group may be removed from each extremity, leaving a central octohedron, as may be seen in fig. 11, which corresponds to fig. 3.
The passage of Dr. Hooke, from which I shall quote so much as to connect the sense, is to be found at page 85 of his Micrograr bia.
“ From this I shall proceed to a second considerable phenomenon, which these diamants (meaning thereby quartz crvstals) exhibit, and that is the regularity of their figure This 1 take to proceed from the most simple principle that any kind of form can come from, next the globular ;_ tor I chink | could make probable, that all these regular figures arise only from three or four several
_ positions or postures of globular particles, and those the most plain and obvious, and necessary conjunctions of such figured particles that are possible And this I have ad oculum demonstrated with a company of bullets, so that there was not any regular figure which ! have hitherto met withal of any of those bodies that | have above named, that I could not with the composition of bullets or globules imitate almost by shaking them together.
«Thus, for instance, we find. that globular bullets will of themselves, if put on an inclining plain so that they
may
On the elementaty Particles of certain Crystals. 65
May run together, naturally run into a triangular order composing all the variety of figures that can be imagined out of equilateral triangles, and such you will find upon trial all the surfaces of alum to be composed of
*€ nor does it hold only in superficies, but in solidity also; for it’s obvious that a fourth globule jaid upon the third in this texture composes 4 regular tetrahedron, which is a very usual figure of the crystals of aium. And there is no one figure into which alum is observed to be crystallized, ‘but may by this texture of globules be imitated, and by no
-otber.”
It does not appear in what manner this thost ingenious
philosopher thought of applying this doctrine to the forma-
tion of quartz crystal, of vitriol, of salt-petre, &c. which he names. This remains among the many hints which the peculiar jealousy of his temper left unintelligible at the time they were written, and which, notwithstanding his inde- fatigable industry, were subsequently lost to the public, for want of being fully developed. |
We have seen, that by due application of spheres to each other, all the most simple forms of one species of crystal will be produced, and it is needless to pursue any other modifications of the same form, which must result from a series of decrements produced according to known laws.
Since then the simplest arrangement of the most simple solid that can be imagined, affords so complete a solution of one of the most difficult questions in crystallography, we are naturally led to inquire what forms would probably occur from the union of other solids most nearly allied to the sphere. And it will appear that by the supposition of elementary ‘particles that are spheroidical, we may frame conjectures as to the origin of other angular solids well known to crystallographers.
The oltuse Rhomboid.
If we suppose the axis of our elementary spheroid to be its shortest dimension, a class of solids will be tormed which are numerous in crystallography. {[t has been remarked above, that by the natural grouping of spherical particles, fig. 10, one resulting solid is an acute rhomboid, similar to that of fig. 2, having certain determinate anyles, and its greatest dimension in the direction of its axis. Now, if other particles having the same relative atrangement be supposed to have the form of oblate spheroids, the resulting solid, fig. 12, will still be a regular rhomboid; but the measures of its angles will be different from those of the
Vol. 42, No. 183, July 1813. E former,
66 On the elementary Particles of certain Crystals.
former, and will be more or less obtuse according to the degree of oblateness of the primitive spheroid.
It is at least possible that carbonate of lime and other substances, of which the forms are derived from regular thomboids as their primitive form, may, in fact, consist of oblate spheroids as elementary particles.
It deserves to be remarked, that the conjecture to whick we are thus led by a natural transition, from consideration of the most simple form of crystals, was long since enter- tained by Huyghens*, when treating of the oblique refrac- tion of Iceland spar, which he so skilfully analysed. The peculiar law observable in the refraction of light by that crystal, he found might be explained on the supposition of splieroidical undulations propagated through the substance of the spar, and these he thought might perhaps be owing: to a spheroidical form of its particles, to which the dis- position to split into the rhomboidal form might also be ascribed.
By some oversight, however, the proportion of the axes. of such an elementary spheroid is erroneously stated to be 1 to 8; but this is probably an error of the press, instead of 1 to 2°8, for I find the proportion to be nearly 1 to 2°87. In fig. 15, F is the apex of a tetrahedron cut from an acute rhomboid similar to fluor spar, and the sections of two spheres are represented round the centres F and C. I is: the apex of a corresponding portion cut from the summit of arhomboid of Iceland spar, as composed of spheroids having the same diameter as the spheres. In the former,. the inclination FCT of the edge of the tetrahedron to its base is 54° 44’; in the Jatter, the inclination ICT is 26° 15’; and the altitudes FT, IT are as the tangents of these angles 1414 to 493:: 2°87: 1, which also expresses the ratio of the axis of the sphere to that of the spheroid, or the pro- portional diameters of the generating ellipse.
Hexagonal Prisms.
If our elementary spheroid be on the contrary oblong, instead of oblate, it is- evident that by mutual attraction their centres will approach nearest to each other when their axes are parallel, and their shortest diameters in the same plane (fig. 13.) The manifest consequence of this struc- ture would be, that a solid so formed would be liable to split into plates at right angles to the axes, and the plates would divide into prisms of three or six sides with all their angles equal, as occurs in phosphate of lime, beryl, &c.
* Huyghenii Op. Relig. tom, is Tract, de Lumine, p.70.
It
On the elementary Particles of certain Crystals. 67
_ It may further be observed, that the proportion of the height to the base of such a prism must depend on the ratio between the axes of the elementary spheroid.
The Cube.
Although I could not expect that the sole supposition of spherical or spheroidical particles would explain the origin of all the forms observable among the more complicated erystals, still the hypothesis would have appeared defective, if it did not include some view of the mode in which so simple a form as the cube may originate.
A cube may evidently be put together of spherical par- ticles arranged four and four above each other; but we have already seen that this is not the form which simple spheres are naturally disposed to assume, and consequently this hy- pothesis alone is not adequate to its explanation, as Dr. Hooke had conceived.
Another obvious supposition is, that the cube might be considered as a right-angled rhomboid, resulting from the union of eight spheroids having a certain degree of oblate- ness (2 to 1) from which a rectangular form might be de- rived. But the cube so formed would not have the proper- ties of the crystallographical cube. It is obvious, that, though all its diagonals would thus be equal, yet one axis parallel to that of the elementary spheroid would probably have properties different from the rest. The modifications of its crystalline form would probably not be alike in all directions as in the usual modifications of the cube, but would be liable to clongatioy in the direction of its original axis. And if such a crystal were e'ectric, it would have but gne pair of poles instead of having four pair, as in the erystals of boracite.
There is, however, an hypothesis which at least has sim- plicity to recommend it, and if it be not a just representa- tion of the fact, it must be allowed to bear a happy resem- blance to truth.
Let a mass of matter be supposed to consist of spherical particles all of the same size, but of two different kinds in equal numbers, represented by black and white balls; and Jet it be required that in their perfect intermixture every black ball shall be equally distant from all surrounding white balls, and that all adjacent balls of the same deno- mination shall also be equidistant from each other. I say then, that these conditions will be fulfilled, if the arrange- ment be cubical, and that the particles will be in equilibrio. Fig 14 represents a cube so constituted of balls, alternately
E2 black
68 On the elementary Particles of certain Crystals.
black and white throughout. The four black balls are alf in view. The distances of their centres being every way 2@ superficial diagonal of the cube, they are equidistant, and their configuration represents a regular tetrahedron ; and the same is the relative situatiow of the four white balls. The distances of dissimilar adjacent balls are likewise evi- dently equal; so that the conditions of their umion are complete, as far as appears in the small group: and this is a correct representative of the entire mass, that would be composed of equal and similar cubes, .
Since the crystalline form and clectric qualities of bora- cite are perhaps unique, any explanation of properties so peculiar can hardly be expected. It may, however, be re- marked, that a possible origin of its four pair of poles may be traced in the structure here represented ; for it will be seen that a white ball and a black one are regularly opvosed to each other at the extremities of each axis of the cube.
An hypothesis of uniform intermixture of particle with particle, accords so well with the most recent views of binary combination in chemistry, that there can be no ne- ecssity, on the present occasion, to enter into any defence of that doctrine, as applied to this subject. And thongh the existence of ultimate physical atoms absolutely indivis!- ble may require demonstration, their existence is by no means necessary to any hypothesis here advanced, which requires merely mathematical points endued with powers of attraction and repulsion equally on all sides, so that their extent is virtually spherical, for from the union of such particles the same solids will result as from the combination of spheres impenetrably hard.
There remains one observation with regard to the sphericat form of elementary particles, whether actual or virtual, that must be regarded as favourable to the foregoing hypothesis, namely, that many of those substances, which we haye most reason to think simple bodies, as among the class of metals, exhibit this further evidence of their simple nature, that they crystallize in the octohedral form, as they would do if their particles were spherical.
But it must, on the contrary, be acknowledged, that we can at present assign no reason why the same appearance of simplicity should take place in fluor spar, which is presumed to contain at Jeast two elements; and it is evident that any attempts to trace a general correspondence between the erystallographical and supposed chemical elements of bodies must, in the present state of these sciences, be pre-
mature. Nate,
Nolices respecting New Books. 69
ote. Atheory has lately been advanced * by M. Prechtl, which attempts to account for various crystalline forms from the different degrees of compression that soft spheres may be supposed to undergo i in assuming the solid state.
‘Tt is supposed, that with a certain degree OF softness and of relative attraction, the particles will be surrounded each by four others, and will all be tetrahedral, although in fact ut be demonstrably impossible that tetrakedrons alone should Gill any space.
It is next supposed, that.soft spheres less compressed will be surrounded by five others, and will be formed into trian- gular prisms, comprised amder five similar and equal planes. That they should be similar is impossible ; and it is further demonstrable, that when the triangular termination of such a prism is equal in area to each rectangular side of the prism, so as to present equal resistance, “according to the hypothesis, then the triangular faces will be nearer to the centre in the proportion of three to four, so that the attrac- tions will not be equal, as the hypothesis would require.
A third hypothesis of M. Prechtl is, that the degree of co mpressibility may be such that each particle will be sur- rounded by six others, giving it the form of a cube, which, it must be admitted, 1s.a yery possible supposition.
All further application of the same hypothesis is pre- cluded by M. Prechtl, by denying that one particle can be surrounded by more than six others; although in fact it is most evident, that ayy sphere when not compressed will be surrounded by twice that number, and conse quently bya slight degree of compression will be converted into a dode- cahedron, according to the most probable hypothesis of stmple compression.
XIIL. Notices respecting New Leoks.
Parr I. of the Philosophical Transactions for 1813 has eh its appearance. ‘The following are rts contents:
On a new detonating Compound, i in a Letter from Sir Humphry Davy, LL.D.¥. Me S. to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K.B. P.R'S.—2. On a remarkable Application “of Cotes’s Theorem. By i. FW. Herschel, Esq. Com- municated by W.. Herschel, LL.D. F. R.S.—3. Observa- tion of the Summer Solstice, 1812, at the Royal Observa- tery. By John Pond, Esq. Astronomer Royal, PRS. 4. Observations relative to the near and distant Sight of
* Journal des Mines, No. 166, E3 different
.
70 Notices respecting New Books.
5
different Persons. By James Ware, Esq. F.R.S.—5. The Bakerian Lecture. On the elementary Particles of certain . Crystals. By Wilham Hyde Wollaston, M.D. Sec. R.S, —6. On a Substance from the Elm Tree, called Ulmin. > By Janies Smithson, Esq. F.R.S.—7. On a Method of Freezing at a Distance By William Hyde Wollaston, M.D. See R.S.—8. A Catalogue of North Polar Distances of some of the principal fixed Stars. By John Pond, Esq. Astronomer Royal. F.R.S.—9. A Description of ae sol- vent Glands and Gizzards of the Ardea Argala, the Casu- arius Em. and ihe long-legged Casowary from New South Wales. By Sir Everard Home; Bart. F.R.S.—10. Addi- tional Remarks on the State in which Alcohol exists in fermented Liquors. By William Thomas Brande, Esq. F.R S.—11. On a new Variety in the Breeds of Sheep. By Colonel David Humphreys, F.R.S. In a Letter to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K.B.P.R.S.—192. Ex- periments to ascertain the coagulating Power of the Secre- tion of the gastric Glands. By Sir “Everard Home, Bart. F.R.S. Communicated by the Society for promoting the Knowledge of Animal Chemistry —13. On some Properties of Light. By David Brewster, LL.D. F.R.S. Edin. Ina Letter to Sir H. Davy, LL.D. F.R.S.—14. An Appendix to Mr. Ware’s Paper on Vision. By Sir Charles Blagden; F.R.S.—15. A Method of drawing extremely fine Wires. By William Hyde Wollaston, M.D. Sec. R.S.—16. De- scription of a Single-lens Micrometer. By William Hyde Wollaston, M.D. Sec. R.S. —17. Observation of the Winter Solstice of 1812, with the Mural Circle at Green- wich. By Jobn Pond, Esq. Astroncmer Royal, F R.S.— 1€. Onthe Tusks of the Narwhale. By Sir Everard Home, Bart. F.R.S. ‘
Practical Observations on Ectropium, or Eversion of the Eye lids, with the Description of a new Operation for the Cure of thut Disease; on the Modes of forming an artificial Pupil; and the Description of some new Instru= ments and Oper ‘ations for the Cure of Cataract, adapled to the different Perwds of Life in which that Disease is found to vccur. Iilustrated ly coloured Engravings. By Wn. Avams, Member of the Royal College of Sur- geons, Oculist to the Prince Regent, Ge. Soc, pp. 268. évo. 12s Mr. Adams is one of the most successful operators on
s the eye, and his industry is happily not inferior to his skill, .
The eyersion or turning down of the under eye-lid is often
a disease
\
Notices respecting: New Books. Ths
a disease equally troublesome to the patient, and disagree- able to others. Yet it is sometimes practised as a trick to deceive the unwary. I have seen several French sailors who could turn down their under eye-lids, and keep them so for several hours without any inconvenience: by means of this practice, according to their own account, they often saved themselves from an English prison: their eyes being so hideous, and feigning other sickness, the English officers: were happy in getting rid of them. The author however has succeeded in effectually curing eversion, when it is an actual disease, by cutting the eye-lid so as to make it fit the eye, a safe and speedy process of reducing the organi- zation to a natural state. He has also obtained consider- able popularity by his operations on different kinds of cataract. On the latter subject some of his remarks menit public attention, particularly his recommendation of an early operation on the eyes of children born with this dis- ease. Persons who have ‘‘ had congenital (or more pro- perly connate) cataract removed at an advanced age, are equally destitute of a knowledge of visual objects as the merest infant, while at the same time they are placed in circumstances far more unfavourable for its acquisition. The healthy infant examines every object with all the eager- ness natural to its age; while the more aged congenital pa- tient, from long continued habit, has. contracted a disin- clination to the exercise of the eyes, which he is seldom able entirely to overcome. The rolling motion of the eye depending on an involuntary action of the muscles, is there= fore extremely difficult to be corrected, when the removal of the cataract has been long delayed, and it affords another obstacle to improvement in vision: this points out the ne- cessity of an early operation.” Mr. Saunders eured an infant of two months; Mr. Johnson one of six, and the author one of ten months old. The propriety, and necessity indeed, of an early operation on the eyes of children born blind in consequence of cataract, are sufficiently obvious; it must also contribute to the cer- tainty and completeness of the cure. Aged patients cured of cataract have nevertheless declined the labour of acquir- ing distinct vision. The author, if possible, would not “suffer an infant’s eyes to be exposed to the light ull the cataracts were removed.” He adds, .‘* an intelligent pers son should always be appointed to superintend the manage- ment of those cured of congenital cataracts, whose sole business should be to watch and correct as much as possible those habits which impede the acquirement of vision, and
E4 to
72 Royal Society.
to assist by every expedient which ingenuity can devise in the attainment of the desired object.’” Some of the facts stated by Mr, Adams respecting the power of habit, tend to develop the principles of human action, and illustrate tbe theory of mind; they are worthy of being recorded, with this view, among those lately promulgated by Professor Stewart and My, Wardrop in their historical accounts ofa
blind boy.
Dr. Smith and Mr. Sowerby haye determined to finish their celebrated work, ‘* The English Botany,” by a general Index to the xxxvi volumes, which will be completed on the first of January 1814. [tis intended to arrange the names of the plants contained in that work, which wil] amount to nearly 2600, in one part alphabetically, and in another part according to the Linnean system, with such improve- ments as have been received since its publication. When English Botany is completed, Mr. Sowerby hopes to be able to comply with the wishes of his numerous friends in publishing his «* Mincral Conchology” every month. The British and Exotic Mineralogy will in all probability be finished in the course of the next year.
XIV. Proceedings of Learned Societies. ROYAL SOCIETY,
July ‘Spal es Earl of Morton, Vice-president, in the Chair. Sir H. Davy, in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, de- tails several new experiments which he has made on the detonating oil, which he lately discovered. It appears, ac- cording to Sir H’s experiments, to consist of Q} chlorine — and 9 azote, or one volume of azote abd fuur volumes of chlorine, This, Sir H, candidly acknowledges, is an ex- ample of the imadequacy of theory respecting definite pro- portions, as the particles of different substances in this case ppite not in the generally received proportions of 1 to 2, 2103, or 3to4, butdtol. The specific gravity of this compound is 635, water being taken as 1000; or by volume, in the proportion of 119 to 30. Sir H. wore a cap with a glass front, while operating on this explosive compound, tn order to protect his cyes; yet still the operations were dan- gerous, as yery small quantuitics of it explode with great violence, . In this paper the author describes some new properties of this extraordinary substance; and the general series of facts confirms
Royal Society. 73
eonfirms the theory that considers azote and chlorine as yet undecompounded—or that, if these substances are com- pounds, their elements are unknown, and have never been obtained separate,
July 8. A paper from Sir Humphry Davy was communi- eated by the President, on the principle existing in the fluorie compounds, or the fluoric principle. There are detailed in it many new facts on the substances obtained from fluor spar,
The pure fluoric acid is very little heavier than water, but has its specific gravity greatly increased by its combination with water.
A principle highly energetic which combines with all the metals and decomposes oxides, is expelled from certain fluates by chlorine; but from its intense powers of attrac- tion it fas not been yet obtained in a separate form.
From the general series of facts, it is concluded that the fluoric combinations probably contain a peculiar principle analogous to oxygen and chlorine, that the number repre- senting it is less than half that of chlorine, that it is attracted in Voltaic experiments to the positive surface..,..that its acidifying powers are stronger than those of oxygen and chlorine, and that it communicates to its compounds lower refractive powers.
Pure liquid fluoric acid the author considers as this prin- ciple combined with hydrogen; fluoboric gas as this prin- ciple combined with borax ; and silicated fluoric acid gas_as this principle united to silicum.
The author, for some of the views which led to his experi- ments, acknowledges bis obligations to M. Aufrere.
A paper, by Alexander Marcet, M.D. F.R.S., on the intense degree of cold which is produced by the evaporation of the sulphuret of carbon, was read.
This liquor appears, from the author’s experiments, to be the most evaporable of all known fluids, or at least to pro- duce by its evaporation the most intense degree of cold. If the bulb of a spirit thermometer, closely enveloped in fine flannel or cotton wool, be moistened with the fluid, its temperature falls to about 0; but if the thermometer be exposed to the effect of a vacuum by being inclosed in the receiver of a good air pump, it sinks to —S0° in one or two minytes. The congelation of mercury in glass tubes may therefore be most quickly and easily performed by this pro- cess at all seasons and under any atmospheric temperature.
A short paper by Mr. Smithson was read, containing an a¢count of a substance ejected from Vesuvius about 1792, auc called, in 1794, vitriolated tartar. This substance has
never
74 Imperial Institute of France.
never before: been found native, or asa natural product. The specimen contained nine different substances, such as. muriates of iron, &e. which the author did not particularly, enumerate. Mr. S. expressed his belief in the volcanic or igneous origin of the earth, that it had been ejected hy the explosion of some comet, and that the greater part of, mineral productions bear evident marks of having under- gone the action of violent heat.
The Astronomer Royal communicated some further ob- servations on the circumpolar stars, and Dr. Almon a mas thematical paper to the President, neither of which were of, a nature to be read. Mr. Pond also communicated the observations made by Capt. Hill on the comet which was visible in April and May last.
The Society then adjourned till Thursday, November 4.
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE FOR THE YEAR 1812), DRAWN, UP BY M. CUVIER.
[Continued from vol. xl. page 392.]
Zoology, Anatomy, and Animal Physiology.
Last year, we said a few words upon the researches of M. Lamouroux, upon those innumerable and very sinall, eels known at the mouth of some of our rivers by the
name of montée, and we stated the probability of their be-.
longing to some of the Jesser known species of this genus. M. Lamouroux has in fact ascertained by new experiments that the montée is the fry of the pimperneau, a kind of eel indicated by Count Lacepéde in his history of fishes, and which is distinguished from the rest by its pectoral fins being shaped like the wings of a bat.
M. Risso, a naturalist of Nice, who published two years, since a very good work upon the fishes of that latitude, has transmitted to the Class another on the crustacee, i. e. on the animals of the crab kind. M. Risso in his distri- bution adopts the method of M. Latreille, to which he adds only four new genera. He describes 100 species, about one half of which appear to him to be new: sixteen are re- presented in coloured plates. The Class, while it applauds the zeal with which M, Risso, in so unpropitious a situa- tion, endeavours to make known the various animals of the Mediterranean, which have been hitherto so badly described, must nevertheless be put in possession of more precise de-, tails, before ascribing the character of novelty to so great a number of species.
The ancients speak much of an insect which they called
Buprestos,
li
Imperial Institute of France. 75
Buprestos, or burst-ox, because it suffocated such cattle as swallowed it with their grass; but, as usual, no description of the insect has been handed down to us. The moderns have made yarious applications of this name, and it would seem that the insect to which it really belongs has not been sufficiently ascertained. M. Latreille, after a scrupus lous co:parison of the passages in which its properties are mentioned with recent observations, has supposed it to-be the meloé proscaraleus of Linneus, or some proximate species. In fact, it is the meloé only, which adds to acrid and suspicious properties the habitude of living in grass and adhering to it so firmly as to be swallowed by cattle,
Our associate M. de la Billardiere, who is occupied with the raising of bees, having observed one the abdomen of which «as larger than common, found a white worm in it, which he delivered to M. Bose for examination. The hody of this worm was white, divided into twelve rings, flattened underneath, terminated at one extremity by two large tubercles, each of them pierced with an oval hole, and at the other by two threads forming two soft points. Under the tubercles there was a transverse slit. M. Bose, considering this slit as the mouth, regards the part which is terminated by two points as that in which the anus ought to he ; and ranking this animal among the intestinal worms, he has formed a genus of it called dipedium. He admits however that the organs may be vice versd; and in this case the worm will considerably resemble several larve of flies with two wings. There is even reason to believe, according to the observations of M. Latreille, that the larve of one of these flies (the connops ferruginosum) exists in the inside of the drone bee. It is very remarkable that so large a worm should inhabit the body of an insect so small as the bee.
The first stage of digestion, which takes place in the stomach, must have been at. an early period the object of the attention of physiologists, and recourse has been suc- cessively had to all the powers of nature to account for it. it was for along time ascribed to trituration by means of the muscular coats of the stomach. But Reaumur, having remarked that food contained in compressible tubes, open at both ends, digested the same as in the stomach, the general opinion of latter times has been, according to his experiments, that this function is owing to a kind of solu- tion operated by a juice which exudes from the coats of the stomach.
Spallanzani asserts, in a very celebrated werk, that having
. applied
56 Intelligence.— Fossiis.
applied the stomachic or gastric juice taken out of the stomach to alimentary substances of all kinds, he wit- nessed, when it was aided by a sufficient heat, effects nearly similar to those which it would have produced in the sto- mach itself. He even went the length of ascribing to the gastric juice, when thus isolated, the property of arresting the progress of putrefaction.
He drew this conclusion; (since adopted, tacitly at least, by most physiologists), viz. that the gastric juice exercises its digestive and antiseptic action by its own peculiar nature,
and in virtue of its composition and affinities. [To be continued. }
XV. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. FOSSILS,
Fossits of an extraordinary nature have recently been found in the neighbourhood of Brentford. The soil as far as it has been dug presents five distinct strata. The upper- most is a gravelly loam; then sand and gravel; a cal- careous loam ; sand; and the fifth, blue clay. : The upper- most contains no fossil remains: the next three contain Jarge tusks like those of the African and Indian elephants, and the hippopotamus; horns and jaws of oxen; horns of deer; pearl shells, and the shells of fresh-water fish ; but no sea animals. The clay contains the fossil remains of sea animals only ; as echini, shells, &c.
LIST OF PATENTS FOR NEW INVENTIONS.
To Thomas Mead, of Scot Street, in the parish of Scul- coates, in the county of York, engineer, for his endless - chain of a peculiar constguction, with appendages, which with the assistance of other mechanical apparatus is apphi- eable to a variety of useful purposes. —28th April 1813.— Four months to mroil spectfication.
To Samuel Whitfield, of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, brazier, for his improved mountings or furniture \ for culinary and other utensils.—2sth April? months.
To Samuel Evans, of Brynrywen, in the county of Den- bigh, farmer, for his certain improvements in the working or giving motion to mill work, and machinery applicable to raising or drawing water from mines, and other useful purposes.—1Ist May.—6 months.
To Thomas Walker, of the city of Norwich, machine- maker, for bis various improvements in the construction of
a horte
List of Patents for New Inventions. a7
a horizontal windmill that may be applied to all sorts of machinery that is to work by wind.—3ith May.—6 months.
To Charles Broderip, of Great Portland Street, in the county of Middlesex, gentleman, for his improvement in vessels to be used for heating fluids, and other substances. —5th May.—6 montbs.
To William Reid, of Foot Dee, Aberdeen, in that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called Scotland, for bis instrument constructed on unerring prin- ciples far expeditiously calculating to a certainty wale referring to tables of any kind (meridional tables excepted) the various cases or problems in navigation, practical ma- thematics, and trigonometry, heights and distances, and al- together embrating every science depending on angles, — 5th May.—2 months.
To Thomas Daking, of Bocking in the county of Essex, tanner, for his method of heating liquids for the manufac- ture of leather and other manufactures.—8th May.—2 mos
To Jacob Erat, of Wardour Street, in the county of Middlesex, harp-maker, for his improvements in the con- struction of a pedal harp.—sth May.—2 months.
To John Fisher, of Mill End, in the county of Bucking- ham; and Layton Cooke, of the Haymarket, i in the city of Westminster, land agent, for their improved gaiters and modes of fastening the same.—1 1th May -—6 months.
To Wilham Bullock, of Newman Street, in the county of Middlesex, idchemth and brass founder, and James Boaz, of Glasgow in Scotland, engineer, for their certain improvements or contrivances applicable to doors and win- dow shutters for preventing them from being broken open, and such doors from being violently forced in by wind, or otherwise, part of which may. be applied to other usetut purposes.—15th May.—2? months.
To Edward Cowper, of the parish of St. Mary, Newing- ton Butts, in the county of Surry, ironmonger, for his cer- tain improvements on, the machines cominonly used for cutting the edges of paper and bouks.—20th May.—6 mo.
To William Brunton, of Butterly Iron Works, in the
couuty of Derby, engineer, for his construction and erection of engines and other mechanical operations.—22d May.— 2 mouths.
To Thomas Willcox, of the city of Bristol, mason, for his machine for the prevention and cure of smoky chim- neys, which may be termed Smoke Reverberator, consisting of a hollow cap, which may be constructed either of copper or any other metallic substance, or with clay with a funnel
and
78 Meteorological Observations
and contrivance for voiding the smoke, to be fixed on the top of a chimney stack with two or more conrses of brick- work, and having for its object to prevent the smoke arising from the fire in the grate being driven back into the room, as well by excluding all winds from the orifice of the chim- ney, as by promoting the draught of the chimney by means ° of a continual accumulation of rarefied air in the cavity of the cap.—22d May.—2 months. :
To John Thackray, of Archer Street, Windmill Street, in the county of Middlesex, cabinet-maker, for his method of inclosing a seat ina portable stoo!, which seat may be applied to other useful purposes.—22d May.
To William Jenkins, of Birmingham, brass founder, for his improvement in the method of manufacturing socket castors, used with or affixed to cabinet and other furniture and things.—2¢2d May.
Meleorological Observations madz at Cambridge, from May 30 to June 10, 1813.
May 30.—Very warm, with the different modifications variously disposed in different altitudes, with a cloudy evening, and gentle showers. Therm. at 3 P.M. 76°, at 11 P.M. 63°. S. The peacocks this evening sitting on the tops of barns and high places, squall more than usual; a well-known sign of rain, and one which was verified in the present instance.
May 3).—Warm day, and clear with cirrocumulus and cumuli, some of them of rocklike appearance, &c.; fine cleat aunset; golden haze. Therm. at 3 P.M. 73°, at 11, 61°.
June 1.—Very clear sky with a few cumuli and cirri. Therm. at 2 P.M. 78°. The cumult began to form after great clearness about 2P.M. many of them formed ra- pidly, and as soon divided into detachments, and eventually disappeared again, remaining nearly in the same place all this ime. The currents both by cirri above and weather- eocks below appeared to blow in different directions, and were very gentle. Towards evening the clouds in- creased in different stations, but the haze in the west after sunset was pretty clear: The night fine, and the thermo- meter at 11 P.M. 63°.
June 2:—Clear hot day ; the thermometer at 5 P.M. was 76°; at 11, 61°. There were some confused heavy masses of cloud m the morning, but they cleared off, and the day was very fine; some cumuli continued to make their ap- pearance in the\middle of the day ; by and by a flimsy and iss confused
. made at Cambridge. 79
eonfused sheet of cirrus broke out into cirrocumulus of small and ill-defined nubicule, in some places spongelike and porous. In the evening was much cirrus coloured with rich crimson by the sun in different places all around, but particularly the west. hese cirri in the west were more striated and approaching to carostratus; in other places they were confused. .
June 3.—Cooler than yesterday, at times heavy clouds threatening rain czmzdus in the intervals, with cirrus con- fused and rainlike aloft, breaking out into small-grained flowery cirrocumulus, into windrows, &c. The night be- came clouded. Therm. 11 P.M. 55°.
June 4.—Clouds often, threaten rain in the morning; cirrus this day confused and various broke out frequently into cirrocumulus ; in the evening below flimsy cirrocumuls hung pendulous flocculi refracting first a bright copper-co- Joured light, which as it grew darker passed through fine red to lake colour, orange haze. Therm. 11 P.M. 58°.
June 5.—Cold cloudy day, with occasional small rain, and north wind. Therm. 11 P.M. 52°.
June 6.—Cool and cloudy with a little small rain. Wind northerly ; clearer at night again. Therm. 11 P.M. 46°. Late by moon-light I could discern a light flimsy kind of cirri aloft, and that in some places they were disposed in rows, ,
June 7.—Clouded in the morning; afterwards it became a fine clear day, with a little flimsy cirrus in the sky in the evening. The sun set very clear, with a reddish horizon, and faint lines of cirrosératus in it. Therm. 11 P.M, 48°.
June 8.—Clouded morning, clear day and night. Some heavy clouds however in the course of the afternoon: haze in the west of a brownish red. Therm. 11 P.M. 49°,
June 9.—Clouded in the morning, afterwards fair; the evening was warm, with a good deal of cloud, though sunny intervals and calm air. The clouds were mixed in- definite cumuli, flimsy cirrocumuli, and cirrus. I noticed about sunset the remarkable blue appearance of a dark cloud in the west, it was a sort of sheet-like exmulostratus. Therm. at midnight 60°.
June 10.—Very fine day; cumuli, cirri, &c.; fine clear moonlight night.
N.B.—In future I shall endeavour to give a journal of the Thermometer, Barometer, &c, with these observations.
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
THomAS Forster. June 12, 1813,
METEORO-
Meteorology. -
80 , METEOROLOGICAL TABLE, By Mr. Caky, of THE STRAND For July 1813. Thermometer. Se ; Veal. |e | Height of AG snbehs BE | 5 = =| che Barom. en Weather. re eae S453 Inches. =o Bt roid RE em 8 june 26) 58 | 68 | 57 | 30°18 56. \Fair . 97} 59 | 70 | 56 15 50 {Fair a8\ 68 | 67.) 59 | 29°90 46 \Showery 291 60 | 69 | 58} “75 36 |Showery 30) 59 | 66 | 57 70 0. |Rain July 1) 58 | 65 | 57 74 o |Rain g| 57 | GU | 53 60 44 \Cloudy 3! 50 | 55 | 50-7 30°13 43 |Cloudy : 4 51 | 66 3} “19 55 |Cloudy &| 53 66 | 357 "02 62 |Fair 6} 57 | 69 | 60 | 29°78 63 |Fair 7| 581.76 | 62} °65 |. 90 Pair 8} 62 | 74 | 60 “65 63 Fair gi 61 | 75 | 58 66 72 |Fair 10| 62 | 75 | GO -90 67. |Fair tl} 62 | 70 | GI ‘93 60 |Fair 121 G1 | 74 | Ge 88 71 |Fair 23} 62 | 69 | 61 *§2 62 |\Cloudy 14| 61 | 64 | Go} *75 30. |Showery 15| 62 | 62 | 61 ef o |Rain 16} 63 | 70 | 62 "64 66 |Showery 17! 61 | 73 | 58 90 69 |Fair 38, 60 | 74 | 60 .98 76 (|Fair 19) 61 | 72 | 59 "72 36 |Showery 20| 60 | 72 | 62 ‘60 61 |Fair 21; 59 | 66 | 59 "62 56 |Cloudy 29| 59 | 70 | 61 63 7o |Fair [thunder 23} 60 | 69.| 58 °50 61 |Showers and g4\ 60 | 70 | 57 "54 56 |Thunder shows 25\ 61 | 68 | 59 ‘56 66 |Showery 26} 63 | 69 | 58 2 ee 54 |Showery
N.B. The Barometer’s height is taken at one o'clock.
a
Lehr}
XVI. On the Fine Arts: an Essay founded on a Discourse delivered ly the Cavalivre Furro x Fixro, Pre-ident of the Accademia del Decernimento of Trapani*: By Mr. Joun Gatr.
‘Tux fine arts are the study and delicht of all polished nations. They disarm the spirit of man of its natural fero- city, and they elevate the mind while they soften the heart. Ignorance is but another name for harbarity, and the want of knowledge sharpens the appetite of violence. It was indeed a strange paradox of Rousseau, to maintain that mankind were happier when they resembled wild beasts, than with all the enjoyments of civilized life, and that the cultivation of their intellectual faculties had tended to de- grade their virtues. There can be no virtue but what is founded on a comprehensive estimate of the effects of hu- man actions, and an animal under the guidance of instinct cannot form any such estimate.
The chief object of science is the discovery of truth, and of art the development of beauty. In the former we trust to reason, and in the latter our reliance is on the suggestions of the imagination. But judgement and fancy are of mu- tual assistance in both studies. Science clears the obstruc- | tions which impede the progress of art, and art adorns and smooths the path of science. No discovery is made with- out some previous conjectural effort of the mind, some exertion of the imagination; nor is any beauty unfolded, where there has not been some preconsideration of probable effects, some exercise of the reasoning faculties.
As the human mind is pleased with the contemplation of what is true, and delighted with the appearance of what is beautiful, it may be assumed that the cultivation of science, and the improvement of art, originate in our love of pleasure. We commonly divide the objects of the two pursuits into distinct classes, and we think, when we call scientific studies useful, and the productions of art only ornamental, that there is something intrinsically different in their nature. But if we examine our own feelings, and judge of science by its effects on ourselves, we shall be obliged to confess that, although less obviously, it is in fact as much recommended to us by the pleasures to which it
* The original Italian work, consisting of two volumes quarto, contain-
ing four discourses by Siq. Ferro, was not printed for sale, but was circulated gratuitously among the Author’s friends.
Vol. 42. No. 184. August 1813. F ministers,
82 On the Fine Arts.
Ministers, as the fine arts themselves, which we consider as
entirely devoted to the excitement of agreeable emotions. Of all the arts, that which most voluminously attracts at- tention is the artof building. Invented in the country and brought to perfection in the town, it owes its origin, like all other human contrivances, to necessity. Man, naked at bis birth, thrown upon the earth exposed to the cold, the wet, and the heat, and to the concussion of other bodies, was constrained to seek artificial means of protection. The rain obliged him to fly for shelter to trees and caverns, the only habitations with which Nature has provided her fa- vourite ; for in the improvable faculties bestowed on his mind she furnished him with the means of constructing abodes suitable to himself, suitable to the growth of his wants by the improvement of his condition. The same instinct which led him to take refuge from the shower, taught him to prefer those trees of which the branches were thickest interwoven, and, when they were insufficient, to draw the boughs closer over his head. The process of reasoning from this experience, to the considerations which led him to form permanent bowers, requires no illustration. Every hypothesis formed to account for the various styles of architecyire, ascribes them to the structures which the inhabitants of the countries in which they respectively ori- ginated first raiged. The aisles of the Gothic cathedral, and that rich fattage of carving with which its vaults are overspread, cannot be seen without immediately suggesting the idea of a grove; and in the structure of the Grecian temple we may trace the characteristics of an edifice ori- ginally formed of trees hewed and pruned for the con- venience of transportation; for Greece was not a woody country, like those northern regions in which the Gothic architecture arose. In Egypt, where trees are still more rare than in Greece, where, indeed, there is nothing that can be properly cémpared to our idea of a tree, we find the character of the architecture partaking of the features of what must have been the early habitations of a people ne- cessitated, by their inarborous climate, to make their per= manent retreats, and the’sanctuaries of their gods, in the hollows and caverns of the earth. The architecture which. would arise among such a people we should expect to be dark, massy, and stupendous; and accordingly we find in that of Egypt, and of other countries which resemble it in circumstances, temples and labyrinths that rival in ex< tent and intricacy the grottos of nature, and pyramids shat emulate in magnitude and durability the ab UISs
On the Fire Arts. 83
hills. In the more/oriental nations we find the same ge- neral principle obvious, and io their permanent structures a, similar resemblance to the featurcs of what were probably the primeval habitations of the nations. In the light and pavilion appearance of the Chinese buildings, we may see the herecitary indications of a people that formerly re- sided in tents, and’ such temporary abodes as were likely to be constructed by the inhabitants of a country abounding in extensive plains, and of a climate unfavourable to the growth of trees, and yet not so hot as to oblige the natives to seek shelter in natural or artificial excavations.
The first savage, who in the construction of his hut united a degree of symmetry with solidity, must be regarded as the inventor of architecture. Multiplying improvements upon the first result of a combined plan of the reason and imagination, after a long series of errors and accidents, a code of rules came to be established, by which the art of building has since continued to be regulated. The study — of these rules furnishes us with a knowledge of the science of architecture. -
» Although necessity was the mother of architecture, cli- mate undoubtedly dictated the choice of the materials em- ployed in the construction of buildings, and chance directed the fancy of individuals in the selection of ornaments. History, in mentioning that Callimachus of Corinth, by observing the beautiful effect of a vase accidentally placed in the midst of a bunch of parsley, was led to think of forming » the Corinthian capital, has furnished us with a fact, which proves that, although a natural Jaw governs man in choos- ing the style of architecture, and climate prescribes the materials, the peculiarities of individual genius, and not the effect of any general principle of taste, develop the modi fications of ornament. Taste is formed by the conrempla- tion of works of art, and the perfection of such works cons sists in exhibiting the greatest degree of beauty with the utmost possible resemblance to the original models of which necessity dictated the formation. Taste, therefore, does not instruct us to prefer for any general reason any one particular style of architecture to another, but only to ob serve and disapprove of deviations from what is natural.
Every pleasure after enjoyment occasions a new want. The shelter and protection obtained from achitecture in cited man to seek enjoyments in the improvement of the art of building. When his corporeal necessities were sup~ plied, the restlessness of his mind led him to seek ad+
‘ Fe ditional
84 On the Fine Arts.
ditional pleasures by the same means which supplied his corporeal necessities.
In the Greek colonies of Asia Minor architecture is sup- posed to have first attained excellence. At least the best authors on the history of the arts agree in stating that the Doric and Ionic orders were first perfectly constructed there; and it may be questioned if in the lapse of more than twenty centuries any improvement has been added to the august simplicity of the Grecian Doric or the simple elegance of the lonic column. The Corinthian, which is of much later invention, though more elaborately ornamented _ than the other two, is by many of the most approved taste deemed inferior to them as an order. It retains less of the resemblance to the original natural model. It has more about it that may be regarded as superfluous, and the foli- age of the capital is obviously a redundancy placed there for no other purpose than the display of skill and expense. The Corinthian pillars in the porticos of St. Panl’s in Lon- don are esteemed very pure specimens of that order; but their appearance is less impressive than that of the Doric columns which still remain among the ruins of the temple of Minerva at Athens. More than two thousand years have elapsed, and the remnants of the Greek architecture still afford models which, never having been equalled, seem incapable of being further improved. It may indeed be still said, that the genius of ancient Greece has furnished eternal models to the arts in Europe.
About the same time that the Doric was raised to per- fection in Ionia, the Etruscans invented the Tuscan, a si- milar order, but a grosser style; and the Romans, after the simple and dignified manners of their republic had passed | away, demonstrated by the invention of the Composite, and their preference of that gaudy order, how much the cor- ruption of their morals had infected their taste.
The Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan and Composite orders of architecture constilute what is properly under- stood by the classes of architecture. They are arranged with distinct appropriate and peculiar ornaments, and their proportions are regulated by rules which cannot be violated without impairing their beauty. This is not the case with any other kind of architecture, and hence all other modifi- ‘cations of the art of building are called styles, in contra- distinction to orders, such as the Chinese, the Moorish, and the Gothic. It is true that in England the Society of Antiquaries, and several private amateurs of the aii
ave
On the Fine Aris. 85
have of late endeavoured to classify and illustrate the dif- ferent styles of architecture which are found in the ancient baronial and ecclesiastical edifices of Great Britain: but the inquiry has not yet terminated ; although it has ascertained that the Saxon, Norman, and Gothic; or, as the latter is now perhaps properly called, the English style, have charac- teristics as distinct as those of the Doric, Ionic, and Corin- thian, and codes of general rules that may prove to be peculiar to each,
The human mind has an innate disposition to admire order, and to seek pleasure by the classification of objects. Hence architecture is considered as consisting of three di- Stinct species, civil, military, and naval. I may be justified in adding a fourth, ecclesiastical ; for it is impossible to visit any part of Europe without being convinced that the buildings consecrated to religious rites cou'd not without radical alterations be applied to any other use. The ca- thedral with its vast ailes, its solemn vaults, and adjoining cloisters.is as obviously constructed for a special purpose, as the fortress, the ship, or the mansion.
Felones of Byzantium about three hundred years before the Christian zera composed a treatise on the engines of war and military architecture. He is therefore justly re- garded as the father of engineers, and the principles which he is supposed to have elucidated continued to be acted upon under various modifications till the invention of gun- powder. Italy, that has for so many years been unknown as a military nation, claims for Yanmicheli of Verona the glory of having established the principles of the art of modern fortification. Vauban, Pagan, Blondel, Scheiter, &c. only modified his suggestions and developed his prin- ciples. History ascribes by a kind of courtesy the honour of inventions and discoveries to the persons who first make them public, or bring them into use. It is thus that in naval architecture Usoo a Phoenician is considered as the father of the art, because he is the first on record that na- vigated acanoe. But in this the courtesy of history goes too far; for Noah has certainly a superior claim both on account of the magnitude and the purpose of his vessel.
_ Although the Grecks excelled all the world iv the beauty of their works of art, they did not furnish any treatise on the theory of architecture till after they had constructed their finest buildings. This was natural. The rules which instruct us to produce beauties in any kind of art, must be derived from the practice of those who have previously by the instinct of genius produced excellent works. ‘The se
F3 or
86 On the Fine Arts.
for composing a perfect epic poem are derived from the practice of Homer, as it appears in the Iliad. In like Manner the principles of architecture as a science are founded on the result, not of rujes previously delivered, but of experiments; and we are assured that by an ad- herence to the rules, we shall produce the same beautiful effects as the result of the experiments from which the rules were deduced. Vitruvius was the first author who esta- bished the principles of ancient architecture; but he did not write.until the finest specimens of the art had been long completed: he was cotemporary with Augustus. He mentions indeed the names of many architects, but they were practical men—men of genius who had given models in the art, and thereby furnished the means of giving rules for the guidance of others.
It is surprising that, although the work of Vitruvius is admitted by all students to be deficient, obscure, and ill- arranged, it is still the best work of its kind, particu- Jarly in the general laws which are Jaid down in it tor the instruction of architects in the choice of the orders suita- ble to the different kinds of edifices. A work embracing the Saxon, Norman, and Gothic styles, in addition to the classic orders, and discriminating the uses to which they are respectively adapted, 1s a desideratum in the literature of Europe. In England, a work of this kind 1s particularly requisite; for the English are perbaps less than any other nation in Europe sensible or even acquainted with the proprieties of architecture. In the St. Paul’s, London, one of the very finest works of the moderns, and admired by the English equal to its merits, the architect has employed the very gayest orders, and in the most ornamented style. The sublime magnitude of the building diminishes, at the first view, the effect of its preposterous gaudiness. It is not till after contemplating it with relation to its uses, that we perceive how much the style of the architecture is at variance with the purpose of the fabric. Surely the flaunt- ing luxuriance of the Corinthian and Composite orders is ill placed on a temple dedicated to the service of God, and appointed to receive the ashes of great and illustrious men, The decorum of architecture has been equally disre- garded in the construction of the new Theatre of Covent Garden. The portico is undoubtedly a beautiful specimen of the Grecian Doric, and as such would not have dis- graced even Athens; but the august simplicity of the Doric is as much out of place at the entrance of the play-house, as the gaudy elegance of the Corinthian and VERON Ga
apn
On the Fine Arts. 87
#n the chutch. Perhaps, if the theatre were entirely de- voted fo the exhibition of tragedies, the grave majesty of its portico would not be objectionable. Still, however, both the theatre and the cathedral are fine monuments of the skill of their respective architects; but they are curious €x- aniples of the want of that taste for propriety which is as Fequisite in the art of building as in the compositions of thé Muse: and as it has been said of the English, that they binld their hospitals like palaces, and their palaces like hospitals, it may be added that they also erect their churches like theatres, and their theatres like churches.
Of ail the fine arts, architecture is not only that which is most easily traced to its origin in the wants of mankind, but that on which all the others are dependent. All the others when compared with architecture are only repre- sentative, and minister only to the gratification of those watts which arjse from the experience of pleasure. But this primeeval art is, in its rudimental state, almost as ne- cessary to man as food, and in its refined no less essential to the improvement of every other.
Painting and sculpture are the arts which seem to have the greatest affinity to architecture, and most immediately
~eonnected with its use and progress. For the origin of painting, we have no evidence of any such obvious instinct as that which led man to the art of building, and it may be doubted, whether it ought to be considered as an inyention anterior to or cozval with sculpture.
The Greeks, with that vanity which their extraordinary proficiency in art and science almost justified them in as- suming, a vanity which is probably constitutional, as it exisis in them as strongly as ever, although they have no- thidg left of their ancestors but their vices, but the lees and dregs of civilization—take to themselves the honour of the invention of painting ; and tell us that, in particular, the art of portrait-painting was discovered among them by a girl who wag fond of a youth devoted to travelling, and who, to sweeten the time of his absence, delineated on the wall with the assistance of a lamp the profile of her lover. Justead however of accepting this as an historical fact, we ought to reflect how prone the Grecks were to allegory, and thas this elegant fable 1s but another way of telling us that por- trdit-painting was suggested by adolescent affection.
Although Anaxagoras and Bettie hls wrote on ihe rules of perspective, we have no proof that the Greeks, notwith- standing their excellence in the delineation of objects, ever made any proficiency in the knowledge of perspective. We have no account of any landscape-painters of great eminence
4 among
88 On the Fine Arts.
among them. Among all the artists of antiquity thers: was no Claude. But they doubtless excelled in the draw- ing of figures. We are witnesses of the still surpassing beauty of their statues; and we should not, therefore, question the excellence of their painters. Indeed the figures in outline on their funeral vases put this matter beyond. question.
In comparing the remains of Grecian sculpture with the works of the moderns, particularly with the public monu- ments of the British nation, a very obvious and striking difference is at once perceived and felt. We are sensible, in looking at the relics of Greece, of the presence of a simple grace, and see an admirable naturajity of form and figure, which is rarely discoverable in the sculptures of the mo- derns. This seems to be owing to a cause which admits of an easy explanation. The inferiority of the moderns arises from their superior scientific knowledge. ‘They un- derstand the theory of the art so well, that they think attention to rules is preferable to the study of natural phe- nomena. The Greek artists, on the contrary, appear to have worked from living forms and existing things. This is remarkably obvious in the remains of ancient sculpture which have been carried to London by Lord Elgin. The riders in, them are not singly statues whose muscles and joints are disposed with exquisite anatomical exactness. and placed on horses individually equally correctly formed. But the riders and the horses, as in nature though two distinct beings, arein the Elgin marbles shown under the influence of one impulse ; and all those minute and inde- scribable contractions and dilatation of parts, which arise, from their separate conformation, are shown under the mo- dification of that impulse which constitutes the unity of their mutual exertion. I am not here alluding to the figures, of the metopes, but to those of the bas-reliefs on the frieze. Tt is impossible that this felicitous result could have been obtained by the most careful attention to any system of. rules. tis indeed impossible that the artist whose busi- ness is to attain perfection of design and beauty of execu-. tion, should be able to give sufficient time and consideration to the study of rules to enable him to work by them with- out reference to models in nature. He must unquestion- ably furnish himself with such a competent knowledge of. principles as to prevent him from falling into error; but if he expects to excel in his art, he must study other things, than the principles by which the critics will estimate his proficiency. As poets must be so far acquainted with grammar as to be able to write correct langnage, pana
an
On the Fine Arts. 89
and sculptors are required to know the principles of their respective arts. But as that knowledge of grammar which constitutes the merit of a grammarian will never make a poet, so that knowledge uf perspective and anatomy which constitutes the merit of a connoisseur will never make a painter or a sculptor. Painting and sculpture are repre- sentative arts.. Their province 1s confined to forms that can be exhibited, and surely excellence cannot be attained in them but by studying such forms as naturally exist. In groups the sculptor may bring together figures that might never have met, as the landscape- painter may com- bine into one picture objects selected Irom different views, and thereby prodace an effect that, while perfectly natural, shall be more pleasing and impressive than any particular view in nature. But the scuiptor must not attempt to create forms, nor the painter to draw mountains or trees from his own fancy, or they will assuredly never fail to offend, if they do not always disgust. The two grand alle- gorical landscapes of Claude, descriptive of the rise and tall of the Roman empire, furnish an admirable illustration of the maxim which | would inculcate. There is no part of Jtaly, various and beautiful as the scenery of that coun- try is, which exhibits such magnificient scenes as these paintings ; but still the moment that we see them we at once recognise all the features of the Italian landscape. In the pictnre descriptive of the rise of the Roman nation, we are informed at the first glance of the moral which the artist intends to convey. The skv indicates the morning. On more close examination we find, by the general ap- pearance of the woods and other objects, that it is. the spring of the year, and the allegory is still more distinctly tuld by the introduction of husbandmen employed in pre- paring the soil; and the rudeness of society 1s ingeniously expressed by a number of little incidents that nevertheless harmonize with the general tone of the composition, while the style of the buildings and the features of the landscape show that it is a probable view of Italy in the simple and manly ages of the Roman republic. {In delineating the decline of the empire the painter bas been no less happy. The circumstances are chosen with equal skill, and com- bined with equal judgement. The sun is serting; it is the close of the vintage. The temples are in ruins, which em- phatically inform us how much the reverence for the gods has declined. The peasants are discovered in a state of in- foxication, and the painter has contrived to represent this without any ludicrous circumstance, He wished to con-
vey
90 On the Fine Arts.
vey an idea of the corruption of manners, and he has aés complished it without infringing the solemnity of his coms position. In the first picture, all is vigorous, fresh, active, and productive;-in the seeond, all is exhausted, decaying, melancholy, and wasteful. No poem, no oration, could have described the subject more eloquently. The historian who related the fall of Rome has not employed a pen more correct than the pencil of the artist. It is such productions that show the superiority of genius. It is this exquisite arrangement and choice of things actually existing, which obtains the praise of originality.
Painting and sculpture may be described as the sensual class of the fine arts, and poetry and music as the intel- Jectual. The former address themselves at once to our senses. The forms which they exhibit are the representa- tives of things which we have seen ; but the latter address themselves to the mind, and call up trains of thought by means which bear no resemblance to those ideas, which they nevertheless renew. The influence of painting and sculpture on the mind is like that of oratory, which per- suades by the statement of truths. The power of poetry and music is felt like that of magic, which calls up spirits, and produces miraculous effects by the mixing of certain ingredients curiously culled. As the orator cannot state a truth justly and perspicuously, without obtaining an im- mediate concurrence in opinion from his auditors, so the painter or sculptor cannot exhibit a picture or a statue pro- perly executed, without obtaining the admiration of all spectators. But the jurisdiction of poetry and music is not so universal, for they are dependent on associations in the minds of those to whom thev address themselves. Truth is every where the same, but habits are local. And the arts of painting and sculpture are connected with truths, while those of music and painting are dependent on habits. The poet cannot produce any effect on the reader, unless the reader has acquired intellectual associations which resemble those of the poet. There must be a general cast of mind common to them beth. In the same manuer, musie will produce no sentimental effect unless in particular pas- sages it tends to remind the hearer of sounds in nature, and by that remembrance to recal] the images of scenes and events also.
The effeets of a local influence, similar to that which has produced the different styles of architecture, is perceivable 1n the poetry of all nations; or, in other words, national cir- cumstances have produccd national habits of thinking, and
thereby
’
Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner. 91
thereby occasioned peculiar characteristics in the poetry of different nations. The more detached, unmixed,and steady that the society of any country preserves itself, the more original and singular will be the characteristics of its poetry; and by the same rule, according to the intimacy and extent of intercourse which nations cultivate with one another, the more various and general will be the points of association in their habits of thinking, and their poetry consequently approximate to resemblance. The English nation more than any other that ever existed has cultivated a general intercourse with all parts of the globe ; and accord- ingly we find poets in that country whose works, though comparatively popular there, are but little understood even by the learned of the continent. In the middle of the eighteenth century all Europe was surprised by the ap- pearance in that country of the poems of Ossian ; works which, whatever may be the debate as to their historical authenticity, are admitted to be fine specimens of a kind of poetry cultuvated by the mountaineers of Scotland, and which was felt to be natural, and acknowledged to be ori- ginal, even by those who questioned their antiquity. . In like manner the conquests of the British in India have added to the stores of the British poets; and in England a kind of poetry is fast growing into repute, which seems to bear. the same sort of resemblance to that of the oriental poets which the productions of the muse in the days of Leo X. bore to that of the Greek and Roman poets of antiquity. Mr. Southey has already brought this style to a high de- gree of excellence ; and the specimens by SirWilliam Jones, along with the Transactions of the Asiatic Society, present to the world a glimpse of what pleasures may be added to our enjoyment of knowledge, by a nation which combines in its enterprises the glory of victory and the advantages of commerce; which carries in the rear of its armies the abundance of industry, and which, by its jurisprudence re- quiring the military to be subservient to the civil authorities, sends to the most distant regions the most enlightened of mankind in the capacity of advocates and judges. / [Vo be contihued.]
XVII. Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner. By Tuomas Attan, Esq. F.R.S. Edin,
(Concluded from p. 25.]
Gnanrre countries usually present a bold and varied oute. line ; but to this rule Cornwall is a most decided exception: its
92 Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner.
jts aspect is tame in the extreme, being comparatively flat,— ‘a circumstance visibly occasioned by the corroding opera- tions of time. Nowhere are the vestiges of degradation so remarkable as bere. The enormous deposites of tin in the different stream-works, of which that of Carnon is perhaps the most extensive, clearly prove the destrnction of sur- rounding motntains. This tin, in the shape of rounded pebbles, formed a stratum, of about a foot thick, under a deposite of granite-gravel and mud, together forming an overburthen of forty feet thick, and occupying a valley of very great extent. The lodes which furnished this tin must have existed above the Jevel of the deposite; and from the quantity of metal deposited, they must have oc- cupied a large tract of country. Other monuments of tbis general destruction may be found in the peaks which are seen in every direction in the granite districts of Cornwall. These are evidently the result of surrounding decomposi- tion, and are formed of huge masses of rock, apparently piled on each other, with a regularity resembling masonry, and in all respects similar to the arrangement observable on ahe summit of every mountain in Arran, where the traces of time are also deeply furrowed.
Roach Rock, a binary compound of quartz and horn- blend, is another very remarkable instance of the same fact: this rock is flat at the top, and being quite perpendi- cular on three sides, when viewed from the west, presents the appearance of a square castellated building, which is rendered more conspicuous by being nearly of the same height as the tower of an adjoining church. Phere can be no doubt that this singular rock owes its present appearance to the operations of time on the surrounding materials, which its peculiar composition has enabled it to with- stand,
The killas likewise presents marks of degradation, where the country is composed of that rock. I noticed in some districts the roads mended entirely with quartz, (No. 24 )3 the brilliant white appearance of which, after a shower, had avery curious effect. I could not comprehend by what industry the accumulated heaps.of this substance were ob- tained: at last I perceived that they were gathered from the adjoining fields, and in some places picked from the surface of a common, by means of a hoe or mattock. That fragments of quartz should occur so unmixed with any others, is only to be accounted for by supposing that they formed the quartz veins in the killas, which, from superior tenacity, resisted decomposition, while the softer : parts
Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner. 93
parts of the rock, yielding to the action of the weather, were reduced and carried away.
We thus find, that the granite of Cornwall possesses the eharacters ascribed by Werner to that of the highest anti- quity. Some inferences may likewise be drawn, in corro- boration of its title to be classed with rocks of this descrip- tion, from the nature of the metallic veins by which it is traversed.
In the German account of the relative ages of metals, tin is the third, and wolfram the fourth in ‘order of anti- quity*. If veins containing these metals be considered in other countries as indicative of rocks of the oldest primitive formation, the same application must be made to those of Britain.
I may now ask, If this be not the oldest granite, where are we to find it? as it appears to me impossible that any substance can more decidedly concur with definition. ln the Alps, Dr. Berger must have learnt what primitive gra- nite meant; yet not a doubt escapes him, of the Cornish being any ‘thing e else. Distincticns either do or do not exist; if they do, character must be attended to; if they do not, it is quite unnecessary to add the terms Secondary and Tertiary to a substance possessing every attribute of a primary variety, merely because the structure of an ad- Joining rock does not accord with a specific theory.
Grauwacke, or, as I shall in future call it, Killas, I have before noticed, is a rock composed of fragments more or less comminuted, which must have existed in another state before they assumed their present arrangement. Along with the strata formed of these, beds of limestone are found, containing indications of organic remains, These are not confined solely to the limestone, they occur also in the killas; a fact which may be witnessed at any time, either in the neighbourhood of Coniston t, or on the right bank of the Black water, a little below Fermoy, in the county ef Cork, (Nos. 66, 67.) The formation of this class of rocks was therefore “subsequent to the formation of living animals, whose existence is supposed to be proved by the occurrence of organic remains in the composition of the tock.
In Cornwall, in Westmoreland, in Gallow ay, and in the
* Jameson’s Mineralogy, vol: iii. p. 275.
+ Since | read this paper, I wrote toa friend at Coniston, requesting that a few of these specimens, wel! characterized, might he sent me: some of w hich’ are deposited, along with the rest, in the eabinet of the Society, (No. 64, 65.)
6 counties
\ 94 Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner.
, counties of Down and Derry, this rock. lies directly on granite,—a circumstance which we should at first sight be inclined to cansider as indicating its subsequent formation. This thought, however, vanishes the moment we contem-" plate the veins of granite by which it is traversed. Of these there are many examples; but the most striking are at the Louran in Galloway, and at St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall.
It is many years since Sir James Hall laid before this So- ciety an account of his observations on the granite district of Galioway, of which the Louran forms a part; and to the persevering activity of that gentleman we are indebted for the display of one of the most interesting exhibitions of granite veins that exists. The peculiarities observable in Galloway were first pointed out to me by him; and as he has so lately favoured the Society with a particular account of them, it leaves me nothing to say regarding that quarter.
At St. Michael’s Mount, the shooting of the veins from the great mass of granite is also most strikingly exempli- fied. They were here first noticed by Professor Playtair, who compares them, most aptly, to the ramifications of the vegetable root *; for, indeed, nothing can be more illustra- tive of the phenomenon as it is here exhibuied.
It is to be observed that granite veins, particularly when extremely minute, usually differ in texture from the mass to which they belong. While the little peak of St. Mi- chael’s Mount maintains a similarity of character with all the rest of the Cornish granite, not only in point of internal structure, but with respect to the tin and copper veins which traverse it, as well as by the massive blocks, hewn by the corroding hand of time, which ornament its sum- mit; the veins that set off from it gradually become finer as they recede, but still preserve the perfect character of the rock.
The importance deservedly attached by Dr. Hutton to the phenomena of granite veins, gave rise to a variety of hypotheses among those who were inclined to consider this rock as the original deposite, who have accounted for their formation in different ways.
It was first stated, that they were formed of newer gra-' nite, and, if properly examined, would be found to cut the old granite as well as the rock which rested on it.
This opinion was once very strenuously supported in this country; but as facts would not bear it out, it was aban-
* Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, p. 318.
doned,
Remarks-on the Transition. Rocks of Werner. 95
doned. I find, however, in a recent publication, something similar to it maintained by De Luc, who asserts that the veius at St. Michael’s Mount are not granite, but merely quartz, which traverses the granite as_well as the stratified rock. I cannot comprehend how De Luc could have been so much deceived at this place; as simple inspection of the smallest specimen will prove that be was mistaken.
It was next said, that the veins In question were not true veins, but such as are termed Cotemporaneous. To sup- port which, it was boldly asserted, that they never extended beyond the limits of such rocks as were composed of the same materials, gneiss and mica-slate.
I trust it is now distinctly shown, that they do extend beyond these limits, and likewise that they traverse rocks from which by no method of reasoning it can be supposed that they could possibly be formed by secretion.
The last opinion is that which has recently been brought forward by Dr. Berger*. After describing the granite veins of St. Michael’s Mount, he proceeds to say, that they are simply elevations on the plane of the gramte existing previous to its being covered by the stratified rock ; that the spaces between them were filled up as the grauwacke was deposited; and hence the abrasion of the surface brought to light a section which has merely an appearance of veins,
Were the devotion of Dr. Berger to his master less con- spicuous in his geological disquisitions, I should be in- clined, on the above statement, to call his character as am observer in question, having passed over in silence the de» tached masses of killas, which he could not fail to observe included in the granite, and which the above hypothesis is as far from accounting for as either of those mentioned before.
I have only a few specimens (Nos. 39, 40, 41.) to lay before the Society from the veins of St. Michael’s Mount ; but they are equally interesting and satisfactory. One exhibits a portion of the killas bounded on each side by granite; another, a portion of two granite veins travers- ing killas; and the third, a mass of killas included in the granite,
Simple inspection is sufficient, in the first place, to show that the opinion of De Luc is. groundless with respect to the substance of these veins. 6ne of the specimens also contains two small veins of quartz, which are of the kind called Cotemporaneous; these keep the direction of the
* Transactions of the Geological Society, vol. i, p, 147. seams
96 Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Wernéf.
seams of the stratified rock, and are cut off by the granite in the same line without any interruption.
To the opinion of Dr. Berger they also offer some reply. If the grauwacke had been deposited on the granite in the way he supposes, it is natural to conclude, that it would have been arranged in lines parallel to the sides of the ele- vations, somewhat similar to the coating of bark on the
-» ostrunk of a tree: but in place of this, the seams of the killas os set at an angle of abont 30° to the planes of intersection with the granite; consequently, if deposited from a super- natant fluid, they have assumed a very different position from that which either mechanical or crystalline influence would have induced.
The hypothesis suggested to Dr. Hutton by the appear- ance of these veins, meets every difficulty : they conveyed to him evidence of being derived from a source of the greatest violence ; and also that nothing but liquid matter Injected from below: could have created the disturbance among the stratified rocks, so conspicuous when in contact with granite. As it is a self-evident position, that a rock which is cut by a true vein, must have existed in a solid state previous to the formation of that vein 3 so is it equally obvious, that if the vein can be traced into an adjoining mass, of which it is found to be a part, that mass must stand in the same relation, in point of period, to the rock which contains the vein, as the vein itself does: as also, that if pieces of one rock be found imbedded in another, the including rock must have been of subsequent forma- tion to the included. No theory, however, but that of Dr. Hutton can account for these appearances: to nothing but force can the position be attributed which the stratified rocks have assumed in the vicinity of the unstratified ; and nothing but matter injected in a liquid state, could possi- bly have formed the shoots which traverse from the great mass of granite perforating the stratified rock, and at the same time envelop detached fragments of that rock. As the idea of violence in these operations has been so fre- quently combated, I cannot refrain from noticing here, a very striking mark of it I met with at Coul in Ross- shite, when visiting Sir George Mackenzie. There the strata of gneiss are much disturbed by the invasion of granite veins; near which, on the outside curvatures of some of them [ perceived rents similar to what we might expeet on bending a flattened mass of clay nearly deprived of moisture. fF am fortunately enabled to present to the Society specimens illustrative of this interesting fact (Nos. 68, 69.) :
n
Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner. 97
Tn the theory of Dr. Hutton, we find also some grounds to account for the diminution of grain in the substance of the veins. The same cause to which, in a former paper, I attributed the gradation in the texture of greenstone, may be supposed to have acted here. It does not, however, ob- serve an equal constancy, some veins of granite being as coarse-grained as the mass to which they belong.
In a tormer part of this paper, I had occasion to notice an alteration which appears to take place in the texture of killas, when in the vicinity of granite. This circumstance was so remarkable in Galloway, at the Louran and other places, that I took the strata so situated for mica-slate, al- though I had observed no line of separation between it and the killas. I was forcibly struck with this at the moment f but having then no time to follow it up, I was obliged to leave the country without any particular examination. It will be observed, by the specimens from St. Michael’s Mount, that the killas there assumes the appearance of fine- grained gneiss. At Wasseldale Crag, between Kendal and Shap, I noticed a rock, in the immediate vicinity of granite, quite similar ; and I am told that the texture of the strata, near the granite of the mountains of Morne, is altogether the same.
This alteration is always of a gradual nature; and is so imperceptible, that it affords a good example of what might be understood by the German term Passage, or transition from one species to another: this Passage, even admitting the substance altered, is of too limited a nature to consti= tute a distinct and totally different rock.
This alteration, if traced with attention, may lead to some very important results; but, without entering upon it at present, I shall content myself with recommending it to the notice of geologists, some of whom may consider it of too minute a nature to deserve attention. They may, how- ever, rest assured, that it is only by an accurate examina- tion, and a faithful detail of such oodjects, that we can hope to arrive ultimately at truth, the only solid basis of philo- sophic inquiry,
{ may be accused of generalising too much in the fore- going statement, on grounds so limited: it must be re- membered, however, that [ have purposely confined my- self to the examples of the relations which exist within my own knowledge, between the transition rocks and granite. The same phenomena are familiar, where gneiss and mica- alate come in contact with that rock; but as these strata are considered to be of a very different age, the facts which
Vol. 42. No, 184, August 1813, G [I might
98 Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner.
I might have cited, had my object been to prove the age’of granite with respect to all other rocks, were unnecessary, when my purpose was to point ont the relative ages of killas and granite.
From what I have said, I consider myself warranted in finishing this paper with the following conclusions :
The Killas of Cornwall belongs to the Transition: series of Werner.
The Granite of Cernwall is possessed of every character by which the Oldest varieties are distinguished.
That Granite, the nucleus round wibigh Werner conceives all other rocks were deposited, is in some cases actually of a later date than the Transition series, which comprehends strata containing shells ; and that its subsequent formation is clearly evinced by the appearances at St. Michael’s Mount.
Hence, that the distinction of Transition rocks is grounded on false conclusions.
And finally, Toat Werner must make very material al- terations on his present system, if he wishes to accommo- date it to the phenomena so commonly presented in nature.
APPENDIX.
On a former occasion, I stated as my opinion, that all geological papers ought to be accompanied with specimens of the rocks of which they treated. This is a condition not always to be complied with, unless the intention to write precedes the examination, when a collection may purposely be made; but when the idea suggests itself after one is far removed from the district, it amounts nearly to an impossibility. Inthe present instance, although I bz possessed of all the specimens necessary, they belong to a series which I formed for other purposes, Rather, how- ever, than mutilate this, [ have thought it better tu present the whole to the Society, in whose possession [ shall have an opportunity of referring to them at any time 3 and as they have siguified their acceptance, it is necessary to add to my paper the following brief list of the minerals I collected, which are marked and numbered, as picked up on my route, commencing in Somersetshire, where the Transition rocks first made their appearance, and ending at L]fracombe, after traversing Devon and Cornwall indifferent directions.
After leaving Bristol, on the road to Exeter, we traverse the limestone ridge of Mendip; to the south of which there is an extensive plain, stretching to beyond Taunton,
whose
Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner. 99
“whose uniformity is occasionally interrupted by small isolated hills, like islands ina lake. These are pro- bably formed of Transition rocks, although on the plain itself, where the soil is laid open, which is prin- cipally composed of limestone debris, horizontal strata of the same substance were exposed to view. Ap- proaching Taunton, the road leads over some of these
No. hills, and here it was that I met with strata highly in-
1, 2. clined, very similar in colour and aspect to some va- rieties of sandstone, but considerably more refractory
under the hammer, indicating, I suspect, the com- mencement of the Transition series,
3. VEsicuLar Trap. I found this on the road near the house of Sir Thomas Acland, a few miles north of Exeter. I saw none of this in situ, though very commonly in the buildings in and about Excter,
4. On guitting Exeter for Moreton, the road is extremely hilly, rising: and descending over abrupt knolls al- most all the way ;. these are principally formed of a soft decomposing rock, in thin strata, breaking in thomboidal fragments, and very similar to the slaty clay of Werner,
5,6,7.After passing Teign Bridge, this substance assumes a greater decree of consistence, and occurs in strata nearly vertical, some of which are coarser in the grain than others. These were extremely difficult to break, and presented a close smooth fracture, ap- proaching to conchoidal.
8. The Teign is the eastern boundary of Dartmoor, and within a few hundred yards of it, and immediately beyond the stratified rock last mentioned, Granite occurs, containing very large crystals of felspar, which continues to within a short distance of Ta~ vistock, situated on the Tavy, which bounds Dart- moor on the west side.
Here, as on the bauks of the Teign, the Killas rests upon the Granite. At Wheal Friendship, a mine at that time under the management of Mr. John Taylor, (to whose intelligence I am deeply indebted for a great share of the information I obtained in the country,) I selected the following specimens, as illustrative of the Cornish terms, which certainly afford the best explanation that can be given, of a language entirely peculiar,
9. Killas, by comparison with the Grauwacke Slate of Freyberg. I find this to be quite as similar as any
Ge two
100 Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner.
two specimens from the same quarry could be ex pected to be.
10. Elvan, as pointed out at Wheal Friendship. This I took for coarse-grained Grauwacke ; it was very dif- ficult to break, and a very small proportion of it ex- posed to view. I could not, therefore, observe its connection with the surrounding rocks; but, from more minute examination, I suspect it may belong to a bed of Greenstone.
11. Capel, a veinstone or Salland, composed of Quartz
' penetrated by Chlorite.
12. A Buneh of ore is here exhibited by a portion of Cop- per pyrites, in a vein of Quartz, which represents the lode. When found in this way in a mine, it is termed a Bunch of Metal.
13. A heave to the right, the Killas is here traversed in different directions by Quartz veins; that marked A represents a lode, intercepted and heaved to the right by B, across course. When the lode is cut in a very oblique direction, tt is said to be caunted.
14, A Horse, when a lode is divided, and joins again, it is said to take horse, and the included mass in this spe- cimen is. called the Horse of Killas, &c.
15. A Squat, when the lode suddenly enlarges, it is called a Squat; and the metal it contains a Squat of Ore. -—By means of this vocabulary, I very soon became familiar with many of the commonest mining terms in the country.
In order to form a junction between the Tavistock Canal and the Tamer, it became necessary to drive a tunnel, for a mile and a half, through a hill called Morwel Down, which promises to be a source of interest to the geologist. In forming this tunnel, several powerful veins of clay porphyry have been penetrated, the substance of which is in some places
Nos. much disintegrated, in others firm and compact ;
16-19. veins supposed to correspond have since been ob- served on the surface.
20. In the tunnel, the Clay Porphyry alternates several times with the Killas, which is here of a light-gray colour, and a soft friable texture.
In the course of this undertaking, two workable me- tallic veins have been intersected : no traces of either had been found on the summit of the hill, although diligently examined.
#1. Passing the Tamer, we enter Cornwall, and at Cents
ake
‘Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner. 101
lake is a mine of Copper in Granite; and a little beyond, at Drakewalls, there is another of Tin -in
‘No. ° | Killas.
22. Tin-vein in Granite, from Carclaze, ‘near St. Austle.
23. Killas found on the road from St. Austle to Carclaze; this I consider a very perfect specimen of Grau- vacke, 4
24. Mass of white Quartz, of which the roads-are formed.
25. Mixture of crystallized Quartz and Wolfram, covered with a coating of Bitumen, found in Poldice mine near Redruth, at the depth of 106 fathoms, in Granite.
26. Arsenical Pyrites, mixed with acicular, dark, greenish- gray crystals, supposed to be actinolite, from Bla- ney’s Shafi, a branch of Wheal Unity.
27. Granite, Cairn Brae.
28. From a vein which traverses the north-east side of Cairn Brae: on the spot it appeared to me to be Clay-Porphyry; in hand specimens it resembles fine- grained Granite.
“29. Vein-stone of Quartz, impregnated with red Oxide of Tron, and containing white Steatite, from Tincroft.
30. From the high-road near Tineroft. \This is a very tough rock, and very fine-grained: it appears to be
, a variety of Greenstone similar to No. 10.
31. Kallas, marked with dark-coloured spots, from the side of the road to Cambourn, a little westward of the last. 7
32. Killas of a light-eray colour, from St. Anns.
$3. Irom Beacon Hill, a conglomerate formed of the de- bris of Granite, very similar to some varieties of Sandstone.
34,35.Granite from the Land’s End. r
-36,37.Hornblend-rock from Botallock, a curious, little, but valuable mine, on the north side of the peninsula,
"y near the extremity,
38. Cockle, massive Tourmaline, from the same place.
39-41.Specimens from the junction of the Granite and Killas, at St. Michael’s Mount,
42,43.From the shore near Penzance: these [ consider to be Killas of a very tough and compact variety, they are found very near Granite, or some similar rock, which presented something so peculiar in the aspect,
~ that T cannot help recommending it to the attention
of geologists, G3 No.
102 = Remarks on the Transiiton Rocks of Werner. No.
—46.Serpentines from the Lizard.
47. Hornblend-rock, which forms the basis on which the light-houses of the Lizard stand.
48. Clay-porphyry, near Trewithin.
49. Granite, with a vein of Tin, St. Stephen’s.
50. Conglomerate of Quartz and granular Talc, from the same place.
51,52.Phosphate of Lime and erystallized Talc, in Granular Talc, from Stoney Gwins.
53. Killas from a quarry between Bodmin and the race- course of that town. This substance is very soft, but well adapted for building, from the peculiar fa- cility with which it is quarried; the stratification being horizontal, and the cross rents perpendicular, and so regular, the quarry presents a very symmetri- cal appearance.
§4,55.Granite, coarse-grained, near Bodmin.
56. Fine-grained Killas, near Launcestown.
57. About seven miles from Launcestown, on the road to Oakhampton, I found a quarry containing schistose and amorphous Killas interstratified, the last of which I believe to be as perfect Grauwacke as any in the district of Lammermuir.
58. Greenstone, Hatherleigh.
59. Variety of Trap from Cleave.
60,61.Killas from Ilfracombe, alluded to in page 22.
Specimens quoted, but not from the same Country.
62,63. Fine-grained Grauwacke, from Peeblesshire, in all respects similar to the Killas of Cornwall. Note, p. 23.
64,65. Shells in Killas, from Coniston. Note, p. 93.
66,67. Same from Fermoy, county of Cork, p. 93.
68,69. Gneiss from Coul, p. 96.
70. Transition Limestone from Rae Quarry, containing
SuiellS? pi BBLS fs :
XVIII. O0-
efi 10%) J
XVIII. Observations, in Objection to some new Arrange- ments, and Simplifications of the Strata of England, pro- posed by Mr. Bakewrti.—A Defence of the Reality and Circumstances stated, respecting three great Faults or Dislocations of the Strata in and near Derbyshixe— On Mr. Siuverwoon’s intended Section of all the Der- byshire Strata—On Mr. Harr’s Survey and Models of the high Peak of Derbyshire— The Slate of Charnwood Forest not stratyied,sc.ioc. By Mr.Joun Farry Sen.
To Mr. Tillich.
Sir,— Tx my first letter (of the 16th inst. p. 53) I replied to Mr. Bakewell’s observations, in your xlth volume, p. 45, and in his ‘‘ Introduction to Geology,”’ respecting Geolo- gical Maps of England, and Limestone Rocks resting ou Slate. 1 proceed now to notice what he has said in p. 46, and in his Geology pages 212 and 283, in objection to the existence of two of the principal Fuwds or dislocations of the Strata in and near Derbyshire, which I discovered du- ring my Survey of that district in the years 1807 and 8, and have described them in my Derbyshire Report, vol. 1. 146 and 165, and have shown them in the Map p. 97, and in (hat which accompanicd a paper in the Phil. Trans. for i8il, and your xxxixth volume, p. 26.
In your 46th and 47th pages, Mr. B. had contrived to
‘mix his observations on these two faulis together, and so to
multiply questions to me and suggestions of bis own, that * I was quite unable to fathom his meaning, until I came to read his Geology, when these mysteries were partly cleared up, by the discovery, ‘that almost throughout his Geology Mr. B, rejects my term Limestone Shale or great Shale, for the vast stratum between the Ist Lime and Ist Grit, of Derbyshire, and he substitutes for it “* Sandstone,’ see p. 48 and (No. 5) fig. 1 in Plate If, p.93, p. 135, p. 226 and (No. 4) fig. 5, in Plate If; on other occasions “ Shale Sandstone,” p. 1413 and on others, & Shale Grit,” p. 270, p- 271, p. 272, and p. 273. The word Shale rarely finding a place in his Geology, either here, or in mentioning Coal- measures, except when adjectively applied to the terin Sund- stone. In his Lectures, he is made to describe it as “a dark reddish-brown Shale,” in yopr xxxixth volume, p. 469.
I next discovered, that instead of the term Red Maré, for the well known, bright red marley strata, often irregulay- ly streaked with light blue earth, (occasionally imbedding
masses
104 Mr. Farey’s Reply to Mr, Bakewell—Faults in Derbys.
masses of Gypsum, Rock-salt, Gritstone, Slate, &c.) Mr. B. has chosen, after the manner of the Anglo- Wernerians (which he often affects so much to despise), to substitute the term ‘¢ red Sandstone,”’ pp. 134, 136, 174 N, 196, 267, 268, 273 and 274 ; and ‘‘Sandstone,” pp. 285 and 286. So care- ful does Mr. B. seem, against the use of the term Marl for these strata, that except when used for marling in Lan- cashire, p. 196,o0r occurring as the covering of Gypsum, pp- 173, 175 and 176, it scarcely occurs 3 even in describing the Cheshire Salt strata, ‘<argillaceous stone” is substitute for it, p.137. In your xxxixth volume, p. 470, your re- porter has made Mr. B. speak more diffidently, on the iden- tity of this ‘* dark-brown Shale” with the Cheshire ‘* red sand rock.”
In this manner, having obtained a common term (sand- stone) for strata so dissimilar and distant in the series as Red Marl and Limestone Shale, as * a simple arrangement suited to the present state of our (his) knowledge” (p. x), Mr. B piainly insinuates, at pages-134 and 135, that these, the Red Marl and the great Shale and ist Grit, form one and the same stratum, and in p. 136 thus expresses him- self, “if the identity of the ved sandstone and the Grit aud Shale be admitted, a greater similarity will be established between the lower series of the strata in England, with those in various parts of Germany from whence Werner has formed his arrangement.”
Here then I discovered at once the reason, for Mr. B’s anxiety to disprove the existence of my great Derbyshire Fault, and his facilities for so doing, at least in those parts between Allestry and Wooton, and W of Ramsor, (see the Map at p. 97 of my Report, wherein I have shown, ag the result of a very laborious and careful examination of all the surface, that Red Marl occupies the south ‘side and Limestone-shale the north side of this precise Line, of the Fault, where Gravel does not conceal this line :—but, an- swers Mr. B., since in m2 language these strata are the same. your Fault is unnecessary and “ imaginary.”
That I do not misrepresent Mr. B. in these inferences, will more clearly appear, from p. 212 of his Geology, wherein he refers to the Gravel Rock north of the Fault at Nottingham, calling it “Sand Rock,” and to the Strata at
uddington Hill, and in the intervening vale south of the Fault, and conceals the fact (if he knew it?) that these strata south of the Fault are Red Marl and not Gravel or Sand Rock: as might from his description be supposed 3
: an
Mr. Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakewell—Fault in Derbys. 105
and the strata being with him, all alike in kind (I will advert to their inclinations presently), my Fault is again unnecessary, to account for their being of different kinds.
Mr. &. seems, on the same principle, to have been very cautious against mentioning anything about the sudden terminatidn of the Yorkshire and Derbyshire Coal-field * against Red Marl, from Wollaton to Bredsall, as I have shown it, and merely says at p. 267, ‘* Coal strata terminate a few miles north-east of Derby:” well knowing, that no Anglo-Wernerian or Bakewellian confounding of names and terms, could enable him to persuade his practical readers, that Recd-Marl and Coal-measures are identical. And so of the 4th Limestone Rock of the Weaver Hills, abutting on the same Marl.
It is true that Mr. B. p. 176, doubts the identity of this Marl. carried forwards into Cheshire, as I have stated, in confirmation of this great Fault, Rep. i. 147 :—and why? because Mr. Holland found ‘no Shells” (p. 176) in the Mar! covering the Gypsum in Cheshire, (p. 138), and he (Mr. B. p. 175) saw several shells and other organic re- mains, in the * Marl and gravel” covering the Chellaston Gypsum. Had, however, Mr. B. been sufficiently versed in the first and most important principle of the Smithian School, for accurately discriminating between the alluvium and the strata (Rep. 1. 109), and had imbibed none of the Anglo-Wernerian errors alluded to in page 134 of my Re- port, be would have avoided this mistake, and seen, as I had stated, Rep. i. 136 and 149, that all the extraneous fossils which he mentions at Chellaston, are lodged in adluviad Clay, similar to that of Bedfordshire, and that the Red Marl holds no rediquia there, or in any other known situa- tion. I twice visited the Chellaston Pits, once in company with Mr. B’s Friend whom he mentions or alludes to, [ believe, pages 189 and 282, &c. and each time made a col- lection of the Reliquia which Mr. B. mentions, and others, from the alluvial covering of the Gypsum and Marl.
Mr. B. asks of me p. 46, what the great Derbyshire
* In several instances Mr. B. mentions or intimates that Coal-fields are * cut off” by Red Sandstone, &c. pages 134, 273, 267, 268 and 142, but has nowhere attempted the definition of this term which is so variously and Joosely applied by great numbers of practical Men, as well as by himself: and in p. 274, he is equally silent on the meaning of his expression ‘ excludes the Coal.” lbeg to say, that I know, either in theory or practice, of no cutting off, or abrupt termination to any regular strata, but particularly Coal-measures, except by Basseting, or Faults and Dykes; and know, that Coal-seams, &c. frequently basset or terminate suddenly against Gravel or other heterogeneous matters, licing on the surface, or in Faults which inter-
ct the strata, 4: Fault
106 Mr. Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakewell—Faults in Derbys.
Fault is filled with ?: I answer, clay principally, which he himself states, p. 208, to be commonly the case in Derby- shire and its vicinity, and which J had previously stated Rep. i. 500 and 501; and in the latter case, bad answered another of his questions, viz. as to, where T had actually found the fault 2: in my List of Springs, which follows the pages above quoted, he will find several other well known points, exactly ascertained, where the Red Marl abuts against other strata, far removed in the Series, and in dif- ferent degrees; in some of these, in Quarndon village in particular, Rep. i. 505, Mr. B. may see this junction on the W side of the Hollow Road, without further trouble, and may measure its exact breadth,” and may also analyse its © mineral matter,” if he thinks they will repay him the trouble :—I have been otherwise employed.
When Mr. B. asked in your 46th page ** how the lime- stone has passed over or under this fault, so as to appear again with veins of Lead Ore* at Breedon?,” I never could have imagined, until I read pages 284 and 275 of his Gea- logy, that Mr. B. was here alluding, to an identity between the mountain Limestone of the Peak of Derbyshire and the Limestones of Breedon, Ticknall, Cloudshid and Grace Dieu! It is true, that in page 286, Mr. B. represents the Shale Limestone near Ashburne, to be the same as at Wild, or Wold Park +, Breedon, Cloudshill and Grace Dieu! In a note hereon Mr. Bakewell says, that this shale limestone is occasionally imbedded in the thick shale (see Rep. i. 229 and 232) which covers the ** dower beds,”’ (I suppose he meant upper beds) of metalliferous Limestone ; but this shale having previously been assimilated with the Red Marl, as observed above, we see again, how my al- Jedged Fault appears to Mr. B. to be unnecessary and “¢imaginary.”—But surely Mr. B. has Friends in Derby- shire and elsewhere, who will, ere long, tell him, that the facts of the Derbyshire sirata, differ most essentially, from this very “simple arrangement” of his.
Where the numerous Faults are situated, on the western side of Derbyshire adjoining Cheshire, and part of Stafford- shire, which Mr. B. alludes to at bottom of page 46, he has nowhere told us; in his Geology, p. 211, he seems to ° represent the same, as occurring between Yorkshire, Lan-
* I confess that I never before heard of “veins of Lead Ore at Breedon,’? and if Mr. B. could establish the fact. I should still maintain, as I have done at p. 427, vol. xxxix. that such are not sufficient marks of the identity of strata.
+ As I suppose, merely on account of their contortions, Rep. i. 231 and 158, ¥
cashire,
Mr. Farey’s Reply io Mr. Bakewell. 107
eashire, and Cheshire; but after all I suspect, that he al- Juded to those Faults which I bave hinted at in Rep. 173, as being beyond the limits of my Derbyshire Survey, and there- fore [ had not attempted to trace them: and I am well con- tent, to leave Mr. B. in the enjoyment of his opinion, that no connection between such Faults can be traced, ** over a considerable tract of country,” unt} those more inter- ested than either of us, shall see it right toemploy some one, who has studied the demonstrable principles of fractured, dislocated and denudated stratified masses, and carefully observed the practical and perfectly corresponding effects of Faults, on Coal-Pits, Mines, Quarries, &c. as | bave done, during several years, and have disinterestedly laid the re- sults of my investigation and experience before the public, in the Derby Report i. p. 117, &c.*
Any one who shall have followed me in these studies and observations, would be unlikely to imagine, as Mr. B. appears to do at pages 2i2 and 213, that Faults which greatly derange the strata, could be accompanied by const- derable tilts of the strata, either towards or from the Fault but would know both theoretically and practically, that the greatest Faults, as to rise or derangement, are least visible, by ¢zlts of the strata, except such as are rapidly increasing, when the tilts will be seen along or parallel to the line of Fault, instead of across it.
Such observers would also know, practically, that what I have mentioned, Rep. i. 123 and 124, as to Faults not showing themselves by inequalities on the surface, except in some rare instances, is perfectly correct ; and as indeed Mr. B. has tacitly admitted (as several others have done before him) in his 2d Plate, fig. 2, 3 and 4, where faults
are represented deranging the strata beneath, but without a
corresponding step or cliff appearing on the surface!, and yet, his Book may be searched through, without this extra- ordinary fact being further adverted to, or recorded, amon
either the explained or the unexphined phenomena ot
* In somelearned Lectures lately read before the Geological Society, (while my Papers and Maps mentioned in a former Note, were inits possession), on the principles and circumstances attending Stratification, | have heard. that these investigations were not once alluded to, or any notice taken of Mr, Smith’s labours | believe, among a very numerous list of quotations, ex pressing doubts and difficulties, principally, as to the laws relating to stratifica- tion, which many believe and others know, that Mr. Smith and myself, Mr. Elias Hall and others have established, and brought into practical use: and that an inquiry being afterwards made of the Lecturer, how these omissions happened, he replied, that Mr. F’s investigations appeared to him unintelligible, and therefore unfit to be referred to in an elementary’ course on stratification. , ; the
:
108 Denudation of the Earih’s Surface.
the earth’s surface! In like manner Mr. De Luc, when on his ‘¢ Geological Travels” in the West of England, had two instances of thts kind pointed out to him by practical Men, vol. ii. 218, and vol. iii. 27, but, whether from his Theory, offering no ready explanation, I will not inquire, these imporlant facts are passed by without comment. Mr. John Williams hints at them in his ‘* Mineral Kingdom,” 2d Edit. 1. 96, but goes no further, and [ may say I think, that among the numerous theoretical writers since 1749, when by the publication of Mr. John Hutchinson’s works (written at the beginning of the century) for the first time probably, was pointed out (vol. xi. p. 338) this which ought to be a leading fact, in the formation of any subsequent Theory of the Earth, none of them have either attempted to explain it, nor had their writers the candour to notice it, as a phenomenon to which their particular Theory would not apply. . ;
Similar remarks will nearly also apply to Denudation, or the stripping of tracts, on the Earth’s surface, both large and small, hill and dale, of vast loads of their superincumbent strata, which Dr. Wilham Richardson and myself have Jately investigated, more extensively and minutely, than formerly was done, see your xxxiild vol. p. 258, and xxxixth vol. p.26; which yet was distinctly pointed out, in the above Mr. Hutchinson’s works, vol. xii. 261, and was afterwards more fully treated of by his disciple The Rev. R. Catcott, in 1761, in his “ Treatise on the Deluge,” p- 159 and 163, and mentioned by Mr. Whiteburst in his “Inquiry” Ist Edit. p. 156 and 165, see also Derby Report p- 246.
I proceed now to my Zigzag Fault, Rep. 1. p. 162 and 165, whose form some have objected to, without being aware, that from most or all of its western salient angles, cross faults go off into the adjoining Coal district, generally an the direction or nearly, of one of the adjacent sides, and which cross faults are, in several instances, too well known to the Coal-masters whose works they intersect.
Mr. Bakewel! in your xIth vol. p, 46, and in his Geology,. p- 283 Note, has carefully avoided entering at all into the evidence, of a demonstrative kind, or the facts capable of that kind of proof, which I originally offered, respecting the existence and course of this Fault through Derbyshire, particularly with regard to the Gritstone Rocks, Report i. 169, and since, respecting others in Yorkshire, still more decisive, mentioned in your xxxixth volume, p. 101 and 102, with respect to my 4th Grit Rock, (of Yorkshire pave
ingstone),
Mr. Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakewell—Faulis in Derliys. 109
ingstone), which after an uninterrupted range of basset 94 Miles in length, I have traced to the zigzag fault at its two ends, and so of the 3d Coal-Shale and the 3d Grit Rock, after somewhat longer courses, in succession. And thus: Lain confident of being able, to fill up all the Coal series of Notts. Derby and York above the 4th Rock, and several Rocks and Coal-shales below it, terminating at each end, at the very Fault, which Mr. B. has chosen to attack (for let it be remembered, that my original Letter in your Magazine had no allusion. to Faults): but unless more general encouragement, in such a serious and public un- dertaking, presents itself, than heretofore, it must remain suspended at least, in favour of private Mineral Surveying, and business connected therewith, of which, fortunately, I have never been in want, any more than my Friend Mr. Smith, during the long period that his truly national under- taking, has from similar causes, been suspended, but which is now in train of almost immediate publication, as men tioned in my last.
Mr. B. has chosen rather, to attempt to bring general opinion to bear upon my poor zigzag Fault, and besides this, at page 983, says more particularly, “‘In the above examination of the Derbyshire strata, Icannot learn that any trace of Mr. Farey’s fault called the zigzag fault, could be discovered ;”” alluding, as appears from the preceding page, to a ‘* perpendicular Section,’* or collection of Sinkings and Boreings, applied in succession, from the deep to the basset, which was begun several years ago by Mr, Theodore Silverwood, the very able Coal and Iron Agent, at Somercoats, Furnace, when it was under the direction of my scientific friend Mr. Mushet, whose Letter in your xlth vol. p.49, I am sorry that I have not yet had leisure to reply to, as it deserves.
Mr. Silverwood’s general Sinking account, I have fre- quently seen, and have indeed a copy of it, as far as it had been completed each way from Somercoats, when last I was there, and it now appears, from a Letter of one of the proprietors to Mr, B. that Mr. S. is making progress with a vertical Section, of the Derbyshire strata, which is I hope
* Such documents as these, exhibiting only the thickness of strata, which if taken oblique to the plane of the strata (as the boreings or sinkings hap- pen to be made) should be reduced to the perpendicular thicknesses, at the time of planning them in connection, I have usually denominated Sinking accounts, or Face-views, when they exhibit the faces of Quarries, Mines, &c: in order to distinguish them from vertical Sections, wherein the planes of strata are seen cut, and their tops and edges on the surface are exhibited, in wacceation,
doing,
110 © Mr. Silverwood’s Section of Derlyshire Strata.
doing, by an actual Jevelling over the surface, and ascertain- ment of the top and bottom of each Rock or visible stra-- tum, and its dip, to be applied to the thicknesses previously ’ ascertained by sinkings; a Map of the surface of the strata, on the same scale as the lengths and depths, will also I hope be annexed to it, as is mentioned of my Ashover great Section of 7 miles in length, in my Ist Letter. Such a Section continued from the top of the lower yellow Lime to the 4th Lime would be about 16 Miles long, if it com- menced on the S of Annesley and terminated in Bonsal- dale, S of Slaley; through 10 Miles of which distance, a Jevel pound of the Cromford Canal being at hand, might greaily shorten the labour of, as well as give great accuracy to the levelling, and the very curious denudation at Golden Valley (Rep. 1. 164 and xlvi.) and the southern skirt of that at Crich, would be intersected and shown thereby.
T sincerely hope that this important work may soon be completed by Mr. Silverwood ; and as soon as I hear that the eastern part of it is finished, 1 certainly will, at the first opportunity of travelling that way, avail myself of the kind invitation I have had from the resident proprietor’ Nathaniel Edwards, Esq. to see Mr. S’s Sinking account and Section ; and if possible, I will trace the zigzag fault’ across it. At the present time, it appears to me, that Mr. B. has rather expressed his wishes than his knowledge, as to Mr. S’s decision on my Fault, in his Note from whence I have extracted as above.
At the time that I entered on my Survey of the neigh- bourhood of Greasley in Nottinghamshire, the extended fracture of the strata which I have since denominated the zigzag fault, was unknown to every one, as I have men- tioned, Rep. i. 162; I was neither surprised or displeased therefore, that the practical Men seemed then averse to admit it, some perhaps because it was their interest not to admit, that their Coal had a different place in the series, as to identity with those of other works in more repute with the buyers, than that which prevailing opinions had pre- viously assigned it.
On the 13th of October 1808, I had the honour to be invited to dine at a Meeting of the Coal-masters held at Eastwood, at which 12 or 14 Coal- masters, or their Agents, from a! the principal works around were present; after the business of the meeting was concluded, and dinner was over, two or three hours were spent, principally in dis- cussing this novel explanation of the facts of their Coal strata, and in which I certainly found myself quite alone in
; opinion.
5
Mr. Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakewell.on the Faults. 11%
opinion. I had the pleasure however of receiving a most patient and candid hearing, for explaining the grounds and
_arguments advanced in favour of my positions, and the opportunity of discovering, that none of them were met by any materially adverse facts or arguments; but nearly all present, contented themselves with referring to the simi- larity in thickness and quality of the Seams of Coal, at most including their roof and floor, that were contended tu be identical, as Mr. B. does at p, 148: and to the fact of a regular kind of dine, in which the works on these seams stretch across the district, yet very oblique to the edge of the yellow Lime, Rep. i. 166.
At that time, I possessed but a few of the actual Sinkings. of Pits in the neighbourhood, which I have since obtained ; and at several works, such had not even been made or pre- served, particularly in the two parts of Greasley works, which I discovered on inquiry, to be separated by a fault said to derange the Coal (about a yard | think) when that part was in work, some years before; but which almost forgotten fault, from its direction and attendant circum- stances, | judged to be far more considerable in effect (see my Note on Mr. B’s page 147, in a future Letter), and which nothing but a comparison of the actual sinkings of the Pits on each side of it, could decide.
Thus precisely stands the question at present, no facts having reached me from the practical men or otherwise, but what tend rather to confirm than oppose my explana- tion: and since Mr.B. has resorted to the opinions now, of certain of the gentlemen alluded to, if he will candidly communicate their names, and such facts as they may be pleased to intrust him with, in confirmation of their opinion, and to avoid misconception, I promise to do the same, and perhaps Mr. B. may then discover, that he does not now stand in the same triumphant majority, as he would have done, before, or nearer to the time that my Report, and the principles of faults therein explained, were submitted to the public.
I may however, I think, fairly now ask of Mr. B. re- specting the gentlemen whose opinions he has advanced against me, Did he hefore taking such opinion sask each in- dividual, whether they had attentively read my Report, and fairly weighed what I had adduced, against their opposing facts ?
Another large and important Fault which I have traced in this district, and called the great Limestone Fault, Re-
port
112 Mr.Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakewell—Faults in Derbys.
port i. p. 280, and in your xxxixth vol. p 82; from having its route rather more circumstantially described than the other two, mentioned by Mr. B. in your 46th page, appears to have escaped his open attack: but on consulting his Section of Strata between Sheffield and Castleton in Plate IT, it will be seen, that this fault has been denied a place therein, at the foot of the Castleton Hills, and in conse- quence, the firsé and the fowr/i Limestones are confounded together, and we are told p. 48, The compact limestone (7) here makes its appearance as the base of Mam Tor, and further west the same Limestone forms entire mountains.” Here again the baneful effects of Mr. B’s ** simple ar- rangements,”’ or rather, his mongrel Werno-Huttonian Theory, are visible, on his statements of Geological facts : it being necessary, to that part of his Theory, which assumes the Peak Limestone to be identical with those in the south of the county and in Leicestershire (as mentioned before in this Letter) and that it is also identical with the Yorkshire WR, and Lancashire Limestones (as mentioned in my ist Letter), that this Peak Limestone should be considered, only as one Rock, notwithstanding all Mr. Whitehurst’s Sections *, and what I and others have done and written since, to show the contrary: and at p. 284, he says ‘ the beds of basaltic amygdaloid do not extend beyond the Peak of Derbyshire :’”’ nor even so far as the northern extremity
* Irefer here to two Sections which Mr. Whitehurst published in 1778, in his “ Inquiry,” in which the éhree Toadstone Strata are represented, and three others in which the two uppermost are represented, and the lower $trata omitted only for want of room in his plates: in all of which Sec- tions, the toadstones are represented to preserve their thickness and paral- lelism, as perfectly as the Limestones. It may be proper here to mention, that this structure of the Peak of Derbyshire, consisting of four Limestone Rocks interlaid by three toadstones and these covered by Shale and coarse Grit, was well understood long before Mr. Whitehurst wrote (or commenced his Geological observations I believe) by some of the practical and able Miners and Mine Agents of those days.
In or very soon after the year 1750, the late Mr. George Tissington of Winster, (to whom Mr. W. acknowledges his obligations), by the assistance of Mr. Anthony Tissington, made a Section from Matlock Bank across Masson Hill to ible and Aldwark, of which the latter Gentleman, who is still living at Bonsal, I believe. kindly sent me a copy, through a friend, about two years ago, which Section is well worthy of being published on some future occasion, especially as it will show, that the practical Men of the middle of the last century, who so well explored the district, knew no more of the tremendous fissure accompanying the vale of the Derwent, than the present Miners do, although the same makes so conspicuous a figure in three of Mr. Whitchurst’s Seciions near this same spot (see your xxxist vol. p- 36, and Report i. 473 note, and 490) and in his theury of valleys, which, with some additional errors combined therewith, is so strenuously insisted on by Mr. De Luc to the present day, sée Monthly Mag. vol, xxxili. p. 516, and vol, xxxv. p. 316, of
My. Hail’s Models of the Peak in Derbyshire. 113
of its Limestone tract, he should have added, if there be any truth in his Secéion crossing Castleton.
Fortunately for truth and Geological Science, there has long resided in Castleton, a plain unletiered individual, Mr. Elias Hall. vho has examined more than half of the Peak Limestone district at its northern end, andsome ot its borders, with even more attention to minutia and accuracy than 1 could attempt; and Mr. H’s Models, which Mr. B. might either have seen at Castleton or in Town (as noticed in my Ist letter) distincily show this fault, and Mr. H. could, and would have been, and will to future inquirers be ready on the spot, to show the complete disagreement of this Sec- tion of Mr. Bakewell with the facts in Castleton.
IT mention here with great pleasure, to the credit of Mr. Hall, and as a willing tribute to candour and truth, that he did not blindly adopt any statement of mine, as to the faults or the ranges of the four Limestone and three Toadstone Strata of the Peak: but wrote me word in December last, that he could not trace my great Limestone Fault from Castleton further S than Windmill-houses (Rep. 1. 289 and 290), and that so much of this course as lay between Pindale and Windmill-houses, showed a much Jess degree of derangement than [ had assigned to it, for he found Ist Limestone on each side of it: and that he could obtain no proofs, that the clayey chert rubble on the eastern part of Tideswell Moor, &c. (Rep. i. 141), concealed the bassets of the Ist and 2d Toadstones, in their ranges E across this Moor, &c. to the great Fault between Windmill-houses and Litton, whose existence he could not discover (as already: mentioned), but that 1st Lime appeared to occupy all this district. :
On the receipt of this information, I went carefully again through my travelling Notes, made when on this part of my Survey in July 1808, and pointed out in a Letter to Mr. 1. that I had adopted the parts of my Map between Castleton and Litton to which he now objected, under a choice of difficulties, in great part arising, from his know- Jedge, at that time, on the surface or in the Mines beneath, of only one Toadstone, across the north-west part of Tides- well Moor, and thence northward ; requesting, that he would now more particularly inquire into all these facts, above and below ground. After some weeks spent in this in- vestigation, Mr. H. sent me a long letter, accompanied by a sketch Map, showing the range of the 3d Toadstone, not greatly different to what I had laid down, except including
Vol. 42, No. 184, August 1813. H my
114. Mr. Hall’s Models ofthe Peak in Derbyshire.
my separate Hummock of 3d Lime at Peak Forest Towst (Rep. 1. 241) as an almost detached peninsula from the main mass in Tideswell, by having on foot traced the in- distinct Toadstone hassets, across Farms inclosed by high walls, where on horseback [ had imperfect access, and fully werified the same by inquiries of old miners, and actually descending into most of the Mines that were open: and that instead of the basset of this Toadstone rangmg down the S side of Cave Dale, after crossing it at the Basaltic Co- lumn (Rep. i. 278 N.) as he and I after several hours search in 1808, had concluded it to do, Mr. H. now found, that after crossing Cave Dale, the 3d Toddstone ranged past (and occasioned) the Lady-wells, to the great Fault, NW of Pindate.
That the 2d Toadstone had a range, very distinct, though dificult to be traced under the heathy and peaty Soil, aeross TVideswell Moor, and round the west face of Copt "Round Fill, and that 12 mile north of this, if abuts suddenly on Wet-Rake vein “and can nowhere further be traced on the surface. And that the lst Toadstone basset, had been in like manner now traced, generally within half a mile to the
eastward of the 2d, from about a mile N of Tideswell Town (where I had erroneously turned them both eastward) until it abuts in Jike manner on West Rake: and that two of those that had been represented to me as chance Tuadstones, in Maiden Rake, &c. (Rep. i. 274) were these regular 1st and 2d Toadstones.
Mr. Hall further stated, (as I before had minuted) that Dirtlow and Wet-Rake vein, which connect from Pindale to the abovementioned place where the two Toadstones are Jost, and further west, contain what the Miners call softs or heterogeneous wet dirt, among the ore (whence their names), and that their cheeks or opposite Rocks were known to be different, which induced him to think, that my great Lime- stone Fault turned nearly at right angles at Pindale, up Dirt- low vein, rapidly decreasing in its vise, and that only an inferior branch of it went forwards to Windmill- houses, as above mentioned.
The practical Miners about Castleton, and thence to Tideswell, have generally acknowledged but one Toadstone or Channel *, and when they have met with more, in working the same veins, have called the others Wayboards or Clays
~ * Tris plain that Mr. William Haigh, and others of Mr. Whitehurst’s
informants, told him of only one ‘Toadstone, ‘ Inquiry,” Ist Edit, p. 161,
and Plate VIi. and which led him into a material mistake, ( ‘Un
Mr. Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakewell. 115
{in which state this Proteus-like substance often is found, Rep. i. 278) this my numerous notes on the sinkings in these Mines will show, and the circumstance had de- ceived Mr. H. in 1808, and until the time I am speaking of, as well as myself; but on descending into and ex- amining all the accessible parts of Dirtlow, and Wet-Rake Mines and others near, and closely questioning the old Miners as to the Mines now inaccessible (nearly all of which Mr. H. had himself visited repeatedly, to collect Specimens for sale in his Shop, years ago), this course of the great Fault, and the places of the different Limetones and Toadstones in the skirts of the veins through which it passed, and in every other, were found to agree perfectly.
Mr. Hall’s Models intended for sale, were accordingly coloured to suit this arrangement, the main branch of Fault terminating, owing to its decrease, or at least ceasing to derange the bassets by its rise, in the 3d Lime, in Wet- Rake, SW of Casfleton.
Since the receipt of Mr. H’s Models, I have well con- sidered nearly every part of them, and can say with confi- dence, that they convey much correct and new informa- tion, with respect to the ranges of all the principal Mineral. veins, in particular, wbich 1s not anywhere else to be met with. I have been careful to record all the corrections or additional facts of the Derbyshire Strata, Mines, &c. &c. which have reached me from Mr. Hall or any other source, and shall always be thankful for such, in case I can ever resume my proposed * Mineral History,” or that a new Edition of my Ist volume of Report should ever be called for, in which they might be noticed.
I am exceeding sorry if I mistook what Mr. B. himself said to me, on the only occasion on which we have met, the 15th of May 1812, respecting the extent of his coinci- dence in opinion with Mr. Whitehurst, as to Lava in Der- byshire; | had heard or recollected no other statement of his on the subject, at the time of writing to you, or cer- tainly would have guided myself thereby, having no wish to misrepresent.
IT must now add, that however little importance Mr. B. may have den attached to his volcanic notions, they ap- pear to me, to form now avery prominent feature in his work, and to be carried greatly beyond what the facts of the British Islands will warrant, as I intend to take other opportunities of showing.
_ I come at length to Mr. B’s postscript, p.47. The rather ostentatious mention of my Lord Moira’s Survey here
H 2 (on
116 Slate, &c. in Charnwood Forest is not stratified.
(on a subject that I had not introduced), and in different parts of the Geology, had given me reason to hope, that T should, from a perusal of the whole, add greatly to my stock of knowledge, of the interesting district called Charnwood Forest: the first tract which I examined in my Survey, containing substances which I had not any where previously” seen ‘in situ,” and yet hurried greatly, compared with any parts of Derbyshire; my expectations have however’ been much disappointed.
Respecting the stratification of the slate, 1 had thought: that it might have been easy for Mr. B. to have added in this postscript, the range and dip, (as to direction at least) af Rocks ‘* most distinctly stratified ;” but at page 288, of the Geology, the contrary of this appears, after an awkward sort of introduction, in the following words: ‘* but I am persuaded that what resembles stratification 1s the result of crystallization on the mountain mass, by whieh it has se- parated into thick tables or plates, that are of limited ex- tent, or wedge-shaped*.”” Which nowise differs in mean- ing, from what I had originally stated, Report 1. 155; and common candour might have dictated an additional remark from Mr. B. or a note, stating, that the cbservations of a previous writer had been too hastily objected to on this head.
As further proofs of Mr. B’s confusion on this same subject, it may be proper to notice, that in his postscript he says, the stratification of the slate is ** in an opposite al- rection to. the slaty cleavage ;’’ at page 87 of Geology he says: the slaty laming make an angle of sixty degr ees with the principal seam by which the rock is divided ;” and yet, at p- 288, we read, ¢* the slaty cleavage of the stone is nearly at right angles with the direction of the beds.” Such are the eonsequences, of precipitancy, and the want of a little straight-forward candour and liberality, towards others en- gaged i in the same pursuit.
Notwithstanding all that «*T have been compelled ” say in this and my Ist Letter, in condemnation of parti cular parts of Mr. Bakewell’s ‘* Introduction to Geology,” it nevertheless contains much that I wish greatly to recom- mend to the notice of Geological Students, and on that account I shall in future Letters send you, a series of Notes, remarks, and references in the order of its pages, and am,
Sir, your obedient servant, Upper Crown-street, Westminster, Joun FAreEy Sen, 2\st July, 1813.
* Tables, wedge-shaped! see Mr, B’s Vocabulary, p. 358. XIX. On
Cf ou7 ~» XTK. On Freezing of Alcohol. By Ricuarp Waker, sq. To Mr. Tiiloch.
Sir,— By inserting the following remarks on ‘ Freezing of Alcohol,” in the next number of your Magazine, you will much oblige Your obedient seryant,
KicHakD WALKER.
Havince prepared a comparative scale of thermometers, for genera} circulation, of which you did me the favour to insert a copy in a ae number of vour Magazine, in which [ have assumed —9}° as the greatest degree of arti- ficial cold hitherto produced; it becomes necessary for me, I think, to make some observations respecting the Discovery of a New Method of producing Artificial Cold, by Mr. Hutton, of EF dinburgh; from which account we may be Jed to conclude that a cold of —110°, or there- about, has been effected.
Knowing myself the great difficulty of effecting extreme degrees of “cold, I was not a little surprised at the extraor- dinary degree ef cold produced by Professor Leshe by means of the air pump. Consequently the discovery an- nounced by Mr. Hutton, in which the subject of cold is earried so far beyond what has hithert o been known, na- turally arrested my attention.
Astonishing as the fact is to myself, not impeaching, however, in the least, the fidelity with which the author has related the result of his process; I shall beg leave to Mention a circumstance or two, in which scientific men of eminence have unintentionally delivered as facts, what they were afterwards convinced w Heh not so.
_ A philosopher of celebrity in Germany, at the time the congelation of mercury was a novel experiment, published an account, which was credited, of a successful experi- ment, as he believed, in the congelation of mercury; but which, I well knew, could not possibly have been effected by the means mentioned. Some time afierwards I chanced to see this gentleman (Professor Blumenbach) : upon men- tioning the circumstance to him, he canduily declared to
me, that he had been deceived ; and that he had announced his error in print*,
* It once happened to me, in an attempt to freeze mercury, that through inadvertency a portion of the freezing mixture came in contact with the mercury, in consequence of which the mercury assumed a degree of tenacity which had the appearance of being partially frozen.
; H3 More-
118 On Freezing of Alcohol.
Moreover, two other instances have occurred within my knowledge, of a similar nature; in one of which, it was asserted by two French chemists of the first ce- Iebrity, (Messrs. Fourcroy and Vauquelin,) that they had produced an incalculable degree of cold, and had frozen spirit of wine, by means of muriate of lime and snow. Now it happened that at that time a paper of mine had been recently published in the Philosophical Transac- tions, in which I had demonstrated the extreme limit of cold which could be produced by the means above men- tioned, and had prosecuted the subject considerably further, by having resort to other means, and which degree of cold was still measured by a spirit of wine thermometer. The other was an experiment of M. Van Mons, in which it was asserted, that by means of the combined powers of muriate of hme and caustic potash, a cald of —87° had been pro- duced. I made several attempts, with the atmost attention and patience, to repeat this experiment, but without suc- cess. It is proper to add that each of these has passed away, and has been no more heard of,
I beg leave to mention these circumstances, merely as an apology, or rather as a reason why I shall continue ta mark or notice —91° as the greatest degree of cold yet known, until various circumstances, apparently to me of an unsatisfactory nature in the present instance, shall have been removed.
The circumstances I allude to, as requiring further elu- cidation, in order to remove from my mind all doubt, are these : First, it is asserted that this new method, with which ve are not made acquainted, possesses the power, in the author’s opinion, of producing an unlimited degree of gold. Secondly, it is vaguely stated, that the a/cohol froz Ze, as Wag believed, at —110°, without noticing any intermediate de- gree Baciled ly reached before congelati ion took place, and that the apparent irregularity in the temperature, at the time of freezing, was ‘attributed to the contraction of the alcohol; whereas it is well known that water, and mix- tures of spirit and water, as far as experiments had gone before, expan id or dilaie, that is, occupy a larger space than before, on freezing.
Thirdly, from the description given of the alcohol, when frozen; viz. that it separated into three strata; the upper- most of which is said to be of an oily nature, and supposed to be that which communicates the flavour to alcohol; the lowerniost, presumed to be the alcohol, consisting of a liquid neatly tasteless; and a middle stratum, of which we have no account whatever. If
On a Systematic Arrangement of Colours. 1l¢
-It is added that this discovery is of great moment, as it removes an anomaly, which hitherto remained, against the general law in the congelation of liquids, (alluding no doubt to the congelation of alcohol,) viz. that all liquids become solid at a certain temperature.
That alcohol itself, at present the measure of low tem- peratures, would become solid as well as other liquids, pro- vided a sufficient degree of cold were produced, no person, I should think, ever doubted.
It is a well known fact, respecting the congelation of the mineral acids, that the most concentrated state of them 15 by no means that in which they resist the greatest cold without freezing. It is possible this may be the case with respect to alcohol, but this does not appear very probable.
If it be an ascertained fact, that a temperature sufficiently cold can be produced by art to fix or freeze alcohol, or
spirit of wine, of any strength, we must in future look for some other measure of low temperatures than liquids ; and of course, in such a case, a thermometer of metallic con- struction would naturally present itself *,
I have merely made these cursory remarks, being en- gaged at this time in other pursuits, for the reason assigned above ; and when the fact is clearly and accurately esta- blished, I shail adopt it in the stead of the one I at present consider myself bound to adhere to,
Oxiord, July 6, 1813. Rp. WALKER.
Sa nea ee ee oT
XX. On a Systematic Arrangement of Colours. By Tuomas Forster, Esq.
To Mr. Tulloch.
Sir, Aone the desiderata of philosophy may be included the want of a systematic arrangement of colourst, with specific names for each, whereby the numerous combina- tions and shades of colour, which appear on the surtaces of bodies, may be expressed with greater precision than they can be at present with our imperfect and indefinite names. I was first induced to think on this subject irom the great difficulty that [ experienced from time to time in conveying on paper an adequate idea of the various and dissimilar unts
* J allude to the contraction or elongation of metallic wire according to
changes of temperature. See a paper on this subject, Phil, May. Aug. 1810, page 119.
+ In future, perhaps, some theory of smells may be formed by repeated experiments with compounds of them. Something like what Haller ts said
to have had in view. : H4 displayed
120 On a Systematic Arrangement of Colours.
displayed by the clouds and the haze on different occasions, which were occasioned by the refractive powers of the nu- biform particles of water, and which I wished to register in my Meteorological Journal. The terms in common use, such as red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, &c. were not sufficiently dannite: for of all these there are numerous varieties. That any nomenclature should be constructed which shall precisely define every combination and shade of colour is almost impossible, since the varieties and approxi- mations of one colour towards another are infinite, as they depend on the proportions of mixtures, the quantities of which we may suppose capable of being varied infinitely ; but still a more perfect set of names might be arranged than has as yet been done. I am surprised that scientific persons, but botanists in particular, have not before this at- tempted something of the kind. How different is the red of the flower of the peony from that of the papaver rheeas! How almost contrasted does the brilliant red of the scarlet lychnis appear to the red of the papaver orientale called the monk’s-hood poppy! Who is there who cannot discover much difference in the colours of the flowers of the spring crocus, of the field ranunculus, and of the evening prim- rose, and are not these termed yellow flowers ? What di- stinction between the blue of the sonchus ceruleys from that of the field hyacinth !
The colour we call green has nearly as many varieties : we hear of grass-green, apple-green, &c. but these terms do not express the numerous kinds of green observable in different leaves and other’natural productions. The word brown appears still more various ; it seems to have become the common name for all unknown and mixed corruptions of colour *.
To rectify the present imperfect descriptions of flowers, and other natural and artificial productions, by a more ac~ curate nomenclature for colours, is a desirable object ; but what is the best mode of forming such a nomenclature be- comes a different question.
If the colours of many wild flowers could be relied on as standards, from not being found to vary much in different situations and at different periods, we might have a no- menclature by reference to them : but this would be objec- tionable, in as much as one principal use of the specific names-being that of enabling botanists to describe the tints
* In superadding the terms pink, lake, scarlet, orange, &c. we have not done much towards.a perfect nomenclature, as there are varieties fae scribable by these names,
of
Mr. Bukewell’s Reply to Mr. Farey. 191
of flowers, they must in this case describe the. colour of many by reference to that of others, which must be pre- sumed to be known. In this case, therefore, the nomencla- ture could only have reference to well known plants, and would be quite useless in countries where the said plants were not either indigenous or commonly cultivated.
_ As all the numerous tints in nature may be said. to con- sist in the combinations and shades of the primitive colours $ that is, in the proportions of the various mixtures, and the intensity produced by the degree of light; the most ac- curate method would be to investigate these said propor~ tions, and make a nomenclature which should have re- ference to them: but as this would be a work of great la~ bour, it would be advisable if we could construct some more easy and familiar nomenclature. I merely suggest these hints at present, which I hope may be improved upon in future.
Yours, &c, Clapton, June 30, 1813. THOMAS TORSTE a
——»
XXI. Mr. BaxeweEr in Reply to Mr, Farry, on the Great Derbyshire Fault.
Yo Mr. Tilloch.
Sir,—In the Philosophical Magazine forJuly 1812, some queries were addressed by me to Mr. John Farey, respecting what he has denominated the great Derbyshire Fault, re questing him to favour the public with some proofs of its existence. The Jast number of your Magazine contains a letter from Mr. I’. purporting to be a reply to mine, but omitting entirely the proofs which he was requested to pro- duce. I therefore take the liberty of refreshing his me- mory, with a second request to have a short and intelligible answer to these queries, as they regard: the determination of a most important question in the Geology of England. That your readers may have a more distinct view of the subject, [ shall briefly observe, that by the ** ereat Derby- shire fault” is meant a rent or fracture of the earth’s sure face, which has torn the island from Nottingham to near Macclesfield in Cheshire; and from thence in a line north wards into Yorkshire or Lancashire. According to Mr, Farey, the discoverer of this fault, the strata on the north side of it are elevated from a vast depth, and the strata on the south terminate against this rent or fault, or are cut off by it. To use a familiar illustration of faults given Py idd
122 Mr, Bukewell’s Reply to Mr. Farey
Kidd in his Mineralogy, the strata on each side of the fault. may be supposed to resemble a house, of which one halt of the foundations have sunk down, anc brought the garrets on that side to the same level with the ground floor.
Mr. Farey has gravely asserted that such a fault extends in the direction I have stated, and he has in various ways introduced it to the public as a discovery made during his survey of Derbyshire. The question at issue between Mr. Farey and the public, is of considerable importance as a subject of natural history, and as. forming an important feature in the geology of England ; for it must be remem- bered that Mr. F. has not offered this great fault to the public as a conjecture, but described it as an existing fact, in a work published by the authority of the Board of Agri- culture. If arent of such vast magnitude exist in our island, if the strata have been thrown up on one side, or depressed on the other, many hundred yards along a line of more than 100 miles, the proofs of this great convulsion must be too clear to admit of any doubt; at least we might ex- pect that these proofs could be discerned by others as well as by Mr. Farey, if they had any existence beyond the li- mits of his own mind. Mr. Farey, who has written so much and so seriously respecting the ‘* great Derbyshire fault,’ who has traced its course with such minuteness in his Map of Derbyshire, cannot require more than twelve months to answer the queries in your Magazine of July 1812—** Where can this ‘great fault’ be scen zz situ im any part of its course from Nottingham to Ashburn? What is the breadth of the great fault? Is it merely aslip of the strata, or is it a dyke filled with mineral matter ? If the latter, what substances is it filled with ?”’
These are plain questions; and if the “great fault” have any real existence, the answers may be compressed in a single page. I think Mr. Farey owes to the public, to the Board of Agriculture, and to himself, such an answer. There ts no necessity for many words, or much extraneous discussion, which can only serve to conceal the subject from our view. If Mr. Farey cannot give such an answer, he will of course candidly acknowledge that he has been too hasty in his conclusions. I believe this will be found the easiest and the safest mode of reply*. From the examina- tion of that part of England which I have again made, so
*® This is the more necessary, as I perceive that the Rev. Mr. Townsend, in a work entitled The Character of Moses vindicated as an Historian, has actually described the great fault, on the authority of Mr, Farey, as some~ thing really existing, :
ar
é on the Great Derbyshire Fault. 193
far from the existence of such a fault appearing, I think there are demonstrative proofs to the contrary, in some of the situations where Mr. Farey has traced it, particularly at Nottingham. According to Mr. F. it ranges directly along the south side of that town, and, if I understand him rightly, the sand rock which rises from the vale of Trent owes its elevation to this fault. But, as I have stated in the chapter on Faults in my ¢ Introduction to Geology,’ *‘so far from any dislocation of the strata being perceptible, the beds of the sand rock at Nottingham are nearly. horizontally divided by seams which contain rounded pebbles. The strata at Ruddington Hills on the opposite side of the vale are but little inclined, the strata in the vale are nearly ho- rizontal wherever wells or excavations have been made, No disturbing force appears to have changed their position sinee their formation.”
Mr. Farey has accused me of great eagerness in attacking ‘his faults.” So far from this being the case; for a long time after the publication of this great discovery, I sus- pended my opinion until [ had an opportunity of re-ex- amining my native county, where Mr. Farey has heen pleased to trace it. Having fully satisfied myself of its non-entity, having had an opportunity of conversing with many intelligent gentlemen in its vicinity, who like myself could discover no trace of its existence, I certainly had a tight to express my own opinion respecting it. I could scarcely avoid the subject when delivering a Lecture on the Geology of England at the Russell Institution last year, and again in: my Introduction to Geology recently pub- lished; but Iam not conscious of having discovered any eagerness to attack or oppose Mr. Farey’s opinions, and I am inclined to believe, that those who honour that work with their perusal will be at a loss to discover what cause of offence [ have given. If the discovery of truth were, as it ought to be, the sole object of pursuit in such discussions, it would be best attained by a calm investivation of facts. The question may be compressed in a small space, and I am particularly desirous that it may not be involved in ex- traneous inquiries, and buried under a multitude of words. Dean Swift has compared certain writers to narrow-necked bottles, ** The less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out;” and he who would avoid such a comparison wou'd do well to compress his ideas into a cons cise and intelligible form, when they relate to subjects which can pear expected to interest a limited number of readers,
Mr:
124 Mr. Bakewell’s Reply to Mr. Farey
My. Farey in his last Jetter bas favoured the public with his travels by night and by day, and bas informed us where he was well entertained; and where he was involved in ‘‘a dis- mal thick fog,” with other subjects of equal interest.. Mr. F. seems however to have returned from Ins journey out of temper with the Scotch Gevlogists, with the Geological Society, and with me. This is the more to be regretted, as the mode of travelling which Mr. Farey says he prefers, is more likely to improve the temper and appetite, than, to add to our geological knowledge. The examination of a country from the “top ” or the ** window of a stage» coach,” is much more suited to mislead the judgement than. to convey accurate information ; for the colour of rocks, which is almost all that can be seen in this mode of examining nature, is the most fallacious of all characters, The same rock often presents every variety of tint by ex- posure to the atmosphere, and will be red or yellow in pro- portion to the oxidation of the iron it contains. I con- fess I do not set a high value on this kind of ¢ stage coach geology :’ it may account, however, for some extraordinary descriptions which have of late years been given to the public, about yellow limestone, red marle, &c.
Mr. Farey persists in objecting to the identity of the lime- stone of Craven in Yorkshire, with that of the High Peak in Derbyshire*, though I believe he has never seen the former except at a distance: but their identity has not been, and I am inclined to think cannot be, denied by those who have examined both. Their geological relations on the eastern side are precisely the same; they are both covered with si- milar strata, and present the same external characters. The limestone which Mr. Farey saw in another district near Kendal, alternating with graywacke or coarse slate, cannot prove or disprove the question ; and I may still repeat that Mr. Farey bas no reason to advance to disprove their identity, but his ‘¢ imaginary great fault,” of which I think he will find it difficult to offer any direct proof.
In the observations which Mr. Farey has been pleased to make on the Geological Map of England in my Introduc- tion to Geology, be seems to forget, what I have expressly stated, “ that | propose only to trace an outline of the Geo- logy of England, and the leading features. of its physical structure and mineral geography, I wish the description,
* Mr, Farey seems compelled reluctantly to admit that the upper lime- stone strata may be the same in Craven and in Derbyshire; “I rather be- lieve the top does rise from under shale-grit and mill-stone grit,”—which is all I contend for,
and
on the Great Derbyshire Fault. 125'
and the map which accompanies it, to be considered as presenting only a rapid sketch of the more important characters, without any attempt at minute accuracy of de- tail, which would be more likely to fatigue attention than to excite or gratify general curiosity.”
There are three distinct modes of forming a geological map: the one proposes to trace every stratum as it rises to the surface, and to delineate its boundaries and termination. This can only be applied to small districts or estates. The second traces the situation, the different orders of rock, and the more remafkable strata or mineral repositories: this may be applied to larger districts. The third mode delineates the situation of the different classes of rock, and presents” only the leading features of the mineral geography, without attempting minute accuracy of detail : this is suited to con- vey, in a concise form, a view of the most important geo- ~ logical characters of a kingdom. Such is the Map of the United States, given by M. Maclure in the Journal de Phy- sigue ; and this is what I have attempted in the Map of England to which Mr. Farey alludes. The upper cal- careous strata, comprising calcareous sandstones and chalk, occupy the eastern side of England; the western termina- tion of these strata is traced in a waving line from Dor- setshire to near Scarborough. In some situations the cal- careous strata may extend a few miles beyond the line, or terminate a few miles east of it: but such minuteness of delineation was unattainable on the scale in which it is given. The next great division includes the lower secon- dary strata, which contain in various parts ironstone, rock- salt, and coal, but without any delineation of the particular coal-fields, the most remarkable of them being described in the work. These strata are terminated by the alpine district on the western side of England, containing metallic ores.
Mr. Farey observes, that the inhabitants of Exeter would be obliged to me to find the characteristic minerals of the middle district, ‘*iron-stone, rock-salt, and coal.” But Mr. F. can scarcely be so unacquainted with coal strata, as not to know that they exist only in detached patches in the secondary districts to which coal is peculiar, and many ex- tensive districts of Jower secondary strata contain no beds of workable coal. But it is not the less true that such strata are the proper repositories of coal. That these strata ex- tend into Devonshire, is well known. Vide Dr. Berger, Mr. Townsend, and others.
Any one who reads Mr. Farey’s paper might wa that
126 Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid.
that I had held out the expectation of finding coal to th¢, inhabitants of Exeter. I have not even distantly alluded to the subject. In every district, the lowest rock which rises to the surface in different parts may be considered as the fundamental rock, yiving the true geolegicai character to. that district, although this fundamental rock may be co- yvered in many parts with rocks of another class. ,
The district which Cuvier has described round Paris, is considered properly as a chalk district, though the chalk is covered in most parts by strata of a subsequent formation. Thus also in the alpine districts of England, which I have delineated, the sides of the primary or transition rocks are in some parts covered with coal strata: but this cannot change the geological character of the country, or invali- date the propriety of the terms primary or transition rocks, as applied to them in tracing on a great scale the geological features of the country.
Yours, &c.
Whitby, July 15, 1813. R. BAKEWELL.
XXII. Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid at the Bot- tom of a Volcano of Mount Idienne, situated in the Pro- vince of Bagnia-Vangni, in the Eastern Part of the Island of Java. By M. Lescuenavcrt, Naturalist and Cir-
cumnavigator in the Employment of the French Govern- anent™.
Tue province of Bagnia-Vangni is the most eastern district in the island of Java; it is separated from the island of Bali by a streight about two leagues broad: its territory is formed of the declivity of Mount Idienne, which com- mands it on the west, and the immense base of which is covered with lofty forests. This country is one of the finest and most fertile in Java, but it is also the most insa- Jubrious. Within these forty years only it has been under the subjection of the Dutch: formerly it was governed by its own prince, who was driven from his throne by the Dutch, and died in retirement at Bali. Some time after the submission of this province, the inbabitants revolted on account of certain exactions imposed upon them by the Dutch ; but they were soon conquered and dispersed: their persecutors, however, almost all died of a contagious disease,
*From Annales du Museum @ Histoire Naturelle, ix Année, tom. xviii. p. 495. +The annexation of Java to the British empire will,it is presumed, render this memoir doubly interesting to the English reader at present-—Enirt,
‘and
Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid, 197
and the result of the war was the almost total annihilation of the population of the province.
Bagnia-Vangni is entirely isolated from all the other in- habited parts of the island of Java: in order to arrive at it from Pannaroukan, we must traverse a forest twenty-four leagues in length, by a single foot-path two feet broad. Upon the whole route there are only two small villages with ten or twelve houses in each: these serve for halting- places for travellers, who are lodged in miserable cara- vanseras kept up at the expense of the chiefs of these vil- lages. We also meet with the traces of some other smaller villages or dessas ; but the inhabitants have been forced to abandon them on account of the tigers, which not only carry off their cattle but attack the villagers themselves.
The isolated situation cf Bagnia- Vangni, and the difficulty of quitting it clandestinely, (for the tigers render it unsafe for single individuals to travel through it,) induced the Dutch East India Company to make it a place of exile for Indian malefactors; who are there employed in the cultivation of pepper and coffee. The latter production is superior to that of any other part of Java.
During a residence of two months in this country I vi- sited Mount Idienne. The object of my journey was not only to examine the volcano at the summit of this movn- tain, one of the highest in Java, but also to explain the phenomena exhibited by a river a few leagues from Peana- roukan. The waters of this river are generally whitish ; in this state they have no bad taste, and are not hurtful to animals or to vegetation: but suddenly the white colour disappears; the colour becomes yellowish and dull, the taste very acid, and then these waters are fatal to all ani- mals who drink of them, and destroy the vegetation with which they come in contact. This phenomenon is inter- mittent, but it has neither stated period nor fixed duration. It is extremely prejudicial to the land on the banks of the river, as it cannot be cultivated with success. WhenT set out from Samarang to visit the eastern part of the island, M. Englehard, governor of Java, directed me to make in- quiries into these changes in the waters of the white river, with a view to discover some remedy. I wrote to him on the 30th of September 1805 the following letter, which contains my observations, and the description of the vol- cano changed into solfaterra, to which this phenomenon may be referred.
« 30th September 1805.
“* Within these few days I haye returned from my visit to
198 Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid.
to Mount Idienne. 1 have enjoyed the most imposing spectacle in nature, not that beneficent nature which be- stows upon mankind abundance, happiness, and repose, but that frightful nature which exhibits the images of disorder and destruction, and is constantly preparing inflammable substances with which to cover and desolate a_ fertile country. However desirous I may be to communicate a part of the sensations which I experienced, my pen is, in- adequate to the task, and I must therefore confine myself to a dry detail of facts.
«¢ The object of my journey was to inquire into the causes of the change of colour, and the nature of the waters of the White River*, and also to examine the volcano situated at the south-west flank of the upper part of Mount Idienne, M. Vikerman, since he became military commandant. of Bagnia- Vangni, bad always intended to visit this volcanos from which the Dutch East India Company had frequently procured sulphur for the manufacture of their gunpowder: but the Japanese spoke with horror of the difficulty and danger of the attempt; every journey to the summit of the mountain had been disastrous to men and animals.
«© M. Vikerman and his son-in-law M. Lisnets, M. Lois the pilot of the harbeur, M. Hawersten and myself set out on horseback in. the morning of the 18th of September 1805. We were accompanied by the Patit and the In- gucbeyt of Bagnia-Vangni, and a great number of Japanese and slaves, as well for our own personal convenience as for the transfer of the baggage and provisions. We halted and spent the night at Bantvar, a village only three leagues from Bagnia-Vangni, and situated on the lowermost skirts of Mount Idienne. Towards this village the declivity is gentle: we pass through a fertile well watered country covered with forests, in the midst of which there are some small villages.
«On the 19th we set out from Bantyar, and arrived in the evening at Ohonponoph, a valley which connects Mount Idienne}| with Mount Ranté, and forming a halting- place for those who visit Mount idienne: it is about six Jeagues from Bantyar. On this route we meet, one league from Bantyar, a village newly established, and called Li- tienne: it is inhabited by some of the malefactors exiled
* In Japanese Songi pouti.
+ Pati isthe Japanese title of the intendant of the province. + Inguebey, chief of a district. P 4 The name of Marapi (fiery mountain) was formerly given to Mount
Idienne. The latier appellation is takea from a district situated on its westerm side, and formerly inhabited. f
“
Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid. 129
by the Dutch to Bagnia-Vangni for the cultivation of coffee and pepper plantations: the latter have obtained their personal liberty in consequence of their good conduct. A short distance from this place we cross the rivers Serant, Bone @’ho*, and Pakis+. The latter is almost entirely dry at this season of the year. The banks of all these rivers are rugged, and in the rainy monsoons they form im- petuous torrents.
From the village of Litienne to the river Pakis the country presents a vast forest of bamboos ; from thence to Ohonponoph the bamboo does not grow, nor do we meet with any rivers or springs, but we pass through deep valleys formed by the torrents which issue through them in the rainy season. The higher we rise, the more rapid the slope becomes. This part of the mountain is shaded by trees of considerable height, and a great variety of vege- tables, among which we mect with the fern tree (Pakis galar) in abundance, the cabbage palm tree (.Javar), and the small kind of wild beetel root called by the Javanese Lindpidji. Under this covering of vegetables we may as- certain the quality of the primitive soil, because the surface 1s nothing hut a thick stratum of the remains of vegetables. The rays of the sun never penetrate these thick forests, but we breathe a cold and humid air in them which affects the chest much. The trunks of the trees are covered with Mosses, mushrooms, epidendron and parasite ferns: the vegetables when trodden down soon putrety, in conse- quence of the humidity of the ground.
In the valley of Ohonponoph we find only some rare and isolated clumps of trees ; among which we may re- mark, the Casuarma equisetifolia, and a new kind of oak. The soil is every where covered with a very long grass, which serves as food to the numerous herds of deer which people the adjoining forests, and as thatch for the cottages, m which we took up our quarters. The valley is of mo- derate extent; towards the east it skirts the country which extends to the streight of Bali, and towards the west, that which extends to the mountains of Kuendan: on the south it is bounded by Mount Ranté, and on the north by Mount Idienne. When the sky is clear aud serene, we breathe a dry and mild air; but in general the vapours which rise during the day return at night, and form a cold, thick and damp fog, which is very danverous. It was a fog of this description accompanied by rain, which in a single night a
* Rone d'ho is the Japanese name of the Artocarpus inlegrifolia. + Pakis signifies in Japanese and Malayan, Fern.
Vol. 42, No. 184, August 1813, 1 few
130 Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid.
few years ago killed a man and upwards of fifty horses, which had been sent to transport the sulphur that had been extracted from the solfaterra.
We slept at Ohonponoph, and next day, on the 20th of September, M. Vikerman and mysclf set out to visit the west side of the mountains. The objéct of this journey was to examine the White River, aud the causes of the changes it undergoes. I shall give an account of the result of my observations, as well from my own inspection as from the information which I received from the Pati of Bagnia-Vangni, who in his younger days had tr aversed all these mountains, when the company was at war with the inhabitants of this province.
To elucidate my narrative, I have sketched a map of the country (Plate II.) from the summit of Mount Seloupo, from which I had a view of the, whole. This map may not be perfectly accurate as to the geographical positions, but it will be sufficient to serve as a guide to the perusal of my narrative.
The White River (in Javanese, Sorge pouti) takes its source at Mount Rao: its course is rapid, and it flows northward parallel to the mountains of Kuendan, leaving in the west the mountain Soukat; the mountains of Kuendan have at first their direction from south to north, but they afterwards turn to the east, leaving a passage to the waters of the White River which continues to run northward, and washes the country situated between Pannaroukan and Sombraron. Its waters from tbeir source have a milky colour, but it is only visible when they are in a large mass ; for, if we put some into a glass, they appear perfectly trans- parent and limpid; they are insipid to the taste: the Javanese assert, that in this state they greatly fertilize the country through which they pass. ‘I ‘he country adjoining the source of this river was formerly peopled ; but it is now absolutely deserted, from the same causes which have de= populated the greater part of Baguia-Vangni.
The waters of the White River, on leaving Mount Rao, flow over a white clay which communicates its colour to them: the changes which they undergo arise from another yiver which joins them about three leagues from their source. This river is called by the Javanese, Songt poutt its waters saturated with a great quantity of sulphuric acid are pungent and caustic ; they i issue from Mount Idienne, and have their source in the volcanic gulph of this moun- tain, as will be seen in the subsequent part of my narrative.
This sulphuric river, when it is not increased by the rains whieh
. Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid. 31
Which frequently fall in these mountains,is very inconsider- able: in this state it is gradually absorbed by the sandy soil over which it flows, and disappears entirely about half a league before arriving at the White River, which then pre- serves its primitive colour and taste to its mouth; but if the sulphuric river is swelled by the rains, the ground then not being capable of absorbing all its waters, it discharges itself into the White River at the place where the latter intersecis the mountains of Kuendan, and communicates all its noxious quahties: the sulphuric acid, combining with the particles of argil which the waters of the White River contain, unites with them and changes their colour; and being then charged with an acid, they kill all the fish at their mouth, giving violent colics to those who drink of them, besides destroying all the vegetation on their banks.
Such are the phenomena which the waters of the White, River exhibit: it is very unlucky that this river is spoiled by the sulphurous waters of Songi pouti, since, as I have already observed, it waters a very large tract of country which would otherwise be very fertile: it would perhaps be easy, however, to turn the course of the waters of Songe pouti, by opening a passage for them between the moun- tains of Kuendan and Racienpo; or to separate their bed from that of the White River at the place where they join it. I descended into the bed of the Songi poutt, and I walked over more than a quarter of a league: the waters were low at this period, and [I do not think the whole mass united exceeded eighteen inches in breadth by as many in depth. In the Jargest hollows the river is not more than twenty-five feet broad and two feet deep. It 1s easy to see the places which the waters have reached by the traces of corrosion which they have left on the rocks and on the soil, and the want of vegetation, which has been burnt up Wherever they have been.
The back part of these mountains, from Ohonponoph to about half a league from the banks of the White River, is dry and hilly, composed cf innumerable volcanic Udejec- tions forming a toarse sand. The soil is almost every where covered with a very tall grassy plant of the genus Saccharum, called by the Javanese Allan. We meet with trees in the valleys only, these places serving ‘as so many retreats for a great number of tigers and numerous herds of deer. ‘The banks of the White River near its source are fertile, and traces of cultivation are to be met with.
In the evening, a short tinie after our return to Ohonpo- noph, the valley was covered with the noxious fog above
l2 alluded
132 Report of the National Vaccine Establishment.
alluded to: it had a fetid smell, and was so thick that we- could not see a fire twenty-five paces off: fortunately for us, a violent east wind, which arose about nine o’clock in the evening, speedily cleared the atmosphere of these malig- nant vapours, which, if they are not mortal, at least occa~ sion long and obstinate fevers.
On the 21st early in the morning we set out on foot to visit the voleano: the road which Jeads to it is extremely. steep, and fatiguing on accountof a very fine grass, which covers the soi], and renders it very slippery; and in order to make any progress it is necessary at every step’ to lay hold. of the shrubs which we meet with. ‘The Casuarina equi- setifolia, which the Javanese call Semara, is almost the only Jarge tree which is seen on this side of the mountain: the wind rusting through its long filiform leaves produces a continual and sharp hissing noise; this tree is straight and tapering: it has the appearance of the fir-tree, but its heavy and brittle wood does not admit of its being applied to the same use*,
After two hours walking, we arrived at the summit of the crater. Before reaching this height we had already met with here and there a great quantity of sulphur in dirty greenish Jumps like score: they scem to have been thrown out of the volcano during some eruption.
[To be continued.]
XXII. Report of the National Vaccine Establishment. | Dated 29d sipril, 1813.
[Continued from p. 34. ]
To the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Sidmouth. Leicester Square, May £4, 1813. Mr Don be- bak Board of the National Vaccine Esta-. blishment have received the enclosed papers since they had the honour of communicating to your Lordship their Re- port of the state of vaccination during the year 1812: and they take the liberty of recommending, that, when they shall have beer submitted to the Honourable the House of Commons, they should be printed, and subjoined as a se- cond Appendix to their Report now, by the order of the House, in the press. These papers contain a valuable testi- mony of the rapid progress which, in one of our Eastern
* These trees when transplanted into the plain have no longer the same appearance: they are shorter than those which grow on the mountains, and their tops are more loaded with branches.
Governments,
Report of the National Vaccine Establishment. 133
Governments, has been made by vaccination in the years 1810 and 1811: and the Board of the National Vaccine Establishment is of opinion, that the prudent and judicious conduct of the Medical Board of Madras, in re-establishing the Small-Pox Hospital for the reception of persons casually attacked with the disorder, may be a useful Jesson of in- struction to the inhabitants of other countries, to provide places of seclusion for people affected with the disease, in order {o prevent the propagation of its infection.
James Hervey, Register. Fr. Mian, President.
t Extract Judicial Letter from Fort St. George, dated 29th February 1812. Para. 101.
As we have no doubt it will be satisfactory to your ho- nourable Court to be informed of the successful progress of Vaccination in the territories under this presidency, we beg leave to refer you for information on this point, to a general Abstract Return furnished by the Superintendent, for the year 1810-11.
102. We have the satisfaction at the same time of in-
forming your honourable Court, that measures have been taken for introducing the cow-pox into the territories of the Rajah of Coorg, and the island of Java. - 104, Weare concerned to state to your honourableCourt, that notwithstanding the successful diffusion of vaccina- tion, we have been obliged, as a measure of precaution, to re-establish the Small-pox Hospital at the Presidency, in consequence of the appearance of that disease; and al- thaugh the number of patients in the Hospital be small, it has been judged advisable to continue the Establishment, in order that the few who may be infected should instantly be removed thither, to prevent infection. The disease has within a very recent period become more prevalent in the neighbourhood of the capital at Pulicat, and in the Jagheer: we have therefore authorized, in compliance with the re- commendation of the Medical Board, an additional num- ber of native vaccinators, and permitted the sub-assistant surgeon at Pulicat, to draw the allowances of a local supers intendent of yaccination.
13 PROGRESS
134
Report of the National Vaccine Establishment.
PROGRESS OF VACCINATION IN INDIA.
Abstract from the Returns of Patients successfully vaccinated at the Presidency, and different Out Stations, during the Years 18:0 and 18il.
Cast and Sex of Patients duly Vaccinated. woos - Total Christians. Hindoos. Musselmen. } Vaccinated. {Grand e . Total. Males |Femal.# Males.| Fernal.{Males.}|Femal.f Males. |Females 1810. } Jan - | S09] 240) 5,879] 4,6954 747] 406] 6,955] 5,358q 12,275 Feb.- | 353] S01] 6,956) 4,995f 883] 47¢] 7,542) 5,7698 15,311 March| 469] S49] 6,852} 5,552f 904) 48¢f 8,955) 6,3879 14,642 April 819| 5894 5,614] °4,191f 855) Soot 7,288] 5,289 12,577 May - 366 38S] 4,757] 3,579% 784] 54° 5,807/ 4,616 10,425 June- | 581] 441} 5,739} 4,5178 634) 397} 6,967] 5,355 12,322 July - 705| 490) 5,899} 4,2729 1,548} 518% 8,075) 5,28C§ 15,355 August} $07 6574 5,138] 3,647] 625] S76f 6,670} 4,680f 11,350 Sept.-| 646] 649} 5,901] 4,185f 815! 47°) 7,362] 5,307 12,669 Oct.-} 968} 6579 5,705} 4,657f 674). 515J 7,347} 5,829} 13,176 Nov.-} 873] 711] 5,530} 4,217{ 613] S86] 7,016) 5,314§ 12,330 Dec.-| 750} 633] 5,830} 4,484§ 536] 404f 7,116] 5,521f 12,637 _ Total | 7,746 | 6,106} 69,146} 52,988] 9,588) 5,491} 86,580) 64,6859151,065 1811. Jan. - 984} G85] 5,560] 4,471f 574, 445] 7,118! 5,598% 12,716 Feb.-'} $94] 681] 5,199] 4,301f 650) 44¢f 6,683} 5,425§ 12,108 March] 54) 587] 5,266} 4,419] 839) 464] 6,646) 5,47cf 12.116 April 611 672} 5,810] 4,483f 682) 402) 7,103] 5,648 12,751 May - 493| 5774 11,945} 4,319) 716) 877) 13,154) 5,773] 18,927 June-| 590| 423] 6.557) 4,361§ 760} 561} 7,907) 5,345§ 13,252 July -| 73 523] 5,051] 3,912) 967) S537f 6,752) 4,9729 11,724 August] 708] 530] 5,465} 4,010f 879) 554) 7,052} 5,094) 12,146 Sept.-} 679]. 491] 5,993] 4,672] 869) 536] 7,541! 5,6994 13,240 Oct. -| 818] 690] 5,973] 4,230§ 1035] 492} 7,296] 5,412) 12,658 Nov.-| 709} 535] 4,726) 3,708] 835} 532% 6,270] 4,775] 11,045 Dec. -}| 791] 5444 5,085} 4,105f 890] 5S3§ 6,766] 5,189} 11,948 Total | 3,552] 6,738} 71,976} 50,991} 9,696] 6,464] 90,218] 64,393]154,611
Total
Porat ¥| 5298 12,844] 41,1 46|103,979}!9,284|11,955]176,598) 129,078)305,676
Fort St. George, Medice| Board Office, t (Signed) Wm. Horsman, 15th February 1812, ' i Sup. Gen. Vac. In. as ' (Trae Copy.)
(Signed) Wm. Horsman, Sec. Med, Board,
(A true Copy.)
(Signed) Frep. GAHAGAN, Sec, to Gov.
XXIV. An
f.f85..J XXIV. An Attempt to determine the definite and simple Pro-
portions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganic Sub- stances are united with each other. By Jacop BER2E- Lius, Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy, and M.R,A. Siockholm.
(Continued from p, 44.) AVITI. Lime.
Ix the description of my earlier experiments on the de- composition of the alkalis, 1 have shown that in such de- compositions the magnitude of the effect depends entirely upon that of the electricity discharged, and I have described the most effectual arrangement of the apparatus. Jn the decomposition of the alkaline earths the case is totally dif- ferent. The solutions in water can never be so much con- centrated as those of the alkalis; the quantity of the earth which comes at each instant within the compass of the operation of the battery is consequently very small in pro- portion to that of the water, and the greatest part of the power of the battery.is employed on the water. While therefore in the analysis of potass or soda we are obliged, in order to diminish the intensity of the discharge, to ex- tend the surface of the quicksilver, in that of the earths we are obliged to confine it, in order to increase the inten- sity of the operation, since only so much of it as is left after the decomposition of the water can operate on the earths. On this account a very slight addition of muriatic acid is favourable to their decomposition; while, if a larger quantity were added, the force of the battery would be con- sumed in the useless separation of the earth from the acid, leaving the intimate composition of the earth unaltered, Hence also we see why the proper, earths are wholly inca pable of being decomposed by the electric column. As soon as the first powerful action of the battery has sub- sided, it operates very little on the earths, and decomposes the water only. . .
The decomposition of lime T effected in a little glass dish, into which I poured some quicksilver, and on it a thin li- quid paste of newly slaked lime. An iron wire formed a connection between the quicksilver and the negative pole of the column, and from its positive pole a wire of platina was introduced into the lime liquor. If this substance was too thick, the gas which was formed raised it up, so that it no longer touched the conductor.
The amalgam of calcium does not differ in its appearance ~ from pure quicksilver; but it has little Auidity, and is 7 , 14 tile,
136 On definite Proportions.
tile, like an amalgam of platina. In the air it instantly blackens, and becomes covered with a thick crust.” When it is saturated, it stiffens after some time into a black porous mass, from which some globules of quicksilver may be pressed out; the remainder is a combination of the prot- oxide of mercury with lime, resembling the brown crust which forms on the residuum left ‘after the distillation of the amalgam of potassium, and the lime may be dissolved out of it by water, without a trace of further oxidation, the ‘ protoxide only remaining. That in these experiments the ‘quicksilver should be oxidated together with the calcium and potassium, would not have been expected: but this ‘ circumstance must evidently be attributed to the want of a substance with which the newly oxidated basis may enter into combination ; and this substance is here, in the ab- sence of water, the protoxide of mercury, which on the contraiy is not formed when the base is oxidated in water.
If we distil] the amalgam of calcium in a small apparatus filled with hydrogen gas, we obtain after a low red heat a ~ metal with a silvery lustre, which when cold is very brittle, -and contains much quicksilver. This metal does not - blacken in the air, but becomes covered with a white crust ‘of caustic lime, which at Jast retains a globule of quick- silver in the middle. If we throw the amalgam into water, lime is formed, with an evolution of hydrogen gas free from smell. If we drop muriatic acid or sal ammoniac “into the water, the evolution of gas is increased, and the ~ hydrogen assumes a strong disagreeable smell, as when irun - or zine is dissolved in muriatic acid. I have observed no sinell in hydrogen gas, even when it is evolved with great - violence from the distilled amalgam of calcium ; the acid must consequentiy cooperate in the production of the smell; ‘but how does this happen? To assume, that the calcium is dissolved in hydrogen, seems not to be sufficient for the explanation, since the smell ought in this case to be more perceptible without the addition of the acid. When the water is saturated with lime, the evolution of gas is al- - most entirely interrupted, until more water is added.
The experiments for the determination of the quantity of oxygen in lime are still less to be depended on than those which-I have related with regard to the fixed alkalis, and for the same reason, that I have always had only very mi- nute quantities of the base to operate upon.
1.) An amalgam of calcium weighing 58'2 grammes Jost in water ‘06 gr. To the solution carbonate of am- -monia was added, and a precipitate of :145 grammes . cars
onate
‘On definite Proportions. 137
bonate of lime was obtained. So that 56-4 parts of lime
' being Pnrained in 100 of the carbonate; the 345 gr. cor- respond to ‘0818 of pure lime, which, according to this experiment, must consist of 73} per cent. of the base aud 264 of oxygen.
2.) An amalgam of 53°535 gr. gave off -037 of calcium to the water, and from this water I obtamed with the car- bonate of ammonia ‘09 of carbonate of lime. This gives
*for lime 73 parts of the base and 27 of oxygen. 3.) An amalgam of 56°65 gr. which, im order to expel all possible moisture, had been heated in an air-tight vessel, ‘and then’ hastily passed through a capillary funnel, far- -nished to the water ‘0435 of calcium. The lime water was saturated with sulphuric acid, and evaporated and ignited in a golden crucible. _ It afforded - 148 of gypsum, in which -0622 of lime is contained. According te this experiment, lime consists of 70 parts of base and 30 of oxygen.
Calculations conducted on the same principle with those by which the composition of the alkalis has been deter- mined, give for that of lime a result not materially al va- riance with these experiments. We have seen, in treating
of the sulphuric acid, IIT. A.) that dry gypsum is com- posed of about 58 parts of sulphuric acid and 42 of lime, or that 100 parts of sulphuric ‘acid saturate 72°41 of lime.
- If these now contain 20°89 parts of oxygen, they give for
- 100 parts of lime 28 of oxygen.
In order to calculate the composition of lime from its com-
bination with the muriatic acid, [analysed the munaate of amen
a) Ten grammes of carbonate of lime were dissolved ii muriatic acid in a glass flask, then dried and ignited antl they were fused. The fused salt weighed 10°96 gr. Bue
ten gr. of carbonate of lime contain 5°62 of hme; conse- quently 100 parts of fused muriate of lime consist of 48°54 of acid and 51°46 of lime.
b.) Some muriate of lime, which had been fused ina
- platina crucible, and weighed 3°01 gr., was dissolved in water, The solution was not perfectly clear, but was ren- dered so by a single small drop of very weak nitric acid. The precipitate by nitrate of silver weighed 7°75 gr. wheia
fused. This answers to 1°448 gr. of muriatic acid, whence
- the muriate contains 48-1 of acid and 51°9 of lime.
This agrees pretty well with what has been already re- lated; for we know, from the experiments described in the
analysis of sal ammoniac, with what force the muriate of lime retains its water, and on this the greater proportion of muriatic acid found in the former experiments may possibly
depend.
138 On definite Proportions.
depend. I therefore consider the experiment on the preci- pitation as the most to be depended on, and acc6rding to this the muriate of lime consists of
Muniatic acid ,,.... 48°] 100°0
PEAGTEEe ieeotetatis 5159 107°9
If we examine this result by calculation according to the quantity of baryta and lime, by which i00 parts of sul- phuric acid are saturated, and the quantity of baryta re- quired to neutralise 100 parts of muriatic acid, we have 194 : 72°41=288°6: 107°72. Here then the calculation pretty nearly agrees with the experiment.
If now in these 107°9 parts of lime 30°49 of oxygen are contamed, lime must contain 28°267 per cent. of oxygen: This being supposed correct, we have for lime
AICI. ge.e'« dpb Tas 100°0 OXVPEN win she ise, BERBH7. 39°4
XIX. Baryta. Muniatic Actp.
The foregoing experiments agreeing pretty well with the results of calculation, I believe that I may take for granted that hereafter calculations alone will be sufficient, when they are founded on the results of correct experiments. Thus, for example, in the case of baryta, the composition of which may be pretty easily calculated ; since 100 parts of sulphuric acid suppose in 194 of baryta 20:29 of oxy- gen, baryta must consist of 10°46 oxygen and 89:54 bary- lium ; or sitice 100 parts of muriatic acid suppose in 288°4 of baryta 30°49 of oxygen, baryta must consist of 10°575 oxygen and §9°435 barytium. The difference of these two results shows that the analyses are not yet arrived at a suf- ficient degree of perfection, but it may be boped that in future this perfection will be more easily obtained. In the great number of analytical experiments which I. have been obliged to employ, in order to obtain some connected re- sults, no man will be surprised if I have not always suc ceeded in determining every figure of the numbers con- cerned with perfect accuracy.
May we not expect that the same proportions, which we have found to prevail in whole orders of compounds, must always subsist between the same substances, even in com- plicated mixtures, and in bodies of different natures? J] conjecture that this question, after many repetitions of ex- periments, will he answered in the athrmative, although there may be some partial exceptions; as we have already secn in the analyses of the subsulphate and the sulphate of the oxide of iron, where the original. proportions of the
: sulphur
On definite Proportions. 139.
sulphur and iron were modified by those of the oxygen and irow, and underwent a change which I attempted to ex- plain. It is besides more than probable, that if, for ex- ample, 100 parts of muriatic acid constantly require 30°49 of oxygen in the salts into which they enter, they do the saine in all other definite combinations; so that 100 parts of muriatic acid take up the same quantity of oxygen in oxymuriatic acid gas, in the water chemically combined with dry muriatic acid gas, in the alcohol forming muriatic ether, in all animal substances with which the acid is ca- pable of forming distinct combinations, and so forth, With respect to the oxy muriatic acid gas, it has long been known that in a low temperature it 1s completely condensed by metals, so as to form a salt, in which the metal exists as a protoxide ; as it is also proved by Davy’s excellent experi- ments, that the driest muriatic acid gas contains a definite quantity. of water, which, when it is treated with potassium, preduces so much potass as to saturate the acid. We therefore assume, upon good grounds, that in the oxymu- riatic acid, as in salts, 100 parts of muriatic acid are com- bined with 30°49 of oxygen, and hence that the oxymu- viatie acid gas consists of * Mariatic.acid....5.. 76°63 100:00 OxyGen gd: spenvrn €8 23:37 30°49
And if water contains 1% percent. of hydrogen, 100 parts of dry muriatie acid must take up 34°54 of water, or muriatic acid gas must contain somewhat more than a quarter of water.
KX. CometnaTions oF FyYDROGEN WITH OXYGEN AND SULPHUR.
Biot and Arago having determined, by weighing oxygen and hydrogen, that water consists of 11°7 of hydrogen and 83°3 oxygen, I thought it necessary to examine by experi- ments this result, which differs from the numbers commonly adopted. If the experiments which I have been able to make are not so fully sufficient for the purpose as I at first flattered myself, they may still deserve to be related, since their results cannot very materially differ from the trath.
I made use of distilled zinc, which I dissolved in sulphuric or muriatic acid, and suffering the hydrogen to escape by atube filled with muriate of lime, [ observed the weight lost by the apparatus. Ihave not however been able to obtain the zinc perfectly free from sulphur and lead, nor was the loss of weight precisely the same in different ex-
periments. 1 * a.) Ten
140 : On definite Proportions.
a.) Ten grammes of distilled zinc were dissolved in nitri¢ acid, and dried and ignited in a platina crucible; the resi- due was 12°44 gr. of grayish oxide of zinc,
b.) Ten grammes of the same zinc, dissolved in nitrie acid in a glass flask, dried and ignited, gave again 12°44 of oxide. This oxide of zinc, therefore, if we neglect the im- purities, consists of
PING C2 os od ses ee SOSD 100°0 Oxyeeiis .. 2. 22s PSL 24°4
c.) Twenty grammes of the same zine were dissolved in sulphuric acid ; the apparatus lost *65 gr.
d.) On repeating the experiment, the loss was °62 gr.
e.) With diluted muriatic acid, *68 gr.
According to experiment ¢), 48°8 parts of oxygen answer to 6°5 of hydrogen, and water consists of 11°754 hydrogen and 88'246 oxygen.
In experiment e), on the contrary, according to which 48°8 parts of oxygen were combined with 6°8 of hydrogen, we have 12°23 of hydrogen and 88°77 of oxygen for the composition of water. The first of these experi-. ments agreeing best with the statical experiment of Biot and Arago, I shall consider it as the most correct. Water does not therefore consist, as has generally been assumed, of 15 parts hydrogen and 85 oxygen, but of
Hydrogen... 11°754 100°00 13°32 Oxygen..... 88°246 750°77 100°00
In an anaiysis of sulphureted hydrogen gas | had found, from some less accurate data, the quantity of sulphur 94:2 to 5°8 of hydrogen ; the calculation, corrected by the pro- portions determined in this essay, gave 93°06 of sulphur to 6:94 of hydrogen. In order to examine the accuracy of this result, I dissolved in muriatic acid five grammes of sulphuret of iron ‘¢ at a minimum,” which I had obtained by igniting in a glass retort the artificial sulphuret at a maximum, and conducted the gas which escaped through caustic potass. The gas was completely absorbed, without leaving the slightest portion of hydrogen gas. When the solution was filtered, I found +28 gr. of sulphur remaining.
Five more grammes of the same sulphuret were changed into red oxide of iron, and gave 4°3 gr. answering to 2°98 of iron. Consequently this sulphuret of iron contained 2°02 gr. of sulphur, of which 1°74 were consumed in form- ing the sulphureted hydrogen gas: 58:4 parts of the sul- phur thus employed answerimg to 100 of the iron dissolved; supposing at least the superfluaus undissolved sulphur to haye been perfectly free from hydrogen and from water,
after
On definite Proportions. 141
after being dried with proper precautions to avoid its dis- sipation: and this proportion of sulpbur and iron is the same, with the exception of a small fraction, as that which is required for the sulphuret at a minimum. This ex- periment therefore demonstrates, that the quantities of sul- phur and oxygen, which saturate 100 parts of iron, are jn the same proportion as the quantities which saturate 100 parts of hydrogen. But if 100 parts of ircn take up 29°5 of oxygen, and if it is confirmed that 11-754 of hydrogen and §8-246 of oxygen constitute water, the 29°5 parts of oxygen imply that 100 parts of iron will set at liberty 3°929 of hydrogen, which take up the quantity of sulphur united with iron at a minimum, that is, according to the experi- ments before related, from 58°75 to 59 parts per cent. But 3-929: 59 = 100: 1501°54; and 100 parts of hydrogen must take up 1501°54 of sulphur; which is twice as much as the quantity of oxygen that we suppose required by 100 parts of hydrogen. Hence sulphureted hydrogen gas must consist of 6-244 parts of hydrogen and 93°756 of sulphur.
These proportions, determinable by calculations, must be capable of being inverted in every possible way, if they are to be of any value. The number of analyses is still too small for ‘universal application; and they must’be diversi-~ fied in various direciions, in order to give sufficient oppor- tunity for more accurate tests. I will however adduce one example from the analyses reiated in this essay.
Iron and hydrogen, saturating 100 parts of sulphur, must be in the same proportion as when they saturate 100 parts of oxygen. According to the determinations given in the former part of this essay, 100 parts of sulphur are saturated by 170°2 of iron, and by 6-66 of hydrogen ; and 100 parts of oxygen, saturated with iron at a maximum, or in the form of a protoxide, iake up 339 parts.
Now, 170°2 : 6°66=339 : 13°265; whence 100 parts of oxygen should combine with 13°265 of hydrogen. Ac- cording to the result of the experiment above related, that is, 11°754 hydrogen to 88°246 oxygen, 100 parts of oxygen must be saturated by 13°32 of hydrogen.
These computations may however happen to agree, even although the numbers may be crroneous, supposing the error to arise from a cause which is common to several analyses. I shall therefore consider this calculation of the composition of water and of [sulphureted Sw.] hydrogen gas as a proof of the truth of the Jaw of nature which I have laid down, without insisting on the perfect accuracy “4
the
142 Imperial Institute of France.
the determinations, even within 1 per cent. or perhaps
more.
It will hereafter be interesting to observe how far the ideas
of the very ingenious Mr. Davy on the constitution of ni-
trogen, and the many degrees of oxidation of its: pure base,
will agree with these Jaws of nature. [fo be continued.] ,
XXV. Proceedings of Learned Societies.
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE FOR THE YEAR 1612, DRAWN UP BY M. CUVIER.
[Concluded from p. 76.]
Zoology, Anaiumy, and Animal Physiology.
M. pE Montecne, a French physician, having discovered in himself a disposition to thraw up the contents of the stomach without inconvenience, conceived the idea of making use of the circumstance in order to elucidate se- veral particulars of the received doctrines on the subject of digestion. When he resorted to this practice with an empty stomach, he obtained a remarkable quantity of a liquid which he regards as a true gastric juice, and which he examined with reference to its chemical quantities, as well as with respect to its action on alimentary substances.
M. de Montegre found this liquid to be very similar to saliva, but its action appeared to be very different from that described by Spallanzani. On exposing it to a temperature similar to that of the human body, in phials placed under the arm-pits, he saw it putrely, exactly like saliva. This juice only arrested the process of putrefaction in other sub- stances when it was naturally acid ; but by adding a little acetic acid to the saliva it acquired the same property. Besides, this acidity is not essential; and when M. de Montegre swallowed a sufficient quantity of magnesia to absorb it, digestion went on as usual. Acidity was repro- duced in a short time ;—even when M. de Montegre en- veloped with magnesia the food which he was eating, it soon became acid again. ;
These experiments repeated a great number of times, and with every proper precaution, induced the author to con- clude that the gastric juice differs little if at all from saliva; that it cannot stop putrefaction, nor produce digestion, in- dependently of the vital action of the stomach ; and finally, that the acidity therein manifested, as well as that which is undergone
Imperial Institute of France. 143,
undergone by the food at the time of digestion, is an effect of the stomachic action.
It is greatly to be desired that M. de Montegre should eontinue his interesting inquiries, and make some upon the gasiric juice of the animals employed by Spallanzani, in order that we may know precisely what to think of a doctrine which seems for a long time to have obtained general consent. ae
In order to secure to some authors the date at least of their observations, we shall subjoin a mere sketch of some memoirs which have been presented to the Class, but we must delay until next year our opiion of their merits. "_M. de Blainville has described in detail the forms of the articulation of the fore arm with the arm in different ani- mals, and determined the motion which each of these forms oceasions, principally with respect to the greater or less facility of moving the hand. This work upon an im- portant point of the mechanism of animals is not without interest to their classification, since a greater or less facility in the rotation of the fore arm as more or less influencing their address, ought to enter considerably into their degree of general perfection, and consequently their natural affi- nities,
The same anatomist has also presented a memoir on the form of the sternum in birds... As this bone, or rather this great osseous surface, resulting (as M. Geoffroy has shown) from the union of five different bones, furnishes a point of attachment for the principal muscles of the wings; the more solid and extensive it is, the more it furnishes these muscles with a vigorous point d’appui, and the more it jought to contribute to render the wing strong. It ought therefore to have an influence over the whole ceconomy of birds, and give useful indications as to their classification.
M. de Blainville draws these indications from the ragged or simply membranous places, more or less extensive, which fill the place of the osseous substances in a part of the sternum. He adds to this the consideration of the fork, and of some proximate organs, and in most cases he finds a great similarity between the dispositions of these parts and the natural families. Nevertheless, there also exist exceptions so manifest, that wercannot enurely adhere to this new classification.
M. Marcel de Serves, of Montpelier, has compiled a large work on the anatomy of insects, and particularly on that of their intestinal canal, which he has described at great Jength in aconsiderable number of species. His object was to determine
744 Galvanic Battery.
determine the functions peculiar to the various parts of this canal, and its appendages ; and in addition to his dissections he made some ingenious experiments on living individuals. Upon injecting coloured liquids into the cavity of the peri-, tonzum, they were absorbed by the long and slender vessels which always adhere to some portion of the intestinal eanal ; whicl goes far towards showing that the use of these vessels is to secrete from the common mass of the humours, digestive liquors, and to throw them into the canal. An attentive examination of certain pouches which have been considered in some genera as stomachs, in others as ces coms, and the certainty-that the food does not enter into them at all, but that they are found, on the contrary, full of biliary humour, induced M. de Serves to think that they. were reservoirs of this humour.
He thereby deprives grasshoppers and other analogous genera of the quality of ruminating animals, which they had been called; and in fact he ascertained that these in- sects do not retarn their food to the mouth, but that they merely emit under certain circumstances that biliary juice which they possess in great abundance. This memoir contains many other curious observations on the forms of the intestinal canal, the proportions of its parts, and their connection with the habitudes of insects. We shall speak of it more in detail next year.
M. Dutrachet, a physician at Chateau-Renaud, has made a2 remarkable observation on the gestation of the viper. He asserts that the small vipers have their umbilical vessels distributed not only over the yolk of the egg, in which thev are originally inclosed, but that a part of these vessels is also distributed over the internal surface of the oviduct, and there forms a net which may be regarded as a real placenta. The vipers participate therefore in the mode of the nutrition of the foetus peculiar to the mammifere, and which has been hitherto regarded as exclusive, with respect to all the oviparous classes.
XXVI. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles.
GALVANIC BATTERY,
bares CuitpreENn, Esq. has constructed a Galvanic battery of gigantic size. It consists of twenty pair of copper and zine plates, cach plate six feet long and two feet eight inches broad. Each pair is joimed at top by ribbons of
lead 5
. Prize Question.—Chalybeate Spa... 145
lead; and has a separate wooden'cell. They aré suspended from a beam-of wood, and having counterpoises are easily raised or let down into their cells, The power of this bat- tery was tried on the 2d of last month, The'cells were filled with water 60 parts, and a mixture of sulphuric and nitric acid one part, which was ‘gradually increased till the quantity of acid was doubled. Conductors of lead con- veyed the electricity to an adjoining shade in which the experiments were made. The power of the battery was great. It ignited six feet in length of thick platinum wire, but could not ignite an equal length ‘of smailer platinum wire. Platinum was fused with great facility. Iridium was fused into a globule, and proved to be a brittle metal. The ore of iridium and osmium was likewise fused, but not perfectly. Charcoal kept in a white heat in oxymuriatic acid gas and in phosgene gas produced no change on them. Tungsten was no way changed by this powerful battery, hor was uranium.
PRIZE QUESTION.
The Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh has. proposed as the subject of the Prize Essay for 1815, the following question : .
“« Is azote gas absorbed in the lungs during respiration # If it is not, whence do herbivorous animals derive their azote ?”’ :
_ A set of books, or a medal of the value of five guineas, will be awarded to the author of the best Dissertation; and members honorary, ordinary, and extraordinary of the So- ciety alone are invited to become candidates. The Disser- tations to be in English, French, or Latin, and to be de- livéred to the Secretary on or before the 1st of December 1814. The prize to be adjudged in February following,» To each Dissertation a motto to be prefixed, and a sealed packet must accompany it, containing the author’s name andaddress. The unsuccessful Dissertations to be returned, if required, -
A strongly saline aperient and chalybeate spa has been discovered at Melksham, Wilts; which has been analysed aud brought forward by Dr. Gibbes of Bath. It contains nearly seventy graitis of saline ingredients in a pint, which are chiefly the muriates of soda and magnesia. The in- fusion of galls strikes a purple in the water when fresh at the spring. In doses similar to the Chelthenham and Leamington waters, it acts on the bowels gently, safely;
Vol, 42, No, 184, August 1813. K but
146 Cairns on the Island of Little Cumbray.
but decidedly ; and it is found that this aperient effect is not attended with the debility which usually results from other cathartics. It has produced the happiest effects in many bilious and scorbutic habits, and many cases have occurred of a perfect cure of such complaints. It produces no heaviness on the stomach, and it in no way whatever dis- agrees with the constitution. Without being disagreeable to the taste, it acts on the bowels in even less quantities than other waters of the same description.
Some remains of a Roman building and other Roman antiquities were elately discovered at Wraxetall Wood, iw the parish of Ditteredge, near Bath. Some labourers, in hai up a part of acoppice, discovered, among other hings, fragments of seven or eight columns nearly of the Tuscan order, smal] pieces of fresco paintings of Roman brick, small aqueducts, scarified tiles, and other indications of baths and sudatories, places that appeared to have had intense heat in them, in horizontal flues; a stone tablet, with a groove round the edge of it, for preparing the sacri- fice; another stone tablet, with an oval basin cut into it, which appeared to have borne the utmost effects of ordinary fire; charcoal, and bones of various animals; urns, ba- sins, and other utensils of red and black pottery: a vessel of glass, a specimen of flat window glass, a brass fabulum and dome, small brass coins, together with the stones, &c. with which the building had been roofed. The columns were preserved, the altars, flues, glass, pottery, &c. were deranged and dispersed by the labourers, and the greatest part of the coins were thrown away.
Mr. Weir, of Kirkhall, near Ardrossan, having stated to . the Earl of Eghnton the extraordinary variation of the com- pass ata certain spot near some cairns of stones at Shin- niewilly, on the island of Little Cumbray; and as there is a tradition that a Dane was buried in his armour at Shinnie- willy, immediately opposite to the Largs, where a famous battle was fought; the Earl of Eglinton, the proprietor, or- dered a number of workmen from Ardrossan to the island, to open the cairns, under the superintendence of trusty per- sons. The workmen, acting upon the suggestions of Mr. Weir, when near the centre of the first cairn opened, and not above two feet below the level of the ground, discovered a circular piece of hollowed iron much corroded; the hol- low part three inches and a half in diameter, and two inches in depth, having a rim all round three quarters of an inch
broad,
Grecian Antiquities lately discovered in France, &c. 147
broad, and with the remains of nails or rivets on the rim. ;
About two feet from this they discovered pieces of iron, apparently part of a sword or dagger. The workmen here desisted, in order that Lord Eglinton might witness the po- sitions of these relics, and give further instructions. On the 6th instant his Lordship, accompanied by a number of gentlemen, and in presence of several scientific individuals, visited the place, and ordered the workmen to proceed ; when agreat number of fragments of iron were discovered, the greater part of which were double-headed or riveted nails measuring about one inch from head to head. The work- men having nearly cleared another cairn, a large flag stone was discovered, below which was found an aperture. or coffin, 26 inches long, 16 broad, and 18 deep, formed of four stones, and lying NE and SW. In this hollow was an empty urn, but which appeared to have at one timé contained ashes; and near to the urn were some small hu- man bones: the roots of the teeth were decayed, but the. enamelled part in most perfect preservation. Inanother cairn:an urn was discovered of a handsome shape, and orna- mented on the exterior; but it was unfortunately broken in the attempt to extricate it from the loose stones with which it was environed.
The men were then directed to return to the cairn first opened, and on digging to the depth of nearly ten feet, came to alarge flag stone, which covered a coffin three feet six inches long, 26 inches wide, and 26 inches deep; formed of four stones lying east and west. In the north-east corner stood an earthen urn much or- namented, and containing black earth or ashes ; in the south- ‘ast corner a human seull, There were likewise a few decayed bones. There are several cairns yet to open; . but whether any more of them will be opened, depends upon the opinion of those competent to judge from the contents of the others, whether it be an object worthy of further research.
A few months since, as a labourer was tilling a field in the vicinity of Bourdeaux, the ploughshare struck against something hard. On examining the spot, he found that it was a brick which had been partly detached from what seemed to be the outside of a vault. He took up the brick, and perceived that his conjectures were well founded, and immediately informed the owner of the estate of his. dis« sovery. Workmen were employed to effect an opening
K 2 througtt
148 Excavations among the Ruins of Pompeii.
through the top, and a square. burying-place was found, which contained two coffins made of the finest marble of Paris, and lying along side each other. opening them, the well preserved bodies of a man and a woman appeared, which must have lain there nearly two thousand. years, as the inscription in Greek characters on the marble an- nounced that they were the bodies of a Grecian prince and his wife, who in former ages had formed a settlement on these coasts, beyond the pillars of Hercules. These anti- quated remains of frail mortality were committed to their. parent dust ; but the coffins, which are of the most exquisite workmanship, were shown for the gratification of the cu- tious. The French Government having heard of this dis=_ covery offered 20,000 franks (5000/. sterling) to its pos- sessor, intending to remove the marble sarcophagi to the» Imperial Museum; but he refused the sum.
“The excavations among the ruins of Pompeii continue fo be prosecuted with much industry, and a great number of workmen have been constantly employed withifi the last 12 months. On the 21st of November last several skeletons were found of.inhabitants who had endeavoued to escape, perhaps after having ineffectually tried various ways of ex- tricating themselves, for the ashes around them were tem - feet deep ; some. of them had gold rings on their fingers, one of which resembles a serpent coiled up, and several had ear-rings with two pendents terminated by a pearl, There are similar sets of ear-rings in the cabinet of the Bibliotheque Impériale: they were found in an excavation made by order of General Championnet. It would seem as if all these skeletons belonged to one family: the bones of an infant so small that it could scarcely have seen the light, or perhaps it was still unborn, induce a belief that in this family there was an unfortunate mother who was flying with her child from the effects of the eruption. A slave seems to have been charged with the family treasure contained in a cloth folded several times around it: the external-surface is calcined, but the interior bands are still entire. Its contents were a Shi 300 pieces of silver coin, and eight of gold. _
Pompeii affords a mine which will long supply ample funds of instruction and, amusement to the learned. It i is intended to clear away the rubbish from around the walls in the first instance ; and when these are well defined, the different streets and squares will be traced, and the houses
and buildings more easily examined: the excavations sage the
Cassegrane Telescope. 149 the walls have been, as might be expected, unproductive ; bat this is not the case with those which were made at the saine time in the Via Consularis leading from Naples to Pompeii. | Several monuments are already described, such as the tombs of the family of Arria; the hemicycle, or semi- circular bench, of a form so elegant that the priestess Mam mia had established it to serve as a resting-place to the. inhabitants of Pompeii near the place which a decree of the Decurii had appointed for her sepulture. Within these few months four tombs have been discovered; two of them are of a remarkable form, and placed within separate ins, closures: the first is decorated with bas-reliefs which re- present the games of the Gladiators, and the hunting- matches which were exhibited to the populace in the amphi- theatre to render the funeral of the, defunct more magni- ficent. The bas relief in which the Gladiators are represented also exhibits inscriptions traced. with a pencil in a black colour. Time and the action of heat have obliterated a great part; but what remains still furnishes us with some additional particulars as to the Gladiators. This tomb is square, and the roof is in steps like that of king Mausolus. Probably the statue which must have terminated this py- ramid will be found. The second tomb is round, like those of Cecilia Metella, near Rome, and Manutius Piancus at Gaeta. The bas-reliefs which adorn the wall of the in- closure consist of mystic allegories relative to the state of. souls after death, which announces that he who was buried within it studied sacred mysteries, and the dogmas of some philosophical sect. The third form is a cippus, but of a very agreeable form: it covered the remains of a
"priestess of Ceres, A fourth tomh has been discovered, but it has not yet been entirely cleared. M. Cattel, of Berlin, a distinguished artist, who travelled with M, Millin, the learned editor'‘of the Magazin Encyclopédique, through Italy and part of Greece, has made drawings of, these tombs; and My Millin has undertaken to publish a deserip- tion of them in his valuable work, M. Millin is sull abe sent on his travels through Various parts ot Europe.
- CASSEGRANE TELESCOPE, ° ‘A paper on this instrument, presented by Major Kater, was lately read in the Royal Society, which seemed to, prove that light possesses some properties which have not yet been attended to, "This subject being curious, the follow- ing information on the subject will prove acceptable to
scientific men + K3 *¢ Although
150 Cassegrane Telescope.
‘¢ Although it has long been remarked, that the Galilean telescope gives a clearer and better defined image than those in which convex eye-glasses are employed, ihe cause seems never to have been suspected, but was always attributed to the thinness of the eye-glass, and not to the form, which is similar to the Cassegranian. If this hypothesis, founded on the result of the experiments, be correct, the loss of light in the Gregorian telescope originates ithe rays of light reflected from the surfaces of the concave specula meeting in their respective foci ; and being thus condensed and concentrated, the particles of light do really obstruct and impede each other : thus a great part is dissipated and lost, thereby occasioning that dimness so remarkable in the Gregorian’ telescope when compared with one on the Cassegranian principle of the same aperture. In the Cas- segranian form, the above inconvenience is avoided, the convex small mirror being placed withim the cone of rays teflected from the large speculum, in proportion to their focal length; adding this important advantage, they are capable of being made less than half the length of the Gre- gorian. The manner in which the quantity of light was proved is as follows :—An annulus was put in the end of the Cassegranian tube, on which annulus concentric circles were drawn at the distance of one-tenth of an inch from . “each other; a printed card placed at the distance of thirty- six yards; the concentric circles were then cut one by one away till the letters on the card appeared equally bright in the Cassegranian as in the Gregorian telescope of the same di- mensions which was placed by its side: the apertures were then carefully measured, and it was found that in the Casse- ‘granian telescope two inches and seven-tenths gave as bright an image as the Gregorian, the aperture of which was three inches and eight-tenths. These specula were both cast at the same time, and the polish was equally good in one as inthe other. Still, it appeared a circumstance of such an extraordinary nature, that Major Kater (who was present at all the experiments) and myself almost doubted the evidence of our senses, till another trial com- pletely convinced us of the fact. Two telescopes were or- dered of the same dimensions, one Gregorian, the other Cassegranian. J took every possible care in the construc- tion of each ; and after having completed them, the experi- ment was tried exactly as before, and to our complete sa- tisfaction the result was exactly the same. Other experi- ments, the last of which was made this morning, furnish
: ; . . of = at ? - - . proofs
Lectures.—Patents. 151
‘proofs of the superior excellence of the Cassegranian tele- scope. I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Ipswich, July 15, 1813. Tuos. CRICKMORE.
LECTURES. Dr. Roget will commence his Autumnal Course of Lectures on the Practice of Physic, at the Theatre of Ana- tomy, Great Windmill Street, on the first Monday in October.
Theatre of Anatomy, Bartlett’s Court, Holborn.— Mr. John Taunton, F.A.S. Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, Surgeon to the City and Finsbury Dispensaries, City of London Truss Society, &c. will com meuce a Course of Lectures on Anatomy, Physiology, Pa- thology, and Surgery, on Saturday, October the 2d, 1813, at Eight o’clock in the Evening precisely. To be continued every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, at the same hour.
In this Course a view will be taken of the structure and ceconomy of ihe living body; and the causes, symptoms, nature, and treatment of surgical diseases, with the mode of performing the different surgical operations, will be con- sidered ; forming a complete course of anatomical and phy- siological instruction for the medical or surgical student, the artist, the professional or private gentleman.
An ample field for professional edification will also be afforded by the opportunity which pupils may have of at- tending the clinical and other practice of both the City and Finsbury Dispensaries. ,
Further particulars may be had, on applying to Mr. Taunton, Greville Street, Hatton Garden.
The Autumnal Course of Lectures of Anatomy, Phy- siology and Surgery will be commenced by Mr. Brookes, at the Theatre of Anatomy, Blenheim Street, Great Marl- borough Street, on Friday the First of October.
LIST OF PATENTS FOR NEW INVENTIONS,
To William Stocker, of Martock, in the county of So- merset, gunsmith, for his cock made of metal and wood, for drawing liquor from casks, which produces a stop su- perior to that which is effected by common cocks, and pre- vents the liquor from coming in contact with the metals, except when the liquor is in the act of being drawn, and is running from the cask.—25th May 1813.—2 months.
To John Mander, chemist; Aaron Manby, ironmaster ; and Joseph Vernon, furnaceman ; all of the parish of Wol-
K4 verhampton,
152 List of Patents for new Inventions.
verhampton, in the county of Stafford, for their methods of making the cinders, scoria, slag, or by whatever name the. refuse produced in the smelting or refining of iron may be called, into forms that may be used for any purpose to
which brick, quarry, tile, slate or stone now are or may be
applied.—31st May.—6 months,
To Charles Broderip, of Great Portland Street, in the county of Middlesex, gentleman, for bis improyed mode of raising and lowering vessels from one level to another level of navigable waters.—31st May.—6 months.
To James Oliphant, of Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, in the county of Middlesex, hat manufacturer, for his me- thod of making or manufacturing military caps.—31st of May.—2 months. ne
To Thomas Grant, of Biddeford, in the county of De- von, esq. for his certain ingredients by the use and admix-. ture of which, with oil, in the preparing and making of, paint, a considerable consumption of oil and also much expense are saved.— 31st May.—2 months. ;
To Charles Wyatt, of Bedford Row, in the county of Middlesex, merchant, for his method of casing or facing brick and other buildings with stone.—5th June.—2 mon,
To Richard Witty, of the town of Kingston upon Hull, gentleman, for his additional improvements in or on steam engines, and likewise his tools useful in making certain parts of the same,—5th June.—6 months. !
To Charles Goodwin, of Finsbury Terrace, in the county. of Middlesex, factor, for his improved socket for a candle- stick, consisting of a spring or springs, by which any candle, rush-light or taper, without any paper or other thing being put round it, may be fixed and secured in such socket, and which socket is adapted for the .use of any description of candlestick, chandelier,. Justre, branch lamp or lanthern 5 and hath also a self-extinguisher to be fixed to the same, by which the-light may be extinguished at any time.—g26th June.—~2 months. ae
To William Cooke, of Greenwich in the county of Kent, esq. for his certain improvements in the art of making and working ploughs of any kind or description,x—15th June, —2 months, | Heigto .
To Thomas Todd, of the city of Bristol, organ-builder, for a machine on an improved construction for the purpose of separating corn, grain and seeds from the straws. —29th June,—6 months. . ¥
To John Curr, of Belle Vue House, in the parish of Sheffield, in the county of York, gentleman, for By se
ra i te pee ; aay ME Bae
»
List of Patents for new Inventions. 153
thods of applying flat ropes to horse-gins and perpendicular drum shafts of steam-engines for drawing coals, minerals, or water out of mines, whereby the horses’ Jabour.is greatly diminished, and flat ropes working on horse-gins and Steam-engines constructed with the said perpendicular drum shafts are preserved from material injury. —29th June—2 months. To James Penny, of Low Nuthwaite, in the parish of “Coulton, in the county of Lancaster, mechanic, and Joseph Kendall, of Cockers Shell, in the parish of Ulverston, in the said county, turner, for their new and improved princi- ple or plan for the making of pill- and other small boxes.— 29th June. —6 months.
To Charles Wilks, of Ballincolly, in the county of Cork, esq. for certain improvements on naves of wheels for car- riages, and for centres of wheels for carriages, and for cen- tres for wheels of machinery for various purposes.— 29th June.—2 months.
To John Ambrose Stickell, of Little Park Place, Lam- beth, gentleman, for his alarm and machinery for the dis- covery and detection of depredators in a house or premises. —1st July.—6 months. nev
To Edward Thomason, of Birmingham, (manufacturer,) in the county of Warwick, for various improvements in the construction of whips.—3d July,—z mouths.
To Robert Adams, of Holborn, in the county of Middles sex, shoe-maker, for his method of preparing blacking, whereby a higher polish is given and the leather better pre- served.—7th July.—2 months. ve
To Jchn Millard, of Cheapside, in the city of London, linen-draper, for his method of manufacturing cotton wool free from mixture into cloth for the purpose of regulating: » perspiration.—14th July.—2 months.
To John Clark, of Bridgewater, in the county of Somer- set, grocer, for his method of making or constructing beds, pillows, hammocks, cushions, and various other articles ‘of | that kind.—1i4th July.—6 months. ewes
To Alexander Moody, of Long Lane, Southwark, in the county of Surry, tanner, for his method of tanning: or dressing white, buff, or losh leather. —14th July.—6 mon.
To William Godfrey Kneller, of Croydon, in the county of Surry, chemist, for his method of manufacturing verdigris of the same quality as is known in commerce by the name ~ of French verdigris.—~14th July.—2 months. }
To George Ferguson, and. Joseph Ashton, of Carlisle, in the county of Cumberland, hatters, for their improved
light ”
154 List of Patents for new Inventions.
light elastic water proof hat, commonly called a beaver.— 14th July.—2 months.
To Robert Pretyman, of Ipswich, in the county of Suf- folk, esq. forhis improvement in the pan, touch-hole and pan cover of a gun lock.—1gth July.—6 months.
To John Lewis, of Llanelly, in the county of Carmar- then, assayer of metals, for his improvements in the art of smelting copper ore.—23d July.—6 months.
To Charles James Mason,*of Lane Delph, near New- castle under Lyne, in the county of Stafford, potter, for his process for the improvement of the manufacture of English porcelain. —23d July.—2 months. +
To Frederick Koenig, of Castle Street, Finsbury Square, im the county of Middlesex, printer, for certain additional improvements on his metbods of printing by means of machinery.—23d July.—6 months. . ~ To Richard Perring, of the Dock-yard, in the parish of Stoke Damarel, in the county of Devon, for his anchor made on new principles, which consists first, in continuing the grain of the iron from the shank into the arm similar to the shape-of a knee or arm of a tree, whereby the necessity of effecting a junction at the crowns, as at present welded, is superseded ; secondly, in carrying a piece of iron across the crown from the centre of each arm, making thereby a perfect truss, which when welded resembles the form of a truss beam ; thirdly, in forming both the shank and arms of flat bars placed so as to act edgewise on the line of re- sistance when the anchor is in the ground; and fourthly, in forming the largest part of the shank one-third down from the crown in a line across from toe to toe of the arms.—23d July.—2 months.
To Joseph Hamilton, of the city of Dublin, gentleman, for his new applications of earths and other materials to useful purposes. —31st July.—6 months.
To William Horrocks, of Stockport, in the county of Chester, cotton manufacturer, for further improvements to a machine for weaving of cotton and other goods by hand, steam, water, or other power.—31st July.—2 months.
To John Casson, of Liverpool, in the county palatine of Lancaster, professor of music, for his machine which he calls a Panagram, by which the blind can be taught to read the languages, music, arithmetic, &c. by the touch or feeling.—gth August.—2 months.
To George Scott, of Alnwick, in the county of North- umberland, whitesmith, for his machine for the purpose of cutting out men and women’s wearing apparel. and yarious other articles and things.—9gth August.—6 months, To
Meteorological Observations. 153.
To Edward Heard, of the parish of St. Luke, in the county of Middlesex, chemist, for having discovered certain processes for the manufacturing of glass—gth August.— 6 months.
To Robert Westfield, of St. James’s Street, Clerkenwell, and county of Middlesex, watchmaker, for certain tmprove- ments in horizontal watches.—gth August.—2 months.
To John Haneock, of Reales in the county of Berks, gentleman, for improvement$in the onstruction of car- riages, and in the application of a material hitherto unused in the censtruction thereof.—25th August.—6 months.
’ To John Naish, of the city of Bath, gentleman, for his method of making moveable characters for composing names and professions.—25th August.—6 months.
To Thomas Yate Hunt, of the Brades, in the county of Stafford, steel manufacturer, for his improved back for scythes, reaping-hooks, straw knives, and hay knives.— 25th Aug.—2 months, ;
—[—_— ~
Meteorological Observations made at Capton in Hackney, from June 11 to July 16, 1813.
June \1.—Fair day, with heavy clouds at times; cirrt, cumuli, &c. This morning early it was remarkably clear ; but at night the moon was hazy.
June 12.—Clouded over with nimbiform clouds in the morning, which occasionally poured small rain; the after- noon became extremely clear, and the western horizon after sun-set was a bright aud clear golden colour.
June +3.—Clouded early, afterwards it became fine ; but there was much cloud all day, and a little gentle shower in the evening. Night clear, with light cirr?; some of which formed so rapidly as to be mistaken for the shootings of the avrora borealis. Wind SW.
June 14.—Overcast, with a gentle wind from SW. and misty atmosphere below ; small rain fell at times, particularly in the evening, when it increased, and came in gentle showers.
June 15.—Intervals of fair weather and of gentle showers ; the rain came down very hard towards evening, but the night was clear, except some cirrostratus and some few other flimsy clouds, Thermometer 72.
June 16.—Fair, with heavy clouds at times. Therm. 68. Wind westerly.
June 17,—Fair morning; flimsy clouds ; showery after. noon, Barometer nsing at night. Therm. at 11 P.M $8. le une
156, ; Meteorological Ol servations
June 18.—Cold north-east wind with heavy clouds, and some rain early; afterwards when it cleared, there was cu-. mulostratus of great magnitude and extensive continuity, and in the evening confluent cumudi and eirrus. The ons der fringes of the clouds represented a bniliant golden hue about sunset.. The wind attained a gentle gale till mid- night; and the moon rose from spreading sheets of cloud.. The thermometer at midnight 44°. The barometer 30. 20, and rising 5 and the, air gettéag. drier according to a hy- grometer™.....
Junei9.—Cloudy morning; in. the afternoon the clouds. showed a tendency to large confluent ¢’rrocumulus in a calm air-above; the night became clear. Cool-westerly wind.
June 20.—Clear morning, afterwards much cumulus and cumulostratus ; a cloudy night, wiih a cool northerly wind which had blown all day. ::
June 21.—Reddish north-eastern horizon before sunrise,: very clear morning; afterwards cuwmuli;.in the evening, elevated ciry2 in streaks appeared coloured of a reddish lake by the setting sun; lower down cirvostrati stretched along, and, breaking out into rows of cirrocumulus, appeared ‘dark coloured. Air cool, and wind northerly.
June 22.—Fair early; heavy cumulostratt; and oeca- sionally nimli and showers, with wind from north-east, The barometer sinking, but still high ; about 30. 30.
June 23.—Clear with NE wind; afterwards czmuli ra- pidly forming and evaporating, with fibrous cirrt .changing into small-grained flimsy rows of ctrrocumudus ; beaunful appearance and changings of cirrus, first in.a mistlike then. in a fibrous form, then it became cirrocumulus. _Much irregular cirrocumulus and some cirrostratus at night. "
June 24.—A great deal of nimbus continually forming and. obscuring the sky, with occasional ambres ; the air rather. cool for June: and the evening became clearer, and the- wind NE. '
June 25.—Clear day, with cumuli, which were more flimsy, extensive, and confluent in the morning, and fewer jin number and more insulated in the afternoon. The. thermometer was about 65° at its highest. The barometer 30.30. Wind E. The evening was quite clear, a pale, pink blush above the very clear golden tint after the seg. sun. The same pink fringe very faint appeared also in the » opposite horizon, .
* The bat (wespertilio marina) was flying about at midnight. I have ges nerally noticed that this animal is more frequent in spring and autumn than
7 mas
during the middle of summer. ; June
:
made at Oxford und at Southampton. i537
» Sune 26.—Clouded over early ; afterwards when’ it cleared up there was much cumulus, but the nimbiform appearances went off; the evening became clear ; wind NE. *
June 27.—Fair day; cirri fibrous and stretched in fili- form bundles chiefly in direction from NEtoSW. Cumult sailed along below, afterwards freckled cirrocumulus. Wind in unequal but gentle gusts, Therm. up at 70°.
June 28.—Wind easterly and variable, chiefly cloudy, with features’ of various modifications mixed in a darker and cloudy sky, and showin® thematerials for showers; which afterwards came down with.calm wind. In. the: evening there came a thunder sbower from the east, fol- lowed by lightning through the night. Therm. in midday, 66°, at 11 P.M. 56°.’ The barometer fell to 29. 95.
June 29.—Very mugey, warm moriing; the sun’s light being pale from the mistiness of the air. I discerned through the mist cumulostratus of that rocklike and _pe- culiar look which precedes thunder showers; also some eatures Of cirrocumulus; the blackness came. on and threatened rain; but it was one o’clock before it fell, when a hard thunder shower came up with the wind from the westward. The streams of rain were at first very large and separate, but became smaller as the storm advanced. The thermometer, which before was 72°, fell to and remained during the storm at about 65°. It became fair at times, but the night was rainy.
June 30.—Hard rain almost all day, without cessation. Therm. about 52° at 3 P.M. Barom. 29.72. Wind SW,
July 1.—Wind SW. Showery all day, at night smaller . and more gentle rain. Therm. 11 P.M. 55°.
Meteorological Observations made at Oxford, from July 2 to July 5, 1813. .
July 2.—Fair morning, with cumuli; clouded afternoon with a little rain.
July 3.—Clear and clouded at times, cumulostratus, &c.
TTily 4—Clear morning, with only cumu/i; in the evening there were cirri, cumulostratus, and some features of the other modifications ; fine coloured sunset.
July 5.—Clear, with cumuli in the morning ; in the evens ing were cirri, and the sun set in clouds.
Meteorological Observations mgde at Southampton, from July 6 io July 8, 1813.
July 6.—Clear, with much cirrus, cumulus, &c.3 in the
evening, sky full of large fibrous cirri’; some crossing each
other
158 Meteorological Observations .
other looked like great crosses in the sky : their different direction really arose from difference of altitude, which not being discerned readily trom below gave the phenomenon, the look of a cross.
July 7.— Fine day, cumuli, cirri, &e.; fine golden colour at sunset from the refraction by the fringes of cu- mulostralus, the groundwork or mist colour being yellow *.
July 8.—Fair, with various clouds ; fine sunset,
July 9.—A storm in the morning, afterwards fair day with cumuli and cirri, and cakn air.
Meteorological Observations made at Clapton in Hackney; Srom July 10 to July 23, 1813.
July 10.—Fair, with various clouds.
July 11.—Fair, with much cumulus and cirrus.
July 12.—Fair and hot; the cirrus appeared early scat- tered about; there were cumudi, &c. through the day. At midday, thermometer 78°.
July 13.—The different modifications appeared: a warmt day. Therm. midday about 74°.
July 14.—Warm south-westerly wind with clouded sky, and gentle and frequent showers of calin small rain. Ther- mometer at 11 P.M. 59°.
July 15.—Rain more or less all day; it began about nine in the morning, got harder about two, with a change of wind from southerly to NW. and held up for a short time in the evening.
July 16+.—Clear early, flocky cumuli then appeared, becoming cumulostratus, inklike and dense, with west wind 5 a cirrostratus which I perceived in the NE. before sunrise, indicated that the then change to clearness was not to be of long continuance. During the day, slight mimdi formed, and poured a little rain.. After four P.M. 1 observed tu- berculated rocklike cumuli rather low down, while some- what higher up a.sort of cloud more confused and mistlike, but dense in the middle, and with cirrous edges, appeared, as a sort of nascent nimbus, whose actions were as yet faint ; much of this kind of cloud prevailed, and some of
* The scudlike cumuli which floated along in the under current appeared bower than they generally do further from the sea, in inJand counties,
+ The general appearance of the weather renders it probable that the vulgar superstition about St, Swithin may be strengthened again this year, by a long continuance of rainy weather. This popular belief, that a rainy 15th of July is followed by thirty-nine more rainy days, has been so often verified in my memory, that Iam induced to think there may be some na- tural causes why rainy weather about this time of year should bé of long du- ration. The number of forty days and the fable about St,Swithin are, of course, only vulgar additions ef ignorance and credulity, 3
the
made at Clapton. 139
the aimbi pouring drops were not very dense. There were also large rocklike cumulostratt with cirrostratt on their summits. Starlight evening. I observed a falling star in the SW about 10 P.M. In the twinkling of a star of about 30° altitude in the SW, I noticed the alternate ap pearance of deep red and of the common brass-coloured light; and this red as occasioned by refraction of our atmosphere ; and if so, why was it only alternately and for about a se- cond of time of this colour?
July 17.—Fair morning with cumuli; afterwards large Be listen with misty atmosphere obscured the sky after noon, with slight mimli and showers. The night was clear, and the moon rose bright and well defined. Wind westerly. Thermometer 11 P.M. 51°. Barometer rising.
July 18.—Fair day ; cumulus, cnmulostratus, and cirrus above, of flimsy and of fibrous kind; fine clear night; haze over the set sun pale yellowish. Wind westerly.
July 19.—-Before sunrise, about four o’clock this morn- ‘ing, I observed a long band of cloud of a sort of loose cir« rous texture, the fibres whereof were stretched at right an- gles to the direction of the band; the said band was about 35° of elevation, and extended from NW to SE across the N and E, It refracted a reddish brown colourinclining here and there to lake, orto yellowish. At the same time low down in the NE horizon cirrostrati stretched along in the same direction refracted a reddish and a golden colour. Cumuli and cumulostratus through the day increased, and obscured the welkin ; showers came on about noon ; during afternoon it cleared, and broken features of the different modifications appeared of nimbiform figures; mistlikecirrus; low down dense black cumulostratus, cirrostratus, &c.
July 20.—Wind got to east; cirri aloft, while cumulé large and rocklike, also cumulostratus, sail along below ; in the evening fine erubescence above the set sun; cirri refract also a crimson light; cloudy with rain late at night, and very warm, with falling barometer.
July 21.—Clouded morning, with NE wind and small rain; in the afternoon the clouds cleared off for a short time, reddish haze. Thermometer 11 P.M. 58.
July 22.—Cloudy morning; after it cleared up, I obs served a tendency in the higher clouds to cirrocumulus, while large cumuli, &e. rolled on below in the SW wind.
July 23.—Showery weather; thunder about four o’clock.
Glapton, July 24, 1813, : THomas ForsTER.
. METEOROQ-
160 Meteorology.
METEOROLOGICAL TABLE,
By Mr. Cary, or THE STRAND;
For August 1813.
Thermometer. od Weare pp hes
> te ‘ ar
: sa aS
Days of }o ra ae ne he Height of | 54 Month, |2 =| & |< {the Barom.} 3 ‘7 Teh ee oe di lee Sl aie i dInches. me
2S of a 2
i: = a =
31] 64 | 74 | 66 | 30°02 75
2| 62 | 73 | 61-| 29°96 56 3! 66 | 70 | 62 °O7 50 4| 60 | 69 | 58 86 51 5| 59 | 68 | 55 55 46 6} 60 | 67 | 61 “80 40 7| 60 | 74 | 60 | 30°01 66 8| 61 | 74 | 61 | 29°99 60 6| 60 | 75 | 62 | 30°08 66 vO} 62 | 77 | 63 “LS 72 tl] 63 | 77 | 64 “18 70 12] 66 | 83 | 65 08 82 13} 63 | 68 } 57 ‘Ol 66 14| 60 | 69 | 60 | 29:96 65 15} 64 | 70 | 55 "95 60 16} 60 | 69 | 60 -00 57 17| 61 | 70 | 58 “89 57 18| 60 | 69 | 55 "05 56 19} 58 } 68 | 54 | 30°27 50 20) 56 | 65 | 52 26 57 ©1} 52 | 60.} 54 ‘10 40 29] 55 | 57 | 50 | 29°70 36 23) 56 | 65 | 54 | 30°10 56 241 54 | 66 | 53 "32 58 25) 54 | 65 | 54 *32 65
86) 56 | 65 |} 55 *30 | 64
Hygrometer;
Weather,
Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair Cloudy - Cloudy | Showery Showery Showery Cloudy Fair Cloudy Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair Cloud Fair j Fair
Fair Cloudy Showery Fair “ Fair
Fair
Fair
N.B. The Barometer’s height is taken at one o’clock.
(
hie 161 J. - ®€ MXVIL. On Electricity. By Ez. Wavker, Esq. rth "To Mr. Tillach.
Sir, Pee all the hypotheses that have been invented to explain the phenomena of electricity, philosophers still en-_ tertain various opinions respecting the electric fluid. Some maintain that the spark is produced by two fluids passing through each other in contrary directions, forming a double current; but others are of opinion, that it consists 6f only ene divided into two parts, which they call positive and negative electricity ; whilst others even hesitate to admit the existence of the electric fluid, as completely established.
As many of the phenomena of nature are produced by electrical energy, and a3 % conclusion drawn from doubt- ful principles can be admitted in philosophy, it seems in- dispensably necessary, that this disputed point should be determined by clear and satisfactory experiments.
When a card is perforated by an electric spark, it is well known that a bur is raised on each side. This experiment has ofien been advanced as a proof that two positive powers pass through the card in contrary directions; but this con- clusion is too hypothetical to be admitted as a physical truth, and every other experiment that has yet been made to investigate this point, is equally uncertain.
As many of the effects of electricity are strictly mechani+ cal; the following experiments demonstrate, on that prin- ciple, that the clectric spark consists of two forces passing through each other in contrary directions.
- Experiment 1. Let a piece of tin-foil, about two inches Jong and an inch broad, be laid between two cards, with their ends fixed together with gum-water or varnish ; and Jet ABCD (fig. 2. Plate II.) represent those cards when laid on a table, ep apiece of wire Jaid upon the cards, and nh another piece of wire laid under them; the distance he between the ends of the wires being about an inch.
A charge from a large Leyden jar being passed through the wires, a perforation was made in the top card at é, with an indent downwards, in the tin-foil and bottom card, un- der that point. The under card was also perforated at the end of the wire A, and a! that point the tin-foil and upper card were indented upwards,
_ This experiment was repeated many times, without any Variation in the phenomena, except that one end of the tin-foil was sometimes perforated.
Now it is evident from this experiment, that the power Yol.42, No. £85, Sept, 1813. I, from
. as
162 On Electritity.
from the inside of the jar passed from p to n, because art indent was made downwards at the point e; and it is also evident, that the power from the outside of the jar passed in the direction from x to #, as an indent was made up- wards at the point hk. Hence we may fairly conclude, that the electric spark consists not of one power only, but of two distinct positive powers acting in contrary directions and towarde each other.
Experiment 2. I placed a single card upon a table, with a piece of wire upon it and another piece under it, so that their ends were one above the other; then two other cards were taken, and a piece of tin-foil placed upon the centre of each. One of these cards was placed under the bottom wire, with the tin-foil upwards, and thé other was placed upon the top wire, the tin-foil being downwards.
An electric charge being passed through the two wires produced the same phenomena as those before mentioned; the middle card was perforated, the tin-foil upon the ander card was indented downwards, but that upon the upper was indented upwards. .
I communicated these experiments to Mr. Murray, phi- losophical lecturer, requesting him to repeat them, and the following is extracted from his answer, dated Swaffham, 17th July, .1813:
* 1 took a single card,” says Mr. Murray, ‘‘ and placed one wire above it and another below, with the ends one above the other,” &c. and proceeded as you direct: the result proved your conclusion to be correct, for the tin- _ foil. both above and below the perforation was indented and in contrary directions.
“‘The theory of two powers moving contratiwise re- ceives validity from the following experiment. The cards and tin-foil slips being used as before, I placed two points below instead of one, with one above; two corresponding indents were made on the tin-foil wpwards and ouly one downwards. I reversed the experiment, and the two points being above the card, there appeared two indents down- wards and only one upwards.
_ **T repeated these with uniform pbenomena and un- varying results,
You will think, I doubt not, with me, that the last mode of conducting the experiment places the subject in a point of view, beyond a doubt of the conclusion we have mutually drawn. ;
; _ * Lam, dear sir, with great respect, &c. a de «J, Murray.”
By
o~-
On Electricity. 163
By comparing the indents made in the tin-foil, it ap- pears that the two forces acting in contrary directions are nearly equal; but as no satisfactory conclusion could be drawn from these phevomena, I contrived an electrometer, by which these forces are compared to a3 great a degree of precision as the nature of the subject seems to require.
In fig. 3. Plate I]. ABCD is a card placed in a vertical position upon a stand; EF, two thin pieces of mahogany which slide upon the card, by means of slits cut in them with a fine saw.
px and nx two pieces of wire sliding through E and F; px is placed on one side of the card and 22 on the other, their ends being opposite to ong another at the point 2.
G, a piece of wood fixed upon the top of the card, from which two pendulums of equal dimensions and weight are suspended at J, on opposite sides of the card, having the centres of their bobs covering the points of the wires at x. One of these pendulums az is suspended on this side of the card, upon the pin 0; but the other, being on the other side of the card, is not seen in the figure. The pendulum rods are made of very thin slips of mahogany, and the bobs of card paper. . ~ When the instrument is adjusted, the ends of the wires are placed exactly between the two centres of the bobs at x, where a small circular opening is made, between the ends of the two pieces of wood, to give free passage to the elec- tric fluid.
When a charge from a coated surface is passed through the wires, the card is perforated, and the pendulums are thrown off in contrary directions ; and, as far.as [ am able to judge by inspection, to equal distances from the perpen- dicular *.
Hence it appears an established law of nature, that all electrical pheenomena are produced, by two distinct powers acting in contrary directions, and with equal energy.
And these invisible agents seem to exist in every particle of matter, eliher in a state of rest or a state of action, ac- cording to their different modifications. But till that law which governs these modifications shall be perfectly un- derstood, we must be content with observing effects, with- out knowing their causes.
To be continued in my next communication,
Iam, dear sir, your obedient servant, Lynn, August 4, 1813. Ez. WALKER.
* Asthe wires nxp and the point of suspension of the pendulums are adjustable, the same card may serve for many experiments.
" La KXVIII. Mr.
£ 164 J
XXVIII. Mr. Farry’s Reply to Mr. Bakewett’s Lefter in our last Number, &'c. viz. on the great Derbyshire Fault.— Mr, B’s Lectures.—Staze-coach Geology.—The great Southern Denudation.—Limestone resting on Slate. —The great Limestone Fault, &c.
To Mr. Tilloch.
Six,—Herewrre I have sent the third * of six letters addressed to you, containing my reply to Mr. Bakewell, and Nofes on his Geology, which were written in July last, according to their dates, but which Letters I shall continue sending sing!y,.as your work proceeds, in order that I may. interline on their opposite blank pages, such further re+ ‘ ferences or remarks as may from time to time occur to mes
Mr. Bakewell’s second letter, inserted at page 121, seems to call for several remarks, which had better be made here, than by the interlineations above alluded to.
The conclusion of my first Letter (p. 59) sufficiently in- dicated, that a full answer to Mr. B. on the great Derbyshire Fault and other points at issue, was in train, to have spared him the trouble of a repetition of his Queries so vauritingly addressed to me in your work. On the prin- cipal subject of which queries, I had certainly no need of twelve months (p. 122) to answer Mr. B., by saying, in four words, Read the Derly. Report, as I might have done, because there, very clear answers to his queries were already printed, see p. 106 herein.
Those who have examined my Map, Plate I. in your xxxixth vol. or my Report, vol. i. must be fully aware, that I have spoken of three great faults, by the names of the ‘ Derbyshire,’ the «* Limestone, ”’ and the “ Zigzag ”’ Faults; yet Mr. B. so often speaks of them in the singular (p. 193, J]. 22 and 23, &c.) and confounds his objections to them together, that all the attention which I had been able to bestow on his letter and book, was not sufficient to guard me from errors, in p. 103, lines !7 and 25, in men- tioning éwo faults instead of three, and in page 112, in, saying, that ore of them, ‘‘ the great Limestone fault,” had escaped Mr. B’s open attack ; because I now discover, that he alluded to this Fault in vol. x], near the bottom of p. 45, (although not before named), and near the bottom of p. 124 herein.
'* Want of room obliges me to defer till next number the Letter referred to by Mr. Farey, commencing the series of Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geo- logy.—A. T. sey ;
¥ In
Mr, Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakewell’s Letter. 165
In p. 121, as well as in p.2i2 of his Geology, Mr. B. has pretended to repeat my description of ‘* the great Der- byshire Fault,”’ without having had the candour to acknow- Jedge, that I had not spoken positively of it, except from Wottingham to near Cheadle, had represented it principally ‘by a dotted instead of a fall line on my Maps, and bad spoken respecting these parts, rather in the form of queries to other observers, proposed, J hope, with that mo- desty which becomes a sincere inquirer after truth, not- withstanding Mr. B’s unhandsome insinuations to the con- trary, at the bottom of p. 123.
Another material feature of my description, of the part of this fault which I had fully examined, viz. that its r7se is represented to commence or to be imperceptible near Not- tingham (Red Marl being there on both sides) and to increase westward on its north side to Ramsor in Staffordshire (see my Map, (p. 97, and p. 165, &c. of Report i.), these have been wholly overlooked by Mr. B. (see p. 122): although, if two Observers, who could distinguish gravel from strata, were to set out from near Nottingham and proceed for Ramsor, ove might keep along upon the same (nearly level) Red Marl strata on the south side of this Fault, and the other might proceed on its north side, continually passing on to lower strata, viz. first NW to near Annesley,*to the top of the lower yellow lime Rock, then turning WNW, along Mr. Silverwood’s probable line of section, which is to show “ al! the known Derbyshire strata”’ (see p. 110) to near Slaley, on the top of the 4th LimestoneRock, and thence, first W and then S'W, over the edges of the beds of this Rock in succession, perhaps 360 yards deep in it, to the corner of the fault near Ramsor ; when by only a few steps across the same, be might joi his companion, on the very stra- tum on which they both set out!
{Instead of “* a calm’ investigation” of these simple and important facts, Mr. B. has chosen to introduce the figura- tive expressions ‘¢ a rent or fracture of the earth’s surface which has torn the island,” (p. 121), **a rent of such vast magnitude,” (p. 192), ‘€a rent of the island,” (Geo. p- 213), &e.
I have neither ¢ gravely” or otherwise *¢ asserted, that such a fault” as Mr. B. has quoted from Dr. Kidd (p. 122 extends in the direction mentioned, but the contrary of this, see p. 107 and 108; because the Doctor’s broken House, having nothing above its garrets but the roof and atmosphere, could. not do otherwise than form a step or cliff Ly the side of the fracture: and 1 lament to be called
L3 on
166 Mr. Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakewell’s Letter.
on here to add, that such a familiar and simple illustration as this, is so defective, as to be unworthy of the science, and of the pages whereim Mr. B. has placed it. “i
Mr. B. says at p. 123, speaking of Nottingham, that he understands me to maintain, that “the sand rock which rises from the vale-of the Trent, owes its elevation to this fault,” (see also p. 212, of his Geology), whereas no in- ference more contrary to all that I have said, could have been made :—in Rep. i. 132, I have mentioned Nottingham to be seated on Gravel Rock or concreted Gravel (the ** sand rock’’of Mr. B.) lieing on the horizontal Red Marl, here but little if at all deranged by the fault, as above mentioned herein; in Rep. i. 469, I have represented the vale of the Trent to be excavated in this Red Marl, and at p. 132, I have spoken of the probability, that the parts torn from the southern end of the forest mass of Gravel (not by the fault, but by the external force which excavated the valley) have been scattered up this valley, across Derbyshire, into Stafford- shire.
Is it mot rather extraordinary, under this mistaken im- pression hy Mr. B. that Nottingham, at the commencement of the Fault, should be the only place which he is able ta refer to? (p. 123), as having been explored by him, in searclfof a phenomenon, stretching across all Derbyshtre, and of which he says, p. 122, that I had traced its course with such minuteness, in my Map of Derbyshire!
Mr. B. has uo right to dictate to ine the number of words or of pages, in which I shall reply to Ais attacks on my Geological facts and deductions, which notwithstanding what he has «aid in p. 123, commenced in &is Leetures at Manchester, if not earlier, as appears from the Letter of a friend in that Town, now before me, dated November 8, 1811 (not five months after my first volume appeared) ; and from various other quarters in the mean time, have I been informed, that, what Mr. B. conceived to be “ faulis ” in my work, he held up thus unfairly, in caricature, to the censure of incompetent judges, as a great part of his au- diences necessarily must be, while a great portion of the facts published by me, were detailed by lim, as the results purely of his own investigations *.
That these were the features of Mr. B’s unfair verbal
* Mr. B’s “ Advertisement” stitehed in your 183d Number, intimates, that the facts illustrative of the principles laid down in his “Introduction to Geology,” are exclusively “‘ drawn from different parts of England and Wales, which the author has examined,” and “the most important observa- tions and recent discoveries of eminent Geologists on the Continent !”
proceedings
. Mr. Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakeweil’s Letter. 167
proceedings towards me, few will hereafter doubt, I think, who have impartially read his Geology and my Notes thereon, which through your kinduess shall appear, as fast as is consistent with the claims of your other Correspon- dents; and although Mr. B. will doubtless accuse me, of introducing much therein that is extraneous, I have reason to hope, that mew facts, and references to published and ‘perhaps forgotten ones, with inferences drawn therefrom, bearing on the points under discussion, will not be deemed impertinent by you, sir, or by a large portion of your readers.
That Mr. B. who so rarely in his Geology or his Letters, distinguishes those local Geological observations which he has himself made from those which he has borrowed from others, and still more rarely has marked the situations with precision; should deem it impertinent in me (p. 124), to have distinguished those places which I had seen in my Jate excursion, from those which I had not seen, and which 1 otherwise might have been supposed to be equally ac- quainted with, I am not at all surprised: but that in his sneers at my ‘‘ stage-coach Geology,” as he is pleased to term it, he should say, that from the top of a coach, ‘* the colour of rocks” ‘§ is almost all that can be seen,” is very extraordinary, and will stand against him, as I shall show be- low, as a proof, of his small acquaintance with the Smitbian. principles of Mineral Surveying (see p. 105), high as his pretensions stand on this head, Geo. p. 361.
Mr. B. bas not the claim of qriginality in this snecr at €* stage-coach Geology ;”’ for a similar one appeared in the Edinburgh Review, several months ago, in a Review of the celebrated Survey of the Environs of Paris, of which a pre- liminary Abstract is inserted in your xxxvth volume, p. 36, and whereon several remarks.of mine are made, at page 113, In these remarks (note on p. 130), I mentioned having made and circulated among my friends, in 1806, a Section of the Strata between London and Brighton, in order to show the leading facts of the Great Southern Denydation, which I had discovered in the preceding year (Rep. i. 117 N); and to obtain their corrections and further obser- vations.
From that anxiety which I then felt, and trust that I al- ways shall feel, to show as clearly as possible, the grounds on which my Geological deductions have heen founded, L mentioned in the Title thereon, the different joprneys * an per, coaches,” which I had made along this line, while collecting and reyising my materials. Qne of these copies
Ls happening
168 Mr. Farey's Reply to Mr. Bakewell’s Leiter.
happening to have fallen under the notice of. a learned ‘Hattonian Illustrator, he (as T have heen told by a friend), in the anonymous Review above mentioned, a en having bestowed. extravagant encomiums on a Section across part of the Basin of Paris (as it has improperly been called) which is nevertheless much confused, and so distorted, as to be of little or no use for explaining the district, owing to a scale for heights, 35 times as large as the scale for lengths,
aving been used in constructing it! and not being co- loured, although intended so to be, took occasion to cen- sure this Section of mine, across the south part of England, merely because of its * stage-coach obgervations ;” ! for- getting, that he was unnecessarily comparing the elaborate production of two or more pensidned indivuduals ‘of a foreign Court, splendidly published at public expense, with the professedly first and rough sketch (gratuitously cireti~ lated) of an individual made at his own cost : and forgetting also, that before publicly and,unnecessarily disparaging the productions of a country-man, in favour of those of ‘fo+ reigners, it’ was incumbent on him to have shown, that the former were incorrect, and not calculated to answer their intended purpose : a task in which he might perhaps have felt somewhat puzzled: however, I venture here to invite him, and all other contemnérs of « staze-coach Geology, to make the trial, and publish their observations.
But to return to Mr. B.—I beg to assure him, that the colour of Rocks bas been among the least important. of my “ stage-coach observations,’’ although it may have happeued, that I have written a good deal about yellow Limestone and Red Marl,” (p. 124): and that I and others of the Smithian School, can see also, in this mode of examining nature,” the form, not only of individual Rocks and Hills, but of the Country; the surtace soil, whether composed in general of alluvium foreign to the district, or of the rubble and decomposed substance of the strata beneath; in which discriminations, the kind and state of the spontaneous and cultivated vegetable productions, are important helps: in short, from the combination of a coms petent knowledge of rural affairs in general, with practical Mining knowledge, we are able to discern the positions and successions of the strata, except in rare instances, even in thus hastily crossing a district.) tho
The travelling Notes, for instance, which I made on first crossing from London to Brighton, fully agree with, and are almost sufficient for making the Section, which rey
m A sulted
‘cl
Mr: Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakewell’s Letter. 169
“Ieulted from collating the separate Notes, made in four or.
‘ive subseqtent journeys, some by the other Roads, and for ‘correctly describing the positions of the strata and leading geological features of the district (without pretending that it is accurate in all respects); although previous to this jour- ney, had been given to understand, that the district was differently constructed in every respect. Mr. Smith not
_ shaving then examined much of the two most sonth-eastéra
counties of England, but trusting ‘too much to the infor- mation of others, had concluded, and delineated on his Map (a copy of part of which I possess, made in 1801), the North and South Downs of chalk, extending from Dover to Guilford and Farnham, and thence near to Petersfield and Lewes to Beachy-Head, as pars of an upper rock of chalk, situated above the London Clay; but my “ stage-coach observations,” when a mere tyro in Mineral Surveying,
“were sufficient to show at once, the true structure of this
curious part of our island.
In my Paper, so unhandsomelystreated by certain leading persons in the Geological Society (p. 55 Note), IT was de- Sirous of explaining as fully and clearly as possible, the principles and practice of this important art, of the use and value of which, I desire no better test, than the oppor- tunity,’ to make a sufficient number of ‘* stage-coach ” journeys in suitable weather, across a district (anywhere Situated) either before or after an elaborate Mineral or Geological Survey of the same has been made by others, in order to show, whether the true and useful Geological features of a country, can by this means be obtained, or not.
We will then, if the parties please, descend to apply the same principles, (and quickly too, by adequate assist- ance) to the tracing of every characteristic or useful stra= tum, and to the filling up, of a Mineral Map of the surface, however large, notwithstanding that Mr. B. says positively, at p. 125, that ** this can only be app ted to small districts or estates,’’ (see also p. 255 Geo.) —The other two ** modes of forming a Geological Map,” meutioned by Mr. B. I will gladly leave in his quiet possession, and that of his geognostic associates. ad
Mr. B. says, p. 124, that I persist ** in objecting to the
identity of the limestone of Craven in Yorkshire, with that
of the High Peak in Derbyshire;” forgetting, that more than 15 months ago (vol, xxxix. p. 427) [ stated my grounds of dissent from his opinion, and requested that he would inform us, whether the succession upwards, from what
170) Mr. Farey’s Reply to Mr. Bakewell’s Letter.
what he calls the 4th Limestone, is the same, or at all allied, to that 1 have described in Derbyshire? but above all, whether he was able to detect, all or any considerable proportion of the species of shells and other Religuia in the Yorkshire Limestone, that the late Mr. William Martin has figured and described in his ¢ Petrificata Derbiensia ? ; and that to this call he has remained silent, although in the imterval he has published two Letters, and a work of 368 pages, expressly on the subject of English Geology,
To undefined cr fanciful ** Geological relations” (p. 124}, as well as to the opinions of any Men, whose grounds for © the same are not fully known, I pay little or no respect (wishing that my opinion, under the same circumstances, should receive none), but that a position so supported, *¢ may stil safely be doubted,” p. 59, 1 must again repeat.
It may be useful here, to contrast Mr, B’s Geognostic rule (p. 126 herein). ‘* In every district, the lowest rock which rises 0 the surface in different parts, may be cons}- dered as the fundamental rock, giving the true geological character to that district,” with his application of the same, in maintaining, that S/aée is the fundamental rock of Burnsal, vol. xl. p. 46, and also of the whole Peak of Derbyshire, &c. (by inference, although some parts of the 4th Lime- stone Rock are more than 80 miles distant from the Slate of Ingleborough), because the same; slate) appears(in Chapel- le-dale) at the base of Ingleburough (distant 21 miles) and in Swaledale, (Ivy Bridge, the nearest place in which Dale, ta Burnsal, is distant 22 miles) see Geo. p. 279; yet when I have suggested, that the limestone covering Slate (p. 59), between Lancaster and Kendal, may be the same as that which covers slate in Ingleboraugh mountain (distant only 13 miles), Mr. B. objects, and says (p. 124), that these are different districts, and cannot proye or disprove the ques- tion, as to the identity of the Limestones and their sub- jacent Slates: and yet in Mr. B’s Geology, p. 281, we bad been told, that the Derbyshire Limestone extends into Lan- cashire, and rests upon slate! I still repeat, this may fairly be doubted, *‘ which is all I contend for,” and bope that. the doubt may soon be cleared up, by precise facts,
Mr. B. p. 124, speaking? of the great Limestone Fault, under the title of my ‘* imaginary great fault,” says, ‘of which T think he will find it difficult to offer any direct proof.’ If, in addition to the many facts stated in my Re- port, and through Mr. Hall, p. 113, it be thought, that I have offered no direct proof, as to its course on the S side of Castleton, [ can fortunately now offer an additional one,
the
On definite Proportions. 171
the SW side of that Town. Mr. H. has informed me, that some time ago he was visited by James Meadows, Esq. of Piccadilly, in Manchester (the very able Agent for the Peak-Forest and several others of the Canals near Man- chester), who previous to purchasing one of his Models, had Mr. Hall out with him, to explain the leading features of the strata of the district, and that in this excursion, they came to the large Lime Quarries (called Black- hole, ge-« nerally) at the head of the Peak-Forest Rail-way (Rep. 1, 288, 299, and 409), and that here the Ouarriers had worked up to, and cut passages through the fault-stuff, leaving three great pillars standing, against which the 3d Toadstone had abutted, and that Mr. M. was so struck with the import- ance of preserving these, as monuments of the existence of this great Limestone Fault, that be gave directions, that the masses of fault-stuff above mentioned, should on no account be disturbed ;—here therefore, Mr. B. may again he gratified, by measuring, analysing, &c. whenever it suits him, see p. 106.
Mr. B’s want of candour iz quoting passages, which he marks with inverted commas, in several! places, will be seen, particularly in p. 124, where he wishes improperly to accuse me, of overlooking the ** owtline” character of his Geological Map, see p. 56; and he has for this purpose, in- terpolated the word only before to trace an outline,”’ &c. in quoting from his Geology, p. 255, and in the middle of the continuation of this same extract, has omitted the words, ** which were it attainable,” &c. although they are material words, as referrmg to Mr. B’s assertion, of the zm- practicability of making accurate Maps of large districts, on which point I have already spoken in this Letter,
And am, sir, Your obedient servant, Westminster, Sept. 2, 1813. JOHN FAREY sen.
XXIK. An Attempt to determine the definite and simple Pro- portions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganic Sub- stances are united with each other. By JacoB Brrzx- Lius, Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy, and M.R.A, Stockholm.
(Continued from p. 142.) XXI. Appirion, reLATIve TO OrGAnNiIc Bopigs, [Communicated to Gilbert in Manuscript.)
I HAVE expressed a conjecture in this essay, that certain bodies may be capable of lower degrees of oxidation, than
$72 On definite Proportions.
than those which have hitherto been considered as com= binations with oxygen at a minimum; sulphur, for in= stance, and iron. With respect to the latter, in particular, I have conjectured that iron may exist in organic bodies in such a lower degree of oxidation. The products of organic nature will not, at first sight, agree with the Jaws to which T have been led for the composition of unorganized bodies: ‘it was therefore my intention to undertake, in a future essay, the examination of organic bodies, and to begin with the simplest, the oils and the vegetable acids. But the more I have employed myself in these experiments, the more I have been convinced, that the chemical data re- Jating to organie bodies are not yet numerous enough, and, with very few exceptions, not sufficiently accurate. I shal] therefore content myself with showing in what manner, by investigations of inorganic nature, we may gradually arrive at resulis which are to be expected in organized bodies.
We will begin with the lower degree of oxidation of sulphur, which has been mentioned as a conjecture, and endeavour to determine it, by calculation, from the analysis of sulphureted hydrogen, according to the analogy of the combinations of carbon with oxygen and with hydrogen, which we must therefore examine more particularly in the first place.
1.) Carbon and Oxygen.
According to Allen and Pepys, 100 cubic inches of car- bonic acid gas weigh 47:26 grains, and 100 cubic inches of oxygen gas 33°82 grains; the carbonic acid gas contain- ing also an equal bulk, that is, 33°82 grains of oxygen, ‘and consequently 13°44 of carbon: according to their di- rect experiments, 100 parts of carbonic acid consist of 28:48 parts of carbon (from graphite or plumbago); and according to the statical experiment, of
Carbon........ 28°437 300-000 Oxyhens S24 Tes 79 S6S 251°636
According to Gay-Lussac’s experiments, 100 cubic inches of gaseous carbonic oxide condense 50 cubic inches of oxygen, giving 100 of carbonic acid. If we substitute weight for measures, we find in the gaseous oxide a com- bination of carbon with half as much oxygen asin carbonic acid gas, and it consists of
Carbon ., .... 44°283 100-000 AVPCU ge wegss Ql] ty 125°818
2.) Carlon and Hydrogen.
Thomson asserts, in his analysis of the combustible gas ; which
%<
On definite Proportions. 173
which is formed during the distillation of turf, that 100 cubic inches of carbureted hydrogen gas detonate com- pletely with 200 of oxygen, and afford 100 cubic inches of carbonic acid. Consequently they must contain 13°44 grains of carbon, and hydrogen enough to saturate 33°82 grains (= 100 cubic inches) of oxvgen, that is, (XX) 4°505 grains. Hence we obtain for carbureted hydrogen - Carbon ....... 74°896 2987335 Hydrogen ....,..25°104 100:000
In the same place we are informed hy Thomson, that 100 cubic inches of olefiant gas require for their combustion 300 of oxygen gas, and afford 200 of carbonic acid gas. Consequently 100 parts of hydrogen are here combined with a double proportion of carbon, and this gas consists of Carbon....... 100°0000 596°67
Hydrogen .... 16°7597 100°00
It appears therefore that 100 parts of carbon take up at a minimum 16°76 of hydrogen, and 125'818 of oxygen. Now we learn from the analysis uf sulphureted hydrogen, that 100 parts of sulphur combine with 6°66 of hydrogen, and 16°7597 : 125°818=6°66: 49:997. Hence sulphur in its lowest degree of oxidation ought to contain exactly 50 of oxygen to 100 of sulphur: and this is just half as much oxygen, as, according to my investigations, forms the sul-
hurous acid with 100 parts of sulphur: for I have found (XIII) that the sulphuric acid consists very nearly of 40 parts of sulphur and 60 oxygen, and the sulphurous of equal parts of these substances. With such an oxide of sulphur we are not acquainted, unless it exists in the sul- phureted muriatic acid discovered by Thomson. I have carefully considered the experiments which Thomson, Berthollet, and Bucholz have performed with this substance, and they seem to me to show uniformly no traces either of oxymuriatic acid, or of sulphurous acid. It can therefore only be supposed, that all the sulphur is united with oxy- en, and that this new body is consequently nothing else ut a combination of the muriatic acid with an oxide of sulphur, If we mix it with water, the muriatic acid follows a stronger affinity, and the oxide of sulphur, being detached from it, 1s separated into sulphur and sulphurous acid, as the protoxide of copper is separated by the action of some of the acids.
Berthollet the younger combined with 30 grammes of sulphur as much oxymuriatic acid gas as they were able to condense, and obtained 91-15 gr. of this combination. Consequently 100 parts of sulphur had taken up 204 of
oxymuriatic
{74 On definite Proportions.
oxymuriatic acid, in which, according to the computations in section XX, there were 47°67 of oxvgen; and this is hearly half of the oxygen contained in the sulphurous acid.
Bucholz and Gehlen endeavoured to saturate the sul- phureted muriatic acid with sulphur, and employed 1114 parts of oxymuriatic acid to 100 of sulphur. This is about half as much acid as Berthollet had made to unite with the sulphur, and we here see a combination of sulphur with only half as much oxygen as it took up in Berthollet’s experi- ment. If we now suppose that a slight inaccuraey in find- ing the point of saturation or the weight had occurred in these experiments, and that in the one 100 parts of sulphur had taken up 214 of oxymuriatic acid, instead of 204, in the other 107, instead of 111; we shall here have two combinations, the Jast of which is a muriate of the prot- oxide of sulphur, the first a muriate of the oxide, in which the sulphur is united to twice as much oxygen and acid as im the former, in the same manner as has been shown to happen in the metallic salts. This sort of combination resembles in this case a fully saturated compound of the arsenious acid, or of the oxide of chromium, with the mu- riatic acid: it is by no means neutral, as a salt, but its composition is analogous to that of a salt. If this view of the subject is correct, the lowest degree of oxidation of the sulphur, as in Bucholz’s experiment, is a union of 100 parts of sulphur with 25 of oxygen; and the following de- grees of oxidation are multiples by 2, 4, and 6, passing: over the odd numbers 3 and 5. I here beg leave expressly to remark, that I wish the results of this mode of reasoning to be considered merely as grounds for future investigation : and I imagine that such proportions as can only exist in triple or multiple compounds, will not be found the least Important.
Perhaps it is on account of the existence of such com- binations, that we find multiples by 145 so that these may always suppose a lower degree of oxidation, with respect to which they are multiples by 6 or 12: and thus it may here- after be demonstrated, that these gradations always ascend by the even numbers, 2, 4,6, 8, and perhaps more. If we take a vegetable body, for example, we find in it carbon,
hydrogen, and oxygen, but the latter in so small a propor- tion, that it seldom corresponds to the lowest known de-
gree of oxidation of either of the two former; they must
consequently be capable of still lower degrees of oxidation.
This gives us, for example, reason to inquire if the gaseous
oxide of carbon and carbonic acid are not, with respect to
oxidation,
On definite Proportions. 175
oxidation, merely multiples of the lowest degree of oxida- tion by 2 and 4, so that, in this lowest degree, 100 parts of carbon may be united only with 62°9 of oxygen. In the same manner we may expect, from the propoftions deter- mined for carbon and hydrogen, that 100 parts of hydro-
en may be saturated at a minimum by 74°584 of carbon, and that the observed proportions are multiples of this by 4and 8. We want therefore, in these combinations, be- sides the lowest degree of saturation, also the multiples by 2 and 6, which we are to look for in the composition of organized bodies. I have attempted, in various ways, to separate, by means of the electrical column, the combusti- ble base or radical of the vegetable acids from the oxygen 3 but I have never been able to succeed. I was induced to perform these experiments by the reduction of ammonia, the base of which I then considered as consisting of hydro- gen and nitrogen, and as standing in the same relation to the metals as the combustible radical of the vegetable acid bears to sulphur or phosphorus. Perhaps all these are com- binations which cannot exist independently. Probably also hydrogen is capable of lower degrees of oxidation than that in which it constitutes water, which in this case must correspond to divisions ot submultipies by 8,6,4,or2. If in the analysis of such bodies it happens, for example, that carbon and hydrogen are united with oxygen in a proportion which does not agree with the numbers appropriate to those substances, we may attempt to divide the oxygen between both the others ; and if we obtain, in this manner, propor- tious which can he reconciled with the general theory, we may be permitted to consider the body as composed of two different oxides. [shall here only adduce the example of the subsulphate of the oxide of iron, which, though very regularly constituted, contains for each 100 parts of iron, 22 parts of sulphur; a number of which the quantity of sulphur primarily combining with the iron is no integer multiple. We shail learn from this and other similar cir- cumstances to understand how Nature, with all her sim- plicity, can still be so astonishingly diversified.
SUPPLEMENT*.
Tue possibility of determining the proportions of the component parts of chemical compounds by computation being once established, it becomes of importance to provide
* Trom the German Original in Gilbert's Ann, 1812. vi. a very
376 On definite Proportions.
a very correct basis for such computations; and-I have de- termined to repeat some of my former experiments with such accuracy as to entitle their results to the name of. Normal Analyses. Such however have been the difficulties which I have had to encounter, that [cannot yet venture to bring forward any of my analyses as perfectly entitled to this denomination.
[The experiments on the sulphuret of lead, the oxides of lead, and the sulphuric acid, which were performed with this view, bave been already extracted from this communi- cation. Gillert.]
Having inferred from my analyses that the acid of sul- phates and sulphites always contained either two or three times as much oxygen as the base of these salts, I have been induced to inquire if something of the same kind was nof also observable in other salts. The results of my investi- gation have confirmed this conjecture, and Ihave deduced from it a law which I shall partly demonstrate in this paper, and partly apply as already established. The law may be thus expressed : :
In all neutral salts, the quantity of oxygen, which the acid contains, is an integer multiple of the quantity of oxy- gen in the base. Or,a little more generally, and, f believe, not less correctly : When two oxygenized substances saturate each other, the oxygen is always so proportioned, that its guantily in the substance which in the circle of the electrical column is attracted to the positive pole, is an integer multi- ple of its quantity in the other substance, which tends to- wards the negative pole.
1. Correction of the analysis of the muriate of silver, and. of some others depending on it.
I trust that 1 have demonstrated the superior accuracy of my analysis of the muriate of silver by the agreement of all my experiments with each other. But since it depends on a number of processes in which complete correctness was unattainable, | still entertained some doubt on the subject. Among many unsuccessful attempts to ascertain with greater accuracy the composition of the muriate of the protoxide of silver, I find only one which affords a tolerably satisfac- tory result. I prepared some pure sulphate of silver, and from this determined the constituent parts of the protoxide. When these were known, the quantity of muriatic acid in the muriate of the protoxide was casily deduced from them ; and this determination led to a number of corrections, which T shall here detail.
SILVER
Ou definite Proportions. : 177
Strver. Sulphuret of Silver.
a. I obtained, from 2-605 grammes of very pure lami- mated silver, which were heated to complete ignition with an equal quantity of pure sulphur in a small glass flask, 2-993 gt. of sulphuret. Consequently 100 parts of silver had taken up 14°894 of sulphur.
i. Treating in the same way 10 gr. of pure filings of silver, I obtained 11°49 gr. of sulphuret. The coincidence being so complete, any further repetition was unnecessary. Consequently the sulphuret of silver consists of
Sulphur 12-968 14°9 100 00 Silver.. 87°032 100°0 671714
Protoxide of Silver.
Hence we may calculate the composition of the protoxide of silver, by comparison with that of the sulphuret and of the protoxide of lead. The former consists of 100 parts of Jead with 15°42 of sulphur, the latter with 7°7 of oxygen 5 and 15°42: 7°7=14'9:7°44. Consequently the protoxide of silver consists of
Silver.. 93:075 100°00 1343°86 Oxygen 67925 744 100°00
In all probability, however, the quantity of oxygen 1s here made a little too great. By other calculations I have found that its least possible amount must be 7°3576 per cent. instead of 7°44. This uncertainty affects in some measure the calculations for the muriates, but not for the alkalis and earths.
Muriate of ihe Protoxide of Silver.
I have already shown that 100 parts of pure silver afford 132°7 or 132°75 of muriate of the protoxide. According to the first of my former experiments, on which I shal] now proceed to calculate, 107°44 parts of protoxide of silver take up 2526 of muriatic acid: according to the last, 25°31. Consequenily the muriate of the protoxide of silver is thus
composed :
Experiment 1. Experiment 2. Ne .
(rd sory c age. Muriatic acid.... 19035 100°00 19°066 100-:00 Protoxide of silver 860°965 425°35 §0'934 42449 According to the first experiment, 100 parts of muriatic acid saturate a quantity of the protoxide of silver, which contains 29°454 parts of oxygen; according to the second, 29'395 only.
Vol. 42. No. 185. Sept. 1813. M MuRIATE
178 On definite Proportions.
MorRIATE OF THE PROTOKIDE OF LEAD.
Some muriate of the protoxide of lead, which had been several times dissolved and crystallized, was thoroughly dried, and 40 grammes of it were ignited and melted in a small glass dish. A little of the salt evaporated, but the whole had only Jost -05 in weight. This salt appears, there- fore, to contain no water chemically combined with it, and the reason that it decrepitates on the first application of heat can only be the presence of moisture, which is me- chanically inclosed in the larger crystals, Indeed all the water which is the cause of the decrepitation of salts must be in this state; for when we take small crystals, for ine stance, of sulphate of potass or of common salt, they com- pletely retain their form and transparency; and if that which escapes were water of crystallization, it would na- turally be first separated at the surface of the crystals, and that which comes from the interior parts would find room to pass through the pores left in the superficial ones.
a, Ten grammes of very finely powdered muriate of the protoxide of lead, which had been fused, were dissolved in nitric acid, and the nitrate of the protoxide of silver was added in order to obtain a precipitate. The clear liquor was evaporated to dryness in a glass dish, with the assistance of a gentle heat, and the dry mass was again dissolved in water. Hence I obtained a little more muniate ofthe prot- oxide of silver, which had been retained by the uncom- bined acid. ‘The muriate of silver, washed and dried, weizhed 10°32 gr., corresponding to 1:9644 of muriatic acid, ;
b. Ten other grammes of the same muriate of the prot- oxide of lead were dissolved in nitric acid, and sulphuric acid was added in greater quantity than was necessary for the precipitation of the lead; the solution was then care= fully evaporated. As it cooled, notwithstanding the ex- cess of sulphuric acid, some crystals of the muniate were deposited. The saline mass, when perfectly dried, and heated so as to expel a part of the superflucus sulphuric acid, was well washed, and the sulphate of the. protoxide of lead being placed on a filter, some more water was poured on it. From this fluid a little more sulphate was separated by means of caustic ammonia.. The whole sul- phate collected, and well ignited, weighed 10°92 gr. and these contained, according to the preceding determination, 80387 of the protoxide. Consequently the muriate of the
protoxide
On definite Proportions. : 179
protoxide of lead consists, according to these experi-
ments, of Experiment 1. Experiment 2.
Pree
cai aya —y Sy wy
Muriatic acid... 19.644 100°00 196124 100°00
Protoxide of lead 80°356 40906 80°3876 409°88
These results show, that the two analyses, on which the calculation is grounded, approach near to the true propor- tions, but do not perfectly coincide with them. It appears that 100 parts of the muriatic acid took up as much of the protoxide of lead as contained 29°3062 parts of oxygens so that here is a small variation from the quantity of oxy- gen found in the oxide of silver; but the difference, in comparison with the usual accuracy of analytical determi- nations, is of little importance.
Several attempts to drive off the muriatic acid of the muriate of the protoxide in a platina crucible, by means of ‘concentrated or diluted sulphuric acid, with the assistance of heat, produced, without exception, only a partial de-
‘composition. ‘ BaryTa. Muriate of Baryta.
Tn my former investigations { had found that 10 grammes of carbonate of baryta afforded 10°46 of muriate, and that these formed with nitrate of silver 14°55 of muriate of the protoxide of silver. Hence the muriate of baryta consists of » Muniatic acid 26-2272 100°C0
Baryta.,... 73°7728 281°284
Carbonate of Baryta.
Since 10 grammes of carbonate of baryta contain as much earth as 10°56 of muriate, it must consist of Carbonic acid 22:096 100°00 Baryta...... 77°904 gaeay
Sulphate of Baryta.
According to the experiments of Bucholz, 84 parts of ignited muriate of baryta afford 94:5 of sulphate: hence this salt should consist of 34:424 of acid and 65-576 of baryta :* according to mine, 100 parts of carbonate of baryta afford 1156 to 118°9 of sulphate; consequently the sul- phate of baryta consists of
.
Experiment 1. Experiment 2,
SLE es ete tgs se dig as SERS HITS Sulphuric acid 34°314 100°000 34°48 100 Baryta ...... 65°686 191°427 65°52 190
If there is any essential error in these determinations, it must at Icast affect them all in the same proportion, For, M2 if
180 On definite Preportions.
if we calculate, for example, the composition of the mu- riate of lead from that of the sulphate of baryta, of the sulphate of the protoxide of lead, and of the muriate of pe we have the following proportion : 191°427 : 279= 281°284 ; 409'96, while the [second] experiment gave 409°88. Baryta.
Since 281'284 parts of baryta and 425°35 of oxide of silver each saturate 100 parts of muriatic acid, they must contain equal quantities of oxygen ; whence we have the following proportions for baryta:
Barium.... 89°529 100°000 Oxygen ... 10°471 11°696
If we compute from the composition of the sulphate, the
oxygen of baryta appears to be 10°422 to 10°5 per cent.
Porass. Muriate of Potass.
Ten grammes of pure muriate of poiass, dissolved in water, afforded, on the addition of nitrate of silver, 19°21 of fused muriate of the protoxide of silver, containing 3°65662 gr. of muriatic acid. Hence the muriate of potass consists of
Muriatic acid 36°566 100:0000 Potass ...... 63°434 173°4766
Sulphate of Potass.
Bucholz found that 300 grains of sulphate of potass con- tained three grains of water, and afforded with a salt of baryta 400 grains of sulphate of baryta. ene sulphate of potass consists therefore of
Sulphuric acid.. 46'214 100000 POLSE ec co panies «| STOO 116°385
Potass.
T have found by direct experiments on the composition of potass, that +32 gramme of potassium afford -608 of muriate of potass. Now this contains, according to the corrected analysis of the muriate of silver, *38568 gr. of pure potass ; consequently 32 parts of potassium had taken up 6°568 of oxygen. Potass consists therefore of 82°97 of potassium and 17°03 of oxygen. But if, according to the preceding calculation, 173°4766 parts of potass contain 29'454 of oxygen, this alkali consists of
Potassium... 83°022 100°000 Oxygen.... 16°978 2()'450 Calculating from the sulphate, potass consists of 82°865 of
potassium
On definite Proportions. 181
potassium and 17°135 of oxygen; so that these experi- ments agree tolerably well with each other.
Sopa. Mauriate of Soda.
Five grammes of ignited muriate of soda afforded 19°93 of fused muriate of the protoxide of silver, which contain 2°32798 gr. of muriatic acid. The muriate of soda con- sists therefore of ‘
Muriatic acid... 46°5596 100°000 Soda ......... 53°4404 14°78
Sulphate of Soda.
Five grammes of ignited sulphate of soda afforded 8*2 of sulphate of baryta, corresponding to 2°813748 gr. of sul- Phuric acid. Consequently sulphate of soda consists of
Sulphuric acid 56°275 100°000 Soda......0. 43°795 77°699
Soda.
Ihave found that -439 gr. of sodium afford 1:118 of muriate of soda, containing -59746 of pure soda: hence 100 parts of soda consist of 73°5 of spd, and 96°5 of oxygen. But if 114°778 parts of soda contain 29°454 of oxygen, soda must consist of
Sodium 74°3383 100°00 Oxygen 25-6617 34°52
If we calculate from the sulphate, 77°699 parts of soda must contain 19°95 of oxygen, and soda must consist of 74°35 of sodium and 25°676 oxygen: and since these re- sults agree so completely with each other, it is not impTo- bable that there was an error in the direct experiment.
Lime. Muriate of Lime.
I obtained from 3°01 gr. of ignited muriate of lime 7°73 of fused muriaie of the protoxide of silver. Consequently the muriate of lime consists of
Muriatic acid 48-893 100-0 Lime ...... 53117 104°6 Hence lime must consist of Calcium .... 71°84 100'0 Oxygen..... 28°16 39°2 Ammonia. Muriate of Ammonia.
I thought it necessary to repeat ance more my formeg analysis of this substance, and I obtained from 10 grammes of well dried muriate of ammonia 26°72 of fused muriate of the protoxide of silver, answering to 50°86 parts of mu- riatic acid for 100 of sal ammoniac. If these were united
M3 with
182 Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid.
with 31°95 “gr.” [parts] of caustic ammonia, the muriaté of ammonia consists of Muriatic acid 61°0554 100:0000 Ammonia... 38°9446 62°8195
Ammonia.
If now 62-8195 parts of ammonia contain 29°454 of oxygen, ammonia must consist of Ammonium = 53°1133 1000000 Oxygen.... 46°8867 88'2768 The phenomena of the decomposition of ammoniacal gas by potassium appear to demonstrate that ammonia con- tains no compound basis. In this case, hydrogen and ni- trogen must be oxides of the same simple substance,—an opinion first advanced by Davy, but against which some celebrated chemists have adduced a variety of indirect ex- periments. I shall insist a little on this subject, which is of so much importance in the theory of chemistry, having previously adverted to another which is intimately con- nected with it. : [Be be continued.]
XXX. Deseription of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid al the Bot- tom of a Volcano of Mount Idienne, situated in the Pro- ‘vince of Bagnia-Vangni, in the Eastern Part of the Island of Java. By M. Lescuenauct, Naturalist and Cir- cumnavigator in the Employment of the French Govern- ment. [Concluded from p. 132.]
Tae volcano is situated in the south-west side of the sum- mit of Mount Idienne, which in this place is perpendicu- larly cut, Jeaving between it and the gulf a space about a quarter of a league in extent. This perpendicular section indicates that a part of the summit has been detached by the effort which took place at the opening of the volcano ; but the chief eruption seems to have taken place at the west and north-west parts, for towards the east and south we see no considerable traces of it.
The aperture of the volcano is oval, having its greatest diameter directed from NE to SE. I reckon its circum- ference taken from the summit to be about half a league, its greatest diameter 500 toises, and its depth from the highest point about 600 feet. The bottom of the gulf is about 250 toises broad, in its greatest diameter: a lake of about 200 toises long, the water of which is warm, and of
a greenish
Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid. 183
& greenish-white, and charged with a quantity of the acid which escapes from the sulphur in combustion, occupies the lowest part on the south-west: from the surface a slight smoke rises. In the other part, which is about 25 or 30 feet high above the lake, are the smoking vents.
The sides of the volcano present nothing but white rocks cut into the form of needles; or rough, calcined, and re- duced by the effect of fire to the state of lime: in gome places they are covered with a greenish efflorescence.
Towards the west and north-weést, the edge of the yol- cano is abrupt: its upper part is formed of thin layers of ashes or puzzolano, successively reddish, brown, white and yellowish : towards the east and south-east it inclines ima slope tolerably rapid to the half of its depth. Towards the south-west there is a section not very broad: it is by this aperture that the waters of the lake are discharged, which afterwards form the sulphuric river. At the summit of the crater, in the south-east part, we find ochrey, red and yellow earths. The slope which I have mentioned, si- tuated towards the east and south-east, is furrowed by the rain waters covered with volcanic tufa, sulphur, and yarious Kinds of lava in pieces of middling thickness.
The trees adjoining the crater are small-sized, and a great number of them are withered. Nevertheless in the inside of the gulf, and even notwithstanding the sulphuric ex- halations, vegetation is not entirely extinguished: from the cleft in the rocks there issues a kind of fern, small and coriaceous, and a shrub of the arbutus kind, called, by the Javanese Roukom*: but what surprised me much was to find the excrements of tigers at the very edges of the cra- ter; for in this place the air is extremely cool in conse- quence of its elevation. 4
Such are the observations which I made on the summit of the crater, We were very much fatigued, and we stopped some time to take rest and nourishment. During this time, the Javanese who accompanied us prepared and fastened the bamboo steps by means of which we were to descend to the bottom of the volcano.
‘The place by which we descend is at the NNE: a part of the road is sloping: afterwards we are obliged to make use of ladders, which are attached to the rocks, sometimes perpendicular, sometimes inclined, according to the ground. This plan is dangerous : I should have preferred descending
* I found the same plant when I made an excursion two years ago to examine another volcano situated at the summit of the Mar-api, or burning _ mountain, in the vicinity of Sourakarta, :
M4 by
184 Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid.
hy means of ropes with knots fixed to the summit of tlie precipice, because all the rocks, being calcined and reduced to the state of lime, are not to be trusted. If one of these rocks was to be detached by the weight of the persons upon the ladders, it would roll down to the bottom of the gulf, sweeping every thing before it. In our case however all necessary precautions were taken, and we arrived without any accident at the bottom of the voleano, im the part where the smoking vents are situated.
This was the iirst time that I saw so near me those frightful laboratories in which nature prepares the revolu- tions which change the surface of the habitable globe. I cannot tell you which sentiment most prevailed, that of terror or admiration: whatever be the courage with which men are armed, they are actuated by the intimate and na- tural sentiment of their preservation when every thing around them threatens them. Rocks suspended over our heads, and which seemed continually falling under our feet ; the shaking and heat of boiling substances, from which we were separated only by a crust of hard ashes; the hissing of these substances, similar to the noise of breakers at sea; an inflamed and pungent air which we breathed, all contributed to astonish and stupefy my senses. When the tranquillity necessary to observation returned, I ad- vauced from the side of the volcanic issues which give passage to the smoke: they are fourin number, and all are situated in the eastern part of the volcano. The aperture which we first meet with is the largest; it is a perfectly round hole, about seven feet in diameter; beside tne there is another which imperfectly resembles a grotto, from the bottom of which a thick smoke issues: these two apertures are surrounded to some distance by an efflores~- cence of sulphur resembling gold dust: the sides of the anertures~are fringed with very brilliant sinall crystals of sulphur. We may approach close to these two apertures. M. Vikerman and’ M. Lisnet, being ignorant how dangerous — and pungent sulphurous vapours are, were bold enough to enter the grotto which précedes the second aperture; they were seized by the exhalations, and had barely time to retire: but they might have been suffocated betore it was possible to give them any assistance. Amid the vapours which surrounded us, our hands and faces appeared of a blood red.
The other two mouths to the eastward of the latter are both adjoining to and placed against the eastern flank of the volcano, They appear to be over the most ardent fire ; for
Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid. 185
for in this place the subterraneous bellowing is much more considerable, and one of them every ten seconds throws to the distance of eight or ten feet pieces of melted sub- stances as large as a man’s fist. When these dejections take place, they occasion a hissing like that of the air which escapes from a fire-engine; the intervals between ‘the dejections are very regular. ‘These substancss in the dark appear as if inflamed; but in the day-time they have the appearance of lumps of mud, which flatten in the act of falling. I was very desirous of procuring a specimen of these substances as soon as thrown out; but, both on ac- count of their situation and the heat of the ground, it ts impossible to approach nearer than 15 feet. All this part. of the bottom of the volcano also presents other small aper- tures; the smoke issues from all the fissures of the crust upon which we tread; and even upon making an opening with a spade, the smoke immediately escapes. The nature of this place indicates that it is subject to daily revolutions; masses of rocks more or less calcined, masses of ashes more or less hardened, are heaped up without regularity, and present the image of disorder. The ground on which we tread is formed of a succession of layers of white puz- zolano containing globules of black glass in the form of tears. We meet with abundance of pieces of lava and of black glass of different forms and sizes, and sulphur of ‘different degrees of purity. We also find alum and vitriol formed in some stones.
The Javanese say that the vents two years ago were to
the westward of those which now exist; we still see traces of them there: they are extinguished, and form pits of 25 or 30 feet in depth. Formerly, also, a person might have reached the edge of the lake of sulphuric acid without dif- ficulty; but at present all the banks are rugged: it is at- tainable, and that with great difficulty, at one side only, where a Javanese drew up, by means of a bamboo, a speci- men of the water at my desire. The place from which sulphur was extracted two years ago is covered with water.
Our excursion was near being attended by a tragical event. M. Lisnet, having approached too close to the edge of the lake, threw down a portion of the crumbled ashes upon-which he stood; he was carried down some way ; and but for a rock which luckily arrested his progress, he would have perished by a miserable death in the lake.
We remained about an hour and a quarter at the bottom of the volcano. I have drawn an interior view of it (Plate 11.) which will show better than my-description the
disposition
186 Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid.
disposition of this place. We breathe at the bottom of the gulf a suffocating and acrid air, which severely affects the eyes, lips, and inside of the lungs and nostrils: the seams of our shoes were burned by the heat of the ground.
When we were ready to quit the volcano, there was de- tached from the upper and western part a mass of earth several] fathoms downwards, which rolled with great noise in- to the sulphuric lake, where it caused along and noisy bub- bling, which made me think the water was very deep. We also remarked the vestiges of several very recent eruptions.
I regretted much that I had no thermometer with me, to ascertain the degrees of heat of the waters of the lake, the yapours issuing from the volcanic issues, and also of the air which we breathe in these places.
I consider the height of Mount Idienne as at least 1000 toises above the level of the sea. This estimate is founded upon the following reasoning: I reckon this height, upon the idea that from Bagnia- Vangni there are about ten leagues of continual, and in some places very rapid slope.
We returned in the evening to Ohonponoph, where we arrived worn out with fatigue. M. Vikerman assured me that he would rather give in his resignation, than force any man under him to visit this place in quest of sulphur. I am ignorant of the advantages which the Company derive from the sulphur brought from this volcano ; but it is likely that they have been deceived by the report of persons who set no value on the lives of their fellow-creatures, or who were interested in Jeading them into error. After having visited this place, I am convinced that no man of common humanity would encourage such speculations. My nar- rative shows how dangerous the descent into the volcano is, and how unhealthy it is to gather the sulphur. It ought also to be recollected, that these unfortunate Javanese are obliged, before they can reach the volcano, to traverse ten leagues from Bagnia- Vangnt through a desert country swarming with tigers; that ‘when they arrive at Ohon- ponoph, their resting-place, they must bring the water which they want from a great distance; that they are exposed in this place, almost without clothing, to a cold to which they are not accustomed, and which is even accompanied with humid and deleterious vapours, which may kill them on the spot, or at least occasion obstinate diseases. M. Vikerman and myself were of a vigorous habit of body, and every thing which could facilitate our descent into the volcano was em- ployed: when we came out, however, we were ready to faint.
When the eastern part of Mount Idienne shall be So
ple
Description of a Lake of Suiphurie Acid. 187
pled, which will certainly happen, because the soil is very fertile, the drainings which are going on will banish. the insalubrity, which T aseribe entirely to the exhalations from putrid vegetables which rise from these vast and humid forests. In this event, interest alone will induce the inha- bitants around to extract the sulphtr from the volcano ; and a great portion of the sulphuric lake might even be drawn off by rectifying and separating the differentacids contained in the water.
The Javanese have no tradition of recent eruptions from this voleano: the convulsions, as I have already remarked, have probably been more considerable to the westward. We find at Parassane, upon the road from Bagnia-Vangné to Batiol-mati, about a league and a half from the sea, and to the northward of Mount Idienne, voleanic rocks which appear to me to have been a half-melted lava, containing several pumice or vitrified stones, which form a kind of pudding stone with it. These rocks appear to me to form part of a torrent of lava which has descended from the yolcano, and which by subsequent deposits has been in a great measure covered.
The Javanese say that thirteen years ago there was an eruption which issued with great noise from the east side of the summit of Mount Idienne. By an interior cont motion, but without any fire or smoke, there was detached a great number of rocks, which rolled down to the séa, car- rying all before them. A part of this eruption stopped on the sea-shore at the place called Klata, about a league to the northward of Bagnia-Vangni: here there was 2 moving morass, which rendered the road very dificult. The ereption overwhelmed it, rendered it stationary, and cooped up its waters in a bed which they formed to the northward of the place where they formerly were.
A lake of sulphuric acid of such an extent, found at the bottom of a Solfaterra, being a new fact in geology, I brought with me to France a bottle full of the water of this lake, and M. Vanquelin was kind enough to make the following analysis:
1. The liquor has an acid and at the same time a bitter taste,
2. Its specific gravity is to that of water as 1°118 i8 to 1900: it marks in the areometer eight degrees.
3. When evaporated, vapours of muriatic acid and of sulphurous acid arise; the liquor takes a yellow colour, and deposits some particles of sulphur. .
4. Upon cooling, this liquor deposited crystals of sil
; phate
188 Description of « Lake of Sulphurie Acid.
phate of lime: when the evaporation was pushed further, the same liquor furnished crystals of alum.
5. The crystals of alum when separated, and the liquor when concentrated still further, gave simple sulphate of alumine.
6. When, by successive crystallizations, the sulphate of lime and alum were. separated, the remaining liquor, or mother-water, decomposed by the ammonia, formed a pre- cipitate which was composed of iron and alumine.
7. The liquor thus decomposed by ammonia, when eva- porated, and the residue calcined, gave me but very little sulphate of potash, without any thing else. f
8. These experiments prove that the acid liquor in ques- tion is composed of,
1. Sulphuric acid.
2. Muriatic acid.
3. Sulphurous acid.
4. Simple sulphate of alumine.
5. A small quantity of common alum.
6. Sulphate of lime.
7- Sulphate of iron.
8. Some particles of sulphur.
The sulphuric acid is more abundant than the other sub- stances : next comes the muriatic acid: the simple sulphate of alumine, the sulphate of iron, and the other substances, are but in very small proportions.
Description of the Plates.
Plate I. Sketch of the country in the yicinity of the volcano. A. Place where the river disappears. B. Mouth of the volcano. Plate II. Interior view of the Solfaterra. 1. Lake of sulphuric acid. 2. Section by which the water is discharged which forms the river Songi Pahete. 3. Part of the volcano where the volcanic vents are. 4. Old volcanic vents now extinguished. 5. 5. Volcanic apertures vomiting smoke and fused sub-- stances, 6. Place at which I descended into the volcano. 7- The only place where water can be drawn from the lake.
*,* In our last Number correct the following errata, occasioned by ty- pographical mistakes in the or1GINAL: page 130, line 28, read Sombrarou ; and in p: 130, 1, 41, p.131, 1, 18, 1, 22, and |. 25, read Sungi Pahete.
XXXII, ln-
[ 189 J
XXXI. Inquiry concerning Magnesian Limestones in Somersetshire, Shropshire, and Nottinghamshire,
To Mr. Tilloch.
Srr,—Osservine that Inquiries are often made and answered in your instructive pages, as to the localities of British Minerals, I beg to extract a passage from Sir H. Davy’s ‘* Elements of Agricultural Chemistry,’ viz. * Magnesian limestones (which, as he has just before said, effervesce slowly in diluted nitric acid, or aqua fortis, and in so doing render the acid m/ky), are usually coloured brown or pale yellow. They are found in Somersetshire, Leicesterhire, Derbyshire, Shropshire, Durham, and York- shire. ._ I have never met with any in other counties in Eng- land: but they abound in many parts of Ireland, particu- Jarly near Belfast.”
I should take it a great favour to be informed by any of your Correspondents, of the names and situations of as many Quarries or Rocks, having the above characters, in either Somerseishire or in Shropshire ? as they are able, and whether Sir Humphry is correct in implying that Magnesian Limestones are confined to the abovementioned six English counties ?—As to Nottinghamshire, either Sir Humphry must be wrong, or Mr. Farey, in his Derbyshire Report, vol. 1. p. 156, and in his Map, p.97. It may be proper to mention, that Mr. Lowe in his Nottingham Re- port, p. 104, quotes the authority of Mr. Sikes, an agricud- tural chemist, for the Limestones in question containing more siliceous earth than those from near Newark or the Peak of Derbyshire, and which is supposed to occasion those Nottingham Limes to be ‘* weak,” “ hungry,” &c. and very inferior for agricultural purposes to more pure Limestones. I am
Your obedient servant,
September 1, 1813. AN Inquirer.
P.S. Happening since the above was written to tura to your fifth volume, p. 213, &c. I find that Mr. Tennant expressly mentions and gives the analysis of Magnesian Limestone near Worksop in Nottinghamshire, aud also in Northumberland at page 214; query, at what places, if auy, besides the continuation of the Durham Rock across the mouth of the Tyne?
XXXII. On
[ 190 J
XXXII. On a new detonating Compound, in a Letter from Sir Humeury Davy, LL.D. &.R.S. to the Right Hon. Sir JoserH BANKs, “Bart. KB. P.RS.*
My Dear Sir, T sin it Fahit to communicate to you, and through you to the Royal Society, such circumstances as have come to my knowledge respecting a new and a very extraordinary detonating compound. T am anxious that those circumstances should be made public as speedily as possiblé, because experiments upon the substance may be connected with very dangerous results; and because I have already mentioned the mode of preparing it to many of my chemical friends, to whom my experience may be use- ful in saving them from danger.
About the end of September, I received a letter from a philosophical gentleman at Paid: on some subjects of science, which “contained the following paragraph ;
53 Vous avez sans doute appris, Monsieur, la découverte qu’on a faite a Paris il y a prés d’un an, d’une combinaison gaz azote et de chlorine, qui a l’apparence dune huile plus pesante que Peau, et qui détonne avec toute la violence des métaux fulmimans ala simple chaleur de Ja main, ce qui a privé dun ceil et d’un doigt Pauteur de cette décou- verte. Cette détonnation a lieu par la simple séparation des deux gaz, comme celle de Ja combinatson d’oxigéne et de chlorine ; fl y a également beaucoup de lumiére et de la chaleur produites dans cette détonnation, ot un liquide se décompose en deux gaz.”
The letter contained no account of the mode of prepara- tion of this substance, nor any other details respecting it.
So curious and important a result could not fail to in- terest_ me, particularly as I have long been engaged in ex- periments on the action of azote and chlorme, without ‘gaining any decided proofs of their power of combining with each other. J perused with avidity the different French chemical and physical journals, especially Les An- nales de Chimie and Le Journal de Physique, of which the complete series of last year have arrived in this country, in hopes of discovering some detail respecting the preparation of this sub tance ; bat in vain, | dewassinable-to find any thing relative to it in these publications, or in the Moniteur.
It was evident from the notice, that it could not be formed in any operations in which heat is concerned; I therefore thought of aliempting to combine azote and
* from the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, part i. chlorine
On a new detonating Compound. 191
chloriné under circumstances which I had never tried. be- fore, that of presenting them to each other artificially cooled, the azote being in a nascent state. For this pur- pose I ‘made a solution of ammonia, cooled it by a mixture _ of ice and miuriate of lime, and slowly passed into it chlorine, cooled by the same means. There was imme- diately a violent action, accompanied by fumes of a pecu- liarly disagreeable smell; at the same time a yellow sub- stance was seen to form in minute films on the surface of the liquor ; but it was evanescent, and immediately resolved itself into gas. I was preparing to repeat the experiment, substituting the prussiate of ammonia and other ammonia- eal compounds, in which Jess heat might be produced by the action of the chlurine, than in the pure solution of the gas, when my friend Mr. J.G.Children put me in mind of a circumstance of which he had written to me an ac- count, in the end of July, which promised to elucidate the inquiry, viz. that Mr. James Burton, jun. in exposing chlorine to a solution of nitrate of ammonia, had observed the formation of a yellow oil, which he had not been able to collect so as to examine its properties, as it was ra- pidly dissipated by exposure to the atmosphere. Mr. Chil- dren had tried the same experiment with similar results,
I immediately exposed a phial, containing about six cu- bical inches of chlorine, to a saturated solution of nitrate of ammonia, at the temperature of about 50° in common day-light. A diminution of the gas speedily took place 5 ina few minutes a film, which had the appearance of oil, was seen on the surface of the fluid ; by shaking the phial it collected in small globules, and fell to the bottom. I took out one of the globules, and exposed it in contact with water to a gentle heat: long before the water began to boil, it exploded with a very brillant hght, but without any violence of sound.
F inmmaediately proposed to Mr. Children, that we should institute a series of experiments upon its preparation and its properties. We consequently commenced the opera- tions, the results of which I shall describe. We were as sisted in our labours, which were carried on in Mr. Chil- dren’s laboratory at Tunbridge, by Mr. Warburton.
It was found that the solution of oxalate of ammonia, or a very weak solution of pure ammonia, answered the pur- pose as well as the solution of nitrate of ammenia. It was formed most rapidly in the solution of ammonia, but it was white and clouded; and though less evanescent than in the strong solution I first used, it was far from being
as
192 On a new detonating Compound.
as permanent as in the solutions of nitrate and 6xalate. The solution of prussiate of ammonia acted on by chlorine, afforded none of the peculiar oil; but produced white fumes, and became of a bright green colour. An attempt was made to procure the substance in large quantities, by ‘passing chlorine into Wolfe’s bottles containing the dif- ferent solutions: but a single trial proved the danger of this mode of operating; the compound had scarcely begun to form, when, by the action of some ammoniacal vapour on chlorine, heat was produced, which occasioned a violent explosion, and the whole apparatus was desiroyed.
f shall now describe the properties of the new substance. Tts colour is very nearly that of olive oil, and it is as trans- parent, and more perfectly liquid. I have not been.able to ascertain its specific gravity with accuracy, but it is pro- bably above 1°6. Its smell 1s very nauseous, strongly re- sembling that of the combination of carbonic oxide and chlorine, discovered by my brother; and its effect on the eyes is peculiarly pungent and distressing. A little of it was introduced under water into the receiver of an air pump, and the receiver exhausted; it hecame an elastic fluid, and in its gaseous state was rapidly absorbed or de- composed by the water. When warm water was poured into a glass containing it, it expanded into a globule of elastic fluid, of an orange colour, which diminished as it passed through the water.
I attempted to collect the products of the explosion of the new substance, by applying the heat of a spirit-lamp to a globule of it, confined in a curved glass tube over water: a little gas was at first extricated; but long before the water had attained the temperature of ebullition, a vio- Jent flash of light was perceived, with a sharp report; the tube and glass were broken into small fragments, and [ received a severe wound in the transparent cornea of the eye, which has produced a considerable inflammation of the eye, and obliges me to make this communication by an amanuensis. This experiment proves what extreme caution is necessary in operating on this substance, for the quantity I used was scarcely as large as a grain of mustard seed.
A smali giobule of it thrown into a glass of olive oil, produced a most violent explosion; and the glass, though strong, was broken into fragments. Similar effects were produced by its action on oil of turpentine and naphtha, When it was thrown into ether, there was a very slight action ; gas was disengaged in small quantities, and a sub- stance like wax was formed, which had lost the character-
istic
On a new detonating Compound. 193
igtie properties of the new body. On alcohol it acted owly, lost its colour, and became a white oily substance, without explosive powers. When a particle of it was touched under water by a particle of phosphorus, a brilliant light was perceived under the water, and permanent gas was disengaged, having the characters of azote.
When “quantities larger than a grain of mustard seed were used for the contact with phosphorus, the explosion was alwavs so violent as to break the vessel in which the experiment was made. The new body, when acted upon under water by mercury, afforded a substance having the appearance of corrosive sublimate, and gas was disengaged. On tin foil and zinc it exerted no action ; it had no action on sulphur, nor on resin. In their alcoholic solutions it disappeared as in pure alcohol. It detonated most vio- lently when thrown into a solution of phosphorus in ether, or in alcohol. Phosphorus introduced into ether, into which a globule of the substance had been put immediately before, produced no effect. In muriatic acid it gave off gas rapidly, and disappeared without explosion. On dilute sulphuric acid it exerted no violent action. It immediately disappeared without explosion in Libavius’s liquor, to which it imparted a yellow tinge.
Tt seems probable, from the general tenor of these facts, that the new substance is a compound of azote and chlo- rine ; the same as, or analogous to, that mentioned in the letter from Paris. It is easy to explain its production in our experiments: the hydrogen of the ammonia may be conceived to combine jvith one portion of the chlorine to form muriatic acid, and the azote to unite with another portion of chlorine to form the new compound. The heat and light produced during its expansion into gaseous mat- ter, supposing it to be composed of azote and chlorine, is without any parallel instance, in our present collection of chemical facts; the decomposition of euchlorine, which has been compared to it, is merely an expansion of matter already gaseous. The heat and light produced by its rare- faction, in consequence of decomposition, depend, pro« bably, on the same cause as that which produces the flash of light in the discharge of the air gun.
The mechanical force of this compound in detonation, seems to be superior to that of any other known, not even excepting the ammoniacal fulminating silver. The velo- city of its action appears to be likewise greater.
I am, my dear sir, with great respect, very sincerely yours,
H. Davy. Vol, 42, No. 195, Sept, 1813. N XXXII. Par-
-
ro)
[ 194 ]
XXXHTI. Particulars of the successful Treatment of a Cas€ of Hydropholia; with Observations, @c. By Rick WInneE, Apothecary, Shrewsbury.
On the morning of January the 22d, 1813, a strange pointer bitch was observed by a young woman on the road leading from Monkmoor to Shrewsbury. She thought there was something uncommon in her look ; and having a mastiff dog along with her, which was in the habit of attacking every dog she set him at, she immediately en- deavoured to put them to fight, purposely that the road might be free for her escape. The mastiff, instead of ad- vancing, instantly slunk behind, and seemed much fright- ened. The pointer then flew at the female, and tere her cloak; she did not receive any further injury. The bitch proceeded, and was met by a man driving cows, by one of which she was attacked, and in the encounter the cow was bitten in the leg; but upon its being washed and examined, the owner could not perceive that the skin was broken. The pointer next entered a house, and bit a kitten, which was destroyed ;—{rom thence she went to Emstrey (about two miles distant), and, without the least provocation, bit a greyhound, which was likewise killed; she then pro- ceeded to Chilton, about a mile further. A little beyond, on the road, she attacked a child who was carrying a bas- ket of meat; the meat was thrown down, but was not noticed by the bitch. She repeatedly flew at the child, and tore her bonnet and clothes, but did not inflict any wound. The child, alarmed, ran forward to Atcham, which is but a short distance, and seeing the dog coming that way, she cried out for help. A mau antoading coal was going to her assistance, when the bitch, without barking, or giving any other warning, rushed under the waggon and attacked him; she flew two or three times at his tace, and, when he was endeavouring to protect himself, sbe bit him in the left band, She then crossed the road, and attacked and bita dog, which was destroyed. She was pursued about half a mile, and was shot by a keeper belonging to the Right Honourabie Lord Berwick.
Abraham Cook, tat. 58, the person who was bitten by the pointer bitch, is of middle stature, of florid complexion, at times suffers from dyspepsia, and after great exertion, or excess in drinking, has been subject to fainting fits. In about an hour after he was bitten in the hand, he was per+ suaded by his friends to walk to Shrewsbury; and the bitten part was excised by Mr. Thomas Sutton, Bact 3
e
Successful Treatment of a Case of Hydropholia. 195
The wound soon healed, and he continued in good health and spirits, always making light of the accident, until Friday the 5th of February, on the morning of which day he first began to complain of an uneasiness and soreness in that part of the hand where he had received the injury. On Saturday, and Sunday, it became gra- dually worse; and on Monday morning, after an al- most sleepless night, be arose with increased pain and soreness in his hand, attended with head-ache, sick- ness, and great oppression at the pit of his stomach ; his breathing was difficult; and his bowels were costive, Notwithstanding, he went to his work, but very soon be- came much worse. He was prevailed upon to drink some warm beer, and was immediately seized with violent and excessive vomitings of green bile. He with difficulty re- turned to his home, and on his way was much distressed, as he believed the people who were passing by were deter- mined to ride over him; and he felt chilled, and very un- comfortable, at the appearance of the river, which he passed over. His wife seeing him so il] (without having any su- spicion of the nature of the disease) pressed him to drink soine water; he showed a great dread of uM, and could not he prevailed upon to drink any, assigning, as the reason of his objection, the pain and vomiting he experienced after swallowing the beer. She then procured some surfeit water, to which he made the same objection; she pressed it to his mouth, but his looks so terrified her she cannot recollect whether any was swallowed; if there was, it must have been a very smal] quantity. All the symptoms rapidly increased: his eyes were inflamed, and staring ; his face was likewise inflamed, and his features were contorted, and indicated the greatest distress and anxiety: it was with difficulty he was detained in his bed, and he appeared to be watching, and anxious to escape some object that occa- sioned his distress. At this time (about one o’clock P.M.) I was passing through the village, and was desired to visit him. J found him in the situation related. In a very short time afterwards, his left hand, arm, and his head were gonvulsed. I pressed him to drink some water, but could pot prevail; and although [ did not observe any additional horror atthe moment | offered it, sull it was evident he was so much convulsed as not to be abie to drink.
Being convinced in my own mind of the nature of the disease, | was anxious for the advice and assistance of my much-esteemed friend, Mr. Thomas Sutton; yet I was also aware that no time should be lost, and that the delay of an
N2 ' hour
196 Successful Treatment of a Case of Hydrophotia.
hour might hazard the life of our patient. The pulse was from 70 to 80 beats in a minute, varying in strength and regularity.
Thad recourse to the abstraction of twenty ounces of blood, taken from’ a Jarge orifice, and the time of taking it did not exceed six minutes. He fainted, and remained for an hour with scarcely a perceptible pulse 5 and it was evi- dent the whole time, his disease was abating. His coun- tenance became more composed, and much paler; his eyes were less inflamed 5 the convulsions ceased; and when re- covering from his faintness, his first request was that he might be allowed to drink some water; and when it was brought to him he seemed much to enjoy it. I now left him ; desiring, if any return of his disease took place, I might be immediately acquainted with it. I sent him pills, containing, to each dose, one grain of opium, three grains of the submuriate of mercury, and one grain of James’s powder, which were directed to be taken every three hours.
The pulse, on Monday afternoon, after the bleeding, and after the faintness had subsided, was reduced to 55 beats in the minute, and was regular.. [The same alteration took place after the second bleeding, and did not exceed 60 du- ring the remainder of his illness.]
On Tuesday morning, at seven o’clock, I again visited him; when [ was informed that between four and five o’clock the preceding afternoon his bowels had been freely opened, and previous to bis taking any medicine. They had not again been moved, nor had he any feeling.as though they were likely. He had drunk coffee, and balm tea, in the night; but he had an aversion to them; it still hurt him to swallow. He had made a sufficient quantity of water, which was high-coloured, but without sediment. He had slept a little, at intervals, but was much distressed by dreams of hearses, and various accidents, but all of which he said had not troubled him half so much as when he yesterday thought he was pursued in his room by adog. He seemed agitated, and said he was dreadfully ill, and should never sleep again. There were convulsive startings in his hand, wrist, and shoulders. He told me he thought there was something alive in his wrist. He refused to take either coffee or water. His countenance was composed and thonghtful; he said his neighbours bad been making a noise on purpose all night, and every thing went through his brains. He started at the slightest sound, or motion ; and his sense’ of ‘hearing was morbidly acute. The pulse was full, but unequal, beating about 80 strokes in the mi-
nutes;
Successful Treaiment of a Case of Hydropholia. 197
nute; his countenance was rather flushed. I considered it necessary to repeat the bleeding*, and when about ten ounces were taken, he fainted ; his pulse was again scarcely to be felt. He continued in this state for about, half an hour, and he was perfectly composed and free from con- vulsion.
I-visited him again that afternoon, about five o’clock. His wife, about three o ’clock, for a mioment observed a twitching in his shoulders ; he had regularly taken the sub- muriate of mercury, opium, and James’s powder, but his bowels had not been again relieved. The part of his hand of which he had complained was still sore upon pressure 5 and he was directed every eight hours to rub in one drachm of the strong mercurial cintment, and to continue the pills. He still complained of pain about the middle of the chest, particularly when he swallowed liquids; and in con- sequence had not taken much food; what he had swal- | lowed was chiefly broth, pudding, and coffee.
On Wednesday I saw him comfortable, excepting that his bowels continued costive ; he had a strong opening mixture sent him, and after taking of it twice, the purpose was effected. He regularly, until “this time, continued the pills, with the submuriate of MLEREUTY &c. when it was thought advisable, as he had passed healthy bile, not to repeat then oftener than once in six hours.
On Thursday morning, when I visited him, he was comfortable, and had passed a good night; his mouth was becoming sore, and heated, In the evening I was sent for to him; he bad been sitting up for some time, and had been much fatigued, and fainted. When I arrived, his wife said she was sorry I had been troubled to come again that day, as the fit was nothing like what I had seen “be- tore, and was not more than such as he had heen accus- tomed to when he had been drinking hard, or was much tired; and that it was against her consent that the messen- ger came. He had recovered by the time I reached his house, and I was satisfied from appearances she was right ; and | left him without any apprehension.
Since that time he has not experienced one untoward
symptom. The medicines were continued for nine days, the mouth remained sore for nearly three weeks.
I here wish to mention, that immediately on my return from Atcham on Monday, the 8th, the first afternoon I visited the patient, I called upon Mr. Thomas Sutton, and requested him to take the earliest opportunity of observing
* The blood in neither instance appeared buffy. N3 the
ig8 Successful Treatment of a Case of Hydrophotid.
the case, and begged that he would have the kindness to Suggest any thing that he thought likely to be of service. He and Mr. Sutton, as well as others of the profession, have been present.
Observatiozs.
In our observations, we are naturally led, first, to in- vestigate the disease as it appeared in the dog : secondty , the injury which followed the wound she inflicted in the hand of Abraham Cook : and, lastly, the result of the treat- ment that was in consequence adopted.
She is described, as not being known by any one; her eyes were heavy, and had a glassy appearance. There was a flow of frothy saliva from her mouth ; her belly was re- markably gaunt, and the dogs she worried, although larger, and superior in strength, were at once frightened and dis- mayed: Her mode of attack was sudden, and without warning, for in no one instance was she heard to bark: alt of which symptoms are related by authors as appertaifting to canine madness.
Vhe illness of Abtaham Cook commenced on the 5th of February, fourteen days after the accident. He then first perceived an uneasy sensation in the part that was bitten. On the 6th, it gradually became more painful. On the 7th, he had violent head-ache, voniitings; and pain at the pit of his stomach : his bowels were confined. When he drank some beer, it aggravated his sufferings. He suspected peo- ple were determined purposely to ride over bi im; and hts wretchedness was greatly increased by the chilliness he ex- perienced as he passed: over the river; and afterwards, when he reached his home, he refused to take any liquid, as his pains and sufferings were so great imniediately after he bad drunk the beer. At last, by persuasion, he made the attempt, and the consequence was immediate conyul- * sions. When he was put to bed; it was with difficulty he was detained there. His corivulsions increased, his fea- tures became more distorted, his eyes were suffused with blood, and he appeared anxiously endeavouring to escape some ideal object ; and such was the situation in which he was found by the writer, He was again pressed to take some water ; and although his sufferings did not at the mo- ment appear to be increased, still, as far as he was able, he persisted in refusing, and it was evident he could not drink. From the symptoms, and from the rapid increase of the disease, it was considered necessary immediately to adopt some decisive measures; and the writer haying read the
“successful
Successful Treatment of a Case of Hydropholia. 199
successful treatment of hydrophobia, and the interesting communications related by Mr. Tymon and Dr. Shoolbred in the East Indies, he was determined without further loss of time to pursue to the utmost the means that had been attended with such unusual success. Twenty ounces of blood were taken from the arm in six minutes. He fainted; and the pulse could scarcely be felt for one hour. His convulsions abated; his countenance had nearly lost all expression of distress; and, when he recovered, his first request was to be allowed to indulge in that which the bare idea of, but one hour before, seened to be a source of the greatest suffering. He drank some water, and was greatly refreshed by it. At this period, no medicine whatever had been taken, nor for the space of two hours afterwards, and during the whole time he was comfortable, and his bowels were relieved. He now commenced taking every three hours large doses of opium, &c. but, instead of bis con- tinuing to enjoy ease and comfort, or further relief from his bowels, his night was restless, and in the morning there appeared to be some reasons for apprehending a recurrence of the disease. Bleeding was again had recourse to, with similar success, excepting that the same effect was not pro- duced upon the bowels, which possibly were rendered more difficult of action from the use of the opium, but which was afterwards effected by opening medicine. From this time no further symptom worthy of mention occurred, and the patient perfectly recovered.
Tt might here be remarked, that although hydrophobia in its very far advanced stages 1s generaliy described with more force and violence of symptoms, yet it is presumed that the patient’s symptoms and sufferings were decidedly in consequence of that disease.
Particular attention is requested to the immediate altera- tion which took place in the disease, after the abstraction of blood, and before any other remedy had been exhibited. With the testimony and assurance of Dr. Shoolbred, the writer felt sanguine in the result; and from his own ex- perience of the success of rapid bleedings in diseases most resembling hydrophobia, he believes, if adopted in any stage of the disease where bleeding is admissible, and in the manner and to the extent required, it will be attended with as great a share of success as is usual in other diseases imminent in danger.
In confirmation that the success will depend upou the manner, and the extent, in which the operation is per- formed, the writer avails himself of the acknowledged high
N4 and
200 Successful Treatment of a Case of Hydropholiu.
and able authority of Dr. Christopher Robert Pemberton, who, when writing upon the subject of venesection in in- flammatory diseases, expresses himself in the following language :
si Physicians have been struck at all times with the effect produced by taking the blood from a large orifice in in- flammatory diseases, and it is certainly a matter which cannot be too strongly urged as an indispensable point in practice 5 especially as the “generality of writers do not seem to have instituted any defined plan to regulate and secure the effectual performance of this operation. I wish, there- fore, to press, in the strongest terms, the absolute necessity of attending to that eittaoivlance.: which the following observations may perhaps tend to elucidate.
{tis true, that from a small orifice the same quantity of blood may be taken as from a large one; but the time of its flowing is so long, that the topical inflammation, which demands for its relief a sudden effect upon the sy- stem, is not in the least influenced by it, though the ge- neral strength is much weakened ; which is an occurrence of all others to be avoided in a disease that requires re- peated evacuations.
* As I consider this matter of great consequence, I shall endeavour to point out a method, by which a plan, of a more defined nature than that hitherto adopted, may be given for drawing blood in inflammatory diseases.
‘< At present we are contented to order that the hlood should be taken from a large or from a small orifice, than whicb nothing surely can be more vague or undefined. The plan, which I propose, refers to the length of time in taking away the blood, which may be measured, and not the size of the orifice, which cannot.
*<T find from numerous experiments, made at my desire for this purpose by different surgeons, that when the orifice is such as to permit eight ounces of blood to flow in three minutes, that then a patient under acute inflammation will receive every benefit which is expected from the remedy. If it flows in a longer time, he will receive less benefit ; and, under certain circumstances, no benefit at all, or even an absolute injury.
‘* I can suppose 4 case of peripneumony, wherein a pa- tient shall have just general strength enough to carry on respiration by the assistance of the voluntary muscles, and that eight ounces of blood shall be taken from a very small orifice, by which the change will be so gradual, in conse- quence of the time required for the blood to flow, that no
alteration
Successful Treatment of a Case of Hydropholia. 201
alteration whatever will be made in the disease ; but yet.the general strength shall be so dimjnished, that death may ensue. On the other hand, had the same quantity of blood been taken from a large brifice, that then the disease would have felt the remedy, and respiration would bave gone on with less exertion of we remaining general strength, in consequence of the lungs being relieved by this sudden de- pletion.
‘< The great consequence, therefore, attached to the mode in which blood is drawn (as on this life or death may often depend), imperiously demands of every physician to im- press upon the mind of his patient the importance of the operation, and the absolute necessity of having it performed by a person fully skilled in his profession.
**T should not omit to mention, that there may now and then occur a case, where the vein may uot only be particu- larly small, but likewise be deeply seated, and covered with fat. Here, although the orifice may be sufficiently large, yet a portion of fat may obtrude so as to interrupt the stream of blood. I would in such case recommend the surgeon to dilate the external orifice, or even make a fresh orifice, rather than persist in his endeavours to obtain the guantity required in this gradual way.”
It has repeatedly happened to the writer to meet with those diseases, wherein it seemed unavoidably neces+ sary to call to his aid the above strong and competent measures ; and when he has been closely observing the state of the pulse during the operation, he has found that
perhaps for about thirty or more pulsations (varying ac-
cording to the strength and constitution of the patient) be- -
fore the faintness supervenes, there is a perceptible i increase of power, and great throbbing in the action of the heart,— the heart seeming to strugele against being reduced to a state of subjection: this particular action of the heart is penerally succeeded by diminished power in the circulation, and by which he is assured the disease ‘ has felt the Te= medy.” He likewise wishes to add, that when the in- creased action of the heart begins to take place, the patient is generally very urgent that the bleeding might be discon- tinued ; but it is absolutely necessary, in the writer’s opi- nion, in extreme cases, to proceed the one step further, namely, until faintness is produced. He prefers any other position for ‘the patient to be placed in during the operation to one that is recumbent.
Before these obseryations are concluded, it might be
well
202 Experiments on capillary Syphons
well to refer to the case of a Serjeant Clarke, related by Mr. Bellingen, Assistant-surgeon of the 1st Foot, and dated Trichinopoly, February ‘26th, 1813, and inserted in the Times paper, August 27th, under the title ** Hydrophobia.’’ It is there considered ‘* a case which appears to contradict this fortunate and promising one”’ (alluding to the success- ful case published by Dr. Shoolbred). In this instance, ou the 23d February, at nine o’clock, a large orifice was opened in the patient’s arm, and about 40 ounces of blood were taken. The patient complained of excessive languor, but did not fuint, yet some of the symptoms were diminished, At four o’clock bleeding was tried again; he struggled so much daring the operation that-the quantity could not be exactly ascertained, but it might be from 16 to 18 ounces. The pulse, after this bleeding, fell so low as to be scarcely discernible near the wrist, and towards the close he vomited a quantity of ropy phiegm mixed with frothy saliva. He continued to struggle violently for some time, then fell quiet for a few minutes, and expired about a quarter before five.
After a few further remarks, Mr. Bellingen concludes, that blood-letting in this case had a timely trial.”” But it must be recollected, that in the first instance (although the quantity of blood taken was forty ounces) the patient only complained of excessive languor, but did nol faint. During the second bleeding, the pulse was. scarcely dis- cernible, but this was not three quarters of an hour before the patient died.
Without wishing to show any disrespect to the opinion of Mr. Bellingen, might it not be inferred, that the first bleeding was incomplete ?—for although the 40 ounces were taken, his patient did not faint—and that he was weakened, and the disease too tar advanced for the second bleeding to have a chance of success ?
XXXIV. Experiments on capillary Syphons with electrified and wiih heated Liquids.
To Mr. Tilloch,
Srr,— Ix repeating the well known experiment of causing water to flow in a constant stream from a capillary sy- phon, by means of the electric fluid, it struck me that this effect might be produced also by means of heat, because in many instances the electric fluid so nearly resembles it.
I accordingly
with electrified and with heated Liquids. 203
T accordingly filled a metallic cup with cold water, and suspended it from a stand, pari in it a thermometer, and acapillary syphon, from which, the water dropped at the rate of three drops in two minutes. On placing an Argand lamp under the cup, the drops, in a short time, succeeded each other somewhat faster than before, and when the water reached the boiling point; they amounted to three in one minute, or rather more. The bore of this syphon was very small, and elliptical ; equal, perhaps, to a cylindrical one of 1-50th of an inch in diameter. J after- wards repeated the experiment, with a syphon having a much larger bore, about 1-18th of an inch in diameter, from which the water issued at the rate of 150 drops in a minute, when ihe thermometer stood in it at 60°, The cup was now suspended as before ovcr an Argand Jamp. As soon as the water became warm the drops fell much faster; at 110° of the thermometer they could scarcely be counted, and at 130° a constant stream was produced, which continued to increase in quantity, very slowly, till the water began to boil, when it ceased to increase. As the water cooled, the same phenomena took place in an inverse order.
Whether the effect was produced by electricity or heat, when the large syphon was used, the appearances were very nearly the same. The only difference was, that the elec- trical fluid scattered the water as it issued from the syphony rather more than the heat did.
I confess that I am at a loss what to deduce from these experiments, though they certainly seem to indicate a near connection between heat and electricity. 1 shouid be obliged to some of your correspondents for their thoughts on this subject, if they think the experiment worth notice.
Is the electric fluid only a peculiar modification of heat? or, Is heat a modification of electricity ? .
When the above experiment is effected by electricity, Does it act on the water in the form of heat, by rendering it more fluid?) And when the experiment is effected by heat, Does this cause the water to flow faster by rendering it more fluid ?
I am aware that if the electrical fluid acts on the water in the form of heat, thus rendering it more fluid, no heat becomes sensible; and this circumstance seems to prove, that the heat and electricity produce the effect, above de- scribed, in different ways, Then, I would ask how the effect is produced?
If, sir, the experiment which I have described is new,
and
204 Ona Substance from the Elm Tree, called Ulmin.
and you think it worth making public, I shall thank you to insert what I have written in your valuable Magazine. J am, sir, yours, &c. Leskeard, Sept. 17, 1813. - CoRNUBIENSIS.
*,* The coincidence of effect noticed by our Correspon- dent does not necessarily indicate identity of cause. An electrified body has a disposition to give off its charge ; and moveable matter, forming the electrified body, or in con- tact with it, will be disposed .to go off im small portions, each of them performing the office of a carrier to remove part of the electric charge, as in the familiar experiment with light bodies thrown on acharged plate. In this way we may conceive motion to be given to the electrified water in the capillary tube, tending to throw it off.
The similar effect produced by heat may be accounted for from the increased tenuity of the liquid, and the en- larged aperture of the capillary tube, by the action of the heat, both tending to increase the discharge.—T.
XXXV. Ona Substance from the Elm Tree, called Ulmin. By Jamus Smiruson, Esq. F.R.S,*
1. Tae substance now denominated Ulmin was first made known by the celebrated Mr. Klaproth, to whom nearly every department ‘of chemistry is under numerous and great obligations f.
Ulmin bas been ranked by Dr. Thomson, in his System of Chemistry, as a distinct. vegetable principle, on =the ground of its possessing qualities totally peculiar and ex- traordinary. It is said, that though in its original state easily soluble in water and wholly insoluble in alcohol and ether, it changes, when nitric or oxymuriatic acid is poured into its solution, into a resinous substance no longer soluble in water, but soluble in alcohol ; and this singular alteration is attributed to the union to it of a small portion of oxygen which it has acquired from these acids t. Being possessed of some of this substance which had been sent to me some years ago from Palermo, by the same person from whom Mr. Klaproth had received it, I became in- duced, by the foregoing account, to pay attention to it, and have observed facts which appear to warrant a different etiology of its phenomena, and opinion of its nature, from what has been giver of them.
* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, part i. + Dr, Thomson’s Syst. of Chem. vol, iv. p. 696. Fourth edition. The J
On a Substance from the Elm Tree, called Ulmin. 205
The ulmin made use of in the following experiments, had been freed from the fragments of bark by solution in water and filtration, and recovered in a dry state by the evaporation of the solution on a water bath.
2. In lumps, ulmin appears black ; but in thin pieces it is seen to be transparent, and ofa deep red colour.
In a dilute state, solution of ulmin is yellow; in a con- centrated one, dark red, and not unlike blood.
When solution of ulmin dries, either spontaneously or ‘by being heated, the ulmin divides into long narrow strips disposed in rays to the centre, which curl up and detach themselves from the vessel, and the fluid part seems to draw together, and becomes remarkably protuberant. Solution of ulmin slowly and feebly restores the colour of turnsol paper reddened by an acid,
3. Dilute nitric acid being poured into a solution of tlmin, a copious precipitate immedately formed. The mixture was thrown on a filter. The matter which has been considered as a resin remained on the paper, and a elear yellow liquor came through. This yellow solu- tion, on evaporation, produced a number of prismatic crystals looking like nitrate of potash. They were tinged yellow by some of the resin. This mixture, heated in a gold dish, deflagrated with violence, and a large quantity Of fixed alkali remained.
Dilute muriatic acid caused an exactly similar precipita- tion in solution of ulmin to nitric acid, and the precipitate was the same resin-like substance. The filtered liquor af- forded a quantity of saline matter, which, after being freed by ignition from a portion of dissolved resin, shot into pure white cubes of muriate of potash, as appeared by de- composing them by nitric acid.
Sulphuric, phosphoric, oxalic, tartaric, and citric acids occasioned a similar precipitation in solution of ulmin.
Distilled vinegar produced no turbidness in it; and the mixture being exhaled to dryness, at a gentle heat, was found to be again wholly soluble in water. But when the mixture was made to boil, some decomposition took place. On adding muriatic acid to a mixture of solution of ulmin and distilled vinegar, a precipitate was produced, as ina mere solution in water.
The nitric and muriatic acids received a small quantity of Jime and iron from the ulmin, and I believe also a little Magnesia ; but these can be considered only as foreign ad- eraree.
To acquire an idea of the quantity of potash in ulmin, four
©
£06 On a Subsiance from the Elm Tree, called Ulmin.
four grains of ulmin were decomposed by nitric acid, They afforded 2-4 grains of resin-like matter. The nitrate of potash obtained was heated to deflagration, in. small quantities at a time, in a platina crucible to free it from resin. The alkali produced was supersaturated with nitric acid, dried, and slightly fused. It then weighed 1-2 grains. If we admit half of nitrate of potash to be alkali, this will denote ;'3, of potash in ulmin.
Five grains of ulmin were decomposed by mariatic acid. The resinous matter weighed 3°3 grains, and the muriate, of potash, after being ignited, dissolved away from the charcoal, dried, and again made red hot, weighed 1*4 grain. If we suppose 2-3ds of muriate of potash to be alkali, this will indicate +42, of potash in ulmin.
Two grains of ulmin were made red hot in a gold cruci- ble. It then weighed only 1:05 grain, The form of the flakes was in no degree altered ; but they had acquired the blue and yellow colours of heated steel, of which they had likewise the metallic aspect and lustre, and could difficultly, if at all, have been distinguished by the eye from heated steel-filings, or fragments of slender watch-springs. Water immediately destroyed their metallic appearance.
Muriatic acid, poured on, caused a strong effervescence, and formed muriate of potash, which, freed from all char- coal, and made red hot, weighed 0°6 grain, corresponding to =2.°. of potash in ulmin.
These experiments assign about 1-5th for the quantity of potash in ulmin; but as it is impossible to operate, on so small a scale, on such substances without loss, it is pro- bable that it even exceeds this proportion,
5. The substance separated from ulmin by acids has the following qualities :
It is very glossy, and has a resinous appearance.
In lumps it appears black ; but in minute fragments it is found to be transparent, and of a garnet-red colour.
It burns with flame, and is reduced to white ashes.
Alcohol dissolves it, but only in very smal] quantity.
Water likewise dissolves it, but also only in very small quantity. Acids cause a precipitate in this solution, though this resin-like matter appears neither to contain any alkali, nor to retain any of the acid by means of which it was ob- tained.
{ts solution in water seems to redden turnsol paper.
Neither ammonia, nor carbonate of soda, promotes its solution in cold water.
On adding a small quantity of potash to water in which
if
On a Substance from the Elm Tree, called Ulmin. 207
it lies, it dissolves immediately and abundantly. This so- lution has all the qualities of a solution of ulmin, and, on exhalation, leaves a matter precisely like it, which cracks and separates from the glass, and does not grow moist in the air, &ce.
Hence it appears that ulmin is not a simple vegetable principle of anomalous qualities, but a combination with potash of a red, or more: properly a high yellow matter, which, if not of a peculiar genus, seems rather more related to the extractives than to the resins.
English Ulmin.
T collected, from an elm tree in Kensington gardens, a small quantity of a black shining substance which looked like ulmin.
It was readily soluble in water, and the solution was in colour and appearance exactly similar to a solution of ulmin.
This solution, exhaled to a dry state on a water-bath, left a matter exactly like ulmin, and which cracked and di- vided as ulmin does, when dried in the same manner. It did not, however, rise up from the watch-glass in long strips, like the Sicilian kind ; but this may have been owing partly to its small quantity, which occasioned it to be spread very thin on the watch-elass, and partly to its containing 4 considerable excess of alkali; for it differed also from the Palermo ulmin by becoming soft in the air, and its solu- tion strongly restored the blue colour of reddened turnsol paper.
Nitric acid, added to a filtered solution of this ulmin, immediately caused a precipitate in it, and the filtered solu- tion, on evaporation, afforded numerous crystals of nitrate of potash,
This English ulmin made a considerable effervescence with acetous acid, which the Palermo ulmin had not been observed to do. This acetous solution, in which the acid was in excess, was exhaled dry, and repeatedly washed with spirit of wine. No part of the brown matter dissolved. Water dissolved this brown residuum readily and entirely. This solution did not sensibly restore the blue colour of reddened turnsol paper, Exhaled to a dry state, the matter Jeft did not separate from the watch-glass quite as freely as Palermo ulmin, which bad been treated with acetous acid ; but it seemed no longer to grow moist in the air. Redis- solved in water, and nitric acid added, the mixture became thick from a copious precipitate. +
he
208 On the Duration of
The spirit of wine contained a quantity of acetate of potash.
The excess of alkali, in this English ulmin, may he owing to the tree from which it was collected naving been affected with the disease which proiuces the alkaline ulcer to which the elm is subject.
Sap of the Elm Tree.
Thinking that the production of ulmin by the plant might not be the consequence of disease, and that it might exist in the healthy sap, a bit of elm twig, gathered in the beginning of last July, was cut into thin slices and boiled in water. It afforded a brown solution, like a solution of ulmin. Exhaled to dryness, this solution left a dark-brown substance, in appearance similar to ulmins; but on adding water to this dry mass, a large quantity of brown glutinous matter remained insoluble. The mixture being thrown on a filter, a clear yellow liquor passed, which may have con- tained ulmin ; but the quantity was too small to admit of satisfactory conclusions.
Perhaps older wood, the juice of which was more per- fected, would afford other results, since ulmin appears to be the product of old trees; but the inquiry, being merely collateral to the object I had originally in view, was not persevered in.
XXXVI. On the Duration of the germinalwe Faculty of Seeds. By M. Saint HIvarre*.
Ir is tolerably well ascertained that the seeds of some species of plants preserve their germinative faculty for se- veral years, that great numbers lose it at the end of a few months, and that it is even necessary to sow some kinds immediately after their maturity. But we have too scanty materials on which to found any opinion upon the species, genera or families which enjoy for a longer or shorter tine this faculty, or which lose it speedily. Ex- perienced gardeners have nevertheless certain data upon this subject, and the following may be regarded as perhaps the most satisfactory :
- 6¢ The seeds,” says M. Dumont de Courset, “ of the la- biated umbelliferous plants, and of those which contain a nucleus or a kernel, in general all the aromatics, asteriz, irides, fraxinella, aconita, dauphinellz, and of those of a
- great many bulbous plants, and most of the large trees, rise
* Mag. Encycl, May 1811, p. 89, ; much
ihe germinative Faculty of Seeds. 209
much more certainly, when sown immediately, or a short time after their maturity, than in spring: several, however, sprout also in the latter season, but they will not if kept much longer. The inodprous seeds, the grasses, a great part of the cruciferous and the leguminous plants, those of the cucurbitaceous and of the cold and milky plants, those which are contained in cones or capsules, or surrounded ‘with a succulent pulp, preserve their germinative and sound quality from two to eight years. . : «© Others, and these are but few in number, keep still longer, and it is a kind of phenomenon when we see the seeds of the sensitive plant and Goyava germinating at the expiration of twenty or thirty years.” i Thus, according to M. Dumont de Courset, twenty or thirty years would be the longest term for the duration of this faculty. But in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xlil. Mr. Martin Triewalds relates that some melon seeds found in 1762, in the collection of Lord Mortimer, with an en- velope dated 1700, were sown, and gave fiowers and very good fruit. In the xliiid volume of the same work, Mr. Roger Gale informs Mr. Collinson that several melon seeds kept for thirty-three years also bore excellent flowers and fruits. To the above | shall add what has been communicated to me by M. Desfontaines. In arranging the seeds of the Museum of Natural History he found a haricot (French bean) which belonged to the Herbarium of Tournefort, and when sown it gave flowers and fruit. Besides, we know from Linnzus, that the seeds of the leguminous plants preserve their germinatiye power for a long time. This variation in the duration of this faculty has not escaped the notice of botanists: but they have not yet elucidated, by experiments repeated upon all the families and upon a great number of genera, this phenomenon in vegetation, nor determined month after mouth, and year by year, the species of seeds which successively lose their germinative faculty, as well as those which preserve it for a long time. It was with this view that I attempted a tedious experiment, of which the following is the result. . Forty-five years ago Bernard de Jussieu made a collection of the sceds of all the families, and of a great number of the genera. This collection still exists with M. Antony Laurence de Jussieu, who kindly permitted me to take what I pleased. The seeds are all inclosed in small boxes, and wrapped in a paper upon which Bernard de Jussieu bas written their names. 1 mention these circumstances, to show how old they were, and because it is necessary to Vol. 42. No. 195. Sept. 1813. 0 know
210 On the Duration of the germinative Faculty of Seeds.
know how these sceds have been preserved, because by taking particular care they might be preserved still longer from the contact of the air.
At the beginning of May 1809, T sowed on a common bed 350 species of seeds of all families and of a great num- ber of genera. I shall not minutely enter into the particu- lars required for this experiment, which lasted eighteen months, but shall give the results of my observations.
The following in the first place are the names of the seeds which came up.
Cavnacorus.
Cannacorus Americanus minor
Asphodelus albus.
Ceyba viticis folio, caudice aculeato. Bombax 1,
Phaseolus semine tamarindi.
Anagyris fetida.
Galega frutescens, flore purpureo, foliis sericeis.
Ptelea trifoliata.
Paliurus aculeatus,
Ceanothus Americanus.
Making in all ten species. As the second year since the sowing has not passed, it is possible that some of the seeds will still come up during the second or third year. Among these ten species, we ought to remark the two cannz and the asphodeli, the seeds of which are furnished with a large perisperma, which does not seem to have injured their preservation: for we generally observe that the seeds furnished with a perisperma, like those of the umbelliferous plants, the rubiacez, &c. speedily Jose their germinative fa- culty.
In making this experiment, I observed that in many seeds the embryo was preserved in a good state, that it swelled like that of new seeds at the moment of germina- tion, when the humidity and heat are first developed; but that it perished some time afterwards, because the cotyle- dons being obliterated could not transmit to it the juices necessary to its development.
In order to establish a point of comparison between these old seeds and fresh ones, I sowed upon the same bed about 300 species of seeds gathered the preceding year for the Museum of Natural History, and chosen as niuch as possible from among the same genera as the old. Being desirous of knowing the period which both kinds took to come up, I made a note of it in my register. I observed. that the old seeds, which ought to have germinated within the year, took Jess time.todo so than the new ones; and
that
: Canna Linn.
On the State in which Alcohol exists in fermented Liquors. 211
that two old species, the paliurus and the ceanothus, which germinate only during the second and third years in the sowings annually made at the Museum, rose at the end of a few days. Does not this prove that many perennials, like the paliurus, ceanothus, &c. do not come up until the se- cond or third year, because ibe embryo has uot yet attained its necessary degree of maturity? or that the juices con- tained in the cotyledons are not sufficiently elaborated,— rather than admit, as has heen done generally, that the en- velopes of the seeds are too hard, and cannot be pierced by the embryo until two or three years expire? This Opinion appears to me so much the more erroneous, as, in most fruits or seeds the valves or envelope open naturally, and without any effort: it can only be admitted in a very small number of circumstances ; and | shall add in favour of mine, a fact which was related to me by M. Thouin the elder, the accuracy of which is well known, namely, that gardeners always prefer for melon beds, such seeds as have been two or three years gathered, to those of the preceding year.
XXXVII. Additional Remarks on the State in which Alcohol exists in fermented Liquors, By Witt1AmM THomas BranpE, Esq. F.R.S.*
Tue experiments and observations contained in this paper are intended as supplementary to a communication on the same subject, which the Royal Society has done me the honour to insert in the Philosophical Transactions for the hear 18117.
On that occasion, I endeavoured to refute the commonly received opinion respecting the production of alcohol du- ring the distillation of fermented liquors, by showing that the results of the process are not affected by a variation of temperature equal to twenty degrees of Fabrenheit’s scale ; that is, that a similar quantity of alcohol is afforded by distilling wine at 180° and at 200°.
[ also conceived that any new arrangement of the ulti- mate elements of the wine, which could have given rise to the formation of alcohol, would have been attended with other symptoms of decomposition, that carbon would have been deposited, or carbonic acid evolved, which in the ex- periments alluded to was not the case. Upon such grounds { ventured to conclude, that the relative quantity of alcohol
* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, part i. + Philosophical ‘Transactions, page $37.
212 Additional Remarks on the State in which
in wines might be estimated by submitting them to a care- ful distillation, and by ascertaining the specific gravity of the distilled liquor with the precautions which [ have for- merly described.
This conclusion may be objected to, by supposing that the lowest temperature, at which the distillations were performed, was sufficient for the formation of alcohol from the elements” existing in the wine; but it is nut easy to conceive how this should happen, without some of those other changes which I have just noticed.
It has been stated, in my former paper, that the separa- tion of alcohol from wine, by the addition of subcarbonate of potash, is prevented by the combination of the alkaline salt with the colouring-extractive, and acid contained in the liquor. I have also shortly noticed some unsuccessful attempts to separate these substances by other means than distillation.
In prosecuting the inquiry, this difficnity has been sur- mounted, and I shall proceed to show that alcoho] may be separated from wine without the intervention of heat, and that the proportion thus afforded is equal to that yielded by distillation.
When the acetate *, or subacetatet of lead, or the sub- nitrate of tin f are added to wine, a dense insoluble preci- pitate is quickly formed, consisting of a combination of the metallic oxide with ihe! acid and colouring-extractive mat- ter of the wine ; and when this is separated by filtration, a colourless fluid is obtained, containing alcohol, water, atid a portion of the acid of the metallic salt, provided the latter has not been added in excess, in which case a part remains undecomposed,
The acetate of Jead and the subnitrate of tin produce the desired effect of separating the colouring and acid matters, in the greater number of instances ; but they are less rapid and perfect in their action, and not so generally applicable as the subacetate of lead §, which is the substance that I commonly employed.
The following experiment was made with a view to as- certain the effect of this salt.
* Sugar of lead.
+ Formed by boiling two parts of sugar of lead with one of finely pow- dered litharge, in six parts cf water. The solution should be preserved in well closed phials, as it is rapidly decomposed by attracting carbonic acid from the atmosphere. Even while hot, a portion of carbonate of lead is formed in it.
¢ Prepared by dissolving protoxide of tin in cold dilute nitric ache:
§ The effect of this salt upon colouring matter was first POeS out to me by Mr. E.M. Noble, of Chelsea.
Twenty
i
Alcohol exists in fermented Liquors. 213
Twenty measures of alcohol, specific gravity ,82500, were mixed with eighty measures of distilled water coloured with logwood, and rendered slightly acid by supertartrate of potash. Four measures of a concentrated solution of the subacetate of lead were added to this mixture, and the whole poured upon a filter. A precipitate was thus col- lected of a deep purple colour, which appeared to consist of oxide of lead combined with tartaric acid and the co- louring-extractive matter.
The filtered liquot was perfectly transparent and colour- less, and afforded, on the addition of subcarbonate of pot- ash, 19,5 measures of alcohol *.
Finding that the separation of alcohol by subcarbonate of potash from mixtures of spirit and water was nearly complete, and that colouring-extractive matter and tartaric acid might be removed from such mixtures by the subace- tate of lead, I proceeded to examine wine by such modes of analysis.
The following results gvere obtained by these and other comparative experiments.
1. One part by measure of a concentrated solution of subacetate of lead was added to eight measures of common port wine: the mixture having been agitated for a few minutes, was poured upon a filter.—The filtrated liquor was perfectly colourless, and the addition of dry subcar- bonate of potash effected a rapid separation of alcohol f.
One hundred measures of the wine thus treated afforded 22,5 measures of alcohol.
2. Eight ounces of the wine employed in the last experi-
* Pure subcarbonate of potash, obtained by igniting the carbonate, was employed in these experiments, I found that about 19,5 parts of alcohol were separated in the course of four hours, by the addition of 50 parts of the subcarbonate to a mixture of 20 parts of alechol by measure with 80 of distilled water, and that no further separation took place. The alcohol is always slightly alkaline, probably from containing a small portion of the solution of the subcarbonate, or of pure soda; but as this did not interfere with the object of the experiment, it was not particularly attended to.
When the subearbonate was added to a mixture of four parts by measure of alcohol with 96 of water, no separation was effected.—A mixture con- taining 8 per cent. of alcohol afforded about 7 parts—one containing 16 per cent. about 15,5, and where the proportion of alcohol exceeded 16 per cent. the quantity, indicated by the action of the subcarbonate, was always within 0,5 per cent. of the real proportion contained in the mixture. So that in the examination of wines containing less than 12 per cent. of alco- hol, the method described in the text is somewhat exceptionable. ‘The above experiments were made in glass tubes varying in diameter from 0,5 inch to 2 inches, and accurately graduated into 100 parts.
4+ When any excess of the subacetate had been employed, a portion of carbonate of lead was thrown down; but this did not interfere with the subepquent separation of rhe alcohol.
O03 ment
214 On the State in which Alcohol eists in fermented Liquors:
ment were distilled in glass vessels, as described in my former paper.—The specific gravity of the distilled liquor at the temperature of 60° was 0,97530, which indicates 22,30 per cent. by measure of alcohol of the specific yra- vity of ,8250.
3. Eight ounces of the same wine were introduced into a retort placed in a sand heat, and the process of distillation was stopped when six ounces had passed over into the re- ceiver. After the vessels were completely cooled, the por- tion in the receiver was added to the residuum in the retort. The specific gravity of this mixture (ascertained with pro- per precautions) was ,9884, that of the original wine =0,9883 *. .
When care was taken to prevent the escape of vapour, no change of specific gravity was produced in the wine by three repetitions of the above process.
Similar experiments were repeated upon Madcira, sherry; claret, and vin de grave, wines differing in the relative proportions of alcohol, colouring matter, and acid which they contain, and the results were as decisive; so that I} conceive it is amply proved, by experimental evidence, that no alcohol is formed during the distillation of wines, and that the whole quantity found, after distillation, pre-existed in the fermented liquor.
It has been frequently asserted, that a mixture of alcohol and water, in the proportions I have stated them to exist in wine, would be much more effectual in producing imtoxi- cation, and the general bad effects of spirituous liquors, than a similar quantity of the wine itself. But this is true to a very limited extent only: when brandy is added to water, it is some time before the two liquids perfectly com- bine, and with alcohol this is more remarkably the case ; and these mixtures are warmer to the taste, and more heating, if taken in this state of imperfect union, than when sufficient time has been allowed for their perfect mutual penetration.
I have also ascertained that distilled port wine tastes stronger, and is more heating than the wine in its original state, and that these qualities are impaired, and the wine reduced nearly to its original flavour, by the addition of its acid and extractive matter. With claret, and some other wines, containing less alcohol and more acid than port, these circumstances are more readily perceived; and lastly, if the residuum afforded by the distillation of 100 parts of
* This experiment was suggested in the: Edinburgh Review for Novem- ber 1811,
port
On Electricity by Position or Induction. 915
port wine be added to 22 parts of alcohol and 88 of water (in a state of perfect combination), the mixture is precisely analogous in its intoxicating effects to port wine of an equal ‘strength,
In the table annexed to my former paper, it appears that the average quantity of alcohol contained in port wine amounts to 23,48 per cent.; but two of the wines there alluded to are stronger than any T have since met with, and were at that time sent to meas “ remarkably strong and old port.”” I have lately examined a number of specimens of the better kinds of port wine in common use, and the re- sults of these experiments lead me to place the average Strength of 22 per cent..of alcohol by measure.
A ‘port wine procured for me by Dr. Baillie, and to which no brandy had been added, afforded 21,40 per cent. of al- cohol: another specimen of a similar description, put into my hands by an Oporto merchant, contained only 19 per eent.; it is the weakest port wine [ have met with.
The other results given in the table agree perfectly with those of Pre and more extended experiments.
XXXVIIL On Electricity by Position or Induction. By Ez. WaAcKeER, Esq.
To Mr. Tiiloch.
Dear Sir,—Ln my paper on Mr. Bennet’s Electrometer, [ asserted that electricity by position or induction * does not vanish as soon as the electric is removed, though Pro- fessor Robison and other writers on electricity are of a contrary opinion.
The Professor observes, that ** the mechanical phzno- mena of electricity may be expressed in a few simple pro- posiuions. ‘The most general fact that we know, and from which all the rest may be deduced, is the following.
«* If any body A is electrified by any means whatever, and if another body B” (supported by an insulating stand) ** is brought into its neighbourhood, the last becomes élec- trified by position.
“© The mere vicinity of the electric renders the conductor electric, and the electricity ceases on removing the excited surface >.”
* “Tt wil) be convenient,” says Dr. Robison, “to distinguish this last elec- trical state by a particuiar name. We will call it Electricity Ly position, or Jnduced Electricity. Mt is induced by position with regard to the perma- ently electrical body.’ —Encyel. Sup. vol. i, p. 568.
+ Encycl. Brit. Sup. vol. i. p. 571.
O4 But
416 On Electricity by Position or Induction.
But the Professor’s experiments do not appear to have been made with all that circumspection which is necessary to investigatea ‘* general fact.” Indeed, it will be easily conceived, by those who are acquainted with the philoso- phical labours of Dr. Robison, that he must have taken many of his propositions on the authority of others; for it seems impossible, that all the facts which appear in his writings should have been verified by himself. )
From the following experiments, which were often re- peated with much care, it appears that a conductor electri- fied by position retains the electric fluid # long time after the excited surface is removed.
Experiment.1.—A conductor AB, consisting of a brass tod twelve inches long, with a ball of the same metal fixed upon each end, was placed upon an insulating stand. A glass tube, being excited bv rubbing it with silk, was brought near the end A, but not within the striking di- stance. The pith-ball electrometers, which were suspended from the tnds of the conductor, diverged, and on examina- tion the end A contained the resinous electricity, and the end 8 the vitreous.
The tube being removed, the balls at B collapsed and immediately diverged again with tesinon$ electticity, the end A continuing ih the same statt; and when the air was favourable for the experiment, the conductor showed signs of resinous electricity for more than an hour after.
"Explanation. The conductor in its natural state con- tained the two eleciric fluids in such intimate tinion as to exhibit no marks of their existence. But when the excited tube was brought near A, it attracted the resinous electri- city towards that end of the conductor, and repelled the vitreous towards the other end.
Now it may be easily understood, that the same power which repels the vitreous electricity towards B, will, at the same time, force some part of it out of the conductor at that end into the air, and consequently the conductor AB will contain less vitreous electricity than resinous; and when the excited surface is removed from the neighbour- hood of the conductor, the resinous electricity will pré- vail, which will not vanish when the excited surface is re- moved. '
As the particles of the same fluid repel one another, the charge of a conductor is continually dissipating, till all electrical signs vanish ; and it will be easily conceived that this dissipation will increase as the fluid is condensed : therefore an increase in the electrical energy applied at A
will
Travels in North America. O17
will increase the condensation and dissipation of the fluid at the other end.
These facts explain the properties of Mr. Bennet’s elec- trometer in a very clear and satisfactory manner.
When the glass of that instrument is about four or five inches in diameter, and the gold-leaves cut so short as not to touch its interior surface, \t will appear evident, to those who are at all acquainted with electrical experiments, that the cap and gold-Jeaves form an insulated conductor, simi- Jar to the conductor described in the preceding experiment, and the gold-leaves will exhibit the same phanomena as the pith-balls suspended from the conductor at the end B.
For a more particular account of Mr. Bennet’s Electro- meter, see Phil. Mag. vol. xl. page 415.
The following experiment shows in a very clear and de- cided manner, that when an excited surface is brought near one end of an insulated conductor, electricity of the same kind as that of the excited surface is repelled from the other end.
Two insulated conductors, AB and CD, were placed in a
right lines; with theirends nearly in contacts and a glass tube excited by a silk rubber being brought near the end A, but not within the striking distance, the ends A and C became negative, B and D positive. _ But when the conductor AB was removed to some di- 4tance from CD, and the tube at the same instant removed from the vicinity of both; the two conductors became per- manently electrified,—AB was negative and CD positive, because the excited surface had atiracted the negative fluid out of CD into AB, and repelled the positive out of AB into CD; and moreover, some part of the positive bad been repelled into the air from the end D; for the con- ductors became negative, when brought again into con+ tact.
Lynn, Sept. 8, 1813. — Ez. WALKER.
KXXIX. An Account of a Journey by the Gentlemen at- tached to the New York Fur Company, from the Pacific
Ocean to the Missourt, as collected from the Gentlemen themselves.
Ox the 29th of June 1812 Mr. Robert Steuart, one of the partners of the’ Pacific Fur Company, with two French- men, Messrs. Ramsey Crooks, and Robert M‘Clellan, left the Pacific Ocean with dispatches for New York.
After ascending the Columbia river ninety miles, John
Day,
218 Travels in North America.
Day, one of the hunters, became perfectly insane, and was sent back to the main establishment under the charge of some Indians: the remaining six pursued their voyage up- wards of 900 miles, when they happily met with Mr. Joseph Miller, on bis way to the mouth of the Columbia: he had been considerably to the south and east among the nations called Blackarms and Arapahays, by the latter of whom he was robbed ; 3 in consequence of which he suffered almost every privation human nature is capable of, and was ina state of starvation and almost nudity when the party met him.
They now had fifteen horses, and pursued their journey for the Atlantic world, without any uncommon accident, until within about 200 miles of the Rocky Mountains, where they unfortunately met with a party of the Crow Indians, who behaved with the most unbounded insolence, and were solely prevented from cutting off the party by ob- serving them well armed and constantly on their guard. They however pursued on their track six days, and finally stole every horse belonging to the party.
Some idea of the situation of those men may he con+ ceived, when we take into consideration that they were: now on foot and had a journey of 2000 miles before them, 1500 of which entirely unknown, as they intended and pro- secuted it considerably south of Messrs. Lewis and Clark’s route: the impossibility of carrying any quantity of pro- visions on their backs, in addition to their ammunition and bedding, will occur at first view. The danger to be ap- prehended from starvation was imminent.
They however put the best face upon their prospects, and pursued their route towards the Rocky Mountains at the head waters of the Colorado or Spanish River, and stood their course E.S.E. until they struck the head waters of the great river Platte, which they undeviatingly followed to its mouth.—It may here be observed, that this river for about 300 miles is navigable for a barge; from thence to the Otto village, within 45 miles of its entrance into the Missouri, it is a mere bed of sand, without water sufficient to float a skin canoe.
From the Otto village to St. Louis the party performed their voyage in a canoe furnished them by the natives, and arrived here in perfect health on the 30th of last month. Our travellers did not hear of the war with England until they came to the Ottos: these people told them that the Shawanoe Prophet had sent them a wampum, inviting them to join in the war against the Americans ; that they
answered
Travels in North America. 219
answered the messenger; that they could make more by trapping beaver than making war against the Ameficans.
After crossing the hills (Rocky Mountains) they happily fell in with a small party of Snake Indians, from whom they purchased a horse, who relieved them from any further carriage of food, and this faithful fonr-footed companion performed that service to the Otto viliage. They wintered on the river Platte about 600 miles from its mouth.
By information received trom these gentlemen, it appears that a journey across the continent of North America might be performed with a waggon, there being no obstruc- tion in the whole route that any person would dare to call a mountain, in addition to its bemg much the most direct and short one to gu from this place to the mouth of the Columbia river. Any future party who may undertake this journey, and are tolerably acquainted with the different places where it would be necessary to lay up a small stock of provisions, would not be impeded, as in all probability they would not meet with an Indian to interrupt their pro- gress ; although on the other route more north there are almost insurmountable barriers.
Messrs. Hunt, Crooks, Miller, M‘Clellan, M‘Kenzie, and about 60 men, who left St. Louis in the beginning of March 1811 for the Pacific Ocean, reached the Aricoras ~ village on the 13th day of June ; where meeting with some American hunters who had been the preceding year on the waters of the Columbia with Mr. Henry, and who gave an account of the route by which they passed being far preferable (in point of procuring with facility an abun- dant supply of food at all times, as well as for avoiding even the probability of seeing their enemies the Black Feet), to the track of captains Lewis and Clark; the gentlemen of the expedition at once abandoned their former ideas of passing by the falls of the Missouri, and made the neces- sary arrangements for commencing, their journey over land from this place.
Eighty horses were purchased and equipped by the 17th of July, and on the day following they departed from the Aricoras, sixty persons in number, all on foot except the partners of the company. In this situation they proceeded for five days, having crossed in that time two considerable streams which joined the Missouri below the Aricoras 5 when finding an inland tribe of Lndians calling themselves Shawhays, but known among the whites by the appellation of Cheyennes, they procured from these people an accession of forty horses, which enabled the gentlemen to furnish a
a horse
220. Travels in North America.
horse for every two men. Steering about W.S.W. they passed the smal] branches of Big River, the Little Missourt above its forks, and several of the tributary streams of Powder River, one of which followed up they found a band of the Absaroka or Crow nation encamped on its banks, at the foot of the Big Horn mountain.
For ammunition and some small articles they exchanged all their lame for sound horses with these savages ; but although this band has been allowed, by every one who knows them, to be by far the best behaved of their tribe, it was only by that unalterable determination of the gentle- men to avoid jeopardizing the safety of the party without at the same moment submitting to intentional insults, that they left this camp (not possessing a greater force than the whites) without coming to blows.
The distance from the Aricoras to this mountain is about 450 miles over an extremely rugged tract, by no means furnishing a sufficient supply of water; but daring the twenty-eight days they were getting to the base of the mountain, they were only in a very few instances without abundance of buffalo meat.
Three days took them over to the plains of Mad River (the name given to the BigHorn above this mountain), which following for a number of days, they left it where it was reduced to thirty yards in vid thi, and the same evening reached the banks of the Colorado or Spanish River. Find- ing flocks of buffaloes at the end of the third day’s travel on this stream, the party passed a week in drying buffalo meat for the residue of the voyage, as in all probability those were the last animals of the kind they would meet with. From this camp, in one day, they crossed the dividing mountain and pitched their tents on Hoback’s Fork of Mad River, where it was near 150 feet broad ; and in eight days more, having passed several stupendous ridges, they en- camped in the vicinity of the establishment made by Mr. Henry in the fa'l of 1810, on a fork about 70 yards wide bearing the name of that gentleman ; having travelled from the mam Missouri about 900 miles in 54 days.
Here abandoning their borses, the party constructed canoes and descended the Snake or Ky-eye-nem River (made by the junction of Mad River, south of Henry’s Fork) 400 miles, in the course of which they were obliged by the in- tervention of impassable rapids to make a number of port- ages, till at length they found the river confined between gloomy precipices at least 200 feet perpendicular, whose banks for the most part were washed by this turbulent
stream,
Se —
Travels in North America. 291
stream, which for 30 miles was a continual succession of falis, cascades and rapids. Mr. Crooks’s canoe had split and upset in the middle of a rapid, by which one man was drowned, named Antonie Clappin, and that gentleman saved himself only by extreme exertion in swimming, From the repeated losses by the upsetting of canoes their stock of provisions was now reduced to a bare sufficiency for five days, totally ignorant of the country where, they were, and unsuccessful in meeting any of the natives from whom they could hope for infermation.
Unable to proceed by water, Messrs. M‘Kenzie, M¢Clel- lan and Reed set out in different directions inclining down the river, for the purpose of finding Indians and buying horses. Mr.Crooks, with a few men, returned toHenry’s Fork for those they had left, while Mr. Hunt remained with the main body.of the men in trapping beaver for their support. Mr. C. finding the distance much greater by Jand than they had contemplated, returned at the end of three days, where waiting five more expecting relief from below, the near ap- proach of winter made them determine on depositing all superfluous articles and proceeding on foot. Accordingly on the 10th of November Messrs. Hunt and Crooks set out each with 18 men, one party on the north and the other on the south side of the river.
Mr. Hnnt was fortunate in finding Indians with abun- dance of salmon and some horses; but Mr. Crooks saw but few, and in general too miserably poor to afford his party much assistance, Thirteen days travel brought the latter to a high range of mountains through which the river forced a passage ; and the bank being their only guide, they still, by climbing over points of rocky ridges projecting into the stream, kept as near it as possible, till in the evening of the 3d of December impassable precipices of immense height put an end to all hopes of following the margin of this watercourse, which here was not more than 40 yards wide, ran with incredible velocity, and was withal so toam- ingly tumultuous, that even had the opposite bank been fit for their purpose, an attempt at rafting would have been perfect madness, as they could only have the inducement of ending in a watery grave a series of hardships and privations, to which the most hardy and determined of the human race must have found himself inadequate. They attempted to climb the mountains, still bent on pushing on ; but after ascending for half a day, they discovered to theit sorrow that they were not half way to the summit, and the snow already too deep for men in their emaciated state to pro- ceed further, Re-
229 Travels in North America.
Regaining the river bank, they returned up, and on the third day met with Mr. Hunt and party with one horse proceed- ing downwards. A canoe was soon made of a horse’s hide, and in it was transported what meat they could spare to Mr.
Crooks’s starving followers, who, for the first 18 days after leaving the place of deposit, had subsisted on half-a meal in twenty-four hours, and in the last nine days had eaten only one beaver, a dog, a few wild cherries, and old mockasin soles, having travelled during these twenty-seven days at least 550 miles. For the next four days, both parties continued on up the river without any other support than what little rose-buds and cherries they could find : but here they luckily fell in with some Snake Indians, from whom they got five horses, giving them three guns and some other articles for the same. Starvation had bereft J. B. Provest of his senses entirely; and on seeing the horse-flesh on the opposite shore, he was so agitated in crossing in a skin canoe that he upset it and was unfortunately drowned. From hence Mr, Hunt went on to a camp of Shoshonies about 90 miles above, where procuring a few horses and a guide he set out for the main Columbia, across the mountains to the south- west, leaving the river where it entered the range, and on it Mr. Crooks and fire men unable to travel.
Mr. H. lost a Canadian named Carriere by starvation, before he met the Shy-ey-to-ga Indians in the Columbia plas; from whom getting a supply of provisions, he soon reached the main river, which he descended in canoes, and arrived without any further loss at Astoria in the month of February.
Messrs. M‘Kenzie, M‘Clellan and Reed had united their parties on the Snake river mountains, through which they travelled twenty-one days to the Mulpot River, subsisting on an allowance by no means adequate to the toils they underwent daily; and to the smailness of their number (which was in all eleven) they attribute their success in getting with life to where they found some wild horses. They soon after reached the fork called by captains Lewis and Clarke, Koolkooske; went down Lewis’s partly, and the Columbia wholly by water, without any misfortune except the upsetting in a rapid of Mr. M‘Clellan’s canoe; and although it happened on the first day of the year, yet by great exertion they clung to the canoe till the others came to their assistance. Making their escape with the loss of some rifles, they reached Astoria early in January.
Three of the five men who remained with Mr. Crooks, afraid of perishing by want, left him in February on a small
river
Observations on the Stratification of Slate. 223
river on the road by which Mr. Hunt had passed in quest of Indians, and have not since been heard of. Mr. C. had followed Mr. H’s track in the snow for seven days: but coming to a low prairie, he lost every appearance of the trace, and was compelled to pass the remaining part of win- ter in the mountains, subsisting sometimes on beaver and horse meat, and their skins, and at others on their success in finding roots. Finally, on the Jast of March, the other only Canadian, being unable to proceed, was left with a lodge of Shoshonies; and Mr. C. with John Day, finding the snow sufficiently diminished, undertook from Indian information to cross the last ridge, which they happily ef- fected, and reached the banks of the Columbia by the mid- dle of April, where, in the beginning of May, they fell in with Messrs. Steuart, having been a few days before strip- ped of every thing they possessed by a band of villains near the falls. On the 10th of May they arrived safe at Astoria, the principal establishment of the Pacific Fur Company, within 14 miles of Cape Disappointment.
XL. Observations on the Stratification of Slate. By Mr. WILLIAM CREIGHTON.
To Mr, Tilloch.
rer pes, bs your Jast number, page 116, Mr. Farey accuses Mr. Bakewell of inaccuracy in describing the stratification of slate, the peculiarities of which can scarcely have escaped observation ; but I am induced to offer a few remarks there- _upon, as the work of Mr. Jameson the geognost is imper- fect, and Mr. Bakewell’s Introduction to Geology not sa- tisfactory on this subject, with which Mr. Farey seems unacquainted.
The lamine of argillaceous schistus are not only found perpendicular to the stratification, but form various angles with it, which arises from the strata being thrown into waves having different widths and steepness of sides, with
-a considerable proportionate length: the schistus of these strata has its laminz perpendicular or nearly so to the hori- zon, and in the same direction as the length of the waves : it has therefore a diversity of angles to the stratification : and as the perpendicular depths continue the same, the transverse thickness 13 greatest at the top and hollow of the waves, gradnally becoming more or less thin on the sides, according to their declivity: when strata of grau-wacke al- ternate, the thickness of them is nearly uniform, in which ‘ respect
ae 224 Tonian Islands.
respect the granular differs from the schistose part of the rock. The whole mass seems originally formed in a hori; zontal position, aud while soft to have been forced into un- dulations: the grau-wacke is merely bent ; but the schistus, being crystallized in perpendicular plates capable of sliding on each other, has accommodated itself to the situation de- scribed above, .
Part of the north side of Charnwood Forest appears to be one side of a large wave, ranging with its strata of schistus not far from east and west ; but whether the sum- mit and southern declivity are to be found, I know not, Westmoreland and the south of Scotland afford examples of this stratification ; but the best I have observed are at Brayhead near Dublin, the schistus rocks at Cork, and the mountains between that place and Killarney, the directions of their waves and laminz of the schistose part being uni- formly about N 70° E.
The south-east boundary of the Grampian mountains has the argillaceous schistus parallel to its stratification, and to the adjacent micaceous strata, in a direction nearly WN 55° E; but that this parallelism is uniformly the case with primary schistus, and distinguishes it from secondary or transition rocks, I am not prepared to consider as cor- rect, though inclined to entertain such opinion.
T am, sir, yours, &c.
Soho near Birmingham, Wn. CREIGHTON. Sept. 20, 1813. : Pope teens
aes Se eae es ——
XLI. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles.
IONIAN ISLANDS.
Tus extensive works going on at Corfu by order of the French Government have led to the discovery of various in- teresting articles.
ft had been long since known that an ancient city was situated in that part of the island which extends between one of its old harbours and the sea at the foot of the smali hill St.Pantaleon. It is here we find the temple of Palea- polis (the ancient city) changed into a church, as is an- nounced by an inscription on the cornice of the gateway. Hitherto, however, we have had no precise ideas of its ex- tent, topography, or name.
The remains of ancient aqueducts, the great quantity of ruins, inscriptions, and ancient columns, along the sea- coast to the point of Aperama, far from the position of Paleapolis, induce a belief that the city extended that length
an
fonian Islands. 295
and excite an idea very similar to that which the ancients have transmitted to us on the subject. At all events, it enables us more accurately. to ascertain the boundaries of the ancient city.
At three different points within the inclosure of the an- _ elent city there are remains of a stone aqueduct. This ayueduct was, in the lower parts, sustained by arcades, a great part of which we still see at the level of the ground to an extent of 7 or 800 metres. The piles are 1 metre 80 centimetres Jong, by 1 metre 40 centimetres in thick- ness. The aperture of the arcades is 3 metres 60 centi- metres. This aqueduct drew ils waters from a ridge ter- minated by Mount St. Helena. Subsequent excavations have exposed the springs and reservoirs from which the water was obtained.
A short distance from the place where this aqueduct was discovered, a circular water pipe of baked earth was found, The slope directed towards the convent of St. Theodore has been levelled in the part exposed. It is 4 centimetres by 6 metres and 40 centimetres long.
Tn the environs were found large quantities of stones for building, but in such a state of confusion that nothing could be traced of their former condition. A note was taken of their position, however, that their destination might be traced from other circumstances. Many bricks and other articles of baked earth were found at the same time.
On digging more to the eastward, a conduit-pipe was , discovered cut into the ¢ufa, and which seemed to be of considerable length. This conduit was two feet wide and nearly six feet high. It seemed to have been made with the pickaxe, and might probably have been constructed to collect the waters of filtration, and furnish an artificial spring.
These monuments announce that what the ancients have told us of the magnificence of the works ofthis city is not exagverated. As to the waters, Homer informs us that there were two fountains constantly spouting water, one of which waiered the gardens of Alcinous and the other flowed through canals under the windows of the palace, forming afterwards a large basin for the use of the citizens,
Near the salt pits, and still within the limits of the an- cient city, several tombs have been found, of which the best
reserved is formed of large square bricks 44 centimetres in extent. According to what we can learn, three or four were placed on each side, as many above, and one at each end.
Vol. 42, No, 185, Sept, 1913, P Vases
226 Ienian Islands.
Vases of baked earth, lachrymals, and small copper uten- sils, are found daily. We know that the art of making earthenware had been wonderfully perfected in this country ; and if we may judge by the number of the objects and the details which have been given of them, we shall find that the ancients have not exaggerated. Great atleation has been paid to the upper parts of the small lamps, upon which are represented in bas relief erotic scenes of very fine exe- cution.
Fragments of columns and several capitals of the Doric order have been found, and particularly some shafts of finely fluted columus. One of these shafts is 1 metre 10 centimetres in diameter, another 87 centimetres : some elegant small heads have also been found, a statue of a female with very elegant drapery, and several other figures in marble: a leaden bow very well preserved, and two weights of an oval form and of less diameter than an egg, with the inscription KAAISTPATOY. These were probably the balls which served for the sling of some hero among the Corcyrans.
In another place further off, a stone arch has been dis- covered with several holes on the surface, which seems to indicate that it was an oven for baking clay. Some are of opinion, but prebably erroneously, that it was a hydraulic machine.
In the same environs, at a place called Straties, there was found an ancient bronze vase of middling size and without handles: it contained a large quantity of silver medals. The greater part of these medals are in high pre- servation, they are of Dyrrhachium, an ancient Corcyran colony, now called Durazzo, a city on the shores of Epirus. These medals bear the usual emblem of a cow suckling a calf, and on the exergue what archeologists regard as the gardens of Alcinoiis, with the epigraph 47P and the club. The only difference which we have to remark, ts, that the cow is turned to the left, instead of being to the right, as upon all the medals of this colony. Among these medals, some have been found belonging to Corinth and Siphnos with the Sphynx, and belonging to Corcyra with the diota to the right and the star in the exergue: other Cor- cyran medals of third rate size have on une side young Bacchus crowned with ivy, on the other a winged Pegasus, a laurel on bis head, and at his hind feet the prow of a ship with the monograms A. K. K.: others have the inserip- tion BAAAKPOT and PIAQNIAAZ: others the name of the king of Macedon Demetrius. At the same spot are
tae
Yonian Islands. 227°
the vase was found, bronze nails were seen with large heads, and a smal! golden calf.
The monuments which have been discovered in greatest quantity are inscriptions on bricks. Almost all ibese frag meuts are of the same form: their colour is generally yel- lowish, although some are reddish.
The form of the letters is more or fess regular, the or- dinary dialect is the Doric. Several decrees of .the Senate ot Coreyra engraved in brass, and which are still preserveds are drawn up in the same dialect.
Some inscriptions contain the names of magistrates, and of other dignitaries, and the different districts of the island 5 discoveries @hich have been highly useful in elucidating the ancient topography. 5 ;
The proper name is always preceded by the preposition EMI: which announces the title of the Pritannus or Archontas. We read on one for example ENIAAKAIO?: on another EMIBOIXK. This name might have been that of the son of Lycophron of Dodona, whom the Council of the Corcyrans admit in the number of the citizens of their country, as asserted in the decree engraved in brass, and preserved at Corfu by the antiquary Victor Gangady,
EMNTATOAAQNAOPOYL. EUIAPISTOKAEO® . AXAPPO= AITAI. These three monuments are in good preservation. The last seems to have been dedicated to Venus. The let- ters Ay are wanting to complete the name.
PIAQNIAA . EVIPIANNIAA. In the Museums of indi- viduals at Corfu, we find a-medal in brass exhibiting a head with a long beard, and crowned with laurel. In the exergue there is a ship with the word KOPKTPAIQN GIANNIAA. -
A still more interesting monument is the following; IXTONHY. It is the name of a mountain celebrated in the history of Coreyra. Thucydides informs us that upon this mountain 500 Corcyrans saved themselves, having escaped trom a massacre occasioned by a civil commotion. This mountain stil! preserves its name.
Anothey not less important is the following: SAAAKPOT. Strabo thus denominates a promontory of Corcyra, which Was probably barren and devoid of trees. Besides the above inscription, are cups, urns, lamps, small statues, idols, bas=. relicts, heads of nymphs, &c. The substance of these mo- numeuts is partly a pale yellow without varnish, and some- times a deep yellow with varnish. The style is various, and seems to indicate that there were various schools of art in the island, Some are in bigh preservation, others pat
he
228 Foreign Literature.
The Tonian Academy will no doubt publish more completé. details. = A sixth volume has appeared at Frankfort of Leonhard’s Manual of Mineralogy, embellished with geological maps and drawings. Among the principal articles contained in the volume are some mineralogical observations made by M. Schultz during a journey to the mountain des Géans in Siberia in 1802 and 1803: an explanation of the new ‘ systems of mineralogy of Werner and Tondi, the analysis, of two varietics of porous stones, and a singular variety of granite found in Saxony. The volume is terminated by an account of the principal works which have appeared: during 1812 on mineralogy; and miscellaneous extracts, with the editor’s correspondence.
The booksellers Artaria, Belutti and Company of Milan. have recently published a most magnificent work entitled: *¢ Storia Naturale delle Simie,’’%. e. Natural History of the Ape. The drawings by Jacob, engraved by Radaz, re- present an individual of each species, with a description in. Italian, and a German and French translation. . The work is: arranged according to the discoveries and systems of Buffon, Cuvier, Geoffroy, D’Aubentoif, Lacepede, La Treille, and Audibert, with observations on the manners, dispositions,, and food of these animals, with the various methods of catching them, and the use of their flesh in medicine. There: are nearly 100 plates.
' Professor Wedel-Simonsen of Copenhagen has. in the press a work upon the Crusades and Pilgrimages undertaken. by the Scandinavians of the middle age.
The Royal Society of Norway has. published: at Copen-: hagen the first three volumes of Historical and Philosophi-, | eal Memoirs, by the various Members of that learned body.) °
Mr. William Humboldt, brother to the Baron of that name, has announced a work upon the language and man-. ners of the people called Basques—*‘ The first section of this work,” according to the author, “ will contain the ob-. servations which I took occasion to make, as well in the, Spanish as in the French part of that-country. I shalk give an account of the country, and of its small but in-. teresting population. This sketch will be necessary for the elucidation of the language, which is intimately onaleenae
wit
Foreign Literature. 229
with the manners and local peculiarities. It is, besides, ' instructive and novel to be made acquainted with an active nation full of talents and courage, which, situated at once among the mountains and on the shores of the sea, unites the agitated life of the mariner to the peaceful life of the shepherd. We there find traits of characters which are not generally to be found. In order to render this part of my work as interesting as the objects require which I have to describe, I have given it the form of a journal.
** The second part will contain an analysis of the Basque dialect, accompanied by fragments of works of various ages from the most distant period. This analysis will be fol- lowed by a parallel between the Basque and other languages, in order to assign to the former the rank which it ought to occupy in thevarious ramifications of the human languages.
‘¢ In the third part, I shall communicate my researches on the history of the language and of the nation. This part will contain the result of my own opinions; but T trust that
the parts which shall have preceded it will throw enough of light on it to enable every reader to decide upon the ace curacy of my observations.”
_M. Rudolphi has recently published at Berlin a collection of Memoirs on Natural History in general and Anibropo- logy. This. volume is preceded by a Life of Dr. Pallas, in which we find several peculiarities little known as to this celebrated naturalist, and a notice of his last werk, Fiora Rossica, which is stil} unpublished. The subjects treated of in the Memoirs which follow are: Ist. A new system of division of animals by the nerves and brain, proposed by the author. 2d. The relations of beauty between the two sexes, a dissertation more ingenious than remarkable for solid reasoning; and lastly, The multiplication of organized bodies upon the earth. In this last work, the author un- dertakes to combat the opinion hazgarded by Linneus,— “that men, animals and plants issued from one and the same country to spread themselves over the surface of ihe earth.” a
M. Tennemann, whose excellent History of Philosophy is already well. known, bas given an abridgement of his work in German, to serve as a class book for students, It has appeard under this title: Grundriss der Geschichte der ‘Philosophie, i. e. Foundations for the History of Philosophy, The author has exhibited in a clear and accurate view this vast and interesting history. His abridgement will be a sure guide for those who wish to devote their attention. to the P3 study
230 Foreign Literature.
study of the various systems of philosophy, and to investi- gate their concatenation, successive developments, and, in short, to dive into one of the most important branches ’of the history of the human mind. M. Tennemann has added to this small Treatise a very complete bibliographical notice of works relative to the ‘history of philosophy. He has also accompanied it with convenient chronological tables, but not so pertect as those of Eberhardt, the faiter having taken care m respect of his tables to introduce the principad epochs of the political history. The relation established in this way clearly shows the reciprocal influence of events upon philosophy, and vice versé. M.Tennemann has ex- cluded Oriental philosophy from his work ; but it never- theless appears to be important to discover the origin of the systems already known, by consulting the mythology. and fictions of the East, from which they took.their origin. He divides his work into three parts: the first is dedicated to ancient philosophy, the second to that of the middle age, and the third to modern philosophy. The first sec- - tion is subdivided into three periods. :
Ist, From Thales to Socrates: 2d, from Socrates to the termination of the disputes between the followers of Zeno and of the Academy: and, 3d, from the latter period, when the sceptic Ainesidemus appeared, to Nicolas of Damas, 500 years after the birth of Christ. Each of these periods comprehends under different sections every thing which relates to each school. The history of the philoso-=
‘phy of tbe middle age comprehends the period from the ninth to the sixteenth century. This part is treated in a very abridged form, but the author nevertheless subdivides it into periods. The first comprehends the history of Realism to the gleventh century: afterwards come the dis- putes of the Realists and the Nominatists from Roscellin to Albert the Great; then comes the epoch of the triumph of Realism, and the union of the doctrine of the Church with the philosophy of Aristotle, from Albert the Great to Occam. The second period extends from the renewal of the disputes of the Realists and the Nominalists, provoked by Occam, and which secured the victory of the Nominalists, towards the sixtcenth century. M.Tennemann divides the history of modern philosophy into three periods: the first extends from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century. Du- ring this time thé old systems were modified and combined in different ways; the second extends to the end of the eighteenth century. New systems arise out of the ruins of the old. Bacdn and Descartes are the first on the philese-
phical,
. Geology of Norway und Lapland. 231
phical arena: Kant terminates this period: the third extends trom the philosophy of Koenigsberg to our own times.
On the Geology of Norway and Lapland, extracted from L. Von Buch’s Travels * in that Country. By Profesor Jameson of Edinburgh.
This philosopher, a native of Prussia, although a pupil of Werner, has submitted the theories of his master to his own reason and observation, and presented the public with a more impartial, complete and interesting view of the geology and mineralogy of the countries in which he has sojonrned, than any other traveller of the Wernerian school. Professor Jameson gives the following summary of his geological researches :
‘© 1, Norway and Lapland are principally composed of primitive and transition rocks; floetz rocks occur very rarely, and alluvial rocks are uncommon.
«<9, Granite, contrary to the general belief of mineralo- gists, is a rare rock in Norway and Lapland, it even occurs but seldom in Sweden, and it is to be considered as one of- the least frequent of the primitive rocks in Scandinavia.
“<< 3, The granite frequently alternates with gneiss.
«4, A newer granite sometimes occurs resting on mica- slate, as at Forvig ; or connected with clay-slate and dial- Jage rock, as in the island of Mageroe.
“© 5. Besides the gneiss, which is associated with the oldest granite, there is another of newer formation, which rests upon miica-slate.
<¢ §.'Gneiss appears to be by far the most frequent and abundant rock in Scandinavia, all the other primitive rocks appearing in some degree subordinate to it.
_ 7. Inthe island of Mageroe and in other quarters of Norway there appears a species of simple aggregated moun- taia-rock, composed of compact felspar and diallage. This rock is the Gabbro of the Italians, and appears in Norway to be connected with clay-slate. Y
«« g, All the magnetic iron-stone of Scandinavia occurs in beds in gneiss, and not in veins, as has often been main- tained by mineralogists.
** 9, The class of transition rocks in Norway contains besides graywacke, alum-slate, clay-slate, limestone, and other rocks well known to mineralogists as members of that class, the following rocks: (a) granite, which some-
* Travels through Norway and Lapland during the years 1806, 7 and 8, By L. Von Buch. ‘Iranslated from the German by J. Black, with Notes and Llustrations by Professor Jameson. 4to, 1813.
P4 times
282 ' - Aeronauts.—Lectures. . times contains hornblende; (2) syenite, which contains La- brador felspar and numerous crystals of the gem named zircon; (c) porphyry; (d) amygdaloid; (e) basalt; and (f ) sand-stone. ?
~ €€ 10, The transition limestone of Norway is sometimes granular foliated, like that which occurs in primitive country, and contains much tremolite.”’
M.Von Buch found that in the red sandstone of Silesia fine beds of coal exist, a fact worthy the attention of En- glish coal-miners, who consider it madness to’seek for coal in districts composed of red sandstone. The author has also ascertained with some probability, that the detached masses of granite found in Pomerania, Mecklenburg, and Brandenburg, which perplexed M.de Lue and other geo- logists so much to account for their present position, bave been torn from the northern mountains from Schonen through Smoland in Sweden rather than from those of Saxony or Silesia. Smoland is desolated by these blocks of granite. This inference is strengthened by the circumstance of their being found on the small islands in the Baltic, in Femoe as well as in Zealand.
- M. Degen took an aérial flight in Paris on the 15th of August. He ascended in a balloon about three in the after- noon, from a platform raised on the middle of the Seine, between the Bridge of Concord and the Bridge Royal. As- sisted by his wings, he moved horizontally from the plat- form to the Bridge Royal, when he rose nearly perpendicu= Jar to the height of 5400 feet, following the direction of the Seine through Paris, lest he should experience any accident, and was successful in guiding the balloon by means of his Wings against the wind, which was very strong. Through- out he evinced much coolness and courage, At six o’clock he descended in the plain of St. Maude; at eight he re- turned to Paris.
On the sth of September, Mr. Sadler junior ascended from Cheltenham, «and in about an hour and a half after, descended at Chadlington near Chipping Norton.
LECTURES. ; Medical and Chemical Lectures. St. George’s Hospital, and George Street, Hanover Sgquare.—These Lectures will commence as usual the first week of October, viz. on the Materia Medica and Practice of Physic in the Morning, from Eght till a Quarter afier Nine ; and on Chemistry from a Quarter after Nine ull Ten, By George Pearson,
M.D,
Lectures. 233
M.D. F.R.S. Senior Physician to St. George’s Hospital, of the Medico-chirurgical Imperial Academy of St. Peters- burgh; of the College of Physicians, &c. &c.
Pathological Demonstrations and Lectures will also be given, on Cases in St. George’s Hospital, by Richard Har- rison, M.D. of St. John’s College, Oxford.
Tbe Winter Course A: Lectures at St. Thomas’s and Guy’s Hospitals will commence the beginning of Octo- ber ; VIZ.
At St. Thomas’s, Anatomy 2nd the Operations of Sur- gery, by Mr. A. Cooper and Mr. Henry Cline; Principles aud Practice of Surgery, by Mr. Cooper.
At Guy’s, Practice of Medicine, by Dr. Babington and Dr. Curry.—Chemistry, by Dr. Babington, Dr. Marcet, and Mr. Allen.—Experimental Philosophy, by Mr. Allen. —Theory of Medicine, and Materia Medica, by Dr. Curry and Dr. Cholmeley.—Midwifery, and Diseases of Women and Children, by Dr. Haighton.—Physiology, or Laws of the Animal-Géconomy, by Dr. Haighton. —Structure and Diseases of the Teeth, by Mr. Fox.
N.B. These several Lectures are so arranged, that no two of them interfere in the hours of attendance ; and the whole is calculated to form a Complete Course of Medical and Chirurgical Instruction. Terms and other Particulars mnay be Icarnt at the respective Hospitals.
Middlesex Hospital.—The Autumnal Course of Lectures on Midwifery, read by Dr. Merriman, Physician-Accou- cheur to this Hospital and to the Westminster General Dispensary, will commence on Monday October 11, at half past 10 o’clock.
Surry Institulzon.—The following arrangements have been made for Lectures at the Surry Institution, in the ensving Season: Mr. J. Mason Good, on the Philosophy of Phy- sics, to commence on Friday the 5th of November, and to be continued on each succeeding Friday. Dr. Thom- son, on Chemistry, to commence on Tuesday the gih of November, and to be continued on each succeeding Tues- day. Mr. Bakewell, on Natural and Experimental Philo; sophy, will commence early in January 1814, and Dr, Crotch, on Music, early in February 1814,
Lectures on Chemical Philosophy. By William Thomas Brande, F.R.S .Prof. Chem. R.J.—These Lectures. com- mence, at the Theatre of Anatomy, Windmill-Street, on
the
534 Lectures.
the second Tuesday in October at Nine in the Morning, and are continued every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday throughout the Season, terminating in May.
The Subjects eetaprebiendud’ in the Course are treated of in the following order.
Division 1. Of the Powers and Properties of Matter, and the general Laws of Chemical Changes.
Ii. Of undecompounded Substances, and their Matual Combinations.
III. Vegetable Chemistry.
IV. Chemistry of the Animal Kingdom.
V. Geology.
In the First Division the principles and objects of Che- mical Science, and the general Laws of Chemical Changes are explained, and the phenomena of Attraction and of Light, Heat, and Electricity developed, and illustrated by numerous experiments.
In the Second the undecompounded bodies are exa- mined, and the modes of procuring them in a pure form, - and of ascertaining their chemical characters, exhibited ‘upon an extended scale.—The Lectures on the Metals in- clude a succinct account of Mineralogy, and of the me; thods of analysing and assaying Ores. This part of the Course will also contain a full examination of Pharmaceu- tical Chemistry: the Chemical Processes of the Pharma- copeia will be particularly described, and compared with those adopted by the Manufacturer.
The Third and Fourth Divisions relate to Organic Sub- stances ;—including the Chemical changes induced by Ve- getation ; the principles of Vegetables ; ‘the theory of Fer- mentation ; and the characters of its products——The Che- mical History of Animais is illustrated by an examination of their component parts, in health and in disease; by an inquiry into the Chemistry of the Animal Functions, and mito the application of Chemical principles to the treatment of Diseases.
The Course concludes with an Account of the Structure of the Earth, of the changes which it is undergoing, of the objects and uses of Geology, and of the principles ‘of Agri- cultural Chemistry.
The applications of Chemistry to the Arts and Manu- factures, and to ceconomical purposes, are discussed. at some length jn various parts of the Course; and the most jmportant of them are experimentally exhibited.
Farther particulars may be obtained at the Theatre in
Winds
Meteorological Observations made at Clapton, 9235
Windmill-street, or by applying to Mr. Brande at the Royal Institution.
Mr. Singer has put to press ‘*Elements of Electri- city and Electro-Chemistry, including Voltaic Kiec- tricity or Galvanism.”? The new System of Insulation, discovered some time since by Mr. Singer, and mentioned in a former Number of this Magazine, will, we under- stand, be fully described in his work,
Meieorological Observations made at Clapton in Hackney, from July 24 to August 16, 1813.
July 24.—Showery cirrus of confused kind, cirrostratus -and cumuli of rocklike and mountainous appearance as usual. Soon after noon I observed the ewmuli in the SE of acopper colour; shortly after there formed a thunder shower, which came up from the SW ; afterwards it cleared, with wind in light gales, but the thunder showers came on again at times.
July 25.—Rapid showers with west wind; in the clear intervals | noticed the usual phzenomena, cumuli sailing . along, and smaller ones in their vicinity lost, while the Jarger were augmented When very large volumes of cumulus came near they grew darker, drew together, and cumulosivatus iormed.. In a case of this kind about noon, the cumult so changing ceased to move on in the direction of the wind; portions seemed visibly attracted towards the centre of the mass; and cumulostratus with its denser struc-
* ture and continuity of base was the consequence. 1 noticed at the same time misilike cirrus above in small quantity. Presently all the cwmuli which came up put on the cumu- lostratonus appearance, while the aforementioned denser mass increased in blackness, and went on to a state of nimbus*. In the intervals of the showers the wind blew rather strong in gales. Thermometer at midday 70°, at 11 P.M. 55°. Barometer 29.65.—N.B. The showers today were very partial; there were none at Ewell in Surry, but a hard storm at Boxhil!, six miles distance.
July 26. —Rapid and frequent showers in strong gales
* Thave been minute in my description of the nimbific processes today, pot that the appearance has been different from what with some varieties usually goes on in showery weather, but becsuse ! take occasional oppor funities of calling the attention of meteorolo. ris's to the mode of the opera- pions which appear in the production of different phauomena,
of
236 Meteorological Observations
of wind from the westward*, Fine afternoon; irregular features of the different modifications, as in all showery weather ; stars clear, and sky light in the clear intervals by night. Thermometer 11 P.M. 54°. Barometer risen to 29.82.
July 27.—Warm showery weather still, the early part of the day was free from rain. The colour of the horizontal haze above the sunset was pale. Barometer much risen during the day: at 10-P.M. it was 30.10. Therm. in the day 72°, at 10 at night 57°.
July 28.—Fair morning, a shower or two in the middle of the day; fine warm evening. The clouds as usual in showery weather. The owls hooted by night, which prog- nosticated fine weather.
July 29.—Fine hot day, without any clouds; the hori- zon in the morning was misty, but it cleared as the day advanced. Therm. at its highest was 76°, and was 70° at 6 P.M., with Barometer up at 30.28. Wind SW. The quantum of evaporation between noon and six o’clock equalled one-tenth of an inch.
July 30.—Fine hot day, a few small cwmuli formed, and aiso some plain ezrrus breaking out into cirrocumlus; in the evening loose and small detached features of this cloud were in a Jow station, and red with the sinking sun. In the south-east long cirrostrati, which had somewhat the appearance of eels, being near the horizon, threw out a sort of eumulostratus above their upper part, but the whole subsided at night; a caudate meteor appeared about 10 P.M. Therm. midday 61°, at midnight 64°. Barometer fallen to 30.02. Wind SW.
July 31.—Fair hot day, with varying westerly gales, and cumuli with some flatter and clevated masses, and also cirré in fibres in the morning and middie of the day. Maximum of thermometer 78°. Barometer at the time 30.14. Eva- porauion from six on Thursday evening to two this after- noon was one quarter of an inch. As the afternoon ad- vaneed cumulostratus formed, and it and a sort of confused Jarge kind of cirrocumulus obscured the sky, while under- neath LE saw dark flocky cumulus. The wind fell. Barometer stationary. The evaporation between two and six this evening only one-fiftieth of an inch.
* The gale and showers seemed sometimes to come from SW, at others W, and even WNW sometimes ; they were very hard, and the augmenta- tion of the strength of the streams seemed simultaneous with the change of their direction. :
August
‘made at Clapton. 237°
August 1.— Fair day ; the different clouds continually presented themselves in various places ; much cumulostratus at night. Westerly wind.
_ August 2.—Clouds and gentle showers early in the day 5 when it cleared, much exmulus and cumulostratus ; cirri, small loose cirrocumuli, &c. in the evening. Westerly wind.
August 3.—Cloudy and gentle shower early; a gale of wind and much confused cumulus and cumutostratus after- wards. Fair afternoon; in the evening a great deal of cu- mulosratus, flimsy transient cirrocumulus: the cumulo- Stratus in spread and dense masses above the sunset, and showing more and more of the veilow haze as it came up with the wind, with flocky scudlike cumudi sailing rapidly under, had a fanciful and pretty appearance; the wind blew a gentle gale from SW helow.
August 4,--Gentle showers, with fair intervals, and fair afternoon ; all the nimbific processes and indeed all the 4louds very low,
August 5.—Clouded, and small rain in gentle showers early; various appearance of the modification during the clear intervals of the showers in the day; all the clouds, however were low in the atmosphere, and the rain was formed very near the earth. I noticed a beautiful contrast of colour in some-petroid and dense cumu/i in the eastern horizon ; at 7 P.M. some nearer me were deep brown; those behind pale blueish. Windy in gales, with star-light aud clouds by night; a common meteor, with inclined di- rection to the S, appeared in the E at about quarter past UL P.M. Wind westerly.
August 6.—Rather windy, in gusts as usual, much cu- mulus and cumulostratus sometimes amounting to aimbus and pouring a shower ; transient irregular features of the other modifications at times. WNW.
August 7.—Fair warm day; cumuli frequently became cumulostrati, to the formation of which cloud there seemed a disposition through the early part of the day : there were also light masses which Mr. Howard referred to cirrostratus ; which cloud sometimes appears in roundish though flat and. transpareut aggregates: a reddish blush all around at sun= set. Therm. at midnight 54°. Wind WNW. A very small falling star in the E shooting down towards the S. The owls hoot a good deal of Jate by night.
August 8.—Cumulostratus through the morning, which was fair; a gentle shower of drops about 6 P.M., after which the modifications stretched along of indefinite cha- racter, Wind SW. The owls hoot by night.
August
238 Meteorological Observations made at Clapton.
August 9.—Clear morning, except rocky cumuii and éu- mulostratt, which began to appear early, with a north
breeze, and continued through the day, well defined, and:
t=)
sometines rocklike ; by night I observed some flocky clouds. |
August 10.—Fair morning, the sky thickened, and cu-
mult and cumulostrati appeared under, and slight rain’
came on about 2PM. Inthe evening, which was fair,
eirrocumulus and cirrostratus appeared ; some dark clouds
of smokelike texture, and whose darkness did not appear to arise from the interception of light by the interposiuor
of other clouds between them and the sun, took on the:
mottled arrangement like flimsy cirrocumtlus. The cirro- cumulus at 11 P.M. covered the sky with the high tem- perature of 60°, and barometer at 30.25. Wind southerly,
August 11.—Fair, warm and close, a great deal of misti- ness and clouds above with calm air*. At night about tl o’clock, being clear, except: light flimsy and moitled features of cirrostratus approaching to cirrocumulus, also in some places in cymoid rows, in others fleecy cirri, E
observed brilliant little meteors, which had it not been’ moonlight would have shown a strong light. . Thermometer’
as high as 61°F. Barometer 30.20. and sinking. Wind southerly.
August 12.—Fair bot day, and almost cloudless in the morning, except a few small clouds here and there 5 cumule came up with a gentle breeze soon after noon, then various cirri. Orange haze at sunset ; various features of cirrus, cirrocumulus and cirrostratus by night, passing gently on from SW, the way of the wind below. Thermometer midday 79°; midnight 59°.
August \3.—Clear warm morning early, with sheets of
cirrus breaking out into c7rrocumudus and cirrestratus ; about: eight it clouded over with a north wind, and rain fell du= ring the morning, with a cooler airt. When it cleared cumuli appeared above, but during the afternoon varioug’ cirri, cirrostrati, &c. appeared again.
August 14.—Cumuli and cirri in different stations through the day, with some cirrosiratus at times; sky clouded overs Fair afternoon; nocturnal cirrocumulus ; warm air.
,
* To express my view of today, I say that the air seems to have too much of the deposited aqueous particles for its electricity to embody and ‘ive form to, in the production of regular modifications.
+ It had been 74 in the day, even when cloudy.
$ The same disposition of the atmosphere and clouds which appeared yesterday night continued till eight this morning, which may be regarded as the period of the change to rain which the clouds of last night prognosti-
cated. ; . August
ee oe
es Se ee Pe
Meteorological Observations at Tunbridge Wells. 239
August 15.—Abundance of cirrus above, and cumulus below, being a fair day with NW wind. Max. of therm. 78°; fair evening, the cirrt and cirrostrati coloured with crimson about sunset; light flimsy cirrostratus by moon- light, and lunar corona.
August 16.—Fair; various clouds.
Meteorological Olservaiions made at Tunbridge Wells in Kent, from the 17th to the 21st of August 1813.
August 17.—Fair day ; various clouds of different modi- fications. Fine sunset.
August 18.—Cirri, cirrocumuli, &c. cumulostratus, and a few drops of water. The sky had a very green colour through the interstices of the clouds. Fine orange horizon alcer sunset. Wind W.
August 19.—Early, cirrt becoming cirrostratt and cirro- cumuli ; little dark cwmuli through the day sailed along below spreading cumulostratus. Fair evening. After many beautiful changes of cirrus, J at Jength saw after sunset the following phenomena: Long bands of cirrus culoured crimson by the set sun were stretched along, and inclined downwards at one end towards mountainous and black cu- mulostrati coming up slowly from the western horizon,which when they came near threw out long jetties or arms to- wards it; the cir7t soon changing into a lobated cirrocu- mulous cloud; the whole passed gently away and broke up. Some small falling stars of the common kind, with rapid motion *.
August 20.— Clear morning ; the formation and increase of diurnal cumuli was conspicuous through the day; about two hours after noon cirri began to appear in fibrous streaks. Riding over Rusthall Common at night, J observed a small brilliant meteor starting down, which left a narrow train for a second of time; there was cirrostratus obscryable at the time.
August 21.—Fair morning, but cooler than hitherto, with northerly wind; much cirrus and some cirrocumulus and cirrostratus in the morning ; cumulostratus through the day; cirrostratus the prevailing feature again in the evening ; star-light at night.
* The common stelliform kind, and generally the caudate, move straighter and quicker than the larger scrt of meteors which sometimes happen; and
which I have called the brilliant meteors.—Refer to your Journal for No-
vember 1811, and to my “Researches about Atmospheric Phznomena,” p. 88.
Clapton, Aug. 23, 1813, THOMAS TForSTER.
METEORO-
240 Meteorology. METEOROLOGICAL TABLE, By Mr. Cary, oF THE STRAND, For September 1813. Thermometer. a a ere ath wt BL ad Height of |= 23 bt Be 8 Le the rete rane Weather, o's a is Inches. | = Se 2S ZI a Sit «“ Ss Qak August27} 55 | 63 | 54 | 30°29 47 {Fair 28} 54 | 61 | 52 +29 46 |Cloudy 29] 56 | 62] 55 *¢ 36 Showery 30} 55 | 63 | 54 28 42 |Fair 31) 57 | 66 | 55 “16 47 |Fair Sept. 1] 56 | 64 | 55 "10 46 {Fair 2 57 | 66 | 54 | 29°82 27 \Showery 3} 57 | 68 | 55 80 45 |Fair 4| 56 | 66 | 56 "62 o |Rain 5} 58 | 64 | 56 52 40 (Stormy 6| 56 | 62 | 55 +28 36 |Stormy 7| 55 | 60 | 50 “AQ 40 _ |Showery 8) 47 | 54 | 46 62 20 |Showery 9} 47 | 59 | 55 | 30°04 46 |Fair 10} 48 | 63 | 55 20 49 {Fair 11] 56 | 68 | 57 *20 57. ‘|Fair 12} 60 | 67 | 56 | 29°92 46 |Fair : 13} 56 | 65 | 55 | 30:02 56 |Fair ; 14} 54 | 60 | 50 11 50 {Fair 15} 49 | 67 | 57 26 57° |Fair 16] 60 | 66 | 60 -29 48 |Fair 17) 57 | 66 | 56 "28 40 |Fair 18] 57 | 67 | 58 *20 46 |Fair 19| 57 | 66 | 55 ‘08 40 |Fair 20) 54 | 64 | 56 | 29°96 aa* Parr = . 21| 55 | 63 | 55 95 42 |Fair 22) 55 | 63 | 54 | 30°00 38 |Fair 23) 55 | 60 | 55 | 29'98 24 |Showery 94| 54 | 62 | 53 |} 30°13 42 \Fair
95| 54 | 60} 52 *O9 40 (Fair 26| 56 | 60! 51 “08 41 |Fair
N.B. The Barometer’s height is taken at one o’clock,
se eee
{ 941 ]
XLII. Memoir on the Usefulness of Time-Keepers in the Service of the Navy; and a Plan for introducing them with the best Prospect of Success to ensure their Accuracy at the least Expense. Communicated ly Mr. FirM1nGer, late Assistant Astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich *,
N OTWITHSTANDING the great advantages derived to our navigation from the improved, and it may be said almost perfected state of the science of astronomy, aided by equal improvements in the construction of instruments employed in its application, by which the determination of the longi- tude has been reduced to a problem of no difficulty to per- Sons possessing even but a moderate acquaintance with the mathematics ; yet we still find the method of determining the situation of a ship at sea by the lunar observations considered perhaps by the greater part of nautical men a laborious and difficult undertaking, and, when performed, subject to many mistakes,— mistakes which the mariner from his habits of lite will be more liable to make than most other men. And although no endeavour should be wanting in urging the necessity towards a perpetual atten tion to the lunar observations; yet it need not prevent our having recourse to other means that can in any respect simplify, or render more easy or certain, the acquirement of this important object.
The advantage of time-keepers to navigation is so ge- nerally felt by commanders of ships destined to long voy- ages, that few if any of the commanders of vessels em- ployed in the service of the honourable East India Company do not take out two or more of these machines. ~
The lunar observations, when taken and reduced with care, will give the longitude at sea with an uncertainty seldom exceeding twenty or thirty miles, a distance which perhaps will be allowed in all cases sufficiently exact for the practical purposes of the mariner: and which can never subject him to dangers he is not prepared to meet. But it often happens that theée most truly useful observa- tions, from various causes, cannot be put in practice, and an interval of eight or ten days and sometimes a month may elapse before an opportunity shall occur for the ma- riner to avail himself of their aid: here the use of a good time-keeper will become highly advantageous. The time
* This memoir was written at the express wish of an individual, and was
_ presented to the Admiralcy, but whether they had ever any intention of in- zroducing such a plan the Author does not know:
Vol, 42, No, 186, Oct. 1813, Q at
942 On the Usefulness of Time- Keepers
at the ship being obtained, the time-keeper supplies the rest by almost simple inspection. To the skilful mariner the time-keeper will prove a great acquisition ; for notwith- standing the best of time-keepers are liable to change in the rate of their performance, he will however so employ his time-keeper as to make this variation of but little im- portance, and by a judicious management of his lunar ob- servations, combined with the deductions of his time-keeper, make each a correction for the other. And to the less ex- perienced mariner it will afford the means of a check upon his deductions, derived from the practice of Mercator’s Sailing, or, as it is more commonly called, a Day’s Work.
As time-keepers are now become an almost general arti- cle of our manufactory, and a great many are made by per- sons who are mere copyists of others, working without a knowledge, simple as it is, of the principles upon which the greater part of their accuracy depends, it necessarily happens that we must meet with a number of inferior time- keepers. In addition to these disadvantages we may also add that few of the time-keeper makers have the means, after their machines are made, of ascertaining their rate of per- formance, which must tend in a very considerable degree to keep up the price of these articles above the standard at which they would otherwise be sold; for the labouring mechanic, finding himself unable to account for the degree of merit to which his time-keeper is entitled, is obliged to dispose of it tu persons who are better able than himself to ascertain its value, and to affix a price, which is always re- gulated by the performance of the machine. With a view to the removal of this disadvantage to the mechanic, and giving facility to the introduction of a selection of good © time-keepers into the service of the Navy, and at moderate prices, the following plan was drawn up. It has for its object the establishment of an office properly adapted for the trial of time-keepers.
To such an office the labouring mechanic would bring his machine, and be glad to obtain a price for it, which might amcunt to a few guineas above that which he can obtain in the trade; and in addition to this advantage, of being bet- ter paid, he would have an opportunity of becoming ace quainted with its performance: a mutual advantage would therefore acrue to both parties, viz. to the Government, in obtaining possession of a set of good time-keepers at a moderate price; and to the mechanic, in being able to find a mart for his Jabour, affording him the means of improve- ment and future success, Another and yery considerable
‘advantage
an the Service of the Navy. 243
advantage would arise to the community by the establish- ment of an office of this kind, and which, if impartially conducted, would in a short time probably defray the ex~ ‘pense of its establishment. This advantage would be in not only affording Government for the service of the navy a valuable set of time-keepers, but the benefit might be equally extended to the merchant service, and to individuals in ge- neral; for, as the number of time-keepers offered for trial would, probably, very much exceed what was wanted in the service of Government, the remainder might be offered for sale to the public, upon condition of their paying the price at first affixed by the maker, and a small sum to the office for the previous trial. The time-keepers offered for ale might have a label containing the ‘price and rate of going affixed to each, and placed in a convenient situation for the purchaser to see; and when a purchaser had fixed upon one which he was desirous to purchase, it might be delivered to him upon his paying immediately the price affixed upon the label. A set of time-keepers thus tried by authority, would be bought with avidity by the public, as by these means they would be relieved from those fears which are the natural consequence of a purchase from an interested individual.
THE PROPOSED PLAN.
1. That an office furnished with a transit instrument and a good clock be established in a convenient situation, for the reception and trial of time-keepers intended for the service of the Navy.
2. That a sufficient number of observations be made daily on the sun and stars when the weather will admit, as shall be necessary for determining the accurate position of the transit instrument, and for the time and rate of going of the clock.
3. That the time-keepers be compared with the clock every day immediately after the transit of the sun over the meridian, or as soon after as can be conveniently done; and a register, containing the time at comparison both by the transit clock and time-keeper, be distinctly entered in two columns, in a book properly prepared for that purpose : another book to be kept for the register of the temperature of the atmosphere, which should be noticed at the time of comparison of the time-keepers, and likewise at eight o’clock in the morning and at three o’clock in the after- noon of each day.
4. That some months previous to the time fixed upon O2 for
244 On the Usefulness of Time- Keepers
for the reception of time-keepers to be tried at this office, an advertisement be inserted in the public newspapers si- milar to those inserted by the Navy Office and other Boards, stating the intention of Government respecting the intro= duction of time-keepers into the service of the Navy, fixing a day on which such time-keepers should be received at the office for trial, from such time-keeper makers as are disposed to furnish Government with their respective time~ keepers. And from each maker a certificate should be de- livered under cover, properly sealed, containing the num- bers which distinguish, or are engraved on, each respective time-keeper, and the price at which the maker is willing to sell the same; which certificate should remain unopened until after the period fixed upon for the trial of each watch, which should not exceed four, nor be less than two months. At the end of this time the various papers containing such prices should be opened, and a comparison made of the respective merits, with the price of each time-keeper, whereby the maker may be informed whether his time- keeper will be purchased or not at the price he has affixed to it. That no time-keeper maker be allowed to receive any account of the performance of his time-keeper or time-keepers that he deposits at the office, till after the pe- riod of trial be up. And in order to save trouble, it would be adviseable to inform the respective time-keeper makers at the time of delivering their watches, when they may again apply for their answer, and certificate for the receipt of the value of such time-keepers as shal] have gone suf- ficiently well to be approved of and purchased by Govern- ment. And also that each time-keeper maker should, if” required, open such time-keeper as he shall dispose of to Government, before he receives a certificate of its being approved, and order given for payment.
5. On the reception of the respective time-keepers, an entry should immediately be made, containing a description of the time-keeper or time-keepers delivered, with the names of the persons delivering them, and also of such time-keepers as are not approved of ; an entry of the time and name of the person to whom delivered ; or a certificate from the owner, sent under cover, should be received at the time of delivery.
6. That when a number of time-keepers, thus tried and approved of, are ordered for service, the commander or master of such ship or ships as are furnished with them should give a certificate of his having such time-keeper in his possession, and should hold himself responsible for its
or
in the Service of the Navy. Phil
=
or their preservation. That a book should be kept properly prepared, in which should be contained an entry of the time when such time-keeper was received on board the vessel ; also, a comparison of the time at the ship with that of the time-keeper every day at noon, when that can be done, or as soon after as observations can be obtained to de- termine the time at the ship, putting down such observations with the particular circumstances under which they were made, and latitude the ship is in at the time of observation 5 likewise the temperature of the air at that time, and at eight o’cloek in the morning and three o’clock in the after- noon.
7. That when the ship is brought into port to be re- paired, or otherwise detained from actual service, the time-keeper should be returned to the office with the book containing the register of its performance, in order that the time-keeper maybe cleaned, repaired, or receive further trial of its rate.
8. That the office for trying time-keepers be under the inspection and control of a commission of gentlemen, whose talents and situations enable them to give the best effect to this undertaking, such as the First Lord of the Admiralty, President of the Royal Society, Astronomer Royal, &c.
9. That a limited number of young gentlemen, officers of the navy, be allowed to attend the office, to see the me- thod of registering and comparing the time-keepers, and to occasionally do it themselves in order to learn the method of using them.
10. That the regular set of observations necessary to keep the time of the transit clock, and to ascertain the ad- justment of the transit instrument, be kept in a separate book. Some other’ considerations might be added, but these will necessarily arise out of the practice.
N. B. The books containing the accounts of such watches as have been delivered for service, should be accurately ex~ amined when returned to the office, to see if the proper use of the time-keeper has been attended to. When the time-keeper is delivered to any officer, its variation from mean time at Greenwich should be given; or, what would answer still better would be a table of its variation made out from the previous trial, and might be given for the time the watch was likely to be in service before a new account of its rate could be obtained.
It may not perhaps be unnecessary to obserye, that an
accurate
246 = Mr, Farey’s. Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology.
accurate rate of a-time-keeper may be always obtaimed by equal altitudes of the sun, with a sextant, by persons who have been properly instructed in the method of taking them ; and as frequent opportunities occur for this purpose when a ship is lying at anchor, every endeavour should be used to put it in practice as often as possible.
XLIII. Notes and Observations on the Introduction and three first Chapters, of Mr. ROBERT BAKEWELL’S *¢ In troduction: to Geology ;’—embracing incidentally, several new Points of Geological Investigation and Thew ys By Mr. Joun Farzy Sen., Mineral Sur VEY Or.
To Mr. Tilloch.
Sir,—Ir i is a remark very commonly and truly made, that no department of science or literature is so overloaded with theoretical works as Geology: ‘* Theories of the Earth, Geognosies and Elementary Treatises on this subject, in- crease so fast,’’ exclaim some persons, that we ought to set our faces against their further multiplication. On due con- sideration however, this will be found a very injudicious view of the subject, and calculated only to perpetuate errors, and prevent the slow, but certain approaches, which this science in common Wath all others is making, towards truth and perfection.
On a subject, whose facts are so widely and so deeply spread, many of which are so very liable to be mistaken, and whose minute and sufficiently extended examination, is attended with such a great expense of labour, time, and money, and after all, whose publication, in this country in particular, is so little encouraged, and often so difficult to be procured, even when the observers are willing to give away all their previous labours, a more rapid progress must not be expected, than what is vow making.
From two Letters, of the 16th and 21st instant, (pp. 53 and 103) which I have found it necessary to address to you, some persons will perhaps suppose me acting therein, contrary to the maxims above stated, and as being de- sirous of depreciating Mr. B’s Work. I beg however di- stinctly to state, tbat this is far from my intentions or wishes, and that I have yet perused no systematic work on Geology, which I think entitled to a general and careful reading, in any degree compared with Mr, Robert ai.
we
Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 247
well’s “ Introduction to Geology,” and which I sincerely wish may be read, and studied, by hundreds of persons, with no less care and attention than I have bestowed upon it. Because I can assure them, that it contains many more of the facts concerning our planet, and fewer of the absurd and whimsical assertions and theories concerning it, than any of the numerous systematic works which have preceded it in our language, or I believe in any other,
By producing a work, which on the one hand no where shocks us by its impiety, in setting up mistaken pheno- mena of the Earth and false hypotheses regarding it, against those Revelations which have obtained the assent of the largest portions of civilized men; and on the other hand, has excluded those futile and mischievous attempts at sup- porting Revelations and Miracles, by inapplicable natural phenomena, by supposed present evidences of the Deluge of Noah, in particular; on these grounds J consider Mr, Bakewell as having performed most important services, to Science and to Religion, at the same time, That he has done all that might be done, and that doubtless will be done by future Geologists, in the support of both or either of these, would perhaps be unreasonable to expect.
Mr. B. has unfortunately shrunk from the labour, of making a copious alphabetical Index to his volume, but which, nevertheless, is so essential to the studying of, and referring to any work containing numerous details, as this does, that T have been induced to make one (and which Mr. B. shall have the use of at any time, if he wishes to publish it). Ilament also, that he has not followed the very excellent example set him by the late Dr. Richard Kirwan, in more generally and expressly quoting his au- thorities.
Kirwan’s * Geological Essays,”’ was the first professed work on Geology which fell into: my hands; [ found it then most importantly useful, by its very numerous re- ferences to the volumes and pages of previous writers, and still on that account, it ought to be recommended to the perusal and frequent reference, of every English student, as well as to future writers, although too many points of his theory and inferences, need now to be passed over or forgotten.
Piss thought the pages of Mr. Bakewell’s recent work, worth marginal References and Memorandums, in pretty considerable numbers; and thinking that many of these will prove useful to several others of your Geological Readers,
and perhaps to future writers, when we shall be no more, oe Walla I intend
248 Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology.
J intend making such Notes and observations of mine, the Subject of the present and three future Letters.
Some persons, I am aware, will say, on their perusal, that these references are too much confined to my own writings if this might be granted, my apologies would be—l1st, that Mr.B. has in so very disproportionate a degree, adduced the facts of a certain district, that I had previously examined, and written upon, and has besides introduced a large por tion of those inferences which I have drawn, from these and my other published Observations, and from reading, &c.: and 2d, that I am most acquainted with these facts, how far they are applicable to the points in question, and where to find the records of them:—and of such Objectors I would beg also to ask the favour, to imitate my example, and give us through the medium of your useful Work, other series of Nofes and Observations on Mr. B’s useful pages, as a kind of text, with references to their own or friends’ or others’ works, interspersed with as many original ard precise facts as possible:—The Science will be benefited by this rivalry, at no very considerable cost.
Where our references and notes may be found to con- firm Mr, B’s statements or inferences, he might feel obliged to us, and if they should lessen his apparent originality, for that he would have himself only to blame. Where re- ferences or notes of this sort, contradict or correct state- ments or opinions in Mr. B’s work, impartial men will be glad of the opportunity thus afforded, of weighing the op- posing evidences, and in many instances, I hope, will make and communicate new and precise observations, calculated to set our disputes for ever at rest.
But J will proceed to my Notes, after mentioning, that I have fixed on those words in Mr. B’s sentences, which ap- peared best calculated to show the reason and application of my Note, or to direct to the passage elsewhere, which ts re- ferred to; and have, after mentioning bis page and line(always reckoned from the top line, omitting the running Title) repeated the words selected in his page, and added a Mark, as may be done, by any person, who may think it worth while to transfer the whole or any part of my references or Notes (or references thereto) into the pages of their Copy of Mr. B’s Geology. For my Derbyshire Report I have used only the letters Rep., and only P. M. for your work, Mr. B’s Pla‘es shall in like manner be noticed, and where no work is quoted, by abbreviations of their titles, references to some others of Mr, B’s pages are meant.
« Notes,
a on
Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 249
Notes, &e.
P.1, Plate V. 1. 2.—of Cader Idris *.—* See pages 112, 189, 297 and 317.
yi. 1.13, Mr. Michell*.—* See P. M. vol. xxxvi. p. 102, vol. xxxvil. p. 175 Note, and yol. xxxix. pe 94 Note.
vii. 1, 5 and 6, general accuracy*.—*Some_ rather material objections have however been raised, to some particular statements by Mr. Whitehurst, P.M. vol. xxxi. p. 36, and Rep, i, 473 N and 490, pages 178, and 274, (and P. M. vol. xiii. p- 112 Note.)
}. 18, in Englandf.—t Eleven years after Mr. White-
hurst wrote, Mr. John Williams published the results of his considerable experience as a Miner and Collier, and ten years Jater, Dr. Richard Kir- wan published his Geological Essays, enriched by precise references to almost every preceding Wri- ter on the subject. About the year 1794, Mr. Wi illiam Smith, of Mitford near Bath, began his Geological Survey of England, see P.M. vol. xxxv. p. 1145 in 1801, he instructed J. Farey, B. Bevan, Rev. A Townsend (¢* Character of Moses,” p. v.), &c.¢ previous to which, he had circulated Prospectus, for a similar work, only less extensive and com- plete than that which is now forthcoming, (p. 59.) He accurately defined the alluvium, discovered the extraneous fossils peculiar to most of the English strata, &c. &c. Rep. i. 108, and P.M. xxxviil. p. 131.
x. 1. 9 and i0, elevate the imagination * —* P, M. xxxvile p. 443.
xi. 1. 15, attendant science*.—* This is a more appro- priate expression, of the relation that Mineralogy has to Geology, than Mr. Kirwan’s, who says, that the former supplies the alphabet of the latter: —from technical and pedantic Mineralogists, Geo- logical investigation has more to fear, than hope, in the present day, see p. xil. and Rep. I. Vili Note.
5, 1. 6, as 230 to 229 *.—* Probably, as 320 to 319, see P. M. xii. p. 100.
8, 1, 21, foundation rock *.—* P. M. xl. p. 53, vol. xlil. p. 126, and my 3d Letter, in reply (p. 170.)
a
250 Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology.
P. 9, 1. 9, crystalline structure *.—* Phil. Trans. 1811, and P, M. xxxix. p. 29. 10, ]. 25, alluvial ground *.—*Alderiey-edge, see p. 3435 ' and Rep. 1. 252: and Stapleford Mine, P.M. XXXIX, p. 478.
11, ]. 10, workable coal *.—* See the articles Coal and Colliery in Dr. Rees’s Cyclopedia, and Rep. i. 116,
}, 15, subterranean forest +.—f See P. M. iv. p. 287. These, and Peat, are common around England, Wales and Scotland, &c. where flat Coast are not gaining or losing by the waves, sce my Ist Letter, (p. 58); M. de Luc, Geo. Trav. in France, &c. vol. i. p. 275, ascribes this fact, in Holland, to the sinking of the alluvial Jands, but the rise of the Sea, seems its true cause, I think, see p. 324 of his same volume.
12, 1, 8, east of it*.—* Lead, Zinc, &c. near Broom- head Hall, Rep. i. 254, 270, and 407;; Copper, Cobalt, &c. at Stapleford, P. M. xxxix. p. 478, and not 498, as printed at p. 58 herein.
1.12, metallic ores occur}.—t The Mendip Mines SW of Bath, seem to me to occur in Lias (as Mr. Smith originally concluded, although of late he has doubted this, and the Rev. Mr. Townsend has represented this Rock as identical with the Derbyshire Peak Limestone, &c.): the Nailsea Collieries and those N of them (P. M. xxxviii. p- 321), and others probably, S of Glastonbury, which Mr. Smith is now exploring, occur in this northern horn of the ‘¢ Devonian range,”’ in the Map, p. 255; (see pages 57 and 125 herein.)
], 24, to the south-east $.— t See the articles Coal and Colliery in Dr. Rees’s Cyclopedia, and P.M. XXXIX. p. 27.
33, 1, 6, brine springs *.—-* Many such (see p. 139) and some having Salt-works on them, accur out of the line EE, see Mr. Bailey’s Durham Report, p. 48, &c.
1], 9 and 10, before noticed +.—+} Not by the names Alpine, Middle and Low Districts, but see Phil. Trans. 1811, p. 258, and P. M. xxxix. p. 27 and 426, &c. :
16, 1. 1, flat fish *.—* In the Lzas Limetone, see p. 237.
], 2 and 3, in and under t.—t It is wpon all or most of the regular beds of Clay, coyering Chalk, and
upon
“ ' = a
Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 251
P.16.
zpon Gravel, between this and Brick-Loam or alluvial Clay on the surface, (Mont. Mag. XXXlil. p. 514, and page 70 herein), that the Bones of large Quadrupeds have been found, in England, and in France, see Geol. Trans. i. and P. M,. Xxxvill. p. 143. At pages 60, 177,181, 258, 263, and 336, other errors or omissions occur on this head, see my Nates on pp. 60 and 181.
17, 1. 23, a cavern *.—* In Ball-eye Mine, Rep. i. 250
and 253.
]. 24, Gibraltar Rock +.—t+ See page 184. 9,11
and 2, ninety-seyen yards *.—* It was in Meas- ham-fields Coal Pit (Rep. i. 204), near to the border of Swepston Parish, at twenty-seven yards below the surface, that the Skeleton of a Man was found, in driving an air-gate, a few years ago.
]. 4, no appearance existed t.—t The old Shaft had
so effectually been filled up, as to have escaped notice above ground; but before reaching the skeleton, the Coal had proved ochry and tender, as if a fault or old hollows were near at hand. The Coal in this part, is altogether 12 feet thick, the lower 74 feet of which is soft and of less value than that above, on which accounts the air and water gates, or adits, are usually driven in the soft coal; the ancient work in which the man was found, had perfect coal sufficient above it, to envelope or ** imbed” the body, as it mouldered or fell in fleaks, before the Bind of the roof fol- lowed; and to Edward Mainmatt, Esq. the Pro- prietor, who carefully examined the spot, when the head only of the skeleton had been disturbed, it appeared quite clear, that the Coal had been disturbed, and had thus fallen upon the Body ; in working forwards a very short distance, under-his inspection, red clay became mixed with the loose Coal, and the same increased to the foot of the shaft, that had been filled up therewith : no tools were found in the ancient working, from whence it was conjectured, that the unfortunate Man had fallen by accident into a disused pit. It was per- haps, fortunate for science, that Mr. M. so promptly attended, to ascertain the facts regarding this skeleton, and to prevent the workmen from
, spreading
*
252 Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology.
P.19. spreading reports, without contradiction, of tke skeleton being imbedded in undisturbed coal. After Mr. B’s just remark on this head in p. 18, I lament that in page 162, this supposed complete consolidation of loosened Coal, by “ pressure and time alone,” should, as I suppose, be alluded to, for supporting a Theery, to which this case ap- pears to have no just relation.
26, }. 18, denominated a Jed *.—* An Anglo-Wernerian term this (used also at page 52), used in just the re- verse of its meaning among the practical English Quarrymen and others ; who describe the subdivi- sions of their Rocks or thick strata, by the term beds, Rep. i. 222, 271, &c.
1. 25, right angles to this t.— ¢ And level or nearly, Rep. i. 120 Note.
27,1.17, the motion of water *,—* It is probably only the Huttonians, who at this day, consider the motion of water, as concerned in the formation of strata, but such opinion seems devoid of pro- bability.
28, ]. 14, different direction *—* Denominated Stratula, Rep. 1. 155, see my Note on page 317.
]. 21 and 22, remove many difficultiest.—+ See P. M. XXXvill. p. 357, and Mont. Mag, xxxili. p. 517.
29, 1. 1, with stratification *.—* By Mr, Edward Martin, at Cribbath, in Phil. Trans. 1806, and in Williams’s Min. Kin. 2d Ed. ii. p. 296: and by others.
}, 10, mountain masses .—t Rep. i. 153, Phil. Trans. 181}, and P.M. xxxvil. p. 441, and vol. xxxix. p- 29 and 426.
30, 1. 8, clay*.—* Alumina ought now always to be used, in naming the simple Earth ; Clay being a useful name, in very common use, for yarious mixtures of Alumma, Silex, Magnesia, &c, &c.
40,1. 22, of the science *,— * Read—of Geological Science.
43, 1.12, generally lie below *,—* Are not the bare or denudated tops of large modular, or imbedded masses, often described as foundation rocks ? P.M. x1. \:p.'53.
44,1. 13, contain pebbles *.—* I believe Mr. W. Smith, as a Man practically acquainted with Coal-mines and other deep excavations in the Strata, as well as with the upartieial Grayel and alluvial soils,
was,
i ti il tl i ees
Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 258
P. 44,
was perfectly right in concluding, 20 years ago, that rounded pebbles are never contained in regular strata or found under them, Rep. i. 109 and 134.
After thoroughly and repeatedly considering the nature of the granular siliceous masses, called Sandstones and Grit-stones, from the finest, most uniform and almost imperceptible grit, (or even fine Sand in a stratum), to the irregularly coarse Millstone Grit of Derbyshire (Rep. i. 179), the still more irregularly coarse grit or puddingstone strata of South Wales and the Forest of Dean (Rep. i. xiii. and P. M. xl. p. 51), and the vastly more compounded and irregular Conglomerate or Puddingstone, which forms such stupendous Strata in the north of Scotland (Will. Min. King. ed Ed. i. 488), and stretch to the Orkneys: [am perfectly satisfied, that all such granular masses m strata, are of cotemporary formation with their paste or cement, and are distinguishable (though with difficulty sometimes), from rounded pebbles, having no real marks of attrition on them, though they often show on their outsides the effects of decomposition, so as to assume very exactly the appearance of worn stones.
A Theorist, who sees in the same stratum or mass of conglomerate, distinct stones of all his. different classes perhaps, Primitive, Transition, and Secondary and even of the Alluvial of some Schools perhaps, will stoutly deny, and even ridi- cule my position, quoting against me the au- thority of a List of great Names from Lehman to Werner, &c.—Be it so, such may continue to enjoy their theories, and form Societies for amusing one another therewith, and [ will pursue my observations, until I meet with facts not ex- plainable but on their principles, and then I will not be backward in announcing them, and own- ing it.
Opportunities more proper than this will doubr- Jess occur, in going through Mr. B’s volume, for these remarks, but I wished early to introduce
them, and can refer back to them here, when necessary.
44, Plate I. fig. 1.—see pages 44, 47, 83, 165, and 257.—
Fig. 2, see page 45.
45, |. 14, unconformable and overlying *.—* It has been
hinted
#54 Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology.
P.45.
hinted to me by a friend, that Mr. B. has somé> thing yet to learn, of his friends the ‘ Anglo- Germans,” respecting the orthodox interpretation of these terms. J have never yet found them ne- cessary, in describing any appearances of Nature; Mr. B’s 2d figure in plate f. has nothing repre- sented in it, to me inconsistent, with regular strati- fication; which does not absolutely require parallel, but rather continuous masses (Rep. i..105 and 117); what have we bere, to prevent us supposing, that his upper or ** superincumbent” masses are parts of a stratum, as uniformly thick, and as regularly applied upon No. i, as that is upon No. 2? (and even had once others such upon it,) and that since, or even before a part of this mass was cracked into regular columnis (see p. 314), the surface was denndated, as irregularly as at dd, and that in two other parts, the whole of the upper stratum (or strata) was stripped off, without any perceptible excavation into the next inferior stratum. Such cases are very familiar to me in nature. Not so I must confess, the three sirata, No. 6, in fig. 1 in this plate, which abut or end against another stratum ; or the two other strata at the top Jeft- hand corner of fig. 3 in plate ITI.*
If in both these cases, alluvial beds (Rep. 1. 142) are intended to be shown, covering s/rata, almost every Gravel Pit will prove the possibility and the frequency of such occurrences, and so will Gravel Rocks (Rep. i. 131 Note).
The different cases of stratula, curved or straight (which last are very common in the beds of nu- merous Coal-measure and other Rocks), appeared
to me sufficient, to account for every case that I ,
have yet seen, of unconformable stratification.
1.17, any conformity +.—t In its top: see above.
46, 1. 19, and structure *.— * Because compact, and not
usually divided into beds and blocks, or posts, as is common with most other Rocks.
1,25, almost peculiar *,—* I have yet seen nothing
so peculiar in the stratification of Basaltic Rocks, P. M. xxxili. p. 257, and Rep. i. 279+ their swb-
* My worthy Friend S. C. Pole, Esq. to whom this Quarry at Wild Park belonged, died lately: I shall therefore ‘take it a favour of any one, fo whom it may be convenient, to compare the view in this plate with the face of the Rock, if they will inform me particularly, as to the two horizontal strata at the top left-hand corner.
stances
EE ee ee eee ee
ee
Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 2955
P.46. stance, in its various States, is far more sins ular.
47,!. 16 and 17, elevated them on one side *.—* The important Geological fact, that such elevations of piles of strata, by rents or faults, very rarely now form a cliff or sudden inequality of the surface (owing to the subsequent and general denudation thereof, Rep. i. 105, 123, and 124), has not been expressly pomted outin Mr. B’s volume, although soimportant a feature of the earth’s surface, see my 2d Letter, (p..107), and 3d Letter, (p. 165.)
48, Plate II. fig. 1, see p. 48, 271 and 273.—fig. 2, see p- 145, 151, and 209.—fig. 3, see p. 146 and 209. —fig. 4, see p. 218.—fig. 5, see p. 296.
48,1. 7, is built*—* On the gth Grit Rock, Rep. i. 207, Ponds Colliery, whose workings undermine the Town and this Rock. ;
1, 11 and 12, coarse gritstone -.—f Ist Grit, or Mill- stone Grit, Rep. 1. 220.
1.17, stratified sandstonet.—+t Limestone Shale (Rep. i. 227):—throughout his work, nearly, Mr. B. has altered the established and appropriate name of this stratum, and of others also very dif- ferent from it, to * sandstone,” see my 2d Letter, (p. 103.)
48, ]. 19, acap or covering **,—** On Whin Hill, Rep.i. 62 and 227, are three caps or Hummocks of Ist Grit, the largest being here intended by Mr. B.,
-] suppose: and it is worthy of remark, that the great prevalence of this phenomenon, of Hum- mocks, throughout this district (Rep. 1. 225 and 241) and others in England, Scotland and Ire- Jand, is unnoticed in Mr. B’s work; nor is their importance pointed out, as certain indications of the denudation of vast tracts of intervening strata, on Hills as well as in Valleys, see Denudation in Dr. Rees’s Cyclopedia, P. M. xxxiii. p. 204 and 260, and xxxvil. p. 44, &c. The Rev. A. Cal- cott, in 1761, distinctly pointed out this grand phenomenon of the Earth’s surface, see his ‘* De- luge,” p. 159, &c.; Mr. Williams also mentioned a particular case of Hummocks, Min. King, ed Edit. i. p. 97. M. Hermelius’s Maps of Kin- necula and other Hills in Sweden, lately copied into Dr. Thomson’s Travels, show them, &c.— yet, who of the modern Theorists has noticed, and
given
256 Mr: Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. .
P.48. given any consistent explanation of them?; Mr. Allan, in p. 92 of your present volume, ascribes the Cornish Hummocks, to decomposition! ; see my 2d Letter, (p. 108.) ]
1, 24 and 25, compact limestone (7)tt.—tt It has | already been noticed in my 2d Letter (p. 112), that a great faudt (Rep. 1. 289) is omitted in plate II, fig. 1, through No. 7, near to the edge of the Shale (5); and that the part of the Limestone which underlies the Shale here is 1st Limestone (Rep. i. 238 and 271).
491.2, the same limestone*.—* It is the 4th, and not the Ist Limestone, which forms mountains to the W and SW of Castleton, see Map at page 97 of Derb. Rep. i. and p. 280, and my 2d Letter, (p. 112.) Ww
1. 14, different rocks +.—t These effects of Faults are shown, Rep. i. 146, 165, 280 and 290 Note, &c. Phil. Trans. 1811, and P. M. xxxix. p. 26.
1. 16, sinking down {.—t Mr. Whitehurst attempted to explain the formation of Valleys by fissures and subsidences, but his assumptions have been proved erroneous, P.M. xxxi. p. 36, and Rep. i. 473 and 490, and my 2d Letter, (p. 112 N). I have de- scribed all the principal Valleys in Derbyshire, and shown that they are none of them owing to this cause, Rep. i. 469, P. M. xxxix. p. 192 and 253,) and Mont. Mag. xxxiil. p. 516. Mountain Tor- rents, mentioned here and in p. 189, seem per- fectly inadequate to the widening of the upper parts of fissures, into valleys, Rep.i. 491, and xxxiy. p. 49.
50,1, 11, fragments of these mountains *.—* The con- glomerates of the north of Scotland, mentioned in my note on p. 44, are not formed of fragments of theadjacent mountains, nor are perhaps any other such ‘* pudding-stones,” as‘ they are here called, so formed.
1.19, by marine currents }t.—f This cause assigned for the excavation of Valleys, appears rather more adequate to the effects, than * Rivers which flow through them,” page 47; but neither are suffi- cient, to account for the very general denudation of the earth’s surface, if they could be supposed to have formed the individual vaileys. The same
cause which denudated, (whateyer it Bi een
Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 257
P..50, been) appears evidently to me, to have formed the valleys at the same time, but by no mechani- cal or natural law, that I can discover or devise, or have seen pointed out (Rep. i. 105, and Staf+ fordshire Report, p. 200). Infinite wisdom seems so to have disposed the forces that operated, in tearing-off* hundreds of yards thick of Strata, that the parting or rupture at the bottoms of the removed solid masses, were in the complicated waving planes, which now form the surface; or rather, which did so, before any alluvium was lodged, or decomposition had happened, to form the superficial soil, and slightly round the aspe- rities. The sudden removal of a large Seal from off its impression on wax, would give us an idea of this operation, if we could mentally separate
. it from the previous compression of the yielding wax, into the shape of the seal. Here seems to be an operation of creative power on the vast ter- restrial globe, fully within our power to investi- gate, but which we cannot in any degree imitate, ——which of them indeed can we imitate? or, in- deed, fully comprehend ?.
$1, 1.11, it would sink*.—* Mr. B. might find himself puzzled, even with the assistance of the learned Illustrator of these Huttonian absurdities, to tell us, how a fluid mass, whether gaseous or of melted
* That the removed Masses from denudated tracts and Valleys have moved off upwards, and not horizontally, in the direction or by the action of currents of water, moving in any imaginable courses, will I think admit of the clearest proof, from an accurate and minute examination of the tops of beddy or thinly stratified Rocks, and of the rulble formed by their Leing torn up ;—on the tops of Quarries and Cliffs, in many\ parts of our Island, and in most situations, as to hills and valleys, I have repeatedly and carefully studied this phenomenon, see my Note on p. 209.
Mr: L. Horner saw two cases of this kind in the Limestone Quarries on the W flank of the Malvern Hills, but on returning to view one of them again, the Quarrymen had removed these loosened and erected parts of the . beds: andI cannot but suspect, that it was after this, and from recollection only, that Mr. L. drew the Section of these strata, which is published in the Geo. Trans. vol. i.
Ashover Valley in Derbyshire, has presented many facts of this nature, and even of more decisive kinds, as to a temporary lifling action on the surface of the strata, whose precise localities I have pointed out, for re-examination of the curious facts which they exhibit, and mentioned the Names of the parties Seggpas: when several excavations were made, on purpose to explore the rubble, and are since closed again, in my Paper mentioned in a Note in my first Letter (p. 55.) But alas, my unfortunate production had no sublime speculations on primitive transition or secondary formations, to recommend it, not even on “ the independent Coal formation,” (P. M, xli. p- 305), and seemed to be thought unworthy ts appear in better company.
Vol, 42. No. 186, Oct, 1813. R java,
258 P.51.
Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology.
lava, powerfully expanding itself, could suffer, much less cause (as seems here insinuated) part of the surrounding masses, against which it acted (equally on all sides, by the known laws of fluidity), to sink, wr approach towards the ex- panding mass! Perhaps Mr. B. wall wish to amend his words, and say, “ after the surface had risen in one part, it sunk in another;” but which even will no better avail him, unless he can show, why that part of the shell which had stood firm and unmoved by the expanding action, should immediately after (much less at the same time), give way and sink down, in preference to that which had just been heaved up by its action.— But it seems a loss of time, to notice such crude whims.
52,1. 3, defended from. attrition*.—* The common ap-
pearance of extraneous fossils, and of known allu- vium, which have suffered little or no attrition, by a distant removal, as on the Chellaston Gyp- sum, see my 2d Letter, (p. 105), compels us to seek a more general and adequate cause, than a coating of ice.—TIn the great alluvial Clays of Bedfordshire, very large ragged flints, with loops almost like the handles of pitchers, and more easily broken off, are commonly found in digging (with other not less fragile ruims of the distant chalk Hills), and are often used for weights to their roasting Jacks. Wery large masses of laminated clay are also found lodged in the gravelly mixtures here. In Dorsetshire larger unbroken masses of the stratified Pipe Clay (of Purbeck, probably) are found lodged in gravel ; at Hagworthingham in Lincolnshire, I have seen large masses of thinly stratified Clay, with their edges little worn, lodged in confusion, on the top of a Hill, among immense bolders and rounded stones. A multiplicity of similar facts show, that a great deal of the known alluvium must have been borne up above the sur- face and moved in mass (generally, if not always; from SE to NW or near it, as Mr. Smith long ago discovered, P. M, xxxv. p. 135) instead of being rolled along the surface; and the same re- mark will evidently apply to many self stones or moved Blocks, see Ice Lorne, in Dr. Rees’s Cyclo- pedia, and Rep. i. 143,
‘Py 60,
Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 259
P. 60, |. 3, Fresh-water fish*.—* Who has told us, any in- dubitable marks, by which fresh and salt water fish, or those of water of any other qualities can be discriminated?, among the primitive races whose remains we find in the strata. I believe no one has, or can, P. M. xxxv. p. 134. Some time ago I asked a celebrated Naturalist this ques- tion,—he said, he knew no other characteristic distinction between fresh and salt water shells, than the thinness of the former, but will this serve as any distinction among fossil species? are not very thick and stout shells often mixed in the same bed with very thin and tender ones ?—TI have often seen it. This being at present a favourite Geological bauble, in London as well as Paris, (Rep. i. and P. M. xxxv. p. 256) Mr. B. has in seven or more pages of his Book, contrived to introduce so fashionable a subject, combined as often with his mistake, about the remains of large Quadrupeds being found in the stratified Clay of London, instead of upon it, see my Notes on pages 16, 181,8c.—See Mr. James Sowerby’sconcluding remark in p. 76 of his * Mineral Conchology.”
1.6 and 7. 1 Clay. @ Sand #.—t It is much to be lamented, that Mr. B. has so far suffered Theory to distort facts, as to deny the many important re- gular strata of Clay and of Sand in the south- eastern parts of England(Rep.i. 111 to 115),a place among his secondary strata; placing them here among alluvial substances, viz. with Gravel, and calcareous Tufa, and even with beds of Peat !.
1, 22, some time established ¢.—t Mr. B’s work was intended, we should hope, as ** introductory” to the truths of Science, and not for detailing and giving further currency to established errors. If Mr. B. at all thought, with me, (as this passage
intimates I think) that the boasted arrangements of Lehman (p. vt.) were useless, if not herttul to the science, (see my Note on page 44) why have they formed so large a share of his work, with additional and speculative arrangements of his own, on the same doubtful principles?
6), 1.6, forced through *.—* It is more natural, and accordant with all the facts, to suppose the su- perior strata have been denudated off the moun- tain tops of Granite (such as a in fig. 1, plate I),
R2 than
#69 Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology.
P. 61.
than to suppose, with the Huttonians, that the Granite has been * forced through the more su- perficial covering of the Globe ;” when after all, the Granite may perhaps be comparatively an incon- siderable nodule or crystallized mass (Rep.1. 153)» in a Stratum, of far greater magnitude and ex-
tent, see my Note on page 43.
67, 1, 10, over coal *,—* What reasons, except his new
«¢ Anglo-German” theory of formations, has Mr. B. adduced, to show, that the Coal-measures of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Coal-field do not pass under his ‘ primary” (or ‘* Transition”) tract ealled Charnwood Forest? see my note on page 285.—At page 286 Mr. B. admits. that the Red Mar! (under his new denomination of Sazdstone), occupies a space, in horizontal strata between the Coal-measures and the coarse Slate, and says, the Sandstone is evidently of ‘ posterior formation to the coal strata,””) or in plain English I should say, lies upon them ; but which Mr. B. was not likely, to say, wishing for another purpose, to represent this same Red Marl (or Sand-stone) as identical with IstGrit and Limestone Shale (or Sandstone), and underlying all the great Derbyshire and York \ shire Coal Series, see my 2d Letter (p. 103). The coals rising up where they terminate against the horizontal Marl, as Mr. B. men- tions, is consistent with the Fault which I have represented in my Map Rep. i. p. 97 and mentioned p. 174: and though Mr. B. may have attempted to invalidate this Fault, in another part of its course, at page 267, by saying, “on the south-west they (the Coal-measures) are covered by a thick bed of coarse breccia and gravel, which separates them from the coal-fields at Polesworth and Bedworth inWarwickshire ;” his statement is clearly unfounded ; for between these two Coale fields, several miles wide of as perfect Red Marl occurs, in horizontal strata (with occasional grit- stone beds in them), as in any part of England, as my Map shows, Rep. i. 97, instead of Breccia and Gravel!. I have shown and mentioned a small tract of Gravel Rock ? in Over Seal (Rep. i. 142), which Mr. B. may perhaps have seen, and thus been induced to make this general and very unfounded assertion, P. 68,
On Electricity. 261
P. 68, 1. 17, in clay-pits +:—* These alluvial Marl-pits with Granite and other foreign Bolders, extend into the NW corner of Derbyshire, Rep. i. 456.
69, 1. 22, denominated rents*.—* Mr. B. seems here alluding, to the nearly vertical joznts, slines cutters, &c. between blocks of stone, or masses of Coal, &c. which are generally peculiar or confined to each bed; and should not therefore have been confounded by a common term, with the vastly different phenomenon of Faults, as is done in page 47, see my Note on page 162.
72, 1. 3, to mica slate *,—* Did not Mr. B, note, in his Woburn ebservations, that the micaceous stones alluded to, were worn and decomposing pebbles among the Gravel?. I have found such, very plentifully, on the lower chalk hills NE of Dun- stable, and they have also reached Derbyshire, with many of their travelled companions, see Rep. i. 466. .
73,1. 10, of statuary marble *.—* Mr. John Lingard, the occupier of Lodge Farm in Great-rocks Dale in Derbyshire, showed me small specimens of white granular Marble, scarcely if at all distinguishable from foreign statuary, which came I believe from a Dyke or vein of this stone, which there inter- sects the 4th Limestone Rock, Rep. i. 414.
83,1. 9, secondary rocks (6)*.—* In a note on page 45, I have already expressed a doubt, on the reality of such strata as are represented, No, 6, in fig. 1, plate I. and shall feel obliged to Mr. B. if he will particularly point out as many undoubted cases of the kind, as he can.
My next communication commences Mr, B’s 4th Chap-
ter, and shall be sent in due time.
I am, sir, Your obedient servant, Upper Crown-street, Westminster, Joun FarRey Sen.
26th July, 1813,
XLIV. On Electricity. By Mr. Georce JoHn SINGER, Lecturer on Chemical and Experimental Philosophy.
Tue phenomena observed in an experiment detailed in
the last number of this Magazine*, as indicatiye of a double * Page 161.
R3 current
262. On Eleciricily.
current in the discharge of the Leyden jar, have been the subject of consideration with all practical electricians since the year 1760, when an account of them was first pub- lished.
In the fifty first volame of the Philosophical Transactions (page 171 and following) Mr. Symmer has given an ac~ count of some experiments that led him to suspect the ex- istence of a double current in the discharge of the Leyden jar: that which appeared to bim to afford the most satis- factory evidence was the following. :
He placed a slip of tinfoil in the middle of a paper book (the thickness of a quire), and, passing an electric charge through it, observed that the leaves.on each side the tinfoil were pierced; the tinfoil itself was not perforated, but an indentation was made on each of its surfaces at a little di- stance one from the other: these indentations were opposite ihe holes in the paper, and evidently pointed in opposite directions. ~ In another book of the same thickness, he placed two slips of tinfoil with the two middle leaves of the book be- tween them; and he states that all the leaves of the book were pierced, excepting the two that were between the slips of tinfoil: and in these two instead of holes the two impressions in contrary directions were very visible.
_ I have frequently repeated Mr. Symmer’s experiments. _ The result of the first is usually as he has stated, but the phzenomena of the second are somewhat different. When the two middle leaves of a paper book are inclosed between two slips of tinfoil, and a sufficiently powerful charge is passed through the book ; all the paper leaves are pierced, and each slip of tinfoil has. two indentations in opposite di- rections and in different parts of their opposite surfaces, Consequently, if these impressions are caused by distinct currents of electricity, there must be four currents to pro- duce this effect.
But the phznomena., were still more remarkable when I introduced between the leaves of a quire of paper, six slips of tinfoil, each pair separated by three leaves of paper. The charge perforated all the paper leaves, but in different places, and each slip of foil had an indentation on each of its sur- faces, and consequently in opposite directions ; so that, ac- cording to Mr. Svmmer’s reasoning, there must have been twelve distinct electric currents. .
The perforatious in the paper were never in a right line through the separate strata ; and consequently the indenta- tions on the opposite surfaces of each slip of tinfoil were
at
On Electricity. 263°
at ‘some distance from each other, and sometimes consider- ably so, being at the opposite extremities of the slip: but each impression was immediately opposite to the perforation in the paper contiguous to it; soahat an upward impression, and an impression downwards on two opposite tinfoil slips, ° resulted from the perforation of each interposed stratum of paper: which is a sufficient proof that the effect arises from the expunsion caused by a spark at each interruption of the metallic circuit, and not from any effect of opposite cur- rents.
When a card or quire of paper is pierced by a charge passed through wires applied to its opposite surfaces, there is but.one interruption of the metallic circuit, and conse- quently but one spark; this produces an expansive effect, which willoperate with ihe greatest force where it finds the least resistance; which will be at the opposite surfaces of the card.or paper: consequently a bur or protrusion will take place at those surfaces, and if any soft substances are contiguous, they will receive an impression, although they are out of the circuit, and of course could not be affected by a current either way. But if a series of cards or strata of paper are placed on each other, and separated by as many slips of tinfoil, the interruptions in the metallic circuit will be as numerous as these slips; and as a spark will take place at each interruption when a charge is passed through them, an expansive effect will be produced by the perfora- tion of each stratum of paper, and this expansion must necessarily indent the tinfoil contiguous to its opposite sur- faces, and consequently produce two indentations in op- posite directions. The slips of tinfoil may be considered as stepping-blocks for the electric fluid, which does not (in consequence of their extension) pass in a right line, but through the least resisting part of each interposed stratum of paper.
The truth of this explanation is evident from other phe- nomena attending the experiment ; for, allowing it to be correct, the effect of expansion may be expected to be most considerable when the slips of tinfoil are at the greatest di- stance from each other, as the spark then passes through a greater interval; and it will be found that the impressions are better defined and deeper, when several sheets of paper are interposed between each pair of tinfoil slips, than when they are only separated by a single sheet.
An additional confirmation of this fact has also occa- sionally occurred in my experiments, In varying Mr,
R4 Symmer’s
364 On Electricity.
Symmer’s arrangement, by including a single leaf of paper between two tinfoil slips in the middle of a book; it has sometimes happened that the perforation of the paper took place in a right line, and insuch cases both slips of tinfoit have been indented in one direction only, and inyariably in a direction from the positive to the negative surface.
From these facts, (and from various others, which if my leisure permitted T could state,) [feel authorised to con- clude that Mr. Symmer mistook the expansive effects of electricity for an evidence of its direction; and that Mr. E. Walker has ingeniously amplified this error by adducing in his second experiment two opposite impressions, which are produced owt of the electrical circuit, as an evidence of opposite currents supposed to take place within it.
With respect to the permanence of the effects produced by electrical influence, Mr. W. has fallen into error by confounding them with communicated electricity. If, after bringing an electrified body near an insulated conductor, on withdrawing it the insulated conductor remains per- manently electrified, it must have dost or received electricity ; and in either case it is electrified by communication and not Ly position, whether its loss or gain be the consequence of the contact of some conducting body, or the imperfection of its own insulation during the disturbance of its natural electricity ; and one of these causes must operate to produce permanent electricity in such an experiment: for neilher an insulated rod nor a gold-leaf electrometer, if properly con- structed, will be permanently electrified by approximation to an electrified body; unless they communicate by imper-
Sect insulation, or pointed terminations with surrounding unelectrified substances during such approximation. These are facts, which the constant repetition of such experiments professionally enables me to state with confidence; and they are indeed such as amongst electricians are generally admitted: but perhaps Mr. Walker has yet to learn, that a conducting body supported by dry glass, and surrounded by dry air, may be still very far from perfectly insulated.
London G f Qct, 12, 1813. ‘ de SIN GERo
XLV, dn
{ 265 Jj
XLV. An Attempt to determine the definite and simple Pro- portions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganic Sub- stances are united with each other. By Jacop Brrzz- Lius, Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy, and M.R.A. Stockholm.
(Continued from p. 182.) ~
2. Sulphureted Hydrogen as an Acid (the Hydrotheic).
Sutpuurerep hydrogen is a combination of hydrogen with sulphur corresponding to the sulphuret of lead and to the sulphuret of iron at a minimum. It has most of the cha- racters of an acid, and affords saline combinations with some bases. Hence a question arises, Whether the hy- drotheic acid contains oxygen? I shall hereafter mention the quantity of oxygen probably contained in hydrogen, which amounts only to °005 of the whole weight of the sulphureted hydrogen. It would therefore be expected that sulphur should be an oxygenized body; for a substance deriving its properties as an acid from oxygen must na- turally contain more than 4 per cent. of it.
Some years ago, I made an analysis of sulphureted hy- drogen (4fh. ii. 78 ) and employed in it the hydrotheate of the protoxide of zinc, which I found to consist of 72 parts of the protoxide, 25 of sulphureted hydrogen, and three of water. Although I did not then pay so much attention to minute accuracy as I have lately done, I am persuaded that there cannot be an error of more than J per cent. which is here of no consequence. Now according to my analysis of the protoxide of zinc, 72 parts of it contain 14°12 of oxygen; so that if sulphureted hydrogen, like every other acid, is required to contain 2, 3, or 4 times as much oxygen as the base which saturates it, the least pos< sible quantity must be 14°12 x 2=28°24, or more than the whole amount of the hydrotheic acid: and if we supposed the quantity of oxygen to be simply equal to that of the basis, this would still be something more than half the weight of the hydrotheic acid. I shall hereafter explain how far this is reconcileable with our views of the subject.
It is not absolutely necessary that this acid, so called, should contain oxygen; for its combinations with bases de- pend principally on the affinity of the sulphur, since in the hydrotheates the sulphur and the metallic body are in the same proportions as in the sulphurets. On the part of the metal some oxygen is added, and on the part of the sulpbur, as much hydrogen as would be required to convert that oxygen into water, If the metallic base attracts the oxygen
; ; more
266 On definite Proportions,
more powerfully than hydrogen does, this. quadruple com- bination of sulphur, metal, oxygen, and hydrogen may take place, and all the component parts exist in such propor- tions, that, when taken in pairs, they stand in the same degree of combination, however they may be divided. If, on the other band, the metallic body bas a weaker attrac- tion to oxygen than hydrogen has, the combination with the hydrotheic acid is-impossible; the hydrogen forms water with the oxygen, and the metal a sulphuret with the sulphur. Alkalis, alkaline earths, the protoxides of zinc and of manganese, afford saline combinations with sulphu- reted hydrogen; while most of the oxides of the older metals, for instance, the oxides of lead and un, are only reduced to sulphurets by it.
3. Does Ammonia contain Oxygen or not ?
If we grant_the affirmative, we have already determined its composition as accurately as our modes of analysis ad- mit. Since, however, many distinguished chemists assert the negative, we shall examine the probability of each opinion ; for in this case we must be satisfied with proba- bility only. .
Tf ammonia contained no oxygen, we should be obliged to consider it-as a base comparable to sulphureted hydrogen as an acid, there betag no oxygenization in either case, But whence should we derive, on this snpposition, its pro- “perty of becoming a base, or its alkalescence, since hydro- gen does not possess this property, and since nitrogen, its other component part, 1s a substance of an opposite nature ? Nitrogen stands with sn!phur, phosphorus, and arsenic, in a series of bodies which form the strongest acids, and which are attracted by the positive pole of the electric cir- cle. It has been observed indeed that sulphur, phosphorus, carbon and arsenic are sometimes deposited at: the me- gative pole, and cannot appear at the positive pole: this however only happens in the presence of water, at the ex- pense of which these bodies are oxygenized ; and in come parison with oxygen all bodies tend to the negative, pole. { call all those bodies [negative], which either alone, or jn combination with oxygen, are capable of being attracted by the positive pole; and those [positive], which when combined with oxygen cannot collect at the positive pole, and are repelled by it when they have been formed, and in, a short time either reduced, or collected at the negative, pole; for example, the metallic pies which are some- times formed at the positive wire? [Negative] bodies are in general so [negative] that they never constitute the panes
o
On definite Proportions. 267
of salts, as sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, arsenic ; or if they doin some cases afford bases, for instance, in the sul- phureted or phosphureted murijatic acid, they have infinitely jess the character of a base than water has. The bodies most decidedly [positive] have this character in such a de- gree, that even when they have compined with so much oxygen as no longer to constitute bases, for instance, the oxides which I call peroxides, they still are not [negative], and do not exhibit any characters of an acid. ‘This is the case with lead, manganese, cerium, and some other sub- stances ; their peroxides contain oxygen so little saturated, that it is [negative] in comparison with almost every com- bustible body, although the whole peroxide can never be [negative] with respect to any other oxidated body, [Our author’s language has here been translated into one which has been more generally adopted, and which bad on a former occasion heen substituted for it by Professor Gil- bert, in pursuance of Sir H. Davy’s theory, without any objection from Professor Berzelius; he is indeed still dis- pesed to call those substances positive which are collected at the positive wire, but does not insist on the absolute ne- cessity of employing this language. ]
Now neither hydrogen nor nitrogen is so highly [positive] in its electrical power as ammonia itself ; it is therefore in- conceivable whence this property should be derived, unless, like the fixed alkalis, ammonia is an oxidated meiallic body. Sulphureted hydrogen derives its acid properties from the [negative] nature of sulphur, the attraction of which for most bases it overpowers, because the oxygen in the base, which is still in some degree [negative], enters”into a sort of neutral state with the hydrogen of the sulphureted hy- drogen, which we may compare with that of the cake of resiv and the metallic disc or cover of the electrophorus. We see therefore in the constituent parts of sulphureted hydrogen a cause why it possesses the character of an acid, that is, of a [negative] body.
Since ammonia contains, according to the analysis of Gay-Lussac, 18:475 per cent, of hydrogen, it might be
resumed that in the salts of ammonia as much acid should found, as contained either exactly oxygen enough to form water with this quantity of hydrogen, or some simple multiple of that quantity. ‘This however is not universally the case; for we shall find that ammonia is combined in this proportion with thgse acids only which contain three times as much oxygen as the base that saturates them, Of those acids which contain twice or four times as much
oxygen
268 On definite Proporiions. oxygen as the base by which they are saturated, the quan=
tity neutralized by ammonia contains either 3 or 14 as
much oxygen as would be necessary in order to form wa- ter with the hydrogen of the ammonia: and these are mule tiples of which we have no other examples. In the hyper- exymuriate of ammonia, which I shall mention hereafter, the ammonia exists in such a proportion, that the acid contains 2¢ times as much oxygen as would be necessary for forming water with hydrogen. On the other hand, we shall find that if ammonia be considered as a metallic oxide, constituted in the mannes already calculated, it will appear to be subject precisely to the same laws as the other alkahs, earths, and metallic oxides.
Ammonia and sulphureted hydrogen are very differently affected by the electrical column, Although both are de- composed by the interposition of water, which is itself de- composed at the same time, yet the ammonia is also col- lected as a [positive] undecomposed substance at the nega- tive pole, while the sulphureted hydrogen is never collected as a [negative] substance atthe positive pole. Besides, ammonia, onder certain circumstances, like the other alkalis, produces a metallic body at the negative pole, and seems to indicate 2 case of reduction, which does not happen to the sul- phoreted hydrogen. The amalgamation of ammonia de- snonstrates the deposition of a [positive] substance, to com- pensate for which a corresponding quantity of a [negative] substance must be collected at the positive pole. The french chemists explain this by supposing that the whole undecomposed alkali unites with the hydrogen of the de- composed partion, and that the metallic body is produced by this unions, According to this explanation, it is only the hydrogen that passes to the negative pole in compen- sation for the nitrogen disengaged at the positive pole, and that fixes a portion of the ammonia, so as to form a metal- Hie substance with it. Such a fact would be very important in determining: the intimate nature of metals in general: but can tt be supposed that the undecomposed ammonia, to which in this view of the subject there is no corresponding
deposition at the positive pole, and which therefore only:
obeys the chemical attraction of the hydrogen, an attrac- tion, by the way_not otherwise discoverable ;—that this portion of ammonia should act only a chemical part in the amalgamation, not immediately depending on the operation of electricity? I can scarcely admit the plausibility of such a statement. However the phenomenon may be
explained, the explanation must incontroyertibly hold good.
for
7
ne
On definite Proportions. s69
For all other appearances of amalgamation produced by the electrical column under similar circumstances. To dispute Tespectigg experiments with ammonium or its amalgam is a loss of labour; for it is scarcely possible tu devise so de- cisive an experiment as not to be explicable on either by- pothesis. But whatever is demonstrable respecting the fixed alkalis, and the properties which they have in corm- mon with ammonia, may also be considered as demon= strated of ammonia. The existence of oxygen in the fixed alkalis being therefore so indubitably well established, it appears that perhaps there is more than simple probability in the opinion that ammonia is an oxidated substance.
When ammoniacal gas is decomposed by electrical shocks, we obtain, accarding to the experiments of MM. Henry and Berthollet the younger, nitrogen and hydrogen, without a trace of oxygen: hence it follows that the oxygen of am- monia must be contained in these two gases. One of these substances, without doubt the nitrogen, must therefore be in a higher degree of oxidation than the other: hence the oxygen of the nitrogen must hea multiple by 14, 2,3.... of the oxygen of the ammonia: and the true multiplier seems to be 14.. The considerations on the different de- grees of oxidation of sulphur, which I have already ad- vanced, have led me to the conjecture, that every apparent multiplication by 14 is in reality a multiplication by 6 or 12 with regard to some lower degree, which, if it cannot exist independently, may at least be found in a combina- tion with other substances. If therefore we consider hy- drogen as being in this degree, it must contain either 1 or +z as much oxygen as nitrogen does; and from the pro= portion of the component parts of ammonia, it may easily be calculated, that hydrogen can only contain 7g as mucha oxygen for every 100 parts of ammonium as nitrogen does. Now if in ammonia 100 parts of ammonium are combined with 88°2768 of oxygen, in nitrogen they must be com- bined with half as much more, or 132°4152, and in hydro= gen with one twelfih of this quantity, or 11°0346. Hence we should have for Hydrogen
Ammonium 90*062 100‘0000
Oxygen.... 9°938 11°0346 And for Nitrogen
Ammonium 43°027 10070000
Oxygen... 56°973 1324152
Mr. Gay-Lussac attributes to ammonia 18°475 parts of hydrogen and 81°525 of nitrogen: according to what we have just calculated, $1°525 of nitrogen would contain 46°43 of oxygen, and 18°475 of hydrogen 1°8 of oxygen, which
together
270 On definite Proportions.
together would give 48:23 of oxygen in 100 parts of airi- monia, that is, only 1°34 per cent. more than we have al+ ready determined by calculation. Consequently either the proportion of oxygen in all these substances has been made a little too great, or, as I have reason to believe from other computations, the quantity of hydrogen in ammonia a little too small; or perhaps errors in both these respects are combined. [According to Sir H. Davy’s numbers, 106 parts of ammonia contain 26 = &25 of nitrogen, giving 46:29 of oxygen, and for the whole 48°12, which is still too much by 1:23 per cent. Tr.]
If nitrogen is an oxide capable of higher degrees of oxi= dation, the quantity of oxygen in each must be an integral multiple of the quantity in nitrogen. Now Mr. Lay-Lussae has shown, in bis excellent essay on the combinations of gaseous bodies, that the nitrous oxide consists of 63°72 parts of nitrogen and 36°28 of oxygen. In these 63°72 parts of nitrogen, according to the preceding calculation, we find 36:2898 of oxygen’ hence it follows that the ni- trous oxide contains twice as much oxygen, for a given portion of ammonium, as nitrogen does. Now since in the remaining degrees of oxidation of the nitrogen the quantities of oxygen, according to the same investigations, are multiples by 2, 3, and4, of the quantity which converts 106 parts of nitrogen into nitric oxide, it is evident that, if nitrogen contains a multiple by 12 of the lowest degree of oxidation of ammonium, these higher degrees must af- ford multiples by 24, 36, 48, and 60. Water, which, if all this is correct, must be ammonium oxidated in a still higher degree, must ‘tania in the same series, and exhibit another multiple composed of 12 as a factor, that is, a multiple by 72. Hence we have the following multiples of 11‘0346 for the degrees of oxidation of ammonium, 100 parts af- fording, with
11°0346 x 1 of Oxygen Hydrogen x4 = 44:1384 —Protoxide of ammonium, sup- posed to be Davy’s “ olive- coloured matter” x8 = 882768 Ammonia x 12=132°4152 Nitrogen x 24=264'8304 Nitrous oxide, or protoxide of nitrogen . x 36=397°2456 Nitric oxide, or oxide of ni- trogen *48=529°6608 Nitrous acid x 60=662'0760 Nitric acid x72=794'4912 Water ‘ i t
On definite Proportions. 274
Tt is remarkable that all the intervals from nitrogen te water proceed in twelves. According to this computation, water consists of 12°413 parts of hydrogen and 87°587 of oxygen, which differs but little from one of my experi- ments in which the proportions. were 12°23 and 87°77.
These determinations cannot be precisely accurate, since: they depend on experiments. which are not absolutely cor- rect. It appears however that the error cannot be very ma- terially great, from the coincidence between the composition of nitrogen as deduced from calculation, and from. the analysis of the nitrous oxide. .1f we might venture'to.as- sume, that the weights of the gases in the experiments of the celebrated French chemists were perfectly accurate, we might easily correct the proportions of the ammonia ac- cording to those experiments: but this cannot yet be done with any certainty. Mr. Gay-Lussac’s mode of. weighing the gases, and determining their composition. from. the volumes concerned, is probably the most accurate; and when we have obtained some perfectly correct analyses in this manner, the rest may be completed by calculation. It is therefore to be hoped, that those chemists who have begun theseexperiments will shortly repeat them, and carry them to the highest degree of perfection of which they are susceptible.
We have still a very comprehensive question left to be answered: Why does hydrogen, when combined with oxy- gen, always afford water, and nitrogen always nitric acid or nitrous oxide? Or, conversely: Why do we obtain, by the subtraction of oxygen, always hydrogen from water, and nitrogen from nitric acid or nitre, if both these substance$ are truly oxides of the same hase?
In this question there is apparently involved a weighty objection against the existence of oxygen in hydrogen. If analogy should here mislead me in the outline of my argu- ments, and I should endeavour to explain a fact which does not exist in nature, I may in this case at least be excused for having erred. I shall therefore venture to enter upon the subject.
I have observed that ammonia, considered as an oxidated substance, was not likely to contain a compound bases which, if it existed, must consist of hydrogen and the base of nitrogen. For when ammonia is decomposed by po- tassium, it condenses a part of the hydrogen with the ni- trogen. If the base of ammonia were a compound, it ought to set all the hydrogen at liberty, or to condense the whole of it with the base of nitrogen, It cannot therefore be
believed,
272 _ On definite Proportions.
believed, that ammonia is an oxide, without admitting that hydrogen is the same base in a lower degree of oxidation. Now hydrogen, which in this view of the subject we con- sider as an oxidated substance, has all the properties of a simple one; it has the same comparative capacity for satu- ration with oxygen and sulphur as the metals have, and in all triple combinations of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, we have reason to consider the hydrogen as a simple sub- stance. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the whole may be pretty easily explained.
In describing the combustion of copper in the vapour of sulphur, I have expressed an opinion, that the appearance of fire in combustion, and the evolution of heat in chemical combinations in general, must be owing to precisely the same internal cause as the appearance of fire and the ex- trication of heat between the conductors of a powerful electrical column. The knowledge that we already possess of electricity, as a chemical agent, allows us no longer to think of any process as chemical, without being at the same time electrical; and we are indebted to Davy’s important investigations for the discovery, that two bodies, which exhibit an affinity for each other, appear to possess, whenever they come into contact, that is, whenever they are about to unite, electricities of an opposite nature, and this the more distinctly, as their mutual affinity is greater. If we com- pare this with our experience relating to electrochemical decompositions in the column, we find the most conyin- cing proofs, that every phenomenon of combination or se- paration must be electrochemical. What electricity itself
1s, how it is attached to different substances, and deter-
mines their chemical properties, we are wholly ignorant; and we are more likely to be misled than enlightened by speculations on this subject, advanced by persons who pronounce their opinions with great confidence, yet with- out possessing sufficient experience to enable them to judge on rational grounds.
Experience has informed us, that a variety of substances are collected in the electrical circuit at the same pole with oxygen, and other substances at the same pole with hy- drogen. The latter we name [positively] electrical, the former [negatively.] We have seen that most of the me- tals belong to the first of these classes, but sulphur, phos phorus, and some other substances, to the Jast. If now we apply this remark to ammonia, we find that it affords, by the operation of the electrical discharge, nitrogen on the
positive and hydrogen on the negative side. Nitrogen therefore
On definite Proportions. 273
therefore is a [negatively] and hydrogen a [positively] elec- trical substance. These two bodies distinguish themselves from all others by retaining their electricities so powerfully that they cannot be discharged; so that the gases once formed cannot unite again to constitute ammonia. The nitrogen, when it has once assumed that character, always preserves the same aversion to all combinations with [po- sitive] substances, and can only be united to oxygen.
Since the same electrical discharge resolves ammonia into nitrogen and hydrogen, and water into oxygen and hydrogen, the hydrogen in both cases must require the same quantity of negative electricity in the conductor on the one side, and consequently the same quantity of positive electricity at the opposite pole; so that §1°525 parts of nitrogen must re- quire the same expense of electrical power for its formation as would form water from oxygen with 18-475 of hydrogen, or would form a corresponding portion of oxygen from water. Hence it may not be impossible, at some future time, to obtain a numcrical expression of the properties of bodies with respect to chemical electricity, The quantity of electricity which saturates in nitrogen the opposite elec- tricity of its basis, and besides renders the nitrogen [nega- tive], is to that which is saturated in the oxygen during the formation of water, in the inverse proportion of the quan- tities of nitrogen and oxygen which saturate the same quantity of hydrogen, that is, as 3 to 2, or lL tol. The quantity of electricity appears therefore to be subject-to the same laws as the quantity of ponderable substances in chemical combinations, as might indeed he concluded @ priori. The great quantity of [negative] electricity in ni- trogen is kept in a state of saturation by the [positive] elec- tricity of the base; and nitrogen can therefore only be de- composed by a substance much more strongly [positive] than ammonium.
I must here observe, that there is a very material difference between the capacity of saturation of a substance, and its power of neutralizing more or less the electrical condition of another body, with which it combines. This power agrees with the force of affinity, the degree of which may
possibly be determined by it, while the capacity of satura- tion appears, according to the important views and experi- ments of Dalton and Gay-Lussac, to depend on mechanical causes, connected with the volume only. Potassium, for example, saturates but little oxygen, in comparison with hydrogen and nitrogen; but it overcomes the [negative] nature of the oxygen so completely, that the potass which Vol, 42. No, 186. Oct. 1813. S ext
274 On definite Proportions.
it forms with it is a [positiye] substance. In water neither of the electrical powers seems to prevail, since it holds an intermediate place between acids and alkalis. In the nitric acid, on the other hand, the oxygen, or at Jeast a great part of it, retains all its [negative] powers, and consumes com- bustible bodies with the same appearances as oxygen: hence the nitrogen has so slight an affinity for this portion of oxygen, that all other combustible bodies take it away. When ammonia is resolved by electrical shocks into hy- drogen and nitrogen, the substances, which, according to these views, are its true component parts, are separated in such a proportion, that exactly 2 parts of ammonium form Nitrogen with 2% or *96 of the whole oxygen, and 1 part of ammonium with {,, or ‘04 of the oxygen, makes hy- drogen. The ‘96 of oxygen must take with it a corre- sponding quantity of [positive] electrical power, which it had saturated in ammonia, so that only !; is left for the ammonium in hydrogen. Hence the ammonium in hy- drogen retains only ,8, or 4 as much [positive] electricity as originally belonged to it. When ‘ hydrogen gas 1s formed from ammonium,” it receives a new addition of [positive] electricity, which however is not sufficient to give it a clear and distinct charaeter as a base. It appears therefore that hydrogen and nitrogen cannot be produced in this experiment, without neutralizing corresponding portions of electricity, the former [negative], the latter [po- sitive]. And since we must no longer disregard the opera- tion of electricity in every chemical phenomenon, it is clear that the same cause, which produces chemical separations or combinatiéns in the column, must also co-operate in similar appearances in other cases, and that nitrogen and hydrogen can never be formed without neutralising, or fixing their appropriate electricities. If now water is de- composed by combustible bodies, these bodies afford a part of their [positive] electricity to the hydrogen which is formed, and with another part they more completely satu- rate the [negative] qualities of the oxygen which had pre- viously been contained in the water; and since here [posi- tive] electricity only is employed, hydrogen, only can be generated. And, in these operations, the electricities, being subject to the same laws with ponderable substances, re- specting the proportions in which they combine, are never set at liberty, so that their chemical effects have escaped the observation of natural philosophers of former times. What I have already adduced sufficiently shows, that no substance can form nitrogen from water. The nitric ghey an
On definite Proportions. « 275
and the oxides of nitrogen, which contain oxygen so little saturated, cannot be reduced to hydrogen in common cases, because they give out so much oxygen, in the further sa- turation of which the [positive] electricity of the inflam- mable substances must in great measure be employed. Hence the nitric acid can only be restored to the state of nitrogen; but it may perhaps hereafter be found possible to reduce this substance both to hydrogen and to ammonium, by means of substances more powerfully [positive] than ammonium. In Davy’s later experiments, the electrical discharge seems to have produced the latter of these effects by the assistance of quicksilver, and the operation of potas- sium on ammoniacal gas the former.
Since hydrogen always requires the same quantity of [positive] electricity for forming it out of the component parts of ammonia, whether it appears as hydrogen gas, or forms water with oxygen; and since this [positive] elec- tricity cannot be obtained without the evolution of a cor- responding quantity of {negative] electricity, it follows that ammonia must always afford hydrogen and nitrogen in the same proportions, whether it be decomposed by com- mon electricity, or by means of oxidation. On the other hand, in decompositions by means of potassium or in the circuit of the column, when ammonia is reduced in con- tact with quicksilver, the appearances of the decomposition are of a very different nature ; and the products, in com- parison with the quantity of ammoniacal gas employed, are dissimilar in quantity and kind. Now since hydrogen and nitrogen require for their existence a different electrical modification from that which originally belonged to their radical, they must be considered in he analyses and ex-
eriments as simple bodies, until we shall have learned to express their electricities with safety by means of appro- priate numbers.
Is it not however probable, according to these views, that sulphur may be a [negatively] electrical oxide of an unknown metallic base, precisely as nitrogen is an oxide of ammonium? I cannot undertake to answer this ques- tion in the negative. We have seen that sulphur, to judge from sulphureted hydrogen, may contain about half its weight of oxygen, and this proportion of oxygen agrees with the other degrees of oxygenation of sulphur, which may all be multiples of it. This must also be possible with re- spect to carbon, phosphorus, and arsenic. But that pure carbon, for instance, in plumbago, and metallic arsenic, which haye all the characters of the simple or supposed
; 52 simple
276 Researches into the Anatomy of Plants.
simple metals, should also be oxides, can scarcely be cone jectured with the same degree of probability, and is indeed contrary to our present views of their nature.
I have ventured into a wide field of hypothetical specu< Jation, in which it is very difficult to find the truth, and I must beg the reader to examine my suggestions with in- dulgence. Ihave thought it necessary to do this, hecause I have been sorry to see that so distinguished a chemist as Mr. Davy, who has communicated to the learned world, with exemplary modesty, the greatest and most important discoveries that haye ever enriched the science, has still found opponents who seem often to be more desirous of proving that he is in the wrong, than of investigating the real truth of the points to be discussed.
[To be continued.]
KLVI. Researches into the Anatomy of Plants. By H. F. Link, of Breslau, formerly of Rostock*.
Tue anatomy of plants is a new science, known only since the microscope came to be used in the investigations of natural history. Itis by the use of this instrument alone that we can observe the interior organs of plants; for the immense trees which grow in our forests only extract their nourishment by the organs which are exposed to view, It might have been imagined that the pives and firs, those giants of the vegetable kingdom in the countries of the north, would have exhibited larger vessels ; but, on the con- trary, the interior parts of these trees are still smallerthan in the smallest grasse# The vessels of the palm-tree do not exceed in size those which we see in the amaranth. The insects which feed upon the leaves of the oak have traches larger than the stalk which bears them, and which feeds a great number of them. Hence there are as many different opinions as there are authors who have wriiten upon this subject.
Malpighi and Grew were the first naturalists who made use of microscopes to examine the interior of vegetables, and to these accurate observers the anatomy of plants owes its origin. A century almost elapsed without more than one important fact being added to the discoveries of these great men. In 1733, Father Sarrabat found that water coloured by the berries of the phytolacca decandra merely penetrated into the wood of plants, and left the bark and
* Annales du Museym d'Histoire Naturelle, tome xix. p. 307.
pith
Researches into the Anatomy of Plants. 2717
pith of plants untouched. The celebrated Bonnet repeated these éxperiments with success; and finally Reichel, pro- fessor at Leipsic, observed in 1758*, that the trachece alone assumed the colour, and that it neither touched the fibres nor the cellular texture. The above were the most important discussions on the anatomy of plants in the eighteenth century.
Towards the end of that century, Hedwig, celebrated by his work upon Mosses, announced a discovery which has not been confirmed by any subsequent observer. He main- tained that the trachez are composed of two vessels, one straight, filled with air, the other twisted around the former, filled with sap, and destined to draw up the nutritive sap from plants.
Two naturalists, the one French, the other German, have renewed and systematized the anatomy of plants, towards the commencement of the nineteenth century. Messrs. Mirbel and Sprengel published the first works, for many years, which contained a great number of real discoveries, and which elucidated several points of vegetable organiza- tion. But there were still so many difficulties to resolve, that the Royal Society of Gottingen proposed a prize for 1805, on the subject of the vessels of plants. This prize was divided between M. Rudolphi and myself, and the ac- cepit granted to M. Treviranus. From this time the Eluci- dation of the Theory of vegetable Organization, by M. Mir- bel, and the Essays on the Organization of Plants, by M. Albert du Petit Thouars, have increased our stock of knowledge upon this subject. All these authors, far from being agreed, differ almost always as toihe most essential facts of vegetable organization. In this embarrassment there is scarcely an observation which may not be useful in some respect, and it is this which led me to present these additional inquiries to the judgement of enlightened na- turalists.
I shall first speak of the cellular texture, because it exists in almost all plants, and because it constitutes the greater part of them.
I. Cellular Texture.
The cellular texture consists of small membranous vee sicles, the figure of which varies much. Nothing fibrous is visible in it, and it is with good reason that M. Mirbel and M. Sprengel have rejected the common opinion, which makes all be developed from the fibres, and which finds
* Vide Diss, de Vasis Plant, spiralitus, Lips. 4, : $3 them
278 Researches into the Anatomy of Plants.
them everywhere. An unprejudiced person will agree witht both these naturalists, that the membrane is the primordia substance of vegetables, and J may add of all organized bodies.
Those vesicles which compose the celhular texture are frequently separated from each other, sometimes combined completely and frequently combined in part. I have found them entirely separated from each other in several parts, particularly in the fruits ; and the berries of the ligustrwm, and of the lantana aculeata, furnish proofs of this. In the midst of the peduncles, of the receptacula, and some other hollow parts, we frequently see isolated cellules. In order to ex- amine the cellular texture under this respect, we must bake it, because then the cellules are detached from each other. Vid. Pl. I. f. 1. [Plate IV. of the present volume] the round cellules of a French bean taken from thé interior of the shell: fig. 2, the oblong cellules taken from the exterior. I have seen precisely the same thing in boiled potatoes, the roots of parsley, &c.
We cannot separate the cellules, by this or any other means, in the epidermis of plants. There they are com- pletely combined: the cellules which are immediately uti- der the epidermis are equally incapable of separation. We observe no interval between the cellules of this genus, and there exists therefore a continuous cellular texture without any interruption.
Lastly, there are cellules which are not entirely com- bined. The sides, adhering to each other at the middle, separate towards the edges, and leave a small interval like a vessel. This structure is generally observed in all the fatty plants, in the pith, and in general in all the woody parts. Hedwig has remarked these small intervals, and calls them vasa revehentia. M. Sprengel maintains tbat he is mis- taken, that he merely saw the inferior edge of the partition through the transparent membranes beside the upper edge, and that this must have presented the appearance of an in- terval or a vessel. He is probably correct: nothing could more easily deceive an observer. But on looking at the cellular texture obliquely, we can distinguish perfectly well the upper edge of the partition from the lower edge, and we see at the same time the small interval generally filled with an obscure substance not very fluid. Pl. I. fig. 3, [Pl. IV. of the present volume] represents cellules taken from the stalk of the cacalia ficoides. M. Treviranus calls these intervals meatus intercellulares. They are found solely between the edges of the partitions: the remainder of the
latter present only a simple membrane. 5 I find
Researches into the Anatomy of Plants. 279
I\find other intervals also between the cellules, which may be called intercellulary canals (ductus intercellulares). They descend in a perpendicular direction; they are not visibly in communication with the intervals which I have described, and they contain a peculiar juice, which is less fluid than the sap, and which issues sometimes in the form of small round corpuscles, and sometimes in the form of crystals. These canals are much larger than the meatus intercellulares. Wide in PI. I. fig. 4. letter a, these inter- vals in a longitudinal section of the same stalk. They exist in many plants, particularly if the cellular texture is a little serrated ; and we may class them among the reservoirs of the sap, which I shall presently mention.
In the ferns and the mosses, the intervals are so great, and so well united together, that they perfectly resemble vessels, They form a network, of which the meshes are cellules, It is highly probable that Hedwig, who laboured hard at the theory of the mosses, was so deceived by this net-work, as to form a separate kind of vessels which he called vasa revehentia. 1 have represented a similar net- work taken from the scales (strige) of the scolopendrium vulgare, Pl. I. fig. 6. These scales are remarkable, because the intervals are of a colour different from that of the cel- lules, and they furnish an indubitable proof of the existence of the intervals.
M. Mirbel compares the cellular texture to the froth of common soap. This comparison is very correct, and I do not know a better. But the author rejects entirely the double partitions, which does not agree with this compari- son; for the froth of soap is composed of bubbles of air, separated originally from each other, so that each bubble is formed as it were of a distinct membrane, and it is only by meeting that these partitions are confounded. Frequently, the isolated bubbles rise to the surface of the froth, as is the case with cellules isolated in the cavities of the peduncle, the,receptacle of the flowers, and of the fruit. I am even of opinion that the cellules have had the same origin with the bubbles alluded to; that a gas has been developed in a viscous fluid, and has reduced it into small vesicles, which have approached each other. As the vesicles of the cellular texture have a more regular arrangement than the soap b ubbles,a peculiar attraction, necessary to the increase of the vegetable, must have forced them into this arrangement.
According to M. Sprengel, the cellular texture derives its origin from small grains which we find in the cellules a
S4 the
280 Researches into the Anatomy of Plants.
the seed, and of several other parts. I have proved that these small bodies are generally grains of starch, and some- times of mucilage; that we may dissolve them in hot water, and sometimes in cold water; while, on the contrary, the membrane resists all these solvents. It is clear therefore that these small grains are not small cellules. But it is very possible that they may be dissolved in the sap, and then form this viscous fluid, which gives birth to new cellules.
The cellule seems to be an organ completely closed, so that the sap, which undoubtedly passes by the cellular texture, only penetrates it by imperceptible pores. There are cases in which we distinctly see the juice pass by pores of this kind. If we press, however gently, the calyx of the lettuce, there issues a small drop of a milky liquor by the epidermis, where we never see any pores with the best microscopes. M. Mirbel, however, found pores surrounded by a small ring in the partitions of the cellules. As all the observations of this excellent naturalist are so precise, I hesitate on this subject in forming my own opinion. I certainly saw small points raised on the membrane ; I saw in the midst of these points a clear and transparent spot 5 and frequently I thought I had met with a true pore: but still I had my difficulties. These small points were some- times so heaped upon each other, that it occurred to me they must be small grains fixed on the membrane, and trans- parent in the middle. This is my opinion: it is for others to decide.
There are several varieties of cellular texture, which may be distinguished in the following manner:
1. Alveolary Texture. It consists. of short cylindrical or prismatic cellules: it is very common, particularly in the pith, external bark, &c. See Pl. T. fig. 3, 4, 5.
2. Elongated Texture. It differs from the foregoing: the cellules are longer and narrower. We find them in the stamina, the pistils, and in some other elongated parts. See Pl. I. fig. 7. the elongated cellules are here taken from the pistil of the andirrhinum majus.
3. Globular Texture. \t is composed of spherical or almost spherical cellules: it fills the interior of the leaves, of the peduncles, of the receptacle, &c. See Pl. I. fig. 8. a is a section transverse and perpendicular to the surfaces of a leaf of the dantana aculeata.
4. Vesicular Texture. 11 is composed like the foregoing of spherical cellules ; but these cellules are more sain 8
rom
Researches into the Anatomy of Plants. 281
from each other, and frequently dispersed. This texture is common in mushrooms; and several kinds of agarict, pexize, and phallus, are entirely made up of vesicles.
5. Irregular Texture. The sides do not form the same angle with the base: sometimes this angle is a straight an- gle, sometimes acute, sometimes obtuse. We find this texture in the sheaths of the leaves, in the bractez, the calyces, &c, particularly where one part is attached to the other. See in Pl. I. fig. 9, this texture taken from a bractea of the scirpus maritimus.
6. Hazel-tree Texture. ‘The cellules are not spherical, cylindrical, or prismatic: they have rather an oval or oblong form. This texture is common in the internal bark of the hazel-tree, and particularly between the fibrous vessels be- side the trachese. PI. I. fig. 10. represents this texture in the inner bark of a root of the malva crispa.
These six varieties of the cellular texture admit of several shades, and we frequently find intermediate forms which appear to be two varieties at once. We might add a se- venth variety, the compact texture, which 13 found in some mushrooms, lichens, &c.: but this texture is not clearly developed, or rather it is so fine that its structure cannot be distinguished.
The arrangement of the cellules is generally alternate, such as we see in Pl. I. fig. 5, and these rows follow the length of the parts in which we find them. Sometimes these rows are laid transversely ; 1 found this arrangement in the leaves, when we cut them in a direction perpendi- cular to the surfaces; which is very difficult, particularly if the leaves are thin. But in the latter this arrangement is more distinct than in the thick leaves, where it is ge~ nerally wanting. See Pl. I. fig. 8. l. We find it already in the small leaf which is just coming out, These trans- verse rows are seen in the middle of the wood, (PI. I. fiz. 16. ¢.) [Plate V. of the present volume] as we shall presently see, aud at the surface of the roots, particularly if they are in considerable size. I have represented this arrangement as we see it at the surface of the thick roots of the malva crispa, Pl. I. fig. 11. We do not find it in the small roots, and I am certain that it is formed by the in- crement of the root, which extends the bark, and draws aside the meshes of the net-work of the cellules. Take a piece of common thread net, for instance, and draw it at both ends; you will see the meshes arrange themselyes in horizontal rows in a way similar to that which we have seen.
The cellule increases with the whole plant. It is
astonishing
‘
282 On a Method of Freezing at a Distance.
astonishing that a cellule surrounded with wood should extend, notwithstanding the obstacle thus presented to it. Every organized body is developed, and increases by”a very powerful force, and the plant in developing itself breaks a very strong thread tied firmly round it.
Every cellule is a separate organ, destined to preserve and prepare the sap, to furnish it to other parts. The super- fluity penetrates into the meatus intercellulares, and resem- bles animal fat a little. The green matter which colours the plant is always in the cellules. It resists the action of water, but it is dissolved in alcohol: this solution is not precipitated by water like that of the resins. All the co- Jouring matter of the leaves, the flowers, and the fruits, is contained in the cellules, as well as the acid, sweet, astrin- gent or saline juices, &c. Finally, we therein find the starch, which forms small grains, and the mucilage, which sometimes forms small grains, sometimes small crystals, and occasionally it is fluid. Chemical analysis has dis- covered to me some very remarkable varieties between the mucilages of plants, which I shall mention in another
place. [To be. continued. ]}
XLVII. On a Method of Freezing at a Distance. By Witiiam Hype Wo ttaston, M.D. See. R.S.*
Tuar a fluid, from which a portion is evaporated, be- comes colder in consequence of the heat absorbed by that part which assumes the gaseous state; that fluids rise in the state of vapour at a lower temperature when the pressure of the atmosphere is removed, and consequently may be cooled to a lower degree by evaporation im vaeuo than in the open air, are facts too well known to need confirmation before the Members of this Society by any new experiments,
Nevertheless, a new mode of applying the most esta- blished principles may-deserve to be recorded, if it assist the illustration of them, and be instructive from the no- velty of the view in which it exhibits a certain class of phenomena; although no immediate use be at present proposed, to which it can be applied with advantage.
If an attempt were made to freeze water by evaporation, without other means than the vacuum of an air-pump, the pump must be of the best construction; and though the
* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, part i. quantity
On a Method of Freexing at a Distance. 293
quantity of water be small, the receiver must be of large di- mensions ; otherwise its capacity would set too confined a limit to the quantity of vapour that will rise, and conse- quently to the degree of cold produced.
Supposing the commonly received estimates to be cor- rect, as to the quantities of heat, that become latent in the conversion of ice into water, and of water into steam, being 140° and 960° respectively, we should find the following statement to be not far from the truth.
If 32 grains of water were taken at the temperature of 62°, and if one grain of this were converted into vapour by absorbing 960°, then the whole quantity would lose
9 o > =: 30°, and thus be reduced to the temperature of 32°.
If from the 31 grains, which still remain in the state of water, four grains more were converted into vapour by ab- sorbing 960°; then the remaining 27 grains must have lost gt of 960°=142°, which is rather more than sufficient to convert the whole into ice. In an experiment conducted upon a small scale, the proportional quantity evaporated did not much differ from this ¢stimate.
If it be also true, that water in assuming the gaseous state, even at a low temperature, expands to 1800 times its former bulk ; then, in attempting to freeze the small quan- tity of water above mentioned, it would be requisite to have adry vacuum with the capacity of 5x 1800, or equal to that of 9000 grains of water.
As a means of avoiding the necessity of so large a va- euum, Mr. Leslie had recourse to the ingenious expedient of employing an extensive surface of sulphuric acid, for the purpose of absorbing the vapour generated in the course of the experiment, and by that means contrived to freeze much larger quantities of water than could otherwise haye been done, and by a far less Jaborious process.
But even in this method the labour is not inconsiderable, and the apparatus, though admirably adapted to the purpose for which it is designed, is large and costly. I have there- fore thought the little instrament | am about to describe may possess some interest, as affording a readier and more simple mode of exhibiting so amusing and instructive an experiment.
Let a ylass tube be taken, having its internal diameter about + of an inch, with a ball at each extremity of about ene inch diameter; Plate IV. and let the tube be bent to a right angle at the distance of half an inch from jour
all.
84 Climate and Diversions in
ball. One of these balls should contain a little* watery and the remaining cavity should be as perfect a vacuum ag can readily be obtained, The mode of effecting this is well known to those who are accustomed to blow glass. One of the balls is made to terminate in a capillary tube; and when water admitted into the other has been boiled over a Jamp for a considerable time, till all the air is expelled, the capillary extremity, through which the steam is still issuing with violence, is held in the flame of the lamp tll the force of the vapour is so far reduced, that the heat of the flame has power to seal it hermetically.
When an instrument of this description has been suc- cessfully exhausted, if the ball that is empty be immersed in a freezing mixture of salt and snow, the water in the other ball, though at the distance of two or three feet, will be frozen solid in the course of a very few minutes. The vapour contained in the empty ball is condensed by the common operation of cold, and the vacuum produced by this condensation gives opportunity for a fresh quantity to arise from the opposite ball, with proportional reduction of its temperature. Y ; £4
According to a theory that does not admit of positive cold, we should represent the heat of the warmer ball to be the agent in this experiment, generating steam as long as there remains any excess of heat to be conveyed. But if we would express the cause of its abstraction, we must say that the cold mixture is the agent, and may observe, in this instance, that its power of freezing is transferred to a di- stance, by what may be called the negative operation of steam.
The instrument, by which this is effected, may aptly be called a Cryophorus, which correctly expresses its office of frost-bearer.
XLVIII. Climate and Diversions in the Northern Paris of British India. Extracted from a Leiter from an Officer an the Army f.
ee
W: fone of His Majesty’s regiments of infantry] ar- rived at Meerut in the middle of November. You can have no conception how cold the weather is at this place. This is the cold season; and I can assure you it Is piercingly se.
* If the ball be more than half full, it will be liable to burst by the ex- pansion of water in freezing. + Communicated by Dr. W. Thomson, Kensington,
A few
the Northern Parts of British India. 285
A few days ayo the ice was half an inch thick: it is now more. The natives coming from Bengal cannot kee themselves warm. Cold unhinges them completely. We have a good deal of hunting and shooting, which warms us. We now and then enjoy tiger shooting. Three im- mense animals have already been destroyed in the course of as many wecks. I inclose four hairs of a tiger’s whiskers. ] never till Jately had an opportunity of ascertaining the truth of the porcupines shooting their prickles or quills. Being one moon-light night with a party in search of por- cupines with dogs, we had not been long out ere we de- seried a hole inhabited by these quadrupeds. A dog was immediately put to it. The animal had not gone in many -paces, when he howled and retreated with several quills in his body. One in particular was driven an inch into his right leg. The porcupine on the approach of the dog drew itself into the shape of a ball like a hedge-hog, and eesee forward with all its strength threw its quills into the og*.
“ Jt bas certainly been generally found much more difficult to guard against the sensation of great cold, than of great heat. It is singular, but nevertheless true, that in the hot season here, though the winds be scorchingly hot, the bungalows may be made even too cool, by tallies, to sit in. These tallies are made of kus, which is a hight brown root, dug out of the earth, about a foot and a half long and a foot broad. This is split, and put into a frame made of bamboos, so as to fit the doors, and constantly watered. The wind driving furiously against these tallies, produces a most refreshing cool breeze. Jooaga is another root of which tallies are made. It is of a lively-coloured green. When made into tallies, and watered, it diffuses a pleasing scent through the bungalow, besides being a relief to the eye; which all must own to be gratifying, when they are
* There are several species of the porcupine, This was no doubt the Hystrix Indica; the body of which is about two feet long, and in height abouf two feet and a half. It is covered with spinz or prickles, some of them nine or ten inches long, and about a quarter of an inch thick; which the animal can erect or let down at pleasure. When irritated he beats the ground with his hinder feet, shakes his tail, and rattles his quills. All au- thors before Count Buffon assert that the porcupine, when irritated, darts his quills to a considerable distance against the enemy, and that he will thus kill very large animals. This the Count thinks a mistake, as he had re-
eatedly irritated him without producing any other effect than that of some oose quills being shaken off. But this letter seems decisive against the Count, and in favour of the old naturalists.. Buffon’s experiments were made on the Jtalian porcupine, with smaller but shorter bristles than the
Jadian porcupine, told
256 On some Properties of Light.
told that in India houses, nothing but white plastered walls © is to be seen. But a tally made of jooaga requires to be changed every three days: whereas kus will remain good the whole hot season ; which generally lasts four months.”
XLIX. On some Properties of Light. By Davin Brews ster, LL.D. F.R.S, Edin. Ina Letter to Sir H. Davy, LL.D. F.R.S.*
DEAR On © ee been for some time engaged ina series of experiments on the phznomena of light arising from its transmission through diaphanous bodies, I have taken the liberty of communicating to you, for the infor mation ofthe Royal Society, a short and general account of the results of my inquiries. In the narrow compass of a letter, it would be impracticable to include the various details of these experiments ; the particular methods of ob- servation that were employed; or the numerical results which I have obtained for the refractive and dispersive powers of nearly two hundred substances. As these will form part of a separate work, in which I am now engaged, I shal] confine myself at present to some of those results which appear to be most interesting, either from their no- velty or importance.
1, On a new Property of refracted Light.
As you are already well acquainted with the optical pro- perties of doubly retracting media, and the analogous pro- perty of reflected light discovered by Malus, it will be un- necessary to take any notice of these phenomena. After repeating the experiments of Malus, and measuring severak of the angles of incidence at which this property was com- municated to light by reflection from different substances, I made a variety of experiments, with the view of discover- ing 1f a similar character could be impressed upon hght by its transmission through bodies, either wholly or imper- fectly transparent. All these experiments afforded no new result, and every hope of discovering such a property was extinguished, when my attention was directed to a singular appearance of colour in a thin plate of agate. This plate, bounded by parallel faces, is about the fifteenth of an inch thick, and is cut ina plane perpendicular to the lamin of which it is composed. The agate is very transparent, and
* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1819, part i. >a gives
On some Properties of Light. 287
gives a distinct image of any luminous object ; but on each
side of this image is one highly coloured, forming with it an angle of several degrees, and so deeply affected with co- lour that no prism of agate, with the largest refracting angle, could produce an equivalent dispersion. Upon ex- amining this coloured image with a prism of Iceland spar, I was astonished to find that it had acquired the same pro- pertv as if it had been transmitted through a doubly re- fracting crystal; and upon. turning the Iceland spar about its axis, the images alternately vanished at every quarter of a revolution. My attention was now directed to the com- mon colourless image formed by pencils transmitted per- pendicularly through the agate; and by viewing it through a prism of Iceland spar, it exhibited all the characters of one of the pencils produced by double refraction, the images alternately vanishing in every quadrant of their circular motion.
When the image of a taper reflected from water at an angle of 52° 45’, so as to acquire the property discovered by Malus, is viewed through the plate of agate, so as to have its lamine parallel to the plane of reflection, it ap- pears perfectly distinct; but when the agate is turned round, so that its lamine are perpendicular to the plane of reflection, the light which forms the image of the taper suffers total reflection, and not one ray of it penetrates the agate.
If a ray of light incident upon one plate of agate is re- ceived after transmission upon another plate of the same substance, having its laminz parallel to those of the former, the light will find an easy passage through the second plate; but if the second plate has its laminz perpendicular to those of the first, the light will be wholly reflected, and the lu- minous object will cease to be visible.
Owing probably to a cause which will afterwards be no- ticed, there is a faint nebulous light unconnected with the image, though always accompanying it, and lying in a di- rection parallel to the lamine. This light never vanishes along with the images, though it is evidently affected by the different changes which they undergo; and in one of the specimens of agate it is distinctly incurvated, having the same radius of curvature with the adjacent laminz. This character of the nebulous light I consider as an im~ portant fact, which may be the means of conducting us to a satisfactory theory, and I am at present engaged in exa- mining it with particular care.
This remarkable property of the agate I have found also
in
288 On some Properties of Light.
in the kindred substances of cornelian and chalcedony, and it is exhibited in its full effect even when these bodies are formed into prisms, and when the incident rays fall with any angle of obliquity. In one specimen of agate, which has no veins to indicate the direction in which it was cut, the images did not vanish as before; and in another speci- men of the same character the images suffered only an al- ternate diminution of brightness, in the same manner as a pencil of light receives only a partial modification when re- flected from water at a greater or a less angle than 52° 45’,
The different experiments which have now been men- tioned were repeated, with the most satisfactory results, by My. Playfair, Dr. Hope, and Mr. John Davy.
Although the preceding results are by no means ripe for generalization, I cannot omit the present opportunity of hazarding a few conjectures respecting the cause of this singular property of the agate.
May not the structure of this mineral be in a state of approach to that particular kind of crystallization which affords double images? and may not the nebulous light be an imperfect image arising from that imperfection of struc- ture?) When one of the images vanishes, the nebulous light which encircled it is then a maximum, and it gra- dually diminishes during the re-appearance of the image. When the image which had disappeared recovers its full lustre, the surrounding nebulosity is very small; and this remaining light is, in all probability, no portion of the un- formed image, but merely a few scattered rays arising from the imperfect transparency of the mineral.
By forming the agate into a prism, the nebulous light should be separated from the image which it incloses, in proportion to the angle contained by the refracting planes 5 but owing, perhaps, to the smallness of its double refrac- tion, if it has such a property, I have not observed any separation of this kind.
The incuryated form of the nebulous light corresponding with the curvature of the laminz, seems to connect it with the laminated structure of the agate, and to indicate that the phenomena of double refraction are produced by an alternation of laminz of two separate refractive and di- spersive powers. In Iceland spar, one set of the laminz may be formed by a combination of oxygen and calcium, while the other set is formed by a combination of oxygen and carbon. In chromate of lead, the chromium and oxy- gen may give one image, while the oxygen and lead give another. In like manner the carbonate of lead, the car-
bonate
-On some Properties of Light. 289
bonate of strontites, jargon, and other crystals may give double images, in virtue of similar binary combinations« Of the simple inflammable bodies, sulphur is the only one which has the property of double refraction ; but it will pro- bably be’ found that it holds a metal or some other ingre- dient in its composition, which chemists have not been able to discover. ;
_ If the explanation which has now been given of the po- larising power of the agate should be confirmed by future experiments, this property will be considered as a case, though a very curious one, of double refraction; but if these conjectures should be overturned, the phenomena which we have described must be ranked among the most singular appearances in the wide range of optical science.
2. On the double Refraction of Chromate of Lead.
In the course of my experiments on refractive powers, L discovered a double refraction in this metallic salt of such enormous magnitude, that the deviation of the extraordinary ray is more than thrice as great as that produced by Iceland spar. The ratio of the sines, for both refractions, and the other properties of this extraordinary mineral, will be noticed m the next article.
3. On Substances with a higher refractive Power than the hart Diamond.
~ Since the time of Sir Isaac Newton, who first measured the action of the diamond upon light, its refractive power has been regarded as superior to that of every other snb- stance; but, in the course of my researches, J have found that realgar and chromate of lead exceed the diamond in refractive power, and that this high refraction, in both these substances, is accompanied with dispersive powers gresler than those of any other body. The following are the measures which I have obtained for these, and a few other substances.
Refractive Powers.
Index of Refr. Index of Refr. Chromate of .lead Phosphorus ...... 2°234 * (gr. refr.) ....... 2926 Sulphur, native..., 2115 Ditto, least refraction 9°479 Cryolite......... 1°344 WORT ac goin ys «ROTO LCE. cee eeccs eves LUE Diamond (according
to Newton) .J... 2439
Vol. 42. No. 186. Oct. 1813. TT Di-
290 On some Properties of Light.
ae uy dR Dispersive Powers or Values of =—~.
Chromate of Jead Phosphorus....... O128 (gr. refr.)....... 0°400 Flint glass (highest) 0°052 Ditto, least refraction 0°262 Diamond ........ 0°038 POA sca ssiwayes, O'F5S | Wate asses cepa nee Oil of cassia....... 6°139 Fluor spar.......- 0°022 Sulphur es ieee nsee) OF130 “Cryolife oo... < on, chh eee _ It appears from the first of these tables, that phosphorus 18 next to diamond in refractive power, and that the three. simple inflammable substances have their refractive powers in the order of their inflammability. Dr. Wollaston has placed phosphorus below horn and flint glass*; but I am confident that this distinguished philosopher, to whom the physical sciences are so deeply indebted, will find, upon making the experiment with prisms or lenses, that I have assigned the right place to that remarkable substance. The difference between the extreme dispersive powers in the se- cond table is very remarkable, and the result for oil of cassia indicates in that body the existence of some ingredient which chemical analysis has not been able to detect.
4. On the Existence of two dispersive Powers in all doubly refracting Crystals.
It has been long known, and it is indeed obvious, from a simple inspection of the images formed by a prism of Ice- land crystal, that the one image is more coloured than the other, or that the actual dispersion of the one refraction is greater than the dispersion of the other, in the same manner as the dispersion of a prism of flint glass with a refracting angle of 12 degrees, is greater than the dispersion of a prism of the same glass with an angle of only 10 degrees.
Dr. Wollaston, who was the first person that examined the subject of dispersive powers with philosophical accu- racy, makes the dispersive power of Iceland spar considere ably above water, and even above diamond. Upon repeat- ing this experiment, with the least refracted image, I found
: : aR the dispersive power, or the value of = —-, to be 0:026, very
considerably below water, which stands at 0°035 of the scale; and [ therefore concluded that Dr. Wollaston had examined the greatest refraction, while I had examined the least, and that the vast discrepancy between our measures
* Dr. Wollaston is satisfied that his original estimate was erroneous, and that Dr. Brewster’s determination is very near the truth, H, D.
arose
——=-
On some Properties of Light. 201
atose from the existence of a double dispersive power. This conclusion was confirmed by determining the disper- Sive power of the greatest refraction, which coincided ex- actly with the order assigned to it by Dr. Wollaston.
The dispersive powers, which I have obtained for other doubly refracting crystals, such as carbonate of strontites, carbonate of lead, and chromate of lead, have confirmed this result, and establish the general law, that each refrac- tion of crystals which give double images is accompanied with a separate dispersive power. The double dispersive powers of these bodies are given in the following table.
Chromate of lead (gr. refr.) estimated at 0°400
Ditto Ditto must exceed 0°296 Ditto (least teh) 1 s)sb e:eicinn 4. 101262 Carbonate of lead (gr. refr.).....0-... 0 091 Ditto (least seis) seine tea) OF 066 Carbonate of strontites (gr. refr.) ..... 0°046 Ditto (least refr.).... 0°027
Calcareous spar (gr. refr.) ...2.2..+.. 0°040 Ditto: + (.(least refi), ./tisa/su) 2, 7 0026
In a table of refractive powers, published by the late Mr. Cavallo, he has given, from other authors, the dispersions, or the dissipations as he calls them, of a few substances, and he has annexed a different dispersion to the two refrace tions of Iceland crystal; but it is obvious, from a simple inspection of the table, that these are measures of the di- Spersion or quantity of colour, and not of the dispersive power of the substances. The measures in the table alluded to, with the exception of one or two, are so completely in- compatible with those taken by Dr. Wollaston and myself, that I can scarcely believe that the experiments were ever made.
The singular property of a double dispersive power, while it seems to exclude some of the theories by which the donble refraction has been explained, adds another to those nu- merous difficulties with which philosophy has yet to strug- gle, before she can reduce to a satisfactory generalization those anomalous and capricious phenomena which light exhibits in its passage through transparent bodies.
I have the honour to be, dear sir, Your most obedient humble servant,
Edinburgh, 23, Duke-street, Davip BauwsTer. December 19, 1812.
To Sir H, Davy, LL.D. F.R.S.
T2 L. On
[ 'e92 7}
L.. On changeable Colours and Glories. By THOMAS. Younc, M.D. F.R.S. L.S. &e.*
Changeable Colours.
‘
: Is examining some of the dust of the lycoperdon, I had put it with a drop of water on a glass, when I observed a purple tinge in the water, which [ thought at first was a stain extracted from the powder; but the water viewed se- parately was perfectly transparent, and the light transmitted directly through the water, when the globuies were present, was of a yellowish green. After some consideration, | conjec- tured that this appearance of colour must be analogous to that of the mixed plates which I had formerly observed, depending on the difference of refractive density of the water and the globules (Young’s Nat.Phil.); and by substituting fluids of different densities for water, I bad the pleasure of finding my conjecture confirmed ; for, when the water was saturated with salt, the yellow green became nearly blue, and the purple redder or browner ; and when olive oil was employed, the light directly transmitted was purple, and the obhque light greenish: in balsam of Tolu, again, this purple became red, and the indirect light afforded a faint blue. In air, too, I found that the powder appeared of a bright blue green by direct light, and of a purplish hue with a light a little oblique; but when the obliquity became a little greater, the tint changed to a brownish yellow green, which continued afterwards unchanged: this alteration may perhaps be de- rived from the admixture of a portion of light coming round the particles by a more circuitous route. By com- paring the opposite effects of water and olive oil, of the re- fractive densities 1°336 and 1*379, the refractive density of the particles themselves may be calculated to be 1°62, or somewhat less.
“¢ Grey beaver wool seems of a purplish bue in direct, and greenish in oblique light, both in air and in olive oil; its grey colour seems to be derived from a mixture of these tints; 1n olive oil, the rings of colours which it affords are considerably altered in their appearance, the reds becoming every where very faint. Lead precipitated from its acetate, or silver from its nitrate, by common water, affords a reddish direct and a blueish indirect light, and the same seems to be true of smoke, and of other bodies consisting of very minute particles: but when the indirect light is very powerful, smoke sometimes appears reddish in it, as might be ex-
* ¥rom “ An Introduction to Medical Literature,” 8vo. 1813.
pected
On changeable Colours and Glories. 298
-pected. from a collection of very small opaque instead of transparent particles. ; « Mr. Delaval has observed that an infusion of sap green appears of a bright red by transmitted light, and the case ‘seems perfectly analogous to that of the dust of the lyco- perdon ; the green becoming somewhat yellower, when the gum, with which the colouring particles are mixed, fs di- Juted with water. But this is not the universal cause of a difference of colours exhibited by pigments in different Jights; the carthamus, or pink dye commonly sold for domestic use, affords an unequivocal instance of a sub- -stance exhibiting colours analogous to those of thin plates, which have been adduced by Newton in illustration of the colours of natural bodies; the reflected light being undeni- ably of a yellow green, while the transmitted light is of a bright pink colour. Here the light regularly reflected from the surface only, especially when glry, gives the colour op- posite to that of the transmitted light; all the light passing through the fluid, even indirectly, giving a pink colour. But the infusion of the lignum nephriticum seems to hold .a middle place between this substance and those which have been mentioned before; the dry extract is of a brownish yellow only; an infusiow, not too strong, gives the same colour, verging to orange, by direct transmitted light, and a bright blue by light reflected, or obliquely dispersed within the infusion, or at its surface. The solution of the car- thamus affords no green reflection from its surface, and varies in its hue, in different lights, only from crimson to scarlet. The tinging particles of the lignum nephriticum, dike those of the precipitated lead and silver, are probably extremely minute, since the colour is but little changed by changing the density of the fluid. It often happens that a blue colour, precisely like that of this infusion, is reflected by green glass bottles, which, when seen by transmitted light, exbibit only a reddish brown colour. The inner bark of the ash is also said to have a property similar to that of the lignum nephriticum. (Murr. App. Med.) The particles of the blood do not derive their colour from any of the causes which have been mentioned, since it may be ex- tracted from them in a clear solution. .
‘¢ When I attempted to explain the colours of mixed pistes, which I had produced by partially moistening two enses very slightly convex, I observed that the reflction of the light from the internal surface of a denser medium must be supposed to invert its properties with respect to the production of colours by interference, as is naturally to, be ; ih Mek A ' supposed
294 On changeable Colours and Glories,
supposed on the principles of the undulatory theory. But when the obliquity is so considerable, it is not very easy to assign a reason for this inversion; and the experiments, which I have now mentioned, make it necessary to assume a law, which I cannot explain, that every very oblique re- flection inverts the properties of light with respect to inter- ference. This conclusion confirms the assertion of Newton, that a dark space, bordered by light, will appear in the cenire of a portion of light transmitted between the edges of two knives placed very near each other, and the opinion of Mr. Jordan, that the augmentation of a shadow by dif- fraction is to be considered as the first dark space helonging to the coloured fringes. I had obtained a different result in an experiment similar to Newton’s, because I was not aware of the necessity of employing very sharp edges; for, when the edges are blunt, the light is reflected from the one to the other in such a manner, as wholly to destroy the appearance of a central dark space; but in any case this source of error may be avoided, by causing one of the edges to advance a very little before the plane of the other, so that half of the fringes may disappear. It is however necessary to suppose this inversion confined to cases of extremely oblique re- flection ; for, when the deviation of the light from a recti- linear path becomes a little more considerable, its effects are no longer perceptible; the second and third fringes scarcely ever requiring any material corrections of the cal- culations from which it is excluded. The same inversion must also be attributed to the light bent by diffraction round the remoter side of a fibre: fer this light always co- Operates in the first instance with that which is reflected from the nearer side. The extent of the central white light is indeed so great, that all the coloured appearances may almost be considered as beginning at such a distance, that the first dark space is exactly where the simple calculation would Jead us to expect the white; since the value of the unit of the eriometer ought to be, according to this calcu- Jation, about 75... of an inch, instead of +5453 and in- deed this value agrees very accurately with experiment, where the two portions of light concerned are exactly in similar circumstances ; as may be observed in some of the parallel lines drawn on glass in Mr. Coventry’s micrometers, probably where they happen to be single, for in general they are double, and exhibit colours corresponding to an interval much smaller than their regular distance: but in some parts we may observe colours exactly corresponding to their distance, for instance, to +4, of an inch, according
to
——
——=S—ee
On changeable Colours and Glories. 295
to the simple principle of considering each unit as equal to about the 45000th of an inch. Hence.it seems that the necessity of a correction depends on the different state of the lights reflected from one side of a fibre, and diffracted round its opposite side, and that, when they proceed in a similar manner from two neighbouring parallel lines, the necessity no longer exists. What may be the cause of this irregularity, will perhaps be understood when we under- stand the cause of the singular phenomena of oblique re- flection discovered by Mr. Malus, and we haye no reason to expect to understand it before.
Glories.
*€T have had an opportunity of ascertaining, that the clouds which exhibit the white and coloured circles, some- times denominated glories, are certainly not composed of icy particles; and I have succeeded in deducing an ex- planation of these phenomena from the same laws, which are capable of being applied to so many other cases of phy- sical optics. In the theory of supernumerary rainbows, (Young’s Nat. Phil.) I have observed that the breadth of each bow must be the greater as the drops which afford it are smaller; and by considering the coloured figure, ‘in which their production is analysed, it will be obvious, that if we suppose the coloured stripes extremely broad, they will coincide in such a manner in one part as to forma white bow ; the red, which projects beyond the rest, being always broadest; so that, if all the stripes be supposed to expand, while they preserve their comparative magnitude, the middle of the red may coincide with the middle of the blue; and it will appear on calculation that a white bow will be formed, a few degrees within the usual place of the coloured bow, when the drops are about 355 OF saeco Of an inch in diameter. It is remarkable that in such cases the original rainbow is altogether wanting; and probably for a similar reason, we scarcely ever see a rainbow in a cloud which does not consist of drops so large as to be ac- tually falling, although I have once seen such a rambow eriding abruptly at the bottom of a cloud: it may be con- jectured that the edge of the light is in such cases so much weakened by diffraction, that it is too faint to exhibit the effects occasioned by a larger drop. Dr. Smith has made a remark somewhat similar, (Opt. r. 50!.) which, if not completely satisfactory upon the priuciples which have been mentioned, is certainly altogether unintelligible upon his owns.
T4 ‘© The
296) Researches upon the Heat developed
** The coloured, circles, immediately -surrounding ; the shadows of the observers, may be deduced from, the. effect of the same minute particles of water, upon the light which has been four, and perhaps five, times reflected,.within the ; drops, which may, after transmission, coincide in direction with another portion, passing on the opposite side of the centre ; and the drops about 5;!,5 or ¢goq of an inch in dia- meter would in this manner produce a faint corona, of such magnitude, that the limit of green and red, employed in the use of the eriometer, should be at the distance of about five degrees from the centre of. the shadow ; which, as nearly as I could estimate it, was its real distance in the appearance that I observed.”
LI. Researches. upon the Heat developed in. Combustion, and in the Condensation of Vapours. Read before the French Institute on the 24th of February and 30th of November 1812. By Count Rumrorp, F.R.S. Foreign Associate of the Imperial Institute of France, Be, 8c.
[Continued from vol. xli, page 444.]
§ VII, On the Quantity of Heat developed in the Com- ) tustion of Naphiha. ; ) Taz naphtha which I made use of in my experiments was supplied by.M. Vauquelin: it had been purified by distillation, and its specific gravity at the temperature of 56° F. was 82°731. :
The following are the details and results of two experi- ments made with this liquid on the 29th of January 1812. — _.The capacity of the calorimeter for heat was equal to that of 2781 grammes of water.
rin De- re] Oo wn i= eo
perature Ibs.of Water heated 180°
with 1 tb. of this Sub-
grees of Fahrenheit. stance.
Duration of the Experiment Quantity of Naphtha burned. of the Calorimeter i
Elevation of the Tem
M. S.|Gram. Deg. F. Ist Experiment .. .| 32 |4:45| 16 | 73°8811. 2d Experiment ., .| 36 |2°77| 123 | 72°771
Mean Result .. . 73°376
in Combustion, and in the Condensation of Vapours. 297
__The naphtha was burned in the same small lamp which I had. employed in my experiments made with alcohol and sulphuric ether; but as I had not been able to succeed in burning the naphtha without smoke, I cannot rely impli- citly upon the results of these experiments. Perhaps with pure oxygen gas we might succeed in burning it entirely.
Ihave met with the same difficulty in burning oil of turpentine and colophon ; and for this reason I thought, it would be useless to detail my experiments with these two substances.
©§ VIII. On the Quantity of Heat developed in the Com- . bustion of Tallow.
_ Having procured tallow candles of a good quality, those which are ealled six in the pound, I burned one under the calorimeter, taking care to keep it well snuffed, in order to avoid smoke.
The following are the details and results of two experi- ments made on the same day (16th of November 1811), with one of these candles.
The capacity of the calorimeter for heat was equal to that of 2371 grammes of water.
f re) £ &
perature o Calorimeter
y of Water heated 180° with the Heat de- veloped in the Combus-
Time while the Candle was burning under the Calorimeter the Water in the
Quantity of Tallow burned. Elevation of the Tem | tion of 1 lb. of Tallow,
| Quantit
M. S. | Grs.|D.F. Ist Experiment .....¢..2.416 2/1°6 |102/84°385 Ib. 2d Experiment........+++416 50|1°7 |104.82-991
|
Mean Result’. .....2.. 83°687 lb. We have seen that with ‘ white wax the result ve rane With purified oil of colsa... 93:073 - |And with oil of olives...... 90°439
§ IX. Quantity of Heat developed in the Combustion of Charcoal.
If we could burn under the calorimeter some pieces of wood
298 Researches upon the Heat developed
wood made into charcoal, with the same facility that we burn thin pieces of dry wood, the investigation in question would not be attended with difficulty ; but the charcoal cannot be burned in this manner. We can light a piece of charcoal very well, and if it be very thin it continues to burn until it is entirely consumed; but the combustion is so slow, and furnishes so little heat, that it would require several hours to heat the calorimeter sufficiently to give an appreciable result; and for this single reason the result could not but be extremely uncertain.
I have long endeavoured, but without success, to find a method, by steeping thin chips of wood in some inflamma- ble liquid, to burn the charcoal more rapidly.
Some chips of wood of a known weight, perfectly dried and strongly heated, were plunged into white wax, melted and very hot, and the chips when taken out and cooled were again weighed.
Their augmentation in weight gave me the quantity of wax which they had imbibed; and as I knew accurately how much heat this quantity of wax should have givenin its combustion, if the chips thus prepared had been burned properly under the calorimeter, I should certainly have dis- covered how much heat the charcoal would have furnished ; but the experiment did not succeed.
The wax was entirely burnt, and the chip of wood be- came very red ; but it was not burnt, at least not entirely, nor in such a way as to give me the least hope of being able to derive any advantage from my experiment; and I did not succeed any better by steeping my chips of char- coal in melted tallow, in oil, alcohol, sulphuric ether, naphtha, esseatial oil of turpentine, in a solution of gum arabic, and in that of sugar. IT have also tried colophon, but without more success.
I have made several experiments in order to determine directly the quantity of heat which is developed in the combustion of considerable masses of charcoal (80 grammes) burnt in a small stove, under a calorimeter of a large size, which I procured at Paris four years age, and which I have still in my laboratory; but the results of these experiments have been too variable to satisfy myself.
After all the care which I took, [ found that the ex- periments of Crawford were better than mine: and as they furnished more heat than I could find, I have not hesitated to adopt their results, instead of relying upon my own,
§ X. Quan-
in Combustion, and in the Condensation of Vapours. 299
§ X. Quantities of Heat developed in the Combustion of Wood.
In a memoir which I had the honour to present to the Class on the 9th of September 1812, I gave an account of a considerable number of experiments (upwards of fifty) which I made, in order to determine the quantities of heat which are developed in the combustion of different kinds of wood.
From the results of these experiments, it appears that, at equal weights, the light and soft woods give out a little more heat than the compact and heavy woods: but as the difference is very small, we may rather ascribe it to a greater degree of humidity in the latter.
It is certain that the compact retain humidity with more tenacity than the light woods, and a small difference in the dryness of a wood ought to produce a sensible effect on its apparent weight, and consequently upon the result of the calculations which we employ in order to determine the heat which it furnishes. ;
In physical and chemical researches, it is always satis- factory to be able to compare the results of new experi= ments with those of more ancient date, particularly when the latter have been made by persons remarkable for their accuracy. ¢ M. Lavoisier has shown that equal quantities of heat are produced in the combustion of 1089 parts in weight of oak, and 600 parts of charcoal: consequently equal quantities of heat ought to be furnished in the combustion of one pound of oak and 0°55 of a pound of charcoal.
According to the experiments of Mr. Crawford, one pound of charcoal furnishes in its combustion enough of heat to raise the temperature of 57°608 pounds of water to 180° of Fahrenheit.
Consequently the temperature of 31°684 pounds of water would he raised the same number of degrees by the heat fur- nished in the combustion of 0°55 pound of charcoal.
According to the result of the experiments of M. Lavoi- sier, this same quantity of heat ought to be furnished in the combustion of one pound of oak.
Having made four consecutive experiments with very good dry oak wood, aud in very thin slips, burnt so as to give out neither smoke nor smell, and which Jeft but an in- appreciable quantity of ashes and no charcoaj, | obtained the following results ;
‘Number
,300. \ Researches upon the Heat developed
ReEsuLT,
¥
Number Quantity | Elevation of the | Pounds of Water} | of Experi- of Temperature of | heated 180° with
ments. |Wood burned.} the Calorimeter. | one Pound of Combustible.
1 5°10 gr. 103 F, 31°051 Ib. 2 5°13 104 31-623 3 5°12 108 31°941 4 4°95 10° 31°212
Mean TREBEIL pinls cia b.piesaincesidiece det Oca Result according to Lavoisier gS 31°684 and Crawford’s experiments
Tt is rare to find experiments made by different persons at distant periods, and with very different apparatus, which agree better together.
But experiments which are well made, can never fail in agreeing in their results, whatever be the difference of the methods employed: it is nevertheless necessary to remark, that the coincidence in question. could not be so perfect as it appears, for every thing depends upon the equality of the humidity which may exist in the wood and charcoal em- ployed, a circumstance which it is impossible to establish.
§ XI. On the greatest Intensity of Heat which it is possible to produce by the Combustion of inflammable Substances.
It is well known that the heat of a small fire seems to be less intense than that of a large fire, even when the same species of combustible is employed : but I do not know that _ it has been attempted to determine the limits of the inten- sity of a fire, or the greatest degree of heat which it is possible to produce by means of combustion.
In order to elucidate this subject, it is necessary to con- sider attentively what passes in the chemical. operation which we call combustion.
In all known cases where two elementary substances unite together so as to form a new substance, there is a change of temperature, so that the new substance at the moment of its formation has a temperature differing strongly from that of the surrounding bodies. Consequently, the surrounding bodies are always either heated or cooled more or Jess by the new body which has been formed.
But in order that this effect may be sensible to our or;
gans,
in Combustion, and in the Condensation of Vapours. 301
€ans, or capable of acting in a sensible manner upon our’ apparatus, it is necessary that the quantity of the new sub- stance formed should be considerable; for it is certain that the most intense heat, if it be developed in a very small par- ticle of matter, may exist without producing any sensible effect which could give us any indications of its existence.
It is not less true that the chemical union of two atoms, two different elementary substances, ought always, under every circumstance, to be accompanied with one and the same change of temperature : for'this union takes effect in a place so distant, relative to all the other bodies (if, in every case, all the interstices are not filled with particles of an ethere- ous fluid), that we cannot conceive how the change of tem- perature in question may be either augmented or diminished by the effect of the action of these surrounding bodies.
It is extremely probable, from what we have been able to remark in a great number of phenomena, that the ap- proximation of the elementary particles of bodies is always accompanied by an elevation of their temperature; and as it cannot have new substances formed except in conse- quence of an approximation and the chemical union of elementary particles, we may conclude that there cannot be new chemical compositions without a development of heat.
We may form an idea of what passes in combustion, by considering the phenomena which take place when water freezes.
' Ata certain temperature, which is invariable, the mole- cules of the liquid are disposed to approximate in order to form a solid body, ice ; and the first particle of ice which is formed is accompanied by a development of a certain quan- tity of heat, which quantity is invariable.
It is also very probable that it is at a temperature which is invariable, that the oxygen and hydrogen are disposed to approximate and unite in order to form an atom of va- pour, and that the intensity of the heat developed at the moment of this union is also invariable, and that it is al- ways manifested in all its intensity in the atom of vapour which is formed.
‘ But as the atom of vapour is extremely small, and sur- rounded by bodies relatively very cold, its heat is soon dis- sipated.
’ There is however a method, which appears certain, that we may employ in order to determine the temperature of an atom of vapour at the moment of its formation, and by this means we may know what is the highest tempera-
' ture
$02 Researches upon the Heat developed
ture which it is possible to procure by means of combuse tion.
We have seen that, according to the results of the re- searches of Mr. Crawford, it seems that when one pound of hydrogen is burned, enough of heat is developed on this occasion to elevate the temperature of 410 pounds of water to 180° of Fahrenheit (= 100 degrees centigrade.)
Now as one pound of hydrogen perfectly dry, is united by burning to 7°3333 pounds of oxygen, and forms with it 8°3335 pounds of steam, it is evident that the quantity of heat which exists in 8°333 pounds of steam at the instant when this steam is formed, is equal to that which is necessary to raise the temperature of 410 pounds of water 180° F., or to elevate the temperature of 73°800 pounds of water one de- gree of the scale of Fahrenheit.
From this calculation we may conclude that the quantity of heat which exists in one pound of steam, at the instant when it is formed, is sufficient to raise the temperature of one pound of water 10063 degrees.
If the capacity of the steam for heat was equal to that of liquid water, it is very certain that the temperature of the vapour at the instant of its formation would be that of 10063° F. s
In order to form an idea of this degree of intensity, we may compare it to.an intensity of heat which is known.
A piece of iron heated until it becomes red even in day- light, has then the temperature of 1000° F.; consequently the temperature of the steam at the instant of its formation would be ten times higher than that of red hot-iron: but as, according to Crawford, the capacity of the steam for heat is greater than that of water in the proportion of 1°55 to 1, the temperature in question will be less than that of 10u63° in the same proportion, It will therefore be equal to 8750° F.
Here therefore is the limit of the intensity of the heat, in the midst of the greatest fire, in which pure hydro- gen would be employed as a combustible, and in which the fire would be fed by pure oxygen. This is an intensity which we may approach more or Jess, but which we can never attain. ;
As Wedewood’s pyrometer indicates much higher temperatures, it seems demonstrated by the result of this calculation that the scaie of this pyrometer is faulty. These doubts have been stated by other chemists.
But in order to decide definitively upon this interesting
question,
én Combustion, and in the Condensation of Vapours. 303
question, it would be indispensably necessary to know ac- curately the capacity of steam for heat, at different tem- peratures ; a thing unknown, and which is difficult to de- termine.
Upon examining the subject attentively, we shall find, however, reasons for thinking that the capacity of steama for heat ought necessarily to be diminished with the ia- crease of its temperature. The following calculations may serve to elucidate this subject :
In order to determine the highest degree of temperature which can exist in the midst of the greatest heat when pure hydrogen is the only combustible employed, and when the fire is fed by atmospheric air ; it is necessary to remark, that as oxygen and azote are intimately mixed in the atmo- sphere, the heat which results from the combustion of hy- drogen ought to be immediately divided between the vapour which results from the union of the hydrogen with the oxygen, and the azote which is found necessarily mixed with this vapour.
In order to simplify our inquiry, we shall commence by supposing that all the oxygen which exists in the atmo- spheric air is employed.
Th this case, as it requires 7°3333 pounds of oxygen to be united to one pound of hydrogen in order to compose 8°3333 pounds of steam, and as the atmospheri€ air is com-= posed of 21 pounds of oxygen gas mixed with 79 pounds of azote; the 7°3333 pounds of oxygen which are united to one pound of hydrogen in order to form 8°3333 pounds of steam, ought to be found mixed with 27°587 pounds of azote: consequently the heat developed in the combustion of one pound of hydrogen ought to be also divided between 8°3333 pounds of steam and 27°587 pounds of azote; and this partition ought to take place in the direct ratio of the weights of these two fluids, and of their capacity for heat.
The capacity of the steam being to that of azote as 155 to 0'7036 (according to Crawford), all the heat in question will be divided so as that the steam shall retain a part of it represented by the number 9°5832 ; (=8'3333 x 1°55) and the azote will receive the other part of it =1941 (being the product of 27°587 multiplied by 0°7036 )
Now as the two numbers 9°5832 and 19°41 are both in the proportion of 1 to 20254, it is evident that the tem- peaiurs will be the same which we should have if all the
eat in question was equally divided between the steam which would result from the combustion of 3-0254 pounds
of hydrogen, 7, e. between 25°2113 pounds of steam. And
304 Researches upon the Heat develeped
And as we have seen that the heat manifested in the combustion of one pound of hydrogen which is in the 8°3333 pounds of steam which are the products of this combustion, is sufficient for raising the temperature of this Steam to that of 8750° F. itis evident that if this same quantity of heat is divided among 25°2113 pounds of steam, the temperature of this steam could not be higher than 2891° F.
This is therefore the highest temperature which we ought to find in the midst of a strong fire fed by the atmospheric air in which the combustible burnt is pure hydrogen.
- As this temperature is much lower than that which we can excite by combustion, even without employing pure hydrogen or pure oxygen, the result of this calculation fur- nishes a demonstrative proof that the capacity for heat of steam, or rather that of azote, is diminished when its tempe- rature is increased. In all probability, the capacities of both, and generally of all elastic fluids, are diminished when their temperature is increased. ;
We shall now see what is the highest temperature which it would be possible to attain by burning charcoal, and by blowing the fire with pure oxygen gas. 6.9
According to Crawford, one pound of charcoal gives heat sufficient in its combustion to raise the temperature of 57°608 pourfds of water 180° F., or to raise the temperature of 9369°44 pounds of water 1 degree.
Now as one pound of charcoal is united to 2°5714 pounds of oxygen in burning, and forms with it 3°57 14 pounds of carbonic acid, the heat which is found in 3°5714 pounds of carbonic acid at the instant of its forma- tzon would be sufficient to raise the temperature of 9369°44 pounds of water 1 degree: consequently the heat which is in one pound of this acid at the moment of its formation would be sufficient to raise the temperature of 3643°6 pounds of water | degree, | }
Here we have the quantily of heat which exists in the carbonic acid at the instant of its formation. In order to know what is the intensity which it would indicate if we could measure it at this moment, by means of a thermo- meter, it would be necessary to know precisely the specific heat of the carbonic acid. If, with Crawford, we take it at 1°0459 (that of water being taken =1), we shall have 3811° F. for the measure of the intensity of the heat which exists in the carbonic acid at the moment of its formation, and consequently for the intensity of the greatest fire made with charcoal (without mixture of hydrogen) even in the case where the fire is fed by pure oxygen. It
in Combustion, and in the Condensation of Vapours. 305
It remains to determine the temperature which we might hope to attain by burning charcoal with a¢mospheric air.
As we have found that the temperature of the 3°5714 pounds of carbonic acid which are the product of the combustion of 1 pound of charcoal, is that of 3811° F. at the moment of its formation, we have only to ascertain . how much the temperature of this acid ought to be dimi- nished by the mixture of the azote which must necessarily be there when the oxygen employed in the combustion of the charcoal is furnished by the atmospheric air.
As, in the atmospheric air, every pound of oxygen is mixed with 3°7619 pounds of azote, the 2°5714 pounds of oxygen employed in the combustion of 1 pound of char- coal ought to be mixed with 9:6735 pounds of azote’: consequently all the heat developed in the combustion of 1 pound of charcoal will be found divided between 3°5714 pounds of carbonic acid and 9°6735 pounds of azote.
And as the specific heat of the carbonic acid is to that of azote as 1°0459 to 0°7036; this heat will be divided be- tween these two substances in the proportion of (3°5714 x 1°0459=) 3°7354 to (9°6735 x0°7036=) 6°8062, which is in the proportion of 1 to 1°8221 or of 3*5714 to 650753 and thence we may conclude that the temperature of the mixture of 3°5714 pounds of carbonic acid and of 9°6735 of azote would be the same as if we had mixed with the 3°5714 pounds of carbonic acid 6°5075 pounds more of this same acid, making together 10°0789 pounds of carbo- nic acid,
Now as the heat developed in the combustion of one pound of charcoal was sufficient to raise the temperature of the 3°5714 pounds of carbonic acid coming from this com- bustion to that of 3811° F., this same quantity of heat ought to be sufficient to raise the temperature of 10°0789 pounds of carbonic acid to the temperature of 1350° F.
This is, according to the results of this calculation, the highest temperature which we ought to expect to find amid the strongest charcoal fire fed by atmospheric air.
But we are very certain that the intensity of the heat of the strongest charcoal fire is far superior to the above cal- culation: consequently we are authorized to conclude that the capacity for heat of the carbonic acid, and that of the azotic gas, are much diminished when these elastic fluids are exposed to a very high temperature.
If, in endeavouring to discover the limit of intensity of a charcoal fire, 1 have supposed the fire to be very large,
. Vol. 42. No,186. Oct, 1813. U it
306 Researches upon the Heat developed in Combustion.
it is not because I suppose that the heat developed in com-~ bustion is more intense at the primitive source in a large than ina small fires but as a small fire is always surrounded by bodies relatively very cold, such as the bars of the grate, &e. the products of the combustion (which are always at the instant of their formation at the same temperature) are so rapidly cooled when the fire is small, that the temperature which we may find in such a fire is necessarily lower than that which we find in the midst of a larger fire, where a greater quantity of the same kind of combustible is em- ploved.
When a large charcoal fire is well lighted up ina close stove, constructed with bricks or fire stones, all the inte- rior surfaces become excessively hot, and the heat accumu- lates and becomes very intense throughout the whole in- terior of the stove, so that iron and eve n stones are melted in it, and flow like liquids: but when the fire place is small, ~ itis with difficulty that it can be heated so much as to make the sides red hot; and if the fire-place be very small, a char- coal fire cannot be kept up at all, even with continual blow- ing. We may truly say that such a fire. dies of cold, an-ex- pression which with as much force as justice describes the event as it really happens.
But if it be the cold communicated by the surrounding bodies which hinders a very small charcoal fire from burn- ing, could we not make it burn by guarding it in a proper manner agajnst the cold ?
This is an experiment which I tried six years ago with the greatest success, and which ended in my causing to be made small portable cooking stoves now in general use in Paris, and elsewhere for aught I know.
By surrounding the body of the stove with two strata of inclosed air, the cooling of the fire-place and the char- coal it contains is hindered: and in this way the charcoal burns perfectly well, and the fire is so well kept up that it obeys a small register, which regulates the quantity of air admitted into the body of the stove.
Some judgement may be formed of the advantages which
ought to result from the use of these small portable fur~ naces in cooking, &c. arising from the saving of time and combustibles, when we are informed that the combustion may be regulated without, any difficulty, so as to consume the charge of charcoal in 20 minutes with a brisk heat, or so as to keep up a moderate fire for three hours.
With these portable cooking stoves it is indispensably,
necessary
‘
Roman Antiquities found in Westphalia. 307
necessary to nse kettles or saucepans of a particular con- struction, They ought to be suspended by their rims, in large circles of wrought iron or copper, the better to keep in the heat. The circle of a saucepan ought to be half an inch more in breadth than the saucepan is in depth.
But to return to the main branch of my subject. If the present state of our knowledge does not admit of our esta- blishing with a rigorous precision the highest temperature which it is possible to excite by means of the combustion of inflammable bodies; the calculation which I have sub- mitted to the Class may nevertheless serve to guide our conjectures on this interesting subject. They will at all events show what is wanting to enable us duly to appreciate
the subject. [To be continued.]
LII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles.
ROMAN ANTIQUITIES DISCOVERED IN THE KINGDOM OF WESTPHALIA.
M. Horrman, a German engineer, who has been long
engaged in examining the banks of the Rhine, with a view to ascertain at what point Cesar passed that river, has transmitted to the Gottingen Academy a deiached account of certain interesting objects discovered near Neuwied. -
Tt is well known that there was in the environs of this frontier town a Roman camp intended to check the incur- sions of the German nations, and in particular the Catti. It was a short distance from this point that Cesar con- structed his celebrated bridge. M. Hoffman in October- 1811 drew a plan of the whole country, with a view to as- certain the precise spot which was occupied by the Romans at that period. He also made a drawing of the camp which they had near Bonefeld, three leagues and a half from Neuwied.
To judge from its extent, this camp, which the moderns would call a redoubt, might contain a cohort. A single tent served ten men, and the Romans encamped much more closely than the moderns. The four parts of the camp were unequal, probably on account of a fosse which passed through the middle. The two upper parts, which abutted on the Pretorian gate, are smaller than those which are beneath and abut on the Decuman gate. The camp in question is situated on the high road on tie banks of the Rhine, near Neuwied, The objects discoyered in it may
Ue not
308 Roman Antiquities found
not be so interesting as those presented by the ruins of Greece and Rome, but they are nevertheless highly impor- tant to the history of the country where they were found.
They tend to make us acquainted with the private life of the Romans, chiefly of the soldiery, and in some measure with the nature of their establishments in Germany.
The objects discovered consist of vases and instruments, coins and figures. The quantity of medals is also consi- derable, these are for the most part Imperial ; and there is a greater number in silver than in bronze. The bronzes are very much corroded and almost illegible. This series of medals is so far remarkable, that it furnishes us with in= ferences as to the length of time the Romans continued in the country. The catalogue now in the possession of the Gottingen Academy is very exact: it presents a series of 256 pieces, which finish with the’ reign of Gallienus. We know that at this period the relations of this part of Ger- many with the Romans ceased, and the wars undertaken by the latter in the reigns of Dioclesian, Constantius, Con- stantine, &c. contributed without. doubt to destroy these relations. The catalogue commences with a medal of Augustus ; for that which has been regarded as Consular from having on it the letters S.C. is too much defaced to enable us to say any thing positive of it. The medal of
Augustus bears the Bos Cornupeta, and the Fmp. X upon’
the reverse. Upon the face there is the head not crowned with the legend Augustus Divi F. This medal has excited a considerable controversy, and its date has been fixed at 742. There is only a single medal of Tiberius, which is well known. It is of the date 768, when we find upon medals the Pontif. Max. Upon the medal in question we find the head of the emperior with the legend Ti. Ces. Div. Aug. F. Aug. Upon the reverse is a female seated, holding a spear and a branch. It has been said that this
figure represents Livia. One of the medals in this collection represents the con= secration of Titus, and it is remarkable not so much for the subject as for the nature of the metal, which is brass alloyed with silver: it is consequently of a posterior date, and is perhaps part of those which have been ascribed to Gallienus or Trebonian. We ought not however to ascribe to them alone all the restored medals, since they have been struck at different times, and probably with different views, rather to preserve the recollectiun of the event than to restore the medal. The medal in question is perfectly similar to the consecration medal. The head of Titus bears the radiated _ crown:
td te
Pa te. Pe ee
‘ in the Kingdom of Westphalia. 309
town with the words Divo Tito. On the reverse there is an altar with the flame of a sacrifice, and the word Conse- eratio. From this medal downwards the series of Imperials is continued almost without interruption; but there are very few of Domitian or Nerva, and none of Trajan or Adrian. There are four of Antoninus Pius, several of Marcus Aurelius and of Commodus. The greater number is of Septimus Severus and of Caracalla. Two of Lucilla; one of Crispina; several of Julia Pia; three of Geta; one of Macrinus; nearly twenty of Eliogabalus; four of Julia Paula; three of Julia Soemia; ten of Julia Mesa; sixty- six of Alexander Severus. From the reign of the latter we remark an evident deterioration in the quality of the metal, which progressively becomes worse. We see two medals of Sallustia Barbiana; twelve of Julia Mamza; six of Maximian ; thirteen of Gordian II]. The last are almost illegible, from having been thrown into a furnace by some ignorant workmen after they were discovered. There are ten of Philip; one of Decius; three of Volusianus; five of Valerian; four of Gallienus. We have thus enume- rated the coins of each species, because those will be recog nised which have been most in circulation; and it will also appear that the more ancient gradually disappeared, being melted down for new coins. It would appear that about the time of Gallienus the Romans quitted the banks of the Rhine. __ The above new collection has an importance peculiar to itself. All the coins which compose it are authentic be- yond a doubt, and they render the principality of Neuwied doubly interesting to the curious. The Roman vases and utensils were found between Neu- wied and Haddersdorf. A tomb was opened in presence of the Princess of Neuwied, and great care was taken of the skeleton and all its ornaments or appendages. Among _ these was a long snake in silver 3 twelve pearls serving as a neck-lace ; but whether they are true or false, is not yet as- certained; two ear-rings, each consisting of a pearl and a piece of gold wire; fibulz, bracclets, &c. two clasps rested on the chest, and served to fasten the mantle or cloak: two others were found at the bottom of the body, and were no doubt intended to fasten it at bottom: a button made of bone was on the left side of the body: on the right there _Was a very fine knife-blade: at the feet lay a small pitcher. _All these instruments seem to have had a reference to the sprteseion of the deceased. There were also some glass uttons found, made of scales like all the glass ornaments Ua
310 Roman Antiquities found in Westphalia. = =
of the ancients which we have seen. In another spot there was found a bow] of crystal chased in silver and surmounted by a knob or stopper. M. Hoffman thinks the ladies among the ancients made use of this for cooling their hands. Eleven tombs have been opened, and a great many more remain still untouched.
Among the iron utensils, darts were found hollowed in the sides and with a very keen edge, besides a great quan- tity of other instraments, which prove that the Romans un- derstood the preparation of iron extremely well, Very few bronze articles were found, some were of bone, and among otber curiosities there was the handle of a guitar. M. Hoff. man also found several bones as if attempted to be sawed, but without answering any purpose, which would seem to indicate that a mechanic had his workshop near this place.
M. Hoffman remarks, with respect to the earthen vases, that their red colour does not depend upon the quality of the clay, but upon the way in which the Romans washed it. They employed for their vases al] kinds of earth: and where- ever the Romans resided in Germany,’ these red vases have been discovered. Those which were dug up near Neuwied were made of an earth found in the environs of the village of Radenbach. It is probably necessary to observe, that it does not follow, because there are abundance of fragments of earthen ware at any spot, that there was necessarily a pottery there. We know that the Romans scarcely used any other than earthen vessels, and near every inhabited place there must have been a spot where they threw the broken pieces. As these utensils served for common pur- poses, it is not surprising to find that the figures on them are very coarse: some however are carefully executed. Besides the ornaments which serve for the borders above * and below, and which consist of festoons, foliage, pearls, &c. the body of the vase is adorned with all kinds of figures of animals. Upon a kind of saucer or flat dish there is a curious design ; a man has transfixed an infant from behind, and holds it up on bis lance, while its hands are raised to- wards the sky. A warrior is in the act of advancing with a drawn sword in one hand and a buckler in the other: the latter is probably a Roman, and the former a German, the group being intended to inspire a hatred against the Bar- barians. Several vases bear inscriptions. On one, for exs ample, we read the letters SCR in distinct characters. Several at the bottom bear the name of the potter. On another we read VITRIO FE: on the other JULLINUS. Wo other figures were discoyered but those which were
| painted
Antiquities discovered in East Lothian. 311
painted on the vases; but near the supposed workshop above alluded to, consequently in the Roman camp near Niederbiber, one leayue from Neuwied, there was found the head of a small stone statue, which M. Hoffman thinks belonged to a Genius which he had formerly discovered.
Upon digging tolerably deep, a very solid foundation was discovered of bricks and lime. M, Hoffman thiaks that this was a bath, and the walls show that it was a large one. It is some distance from the Decuman yate of the camp. There are also outside the camp, further off and nearer Gaul, the ruins of a very large building where the head of a Statue was found of good workmanship: it is a mixture of lime, pounded bricks, and coarse sand. The mass has been fused, and is of course very solid. It would seem therefore that the Romans were acquainted with the art of making the same use of lime that we do of gypsum. To conclude: they were also acquainted with this last sub- stance, and according to Pliny and Columella made fruits and figures of it. In the place in question there was no gypsum ; at least there are no appearances of it in any of the works near Niederbiber.
East Lothian, October 12, 1813. .
Last week, on trenching with the plough a field possessed by William Hunter, Esq. at the Knows, and belonging to the Earl of Haddington, a number of stone coffins were uncovered. These are ranged in rows from south to north, with the heads to the west; and, as far as examined, co- ver an extent of ground measuring in length fifty-four yards, and in breadth twenty-six. They are computed to exceed 500 in number. Each coffin lies about two or three inches from the side of the other, with the heads in exact lines, and about two or three feet from each row, They are formed of flat stones neatly joined together on the sides, and in the exact form of our present coffins, and covered on the top with flag stones; some of them laid with stones in the bottom, others not. It appears the stones have been brought from the adjoining sea-shore. What were unco- vered were found full of sea-sand, which being carefully re- moved, a human skeleton was discovered lying entire from head to foot. The bones, excepting the sculls, on being taken out, crumbied to dust ; but the teeth were in com- plete preservation, not one wanting, and appeared to have belonged to persons dying in the prime of life. The coffins
appear to have been formed exactly to the length of the dif- U4 ferent
312 Antiquities. discovered in East Lothian.
ferent bodies; the longest measured six feet nine inches, the shortest five feet three inches. The thigh bones are of a great length and thickness, and one jaw-bone was discos vered of a prodigious size. ,
Towards the west end of the burial-ground there are evi- dent marks of bodies that have been consumed by fire, but it bas not been ascertained what extent of ground these covered,
The farm has been in possession of the same family for three generations back ; and it is said a tradition has been handed down that a battle was fought there, and that those who. were killed were buried on that spot, which was then arising ground, and always kept sacred from the touch of the plough, until the present possessor ploughed it over many years ago, at which time a few coflins were dis- covered.
Tradition also reports, that near the present farm-house there was formerly a bastel, or bestial, an ancient place of security for cattle during an incursion of an enemy. This gives name toa place on the farm to this day. It 1s also said there had been either a fort or Baron’s castle erected there. .
When digging a deep trench some years ago, the work- men discovered a round building of hewn stone, about nine feet in diameter; they also found a range of building so strongly cemented that they could not remove it.
It appears at least probable that this might have been in former times a Roman station, and that the circular building was a bath. What supports this idea is the cuss tom the Romans had of placing their burial-grounds near to the highways. Now it is well known that the great post road formerly passed close by the side of this burial- place, though it has since been removed further south.
It seems certain, from the regular position of the coffins, and the skcietons having the appearance of adults, that they: have been deposited in the earth at one time, ahd after hay- ing fallen in battle. In this neighbourhood many single stone coffins have been found,: and sometimes two or three together; several long stones have also been erected, as it is thought, to che memory of some fallen chief; which renders it probable that this quarter has been the scene of many sanguinary battles, that are of so ancient a date as to be either unrecorded in the page of history, or form the dubious tale of tradition,
His
Coal.— Honey.—Cure for Croup. 313
. His Majesty’s ships Spitfire and Bonne Citoyenne, on a recent cruize off the coast of Greenland, discovered two distinct strata of coal in the cliff on the north-east end of Bear Island. ‘The upper layer is of superior quality: the under one was ponderous and full of sulphur, but burned well. Some metallic ore, supposed to be tin, was mixed with the latter. Bear Island is in lat. 74.28. long. 18. 20.E, good anchorage all around, and easy of access, except to the south-east, where the coast is high and rocky. The island is about twelve miles in diameter, barren, having on it a few bears and foxes, and a quantity of aquatic fowl.
From some experiments recently made at Paris upon honey, it appears that this substance is composed of 44 of syrup, and ;4. of a solid white farinaceous and almost in- sipid substance. When adulterated with flour or starch, which is too often the case, the fraud may be detected by heat- ing it:—if it is pure, the whole mass will be melted into a fine transparent syrup; whereas, if it is adulterated, the ex- traneous body will give it a muddy appearance. The white substance above alluded to may be separated from the syrup by evaporation with alcohol. The syrup, when taken internally, in the dose of about three ounces and a half in teaevery morning, does not affect the stomach; but the powder or concrete part, if taken in the dose of about two drachms, occasions colic followed by looseness. It would appear, therefore, that the laxative properties as- cribed to hdéney are owing to the aboye substance: and the following recipe is given for obtaining a syrup of honey without this sometimes disagreeable concomitant :—Dilute eight ounces of honey with two of cold water, adding one ounce of charcoal from bones: shake the mixture, let it stand an hour and a half, and then filter. The syrup at first passes over quite turbid, bat it soon becomes clear. Tt acquires from the charcoal a peculiar smell, but which may be entirely removed from it by exposing it to a gentle heat for about a quarter of an hour.
A prize of 12,000 francs was offered in 1807 by the French Government to the physician who should produce the best memoir on the disease calied the Croup: two have shared the prize, being of equal merit; three are distin- guished as extremely Foseunable to their authors; anda sixth memoir is marked by the proposal of a remedy that is said by the writer to be a specific in this malady and in the hooping-cough. It is liver of sulphur alkalized, a sul-
pha
314 Mushroom of Kamtschatka.
phat of potash recently prepared and brownish. It is usually given mixed with honey, and sometimes with sugar. The dose, from the attack of the croup to the de+ cided diminution of the disorder, is ten grains morming and evening, to be lessened as the disorder abaies; and towards the close the morning dose only to be given. ‘The mixture of sulphat and honey to be made at the moment of using. Young children will suck it off the end of a finger; but it may be given in a spoonful of milk, or of syrup thinned with water, or as a bolus; grown children take it best in this form. It usually relieves in two days ; but it must be continued till the cure is completed, and often beyond that period, for fear of relapse.
M. Langsdorf, in his recent Voyages and Travels, relates a curious circumstance with respect to the agaric or mush= room. The inhabitants of Kamtschatka and the neigh- bouring countries, he informs us, make use of this fungus on account of its intoxicating qualities. One large or two small mushrooms dried are sufficient to produce a high ex- citement. The narcotic effects, which are greatly aug- mented by the use of cold water, are manifested in half an hour, or sometimes even two hours afterwards, by startings of the muscles and tendons, followed by giddiness and sleep. The effects are the same, in short, with those produced by wine or spirits. A propensity for dancing and using strange gestures characterizes the use of the agaric, and its action upon the urine is very remarkable. This secretion of the human body acquires a narcotic property muci more decided than that of the agaric itself: drunkards in the above countries, therefore, greedily drink up the urine of their companions. A moderate-sized cupful produces, even two days afterwards, a much higher degree of intox- ication, and the urine of the person who drinks it produces a suil greater state of drunkenness, and so on even to the fifth urme-drinker. Two or three spoonfuls of grease or fish oil are sufficient to remedy all the bad effects upon the stomach occasioned by the use of the mushroom in que- stion. Ti is to be regretted that M. Lanesdorf has not specified the kind of agaric which is thus employed.
The following melancholy account of the massacre of the crew of an American vessel employed in the fur trade, makes us acquainted with a race of savages whose coast it is not unlikely that some British vessels may visit: the in-
formation thus conyeyed may therefore save some valuable lives,
1
‘ ] ; : ;
Massacre by Natives of Vancouver’s Island. 315
lives, while it must prove highly interesting to our readers. A large vessel called the Tonquin was fitted out last year by the Pacific Ocean Fur Company established at New York, and dispatched with a valuable cargo for Astoria, the Company’s settlement in the northern regions of Ame- rica. The Tonguin it would appear, after landing the cargo intended for Astoria, departed on’ a trading voyage to the coast north of Columbia river, with a company (in- cluding officers) of 23 men, and had proceeded about 400 miles along the seaboard, when they stopped on Vancou- ver’s island at a place called Woody Point, inhabited by a powerful nation called Wake-a-nin-ishes. These people “came on board to barter their furs for merchandise, and conducted themselves in the most decorous and friendly manner during the first day; but the same evening informa- tion was brought on beard by an Indian whom the officers had as interpreter, that the tribe where they then lay were ill disposed, and intended’ attacking the ship next day. Captain Jonathan Thorne affected to disbelieve this piece of news ; and even when the savages came next morning, in great numbers, it was only at the pressing remonstrance of Mr. M‘Kay that he ordered seven men aloft to loosen the sails. In the mean time about 50 Indians were permitted to come on board, who traded a number of sea otters for blankets and knives; the former they threw into their canoes as svon as received, but secreted the knives. Every one when armed moved from the quarter deck to a different part of the vessel, so that by the time they were ready, in such a manner were they distributed that at least three Savages were opposite every man of the ship, and at a signal given they rushed on their prey, and notwithstanding the brave resistance of every individual of the whites, they were all butchered in a few minutes. The men above, in attempting to descend, lost two of their number, besides one mortally wounded, who, notwithstanding his weakened condition, made good his retreat with the four others to the cabin ; where finding a quantity of loaded arms, they fired on their savage assailers through the skylights and coms panion way, which had the effect of clearing the ship in a short time, and long before night these five intrepid sons of America were again in full possession of her. Whether from want of abilities, or strength, supposing themselves unable to take the vessel back to Columbia, it cannot be ascertain- ed: thus far only is known, that between the time the In- dians were driven from the ship and the following morning, the four who were unhurt left her in the long boat in ‘aig 0
316 Earthquake in. the Island of Teneriffe.
of regaining the river, wishing to take along with them the wounded person; who refused their offer, saying that he must die before long, and was as well in the vessel as else- where.
Soon after sunrise she was surrounded by an immense number of Indians in canoes, come for the express purpose of unloading her, but who, from the warm reception they met with the day before, did not seem to vie with each other in boarding.
The wounded man showed himself over the railing, making signs that he was alone, and wanted their assistance; on which some embarked ; who finding what he said was true, spoke to their people, who were not any longer slow in get- ting on board, so that in a few seconds the deck was con- siderably thronged, and they proceeded to undo the hatches without further ceremony.
No sooner were they completely engaged in thus finish- ing this most diabolical of actions, than the ouly survivor
‘of the crew descended into the cabin, and set fire to the magazine containing nearly nine thousand pounds of gun- powder, which in an instant blew the vessel and every one on board to atoms.
The nation acknowledge their having lost nearly one hundred warriors, besides a vast number wounded by the explosion, who were in canoes round the ship. Itis im- possible to tell who the person was that so completely avenged himself: but there cannot exist a single doubt that the act will teach these villains better manners, and will eventually be of immense benefit to the coasting trade.
Tbe four men who set off in the long boat were, two or three days after, driven ashore in a gale and massacred,
Saturday, the 18th of September, at half-past 11 o’clock A.M. an earthquake was felt throughout the island of Te- neriffe. It lasted three quarters of a minute. No very great damage was done.’: The houses perceptibly waved, many walls were cracked, buildings twisted, and parts of cielings broken in. Two slight shocks were felt, after on the same day ;—not any the foilowing ; but two very slight the next. It evidently went in the direction from the Peak. No volcano was discovered within five days in consequence of it. Chaldon, a small village of Grand Canary, about twelve leagues from Palermo, the capital, was destroyed ; the inhabitants escaped, about seven or eight hundred of them. At Lagona, the capital of Teneriffe, a steeple of the cathedral fell; also one at Polma, in Grand Canary—two officiating
priests
¥
a
—— a
= Ts
Extraordinary Fresh of the Mississippi. 317
priests were killed, and the bishop severely hurt. A rent remained in the cathedral of Onatavo, in Teneriffe, large enough for a man and horse to pass through.—A report is, that a volcano appeared at Hicra, one of the small islands. The shock was felt on the water, and in all theislands. At Ycod el Aleo, Teneriffe, the mast of a large vessel, with rigging attached to it, branded “ United states,” has been thrown up by the sea.
A newspaper contains the following account of an extra- ordinary fresh, as it is termed in the transatlantic world, ef the river Mississippi last summer.
New York, August 3.
A letter from an officer of the United States army, dated at Natchez, the 28th of June 1813, states, that the 3d regt. had been ordered to ascend the Misssissippi, and join Gen. Harrison; and that the river had not been so high as it then was for 25 or 50 years.—He-then gives the following me- lancholy description of the effect of the rise of the river :— «¢ The water has broken over the levels and inundated the country on the west side, to the high ground, more than 40 miles. The beautiful and bighly cultivated country contiguous to Red River is now an ocean.—The crops are destroyed, and there is great destruction by drowning of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, and deer. Winthrop Sargent, Esq. (a gentleman whom you know) has lost 400 head of catile—others 2 or 300. The loss of neat cattle is esti- mated at 20,000 head. Every little spot of bare ground is crowded with animals of every description. It is common to find 15 or 20 deers intermixed with cattle ; and they have become ‘as domesticated as the cattle themselves. The water has been falling for several days, but has not yet low- ered more than two feet.—The waters of the Mississippi are already sensibly affected both in taste and smell, by the dead animals, and the putrefaction of vegetable substances. I hope it will not be the hard fate of our regiment to perform a ninety-day’s voyage in these waters ;.I should much prefer a march through the wilderness.”
METALLIC OXIDES PRODUCED BY ELECTRICITY.
The experiments of Van Marum and Cuthbertson have shown that very beautiful figures are produced on paper by the electrical oxidation of various metals when exploded in the state of wire. These figures cannot be well represented by engravings, and Mr. Singer has consequently proposed to illustrate a few copies of his * Elements of Electricity,” with real specimens of the oxides, struck by the aid. of his
powerful
318 LElectricity.—Minerals.—List of Patents.
powerful apparatus, and extensive batteries. Those who desire such copies, may secure them by transmitting their names to Mr. Singer at an early period.
M. Geisecké, the celebrated mineralogist, arrived lately at Edinburgh, Frat Greenland, on his return to Copenhagen, after a residence of seven years and a half in the country; during which time he examined the whole line of coast from Cape Farewell to 76 deg. of north latitude. He has brought with him a fine collection of minerals, among which are many totally unknown to the mineralogists of Europe. He proposes to publish an account of his stay in Greenland, which the scientific world will look for with great anxiety. Pica
A third edition, with additions, is now in the press, of 2 work entitled ‘* Observations on the Brumal Retreat of the Swallows, with a copious Index to passages relating to this Bird in ancient and modern Authors.” “By ii arpa F.LS&:
LIST OF PATENTS FOR NEW INVENTIONS.
To Jacob Brazill, of Great Yarmouth, in the county of Norfolk, for his machine for working capstans and pumps on board ships. —4th September 1813.—2 months.
To Frank Parkinson, of the town of Kingston-upon- Hall, for his still and boiler for preventing accidents by fire, and for-preserying spirits and other articles from waste in the operation of distilling aud boiling.—4th September. —2 months.
To John Westwood, of Sheffield, in the county of York, artist, and general manufacturer, for embossing ivory by pressure.—4th Sept.—2 months.
To Henry Liston, clerk, minister of the parish of Eccles- machan, in the county of Linlitheow, for certain improve- ments upon the plough.—23d Sept.—6 months.
To Henry Osborn, of Whitmore House, in the county of Warwick, tor bis method of making tools for tapering of cylinders ‘66 different descriptions, made of iron, steel, metal, or mixture of metals ; and also for aed bars of iron, steel: metal, or mixture of metals. —15th Oct.—2 mo.
To Bebertson Buchuten: of the city of Glasgow, civil engineer, for his certain improvements in the means of propelling vessels, boats, barges, and rafts, which may also be applied to the moving of “water-wheels and wind- mills, the raising of water, the dredging, cleansing, or deepening of rivers and harbours, and the impelling of other ma- chinery.—18th Oct.—2 months,
Meteore-
————
Meteorology. 319
Meteorological Olservaiions made at Tunbridge Wells, from August 22 to 24, 1813.
August 29.—Heavy cumulostratus, with cold northerly wind jollowed by rai in the evening, and clear star-light night. I noticed a falling star inclined to the earth in the direction of the wind.
August 23.—Rather warmer again ; sinhpaeeiters and other clouds. Wind NW. Clear nace and yellow haze, afterwards clouds.
August 24 *.—Fine warm day, with cumuli and cumulo- siratt. Sea breeze about four o’clock.
Meteorological Observations made at Clapton in Hackney, Srom the 25th of August to the 2d of September 1813.
August 25.—Fair day, with cumudi, &c. coloured clouds at sunset; haze reddish.
August 26.—Much cumulostratus through the dav; by night the snapping or cracking of the wicks of the candles indicated rain next day.
August 27.—Rain came on in gentle showers from the northward in the wind. Therm. at 11 P.M. 54°. Barom. 30. 35. Owls both hoot and screech by night.
August 23.—Fair with clouds and cold wind from NE.
August 29.—Various cumuli and scud early ; afterwards showers. Wind easterly.
August 30.—Cumulostratus prevailed through the day ; cool easterly wind, and unwholesome kind of weather.
August a1e2fair with large cumuli ; wind easterly: the stars did not shine partic larly clear by night, and the moon was hazy. Owls hoot and screech.
Sept. 1. Warmer air again; through the day a veil of cloud obscured the sky, beneath which were cumuli of rain- Jike appearance; the cloudiness increased and rain came on at night with falling Barometer. Wind easterly. The owls both hoot and screech notwithstanding the darkness and rain; spiders appear on the walls of the house more than il and there are other signs of rainy weather.
Sept. 2.—Fair warm morning, with gentle S wind; a thickness and reddish colour of the sky with clouds came on about eight in the morning, followed by gentle showers ; afterwards rain with a NW wind; but a warm and _ fair evening tollowed ; reddish and dim haze above the sunset.
Clapton, Sept. $, 1813, THOMAS Forster.
* Observation this day made at Brighthelmstone.
METEORQ-
320 Meteorology: METEOROLOGICAL TABLE, By Mr. Cary, oF THE STRAND, For October 1813. Thermometer. one EM ETS ws agen we OL ~~ .| Heightof |% %5 ares S| § 8.8. the Hargeiy on 8 Weather. 9 s| & |2e] Inches. | £2 b 2s ake og > « S ast Sept. 27] 52 | 63 | 52 | 30:06 47 Fair 28} 55 | 60 | 49 01 40 |Cloudy 29) 50 | 57 | 50 20 33 |Cloudy 30) 54 | 58 | 46 19 37. |Fair Oct. 1| 46 | 58 | 48 | 29°82 40 |Fair 2| 48 | 55 | 50 74 30 |Cloudy 3] 54 | 61 | 54 80 36 |Fair 4 51 | 55 | 56 76 Oo |Rain 5| 57 | 63 | 59 82 35 \Fair 6| 59 | 62 | 58 79 32 |Fair 7| 62 | 62 | 55 56 Oo {Rar 8} 52 | 59 | 59 62 0 jRain 9| 57 | 64 | 54 51 48 |Fair 10) 54 | 61 | 51 46 36 |Showery 11) 51 | 56 | 49 30 10 |Stormy 12) 47 | 56 | 55 79 32 |Showery 13) 56 | 54 | 39 60 32 |Cloudy 14| 39 | 50 | 42 63 44 |Fair 15] 45 | 52 | 44 46 0 (Stormy 16] 44 | 42 | 45 *20 26 |Cloudy 17} 50 | 55 | 41 | 28-70 30 |Stormy 18} 39 | 47 | 38 | 29°50 33 (Fair 19} 33 | 47 | 41 70 30 ‘|Fair 20] 42 | 51 | 50 "60 27 «|Cloudy 21| 49 | 54 | 47 61 Oo |Rain 22) 514 | 57 | 52 80 36 |Fair 23) 54 | 52 | 51 98 21 |Cloudy 24) 53 | 54 | 47 94 15 |Cloudy 25| 47 | 50 | 43 “89 27 «| Fair 26} 39 | 46 | 40 | 30°15 30. |Fair
N.B. The Barometer’s height is taken at one o'clock,
a
[ 321 ]
LIII. Some further Observations on a new detonating Sub- stance. Ina Letter to the Right Honourable Sir JosEPH Banks, Bart. K.B. P.R.S. By Si Humrury Davy; 22.0. BRS. Ger. BL
Berkeley-Square, June 20, 1813.
My Dear Sirgtl HAVE already described, in a letter which you were so good as to communicate to the Royal Society, a few facts respecting a new detonating compound. I shall now do myself the honour of mentioning to you some other particulars on the subject.
I received, in April, a duplicate of the letter in which the discovery was announced, containing an Appendix, in which the method of preparing it was described, M. Ampere, my correspondent, states that the author obtained it by passing a mixture of azote and chlorine through aqueous solutions of sulphate or muriate of ammonia. [t is obvious, from this statement, that the substance discovered in France, is the same as that which occasioned my accident. The azote cannot be necessary ; for the result is obtained by the ex- posure of pure chlorine to any common ammioniacal salt.
Since I recovered the use of my eyes, I have made many experiments on this compound; it is probable that most of them have been made before in France; but as no accounts of the investigations of M. Dulong on the substance have appeared in any of the foreign journals which have reached this country, and as some difference of opinion and doubts exist respecting its composition, I conceive a few details on its properties and nature will not be entirely devoid of in- terest.
I have been able to determine its specific gravity, I hope, with tolerable precision, by comparing its weight at 61° Fahrenheit, with that of an equal volume of water. 8°6 grains of the compound, carefully freed from the saline 8o- Jution in which it was produced, filled a space equal to that filled by 5°2 grains of water, consequently its specific gra= vity is 1°653.
When the compound is cooled artificially, either in water or in solution of nitrate of ammonia, the fluid surrounding it congeals at a temperature a little below 40° Fahrenheit, which seems to be owing to its becoming a solution of chlo- rine; for, as I have stated in a paper published in the Phi- josophical Transactions, the saturated solution of chlorine in water freezes very readily. The congelation of the fluid, in contact with the new compound, led me, when I first
* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, part ii.
Vol, 42. No. 187. Nov. 1613. x operated
322 Further Observations
operated on it in very small quantities, to suppose it readily rendered solid by cooling ; but I find in experimenting upon it, ont of the contact of water, that it is not frozen by ex- posure to a mixture of ice and muriate of lime.
The compound gradually disappears in water, producing azote, and the water becomes acid, and has the taste and smell of a weak solution of nitro-muriatic acid.
The compound, when introduced into concentrated solu- tion of muriatic acid, quickly resolves itself into gas, pro- ducing much more than its own weight of elastic fluid, which proves to be pure chlorine, and the solution evapo- rated affords muriate of ammonia.
In concentrated nitric acid it afforded azote.
In diluted sulphuric acid it yielded a mixture of azote and oxygen.
It detonated in strong solutions of ammonia. In weak solutions it produced azote.
It united to or dissolved in sulphurane, phosphorane, and alcohol of sulphur, without any violence of action, and dis- solved in moderately strong solution of fluoric acid, giving it the power of acting upon silver.
When it was exposed to pure mercury, out of the contact of water, a white powder and azote were the results.
The first attempt that I made to determine the composi- tion of the detonating substance, after my accident, was by raising it in vapour in exhausted vessels, and ‘then decom- posing it by heat; but in experiments of this kind, even though the whele of the substance was expanded into elastic matter, yet the vessel was often broken by the ex- plosion, and in several instances violent detonations oc- curred during the process of exhaustion, probably from the contact of the vapour of the substance with the oil used in the pump.
In the only instance in which I was able to examine the products of the explosion of the substance in an exhausted vessel, no muriatic acid or water was formed, and chlorine and azote were produced; but it was impossible to form any correct opinion concerning the proportions of the gaseous matter evolved, as an unknown quantity of com- mon air must have remained mixed with the vapour in the vessel, :
The action of mercury on the compound appeared to offer a more correct and less dangerous mode of attempting its analysis; but on introducing two grains under a glass tube filled with mercury and inverted, a violent detonation occurred, by which I was slightly wounded in the ya and
ands,
on a new detonating Substance. 323
hands, and should have been severely wounded, had not my eyes and face been defended by a plate of glass attached to a proper cap, a precaution very necessary in all investiga- tions of this body.
In using smaller quantities and recently distilled mercury, I obtained the resulis of the experiments, without any vio- lence of action; and though it is probable that some acci- dental circumstance might have occasioned the explosion of the two grains, yet 1 thought it prudent, in my subse- quent experiments, to employ quantities which, in case of detonation, would be insufficient to do any serious mis- chief.
In the most accurate experiment that I made, ,2,ths of a grain of the compound produced, by its action upon mer- cury, 49 grain measures of azote. I collected the white powder which had been formed in this and other operations of the same kind, and exposed it to heat. [It sublimed un- altered, withuut giving off any elastic or fluid matter, which there is the greatest reason to believe would not have hap- pened, if the compound had contained hydrogen, or oxy- gen, or both. The sublimed substance had the properties of a mixture of corrosive sublimate and calomel.
If the results of this experiment be calculated upon, it must be concluded that the compound consists of 57 of azote to 643 of chlorine in weight, or 19 to 81 in volume; but this quantity of azote is probably less than the true pros portion, as there must have been some loss froin evapora- tion, during the time the compound was transferred, and it is possible that a minute quantity of it may have adhered to mercury not immediately within the tube.
The decomposition in this process is very simple, and must be supposed to depend merely upon the attraction of the mercury for chlorine, in consequence of which the azote is set free ; and if the result does not strictly demon- strate the proportions of chlorine and azote in the come pound, yet it seems at least to show, that these are its only constituents.
As muriate of ammonia and chlorine are the only pro- ducts resulting from its action upon solution of muriatie acid, it seems reasonable to infer, that this action depends on a decomposition of part of the muriatic acid, by the at- traction of the new compound for hydrogen to form am- monia, which, at the moment of its production, combines with another portion of the acid, the chlorine of both com- pounds being set free.
On this view, the quantity of chlorine formed from @
x2 certaig
324 Further Observations .
certain quantity of the compound being known, it becomes easy to determine the composition of the compound ; for, ammonia being formed of three volumes of hydrogen and one of azote, and muriatic acid of one volume of hydrogen and one of chlorine, it is evident, that for every three volumes of chlorine evolved by the decomposition of muriatic acid, one volume of azote must be detached fromthe compound ; and the weight of chlorine in the compound must be less than the weight of the whole quantity of chlorine produced by a portion, which is to the azote in the compound as 295 to 2295, if the relative specific gravities of the two gases be considered as 2-697 and 1.
Two grains of the compound, when exposed at the tem- perature of 62° Fahrenheit, and under a pressure of the at- mosphere equal to that of 30°1 inches of mercury to strong solution of muriatic acid in a proper apparatus, afforded 3°91 cubic inches of chlorine.
In another experiment, one grain of the compound af- forded 1°625 cubic inch of chlorine.
In a third experiment, one grain produced only 1°52 cu- bic inch.
In the two last experiments the compound was acted upon much more slowly, and the gas generated exposed to a much larger surface of solution of muriatic acid, and the appearance of a smaller relative proportion of chlorine must be ascribed to the absorption of a larger proportion of that gas by the liquid acid; and I found by exposing concen- trated solution of muriatic acid to chlorine, that it soon. absorbed nearly its volume of that gas.
I attempted to remove the source of error in the experi- ment, by using liquid muriatic acid holding chlorine in so- lution; but in this case the quickness of the action of the compound on the acid was greatly diminished; and it not being easy to obtain the point of absolute saturation of the acid with chlorine, some of the gas was absorbed in the nascent state during its slow production ; and in most of my experiments made in this manner, I obtained less chlo- rine from a given weight of the compound, than in operat- ing on pure solution of muriatic acid.
Liquid muriatic acid, whether concentrated or diluted in its pure state, does not affect the colour of the sulphuric solution of indigo; but it, is immediately destroyed by so- lutions containing chlorine dissolved in them. The quan- tity of solution of indigo, which is deprived of colour by a given quantity of solution of chlorine, is directly as the proportion of chlorine it contains; and I found that the
same
on a new detonating Substance. 325
same quantity of chlorine, whether dissolved in a large or a small quantity of solution of muriatic acid, destroyed: the colour of the same quantity of the blue liquor.
On this circumstance it was easy to found a method of determining the precise quantity of chlorine produced in solution of muriatic acid, from a given quantity of the compound ; namely, by comparing the power of a given quantity of muriatic acid, containing a known quantity of chlorine, to destroy the colour of solutions of indigo, with that of the muriatic acid, in which the compound had pro- duced chlorine. ¥
Two experiments were made. In the first, a grain of the compound was exposed on a large surface beneath a tube inverted in about six cubic inches of solution of mu- riatic acid, and the chlorine absorbed by agitation as it was formed. The acid so treated destroyed the colour of seven cubic inches of a diluted sulphuric solution of indigo; and it was found, by several comparative trials, that exactly the -same effect was produced in another equal portion of the same solution of indigo, by 2°2 cubic inches of chlorine dissolved in the same quantity of muriatic acid.
In the second experiment, 1°3 cubic inch of chlorine was evolved in the gaseous form, the thermometer being at 58°, and barometer at 30°33, and suffered to pass into the atmosphere; and by the test of the solution of indigo, it was found that *75 of a cubic inch remained dissolved in the acid.
Now, if the mean of these two experiments be taken, it appears that 1°61 grain of chlorine are produced in solu- tion of muriatic acid by the action of a grain of the come pound ; and calculating on the data just now referred to, the compound must consist of 91 of chlorine and nine of azote in weight, which in volume will be nearly 119 to 30; and this estimation differs as little as might be expected from that gained by the action of mercury upon the com- pound,
It may fairly be concluded, that M. Gay-Lussac’s prin- ciple of the combination of gaseous bodies, in definite volumes, strictly applies to this compound, and that it really consists of four volumes of chlorine to one of azote ; and the volumes likewise exactly coincide with the laws of definite proportions ; and the detonating compound may be regarded as composed of one proportion of azote 26, and four proportions of chlorine 261. ’
_ TL attempted a comparative experiment on the proportions in the compound, by estimating the quantity of azote pro- X 3 duced
826 Observations on a new detonating Substance.
duced in the decomposition of ammonia by it; but I found that this process was of no vaiue for the purpose of ana- lysis, for water appeared to be decomposed at the same time with the ammonia, and nitric acid formed; and, in conse- quence, the quantity of azote evolved was much less than it would have been, supposing the ammonia decomposed by the mere attraction of chlorine for hydrogen.
The results of the analysis of the new compound are in- teresting for several reasons. ‘
They show, what seemed probable from other facts, that there is no strict Jaw of analogy, which regulates the com- binations of the same substance with different substances. As three of hydrogen combine with one of azote, and one of hydrogen with one of chlorine, I thought it probable that the new compound wotld contain three of chlorine to one of azote; which is not the case.
This compound is the first instance known of one pro- portion of a substance uniting to four proportions of an- other substance, without some intermediate compound of 1 and 1, 1 and 2, and 1 and 3; and the fact should render us cautious in adopting hypothetical views of the composi- tion of bodies from the relations of the quantities in which they combine. Those who argue that there must be one proportion of oxygen in azote, because there ought to be Six proportions in nitric acid, instead of five, which are pro- duced from it by analysis, might with full as much pro- priety contend, that there must be azote in chlorine in some simple multiple of that existing in the compound.
It may be useful to show, that manv hypotheses may be framed upon the same principles ; and which, consequently, must be equally uncertain. Views of this nature may be im- portant in directing the practical chemist in bis researches ; but the philosopher should carefully avoid the development of them with confidence, and the confounding them with practical results.
The compound of chlorine and azote agrees with the compounds of the same substance with sulphur, phosphorus, and the metals, in being a non-conductor of electricity; and these compounds are likewise decomposable by heat, though they require that of Voltaic electricity.
Sulphur combines only in one proportion with chlorine 5 and hence the action of sulphurane, or Dr. Thomson’s muriatic liquor upon water, like that of the new compound, is not a simple phenomenon of double decomposition.
It seems proper to designate this new body by some name: azotane is the term that would be applied to it, ac-
cording
On anew systematic Arrangement of Colours. 327
cording to my ideas of its analogy to the other bodies which contain chlorine; but I am not desirous, in the pre- seni imperfect and fluctuating state of chemical nomencla- ture, to press the adoption of any new word, particularly as applied to a substance not discovered by myself. I am, my dear sir, very sincerely yours, Humeury Davy.
LIV. Ona new systematic Arrangement of Colours. By T. Forster, Esq.
To Mr. Tilloch.
S1r,— Since my communication on the subject of a more perfect nomenclature and classification of colours, I have met with Mr. Sowerby’s work on Colours, and have had some conversation with the author on this subject. He expressed his opinion to me that such a nomenclature might be formed as I have hinted at in my paper; namely, one which should express their varieties by reference to the pro-
portions of the primitive colours which made up each of
the compounds.
According to the most recent theory, there are only three primitive colouys, each of which is distinct from the other two, and none of which can be artificially made by any compound of other colours; they are, for example, the red, the blue, and the yellow of the prism. The pri- mitive red should be distinguished from all other reds, as the latter are mixtures of the former, with some proportions of one or other of the remaining colours. The same ob- servation holds good with respect to the primitive yellow and blue. In the formation of different colours, the pri- mitive colours are mixed either in binary or ternary com- pounds.
The binary compounds are: Firstly, the combinations of red and yellow, which, according to the proportion in which they are combined, make all those varieties between red and yellow, which, when mixed in pretty equal quantities, are called orange colour. Secondly, the combinations of red and blue, which make all the crimsons, lake colours and purples. And lastly, the combinations of yellow and blue, making all the varieties of green.
The ternary compounds are the browns, various, indeed, according to difference of the proportions. Accordingly as one or theother preponderates, it will bea blueish, a reddish, or
X 4 a yellowish
~
£28 Ona new systematic Arrangement of Colours.
a yellowish brown; if blue and yellow preponderate, a greenish or olive brown, ,
Though, at first view of the subject, it seems difficult to reconcile this theory with the numerous tints displayed on the surfaces of different bodies ; yet experiments seem to warrant the notion, that all the tints in nature are com- pounds of these primitive colours, varied in the way I have described. To construct a nomenclature to express these said proportions, we must first get an idea of the proportions themselves which are requisite to produce given com- pound colours. This may, I think, be done in some mea- sure by mixing together repeatedly different liquors coloured with the primitive colours; and which were known to haye no such chemical action on each other by mixture, as should destroy the result of the compound by producing a different colour the result of chemical changes in the mixed liquid. Prismatic mixtures might be made the criterion, whether the colour resulting from the liquid mixtures were the genuine effects of the compound of eolour; or whether chemical changes in the substance had not given one something different.
Having hinted, as above, at the manner in which a more correct nomenciature for colours might be formed by an analysis of the proportions of the primitive colours in the compounds ; and having before spoken of amode of forming a more useful classification for common purposes, by reference to specific flowers, as affording standard colours; I shall conclude with exposing the inexplicit nature of our present names, by an etymological inquiry into their true import. And first of the primitive colours.
Yettow. This word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon verb zee!zan, accendere, to inflame, and signifies the colour of flame, which is a sort of a yellowish colour, In like manner the Latin flammeus, as well as flavus, come from $Asyza, flame, from gaeye. The Italian giallo, and French jaune, seem to have had a comes mon origin with yellow.
Rep. However the real difference between red and yellow may be demonstrated by a prism, I suspect the ety-. mology expresses no difference. The etymology of the word seems doubtful. Horne Tooke has omitted it in his etymological account of colours in the Diver- sions of Purley. I suspect, however, it may have some connection with the word ray, and expresses the ful
Out.
On a new systematic Arrangement of Colours. 329
lour of the sun’s rays. In this sense, it has the same
real import as yellow. The Anglo-Saxon word is
pead. The Latin rubere, whence ruber and rufer, was sometimes used simply for splendescere, to shine.
BLveE. This word seems to come from blopan, florere, to blow as a flower does, and signifies the colour of flowers; certainly the most indefinite of all our names for colours.
I next proceed to the compounds ; and first the bi- naries.
Gren is derived from the Anglo-Saxon verb zepenman or zpenmian, virescere. In like manner the Latin virere gave the adjective viridis.
PurpPLe. This word, commonly used in modern times for the mixture of red and blue, is derived from the Latin purpureus; and signifies only flame-coloured, from zip, fire. The word is variously applied by the Romans to substances differing essentially in colour: They used also many other indefinite words for this kind of colour, as ostreus, phoenicius (i.e. color pal- mule) &c. Certain varieties of this binary are ex- pressed by the words crimson, pink, lake, &c.
Oranee. We haveno name for this third binary, but such as has reference to the colours of specific bodies, as orange; or such as represent the compound, as yeé- lowish red.
The ternary only remains to be spoken of, and
Brown is a corruption of the past participle of the Anglo- Saxon verb bpennan, urere, to burn; and signifies the colour of burnt substances; having etymologically no distinction between it and ash colour. In like man- ner the Latin fuscus comes from guoxew, ustulare, as noticed by Tooke; and has the same real meaning, as well as the same application, as brown. Query, Whence come fulvus and aquilus ?
Wuire comes from OAWGAN spumare.
Our word Gray is derived from zepegnian, inficere, mean- ing the colour of tainted, infused, or damaged arti- cles, and is most properly used when applied to mre tures, which appear as if tainted or tinged with foreign colours, as the salt and pepper mixtures, &c.
The dilutions of yellow by white are called straw colour.
Brack has probably the same root as d/eak, perhaps from blecan, and signifies deprived of colour; and the binary carroty and sandy ; together with olive, vermi- lion, violet, rose-colour, lilac, cherry-colour, horn-
colour,
330 Olservations relative to
colour, are obvious; as are the Latin luteus, cinereus, ceeruleus, glaucus, prasinus, aureus, violaceus, and many others. I shall dismiss this subject at prescnt, hoping that it may be pursued till we have a more expressive and complete set of names, &c. I remain yours, &c. Clapton, Nov. 1, 1813. THOMAS FORSTER.
LV. Observations relative to the near and distant Sight of different Persons. By James Ware, Esq. F.R.S.*
Tus fact that near-sightedness most commonly com- mences at an early period of life, and distant-sightedmess generally at an advanced age, is universally admitted. Ex- ceptions, however, to these rules so frequently occur, that T flatter myself a brief statement of some of the coincident circumstances attendant on these different imperfections in vision, may not be found wholly undeserving the atten- tion of the Royal Society. Near-sightedness usually comes on between the ages of ten and eighteen. The discovery of it most commonly arises from accident; and, at first, the inconvenience it occasions is so little, that it is not impro- bable the imperfection would remain altogether unnoticed, if a comparison were not instituted with the sight of others, or if the experiment were not made of looking through a concave glass. Among persons in the inferior stations of society, means are rarely resorted to for correcting slight defects of this nature ; and, indeed, I have reason to be- lieve the imperfection in such people is not unfrequently overcome by the increased exertions that are made by the eye to distinguish distant objects. This, however, is not the case, in the present day, with persons in the bigher ranks of life. When these discover that their discernment of distant objects is less quick or less correct than that of others, though the difference may be very slight, in- fluenced perhaps by fashion move than by necessity, they immediately have recourse to a concave glass ; the natural consequence of which is, that their eyes in a short time be- come so fixed in the state requiring its assistance, that the recovery of distant vision is rendered afterwards extremely difficult, if not quite impossible. With regard to the pro- portion between the number of near-sighted persons in the different ranks of society, I have taken pains to obtain sa-
* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, part i. tisfactory
ee
the near and distant Sight of different Persons. 331
tisfactory information, by making inquiry in those places where a large number in these several classes are associated together. I have inquired, for instance, of the surgeons of the three regiments of foot guards, which consist of nearly ten thousand men; and the result has been, that near- sightedness, among ‘the privates, is almost utterly unknown. Not half a dozen men have been discharged, nor half a dozen recruits rejected, on account of this imperfection, in the space of nearly twenty years: and yet many parts of a soldier’s duty require him to have a tolerably correct view of distant objects; as of the movements of the fugle- man in exercise, and of the bull’s eye when shooting at the target; the want of which might furnish a_ plausible apology for a skulker to skreen himself from duty, or to get his discharge from the service. I pursued my inquiries at the military schoo] at Chelsea, where there are thirteen hundred children, and I found that the complaint of near- sightedness had never been made among them until I men- tioned it; and there were then only three who experienced the least inconvenience from it. After this, | inquired at several of the colleges in Oxford and Cambridge; and, though there is a great diversity in the number of students who make use of glasses in the various colleges, they are used by a considerable proportion of the whole number in both universities; and, in one college in Oxford, I bave a list of the names of not Jess than thirty-two out of one hundred and twenty-seven, who wore either a hand glass or spectacles, between the years 1803 and 1807. It is not ‘improbable, that some of these were induced to do it solely because the practice was fashionable; but, I believe, the number of such is inconsiderable, when "compared with that of those whose sight received some small assistance from them, though this assistance could have been dis= pensed with, without inconvenience, if the practice had not been introduced. The misfortune resulting from the use of concave glasses is this, that the near- sightedness is not only fixed by it, but a habit of inquiry is induced with re- gard to the extreme perfection of vision; and, in conse- quence of this, frequent changes are made for glasses that are more and more concave, until at length the near- sightedness becomes so considerable, as to be rendered se- riously inconvenient and afflicting. It should be remem- bered, that, for common purposes; every near-sighted eye gan see with nearly equal accuracy through two glasses, one of which is one number deeper than the other; and though the sight be ina slight degree more assisted by the
deepest
332 Observations relateve to.
deepest of these than by the other, yet on its being first used, the deepest number always occasions an uneasy sen- sation, as if the eye was strained. If, therefore, the glass that is most concave be at first employed, the eye, in a Jit- tle time, will be accommodated to it, and then a glass one number deeper may be used with similar advantage to the sight; and if the wish for enjoying the most perfect vision be indulged, this glass may soon be changed for one that is a number still deeper, and so in succession, unti] at length it will be difficult to obtain a glass sufficiently concave to afford the assistance that the eye requires *.
Although near-sightedness is in gencral gradual in its progress, instances occasionally occur of its existence, in a considerable degree, even in children; in whom it is some- times discovered almost as soon as they begin to take notice of the objects around them. This may be occasioned by some degree of opacity in the transparent parts of the eye; but such a cause of near-sightedness is easily discovered by an examination, and is quite different from that state of the eye to which the term myopia, or near-sighteduess, is usually applied; by which is simply meant, too great a convexity either in the cornea or in the crystalline, in pro- portion to the distance of these parts from the retina. In such cases of extreme near-sightedness in children, it is sometimes necessary to deviate from a rule, which in slighter cases I always follow, of discouraging the ase of spectacles 5 since, without their assistance, it would be impossible for them to prosecute their learning with ease or convenience.
Extreme near-sightedness is sometimes occasioned by an evident change in the spherical figure of the cornea, and its assumption of a conical shape. This morbid state of the cornea is not only productive of near-sightedness, but, when the projection is considerable, vision 1s so much con- fused, that it affurds little or no service, and cannot be amended by any glass. The cornea, in most of these cases, is preternaturally thin, and not unfrequently it is accom- panied with symptoms of general debility; under which last circumstance chalybeate medicines, and bracing appli- sevice to the eye, have been found to afford considerable
enefit,
* T have observed, that most of the near-sighted persons, with whom I have had an opportunity of conversing, have had the right eye more near- sighted than the left; and I think it not improbable, that this difference be- tween the two eyes has been occasioned by the habit of using a single con- cave hand-glass; which, being most commonly applied to the right eye, contributes, agreeably to the remark above mentioned, to render this eye more near-sighted than the other.
Near-
the near and distant Sight of different Persons. 333
Near-sightedness, to an alarming degree, has sometimes attacked young persons suddenly. A remarkable case of this kind came ander my notice a few years ago in a young gentleman at Westminster school, who had been attended by Sir George Baker and Mr. Sutherland, on account of a variety of anomalous nervous symptoms. These had wholly left him before I was consulted ; and the consultation with me was solely for the purpose of determining whether he might be permitted to make use of concave glasses, and to return to the business of the school. The patient’s health at that time not being perfectly restored, it was thought adviseable to send him for a few weeks into the country, and to postpone the use of glasses. This advice was fol- lowed; but in ten days the afflicted youth died suddenly. No anatomical examination of the bead was permitted by the relatives. It seems, however, probable, that the near- sightedness, as well as the previous indisposition, no less than the death of the patient, were occasioned by the pres- sure of a morbid substance of some kind or other on the source of the nerves in the brain.
Near-sightedness is seldom alike in the two eyes, anda few cases have come under my observation, in which one eye of the same person has had a near, and the other a distant sight.
It has been said by Dr. Porterfield*, that the pupils of near-sighted persons are more dilated than those of others. This, however, does not accord with the observations I have made in such cases.
It has also been commonly believed, that the size of the pupil is influenced by the distance of the object to which the attention is directed, this aperture being enlarged when the object is far off, and becoming more and more con- tracted as it is brought near. But though the activity of the fibres of the iris is sometimes snfficient to be visibly in- fluenced by this circumstance, yet in the greater number even of those cases where the dilatation and contraction of the pupil are powerfully influenced by a difference in the strength of the light, the distance of the object considered alone, produces so little effect upon it, as to be scarcely perceived. That it has, however, in general, some degree of power on the pupil is highly probable; and an extraor- aor instance of this kind exists, at the present time, in a lady between thirty and forty years of age, the pupil of whose right eye, when she is not engaged in reading, or in working with her needle, is always dilated very nearly to
* Treatise on the Eye and the Manner of Vision, vol. ii. p, 38.
the
334 - Observations relative to
the rim of the cornea; but whenever she looks at a small object, nine inches from the eye, it contracts, within less than a minute, to a size nearly as small as the head of a pin. Her left pupil is not affected like the right; but in every degree of light and distance, it is contracted rather more than is usual in other persons. The vision is not pre- cisely alike in the two eyes; the right eye being in a small degree near-sighted, and receiving assistance from the first number of a concave glass, whereas the left eye derives no benefit from it. This remarkable dilatation of the pupil of the right eye was first noticed about twenty years ago, and a variety of remedies have been employed at different times with a view to correct it; but none of them have made any alteration. It should be mentioned, that, in order to produce the contraction of the pupil, the object looked at must be placed exactly nine inches from the eye ; and if it be brought nearer, it has no more power to pro- duce the contraction than if it were placed at a remoter distance. It should also be mentioned, ‘that the con- tinuance of the contraction of the pupil depends, in some degree, on the state of the lady’s health; since, though its contraction never remains long after the attention is with- drawn from a near object, yet whenever she is debilitated by a temporary ailment, the contraction is of much shorter duration than when her health is entire*.
Dr. Wells, in his ingenious paper, published in the Se- cond Part of the Transactions of the Royal Society for the year 1811, has taken pains to ascertain, whether the power by which the eye is adjusted to see at different distances, depends in any degree on the faculty in the pupil of dilating and contracting ; and whether its fixed dilatation has any influence in preventing an accurate view of near objects. This last-mentioned effect Dr. Wells relates to have taken place remarkably in the case of Dr. Cutting, whose pupil being fixed in a dilated state by the action of the extract of
* Several instances have come under my notice, in which the pupil of one eye has becomedilated to a great degree, and has been incapable of contracting on an increase of light, whilst the pupil of the other eye has remained of its natural size. In some of these, the eye with the dilated pupil has been to- tally deprived of sight, the disorder answering to that of a perfect amaurosis ; but in others, the dilatation of the pupil has only occasioned an inability to distinguish minute objects. Reading has been accomplished with difficulty, and convex glasses have afforded very little assistance. Though objects at a distance were seen with less inconvenience than those that were near, these also appeared to the affected eye much less distinct than to the other. Most of the persons to whom I allude had been debilitated, by fatigue or anxiety, before the imperfection was discovered in the sight; and insome it had been preceded by affections of the stomach and alimentary canal,
belladonna,
the near and distant Sight of different Persons. 335
belladonna, perfect vision of a near object was removed, as the dilatation advanced, from six inches (which was the nearest distance at which Dr. Cutting could distinctly see the image of the flame of a candle reflected from the bulb of a small thermometer) to seven inches in thirty minutes, and to three feet and a half in three quarters of an hour, My eldest son, who has a very extensive range of vision, has made a similar experiment on his right eye with a similar result. Previous to the application of the belladonna, he could bring the apparent lines on an optometer (like that improyed by Dr. Young from the inveution of Dr. Porter- field, and described in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1800) to meet at four inches from the eye; and, by directing his attention to a more distant point, he could prevent them from meeting till they were seven inches from the eye, after which they continued apparently united the whole length of the optometer, which was twelve inches*. He could see the image of a candle reflected from the bulb of a small thermometer, five-sixteenths of an inch in diameter, at the distance of three inches and three quar- ters from the eye ; and he could also see the same image at the distance of two feet seven inches. The belladonna produced a conspicuous dilatation of the pupil in less than an hour; after which, on viewing the apparent lines on the optometer, he was unable to make them meet at a nearer distance than seven inches, or to gain a distinct image of the candle reflected by the bulb of the thermometer nearer than this distance; but he could discern it at two feet ten inches from the eye, which was three inches further than he was able to see it before the belladonna was applied. During the time of the experiment on the right eye, the left eye possessed its usual range of vision ; but the sight, when both eyes were open, was rather confused, in conse- qnence of the unequal foci of the two eyes; and it did not become clear until the pupil of the right eye recovered its usual power of contracting, which power was not acquired till the third day after the applicaticn of the belladonna.
It is remarkable that a different effect is sometimes produced on a near-sighted eye by the application of the belladonna, from that which it has on an eye that enjoys a distant sight. Dr. Wells made an experiment of this kind
* The two lines that are perceived on looking through the slits of an optometer, cross each other precisely in the point from whence the rays of light diverge in order to be brought to a focus on the retina. And their
parent union before and after this point is occasioned by the unavoidable aleitens of the line drawn on the optometer.
on
336 Observations relative to
on a friend of his, who was near-sighted ; and he informs us, in the paper above referred to, that in this instance, the nearest point of perfect vision was moved forwards durin
the dilatation of the pupil, whilst its remote point remained unaltered. I have made a similar experiment on the eyes of several such persons; and though in two of these the result appeared to be similar to that which has been men- tioned by Dr. Wells, yet, in the greater number, their sight, like that of those who were not myopic, has become more distant as the pupil became more dilated.—In one gentleman, in,whom the lines of the optometer appeared to meet at four inches and a quarter from the eye, the pupil, in half an hour after the application of the belladonna, be- came completely dilated, and in consequence of this the sight at first was confused; but both on that day, and for two days afterwards, it was evidently more distant, and the apparent lines on the optometer could not be made to meet nearer than seven inches from the eye.—In a young lady, seventeen years of age, whose right eye was so near-sighted that the apparent lines on the optometer met at two inches and three quarters from the eye, these lines, when the pupil was dilated (which took place in a small degree in Jess than half an hour), could not be made to meet in less than three inches and a quarter; and on the following day, the pupil being more dilated, the lines did not meet till they were at the distance of nearly four inches.—In a third instaiice, viz. that of a lady forty-five years of age, who had been remarkably near-sighted from her infancy, and for many years had used concave glasses of the fifteenth number, (which number is ground on each side, upon a tool the ra- dius of which ts only three inches,) the sight was become so confused in both eyes, that she saw nothing distinctly, and was unable to read letters of the size that are used in the printed Transactions of the Royal Society, either with or without a glass. In this case, after the pupils had been
dilated by the application of the belladonna, the sight was. —
so much improved that she was able to read a print of the abovementioned size at the distance of two inches with either eye. Ido not insist, however, on the present case,
because, though there was not any visible opacity in the _
crystalline, this sometimes exists in a small degree withant being perceptible even to an attentive observer; and it may he doubted whether the amendment in the lady’s vision were not occasioned solely by the retraction of the iris from before a part of the crystalline that was not yet. become opaque: it being well known that the outer part of sat
ens
ee
the near and distant Sight of different Persons. 337
lens not unfrequently retains ils transparency for some time after an opacity has commenced in the part that. surrounds its centre.
It is evident, that near-sightedness has no dependence on the greater or smaller degree of convexity possessed by the cornea, when this circumstance is considered alone; since the length of the axis of the eye from the cornea to the re- tina, and the greater or smaller degree of convexity in the erystalline humour, must be also regarded, before the di- stance of accurate vision can be determined.
It is no less evident, that near-sightedness is not neces- sarily occasioned by a morbid protrusion of the whole eye ; since some persons are born with eyes of this description, and others acquire the peculiarity, when further advanced in life, in consequence of a morbid accumulation of adeps at the bottom of the orbit, without either of them being more near-sighted than those who are free from this im- perfection.
I have seen many instances in which old persons, who have been long accustomed to use convex glasses of considerable power, have recovered their former sight at the advanced age of eighty or ninety years, and have then had no further need of them. Dr. Porterfield was of opinion that in such cases the amendment is occasioned by a decay of adeps at the bottom of the orbit ; in consequence of which the eyes from a want of the usual support behind, is brought, by the pressure of the muscles on its sides, into a kind of oval _ figure, in which state the retina is removed to its due focal distance from the flattened cornea. But if a morbid ab- sorption of adeps at the bottom of the orbit were sufficient to restore the presbyopic to a good sight, it might be ex- pected that a morbid accumulation of adeps in this part would produce a presbyopic or distant sight. This, how- ever, has not happened in any of the cases that have come under my notice. On the contrary, in some such persons a degree of near-sightedness has been induced by the ac-. cumulation ; and in others the sight, with regard to di- stance, has not been affected by it. It appears to me more probable, that this remarkable revolution in the sight of old persons is occasioned by an absorption of part of the vi- treous humour; in consequence of which, the sides of the sclerotica are pressed inward, and the axis of the eye, by this lateral pressure, is proportionably lengthened. An al- teration of this kind is also sufficient to explain the reason, why such aged persons retain the power of distinguishing objects at a distance, at the same time that they recover the
Vol. 42. No, 187. Nov. 1813, © Y faculty
338 Observations relative to
faculty of seeing those that are near ; since the lengthened axis of the eye leaves the power by which it is adjusted to see at different distances, precisely in the same state ir. which it was before the lengthening of the axis took place*.
Although old persons lose the power of distinguishing correctly near objects, and require for this purpose the aid of convex glasses, they usually retain the sight of those that are distant as’ well as when they were young. Is- stances, however, are not wanting of persons advanced in life, who require the aid of convex glasses to enable them to see near as well as distant objects. Dr. Wells is one of these. He informs us, in the paper to which I have more than once adverted, that when twenty years younger, he was able, with his left eye, to bring to a focus on the retina, pencils of rays which flowed from every distance greater than seven inches from the cornea ; but at the age of fifty- five, he required not only a convex glass of six inches focus, to enable him to bring to a point on the retina rays pro- ceeding from an object seven inches from the eye, but like- wise a convex glass of thirty-six inches focus, to enable him to bring to a point parallel rays.—There are also in- stances of young persons, who have so disproportionate a convexity of the cornea or crystalline, or of both, to the distance of these parts from the retina, that a glass of con- siderable convexity is required to enable them to see di- stinctly, not only near objects, but also those that are di- stant ; and it is remarkable, that the same glass will enable many such persons to see both near and distant objects ; thus proving that the defect in their sight is occasioned solely by too small a convexity in one of the parts above mentioned, and that it does not influence the power by which their eyes are adapted to see at distances variously remote. In this respect such persons differ from those who have had the crystalline humour removed by an operation ; since the latter always require a glass to enable them to dis- cern distant objects, different from that which they use to see those that are near. This circumstance, in my appre- hension, affords a convincing proof that the crystalline hu- mour is indispensably necessary to enable the eye to see at different distances.—It is also worthy of remark, that per-
*Dr. Young, inthe paper to which I alluded in page 335, has described a great number of ingenious experiments devised by him, to show that the facuity of seeing at different distances is produced by a power iu the crystal- line humour, to become more or Jess convex, according as the object is more or less distant from the eye.
sons
the near and distant Sight of different Persons. 339,
sons who have had the crystalline humour removed, have less power to ascertain the distance of an object when they look through a convex glass, than when they view it with- out this assistance ; in consequence of which such persons seldom make use of glasses when they are walking: and the inconvenience of glasses is particularly experienced when
they descend a flight of steps, or pass over uneven ground. Near-sighted persons do not appear to possess the same extent of vision that is enjoyed by those who have a distant sight. Being near-sighted, I have repeatedly endeavoured to ascertain my own range of vision: and I find, by ex- amining the focus of my right eye through the abovemen- tioned optometer, that I see two converging lines, which appear to meet, with very slight variations, at the distance of three inches from the eye; and no effort I am able to make can keep these lines united further than the distance of four inches and a quarter. They then separate, and continue to diverge. With my left eye, the lines do not appear to meet nearer than four inches, and they continue united as far as five inches and a quarter, after which they alse. separate and diverge; so that the range of distinct vision in me does not extend further than an inch and a quarter in either eye; and within these distances | always hold a book when I read.—I find also the following rule, for determining the concavity of the glass that 1s best adapted for near-sighted persons, to be perfectly correct with respect to myself, and, I believe, it may be safely adopted by those who, from distance or any other cause, are unable to suit themselves at the shop of an expert opti- cian. The rule isthis. Multiply the distance at which the person reads with ease, (which, with my left or best eye, 1s five inches,) by that at which he wishes to read, which may be said to be twelve inches; divide the product, sixty, by seven, the difference between the two, and it Jeaves nearly nine inches for the focus of the concave glass that shall produce the desired effect. This is the exact concavity of the glass that I am obliged to use, to enable me to read with ease ; and it answers to that sold under the name of No. 6; which, I am informed by Mr. Blunt the optician, is a double concave glass, ground on a tool of eight inches radius on one side, and eleven inches on the other, the mean between which is very nearly nine inches. With a glass of this description I can read the smallest print; but to di- stinguish distant objects I am obliged to look through that denominated No. 9, by opticians, which is ground on a tool of nine inches radius on both sides, In this respect, Y2 my
340 Observations relative to
my eye has varied from what it was a few years ago, when I was able to distinguish both near and distant objects cor- rectly, through No. 8. This is ground to a radius of eight inches on one side, and six inches on the other, and with it I can still read a type like that in which the Transactions of the Royal Society are printed; but am unable to distin-
guish through it many distant ‘objects , which | formerly’
used to see distinctly —Hence it appears that my eyes have
a confined range of distinct vision, extending oniy to an’
inch, or ap ich and a quarter; and that they remain nearly in the same state in which they were many years ago with regard to near objects, but have lost a part of the power which they formerly possessed, of adjusting themselves to distant oncs. In this Jast respect, they differ from the eyes of those who have naturally a distant sight, since, as sucli persons advance in life, they usually feta the power of distinguishing distant objects, but lose that of seeing those that are near. It appears to militate also against the com-
mon observation, that as near-sighted persons grow older
they become less near-sighted ;- since my eyes, on the eon- trary, are more near- -sighted, * the age of fifty-five, than they were at twenty- five, dd lam now obliged to employ deeper concaye glasses than I then used to see distant ob- jects, though I am: not able to see distinctly through them things that are near.
The alteration which ‘has taken place in my range of vi- sion, I have reason to believe is not unusual. Dr. Wells, in his paper on this subdject, mentions the case of a gentle- man, who, like me, was near-sighted, and whose sight, as he advanced in life, had undergone a similar change. —The following is also an instance of this kind, that is still more remarkable. Mr. L. sixty-six years of age, who has spent a great part of his lite in the West Indies, and whose sight, when he was young, enabled him to see both near “aie distant objects with great preci sion, began, at the age of forty, to experience a difficulty in reading and writing. He immediately procured convex spectacles of the first number sold by opticians, which glasses are usually ground to a focus of forty-six or forty- -eivht inches, and by the aid of these he continued to read aud write with ease (distinguish ing perfectly in the usual way all distant objects withont them,) until he was fifty. At this time he first began to perceive an indistinetness in the appearance of things at a distance ; and, on trying with different glasses, he diss covered that, by looking through a double concave glass of the sixth number, (which is > ground to a radius of eight
inches
the near and distant Sight of different Persors. | 341
inches on one side and eleven inches on the other,) he was enabled to see distant objects distinctly... He has continued to use glasses of this description for the purpose of seeing distant objects from that time to the present 5 but is obliged to remove them whenever he reads, and still to employ the first number of a convex glass.—In this instance, a pres- byopic was changed to a myopic sight, without any known efficient circumstance to produce it.—In the two following) eases, a similar change took place; and in them it was at- tributable to known causes. A woman, about fifty years of age, of a full habit, who for several years had been obliged to make use of convex glasses, in order to read a small print, was seized with a dimness in the sight of the right eve, accompanied with a small degree of inflamma- tion. ‘The sight of the left eye having been long imperfect, this affection of the right eye occasioned a great depression of spirits. Recourse was necessarily had to copious evacu- ations, by means of which the inflammation and dimness of sight were soon removed; but afterwards the patient was much’ alarmed on finding that the spectacles she had been accustomed to wear, instead of affording their usual assist~ ance, confused her sight. Upon this discovery, she was induced to look through her husband’s glasses, which, in consequence of his being near-sighted, were double con- caves of the fifth number, and ground to a radius of eleven inches on each side. These did not assist her in looking at near objects, but by their aid she saw much more di- stinctly those that were distant; and, on attempting to read, nothing more was now necessary, than to bring the book a little nearer to her, than she had been previously accustomed to place it.—The second case occurred in a patient about the same age, who, in the course of the last year, was attacked with an inflammation in both eyes. By the use of leeches and cooling medicines, it was speedily removed, and, afterwards, she was much gratified, by find- ing that the necessity for using glasses when she read, which had existed many years, was removed ; and that she could see both near and distant objects correctly, without any extraneous help.. The amendment in this lady’s sight continued, however, only a few weeks; after which she was avain obliged to use the same convex glasses in looking at smal! near ohjects, which she had used before her eyes hecame inflamed.—In addition to these cases, I beg leave to add the information I have received from an eminent mathematical instrament-maker, about fifty years of age, who has long made use of convex glasses to assist his sight
Ys in
342 On the near and distant Sight of different Persons.
in reading. He tells me, that when he has been employed many hours together, for several successive days, in looking through a double microscope that magnifies twenty-eight times, (in order to enable him to mark the degrees on a small brass plate) he has afterwards been able repeatedly for a few weeks, to read without his glasses; but then the amendment gradually ceases, and he is soon obliged to re- turn to the use of the same glasses that he had worn before.
In the instances that have been mentioned, the distant- sightedness affected persons who were considerably adyanced in life: but in the three that follow, a similar affection of the sight occurred in those that were young; and a like good effect was produced by the use of evacuating remedies. One of these was a boy eight years old, who suddenly be- came presbyopic, and had repeatedly been punished at school, on account of his incorrect and defaced wniting ; the real cause of it, at that time, being unknown to his master. After the presbyopia had continued a fortnight, and different local applications had been used, without pro- ducing any sensibly good effects, the lad was cured by the application of leeches to the temples, and the administration of a few purgative medicines. The other instances oc- curred in two daughters of the same family. The eldest, twenty years of age, had never been able to do fine work, and for three years had been greatly assisted by convex spectacles. he youngest, a girl of fifteen, had become presbyopic about a year ago, and since that time had been obliged to use spectacles whenever she read, or worked with her needle. The young person, last mentioned, in the course of six weeks, (during which time she totally abstained from the use of glasses,) was completely relieved from the neces- sity of using them, by the application of two leeches to each temple twice in a week. The former, in the same space of time, experienced much relief from a similar treat- ment, but was still unable to do fine work without glasses, partly in consequence of the long continuance of the in- firmity, and partly on account of her not having abstained with equal steadiness from the occasional use of them.
From the preceding statement, the followiny inferences may be deduced.
First ; near-sightedness is rarely observed in infants, or even in children under ten years of age.. It affects the higher classes of society more than the lower: and the in- stances are few, if any, in which, if the use of concave: glasses has been adopted, increasing years have either re- moved or lessened this imperfection,
Secondly 5
An Appendix to Mr. Ware's Paper on Vision. 343
Secondly ; though the usual effect of time on perfect eyes be that of inducing a necessity to make use of concave glasses, in order to see near objects distinctly, yet some- times even after the age of fifty, and after convex glasses have been used many years for this purpose, the eyes have not only ceased to derive benefit from them, when looking at near objects, but they have required concave classes to enable them to distinguish with precision objects at a di- stance. :
’ Thirdly; though the cause of this change be not always known, yet sometimes it has been induced by the use of evacuating remedies, particularly of ieeches applied to the temples; and sometimes by looking through a microscope, for a continued length of time, in several successive days.
Fourthly ; instances are not uncommon, in which per- sons far advanced in life, (viz. between eighty aud ninety,) whose eyes have been accustomed for a long time to the use of deeply convex glasses, when they have read or written, have ceased to derive benefit from these glasses, and they have become able, without any assistance, to see both near and distant objects almost as well as when they were young. Although it be not easy to ascertain the cause of this amended vision, it seems not improbable that it 1s occa- sioned by an absorption of part of the vitreous humour 5 in consequence of which the sides of the eye collapse, and its axis from the cornea to the retina is lengthened, by which alteration the length of this axis is brought into the same proportion to the flattened state of the cornea or cry- stalline, or both, which it had to these parts before the alteration took place. ;
—$<—$—<—<—$<—$
LVI. An Appendix to Mr. Warx’s Paper on Visions By Sir Cuares BLAGDEN, Pho.
Maz. Wane states in his paper, that near-sightedness comes on most frequently at an early age; that it is more common in the higher than in the lower ranks of life ; and that par- ticularly at the universities, and various colleges, a large proportion of the students make use of concave glasses. ‘All this is exactly true, and to be accounted for by one sin-
le circumstance; namely, the habit of looking at near ob- jects. Children born with eyes which are capable of ad- orting- shepedys? to the most distant objects, gradually ose that power soon after they begin to read and write 5
* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, part i, Y4 those
344 An Appendix to Mr. Ware’s Paper on Vision.
those who are most addicted to study become near-sighted more rapidly ; and, if no means are nsed to counteract the habit, their eyes at length lose irrecoverably the faculry of being brought to the adjustment for parallel rays. OF this I am myself an example; and as I recollect distinctly the progress, it may not be useless to record it here.
When I first learned to read, at the usual ave of four or five years, I could see most distinctly, across a wide church, the contents of a table on which the Lord’s Prayer, and the Belief, were painted in suitably large letters. In a few years, that is, about the ninth or tenth of my age, being much addicted*to books, [ could no longer read what was painted on this table; but the degree of near-sightedness was then so small, that. found a watch-glass, though as a meniscus it made the ravs diverge very little, sufficient to enable me to read the table as before. Ina year or two more, the watch-glass would no longer serve my purpose ; but being dissuaded from the use of a common concave glass, as likely to injure my sight, I suffered the incon- venience of a small degree of myopy, till I was more than thirty years of age. That inconvenience, however, gra- dually though slowly increasing all the time, at length be- came so grievous, that at two or three and thirty I deter- mined to try a concave glass; and then found that the num- bers 2 and 3 were to me in the relation so well described by Mr. Ware; that is, I could see distant objects tolerably well with the former number, but still more accurately with the latter, Aftercontenting myself a little time with No.2, I laid it wholly aside for No. 33 and, in the course of a few more years, came to No. 5, at which point my eye has now been stationary between fifteen and twenty years. An earlier use of concave glasses would probably have made me more near-sizhted, or would have brought on my pre- sent degree of myopy at an earlier period of life. If my friends had persuaded me to read and write with the book or paper always as far from my eye as I could see; or if I had occasionally intermitted study, and taken to field sports, or any employment which would have obliged me to look much at distant objects, it is very probabie that [ might not bave been near-sighted at all. Possibly the persons who become near-sighted by having constantly to adjust their eyes to near objects, may not usually change to be long-sighted by age.
On the subject of vision, I may be allowed to take this opportunity of relating an experiment made many years ago, to decide how far the similarity of the images seen by each
eye
On making Tea. 345
eye contributed to make them impress the mind asone. In the house where [ then lived was a marble chimney: piece, the upper horizontal block of which was fluted vertically 5 and the ridge between each concavity of the fluting was about as wide as the concavity itself, When [ looked at this range of fluting at the distance of about nine inches, and directed the optic axes to it, I saw of course every ridge and concavity distinctly, and judged righily of the distance. Adjusting the optic axes as to an object a little further off, I discerned the fluting confusedly and all dou- ble, the ridges interfering with the concavities 5 which was accompanied with the uneasy sensation of squinting. But on widening the direction of the optic axes still more, as to an object about eighteen inches distant ; (namely, just so far that the duplication of the images should correspond successively; that is, so that the first ridge and concavity of the fluting, as seen by one eye, should fall in with the second ridge and concavity, as seen by the other;) the fluting appeared as distinct and as single as at first; but it seemed to be about double the distance from the eye that it really was, and to be magnified in proportion; nor had J, in this case, any sensation of squinting. As the parts of the fluting, though i in general much alike, were not exactly so every Bhere in colour and minute circumstances, there appeared in some places a slight confusion from this dissi- milarity of the images but ‘that trifling confusion had no manner of effect on the mind’s judgement of the images, which looked as perfectly single, as when the fluting was viewed with the optic axes so directed, that the ridges and concavities seen by one eye corresponded with the same ridges and concavities as perceived by the other. No idea was suggested, but that of a range of fluting larger and more distant than it was in fact. This experiment { frequently repeated, and always with the same effects.
LVII. The Correctness of popular Observations illustrated in the Directions commonly given for making Tea,
Parosorners will frequently find reason to follow the advice of Bacon, who recommends them to avoid a hasty contempt of popular opinions. The mass of mankind will be found with few exceptions perfectly correct in points of observation, however erroneous the conclusions may be which they sometimes deduce from their premises. Men of science are too apt to treat as vulgar errors, facts Wine
)
346 On making Tea.
do not admit an obvious explanation, and thus neglect many interesting phenomena, observed by mankind at large, whose experiments ought to be the best, being di- rected by no favourite theories, and biassed by no hypotheses. This idea is illustrated in many circumstances of daily oc- currence, and among others in the directions nsually given for the ordinary process of making tea; some of which co- incide with Professor Leslie’s experiments, while others seem hitherto to have received no explanation. It has been long observed, that the infusion made in silver is stronger than that which is produced in black earthen-ware, This remark is confirmed on the principles of the Professor, who has shown that polished surfaces will retain heat better than dark rough surfaces, and that consequently the caloric be- ing confined in the former case must act more powerfully than in the latter. It is further remarked, that the silver when filled a second time, produces worse tea than the crockery-ware ; and that it is advisable to use the earthen- ware, unless a silver vessel can be procured sufficiently large to contain at once all that may be required, These facts are readily explained, by considering that the action of heat retained in the silver vessel, so far exhausts the herb, as to Jeave little flavour for a second dilution; whereas the reduced temperature of the water in the earthen-ware, by extracting only a small portion at first, leaves some for the action of subsequent dilutions. The next observation we might at first view be ready to consider as a vulgar error, did it not admit an explanation on mathematical principles. It is supposed that the infusion is stronger m a globular vessel than in one of a different form ; and this must be the case, since it has frequently been demonstrated, that a sphere contains a given measure under less surface than any other solid ; from which it follows, that where there are two vessels of equal capacity, one globular and the other square, oblong, elliptical, or even cylindric, the spherical vessel having less surface than any of the other forms must throw off less heat; and that, consequently, the effect will be greater in the former case than in the latter. Tt is further observable, that the effect increases very ra- pidly, as the vessel is made larger, since the capacity in- creases as the cube, while the surface only increases as the square of the diameter.
‘The reason for pouring boiling water into the vessel, be-'
fore the infusion of the tea, is, that, being previously warm, it may abstract less heat from the mixture, and thus admit a more powerful action. Neither is it difficult to explain
why
Additional Observations on the Effects of Magnesia. 347
why the infusion is stronger, if only a small quantity of boiling water be first used, and more be added some time afterwards. If we consider that only the water immediately in contact with the herb can act upon it, and that it cools very rapidly, especially in black earthen-ware, it is clear that the effect will be greater where the heat is kept up by addi- tions of boiling water, than where the vessel is filled at once, and the fluid suffered gradually to cool.
When the infusion has once been completed, it is found that any further addition of the herb, only affords a very small increase in the strength, the water having cooled much below the boiling point, and consequently acting very slightly.
Some may be inclined to consider these remarks as too trifling ; but they should remember, that it is by the appli- cation of philosophic principles to the ordinary and even trivial occurrences of life, that science diffuses her benefits, and perfects her claim to the gratitude of mankind.
LVIIT. Additional Observations on the Effects of AZagnesia in preventing an increased Formation of Uric Acid ; with
* Remarks on the Influence of Acids upon the Composition of the Urine. By Wittiam Tuomas Branpbe, Esq. F.R.S. Prof. Chem. R.I.*
i a paper which I bad the honour of laying before this Society, about three years ago, and which is published in the Philosophical Transactionst, some cases are related, illustrating the effects of magnesia in preventing an in- creased formation of uric acid, and some experiments are detailed, instituted with a view to discover its mode of action.
Since that period many opportunities have occurred both to Sir Everard Home and myself, of confirming its efficacy upon a more extended scale, and of ascertaining the effi- cient treatment of those cases in which magnesia is inef- fectual, and in which it has even been found to aggravate the complaint.
To bring forward additional evidence in favour of the use of magnesia, and to distinguish the cases in which its use is indicated, from those where it is improper or hurtful, are the principal objects of the present communication, and will be considered in the two following sectious.
oO j=]
* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, part ii. + For 1810, p. 106.
SEc+
348 Additional Observations
Secrion I.
The following is the case of a gentleman who suffered from a calculous complaint, doting which he was acct-
dentally induced to employ magnesia, the effects of which
he has thus described.
Case 1. About twenty-seven years ago, I felt a pain iv one of my kidneys, particularly when in bed, which con- tinued to increase during six months. tei likewise an occasional sympathetic pain in the testicles, and violent and excruciating: pains in the left kidney now became frequent. These attacks were sometimes brought on by stooping to take up something; but at other times without any appa rent cause. They” lasted from twelve to twenty-four bours, and | obtained some relief from the application of warm flannels ; but they always left me languid and relaxed,.
On the fourth attack I consulted a . physician, who ima- gined that my complaint had been induced by drinking eyder, in which [ had formerly indulged. He ordered me weak Hollands and water for common drink, and prescribed the lixivium of tartar to be taken in broth. This medicine was persevered in for some time; but [ found it gradually weaken my stomach, and impair my digestive powers.
About nine ritrithis after my first attack in the kidney, I walked from Hampstead to London after dioner, and on the following day I clearly felt something pass from the kidney to the bladder, and suspected what it was. | T took about a pint of Hollands and water, and on attempting shortly afterwards to void my urine, found that the passage was blocked up; but had scarcely time to consider of my situation before the obstruction moved forwards to within an inch of the extremity of the arethra; it remained there till
the following evening, when, by the help of a small ‘pair of
watchmaker’s forceps, [ succeeded in extracting a stone, which was the source of the mischief.
It was jagged and rough, and of a deep brick-red colour. I afterwards voided a considerable quantity of red crystai- line sand.
My physician, who was apprehensive of a return of the disorder, desired me to purchase of Cadell an anonymous pamphlet upon the Stone and Gravel, and to observe the rules there Jaid down. This treatise particularly recom- mended the use of the alkalies. I therefore took the lixi- vium, and two bottles of Perry’s solvent; but the red de- posit in my urine continued, my loins felt weak, and when in bed very painful. i
Being
so
on the Effects of Magnesia. 349
Being in the profession of the law, and much employed, Twas under the necessity of leading a very sedentary life, which so aggravated my tendency to bile and indigestion, that T seldom could get above two or three hours sleep.
With a view to alleviate these symptoms, and not with any idea of its being beneficial to the stone, I resorted to magnesia, which I continued with httle intermission for eight months in the dose of a tea-spoonfal or two, every evening before I went to bed. The long vacation coming on, I gradually took more exercise, and used the cold bath. The tone of my stomach, at the end of the pericd I have mentioned, was so far restored as to induce me to set medi- cine of all kinds aside, except when any food or drink dis- agrees, when | occasionally resort to the magnesia. Under such treatment, the weakness and pain in my kidney left me, and the red sand entirely disappeared. 1 Have since enjoyed a very good state of health, and am now in my fifty-seventh year.
If I occasionally make a little free with the good things of this world, my stomach reminds me of the improper use of the lixivium, especially when ] am prevented takmg my usual exercise.
The above case is important, not only as furnishing a striking and unprejudiced instance of the effect of magnesia, in counteracting the tendency to form uric calculi and gra- vel; but likewise, as'demonstrating its efficacy where the alkalies had failed, and where the digestive organs had been injured in consequence of the use of such remedies: the time which has elapsed since the cure of this and other
cases, without a relapse, is also strongly in favour of this mode of treatment.
Case 2. A gentleman twenty years of age, who had suf- fered from heartburn and other dyspeptic symptoms, was seized, on the Ist of June 1811, with a violent pain in the Joins, and more especially in the right kidney, and during
the night he passed a large quantity of red sand with his urine. On the ad, with a view to relieve the pain, which had increased considerably, le took fifty drops of laudanum, and drank freely of barley water. The night was passed more quietly ; but on the morning of the 3d he was seized with a violent pain in the kidney, and with the usual sym- ptoms of the passage of a calculus along the ureter. These continued with more or less violence till the evening of the 4th, when he became perfectly easy, and remained so till the morning of the 6th, when, with considerable pain and eepcalty, he yoided a calculus composed of uric. acid,
weighing
350 Additional Observations
weighing nine grains. For several successive days his urine deposited a large quantity of red sand, and three very small round calculi were voided.
He was now directed to abstain from all kinds of fer- mented liquors and sour food, and to take a pint of treble soda water (containing three drachms of sub-carbonate of soda) daily. Under this treatment he continued to reco- ver, and remained perfectly free from complaint until the end of August, when a copious deposit of red sand appeared in his urine: he had little pain in the affected kidney, but complained of almost constant nausea, or want of appetite.
The soda water was increased to a pint and a half, and afterwards to two pints daily, and in the intervals he drank very freely of barley water.
Having persevered in this way for ten days without re- ceiving any benefit, he was induced to make a trial of mag- nesia, of which he took one tea-spoonful night and morn- ing in cold chamomile tea. In about a week, the state of his stomach was much improved, and the deposit in the urine proportionally diminished, and in three weeks every symptom of disease had disappeared.
In February 1812, having persevered in the use of mag- nesia with little intermission, I was informed that the sand had returned, that increasing the quantity of magnesia had produced no good effect, and that alkalies materially aggra- vated his complaint, by disagreeing with the stomach and
_greatly increasing the urinary deposit.
On examining the sand, I found that instead of consist- ing as formerly of uric acid, it was composed of a mixture of the ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate with phosphate of lime: he was directed to abstain from magnesia and alkalies, and to adopt a plan of treatment which it is the object of the second section of this paper more particularly to ex- plain.
The foregoing is a well marked case of uric gravel with a strong tendency to form calculi, materially relieved by the use of alkaline remedies: it illustrates their usual effects when carelessly persevered in, and shows the advantage with which magnesia may in such instances be erie it also exhibits the effect of magnesia and the alkalies, in producing the deposit of white sand (or phosphates) in the urine, when the red sand (or uric acid) has been removed.
The cases which follow are selected, from among others, to explain the best mode of preventing the formation of white sand, and to show the most effectual treatment where it is a natural deposit in the urine, or where i
een
on the Effects of Magnesia. 351
been induced by the incautious exhibition of alkaline me- dicines.
Section II.
The white sand so frequently voided by persons labouring under calculous complaints was first analysed by Dr. Woi- Jaston *, who found it composed of ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate, either alone or mixed with variable proportions of phosphate of lime. The use of acid medicines in these cases was also first suggested by the same able chemist ; but although his valuable observations have been before the public for nearly fifteen years, I am not aware that any ex- periments have been made to ascertain what acids are best calculated to produce the desired effect, or to illustrate their mode of action.
Since my former communication, I have lost no oppor- tunity of attending to this important subject, and hope that the conclusions, suggested by the following cases, will be deemed ‘satisfactory, and that their application in practice may lead to useful results.
Case \. A gentleman, fifty years of age, who about ten years before had undergone the operation for the stone}, was attacked on the 14th of January 1810 with violent pain in the right kidney and ureter, which lasted two days; on the 17th, these symptoms subsided, and were followed by those of stone in the bladder, which continued for some days ; and although he had taken abundance of barley water and similar diluents, the stone showed no disposition to pass. On account of his former sufferings, this circum- stance rendered him extremely uneasy, and on the evening of the 21st he suffered several severe paroxysms of pain on attempting to make water. Under these circumstances, he was desired to take a purge, composed of two ounces of infusion of senna, two drachms of tincture of senna, and twenty grains of powdered jalapf. In three hours this began to take powerful effect, and during the violence of the operation, he was so fortunate as to void the calculus with his urine; it weighed eight grains. On the 28th he again suffered pain in the region of the kidneys, and voided
* Philosophical Transactions 1797.
+ ‘The stone extracted consisted of a nucleus of uric acid about the size of a pea, incrusted with a mixture of the phosphates. It was broken during the operation, but appeared to have been of the size of a pigeon’s egg.
} I recommended this treatment in consequence of having heard Sir Everard Home state a case, in his Surgical Lectures, of a gentleman who suffered a bougie to pass so far into the urethra, that it could not be ree moved by any instrument, During the operation of a purge it was expelled with considerable force.
much
‘852 Additional Observations
much sand, composed of uric acid, with ammoniacoe magnesian phosphate. He now took three half pints of soda water eaey , Which materially increased the proportion of the triple phosphate, while that of uric acid was con- siderably diminished. Ten drops of muriatic acid were then taken three times, a day in water. The red sand now began to re-appear, and on the 4th of February he voided a very small uric calculus. The urine made after dinner contained more or less mucus streaked with blood, a sym- ptom which was much agyravated by a slight excess in wine. On the 6th he left London, and employ ed no me- dicine until the 12th, when he returned in consequence of having voided a Jarge quantity of the white sand.
Having observed the efheacy of carbonic acid in prevent- ing the deposition of the phosphates, and having found it Jess liable than any other acid to induce a return ‘of the uric gravel and calculi, I now directed him to take half a pint of water highly impregnated with fixed air, four or five times a day, “and to drink cyder instead of wine. On the 18th of February his urine was less turbid than it had been for some months before, and on the 20rh of March, having continued the use of carbonic acid, he had no remaining symptoms *.
In August his urine became again turbid; but by the use of vinegar and lemon juice at his meals, which acids, be now finds, have no tendency to induce a return of the red gravel, he succeeds in preventing this symptom.
Case 2. On the 1)th of October 1812, the operation for stone in the bladder was performed upon a boy eleven years of age, and four calculi were extracted, of which the largest was of the size of a small horse bean: they were each composed of a nucleus or centre of uric acid, upon which the ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate was deposited.
After the operation, the urine deported a large quantity of white sediment, and some small pieces of red gravel were. occasionally adele He was now directed to take eight grains of citric acid dissolved in barley water, three times daily ; under this treatment the sediment in the urine was considerably diminished, but did not wholly disappear. The dose of the acid was gradually increased to twenty grains, by which means the sediment was only occasionally depo- sited, and consisted of little else than mucus. Jt was ob-
* | have several times examined the urine, with a view to ascertain whether any cf the acids which were exhibited could be detected in that secretion; but the results of such experiments are so much interfered with by the very compound nature of the urine, thai 1 have not hitherto been
able to draw any satisfactory conclusions respecting them, served,
on the Effects of Magnesia: 353
“served, that whenever the citric acid was omitted, even for twenty-four hours, the sediment was greatly increased, and ‘this was constantly attended with frequent desire to make water, and other symptoms of irritation in the bladder. ‘On resuming the use of the citric acid, the sediment. al- ways disappeared, and the irritation of the bladder subsided, ‘and this happened so frequently, that no doubt could be ‘entertained of the iofluence of the medicine on the com- position of the ufine. ~ This plan of treatment was continued for three months ; “at the end of that period, it was found that the urine had not the same disposition to deposit the phosphates as. for- merly; even when the medicine was omitted, the sediment ‘was small in quantity, and not constant in its appearance. He was now directed to omit the uze of the citric acid, and occasionally to eat oranges and other acid fruits... He con- tinued this plan until the beginning of April 1813; his unne was then quite clear, and be had no symptoms of disease. Case 3. In the month of October 1811, a gentleman, thirty-four years of age, informed me, that he had observed a white deposit in his urine, during the whole of the pre- ceding summer. He had taken considerable quantities of soda water, which he thought increased the sediment, and alkalies in any other form produced a very obyious aggrava- tion of the complaint. é His urine was at all times clear when voided; but after 2 few hours, a white powder was observed to separate from it, and a film of crystalline matter formed upon. the surface. The former consisted of phosphate of lime and mucus, the latter of the ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate. He was directed to take one drachm of muriatic acid “properly diluted, at divided doses, during the day.; and it “was proposed that he should pursue this plan for a weeks but it was discontinued on the third day on account of its acting upon thé bowels, and producing a frequent desire to make water*. , ‘ ; ~~ On the 10th of October, he was advised to take two large lasses of lemonade daily, and to substitute claret for port Wine, a pint of which he was in the habit of drinking daily. Under this treatment the symptoms produced by the mu- tiatic acid subsided; but the appearance of the urine was hot at first improved. - On the 20th, the film of triple phosphate formerly con-
_ * In this and other instances the sulphuric and nitric acids were occa- ovate substituted for the muriatic; but they were found equally inad- missible.
“Vol, 42, No. 187, Nov. 1813. Z stantly
B54 Additional Observations
stantly observed in the urine began to decrease, but the white sand remained as abundant as before; he was there- fore directed to take twenty grains of citric acid twice a day, and to continue the use of acid drink as formerly.
The additional acid at first disagreed with the bowels ; but this effect soon ceased, and the sediment was only ob- served in the urine voided in the morning; he therefore took another dose of the acid every night. This plan was pursued with little intermission until the beginning of December: the deposition of the phosphates gradually ceased, and he remained in perfect health until the middle of May 1812, when after violent exercise and taking more wine than usual, the white sand again made its appearance in great abundance; his stomach became extremely irritable, and the acids, which he had before employed with success, brought on considerable irritation in the bladder. The ad- dition of ten drops of Jaudanum to each dose of the citric acid prevented this effect, and he was thus enabled to con- tinue the acid, which in a fortnight relieved his complaint.
This gentleman informed me, that whenever he omitted the use of an acid diet, or took much wine, especially port, his urine deposited the white sand and mucus, for two or three successive days.
Case 4. A gentleman, eighty years of age, who had twice submitted to the operation for the stone within five years, voided with his urine considerable quantities of white sand and mucus.
From the age of this patien§, and the account of his case, there appeared little doubt that the calculi had been formed in-consequence of a diseased prostate gland, in the manner described by Sir Everard Home*, and on examining them, they were found to contain no urie nucleus, nor indeed had there been any symptoms of disease in the kidneys, at any previous period.
This gentleman had been in the habit of taking soda water, from which he was now desired to abstain, with a view of putting him upon the acid plan of treatment. He was ordered to take eight drops of muriatic acid three times a day in two table spoonsful of water; but the third dose produced so much irritation in the bladder, and consequent increase of his symptoms, that it became necessary to adopt another treatmient.
_Lemon juice, or a solution of the pure citric acid, when given in quantity sufficient to produce any change in the
* Practical Observations on the Treatment of Diseases of the Prostate land, D- 39,
appearance
on the Effects of Magnesia. 358
-appearance of the urine, had the same effect as the muriatic acid,
As water impregnated with carbonic acid could not be procured, he was directed to dissolve, in separate portions of water, twenty grains of citric acid, and thirty grains of the crystallized carbonate of potash, and to take the mixed solutions, during the effervescence. This quantity was at first only taken night and morning ; but as 1t agreed per- fectly well, it was afterwards repeated four and five times daily. Under these circumstances the appearance of the urine was soon improved, and both the mucus and the sand were considerably diminished in quantity. In six weeks the urine, when voided, was transparent; but a consider- able deposition of the phosphates took place, when it had remained for some hours at rest. In this state be left Lon- don, and has since informed me, that the sediment gradually diminished under the use of the carbonic acid, that his urine is never turbid, and that the irritation in the bladder has entirely subsided.
It did not appear necessary to detail the minutiz of the ahove cases; they have been selected with a view to eluci- date the treatment of the disease, as far as it depends upon chemical principles, and to furnish the data upon which the following conclusions are founded.
_ 1. That where alkalies fail to relieve the increased secre- tion of uric acid, and to prevent its forming calculi in the kidneys, or where they disagree with the stomach, magnesia is generally effectual, and that it may be persevered in for a considerable time without inconvenience, where the ten- dency to form excess of uric acid remains.
2. When the alkalies, or magnesia, are improperly conti- nued, after having relieved the symptoms connected with the formation of the red sand, or uric acid, the urine ac- quires a tendency to deposit the white sand, consisting of the ammoniacormagnesian phosphate and phosphate of lime,
3. The mineral acids (muriatic, sulphuric, and nitric,) diminish, or entirely prevent the deposition of the phos- phates; but are apt to induce a return of the red gravel.
4. That vegetable acids, especially the citric and tartaric, are Jess liable to produce the last mentioned effects, even when taken in large doses for a long time; and that car- bonic acid is particularly useful in cases, where the irritable state of the bladder prevents the exhibition of other re-
medies. Z2 LIX. Notes
{[ 356 J
LIX. Notes and Olservations on the fourth, fifth and paré of the sixth Chapters of Mr. Ropert BAKEWELL’s © Jie troduction to Geology ;”—embracing incidentally, several new Points of Gealogical Investigation and Theory. By Mr. Joun Farry Sen., Mineral Surveyor.
To Mr. Tilloch.
Sir,—L transmitting to you, the second division, which in order to suit the convenience of your work, has been made, of my Notes and observations on Mr. Bakewell’s re- cent Geological work; I beg the liberty of mentioning, that since the first division was sent, I have had an oppor- tunity (for the first time) of travelling across, and seeing the Polesworth Coal-field (p. 260, herein), and that part of North Wales between Holywell and Bangor, and of making a sufficient stay in Anglesea, to have become pretty well acquamted with its Limestone Rocks, particularly those which form a Trough, on the coarse Slate, across the Island from Red-wharf Bay on the NE to near Malldraeth Bay on the SW, and with the Coal-measures in this Trough, from near Ceint, southward to near Bodowen, but particularly with that part of them, near Berw, in which Holland Grif- fith, Esq. has an interest, part of whose Coals have for a considerable time past been advertised for letting, in con junction with those of a neighbouring proprietor.
I mention these circumstances here, im order to account for several interlineations and additions to’ my Notes, written’ in July last, which I have lately made or intend to make, par- ticularly as to whin-dykes, pages 106 and 108 (of Mr. B’s Geology), Coal-fields pages 108, 275 and 285, Conglomerate and coarse Gritstone strata, with Jasper fragments and Rocks, &c. p. 202, Lzmestone Strata, p. 295, Granite and Serpen- tine, p. 296, and perhaps others. Hoping that my example’ may stimulate others of your Readers, to communicate’ through your work, ¢he observations they may have oppor- tunities of making on the British Strata,
TI remain, sir, Your cbedient servant,
Upper Crown-street, Westminster, Joun Fare¥ Sen, 15th Nov. 1813.
Notes, &é. P, 85, I. 8, water-worn pieces*.—* Query ?, see my Note on page 44. ‘ : 87,1. 3 and 4, sixty degrees*.~* See ninety degrees or * “near
r
Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakeweil’s Geology. 357
P.s7. near it, at page 288, and “ an opposite direction,” in P. M. xl. p. 47, also my 2d Letter, p. 116
1. 4, the principal seamt.—t This might seem to re= assert the stratification of the Charnwood Slate, P.M. xl. p. 47, without a reference to page 288 ; sce P. M. xxxvii. p. 442, and Rep. 1. 155.
89, 1.15, basis of clay-slate*.—* Ai page 359, Mr. B. defines /Vacke to be, ‘an earthy kind of Basalt.”
90, 1.16, water-worn fragments *.—* Ouery?, see my Note on page 44.
92, 1. 19, nowhere exposed *.—* Rep. i. 280, Phil. Trans. 1811, and P. M. xxxix. p. 29.
1. 21, same kind of Limestonet.—t In a large pro- portion of the cases, in which Mr. B. and myself are found differing in opinion, the cause thereof may he traced, to that very erroneous and dan- gerous dogma of the Anglo-Wernerian Theorists, viz. that the kind of stone or mineralogical cha- racters of a substance, will, by help of ‘¢ the Geognosy,’’ determine its priority of formation to others, &c.; or in plainer terms, will fix its place in the series of strata; but which Smithian observers, well know to be untrue.
Whenever J mention herein, the opinions of that very able Mineralogist, M. Werner, or the Wernerian doctrines, I wish always to be under- stood, as speaking of what his disciples have pro- mulgated or published, as his doctrines, in this country; except, as far as they can be gathered from a very vain and unphilosophical performance (see Mr. B’s Note, page 229) written in 1791, under the title of #* The new Theory of the Formation of Veins,”’ by M. Werner, and which was translated into English in 1809:—when his many Zealous Disciples can give us other English translations, perhaps it will be more generally seen, than at present, that his ¢* admiring pupils” have greatly over-rated the talents, of this ‘* greatest of Geo- gnosts.”
93,1. 1, and Westmorland *.—* The Limestones of Westmorland and Laneashire, appeared to me, to have no similarity to those of the Peak of Derby- shire, as mentioned in my Ist Letter (p. 59), see P. M. xxxix. p. 427, and vol. xl. p. 53.
1, 6, sandstone +.—t+ Every practical Miner in Derby- shire, used to the Ist Limestone Mines, would
Z3 tell
358 P. 93.
Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology.
tell Mr. B., as Mr. Whitehurst, Mr. Pilkington, M. St. Fond, Mr. Mawe, myself and several others have written, that Shale, an argillaceous stratum, and not Sandstone, rests on the upper Limestone of the Peak: in Lancashire, and I believe in West- morland also, Red Marl, covers the uppermost of the two adjacent Limestone Rocks ;—the third and still higher Rock, underlieing the Coals, I had no opportunity of approaching, when in that di- strict. See Rep. i. 298 Note.
97, Plate Ill. fig. 1. see p. 315 and 320.—Fig. 2, see
p- ema 3, see p. 286, and my Note on page 45.
98, I. 10, flat over these *.—* The experiment here, with
Books, is a representation of no instance in re- brea TAP ;
gular stratification, which J have any where seen, or believe to exist; Gravel and Gravel Rocks,
commonly form such ‘* unconformable’’ masses,
on the ends of strata, (as observed in my Note on p. 45) but no others, I believe; that the Clee Hill Basalt, or Jewstone, does not so overlie, [ feel partly confident, as is I suppose represented, in Plate LI. fig. 2, but which is not clear, from the confused account thereof at page 124, since the blue mass, may be supposed to be in the back- ground, instead of directly over the face of the Secs tion coloured yellow and brown. Mr. B’s surprise expressed at meeting with a hummock of Basalt, intersected, in common with the strata beneath it, with a Basalt Vein or Whin-dyke, shows, I think, that he is but littie acquainted with the facts of the Forth and Clyde Coal field, where such hummocks, and dykes too, are very com- mon, or with the Rowley Hills near Dudley, which Mr. Keir has described, Mont. Mag. xxvill. p. 35, or Will. Min. Kin. 2d Edit. ti. ¢79, and i. 66 and 123, &c.
When at the Clee Hills, I saw or heard from the practical Men, who gave me accounts of their sinking, of none of the ** several small Coal- fields,” mentioned p. 124, but perceived, the southern end of one large depressed hummock or Trough of Coal-measures, capt by ‘ conformable” Basalt, and underlaid by the uppermost of the three Lime- stone Rocks (as mentioned in my Ist Letter, p. 53): the middlemost of which, I think I could trace,
from
Wr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 359
*P. 93s. from within a Mile or two of Ludlow, to Landeg- ley (mentioned by Mr. B. page 297), thence to near Brecon, where I have traced it for some Miles, 1 think, and thence to the shore of the Bristol Channel at Llanstephen and Llaughern, where Mr. Smith has, I believe, observed it.
100, 1. 3 and 4, Markfield knowl *.—* See p. 291, and Markfield Witdmill Hill, in Rep. i. 45 and 144.
106, ]. 1, balls fall out *.—* As at Long-lane and Knot- Low, Rep. i. 278, &ce. At Pentre-Berw, 2m. SSE of Llangefni in Anglesea, I lately observed the same thing, in a decomposing whin-dyke.
1. 3 and 4, similar structure t.—tT Sienite on Mount
Sorrel Hill, P. M. xxxv. p. 260. ,
108, 1. 8 and 9, the same line of longitude *.—* Some Jatitude of expression, is certainly taken, in saying that these places are nearly on one meridian, espe- cially if Bath is near their range, as supposed in page 305, in order to account for ihe heat of its Springs, by the aid of this vast train of lava! ! Mr. B’s general inference as to the northern and southern direction of Basalt, is not borne out by British facts, since the most considerable Basaltic range known therein, stretches nearer to east and west than to any other of the eight principal points of the compass, viz. from near Montrose on the German Ocean, to Dumbarton on the Clyde, in Scotland, and forwards, I believe, to Antrim in Ireland, as mentioned in my first Letter, p. 54.
}..19, north and south t.—t This general remark, I
believe also to be unfounded, at any rate the Dyke mentioned at p. !25, the longest and most re- markable in England, has been traced near 60 Miles, almost in an east and west direction; I have seen it at Silhow-Cross in the Road to Whitby, and believe that it proceeds forwards to the Sca Coast; at its western end, it intersects, and is lost in, the great basaltic mass, near the head of the Tees, as I learned from Mr. John Bird, an artist at Whitby, and a very attentive observer of Geological phenomena.
In the Isle of Anglesea, I have had an oppore tunity, since the above was written, of tracing two very considerable Whin-dykes, and of seeing two smaller ones (in the face of the Lime Quarries at Cibor, 1m, W of Moel-y-don Ferry), all of
“4 which
360 Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology.
P. 108. which range about WYN IV and ESE, The most considerable of these Dykes, seems to intersect and cross all the Coal-measures, to the westward of Pentre-Berw above mentioned, to cut through the Limestone Rocks, which form the floor or trough in which the Coal-measures rest (see my Notes on pages 275 and 985) and to penetrate the vast series of coarse Slate beneath all these, along the course of Pentre-Berw Brook ; and pro- ceeding thence nearly in a straight line eastward, ‘for Gairwan yicha and the S side of Plas Newydd House, on the banks of the Menai straight, as I have been informed.
Wherever I have had the opportunity of ex- amining this Dyke, it has appeared to be neat 40 yards wide, and the Basalt to be principally in a decomposed state, like very coarse brown grey
‘ Joamy Sand, but so compact, that it can with dif- ficulty be cut with a spade, in the several ‘¢ Gravel- pits,” as they aré there called, which are opened in it, for procuring Sand to mix with Lime, which it occasions to set very hard in the mortar of walls built therewith; many Balls and large ‘irregular Blocks of black and very hard Basalt (called Lron- stone by the inhabitants) are seen lodged in or detached from this dyke, below Pentre- Berw Mill.
The other large Dyke, is filled with this solid and durable Basalt ; it intersects and crosses the Coal- basin, about 23m. southward of the iast, and pass- ing close on the south side of Pencrug Colliery (1m. E of Trefdraeth Church), it appeared to oc- casion the Coal-seam therein, to be much harder and less inflammable (though not by ‘‘ charring,” T believe, see Note on p. 125), than in the other Collieries on the same seam to the south-west of this place, and whence this Pencrug Coal was called Cudém, and sold for the same uses, as the small of theStone-coal brought from South Wales, under that appellation, On the N side of Ty- Calch Lime Works, this dyke intersects the Lime- stone Rock; and in its course westward, soon after it has entered the coarse Slate, tar. WNW of Ty Calch House, a large mass or rock of white Marble stands up in its range, above the sur-
rounding Slate, and which in its quality, seemed
; , to
5
Mr. P. 108.
b13,.1.
116, |.
iig, 1.
123, 1.
Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 361
to me, to approach very nearly to the nature of
statuary Marble. If 1 misiake not, allthe masses of white granular Marble, or of Breccia Marble, which i have yet had the opportunity of examin- ing, in situ, belonged to Dykes or Veins, and did not form strata, see Rep. i. 413 and 414, and my Note on p, 73.
4, neyer visited *,—* Has Mr. B. examined any active volcano?, before he ventured to describe England as a volcanic Country, p. 306, 307, &c. and to affright our ancient Ladies, with the im- pending fate of the Matrons of Pompeii and Her- culaneum, by the sudden activity of the dormant Volcanos, which occasion (he says) the hot waters of Bath, Bristol, Matiock, Buxton, &c.!!
20, basaltic rocks *.—* If such Rocks differ in no essential particulars from other regular strata, as Mr. Williams, a practical Collier in the very vici- nity of Edinburgh concluded, Min. King. 2d Edit, i. 66 and 123, &c., and as I maintain, aiter a more extended examination; the second inunda- tion of the Wernerian theory, here alluded to, ap- pears equally unnecessary and ‘‘ imaginary,” with the subterraneous Volcanos of Mr, Whitehurst, or the submarine ones of Mr. Bakewell, P. M. xl. p- 47, and Geology, p. 93 and 122.
18, partial formations *.—* See my’ Notes on p- 116, p. 98, &c.
8, interior parts are columnar*.—* The reverse of this is generally, if not universally true, and the owisides of Basaltic hills are often locally co- Jumnar, where their interior has been proved to be homogeneous and solid, as Mr, Williams has truly stated Min. Kin. 2d Edit. i. 67, 68,&c.and M. De Luc’s Geo. Trav. in France, it. 240: When I viewed the curious horjzontal Basaltic columns in Powk-hill, in 1808, and the compact basaltic stratum (or ‘ Greenstone’) in Birchhill Colliery, near and ‘‘in the deep of it,” NW of Walsall, Staff. I concluded them to be parts of the same regular stratum, and with the lamellar and de- composing Basalt also, in Daisey-hill, near to the Colliery, and the perusal of page 392 in your xlth vol. has not in the least altered this opinion, sce my Note on p. 315. I have been told, that regular Basaltic strata occur also in the Bedworth
Coul-
362 Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology.
P, 123. Coal-field, mentioned by Mr. B. pp. 267, 285, and 290: but at page 134 and 155, he rejects the <¢ fleetz trap formation,” as a useless distinction.
124, 1.9, towards a centre*.—* See Will. Min. eh ad Edit. ii. 288; the dips of the Clee-hill Coal- field, are probably pretty uniform towards the middle of the Trough (see Plymley’s Report, p. 61, and your xxist vol. p. 365). See other notes ap- plicable to this page, on page 98. :
125, 1.10, Cockfield fell*.—* See this grand English Whin-dyke mentioned, in my second Note on page 108.
1. 15, into sont +.—t Observations and descriptions, less tinctured with theory, than here and p. 124, 209, &c. would, I believe, present a different view of the case. In South Wales, whole strata, where Basalt is not near, seeni to me, to be exactly like the *‘charred Coal,”’ found under Mr, Keir’s House, which he gave me specimens of, in 1808, when cursorily viewing the Dudley Coal-field (see p- 148), and nearly similar to the ‘* Culm” of Anglesea, see my Note on p. 108.
Practical men, to their cost know, and often meet with, defective or altered parts of their Coal- seams; sometimes where faults (whatever filled with), may be supposed to occasion them, and often, where no visible cause has been discovered, and particularly so, in the Coal- works, to which Mr. B. has particularly alluded in pages 18 and 139, as the Maps of underground workings, in the possession of Edward Mammatt, Esq. might have shown to Mr. B. And after all, what stratum, when traced through a sufficient length of its course, and well explored, is found free from as great local anomalies, as those patches of ¢* sooty” or © charred” Coal exhibit ?.
126, ]. 23 and 24, brass Jumps *.—* Rep. i. 218.
130, 1. 13. !. Siliceous sandstone *. —* The different Red Marls in England, and their locally imbedded Gritstones, &c. (Rep. i. 146, Phil. Trans. 1811, and P.M. xxxix. p. 29, and xl. p. 50 and 53), seem to be included by Mr. B. in this * formation,”? of his System, see pages 134, 136, 174 Note, and 267. The many important Clay and Sand strata of England, seem also forgot in this 5th class of
his
Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 363
P. 130. his new System, as observed in my second Note on p- 60; Mr. B. seems, in forming this Class, to have been rather too ‘ well educated,” see his Note on p. 353.
135, 1.1, been found under it*.—* “ Red sandstone, or sand-rock,”’ in this case, evidently refers to the different Red Marl strata, in or below the middle parts of the British series of strata, as observed in my 2d Letter (p. 104); and although the practical Colliers of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Coal-field, and of some others perhaps, surrounded in whole or in part, by faulis, which have elevated their (denudated) Coal-measures, from too great a depth to be reached under the Marl beyond the fault, (see my Note on p. 142, and Rep. i. 174) may believe, and maintain with Mr. B. (see also pages 134, 268, 273, &c.), that ‘Coal is never found un- der the Red Marl” (or red Sandstone), and may, as the Writer mentions in page 232 of your pre- sent volume (perhaps Mr. Jameson) consider it madness to seek for Coal, in districts composed of red sandstone,” or red Marl; yet in Somerset- shire (as well as in Lancashire, I believe, as Mr. B. hints, p. 135), the fallacy of this old rule has Jong been known. Until about 50 or 60 years ago, all the Coal-pits to the SW of Bath, had Shale, Bind, and Grit beds only in their sinkings,
, and it was then confidently asserted, that the Red- ground or Marl to the East of them, entirely “ cut off” all the Coal-measures (sce Mr. B’s pages 134, 268, 273, &c. and your 105th page, Note): but a practical old man, of the name of Bush, from an attentive examination of the edges of the strata in the gullies to the eastward, discovered, and maintained, that their Coal-measures regularly underlaid the red ground to the East ; and in the process of the workings, and sinking of deeper Pits, as steam Engines became more general, his opinion has been fully confirmed, and great num- bers of Coal-pits, in different valleys, between hills capt with Lias, (and even with Bath stone on this, in some instances) have since been sunk, through considerable thicknesses of Red Marl.
These facts, induced the trial in a deep valley to the north of these, at Bath-Easton, which I have mentioned, Rep, i.116, and which has since been
abandoned,
364 Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology,
P. 135. abandoned, on two different accounts, as I have ‘heard; viz. the vast quantity of water they met with, and the certainty almost which appeared, that if the pumping bere was continued and the Pit deepened, that the important hot Springs at Bath, would be diverted thereby, and cease to flow !
On the well ascertained fact, that Coal-measures _ do frequently, if not constantly in England, occur beneath the upper or marley Red of Mr. Mushet, P.M. xl. p.53, at no vast distance below the Lias strata, a scheme has lately been entered on, under Mr. Sniith’s direction, to search for Coals under the Red Marl, at Compton-dunden N of Somerton, which if attended with success, can- not fail of proving highly beneficial to all that part of England.
138, 1. 24, strata of Marl *,—*These Polish Marls, hold- ing organic remains, are probably those of the Paris strata, and not the Cheshire’; for though we were untold, whether springs or beds of Salt any- where appeared in the basin of Paris? (as it has improperly been called, and said to have been the receptacle of fresh water Lakes) P. M. xxxv. p- 134.N; yet M. De Luc in his first Travels on the Continent (just published) vol. 1. p. 328, mentions two mounts of strata near Lunenburg, in a vast plain of sandy alluvia, with flints, one composed of Chalk and the other of Gypsum, the Jatter accompanied by a Spring, which supplies the Salt-works there !
In p. 269, M. De Luc mentions another emi- nence of Chalk in a very distant part of this same alluvial flinty plain, near Aix-la-Chapelle: both of which appear to me, to be lifted pieces of the Chalk Strata, like that at Windsor, whereon this truly veteran Geologist now lives, and not merely hummocks, or parts remaining, of the ¢* dissolved strata of chalk,”’ as is constantly assumed in his account of this vast plain, in the present two volumes, and in that published in 1810, which is reviewed in your xxxvith volume, and this sub- ject noticed at page 50.
These raised pieces of Chalk and Paris-Gypsum, &c. in Germany, give greater probability, 1o my supposition, of the Chalk strata underlieing _
the
es
Mr.
Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology. 365
-P,138, the central parts of Europe, mentioned in your
a
139, |.
xxxvith vol. p. 442. The Wilicksa salt strata, seem also to me, to agree with those of Paris, Kir. Geo. Ess. p. 873.
6, in Northumberland*.—* In Birtley Colliery in Durham, about the year 1785, a Salt spring was cut, at 140 yards beneath the surface, from whence, for some years past, 1100 tons of Salt have been made annually, see Mr. Bailey’s Report
47
1.8, under the surface *, —* The Spring here al-
Juded to, is in the Warren-hill Colliery (Rep. i. 213), and besides issuing so much below the level of the Sea, it contains one half more salt, in a given weight of water; its produce being -/;th of salt, and that of the sea J;th, according to Kir- wan. The situation of this salt Spring, is I be- lieve, near to the great Fault which surrounds the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Coal-field ; beyond which (in the Red Marl, as [ understand) 2m. W of Donis- thorp, on the N side of the foot-path to Overseal, is a Spring on the surface, in Sir Francis Burdett’s Estate, nearly as Salt as that above mentioned, and as another Spring which oozes into Donis- thorp Colliery (Rep. i. 196 and 503), accom- panied by hydrogen gas and a hissing noise, above 80 yards beneath the surface; but in which last Pit, it soon becomes mixed with fresh water from nearer the surface, and appears less salt, than in Warren-hill Pit.
6 and 7, never found upon it *.—* This is not literally true, even of the Ist Grit Rock or proper “¢ Mill-stone Grit” of Mr. Whitehurst, because of the perfect though very thin Coals, in the Limestone Shale, Rep. i. 234; and the 3d Grit Rock, often proves even coarser-grained than the Ist, and was mistaken for it by Mr. Whitehurst, in Chatsworth old Park (as I have shown, Rep. i. 178) where three Coal-seams underlie his mill- stone Grit !
A not less striking proof of the impropriety of this hasty generalization by Mr. W. and repeated by Mr. B. occurs on the Green and Tinkers-knowl Commons in Tansley ; these being near to the line of Mr. Whitehurst’s Section in Plate LV, of his 1st Edition, where the 1st Coal has long been occa-
. sionally
1 |
368 Mr. Farey’s Notes on Mr. Bakewell’s Geology.
P. 141. sionally wrought (Rep. i. 212), under a very coarse (and I believe an accidental) thick Gritstone bed, in the Ist Coal Shale; which circumstance escaped my notice, until my Ashover Survey, wherein I found, other occurrences of a coarse Grit bed, in
za the same part of this 1st Coal Shale.
142, |. 21 and 22, no connection with any other*.—* If by this expression is meant that the surfaces or basset edges of Coal-strata, cannot now be traced in connection on the surface between one Coal- field and another, it is perfectly correct: but if it is meant thereby to contend (and by nearly similar expressions in pages 134, 268, 273, &c.) that a connection did not once exist, between several Coal-fields, now separated, I must beg to dissent, and maintain, that before the dislocations of the strata happened, which threw up (comparatively at least) great thicknesses of strata, that have since been denudated and are gone, from off the interven- ing spaces ; or which threw down (comparatively) the large intervening tracts of strata, so that not . only the Coal-seams themselves, but the whole of the Coal-series are sunk, below practicable mining depths, and are consequently unknown, that se- veral of the Coal-fields did then connect ;. the succession of the strata that do exist on the sur- | face, between and around these Coal-fields, will ] think prove it, as well as the successions or | sinkings, in the Coal-measures themselves, when due allowances are made, for those variations in thickness and quality, in the individual strata, which so frequently happen, within each Coal- field, of any considerable extent.
Mr. Edward Martin, Coal-Engineer of Morris- town near Swansea, in South Wales, was brought up and first practised his profession in the Whites haven Coal-field, in Cumberland, and is perfectly acquainted with the strata of each of these very distant Fields. When this gentleman was in Town in April 1806, and had drawn up thé Paper which appeared in the Phil. Trans. 1806, p. 342, (see also Williams’s Min. Kin. 2d Ed. ii. 291) describ- ing the South-Wales Coal-basin, I had a great deal of interesting conversation with him on the sub- ject, in which he stated, and mentioned numerous
facts in confirmation of his opinion, that the Coal- fields’
Acoount of some Discoveries in Chemical Philosophy. 36f.
P. 142, fields of South Wales, and Whitehaven, are de- tached parts of the same strata; see my Note on page 135.
143, 1, 2, fresh water muscle-shells*.—* The Muscles in Coal-measures, which I have seen in great numbers, are ail of them, so much dess than our Pond Muscles, that were there no other marks to distinguish them, they ought, for Gevlogical pur- poses, to be considered of different species, and not confounded under one name. But Nautili, Anomia, &c. occur in the Derbyshire Coal strata, P. M. xxxix. p. 352; and in the Coal strata NW of Whitby, many Shells occur usually denomi- nated Marine ; and above the Coals in Sutherland, the numbers and varieties ot these are so very great, P.M. xxxix. p. 337, that we ought no longer to hear of * fresh-water productions,’ as characteriz- ing the Coal strata: see my Note on p. 60.
{To be continued.]
LX. 4 short Account of some Discoveries in Chemical Philosophy. By Ez. Waker, Esq.
Aurnoven greater improvements have been made in che- mistry, within these last thirty or forty years, than during many ages betore. yet it still remains in a very imperfect state. No regular theory has yet been investigated, from those new discoveries, by which the various chemical phz- nomena can be explained.
Hence it appears, that chemistry is now exactly in the same state that astronomy was before the days of Kepler : it consists of a very valuable and extensive collection of facts; but that universal law, which governs all chemical phenomena, still remains undiscovered. Some chemists of the present day treat the idea of such a law as chimeri- cal; but so far as we are acquainted with the operations of nature, we find that they are not produced ‘* by partial but by general laws.”
It is a truth well known, that the same power, which causes a drop of rain to fall to the ground, extends its in- fluence to every particle of matter contained in the remo- test planet in our system. And by reasoning from analogy we may infer, that the feeble light of the glow-worm, the vivid flash of lightning that illuminates our hemisphere, the first increments of heat, the most intense fires, the re-
spiration
868 A short Account of some Discoveries
spiration of animals, the growth of plants, and various _other phenomena in nature, may be so many effects pro- duced by the same universal cause; and this cause may oc- casion the particles of matter to act upon one another so as to produce all the various changes which constitute the science of chemistry. f
If the nature of combustion was clearly understood, the philosophy of chemistry might then be erected upon a solid foundation, But this grand operation of nature still re- mains unexplained in a clear and satisfactory manner, not- withstanding the various hypotheses that have been in-
» vented by the most learned philosophers.
Those who first attempted to explain the phenomena of combustion, supposed that a certain elementary body called fire existed:in matter, which possessed the property of devouring certain other bodies.
Other theories have since been founded on different principles ; as,
1. On the ether of Sir Isaac Newton.—2. On the spirit of saltpetre of Dr. Hook.—3. On the phlogiston of Stahl, —4, On the Jatent heat of Dr. Black.—And Sthly, Lavoi- sier founded a theory upon the absorption of oxygen hy a combustible body.
*¢ But at present, in consequence of the recent and un- expected Galvanic discoveries, the Lavoisierian theory stands
a considerable chance of being new modelled, if not in 2 ‘great measure overthrown. Several important and neces sary modifications have already taken place, and others not Jess important will probably follow *.”
Sir Humphry Davy supposes, that the phenomena of heat consist of a vibratory motion of the particles of heated bodies f.
But as we are not informed what force or power acts upon the particles of matter, to put them into a vibratory
-motion, this hypothesis seems to be as inconclusive as any of the preceding.
There is, however, a great number of chemical effects which are produced by the same cause ; and as combustion is one of them, this cause, therefore, is an interesting sub- ject of inquiry.
When a Leyden jar is charged it contains two invisible fluids, one on the inside and the other on the outside ; and as these fluids are of such a nature as to produce no effect
* Edinburgh Ency. vol. vi. page 8. + Davy’s Elements of Chemical Philosophy, p. 9% pyoitart upon
i ai a ey a et
ee ae ee
ate eee
in Chemical Philosophy. 369
uipon the most delicate balance, they may be deemed im- poudeiable.
When a communication is made between the inside and the outside of a charged jar, by some conductor of electri- city, combustion is produced. This well known experiment shows, that these two invisible imponderable fluids, which are generally called positive and negative electricity, are the very elements of combustion.
Now, as the electric machine creates nothing, these fluids become an important subject of investigation.
A Leyden jar cannot be charged when al! communication is cut off between it and the earth, nor unless it has com- munication, at the same time, with the atmosphere. Now, from these unquestionable facts, it appears that one of those fluids is derived from the atmosphere, and the other from the earth.
Oxygen and hydrogen gases are diffused throughout all nature, in great abundance. More than one-fifth of the atmosphere consists of oxygen gas. And that gas found in the interior parts of the earth, formerly called inflammable air, is hydrogen gas.
Oxygen gas is composed of oxygen, which is an invisible imponderable active element, united toa ponderable base. Hydrogen gas is composed of an invisible and imponde- rable element, united to ponderable matter*.
Now, when a Leyden jar is receiving a charge from an electric machine, one side of the jar receives oxygen from the oxygen gas of the atmosphere, and the other side re- ceives hydrogén from the hydrogen gas contained in the earth.
The truth of this theory may be proved by various well known experiments. :
An electric machine acts very imperfectly when many candles stand near it, because the candles consume the oxy- gen in the air. And for the same reason, all electrical ex periments, made with a small apparatus by candle light, are inconsistent with those made in day.
It is known, that, by concentrating the solar rays upon any body, a most intense heat is produced ; and that almost all the combinations which can be effected by combustion, may be in this manner accomplished.
“ Now the portion of solar light, which contributes to these effects, must be the calorific rays ; for neither the il-
* An clement is not an object of our senses, but an invisible imponde- rable power which acts on matter; as gravity, magnetism, &c, :
‘Vol, 42, No.187. Nov, 1813. Aa laminating
370 Account of some Discoveries in Chemical Philosophy.
luminating nor the chemical rays produce heat, and they are, consequently, incapable of exciting combustion.”
* To the exhibition, however, of these phenomena in combustion the presence of oxygen is necessary; for the calorific rays do not excite combustion in vacuo, nor in any gas deprived of oxygen, even when the most inflammable substance is employed. The very same condition is re- quired for the excitation of electricity. Colonel Haldane observed, that, when the Voltaic pile was placed in vacuo, its action immediately ceased ; that in nitrogen gas it did not even commence ; while in oxygen gas, or in atmospheric air, it acted with energy, and the oxygen disappeared. These facts were confirmed by Mr. Davy, who found that, in gas devoid of oxygen, no Galvanic electricity could be excited 5 but it was more or less abundantly developed, when oxygen gas was present*.” Hence, what has hitherto been called positive electricity, is unquestionably the elementary or im- pancesahle part of oxygen gas—one of the elements of com-
ustion.
Sir Humphry Davy found great difficulty in breathing _
hydrogen gas for so long a time as half a minute. It pro- duced uneasy feelings in the chest, and momentary loss of muscular power, and sometimes a transient giddiness f. And some persons have experienced giddiness, loss of muscular motion, and fainting, when standing near @ powerful electric machine while in action f. When an electric is strongly excited, it causes the sensa~
tion of the spider’s web upon the face brought near it§..,
And in coal mines highly charged with hydrogen gas, the workmen always experience the same sensation.
Now from these facts it appears, that when a portion of air is charged with what is called negative electricity, it is, in fact, charged with hydrogen gas.
On the elementary principles of oxygen and hydrogen gases,
called positive and negative electricity. When a Leyden jar is discharged through the air, @ spark is produced which sets certain bodies on fire. That a charged jar contaius the two elements of combustion,
cannot be disputed with any degree of reason, since com-—
° oO bustion has been produced by these elements thousands of
times, without any other means whatever, except some pon-~
derable matter for them to act upon.
* Ellis on Atmospheric Air, p. 188, + Thomson’s Ghemistry, vol. i. p.34. ¢ Yatman on the Elgctrie Fluid. § Cavallo’s Electricity, p. 408. ;
The
a
he
On definite Proportions. 371
The only point to be discussed is, What are those two ele- ments? There are a thotsand questions of the like nature, that cannot be answered. What is gravity, or magnetism ? All we know of them is derived from the effects which they produce.
The astronomer knows how to calculate the revolutions of the celestial bodies to a mathematical exactness, upon the unknown element of gravitation ; and the mariner can navigate unknown seas by his compass, without knowing the cause that turns the needle to the pole. And men pre- dict a thousand effects from causes equally unknown.
Of the animal and vegetable kingdoms we know nothing but what we see. An egg becomes a bird, and flies away ; and a bulbous root, planted in the earth, produces a flower which displays more beautiful tints than those of the rain- bow. These phenomena are known to every child; but the causes of those wonderful effects ‘are hidden from every human eye. In short, men reason from the effects of unknown causes, and act accordingly with the same con- fidence as if those causes were perfectly understood.
Hence, if we adopt the two invisible imponderable active powers, collected by the electric machine, as the elements of combustion, we do not deviate from the best modes of investigating truth. ;
Lynn, Nov, 15, 18i3. Ez. WALKER.
[To be continued.]} :
LXI. An Attempt to determine the definite and simple Pro- portions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganic Sub- stances are united with each other. By JacoB BerzE- ius, Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy; and M.R.A. Stockholm.
lV. THe Carponic ACID.
The carbonic acid in combination contains either twice or four times as much oxygen as the base.
Arthe time of my first investigations relating to carbonates, I was unacquainted with M. Gay-Lussac’s determination of the component parts of the carbonic acid. I had taken for their proportion 71;56 of oxygen, and 28°43 of carbon, according to the experiments of MM. Alien and Pepys, My analyses did not perfectly agree with this proportion ; but I supposed the cause of the disagreement to depend rather on my experiments than on those of the English
Aag2 chemists.
372 On definite Proportions.
chemists. T am however disposed to consider the analysis -
of M. Gay-Lussac as affording a confirmation of my ex- periments, although the agreement is not quite perfect.
a.) Carbonate of the protoxide of lead. Ten grammes of well dried carbonate of the protoxide of lead, weighed while still warm, were ignited in a small crucible of platina; they left 8°35 gr. of the protoxide, and had consequently Jost 1°65 of carbonic acid. Now if this acid, as Gay- Lussac has determined, contains in 100 parts 72°624 of oxygen, we have 119-83 of oxygen for 165 parts. But 835 of the protoxide of lead contain 59°7 of oxygen, and 59°7 x 2=119°4.
b.) Carlonate of baryta consists of 29-1 parts of carbonic acid and 77°9 of baryta; the one containing 16°05 of oxy- gen, the other 8°14; and 8:14X2=16°98.
c.) Carbonate of lime consists of 43°6 parts of carbonic acid and 56:4 of lime: the one corresponding to 31°66 of oxygen, the other to 15°88; and this doubled gives 31°76.
d.) Carbonate of soda. Ten grammes of pure carbonate of soda, dried in the heat of melting tin, dissolved in mu- riatic acid, aud dried and ignited in a platina crucible, af- forded 10:995 gr. of muriate of soda. Since these contain 5°8757 gr. of soda, it follows that the carbonate contains 41-243 per cent. of carbonic acid, answering to 29°95 of oxygen, while the soda gives 15°077, twice which is 30°15.
e.) Supercarbonate of soda. Five grammes of fully sa- turated carbonate of soda were dissolved in muriatic acid, in a flask which had been weighed, and it was found that 2°60 gr. of carbonic acid had escaped. The remaining so- lution, being dried and ignited, afforded 3°46 gr. of muriate of soda, containing 1°85 of soda. Consequently the super- carbonate consists of 52 parts carbonic acid, 37 soda, and 11 water. But 52 parts of carbonic acid contain 37°74 of oxygen, and 37 of soda 9:49: and 9:49 x4=37'96. Hence it follows that the soda in this salt is combined with twice as much carbonic aéid as in the foregoing.
Jf.) Potass and ammonia also afford two salts in which the carbonic acid is combined with the base in the same pro- portions. I shall take the carbonate of ammonia as an ex- ample. M.Gay-Lussac found, that 100 parts of ammonia take up 127°37 of carbonic acid in the-common carbonate, and 254°74 in the supercarbonate: but 100 parts of am= Monia contain 46°88 of oxygen, which doubled becomes 93°77, and quadrupled 187°54+ The carbonic acid in the former salt contains 92°5 of oxygen, and in the Jatter 185.
All these experiments therefore, except the first, agree in
indicating
ue
On definite Proportions. 373
indicating a little more oxygen in the carbonic acid than the determination of M. Gay-Lussac ; but the variation is immaterial: future experiments will perhaps inform us on what this variation depends. In the experiment on the carbonate of the protoxide of lead, the quantity of carbonic acid was in all probability augmented by a little moisture ; for, when the experiment is performed in a small glass re- tort, a slight deposition of aqueous vapour always appears in the neck of the retort, and disappears immediately with the carbonic acid gas.
It appears to me that we are right in considering the car- bonates of lime of baryta, and of the protoxide of lead, as neutral combinations: and in order to avoid inconsistency, we must denominate al] the carbonates, in which the acid contains only twice as much oxygen as the base, neutral salis, and the combinations completely saturated with car- bonic acid supercarbonales. For, if we attempt to infer, for example, the component parts of the neutral carbonate of soda from the analogies of the sulphates of baryta and soda and the carbonate of baryta, we obtain a result agreeing with the common carbonate of soda.
V. Tue Acips oF Puospuorus.
The phosphoric acid saturates so much of any Lase, that in the phosphates. as in the carbonates, the acid contains exactly twice as much oxygen as the base.
a.) Four grammes of phosphate of baryta were dissolved in nitric acid, and a precipitate was obtained by means of the sulphate of potass: when ignited, it weighed 4°397 gr., which contain 2°888 gr. of baryta, and leave 1112 gr. for the phosphoric acid in the 4 gr. Hence the phosphate of baryta consists of Phosphoric acid 27°8 100°0 -
BPG i. megtdin. ni ae 259°7 4.) I dissolved five grammes of pure lead in nitri¢ acid,
and dried the solution. The neutral nitrate of the protoxide was dissolved in water, to which neutral phosphate of am- monia was added: the phosphate of the protoxide of lead, thus obtained, after having been well washed and ignited, weighed 6°8 gr.; and no trace of lead was discoverable in the fluid by means of sulphuretted hydrogen, Now 5 gr. of lead require -385 of oxygen, in order to form a prot- oxide: hence 5°385 gr. of the protoxide had united with 1415 of phosphoric acid: and the phosphate of the prot- exide of lead consists of Phosphoric acid...... 20°809 100°00 Protoxide of lead%.... 79°19) 380°56 Aa3 These
374 On definite Proportions.
These results are also confirmed by calculation: for 100 parts of sulphuric acid saturate 191°427 of baryta, and 279 of protoxide of Jead, and 100 of phosphoric acid 259°7 of baryta; whence we have 191°497 :279=259'7: 378°51. The slight difference amounts only to 7,45 of the weight of the salt,
Now 360'56 parts of the protoxide of lead contain 27°21 of oxygen, which, doubled, gives 54:42. Consequently, according to this calculation, 100 parts of phosphoric acid should consist of 45°58 of phosphorus and 54-42 of oxy- gen. The late Mr. Rose found that 5 gr. of phosphorus absorb 5°555 of oxygen, or that 100 parts of phosphoric acid consist of 47°62 of phosphorus, and 52°38 of oxygen. If we take into consideration the moisture unavoidably ad- hering to the phosphorus when it is weighed, the analysis of Mr. Rose wil! agree very well with the computation. This gentleman attempted also to convert a determinate quantity of phosphorus into phosphate of the protoxide of lead, and obtained from 50 grains of phosphorus 481 of - this combination, If this experiment were perfectly cor- rect, the phosphorus must take up less than its own weight of oxygen, or, calculating upon the analysis of the phos- phate adduced by Mr. Rose, the acid should conisist of equal parts of oxygen and of phosphorus: so that the two experiments, which give 22°3 for the acid contained in 100 parts of the phosphate of the protoxide of lead, and 481 for the phosphate obtained from 50 parts of phosphorus, are inconsistent with each other, and lose their pretensions to accuracy. ~ ;
With the phosphorous acid 1 am not acquainted from my own experience: but it is very possible that this acid also may be found to contain twice as much oxvgen as the base by which itis saturated. Jn this case it would follow that such salts when exposed to heat in close vessels, should af- ford phosphorus, and leave a neutral phosphate behind : which, according to Fourcroy and Vauquelin, is the actual result of the experiment: and itis not probable that so ac- curate a chemist as Vauquelin would have overlooked the excess of base, if the phosphites had been decomposed by heat in the same manner with the sulphites. Consequently the phosphites must stand in the same relation to phos- phorus, as the hyperoxymuriates to oxygen; [that is, with regard to the operation of heat only. ]
VI. THe Actps of ARSENIC.
We have several good analyses of the arsenic and arses pious
—s = <
— ee
On definite Proportions. 375
nious acids, according to which the former contains from 50 to 56, and the latter 33°33 of oxygen to 190 of metal; or the arsenic acid consists of * metal and + oxygen, and the arsenious of 3 metal and ! oxygen. If however the composition of the latter is rightly determined, the former must contain, according to the laws which J have disco- vered, either 50 or 66 parts of oxygen, that is, either once and + or twice as much as the latter.
In order to ascertain this point, I dissolved 10 grammes of metallic arsenic in nitric acid, evaporated the solution, dissolved the acid in a very little water, and mixed it in a platina crucible with a solution of 30 gr. of oxide of lead in nitric acid. I evaporated the mixture to dryness, and ignited it: the residuum after ignition’ weighed 44°95 gr. Consequently 100 paris of metal had taken up 49°5 of oxy- gen. The same experiment, repeated with 3 gr. of arsenic, afforded 4-5 [4:45?] of arsenic acid; so that 100 parts of metal had taken up 48-3 of oxygen. In another repetition, a single gramme of the metai afforded 1°53 gr. of the acid, The experiments, which I performed in this manner, in order to avoid the presence of water, afforded therefore very different results: partly because the arsenic acid retains in them a little muriatic acid, which is expelled with the prot- oxide of lead; partly because the two acids, which are at liberty, begin to contend with each other in a high tem- perature for the protoxide, whence a little of the uncom- bined arsenic acid is decomposed and dissipated. In order to satisfy myself that metallic arsenic contains no hydrogen, that could have influenced the result, I heated some of it with some oxide of tin in a small glass retort ; some traces of moisture appeared in the operation, but they were too slight to be estimated by weight: and in the neck of the retort some arsenious acid had been sublimed. Although all these experiments afford no very accurate determina- tion of the quantity of oxygen in the arsenic acid, they still sufficiently show that 100 parts of metal cannot be com- bined with 66 of oxygen in it, and consequently that the arsenic acid can only contain half as much more oxygen than the arsenious. In order to assure myself more fully of the composition of these acids, I examined their com- binations with the protoxide of lead.
Arsenite of the protoxide of lead. 1 dissolved 20 grammes of protoxide of lead in nitric acid, and evaporated the so- jution, in order to expel the superfluous acid. The nitrate of the protoxide, dissolyed in water, was mixed with the arsenite of potass, as long as a precipitate appeared ; this
Aaé4 arsenite
376 On definite Proportions»
arsenite being prepared by the solution of white arsenic in carbonate of potass, until the solution, when cooled, de- posited arsenious acid in crystals. The precipitate, which was at first viscid, became a powder when heated, and was completely deposited. It was placed ona filter, washed,
and well dried ; it then weighed 39'126 gr, When melien in a red heat in a small glass retort, it aitorded -665 er. of water, and 1°651 of arsenious acid. Consequently 20 gr. of the protoxide of lead had afforded 36°81 gr. of neutral arsenite. The same experiment was then performed ina different manner. I carefully mixed 5 gr. of protoxide of lead with 6 of arsenious acid, and heated them together in a covered crucible of platina, i increasing the heat s! slowly to complete ignition. ‘The arsenite thus obtained weighed 9°22 gr.
Now if 36°81 parts of this arsenite contain 20 of the protoxide of lead, the salt is thus constituted :
Arsenious acid... 45°667 100:000 Protoxide of lead 54°333 118'977
If however we calculate from the last experiment, 100 parts of the acid must be saturated by 118:476 of the prot- oxide; so that the experiments differ very little from each other.
The arsenite of the protoxide of lead being a substance but little known, I think it right to make some remarks on its external characters. If it has been prepared by precipi- tation, the white powdery salt is perhaps the most strongly electrical of all known bodies. When I rubbed a little of it in a mortar, it cracked and flew about; and when I en- deavoured to pour it out, it remained adhering to the mor- tar: upon detaching it from the mortar, it spread, in falling, - over a surface several inches in diameter. Sulpbur exbibits similar appearances, but in a much less considerable degree. The salt when fused is not very fluid; it is transparent, and retains this property when cold: its colour is very slightly yellow; and if the lead contains a trace of copper, it becomes of a bottle green; but if made from common litharge, it is quite black. If it is heated with access of air, some arsenious acid is disenaged, and some arscniate of the protoxide is formed, which sinks in the salt when it is fused.
The composition of the arsenious acid may easily he cal- culated from that of the arscnite of the protoxide of lead, But my first conjecture, that it contained, like the sul- phurous acid, twice as much oxygen as the ‘base that. it sa- turated, is not confirmed by the investigation, For since
118°977
On definite Proportions. 377
418°977 parts of the protoxide contain 8*5068 of oxygen, the arsenious acid should, upon that supposition, contain in 100 only 17°0136 of oxygen to 8379864 of metal ; and this is not reconcileable with any of the analyses of ‘Bucholz, Rose, Thenard, and Proust. If however the arsenious acid contains three times as much oxygen as the protoxide sa- turated by ii, its composition will stand thus:
Arsenic...) 74°48 100°000
Oxygen... 25°52 34263
And this determination agrees very nearly with that of the chemists who have been mentioned.
Arseniate of the protoxide of lead. 1 dissolved 10 gr. of very pure arseniate of the protoxide of lead, which had | been ignited, in diluted initrie acid, and precipitated with sul- phate of ammonia. The clear liquid was evaporated to dryness, and the dry mass, still acid, was dissolved in water. It left a pretty considerable quantity of sulpbate of the prot- oxide of lead, and still more was thrown d: wn upon satu= rating the Auid with caustic ammonia. The precipitate, when collected, well washed, and ignited, weighed 9-559 or. As this result did not agree with the determinations of Klaproth and Rose, I repeated the experiment with 6 gr. of the arseniate: and the sulphate, which 1 obtained from it, weighed 5°731 gr. and this agrees very nearly with the fit. mer experiment. As Klaproth and Rese did not remark the solubility of the sulphate in the mixture of the two acids, this circumstance was probably the reason that they found the quantity of Jead smaller than I did. For when I decomposed 10 gr. of the arseniate, by means of sulphate of soda, without saturating the superfluous acid, I obtained only *0:042” [9:042?] gr. of ignited sulphate, which agrees exactly with the result obtained by those chemists. - fence the arseniate of the protoxide of lead consists of
Arsenic acid .. .. 29°6317 100°0 Protoxide of lead... 70°3683 237°5
T thought it probable that a superarseniate of lead might also exist, containing only half as much of the base as the neutral combination, and consisting of the acid united with the base in the same proportion as in the arsenite. I there- fore dissolved some of the arseniate in nitric acid, slow] evaporated the solution until it crystallized, and collected the salt: it was however not such a compound as I ex- pected, but a double combination of arseniate and nitrate of the protoxide. It was decomposed by water; the nitrate was dissolved, the crystals Jost their transparency, and the
arseniate
,
378 On definite Proportions.
arseniate fell down as a white powder: so that it seems impossible to obtain a superarseniate of lead.
Arsenic acid. When | attempted to deduce the compo- sition of the arsenic acid from these data, I thought at first that it could not contain less than three times as much oxygen as the protoxide of lead neutralized by it; and in this case more than half of it must have been oxygen. It could therefore only contain twice as much oxygen as the base; for 237°52 parts of the protoxide contain 16°981 of oxygen, and 16°981 X 2=33°962. According to this cal- culation, therefore, the arsenic acid consists of
Arsenic .... 66°038 100-000 Oxygen.... 33°962 51°428
But 100 parts of metallic arsenic take up 34°263 of oxy- gen in order to form arsenious acid, and 34263 x 1i= 51°3945, which differs from the number already found, by *0335 only. Consequently the arsenic acid follows the ‘same steps, in its different states, as the sulphuric and the oxymuriatic acids, the oxide of iron, and the yellow oxide of lead.
What differences however are still observable in the midst of these analogies! The sulphites take up oxygen, without altering their internal composition, and become sulphates. The phosphites part with a portion of their phosphorus, which becomes phosphoric acid, and the hy- peroxymuriates become muriates while they emit a part of their oxygen. The arsenites, on the other hand, are only altered in the fire by the addition of oxygen, since they contain more arsenic and more oxygen than the arseniates : but if a portion of the arsenious acid can be more highly oxygenized, it expels another portion, equal to itself in weight, from the mixture. These are appearances which might have been deduced from our general views, without the necessity of observing them. It is remarkable that all these double acids, derived from the same radical, have dif- ferent laws with respect to their powers of saturating a given
base. The sulphuric acid contains half as much more oxygen as the sulphurous which is capable of saturating the same base; the phosphorous and the phosphoric contain equal quantities ; the arsenious contains half as much more as the arsenic ; while the hyperoxymuriatic, as we shall hereafter see, must contain three times as much oxygen, for a given quantity of a base, as the simple muriatic. Metallic arseniets or arseniurets. In the sulphites, as
‘well as in the sulphates, the metal of the base is combined
with
eee
On definite Proportions. 379
with a minimum of sulphur, in the supersulphates with a maximum. The phosphites answer to combinations in which the phosphorus amounts to once and } or twice as much as in the phosphurets at a minimum, accordingly as the quantity of phosphoric acid, which saturates a basis, contains once and 4 or twice as much oxygen as the quan- tity of phosphorous acid ‘* that saturates the same basis ;” [or rather that is formed from the same quantity of phosphorus.]} The phosphates follow, in all probability, the same propor- tions as the phosphorets at a minimum. We should expect that the same would happen in the two kinds of salts containing arsenic: but if we calculate from the two salts of lead the respective quantities of arsenic united with 100 parts of lead, we shall find, in the arsenite 67°578, and in the arseniate 29°943 of arsenic. The latter number is less than the half of the former; and since twice 29°943 is 59°886, the deficiency 7*7 is exactly equal to the quantity of oxygen taken up by 100 parts of lead. IF it is true that the arsenious acid contains 2 as much oxygen as the arsenic, and saturates a base containing + as much oxygen as it- self, we must indeed never expect to find twice as much arsenic in the arsenite formed from a given quantity of lead as in the arseniate. This made me doubt the accuracy of my experiments, but they have afforded me the same re- sults upon a repetition. And since any other law for the capacity of saturation of the acids would suppose a very great difference in the results, it appears to me demon- strated, that a small error in the experiments cannot have any essential influence on the conclusions here drawn from them.
We cannot however doubt that arsenic combines with the other metals, exactly as sulphur does, in determinate proportions ; for in the natural arseniurets, for example those of cobalt or of iron, the component parts are mani- festly always united with each other in the same propor- tions. But if arsenic dues not follow the same progressive steps of combination with other metals, as with oxygen, such irregularities must occur, in the same manner as I have shown that they are observable with respect to sulphur and iron, in the subsulphate of the oxide of iron, But these irregularities will perhaps no longer be entitled to that ap- pellation, if we succeed in discovering, at some future time, the lowest stages of combinatign.
There can be no doubt that the other metals combine also with each other in determinate proportions, although the possibility of fusing most of them together, in all
propor-
380 On definite Proportions.
proportions whatever, has hitherto concealed from us what the proper chemical proportions are. Potassium, for ex- ample, crystallizes with quicksilver in two determinate pro- portions, one of which is twice as greatas the other. The arbor Diane is always the same combination of quicksilver and silver. If a mixture of zinc and copper is exposed to distillation at a high temperature, it loses a part of the zinc; but the remainder cannot be separated from it, as long as the air is excluded. When zinc is distilled, in order to purify it, it leaves some alloys behind, from which the zinc cannot he expelled. All this indicates some determinate proportions even in the combinations of the metals which may be mixed in all possible quantities. We shall here- after be able to compute these proportions according to those of the protoxides, for the metals must combine with each other either in such proportions as to be able to take up equal quantities of oxygen, or that the least strongly [positive] may be able to take vp 2, 3, or 4 times as much oxygen as the most strongly. I had proposed to make a series of experiments on this subject ; but since it is diffi- cult to perform such experiments with accuracy, and they are expensive and tedious, and since the truth of the law is sufficiently evident without them, 1 have desisted from my purpose. Since the earths must also be considered as me= tallic oxides, the same Jaw must be applicable to the com- binations of metals and earths in crystallized minerals, or in all such as are formed by the operation of chemical affi- nities, so that the oxygen must determine the proportion in this case also: and it will be necessary that all analyses of minerals should be repeated aud examined by this test.
Protoxide of arsenic. J thought it probable that arsenic, which resembles sulphur in its stages of oxygenization, must also have a protoxide, containing one-sixth as much oxygen as the arsenic acid, that is 8°57 for 100 of the metal, I therefore mixed 10 gr. of melted muriate of the pro- toxide of Jead with 6 gr. of metallic arsenic, and ignited the mixture in a small glass retort, The arsenic sublimed in a metallic form, and the muriate remained undecom- posed. Jt appears, therefore, that arsenic affords no oxide capable of combination with the muriatic acid.
But every chemist knows that arsenic, exposed to the air, falls into a black powder, which is no longer metallic, and must therefore be considered as an oxide. I therefore exposed two grammes of very finely powdered arsenic, ina smal] glass dish, covered with paper, for two months, on a stove, to a temperature between 30° and 40° [86° and
104°],
On definite Proportions. 381
104°], and weighed it from time to time, taking care to stir the powder. At the end of the time, it had assumed the form of a blackish brown powder, and had acquired -162 gr. weight. The increase during “the last’? [a third?] month was only -0075 gr., and it then became sta- tionary. Consequently 100 parts of arsenic had united with 8°475 of oxygen; and this is so nearly } of the oxygen contained in the arseric acid, that the difference does not exceed half a thousandth of the weight of the protoxide ; so that we have hence a new proof that the multiples by 14 are only apparent, and in reality represent multiples by 6 or,12 of a smaller quantity. The protoxide of arsenic is reduced by heat, affording metallic arsenic and arsenious acid.
VII. Tunestic AnD Motyspic Acips.
Not having had an opportunity of making any original experiments on these acids, I shal] only calculate their com- position from the analyses of MM. Bucholz and Klap- roth. According to Klaproth (Beitr. ITI.47) 100 pnt of tungstate of lime afforded 32 of carbonate of lime and 77°75 of tungstic acid. The 32 parts of carbonate of lime contain 18°05 of the earth, and in‘it 4°0719 of oxygen: this quantity, multiplied by 4, gives 16°287635 and if this is the quantity of oxygen contained in 77°75 of tungstic acid, this acid consists of 79°1 of metal and 20-9 of oxygen. Bucholz gives 80 and 20 for this proportion.
In Klaproth’s analysis of the molybdate of the protoxids of lead (Beitr. 11.274) 100 grains were found to afford 744 of the muriate, which contain 59°9 of the protoxide, with 4*282 of oxygen, and 3 times this quantity gives 12°846. The salt of molybdzna afforded 34°25 of acid; and if this contained 12°846 of oxygen, the molybdic acid must con sist of 65°5 parts of metal and 34°5 of oxygen. According to the determination of Bucholz, it consists of 66°67 and 33°33 respectively.
The analyses, on which these two computations are founded, are not perfectly accurate; so that, notwithstand- ing the slight variation in the result, they serve as new and ample proofs of the law of nature which I have been endea- vouring to develop.
Since all the acids, with the composition of which we are in any degree acquainted, follow the law which has been laid down, I think we are justified in applying the same mode of calculation to the investigation of the compositior® 6f those acids also, which we cannot directly analyse. It ‘ will
‘382 On definite Proportions.
will therefore be permitted me, to extend the law also to the muriatic acid, and to the acids with compound radicals. In these last we shall be able to observe the transition from inorganic to organized bodies, and the modifications of the same Jaws which nature follows in both orders of sub- stances.
VIIT. Murratic AND Hyrrroxmuniatic Actps.
The muriatic acid contains oxygen, and in such a pro- portion, that in the muriates the oxygen of the acid is twice as much as that of the lase. Inthe hyperoxymuriates, the acid contains 8 times as much oxygen as the base, and emits, ly the operation of heat, 6 times as much oxygen as the base contains. F
I exposed 4 grammes of hyperoxymuriate of potass, which [ had dried very quickly in a hot sand bath, to a high temperature in a small retort ; 1 caused the oxygen gas which escaped to pass through a glass tube, filled with muriate of lime, of which the weight was accurately as- eertgined, and continued the experiment until the retort was red hot, and no more oxygen gas escaped. The small retort had lost 1:5525 gr. of its weight. During the whole operation, no trace of moisture was perceptible on its neck ; but in the curvature a sublimate was deposited,. which was perhaps carried up mechanically by the gas, weighing exactly ‘Oi gr., and consisting of hyperoxy- muriate still undecomposed. The tube filled with muriate of lime, when the oxygen had been blown out of it by means of a very dry bottle of caoutchouc, had gained -005 in weight. Consequently the loss of oxygen amounted to 1°5475 gr. The saline mass left behind weighed 24375 gr.; and, according to the analysis of the mu- niate of potass, must have consisted of +8913 gr. of muriatic acid, and 1'5462 of potass. Consequently +8913 gr. of muriatic acid had been combined with 1°5475 gr. of oxygen, which gives 173°62 of oxygen to 100 of muriatic acid. Now since the oxymuriatic acid contains, according to Davy and Gay-Lussac, as much oxygen as the common muriatic acid reqzires in the bases which it satu- rates, and consequently 100 parts of muriatic acid take up 29°454 of oxygen in order to form oxymuriatic acid, it follows that 173:62 ought to be a multiple of 29°454 by some whole number. In fact 29°454 x 6=176:724, which differs only by 3-1 from the experiment. We may there- fore consider this experiment as a proof that the hyperoxy~ muriate of potass affords, by the effect of heat, 6 times ie
miuc
On definite Proportions. 383.
much oxygen as is contained in the potass; and the same must be true of other neutral hyperoxymuriates. The slight variation of the experiment from the law is very easily understood, from the difficulty of purifying thehy- peroxymuriate from the simple muriate, and the material influence of such an impurity on the result.
We are next to inquire in what proportion the oxygen of the muriatic acid, which is left behind, stands to that of the potass and to the portion which has escaped as a gas. To judge from the analogy of the other acids, it ought to be a multiple by 2 or 3 of the quantity in the potass. That the multiplier cannot be greater than 3 is very obvious, ‘since any greater number would afford a quantity greater than that of the whole acid: and if 3 were the number, the acid would consist of 11°64 of its basis to 88°36 of oxygen, and the other known degrees of oxygenization would be multiples by 14 and 3; which is contrary to the progression that has hitherto been observed. Consequently the muriatic acid can only contain twice a3 much oxygen as the base by which it is saturated, and must consist of 41°092 of its radical and 58°908 of oxygen. It is how- ever possible that this proportion may be erroneous as far as 1 per cent. since the analysis of the muriate of silver can only be depended on to +5, of the whole, and the quantity of oxygen may be 1 percent. greater, and that of the radical as much less than that which is here laid down): but this inaccuracy is of no consequence to the general question of the degrees of oxygenization.
It is obvious that these degrees may be expressed by the numbers }, 14,-and4; the third step, or the multiple by 2, being absent. If we might infer, from the analogy | of sulphur, that the multiple by 14 is here also a true mul- tiple by 6 of a lower degree, we should have in the -hy- pothetical protoxide of the muriatic radical, 100 parts of this substance combined with 35°843 of oxygen. Perhaps a.combination of this kind may hereafter be discovered in the muriatic ether: for itis more probable that an oxide enters into the composition of this substance, just as the nitrous oxide enters into that of nitrous ether, than that the acid itself should be retained by the component parts of the ether with greater force than by the ordinary bases which attract it the most powerfully. According to these computations, we obtain for the different states of the mu- riatic acid, the following proportions,
: a.) Com-
384 On definite Proportions.
a.) Common muriatic acid.
Radical 41:09%*8” 100‘:0000 Oxygen 58:90°¢2” 143°3633
b.) Oxymuriatic acid.
Radical 31*742 100-00 Muriatic acid 77-232 100000
Oxygen 68°258 215°06 Oxygen .. 29°768 29:454
, c.) Hyperoxymuriatic acid.
Radical 14°85 100-000 Muriatic acid 36:14 100-000
Oxygen 85°15 573429 Oxygen .. 63°86 176224
“In order to discover the degree of oxidation which is wanting between the oxymuriatic and hyperoxymuriatic acids, I determined to examine with accuracy the analysis of the hypcroxymuriate of ammonia. Some years: since, when I was investigating the chemical modes of decom~ posing ammonia, TI attempted to decompose the muriate of ammonia by means of a solution of hyperoxymuriate of lime, in an apparatus which had been weighed, and to as- certain the quantity of the nitrogen, which escaped, by the loss of weight. I found, however, that an excess of acid was required for the decomposition of the salt, and the apparatus lost in the mean time very unequal quantities of a gas, which had a very strong smell of oxymuriati¢e acid. Not being able to obtain from the experiment any result applicable to the object which I then had in view, T pur- sucd it no further: but when T began to make computa- tions respecting the composition of ammonia, and of the muriatic acid, [I found that the hyperoxymuriate of ammo- nia must be so constituted, that the excess of the oxygen’ of the acid must be twice as great as would be required for forming water with the ammonia. And since this salt, ac- cording to Mr. Chenevix, begins to be decomposed a few moments after it has been formed, it followed that, besides water and nitrogen, it ought to afford a new stage of oxy- genization of the muriatic acid, in which 100 parts of the radical should be combined with 358366 of oxygen; that is, a multiple by 22; which did not however appear very probable.
But it was also possible that it might afford water, nitro- gen, nitrous oxide, and the muriatic oxide which was wanting. I therefore mixed a solution of hyperoxymurtiate of potass with a solution of sulphate of ammonia, both of which were perfectly neutral, and boiled them for some
time
On definite Proportions. 385
time in a retort with a pneumatic apparatus attached to it ; but no gas was extricated, and that which remained in the apparatus was not altered. When I added a little muriatic acid, there was an effervescence, the mixture became yel-
dow, and nitrogen and oxymiuriatic acid were disengaged.
When the neutral mixture was gently evaporated, hyper- oxymuriate of potass crystallized in it, and the sulphate of ammonia effloresced, as usual, about the vessel. It appears therefore that these two salts do not decompose each other. When I attempted to prepare the hyperoxymuriate of am- monia according to the method of Mr. Chenevix, [ found that uo decomposition took place if the salts were neutral, but only if the acid or the alkali prevailed. Aw excess of
‘ammonia disengages nitrogen, and the oxymuriate is
changed into common muriate. Excess of acid disengages oxymuriatic acid and nitrogen. This appears therefore to demonstrate that neither the hyperoxymuriate of ammonia nor the muriatic oxide in question can exist, at least. m a separate form,
CONCLUSION.
If we compare what I have explained in this essay with our common experience, we seem authorised to establish upon these foundations the following laws of formation.
“© In a chemical combination of two or more oxidated bodies, (whether it consisis of acid and acid, of acid and base, or of base with base,) the oxygen of the substance which is most abundant is a multiple by a whole number (1, 2, 3, 4,...) of the oxygen of the body which is least abundant ; and in every chemical combination beiween two | comlustible substances, they are present in such quantities, that, if the compound be orygenized, a new combination will be formed, which follows the same law.”
I have already observed, that crystallized minerals must be formed according to this lav. And the same must be true of the water of crystallization of salts. Thus I have found that the oxygen of the water of crystallization is either a multiple, or, in a very few cases, a subinultiple of that of the base of the salt by a whole number. In the supercarbonate of soda, and in the muriate of ammonia, the water and the base contain equal quantities of oxygen. In the sulphate of lime, the muriate of baryta, and the sulphate of ammonia, the oxygen in the water of crystal- lization is double that of the base. Jn the sulphate of the protoxide of iron the water of crystallizauon contains
Vol. 42. No. 187. Nov. 1813. Bb 7 limes,
386 On definite Proportions.
7 times, and in the phosphate, sulphate, and carbonate of soda, 10 times as much oxygen as the base.
In order not to be misunderstood, I shall here insert the principle of the formation of organic productions, which I shall extract from the continuation of my experiments re- lating to organic nature. It stands thus :
‘© In organized productions, two, three, or more inflam- maile substances are united, and attached to a single por- tion of omygen, which is only sufficient for the oxygeniza- tion of one of them; and this combination cannot be divided into more immediate component parts, nor be formed frote such parts.” ,
This mode of combination belongs so exclusively to organic nature, that when such compounds occur in inor- ganic nature, we always attribute to them an organic origin ; and, as far as I know, we have only two examples, in which we can obtain products formed according to this Jaw, from bodies completely inorganic: these are Hatchett’s artificial tannin, and the artificial extraction. See my Analysis of Crude Iron, Afh. III. 132. Since inorganic nature consists partly of combustible bodies without oxygen, and partly of oxygenized bodies, each combustible body contained in this class bas its proper portion of oxygen, which belongs exclusively to it, and which accompanies it, when it is separated from the rest. But organic products, although they never exist without oxygen, are still all com- bustible, because the oxygen, although it does not belong to one of the constituent parts rather than to another, is still only sufficient to bring one of them into a definite state of oxygenization, and this state is very seldom the highest of which tt is capable. ‘
On the whole I may be permitted to conclude, that I have sufficiently demonstrated in this essay the proposition implied in its title: An attempt to determine the definite and simple proportions, in which the constituent parts of morganic substances are united with each other. Many of my readers will be disposed to believe, that the same laws must prevail for both kinds of natural bodies. But from what I have here remarked, it appears that each kingdom has a separate modification in the principles of its constitu- tion. I shall endeavour, in the continuations of these experiments, to examine and demonstrate more particu- Jarly the last mentioned principle for the formation of organic products.
[To be continued}
LXIlI. Let-
{ 387 j LXIT. Letter from Dr. Wotasron on the Periscovie Construction of Spectacles,
To Mr. Tilloch.
Sin.—lx the 180th number *of your Magazine (for April last), your correspondent Mr. Jones renewed his attack upon the periscopic construction of spectacles, maintaining as before, that the principle on which that form of glass is recommended for spectacles is not new, though al] his quotations prove that it was unknown to the authors on whose opinion he so confidently relies, and though it evi- dently is not even yet rightly understood by himself. .
I have hitherto thought it wholly superfluous to make any answer. Those who understood the subject would certainly not expect any reply from me; those who did not, would not be benefited by any attempts of mine at further illustration ; and to Mr. Jones himself it is probable that my silence would be far more satisfactory than any ex- planation that I could give.
I do hope however that the following Report of M. Biot wili gratify those who are best acquainted with the merits of the question by its fairness and perspicuity ; that the au- thority of one so justly celebrated as a mathematician will be received as conclusive by those who do not feel them- selves competent to decide on such subjects; and that, pos- sibly, even Mr. Jones himself, if his * duty to his profes- sional interest *” should again impel him to write upon the subject, may at least acknowledge that a philosopher of the first eminence in France probably writes without any pre- possession liable to warp his judgement; and that he may perhaps even feel persuaded that there must be some advan- tage in the periscopic construction which he has overlooked, when one so peculiarly skilled in optical science as M. Biot, gives such decided testimony to the superiority of this kind of spectacles.
I hope you will find that have fairly translated the whole of the Report: but as it is possible that I may in some in- stances have misinterpreted the strict meaning of the au-
* Sce vol. xli, p. 247, The liberality of Mr. Jones must be acknowledged in avowing himself the champion of the professional interest, in opposition to an intruder who has presumed to recommend, as an improvement, a mode of construction which is necessarily far more costly, on account of the thickness of glass that must be taken for the purpose, on account of the owed of this glass that must be ground away by hard labour, and more especially on account of the very small number of large glasses that can be
arranged by the side of each other on a surface of small radius, so as to be ground at the same time by the same tool,
be thor,
888 Observations on a new Kind of Spectacles.
thor, I beg you will refer those who may wish to see the original to the Moniteur of the 2 ist of September last. I remain, sir, Your obliged and obedient servant,
Nov. 20, 1813. Wn. W OL aa
Observations by M.Bror on a new Kind of Spectacles in: vented by Dr, WouLuastron.
Every one knows that those whose eyes are too convex cannot see distant objects distinctly, because the pencils of rays of light intersect each other in the eye before they reach the retina. On the contrary, those whose eyes haye too little convexity, as 1s generaily the case in old persons, cannot see with distinctness those objects that are at a short di- stance, because the rays conyerge towards a. point that is beyond the retina. The former defect is remedied by the use of concave glasses, which remove the focus of rays to a greater distance ; ; the latter is relieved by convex glasses, which have the effect of shortening the focus.
But those who have recourse to common spectacles can- not see with distinctness, any objects which are not nearly in the direction of the axes of the glasses. Objects seen remote from the centres are distorted and confused, by reas son of the obliquity of the rays to the surfaces of the ‘glass, which. occasions a degree of irregular aberration. Hence with such glasses the view can embrace but a small number of objects at atime.. The head must be moved in sucha manner as to direct the axes of the glasses to each object in succession, with great inconyenience 1a very many in- stances.
It is now some years, since Dr. Wollaston proposed a remedy for this defect by a very simple invention. He re- marked that, since the pupil of the eye is of, very small size, 1t is m fact but a very small portion of a spectacle glass that is employed in any one position of the eye, though its several parts are used in succession, when any lateral motion is given to the FNC: de thence inferred that the form usually given to such Blassese thouy “h well adapted to other uses, for which the rays from all parts of the glass are to be collected into one focus, is not the best for specta- eles; but that the best construction would be that which would give to all parts separately the same power of assist- ing the ‘sight, when the eye is turned to each of them in succession. Dr. Wollaston was thus led to the obvious
' conclusion
Observations on a new Kind of Spectacles. 89,
conclusion that the form should be (LombZe) convex with- out and concave within, so that rays’ coming to the eye would pass nearly at right angles to the surface of the glass an all directions. These glasses were called by the inventor Periscopic, and the exclusive sale of them was secured to Messrs. Dollond by patent.
"My attention having been some time since drawn to this subject by an article in Nicholson’s Journal, 1 proposed a trial of them to my friend M. Cauchoix, well known as a skilful optician in general, and more particularly by the large achromatic lenses which he has lately made of flint= glass manufactured in France by M. Dartigues. I re- quested his opinion on the subject; for, though our theory should direct the artist, his assistance and experience are necessary to confirm our results. M.Cauchoix very soon made several pairs of periscopic spectacles of different focal lengths for the purpose of trying their merits. For though Dr. Wollaston had given no measures for the different cur- vatures of the surfaces, M. Cauchoix, who is conversant with the theory as well as with the practice of his art, had ho difficulty in discovering such combinations of curvature as would answer his purpose. In those which he made first, the surface most curved was nearly concentric with the eye. The pupil might then be turned to the full extent of the glass on each side, and see (nearly) as well as through the centre. The field of view gained by this construction is really surprising, and it would require a person to be for Some time trained to the use of the common defective glasses, to be fully sensible of all the superiority of these. For my own part, I have not been accustomed to wear spectacles commonly, and have only used them occasionally for seeing distant objects; but for the last three months [I have regularly used the periscopic glasses, and I certainly never shall employ any others.
There was, indeed, one inconvenience in those first con= structed by M. Cauchoix, which would be felt by those who are in the habit of wearing spectacles constantly. In looking towards a candle, particularly in a theatre where there are many lights, there appeared a variety of reflected images beside the principal object viewed, which occasioned some confusion. This arose from a combination of re- flections between the two surfaces, which, in consequence of the degree of difference of their curvatures, occasioned a distinct image to be formed on the retina after two reflec: tions. M. Cauchoix has however bappily succeeded in ré- moying this inconyenience altogether, by making the inner
oi" Bb3 surface
390 Researches into the Anatomy of Plants.
surface of the glasses less concave * than he did at first, so that whatever light may enter the eye after reflection is no longer brougkt to a focus, and consequently is not per- ceived. We have then a larger field of view than with common spectacles, without introducing any new inconve- nience.
During the Jast three months M. Cauchoix has made trial of these spectacles on a great number of persons, and even upon one so short-sighted that he could not see be- yond 24 inches, which is certainly a case of extreme short- sightedness. All these persons agree in making the same favourable report. The trials made by elderly persons re- quiring the assistance of convex glasses have also been at- tended with just the same success.
Iam the more particular in noticing these trials of some months continuance, because it is by continued trial alone that we can be certain of the goodness of spectacles, and in
eneral of optical instruments that do not magnify much.
he eve has a certain flexibility, and power to accommodate, itself for a short time to a glass that does not quite suit it. But if the same degree of effort is to be long continued the eye tires, and complains of an imperfection that was not at first perceptible.
It appeared to me that so decided an improvement upon an instrument generally used, and indeed so necessary to many persons, deserved some public notice; and I advise those who ever use spectacles to make trial of these. If they are as well satisfied as I have reason to expect, they will derive a further pratification from reflecting that the science which thus adds to our enjoyment of the objects immediately around us, is the same that has made us ac- quainted with the remotest parts of our solar system, and given us some conception of the extent of the universe.
(Signed) Brot,
Member of the lmperal !ustitute.
LXIII. Researches into the Anatomy of Plants. By Hi. F, Link, of Breslau, formerly of Rostock.
(Continued from p, 282.]
Il. The Vessels of Plants,
Osservarions frequently and carefully repeated have in- duced me to abandon the theory of the moderns, as to the, yessels of plants, and to follow that of the naturalists
*. As they have been-made from the first by Messrs. Dollond. h whe
Researches into the Anatomy of Plants. 391
who originally took up the subject. I am now of opinion that the fibres of the plants are vessels in which the sap ascends; that they are entirely different from the cellular texture, and that they constitute a class of particular or- gans.
Malpighi gives some very accurate ficures of the fibres of plants: he supposes that these fibres are the vessels de- signed to transfer the sap. Grew entertained the same opinion*before Malpighi. Naturalists adopted the theory of these great men until the discoveries of Sarrabat, Bonnet, and Reichel rendered it very doubtful. Hedwig said that the fibre of the plant is formed by the sap-vessels which twist themselves round the air-tube. Sprengel asserts that the fibres consist only of the cellular tissue; and Mirbel appears to be of the same opinion. The opinions of these philosophers made MM. Radolphi, Treviranus, and me un- willing to admit that the fibres are distinct organs, differing from the cellular tissue. Only two modern naturalists, MM. Petit Thouars and Medicus, retain the ancient opi- ion, and support the existence of fibres.
The fibres of flax, hemp, and other plants, carefully ex- amined with a good microscope, did not exhibit the least vestige of any partitions or intertexture. I took the longest fibres which [ could procure, and examined them from one end to the other without finding an intertexture in their whole length. They appeared to be straight and continuous tubes. I have seen the same thing in the ramifications of the leaves of Bromelia ananas, from which we may draw the threads by tearing the leaves. The same thing happens when we tear the leaves of Planiago mujor, in which the fibres are joined to the trachez in a small fasciculus, which is easily detached from the parenchyma. Finally, the in- terior bark and’the wood of the trecs have afforded me the same result: having once seen the fibres distinctly, I was able to recognise them every where, and to distinguish them easily from the cellular texture. See Pl. I. fig. 12, (Plate IV.) these fibres taken from the inner bark of the Liburnum lan- tana. The texinre of the hazel-tree resembles considerably these fibres, particularly if they are not parallel, and if they cross each other under a very acute angle; but maceration destroys the texture, and leaves the fibres entirely. In ge- neral these fibres accompany the trachez, and constitute with them the wood of the plants, Nevertheless we find in some plaats fasciculi of fibres under the epidermis separated from the wood, and the tracheze, e. g.in the Labiate, the
Bb4 Umlelliferee,
392 Notices respecting New Books.
Umlellifere@, &c. in which the saliant angles of the stall are formed by these fibres.
I am convinced from a variety of reasons, that these fi. bres are the vessels of the plants which conduct the sap. The following are some of their arguments.
1. When we cut a branch of a tree in a rainy season, the sap issues from the places where there are many fibres: i.e. from the interior bark, and from the external wood. It neither issues from the externa! bark where the’cellular texture is in abundance, nor from the interior wood where the trachee are in abundance. It is therefore probable that these are the fibres which farnish the sap.
2. Wheu we cnt a plant in order to examine the cut place instantly, we see the orifices of the trachez very di- stinctly, but we see them dry: the sap issues, on the con- trary, from the fasciculi which surround and accompany the trachea, and which are composed of fibres.
{To be continued. ]
a — —
5 LXIV. Notices respecting New Books.
‘Des Second Part of the Philosophical Transactions for
1813 has appeared; the following are its contents ° 19. An Account of some organic Remains found near Brentford, Middlesex. By the late Mr. William Kirby Trimmer. Communicated in a Letter from Mr. James R. Trimmer tothe Rt. Hon.Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K.B.P.R.S. —20. On a new Construction of a Condenser and Air- pump. By the Rev. Gilbert Austin. In a Letter to Sir Humphry Davy, LL.D.F.R.S.—2i. On the Formation of Fat in the intestines of living Avimals. By Sir Everard Home, Bart. Presented by the Society for promoting the Knowledge of Avimal Chemistry.—22. On the colouring Matter of the black Bronchial Glands, and ofthe black spots of the Lungs. By Gcorge Pearson, M.D. F.R.S —23. Experiments on the Alcohol of Salpliur, or Sulphuret of Carbon. Baas J. Berzelius, M.D. F.R.S. Professor of Che- mistry at Stockholm; and Alexander Marcet, M.D.F.R.S. one of the Physicians to Guy’s Hospital,—e24. On the Means of procuring a steady Light tn Coal Mines without the Dan- ger of Explosion. By William Reid Clanny, M.D. of Sunderland. Communicated by William Allen, Esq. F.R.S: —25. On the Light of the Cassegrainian Telescope, com-~ pared with that of the Gregorian. By Captain Henry Kater, Brigade-
. ’
Royal Society. 393
Brigade-Major. Communicated by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K.B. P.R.S.—26. Additional Obser- vations on the Effects of Magnesia in preventing an in- creased Formation ef Uric Acid; with Remarks on the Influence of Acids upon the Composition of the Urine. By William Thomas Brande, Esq. F.R.S. Prof. Chem. R. I. Communicated by the Society for improving Animal Che- mistry.—27. Additions to an Account of the Anatomy of the Squalus Maximus, contained in a former Paper; with Observations on the Structure of the Branchial Artery. By Sir Everard Home, Bart. F.R.S.—28. Some further Obser- vations on a new detonating Substance. In a Letter from Sir Humpbry Davy, LL.D. F RS. V.P.R.I. to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K.B. P.R.S.—29. Experi- ments on the Production of Cold by the Evaporation of the Sulphuret of Carbon. By Alexander Marcet, M.D. F.R.S. one of the Physicians to Guy’s Hospital.—30. On asa ine Substance from Mount Vesuvius. By James Smithson, Esq. F.R.S.—31. Some Experiments and Observations on the Substances produced in different chemical Processes on Fluor Spar. By Sir Humpbry Davy, LL.D. F.RS. V.P. R.1.—32. Catalogue of North Polar Distances of Eighty- four principal fixed Stars, deduced from Observations made with the Mural Circle at the Royal Observatory. By Jobn Pond, Esq. Astronomer Royal, F.R.S.—33. Observations of the Summer Solstice, 1813, with the Mural Circle at the othe Observatory. By John Pond, Esq. Astronomer Royal, RS.
—_—_—_—_—
LXV. Proceedings of Learned Societies.
ROYAL SOCIETY.
os
Thursdav, Nov. 4, Puts Society assembled after the long vacation ; and the Right Hon. President Sir Joseph Banks, having so far recovered from his late indisposition, was carried into the meeting-room and placed in his chair. Dr. Wollaston read a paper describing an instrument which he has invented, for exhibiting at one view an epitome of what he calls *¢ chemical equivalents.” The instrumeit is made of paper with a moveable graduated slide, like that of the sliding rule; andthe names with the elementary principles or component parts of al] the acids arranged in the order of their relations to each other, and to their respective bases, stating the relative quantity by weight and measure of their contents of oxygen, hydrogen, azote, base and water, in- cluding
394 Royal Society.
cluding the definite proportions of the integral atoms of alf the known compounds. Bergman, Kirwan, and Rytter have all attempted to give tables of the acids; but the state of chemical knowledge had not then attained sufficient maturity to make them permanently useful. Dr. W. has availed himself of later discoveries, and formed a table on # new and more useful construction to be used like the sliding-rule, and designed to abridge the labour of the analy- tical chemist, assist the memory, and present a correct summary view of our knowledge of chemical bodies. The only substance which he found it necessary to analyse was oxalic acid, in order to be able to state its component parts correctly, all preceding ,analyses being defective. The Doctor also added some directions necessary to those who are not familiar with the use of that excellent instrument the sliding rule.
Thursday, Nov. 11. The President in the chair. The Croonian Lecture on Muscular Motion, by Mr. Brodie, was read. Mr. B. began with a general review of the doc- trine established by Hiller, and improved by subsequent physiologists, that mnscular motion is dependent on ner- vous excitement, and that such excitement is derived from the brain. He examined the recent opinions of M.de Gallois; that muscular motion is occasioned by the spinal marrow, and the stimulus of the blood on the heart; the result of four or five experiments was stated, all of which tended to prove that the blood does not occasion the con- tractions and pulsations of the heart, that the circulation can be continued by artificial respiration after decapitation, but that it instantly stops when the heart is prevented from communicating with the spinal marrow. Nevertheless the author appeared to ascribe the principal source of muscular irritability to the brain, and the nerves ramifying from it. In cold-blooded animals, particularly the frog, he found that the pulsations of its heart continucd above an hour after being separated from the spinal marrow, and that the irsitability remained more than a day. Mr. B. has made
_experiments on no other cold-blooded animals.
Nov. 18. Major Kater communicated to the Society the result of three more experiments made on the compara- tive powers of the Cassegrainian and Gregorian Telescopes, by which it appears that the superiority of the former over the latter is im the proportion of 234 to 10. The Casse- grainian telescope was made by Mr..Crickmore.
Dr. Thomas Thomson furnished a paper, containing
an Account of some Experiments which he made on an Ore of
—_—s
Geological Society. 395
of Copper brought by Dr. Heyne from the East Indies. The mineral he considered a new species (perhaps he meant variety) of carbonate of copper; but his description was ap~ plicable to many specimens found in this country. His paper, although sparing in experimental details, was copiously supplied with calculations. He put 100 grs. of the mineral into a bottle of sulphuric acid, stopped it with cotton, and afterwards calculated the quantity of carbonic acid disen- gaged. The mineral contained about 19 per cent. of iron, the remainder was carbonate of copper and crystals of quartz 5 the latter were very small.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
Noy. 5.—S. Woods, Esq. Treasurer in the chair,
Edw. Horne, Esq. of Bookham, Surry ;
The Rev. J. Holme, Fellow of St. Peter’s College,
Cambridge;
Charles Hampden Turner, Esq. of Limehouse, were
severally elected Members of the Society.
The continuation of Mr. Webster’s paper ‘¢ on the fresh- water formations of the Isle of Wight, with some observa- tions on the strata lying over the chalk,”’ was read.
Having in the former part of this paper given a general account of the chalk and of the beds lying above this rock in the Southern or Isle of Wight basin, and in the London basin, Mr. Webster next proceeds to a more particular de- scription of them, with a comparison between these and those which occur in the basin of Paris.
The beds lying between the chalk and the fresh-water formation (or the lower marine formation, as it is called by the author of this paper,) are to be observed with peculiar distinctness at Allum Bay in the Isle of Wight. ‘hey as well as the chalk are here nearly vertical, but have evi~ dently undergone no other alteration, except this change of, position.
The first bed, and immediately incumbent upon the chalk, is the chalk marl: it consists of chalk intimately mixed with clay, and is readily distinguishable from pure chalk by the ease with which it falls to powder on exposure to the weather. It contains no flints. It appears to have been generally spread over the bottom of the Isle of Wight basin, being found in that part of Sussex which is south, of the S. Downs, and occurring somewhat further to the W. than Corfe Castle in Dorsetshire, It has not how- ever been met with in the London basin.
Next
396 Geological Society.
Next above the chalk marl lies a thick bed of dark reé clay, often mottled with yellow and white, and forming an excellent material for bricks and coarse pottery. Then comes a bed of yellowish white sand; and another thick bed of blue clay, containing green earth and’ nodules. ‘of ai dark coloured limestone inclosing shells. Above this he several beds of differently coloured sand, more or less ferru- ginous and clayey, in which no organic remains have hitherto been found. "These are again covered by a numerous suc- cession of strata, consisting of irregular alternations of white, yellow and gray pipe clay, with white and variously coloured sands : neither the clays nor sands contain organic remains ; bat in the upper part of this series are three strata, from six inches to a foot in thickness, of a difficultly com- bustible and sulpbarcous coal, the vegetable origin of which is apparent from the branches and fruits’ that may still be observed in it. Above this lies another extensive series of white and differently coloured sands. ‘The different beds which have now been enumerated as lying above the chalk marl are very interesting, not only in a geological but m an ceconomical point of view. The fine white sand of Allam Bay used in the manutactories of flint glass, as well as the white clays of the Isle of Wight and Dorsetshire, so ex-' tensively used in our finer kinds of pottery, belong to this series. It is plainly to be traced in varions parts of the Isle of Wight basin, and may be seen in the London basin, on the east bank of the Medway near Rochester, in the neighbourhood of Reading, and elsewhere.
Above the strata just faentioned lies the great deposit of the blue or London clay. Its thickness im many places amounts to 200 or 300 feet, and in some parts even exceeds 500 feet. It consists for the most part of a very tough blackish clay, inclosing flattened spheroids of indurated marl, which when broken exbibit compartments formed by’ the intersection of veins of yellowish calcareous spar, and are hence called Septaria. In some parts the clay 1s mixed with green earth and sand, and more or less impregnated with carbonate of Ime, with pyrites, and with gypsam, this latter being probably the result of the vitriolization of the pyrites. and the subsequent decomposition of the sul- phate of iron by the carbonate of lime.
On account of these saits the water contained in this: bed is bur little fit fer domestic purposes ; wells are there-. fore, if possible, sunk through it into the sand below, the: water of which is very abundant and of good quality.
One distinguishing characteristic of this deposit is the: number, '
Geological Society. 397
number, variety and beauty of the organic’ remains which are imbedded in it. In the Isle of Wight basin it occurs at Allum Bay, at Hardwell Cliff in Hampshire, the foe sils of itch: are uncommonly perfect and, beautiful ; Stebbington near Portsmouth, ‘at Portsmouth. itself, ated Portsmouth westward to Pagham harbour ; at Bognor it is very sandy and calcareous, and possesses the solidity of rock, but contains the same fossils as the pure clay does, The ted of the channel between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight consists of this clay.
In the London basin this bed is even more extensive than in the Isle of Wight basin. On the south side of the Thames its eastern boundary is at Reculver: it then ap- pears at Swale Cliff and Whitstable: it forms the whole of Sheppey, rising on its northern coast into cliffs 200 feet high: at Sheerness it has been sunk through at the depth of 330 feet; to which if the height of the “cliffs be added, the probable thickness. of this bed in. this part is above 500 feet.
The fossils of Sheppey, both animal and vegetable, are very numerous, especially the latter, as is evident from the exten- sive collection of them made by Mr, Francis Crowe, of Faversham.
The elevated ground to the north of London, including Primrose Hill, Harrow, Hamptstead, Highgate, and Mus- well Hills, consists almost wholly of this stratum. At Brentford and Wimbledon its thickness is from 200 to above 500 feet. It appears to form the greatest part of the Surface of Essex and Suffolk, and constitutes. the lower part of the cliffs of Walton and Harwich.
Nov. 19.—Dr. MacCulloch, Vice-President, in the chair,
‘Lieut, Col. Congreve, M. P. F.R.S.
W.E. Sheffield, Esq. of Somers Town ;
John Rennie, Esq. F.R.S. Civil Engineer, were severally
elected Members of the Society.
The continuation of Mr. Webster’s paper was read.
Having in the preceding portion of his paper described the chalk with its superincumbent beds as far as the great blue clay inclusive, as they present themselves in the south of England, Mr. W. proceeds to compare them with the analogous beds j in the basin of Paris.
The chalk formation of France appears to correspond with that of England, both in its general characters and in the fossils which it contains. A chalk without flints occurs in Champagne ; but whether this bed is, as with us, interior to the flinty chalk has not been mentioned, on
e
$98 Geological Society.
The plastic clay of Paris basin also agrees very accurately with the corresponding deposit in the Isle of Wight basin. They are both of various colours and qualities, and both appear destitute of organic remains. The English deposit however contains two or three distinct beds of carbonized vegetable matter, which does not occur in that of Parts.
The blue clay, the most important of any of the English beds above the chalk, does not make its appearance as such jn the Paris basin; nor, on the otber hand, does the calcaire grossier, a bed of equal importance in the latter basin, make its appearance among our English strata. The calcaire grossier is composed of beds of limestone inclosing beds of zoned hornstone, alternating with clays and marls of various descriptions. Of the fossil shells contained in this deposit nearly 600 species have been described by M. La- marck, many of which, and particularly those which are considered as the most characteristic, have been found by Mr. Webster to occur in the blue clay at Bracklesham, in Selsea, in Stebbington Clitf near Portsmouth, and other parts of the Isle of Wight and London basins. Hence it appears probable that the blue clay and the lower beds of the calcaire grossier are parts of the same deposit, and that from local circumstances the clay has prevailed in the one, and the calcareous matter in the other.
The lower fresh-water formation lies on the upper black clay, and is most distinctly to be seen in the section of Headen Hill, which forms the northern boundary of Allum Bay. It here consists of a series of beds, chiefly of sandy, calcareous and argillaceous marle, mixed more or less with a brownish coaly matter. Of these beds some appear to consist almost wholly of fragments of shells, many of which how- ever are sufficiently entire to show that they are fresh-water shells, belonging to the genera Lymnea, Planorbis, and Helix. Some of the beds are sufficiently indurated to form a coarse building stone.
At Cowes, and at Binstead near Ride, are also beds con- taining fresh-water shells lying over sand and blue clay, and differing from those of Allum Bay in little else than that instead of being marl they are limestone.
An analogous formation occurs in the Paris basin, like that of the Isle of Wight already described: it contains beds of marl inclosing fresh-water shells of the genera Lymnea and Planorbis, but differs from the English in containing also three gypseous deposits. Of these the lowest is the thinnest, and abounds in crystallized selenite : the next is thicker, and includes a bed of indurated clay
containing
‘ List of Patents for new Inventions. 399
containing fossil fish : the uppermost is fhe thickest of all, and abounds in the remains of extinct quadrupeds, mixed occasionally with those of birds, and rarely with fresh- water shells.
LXVI. List of Patents for New Inventions. To Joseph C. Dyer, of Gloucester Place, Camden Town,
n the county of Middlesex, who, in consequence of a com- munication made to him by a certain foreigner residing abroad, is possessed of a new improved method of spinning hemp, flax, grasses, or any substance having considerable length of fibre—ist Nov. 1813.—6 months.
To Samuel James, of Hoddesdon, in the county of Hert- ford, surgeon, for his sofa or machine for the use of inva- lids and others. —1ist Nov.—6 months.
To John Barton, of Tufton Street, Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, engineer, for his various improvements in the construction and application of steam engines.—1st Nov.—6 months.
To John Ruthven, of Edinburgf, printer, for his ma- chine, or press, for printing upon types, blocks, or other
-surfaces.—1st Nov.—4 months.
To Thomas Rogers, cf Bagot Street, in the city of Dublin, but now residing in England, for bis new flour for bread, pastry, and other parposes.—1st Nov.—6 months.
To William Summers the younger, of New Bond Street, in the county of Middlesex, tronmonger, for his method of raising hot water from a lower to an upper level for baths, manufactories, and other useful purposes.—1st Nov.—2 mo.
To Benjamin Sanders the elder, of Granby Place, in the county of Surry, button manufacturer, for his improved manner or method of manufacturing buttons. —4th Nov.— 6 months.
To Charles Wilks, of Ballincollig, in the county of Cork, Esq. for his method of constructing four-wheeled car- riages of all descriptions, whereby a facility of turning is obtained without having recourse to the usual modes of having what is commonly called locks, or having any ne- cessity for keeping the fore wheels of such carriages lower than the hinder wheels usually are, or of raising the bodies of such carriages bigher than usual.—gth Nov.—?® months,
To Richard Jones Tomlinson, of Bristol, in the county of Somerset, iron master, for certain improvements in the methods of constructing or making the coverings of the roofs, or of other surfaces of buildings whether external or internal,—13th Nov.—? months, METEORO=
400 _ Meteorology. METEOROLOGICAL TABLE, By Mr. Cary, or THE STRAND,
For November 1813.
Thermometer. Pout: as Pe]. 14 5] Height of |= 33 Bree Bae $ 2s the Barom. ate Weather, “719 6) 3 | Se] Inches. | £2 to 22 m QO. co a Ast Oct. 27| 42 | 42 | 40 | 29°85 oO /Rain 28| 37 | 42 | 36 "85 o |Rain 29; 35 | 40 | 35 “Ol 10 |Showery 30] 31 | 47 | 52 "50 11 {Cloudy 31} 47 | 48 | 40 26 19 «|Fair Nov. 1 35 | 48 | 38 50 92 \Fair Q| 35 | 47 | 35 67 27 |Cloudy 3! 33 | 46 | 30 | 30-21 94 |Fair 4| 31 | 45 | 38 "26 26 «|Fair 5| 35 | 46 | 38 ‘18 90 «|Fair 6| 37 | 47 | 38 | 29°93 92 «(|Fair 7| 42 | 43 | 40 "75 o jRain [Thunder 8| 47 | 57 | 46 +49 o |Rain with 9| 46 | 58 | 44 "62 26 |Fair 10] 46 | 57 | 47 *68 20 |Showery 11) 47 | 58 | 52 *64 26 |Fair 19] 54 | 54 | 42 ‘60 oO Rain 13) 37 | 46 | 36 “57 24 |Fair 14) 33 | 47 | 37 "24 16 «|Fair 15| 36 | 46 | 35 "26 28 \Fair 16) 34 | 43 | 43 ce id 20. {Fair 17| 38 | 37 | 35 "21 Oo (Snow 18| 33 | 41 | 37 "62 10 {Fair 19] 38 | 48 | 52 "64 oO {Rain 20| 48 | 53 | 50 *88 16 |Fair 21| 50 | 54 | 50 “91 18 |Cloudy | 22} 47 | 54 | 44 91 17 |Cloudy . ©3| 40 | 47 |} 44 °92 0 |Foggy 24| 44 | 46 | 38 | 30°10 0 |Foggy i 25| 33 | 41 | 39 "10 10. ‘|Fair 26} 40 | 42 | 37 “11 9 {Fair
N.B. The Barometer’s height is taken at one o’clock,
ee -
[ 401 ]
LAVII. Description and Use of an Instrument called “ The Sectograph,” principally intended for the Purposes of di- viding right Lines into equal Parts, measuring Angles, and inscribing Polygons in the Circle, fc. Sc. invented by Tuomas Jones, Astronomical and Mathematical In- strument Maker, &c. No. 21, Oxendon-Street,
Severat years have now elapsed since J first thought of the arrangement for this instrament; but though I obtained a patent for it about two years ago, I have tll now been prevented from submitting it to the public by various pro- fessional duties which I could not lay aside ; being obliged, like every man who tries to attain excellence in his pro- fession, to finish the greater and most particular parts of my instruments with my own hands.
The sectograph will, I hope, effect the purposes intended; namely, a considerable saving of time, and a degree of ac- curacy applicable to the various purposes of drawing. The instrument is very simple in its construction, and easy in its use ; requiring only oue setting or adjustment for divid- ing, laying down, or measuring any space or angle; and with a facility calculated to lessen the laborious part of these processes, and to render them light and pleasant to the careful and elegant draughtsman. —
The common size of the sectograph is about eight inches long, and measures to the extent of that distance. The instrument is packed in a morocco case (with a printed de- scription inside) the exterior of which is about nine inches Jong, and three quarters of an inch square*,
Description of the Instrument.
The bars of metal (or other substance) (P].VI.) A,H,B, are of equal dimensions, the bars a, a, a, a, a, are likewise equal to each other. The whole of the eight bars are of the same length, and are pinned and screwed together at the dots and small circles, where the ends of the smaller bars join the larger ; each joint giving an easy and pleasant motion. 1, 3, 5,and7 are small short pieces placed across, and pinned to the others. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7 and 8 are the places where the steel points are fixed into the bars. e,g, is a scale with a slit in the middle, which receives the clamp and fixing screw x, for holding the points at any required di-
* The price of the eight-inch is two guineas, that of others in proportion to their lengths, &c. as they are made to any size, with any number 9 points, or without the clamp and scale, if required.
f Vol. 42, No. 198. Dec. 1813, Ce stance,
402 Descripition and Use of
stance. This scale has degrees on one side of the surface, and inches and parts of inches on the other. Directions for using the Sectograph. The letters and figures referred to in the following die rections are marked on the instrument.
Open the instrument by pulling A and B asunder, until the exterior nearly forms a square. Hold it im the hand, or place it on paper, with A next to you: the points will then appear in line, and numbered from left to right 0, 2, 45 &c. and may be made to recede from or advance to each other at pleasure. For dividing lines, place @ on the he- ginning, and the 2d, 3d, 4th, &c. on the other point or distance to be divided, and press down the intermediate points, or as many as may be required. When a transfer or copy is to be taken, take care to clamp the instrument by the milled head as soon as it is set. For measuring distances, place 0 on one point, and the point of the op- posite corner on the other: the scale on the side where the divisions are marked 1, 2, 3, 4, &c. (indicating inches) will give, at the clamp, the inches and parts of the required di- stance. For Jaying down angles, (the other side of the scalé marked 10, 20, 30, &c. are the degrees, the point A the angular point, and the other two points 0 and 8 form with A the sides of the angle,) set the division of the clamp to the number of degrees, clamp the instrument, and apply the points to the paper, or other surface. For measuring angles, place the point A in the angle, and the other points to the sides respectively, clainp the instrument, and the scale will give the number of degrees. For angles of one degree, &c. set the instrument to ninety degrees, and clamp: it; then place A, 8, on one side of the angle and let fall the point O, press gently the points A and 0, loosen the clamp, hft the point 8, and move the required number of degrees, either for measuring or laying down angles. By tse scale of inches the points are placed one inch, one-half, one- quarter, one-eighth, or one-sixteenth, from each other. The intermediate distances may be had by the scale of iaches, In order to get the hundredth part of an inch, set the clamp to 5 inches, beyond which are ten divisions; then place the 7th point in the dot where you want the hundreds to com- mence ; let fall the 8th point, on which place the second finger of the right hand firmly; with the other hand hold the end 0, letting the fingers touch the paper; them raise the 7th point, still keeping the sth down, and move the
points towards cach other until you come to the first of the’
ten
—ss
an Insirument called The Sectograph. 403
ten divisions; then with the first finger of the right hand make a dot ‘with the 7th point, (which may easily be done without marking with the other points,) which distance will be one-hundredth of an inch; then raise the 7th point, move to another division, dot, &c.&c. By using every second division you will have the fiftieth of an inch, &c. Fractional parts of distance may be measured by the same means,
The Sectograph and Scale for dividing Circles, Angles, Lines, Se
This sectograph is exactly the same as the former, except that of its not having the graduated scale e, g; instead of which it is accompanied by a scale, the size of the in- strument when opened to its greatest extent, that is, about eight inches and a half Jong and five-eighths of an inch wide, Both being of the same dimensions, are neatly packed in one case.
The ivory scale has on one side a diagonal scale of inches ; on the other, polygons, sines, tangents, semi-tangents, and chords ;—the whole constructed expressly for the instru~ ment.
The Use of the Sectograph and Scale. : The first (0) and last point (8) on the line of points are
called the extremes ; the single point (at A or B) the cen- tral point.
To divide any line, AB, fig. 1. into a given number of equal parts, each less than the greatest, but greater than the smallest division that can be made by the instrument.
Rule.
1. Draw AC (fig. 1.) making any angle with AB.
2. Take any distance as Ai between the extreme points, and repeat it as often as necessary along AC; as from A to 1,1 to 2,2 to 3, &c.
3. Press down the points in the last division, as from 3 to 4, and let C be the required point.
4. With the same extent of the sectograph and one ex- treme in C, let the other fall in D.
5. Join CB, and parallel thereto draw DE; then BE is one extent of the sectograph on the line AB, to which apply it and finish the division.
Example. Let it be required to divide the line AB into twenty-nine equal parts with an instrument of eight divi- gions, or nine points,
Ceca Proceed,
*
404 Description and Use of
Proceed as above, and press down the points in the 4th grand division, and C will fall against the 5th point, from which draw a line to B. Then make CD equal to Al, and draw DE parallel to CB, and BE will be the length of eight divisions on the line AB, to which apply the instru- ment and finish the division.
When the division can be made with one remove of the instrument, it may be easily done by trial without drawing an additional line. -
To divide any line AB into a given number of equal parts, each greater than 1, but less than 2, of the greatest divisions that can be made by the instrument.
Rule.
1. Draw AC (fig. 2.) making any angle with AB.
2. With the instrument drawn to its greatest extent, make the required number of divisions along AC, the last point being at C.
3. Join CB, and parallel thereto draw lines from all the points to AB; or, without drawing the lines, make marks in AB, which will then be divided as required.
Let the greatest division that can be made by the instru- ment be called D.
Then, to divide AB into any number of equal parts, each greater than 2 D, but less than 3 D, :
Rule.—Mark AC with twice the required number of divisions, each equal to D, and having joined CB, draw parallels from every 2d point in AC to AB, or make marks therein.
If the divisions to be made on AB are greater than 3 D, but less than 4 D,
Mark AC with three times the required number of divi- sions, each equal to D, and draw parallels from every 3d point, &c.
N.B. When the divisions on AC are nearly equal to those on AB, the angle at A may be small ; but it will be best to make it larger as the difference is greater.
The length of a line being given in inches, to divide it into a given number of equal parts by the lines of t and 3 inches on the scale.
Rule.
Multiply the number of inches by 2 or 4, to bring them into half or quarter inches. Then say,
As the number of parts given: to the number of parts in the sectograph: so is the length of the line giyen to the Jength of one extent of the sectograph. Take
an Instrument called The Sectograph. 405
' Take this extent between the extreme points from the line of half or quarter inches (as the case may be), and this extent applied to the given line will divide it as required.
Examples.
1. Let it be required to divide a line of 5 inches long into 17 equal parts ?
Here 5 x 2=10 half inches. Then
As 17: 8::10:4°706 nearly. Take this number be- tween the extreme points of the sectograph from the line of half inches. Then apply it to the given line, and it will divide it as required.
2. To divide a line of 64 inches long into 37 equal parts?
Here 64 x 2=13 half inches.
Then, as 37 :8::13: 2°811 nearly, to be taken from the Jine of half inches, as in the last example.
3. To divide a line of 143 inches long into 23 equal parts?
Here 142 x 4=59 quarter inches. Then
As 23: 8:: 59: 20522 nearly, to be taken from the line of quarter inches. ;
4. To divide a line of 25% inches long into 31 equal parts ? _ Here 252 x4=1034 quarter inches. Then
‘As 31:8::103°5: 2671 nearly, to be taken from the
line of quarter inches.
5. To divide a line of 48°35 inches long into 100 equal parts ?
Here 48°35 X4=193'2 quarter inches. Then
As 100: 8 :: 193'4: 15°472 to be taken from the line of quarter inches.
If the length of the line to be divided is not given in inches, it may easily be found by measuring, and then di- vided by this method, which in some cases will be found to be preferable to the other.
Use of ihe Lines on the Scale.
The several lines on the scale, which belong to the circle, are adapted to the radius of the instrument, which is the distance between the central point and one extreme point.
1. Of the Line of Chords.
To raise a perpendicular, or make an angle of 90 degrees. Rule.—¥ ix the middle point (fig. 3.) of the instrument in the point B, or that from which the perpendicular is to be .c8 drawn,
.
4v6 Description and Use of The Sectograph.
drawn, and extend the extremes to any distance along the line, as from A to C; then the central point will fall in the perpendicular line at D.
To find the measure of an angle,
Rule.—Fix the central point in the intersection of the lines, or angular point, and bring the extreme points to the containing lines. Then this extent or distance of the ex- tremes applied to the line of chords, will show the measure of the angle required.
To make an angle of any number of degrees less than 90.
Rule.—Apply the extreme points to the line of chords, and take between them the measure of the angle. Then fix the central point in the angular point, and the extremes will fall in the lines to be drawn from that point.
N.B. If it be required to make an angle less than can be taken between the extreme points of the instrument,—draw a perpendicular or angle of 90°, and then lay down the complement of the required angle.-
2. Of the Sines, Tangents, and Semi-Tangents.
The lines of tangents and semi-tangents are particularly useful in the projection of the sphere, and the line of sines in drawing the parabola by points. No further explanation secms to be necessary here, as that is given in every trea- tise where their use is required.
3. Of the Line of Polygons.
This line is numbered the contrary way, because the Jengths of the sides increase as their numbers decrease : it is
regularly divided from 3 to 24, and numbered; but the
numbers 11, 13, 15,17, 19, 21 and 22 are left out for want of room.
When a polygon of several sides is inscribed in a circle, by continuing the division with one side only taken from the scale, the error (if any) will increase with the number ; and will consequently at iast be very considerable. It will therefore be necessary to divide the circle into parts of 2, 3, or more sides each; and then take one side between the extremes from the line of polygons, and finish the poly- gon by subdivisions. This may be done very correctly for composite numbers.
Thus the number 21 is composed of 3 and 7: therefore, divide the circle first into 3 parts, and then take the side of 21 from the line, and subdivide each division into 7.
Again,
Experimenis in the Process on Fluor Spar. 407
Again, 20 is composed of 4 and 5: therefore divide the circle into 4 parts, and then by the side of 20 subdivide each division into 5.
For the prime numbers take one side from the line of polygons, and with it mark 3 divisions as exactly as possi~- ble. Take these 3 divisions between the extremes, and divide the circle into as many divisions of 3 sides each, as are necessary ; then with one side between the extremes trisect the divisions.
N. B. On the line of sines, the sine of 53 degrees is equal to the chord of three sides of a polygon of 23. sides nearly.
For the purpose of very readily measuring degrees, bi- secting angles and lines, the sectograph (if required) may be made to consist of three points only in the line, besides the central point.
LXVIII. Some Experiments and Observations on the Sub- stances produced in different chemical Processes on Fluor Spar. By Sir Humpury Davy, LL.D. F.RS. VP. R.L*
In the Bakerian Lecture for 1808 I have given an account of an experiment on the combustion of potassium in sili- cated fluoric acid gas, in which the gas was absorbed, and a fawn-coloured substance formed, which effervesced with water, and left after its action on that fluid, a residuum which burnt when heated in oxygen, reproducing silicated fluoric acid gas; and I concluded from the phenomena, that the acid gas was decomposed in the process, that oxygen was probably separated from it by the potassium, and that the combustible substance was a compound of the siliceous and fluoric bases.
The experiment of burning potassium in silicated fluoric acid gas was made likewise by MM. Gay-Lussac and The- nard, before I published any account of my researches on this phenomenon. It was indeed one of the most obvious ap- plications of potassium, and it occurred to many others, as well as to myself, that it might be made, immediately after I discovered that metal,
MM. Gay-Lussac and Thenard drew the same conclu- sions as I did, namely, that the acid gas was probably de- composed during the action of potassium on silicated fluoric acid; but their general views differed from mine in this re-
* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, part ii. Cc4 spect,
408 Experiments on the Substances produced
spect, as they supposed that no part. of the inflammable matter was derived from silica, and they likewise reasoned on the phenomena with more caution.
At the time that my conclusions were drawn, I was ig- norant of the true nature of the muriatic acid. After I had tried in vain to decompose oxymuriatic gas, and after I had found that the compounds of this substance with phos- phorus, sulphur, and the metals combined with ammonia without any decomposition, and produced compounds in which no oxygen could be discovered ;_ I was forcibly struck by the analogy between the oxymuriatic and the fluoric compounds, and led to doubt of the justness of my ideas respecting the nature of fluoric acid.
I tried an experiment on the comparative quantities of fluate of lime, formed from equal volumes of silicated flu- oric acid gas, one of which had been acted upon by potas- sium, and then exposed to solution of ammonia, the other had been absorbed by solution of ammonia: and I found the proportion of calcareous fluate nearly one-third larger in the latter case. This result at first seemed favourable to. my early ideas, that the acid contained a peculiar inflam- mable basis, which was separated by the potassium, and existed in the combustible substance insoluble in waters but it could not be considered as decisive on the question ; for it occurred to me.as possible, that this substance might be silicum, or the basis of silica united to a much smaller proportion of the fluoric principle than that existing in sili- cated fluoric acid.
During the period that I was engaged in these imvestiga- tions, I received two letters from M. Ampere, of Paris, containing many ingenious and origina: arguments in fa- vour of the analogy between the muriatic and fluoric com- pounds: M. Ampere communicated his views to me in the most liberal manner; they were formed in consequence of my ideas on chlorine, and supported by reasonings drawn from the experiments of MM. Gay-Lussac and Thenard.
Before I enter upon the detail of the investigations which promise to elucidate the nature of the fluoric compounds, it will be right to describe those substances produced from fluor spar, which have been the principal objects of my ex- periments, and to mention the different hypothetical views that may be formed respecting them.
The first of these substances is the silicated fluoric acid gas, which was discovered by Scheele, and examined in its pure state by Priestley. It is formed by heating a mixture of fluor spar, powdered glass, and sulphuric acid, It is a
very
in different chemical Processes on Fluor Spar. 409
very heavy elestic fluid, its specific gravity being nearly forty-eight times as great as that of hydrogen. It produces, according to my brother Mr. John Davy, a quantity of si- lica equal to 742; of its own weight by its action upon water, and a quantity equal to ;%},% of its weight by its ac- tion upon solution of ammonia. It condenses twice its own volume of ammonia, and forms a solid salt, volatile when free from water without decomposition.
Liquid fluoric acid, the second of these substances, was discovered by Scheele, but first obtained in its pure form by MM. Gay-Lussac and Thenard. It is proeured by heating concentrated sulphuric acid and pure fluor spar, in retorts of silver or lead, and receiving the product in re- ceivers of the same metals artificially cooled. It is a very active substance, and must be examined with great caution. According to my experiments, its specific gravity is 1-0609*. It produces a high degree of heat when mixed with water ; and such is its degree of attraction for water, that it be- comes denser by combining with that fluid. By adding water, in very small quantities at a time, to pure liquid fluoric acid, I found that its specific gravity gradually in- creased till it became 1°25; it is, I believe, the only known body possessed of this property.
The third substance is fluo-boric acid gas, which was dis- covered by MM, Gay-Lussac and Thenard. It is pro- duced by intensely heating, in an ‘iron tube, a mixture of dry boracic acid and fluor spar, or by gently heating ina glass retort a similar mixture with sulphuric acid. Its spe- cific gravity is rather more than thirty-two times as great as that of hydrogen. It forms a solid salt, volatile without decomposition, by condensing its own volume of ammonia, The ammoniacal salt dissolved in water and distilled, af- fords boracic acid.
The most important phenomena of chemical change, in which these bodies operate, that may be supposed to illus- trate their nature, is their agency upon potassium and other metals, The action of potassium upon silicated fluoric gas has been already referred to. MM. Gay-Lussac and Thenard, by heating potassium and sodium in fluo-boric acid gas, obtained fluate of potassa or soda, and the basis of the boracic acid; and by exposing potassium to liquid fluoric acid, their results were hydrogen and acid fluate of potassa,
* Unless it is distilled through tubes and into vessels of pure silver, its specific gravity is greater; it readily dissolves tin, and slowly dissolves lead,
and after being long kept in vessels of pure silver, it is found to have taken up a small portion even of that metal, Three
410 Experiments on the Substantes produced
Three hypotheses may, according to sound analogies, be formed on the nature of the fluoric combinations. In the first, which is-that generally adopted, the silicated fluoric acid gas is supposed to be a compound of silica and a pecu- liar acid, itself consisting of inflammable matter and oxy- gen; fluo-boric acid gas, a compound of boracic acid and the same acid ; aud pure liquid fluoric acid as water com- bined with the acid. :
In the second hypothesis, that which I have alluded to in the beginning of this paper, and that adopted by M. Am- pere, the silicated fluoric acid is conceived to consist of @ peculiar undecompounded principle, analogous to chlorine and oxygen, united to the basis of silica, or stlicum; the fluo-horic acid of the same principle united to boron ; and the pure liquid fluoric acid as this principle united to hy- drogen.
In the third hypothesis, which probably would have been formed by the disciples of the pblogistic school of che- mistry, had they been acquainted with the facts, the liquid fuoric acid is considered as an undecompounded body ; and the metals and inflammable bodies as compounds of certain unknown bases with hydrogen: silicated fluoric acid gas, on this idea, must be regarded as a compound of the fiuoric acid with the basis of silicum, and fluo-boric acid gas as a compound of fluoric acid and the basis of boron.
Whoever will consider, with attention, the different facts that have been brought forward by Scheele, Gay-Lussae and Thenard, John Davy, and myself, will find that they will admit of explanation on either of these hypotheses ; and as, in all the cases yet brought forward, of the most simple chemical action of other bodies on the fluoric sub- stances, more than one new form of matter is produced, no explanation of the phenomena can at present be given without involving suppositions. :
It is not easy te devise simple experiments to ascertain which of these hypotheses is true; yet, in admitting strict analogical reasoning, it is easy to show which is most con- formable to the general series of chemical facts.
Those acids which are known by direct experiments of decomposition by heat, to consist of oxygen, bases, and water, such as the strongest sulphuric and nitric acids and hydro-phosphorous acid, when they are acted on by am- monia, afford moisture: this is easily proved, by causing them to absorb ammoniacal gas in glass retorts, and gently heating the mixture; when water immediately appears. On
this view, it occurred to me, if the liquid fluoric acid was a com~
in different chemical Processes on Fluor Spar. 411
« compound of water, and inflammable bases, and oxygen, that water ought to be produced when it was made to com- bine with ammonia. It was not possible to make the ex- periment in glass vessels, as the acid acts with great vio- Jence on glass, producing silicated fluoric acid gas. I had recourse, therefore, to an apparatus made of platina. A small tray of platina was filled with pure liquid fluoric acid, and introduced into a tube of platina connected by proper stop-cocks with a mercurial gazometer, filled with am- monia; the end of the platina tube was closed by a brass stopper, and a communication made between the ammonia and the fluoric acid ; the ammonia was gradually absorbed, producing heat ; and white fumes sometimes rose into the gas-holder, so that it was necessary from time to time to cut off the communication; ammoniacal gas was supplied till no more absorption took place. When the tube was quite coo], the stopper was removed, and the result ex~ amined; the interior contained a white crystalline mass, but there was no appearance of fluid*. A polished brass tube, cooled by means of ice, was held over the aperture of the platina tube, and it was gently heated till the salt began to sublime, but no moisture was found condensed in the cold tube of brass.
This experiment is unfavourable to the idea, that the li- quid fluoric acid contains water 5 and the following result is likewise unfavourable to the idea that it consists of an inflammable basis united to oxygen. Solid and pertectly dry fluate of ammonia was introduced into a tray of plata, with about an equal quantity of potassium, and the tray was heated in a small tube of glass connected with a mer- curial apparatus. A violent action took place, gas was disengaged with great violence, which remained for some time clouded ; the application of heat was continued till the tube was red: it was then suffered to cool, and the results examined. Much white matter, which proved to be fluate of potassa, had been carried by the violence of the action out of the tray of platina into the glass tube; and a little potassium had sublimed in the tube. The tray contained a considerable portion of potassium, and a saline matter, which bad all the characters of fluate of potassa. The gas disengaged, consisted of ammomia and hydrogen, to each
.
* It is necessary that pure liquid fluoric acid, 2.¢. that which has the lowest specific gravity, bp used for this experiment. ‘The first time that { made it, I obtained moisture, owing to my having formed the hydro-fluoric acid by means of sulphuric acid that had not been previously boiled, and which must have contained more than one proportion of water,
other
4ig Experiments on the Substances produced
other in volume nearly as two to one; but the experiment cannot be considered as decisive on this point, as no parti- cular precautions had been taken to dry the mercury.
Now, if there had existed oxvgen combined with an in- flammable basis in the fluate of ammonia, it might have been expected to have been separated, or at least to have formed a new combination during the action of potassium upon the fluate of ammonia, which is the case’with such ammoniaca! salts as contain acids in which oxygen is an element. Thus nitrate of ammonia acted on by potassium, as I have found, affords azote and ammonia; and sulphur is partly disengaged, and partly newly combined during the agency of potassium in excess upon sulphate of ammonia.
The action of potassium upon fluate of ammonia is pre- cisely similar to its action upon muriate of ammonia, in which, as I have found by numerous experiments, ammonia and hydrogen to each other in volume as two to one are disengaged, and muriate of potassa (potassane) formed.
All the hydrates, that is, all the substances which con- tain definite proportions of water, united to acids, alkalies, or oxides, which are fluid, or capable of being rendered fluid by heat, when exposed to the chemical agency of Voltaic electricity, undergo decomposition, and their in- flammable principles, either pure, or combined with a smaller proportion of oxygen, are disengaged at the nega- tive surface in the circuit, and their oxygen at the positive surface. Thus sulphuric ‘acid affords sulphur and hydrogen at the negative surface, and the hydro-phosphorous acid, phospharetted hydrogen and phosphorus, and nitric acid nitrous gas; and all these bodies yield oxygen at the posi- tive surface.
T undertook the experiment of electrizing pure liquid fluoric acid, with considerable 1 interest, as it seemed to offer the most probable method of ascertaining its real nature ; but considerable difficulties occurred in executing the pro- cess, The liquid flueric acid immedately destroys glass, and all animal and vegetable substances ; it acts on all bodies containing metallic oxides; and I fail of no sube stances which are not rapidly dissolved or decomposed by» it, except metals, charcoal, phosphorus, sulphur, and cer- tain combinations of chlorine.
I attempted to make tubes of sulphur, of muriates of lead and of copper containing metallic wires, by which it might be electrized, but without success. 1 succeeded, however) in boring a piece of horn silver in such a manner, that I
was able to cement a platina wire into it, by means of a spirit
in different chemical Processes on Fluor Spar. 413
spirit lamp; and by inverting this in a tray of platina filled with liquid fluoric acid, [ contrived to submit the fluid to the agency of electricity in sach a manner, that in succes- sive experiments it was possible to collect any elastic fluid that might be produced. Operating in this way, with a very weak Voltaic power, and keeping the apparatus cool by a freezing mixture, I ascertained that the platina wire at the positive pole rapidly corroded, and became covered with a chocolate powder; gaseous matter separated at the negative pole, which I could never obtain-in sufficient quantities to analyse with accuracy ; but it inflamed lke hydrogen. No other inflammable matter was produced when the acid was "pure.
In a case in which the acid had been condensed in a tube of lead, joined by a sojder containing tin, a large quantity of powder separated at the negative surface of a dark co- lour, and which appeared to be tin mixed with a subfluate ; the powder burnt when heated in the air, and gave fluoric fumes when treated by potassa and sulphuric acid.
_ L attempted to electrize the liquid fluoric acid, by making plumbago the positive surface; but the plumbago was quickly destroyed, a subfluate of iron was deposited on the negative surface, and the liquid became turbid and black. When a point of charcoal attached to a wire of platina was made positive, the effects were similar to those produced by a platina wire alone; for the acid speedily penetrated through the pores of charcoal, and the platina, in consequence, be- came a point of contact with the fluid.
I applied the power of the great Voltaic batteries of the Royal Institution to the liquid fluoric acid, so as to take sparks in it. In this case, gas appeared to be produced from both the negative and the positive surfaces; but it was probably only the undecompounded acid rendered gaseous, which was evolved at the positive surface, for du- ring the operation the fluid became very hot, and speedily diminished. The manner in which the surrounding atmo- sphere became filled with the fumes of the fluoric acid, rendered it, indeed, very difficult to examine the results of any of these experiments; the dangerous action. of these fumes has been described by MM. Gay-Lussac and The- nard, and [ suffered considerable inconvenience from their effects during this investigation. By mere exposure to them in their uncondensed state, my fingers became sore beneath the nails, and they produced a most painful sensa- tion, which lasted for some hours, when they came in cun- tact with the eyes,
| The
4
4i4 Experimenis on the Substances produced
The phenomena of the Voltaic electrization of fluorie acid present no evidences in favour of its containing a pe- culiar combustible substance and oxygen; and the most simple mode of explaining them 1s by supposing the fluoric acid, like muriatic acid, composed of hydrogen, and a sub- stance, as yet unknown, in a separate form, possessed, like oxygen and chlorine, of the negative electrical energy, and hence determined to the positive surface, and strongly at- tracted by metallic substances.
This view is much more conformable to the general or- der of chemical and electrical facts than the third hypo- thesis, just now mentioned.
It is indeed possible to conceive, if the metals be regarded as compounds of hydrogen, that the hydrogen may be pro- duced from the metal, positively electrified at the time that the acid combines with its supposed basis, and that this hydrogen may be transferred to the negative surface: but this supposition involves a multitude of others; and the results of the electrization of fluoric acid are analogous to most of the results of the electrization of water and muri- atic acid, both of which are shown by analysis and synthesjs to be compounds of hydrogen; and in the electrical de- composition of these bodies, their characteristic element is generally combined with the positive metallic surface.
In the Bakerian Lecture for 1810 I have given an account of the action of potassium upon pure silica. In this pro- cess, the potassium acquires oxygen; and a combustible substance, which consists either of the basis of silica, or the basis of silica combined with potassium, appears. In supposing the silicated fluoric acid gas to be composed of this basis and the fluoric principle, it is easy to explain the action of potassium upon it, and the complicated phe- nomena, occasioned by the agency of water, and acids, and oxygen, on the results of this action. The potassium must be conceived to attract a part of the fluoric principle from the siliceous basis, or to form a triple compound, from: which silicated fluoric acid gas is capable of being repro- duced, in consequence of the combination of a part of the potassium and siliceous basis with oxygen; and on this idea the cause of the apparent loss of the fluoric principle, in the experiments on the action of ammohia on the pro- duct of the combustion of potassium in silicated fluoric acid gas, becomes obvious.
Assuming then from the analogy with chlorine, that the different fluoric compounds consist of inflammable bodies united to a peculiar principle, it follows that all attempts to
decompose
an oo al
ters,
in different chemical Processes on Fluor Spar. 415
decompose the fluoric acids, by combustible substances, can lead to no other result, than that of occasioning new combinations of the fluoric principle; and the only me- thods which seemed plausible for obtaining this principle pure, after that by electrical decomposition had failed, were by the action of oxygen or chlorine on certain of its com- pounds. Chlorine is, in certain instances, detached from hydrogen by oxygen; and oxygen, in a2 number of cases, is detached from metals by chlorine: [ thought it therefore probable, that the fluoric principle might, in some process, be separated from bases by either chlorine or oxygen.
In selecting compounds for experiments of this kind, I was guided by the relative attractions of the fluoric and muriatic acids, of chlorine and oxygen. Horn silver ané calomel, and muriate of potassa are not decomposed by fluoric acid; but fluate of silver, of mercury, and of potassa are easily decomposed by muriatic acid: I therefore con- ceived, that the fluoric principle would most likely be ex- pelled from the dry fluates of silver, mercury, and potassa by chlorine.
I made some pure fluates of silver and mercury, by dis- solying the ‘oxides of these metals in fluoric acid, and E heated them in small trays of platina; much fluoric acid was driven off in this process, which [ continued in the case of the fluate of mercury till the salt began to sublime, and in that of the fluate of silver till it was red hot.
The dry salts were introduced in small quantities into glass retorts, which were exhausted and then filled with pure chlorine: the part of the retort in contact with the salt was heated gradually till it became red. There was soon a strong action, the fluate of mercury was rapidly converted into corresive sublimate, and the fluate of silver more slowly became horn silver. In both experiments there was a vio- Fent action upon the whole of the interior of the retort. On examining the results, it was found that in both in- stances there had been a considerable absorption of chlorine, and a production of silicated fluoric acid gas, and oxygen gas.
I tried similar experiments, with similar results, upon dry fluates of potassa and soda. By the action of a red heat, they were slowly converted into muriates with the absorp- tion of chlorine, and the production of oxygen, and silicated fluoric acid gas, the retort being corroded even to its neck.
The obvious explanation of these phenomena is, that a particular principle, the acidifying matter of the fluoric acid, combined with the metals, is cxpelled from them by
the
416 Experiments on the Substances produced
the stronger attraction of the chlorine, and ‘that this prine ciple coming in contact with glass decomposes it by its’at- traction for the silicum and sodium, and separates them from thé oxygen with which they Bs combined, = +>
I made various attempts to procure the fluoric principle in a pure form. I heated the fluates of potassa and soda in trays of platina, in a tube of platina connected with a vessel filled with chlorine. In this case the fluates were con- verted into muriates, with a “considerable increase of the weight of the trays and the platina was violently acted upon, and covered with a reddish-brown’ powder; and in the instance in which fluate of potassa was used, a com- pa of fluate of platina and muriate of potassa was ormed. = i
There was a considerable absorption of chlorine; but no new gaseous matter could’ be discovered in the gas in the tube. ; hy! p™ 1G
I tried to obtain the fluoric principle pure, -by‘decom- posing the fluates in’a tube of ‘silver, but with no better success; the silver was acted upon both by the chlorine and the fluoric principle, and rapidly dissolved. I used glass tubes coated with resin of copper {cuprane) and horn- silver (argentane), on which I’ eBicluded that the fluoric principle would have no action from the decomposition of fluate of silver by chlorine; but at the degree of heat re- quired to decompose the fluoric salts, the muriates were always fused, the glass violently acted upon, and silicated fluoric acid gas formed. — . :
In one instance, in which fluate of potassa had been heated in a platina tray and tube, in which muriate of potassa had been fused, for the purpose of defending the Interior, as much as possible, from the action of the fluoric
principle, the gas, when disengaged into the atmosphere, .
had a peculiar’smell, different from that of chlorine, (which certainly formed the greatest’ proportion of the elastic mat- ter,) and more disagreeable ; and dense white fumes were produced by its action upon the air. A portion of this gas thrown into a glass receiver, over mercury, acted upon the glass, and silicated fluoric acid gas was generated. On examining the platina tray, however, it was found corroded, and the reddish-brown powder formed.
In the course of these investigations, I made several at-
tempts to detach hydrogen from the liquid fluoric acid, by:
the agency of oxygen and chlorine. It was not decom- ‘posed when passed through a platina tube heated red with chlorine, nor by being distilled from salts containing abun- ie okra dance
-
in different chemical Processes on Fluor Spar. 417
dance of oxygen, or those containing abundance of chlo- rine.
I distilled the fluates of lead and mercury with phos- phorus and sulphur, with the hope of obtaining compounds of the fluoric principle with phosphorus and sulphur. In all experiments of this kind, a decomposition took place, and the glass tubes employed were violently acted upon, and sulphurets and phosphurets were formed. When I used tubes lined with sulphur the decomposition was less perfect ; but minute quantities of limpid fluid condensed in a part of the tube cooled by ice, both in the cases when sulphur and when phosphorus were used; it had the ap- pearance of hydro-fluoric acid, and speedily dissipated itself in white fumes. Whether they were that substance which had obtained its hydrogen from these inflammable bodies, or compounds of sulphur and phosphorus with the fluoric principle, I have not ascertained; but the first opinion seems most probable.
When IJ heated fluate of lead and finely powdered char- coal strongly in the air, the lead became revived, and white fumes were produced. J thought it probable, that in this case a compound of fluorine and charcoal was formed; but on trying the experiment in a close vessel of platina, no change took place; and it evidently depended upon the presence of hydrogen in the vapour of the atmosphere, or in the flame of the spirit lamp, by which the experiment was rade, and I found muriate of silver decomposed, and silver produced under the same circumstances.
From ibe general tenor of the results that I have stated, it appears reasonable to conclude that there exists in the fluoric compounds a peculiar substance, possessed of strong attractions for metallic bodies and hydrogen, and which combined with certain inflammable bodies forms peculiar acids, and which, in consequence of its strong affinities and high decomposing agencies, it will be very difficult to examine in a pure form; and for the sake of avoiding cir- cumlocuticn, it may be denominated fluorine, a name sug- gested to me by M. Ampere.
_ From experiments that | have made on the composition of the fluoric combinations, and which I shall soon have the honour of communicating to the Society, it appears that the number representing the definite proportion in which fluorine combines, is less than half the number re- presenting that in which chlorine combines; and hydrates in becoming fluates lose weight; so that on the generally received idea of the existence of a peculiar acid in the ©» Vol. 42. No. 188. Dec, 1813. Dd: fluates,
418 A new Theory of Light.
fluates, and of their being compounds of oxides, with an acid containing oxygen, that acid, according to the law of definite proportions, must contain more oxygen in pro- portion to its quantity of inflammable matter than water ; which is highly improbable, and contrary to all analogies.
Dr. Wollaston has found, that the fluoric combinations have very low powers of refracting light, and particularly the pure fluoric acid ; so that the refracting powers of fluo- rine will probably be found lower than those of any other substance, and it appears to possess higher acidifying and
aturating powers than either oxygen or chlorine.
It is easy to perceive, in following the above theory, that all the ideas current in chemical authors respecting the fluoric combinations, must be changed. Fluor spar, and other analogous substances, for instance, must be regarded _ as binary compounds of metals and fluorine.
Many objects of inquiry arise, likewise, from these new views: the topaz contains the fluoric principle ; but new experiments are required to show whether that gem is a true silicated-fluate of alumina, ora compound of the in- flammable bases of alumina and silica with fluorine.
I have ascertained that the chryolite yields no silicated fluoric gas, when acted on by sulphuric acid; but merely pure fluoric acid: but I have not continued the research so far, as to determine whether it contains fluorine united to inflammable matter only, or fluorine and oxygen.
LXIX. A new Theory of Light ; with Experiments to prove that Blackness arises from the Reflection of Indigo and Red-orange on the seven prismatic Rays of Light. By
_JoespH READER, M.D.
To Mr. Tilloch.
srx,— On locking over my library, I find that Sir Isaac Newton took his ideas of blackness or darkness from Des Cartes, who observed * ‘‘that black suffocates or extin- guishes the rays that fall upon it; whereas white reflects them.” Mr. Boyle taking up this opinion says, ‘* Many learned men supposed that snow affects the eyes not by a borrowed light, but by a native one; but having placed a quantity of snow in a room, from which all foreign light was carefully excluded, neither be nor any other person could perceive it.”. To try whether white bodies reflect more light than others, he held a sheet of white paper in a
* Dioptricks, p. 50, sae =F suns 673
A new Theory of Light. 419
gun-beam admitted into a darkened room, and observed that it reflected a far greater light than a paper of any other colour, a considerable part of the room being enlightened by it, Further to show that white bodies reflect the rays outwards, Mr. Boyle adds, that common burning-glasses will not of a long time burn or discoleur white paper. When he was a boy, he says, he took great pleasure in making experiments with these glasses: he was much sur- prised at this remarkable circumstance, and it set him very early upon guessing at the nature of whiteness, especially as he observed that the image of the sun was not so well defined upon white paper as upon a black one; and as, when he put ink upon the paper, the moisture would be quickly dried up, and the paper which he could not burn before would presently take fire. He also found that, by exposing his hand to the sun, with a thin black glove upon it, it would be suddenly and more considerably heated than if he held his naked hand to the rays, or put on a glove of thin white leather. To prove that black is_the re- verse of white, with respect to its property of reflecting the rays of the sun, Mr. Boyle procured a large piece of black marble ; and having got it ground into the form of a large spherical concave speculum, he found that the image of the sun reflected from it was far from offending or daz- zling his eyes, as it would have done from another specu- Jum; and though this was larger, he could not in a long time set a piece of wood-on fire with it, though a far less speculum of the same form, and of a more reflecting sub- stance, would presently have made it flame. To satisfy himself still further with respect to this subject; he took a broad and large tile, and having made one half of its sur- face white, and the other black, he exposed it to the sum- mer sun; and having let it tie there some time, he found that while the white part remained cool, the part that was black was grown very hot. For his further satisfaction, he sometimes:left part of the tile of its native red, and after exposing the whole to the sun, observed that this part grew hotter than the white, but was not so hot asthe black part*.
Mr. Boyle not being aware of the fact lately ascertained by the experiments of Herschel and other scientific men, that luminous and calorific rays are separate and distinct, and as all his reasoning depends on the identity of heat and light; we must look on his facts and experiments ag in-
® Boyle’s Works, p. 6. Dade conclusive,
4°90 A new Theory of Light.
conclusive, especially when opposed to those direct ones on which [ found my opinion. t
In my last paper sent to Nicholson’s Journal, I men- tidned my having formed a perfect black, by mixing the seven different colours of the rainbow in different propor tions; and that after drawing lines with this composition, on white paper, I analysed them by means of a powerful plano-convex Jens or prism into indigo and orange, which two colours contain the three primary rays, red, yellow, and blue, from which all the others might be formed.
SirIsaac Newton, in looking through a telescope at a black body, observed those colours ; but he was so impressed with his own beautiful theory, that he superficially ex- amined the circumstance: he says, ‘* If a black object be surrounded with a white one, the colours which appear through the prism are to be derived from the light of the illuminated one spreading into the regions of the black ; and therefore they appear in a contrary order to that in which they are seen when a white object is surrounded with a black one*.”” To show the fallacy of this reasoning, I made the following experiments:
Experiment 1.—I drew a line with a perfect black ink on a sheet of red paper, and, on applying my prism, ana- lysed it into a beautiful deep blue and orange. The red rays reflected from the illuminated paper added to the bril- liancy of the orange. Whence was the indigo derived? Certainly not from the red paper. If Sir Isaac Newton’s theory were correct, nothing but red, which is a primary colour, spreading into the regions of the black, should have met the eye.
Experiment 2.—I drew a line with black ink on a sheet of yellow paper, and, on analysing it in a similar manner, perceived an indigo, orange, and a beautiful green; the yel- low rays of the illuminated paper had blended with the blue of the indigo, and formed a green.
Experiment 3.—I drew a line with black ink on a blue paper, and obtained only indigo and orange.
Experiment 4.—Having clung two pieces of transparent white paper, of a similar size, on a large pane of glass at the window, I applied my prism, and perceived a fringe of blue, red, and yellow, forming a beautiful artificial rains bow of a light tinge. If Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of light avere correct, it is obvious that, as I increased the
* Newton's Optics, p, 141. opacity
A new Theory of Light. 421
opacity or blackness of the one by successive layers of white paper, the fringe of reflected rays should be lighter, as the rays, instead of being reflected, would be absorbed. But in full confirmation of my own theory, every layer of avhite paper that I pasted on increased the depth of colour in the fringe of blue, red, and yellow, until at length the paper appeared perfectly black, and then the fringe was a deep indigo, red, and yellow. From this experiment, which is simple and conclusive, we must infer that, in proportion a a body becomes dark, it reflects the more condensed ight.
p ay 5.—I made two dots about the size of a garden pea, the one of black, the other of white paint, on a sheet of white paper. On applying a prism according to Sir Isaac Newton’s theory, I might expect that the white painted spot, which appeared of a light gray, would have reflected a much deeper fringe of colours than the black, because it should reflect not only its own colours, but also the borrowed colours of the white illuminated paper ; whereas, on the other hand, the black spot, absorbing the rays of light, should only bring into view the pale tints of the illuminated paper, spreading (according to the words of Sir Isaac Newton) into the regions of the black, a non- entity*. But, oneapplying my prism, I found the reverse. The black reflected a beautiful deep indigo, red, and yellow ; the white spot only reflected a very pale tinge of blue, red, and yellow. The fringe reflected from the black was ex- actly similar to that reflected from the opake white paper on the window.
From these experiments, and many others which the shortness of this communication will not allow me to enu- merate, I venture to conclude, that blackness, or darkness, arises from the condensed reflection of indigo and orange, which I look on as the only primary colours, which being blended in different proportions form ‘the five others, Thus black and white are produced by the reflection of the . Same colours in different quantities; and I hope, in my next communicati6n, to be enabled to prove by experiments, that there is no absorption of the rays of light in the re- flection of any colour, It often occurred to me, that how- ever beautiful the Newtonian theory of light, it was inade- quate to account why a candle placed in a room entirely
* How is it possille. that a negative property should produce a positive effect ? or how could black, anon-entity, act like a prism to separate white
hight into its primary colours ? Dd3 ; lined
422 Some Particulars respecting the present State of Persia,
lined with black, should enable a person to see the different shades and angles; if the light were absorbed, the room should be invisible. The Newtonian doctrine does not ad- mit of a periect biack, It also appeared surprising that, on blowing out a candle, a room full'of fluid light, however attenuated or subtle, should vanish, or be absorbed into the pores oi the surrounding objects, and that without any change of chemical property. It likewise must appear sur- prising, if not impossible, to any thinking mind, that the sun, eternally emitting an amazing large quantity of fluid hight, should never be exhausted; and on the other hand, that those bodies receiving such a supply should never be increased in size, If my ideas of light should be adopted, they account in a satisfactory manner for these incongrui- ties. Let us suppose the earth constantly surrounded with a Jarge quantity of fluid light: the sun rises, and, commani- cating radiant caloric, modifies it into visible light: he sets, and condenses it into the blackness or darkness of night. — Tiaett Sir, I have the honour to remain Your obedient servant,
Cork, Dec. 4, 1813. JOSEPH READER, M.D.
LXX. Some Particulars respecting ihe present State of Persia. Communicated in a Letter to the Hon. Colonéd GreEVILLE Howarp. By Sir Gore Ousetey*.
Gehran, Nov. 22, 1812.
My DEAR Howarp,—L HAVE just been made happy by the receipt of your letter of the 4th of July last, and, with my wife, beg you will accept our thanks for giving us the pleasure of knowing that Mrs. Greyille Howard and your- self were well. Py tire Peay iets
Just after the despatch of my last letter to you, my busi- ness with the Shah and his ministers commenced ; and al- though I have travelled over a good deal of Persia since, I have been too constantly occupied with Government affairs to have time to arrange what little research I have been able to make. ‘I have not, however, been idle entirely ; and I flatter myself that my journal and sketch-book will one of these evenings by the fire-side at Claramont afford you and Mrs. Greville Howard a few hours’ occupation, if not amusement.
In March last I concluded a definitive treaty with the
* Printed among intercepted correspondence in an American newspaper.
Shah,
Some Particulars respecting the present State of Persia. 423
Shah, by which the paramount influence of the English at this Court is, I trust, ensured for ever. Ere this, my brother Sir William has reached England with it, and he probably before I reach home will have given his researches to the world. I sent him into Mazinderan on the banks of the Caspian, and gave him every opportunity, whilst with me, of rooting up such precious remains of antiquity as yet are al- lowed to exist by the present race of barbarians. But I gnuch fear that there is little to be seen in Persia which can properly be called antique, except the ruins of Persepolis, and of another ancient city (name unknown) near Murghat, and the tomb of Solomon’s mother. The characters and sculptures in both the above are evidently coeval ; the for- mer, as yet undecyphered, are the arrow-headed charac- ters delineated in Bruyn, Kempfer, Chardin, and other tra- vellers.
There are a set of sculptures and inscriptions to be found in Persia in tolerably good preservation, from 12 to 1500 years old, all appertaining to the Gassaman dynasty of Persian kings, cut on the native rock near Persepolis, at Shafur, Bisitun, Gehran, Shiraz, and other places; but, as far as I have been able to decypher them, they do not con- tain more than De Sacy has very ingeniously given to the world. The language is the old Persian, and the character Peblevi.. The sculptures are very spirited ; and as Shafur (Sapores) conquered the Roman emperor Valerian, it is more than probable that he made some of the captive Greeks or Romans exert their talents to immortalize him.
The more modern remains scarcely deserve notice, except as proofs of the magnificence and power of the Changizian princes and those of the Sefevi dynasty. Some of the for- mer, of 6 and 700 years standing, surpass any, structure of the present day, and might at a trifling expense be repaired. But, uvfortunately, it is not the fashion te repair or finish the buildings of other princes ; and therefore the most beau- tiful mosques, palaces, and baths of Shah Abbas, Tahmas, and others, are gradually giving way to the temporary struc- tures of the Kajars built with sun-burnt bricks, and totally devoid of tasie or convenience. ,
In short, the sun of Persia has set. Science is confined to the modest few. The arts are totally lost, and there/is not public spirit or munificence enough to encourage the revival of them. I have been greatly disappointed, as you may imagine, having conceived so much more exalted an idea of Persia from their own books, even after making every allowance for the favourite figure of the Persians,
Dd4 hyperbole.
494 On.artificial Cold,
hyperbole. The climate, too, has disagreed with me and all the gentlemen of my mission,-so that ‘I have been obliged to solicit H. R. H. the Prince Regent’s gracious permission to allow me to return to Engiaad}} in the: spring of 1814, Gore OUSELEY.
LXXI. On artificial Cold. By Ro, Waker, Esq, ; To Mr. Tilloch. ad
Srr,— Prrcervine that the experiments on artificial cold, as prosecuting by several philosophical gentlemen, at this time, excite a considerable degree of interest, and as the most favourable season of the year for pursuing such inve3- tigation is approaching, viz. January ; I beg leave to pre- sent a brief description of the means I should adopt, were Tat leisure, and possessed of a proper apparatus for the ‘purpose.
I ‘ahold attempt to combine all the known powers of pro- ducing artificial cold, thus : Procuring an apparatus, which I stippose might be “éoristtweted, in which the power of -condénsing the air, and likewise of rarefying it, were com- bined in the same glass vessel, or receiver as it is called, I should proceed thus :
The subject, alcohol, or any thing else, to be submitted to the experiment, being contained in a convenient glass- tube, or bulb, covered with a single stratum of fine lint, and this placed, in an appropriate cup, containing a portion of sulphuret of carbon, within the glass receiver—This glass receiver is then to be cooled as much as possible, or as much as is convenient, in a freezing mixture, contained in a vessel adapted to the purpose.
When the freezing mixture has produced its full effect,
removing this, the tube, or bulb with a tube to it, immersed in the sudphuret of carbon, is to be raised out, and imme- diately, and as expeditiously as possible, the condensed air first let out, and then the air, still remaining in the vessel or receiver, barehed as much and as expeditiously as possible, by means of the rarefying power attached to it — Thus changing the air in the receiver,as quickly as possible, from a state of exlreme condensation to that of extreme rarefacs tion. I am, sir, Your obedient servant,
Oxford, Dee, 13, 1813. Rp. WALKER.
LXXII, Oz
—--
[ 425 Jj
; ‘ f LXXII. On a saline Substance from Mount Vesuvius. By James Smiruson, Esq. F.R.S,*
I, has very long appeared to me, that when the earth is considered with attention, innumerable circumstances are perceived, which cannot but lead to the belief, that it has once been in a state of general conflagration. The existence in the skies of planetary bodies, which seem to be actually burning, and the appearances of original fire discernible on our globe, I have conceived to be mutually corroborative of each other; and ‘at the time when no answers could he given to the most essential objections to the hypothesis, the ‘mass of facts in favour of it fully justified, I thought, the, inference that our habitation is an extinct comet or sun,
The mighty difficulties which formerly assailed this opi- nion, great modern discoveries bave dissipated. Acquainted now, that the bases of alkalies and earths are metals, emi- nently oxidable, we are no longer embarrassed either for the pabulum of the inflammation, or to account for the products of it.
In the primitive strata, we behold the result of the com- ‘bustion. In them we see the oxide collected on the surface of the calcining mass, first melted hy the heat, then by its ancrease arresting further combination, and extinguishing the fires which had generated it, and in fine become solid and crystallized over te metallic ball.
Every thing tells that a large body of combusvble matter still remains inclosed within this stony envelope, and of which volcanic eruptions are partial and small accensions,
Under this point of view, an high interest attaches itself to volcanoes, and their ejections. They cease to be local phenomena; they become principal elements in the history of our globe ; they connect its present with its former con- dition ; and we have good grounds for supposing, that in their flames are to be read its future destinies.
In support of the igneous origin, here attributed to the primitive strata, I will observe, that not only no crystal ambedded in them, such as quartz, garnet, tourmaline, &c. has ever been seer inclosing drops of water; but that none of the materials of these strata contain water in any state.
a. The present saline substance was sent to me from Naples to Florence, where I was, in May 1794, with a re- guest to ascertain its nature, The general examination which I then made of it, showed it to be principally what
* From the Philosophical Transactions for 1818, part ii. wag
4296 Ona saline Substance from Mount Vesuvius.
was at that time called vitriolated tartar, and it was in consequence mentioned as such in an Italian publication soon after. But as this denomination, surprising at that period, was not supported by the relation of any experi- ments, or the citation of any authority, no attention was paid to it; and the existence of this species of salt, native in the earth, has not been admitted by mineralogists, no mention being made of it, I believe, in any mineralogical work published since.
b. 1 was informed by letter, that it had *¢ flowed out Jiquid from a small aperture in the cone of Vesuvius,” and which J apprehend to have happened in 1792 or 1793.
c. The masses of this salt are perfectly irregular, their texture compact, their colour a clouded mixture of white, of the green of copper, and of a rusty yellow, and in some places are specks and streaks of black.
d. A fragment melted on the charcoal at the blow-pipe
formed hepar sulpburis.
e. A piece weighing 9°5 grains was so strongly heated in a platina crucible, that it melted and flowed level over the bottom of it, but did not lose the least weight.
Ff. Not the slightest fume could be perceived on holding a glass tube wetted with marine acid over some of this salt, while triturating in a mortar with liquid potash; but a similar mixture being made in a bottle, and which was immediately closed with a cork, to which was fixed a bit of reddened litmus paper, the blue colour of the paper wag restored, .
g. Being dissolved in water, there was a small sandy resi- due, which consisted of green particles of a cupreous na- ture, of a yellow ochraceous powder, and of minute crystals of a metallic aspect of red oxide of iron, by which the black spots in the mass had been occasioned*. Mr, Klaproth found a similar admixture in muriate of soda from Vesuvius f.
h. The solution had a feeble green tint. It did not alter blue or reddened turnsol paper.
i. Prussiate of soda and iron threw down a small quan- tity of red prussiate of copper from it. Liver of sulphur and tincture of galls likewise caused very small precipita- tions.
* What mineralogists denominate speculary iron ore, Fer oligiste of Mr. Haity, appears to be merely red oxide of iron in crystals; red hematite the game substance in the state of stalactite; and red ochres the same in a pul- verulent form, ‘The hematites which afford a yellow powder are hydrates ef iron, + Essays, vol, ii. p. 67, Eng. Trans.
je Car =]
eee oA
On a saline Substance from Mount Vesuvius. 427
gj. Carbonate of soda, and oxalate of potash, and solu- tions of magnesia, clay, copper, iron, and zinc, either had no effects, or extremely slight ones.
k. Solution of sulphate of silver produced a white curd- like precipitate. 9°35 grains of this salt (the weight of the insoluble matter being deducted) afforded 1°05 grain of slightly melted muriate, or chloride, of silver. This preci- pitate was equally produced after the salt had been made strongly red hot, so that it was nut owing to a portion of sal ammoniac.
l. Tartaric acid, and muriate of platinum, occasioned the precipitates in its solution which indicate potash.
m. Nitrate of lime did not form any immediate precipi- tate in a dilute solution of it; but in a short time, numerous minute prismatic crystals of hydrate of sulphate of lime were generated.
n. Nitrate of barytes poured into a solution containing 9°8 grains of this salt afforded a precipitate, which after being ignited weighed 12°3 grains. The filtered solution erystallized entirely into nitrate of potash mixed with a few shomboids of nitrate of soda.
o. Some of this salt finely pulverized was treated with alcohol. This alcohol on exhaling Jeft a number of minute cubic crystals, which proved. by the test of nitric acid, to be muriate of soda. Prussiate of soda and iron caused a red precipitate of prussiate of copper in this alcoholic solu- tion.
' p. The solution of this salt afforded, by crystallization, sulphate of potash in its usual forms, and some prismatic crystals of hydrate of sulphate of soda.
g. To discover what had occasioned the precipitate with galls, (7) since copper bas not this quality, a portion of this salt, which bad been recovered by evaporation from a filtered solution of it, was ade red hot in a platina cruci- ble. On extraction of the saline part by water, a very small quantity of a black powder was obtained. Ammonia dis- solved only part of it, which was copper. The rest being digested with muriatic acid, and prussiate of soda and iron added, a fine Prussian blue was formed.
r. From several of the foregoing experiments, it ap-
eared that no sensible quantity of any of the mineral acids, Dosides the sulphuric and muriatic, existed in combination with alkali in this volcanic salt. But Mr. Tennant, whose many and highly important discoveries have su greatly con- tributed to the progress of chemical science, having de- fected disengaged boracic acid amongst the volcanic pro- Ps 2 ' ductions
s
428 Onasaline Substance from Mount Vesuvius.
ductions of the Lipari islands, and suggested that it might be a more general product of volcanoes than had been su- spected *, it became important to ascertain whether the presence of any in this salt proved Vesuvius likewise to be a source of this acid. Alcohol heated on a portion of it in fine powder, and then burned on it, did not however show the least green hue in its flame.
s. To ascertain the proportions of the ingredients of this saline substance, the following experiments were made:
Ten grains of sulphate of potash of the shops were dis- solved in 200 grains of water, and an excess of muriate of platina added. The precipitate edulcorated with 100 grains of water, and dried on a water bath, weighed 24°1 grains.
Ten grains of the saline part of the native salt, treated precisely in every respect in the same way, afforded 17:2 grains of precipitated muriate of platina and potash.
If 24:1 grains of this precipitate correspond to 10 grains of sulphate of potash, 17°2 grains of it correspond to 714 grains of this salt.
It has been seen (7) that 10 grains of the saline part of this volcanic salt would have afforded 12°55 grains of sul- phate of barytes.
But 7°14 grains of sulphate of potash form only 9°42
rains of sulphate of barytes}, and therefore the remaining 3°13 grains of sulphate of barytes would be produced by the sulphate of soda, and correspond to 1°86 grain of it in an arid state, or uncombined with ice ft. '
Ten grains of the saline part of this native aalt would have produced 1°12 grain of ignited muriate of silver (4). By accurate experiments 241 grains of ignited muriate of silver have been found to correspond to 100 grains of ig- nited muriate of soda §.
Consequently the soluble portion of the present Vesuvian galt consists of
Sulphate of potash ,...eesee08. 7°14 Sulphate of soda ......e0+see00 1°86 Muriate of soda......seeesesee 0°46 Muriate of ammonia
Muriate of copper. ‘| cecerecee O54
Muriate of iron....
i
10°00 t. Theinsoluble sandy residue (g) having been thoroughly * Trans. of the Geolog. Soc. + Dr. Marcet on Dropsical Fluids,
} Prof. Klaproth’s Essays, vol. i. p, 282, § Dr. Henry, Phil. Trans, 1810,
edulcorated,
On a Phenomenon of St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. 429
edulcorated, dilute nitric acid was put toit. A green solu- tion formed without any effervescence. Acetate of barytes scarcely rendered this solution turbid ; but nitrate of silver produced a copious curd-like precipitate, and iron abun- dantly threw down copper from it. The green grains in- closed in this native sulphate of potash appear, therefore, to he a submuriate of copper, of the same species as that of the green sands of Peru and Chili.
Meriatic acid dissolved the yellow ochraceous powder, and prussiate of soda and iron produced Prussian blue. I am inclined to believe this yellow powder to be a submu~ riate of iron ; but its smal] quantity, and the admixture of the submuriate of copper, were impediments to entirely satisfactory results. Such a submuniate of iron, though, if I mistake not, overlooked by chemists, exists; for the precipitate which oxygen occasions in solution of green muriate of iron contains marine acid.
Possibly this yellow powder, and the crystals of speculary iron which exist in this Vesuvian salt, have been produced by a natural sublimation of muriate of iron, similar to that of the experiment of the Duke d’Ayen, recorded by Mac- quer*, and which was known long before to Mr. Boyle and Dr. Lewis t.
This Vesuyvian salt, considered in its totality, has pre- sented no less than nine distinct species of matters, and a More rigorous investigation, than I was willing to bestow
on it, would probably add to their number. July 3, 1813,
LXXIII. On a Phenomenon of St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. By J. A. De Luc, Esq. F.R.S. Ge, Se.
To Mr. Tilloch.
$ir,—Ln the Number of your Philosophical Journal for last August, giving the account of a work entitled ‘ Re- marks on the Transition Rocks of Werner, by Thomas Allan, F.R.S. Edinb.” you transcribe the following’ pas- sage: ‘‘ The importance deservedly attached by Dr. Hutton to the phenomena of granite veins gave rise to a variety of hypotheses, among those who were inclined to consider these rocks as an original deposite, who have accounted for their formation in different ways. It was first stated, that
™ Dict, de Chimie, art. Fer. : 26 + ACourse of Practical Chemistry, by Wm, Lewis, 1746, page 63, note f- ) they
430 On a Pheenomenon
- they were formed of newer granite, and, if properly ex amined, would be found to cut the old granite as well ag the rock which rested on it. This opinion was once very strenuously supported in this country; but as facts could not bear it out, it was abandoned. J find however, im a recent publication, something similar to it maintained by De Luc, who asserts that the veins at St. Michael’s Mount are not granite, but mere quartz, which traverses the granite as well as the stratified rock. 1 cannot compre- hend how De Luc has been so much deceived in this piace, as simple inspection of the smallest specimen will prove that he was mistaken.—I have only a few specimens to lay before the Society, from the veins of St. Michael’s Mount, but they are really interesting and satisfactory. One ex- hibits a portion of kedlas, bounded on each side by granite ; another of two granite veins, traversing kellas included in granite. The simple inspection is sufficient, in the first place, to show that the opinion ef De Luc is groundless, with respect to the snbstance of these veims. One of the specimens also contains two small veins of quartz, which are of the kind called contemporaneous: these keep the di- rection of the seams of the stratified rock, and are cut off by granite in the same line without any interruption.” This, sir, is what you have extracted from Mr. Allan’s work concerning me: he says he has found it iz @ recené publication, without mentioning which : it must be in the account of some inattentive Reviewer; and if this answer comes to his knowledge, he will be sorry to have thus been deceived himself ; while he could have seen what I have yeally described in my Geological Travels, published in London, in 1811, by Messrs. Rivington, in two volumes. This is the authentic document to which I shall refer for what J have really described. It was in July 1806 that I visited St. Michael’s Mount; and as, in all my observations, I endeavoured to have the company of some gentlemen of the country, I had the satisfaction, in these, to be conducted by two gentlemen as desirous as myself to observe that island, because they had read Mr. Playfair’s account of it. One of these gentlemen was Davies Giddy, Esq. M.P. who lives in the neighbourhood at Tredrw, an estate of his family ; the other Mr.Winicombe, of Oxford, who, used for many years to spend the vacations with one of his friends near Mount’s Bay, to which belongs St. Michael’s Island. Thus, if Mr. Allan had known my work, he would have seen that I was not the only obseryer of the phenomena which I described. The
of St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. 431
The account of these obseryations begins at p. 265 of the 3d volume of this work, and I shall copy such parts of it as will prove to Mr. Allan, that the source of his infor- mations was spurious. ‘ Our first remark was, the im- possibility that Mr. Playfair could have seen what he says, theveins running off from the granite of the mount, and spreading themselves like so many roots fixed in the schisius. For, along this side of the island, where the schistus or kellas appears, its junction with the granite rock which
rises above it, is absolutely concealed by a heap of blocks of granite of such size, that it was not possible for us to pass over them in any part, or even to advance among them suf- ficiently to discover on what Lase they Sie.”
Continuing the account of our observations, compared with what Mr. Playfair says of these veins: that im the smallest the granite is of very minute, though distinct parts, and that in the largest, it is more highly crystallized, and is undistinguishalle from the mass of the hill, ‘*This (I say) is by no means what we observed; for we saw two kinds of veins, of a nature perfectly distinct from each other, though intermixed: most of these veins are of white plots entirely pure, whatever be their breadth, some no ess than four or five inches; while the few others, not larger than the former which are among them, and which Mr. Playfair has taken for granite, have but a very imper- fect resemblance to that substance; and the following is a direct proof that they have not been formed by an expan- sion of the granite of the mount......(p. 266). In consi- dering the granite rocks which arose above us, we saw in them the most complete proof that what has the appearance of granite in the veins iv schistus, is not the same substance which composes the rocks; for these are themselves in- tersected by the veins of both the above described kinds; namely, of pure quartz, and of what I shall call pseudo- granite; the latter being no less distinguishable from the granite through which they pass than from schistus. Whence it is evident, that the fissures in the granite must have been contemporary with these in the schistus below.” This cir- cumstance, had Mr. Allan known it, by reading my own work, would have shown him, that the specimen from the veins of St. Michael’s Mount which he exhibited to the Edinburgh Society, instead of proving that I was deceived in that place, confirmed my observations,—with this dif- ference, that in so small a specimen he could not distin- guish so evidently the difference between the substance of
the &
432 On a Phenomenon
the veins and the granite of the mount, as did three ob- servers on the spot. : There is another remarkable phenomenon I have de- scribed as belonging to these veins, which excludes the idea of an injection of soft granite, and places them in the rank of all the mineral veins; an object of which I shall speak more hereafter; but here it will be sufficient to describe that character. All these veins have what is called Sale- banque by the mineralogists of the continent, and Capel in Cornwall. This is a first crust produced on the sides of the fissures in the strata, before they were filled with the substances which distinguish the different kinds of mineral veins. Now, the veins of psendo-granite in St. Michael’s Mount which pervade the granite of the mount, have their capel of pure white quartz, but in the kellas their capel is of mica of a very singular kind; its thickness is about 727 of an inch, and its very brilliant lamine are at right-angles to its direction. This capel belongs so essentially to the veins, that, when they become very narrow, it fills them en- tirely, without pseudo-granite between the two crusts. Another object of my observations in St. Michael’s Island, more important to geology than that of the veis above described, concerns the manner in which our conti- nents, after having evidently been a part of the bed of the sea, are become dry land. The main point of my contro- versy with Mr. Playfair was this: whether our continents have been lifted up from the bottom of the sea, which is his opinion; or, what [ maintained, that, such a part of the bed of the sea having sunk so low that the sea had retired on it, another part having been left dry, is become our con- tinents. In my works already published, I have demon- strated the last proposition by a great number of phzeno- mena, and in particular by the situation of the strata along the coasts and in the led of the sea near them. ‘To this subject relate the following observations on St. Michael’s Island, bezinning at p. 267. ; ‘© We followed all the western side of the island, with- out finding any point by which we could ascend to the foot of the granite rock; it being everywhere rendered inacces+ sible by heaps of large blocks of granite. But the seene changed on the south side; where the bed of the sea instead of being formed of schistus (which ought to have been the uppermost) consists of sunken masses of granite, which are in part covered by the high tides. Here we saw the same veins of pseudo-granite and of quartz as in the mount..... | . Continuing
of St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. 433
Continuing our walk round the island, we ascended to a certain height the part of the rock on which lies the way to the castle, in order to observe the eastern coast of the bay, whence this island is but at a little distance. Most of the clifts on this side are the section of a very thick loose soil; but beneath their feet are seen masses of schistus in great disorder ; and all the bed of the sea along the clifts presents /edges of the schistose strata desc ending, under the water, with an inclination towards the west.”
This appeuratice: Reems, at first, to be equally explained by the system of the subsidence of a part of the bed of the sea, or the lifting up of the part of it which is become our continent. This last being Mr. Playfair’s system, he ap- plied it to the phenomena of St. Michael’s Island. But I opposed to him, that the operation of lifting up could be only effected by the production of an immense quantity of elastic fluids under strata already broken ; and that these fluids making their escape through the crevices, the mass then, unsupported, would have fallen down again : an argu~ ment to which he has not answered, and the state of the bed of the sea in Mount’s Bay shows directly that this would have been the effect,
Another object of my controversy with Mr. Playfair was on the nature of granite. Ju the Huttonian system, gra- mite is supposed to have been a product of fusion by heat under those of the mineral substance, which they acknow- ledge to have been formed in strata; and. Mr, Playfair thought to have found a proof on that opinion in the veins of St. Michael’s Mount, supposing them, as it has been seen above, to be real granite.
The system which I have opposed to that opinion is mentioned by Mr. Allan in these words: ** Those (he says) who were inclined to consider this rock as an or iginal deposite, have accounted for its formation in different ways.’
I think that, as Mr. Allan mentions me for a part of the subject, he ought to have expressed not only the way that I have explained the production of granite, but the proof which he might have found in my works. A fact’ w hich I adduced to Mr. Playfair, to prove that granife is an ori-
inal deposite on the bed of the former sea, 1s, that we find it in strata as regular as those of all the other mineral substances, This { first stated in a work published in London in.) 809, undef the title of Elementary Treatise on Geology, in which I demonstraied that granite was the first substance pro- duced by chemical precipitation on the bed of the former sea, where it was covered by a succession of other strata; and
Vol. 42. No, 188, Dec, 1813. Ee tha:
434 On a Phenomexon
that the cause of its appearing on our continents is the catastrophes that all the strata underwent, still on the bed of the sea, which have produced our hills and mountains, where we see the strata of granite lroken and strongly i- elined, under those of schis!t with which they are parallel in their different degrees of inclination.
On this fundamental geological fact, I bad referred Mr. Playfair, not only to my own observations in the greatest chain of mountains of our hemisphere, that of the Alps, but to those of my justly celebrated countryman M. de Saussure, in his Voyages dans les Alpes: there he gives not only exact descriptions-but engraved figures of the succes- sive strata of that chain, which show that the central ridge is composed of much inclined and some almost vertical strata of granite and its contemporary substances, which are uow visible, because the strata of schisti, lime-stone and ethers, which before covered them, are fallen to the out- ward of the chain, by the sivking of that part of the sur- face which now forms—scattered hills and the plain.
From the above statement may be judged how important to geology is that circumstance, which Mr. Allan mentions so transitorily, that granite has been deposited im regular strata: but if he had known my own works, of which he had only some erroneous extracts, he would have seen that I had given proofs of the stratification of granite in this very island; and first, in the mineral part of Cornwall. On this Jast part, he would have found at p. 292 the following account given me by one of the head miners. ‘In our first conversation (I say) [ had spoken to him of the Hut- tonian hypothesis, with which he was already acquainted ; and he had then said, that if Mr. Playfair, in his journey through Cornwall, had consulted the miners, he would have met with none who would not have told him that the granite could not have possibly been in fusion ; since the fractures wherein the loads have been formed, pass into it directly from the kedlas. In order to give me an example of this fact, be had chosen a mine into which he had him- self accompanied a zealous partisan of the Huttonian theory (whom he named to me), who, after having seen what I am geing to describe, quitted the mine convinced, not only that the granite could not have been in fusion when the strata underwent their first fractures, but that neither the growan (a kind of granite in powder), nor the sand of the same kind so abundantly spread dver a great part of the country, could be considered as decomposed granite,” which was Mr. Playfair’s opinion.
The
in St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. 435
The whole of my description of the peninsula of Corn- wall, had Mr. Allan known it, would have convinced him that I was not the inattentive observer he considered me to be: but I confine myself to the above particulars concerning the stratification of granite which is here my object; and T return to the part of Cornwall on the road from the gulf of Padstow, on the north side, to that of Mount’s Bay on the south.
From p. 188 of the same volume, I describe a bill near St. Columb, where quarries were open, which at first sight, and not observing the nature of the stone, would certainly have been taken for lime-stone or sand-stone quarries, so regular were the strata, of which were taken stones for building the fronts of houses. These sérata are much i- clined, and they are lost, on one side, under a thick loose soil; while on the other side they present their upper section toward the surface; a proof that their inclined and broken state has been owing to the catastrophes common to all the strata.
But another circumstance of that hill will further prove the error of Mr. Playfair on the cause of one of the greatest geological phenomena, the great dissemination of blocks of granite on countries far from every mountain of their kind. Mr. Playfair supposed that these masses had been propelled by the streams descending from the mountains ; and he thought that they might be traced up to their source, by following their tract. But I have shown the illusion of this idea, by describing vast heaps of those llocks in plains at great distances from every mountain and large stream. I have also proved, by a great number of facts, that these masses must have been thrown up in the very places where they are found, by the explosion of the air compressed in the caverns in which sunk the parts of the strata that have disappeared outwards.
Now there is a remarkable circumstance on a hill near St. Columb, described in p.194. After having observed the quarries, I walked some way up the hill: it is every where smooth and covered with turf, on which I saw a quantity of blocks of granite, but different from that of the quarries. The quarryman informed me, that these blocks were the only granite known on that bill, and bad been many years the object of his pursuit, till accidentally he discovered the strata by sounding through the turf with an iron bar, in order to discover more blocks near the cart road, as he had exhausted all those that were visible on the surface. He
Ees still
436 On a Phenomenon
still used these blocks for some particular purposes, as they are harder than the granite of the quarries.
This is not the ‘only fact which I related in the same volume of my Travels, observed also with Mr. Davies Giddy, embracing all the phenomena above described; viz. The stratification of granite, ihe nature of the veins in St, Mi- chael’s Mount, and the dispersion of blocks of granite on the surface of the soils. There is a mount named T regon- ning Hill, about seven miles distant from Mr. Giddy’s s house, where he was so good as to carry mein his chaise. The account of our observations begins at p. 270.
Tregonning Hill, in its highest part, is about six hun- dred feet above the ‘neighbouring valleys: at its foot, after having cleared the rubbish from the surface, have been found very regular strata of granite of the same kind as that of St. Columb: but the workmen told us, that when they followed them within the hill, they were found to be insulated masses buried in rubbish. In some of the exca- vations where similar masses had been entirely taken up, we saw nothing but rubbish in the place where they had lain. This phenomenon, of which I have given instances in my Travels, concerning masses of regular : sirata, both of schisius and ‘ime- stone, “buried in rubbish, is an evident proof, that the valleys around have been produced by the subsidence of part of the strata, at the same time that the parts remaining outwards were broken and inclined in various mauners 5 which is one of the greatest geological facts.
After these observations, we ascended the hill towards a signal-post, which is on the highest part. The observa- tions we made on this hill begin at p. 273. We saw on the turf, more or Jess covered with grass, a great number of masses of the same granite as Mount St. Michael, with all the veins which bad been the object of our observations yn the island, but with more variety. These veins. were even observable in such small fragments as I could carry with me.—One of these specimens, the two outsides of which are of the same granife as that of the mount, has a vein of pseudo-granile one inch and half in thickness, with its capel of quarts as in the mount; the quarts is grayish al its contact with the pseudo-granite: there is no mica in the latter, though there is mca in the granite on the sides ; a difference of which Mr. Playfair had not taken notice, since he asserted “ that itas wndistinguishable {rom the mass of the hill.”,—Another mass which has also granite on i
sides,
im St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. 437
sides, has a vein of quartz an inch thick, gray at ifs con- tact with the granite, and brownish towards the middle.— A third mass, still with granife on sip sides, contains a vein of white quartz confusedly ervstallized.—In a- fourth mass, the capels of quartz have their surface covered with smal] crystals, against which, on each side, has been formed a stratum of quartz confusedly crystallized —Lastly, a fifth specimen, the vein of which is an inch and half in breadth, has the true character of mineral veins, that of symmetricat deposites on both sides of the fissures. Similar coatings of white quartz have advanced on both sides’; but not having every where united in the middle, they are covered in the intervals with small crystals.
if Mr. Ailan had seen my own work, be would not have thought I was mistaken; since I have not only described myself the very phenomena that he opposes to me as ob- served in the specimen which he laid before the Edinburgh Society, but this is only a very small part of the seological circumstances which I have described in that country. “The principal of them, against the Huttonian system, were: the stratification of granite ; the broken and shattered state of its sirata, no less than those of kelias by the same cause that of the subsidence of part of them ; and the evidence of the veins of St. Michael’s Mount having all the character of mineral veins, on which the Hattonian. system had spread many errors: an object to which I shall particularly come, after having mentioned my last publication of two volumes of Travels in some Parts of Switzerland, France, and Ger- many.
One of the objects which is there completely elucidated is the stratification of granite, exemplified in some moun- tains of Upper Lusatia, called the Giant’s Mountains. These [ have described, not only a very extensive and high ridge composed of granile strata, and their contemporary of gneiss, with the strongest characters of dislocation ; but many mounts on the outside of the chain formed of the same strata, visibly by subsidence. Aud besides, 1 have described, in the whole course of these Travels, instances of the great phenomenon of enormous blocks of granite and other contemporary substances. Mr. Playfair supposed, as I have already mentioned, that they had been propelled by the streams descending fron’ the mountains; but I have described, ina great many places, heaps of them on very high hills, and for insianee over the high ridge of Mount Jura. — But this subject is sufficiently elucidated, and I come to that of the mineral veins.
Ee3 The
438 On a Phaenomenon
~ The system of Dr. Hutton, and also of Mr. Playfair in his [llustrations of this system, is; that the mineral veins have been produced by substances proceeding from below the strata, and injected when softened by heat, in the frac- tures of the strata, in the same manner that Mr. Playfair supposed that the vetas of St. Michael’s Mount had been produced.
I was too well acquainted with mineral veins, not to see the error of that system of Dr. Hutton; having gone down the greatest and deepest mines in the mountains of the Hartz, with the best cuide for such observations, Baron de Rheden, the chief director of these mines; and 1. have published these observations since 1780. - Thus, before this Jast journey in Germany, we had coincided in the same opinion, the celebrated M. Werner of Freyberg in Saxony and myself (without having yet any knowledge of each other), that mineral veins had been successively filled by de- posits of chemical precipitations on the sides of the fissures in the strata, from the liquid of the former sea.
This -coincidence made me desirous of a personal ac- quaintance with M. Wemer: therefore, being arrived at Dresden, I wrote to him to inquire whether he was at Freyberg, and could help me in my wish to study that ce- brated mineral country. Instead of answering, M. Werner came to Dresden, with the intention to be himself my conductor.
This journey begins at p. 435 of the Ist volume. Un- der such auspices, every part of our observations is inter- esting to geology, not only with respect to the nature of mineral veins, but on Mr. Allan’s principal subject, an- nounced in these words: Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner. The observations we made in that journey, in which M. Werner himself pointed out to me disturbances, dislocations, changes of original relative position of the different kinds of strata, entirely agreed with the descrip- tions which I] had already published of these phenomena, as may. be seen in the account of this journey; but I shall confine myself to the object of mineral veins, which is par- ticularly described in pp. 446 and 4473; of which I shall give only extracts,
*¢ On this subject M. Werner supplied me with an im- mediate proof, that the veins, within each particular di- strict, are not of the same date: some of the veins here had already been filled with their gangue, when fresh cata- strophes produced new fissures which passed across the for- mer; yet still at so early a period, that the last veins wer¢
filled
in St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwail. 439
filled with nearly the same gangue as the others: but the gangue of the last is continuous and uninterrupted ; while it cuts that of the preceding, and hence their comparative dates are known. The same is observed in all the znter- sections of veins, which in this country are very numerous.”
That situation of the veins themselves certifies the re- peated catastrophes of the strata, by the successive fissures in which they were produced.
On the manner in which the veins were formed, which is here the main point, on which M. Werner and myself agreed against the Huttonian theory, the subject begins at p- 448, of which the following is an abstract: ‘¢ It was in the side of this valley that M. Werner pointed out to me the principal phenomena which had convinced him that the veins were fissures filled up with substances precipitated against doth"sides of the space thus opened: this phzeno- menon is precisely the same which had led me also to that opinion.—In all veins, these new snbstances have been de- posited in symmetrical layers on both sides; and the in- terval between tiiem having been gradually narrowed by their accumulation, they have at last united towards the middle, where however there still remain some vacancies lined with small crystals. —Now in the small veins just de- scribed, M. Werner showed me a remarkable circumstance, which at once proves the symmetrical accumulation of the substances on the opposite sides of the fissures, and the catastrophes undergone by the veins themselves after having received their first gangue. These fissures have been evi- dently enlarged by a new subsidence of the strata, more considerable on one side than on the other, which has di- ae the first gangue in many places along the Jine of its
rst junction. Now, the same operation has been recom- menced on both sides of the new fissure thus produced, and symmetrical layers uniting incompletely towards the mid- dle, have again been formed in the same manner as before.””
Mr. Allan could not be informed of the above observa- tions which T had made with M. Werner himself. But, sir, if he reads this letter in your Journal, { hope he will change the opinion he entertained of me with respect to accuracy in observations.
I have the honour to be, sir,
‘ Your obedient servant, Windsor, December 1, 1813. J. A. De Luc.
Ee4 LXXIV. An
[ 440 }
LXXIV. An Attempt to determine the definite and simple Pro- portions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganic Sub- stances are united with each other. By Jacop BERzE- Lius, Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy, and M.R.A. Stockholm.
[Continued from p. 386.] SECOND CONTINUATION.
[From the original German, as arranged, with some little Modification of the Author’s Subdivisions, by Professor GiLBERT. ]
Nitric Acip AND NITRATES, AS AFFORDING PROOFS THAT NITROGEN IS NOT CHEMICALLY SIMPLE.
I TRUST that in my Essay on definite Proportions, and in its First Continuation, { have completely established the
doctrine, that all salts are composed of an acid and a hase .
in such proportions, that the oxygen contained in the acid is a multiple by a whole number of the quantity contained in the base. But in these investigations I have not yet treated of the nitric acid. I intended not to have made known my analysis of the nitrates before I published my investigations relating to animal substances; but they may more properly be introduced on the present occasion, partly because they confirm the proposition which has been men- tioned, and partly because they may serve as an addition to the proofs of the compound nature of nitrogen which have been stated in the First Continuation of my Essay.
TI. Nirric Acip.
Aitempt to determine its Composiiion from its Capacity of Saiuration. ~ In this investigation a great difficulty arises from the im- possibility of depriving the nitrates of their water of crystal- lization, without decomposing more or less of the acid ; re) that one cannot infer with certainty the quantity of the acid, from that of the base which is left behind; a circumstance which long deterred me from the undertaking. But since it became necessary for the inferences whieh were to be drawn from my analyses of avimal bodies, to determine how far nitrogen, from the modification of its electrical properties, might be considered as a simple body, I deter- mined to attempt to overcome these difficulties, ‘and I have succeeded far beyond my expectation. The nitrates, which I chose for this investigation, were those of baryta, prot- oxide of lead, and ammonia. : Nitrate
—————
On definite Proportions. 44l
Mitrate of Baryta.
{n order to obtain this salt in perfect purity, I heated it to ignition in a silver crucible, dissolved it in water. filtered the solution, saturated it with pure nitric acid, and evapo- rated it until it crystallized. In order to determine the quantity of water of crystallization, which I supposed to exist in the salt, | introduced 10 grammes into a small re- tort, which instead’ of a receiver was furnished with a tube filled with muriate of lime. The nitrate of baryta decre- pitated in the heat, and fell into a fine powder: J continued the heat until the salt was fused, and began to emit oxygen. The retort had now lost +052 gr, and the tube had acquired °046. I have shown that the water, which a salt loses by decrepitation, can be no water of crystallization, but can only be inclosed’ mechanically in the crystals; so that it can easily be removed by powdering the salt and by drying it in a warm place. It is also to be supposed, for the rea- sons which have been given, that crystals, which decrepitate in the fire, contain no water chemically combined with them. I theretore consider the result of this experiment on the nitrate of baryta as a proof, that it contains no water of crystallization.
Ten grammes of finely powdered and very well dried nitrate of baryta were dissolved in water in a platina cru- cible, sulphuric acid was added, and the mixture was dried and ignited. The sulphate of baryta, thus obtained, weighed 8°867 gr. and, according to the analysis already related, contained 5°825 gr. of baryta. Consequently 100 parts of nitric acid had saturated j40 of barvta, in which there are 14°64 parts of oxygen.
Ten more grammes of nitrate of baryta were dissolved in water, and sulphate of ammonia was added to the solu- tion, whence were obtained 8-907 gr. of sulphate of baryta, containing 5°846 of baryta; so that 100 parts of nitric acid should saturate 140°73 of baryta, containing 14°73 of oxy-
gen. Nitrate of the Protoxide of Lead.
The same appearances, as have been described with re- spect to the preceding salt, justify us in concluding with respect to this also, that it contains no water of crystallizas tion.
Twenty grammes of finely powdered and very well dried nitrate of the protoxide of fead were ignited in a platina crucible, and afforded 13°445 or. of protoxide. Conse- quently 100 parts of this salt contain 67:2225 of the “abt
oxide
442 On definite Proportions.
oxide and 32:7775 of nitric acid; or 100 parts of nitric acid saturate 205°1 of protoxide of lead, containing 14°66 of oxygen: [since this protoxide contains 7°15 per cent. of oxygen. “GILB.]
These two experiments seem to'show, that 100 parts of nitric acid saturate as much of a base as contains 144 parts of oxygen. But if this acid is composed of 30:5 parts of nitrogen* and 69°5 of oxygen, as Gay-Lussac reports in his Essay on the combinations of the gaseous bodies, this quan- tity of oxygen, 69°5, is not a multiple by any whole num- ber of 14°66, but falls between four and five times that quantity. If, on the other hand, we consider the nitric acid as composed of 100 parts of ammonium and 662 parts of oxygen, as I have done, or of 13°12 of ammonium and 86°88 of oxygen per cent. we have at once 14°66 x 6=87°9, and the nitric acid contains six times as much oxygen as the base with which it is saturated. The slight difference of 1 per cent. between the determinations from the com- position of the base-and from the weight of the gases, oc- curs also, as we have seen, in the case of the carbonic acid, and depends therefore not on an error in principle, but on a small inaccuracy in the numbers on which the calculation is founded,
Perhaps it will be objected to me, that although the salts here analysed afforded no water of crystallization in their decrepitation, they may have retained it so firmly as not to have parted with it except together with the acid; and if we allowed that they contained exactly so much water of crystallization, as to have its oxygen equal to that of the base, [according to the law which wil! be more fully explained in the Third Continuation, G.] the remaining nitric acid, if considered as composed of nitrogen and oxygen, would contain not quite four times as much oxygen, and if as of ammonium and oxygen, exactly five times as much as the base. . This objection I shall put to the test in the case of the following salt,
Nitrate of Ammonia.
According to the view which has been mentioned, this salt must be so composed that 100 parts of ammonia satu~ rate 267of nitric acid [since for 100 parts of ammonium am- monia must contain 88 and the nitric acid 662 parts of oxy- gen, G.]. But if we reckon according to the volumes of the gaseous component parts, as they are assigned by Gay-Lussac, the nitric acid contains for 100 cubic inches of nitrogen 200 ef oxygen, and ammonia for the samé measure of nitrogen
30Q
On definite Proportions. 443
300 of hydrogen gas. In this case it is evident that the acid can only contain an integral multiple of the oxygen of the nitrogen, and not of the whole quantity contained in the ammonia. And if such were the true composition of these substances, this would prove nothing for or against the composition of nitrogen; but it would demonstrate that hydrogen contains no oxygen.
If this statement were true, the nitrate of ammonia when slowly decomposed by heat, woyld afford equal parts of nitrogen and nitrous oxide; for 100 cubic inches of hydro- gen gas take up 150 of oxygen, and the remaining 50 of oxygen form with 100 of nitrogen 100 of nitrous oxide, and consequently 100 parts of nitrogen should be disengaged. But we know that the quantity of nitrogen in the nitrous oxide obtained from the nitrate of ammonia is not consi- derable, although it is never wholly wanting. Consequently this view of the composition of nitrate of ammonia cannot possibly be correct,
Since the nitrate of haryta, which is decomposed by mixture with the sulphate of ammonia, does not alter its state of neutralisation, it is obvions that ammonia follows the same law of saturation with the nitric acid relatively to the fixed bases of salts as with the other acids. Hence it is clear, that since 100 parts of nitric acid are neutralised by a quantity of baryta or protoxide of Jead which contain 14°66 parts of oxygen, they must also saturate as much ammonia as contains the same quantity of oxygen. The nitrate of ammonia must therefore be thus constituted ;
Nitric acid .., 76°18 100-000 320 Ammonia.... 23°82 31°266 100
But since the nitrate of ammonia cannot be obtained without water of crystallization, this determination cannot be directly confirmed. It may however be supposed, that, like the muriate of ammonia, it contains a quantity of wa- ter of which the oxygen is equal to that of the base, and that consequently in the nitrate of ammonia one third part as much water of crystallization is contained as it is capa+ ble of producing when decomposed by oxidation. Accord- ing to this, 100 parts of nitric acid, with 31-266 parts of ammonia, and 16°61 of water, must represent the crystal- lized salt; and 100 parts of crystallized nitrate of ammoniq must consist of
Nitric acid........ 67°625 Ammonia .....6.. 21°143 W sterig' sibatieied $2) 08 11239
Jn order to examine this more particularly, I mixed in 5
sma
444 On dejinite Proportions.
small glass retort 5 grammes of crystallized and dry nitrate of ammonia with 10 gr. of finely powdered clean and newly burnt lime. I fitted to the retort a sma!| tubulated receiver, in which was a hittle unslaked lime, and from the tube ef which a small tube of glass, filled with muriate of lime, al- Jowed the ammoniacal gas to escape. The retort was heated for twelve hours on a sand- bath, in a temperature which was not sufficient for the decomposition of the newly formed nitrate of lime; and now the retort had Jost 1°1 gr. while the receiver and the alkali bad acquired 0:059 Both still smelt a little of ammonia; a proof th at they retained a small quantity of this substance together with the water. Con- sequently in this experiment 100 parts of nitrate of am- monia had afforded 20°82 of ammonia, which differs only by +825 from the quantity determined by calculation; a variation which depends partly on the unavoidable imper- fections of the experiments, and partly perhaps on small errors in the numbers on which the calculation is founded. When I wished to expel the water from the nitrate of lime, and for this purpose had fitted to the retort a glass- tube Alled with muriate of lime, the acid was iminediately de- composed, and the experiment afforded no result that could be of any use.
If, as these experiments seem to agree in proving, the composition of the nitrate. of ammonia here determined is the true one, it cannot be completely converted into water and nitrous oxide; bata pertive of nitrogen must pinkie be disengaged, w hich amounts to 1 of that of the acid, or 3 of that of the alkali, But commonly more nitrogen 1s “formed, since the temperature is too much raised, and some uncoms bined acid’ is disengaged, which partly distils over with the water, and partly collects in the retort with the salt. The higher the temperature, the more acid is disengaged, and the more nitrogen appears 5 so that, when a complete deto- nation takes piace, no nitrous oxide is formed,
In an experiment, in which I slowly decomposed 5 grammes of nitrate of ammonia in a small retort over a spirit lamp, collected the water in a receiver, and brought the gas through a glass tube filled with muriate of lime, the water obtained was slichtly acid, and saltish. It weighed, together with that which the muriate of lime had taken Ups 23 gr.; and after evaporation, it left behind +295 gr. of nitrate of ammonia; so that. the water amounted only to
2°005 gr. There rémained. in. the ‘retort +345 gr. of salt still undecomposed, and decidedly acid. If we neglect the uncombined acid contained in the water and in the salt, it
appears
SO ok ci
¢
Pe ow Sie tet 07%
™M
oy
On definite Proportions. 445
appears that only ‘* 4-365” [4°36] gr. of the salt were de- composed, which had afforded 2:005 gr. of water, and had emitted 2°36 gr. of gas. According to the principle stated above, 4 of this water, or ‘5 gr. must have been water of crystallization. If we now compute how much water of crystallization the 4°365 gr. of nitrate of ammonia must contain, according to the preceding détermination of 11232 per cent., we find the quanuty *4905 gr.; and according to the same determination, the gas disengaged froin 4°365 gr. of salt must amount to 2:4 gr. If now we recollect, . that both the undecomposed salt and the water obtained contained uncombined acid, we easily perceive that this hittle variation of ='~ of the weight of the salt depends on the excess of acid; for, while this excess increases the weight of the undecomposed salt, it must also diminish that of the products of the decomposition. I therefore consider this experiment as a new proof of the accuracy of the compo- sition of the nitrates, as here determined.
ConcCLusION.
- From these experiments we obtain the following general result :
1. In the nitrates, the acid contains six times as much oxygen as the base; and since this proportion dees not hold good when we consider the acid as composed of nitro- gen and oxygen, we must consider the nitric acid as com- posed of ammonium and oxygen. But if nitrogen cannot le considered as a simple element in the nitrates, in which ame monium occurs in the [negative] modification of electricity, it can scarcely be otherwise in any part of organic nature.
2. The nitrate of ammonia is so constituted, that the nitric acid contains twice as much oxygen, as is required, m order to saturate the hydrogen which may be obtained from ammonia. The crystallized salt contains a quantity of water of crystallization, of which the oxygen is equal to that of the alkali. The nitrogen of the acid is to that of the alkali in the proportion of 5 to 4. But the ammonium in the alkali is to that in the acid as Gto 5. When the salt is decomposed by heat, half of the whole quantity of nitrogen is disengaged in the form of nitrogen. This is the general law of the composition of the nitrate of am- mnonia. But the numerical determinations cannot be con- sidered as strictly accurate, until the composition of those bodies, of which the salt consists, or which may be formed from it, agrees with them to the last places of decimals ; at present they can only be regarded :as approximations, which
are
446 On definite Proportions.
are however so far of material value, as they léad us witts some certainty to the traces of the Jaws of nature.
That the ammonium of the alkali is not here an integral multiple of that of the acid, depends on the same cause as the apparently anomalous progressions of several combus- tible bodies, of which I have partly spoken already, and shall partly have occasion to speak more particularly in treating of the vegetable acids.
The : analysis of the nitrate of ammonia may be considered as a formal proof of the existence of oxygen in hydrogen: for there can be no other reason why ‘the oxygen of the acid, when considered as ‘formed from nitrogen, should not bea ‘multiple of that of the base by a whole “number. But this analysis seems at the same time to show, ihat [ have estimated the quantity of oxygen, in the First Continuation of my Essay, much too high, and perhaps at Jeast four times as much as the truth.
Since I have reason to believe from my investigation of the composition of ammonia, and of the neutral 1 nitrates, that nitrogen is to be considered as a higher degree of oxi- dation of the same radical that forms ammonia, I think it follows from the same grounds, although not with the same force of evidence, that “hydrogen ‘must consist of the same radical in a lower degree of oxidation. It appears however, that the oxygen of the hydrogen should on this supposition be a multiple of that of any body with which water can combine, by some whole number, which lies between those of the oxygen in water and in the other substance, exactly -as we shall find that of the oxygen In nitrogen with respect to the neutral nitrates. But this cannot be, if water really contains only 113 per cent. of hydrogen. If on the other hand water really contained more than 113 per cent. of hydrogen, as Mr. Gay-Lussace has concluded from some reasons with which I am unacquainted, the Jast-mentioned number, with which most of the analyses of bodies con- taining water agree best, would belong to the metallic am- monium, and the difference between the quantity of hydro- gen and ammonium in water would depend on the oxygen of the hydrogen. If however, as is most probable, future analyses of water, performed with accuracy proportional to the present state of the investigations, should still make the quantity of hydrogen in water accurately or very nearly 11:75 per cent., it will be difficult to reconcile the existence of oxygen in hydrogen with the calculations relating to multiple proportions. Since however this, as we shall here- after find, happens also in some cases with respect to the
oxygen
a
On definite Proportions. . 447
oxygen in nitrogen, it cannot be considered as a decisive argument against the existence of oxygen in hydrogen.
T must also observe, that it is not yet possible to deter- mine with certainty which series of proportions is the more correct, that which is determined from the weight of the gases, or that which is deduced from the analyses of several saline bases which I have performed. I must however con- fess, that I believe the quantity of oxygen which [ have assi~ned to these bases is too great: for, if we lessen it, the wi, le of the results will agree better together, as their dis- cordance is increased by making it greater. If, for example, we take ammonia as containing 46°26 of oxygen, and water as composed of 11°75 of hydrogen and 88°25 of oxygen, every thing agrees perfectly with these numbers.
II. SuBNITRATES AND SUBSUBNITRATES.
[Transferred by Gitzert from the Third Continuation.]
Subnitrate of the Proloxide of Lead.
‘I have obtained this salt by treating the neutral nitrate with a smaller quantity of causticammoniathan is necessary for its complete decomposition. The white precipitate, which was obtained, being well edulcorated, was’strongly dried and ignited in a small glass retort: it afforded nitrous acid and oxygen gas, without any traces of acid being con- densed ; so that it contains no water of crystallization. It left 80°5 per cent. of fine lemon-coloured protoxide of lead ; so that the salt consists of -
Nitric acid .... 19°95 100
Protoxide of lead = 80°5 413 But in 80°5 parts of the protoxide there are 5°72 of oxygen, and in 19°5 of nitric acid there are 17°096 of oxygen; and 5°72 X3=17°16: so that in this salt the acid contains three times as much oxygen as the base, and saturates twice as much of the base as in the neutral nitrate of the prot- oxide.
Subsubnitrate of the Protoxide of Lead.
Another quantity of nitrate of the protoxide of lead was mixed with so much ammonia, that not only all the prot- oxide was precipitated, but also the fluid, when it had been digested several hours on the precipitate, remained still al- kaline. The precipitate was washed as long as the water continued to dissolve any part of it. The white salt of lead, dried in the sun, was then placed in a small retort upon a strongly heated sand bath, so that the water was still more thoroughly expelled; it then became yellow, but parted
only »
448 » On definite Proportions.
only with its water, without suffering a particle of the acid to escape. The salt, thus dried, left after ignition 90°3 percent. of oxide ; and in this process only nitrous vapours and oxygen were ‘disengaged, without an atom of liquid acid. These 90*3 parts Pak protoxide of lead contained 6°457 of oxygen. And if we consider the nitric acid as consisting of ammonium and 87°88 per cent. of oxygen, the 9-7 parts contain 8°524 of oxygen, which is much less than twice the oxygen of the base: but if we consider the nitric acid as consisting of 30°5 parts of mitrogen and 69°5 of oxygen, 9°7 parts of nitric acid contain 6°74,0f oxygen ; that is, neglecting the small difference of °317, which may easily have arisen from an error of observation, a quantity of oxygen equal to that of the base.
This result appeared to be the more striking, as it seemed to contradict my earher ideas respecting the composition of the nitric acid; for L had not here to do with a double sub- salt of Jead : I had indeed been long acquainted with such a subacetate, and I particularly sought for ityin this case; having observed that if one boils the acetate of the prot- oxide of lead with more of the protoxide, one obtains a combination which does not crystallize, which acts on ve- getable colours like an alkali, and dries with heat into a mass of a gummy appearance. If this combination is di- gested with still more of the protoxide, the protoxide ex- pands and becomes white, the solution loses more and more of the lead that it contains, and retains at last an astringent taste, without sweetness. The white precipitate thus formed dissolves in boiling water, and shoots trom it into feathery crystals with a silky gloss. I have not yet gone so far as to be able to make out with certainty _ the composition of this salt ; but I have found that it contains much more metal than the salt with the appearance of an extract, and can be converted into it again by the addition of acetic acid. These two degrees of the subsalts may be termed subsalis and subsubsalts.
I by no means expected, from the general law of the composition of salts which I have developed, that it would be necessary here to consider the nitric acid as composed of nitrogen and oxygen. Either (A) the observation must have been incorrect, or (B) the an sis of the neutral ni- trate of the protoxide of lead must have been inaccurate, or (C) there must have been some canse, with which I am sipsapniniea that nitrogen is affected in the nitric acid, when it is saturated with the greatest possible quantity of a base, as a simple substance, not contaming any oxygen, or
(D) the
On definite Proportions. 449
{D) the last-mentioned salt may have been a double com- bination of a subnitrate of the protoxide of lead, differently modified, with a hydrated protoxide. .
In order to investigate which was the most probable of all these possibilities, I repeated once more the examination of this salt. After drying it in a water bath, the water of crystallization was driven off in a small glass retort in a sand bath. I call it water of crystallization, because the salt changed its colour from white to yellow when it was expelled. It amounted in one experiment to 2°30, and in another to 2°32 per cent. The ignited salt left 88°1 of prot- oxide, which was not diminished by fusion. Consequently the salt was thus constituted :
Protoxide of lead 88°10 Nitric acid .. 9°5(8] Water Ve 1108, 232
The view (C) of the composition of this salt I should be least of all disposed to admit, and therefore took care to examine all the rest before this. The quantity of the protoxide here found contains 6:299 parts of oxygen; that of the acid either 6°66 or 8°4112, accordingly as we con- sider nitrogen or ammonium as its radical; and the water contains 2:05. Since neither of the two numbers belong- ing to’ the acid on these different suppositions perfectly agrees with the quantity of oxygen contained in the base ; I imagined that according to the hypothesis (D) the salt might be thus constituted: the nitric acid being combined with 2 of the protoxide, and forming with it a subsalt, in which the acid contained twice as much oxygen as the base, the remaining + might be combined with water as a hydrate, in which the oxygen of the water and of the prot- oxide might be equal: and the whole might in some mea- sure resemble a double salt, in which the oxygen was con- tained in the smallest quantity in the water, that of the protoxide being three times as much, and that of the nitric acid four. This view agrees with the result of the experi- ment; but that it probably is not the true one, I am per- suaded from the consideration of the other subnitrates, which rather seem to indicate, that we must consider the acid in these combinations as having nitrogen for iis radi- eal, since on this supposition it would contain an equal quantity of oxygen with the base, and the water 4 as much.
That this view of the subject, according to which we are to consider the nitric acid as composed of nitrogen and oxygen, does not agree with the neutral nitrate of the prot~ oxide of lead, if this contains 205°! parts of the protoxide
Vol. 42. No. 188, Dec, 1813. Ff£ to
450 On definite Proportions.
to 100 of nitric acid, we have already seen in the examina= tion of this salt. I therefore repeated once more the ana- lysis of the neutral nitrate.
For this purpose I dried the finely powdered neutral ni- trate of the protoxide of Jead in the sunshine, and, after some hours, I exposed ten grammes of it in a small glass retort to a higher temperature, until the protoxide, deprived of its acid, was half vitrified, and the retort began to melt. Neither in the neck of the retort, nor in the receivers, had a single drop of acid been condensed ; a proof that this nitrate contains no water. The weight of the retort was now oply increased 6729 gr. by that of the residuum 5 and it lost nothing more by further exposure to heat, al- though it was now completely flattened by partial fusion.
I have repeated this experiment several times with the most careful attention, both in retorts and in a platina crucible, and it always afforded results which only varied from 67°3 to 67°31 of the protoxide of lead for 100 of the salt. This-is somewhat more than the 67°222, which I had found in my former experiments; [and hence the neutral nitrate contains 205°87 parts of the protoxide to 100 of nitric acid, G.] The neutral nitrate of the protoxide of lead, which was employed for these experiments, produced not the least turbidness with the nitrate of the pratoxide of silver, and the remaining protoxide of lead emitted, when dissolved in nitric acid, no yas, as would have been to be expected from the analogy of the alkaline and earthy nitrates which have been exposed to heat. No more gas was evolved from 6:73 gr. of half vitrified protoxide of lead than oc- cupied the bulk of a pea; I therefore consider this as at- mospherical air, which had been mechanically absorbed by the oxide in cooling.
Hence it is most clearly established: first, that if we choose to consider the nitric acid as composed of nitrogen and oxygen, the acid contained in the neutral nitrate cannot possibly contain oxygea in any quantity which is an in- tegral multiple of the oxygen in the base; and secondly, that in the subnitrate here described, the base can be no integral multiple of that quantity of the same base with which the same quantity of acid is combined in the neutral nitrate. Consequently the want of agreement between the results cannot depend on errorsin the analyses, but the last described subsalt is either a double combination with the base, or there are some causes for which the nitric acid, when united with the greatest possible quantity of the base, retains the oxygen in the nitrogen so strongly, that it has
ne
On definite Proportions. . 451
no longer the properties of oxygen, and can therefore no longer be taken into the account. The following example confirms the probability of this last view of the subject ; hut the complete explanation of this phenomenon would probably lead us a great step further in the doctrine of che- mical proportions.
Subnitrate of the Oxide of Copper.
T have prepared this salt in three different ways: (A) by gently heating the dry neutral salt, and washing away the undecomposed portion with boiling water ; (B) by precipi- tation of the neutral nitrate with lime water ; and (C) by precipitation with caustic ammonia, which leaves part of the copper in the solution. All these three methods afforded precisely the same salt.
I obtained from this salt by ignition, in several experi- ments, 65°6 to 66 percent. of black oxide of copper, and the acid disengaged was in great measure liquid. Conse- quently this*alt contains water of crystallization, and ace cording to the computation hereafter to be detailed, it must be thus constituted ;
Nitric acid ve ss 18°9 Oxide of copper = .. «+. 66:0 Water ae oa Lord
The 66 parts of oxide of copper contain 13°2 of oxygen, which answer to 18*9 parts of nitric acid; if ‘considered as composed of nitrogen and oxygen. The remaining (5*t parts must have been water, and have contained 13°32 parts of oxygen. If we wished to compute this result ace cording to another view of the composition of the -nitri¢ acid, we should obtain no relation between the oxygen of the base and that of the water, that can be expressed by an integral proportion ; for 13°2 parts of oxygen would, according to this view of the subject, be contained in only 15°04 parts of nitric acid, and consequently the oxygen of the water would exceed in quantity that of the base, and yet not amount totwice asmuch. Put if we would assume that the oxygen of the acid were twice as much as that of the base, the salt would contain 30:08 parts of nitric acid, and 3°42 of water, and the oxygen of the water would again observe no integral proportion io that of the base. And if we consider the salt as a double combination of subnitrate of the oxide of copper with hydrate of the same oxide, we still obtain no satisfactory explanation,
The analysis of this salt appears therefore to confirm the idea before mentioned, that im the salts in which the nitrie
Ff 2 acid
452 On definite Proportions.
acid is saturated with the greatest possible quantity of a base, the acid contains an equal quantity of oxygen with the base, so far as we consider it as composed of oxygen and nitrogen, and do hot take into account the oxygen of the nitrogen. We shall obtain another confirmation of | this statement from the subsubnitrite of the protoxide of lead, to which we shall now proceed.
III. Tue Nirtrites.
Since the proofs which, as we have seen, may be derived from the analysis of the neutral nitrates in favour of the composition of ammonia and nitrogen, are so highly im- portant and indispensable, and since the ideas, to which they lead, are contrary to the older opinions, and will meet with much opposition among chemists, I have considered it as essentially necessary to examine more accurately every thing which might appear ambiguous or uncertain in these proofs. In order to place beyond all doubt the truth of the opinion that the nitric acid is composed of ammonium and oxygen, I resolved to employ an observation which I had had occasion to make in the course of my extensive inyes- tigations respecting the salts of lead.
Subnitrite of the Protoxide of Lead.
It is a fact first discovered hy Proust, and since universally understood, that if we boil metallic Jead with a solution of nitrate of the protoxide of lead, the lead is dissolved, and we obtain a yellow fiaid, which shoots into scaly yellow crystals. Mr. Proust considered this combination as a salt in which the lead was reduced to a lower degree of oxida- tion. Dr. Thomson on the other hand calls the same salt, which he obtained from the nitrate by means of heat, com- mon subnitrate of the protoxide of lead. Neither of these chemists had directed his attention to the alteration of the condition of the acid: hence arises the contradiction in their resulis, neither of which is more correct than the other.
I had very often found, that when I dissolved lead in nitric acid, the solution was at Jast of a lemon colour, without obtaining from it the scaly salt described by Mr. Proust. Since these yellow solutions were less disposed to crystallize than the common ones, and afforded a yellow salt, I attempted to force them to crystallize by the. addi- tion of nitric acid: for it is known that several salts are precipitated from their solutions in water by the addition of
uncombined acid; probably because the capacity of the water
On definite Proportions. 453
water is diminished by this addition. The colour disap- peared immediately, and nitrate of the protoxide of lead was crystallized in abundance. But these solutions mixed with nitric acid had always so suffocating a smell of nitrous gas, without however exhibiting red vapours, that I was obliged to remove them out of the laboratory. I now poured nitric acid on a portion of the yellow salt, and gently heated the mixture: in the mean time small bubbles of gas were disengaged, which, even at the bottom of the vessel, before they came in contact with the air, appeared of a red colour. The acetic acid produced the same appearance. It was there- fore beyond all doubt that this yellow salt contained a com- bination of nitrous acid with the protoxide of lead, from which it probably derived the yellow cojour.
I immediately determined to examine how the oxygen of the nitrous acid was related to that of the base, and if this relation would not afford a new proof my idea of the com- position of nitrogen. For this purpose I boiled in a sinall glass flask a solution of 20 grammes of nitrate of the prot- oxide of lead with 19°4 gr. of thin hammered lead ; that is, with precisely as much as the salt already contained. After some hours, the lead was completely dissolved, and the solution had assumed a full yellow colour. While it was cooling, it congealed completely into a scaly yellow mass, which allowed a colourless fluid to be pressed out of it. The solution had a taste rather astringent than sweet, and acted on reddened litmus paper precisely as an alkali. This was also the case with the crystals. Acids evoived nitrous acid in great quantity from this salt. It is therefore a subnitrite of the protoxide of Jead. Hence it appears that there must be a distinct neutral combination of the nitrous acid with the protoxide: of this I shall speak here- after, and first endeavour to ascertain the composition of this subsalt.
The crystals that had been obtained were levigated, well dried, then heated in a small glass retort, and at last strongly ignited, until no more nitrous gas was disengaged. The salt d'd not melt in the heat. It emitted partly gaseous, partly fluid, red, smoking nitrous acid, and consequently contained some water of crystallization. ‘The part of the oxide of lead, which had not been fused, was of a fine light yellow, and weighed, in different experiments, 79°5, 79°75, to 80 per cent. of the salt which had been employed.
If we consider the nitrous acid as composed of nitrogen and oxygen, it contains for 6371 parts of oxygen 39°5 of nitrogen. If, on the contrary, we regard it as composed
Ff3
.
of
454 On definite Proportions.
of ammonium and oxygen, it consists of 15°88 parts of ammonium with 84°12 of oxygen in 100. In the quan- tity of protoxide of lead, which we have obtained in these experiments, there are from’5*70 to 5°72 parts of oxygen, which must be an aliquot part of the oxygen contained in the 20 per cent. of acid expelled. If we consider nitrogen as the radical of the nitrous acid, this acid cannot contain three times as much oxygen as the base. The quantity of nitrous acid which contains twice 5°72 parts of oxygen is 18°13; and 1°87 parts only would remain for the water, which is manifestly too little, since in the distillation of this salt the greatest part of the acid is obtained in a liquid form.
In order to ascertain this point, I dried a quantity of the subsalt very perfectly, until the acid began to escape, so that all water adhering to it mechanically must have been expelled: the salt had assumed a darker colour, and, when ignited in a retort, gave, as before, liquid acid, leaving 81°3 per cent. of protoxide. Since now the 18°7 per cent, thus expelled was chiefly liquid, as before, it is utterly impossi- ble, that the nitrous acid should contain twice as much oxygen as the base of thesalt; for in this case nothing would be left for the water. If again it only contained an equal quantity of oxygen with the base, the salt would con- tain only 10°93 parts of water of crystallization, and the oxygen of this water would observe no regular proportion to that of the base. Consequently the composition of this salt will not in any manner agree with the laws which pre- vail with respect to the other salts, so far as we take nitro- gen for the radical of the nitrous acid,
If on the other hand we considered the nitrous acid as composed of ammonium and oxygen, and assumed that there is twice as much oxygen in the acid as in the base that neu- tralises it, the quantity of the nitrous acid in this salt would amount to 13°57 or 13°6 per cent., and 6°4 to 6°68 would remain for the water of crystallization. This water would contain 5°64 to 5°88 of oxygen; and we may safely con- clude, that the base and the water of crystallization con- tain equal quantities of oxygen, and the acid twice as much, not reckoning that which belongs to the nitrogen. Hence the proportions of the component parts of the subnitrite of the protoxide of lead are nearly these:
Protoxide of lead,,......80°0 Nitrous. acid... .6% 00. 2213°6 WALET siacsiny seem nee wet on
We will now, in order to investigate this supposition
more accurately, examine the composition of the subsalt . . MOTE,
On definite Proportions. 455
more minutely. We have already seen that 100 parts of nitric acid, with 2051 of protoxide of lead, afford a neutral nitrate of lead. If we wish to reduce these 100 parts of nitric to nitrous acid, we must deprive them of + of their whole quantity of oxygen, including that which belongs to the nitrogen. If now in all nitrates the oxygen of the acid is six times that of the base, it must amount in 100 parts of the nitric acid to 6 x 14°66=88 parts. Now 8#=17°6, and 100 parts of nitric acid will therefore afford 100—17°6= 824 of nitrous acid, containing 70°35 of oxygen : [or 88— 17°6=70°4,] I must here again remark, that if the quan-\ tity of the oxygen of the bases has been assumed a little too great, the error must have a considerable effect here on ac- count of the multiplication by 6: this however has no effect on the representation here developed. If now the lead, which is dissolved by the solution of the nitrate, on which we operate, takes up the 17°6 of oxygen, the solution must contain a quantity of the base of which the oxygen amounts to 32°26, including the protoxide which was present in the first instance, containing 14°66. According to the analysis above related, the nitric acid must contain twice as much oxygen as this, that is, “ 64:54.” But we have seen that it contains in fact 5°48 more, that is, 70°35: [or rather 5'88 more, =70°4—2 x 32°26.) If therefore this compu- tation is correct, a part of the nitrous acid must at the same time be decomposed, and consequently nitrous gas or ni- trogen must be disengaged. This evolution of gas, arising from a dissimilar decomposition of the nitric acid, is denied by Mr. Proust, and also by Mr, Gehlen. But may it not actually take place? Or rather, How could the nitrate of the protoxide of lead be constituted if it did not take place? The nitric acid would otherwise be required to saturate a quantity of protoxide of lead, of which the oxygen amounts to 4 of that of the acid, considered as having ammonium for its radical, or to 4, as comiposed of nitrogen and oxygen. This however would suppose, if my analysis of the nitrate of the protoxide of lead is at all correct, in the 100 parts of nitric acid, which saturate 205*1 of the protoxide, a quantity of water of which the oxygen is equal to that of the prot- oxide ; since 100 parts of dry nitric acid would he required to saturate as much of the protoxide as contains 17°59 parts of oxygen. But my experiments on the analysis of the ni- trates of the protoxide of lead and of ammonia prove incon- trovertibly, as it appears to me, that no such water is con- cealed in the acid. Consequently the conversion of the nitrate of the protoxide of lead into a subnitrite is not pos- Fra sible
456 On definite Proportions.
sible without a decomposition of a part of the nitrous acid, aud consequently without evolution of gas.
On this subject I was satisfied by means of the following experiment #—TI put into a small glass flask 12 ‘¢ grains’’ of nitrate of the protoxide of lead, and 10 gr. of lead seer” thin. I filled the Hask with boiled water, and introduced into its mouth a tube for the reception of gas, filled also with waier. The flask was slowly heated over a spirit lamp, until the fluid came near to the boiling point. The lead began by degrees to be dissolved, and a number of very small bubbles rose from it, as from a conductor acting on water in the galvanic circuit. I did not suffer the fluid to boil; and in this manner a quantity of gas was collected, which was not condensed in cooling. Finally I made the fluid boil, and stopped the experiment, when the lead began to be covered with a yellow brown pellicle. It was found that 7°64 gr. of lead had been dissolved, and 1°8 cubic inch of gas had been disengaged; the thermometer stand- ing at 12° [54°]. When the gas was mixed with oxygen gas, it was condensed into red vapours, which were wholly absorbed by water; consequently it was nitrous gas. In other experiments, in which I performed the solution of the lead in retorts with tubulated receivers luted to them, the oxygen gas of ihe receiver was absorbed, and the water that distilled over was very perceptibly acid. Consequently the decomposition of a small part of the nitrous acid, while the Jead is dissolved in the nitrate of the protoxide, is put beyond all doubt by this experiment.
{ was in hopes of being able to determine the quantity of the jead dissolved more accurately, by allowing the solution to boti upon more lead than it ought to be able to dissolve according to the computation. For this purpose I poured on 12°5 ‘‘ grains” of very pure lead hammered thin, in a very long-necked flask, a solution of 10 gr. of nitrate of the prot- oxide of lead in 500 gr. of water, and boiled the mixture for 1% hours. The orifice of the flask was closed with a cork, having a glass tube fixed in it, which allowed the gas to pass through. After twelve hours, the solution was poured into a bottle, which it nearly filled, and then was loosely stopped. To my great surprise, only «85 gr. of the lead were left undissolved. The solution, when poured off, crystallized in the form of small scales of a brick colour, and the fluid, which remained behind, had lost its colour. It was boiled down to 3, and then, being put into a bottle, deposited two different groups of crystals. The one was the yellow subnitrite of the protoxide of lead, already de-
senibed ;
On definite Proportions. 437
scribed; the other, which was of the same nature with the first deposition, formed small brick-coloured spots, exactly like the fructifications of fern, which constituted a subsubnitrite of the protoxide, .
By the formation of this subsubsalt, I found myself dis- appointed in my expectation of being able to determine the quantity of iead necessary for the formation of the subsalt. ] was therefore obliged to endeavour to determine it by ap- proximation, boiling the nitrate of lead in distilling vessels with different quantities of lead, and remarking the greatest quantity that could be formed without the production of any subsubsalts. In the first experiment, 10 ¢ grains” of nitrate of the protoxide of lead dissolved 73 gr. of lead, without any traces of a subsubsalt. I then heated again the solution which had cooled, and put m 1 gr. of lead, with which I boiled it foran hour. Of this+¢8 gr. were dissolved, and while the solution was cooling, some groups of sub- subsalt were formed. Another portion of 10 gr. of nitrate of lead was boiled with 7-9 gr. of lead, until it was com- pletely dissolved ; while the solution was cooling, some slight trates of the subsubsalt appeared. A third quantity, in which 7°8 gr. of lead had been dissolved, showed indeed no very distinct traces of a subsubsalt; but the lowest part of the crystallized mass, at the bottom of the vessel, ap- peared to be somewhat redder than the upper part. And since the subsubsalt is not completely insoluble m cold water, I thought I had no reason to expect a more accurate determination of the question by this mode of approxima- tion.
It is easy to compute how much lead must be dissolved by the nitrate of the protoxide of lead, in order that 1t may be changed into the subnitrite. For if, according to the Jater analysis already related, the neutral subnitrite of the protoxide of lead contains in 305°s7 parts 100 of the nitric acid, which, in order to become nitrous acid, must give out 17°6 parts of oxygen, or, according to the determination from the volumes of the gaseous component parts of the nitric acid, 17°3953; the protoxide of lead, which is formed _ during the process, is not sufficient to bring ali the nitrous acid to the same degree of saturation, but there is an excess of 5°74 parts of mirous acid. It will be found by a very easy calculation, that when nitrous acid becomes nitrous gas, it loses a fourth of its whole quantity of oxygen, and consequently that two parts of nitrous acid must be decom- posed in order to form the protoxide of lead, which makes the subsalt with one part of the acid [considering the acid
» in
458 On definite Proportions.
in these salts as containing twice as much oxygen as the base, G.] Of the remaining 5°74 parts of nitrous acid, 3°826 must therefore have been decomposed, and must have afforded +805 of oxygen to the lead. These, added to the 17°59” parts of oxygen before mentioned, give ‘¢18°375,” which have been taken up by the lead dissolved ; but 18°375 parts of oxygen combine with 238°8 of lead. If now 305-87 parts of nitrate of the protoxide of lead dissolve 238°8 of Jead, 100 must dissolve 78; and we have seen that in these experiments the formation of the subsubsalt began exactly at this point.
Perhaps none of the indirect proofs of the true composi- tion of the nitric acid, and at the same time of ammonia and nitrogen, is stronger than this. For the observations here adduced, even if they have no pretensions to the greatest accuracy, cannot possibly be so erroneous, as to render the formation of the subnitrite of the protoxide of lead compa- tible with any other idea of the composition and the capacity of saturation of these two acids,
2. Neutral Nitrite of the Protoxide of Lead.
I now wished also to be acquainted with the neutral ni- trite, and for this purpose [ adopted the following process : I mixed a saturated boiling solution of the subsalt with so much sulphuric acid as was required in order to saturate half of the protoxide contained in it: I found however that the experiment must be made in a long-necked flask, for other- wise a part of the nitrous acid will escape in the form of gas. I obtained a saturated solution of a golden yellow colour, which did not crystallize when cold; and, when I attempted to concentrate it by evaporation in a sand heat, was partly decomposed, and afforded subnitrate of the protoxide. I therefore left a part of it to evaporate spontaneously ; and by degrees a dark yellow salt was deposited from it, in octa- hedral crystals. The yellow salt thus obtained is consider- ably more soluble in water than the neutral nitrate. If it is. dissolved in water which has been boiled, and still remains hot, it leaves a smalj quantity of subnitrate, which has been formed during the evaporation of the water: in water which has not been boiled, this residuum is still more considerable. Since the salt cannot be obtained dry in a state of perfect purity, we cannot expect its analysis to be completely ac- curate.
Ten grammes of this salt were exposed to heat in a small glass retort, It melted, and in this state resembled the
muriate of the protoxide of lead or of silver; it had vey a dar
OO OE EE
On definite Proportions. 459
a dark brown colour, and frothed very much while it wag decomposed. A part of the acid which escaped was in the form of a gas ;. another part was collected as a liquid in the receiver: the salt contains therefore water of crystallization. A melted protoxide remained in the retort, weighing seven “grains” [grammes]. Without doubt this salt contains at least twice as much acid in proportion to the base, as the subnitrite, and consequently the nitrous acid must saturate in the neutral salt a quantity of the protoxide containing + as much oxygen as the acid; that is, 100 parts of the acid must saturate 994°1 of the protoxide. This is the less ques- tionable, since the 100 parts of nitrous acid, considered as composed of nitrogen and oxygen, contain ‘three times as much oxygen as the 29471 parts of protoxide; so that both views of the subject are consistent with this result, If now the water of crystallization contains an equal quantity of oxygen with the base, the composition of the neutral mitrite of the protoxide of Jead must be this:
Protoxide of lead .. «. 70°375
Nitrous acid .. .. »2 23°9295
Water tive) eth nae bs oe 9) 52700 In the experiment, the salt left only 70 per cent. of the protoxide: the slight difference of nearly 74,5 probably de- pends on the gradual oxygenization of the nitrous acid
during the evaporation, whence the salt must contain a smaller quantity of the base.
3. Subsubnitrite of ihe Protoxide of Lead.
The subsubnitrite of the protoxide of Jead is a salt but little soluble in cold water. While the solution is cooling, it shoots into small crystalline scales of a dark brick colour. The solution is decomposed by exposure to the air, or by mixture with unboiled water, and copiously deposits a white powder. The dry salt may be kept in the air without alter- ation. {[t does not melt by heat, and at a temperature not very high it may be freed from all its w ater, without the extrication of any part of the acid; so that it seems to con- tain no water of crystallization. When I ignited 10 gr. of the subsubsalt well dried, in a small glass retort, I obtained only gaseous nitrous acid, and 8: 9825 gr. of protoxide were left behind: consequently this salt is thas composed ;
Protoxide of lead .. ... 8$9°825
Wittous acid) 4 ai feiss LOtig-5 We find on computation, that this quantity of nitrous acid, considered as composed of nitrogen and oxygen, con- tains the same quantity of oxygen “with the protoxide, agreeing
460 On definite Proportions.
agreeing almost to the last places of decimals: and that the agreement no longer remains, if we take into account the oxygen of the nitrogen. In two other experiments I ob- ae 89°5 and 89°66 per cent. of the protoxide from this sait.
We have here a new confirmation of the idea already suggested, that in the subnitrates, in which the acid and the protoxide of lead contain equal quantities of oxygen, the nitrogen must be considered in the computation as a simple substance. But when, on the other hand, the nitrous acid contains a quantity of oxygen which is a multiple of that which 1s contained in the base, the composition of the salt agrees only with the general Jaw on the supposition that oxygen is contained ip the nitrogen, Respecting the cause of this singular circumstance I will not hazard a conjecture.
If we calculate the quantity of a base with which 100 parts of nitrous acid are combined in the three salts here described, we find that in the subsalt they take up twice as much, and in the subsubsalt three times as much, of the protoxide, as in the neutral salt. But in the three combi- nations of the nitric acid such a regular progression is not observable, for the quantities of the base combined with 100 parts of the acid are represented by 1, 2, and 4°75. This irregularity can only depend on the compound nature of nitrogen, and appears therefure to be an additional proof of that nature.
It is easy to see, that the formation of the subsalt takes place at the expense of the nitrous acid. I found by an ex- periment, that nitrous gas was disengaged in the process, and in this gas I could find no perceptible trace of nitrogen, According to the foregoing calculations, the nitrate of the protoxide of lead, in being converted into subsubnitrite, dissolves a weight of lead nearly equal to its own, In one of the experiments here related, 100 parts of nitrate of lead had dissulved 1164 of lead; but the experiment was per- formed in a long-necked flask, in which a considerable por- tion of nitrous gas was united with the oxygen of the air that forced its way in, and returned into the flask in the form of nitric acid. This happens more particularly when the subsalt bas been formed, since then three parts of the nitrous acid must be decomposed and converted into nitrous gas, in order to change one part of the salt into a subsub- salt. This does not happen in an apparatus for distillation, because in this case the newly formed acid collects in the receiver; in which the water that is condensed is more or less acid, for reasons that may easily be imagined, nee
ingly
“
~e 2S
On definite Proportions. 461
ingly as the heat has kept up the boiling of the fluid more or less equably.
If we boil a weakly acid solution of nitrate of the prot- oxide of lead in an open vessel, with more lead, we obtain a yellow solution, which deposits yellow crystals. I thought at first that this might be a double salt, containing two acids, and therefore attempted to analyse it with accuracy 5 but I found that it did not remain always alike, that even the same specimen was more or less yellow in different parts, and that the portion last deposited contained the ni- trite in greater quantity than the rest. This salt was there- fore only a contemporary crystallization of the two separate salts mixed together. By powdering it, and exposing it to the air, it loses gradually its yellow colour, and when dis-~ solved in water it leaves some subnitrate behind. If it were really a double salt, in which the acids were combined each with half of the base, it ought to leave, after ignition, 68-9 per cent. of the protoxide. But T obtained only from 67°5 to 68°5 per cent., accordingly as I examined the earlier or the later crystallizations.
I must also mention another phenomenon of the neutral nitrite of lead, which it probally exhibits in common with the other nitrites. If we concentrate a solution of this salt by exposure to heat, the acid becomes more oxygenized ; and since the newly-formed nitric acid then finds in the salt 1 more of the base than it can saturate, ¢ of the newly- formed salt separate as a subnitrate, while 2 remain in the solution as a neutral nitrate. When the liquid has acquired a certain degree of concentration, at a temperature approach- ing to the boiling point, an effervescence takes place, nitrous gas is discharged, and subnitrate and subsubnitrate are formed.
The neutral nitrite may therefore be decomposed in two ways. Hither the acid is more oxygenized, at the expense of the air, and a mixture of 2 of subnitrate and 3 of nitrate is formed ; or half of the ammonium of the acid is disengaged by the heat, with as much oxygen as is necessary for the formation of nitrous gas, and the remaining oxygen changes the other half of the ammonium into nitric acid, so that +4; of the weight of the nitrous acid escape as nitrous gas, while sf; are retained as nitric acid, and form a mixture of } of subnitrate and 1 of the subsubnitrate of the protoxide of lead. The fluid remains, as long as it is boiling, tolerably clear; but when it cools, the subsalts are deposited. The same happens also when the solution is diluted with water. The transformation of the nitrous into nitric acid, by dit-
erent
~
462 On definite Proportions.
ferent distribution of the oxygen among different portiong of the radical, is common to this with the other imperfect acids,
4, Other Nilrous Salts.
I have attempted to prepare other nitrous salts by means of the nitrite of the protoxide of lead, mixing it with various sulphates; but I have hitherto obtained little more than a conviction of the possibility of their being exhibited. When, for example, I mixed the sulphate of the oxide of copper with this nitrite, I obtained a grass green solution, which when exposed to the air deposited by degrees subnitrate of the oxide of copper, and finally, after several weeks, became again blue. The same happened still more rapidly when heat was applied. I attempted to prepare this salt from the nitrate of the oxide of copper, by digesting it on copper ; but I could not succeed in obtaining a nitrous salt, proba- bly because the nitrous acid forms no such subsalt with the oxide of copper as with the protoxide of lead.
Nitrite of ammonia, prepared in the same manner as the nitrite of the oxide of copper, 1s a colourless salt, which 1s decomposed at a temperature not very high. Between 40° and 50° [104° and 122°] the solution continually emits bubbles of pure nitrogen; when heated to the boiling point, it froths very considerably, and the extrication of gas 1s more rapid; and as long as the solution is not too much edhiesntrated nothing but nitrogen gas is produced, and the salt remains in a neutral state. I attempted to obtain it ina dry form, leaving the solution exposed in shallow dishes to a current of dry air; and f obtained a saline mass indistinctly crystallized, which resembled the nitrate of am- monia. When melted in a small retort, it afforded much gas, and a quantity of water strongly impregnated with ame monia. The gas obtained was not reddened by oxygen, and had all the properties of the nitrous oxide.
These appearances are easy to be explained. The nitrous acid neutralises a quantity of the base, which contains 3 as much oxygen as the acid. The oxygen of the acid, "exe clusive of that of the nitrogen, is then exactly sufficient to change into water all the hydrogen which is produced du- ring “the further oxidation of the ammonia, while the nitrogen of the acid and that of the ammonia are disengaged
together in the form of gas. The nitrite of ammonia is therefore decomposed, when its solution is not too much concentrated, into water and nitrogen, and perhaps this salt affords the cheapest and most certain mode of obtaining ni-
trogen
a Se
ag ee ee
ee
:
=e
- anil
On definite Proportions. 463
trogen gas in a state of perfect purity. The acid and the alkali afford equal quantities of nitrogen, but the alkali con- tains half as much more ammonium as the acid. When the dry salt is heated, and then produces, as we have seen, very different substances, the process may be thus explained the nitrite of ammonia is decomposed on one hand, like the nitrite of the protoxide of lead, into nitrous gas, nitrate of ammonia, and uncombined ammonia, since this alkali affords no subsalt; and on the other hand another part of the alkali is resolved into water and nitrogen; and since the nitrous gas and the nitrogen are in contact at the instant of their formation, they unite, and constitute nitrous oxide ; so that the products of this twofold decomposition are ni- trous oxide, water, uncombined ammonia, and nitrate of ammonia, which, being further decomposed, augments the quantity of the nitrous oxide and of the water.
I believe that these experiments are sufficient in the first place to illustrate more fully the doctrine of the composition of the nitric acid; and secondly, to show that the nitrous acid is a distinct acid, producing peculiar salts with different bases, and neutralising such a quantity of them as contains 4as much oxygen as itself. Some modern chemists had been disposed to consider this acid as a compound of nitric acid with nitrous gas, which was destroyed by the com- bination of the acid with a base. This opinion was how- ever founded on experiments which by no means justified the inference drawn from them.
The knowledge of the nitrites is indispensable to the ex- planation of some appearances which the nitric acid exhi- bits. It is wel] known, for example, that diluted nitric acid, formed from concentrated colourless acid, 1s a much less powerful solvent of many metals than that which is made from the smoking acid. If the smoking nitric acid were nothing more than a solution of nitrous gas in nitric acid, it would be inconceivable, bow the nitrous gas could be su efficacious, as it cannot be decomposed by the bodies to be dissolved. Since however we know that the nitrous acid is a.peculiar acid, which is more easily decomposed than the nitric, there is no longer any thing paradoxical in the su- wry efficacy of the solvent made by diluting the smoking acid,
[End of the Seconp ConTINUATION.]
. LXXY. Final
[ 464 j
’ LXXV. Final Letter from Mr. Witt1am Jones on Dr. Woitaston’s Periscopic Spectacle Glass.
To Mr. Tiiloch.
Sirr,— Th your Journal of last month, I observe that Dr. Wollaston has continued his effort to impress the minds of your readers with a belief of his discovery of a new and improved form of the spectacle glass, and with an intima- tion that the eminent writers I quoted, as well as myself, did not rightly understand our old acquaintance the Meniscus, alens drawn from oblivion under his new appellation of Periscopic. This merits no reply from me. [t certainly would be more than “ superfluous” for him to make any answer to my former palpable refutation and exposure ; and really, in commiseration for his unfortunate cause, his *¢si- lence’? must be more agreeable to me than his contumacy.
My dissatisfaction with him was not as an intruder merely presuming to recommend, but for first in a groundless man- ner depreciating the double convex or best form of Jens, advertising the old meniscus form as containing a newly discovered optical principle, and then by the name of a patent exacting a payment for a glass triple the price of the common superior or more perfect kind. In respect to the authority of a Mons. Biot’s advertisement in a French news- paper, which Dr. W. has imported and translated as a certi- ficate to gratify the “ best acquainted with the merits of the question ;”’ in my opinion, instead of supporting his case, it both disgraces and injures it.
Mons. Biot, no doubt, is a reputable astronomer, and an able mathematician; but as a skilful practical optician I cannot give him equal credit. He ingenuously states that he proposed a trial of the glasses convex without and concave within to his friend Mons. Cauchoix, and requested his opinion on the subject. The boasted and surprising effects of a pair of these spectacles are afterwards stated ; and Mons. Biot, as a faithful friend to Dr. W., declares he will never wear any others: but there afterwards pops out an “< inconvenience” of an appearance of *f a variety of reflected images beside the principal object viewed, which occasioned some confusion.”
Mons. Cauchoix, however, happily hit upon an expedient to remove this inconvenience, by diminishing the destructive concavity of the inner surface; or, in other words, to go cautiously back towards the double convex form he had vitiated.—So did Mr. Dollond’s workmen : but unhappily more; for, without waiting for a Ait, and regardless of posi-
: tive,
Olservations on Periscopic Spectacles. 465
tive and negative attributes, they snatched up a plane tool and with barbarous whirls annihilated periscopic. Mon. Cauchvix must not do so; for he no doubt expects to get some money by the lunettes a la bombée, as well as Dr. W. for his a la periscopique.
As I prefer amity to a difference with a French philoso- pher, I shall dispense with adverting to what I know to be M. Biot’s errors and illusion, He must allow me one remark, that is, that his countrymen should witness a per- fectly fair experiment of a comparison between the double convex and his adopted meniscus form of glasses, for me- niscus, periscopic, and Lombée, are synonymous terms.
There will also be e xpected from him a mathematical or geometrical demonstration of the superiority of the form he has pledged himself to; for Dr. W. on his part has not been able to produce any mathematical demonstration what- ever. But how is it that Dr. W. for these seven years past has not called to his aid some competent professor or tutor from the university in which he has studied to be his champion of interest ? he surely knows that there are se- veral both at Cambridge and Oxford, quite able to decide upon our trivial scientific question. Is there no one among his mathematical friends (and constant attendants at the honourable Society to which he is Secretary) willing to be an English evidence of his discovery and a witness to the surprising fic ld of mew gained by the menisens? Is it by a foreigner only that the interest of his cause is to he espoused maintained and propagated? fn my defence of the double convex lens, I possess an indubitable authority among others of a declaration by that date excellent! optician Dr, Maskeline, that Dr. W’s torm of lens of ihe meniscus kind is the worst of all others for any optical purpose what- soever !
I could adduce something still stronger and more conclu- sive; but, really, sir, lam ashamed to trespass any further on the patience of your readers, and take up more pages of your valuable Journal. Enough is already before the public, to produce by an easy experiment a full conviction of the truth. I continue,
y Sir, Your respectful and obedient servant, Holborn, Dee. 15, 1813. Ww. JongEs,
Vol, 42. No. 188. Dec. 1813. Gg LXXVI. Re-
{ 466 J
LXXVI. Researches into the Anatomy of Plants. By fH. FP. Linx, of Breslau, formerly of Rostock.
(Concluded from p. 392.]
3. Tue tracheze are wanting in several plants. T have not found them in the genera Lemna, Zostera, Chara, Naias, Ceratophyllum of the family of the Naiades. We might se- parate these genera from the other plants of this family which are furnished with them. Ihave found them, although small, in the genera Hippuris, Myriophyllum, Potamogeton, Rup- pia, Zanichellia, Callitriche. I have not had an opportu- nity of examining the species of the genera Sawrurus and Aponogeton in this respect. The trachez are wanting in all the mosses, in the lichens, the algz, and the mushrooms. It is not possible that so many plants can be deprived of the vessels which contain the nourishing sap. There are besides, many large trees which grow very fast, such are the firs, the cypress, and the juniper, the tracheze of which are so small that several authors have denied their existence in all these trees. I have seen some, however, particularly in the young shoots, but so small thatthey were hardly percep- uble with the best microscopes. It seems to me httle pro- bable that trees of such a size have their nutritive vessels so small, while plants much smaller contain some of a consi- derable diameter. The fibrous vessels, on the contrary, are® found in almost all plants, and are only wanting in some lichens, some algz, and some champignons, in general in very small plants, and perhaps they exist in these vegetables, but so minute that the observer cannot discover them. In the mosses they are very distinct: in almost all the lichens we see twisted fibres, forming a kind of tuft or bur in the middle of the plant: in the ruc? the fibres are twisted in the same manner, but they are of a gelatinous substance: in most mushrooms we see them very distinctly. It was only in the crustaceous Lichens, the Conferyze of Linneus, and the smallest sized Champignons, that I could not findthem. 4. Itis not to be presumed that the sap can move through the cellular texture; the partitions would prevent this mo- tion, which must be very rapid. Supposing that there are pores, as M. Mirbel thinks, these pores must be much smaller than the orifices of the fibres, and the flowing of the sap by these pores must take place very slowly. Finally, if we peel off the bark of a tree, the pith of which is dry, it will still vegetate a long time, although there remains but very
tee at bee
alla
Rescatches into the Anatomy of Plants. 467 ~
very little cellular texture dispérsed in the wood and in a compressed state. ie
5. The sap cannot ascend in the interval between the bark and the wood. I have seen branches issue where this interval did not as yet exist, and where the bark was strongly adherent to the wood. We may strip off a ring of bark all round a branch so as completely to interrupt this interval, and the branch continues to vegetate and to push out other branches. Neither can the sap ascend in the intervals be- tween the fibres, for these intervals are extremely small 5 smaller than the diameter of the fibres; or rather these in- tervals do not exist, because these fibres are pressed against each other.
It is true that coloured liquids, such as tincture of turn- sole, fernambouc, &c. are attracted by the trachez, and cannot penetrate into the fibres. But the experiment never succeeds if the branches are not cut, in which case the liquor may ascend into the trachee, as in capillary tubes. I never saw the trachez tinged when I allowed seeds to ger- minate in these liquors, or when [infused plants, the roots of which were not at all injured. It is known besides that the colour of all these tinctures is only visible when we look at an extended surface: this is the reason why we do not observe the tincture in the narrow fibres, although it enters into, them, and we see it very well in trachez, whose dia- meter is greater.
The fibres, therefore, which I shall call fibrous vessels, carry the sap wherever it is wanted throughout the plant. We may prove this theory by a multiplicity of experiments and observations. When we insert the end of a cut branch in water, it pushes out other branches under the same spot. Succulent plants continue to vegetate when we have cut their roots; they flourish frequently in this state, but as soon as they produce fresh leaves and flowers the old ones wither and fall off. It is therefore clear that the sap from one part is re-absorbed to furnish some to others: one part serves to nourish the others. The same thing happens with bulbs when suspended from the cieling; the plant is de- velopped and flourishes; but at the same time the bulb disappears, because it has given up the sap which it con- tained to the stalk to develop and nourish it. This is the reason why the stipul# are formed before the leaves, and the leaves before the branches, which are generally found in the axilla of the leaves: itis for the same reason that so many foliaceous parts issue before the parts of generation and of fructification, and that the latter do not attain per-
Gg2 fection
468 Researches into the Anatomy of Plants.
fection when we strip off the leaves. It is necessary that the sap should be prepared in these parts, and be reabsorbed in order to furnish it to other parts more perfect. This theory clearly explains many phenomena which we observe in plants,
I do not think that the fibrous vessels derive their nourish- ment directly from the earth. In the hairy part of the roots, I have not seen them penetrate to the end: we observe on the contrary, very distinct papilla, formed by the cellular texture at the extremity of all the roots. It appears to me, that these papille (as Sprengel has suggested) are filled with the nutritive liquor from the soil ; that the vessels suck it up and distribute it through the plant. The fibrous vessels serve to form the communication between the parts, or rather between the cellular texture of the parts. This theory is confirmed by what 1 have observed of succulent plants aud bulbs, where the vessels take up the sap from the cel- lular texture of the leaves in order to’ carry it to the parts which are to be developped.
The function of the ceJlular texture is doubtless to pre- pare and preserve the sap. Succulent leaves, bulbs, and the tubercles of roots, consist almost entirely of ceilular Aexture. The cotyledons destined to nourish the embryo are formed of it: on this account the pith is green and suc- culentin the young branches, which continue to shoot forth, and dry in the old branches which have ceased to grow, or which grow more slowly.
A fibrous vessel does not run through the whole plant according to its length ; it is not probable that it can extend from the root to the top of a palm tree. Jn a packet of fibres, some finish, others commence, according to ap- pearances, ina very irregular way. The fibres coming from the branches fasten upon the fibres of the wood, as I have proved by several experiments. I cut holes ina lar ve branch of a tree through the bark and wood down to the pith: these holes were arranged in a spiral line, one upon the other, so that no vessel could pass by these places without being cut. Nothwithstanding these wounds, the branch continued. to vegetate, like the branches which it bore, until winter, w shen it finally perished. The same wounds made in a young branch, or in the branch of the same year, immediately caused the death of all the part above the wounds. These experiments frequently repeated, and upon several trees, always gave the same result: in the branches of the same year, however large they were, they caused death: in the branches of former years they caused no soles! ; remarkable
- Researches inio the Anatomy of Plants. 469.
remarkable accident to the tree until winter. It appeared that the vessels of one branch of the same year extend, at least in general, from the base to the extremity, but that the vessels of the branches of different years are fastened to each other, and they do not all pass without interruption from one branch to the other.
It is very probable that the sap contained in the vessels, as well as in the cellules, passes easily by the pores of the membranes in order to pass into other vessels, or into other cellules. It is possible that we may see these | pores in some plants, but it is certain that we do not see them often, and that they are imperceptible like the pores of the membranes in animals. I am of opinion that a relaxation of the mem- branes produces the flowing of the fluids, while a constric- tion hinders it. The flowing of the sap, when we slightly press the calyx of the lettuce, proves this theory. The fibres are rarely dry in the living plant, being always moistened with an aqueous fluid. The sap passes therefore from one cellule into the other; it passes from the vessels into the cellules immediately by the membranes; it flows into the intervals of the fibrous vessels, from eines other vessels reabsorb and carry it further.. Such is the circula- tion of the sap in plants, if we may use this expression in order to indicate the simple manner in which the fluids are distributed in plants. We might call it transvasation, be- cause the sap is conducted by the vessels every where, and because it penetrates the membranes wherever vegetable or- ganization requires it. The vegetable kingdom, intermediate between unorganized bodies and inanimate bodies and animals, shows this simplicity in all the functions of the plant.
Pe eae Tektsex:
. following are the varieties of these organs: essels with a free spiral. They consist of ‘a lamina seh iad spirally which is easily unfolded. This lamina is sometimes composed of several others; I have counted seven. These vessels represent a straight tube with obscure transverse lines, which run through the vessels without in- terruption. PI. II. fig. 1. is a vessel of this kind unfolded at the end, taken from the Cucurbita Pepo: fig. 2. ala- mina of a ‘spiral vessel, composed of three other laminz from the same plant; I have frequently seen the transverse lines divide and pass from one line to the other as observed
in fig. 3. im a yessel of the same plant.
Gg 3 2. Peiah
470 — Researches into the Anatomy of Plants.
2. Vessels with a fixed spiral. These vessels in the ap- "pearance resemble the above, but they cannot be unfolded: In the grasses and roots they are frequent.
3. False trachee. The transverse lines, which traverse the vessels are very much interrupted. Frequently these transverse lines are a little undulated: the false trachea, P|. Ti. fig. 4. is taken from the Cucurbita Pepo.
4. Porous tubes. The tube is studded with small dark points, as we see in fig. 5. Pl. II. in a vessel taken from the cucurbita pepo. Tn the sassafras wood we find porous tubes, the dark points of which completely resemble the pores, fig. 7.
5. Vessels with false partitions.. All the above vessels are sometimes marked with obscure lines which seem to be partitions. Pl. Ti. fig. 5. exhibits these vessels taken from the stalk of abalsamine. These are not real partitions, for I have seen tincture of fernambouc fill the whole of the vessel. This is rather a derangement of the vessels as we see in fig. 5. letter a.
6. Vessels like a string of beads. The false trachez or porous tubes sometimes exhibit narrow parts, which almost separate them at various parts. Pl. II. fig. 8. exhibits this kind of vessel taken from the root of the Symphytum offi- cinale.
7. Vessels with false cellules. The false partitions some- times increase to such a degree, that the vessels resemble a cellular texture, studded with pores. [ have seen these vessels very often in the old stalks of the balsamine, and I have exhibited a piece in fig. 9.
8. Annular vessels. These consist of several rings sepa- rated from each other. ‘These vessels are frequently at the same time vessels with fixed spirals, and the rings appear to be merely the residue of the turns of the spiral lamina. Fig. 10. is a vessel of this kind taken from the Feltheimia Quineensis.
All these vessels certainly belong to the same class of organs, and they probably perform the same functions. We may prove this theory several ways. Ist. These vessels are nearly of the same size in a plant; if the spiral vessels are large, so are the false trachee, and vice versa. 2d. If the spiral vessels are wanting, all the rest of this class are also wanting, as is the case with the mosses, the naiades, the alge, &ce. On the contrary, the ferns which are pro- vided with spiral vessels have also false trachee, porous tubes, &c. 3d, We see vessels which are at one extremity
spiral
Researches into the Anatomy of Plants. 471
spiral vessels, and at the other false trachee or porous tubes: the false partitions are formed in every kind of vessels. ;
By a series of experiments I think I have ascertained that the spiral vessels gradually pass through all the other grada- tions of false trachew, &c.
With respect to the obscure transverse lines or dark points in the false trachez or porous tubes, most botanists thought that they were caused by eminences (cowrrelets) distributed over the surface of the vessels, and which had a hole in the centre. The sassafras wood in fig. 7 seems to support this opinion; but I kave been convinced that it is erroneous by examination with the microscope.
What is the function therefore of all these vessels ? They cannot be the sap vessels, for coloured liquids do not enter into them until they are cut, and form open capillary tubes. I have said that they were always empty. With their original discoverers, therefore, we must call them éra- chee, and [ think they contain the air necessary for the preparation of the sap. The analogy between plants and animals teaches us that this idea is correct, in the latter the bleed vessels are accompanied by receptacles for air.
IV. VessELs pRopER, ReseRVOIRS OF THE Sap, AND Lacuna.
The vessels proper are simple, straight, evlindrical, a little larger than the fibrous vessels, rarely solitary, being generally in bundles or fasciculi. They contain a milky white, green, yellow, red, or aqueous juice. They are easily known if they contain a coloured juice, but it 1s only by analogy that we can discover if they contain a green or aqueous juice.
The following are the varieties :
ist. The vessels proper in fasciculi run through the cellu- lar texture, the bark, and someiimes the pith; we find none in the wood. Asclepiades.
ad. They accompany the fibrous vessels and the trachee in the stalk, but in the root they run through the bark. Euphorbiacez, Papaveracee, Umbelliferz.
3d. They surround the fasciculi of wood dispersed in the stalk, but in the reot they adhere to the bark. Composite.
4th. They form a layer almost without interruption under the bark of the stalk; in the root they follow the same direction. Ficus.
All these organs merit the appellation of vessels, because they consist ef a proper membrane, but there are other
Gg4 organs
472 Researches into the Anatomy of Plants.
organs which resemble them much externally, although they are merely a Jongitudinal excavation in the form of a vessel, made in the cellujay texture or in the wood of the plant. Such are the vessels proper of several of the Conz- fere which run through the bark, and also the wood of these trees. We even find them in the wood of the same year: itis clear therefore that they prove nothing for the change of the bark into wood. The vessels proper of the Rhus and of the Schinos belong to this class. As the name of vessels does not exactly suit them, T would call them re- servotrs proper of the sap.
The sap certainly passes by the membranes of the fibrous vessels, or by the partitions of the cellular texture in order to reach the vessels and reservoirs proper of the sap. It is a continual fijtration which changes and prepares the sap. The secretion takes place in the plant in the simplest man- ner, the slackening and constriction of the membranes are the means resorted to by nature to produce these changes. The air of the tracheze contributes to them by oxidation or de-oxidation, and perhaps the organs of the plant are galvanic machines, similar to the electrical organs of some fishes, which seem to be composed of nothing but cellules placed by the side of each other.
There are excavations in the plants which are empty or rather filled with air. Mirbel calls them Lacune ; a very correct expression, because they are generally the conse- quence of age. The differences in these Lacune may be reduced to the following classes.
1. Lrregular Lacune. They are to be found in the heart of the leaves; the receptacles of fruits and some other parts which contain abundance of cellular texture.
2. Fistulous Lacune. They occupy the middle of the stalk, the branches, the petiole and the peduncles; they are formed by age.
3. Regular Lacune. In some aquatic plants, the cellules in the middle of the stalks are separated from each other, and arranged in a regular and sometimes very elegant manner. The stalks of the Scirpus palustris, S. maritimus, and of the Sparganium erectum exhibit examples of this.
4. Cellular Lacune. When the stalk of some aquatic plants (as the Sparganium erectum) is cut, large cellules are visible to the naked eye.
The Lacunz supply the place of the trachez, and carry the air where it is wanted. They are not accidental, but ‘necessary organs of vegetation,
V. Pores
: : j ; : :
=~ 7
Researches into the Anatomy of Plants. 473
V. Pores of the Epidermis, the Glandules, and the Down of | Plants.
The pores of the epidermis are formed by a small slit, sometimes open and sometimes close.
1. These pores exist in all the phanerogamous plants, except the Naiades which are almost entirely under water.
2. They are wanting in the cryptogamia, the ferns ex- cepted, and the apophysis of the capsules in the mosses.
3. The roots of piants never have any.
4. They are found in the young and green stalks, when not under water.
5. The leaves are generally furnished with them,sometimes on the lower side, and sometimes on both. The leaves of the aquatics which float on the water, have pores on the upper and none on the lower surface.
6. The bractez are furnished with them, particularly those which are green: they are wanting in the dry which are called scarious bractee.
7. The external coat of the calyx has them.
8. The parts of the flower called the corolla, and which M. Jussieu reckons among the calices, have them very fre-. quently which proves their analogy.
9. The corolla, the stamina, and the pistils almost ,al- ways want them. Some very large corolle only, for in- stance, those of the Stapelia, have them.
10. The fruit has them when it is green, in the state of maturity it never has.
I shall add a fact, which appears to me to he new. I have seen in some grasses two kinds of pores united at the same part of a different size. Iu the epidermis of the leaves of rye represented in Pl. IL. fig. 11. we see very large pores at a, and very small ones at 6. I could wish this experi- ment to be repeated, for the pores at ) are so small that I may have been mistaken.
Some naturalists are of opinion that the organs serve the purpose of evaporation while others regard them as adapted to attract humidity. Iam of the former opinion for the Jatter is not warranted by my experiments.
I am convinced that the pores serve the purposes of se- cretion, or rather of excretion to the plant. A dark-co- Joured foreign matter frequently fills up the crevices of these organs. In the pines for instance, it looks like small round worms; but when the leaves are dipped m boiling water the pores immediately become distinct.
The glandules haye similar functions to perform. Their
structure
474 Reseurches into the Anatomy of Plants.
structure is well known to every botanist, and as no vessels enter them, secretion and excretion must be performed by filtration.
The hairs or down are always well known. From some of them oozes a viscous or resinous liquor, and there are others (those in the roots for instance) which seem destined to suck up moisture.
VI. The Structure of the Stalk.
The following are the varieties in the structure of the stalk of several families of plants :
1. The stalk consists entirely of parenchyme in which we find scattered pieces of wood: there is therefore no bark or pith. Gramina, Cyperacez.
I denominate parenchyme every kind of cellular, and I call wood a mixture of fibrous vessels and of sap.
2. A layer of parenchyme forms the external bark, a layer of fibrous vessels the interior. The rest of the stalk is composed of parenchyme, in which the parcels of wood are dispersed, There is a bark therefore, but no pith. Liliacew, Cucurbitacea.
3. The external bark is formed by the parenchyme, the internal bark by the fibrous vessels, and the texture of soft wood: a layer of wood surrounds the pith. Most of the dicotyledontal plants.
4. As in No. 3, but in the pith there are scattered pieces of wood,
5. Bark internal and external: the rest of the stalk com- posed of parenchyme, the middle of which is occupied by a piece of wood. Some Naiades and other aquatic plants. Ferns,
In order to comprehend thoroughly the structure of the stalk we must trace its growth. In PI. II. tig. 12. we see a piece of a young branch of the Platanus orientalis, cut transversely. The interior is composed of parenchyme in which we find a circle of packets of wood separated from each other. The bark, letter a, is still in a free communi- tion with the pith d, by the intervals between the pieces of wood, letter e. The pieces of wood consist as usual of fibrous vessels, Jetter J, and of trachee, letter c. When we cut the same branch lengthways, we see all the parts more distinctly./ In fig. 14, the bark is represented at a, the vessels are exhibited at J, the trachez at c, and the pith occupies the middle at d. The woody pieces are very large, they consist of fibrous vessels at ), mixed with false trachez or porous tubes at c*, the trachese are atc. By their swel-
ling they have compressed the parenchyme which separated them,
Researches into the Anatomy of Plants: 475
them, and have left obscure lines at e, which form what may be called the radii of the wood, and which Grew called medullary insertions. Some authors have attributed essential functions to these insertions: we see clearly that here they are merely compressed parenchyme.
In order still better to elucidate all these parts, I cut the same branch lengthways along the woody parcels. We then see (fig. 15, letter a,) the fibrous vessels of the wood at b, and the false trachez or porous tubes at c*, I then made another section. I cut the branch of the half of the wood to the pith by an obscure line lengthways. In this way I most distictly saw the compressed parenchyme, fig. 16, lettere: the trachez at c and the pith atd. Finally, I made a third section ; I removed a piece of the surtace of the wood in order to see the parenchyme, Pl. J. fig. 13, Jetter J, which is insinuated between the fibrous vessels, letter a.
Such is the structure of the stalk in almost all the dico- tyledontal plants. The stalk contains parcels of wood ar- Tangéd in a circle, these approach each other in growing, they form an entire layer, they compress the parenchyme which separated them, in this way they form the radii which we see on cutting the wood horizontally.
It might be supposed that the parcels of trachez, fig. 19, letter c, are pushed towards the middle, fig. 13, letter c, by the increase of the packets of wood. But the pith is di- minished by the growth of the stalk without undergoing any compression, which must take place, if the trachee were pushed towards the pith. The cellules of the pith are larger in old than in young stalks. It is probable therefore that new parcels of trachez surrounded by fibrous vessels, are formed in the parenchyme of the pith, and that they have compressed the latter towards the sides, without ex~ ercising a pressure towards the centre; and consequently, that the tracheze have been chartged into false trachea, or into porous tubes.
We know that the bark is separated from the wood, at the commencement of summer, and that it remains attached to it during the rest of the year. This separation takes place in the wood itself, Pl. IT. fig. 13, letter f, where we see the first porous tubes. It does not take place in herbs or in young branches. When we separate the bark in the Jatter, we only take off the layer of parenchyme which forms the external bark. Jt ig certain the trachez or porous tubes contribute to this separation; because we do not find any in the internal bark which is composed of fibrous ne
sels
476 Ox Galvanic Electricity.
sels and texture of white wood, and we find it on the surface of the wood. But this is all I can venture to say.
It is certain that the annual growth of the wood takes place chiefly in the external layers; but it is not probable that a single layer is formed annually, between the bark and the wood. This is proved by the radii which pass from one stratum to the other without the least interruption. I have examined branches of the preceding year almost daily, but I never found a line of separation in the wood before Easter. After this season, I perceived suddenly in the month of July, the line which separated, a new and thick layer. This observation proves that the Jayer is not formed so regularly as generally supposed. I am of opi- nion, that the line of separation is produced by a contrac- tion of the interior wood, a shrinking which renders the interior more compact, and which separates it a little from the external Jayer without detaching it entirely. We may therefore say, that every vear a new layer is formed, but the growth does not take place in layers. The growth does not differ from that of the monocotyledontal plants: it takes place wherever the parts are still soft and tender: a vessel is developed among the rest, as a cellule is formed among other cellules. All organized bodies increase in this manner: the development of new organs always takes place in the intervals of those which are already formed.
I shal] treat in a subsequent memoir, of the growth and origin of the other parts of the plant. Ihave discovered many-things which strike me as being remarkable, but they require still further observation,
LXXVII. On Galvanic Electricity. To Mr. Tilloch.
Sir, Every admirer of chemical philosophy must have felt himself much interested, by the communication of Mr. Walker, in the last number of the Philosophical Magazine. T assure you that I was exceedingly so, and I hope it will not be thought, that in making the following observations, T at all detract from his praise.. They certainly corroborate his opinion.
It is now seven or eight years since I attended Dr. Wol-- jJaston’s Chemical Lectures at Cambridge, but it will be im- possible for me ever to forget the last that I heard oe de-
iver,
atte Oh i eee
On Galvanic Electricity. A7q
liver, on Galvanic Electricity. Although but a novice at that time in the study of chemistry, I was much struck by an opinion which he advanced: and, in my pursuit of that de- lightful science, havebad frequent and abundant reason to ad- mire the sagacity which the doctor displayed on that occasion. His hypothesis was no other than that which Mr. Walker has so clearly stated in the paper alluded to, but with this important addition ; that the ponderable base of both oxy- gen and hydrogen, is water. Dr. Wollaston exhibited the ignition of charcoal by means of the galvanic battery, and deduced from it the simple, and, I think, incontrovertible conclusion, that the two substances, commonly denomi- nated positive and negative electricity, are, as Mr. Walker has asserted, the elements of combustion. On this princi- ple, he afterwards explained the formation of water, by the combustion of oxygen and hydrogen gases. Their positive and negative electricity unite, and form an immense quan- tity of caloric, which is disengaged ; and the base, 7. e. the water of each of the gases, is precipitated.—That this, or something very nearly resembling it, is the true theory, there can [ think be but little doubt. It might be correbo- rated by the. statements of many chemical phanomena, which certainly derive considerable light from this subject*. I shall however leave them to the much abler pen of Mr. Walker, and merely bring forward ove argument in support of it. This argument will perhaps be thought a little ex- traordinary by some of your readers, but as I have the hap- piness of living in a Christian country and am also writing to Christians, I should hope that it will not be altogether unacceptable. Every thing that can add confirmation to the authenticity of the Scriptures is assuredly desirable; nor can science be more nobly employed than in the service of religion. It will readily be perceived that Dr. Wollaston’s theory is founded on the supposition that water is a simple substance, or as it has been denominated from time imme- morial, an element. Now this, [ think, may be clearly esta- blished from the Mosaic account of the creation. In the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis, we meet with the words yh and myn; the former of which alludes to
* It will explain the small quantity of light which is liberated during the combustion of oxygen and hydrogen, notwithstanding the intensity of the heat. It will also explain the generation of heat by frietion. It will account for the formation of water in respiration; and for the immense quantities that are precipitated in thunder storms, and at times; when the atmosphere was previously in a state of extreme dryness. ‘Will it not also throw lighton the radiation of cold? and, in short, on altmost every abstruse and dithicult point, as wellin natural as chemical philosophy ?
the
_ 478 On Galvanic Electricity.
the chaotic mass in general, the latter to the waters in pare ticular; aud these are plainly represented as the materials out of which the world was to be formed; the crude and undigested matter, the simple and elementary substances which were afterwards to be subjected to general laws and combined in the various modes which nature now exhibits. We accordingly read in the next verse, of the creation of light, or as it might more philosophically be translated ca- loric, for the word “x3 is derived from the root 1% which signifies to flow, and is applied to light on account of its extremely subtile and apparently fluid nature ; but how much more applicable is it to caloric, the cause of all fluidity. In conformity with this interpretation we find that in the book of Job (the most ancient probably in existence,) the same word is used to signify lightning; and in the second verse of the fifth chapter of Ezekiel, it is translated by the English word fire. The Greek word ¢w¢ also, by which it is render- ed in the Septuagint, frequently means fire ; and of this we have a striking instance in the 54th ver. of the 14th chap.of St. Mark, where it is said of Peter that he stood Sepucuvone- vos mpos To dus, ** warming himself at the jire.” It is there- fore plain that the Hebrew word ‘nx, and the Greek transla- tion of it dws, mean fire as well as light. If then in con- formity with the Mosaic account, we suppose caloric to have been the first created substance, ([ mean after the formation of the chaotic or e/ementary mass and of water which was a part of it, it may easily be understood how all the various bodies in nature, would instantly assume their own proper forms, as I have endeavoured to prove, by an enlargement of Dr. Higgins’s theory, in a paper which Mr, Nicholson was so good as to publish in the 142d number of the Philosophical Journal. It would be easy to go through the whole work of the remaining days of the cre- ation in a similar manner, and to demonstrate that it is consonant with the most recent and approved discoveries in chemical and natural philosophy.—l ought perhaps to apologize for this new application of chemistry, but I hope that its importance will be deemed sufficient. It certainly is highly interesting, and a coincidence few would have expected. It should indeed never be forgotten, that the God of Nature is also the God of Revelation, and that what he has revealed cannot be inconsistent with what he has performed. — I am, sir, your constant reader,
L. 0. C. P. 3
-
Royal Society. 479
P, S.—It is now about a year since your correspondent Mr.Kirby attacked an ceconomical lamp which J invented,and an account of which was published in Nicholson’s Journal. I may take this opportunity of observing, that the reason of Mr. Kirby’s ill success was in a great measure owing to the distance at which he placed the water to be heated above the chimney of the lamp. The directions given in my paper, were to place it as near as possible without causing it to smoke. From subsequent experiments, [ am inclined to think that the principal advantage of the ceco- nomical lamp consists in the shortness of the glass, and the smali diameter of the central aperture. The Argand lamp would be much improved for chemical purposes, by having a shorter glass, aud by making the hole of an oval form or otherwise preventing the access of so much cold air as constantly flows through it, without ever coming in contact with the flame: if possible it should decompose the whole of the oxygen that passes through it. My ex- periments were often repeated, and certainly correct. J may
add, I have since learnt that Count Rumford has discovered
that several small wicks placed nearly in contact with each other, produce a greater heat than the same quantity of oil and cotton in any other construction.
LXXVIII. Proceedings of Learned Societies.
ROYAL SOCIETY,
Nov. 25. Tue Right Hon. President in the chair. The Bakerian Lecture on some Electro-chemical Phenomena, by W.T. Brande, Esq. F. R.S. was read. Mr. B. directed his attention chiefly to the illustration of some apparently anomalous facts respecting the law that oxygen is at- tracted by the positive, and carbon by the negative pole of a galvanic battery. This opinion, having been proposed by Sir H. Davy, and Dr. Wollaston, Mr.B. wished to esta- blish more generally by an appeal to facts; he began by making some experiments, proving the identity of galva- nism and electricity, and then proceeded to place a large burning candle between the poles of a Voltaic battery; if the wick were large and much carbon emitted, the flame was strongly attracted towards the negative pole; if small the attraction was less powerful. A piece of inflamed phosphorus, on the contrary, was attracted by the positive pole. The author also burned benzoin and seyeral other
resins,
480 Royal Society.
resins, all of which evinced the same appearances, and obeyed the general law.
Nov. 30. St. Andrew’s day being the anniversary of the Society, the members met and proceeded to the election of a President and Council for the ensuing year, when the fol- lowing members were chosen.
Council for the year 1813. Right Honourable Sir Joseph | The Right Hon, the Earl of Banks, Bart. K. B. Pre- Morton. sident. | *Thomas Murdoch, Esq. Sir Charles Blagden, Knut. | John Pond, Esq. Samuel Goodenough, Lord | *Edward Rudge, Esq. Bishop of Carhsle, V.P. | *Sir George Thomas Staun-
Taylor Combe, Esq. Sec. ton, Bart. * Astley Cooper, Esq. Smithson Tennant, Esq. *George Bellas Greenough, | Rev. William Tooke.
Esq. *Willlam Charles Wells, *Thomas Harrison, Esq. M.D. Samuel Lysons, Esq. Trea- | *Giffin Wilson, Esq.
surer. William Hyde Wollaston, *The Right. Hon. the Earl| M.D. Sec.
of Mansfield. Thomas Young, M. D. *Francis Maseres, Esq. Foreign Sec.
Those marked thus * were not of the Council last year. The Council having adjudged the Copleyan medal to Mr. Brande, for his various papers inserted in the Transac- tions of the Society, the President then delivered it to him with an eloquent address, in which he took a philosophi- cal and critical review of Mr. Brande’s labours, admo- nished him fervently to persevere in his glorious. career, and predicted his attaining the bighest eminence in science. Sir Joseph, with his usual acuteness aud correct knowledge of men and things, having anticipated the success of this young chemist, felt himself disposed to encourage bis ar- dour, praise his talents, and exhibit a popular view of the result of his researches. The right Hon. President then noticed Mr. B.’s experiments developing the difference be- tween the various species of urinary calculi; his experi- ments on the blood, proving that its red colour is not de- rived from iron as commonly supposed, that its serum contains no gelatine, and his ingenious analysis of the colopring matter of this vital fluid; his discovering of the use of magnesia in caiculous diseases, and the effects of acids and alkalies in such cases; and his experiments proving that alcoho! is a product of fermentation and not ent ation.
Royal Society. 48}
" Jation. His first paper on this subject, observed the learned President ‘*was perfectly satisfactory to men of science; but some men of letters having expressed doubis, his se- cond entirely removed them.” Sir Joseph concluded his elogy by recommending the labours of the Society for im- proving animal chemistry, of which Mr.B. is a member, and which considering itself a young protegee of the Royal Society, had furnished the transactions of the latter with many valuable papers in a department of science almost entirely new.
Dec. 9. The Society assembled after the anniversary, and the minutes of the former meeting were read, detailing the election of officers, the names of newly elected or deceased members, &c.
Dec. 16 and 23. The President in thechair. .A long se- ries of experiments on some affections of light was read, in a letter from Dr. D. Brewster toSir Humphry Davy. Dr. B. in continuation of his experiments on light, and the refrac- tive powers of different substances, details the result of his observations on what he called ¢* hammer agate,” in a plate the 1100dth part of an inch in thickness. The experiments were extremely minute and numerous, and his observations on the polarization and depolarization of light could not be rendered intelligible in an abstract of a few lines. Light in the rainbow he considers as completely polarized: that reflected on the earth with a blue sky is less so. Iceland spar depolarized the lights which was polarized by the agate. He considered the polarizing, depolarizing, and neutral axes in the agate as affecting the colours, and producing red, green, &c. rays. N.B. It appears not to have occurred to Dr. B., Dr. Herschel], or Mr. Jordan, that the pencils of _ rays and coloured rings depend on the ¢hickness of the glass or other transparent bodies used in such experiments.
Mr. Anthony Carlisle, in a letter to the President gave an account of the family of Zerah Colburn, the mathema- tical boy, whose father and great-grandmother had five fin- gers and a thumb on each hand and six toes on each foot. The supernumerary limbs are attached to the little fingers and little toes of the hands and feet, each of these addi- tional members having complete metacarpal and mctatar- sal bones. Zerah Colourn, who isthe fourth generation of his family known with this appendage, has three brothers in the same state, and two brothers and two sisters with the regular limbs. Some of the family have wanted one of the supernumerary fingers or toes, but their descent has been tolerably uniform. This youth and parents are natives
Vol, 42, No. 188, Dec. 1813, Hh of
482 Geological Society.
of America, and they know nothing of their family prior to the great- grandmother of the hoy, whose powers of cal- culatign have attracted so much attention and been éxhi- bited in this country.
In consequence of the Christmas holidays and public thanksgiving, the Society then adjourned till Thursday, Jan. 21,
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
Dec. 3.—The President in the chair,
The Right Hon, the Earl of Hardwicke,
George Croker Fox, Esq. of Falmouth,
William Stewart Rose, Esq. Palace-yard,
Thomas P. Smith, Esq. of Stoke Newington, were se-
verally elected Members of the Society.
A paper entitled ‘* Memoranda relative to the Porphyritic Veins of St. Agnes in Cornwall,” by the Rev. J. J. Cony- beare, M.G. S. was read. ‘
Phe veins described in this paper occur on the coast be- tween St. Agnes and Cligsa Point, traversing or lying on the surface of rocks of tortuous killas. The veins them- selves vary in thickness from forty feet to half an inch. Ther Beart character is porphyritic, consisting of a base composed of minutely aggregated quartz, mica, talcite, and probably felspar, in which are imbedded grains and crystals of quartz, felspar, chlorite, mica, and talcite in small patches, Sometimes the porphyritic character 1s superseded by a more completely crystalline one, approaching to granite and containing small veins of tin-stone. Sometimes again the veins consist of quartz and tourmalines, forming a rock very nearly resembling that of St. Roche.
The killas adjacent to the veins is more crystalline than elsewhere, and sometimes is scarcely to be distinguished from gneiss. Mr. Conybeare considers the veins and the rock in which they occur to be of cotemporaneous origin.
A paper entitled ¢ A Description of some specimens from the neighbourhood of Cambridge,” by Hen, Warburton, Esq. M, G. S. was read.
These specimens formed part of a bed of rubble, covering the summit of a hillock of gray or the lower chalk, ahout five miles S.W. of Cambridge. This hillock, like several others in the same county, 1s situated. to the west of the great range of chalk, being surraunded by tne blue marl or gault, as it is provincially termed, from which the overlying bed of chalk is separated by a thin bed of green sand. The rubble, besides consisting of chalk and flint, also eon
shel
Geological Society. ; 483
shell limestone, angular pieces of greenstone, and contain organic remains belonging to older beds than the chalk: but as all these beds basset more or less to the W. of the place where the fragments are now to be found, the circumstance is considered “by Mr. Warburton as indicating an ancient current, the course of which was from W. to E,
A paper entitled * Observations on Glen Tilt, ” by Dr. MacCulloch, V. P. G.S. was read.
That part of Glen Tilt which is the subject of the present paper, extends four or five miles from Forest lodge to Gow’s bridge. It consists of primitive schist, assuming the ap- pearance of clay-slate, of mica-slate, and of hornblende- slate, with which are interstratified various beds of granular limestone, more or less micaceous. Near Gow’s bridge the stratification is perfectly regular and uninterrupted, but higher up towards the lodge it is traversed by granite rock, and an infinite multitude of granite veins of various sizes. Where this latter rock makes its appearance the even course of the schistus is interrupted in proportion to the magni- tude of the mass of granite. When the granite, schist, “and limestone are all in contact, a perfect confusion of these three substances takes place. Where the granite and lime- stone are in contact, the latter is highly indurated and pene- trated by siliceous matter.
Dec. 17.—Tiie President in the Chair,
Hutches Trower, Esq. of Upper Harley-Street, was
elected a Member of the Society.
The continuation of Mr. Webster’s paper on the upper strata of the S. E. part of England, was read.
This part of Mr. Webster’s paper begins by a description of the marine deposit which covers the lower fresh-water formation ‘in the Isle of Wight. The place where it may be studied to most advantage i is Henden near Alum Bay. It here appears about half-way up the cliff, is about 36 feet thick, and dips a few degrees to the north. The substance | composing the principal part of the bed is a pale greenish marl, filled with shells chiefly cerithia, cytherez, and oysters, in a very perfect state of preservation. The extensive stratum containing shells, which appears at Woolwich and in many other parts of the London basin S. of the Thames, are also considered by Mr.Webster as portions of the upper marine formation. Beds containing similar fossils occur in the Paris basin, covering the gypsum and gypseous marls of the lower fresh-water formation. ¢
The above strata in the Paris basin are covered by very extensiye and thick beds of a pure sand, sometimes loose
Hhe sometimes
484 Geological Society.—New Operation for Cataract.
sometimes concreted: with which is also connected that . peculiar and valuable mineral known by the name of meuliere or burr-stone. In the Isle of Wight there is nothing to correspond with these important beds, except a thin layer of sand; but in the counties round London occurs in detached blocks a very pure siliceous sandstone, called the gray=. weatkers, which has been largely employed in architecture, and which is conjectured by Mr. Webster to be of cotem- porancous origin with the French sandstone.
The upper fresh-water formation, one of the most re- markable and best characterized of any of the English beds above the blue clay, is best seen at Headen in the Isle of Wight. Its thickness is about 55 feet, and though not subdivided into distinct strata, it varies considerably in texture. Much of it consists of yellowish-white marl, more or less indurated, but friable and crumbling by frost. Many of the shells imbedded in this stratum are quite entire, con- sisting of various species of lvmnez, planorbes, helices, and other fresh-water shells. Over this bed is a stratum of clay with small bivalve shells, covered by a bed of yellow clay without shells, which latter is covered by a bed of friable calcareous sandstone, also without shells. To this succeed other calcareous strata with a few fresh-water shells, varying much in compactness from that of chalk to porcel= laneous limestone. \
This formation appears to have covered nearly all the northern half of the Isle of Wight.
In the Paris basin are strata corresponding with these, both in their general composition and in the fossils which they contain, distinguished however by certain peculiar chas racters that are detailed by the author of this paper.
— = ———
LXXIX. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles.
NEW OPERATION FOR CATARACT.
An experiment of the most important kind has recently been tried upon the pensioners of Greenwich Hospital, by direction of the honourable Governors of that Institution, with a view to ascertain the comparative success of the dif- ferent operations for cataract. The operation of extraction had been performed, it appears, upon the blind pensioners for the last twenty vears by the celebrated oculists the late Mr. Wathen, and his successur Mr. Phipps, but not, it is undersiood, with very satisfactory terminations. The
Governors
: :
Electrical Phenomena. 435
Governors having now appointed Mr, Adams to be oculist to the Hospital, (where all the blind men in the navy are sent when invalid), that gentleman has pertormed a series of novel operations for cataract, upon a large number of patients with singular success. We have not been informed of the peculiarities in Mr. Adams’s newest operations, nor have accurate intelligence of the results of those compared with the old, methods; but those results we have learned are decidedly in favour of the former.
Among the curiosities of our day is the application of a conductor to convey to the deaf-born the enjoyment of musical sounds, which doubtless gives them exquisite de- light: but Dr. Robertson, jate from Dublin, and known by the rescue of Romana, hopes that speech may one day find its passage through the same or similar channel.
A character for the use of the blind, palpable on both sides of the paper, is another invention, which makes part of Dr. R’s system of education for the blind, ‘the deaf, and the dumb, which he intends to announce in this me- tropolis.
ELECTRICAL PH. NOMENA.
Dear Sin, — THE experiments mentioned in my _ last paper* were made about two years ago, and have since been often repeated with uniform results, and consequently, they appeared to me as unquestionable facts, though they con- tradicted the experiments of Professor Robison, and the opinions of some other writers on electricity.
In your last number a paper from Mr. Singer appears, in which he asserts that I have fallen into error in my experi- ments, but he has not adduced one fact to prove it. There is, however, one truth in his paper, and that truth renders all the rest of his arguments nugatory.
Mr. Singer says, ‘if, after bringing an electrified body near an insulated conductor, on withdrawing it the insu- Jated conductor remains permanently electrified, it must have lost or received electricity.” This is very true. And it is equally true, that an electrified body being brought near one end of an insulated conductor, electricity lies off into the air from the other end, and therefore, when the electrified body is removed, the conductor will remain per- manently electrified. This is a physical trath which ren~ ders all opinions and suppositions that may be advancee against it trifling and of 20 consequence.
I am, dear sit, yours. respectfully,
Lynn, Noy. 18, 1813. Ez, WALKER.
* Phil, Mag. vol. xlii. p. 216, he Mr.
436 New Pullications.
Mr. Sowerby has announced to his friends that, as soom as English Botany (an arduous work of more than twenty years) and British Mineralogy are finished, he will com- mence a work to be written by Dr. Leach of the British Museum, upon the Malacostraca Britannica or British Crabs. He supposes the first number will appear soon alter March, before which time English Botany cannot be finished on account of the difficulty of procuring the few mosses yet unpublished.
The British Mineralogy being nearly completed, it would be doing the public a great service if mineralogists would send Mr. Sowerby, for the purpose of figuring, such newly discovered minerals as may not already have appeared in that work. Mr. S. will also feel sincerely grateful to his friends for any remarks they may wish to make, or any in- accuracies they may point out depending on the rapid im- provement in mineralogical knowledge, made during the pro~ gress of this work. Localities of fossil shells for his Mineral
Conchology will also be thankfully received. 2, Mead Place, Lambeth.
A very useful work has just made its appearance entitled, A practical Treatise on Mill-work and other Machinery, in seven Parts. By Robertson Buchanan +, Civil Engineer.
1. On the teeth of wheels and of wheel-work.
2. On the shafts of mills.
3. On the longitudinal connexions of shafts denominated couplings. .
4 On the methods of disengaging and reengaging machi~ nery while in motion.
5. On mechanisin for equalizing the motion of mills.
_ 6. On changing the velocity of machinery while in mo- tion.
7. On the framing of mill-work.
The Rev. John Toplis, B.D. Fellow of Queen’s College, Cambridge, has in the press, a Translation of the Treatise upon Mechanics, which forms the introduction to the M/é= chanique Céleste of P.S. Laplace. It will be accompanied by copious explanatory notes and additions, which are in- tended, im some degree, to obviate those difficulties in the Méchanique Célesie, the Méchanique Analytique, &c. of which many readers, who have not been conversant with the works of foreign mathematicians, complain.
_¢ Author of a Treatise on Fyel and the Heating of Buildings by Steal .
LECTURES.
Lectures. 487
LECTURES.
Mr. Singer will commence his Lectures on Experimental and Chemical Philosophy, to a limited number of Sub- scribers, on Tuesday the 18th of January.
A Prospectus may be obtained of Mr. R. Triphook, Bookseller, 37, St. James’s Street.
Middlesex Hospital:—Dr. Metriman will recommence his Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery, at the above Hospital, on Monday, January 24, at half past Ten o’clock.
Dr. Clarke’s and Mr. Clarke’s Lectures on Midwifery, and the Diseases of Women and Children. __
Dr. Clarke and Mr. Clarke will begin their third Course of Lectures on Midwifery, and the Diseases of Women and Children, on Monday, January 24, 1814. The Lectures are read at the house of Mr. Clarke, No. 10, Upper John Street, Golden Square, every Morning from a quarter past Ten till a quarter past Eleven, for the convenience of Stu- dents attending the Hospitals. ’
Further particulars may be known by applying to Dr. ~ Clarke, No. 1, New Burlington Street, or to Mr. Clarke, at the Lecture Room.
Theatre of Anatomy, Bartlett’s Court, Holborn.—Mr. Taunton will commence his Winter Course of Lectures on Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, and Surgery, on Saturday, January 22, 1814, at Eight o’clock in the Evening precisely, and be continued every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, at the same hour.
Particulars may be had, on applying to Mr. Taunton, Greyille Street, Hatton Garden.
Mr. Brookes’s Spring Course of Lectures on Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery, will commence on Monday the 24th of January, at Two o’clock, at the Theatre of Anato- my, Blenheim-Street, Great Marlborough- Street.
Aleteoro-
[ 488 ]
Meteorological Observations made at Tunbridge Weils, Kent, Srom the 20th to the 26th of Sept. by T. Forster, Esq.
Sept. 20.—Warm day, with clear distances, cumuli of smallish form, with cirr? above; and some cirrocumulus mixed. By sunset long and straight cérrostrati in horizon. Clear night with a few light clouds and falling stars: some moved almost horizonally and left smal! trains behind *,
Sept. 21.—Fair day, with a breeze ; cumulus and cumu- dostratus with cirri and cirrostratus towards evening. The cumuli to day were well defined, and the air pleasant and warm like yesterday.
Sept. 22.—Showers very early; much cloud of cumu- lostratus, &c. through the day ; sun out by times; nimli towards evening.
Sept. 23.—Fair morning and a breeze; much cumulus and cumulostratus ; nimbi-tormed again in different places, and showers finished the day with hght gales of wind.
Sept. 24.—Still showery weather, rather cooler, and the sky generally clouded over, though there was not much rain fell. The evening was clear with a fine breeze, and I noticed some fine red tints in the clouds while riding at Langton.
Sept. 25.—Fine morning, smallish and well defined cumul?, with a stiff breeze below ; the clouds increased after noon, obscured the sky, and the night became dark and windy.
Sept. 26.—Dark overcast morning, when the clouds broke the sun came out by times, and we had a shower ; extensive and irregular masses of cloud followed. The evening was very fine; the cirrus above showed a fine red light, while some lower down were darkish ; some cumuli still appeared at sunset, and the sky exhibited fine and va- rious tints in different places: just above the set sun a fine yellow fading into an indescribable but beautiful whitish colour; in an opposite part of the horizon a purplish hue appeared in the haze; near the zenith a rich clear light blue, fading into a greenish colour.
_* Mr. Howard mentioned to me that these meteors usually happened, in, his opinion, when there was cizrostratus in the atmosphere, although scanty and not so as to obscure much of the sky. I have generally noticed this to be the case, and frequently cirrocumulus too when the more brilliant kind happen. The very slanting, indeed almost horizontal, star which I noticed tonight, shot in a direction opposite to the wind below then blowing from the westward, and it seemed low in the atmosphere, ‘This was a cir« cumstance reconcileable with Mons. De Luc’s hypothesis of the cause of these meteors, of which } have given an account in my Researches about Atmospheric Phenomena, p. 92. But the rapidity with which these stars Moye, seems almost an objection to the notion of their being caused by the retrograde motion of an elevated column of phosphorific gas, set on fire at the top, with the burning ball returning down the column. This seems
often to be forcibly thrown along like ignited bodies projected by mechanical
force; or as having acquired velocity by gravitation in falling from a great
heighth, METEQRKO-
Meteorology. 489 METEOROLOGICAL TABLE, By Mr. Cary, OF THE STRAND,
For December 1813.
Thermometer. ae p arg Ams ae on “ || Height of |% 2% o a. 83 S 2.8 the Barom. ae Weather,
38 7, Sie Inches. ar Bo ce es Ast
Nov. 37 | 41 | 35 | 30°05 18 |Fair 35. | 39 | 37 | 29°92 10 /|Cloudy 34 | 38 | 32 | 30°00 16 |Cloudy 31 | 33 | 28 | 29°70 12 {Cloudy
Dec. 30 | 37 | 35 "56 14 |Fair 35 | 39 | 39 *95 oO |Rain 39 | 41 | 40 fi O {Rain 41 | 41 | 40 *38 oO [Rain 40 | 40 | 40 “a4 0 \Foggy 40 | 43 | 39 "EO 5 |Cloudy 38 | 40 | 40 81 oO {Rain 40 | 41 | 40 *83 oO {Rain 40 | 43 | 40 “gl 5 |Cloudy 40 | 42 | 39 | 30°10 11 {Cloudy 37 | 40 | 36 Bik] 12 =|Fair 34 | 36 | 32 “10 10. ‘|Fair 29 | 30 | 30 | 29°84 10 {Cloudy 26 | 30} 37) °90 7 |\Foggy 25 | 30 | 30 °86 8 |Fair 35 | 38 | 46 "45 0 |Cloudy 45 | 50 | 49 "24 Oo j|Rain 47} 51 1g *20 7 \Fair 47 | 48 | 40 20 5 |Cloudy 38 | 42 | 36 *35 7 |Cloudy 30 | 46 | 40 "43 o {Rain 40 | 45 | 40 *50 5 {Fair 40 | 42 | 44 "85 6 |Fair 45 | 50 | 46 98 7 {Cloudy 47 | 50 | 49 | 30°08 oO |Small rain 42 | 45 | 35 34 16 | Fair
N.B. The Barometer’s height is taken at one o’cleck
a a RR
e0 [ 490 ] INDEX to VOL. XLII.
A DAMS, on defects of vision, &c. 70
Agaric. Intoxi¢ating power of, 314 Agate, remarkable property of, 287 Air, heat, and moisture. Relations of, , 44
Alcohol. On freezing of, 117
Alcohol. State of in fermented li- quors, ? a11 Allan on transition rocks, 15, 91. Reply to, 439 Ammonia. Constituents of, 182, 270 Ammonium. Products of with oxy- gen, 270
Analysis of muriate of ammonia, 40; muriate of lime, 138; lime, 138 ; baryta, 135; muriatic acid, 139; water, 139; sulphuretted hydro- gen, 140; carbonic acid, 1723 gazeous oxide of carbon, 172; carburetted hydrogen, 173.—See Normal analyses 2
Anatomy, 74, 142
Anatomy of plants, 276, 390, 474, 366
Antiquities, 146, 224, 307 Apariments to cool, 285 Architecture. On, 82 Arragonite. Composition of, 25
4rsenic acids. Components of, $75
Arseniates. On, WH. Arsenites. On, 375 Aris, fine. Galt on, 81 Astronomers royal, 9 Atmometer. Leslie’s, 44
Azote. A prize question, 145; com- ponents of, 27
Bakewell’s Geology. On, 58,103,121,
164, 246, 356
Baryta. Composition of, 138, 180
Bear Island. Discovery in, 313
Berzelius on definite proportions, 40,
? 135, 171, 265, 371, 440
Biogtaphy. Maskelyne’s life, 3
Biot on périscopic spectacles, 388 Blagden on sight, 348 Books, new, 69, 228, 318, 392, 486 Brande on alcohol, 211 Brande on urinary calculi, 347 Brewster on properties of light, 286 Brodie on muscular motion, $94 Building. On, 82
Carltonate of barita, components of, 179, 372; of lime ditto, 372; of soda ditto, 372
Carbonic acid. Constituents of, 1725 combinations of, 37) Carbonic acid in combination. On, 371 Carluretted hydrogen. Components of, 173 Cary’s Meteorological Talles, 80, 160, 249, 320, 400, 489
Cassagrane telescope. Superiority of,
149 Cataract. New operation for, 494 Chalyleate spring at Melksham, 145. Charcoal. Heat from, 297 Chevereul on oxide of lead, 35 Children’s galvanic battery, 144 Coal found in Bear Island, 313
Collurn, Zerah. On family of, 491 Cold, artificial. On, 73, 117, 282, 424
Cold, intense, to produce, 73 Colours. On systematic arrange- ment of, 119, 827 Colours. On changeable, 292 Congelation by cold, 73, 117, 282, 424
Creighton on slate, 224 Croup. Specific for, 313 Crystallization. New law of, 26
Crystals. Element. particles of, 61 Davy on a new detonating substance, 72,190,321; on fluoric compounds, 73, 404
Deafand Dumb. Tuition of, 485 Definite proportions. On, 40, 135, 171, 265, 371, 440
De Luc on St. Michael’s mount, 429 Detonating substance. Anew, 72, 190, 321
Dispersive powers of doubly refracting crystals, 290 Dividing lines and circles. Instrument for, 401 Earthquake at Teneriffe, 316 Electricity. Singer on, 36, 261, 317; Walker (E.) on, 161, 215, 371, 4853
experiment, 202 Elon tree. New substance from, 204 Eyes. On diseases of, 70
Farey’s geolog. remarks, 53, 103, 164,
246, 356; Bakewell’s reply to, 121 Fermented liquors. On alcohol in, 211 Fine arts. Galt on, 81
Firminger on time-keepers, 241 Fiuates. On, * 417 Fluo-toracic acid gas. On, 409 Fluor spar. Davy on, 407
INDEX.
Flioric acid. Davy on, 73, 408 Fiuoric compounds. Davy on, 13 Forster’s meteorclog. observ. 78, 155,
235, 319, 488; systematic arrange-
ment of colours, 1195 32 Fossils at Brentford, 76 Frigorific processes, 73, 117, 282, 424 Gait en the fine arts, 81
Galvanic batiery. Children’s, 144 Galvanism, 476, 479 Gazxeous ewxide of carton. Componenis of, 172 G@eology, 15, 53,91, 103, 121, 164, 923,23 i, 246, 356, 395,597, 482 Geological society, 895, 482
Germination. On, £08 Greenwich, observatory, 8 Hail’s models of the Peak in Derby- - shire, 118 Heat, air, and moisture. Relations of, a4
Heat developed in combustion. On, 296
. Honey. Exper. on, 313 Hooping cough. Specificfor, 313 Hydrogen. On combustions of with oxygen and sulphur, 159; an oxide
of ammonium, 270 Hydropholia cured, 194 Hydrotheic acid. On, 265 Hygrometric experiment, 44 Hiygroscopical experiment, 44 Imperial Institute of France, '74, 142
India. Progress of vaccination in, 134; climate and diversions in, 284 Jonian islands. Antiquitiesin, 224 Isle of Wight. Geology of, 395, $97 Java. Lake of sulphuric acid in, 127, 182 ~ Jones (Wm.) on periscopic glasses,464 Jones's (T,) sectograph, 401 Laplace's Méchanique Céleste. On,3 Lapland. Geology of, 231 Lead. Brown oxide of, 35 Learned societies, 73, 392, 479 Lectures, 151, 232, 497 Lescherault on lake of sulphuric acid,
127, 182
Light. Some properties of, 286; new theory of, 418 Lime. Analyses of, 138
ied magnesian. Quere. 189 ink on anatomy of plants, 276, 390,
466 Leslie's atmometer, &c. 44 Mugnesia. On use of, * Say Magnesian limestones. Inquiry re-
specting, 189 Marcet on cold by evaporation, 73 Maskelyne (Dr.) memoirs of, S
491
Massacre of a ships crew, 315 Méchanique Céleste. On supposed error in, 88 Meteorology, 78, 80, 155,160, 235, - 240, 319, 320, 400, 488 Moisture, air, and heat, Relations of, 44
Molyldic acid. Components of, 381 Muriate of ammonia. | Analyses of, 40, 181
Muriate:, components of, 138, 177 Muriauic acid, Constituents of, 139
Muscular motion. On, S94 Mushroom. intoxicating power of, S14
Naphiha, Tleat evolved in burning, 296
Navigation. Advantage of time- keepers to, 241
Nitrates and sulnitrates. Components of, 441, 447, 452, 459
Nitric acid, an oxide of ammonium, 270
Nitrogen. A prize question, 1453 an oxide of ammonium, 270 Normal analyses of sulphuret of sil- ver; protoxide of silver; muriate of ditto, 177; muriate of protoxide of lead, 178; muriate of barytas carbonate of baryta; sulphate of baryta, 179; hydrogen; protoxide of ammonium; ammonia; nitro- gen; nitrous oxide or protoxide of nitrogen; nitrous acid; nitric acid; water, 270; carbonates of lime and of soda, 372; super-car- bonate of soda, 372; phosphorous acids and phosphates, $73; arsenic acids, arsenjtes, and arseniates,375 ; tungstic and molybdic acids, 381; muriatic and hyper-oxymuriatic acids, $82; nitric acid, 440; ni- trates, 441; subnitrates, 447; ni-
trites, 452, 459 Norway. Geology of, 231 Ouseley on Persia, 422
Oxygen combined with hydrogen, 139
Oxygen. Products of with ammo-
nium, 270 Paleopolis. Site of, 224 Patents, 76, 151, 318, 399 Periscopic spectacles. On, $87, 464 Persia. State of, rf 422. Philosophy. A history of, 230
Phosphate of baryta ; of protowide of lead, components of, 373 Phosphorous acids, Laws respecting, 378
Photometric experiments, 44
492
Physiology, 74,142 Plants. Anatomy of, 276, 390, 466 Pompeia. Discoveries in, | 143 Popuiar opinions often correct, S45 Percupines do shoot theirsquills at
enemies, ‘ 285 Poiass. Components of, 180 Protowide of silver. Components og
Wi Prize question, zi 145 Publications, net's 69, 225, S95 Reader on light, 418
Refractive power of several sub-
stances, 289 Rocks. On, 16, 91 Royal Society, 69, 7S, 392, 398, 479 Rumford on heat by combustion,296 Saint Hilaire on germination, 208 Salt, Fesuvian, On, 425 Sea. Gaining on the land, 58
Seciograph, the, described, 401 Seeds. On germination of, 208 Sight. On, $30 Silicaled fluoric acid. On, 408 Singeron electricity, 36, 26], $17 Slate. On stratification of, 223
Smith’s geological map, 58 Smithson on ulmin, Smithson on Vesuvian salt, 425 Societies, learned, 69, 73,592, 393,479 Suda, Components of, 181 Si. Michael's snount, Structure of, 429
tromeyer on arragonite, 25, Sirontianite. On, 25 Subacelale of lead, to form, 212 Sulphates, Components of, 179
Sulphur combined with hydrogen, 39 Suiphurets. Components of, 140, 177 Sulphuretted hydrogen. Analysed,140 Sulphuric acid. Lake of, 127. 182
INDEX,
Supercarbonate of soda, Components
of, | 872 Surgical case, 60
Syphons capillary. Exper.on, 202 Tallow. Heat evolved in burning,297
Taunton. Surgical case, — 60 Tea. Onmaking, 345 Time-keepers. Utility of, © 241 Travels in America, Lee oT Tungsite acid. Components of, 38% Ulmin, On, 204 Orinary calculi. On medicines against,
347 Urine. Singular use of, 314; in-
fluence of acids on composition of, 347 Vaccine establishment, Report of, 27,: 132
Waiker (E.) on electricity, 161, 215, ‘ 485
on chemical philosophy, 367 Walker (R-) on freezing aleohol,117, on refrigeration, 424 Ware on sight. : 330, $48 Water. Analyses of 139, 270; on oxide of ammonium, — 270° Webster's geology of the Isleef Wight, 395, 397
Werner’s transition rocks. On, 15, 91 Winne’s case of hydrophobia, 194 Wollaston on crystallization, 61; on freezing at a distance, 282; on periscopic spectacles, 387; instru- ment for chemical equivalents, 398.
Weod. Heat from, 299 Young on changeable colours and glories, 292 Zoslogys 74,142
t
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justrate Mr, Souruern’s Essay on the Equilibrium of a Combination 5
Jury 181%. 3 ee Fst
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ConTENTS OF NuMBER 183, ty : “Page. } I. Memoirs of the Life and Works of late Dr. Miske- MW Lyne; read at the Public Meeting of the Natior.! Institute fy {% of France, January’ 4, 1813, by A. Dezamsre, Secretary; ‘3 translated from the French and communicated by a Corre- Sy spondent, June 3813 - Se A - - "0 II: Remarks on the Transition Rocks of Werner, By WY THomas ALLAN, Esq. F.R.S. Edin. + SRR THE ait k Ii. Discovery of the Composition of the Arragonite: In wi a Letter from Professor Srromeyer of Gottingen to Professor:
Gitserr of Leipzig. Dated 23d Keb. 1813 - - SA) LV. Report of tha National Vaccine Establishment. Dated “Babi 22d April, 1813 - - - BRR Wi mex ° V. On the Production of the brown Oxide of Lead, under . Sul ge Circumstances which have not been hitherto observed. By Sa M. Crevieu, init a tet - Bake ONS VI. On ilectrical Influence. By Georoe Joun Stncer, aN Esq. Lecturer on Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry ef = WIT. On a supposed Error in M. Lartacez’s “ Mécanique % Céleste” - - - - . - - f VIL. An Attempt to determine the definite and simple \ Proportions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganic 8 Substances are untited with each other. By Jacop Berze- 1) Livs, Professor of Medicine aud Pharmacy, and M.R.A. + Stockholm - - - : - - - - % 1X. Description of an Atmometer, and an Account of & some Photometric, Hygrometric, and Hygroscopical Eixperi- \\ ments. By Professor Lestre, of Edinburgh = - are X. Cursory Geological Observations lately made, in Shrop: IY shire, Wales, Lancashire, Scotland, Durham, Yorkshire NR., ‘| %& and Derbyshire. Sonie Observations on Mr, Bakewell’s Geo- ’ t9 logical Map, and on the supposed Identity of the Derbyshire Peak and the Craven Limestone Rocks, &c. &e. By Mr. {Joun Faxey Sen. - - - - - Xt. Case of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Internus.. By % Joun Taunton, Esq. Surgeon to the City and Finsbury Dis- ‘45 pensarics, and to the City of London Truss Society, Lecturer ea on Anatomy, Surgery, and Physiology, &c. &c. = - \} MIL. The Bakerian Lecture. On the elementary Particles of certain Crystals. By Wittiam Hype Wocxraston,M.D, me cece RUS, - - - - - - XIE. Notices respecting New Books - ~~ <= XIV; Proceedings of Learned Societies - - ‘\ XV. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles.—-Meteoro- Wie logteal ramie, ects" =) fee ee en es 76-—8
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Vol. XLII. A Plate containing Professor Lesxin's Atmometer, and Figures to illustrate Dr, Wonvaszon’s Paper on the ¢lementary Particles wf certain Crystals,
Vo, 42. Pisa Magazine Avausr 181
CONTENTS OF NuMBER 184,
Page. 3 } <n the Finn Atts: : an Fssay founded on a Discourse zi delivered by the Cavaliere Ferro © Ferro, President of the fj Accademia. del Decernimento of ‘Trapani. By Mr. Joun : Gaur ” ~- ~ o is
«XVI. Remarks.on the Vransition Rocks of Werner. By M7 7 Thomas Attan, Esq. RS. Raine ccner en Subs
XVIII. Obsetvations, in Objection to some new Arrange- ments, and Simptifications of the Strata of England, proposed ty Mr, Bakewert—A Defence of the Reality and Circum-
Jy stances stated, respecting ‘three great Faults or Dislocations of
iy the Strata in and near Derbyshire—-On Mr. Sitverwoon’s
) a intended Section of all the Derbyshire Strata.—On Mr.
. : Haxr’s Survey and Models of the high Peak. of Derbyshire.
stay —The Slate of» Chamwood Forest ‘not stratified, &c. &e.. By Mr, Joun Fanty Sen. + - - -
“XIX. On Freezing of Alcohol. By Ricnarp Wigeee, OC SMR ~ - - ‘= sh rae
XX. On.a Systematic Arrangement of Colours. By
Tuomas Forster, Esq. = vig = ae
jy. XXL. Mr. Bakewell in Bey: to Mr: Farey, on er Great Derbyshire Fault ° “
XXII. Description of a Lake of Sulphuric Acid at the * SSN Bottom of a Volcano of Mount Idienne, situated i in the Pro- Ss) vince of Bagnia-Vangni,.i in the Eastern Part of the Island of V Java. --By M. Lescusnautt, Naturalist and Circumnavi- i gator inthe Employment of the French Government =" XXII. Report ‘of the National Vaccine Establishment. Datéd=22d April) 1823 =. - : ‘ /¢ Pa. RXIV ‘AA Attempt to determine tlie definite and simple | n Proportions, "in hich the constituent Parts of tunorganie Substances are united with each other. ‘By Jacos’Berze- rivs, Profassor of Medicine and sSblajeitiae and M. R.A. Stockholm - eth tae tae - - = 9335} AXYV. Proceedings of Learned Societies Dae is 142 % aS
4° XVI. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles.—Meteoro- : $ logical Table, &c. - ~ es e144 b0
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Acoloured Map to illustrate Dr. Campgery’s Paper on the inferior Strata
on
po 42, Snag ope Mapecine. SEPTEMBER 1818 |
ey Ae sapedia or
e Sieh =3 = eT) ae IO, tie = SIG See
owaesae « OF Reece 185.
XVII. On Blectricity. By Ez. Wauxer, Esq. = XXVIIL Mr. Faxry’s Reply to Mr. BakEWELu’s Letter , in our last Number, &c. viz. on the great Derbyshire Fault.— fe Mr. B's Lectures. —Stage-coach Geology.—The gieat Southern @ Denudation.—Limestone Sela on Slate.—The great Lime- \ stone Fault, &c. - -
XX1X. An Attempt to deteemine the denies and simple 4 Proportions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganic + Substances are united with each other. By Jacos Brrze-
9 Lius, Professor of Medicine and Pharmaty, and M.R. A. Stockholm - -
XXX. Description gf. a TaKe of Su! hare: Acah at th s Bottom of a Volcano of Mount Jdienne, situated in the Proe ~~ % vince of Bagnia-Vangni, in the Eastern Part of the Island of Java. “By M. LescuHenauct, Naturalist and Circumnavi- gator in the Employment of the French Government +
XXXI. Inquiry concerning Magnesian Limestones in So- mersetshire, Shropshire, and iN ottinghamshire -
ie XXXII. On a new detonating Compound, in a Lctier ‘ “ We from Sir Humpury Davy, LL D. F.R:S, to the Right Hon. (ee Sir Josern Bawxs, Bart. K.B. PRS. - :
XXXII. Particulars of the successful Treatment of a Case yof Hydrophobia; with Observations, &c. By Ricz re Apothecary, Shrewsbury -
XXXIV. Experiments on sree. Syphons with see fied and with heated Liquids
XXXV. Ona Substance from the Elm Dice; called Ulmin.
4 By James Smiruson, Esq. F.R.S, -
XXXVI. On the Duration of the geriinativ Faculty of
Seeds. By M. Sainr Hivaige. - * XXXVII. Additional Remarks on the State in which: Al- cohol exists in fermented Liquors. ts Wirriam Tuomas \ Branpe, I'sq. F.R.S. - i) = XXXVITT. On Llectricity by Pasition or Thductivn: By = Ez. Wanker, Esq. -
XXXIX. An Account of a Gourney by the Genttenea at- # tached to the New York Fur Company, from the Pacific Ocean to the Missouri, as collected fiom the Gentlemen them- selves - - - - = =
XL. Observations on the Stratification of Slate, By Mr. Wittiam CreiGuTon - ~ - 223 Ray
LNs XLI. Intelligenceand Mis Pe Oey are ‘Articles:-aitesealia SS ae Table, ke. - . “ - 224=—240
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topic Camera Obscura and Microscope.—Count Rumrorp’s improved
~
th Accuracy and Dispatch.—Mr. Davis’s hanging Scaffold; and » Martix’s Method of relieving a Horse from a Cart when fallen mm in its Suafts.— A Quarto Plate to illustrate Mr. J. Hicks’s Ac- int of the Situation and Means of raising the Royal George —-A Plate Hiustrate Mr. Sournern’s Essay on the Exuilibrium of a Combination teams, Blocks, &c. and on the Polygon of Forces.~-A Plate to illustrate )Steevens’s Account of a Meteor seen at Londonand other Places in ch last.—A Plate to illustrate Mr, Macuury’s Annular Saw.
fol. XL. A Plate containing Professor Lesuiz’s Atmometer, and ures to illustrate Dr. Wottasron’s Paper on the elementary Particles ertain Crystals.—A Sketch of that Part of the Islard of Java which fains the natural Lake of Sulphuric Acid—Interior of Volcano in the id of Java, and Figures to illustrate Mr. Watker’s Paper on the Elec-
ee-pots.—Mr. Goss’s Instrument to work Addition of Numbers-
kaa |
Vou. 42. OcToBER 18H} 59 oO : = oy ws . en ae
eo} TAS
CONTENTS OF NuMBER 186. Si | Page. WH «XLII. Memoir on the Usefulness of Time-Keepers in the aN f Service of the Navy; and a Plan for introducing them with ms the best Prospect of Success to ensure their Accuracy at the ~ least Expense. Communicated by Mr. Frxmrinter, late Assistant Astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich XLIIL. Notes and Observations on the Introduction and Keay three first Chapters, of Mr. Ropert Bakewewt’s “ Introduc- @ tion to Geology ;”—embracing incidentally, several new Points RS of Geological Investigation aud Theory. By Mr. Jonn \ Farry Sen., Minera! Surveyor e - ry \ XLIV. On Siectricity. By Mr. Gzorce Joun SincER,
swiiy Lecturer on Chemical and Experimental Philosophy — -.
ea XLV. An Attempt to determine the definite and simple
| js Proportions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganic
© Substances are united with each other. .By Jacos Berze- t1us, Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy, and M,R.A. Stockholm = : - = : 2 2 =y XLVL. Researches irio the Anatomy of Plants. By H. F. % Link, of Bres'au, formerly of Rostock - : NE XLVI. On a. Method of Freezing at a Distance. — y \ Wirxtiam Hype Wottaston, M.D. Sec. R.S. - :
2m} XLVIIL Climate and Diversions in the Northern Parts of wi? British India. Extracted from a Letter from an Officer in. fat the Army - : - - - .
Kise XLILX. On some Properties of Light. By Davip Brew-
& srex, £..L.D.F.R.S. Edin. Ina Letter to Sir H. Davy, NV LL.D. E.R.S. : : 4 } ¥. On changeable Colours and Glories. By Tuomas * Younc, M.D. FBS. L.S. &c, = - : - LI. Researches upon the Heat. developed in Combustion, and in the Condensation of Vapours. Read betore the French NY Institute on the 24th of February and goth of November 1812. i By Count Rumrorn, F.R.S. Foreign Associate of the Im- perial Institute of France, &c, &c. - - - LIL. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles:—Roman - 4} Antiquities discovered in the Kingdom of Westphalia; An-
‘ Say srapitice found in East Lothian; Coal in Greenland; Experi- N ments on Honey; Cure ‘ur Croup ; Mushroom of Kamtschat- ica ka; Massacre by Natives of Vancouver's Island; barthquake
5 at Teneriffe; Extraordinary Fresh of the Mississippi, &c. ;
“@ New Publications; Patents; Meteorological Table, &c. 307-—320
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and other Products from Pit-Coal ; and Mr. Way’s Method of procuring Turpentine from Vir Trees. —A Plate to illustrate Dr. Buewster’s Paper on the Power of the Lever.
Vol. XXXVIL. Mr. Dowg in’s Tachometer.—Mr. Artan’s Mathematical Dividing Engine—A 4to Plate of Mr. Lorscuman’s Patent Piano-Forte, and Mr. Liston’s Patent Eeharmonic Organ.—A Plate to illustrate Mr. Havy’s Paper on the Electricity of Minerals —Mr. Warxer’s improved Micrometer.— Mr. Movutr’s Filte:ing A pparatus.—Mr.SmitH’s Method of felieving a Horse fallen in the Shafts of a loaded Cart.—Mr. Joun Tay¥tor’s Air-Exbauster for Mines. —A Representation of the Comet now visible in Ursa Major.—Sir Howarp Doueézas’s Patent Reflecting Semicircle.— A coloured Map to illustrate Dr. Camppety’s Paper on the inferior Strata of the Earth occurring in Lancashire.—-Mr. Sapiex’s Apparatus for Smelting of Lead.—A Plate to illustrate Mr. Witiiam Suitu's and Mr.
~ Epwarp Martin's Reports on the State of the Co'lieries at and near Nail-
sea, in Somersetshire..—Mr. SapteR’s Apparatus for Smelting of Lead.— A Plate to illustrate the different Theories of Arches or Vau.ts,and of Domes. _ Vol. XXXIX. Me. Stet vens’s New Levelling-Statt-—A Map illustrating
the Great Derbyshire Denudation.—A Quarto [late to illu-rate the ‘ipti- ‘cal {nstrument called the Diacatoptron.— A Plate of Mr. Sreevens’s *Contrivance for freeing Water-pipes from Air: engraved by Mr. PorTEs.—
) Mr. Arvan’s improved Reflecting Circle——Mr, Woon’s inclosed Grind-
stone for Pointing Needles, and Mr. WenstEn’s Method of carrying off Steam from Boilers.—Mr. Bruntown’s improved Pump for raising Water while Shafts or Pits are sinking —Mr, Hopeson’s improved Mariner’s
_ Compass for correcting the Magnetic Variations.—A Quarto coloured Plate to illustrate the Geology of Part of the Vicinity of Dublin.
Vol. XL. A Plate to illustrate the Foundation of Mr. Wiiitam Jonss’s temporary Corn Rick.—Mr. Sreruens’s Method of dividing Bricks,— Section of Mr. WitL14M Jones's temporary Corn Rick.—Mr. WatstTzit’s
_ Improvement on the Acorn Dibble.— A Plate to illustrate Mr. Tawney’s
Wew Thrashing Machine,—Two Octavo Plates descriptive of a New Ma- chine for Pumping Water.—Two i'lates descriptive of the Muscular Moe tion of Snakes —Figures to illustrate such Portions of a Sphere as have their Attraction expressed by an algebraic Quantity —V4n Hetmont’s Differential Thermometer.—Formation of Ovals for Gardeners.~-Cuxavassr’s Marine Transit—A_ Piate to illustrate. Mr. Bropie’s Experiments on the Infinence of the Brain on the Generation of Animal Heat. |
Vol. XLI. Perrys’s Mercurial Voltaic Conductor.—Lesiiz’s Dife ferential ‘'hermometer, Diagrams to. illustrate Dr. Wottaston’s Peri- scopic Camera Obscura and Microscope.—Count Rumrorp’s improved Coifee-pots.—Mr, Goss’s Instrument to work Addition of Numbers
) with Accuracy and Dispatch.—Mr. Davis’s hanging Scaffold; and
Mr. Marrix’s Method of relieving a Horse from a Cart when fallen
_ down in its Shafts— A Quarto Plate to illustrate Mr. J. Hicrs’s. Xe
nt of the Situation and Means of raising the Royal George.——A / late to illustrate Mr. Sournern’s Essay on the Equilibrium of a Combina cn of Beams, Blocks, &c. and on the Polygon of Forces.—~A Plate to il!ustrave
>) Mr. Steevens’s Account of a Meteor seen at London and other Places in
March last.—A Plate to illustrate Mr. Macuexy’s Annular Saw.
Vol. XLII. A Plate containing Professor Lestie’s Atmometer, and ‘Figures to illustrace Dr. Wottaston’s Paper on the elementary Varticles of certain Crysials—A Sketch of that Part of the Island of Java which contains the natural Lake of Suiphuric Acid.—Interior of Volcano in the Island of Java, and Figures to iliustrate Mr. Watker’s Paper on the Elec- tric Fluid—A Plate to illustrate M. Link’s Memoir on the Anatomy of Plants, and Dr. WoLtLastron’s Cryophorus,
in 492, Philosophical Magri BEE 181
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ADVERTISEMENT.
EARLY seventeen years have elapsed since. the Parrosopuicaw Journa was commenced by Mr. Nicuoxson,Jand sixteen since the aps pearance of the first Number of the Puitosopuicay Macazine. |
During this period the sciences and arts have made the most rapid pros
ress. Numerous Philosophical and Mechanical Instruments and Machines have been invented and improved :—the theory and practice of Astronomy
Kas been greatly advanced :—new Plancts have been discovered, and the structure of the Sun more clearly ascertained. “The Rays of Light have been subjected. to new experiments, which have demonstrated their sepa-. rate and distinct powers of illuminating and of heating; and that won- derful property: upen, which the pete of the Island Crystal de-
end, but which is iow known. to
v RLS cit Geet The es ihical Journal will henceforthbe discontinued; and The
the Editors, and the Communication can afford. meen Ri) ote ey. Pes
Mr. Nicuorson, therefore, requests from his Readers a continu: that interco.rse with which he has so long been gratified ; and that the patrons of the Philosophical Journal will pie their orders for the Philoso- phical Magazine, through the medium of their own Booksellers, as usual,
en; but with every attention to 8.
Communications addressed to the Editors, Picket Place, Temple Bars —
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