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No. 101. 


be Last Day of every Month, 
‘(PRICE 2s. 6d.) 


3 ee ee 3 e ; 
THE, 


eee (COMPREHENDING 
TE . VARIOUS BRANCHES OF SCIENCE, 
| THE LIBERAL AND FINE ARTS, | | 
AGRICUL LTURE, MANUFACTURES, ew 
“AND “gh — 


COMMERCE 0 


ue "NUMBER CL. ata . ke 
; Por OCTOBER fit ; RRS 


A Guano P Plate cof M. ts wane Chronometer. ai RS 
Ar SYLVESTER’ 8 improved tobias Pid tan teas AN BT) 


ty RP, Taylor and Co, 38, Shoe ane, Fleet Suet co a 
‘es , FOR AL munocH: ss Sua i, 
5 Capene al and Davins; ; Loxs- 
85 rat 


a .f) : ay Rar. 
ee ; y ey) TS a EY ty. re é rate, ‘ ‘ Saye, Gul‘ 
7 fr ” * » d yorh=y by 

J x : i 


ENGRAVINGS. +a) 


R psi: ‘of Ne eansae Plant. vaitischn causes “the Bight ‘in- 
'* engraved, by. permission | of the Right Hon. Sir Joseru Banks, 
ae at, the original Drawings. —A Plate containing Mathematical Hien to 
illustrate the best Form to be given to a Plough-ear; to illustrate a P. aper 
- by President Jerreason—A Portrait of Dr, PrizstLey, from a M 
| taken from the Life. Engraved by E. Macxen ZIE—A nondescript A 
Insect, and. microscopic “Wiews of the. Parts—Also Figures to illustrate a 
Bs ag on Elasticity —A Plate respecting the Physiology of Vegetabl 
~Mr. SerpinGs’s Method of Suspending Ships—Figures to illustrate Messrs. 
-Humsotpt and Biot’s Theory of Terrestrial Magnetism—The Hydromis Sit 
~ Goypou—The Yellow-bellied Hydromie--The Mi bite Bellicd Hydromi jan 


a XXII. is illustrated > At a | Plate representing 2 ‘ye, of ithe. 
-M —An Pe 
L hk a 


Z1E ay Bra an socigina Laat lhe to Hy Shaseiakes I 1 oy “3 
. their Work in a standing Posture—A Plate illustrating” Dr: Her- : 
L's Paper on the Motions of the Heavens—Mr. Cuarres’s. Machine. 

ng Land Igvel—Apparatus for making Gaseous Oxide of Carbo 


Vol. XXIV, is: embellished with a Piate of Figures | to ‘linatrate Mr Da 
~-ton’s Theory of the Absorption of Gases by Liquids—On the same ; -Als : 
. ‘Refrigeratory for Distillation, acting on thé Principle of "the Syphon—The 
hes produced by Mr. Ez. Warxen’s newly invented Cometar 
_A Quarto Plate illustrative of Experiments by Sir James Hatt, Ba 
a the Effects of Compression in modifying the Action of Heat—Mr. 
_ yens’s improved Gasometer, for Purposes where uniform Pressure is essén= 
tial—A Plate illustrating Mr. Waxxer’s Paper on the apparent ‘Magnitude 
of the horizontal Moon—A Quarto Plate illustrative. of Sir James Ha: ‘3 
_ Expérimemss on the Effects of ‘Heat modified by Compression— \ Portrait. 
of Mr. Auperr: engraved by Mr. E. Mackenzie—A Quarto Hate of 
tural History, viz. the Fishes Eremophilus Mutisii, Astrablepus Gri. xalvii, id 
. Pimelodus Cyclopum ; and a ss hd American esse! ‘the: Simia Heong ce 
. haat Wy Lowry, — ; RT ea . ree | 


Vol. RXV. contains an Qetavo Plate illustrative of ashen by 
es HAct on the Effects of Compression in modifying the Ac ion 
Heat—A Quarto Plate on ‘the same Subject—A Quarto Plate to illustra: ph 
_ Sir Bi, AMES ae s sit on the Bifects of arent mmodliGed ke Cabs nT eat 


- 


oF aS re evolved | by | the ene of different Kinds or fact oe Gi, 
re - per GILPIn’s improved Crane with Flexible Chains—Mr. Hiewsens" 
“Book-case Bolt, and Mr. Lz Caan’s Check for Carriage Wheels “ 
| Bd Sruet s Improvement on Canal Locks-——Figures to. 
ts Guortrurus's Memoir on the De composition of Water ae G 
tr cA Bust i in in Silex, found coated over with ccekenatia 


cam sy 


. 

- y ~ ot 
ave 2 ae - a ees : a3°3 ‘Vewk a 
! > at ae (Son tx VIe4 


an THE | 3 
( )SOPHICAL MAGAZINE: 
ae ee “gourienenia a er xX 
THE VARIOUS’ BRANCHES OF SCIENCE, 
_ THE LIBERAL ‘AND FINE ARTS, 
5 AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, dine 
Synlett 3S AND 


i Gouiarnch: 


 RUMBER cit. 
For’ ‘NOVEMBER 1806. 


*. * The Plates datended. ies Raew mcintaauials pris pest & 
umber telate to M. le Roy's Chronometer; but Mr. Lowry, 
was executing them, having been taken suddenly ill, and 

at this Moment confined to his Bed, we are obliged to 
this. rapes without any Engravings. 
Tats ee ie fect: 


‘LONDON: Wi iteatine 
g 38. Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, 


ig Indig a, or 

Vira, proved ‘Method ‘of "Bat id salan 

ee ae ULLOCK's improved Draw-back Lock——-Mr. Bc 

So : SBubvey to illustraté ‘some Geographical and cme fet 4 

Si eRe by J. Cuurcuman, ‘Esq. Member of the Imperial Academy. of ~ 
» Beiences at Petersburgh—Chevalier E DEL iT Z's , fo 

Engine Boilers—A 4to_ plate containi i magi 

~ Parasitic Plant which causes the Bligh iF Cora, 

the Rt. Hon. ers J OsEPa = Bait Pl RS, from t 


Quarto Plate pantat iataae magt 
AES cas of the Pata lant which causes th light ( 
; ear by © ‘permission of fhe Right “Hon. Sir Joseru Ba NKS, [ 
from the original Dr: wings. A Plate containing . -Mathematical Figu; 
~ illustrate the dest Form to be given to a Plough-ear; to illustrat 
we ea Jermstson—A\ Se a on De. Pameuiiadd 


i Sisvoling aoe Bigues to ‘deat 
eory of ‘Terrestrial Magnetism—The FE 
os Yellow-bllid ‘Hydromis Fhe W 


x Vol. XXII. is ‘Mlustrated. with a aia scieattag? a Var 
the ots duran Acarus—Mr. Davy's “Apparatus. for the Analysis of Soil 
Ne aratus for. ‘the Use of Aquatinta. rE baeatog? to prevent them fre ma 


ity ‘Eee This=The Planet ‘Saturn, pra ite? ig “the: Form a sscattatngt ae 
ey ee Herscbel—A Portrait of jamvs Water, Esq. F.R.S.: Engraved, 


- Mackenzie from an original Painting—Machine to enable Shoemak 
o perform their Work in a | standing I Posture—A Plate illustrating Dr. H 
_‘gcye.'s Paper on the Motions of the Heavens—M HARLUS’s Macl 

‘ i laying Land level—Appaatus, for making. Gaseous ne oO! Be 


- Vol. XXIV. is ‘embellished with? a : Plate of Tir r 
Bs ay row’ 9 Theory of the Absorption of Gases by Li 
Bet athe a pcirigcratory for Distillation, acti ng on the Pri 
pe hoy | Bi ects produced by Mr. E we 
Quarto Plate illustrative ef ‘Exper neni 
» the Effects of Compression ‘a a ing 
 VENS's improved Gasometer, f i 
Pe dias illustrating Mr, V 


ciple | of the ‘Syphon on- 
; invented - Cometar 


; Mee the pa: 0: j NG 


No. 103. 


ae the Lis te, of sary Month 
ei [PRICE 2s. 64) 


LOSOPIIC CAL “MAGAZINE: 


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"NUMBER. CUIl, 
DECEMBER 1808.” 


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ais iN to Le Rov’s ; Chronometer: 
Octavo Plate on the same Subject. 
sh Log | shag “ 


L OF THE ROYAL InisH ac capens, ke, ke, Re. » 


4 ye 


essrs. SNE Gibars pe eR aude wa 
wee and Orme 5 ‘Sywonps 5 Murray; Hien- 


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ponte: tes 1086, 


f 4 | Remarks, _exhibiting a View of the present State of the Mateoe. Medica = 


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rath 


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and, that a considerable Deduction j is made on n the Premiums of Fire 


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WARNER ee, rs rye 


, MEDICAL PRESCRIPT! IONS. f Y : ; 
This Day is ‘published, in One Volume 8vo. Price 7s. 6d. in orn the Third ‘Edi on; : 
“HESAURUS MEDICAMINUM ; A New Collection of Medical Preser riptions, 
distributed into Twelve Classes, and accompanied with Pharmaceutical ae Prace, Mo 


tice of Physic in this and other Countries. 
ae a Member of the London College of Physicians, and Author of 
© A Practical Synopsis of the Materia Alimentaria.”* a] Beh 

London: Priated for’ John Murray, Fleet-street 5 c. and R. Baldwin, Ne w Bridges ate 


_GRAY'’S MILLWRIGHT. ie 


NHE EXPERIENCED: ‘MILLWRIGHT; or, "A Treatise ¢ on the Construct 9 gol 
some of the most useful Machines, with the latest Improvements. To whiel ich is hy; 
prefixed A Short Account of the general Principles of Mechanics, and of the fan ae ‘ 
nical Powers. Illustrated with 44 Engraving# 3y ANDREW GRAY, Milly 
Printed for Archibald Constable and Co.: ‘Bdinburgh: 3Ghn Murray, ii 


No. 1 104. 


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varies PRICE Qs. 6a) 


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NUMBER CIV. 
Bor JANUAR ¥ 1807. 


“BY LOWRY: 
_ Smeevens 8 Antocratic Cock for large Reservoirs. 


Bs ‘LONDON: 
Printed ly R. Taylor and Co., 38, ‘Shor fit Fleet Street, 
‘FOR A. TILLOCH : Bry: 
i Messrs. Rrewa RDSON; ‘Cans and Davies; ‘ Lowee 


Hurst, Ress, and Orme; ‘Symonps; Murray; Hicn- (i 


RY VeRNOR and Hoop; ‘PAmbrt G5 Pondois Bear and} 


ve, Edinburgh ; Brasn and Retp, aad D, inloc te a 


and Gunenr and Hlopo ag, Dublin, 


ait 


i ENGRAVINGS, 


- a 


_ 


Vol. XX. is illustrated: ‘with a ‘Quarto Plate to illustrate the . nat 


oe ae 


Vol. XXI. is illustrated with a Portrait of Dr. Hurron; engraved by 
Kwigur, from a Likeness painted by Miss Byrne—The Perambles.nasuta 
engraved by Lowry—The Peraméeles obesula; also engraved by Lowry. 
Mr. Rawttnson’s improved Mill for grinding Oil Colours; and anim- 
proved Mill for grinding Indigo, or other dry Colours—Mr. Harpy’s ime | 
proved Methdd of Banking the Balance of a Time-keeper—A Plan of Mr. - 

'Butzocx’s improved Draw-back Lock—Mr. Bowxer’s Screw-Press—A 
Survey to illustrate some Geographical and Topographical Improvements ~ 
proposed by J. Courcuman, Esq. Member of the Imperial Academy of ~ 
‘Sciences at Petersburgh—Chevalier Epsncrantz’s Safety;Valve for Steam — 
Engine Boilers—A 4to plate containing magnified Representations of the © 
Parasitic Plant which causes the Blight in Corn, engraved by Permission of _ 
the Rt. Hon. Sir Josep Banxs, P.R.S. from the original Drawings. > 

Vol. XXII. is illustrated with a Quarto Plate containing magnified Re- | 
presentations of the Parasitic Plant which, causes the Blight in Corn: _ 
engraved, by permission of the Right Hon. Sir Joszeru Bawxs, P.R.S. — 
from the original Drawings.—A Plate containing Mathematical Figures to | 
illustrate the best Form to be given to a Plough-ear; to illustrate a Paper — 
by President Jerrerson—A Portrait of Dr. Prigsriey, from a Model | 
taken from the Life. Engraved by E. Mackxenz1s—A nondescript Aquatic — 
Insect, and microscopic Views of the Parts—Also Figures to illustra 
Paper on Elasticity—A Plate respecting the Physiology of Vegetabl 


> th 


File S bes 


— 


THE 


PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE: 


. COMPREHENDING 


THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF SCIENCE, 
THE LIBERAL AND FINE ARTS, 


AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, 
AND 


COMMERCE, 


re 


BY ALEXANDER TILLOCH, 
HONORARY MEMEER OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, Xc. &c, &c. 


’ 


“© Nec aranearum sane textus ideo melior quia ex se fila gignunt, nec noster 
Vilior quia ex alienis libamus ut apes.” Just. Lips. Monit, Polit. lib. i. cap. 1. 


0 8 Rg 


VOL. XXVI. 


For OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, DECEMBER, 1806; 
and JANUARY 1807. 


eee 


ye oO ND oO N: 
Printed ly R. Taylor and Co:, 38, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street: 
And sold by Messrs. Ricuarpson; Caper and Davies; LoncMan, 

Hurst, Rees, and Orme; SymMonps; Murray; Hicurey; 

Vernorx and Hoop; Harpninc; London: Bery and 

Braprure, Edinburgh; Brasu and Rein, and 
D. Niven, Glasgow: and Gitpertr 
and Hopces, Dublin, 


wile git 8 
e; si a yee 


ee cos en ony ta a wa 
ae 2c oF | yt 
. 4 


Tee 


util nee, fie Je 
bor ee a ae Ls AR 
iene, aed , 
Dannie a 
+ Hi oe 4a ot 


OF THE 


TWENTY-SIXTH, VOLUME. 


1. RECIPE for an elastic and permanent Varnish for Hats, 
or Helmets of Felt, Gaiters, or other Parts of Dress in 
Teather, as Boots and Shoes, and which may be also em- 
ployed with Success in varnishing Cloth and Linen .. 3 

Il. Memoir upon Waters distilled from Plants described as 
being inodorous; upon the Distillation of Water intended 
for Chemical Experiments, and upon Alembics. — With 
a Note suljoined by M. Drveux on the Subject. By 
Wh DEsCROTZIBDES sens Ph. PO AOS 38 O45 

Ill. Extract of a Memoir, by A. Laueisr, on a new Prin- 
ciple in Meteoric Stones. Read in the Prench National 
Institute March 10,1806 Po. JO DUNY AAO Loget Vy 

IV. Observations upon the emetic Property of the ligneous 
Part of Gray Ipecacuanha, and Analysis of that Root. 
By M. Henry, Professor of Chemisiry in the School of 
Pharmacy, and Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of 

72 9 Ca gid oa ty Ato Nl a A Seth a ben aaa dc Mt oc 

V. Memoir upon Coffee. By C. Ls Caper, Apothecary 
in Ordinary to the Imperial Household... +. «e ) -17 

VI. Reply to certain Remarks made by a Writer in_the 
5th Number of the Retrospect of Philosophical, &c. Dis- 
caveries, ona Paper in the 24th Volume of the Philoso- 
phical Magazine. To which are added, Observations on 
Vision, when terrestrial Objects are seen through a Mist 


, 29 

VII. Analytical Essay on Asparagus. By M. Rosiaver 
junior, Apothecary at Valede Grace... 4+ +s 33 
VIII. Description of an improved Air-Pump. By T. Syt- 
VESTER, Esq. .. ». 38 


IX. A Memoir on the best Method of measuring Time at 
Sea, which obtained the double Prixe adjudged ly the 
Royal Academy of Sciences; containing the Description 
of the Longitude Watch presented to His Majesty the 5th 
of August 1766. By M. Lx Roy, Clock-maker to the 

Vol. 26. No, 104. Jan. 1807. a2 King. 


CONTENTS. 


King. Translated from the French ly Mr. T.S. Evans, 
F.L.S., of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich 40 
X. Extract of a Letter from M. Proust to M. Vav- 
QUELIN, upon Porcelain, and the nutritive Use of the 


Lichen islandicus  .. Fe atte tig ts See 
AI. Thirty-second Communication from Dr, THornton, 
relative to Pneumatic Medicine .. cpr age 2:60 


XIL. Observations of M. Boneros, Assistant Physician of 
the Infirmary at Perpignan, upon Fumigations with the 
Oxygenated Muriatic Acid 71 


o 


NII. Memoir upon Animal Fat, and ‘some Medicinal Pre- 


parations which are administered through that Medium. 
By Mi. VoGRt \ jose Uno adeokeas a 1 Le ae 
XIV. Report made to the Class of Physical and Mathema- 
tical Sciences of the French Institute on the 6th of Janu- 
ary 1806, by M. Pine, upon the advantageous Results 
ohtamed by M. DesGENnetTzs, from the Use of Fumiga- 
tions of Oxymuriatic Acid 6. we ue ee ee BL 
XV. On the Acetic Acid and its Ether. Extracted from 
a Letter of M. Geuten to M.Guyton .. .. 85 
XVI. Observations on the two Preparations of Acetic 
Ether. By M. Henry, Professor of Pharmacy in the 
Pharmaceutical School of Paris 0... 0... +. «+ 86 
XVII. Proceedings-of Learned Societies .. .. .. 88 
XVUI. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles 90—96 
X1X. Memoir on the Saccharine Dialetes. By Messrs. 
DUPOY TREN GREET BRENARD 1386) 0). | yess ox Bele is « 
XX. Alemoir upon Animal Fat,.and some Medicinal Pre- 
parations which are administered through that Medium. 
By M. Voce. » 3) =a) fO@ 


XXI. Memoir upon the Acetic Acid. By M. Troms-_ 


DQBER Sy ae)! age see, Ga heey roe > ake 
XX. Account of u Discovery of Native Minium. In a 
Letter from James Swutuson, Esq. FR. S., to the 
Right Honourable Sir Josern Banks, K.B. P.R.S. 114 
XXII. Analytical Essay on Asparagus. By M. Rost- 
QuET junior, Apothecary at Valede Grace .. 115 
XXIV. On the inverted Action of the alburnous Vessels of 
Trees. By TaomMas Anprew Kwiecnt, Esq. F.R.S, 
In a Letter to the Right Honourable Sir Joseru Banks, 
AE NB RY MRR: 1 a Veh Sah a= 
AAV. A Memoir on the best Method of measuring Time at 
Sea, which obtained the double Prize adjudged by the 
Royal Academy of Sciences; containing the Description 
of the Longitude Watch presented to His Majesty the 
5th of August 1766. By M. Le Roy, Clock-maker to the 

/ King, 


CONTENTS. 


King. Translated from the French by Mr.T.S. Evans, 

_ F.L.S., of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich 129 
XXV. Chemical Examination of the native Cinnabars of 
Japan, Newmarktel, and Idria. By M. Kvaproru 146 
XXVI. Upon the Affinities of Bodies for Light; and parti- 
cularly upon the refractive Powers of different Gases 151 
XXVII. Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. By 
ae MI Wick ws acce ovsvsinbh, Foegbahe oe! ADVISE 
XXVIII. Letter of Dr. Dr Carno to Professor Picrrer of 
__ Geneva, on the Mineralogy of the Island of Ceylon 16g 
XXIX. On Music. By Mr.Joun Fanny .- ++ 171 
XXX. Notices respecting New Books .. 2. .. 176 
XXXII. Proceedings of Learned Societies  .. oe L1G 
apres - Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles 189—192 
XXXII. A Memoir on the best Method of measuring Time 
» at Sea, which obtained the double Prize adjudged by the 
Royal Academy of Sciences; containing the Description 
of the Longitude Watch presented to His Majesty the 5th 
of August 1766. By M. Lx Roy, Clock-maker to the 
King. Translated from the French by Mr. T. S. Evans, 
P.L.S., of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich 193 
AXXIV. Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. By 
MEMO UNpORT ABET $0) S\ Wobdacatel ee ss 203 
AXXV. Memoir upon a Process Hs bah ie in the ci-devome 
Magonnais of France, to avert Showers of Hail, and to 
dissipate Storms. By M. Lescurvin » chief Commissary 
for Gunpowder and Saltpetre at Dijon 6. dag 
XXXVI. On Canal Track-Boats. By Rogsertson Bu- 
CHANAN, Esq. Civil Engineer, Glasgow +. 219 
XAXXVIL. Analysis of the Substance known ly the Name 
of Turquoise. By M. Bourtton Lacrancn -- 2920 
XXXVIIT. The Bakerian Lecture on the Force of Percus- 
sion. By Witi1am Hype Wottaston, M.D., Sec. 
i LE eee on oe #19) sig ee tare, Gara l i Sat) ) SOG 
XXXIX. History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. By 
JEROME DELALANDE .. .. ., ,, se es 937 
XL. Report of Surgical Cases in the Finsbury Dispensary 
Jrom the \st of September to the ist of November 1806 ; 
with Observations on two Cases of Hernia which proved 
fatal. Communicated by Joun Taunton, Esq. Surgeon 
to the City and Finsbury Dispensaries, and Lecturer on 


Anatomy, Surgery, Be.  .. 5, Ag we | B59 
KLI., Thirty-third Communication Jrom Dr, Tuornrox, 


relative to Pneumatic Medicine ete ft CMW Be )-y ; 
XLII. Notices respecting New Publications “e964 
XLII. Pro- 


CONTENTS. 


XLII. Proceedings of Learned Societies ..  .. 966 
XLIV.: Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles 276—288 
XLV. Discovery of a new Vegetable Principle in Asparagus 
(Asparagus sativus of Linneus). By M. VauauEtin 
289 
XLVI. Upon the Affinities of Bodies for Light; and par- 
ticularly upon-the refractive Powers of different Gases 292 
XLVII. Memoir. upon living and fossil Elephants. By 
MiP CUvinb ooo OV PASAY Sees TN Dee Nid 1508 
XLVIIT. Description of an Autocratic Cock, useful in 
Breweries, Distilleries, c. By JoserpH STEEVENS, 


EBsgn > (aed > sala FOOL 90, Ba ED a, 
XLIX. Description of Mr. Anruur Wootr’s improved 
Piston for Steam-Engines .. woh IASG 


L. On the Food of Plants. By the Rev. Josrern Towns- 
HEND, Rector of Pewsey, Wilts We 31F 
LI]. Letter from Tuomas Keity, sg. Secretary to the 
Master of His Majesty’s Household, €8c., respecting Mr. 
BonnycastTux’s Treatise on Plane and. Spherical Trigo- 
NOM HY) OE BORIS OE Pe Le ee 
LIT. Ox the Cultivation of the Poppy. By T. Coan, 
MM. Dawid VERO, UTR et Sa. Woial Sed 
LIT. History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. By JE- . 
ROME DE LALANDE’ .. .. ait eine, a PAK 
LIV. Method of ascertaining whether Wines are adulterated 
with Litharge. .By M. Navucur, Physician .. 362 
LV. Proceedings of Learned Societies ..  .. «. 363 
LVI. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles ., 373—375 


/ 


THE 
PHTLOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE. 


a 


I. Recipe for an elastic and permanent Varnish for Hats 
or Helmets of Felt, Gaiters, or other Parts of Dress in 
Leather, as Boots and Shoes, and which may be also em- 
ployed with Success in varnishing Cloth and Linen*, 


First Operation. 


I; is necessary, in the first place, to free the hats, or other 
articles of felt, from all the gum which they may contain. 
This may be easily effected by washing them in warm water, 
and afterwards pressing them. Before they are perfectly 
dry, they must be placed on moulds in order that they may 
be preserved in their proper shape, and be without wrinkles, 
—a very essential requisite. New leather, as well as old, 
must be scraped in order to clear its superficies from the 
wax or grease with which it is impregnated. Colophony, 
or resin in powder, laid upon a coarse brush, also removes 
the grease perfectly well. 

Second Operation.—All felt hats have a kind of down or 
nap, of which they must be cleared, when dry, by means 
of pumice-stone; and every part of the hat where the var- 
nish is to be applied must be smoothed in this manner. 
Leather must be smoothed in the same manner also to re- 
move all inequalities, and even the marks of the scraper. 

The same method must he pursued with cloths or linens. 

Third Operation.—Vhe down being removed in the man- 
ner above described, a coat of the black varnish, to be after- 
wards mentioned, must be laid on the articles to be var- 
nished. They must be allowed to dry well upon their moulds, 
that they may not assume any wrinkles, which prevent the 
proper distribution of the varnish. . 


* From Billiothtque Physico-Economique, May 1806. 
Vol. 26. No. 101. Oct, 1806. A Fourth 


‘ 


4 Recipe for an elastic and permanent Varnish, 


Fourth Operation.—This first coat of varnish being per- 
fectly dry, the pumice-stone must be again resorted to, in 
order to remove any small inequalities which may remain. 

Fifth Operation. —When the air is dry and warm, ase= 
coud coat of the black varnish must be applied, and also 
polished with the pumice-stone. 

Sixth Operation.—The finishing hand must now be put 
to the article by laying on ,the yargish to be afterwards de- 
scribed, taking care to employ for this purpose a small and ~ 
compact aa in order to spread the varnish uniformly 
and equally. 

When the first coat of varnish is well dried, it must be 
sprinkled with pumice-stone reduced to fine powder, and 
then rubbed all over with a wet sponge, or a piece of 
fine linen rag also wetted, in order to render the varnish 
perfectly smooth; or in place of pumice-stone, with tripoli 
soaked in oil and rubbed with the palm of the hand. As 
to the second and last coat of varnish, it must be polished 
when well dried, by sprinkling it with starch and rubbing it 
with a piece of old linen rag, which will give it a very fine 
lustre. 

In the event of the varnish being tarnished, or losing its 
lustre by long usage, in order to restore it, place the articles - 
of felt or leather in boiling water for a minute, then let 
them dry thoroughly, sprinkle them with starch, and rub 
them with a piece of dry linen, and they will resume their 
former lustre. 


Preparation of Linseed Oil, under the Denomination of Oil 


of Marmite. ; 
Take Linseed oil - 15 pounds. 
Umber - 4 ounces. 
Red Jead - 1 pound § ounces. 
White lead ie 2 pounds 4 ounces. 


Put the whole in a pot placed upon a coal fire; boil it for 
36 or 40 minutes; stir it from time to time with a wooden 
spatula; and care must be taken that it is neither too little 
boiled, nor viscous from being too much. 
Upon taking the pot a the fre, throw in a piece of bread, 
both 


for Hats or Helmets of Felt, Gaiters, 8c. 5 


both crust and crumb, of the size of a small loaf. Coyer 
it, and let it cool for 24 hours. The oil thus prepared is 
made use of for various purposes. 


Composition of the Black Varnish. 


1. Take of black umber 2 pounds 13. ounces ; cut it into 
small pieces, and place them in a frying-pan, upon a very 
brisk fire, and roast it like’ coffee for about three quarters of 
an hour; bruise it afterwards upon a marble slab, by mixing 
it in the manner of painters, with a little boiled linseed oil, 
and keep it in a stone pot. 2 

2, Take three pounds of verdigrise; reduce it to an im- 
palpable powder; mix it with the boiled linseed oil; then 
put it into the stone pot which contains the umber. 

3. Take of lamp-black one pound, mix it also with boiled 
linseed oil, and after putting it also into the stone pot, blend 
the whole well together. 

This is the mixture made use of to varnish articles of felt, 
cloth, or leather, observing that when leather is to be var- 
nished it is essential to give it previously two or three, and 
sometimes even six coats of linseed oil; it must be well dried 
each time, in order to extract the grease from the leather, 
wax, or fish oil, in order that the varnish may’ incorporate 
with the leather more easily. This precaution must be made 
use of with soft boots, when placed upon moulds or. boot 
trees; and, without even taking them off, as many coats of 
varnish may be laid on .as necessary. 


Method of preparing the Varnish. 


Take of Prussian blue - 12 ounces. 
Indigo ei nate we 
Bruise these two separately upon a marble’slab; mix them 
up with a little oil, and put them in a pot by themselves. 
Afterwards take of gum-copal - 8 ounces. 
Prepared nut oil 5 
Spirit of turpentine 14 
Put the gum-copal, bruised in a matrass with a large neck, 
upon a strong fire, but not flaming, taking care to stir it 
often, and to keep it uncovered. We know that the gum 
A3 is 


/ 


6 On Waters distilled from inodorous Plants. 


is totally dissolved when the smoke has entirely abated in 
the matrass ; pour into it, by little and little, prepared nut 
oil, stirring it in order to incorporate the whole completely. 
Afterwards, and in the same manner, the spirit of turpen- 
tine is poured in, and the mixture is then taken from the 
fire, filtered, and cooled; it is then made use of to grind with 
ile Prussian blue and indigo in small quantities at a time, 
and the whole is well mixed together. 

This mixture forms the fine varnish for the purposes in- 
dicated. 


Il. Memoir upon Waters distilled from Plants described as 
being inodorous, upon the Distillation of Water intended 
for Chemical Experiments, and upon Alembics. With 
a Note sulbjoined by M. DeyvEux on the Subject. By 
M, DescROZIILLES sen.* : 


Aone those whose professions lead them to the prepara 
tion and application of medicines, there are various opinions 
upon the efficacy of waters distilled from plants described: as 
inodorous. I shall by no means decide upon the question 
ina medical point of view ; I shall only request that before 
entering on the discussion the question be stated in ‘precise 
terms, 

I was induced last summer to repeat some experiments on 
the distillation of inodorous plants, im consequence of read- 
ing some observations on the subject in a former number of 
the Annales de Chimie t. 

The observations of the learned author in the above me- 
moir lead me to offer some hint which may tend to give 
a new direction to his useful researches. 4 

Waters distilled from a great quantity of inodorous plants 
yield a smell so much the stronger, the oftener that the pro- 
duce of the first distillation has been cohobated upon fresh 
quantities of the same plant; but I do not think it has been 
yet demonstrated that such waters are susceptible of putre- 


* Annales de Chimie, tome lvii. p. 175. ¢ 
+ See page 3, of our last volume. 
1 és faction 


ile 


On Waters distilled from inodorous Plants. 7 


faction when they have been distilled in B. M.; and I hope 
to be able to prove by and by, that the putrefaction to which 
even, waters distilled from aromatic plants are subject, is 
owing to a portion of the decoction of the plants being ex= 
travasated, or forced into the tubes of the apparatus, when 
distillation in the open fire is made use of. 

Before proceeding to explain some of the probabilities 
upon which I rest my opinion, that down to the present 
moment the greater part of such waters as are distilled from 
plants in the open fire have been adulterated with their re- 
spective extracts, 1 consider it my duty to say a few words 
on the subject of alembics.. My hints are the results of a 
course of reflections and experiments oa the improvement 
of the above apparatus, in which I have been constantly oc- 
‘cupied since the year 1775, a space of more than 30 years. 

The old chemists had certainly observed, that during the 
ebullition of water a part of that fluid is thrown to a height 
of more than 30 centimetres in a multitude of small drops 
er globules, which can with difficulty be perceived by the 
naked eye. They must have also observed, that during the 
time of distillation the decoction of plants has the property 
of swelling up when boiling, and of being raised with the 
greatest facility into the neck of the cucurbits; they conse- 
quently contracted their distilling apparatus to moderate the 
tendency of the boiling liquor to bubble up, and they inter- 
posed between the cucurbit and the head cylindrical tubes, 
either straight or spiral, or zigzag, &c., and of a length 
equally inconvenient and unreasonable. 

Baumé, to whom, in spite of his obstinacy in rejecting the 
theory of pneumatic chemistry, we are indebted for a great 
number of useful observations, has particularly contributed 
to the reform of the construction of alembics; but in bring- 
ing the head so near the body of the alembic as he has done, 
he has fallen into an opposite extreme, the inconvenience of 
which did not occur to me until within these two years, 
At the above period I interposed between the body and the 
head of my alembic a cylindrical funnel 40 centimetres 
high. Besides, I gave an inverse inclination the length of 
a decimetre to the beak, at the place where it is soldered to 

Ad .. the 


8 On Waters distilled from inodorous Plants, 


the head of the alembic. I had a long time before. er 
pressed the ridge or furrow in the latter. 

By means of these precautions, and of some others which 
Tam about to communicate, I obtained distilled waters, 
which never putrefied although the plants were distilled in 
the open fire, and with a strong ebullition ; and although 
T afterwards put these waters.nto bottles with ground-stop- - 
pers exposed to the rays of the sun, and in an apartment 
constantly heated by a stove, they preserved all the delicacy 
of their aroma and their linipidity. 1OBIG 

We know that the oranee flower water, prepared at Paris 
with great care, ought to be kept in a cool place, and-in the 
shade, in vessels not closely corked, if we wish to prevent 
their undergoing any alteration ; but we know also that the 
orange flower water, which comes from our southern de- 
partments in large bottles of very thin copper, is preserved 
a much longer time without alteration, although they are 
well corked. I have reason ‘to believe'that this difference 
arises from the distillers of Provence making use of alembies 
of the old form with long necks, while those of Paris em- 
ploy the modern flat alembies. I know it will be said that 
a little spirit is mixed with the Proyencé‘orange water; but 
I do not think, if that were the case, that the quantity of 
spirits thus added is sufficient to stop, for so long a time, the 
putrefaction of a distilled water, which contained a little of 
the extract from which it was produced. 

Some chemists complain that pure water, when distilled 
once, still shows traces of the muriatic acid when tried by 
the nitrate of silver ; they consequently prescribe ‘that this 
water should be redistilled. I request them to take the pre- 
cautions I have here suggested, and they will obtain at the 
first distillation purer distilled water than they could other- 
wise do by two distillations. 

Although these observations are very succinct, I flatter 
myself they will excite the attention of sueh chemists or 
artists as make use of alembics; and the question of the 
properties of waters distilled from plants being placed in this 
new point of view, there must consequently be more cer= 
tainty in the observations of such medical gentlemen as have 
a partiality for these kinds of medicines. . 
Before 


~and*on Stills. : 9 
*. Before concluding my observations on distillation’ by alem- 
bics, I shall briefly notice the various improvements I have 
successively made on these articles, a great number of which 
T have made both for myself'and my friends. 

Since the year 1775,'1 have used cylindrical instead “of 
serpentine tubes, sometimes straight, flattened, inclined, or 
vertical, but always so disposed as to accelerate the distillas 
tion greatly by their largeness; and being perfectly well po- 
lished, I could easily clearthem, attervevery new operation, 
from every foreign taste or’smell. 

Before auy thing had been anncunced: relative to: ovbid 
might be made of the heat containedsin ‘the vapours whieh 
form by their condensation ‘the distilled liquids, I presented 
to the National Institute an alembic, where this heat ‘was 
rendered profitable in producing the rectification of the pro- 
duce of an anterior distillation,.and in te ct the putse+ 
quent distillation. bois 

The following are the principal salnadienil of the dacibic 
of which I am about to publish»a description ; and inthe 
construction of it I have observed every possible precaution, 
in order to ceconomize ‘the heat and to facilitate the. ae 
tions. 

‘Every part of it must be of pewter. 
© We may distil in it, without inconvenience; 25 given 
measures of liquid, or only a single 25th part of any mea 
sure, and afterwards reduce it to a fourth part by evapora- 
tion. ' 

Each distillation, without augmenting the expense of fuel, 
and without delay, may be accompanied witha rectification; 
and immediately after this double operation, the cucurbit 
being emptied by a syphon, a.cock adapted to it evacuates 
ther liquor intended for;a subsequent: distillation in a’state 
very near the boiling temperature ;. the subsequent distillas 
tion is consequently effected much more quickly, and ‘with 
“much lese fuel, 

By means of four watch-glasses and three smal! tubes, 
every thing is seen which passes inside the body of the still 
and its cylinder, the rectifying vessel, and the preparatory 
one, 


After 


10 On Waters distilled from inodorous Plants. 


After the most nauseous distillation, all the parts of the 
alembic may be so cleaned in a quarter of an hour, that the 
most delicate liqueur may be immediately distilled in it. 

Such is the result of the experiments of more than thirty 
years. J alone know what this experience has cost me; 
I shall, however, consider myself in some measure indem- 
nified for my labours, if these hints shall be of any service to 
the progress of the arts and sciences. 

Note by M. Deyeux.—I do not rightly understand what 
the author means in the beginning of the above memoir. 
He seems desirous that the question relative to the efficacy 
of waters distilled from inodorous plants should be stated in 
precise terms. It appears to me that this question cannot 
be presented in the form of a problem, since it has been 
proved, by a multiplicity of experiments, that it is highly 
improper to doubt the efficacy of waters distilled from these 
kinds of plants. 

.As to the observations relative to the necessity of distilling 
these waters in B. M., or at least of rectifying them in this 
manner, I am not only of opinion, that in some cases 
such a process may be useful, but I also think that the 
above method is not always sufficient to obtain distilled 
waters in a state which may bid defiance to all alteration. 
I have often had occasion to distil waters in B. M.; and in 
spite of this precaution I have remarked that some of these 
waters become turbid at the end of a month, and that they 
often acquired a disagreeable smell and taste. 

To conclude: As the author announces a work upon di- 
stillation in general, and as he also promises us some details 
upon the best form of alembics, I shall wait for the pub- 
lication of his memoir, which will, without doubt, contain 
the results of experiments made with that care and acute- 
ness which characterize every production of M. Descroi- 
zilles. 


iil. Ex- 


OE, abe ain’) som nn 


‘Ill. Extract of a Memoir, by A. LAUGIER, on a new Prin- 
ciple in Meteoric Stones. Read in the Prench National 
Institute March 10, 1806 *. 


Suxce the period when Mr. Howard called the attention of 
the learned to tlie. substances called meteoric stones, every 
chemist who repeated his experiments has met with the same 
fesults. All agree that they had discovered in these stones, 
at whatever time or place they had fallen to the ground, the 
same principles ; viz. silex, iron, magnesia, sulphur, nickel, 
and accidentally traces of lime and alumine. Upon com- 
paring the results of their analyses, we find that the aboye 
principles were found very nearly in the same proportions 
in each experiment, M. Proust has latterly discovered the 
existence of manganese in such meteoric stones as he ana- 
lysed ; and the fact has since been confirmed by other che- 
mists. 

M, Laugier, assistant-professor of natural history, is 
charged with the analyses for the Museum of Natural His- 
tory. Upon analysing a meteoric stone w ‘hich had fallen at 
Verona i in 1663, he discovered a principle hitherto unknown 
to. exist in these substances. This new principle, which 1 1s 
chrome, is the subject of M. Laugicr’s memoir, : 

« It is probable,” he says, “ that I should not have dis- 
covered the chrome, had I not made use of a mode of ana- 
lysis totally new. Hitherto the acids have been always re- 
sorted to; and this is, perhaps, the most natural and conve- 
nient process ; on the present occasion, however, I employed 
caustic alkali. This has the peculiar advantage of showing 
the presence of chrome, however small in quantity ; ; whereas 
it is almost impossible to perceive it when it is dissolved in 
the acids, particularly since it is then mixed with a great 
quantity of iron, manganese, &c.’ 

M. Laugier had recourse, therefore, to the following pro- 
cess for separating the chrome; and he determined its pro- 
portions pretty exactly: he melted one part of the stone 


* From Annales de Chimie, tome lviii. p. 261. 
with 


1@ On a new Principle in Meteoric Stones. 


with three parts of caustic potash; he diluted the mass with 
distilled water, which became of a yellow or greenish yellow 
colour on account of the manganese; the latter was precipi- 
tated on being allowed to rest, and the solution then resumed 


its pure yellow colour. This solution, joined with the water _ 
of the washings, and sufficiently diluted in water, which is 


necessary to prevent the precipitation of the silex, is hyper- 
saturated with a slight excess of nitric acid. He poured into 
this solution nitrate of mercury at the mintmum, recently 
prepared ; there was immediately formed an orange red pre- 


cipitate or chromate of mercury, which he allowed to rest 


until the evening of next day. He decanted the liquor, and 
added several fresh waters in order to wash the precipitate, 
and when the latter had become quite tasteless he poured 
the whole into a platina crucible; the water was evaporated, 
the chromate of mercury became dry, and was soon decom- 
posed into a green oxide of chrome, the quantity of which 
amounted to one hundredth of the stone employed. 

As this Verona stone is similar in its physical properties 
to all the other meteoric stones, the author of the memoir 
thought himself bound to examine if the latter contained 
chrome as well as the former. He successively examined 
fragments of- stones which had fallen at Ensisheim, l’Aigle, 
Barbotan near Bourdeaux, and at Apt; and he also found 
chrome in these four stones. . 

It is also remarkable that the Verona stone in which he 
first discovered- this metal contained the least of the whole 
five; the others contained one hundredth part, while that 
only contained half that quantity of chrome. 

M. Vauquelin has made a very favourable report of the 
above memoir. According to its author, M. Laugier, the 
following conclusions may be drawn: 

1. That the five meteoric stones which fell at Verona, 
Barbotan, Ensisheim, |’Aigle, and Apt, contain the metal 
called chrome in the proportion of about one hundredth part, 


exclusive of the other principles already ascertained by other 


chemists. 
2. That it is very probable that all the meteoric stones. 
contain: 


/ 


On the ligneous Part of Gray Ipecacuanha. 3 


contain this principle, since they resemble each other so 
much in their chemical and physical properties, and as it 
seems they have all the same origin. 

3. That in most cases it is indispensable, in making a 
correct chemical analysis, to treat the same substance both 
by the acids and the alkalis, since it has been demonstrated 
by expermments that a principle which the acids could not 
discover, may be ascertained by means of the alkalis. 


IV. Observations upon the emetic Property of the ligneous 
Part of Gray Ipecacuanha, and Analysis of that Root. 
By M. Henny, Professor of Chemistry in the School of 
Pharmacy, and Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of 
Paris*. 

Aone those authors who have written on the subject 

of ipecacuanha, we may reckon Adrien-Helvetius, Boulduc, 

Geoffroy, Neumann, Cartheuser, Lewis, and more recently 

Lassone jun. and Cornette, who, in the Memoirs of the, 

Royal Society of Medicine of the 31st of August 1779, have 

given analyses of this root, and have demonstrated that 

' § the ligneous part is very nearly as emetic as that which is 

separated from it.” 

Last of all, Murray, in the first volume of his Materia 
Medica (Apparatus Medicaminum), p. 804, relates, without 
asserting any thing positively, ‘ that, lately in France, (he 
quotes Lassone and Cornette,) it has been remarked that 
the ligneous part of this root was equally efficacious with 
the cortical part ; that it contained as much resin and ex- 
tract; and that an equal dose of it excites vomiting and al- 
lays dysentery.” 

In spite of the experiments of Lassone and Cornette, it 
seems that the lizneous part is never used, and apothecaries 
Are condemned who are not careful of rejecting it from their 
preparation of the ipecacuanha powder. 

Nobody, so far as I know, has repeated the experiments, 


* From Annales dé Chimie; tom. lvii. p. 28. 
announced 


14 On the emetic Property of the 


announced by Murray, and extremely well described in the 
memoir of Lassone jun. In order to set aside every doubt 
which may be yet raised, T shall give an account of the ex- 
periments lately made in the hospitals of Paris. 

T made choice of gray ipecacuanha, the ligneous part of 
which I separated carefully, so as to leave no doubt of any 
of the cortical part remaining. I collected 500 grammes 
(one pound), which 'I pulverized. The powder was whitish: 
I sent portions of it to the different chief apothecaries of the 
Hotel-Dieu, the Hospital of St. Anthony, and the Hospice 
de la Maternité. 

The experiments made in these different places proved 
that this part was, as announced by Murray, equally emetic 
and purgative. M. Chaussier, professor in the School of 
Medicine and physician to the Hospice de la Maternité, 
assured me that the wood of ipecacuanha had succeeded 
every time he employed it. . 

The experiments were pursued for a month at least, and 
the results were constantly the same. 

Messrs. Latour and Morisset, of the Hotel-Dieu and the 
Hospital of St. Anthony, deserve my warmest thanks; they 
traced the effects of ligneous ipecacuanha with the utmost 
precision, and they assured me they were constantly similar. 

In confirming the experiments of Messrs. Lassone and 
Cornette, which establish the emetic property of the ligneous 
part of ipecacuanha, I do not mean to announce any new 
fact; but, as [ had often heard of its inefficacy, I thought 
the best method would be to analyse ipecacuanha carefully, 
in order to put an end to all doubts on the subject. I shall 
now proceed to communicate my analysis. 

After having carefully separated the cortical and ligneous 
parts, I treated each separately, by sulpburic ether, rectified 
alcohol, and water. 

Ten grammes of the cortical part, digested in 150 grammes 
of cther, slightly coloured the liquor: the ether evaporated 
to dryness ; there remained upon the sides of the vessel seven” 
decigrammes of resinous matter, inflammable and inso- 
Juble in water, and presenting all the characters of the 
resins. 


ligneous Part of Gray Ipecacuanha. V5 


An equal quantity of the cortical part yielded by the 
medium of rectified alcohol six decigrammes of resin. 

This same part of the root in the same quantity, digested 
in 200 grammes of distilled water, furnished by evaporation 
a dry extract weighing one gramme eight decigrammes. 
This extract is entirely soluble in water, of a citrine colour, 
and of a slightly biiter taste. 

Lastly, the same substance, treated by boiling water in 
the same proportions, yielded a greater quantity of extrac 
tive matter’by nearly two grammes five decigrammes. 

I now operated upon the ligneous part in the same man- 
ner with the same agents, and I obtained the following re- 
sults : 

Ist, By the sulphuric ether, three decigrammes of resin. 

2d, By rectified alcohol, two decigrammes five centi- 
grammes of resin. 

3d, By cold water, one gramme four decigrammes of dry 
extract, 

4th, By boiling water, two grammes and eight decigram- 
mes of extractive matter. 

It often happens that alcohol dissolves more soluble matter 
than ether ; this diflerence is owing to the fluid taking off 
with the resin a small quantity of extract, but it is easy to 
separate it. 

In order to ascertain which of those two parts excited 
vomiting, or if both of them had equally an emetic and 
purgative property, I tried each of them separately in the 
hospitals of Paris. 

From the observations of medical practitioners it results 
that the resinous part, in a dose of four grains, possesses a 
decisive emetic and purgative property. 

The method of administering it consists in mixing the 
resin with a small quantity of sugar, and adding thirty or 
fifty grammes of water. 

As to the extractive part, the effects were the same ; but 
the dose was greater, namely, about six or eight grains. 

After this short explanation it is easy to see, that if the 
cortical part of the root of ipecacuanha and the ligneous part 
both contain the same principles, they should enjoy the 

same 


16 On.the ligneous Part of Gray Ipecacuanka. 


same properties, although there.is a wery small iidicdase 
between the proportions of resin'and of extract they furnish, 
+» The cortical part, exposed to the action of boiling water, 
swells wp like Bassora gum; tredted with the nitric acid, am 
the proportion of six parts of acid, of thirty degrees, to one 
of the bark, there is a good'deal of nitrous vapours liberated, 
and malic acid is obtained as.the residue: this leads us to 
regard this matter not as’a resin, but as a particular gum 
mixed with resin and extract, which alone give it an emetic 
property; for I am certain that this matter has no property 
at all, after experienced the action of alcohol and 
water. 

But there is a fact of which no author, to my knowledge, 
has spoken: Every time we hoil the cortical part, the de- 
coction becomes turbid, and a. kind of cloud is formed in 
the liquor: if it is filtered a whitish matter is deposited, 
which at first I took for glue, but when well examined it 
presented some of the properties of caoutchouc. It becomes - 
coloured \after some time without experiencing any altera- 
tion; is easily dissolved in ether and alcohol: at 60 degrees. 
This particular matter, which I am certain ts an elastic gum, 
retains a great quantity of feculum. 

An ani ftisiond of the cortical part i088 by the re-agents 
the following results : 

It strongly reddens the colour of turnsole. 

The solution of glue does not change the transparency a 
the liquor. 

The sulphuric acid makes it very turbid. 

The nitrate of silver forms a white precipitate. 

The muriate of barytes forms no precipitate. 

The tartrites of potash and of antimony form no precipi- 

. tate. 
The oxalate of ammonia furnishes a slight precipitate. 
The same results are got from an infusion of the ligneous 
. part, 4 

Decoctions of the ligneous and cortical parts act in the 
game manner. 

These experiments seem to prove that the root of ipeca= 


cuanha contains, 1st, free acid of a vegetable nature decom 
posable 


Memoir upon Coffee: ' 17 
posablé by the action of calorie; 2d, different salts with a 
base of lime: in short, that the cortical and ligneous parts 
contain very nearly“the same materials; which confirm the 
experiments of Lassorie and Cornette, and tinosé recently 
made in the hospitals of Paris. . 
_ This root, distilled in the naked fire in a small glass re- 
tort well luted, yielded the following products; water, oil, 
acetous acid containing oil, and elastic fluids. 

In my last analysis I incinerated the root of ipecacuanha : 
thirty grammes of it placed in a crucible were reduced to a 
small quantity of ashes, which, being leyed, yielded very 
little saline matter, about fifteen centigrammes of sulphate 
of lime, mixed with a small quantity of a muriate of a kind 
I did not know, 

Such is the result of my experiments. I hope they will 
remove all uncertainty, and be productive of some utility. 


V. Memoir upon Coffee. By C. L. Caner, Apothecary 
in Ordinary to the Imperial Household *, 


Cuemreat researches are often directed to the analyses of 
substances more curious than useful; while those which are 
familiar to every one, and in daily use, are but too much 
neglected. Such were the considerations which induced me 
to undertake the following experiments upon that salutary 
article of nourishment—coffee. 

When we reflect that this colonial produce takes out of 
France more than thirty millions annually, and that it oc- 
tasions an immense consumption of sugar, always to the 
advantage of foreigners, it certainly becomes chemists to 
examine its nature and explain its medicinal virtues. 

Bourdelin, Geoffroy, Rihiner, and some others, have al- 
teady published analyses of coffee; but their labours have 
taught us nothing, because science, at the time they wrote, 
was not far enough advanced, and they wanted the most 
useful re-agents. Without thinking myself wiser than they, 


* From Annales de Chimie, tom. lviii. p- 266. 


Vol. 26. No. 101. Oct, 1806. B T shall 


18 Memoir upon Coffee. 


I shall perhaps be more fortunate in throwing light upor 
this substance, in a manner as yet new. 


Examination of drt y Coffee. 


ob Coffee treated with Water-—When boiling water is 
poured upon dry coffee, such as we meet with in the shops, 
the water becomes yellowish green *. . If the action of heat 
is continued, the decoction becomes brown, and a slight 
scum is formed, which remains insoluble; when filtered it 
passes very clear, and becomes turbid upon cooling. A 
little caustic potash poured into this decoction makes it 
more brown. Ammoniaproduces the same effect. Lime 
water produces an, abundant flaky precipitate ; sulphate of 
iron converts it into a black ink. Solution of gelatine does 
not become turbid upon being mixed with this decoction. 
The oxymuriatic acid only partly discolours it; arid if any 
alkali is added to the mixture it becomes red. 

Distillation.—I distilled eight pounds of water over a 
pound of dry coffee. I obtained a very aromatic water, on 
which floated’ some drops of a concrete oil like that of the 
myrica cerifera. The decoction remaining in the alembic 
_was viscous... I dilutedit a little with water, and poured 
alcohol into it; an abundant matter was precipitated, which 
being, collected on the. filter, was soluble in water; and had 
all the characters. of a mucilage. The coffee from which 
the water had been. distilled, dried in a stove, and digested 
in alcohol, furnished a tincture which precipitated by means 
of water. 

The watery decoction of dry coffee ee not redden the 
blue vegetable colours + it even gives a green colour to turn~+ 
sole tincture. Every chemist who has analysed coffee before 
my time has. said that.the decoction holds a free acid su- 
spended in, it, which reddens the blue) vegetable colours. 
Geoffroy has even gone the length of asserting that water 
distilled from epiee in B.M. became very acid. I have 
tried five different varieties of coffee, and repeated my ex- 


‘ When the coffee is newly gathered, its decoction is of a superb emerald. 
green. Alac may be then made of it. .M. Dupont de Nemours assured me 
that he made use of it as one of the tints for colouring maps. 


periments 


Memoir upon Coffee. 19 
befitnents more than twenty times, but the decoction never 
was acid. 

It decomposes sulphate of alumine and precipitates the 
earth from it, which it colours feebly. wag 

Dry Coffee treated by Alcohol.—An infusion of alcohol 
and dry coffee, even in the cold, becomes slightly coloured, 
and holds in solution a very abundant extracto-resinous prin- 
ciple. If water is poured in, the solution becomes milky, 
and the resin is precipitated of a dirty white. With a so- 
lution of sulphate of iron the precipitate is green; with the 
muriatic acid it is fawn-coloured. Coffee, when exhausted 
by alcohol and afterwards treated with water, still farnishes 
some extract and mucilage, 

It may be concluded from these first experiments that 
dried coffee contains, 1st, An aromatic principle soluble in 
water: 2d, A very small. quantity of essential oil: 3d, An 
abundant resin:' 4th, A gum in greater quantity: 5th, Gallic 
acid, but no tannin: 6th, Extractive matter: and, 7th, 
A little alumine. 

Observations. 

If the warm filtered decoction becomes turbid on cooling, 
it is because it holds in solution, on account of the heat, a 
little resin. |The alkalis make it brown; the usual effect of 
these re-agents upon vegetable decoctions. Lime water pre- 
cipitates it, because, on the one hand, gallate of lime is 
formed; and, on the other hand, the extracto-gummous 
matter unites itself to the earth and takes it down with it. 
There is even sulphate of alumine in it. Spirit of wine se- 
parates the mucilage from it, because the gums are not so« 
luble in alcohol; and water precipitates the alcoholic tinc- 
ture, because water does not dissolve resins. This precipi- 
tate becomes white when water is used, on account of its 
extrome minuteness ; green by the sulphate of iron, because 
it is mixed with the gallate of iron; fawn-coloured by the 
oxymuriatic acid, because oxygen acting on resin sets free a 
little carbon. The insoluble scum which is formed upon 
the decoction is a vegetable albumen coagulated by boiling 
water. To obtain this it is necessary that the water stand 
some time cold upon the coffee before heating it. 

. Be General 


20 Memoir upon Coffee. 

General Proportions of the above constituent Parts.—Al- 
though it may be of little service to ascertain the proportions 
of the immediate principles of coffee, since these proportions 
must vary on account of the greater or less maturity or rich- 
ness of the article, yet I considered it my duty to estimate 
these proportions as nearly as possible. After several com- 
parative experiments; I found that eight ounces of coffee 
yielded about one ounce of mucilage, one drachm of resin, 
one drachm of extracto-colouring matter, 33 drachms of 
gallic acid, five ounces 31 drachms of parenchyme, and ten 
grains of vegetable albumen. 

I compared the decoctions and tinctures of the three dried 
coflees of Bcurbon, Moka, and Martinique. Bourbon and 
Martinique coffee seemingly furnished the same principles 
in the same proportions. That of Moka differs essentially 
from the rest. Its decoction was much less saturated, its 
alcoholic tincture was higher coloured than similar tinctures 
of the Bourbon and Martinique coffees; it contains less 
gum, less gallic acid, more resin, and more aroma than the 
others. 


Roasted Coffee. 


In order to ascertain the changes produced upon coffee 
by roasting, I examined the phenomena which took place. 
while it was burnt in the open air. 

At first it augments in volume as it is penetrated by calo- 
ric; it crackles aud becomes fawn-coloured; the pellicle 
which envelops the bean is detached ; as it is very light and 
slender, it flies off with the least breath. |The coffee then 
emits a very agreeable aromatic flavour. This vapour in- 
creases in its intenseness, the bean smokes and becomes 
brown: the smell then changes and becomes slightly em- 
pyreumatic ; the coffee exudes and. becomes oily at its sur- 
face* ; it ceases to smoke; and if the action of the fire is 
continued the coffee is charred. 


# M. Parmentier enveloped roasted coffee, when in a state of exudation, 
in filtering paper, which imbibed the oil, and remained greasy and transpa- 
rent upwards ef a year: this supposes the existence of a fat oil in this grain. 
I could not obtain any such oil, however, in a separate state, either by ex- 
pression, ebullition, or the caustic alkalis: 

The 


Memoir upon Coffce. 21 


The interval between roasted coffee becoming higher co- 
loured and its being charred, is so Jong, that it is extremely 
difficult to determine the point when it is necessary to stop, 
in order to preserve the agreeable properties of the beans ; 
but, in order to approximate to this point, so important to 
ascertain, I reckoned thrée distinct epochs in the roasting: 
ist, The bean loses its natural colour and passes to that of 
bread-raspings or dry almonds: 2d, The coffee becomes of 
the brownish red colour of Indian chestnuts: 34, Although 
almost black, it is not, however, charred. 

I took six ounces of Martinique coffee and divided them 
into three parts, which I roasted separately, and each of 
them to one of the above three degrees. 

The two ounces, lightly roasted, of the colour of dry al- 
monds, lost two drachms in the fire; this I shall call the 
first degree. 

The two-ounces roasted of’ the chestnut colour lost three 
drachms: this was my second degree. 

The two ounces roasted black lost three drachms forty- 
._ eight grains: third degree. 

No. 1. passed through the mill with difficulty *. A cold 
infusion of it contained tannin, and precipitated the solu- 
tion of gelatine. _ Its taste was strongly aromatic ¢; its fla- 
vour was that of almonds; it had no bitterness, and had a 
decisive green colour. A warm infusion had the same aro- 


* M. Cadet de Vaux, my uncle, has remarked, that to grind roasted coffee 
is not the best method, by bruising it ina mortar much more of the aroma is 
preserved. ¢ 

+ The desire of retaining the aroma which is dissipated at too strong heat 
has suggested two processes, not akogether useless; the one is in use in India 
and France, and consists in putting a little fresh beer upon the cotfee when it 
begins to colour in roasting in the cylinder: as much beer must only be used 
as will slightly varnish the surface of the grains. The beer retains a part of 
the essential oil which would have been evaporated. This is not a bad me- 
thod, but it sometimes gives the coffee a flavour which does not suit every 
one’s palate. ‘lhe other process consists in spreading the roasted coffee while 
hot and exuding, upon white paper, and then strewing it lightly over with 
sugar: the sugar absorbs the oil of the coffee and retains the aroma. This 
method, in my opinion, does not add to the agreeable qualities of the coffee, 
and makes one uncertain what quantity of sugar to put into a cup of coffee. 


B3 matic 


20 Memoir upon: Coffee. 


matic qualities; its taste resembled that of almond cake z 


it was not bitter, and was not so green as the former. 

No.2. was more easily ground. .A-cold infusion of it 
furnished Jess tannin, ‘its aromatic flavour was weaker, its 
taste more sugary ; it was neither bitter nor green. A warm 
infusion neither yielded more taste nor more aroma. 

No. 3. was very easily powdered. A cold infusion was 

almost free from aroma}; its taste was empyreumatic, anda 
little bitter ; it formed a precipitate scarcely perceptible with 
solution of gelatine: the warm infusion was more bitter, more 
empyreumatic, and the aroma was more distinct. 
. All these infusions contained mucilage and galli¢ acid, 
but in an inverse progression to the tannin; because the 
proportions of gum and acid increased with the roasting, 
whereas ihe tannin diminished. 

M. Bouillon-Lagrange, in a very excellent paper upon 
gall-nuts, has already considered the gallic acid as a modi- 
fication of tannin: these experiments support his opinion. 

Roasted Coffee.—As the immediate principles of coffee 


are not equally soluble or volatile, it was necessary to exar » 


mine comparatively the cold and warm infusions of the 
three kinds of coffee, as well as their decoctions. 
Infusion in cold Water.—i poured eight ounces of distilled 
water upon one ounce of roasted and ground coffee; I al- 
lowed it to infuse two hours, and I filtered it. The infu- 
sion was of avery clear brown; did not redden paper; be- 
came black by the sulphate of iron ; and slightly precipitated 
the solution of gelatine. Alcohol separated from it a little 
mucilage, and gave the infusion the smell of juniper.. Moka, 
Bourbon, and Martinique coffee, presented the same cha- 
racters. 
- Infusion in warm Water.—t infused, for a quarter of an 
-hour, one ouince of roasted and ground coffee in eight ounces 
of water at 70° (158° Fahr.). This infusion did not redden 
turnsole paper; did not precipitate solution of gelatine; and 
formed ink with sulphate of iron. Alcohol separated more 
gum from it than from the cold infusion. The three kinds 
of coffee acted in the same manner in these experiments. 
Decoction. 


Memoir upon Coffee. 23 


Decoction—I boiled two ounces.of. ground coffee in, one 
pound of water for two hours. The decoction had.an infis 
nitely less agreeable and Jess aromatic smell than the infu- 
sion. It did not change the colour of blue papers did not 
precipitate the solution of gelatine; and became, black with 
the sulphate of iron. Alcohol separated much more mnuci- 
laze from it than is found in equal proportions of the infu; 
sion. The three kinds of coffee yielded the same results, ., 

If we boil, for a long time in the, open air, a filtered and 
Jimpid decoction of coffee, it becomes turbid-and depgsits a 
black powder, which has been sometimes: taken for resin, 
but it is only a highly oxygenated extract. Physicians and 
apothecaries have not yet sufficiently well ascertained. the 
action of the atmospheric air upon vegetable decoctions'; 


‘they might derive some experience of the greater or less 


energy of certain remedies from experiments on this subject. 

Extract of Coffee.—The decoction of coffee, filtered and 
evaporated to the consistence of an extract, has no longer 
the aromatic smell of the infusion; its taste is bitter; heated 
with alcohol the extract colours the liquor, but this colour is 
not precipitated by water. “From this we may conclude that. 
the decoction of coffee, when it is filtered or has rested some 
time, contains no resin, ' 

Alcoholic Tincture of roasted Coffee —Roasted coffee di- 
gested in alcohol yiclds a strong coloured tincture, which 
precipitates, by means of water, a greater quantity of resin 
as the coffee is dry or green. _ In green coffee the resinous 
matter is white; in the tincture of roasted. coffee it is fawne 
coloured, 


T. 


Observations,.. 


Tt results from these experiments that roasting deyelops 
jn coffee odorous and resinous principles, and forms tannin, 
which is only soluble in cold'water$ a very singular pheno- 
menon. The gallic acid manifests itself in cofice at allthe 
temperatures of the water-employed. to dissolve it, .. The 


gum and the colouring extractive matter are more abundant 


in decoctions than in infusions; but the aromatic principle 

is more sensible and more agreeable in the latter. 
Roasted Coffee distilled.—I distilled several litres of water 
B4 fron 


o4 Memoir upon Coffee. 


fron roasted coffee } this water was saturated with the aroma 
of the coffee, and it carried with it some particles of concrete 
essential oil, like that obtained from the distillation of dry 
coffee, The re-azents did not demonstrate the abe 3 of 
any substance in solution in this water. 

Infusions and Decoctions compared.—Iin order to ascertain 
the different solubility of the principles of coffee, it remained 
to submit the same roasted powder to the successive action . 
of infusion and decoction. I therefore placed two ounces 
of coffee in a filter, I poured cold water upon it until the 
re-ayents ceased to indicate to me the presence of any mat- 
ters in solution. Sixty-eight ounces of cold water must have 
been employed to clear this coffee of its soluble matter. T 
divided these washings into seventeen portions of four ounces 
each, as they came thtoudh the filter, “All’ these seventeen 
portions contained the allie acid in proportion to their order 
of priority ; the four first contained gum, and the first alone 
precipitated the solution of size, which showed the presence 
of tannin, : 

The coffee, withdrawn from the filter, was dried in a 
stove; I afterwards poured upon it eight ounces of water 
heated to 75° (167° of Fahr.); the smell of this secondary 
infusion was agreeable, but weaker than that of coffee which 
is prepared for the table : when examined by the re-agents 
it furnished a little mucilage and a good deal of gallic acid, 
1 found neither tannin nor resin in It. 

I took once more-the same coffee, washed cold and in- 
fused warm as above described, and boiled it in six ounces 
of water until it was reduced to four. This decoction con 
tained a great deal of gum and gallic acid, little aroma, and 
yielded by the re-agents no signs of tannin or resin, 

Olservations, 


~ 


These experiments prove that cold water clears roasted 
coffee of the little tannin which it contains, of a part of its 
extractive matter, of a great part of its aroma;-but it only 
takes off a small postion of its gallic.acid and its gum. We 
have already seen that a warm infusion is more saturated 
with these last principles, but that its aroma is weaker. In 

short, 


Memoir upon Coffee. 23 


short, it will be recollected that the decoction, when pro- 
Jonged, dissipates, in a great measure, the aromatic smell, 
and is highly charged wai gum and gallic acid. If there is 
any resin in it, it 1s only i in suspension ; shit injures the trans- 
parency of the liquor, and it is precipitated by repose. 

Ashes of Coffee.—Although it is almost indifferent to 
know what coffee contains when reduced to ashes, I inci- 
nerated about half a pound of it: the ashes were light; 
washed in distilled water, they only presented a little lime 
to my analysis, and but very little potash. I sharpened 
this ley with a little nitric acid, and the filtered solution 
precipitated in a fine blue prussiate of potash, and was 
abundantly precipitated by the oxalic acid. Barytes did not 
alter it; it beeame white with the nitrate of silver. Thus 
the ashes of coffee. are composed of charcoal, lime, and 
muriate of potash. I did not think it w ort sani to esti- 
mate the proportions. 

I thought I had here terminated my ed i but M. Par- 
mentier has lately read in the Pharmaceutic Society a long 
essay upon coffee by M. Payssé, who has already published 
some very interesting works. It is said in this essay, Ist, 
That the precipitate formed by the mixture of the decoction 
of coffee with the sulphate of iron, is only soluble in the ni- 
tric, sulphuric, phosphoric, or oxalic acids: 2d, That coffee 
contains no gallic acid: 3d, That it contains a particular 
acid, sui generis, which the author calls coffic acid, and 
which he obtained by following the process of M. drsnead: 
‘consisting in making a detoction of raw coffee, filtering it, 
precipitating it by the muriate of tin, and decomposing the 
precipitate by sulphuretted hydrogen gas. 

The authority of the name of Chenevix, and the exacti- 
tude with which M. Payssé makes his observations, induced 
me to make several experiments to confirm the new facts 
they had announced. 

I boiled, for two hours, two ounces of Bourbon coffee in 
half a pound of water ; this decoction presented me with the 
same phenomena J had already seen; it assumed a yellowish 
green tint, which became more lively by the separation of a 
little albumen, and oxygenated extractive was precipitated. 

This 


£6 Memoir upon Coffee. 
This decoction, when filtered, turned into ig gtpen the aqueous 
tincture of turnsole, 4 

I mixed a part of this decoction with a solution of sul- 
phate of iron, and I obtained a precipitate of a very. deep 
blue, drawing towards black; I redissolved this precipitate 
by the oxymuriatic ecid, by weak and strong acetic acid, 
by the tartarous acid, the citric acid, and even by:the ben 
zoic acid, 

The muriatic acid changed, the Tiquor i into yellow ; aark it 
resumed its transparency on depositing a heayy precipitate of 
oxygenated extractive. . This. precipitate, redissolved by am- 
monia, gave a fine red brown colour to the liquor... 

The immediate precipitate of the sulphate. of iron, dis- 
solved by the acetic acid acted like the former, the 
colour only excepted, which was violet blue; it was, be- 
sides, redissolved by ammonia. The other acids yielded 
nearly the same precipitate as the muriatic acid. . Their ac 
tion, in general, followed the ratio of acidities, , 

I treated in the same manner some precipitate of sulphate 
of iron obtained by the gallic acid, and the results presented 
no differences from the Porabers 

T precipitated by the muriate of tin what remained of the 
coffee in decoction.. This salt occasioned a very abundant 
deposit in the liquor. I washed the pvecipitate until the 
washings no longer exhibited any signs of acidity; I after- 
wards put. this metallic compound in a Woolf’s bottle, and 
I poured plenty of distilled water on it. I placed the appa- 
tatus of Woolf so.as to cause sulphuretted hydrogen gas to 
pass over the precipitate. As soon as the first portions of 
gas began to pass, the mixture acquired a brown colour, © 
which became darker in proportion as the liquor was satu- 
rated with sulphuretted hydrogen gas. The precipitate was 
decomposed ; there was formed a. hydro-sulphuret. of tin, 
and the liberated acid passed into the liquor. . This liquor, 
fiitered, was evaporated at a gentle heat until it was reduced 
to one-eighth. This product, supposed by M, Payssé to 
be coffic acid, seemed to me to be nothing else than gallic 
acid. Not only did I submit it to the action of all the re- 
agents, comparatively with the acid drawn from. gall-nuts 

by 


Memoir upon Coffee. 27 


by the ordinary method; but, in order to leave no doubt on 
this subject, gall-nuts by the same process. The muriate 
of tin formed a more abundant precipitate in the latter than 
in coffee; this precipitate, decomposed, like the former, by 
the sulphuretted hydrogen gas, yielded mean acid of the 
same colour and the same taste, enjoying the same proper- 
ties, and presenting no difference except in the proportions, 
I then thought I might conclude that the coffic acid does 
not exist, but that coffee contains less gallic acid than gall- 
nuts. 

It is possible that this gallic acid may present, in its com 
binations and compounds, some slight shades which make 
it differ a little from the acid produced from oak-galls, but 
itis not the jess of the same nature. We know that the 
immediate materials of vegetables, although of the. same 
species and perfectly analogous, are not rigorously identi- 
cally the same; the gums and the saccharine matters pre- 
sent variations in their physical properties ; nevertheless the 
saccharine substance and mucilage are the same when ch¢- 
Phically considered *, 

Proust has proved that tannin, obtained from several ve- 
getables, presents differences, It is possible, therefore, that 
the gallic acid drawn from coffee is not absolutely the samg 
as that of galls; but it is by no means a distinct acid. 


Recapiiulation. 


It seems to be demonstrated by the above analysis that 
the coffee-berries (as known in commerce) contain muci+ 
Jage in abundance, a good deal of gallic acid, a resin, a con- 
crete essential oil, some albumen, and a volatile aromati¢e 
principle. ‘To these principles we may add those which are 
found in most vegetables, viz. lime, potash, charcoal, iron, 
&c.t Roasting develops the soluble principles ; but it ought 

to 

* The feculum of potatoes does not resemble that of wheat; the latter 
differs from that of sago, arum, maize, &c.; nevertheless, all the chemists 


tell us that it is an amylaceous substance, and they acknowledge the same 
principal characters in all of them. 


+ The presence of iron in a vegetable is a common thing, but the pre- 
sence of iron in a vegetable which contains plenty of gallic acid, without this 
5 acid 


£8 Memoir upon Coffee. 


to be moderate if we wish to preserve the aroma, and not 
decompose the acid, the gum, and the resin, if 

Roasting adds a new principle, which is tannin, in very 
small quantity ; the cold infusion is very aromatic, but a 
little charged with mucilage and gallic acid; the warm in- 
fusion preserves the aroma, and the principles dissolved are 
in such proportions as to please the palate; the decection 
has little aroma, and is strongly saturated with gum and 
gallic acid; the resin itself may perhaps be suspended in it; 
it 1s less acreeable than the infusion. 

Bourbon and Martinique coffee present no differences be- 
tween them; but that of Moka, as already remarked, is 

_more aromatic, less gummous, and more resinous. It is 
probable that the resin of coffee, like that of most of the 
astringent vegetables, has peculiar medicinal properties, As 
we cannot obtain it either by the infusion or the aqueous 
decoction, the habitual use of coffee can throw no light upou 
its action in the animal ceconomy ; it belongs to physicians 
alone to make useful experiments on this subject. 

If I may be allowed to draw any precepts from this ana® 
lysis applicable to the ceconomical use of coffee, I should 
say that it is pessible to drink most excellent coffee from all 
the kinds of it known in commerce, provided it is not adul- 
terated. Amateurs require three qualities in the coffee-they 
use; they wish to find an agreeable aroma in it, a slightly 
bitter taste, a fine colour, and a certain density which they 
call body*. {n order to attain all these advantages, I think 
that good coffee ought to be had in the following manner: 

ist, Choose a dry grain, which has no mouldy or sea 
taste. 

ed, Divide the quantity to be roasted into two equal 


parts. ; 
3d, Roast the first part merely until i it fa the colour of 


acid being combined with it and giving a blue or black colour to the vege- 
table, is a very remarkable phenomenon. kt seemed to me to be worthy of 
inquiry, and I made a comparative analysis of the ashes of gallnuts, when I 
also found a remarkable quantity of iron. 

* Some orientalists set so much value on this density that they reduce their 
cofee toa very fine powder, leave the meal in the infusion, and drink it 


thick like soup. Fr 
a f 


On Visions 3g 
dry almonds or bread-raspings, and has lost an eighth of 
ils weight. 

4th, “Roast the second portion until it is of a chestnut- 
brown, and has lost a fifth of its weight. 

5th, Mix these two parts together, and grind or rather 
bruise them in a mortar. 

6th, Neither roast nor infuse your coffee until the very 
day you mean to drink it. 

7th, Pour upon four measures of coffee* four goes of 
cold water: drain this infusion apart. 

8th, Pour upon the same coffee three cups of boiling wa- 
ter, and mix the former cold water with this infusions We 
ought to get six cups of good coffee from this. 

gth, Heat this coffee briskly at the moment of taking it, 
but do not allow it to boil. 
10th, Make use of a porcelain, an earthen, or a silver 
vessel for this infusion. 

Such is the process recommended by theory; and I have 
experienced that it is also the most ceconomical one. 


VI. Reply to certain Remarks made by a Writer in the 
- 5th Numler of the Retrospect of Philosophical, Sc. Dis- 
coveries, on a Paper in the 24th Volume of the Philoso= 
phical Magazine. To which are added, Observations on 
Vision, when terrestrial Objects are seen through a Mist. 
To Mr. Tilloch. ; 
SIR, Lynn, Oct. 8, 1806. 
y paper on the Theory of the horizontal Moon, in 
the 24th volime of the Philosophical Magazine, p. 240, 
has been reviewed in the 5th number of the Retrospect ina 
manner which shows how ill qualified the writer is to exa- 
mine this ‘merits or defects” of ‘ philosophical disco- 
yeries.”” 
«© Mr. Walker commences his paper,” says this writer, 
‘* on this interesting topic, by some remarks on preceding 
hypotheses, delivered in a flippant style, but ill comporting 


3” 


* A measure is half an ounce. 
with 


30 On Vision. 
with the dignity of candid philosophical discussion.” Then, 
After giving an imperfect account of my theory, he com-' 
mences his FoBservatlon’ thus : 

<< Tt will be seen, that, although Mr. Walker's hypo- 
thesis is supported by the authority ‘of mathematical demon-. 
stration, it may, notwithstanding, be inadmissible, since 
there is a principle ‘assumed in the demonstration which 
is not completely established. Is Mr. Walker certain that 

the figure of the crystalline, its position in the eye, the di- 
stance from the pupil to the retina at the back of the eye, 
or, in other words, the general dimensions and conforma- 
tion of the eye, continue unchanged, while the magnitude 
of the pupil varies? If he be, he has attained conviction on 
@ point respecting which Harris, Wood, Porterfield, and 
others of our best writers on vision, have still many doubts. 
Yet, unless this be a decided point, we conceive the whole 
of Mr. Walker’s demonstration nugatory.” 

Ft does not appear, from the above observations, that the 
writer knows whether my theory is true or false; all that he 
has been able to discover is, (and that, it seems, not without 
some difficulty,) that if my data be pie ** he conceives the 
whole of my demonstration nugatory.’ 

. Now, sir, my deibuirsteation: depends no more upon the | 
string of questions mentioned by this writer, nor on the 
doubts which, he says, our best writers on vision have re- 
specting them, than it does upon the shining of a Troston 
glow-worm*, 

For all the data that T have used in my demonstration 
are. well-known truths. . As the crystalline lens converges 
the rays of light to a focus, mot only when it is in the eye, 
but after it is taken out, it is evident, that when heteroge~ 
neal rays are thus collected by the crystalline,a circle of aber- 
ration is formed in its focus, which varies in magnitude: 
with the pupil; for the same law of aberration obtains i 
all convex lenses composed of dense refracting mediums. 
Hence the image of an object in the focus of the crystalline 
Jens increases with the pupil; and this is a property of the 


* See Monthly Magazine for August 1806, p. 103. 


3" eye 


On Vision. 3h 
eye that is incontrovertible. In short, these observations 
on my Theory, although they come in the borrowed dress 
of © candid philosophical discussion,” ate mere subterfuges 
opposed to mathematical demonstration. 

- Although the phenomenon of the rising moon has at- 
tracted the attention of men in all ages, yet a more extra- 
ordinary optical illusion, arising from the same cause, takes 
place when terrestrial objects are seen through a mist. Mr. 
Dunn, who has given a long dissertation on the phenome- 
non of the horizontal moon in the Philosophical Transac- 
tions, vol. Ixiv. observes, that ** mountains themselves, at 
a distance, sometimes appear larger than at other times. 
Cattle, houses, trees, all objects on the summit of a hill, 
when seen through a fog, and at a proper distance, appear 
enlarged. 
The following article is taken from the Ency. Brit, 
vol. xvii. p. 681. 
<< The writer of this article was passing the frith of Forth 
at Queensferry, near Edinburgh, one morning which was 
extremely foggy. Though the water be only two miles 
broad, the boat did not get within sight of the southern 
shore till it approached very near it. He then saw, to 
his great surprise, a large perpendicular rock, where he 
knew the shore was low and almost flat. As the boat ad- 
vanced a little nearer, the rock seemed to split perpendicu~ 
larly into portions, which separated at a little distance from 
one another. He next saw these perpendicular divisions 
move; and upon approaching a littie nearer, found it was 
a Sites of people standing on the beach, w vaiting the ar- 
rival of the ferry-boat.” 
The following extract of a letter, which now lies before 
me, is given as another instance of this property of vision. 
This letter I received soon after my papers on the Theory of 
the horizontal Moon were published in: the Philosophical 
Journal, from a gentleman on whose veracity I can ig 
the greatest confidence: 
* T beg leave (says this gentleman) to offer my testimony 
to that part of your first letter respecting terrestrial objects 
seen through 2 mist. When I was a young man, I was, 


like 


38 On Vision: 
like others, fond of sporting, and seldom liked to miss 4 
day if I could any way go out. From my own house I set 
out on foot and pursued my diversion on a foggy days and 
after I had been out some time the fog or mist increased to 
so great a degree, that however familar the hedges, trees; 
&c. were to me, I lost myself, insomuch that ¥ did not 
know whether I was going to or from home: In W. 
field, where T then was, I stiddenly diseovered what I ima= 
gined was a well known hedge-row, interspersed with pol- 
lard trees, &c:, under which I purposed to proceed home- 


ward; but to my great surprise, tipon approaching this ap-. 


pearance, I discovered a row of the plants known. by the 
name of rag, and by the vulgar canker-weed, growing on 2 
meer balk dividing ploughed fields; the whole height of both 
could not exceed three feet or hice feet and a half: It 
struck me so forcibly that I shall never forget it: this, too, 
in a field which 1 knew as well as any man could know a 
field.’ 

The following account respecting the effects of mist on 
vision, was related to me on the spot where it happened : 

A shepherd upon one of the mountains in Cumberland 
was suddenly enveloped with a thick fog or mist, through 
which every object appeared so greatly increased in magni+ 
tude, that he no longer knew where he was. In this state 


of confusion he wandered in search of some known. object, 


from which he might direct his future steps: . Chance, at 
last, brought this lost shepherd within sight of what he sup- 
posed to be a very large mansion, which he did not remem- 
ber ever to have seen before; but on his entering this vi- 
sionary castle to inquire his way home, he found it inha- 
bited by his own family. It.was nothing more than his 
own cottage. But his organs of sight had so far misled his 
mental faculties, that some little time elapsed before he could 
be convinced that he saw real objects. Instances of the 
same kind of illusion, though not to the same degree, are 
not unfrequent in those mountainous regions. 

From these effects of mist on vision, it is evident that the 
pupil, and the picture of an object within the eye, increase 
at the samme time. 


The 


Analytical Essay on Asparagus. 33 


The author of a paper in the Supplement to the Ency. 
Brit. vol. ii. p. 641, informs us that, ‘ according as we look 
at an object more or less juminous, these variations (of the 
pupil) are so great, that in the observable variations of the 
human eye the aperture is thirty times as large at one time 
as at another.” 

Whence it may be easily understood, that a cottage, seen 
through a thick fog, may form as large a picture in the eye 
as a castle when strongly illuminated by the sun’s rays. 

I am, sir, 
Your humble servant, 
Ez. WALKER. 


VII. Analytical Essay on Asparagus. By M. Rostaver 
junior, Apothecary at Vale de Grace*. 


Some time ago M. Parmentier engaged the apothecaries of 
the Military Hospital to repeat the experiments of M. An- 
toine on asparagus, for the sake of giving us a subject of 
study fit to exercise us. My colleagues gave it specially i in 
charge to me to follow this labour ; auf I undertook the task 
with pleasure, conceiving, at first, that it would be an easy 
one. But as my first essays created some doubts in my 
mind respecting the truth of the facts which had been an- 
nounced, and as there are besides many vegetable substances 
of which the distinguishing properties are but little known, 
I was necessarily involved in very considerable embarrass- 
ment. I strove, however, with redoubled efforts against 
these obstacles, till I collected the facts which I have the 
honour to present to you. 

As in every analysis we should endeavour to isolate, as 
conveniently as possible, each of the substances which com- 
pose a whole; in place of following the process pointed out 
by M. Antoine, which prescribes making a strong decoc~- 
tion of asparagus, then to evaporate it to obtain the extract, 
&c., I thought it preferable to employ at first a mechanical 
analysis, that I might not be exposed to change certain sub- 


* From Annales de Chimie, tom. lv. p. 152. 


Vol. 26. No. 101. Oct.1806. C stances 


34 Analytical Essay on Asparagits. 


stances susceptible of being altered by heat: thus, after fro 
perly pounding some asparagus, I extracted the juice in thie 
ordinary manner, and passed it through fine linen with the 
intention of entirely separating the gross feculence. 

The juice in this state had an odour sufficiently strong, 
and as it were sourish ; it was of a dirty yellow, inclining a 
little to green. I filtered it to separate the feculence: this 
being well washed retained the smeli of asparagus, but more 
marked and more disagreeable; treated with boiling alcohel 
it was not entirely dissolved, and the residue, which had a 
grayish colour, presented itself under the form of light 
flakes, which, being collected with care, had the following 
characters: they were soft aud somewhat unctuous to the 
touch ; they acquired a horny consistency and much hard- 
‘ ness, and turned almost black by desiccation. During com 
bustion they gave out a smell like that of burnt horn; they 
diffused at the same time an oily smoke, and left a pretty 
compact coal. When submitted to distillation, they gave at 
first a yellowish phlegm of a milky consistence, afterwards 
carbonate of ammonia very abundantly, and towards the 
conclusion of the experiment a dark red oil in great quantity. 

When left for some days in contact with cold water, the 
flakes we have mentioned were decomposed, grew mouldy, 
and contracted a fetid odour. When boiled with distilled 
water they were not sensibly altered. 

The alkalis dissolve them entirely. Vinegar has also a 
marked action on this matter, which is insoluble in alcohol, 
especially if heat be employed. The,solution in the acetous 
acid yields a deposit: by saturation with an alkali a great 
quantity of flakes are obtained similar to the former, if we 
except the colour, which becomes less intense. I am far 
from venturing to pronounce on the. nature of this sub- 
stance; and the few experiments I have been able to make 
from the small quantity of the matter I obtained, have only 
authorized me to consider it as very much animalized, and 
to believe that probably it contributes very much to the dis- 
agreeable odour which asparagus communicates to the urine 
of those who make use of it. 

The alcohol which had been boiled upon the green fecu- 

lent 


Analytical Essay on Asparagus. 35 


lent matter was filtered while yet warm, and deposited, while 
cooling, some light jelly-like flakes, which in drying united 
in small yellowish masses, They became soft with heat, 
and diffused, when burning, an agreeable odour. They ap- 
peared to be true vegetable wax. 

The alcoholic tincture, which became slightly turbid by 
the addition of water, left as the residue of its evaporation 
a green tenacious substance, of which the taste was at first 


a little sharp, slightly bitter, and very tart; it had a smell 


\ 


also peculiarly insipid, and even nauseous; properties which 
may create a presumption that if it is a resin it is not pure, 
and that it is probably united to a portion of volatile oil. 

I think that those substances, although they are not of 
great importance, deserve to be mentioned in the analysis 
of asparagus. JI shall pass, however, to the examination of 
the filtered juice: it had a colour nearly resembling that of 
whey, though inclining a little more to yellow, and redden- 
ing very sensibly the tincture of turnsole. I exposed it to 
the action of fire, to see if it contained a small portion of 
albumen. Before ebullition it showed some flakes, of which 
the number augmented considerably in proportion as the 
heat acquired intensity. The liquor, after having been boiled 
a certain time, was filtered, to separate from it the coagu- 
Jated albumen. 

My principal object being to obtain malic acid and gela- 
tine, I evaporated (as M. Antoine had done) the liquor to 
the consistence of an extract, which I treated with alcohol 
at 39°; and after having washed the extract, obtained by 
several repetitions of the experiment, always with alcohol, 
I dissolved in water the portion that was insoluble in spirit 
of'wine ; but I did not obtain, as M. Antoine did, a residue 
which that gentleman designates by the name of an oxyge- 
nated extract. From the process he followed it was possibly 
owing to a Jittle of the albumen remaining in the solution, 
which separated in the progress of avApORAtON. But this is 
only a conjecture. 

I tried the alcoholic liquor, and was much astonished to 
obtain, by the acetate of lead, only a very slight flaky preci- 
pitate, which, according’to M. Antoine, ought to be abun- 

C2 dant, 


36 Analytical Essay on Asparagus. 


dant, since he assures us that this alcohol contains malate 
. of potash and of lime in manifest quantities. I observed, on 
the contrary, that the aqueous solution precipitated a larger 
quantity by the same reagent ; and what surprised me much 
more was, that neither the one nor the other of these preci- 
pitates was resoluble in vinegar; from whence I was able 
to conclude that it was not malate of lead, or at least that it 
was not pure. It is true, however, that the animal matter 
might very much alter the result. I again consulted the 
memoir of M. Antoine, to know if he had made mention 
of this experiment; and I saw he had, but only to support 
his opinion, that malic acid exists in asparagus. I believe 
he has been deceived on this point ; for we know that ma- 
late of lead dissolves easily in vinegar, and that it is even a 
test employed to detect the presence of sulphate of lead in 
vinegar. 

Suspecting that there existed in the juice of asparagus a 
little earth, I treated a portion of the alcoholic liquor, pro- 
perly evaporated, with the sulphuric acid diluted with three 
parts of water. IT proceeded to distillation, and there passed 
into the receiver am acid Jiquor, which did not precipitate 
the metallic solutions nor those of barytes, &c.; in a word, 
easy to be recognised as vinegar. 

The ashes of this part of the extract, which was soluble 
in alcohol, were composed, in a great measure, of potash 
and a little lime ; whence it seems natural to conclude that 
the acetic acid was combined with the potash, and that the 
supposed malic acid was combined with the hme; for I 
ought here to mention that this calcareous salt, whatever it 
may be, has the property of dissolving in acetous acid, and 
that the alcoho] always preserved a portion of it free. 

The acid contained in the juice of asparagus appearing to 
have some properties different from those assigned to known 
acids, I directed my attention chiefly to this point, and en- 
deavoured to procure it in a state of purity. For this pur- 
pose I took some juice of asparagus filtered and coagulated 
by heat ; I poured upon it the acetate of lead until it ceased 
to form any more precipitate: this, being collected and well 
washed, was treated with a third of its weight of concen- 

trated 


Analytical Essay on Asparagus. 37 


trated sulphuric acid diluted with four parts of water. Some 
moments after mixture the mass became more liquid, and 
took a beautiful rose colour. J heated it slightly to facili- 
tate the decomposition; and after some hours digestion the 
liquor was filtered; it still contained a little sulphuric acid, 
which I separated by means of caustic barytes. I again fil- 
tered it, and after having evaporated it to the consistence 
of thick syrup, I treated it with alcohol, fearing that. this 
acid had carried along with it in solution a little animal 
matter (mucilage, or of some other substance) extraneous 
to its nature, particularly a calcareous salt which was depo- 
sited in small, finc, and white needles. I presume that this 
acid is one of its constituent principles. T afterwards eva- 
porated the alcohol without making it boil, managing the 
fire very carefully towards the close of the experiment. I 
repeated this operation until, by again dissolving it in spirit 
of wine, it did not form any precipitate at all: a precaution 
necessary to have this acid in the purest pussible state. We 
_ might suspect that the acetate of lead had precipitated at the 
same time with the acid a great quantity of the matter which 
M. Antoine regards as of an animal nature, and that con- 
sequently the sulphuric acid had set free a good deal of the 
acetous acid which was mixed with that of the asparagus; but 
it is to be remarked that this pretended gluten is not precipi- 
tated, at least for the greater part, until the juice has acquired 
a certain degree of concentration. The experiment I am about 
to relate will demonstrate this very distinctly: [ poured into 
the juice so great a quantity of the acetate of lead as must 
have separated all the acid. I afterwards treated the liquor 
with sulphuretted hydrogen. It formed an abundant black 
precipitate of sulphuret of lead, which I separated by the 
filter ; 1 evaporated it, and after some time | again obtained 
a precipitate by the same reagent. 

The principal properties which I have recognised in the 
acid I have mentioned are: a colour more or less brown ac- 
cording to the degree of concentration, and very acid, leaving 
in the mouth a peculiar taste very disagreeable. It also 
gives out during its heating a very pungent odour, which 
afterwards becomes blended with another extremely fetid, 

C3 and 


38 Description of an improved Air-Pump. 

and which has much resemblance to that of burnt onions, 
M. Antoine, however, compares it to the odour of caramel, 
The alkalis form with it soluble salts, and that of soda, 
among others, of a fresh savour, slightly bitter, and which 
leaves in the mouth a taste like that of green nuts. 

Barytes, strontian, or lime, united to this acid give very 
insoluble salts, susceptible of solution in an exceys of acid, 
but difficultly: all of them present themselves under the 
form of flakes more or less light. It possesses the remark- 
able property of decomposing, in general, all the earthy 
acetates without having recourse to Wolibite affinities; it also 
decomposes several metallic solutions, and in a remarkable 
manner those of iron, which it precipitates white though 
at the maximum ; those of copper it precipitates of a blueish 
green. The acetate of lead is also precipitated in white 
flakes, which are tasoluble in vinegar. 

If in place of employing this free acid we take one of iis 
alkaline combinations, precipitates are obtained, in the so- 
lutions, of aluminous and magnesian salts; but it is neces- 
sary that the latter be very much concentrated, without 


which ae precipitates are redissolved immediately. 
[To be continued. ] 


VIII. Description of an improved Air-Pump. By 
T. SytvesTER, Esq. 


To Mr. Tilloeh, 
SIR, 


Oe of the principal causes of the imperfections in the 
air-pump arises from the difficulty i in opening the valves at 
the bottom of the barrels, which imperfection was thought 
to have been remedied by the introduction of stop-cocks ; 
but experience shows that, however accurate they may ud 
when new, after a little use they became faulty. 

{ here send you a description of an air-pump, which I 
lately executed, without either valves or stop-cock. I have 
supplied their place by a slide, which is shifted at every mo- 
tion of the piston, in a similar manner to that of a stop~ 
cock, which requires no pressure of the air to open it. It 
moves between two facings of Icather, which lessens fric- 

tion 


Descripiion of an improved Air-Pump. 39 


tion and procures a close fitting of the parts; and if after 
use it should at any time be found not air-tight, the defect 
is instantly remedied by means of four screws ; which is a 
considerable advantage over stop-cocks. The manner of its 
application is shown in fig. 1. (Plate II.); the perspective is 
considerably strained for the purpose of rendering the con- 
struction more intelligible. AB is the barrel, having a strong 
plate of brass, CDEF, firmly fixed to the bottom with two 
small holes, G and H, that enter the inside; but near the 
edge of the barrel IKLM is another plate of brass similar 
to the former, having two holes, N and O, that correspond 
with G and H. In the hole N is closely screwed the duct P, 
which leads to the receiver of the pump; and in the hole O 
is screwed the duct Q, through which the air is discharged. 
The plates, being ground smooth, are faced with leather, 
pierced opposite the holes, and smeared with grease; then 
the polished brass slide RS, fig. 2, is placed between them. 
In the slide is a-hole T, which is put over the hole N. 
The plates are then pressed together by the four screws 
V,U, W,X, which screw into nuts that are fixed into the 
bottom part of the machine; they also serve to direct the 
motion of the slide, which is drawn backwards and forwards. 
When the hole T is between N and G, the piston Y is 
drawn up, which causes the air to rush out of the receiver 
through the duct P into the barrel; the slide is then drawn 
by the ring Z, for the hole T to be between O and H. ~The 
communication between the barrel and discharging duct Q 
is opened ; the piston is then forced down, and the air is 
discharged. The slide is again shifted; which closes up the 
discharging aperture and opens the former, and the process 
is continued until the receiver is exhausted. At each end 
of the’ slide is a small ridge of brass that prevents its being 
pushed or pulled too far, so that the hole in the slide will 
exactly correspond with the’ holes in the plates. 

_If the pump has two barrels, by making the slide a little 
longer, and with two holes, it will serve both by only once 
moving ; and, from what has been said, it is evident that, 
merely by changing the motion of the slide, the machine 
will condense as well as exhaust. When the receiver is ex- 

C4 hausted, 


40 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


hausted, the air is readmitted by a stop-cock under the plate 
of the receiver. 

If you think the above improvement worth inserting in 
your Philosophical Magazine, by so doing you will greatly 
oblige i 

WW arestens Your very humble servant, | 
Sept. 12, 1806. T. SYLVESTER, 


IX. A Memoir on the best Method of meusuring Time at 
Sea, which obtained the double Prize adjudged by the 
Royal Academy of Sciences; containing the Description 
of the Longitude Watth presented to His Majesty* the 
5thof August 1766. By M.Lx Roy, Clock-maker to the 
King t. Translated from the French by Mr.T.S. Evans, 
E.L.S., of the Royal Militury Academy, Woolwich. 


A crear deal has lately been said on the subject of chro- 
nometers, more especially with regard to what is contained 
in the description given by M, le Roy of his time-keeper ; 
and the work to which that description is subjoined being 
now in the hands of very few persons, the translator thought 
this paper in English might be a valuable addition to the very 
little useful matter which we possess on that branch of me- 
chanics. It has been asserted that the greater part of the 
improvements in chronometers, lately laid before the Board 
of Longitude, are mentioned in this account of Le Roy’s ; 
the public will therefore now have it in their power to judge 


for themselves. Tate Las 
— 
Labor omnia vincit 
Improbus, Virg. Georg. lib. i. 
INTRODUCTION. 


By proposing to determine the lest method of measuring 
time at sea, the Academy appears to require, first, such a 
measure of time as may give to mariners the knowledge of 
the longitude which has been so much desired, that for many 

* Louis XV. king of France, 

+ This Memoir is subjoined to the Voyage fait par ordre du Roi en 1768, 
pour prouver les montres marines inventées par-M. Le Roy, par M. Cassini, fils. 
Paris 1770, 4to. 

ages 


i 


of measuring Time ai Sea. » 4} 


ages it has been the principal object of their researches, as 
well as of astronomers and philosophers of the greatest ce- 
lebrity. In the second place, by the expression ‘* fo deter- 
mine,” the academy appears to require also palpable proofs 
that the method proposed is the best possible. 

To comply with these requests I shall divide this memoir 
into four parts. 

In the first I shall go through the different methods hi- 
therto attempted, or which may be hereafter tried, for mea- 
suring time at sea; I shall make known the insufficiency of 
most of these methods; and I shall show that, notwithstand- 
ing the irregularities of our portable watches, we are tho- 
roughly persuaded that the best means of obtaining the 
desired measure of time consists in a kind of perfected 

watch. 

In the second part J will endeavour to point out all these 

irregularities, and to discover the different causes, physical 
or mechanical, whence they are derived, in order to be more 
in a state to correct them afterwards. 
_ The third shall contain the description of a chronometer, 
or kind of large watch, deposited with this memoir. TI shall 
show that by its construction it is exempt from the defects 
remarked in common watches, and | shall enter into the 
detail of the expedients which have. becn used in the work- 
manship to prevent them. 

Lastly, I shall terminate this memoir by a recapitulation 
or suite of observations, forming so many parallels to the 
methods which I have employed, with those that may be 
made use of with the same view. I hope to prove, by ex- 
periments and palpable reasonings, that mine must obtain 
the preference. If I succeed, I shall be well paid for twenty 
years consumed in these researches; since, besides the ho- 
nour of being crowned by the Academy of Sciences, this 
discovery concerns the good of humanity, and even the 
preservation of a number of lives. If, on the contrary, 
my labour is without success, there will remain at least the 
satisfaction of having spared no pains or expense i endea- 
vouring to fulfil the bonourabte task imposed upon me as a 
man, a patriot, and an artist. ‘ 

Part 


. 


42 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


Part f. 


Examination of different methods which ma y be tried to 
measure time at sea. 


Moving bodies being evidently the only measures of dura- 
tion or of time*, that nothing may be omitted in so im- 
portant a subject, let us first cast our eyes on those whose 
motions may appear capable of giving an exact measure’ of 
time. 

The first which present themselves are the stars. The 
perfection to which telescopes have been carried, the suc- 
cessful labours of many celebrated astronomers in the theory 
of Jupiter’s satellites, and the tables which they have given 
of their revolutions f, give us reason to believe that they will 
presently become of very great help for measuring time at 
sea: the same must be said of the theory of the moon. 

But when we shall haye given to these tables and these 
telescopes all the perfection that can be desired, we shall 
find that they are yet jnsufficient. We cannot always see 
the moon, still Iess the satellites of Jupiter: supposing, 
even, that we could obserye them as often as circumstances 
require, these observations are in some degree useless, with- 
out an instrument that would preserve the hour with exact+ 
ness after we have determined it by the sun f. 

The observations of the heavenly bodies cannot, therefore, 
entirely fulfil our wishes: Ict us therefore look among the 
bodies which are more at hand, if there be not some one 
which by motions arising from different causcs would be 
proper to give us the required measure of time. 

Those which offer themselves first to our examination are 
fluids, and solids reduced’ into insensibly small parts, form- 
ing clepsydras, or sand-glasses; bodies falling, or making 
oscillations by their gravity combined with their inertia; 
the vibrations of magnetic bodies; and those which solids 
make by the help of an elastic force, &c. By reflecting, 


* Le Monnier, Institutions Astronemiques, p.157. 
+ See the Essay on the Theory of Jupiter’s Satellites, by M. Bailly; and 
M. Jeaurat’s Tables. 
¢ This remark is M. Daniel Bernoulli’s, p. 21, of his Recherches Méchan. 
et Astron. sur la meilleure Maniere de trouver ? Heure en Mer, &c. é 
we 


of measuring Time at Sea. 43 


ave shall presently find, that of all bodies in motion, there 
are only the latter which can, with any exactness, measure 
time at sea. 

It appears, first, that all bodies, whether fluid or solid, 
moving by the effect of their gravity, are by that alone in- 
admissible in the present case. Besides that, their motion 
will be always more or less accelerated or retarded by the 
shocks that they will receive from the ship; we know also 
that their gravity is variable under different parallels : it is 
therefore not probable that we can ever correct this source 
of inequalities. 

I know of no other person, except Sully*, who in his 
marine or lever clock has pretended to have obviated them 
on this principle, that by adding, proportionally, weight to 
the balance and to the lever, the rate of the clock would not 
be changed; but the academy, in approving the efforts of 
this artist, declares in its report that 7¢ does not adopt all 
his reasonings. Nothing can be more deceitful in effect than 
that on which he founded this pretended property of his 
clock. 

To convince ourselves, let us remark, that the vibrations 
of his regulator, like those of a pendulum, are produced by 
the force of inertia combined with that of gravity; that the 
first cause operates principally on the balance, whose gra- 
vity bas no influence on the time of vibration; that the se- 
cond resides in the lever, whose inertia has very little effect, 
because it descends almost vertically ; and that, lastly, the 
time employed in each vibration depends on the proportion 
which exists between the balance and the lever, that is to 
say, the same as in the pendulum, the ratio of inertia to 
that of gravity. 

The experiment which Sully + made before the academy 
proves nothing. When by adding matter to his balance he 
augments its gravity, he makes also the force of inertia to 
increase in the same proportion; but under the pole, its 

* See the machines approved by the Academy of Sciences, and the author's 
Abridged Description. : 

+ Abridged Description, p.7. 1n this experiment Sully attempts to prove 
that the unequal gravity of bodies in different latitudes produces no change 


jn the going of his machine —T. S. E. 


gravity 


Aa Le Roy’s Memoir on the lesi Method 


eravity augmenting without its quantity of matter changing, 
iis inertia would not experience any increase. 

In heavy bodies in motion, to compensate the effect of 
their different gravity in various climates, (an effect which 
may go so far as to retard a second pendulum two minutes in 
twenty-four hours, when removed trom the parallel of Paris 
to the equator,) it would be necessary to find an expedient 
by means of which their inertia is proportioned always to 
the increase or alteration of their gravity; but the force of 
inertia of bodies, being a first and unalterable cause, this 
does not appear possible. 

In vain would they pretend to estimate the differences we 
have just spoken of, in keeping a register of the parallels 
under which they would navigate, and of the time which 
they would remain there. Besides all the difficulties of this 
method, and the very complicated calculations which it 
would require, it cannot be exact without a perfect homo- 
geneity in the different parts of the earth, which homoge- 
neity appears to be contradicted by the observations of the 
different lengths of the second pendulum made in different 
climates: it supposes, moreover, that the sailor can know, 
several times each day, at what height he 1s; which is a very 
strained supposition. 

A long detail on this subject would be-useless. We know 
sufnciently the defects of clepsydras and sand-glasses: we 
are not ignorant of the inconveniences of the sinmuland tri- 
angular pendalums, &c. proposed by M. Huygens; or of 
those coupled together by wheels acting in cach other, hike. 
those tricd by the late M. Dutertre*. Experience has suf- 
ficiently shown the defects of these methods and of many 
others, which for this reason I shall pass by in silence. 

I come now to bodies which make vibrations by their in- 
ertia, combined with that universal force which directs the 
needle of a compass. 

The celebrated Dr. Hook + havete that we might es 
it advantageously to a clock in the quality of a regulator. 
But Graham, having observed at different times, and during 


* See Thiout, Traité de’ Horlogerie, pl. 39. fig. 5—T.S. E. 
¢ Philosophical Transactions. 


the 


of measuring Time at Sea. 45 


the same interval of time, the number of vibrations of the 
needle of a compass made and suspended on a pivot with 
the greatest: care, has found that it was not always constant. 

I have observed also, by means of an instrument, which 
I call a magnimeter, which by a long index marks on a limb 
the variations of magnetism, first, that this force in a body 
changes according as it is well or ill placed in the direction 
of the magnetic meridian, according as it is more or les 
elevated in the atmosphere, and according to the differen’ 
deerees of heat and cold. I have besides observed that thunder 
produces sensible variations in these forces, and that in the 
aurora borealis there happen also considerable changes, as 
they have observed in Sweden. I only mention these ex- 
periments, the detail of which would draw me too much 
aside from my subject: I hope some day to give an account 
of them to the Academy. 

There now remain only the bodies in vibration by the 
help of the elastic force. Every thing induces us to presume 
that these are the most proper to procure the required mea- 
sure of time. The regularity of certain watches which are 
executed daily, but, above all, the trials that have been made 
with the time-heepers of the celebrated Mr. Harrison, the 
recompense that he merits for them, confirm, in some de- 
gree, what was before only a presumption, and appear to 
demonstrate that the true, and perhaps the only, means of 
measuring time exactly at sea, consists, as we have before 
observed, in the perfected watch. But as watches in generat 
are very distant from the precision requisite in a marine 
watch, we should first search out their different irregulari« 
ties, and the causes, whether physical or mechanical, whence 
they are derived; according to the example of a wise phy- 
sician, who, before he has recourse to a remedy, endeavours 
to understand the disorder well, and what may occasion it. 
This is what I shall do in the following part: in order to 
render the different objects which are treated of more evi- 
dent, I shall make so many separate articles of them. 

As mechanics is here continually intermixed with natural 
philosophy, whatever is only suppotted by reasoning, how- 
ever solid it appears, will always be very uncertain. I have but 

too 


ag Le Roy’3 Memvois on the best Method 


too frequently found it so. Therefore I shall ailvance nos 
thing of which I am not assured by facts, as the Commis- 
sioners may verify: 
Part IT; 
Examination of the causes whieh make watches vary. 
Article I. 
Of the spring in general, and of the alterations which may 
happen in the force of the spiral spring. 

The first question which presents itself to be cleared up 
in treating of the theory of watches, and which, however, 
appears to be made for the first time, is this: Is the spring 
in itself, abstracting from the effects of heat, a constant 
power, on which we may establish a principle of petfect re- 
gularity, or is it not ? 

These axioms of the philosophers, that there is no perfect 
spring in nature; that it does not admit of any precision, 
&c., would appear at first to announce in the spring a 
power not very proper to give the required accuracy in a 
marine clock. But, on the other hand, many philosophers 
and artists think that the spring is a constant powcr, when 
it is but little contracted. 

To have more exact notions on this subject, I have con- 
struicted an instrument, fig. 1. Plate I.; 1 call it the elate- 
tometer, ‘This is in some degree only a long spring rr, 
stretched by a weight p, which, according as the force of 
this spring increases or diminishes, ascends or descends, the 
distance that it moves being rendered a hundred times more 
sensible by means of a long index //, whose weight on the 
spring is insensible ; this weight being counterbalanced by 
an opposite branch J/, which makes it almost in equili- 
brinm. 

By nftans of this instrument we find that, the spring loses 
a considerable part of its force in the first month of its ten- 
sion; that then the loss is much less; that at last it be- 
comes almost insensible, unless the spring receives a con- 
siderable degree of heat ; for then the index falls several de- 
grees; and when the thermometer returns to the degree 

where 


of measuring Time at Sea. 47 


where it was before; this index does not ascend to the same 
point, but rests below. 

These experiments appear to show that the vibrations of 
the spiral spring can measure time but imperfectly : but here 
follow several ‘considerations that must convince us of the 
contfary. 1st, In the vibrations of this spring, its contfac- 
tion and opening are only momentaneous: adly, By sup- 
posing that in its contraction, for example, it had been bent 
a little, it would return presently to its proper opening. But 
even when it experiences some loss on one side, this cannot 
be done without its gaining it on the other, as daily expe- 
rience proves; There would result, therefore, from this a — 
compensation. All the inconvenience that would follow is, 
that the watch will not be so perfcetly adjusted in its escape- 
went. Lastly, the experience of watches with dead escape 
ments * confirms again what I have advanced. The greater 
part, after having gone for several years, are still found to 
be regulated when they have been cleaned, if there has been 
no considerable wear in the parts of their escapement. 

These observations show, nevertheless, that we cannot 
take too much pains for the spiral spring to be fastened in 
a natural and unconstrained situation f (as recommended by 
Daniel Bernoulli). This is what does not take place in most 
watches, and it is (as we shall see in the end) that which I , 
have particularly endeavoured to execute. 

We must conclude also from what precedes, that nothing 
would be more disadvantageous in watches than two spiral 
springs in contraction, as John Bernoulli has proposed f : 
for then the effects observed by our eluterometer would ab- 
solutely take place. 

Besides, a very simple reasoning suffices to convince us. 
that there is not in nature any spring which is not in the 
case of the constrained equilibrium (l’equilibre forcé) recom- 
mended by M. Bernoulli f. 

* Echappements a repos. See Berthoud, Traité des Hor. Marines, p. 316. 
§ 969; and Essai sur? Hor., tom. ii. 1642.—T. S. E. 

4 Recherches Méchaniques et Astronomiques, p. 45. 

t Recherches Physiques sur la Propagation de la Lumitre: we may consult 
also on this subject D’Alembert’s Opuscules Mathématiques, tom, v. p. 503. 


in the piece which obtained the prize of the Royal Academy of Sciences 
for 


48 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


It is not the mass of the spring which produces its 
strength ; without changing this mass, we may augment or 
diminish considerably its elastic power by giving it a higher 
or lower temper, or by other operations. To know, there 
fore, whether a spring, when unwound, is in the case of a 
constrained equilibrium, we must not, as M. Bernoulli did, 
consider the whole of the mass, which by itself is incapable 
of any motion, but examine what passes in the interior of 
its pores, where the agent works, whatever it may be, that 
produces the elastic force; the same as in a foot-ball, the 
covering 1s not the first cause of the spring, but the com- 
pressed air in its interior. Now whatever may be the cause 
of the spring, it is easy to see that all the particles which 
compose it are themselves so many springs already wound, 
being ’continually in action to develop themselves. We 
know, in like manner, that all these particles are in a centre 
of constrained equilibrium, since the active principle which 
they contain, and which tends to dilate them, is necessarily 
counterbalanced by the force which compresses the parts of 
the metal one against the other; by that same force, without 
which all in nature would be disunited. ; 

The constrained equilibrium is made manifest in effect 
very sensibly, when by a small excess of cold many springs 
break of themselves, and when we see steel become faulty 
when it is tempered. 


for 1736, M. Bernoulli showed several things analogous to the spiral springs 
that are applied to watches. He recommends to attach two of them to the 
centre of the balance, whose spires turn in a contrary direction, to have what 
he calls a centre of constrained equilibrium : he pretends to remedy by this means 
the fluttering, and to render the vibrations more equal; instead of which, 
with one spring, he says an idle centre of equililrium can only be had, which 
has not sufficient action on the balance to prevent fluttering, and to maintain 
the vibrations equal. What he understands by a constrained centre af equili- 
trium is the two springs, which, being wound, become antagonists to each 
other ; that is to say, the first spring which is placed will draw the balance all 
on one side, and absolutely out of its escapement; but the second spiral, 
drawing in a contrary direction, will bring’the balance so that the pallets are 
parallel to the balance wheel, and place it, as usual, in its escapement. 

What he understands by the idle centre of equilibrium, is a balance with its 
common spring fixed. This spring is neither wound on one side nor the 
other, consequently it remains in inaction, which is what he means by an 
idle centre of equilibrium.—T. S. E. 


Besides, 


of measuring Time at Sea. 49 


Besides, when we bend an elastic plate much, it begins to 
break in its convex part: does not this show that the pores 
of this part widen, whilst those of the cavity close? 
We therefore cannot bend a spring without part of the 
fluid which causes the elasticity being Jost on one side of 
its Strength by a small compression, ae that of the op- 
posite side gains by it. This evidently procures the effect of 
M. Bernoulli’s two springs. The idle equilibrium, which 
this geometiician conceived, is therefore a chimerical being. 

THis error, I may remark by the way, comes from the 
same source which occasioned that of the vis viva (forces 
vives*). Those who have admitted them have not suffi 
ciently discriminated the apparent from the real obstacles 
which a body in motion has to surmount. In-+he spring, 
for example, the first are always as the square of the velo- 
city of the body that surmounts them, but the second are 
only as the simple velocity. ‘ 

We may conclude that the vibrating force ae a spring is 
a constant force, the effect of heat ekcepted! provided i it is 
in a free and unconstrained state; that, et ery spring being 

in the case of the constrained equilibrium, what M. John 
Bernoulli says of this equilibrium is absolutely as applicable 
to one only as to two opposite springs, such as he requires. 
We may consequently infer from these principles, that the 
vibrations of the spiral spring are exactly isochronous ; that 
being therefore applied to the watch by a good dead escape- 
ment, abstracting from friction, it would compensate the 
inequalities of the mover and of the wheel-work :. this 1s 
what I shall examine in the following article. 


Article IT. 

Second source of inequalities in watches : the non-tsochronism 
of the vibrations of their regulator, arising as well from the 
spiral spring itself, as from the nature of the escapement. 
Nothing is more important for the theory of watches in 

general, and to ditect the’ artist who executes them, thun to 


* See Saverien, Dict. de Mathématiques, art. Forces; and vol, iii, p- $5, of 
John Bernoulli’s Works. Geneva, 1742.—T.S. E. 


Vol, 26. No. 101. Oct.1806. D know 


50 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


know what is to be depended on with regard to the vasa 
of isochronism of the vibrations of the spiral spring con- 
nected with the balance*: nevertheless nothing, perhaps, in 
philosophy is more obscure. 

The following experiment, from which it has been at- 
tempted to pane this isochronism, cannot, in my opinion, 
form a complete proof: 

“< In sonorous bodies, that are struck or played upon with 
more or less force, the tone remains, they say, always the 
same; nevertheless they would heighten or lower seusibly 
if there happens the least change in the duration of their 
vibrations ; the different extent of these vibrations has there- 
fore no influence on the time in which they are made. 
Now,” continue they, “ a balance joined to a spiral spring 
is analogous to the wire of a harpsichord ; when either of 
them vibrates, it is always a mass moved freely by an elastic 
force: therefore they conclude, “ the balance, assisted hy 
the spring, makes its reciprocations more or less wide, in 
times that are perfectly equal.” ; 

This reasoning proves, moreover, that all the vibrations of 

2 springing body are nearly isochronous, the ear not being 
sufficiently delicate to perceive the small differences in the 
tones. Besides, M. de Mondonville has found that the 
tone of a chord rises more or less according to the degree of 
force which presses it, and that this goes as far as a semi- 
tone, when it is done very softly, although the gradation 
observed in swelling and softening the sound commonly ren- 
ders this difference insensible to the ear +. 

Something more precise is therefore necessary to know 
exactly whether (allowing for friction, for the resistance of 
the air, &c., circumstances to which we shall attend further 
on) the vibrations of the spiral spring connected with the 


* John Hautefeuille, an ingenious mechanic, born at Orleans in 1674, ap- 
pears tu have been the first who applied a small steel spring to regulate the 
vibrations of the balance. It was laid before the members of the Academy of 
Sciences in 1694; and when Huygens applied for his patent for this discovery, 
it was opposed, because Hautefeuille had made use of it before him. See his 
Life in Dr. Hutton’s Dictionary —T. 5. E. 

+ M. Ferrein’s Dissertation on the Formation of the Voice, in the Memoires 
of the Academy of Sciences for 17-41. 


7 balance 


of measuring. Time at Sea. . 51 


balance are isochronous, or whether they differ in time ac- 
cording as they are more or less extended. 

We know, by the theory of forces, that the different ex- 
cursions of a moveable body are isochronous, when those 
which push them are in the ratio of the distance of the term 
to which they make it bend. The true method of clearing 
up the present question appears therefore to be, to examine, 
by experiment, whether the force of spiral springs augments 
according to the proportion of the spaces described in their 
different contractions or their different openings. 

To know what we are to think on this capital point, I 
took the main spring of a common wateh and attached its 
interior extremity to an arbor, sustained by very fine pivots, 
which carried a large pulley: I then fixed the extericr end of 
this spring to a fixed point, so that it might rest in its na- 
tural state. This done, I fixed a wire to the pulley and 
wound it round; then I fixed to the other end of this wire a 
small hook, on which | placed successively different weights, 
these weights bending the spring in opening and shutting 
it, more than if it had caused a balance to vibrate: I ob- 
served the ratio in which the book descended, and | found 
it always as the weight with which it was charged*. If, for 
example, half an ounce made it descend a certain quantity, 
an ounce made it descend a double quantity, and so on. 

Indeed it was not the same when the arbor had made se- 
veral turns ; the spaces described then, no longer augmented 
in proportion to the weights: this difference, very sensible 
on the side where the spring shut, became almost nothing 
on the side where it opened: this is why J attribute it, in 
a great measure, to the change of the lever by which it 
acted. 

However it may be, as the ratio of the weights takes place 
in our experiment for arcs much greater than those which 
the balances of watches describe, it appears that we should 
be in the right to conclude that its vibrations are exactly 
isochronous ; that, consequently, the inequalities of the mo- 
tive force, those which arise from losses of freedom in the 


* Dr. Hook discovered this many years before, and made it the subject of 
am anagram, which Dr. Wallis found to be Ut tensio sic vis. —T.S. E, 


D2 wheel- 


52 Le Roy’s Membir on the best Method 


wheel-work, &c.,-become nearly compensated in watches 
having a dead escapement: but this is what does not take 
place. In all the experiments that I have made on the dura- 
tion of the vibrations of their regulators, making oscillations 
either by the action of the wheel-work, or freely and inde- 
pendently of this action, I have almost always found, as 
well as the most celebrated artists and men of science*, 
that the long vibrations were always slower than the short: 
T haye even remarked that in a double arc the difference was 
most frequently -45. This effect arises, I believe, from the 
mass of the spring, or perhaps from the obstacles which it 
experiences internally + to display its strength. 

It is only lately that I have at last found, as I shall ex- 
plain more particularly, what is very important, and which 
besides must serve as a base to the theory of watches, and a 
guide to workmen who construct them; viz. that there is 
in every spring of sufficient extent a certain length where 
all the vibrations, long or short, are isochronous ; that this 
length being found, if you shorten the spring, the long vibra- 
tions are quicker than the short ones; if, on the contrary, 
vou lengihen it, the small arcs are described in‘less time than 
the large ones}. It is on this important property of the 
spring, hitherto unknown, | that the regularity of my marine 
watch particularly depends, as we shall see in the end. From 
what precedes we are sensible that the accuracy of watches 
depends, in a great measure, on the length given to the re- 


* This is shown in the writings hitherto given on clock-work. See M. Sule 
ly’s Dissertation on his Marine Watch, (4to. 1726, Paris.) Les Etrennes chrono= 
metisqyes of M. Le Roy, p. 69, &c. The attempts made by several artists to ’ 
correct this retardation prove it also; witness the compensation curb of 
M.-Gourdain, adapted to the spiral spring. The Report made to the Bourd of 
Longitude who examined Mr. Harrison's time-keeper, shows that the English art- 
ists are of the same opinion. See the Gazette du Commerce for the year 1765, 
Tuesday, October 8; and the Report, signed Ludlam, sent to the Academy. 
The principles, says this Report, on which Mr. Harrison forms the third change 
as, that the long vibrations of a balance, whose motion is caused by the same spring, 
are made in less time. This principle is contrary to all the opinions received among 
men. of science, workmen, ke. 

+ See vol. iii. p. 97, of John Bernoulli’s Works.—T. S. E. 

} ‘The way in which he made this important discovery 15 related in the be- 
ginning of Article VIIi, Part IIL—T, S.E, 


gulating 


\ 


of measuring Time at Sea. 53 


gulating or spiral spring. If with the same kind of dead 
escapement certain watches go badly, whilst others are 
very regular, we here see the cause of it; and moreover 
the new observation may be of great help in the disposition 
of pendulums, whether small or second, where the pendulum 
is suspended by a spring: in effect, we know by what pre- 
cedes that it must have such a Jength in the spring of sus- 
pension, that all the vibrations of these pendulums may be 
isochronous. 

Though we should suppose, even in the regulating spring 
of a watch, the length requisite to render all the vibrations 
of the balance isochronous, if it was applied there by the 
common methods, this isochronism would be presently de- 
stroyed by the friction of the pivots of the balance, which, 
according to the remark made by Daniel Bernoulli*, would 
become always less considerable in great arcs than in smal] ; 


for, by theory, the obstacles of friction, the tenacity of oil, 


&c., as those of gravity, of springs, of cohesion, &c. are 
proportional to the times during which they are surmounted. 
Now, the vibrations independent of these frictions being 
supposed isochronous, these frictions must become neh 
less considerable with regard to the force which surmounts, 
them, when, for example, these arcs are doubled; since 
this force, being as the arcs, is then doubled, and the time 
not sensibly different. 

M. Sully has made experiments on this subject as decisive 
as they are curious, which may be consulted f. 

The. inverse of what precedes takes place for the friction 
occasioned by the balance wheel on the parts of the escape- 
ment, viz. the cylinder in those of Graham, and on the 
plates or planes in those of Debautre, Sully, Le Roy, Gour- 
dain, &e, These frictions, instead of rendering the Jong vi- 
brations quicker than the short ones, on the contrary aug- 
ment the duration of the former :' the follawing is the cause; 


»—The balance “being supposed to have the necessary free- 


* Recherches Méchaniques et Astronomiques, &c. p. 41, 
+ Suite de la Description @un Horloge, &e. p. 168: Dissert. sur une Montre 
Marine, Se, 
D3 dom, 


54 Le Roy’s Memoir on the lest Method 


dom, it is impossible to augment the arc without aug- 
menting the force which supports the vibrations, and con- 
sequently the pressure of the balance wheel on the cylinders 
or planes, &c.; and as, by theory, a quadruple force is ne- 
cessary (abstraction being made from a great number of 
causes, both physical if, mechanical, sacks concur here 
to destroy a part of the motion of the balance); as it is ne- 
cessary, I say, to have a quadruple force to impress on the 
balance as well as on the balance wheel a double velocity, 
it follows, that the pressure on the cylinders, the planes, 
&c. (always in proportion to the motive force) augments 
here in a much greater ratio than the force of the regulator 
1o overcome them, which ts only as the velocity. We know, 
also, that when the wheel-work is impeded, whether by 
friction, the coagulation of the oil, &c., there must arise 
considerable variations in watches with a dead escapement, 
for then the force communicated to the balance 1s necessarily 
much less. But the friction on the cylinders or planes is 
not dinrinished by this, because the pressure of the wheel 
on these cylinders or planes is a dead force, and the resist- 
ances and friction of the wheel-work have no sensible effect, 
except when the moveable parts are in motion. 

We can hardly determine any thing respecting those 
causes which affect the isochronism of the vibrations in 
watches with a dead escapement, and which, withort any 
thing regular, make them advance or retard. All that we 
can say is, that they augment or diminish according to the 
quantity of friction on the cylindric portions, according to 
the form of the balance, the size of its pivots, the quality of 
the oil, the length of the spiral spring, the number of vi- 
bidtions 7 ina given time, the length of the arc, the points of 
that arc where the wheel ceases to act on the balance, the 
number of teeth in the balance wheel, its mass, the quan- 
tity of motive force, &c. 

There are, without doubt,’a number and a magnitude of 
vibrations where the effect of these different causes is least 
sensible; hut what precedes has already proved to us, that 
the best way, without any comparisgn, will be always (as 

I shall 


of measuring Time at Sea. 55 


I shall hereafter demonstrate more positively) to give the vi- 
brations of the balance the greatest freedom possible, ‘This 
is what I have practised in my machines. 


Article III. 


- Third cause of variations in watches—the manner in which 


. 


the balance is sustained, and the different situations in 
- which they are placed. 


It is clear that the weight of the balance occasions on the 
pivots that sustain it,a friction that is both variable and pre- 
judicial ; but much less considerable, when, the watch being 
Jaid flat, it is carried on the extremity of one of its pivots, 
than when, hanging, the weight of the balance is borne on 
the circumference of the two pivots: by what precedes, there 
follow causes of variations, greater or less, according to 
the size of the pivots, their polish, the polish of the holes, 
their depth, the oi] which is applied, the weight and size of 
the balance, the number of its vibrations, their magnitude, 
the length of the spiral spring, its form, &c. Experi- 
ence shows, in effect, that most watches, especially those 
which have dead escapements, lose when hung up. To 
correct this irregularity, we render the balance more weighty 
in that part of its circumference which is underneath when - 
the watch is hung up: but by this expedient we palliate the , 
evil rather than destroy it, and we render the watch more 
subject to vary by shocks and different motions, the effect 
of which to be done away requires (as we shall presently 
see) that the balance be throughout of equal weight. 


Article IV. 


Fourth inconvenience of watches, —they y lose in heat, and 
gain in cold. 


This effect arises in watches with a dead escapement, 
1st, From the different causes which render the vibrations 
of the regulator greater by heat: 2dly, Because the dimen- 
sions of the balance, and its spring, are augmented by it : 
3dly, From its diminishing the elasticity of the latter. From 
these united effects there results a variation, greater or less, 
according to the nature of the escapement, the length and 

D4 force 


56 Le Roy’s Memoir.on the best Method © 


force of the spiral, the greater or less freedom of the ba- 
lance, &c. In general, watches with dead escapements 
advance about ie Minutes in twenty-four hours, when, 
from the heat of the fob, which is nearly equal to that felt 
under the tropic, it passes to that degree of cold. which pro- 
duces ice. 

If we wish to know how much influence the balancé and 
the spiral spring have separately on these errors, the calcu- 
lation is easily made. 

Experience shows that a steel bar of three feet increases 
1-60th of an inch nearly, or = ,,th part, when from freez- 
ing cold it passes to a heat which raises Reaumur’s thermo-— 
-meter* to 30°, about equal to the heat of the fob of a middle~ 
aged man. 

Now the weight of a balance being known, the resistance ° 
which it gives to the spiral is in the direct ratio of the square, 
of the distance of its circumference of percussion, if we may. 
so express it, from the centre of its motion ; and by theory, 
the number of vibrations is in the inverse proportion of this 
distance: therefore a watch taken from the fob to a place 
where it freezes, when it is arrived.at the cold of the place, 
each of its vibrations, by the contraction of the balance’ 
alone, ‘is accelerated the 7,,th; that is to say, the watch 
by this cause advances about 11” per hour; the remainder 
of the gain being produced by the increase of elasticity in 
the spiral spring, and other causes. 


* The degrees of Reaumur’s thermometer may be converted to Fahren- 


R -x* 9 
dad i 2 = Fahren. Therefore 30° 


heit’s by the following equation: 
of Reaumur’s is = 99% of Fahrenheit’s. 

Smeaton, in the Phil. Trans. for 1758, has given the expansion of one foot 
of blistered steel = 3454; qdths of a foot for 180° of Fahrenheit, which for 
three feet at 100° amounts to z77'ygdths of a foot. Now the English foot’is 
to the French foot as 4000 to 4263; therefore the foregoing expansion in 
French measure is =¢°5¢°'3;qdths of a foot for 30° of Reaumur, which is 
nearly 4% times greater than Le Roy statesit. If we had taken hard steel it 
would have been greater still, in the proportion of 138 to 147,—T,S, E. 


Article 


of measuring Time at Sea. 57 


Article V. 
Fi ifth cause of error in watches, the little power of the 
-. regulators with regard to thew motive force. 

This inconvenience arises, according to what has been 
said aboye, from the resistance of the air, the friction of 
the suspension, &c. causing a considerable loss of motion 
in the regulator in each vibration; and since the balance of 
a watch ought to go of itself, (partir qu doigt*) as watch- 
makers say, (that is, it should be put in motion by the mo- 
tive force, when this motion has ceased from any cause what= 
ever,) this balance can only be very slight. Make the ba- 
lance of a watch vibrate separately from the wheel-work, and, 
you will see that if at first the vibration is 180° it will lose 
all its motion in 90” in a horizontal situation, and in 607 
in a vertical one; instead of which a pendulum preserves 
the oscillatory motion given to it for twelve or fifteen hours 
withont any foreign bala ; consequently the impression of 
the motive force, and the variations which arise from wear 
and from friction, are in watches, with regard to the effect 
that they paadace on the pendulum, in the proportion of 
15 hours, or 900’ to 11’. 


Paar Dirk 


Description of the new marine watch, and of the means by 
which we have avoided the different causes of irregularities 
related above. 

Article I. 

Of wheel-work. 


If the defects remarked in the construction of watches, 
are the sources whence all their irregularities are derived, in 
order to render a work of this kind capable of the greatest 
accuracy possible, it is necessary, consequently, to collect 
together the opposite properties. Thus, after having given 
to this work the greatest simplicity of which it is suscepti- 
ble, it is necessary, 

Ist, To reduce the friction to the least possible value, 


* ‘They are obliged to take this precaution, that the watch may not stop 
by the different motions which it may receive, and by the losses which it 
expericnces in its motive force from the ditliculty with which the wheel-work 
acts, and the effect produced when the hands are put to the Lour, &c. d 

an 


58 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


and to render the regulator as free and as powerful as pos- 
sible. ‘ 

2dly, To give to its vibrations the most perfect isochro- 
nisi. 

3dly, To apply an escapement, by means of which this 
isochronism cannot be affected. 

4thly, To compensate the effects of heat and cold with 
accuracy and simplicity. 

Sthly, To dispose the regulator in such a way, that all 
the parts, being in an unconstrained state, they may remain 
the same after having been subjected to the greatest diffe- 
rences in temperature. 

6thly, To render the machine invariable in the different 
positions and shocks which it may receive. . | 

This is what I think T have executed in the following 
construction. For greater clearness, after having said afew 
words on wheel-work, I shall treat each of these articles 
separately, as in the preceding part. 

M. Bernoulli, in the researches which I have already cited 
several times, wishes marine watches to be as large as good 

clocks are commonly made, that the pieces may be worked 
with greater exactness, and that their defects, if there are 
any, may be more easily perceived : this is nearly what I 
have practised in the new marine watch. It goes 38 hours. 
Plate I. fig. 6 and 7, shows the plan and profile of the 
movement on a diameter of three inches: it is composed of 
a frame cccc (fig. 6 and 7.) containing four flat wheels, 
toothed; the first, placed below the barrel 40, contain- 
ing the main spring, has fifty teeth, and turns, by means 
of a pinion of ten leaves, that of the centre m, which is 
called the minute wheel, because it makes one turn in an 
hour; the minute hand is adjusted on its axis. The minute 
wheel, by a pinion of eight leaves, turns the third; and 
this, by a similar pinion, turns the fourth, called the se- 
conds wheel, because it makes sixty turns in an hour, and 
carries the seconds hand on its axis. Lastly, the seconds 
wheel, by a pinion 9, of seven, (fig. 6 and 7 of Plate I, and 
fig. 4. Plate IIT.) turns the balance wheel, or rather a ratch 
or kind of star 7, (fig. 6 and 7, Plate I, and fig. 1, 2, 3, and 

4, of 


- 


of measuring Time at Sea. 59 


4, of Plate ITI.) having six radii placed without the frame: 
it is by means of this wheel that the escapement works. 

With regard to the hour wheel, or that which carries the 
hour hands, H, (Plate IV.) it has 48 teeth, and is conducted 
by a lanthorn pinion of four, which being adjusted on the 
axis of the centre wheel m, carries the minute hand e (fig. 7, 
Plate I.) on its extremity formed into a square. 

By this disposition, the hour circle, and those of minutes 
and seconds, have each one its centre, as we may see in 
Plate IV. I have preferred this, although the hour hand 
necessarily turns to the left, because it suppresses one wheel 
and some slight friction*; for we can never render a 
watch destined for the sea sufficiently simple, the acci- 
dents which may happen to an instrument being always in 
the ratio of the number of pieces that compose it. 

Moreover, in this wheel-work, the simplicity of which is 
evident, all the wheels are horizoutal, and the escapement 
wheel moves on the extremity of its pivot; whence arises_ 
great freedom: in the moving part. 


Article II. 


Continuation of the description of the new watch: means by 
which the friction has been reduced to the least value, ly 
rendering the regulator as free and as powerful as it 
can be. 


This regulator or balance vvvv (fig. 7, Plate I, and fig. 
1 and 6, Plate III.) is of steel. It weighs about five ounces; 
jt is four inches diameter, and is mounted on an arbor AA 
(fig. 7, Plate I. and fig. 6, Plate III.) of about five inches. 
A frame of copper rxxa, &c. (fig. 6, Plate IIT.), to which 
is adapted the movement, holds this balance horizontally, 
suspended by the upper extremity of its arbor, by means of 
a very fine harpsichord wire F, which is attached to its 
whose length is about three inches, and forms the same 
vertical right line as 4he axis of the arbor. 

That this balance may turn very freely on its axis, each 
of its pivots is retained, with the proper play, between four 


* Mr. Earnshaw has made this alteration in some of the clocks at the Royal 
Observatory at Greenwich.—T. S. E, 


rollers, 


of) Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


rollers, turning freely in two small frames ce, cc, (fig. 6, 
Plate III.) the one. for the lower pivot adapted to the lower 
part of the large frame; the other to the upper, for the pivot 
or trunnion é, oak 7, Plate I.) at some distance from which 
is attached the wire of suspension. All this is arranged with 
the necessary precautions, so that the wire and the axis of 
the balance may form always the same vertical line. 

This balance thus suspended makes vibrations of about 
20” duration each, by means “of the elasticity of the sus- 
pending wire. Two spiral springs ss, 5s, (fig. 6, Plate III. ) 
similar to those which serve as a mover in common watches, 
adjusted at the bottom of the balance arbor, by means of 
their ferrules, as the spiral in common watches, and in a 
centre of equilibrium absolutely zdle (as M. Daniel Bernoulli 
recommends in the researches above cited), act so that these 
vibrations are each made in about half a second. 

By this construction I avoid those defects of watches re- 
marked Articles III and V. of the preceding part ; for, the 
balance being freely sustained by the suspension wire, the 
friction which it would occasion by its weight, the very 
rapid wear which would result from it, &c., are absolutely 
suppressed, and-by means of the rollers, whose properties 
are well known, those which are produced by the effort of 
the regulating spring, hy shocks, and the Jateral motions 
of the balance, by the effect of the escapement, &c., 
are reduced to the Jeast quantity ; whence it happens, that 
instead of only preserving its oscillatory motion for about a 
minute; as the balance of the watch in the experiment re- 
Jated, (Article V. Part II.) the regulator keeps going: here 
more than half an hour; the two springs contribute also to 
this ; their efforts on the pivots being opposite, are recipro- 
cally destroyed. 

Article IIT. 


New method by which the most perfect isochronism is, given 
to the vibrations of the balance. 


It appears so simple, when we are occupied with the 
theory of watches, to try, first, whether the different lengths 
of springs produce no changes in the proportion which exists, 

etween 


ae 


a 


61 
between the time of their vibrations of different extents, and 
consequently, whether in these lengths there may not be one 
where the long and short are isochronous; so many reasons, 
drawn from the principles of philosophy and mechanics, 
appeat to lead us to this conclusion, that we shall find it 
difficult to conceive how we have hitherto heen ignorant of 
this important fact; much less can we Conceive that it was 
not till after twenty years researches that we arrived at this 
discovery. Happily, men of science are not ignorant that 


of measuring Time at Sea.  , 


‘the simplest things, almost always the most useful, are fre-~ 


quently so much the more difficult to discover, as, according 
to the remark of an illustrious Secretary to the Academy, 
we are less inclined to seek for them. 

. However it may be, it is constantly the case, as I have 
already''said, Article If. Part II., that in every spring of 
sufficient extent there is a certain length where all the vibra- 
tions, whether long or short, are tsochronous, 1 have expe+ 
rienced this in a great number of springs. 

To procure, therefore, in the vibrations the most perfect 
isochronism, I adjust the spiral springs to the balance, and 
I-set the marine watch to go (which, as we have seen, has 
no fusee,) twelve hours in the long ares and twelve hours in 
the short arcs; that is to say, twelve hours with the moving 
spring highly wound up, and twelve hours with it al- 
most unwound. If, in this last case, the going of the watch 
is more accelerated than in the first, it proves that these 
springs are too long, and I shorten them. On the con- 
trary, if it is slower, I lengthen them ; and thus I proceed 
until I have found the point where the watch goes very 
equably both in the high and low strain of the spring: I 
then diminish or increase the weight of the balance until 
the watch is regulated. This operation at first appears 
Jong; but practice renders it so easy, that at first sight L 
know actually, very nearly, the length of spring where all 
the vibrations are of equal duration. _ The two spiral springs 
are here of some help, because we can only act on the one, 
and the quantities which we lengthen or shorten it, produce 
less effect. For example, in my marine watch about one 
line of diminution in the lower spring makes it gain in the 

8 hizh 


62 Le Roy’s Memoir on ihe best Method 

high strain of its main spring a second and a quarter in six 
hours more than in the low strain of this spring, where the 
arcs of vibration are reduced to about a quarter of what they 
are when the watch has just been wound up. 

T shall add to what precedes, that I am certain, froma 
number of trials, and it is easy to verify, that, the long and 
short arcs of vibration once rendered isochronous by this 
method, all the intermediate arcs are rendered so also, with 
the greatest exactness: this is what I do not believe can 
easily be produced by compensation curbs, cycloidal cheeks, 
and other methods, by which they have hitherto attempted 
to render the vibrations of the spiral spring isochronous ; 
and when, by dint of penetration and care, an artist has per- 
fected such curbs, &c., can others* expect to succeed equally 
as well? The Academy, without doubt, want a machine 
whose success does not depend on such rare execution. It 
was probably some case of this kind which made a learned 
man say, that the novelties produced by artists rarely have 
their success confirmed by time, it being frequently owing 
to the particular attention which they pay to the execution 
of the pieces which they. announce as their invention ; in- 
stead of which, scientific men seta higher value on things 
more theoretic and less dependant on practice. 


Article IV. 


Where we again establish the necessity of giving to the vi- 
trations of the regulator the greatest possible freedom. 


I believe I have already proved (Article I. Part If.) that 
to give toa clock the greatest degree of accuracy which it 
is susceptible of, it is necessary that the vibrations of its 
regulator should have the most perfect isochronism and the 
greatest freedom possible. 

And now that I am going to treat of the escapement, 
_ (whose disposition must always’ be relative to nature, and to 
~ the properties of the regulator which is used,) to leave no 


%* See Graham’s Letter to Sully, in the Deseviption Abregéc, p. 75. Bor 
deaux, 1726. This work of Sully’s is extremely rare even in France: Berthoud 
was many years before he could procure a copy of it. See note C, page xv, 
of his Introduction to the Traité des Horloges Maitacs.—T. & E. oe 

obscurity 


ee oe 


of measuring Time at Sea. 63 


obscurity on this capital subject, I think it will be best to 
examine it a little more in detail. 

I acknowledge that, in watches, where the very confined 
space does not permit us to apply all the resources of the 
art, it would be very dificult to determine, whether some 
slight differences in the times of the long and. short vibra- 
tions do not sometimes, as well as slight frictions, produce 
compensations, whence results a greater degree of accuracy, 
or rather less inequalities; but in the present case, where, 
being master of space, we may use methods less uncertain, 
it may be demonstrated, and I shall prove, that the isochro- 
nism and perfect freedom of the regulator are the only means 
to obtain a greater degree of truth. 

In effect, friction is a thing subject to a thousand varie- 
ties incompatible with much exactness. Let the regulator 
in its vibrations experience some friction; it necessary fol- 
lows, that the quantity of this friction will vary according 
as the contact of the air alters the polish of the rubbing sur- 
faces, according as they alter each other, and the softest 
body leaves its parts on the hardest, according as the oil 
which we apply to soften the friction becomes more or less 
fluid, &c. 

_ Let us suppose, also, that the vibrations of the regulator, 
abandoned to itself, are not isochronous, but that by some 
mechanical artifice we happen to render them all of equal 
duration ; (by friction, for example, or, as this operates in 
some clocks, by the curves of the anchor escapement, or by 
that with a double lever, &c.;) I maintain, that such an iso- 
chronism, being subject to a thousand uncertainties, can 
never give the necessary precision in a time-keeper at sea. 
In effect, besides the varieties of friction, M. Le Roy* has 
demonstrated, in treating of the pendulum, that a diminu- 
tion of the arc of vibration arising from that of the motive 
force, from the clogging of the wheels, or from that of 
the regulator, requires in each of these cases, in order to 
be compensated, the curves of the anchor to be altoge- 
ther different; and likewise longer or shorter pallets in 
the escapement with a double lever. Now what he has 


* * See my Memoir on Clockwork, &¢. published in 1750, y 
, said 


64 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


said with regard to the pendulum is evidently applitable 
here, since we have seen, Article II., that supposing the 
vibrations of the free balance isochronous in its application 
to the watch, the Jong arcs, which arise from>less friction 
upon the pivots, would make it advance ; but if they pro 
ceed from an overplus of motive force, they retard it, on the 
contrary ; and that the difficulty of the action of the wheel- 
work would produce again a different effect, &c. - 

What will it be if we introduce the changes which arise 
in the magnitude of the vibrations from shocks and divers. 
motions? By a little attention we shall find that an escape- 
ment can never render the vibrations isochronou’ in these 
different cases, unless it be a true Proteus, whose form, con- 
tinually varying, adapts itself to these different circumstances. 

I shall say on this occasion, that notwithstanding the ex 
periments made with the time-keepers of Mr. Harrison, 
which are so strongly in favour of this work, the methods 
which are used to render the vibrations of the regulator iso- 
chronous appear to me very imperfect, and that I am here 
of the same opinion as the person who has made the report 
to the Board of Longitude. Supposing, says he, the opinion 
of Mr. Harrison to be true, (he speaks of the short vibra* 
tions which Mr. Harrison pretends are slower than the long,) 
Tam by no means certain, continues he; that the methods he 
employs are proper to produce the effect which he expects 
from them. In truth; this article of the report appears to 
me absolutely unintelligible. Mr. Harrison uses, says the 
report, ¢wo methods to render the motion of the vibrations 
egual: the first is, to put a pin, against which the balance 
may press, which augments its force; but it is found to be 
diminished, as Mr. Harrison pretends, when the vibrations 
are greater. The second method is, to give to his pallets 
such a form, that the wheels may press them less when the 
vibrations augment. Although the terms of this Report are 
not very intelligible, and appear even incomprehensible, 
since it mentions wheels which press less when the vibra- 
tions aligment, instead of which, by the description, there 

isa very delicate spring which acts on the balance by one 
wheel only; we may nevertheless suspect that the isochro- 
nism 


of measuring Time ai Sea. 65 
nism of the vibrations proceeds,in a great measure, from the 
curve of the escapement; that thus, by what precedes, this 
isochronism does not appear founded on fixed and inyariabie 
principles. : 

A still more powerful motive to determine us in favour 
of the isochronism and freedom of the vibrations, as far as 
it is possible to obtain them, is, that the same obstacles, of 
whatever nature they may be, arising from the air, or from 
some slight friction, which oppose themselves to the motion 
of the regulator, will have so much the less influence on the 
time of its vibrations as they are more free: this is what it 
is so important to clear up, and which I shall demonstrate 
by the following propositions. 


Definition. 

It is necessary to distinguish two times in the vibrations 
of a body: that which it employs to overcome the accele- 
rating force, aud that where this force restores to it the mo- 
tion which it has lost. I call that where the accelerating 
force is surmounted, retarded semi-vibration, and that where 
the body returns to its point of rest, accelerated semi-vilra- 
tion. 

Proposition. 

In every body that would make isochronous vibrations 
when disengaged from foreign obstacles and aided by an 
accelerated force, the resistance of the air, friction, &c. 
shortens the time of the retarded semi-vibration. 

Suppose that at the instant w hen it begins to be retarded, 
a body A has, for example, the requisite velocity to describe 
a space of thirty, but that it only describes one of twenty, 
because the friction which it experiences consumes a part of 
its motion; it is required to show, that A will describe the 
space twenty, with its initial velocity thirty, in less time than, 
if having experienced no resistance foreign to the accelerating 
force, it had described this same space twenty by means of 
an initial velocity of twenty. The following is the way I 
prove it: 

It is only in the last point of the space twenty, that A 
moves with the same velocity which it would have bad in 

Vol. 26..No, 101. Or/. 1806. this 


66 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


this point, if it had only consumed the velocity twenty in- 
stead of that of thirty; in the penultima it has the necessary 
velocity to overcome the resistance of the accelerating force; 
in the last it has besides, that of friction, or of the air, which 
it experiences there; in the antepenultima it has the requi- 
site velocity to surmount the resistance of that same force 
in the two last, plus that of the air, friction, &c. Applying 
the same reasoning to all the other points of the space 
twenty, we shall find that in the present case the velocity 
there is greater than if, disengaged from every obstacle fo- 
reign to the accelerating force, A should describe the space 
twenty only, by means of the initial velocity twenty: the 
same must be concluded for every other space. Therefore 
the foreign resistances experienced by a body in vibration 
shorten the time of the retarded semi-vibrations. 


Corollary 1. 


The inverse of the preceding evidently takes place in the 
accelerated semi-vibrations. 


Corollary II. 


The obstacles which may be opposed to the motion of 
a body in its retarded semi-vibration, being so many causes 
which make it stop the sooner; on the contrary, in the 
accelerated semi-vibrations, the foreign obstacles destroying 
a part of the acceleration, and hindering this semi-vibration 
from being made so readily, (since every body which oscil- 
lates necessarily feels some foreign resistances, whether from 
the air, from the friction of the parts which sustain it, or 
from the particles themselves of the spring which holds it;) 
it follows, that in every body which vibrates, the retarded 
semi-vibration is always quicker than the accelerated semi- 
vibration which succeeds it; and that the more considerable, 
the resistances are which we have just spoken of, the greater 
is the difference between the time of the acceleration and the 
retardation. 

Ol servation ¥. 


In the vibrations that a body makes by the help of an 
elastic force, or of gravity, if we admit that it is the effect 
3 of 


of measuring Time at Sea. ; 67 
af a fluid, a second cause again renders the accelerated 
semi-vibrations slower than the retarded; it is in the latter 
that the active principle, whatever it may be, has always 
its full effect ; whilst in the others it acts only with the ex- 
cess of velocity which it has on the body when it returns to 
its point of rest. 


Observation II. 

If in the vibrations of a body the difference of time em- 
ployed for each of the parts which we have distinguished in 
it is not sensible, the small foreign resistance which may take 
place will not sensibly alter the time of the whole vibia- 
tions; for the retardation which happens in the accelerated 
gemi-vibrations will then be compensated by the gain which 
they will produce in the tetarded semi-yibrations, and vice 
versa. 

Observation III. 

But when several caiises rerider the accelerated semi-vi- 
brations sensibly slower than the retarded, then tlie whole 
vibrations aie considerably retarded by the new resistances 
which take place; for, 1st, in the accelerated semi-vibra- 
tions, the body having less velocity than in the retarded of 
the same magnitude, the force which it has to overcome 
the new obstacles which are opposed to it is so much the 
less: @dly, We have seen that the resistances produce al- 
ways in a body in motion obstacles proportional to the time 
that it remains exposed to them; these obstacles are there- 
fore more considerable in the accelerated semi-yibrations 
than in the retarded; consequently, the retardation whicli 
they produce in the former is greater than the advancement 
which they occasion in the latter, and this retardation fol- 
lows the ratio of the square of the ‘difference of times em- 
ployed in each of the accelerated and retarded semi-vibra- 


tions. 
Corollary III. 


Hence we see, ist, That foreign resistances necessarily 
tend to destroy some little of the isochronism of the vi- 
brations of a body, and to render them slower at the same 
time that they diminish their extent; this is what the expe- 

E@ riment 


7 


68 On Porcelain, and the nutritive Use of Lichen iskandicus. 


riment proved to us Article [. Part IL. edly, That the 
more we reduce the friction of the regulator the nearer we 
approach to the compensation, of which we have spoken in 
the second observation. 3dly, That by the preceding we 
are very distant from this compensation in common watches 
with a dead escapement. 

[To be continued.] 


X. Extract of a Letter from M. Proust to M. Vau- 
QUELIN, wpon Porcelain, and the nutritive Use of the 
Lichen islandicus*. 

Madrid, Dec. 22, 1805. - 

W: have been to visit the porcelain manufactory of 
M. Sureda, who makes the finest biscuit china I have ever 
seen. He does not make use of kaolin, however, but of a 
siliceous-magnesian stone called sea-froth or lithomarga, 
found at the gates of Madrid +. We shall send you some 
specimens which must astonish you. M. Sureda covers 
Kis china with feldspars of Galicia, which are very elegant.. 
You may regard the above kind of stone as one of the best 
for making chemical furnaces. When it comes out of the 
quarry it is shaped like soap wedges. The lightness of these 
furnaces is extraordinary; and they never melt, however 
strong the fire may be raised. Besides’ magnesia, silex, and 
some atoms of argil and lime, this stone contains a little 
potash, which cuntributes not a little to the beauty and fine+ 
ness of tlie china. 

I have now to mention a fact perhaps as interesting as 
the foregoing. Don Mariano la Gasca, a student of Cava- 
nilles, and a young botanist of great promise, has sent me @ 
quantity of lichen islandicus, which he discovered in the 
mountains of Leon, where it grows in great abundance. 

I expected to have only found a more or less tinc- 
torial substance ; but I found that it was an excellent plant 
for eating when it was cooked, very tender, and that it 

* From Annales de Chimie, cone Ivii, p. 199. 

+ For a memoir on this substarice, see Philosophical Magazine, vol. iii. p. 165. 


ought 


On Pnewnatic Medicine. 69 


ought to be rescued from obscurity, as a resource furnished 
by nature in every climate, and which has not been hitherto 
known. I hope the botanists of Paris will cultivate this 
plant. Upon tasting it, you will find it an excellent pulse. 
I think I have seen it formerly at Vincennes, and in the 
Bois de Boulogne. ; 

One pound of dry lichen yields three pounds of boiled 
herb very well tasted, which may be eaten with oil, beer, or 
in various other ways. We have already eaten it six times 
in our family, and all my friends were highly pleased with 
it. Its tissue is purely membranous; it contains neither 
wood nor thready substance; this renders it very pleasant 
to the teeth. It is extremely probable that in the numerous 
kinds of mosses there may be several others equally nutritive, 
and perhaps still better. Although very elastic after boiling, 
there is nothing of an animal nature in the lichen, as its 
products are like those of sugar; and this surprised me most 
of all. One pound of this lichen furnished about eight 
pounds of soup, which became jellied like meat broth. It 
is a little bitter, but not more so than endive water. I sea- 
soned it with sweet and bitter almonds, citron bark, and 
sugar; and I produced a very pleasant mess. Its mucilage 
is gelatinous, very different from gum: it is the same, I 
think, as that of fruit. I am now about to occupy myself 
with other researches on the subject, to ascertain if this 
plant would furnish any thing useful in dyeing. In the 
mean time nature does not furnish any matter more nou- 
rishing than this vegetable. 


XI. ‘Thirty-second Communication from Dr. Tuornron, 
relative to Pneumatic Medicine. 


To Mr. Tilioch. 
October 21, 1805. 
DEAR SIR, No.1, Hinde-street, Manchest¢r-square. 


He following is an extremely interesting case, as the 
disease cured is considered very dangerous ; and it was ac- 
complished chiefly by means of the vital air alone. 


KE 3 Case 


70 On Pneumatic Medicine. 


Case of White Swelling cured by Vital Air. 

Sarah Copeling, zt. 24, servant to Mr. Harrison, No. 14, 
Little Tower-street, had an extremely large scrophulous 
tumour on the right side of the neck; and this disposition 

«showed itself also in the knee of the same side, which was 
greatly swelled and enlarged, rendering her extremely lame. 
The tumour in the neck was of six years duration, and the 
white swelling in the right knee had existed three months 
when she commenced the inhalation of the vital air. A sa- 
turine lotion was the only application used to the knee: 


this plan was pursued during two months; when her con- | 


‘stitution became so much raviported, that the swellings in 
her neck disappeared.to the sight, being so much reduced 
as no longer to be observed, or thought w lig of attention ; 
and the ive swelling entirely gave way : and this benefit 
has now continued six months. No medicine of any kind 
was taken ; ; therefore the constitutional change was effected 
by the ue power of the vital air, 


Observations on this Case. 


1. When Dr. Beddoes inhaled the vital air by way of ex- 
periment, he remarks, that his complexion from being 
sallow became ruddy, and that he was diminished greatly 

‘in size, being naturally disposed to obesity; and his appe- 
tite was rendered remarkably keen.” 

g. This experiment, which was repeated for the space of 
six weeks, proved the power of vital air in promoting the 
action of the absorbents. 

3. He also remarks, ‘* that he felt in consequence so 
mich warmer than usual, that he was obliged to lay aside a 
nantes 

. Now as torpor is the character of scrophula, is not the 
vital air indicated from this experiment by Dr. Beddoes, in 
scrophula? 

3. The quantity inhaled daily was two quarts, mixed with 
about fourtecn of atmospheri ic. 

I remain, dear sir, 
Your obliged devoted servant, 
Roger Joun THornton, M.D. 


XII. Ol- 


Br re 


XII. Observations of M. Boneros, Assistant Physician of 
the Infirmary at Perpignan, upon Fumigations with the 
Oxygenated Muriatic Acid *. 


Lowanbs the commencement of last year, a person ac- 
cused of a capital crime was conducted to the prison of Per- 
pignan and shut up in a cell, the capacity of which was 


about 60 or 65 cnbic metres. This unforiunate prisoner 


was afflicted with a severe dysentery. When I was called 
in, his cell exhaled a most infectious smell; the palliass 
upon which he lay, and the rags which covered him, were 
impregnated with fecal matter. The jailor opened the door 
with great repugnance, but would not enter. I immediately 
made a strong fumigation, according to Guyton Morveau’s 
process, Scarcely was the vapour of the oxymuriatic acid 
gas liberated when the fetid smell was annihilated, although 
the fecal matters still existed in this confined place. I ap- 
proached the sick man and conversed with him, experi- 
encing no disagreeable sensation: the jailor followed my 
example; he entered, and every necessary attention was 
paid to the prisoner. A fumigatory apparatus continued 
to furnish gaseous emanations during the time requisite to 
cleanse the cell. A clergyman came to visit the prisoner 
some time afterwards, and spent three quarters of an hour 
with him, without being in the Jeast incommoded. The fu- 
migation was repeated the same day. All the prisoners, 
the jailor, the turnkeys, and the gens d’armes, learnt, with 
surprise, a fact so speedily and so easily obtained. The 
jailor asked me what was necessary to renew these fumiga- 
tions. I furnished him with a sufficient quantity of the 
mixture of muriate of soda and oxide of manganese, pre- 
pared in proper proportions, and an analogous dose of sul- 
phuric acid. He has since established fumigatory vases in 
the various parts of the prison where there were bad smells. 
A few days before, I had cleared from infection a great 
part of the house of M. Durand, a very respectable merchant 


*# From Annales de Chimie, tom, lvii. p. 184. 


E4 of 


i? Memoir upon Animal Fat. , 


of this city. A considerable quantity of cochineal, grown 
mouldy and in a state of fermentation, emitted a most dis- 
agreeable smell ; the oxymuriatic acid gas destroyed all these 
putrid emanations, allowed us to approach the cochineal 
without fear, and we were able to save a part of this precious 
commodity. . 


XIII. Memoir upon Animal Fat, and some Medicinal Pre- 
parations which are administered through that Medium. 
By M. Voceu*. 


Frarvhas been a long time the object of chemical inquiries. 
Some have occupied themselves with establishing its charac- 
ters, and others in ascertaining the propriety of its applica~ 
tion in the healing art. The late M. Vogel, professor of 
chemistry at Gottingen, is one of the first whose attention 
was occupied in discovering the nature of this substance. 
On directing his observations to distillation, he perceived 
that human fat yielded a liquid product which had all the 
properties of an acid. 

The author of this memoir was desirous of asieuaseeal 
the difference which existed in the fat of animals whose 
exercises are violent, such as the wolf, the hare, &c., as 
well as that of some carnivorous birds ; but the difficulty of 
procuring a sufficient quantity at one time compelled him 
to defer his labours to a future period. 

His first experiments had for their object to examine 
hog’s lard, per se, and combined with other substances, 
Although this labour is still incomplete, it may lead to some 
very useful observations on the preparation of medicines. 

Effects of Light on Animal Fat.—It is well known that 
fresh lard well purified is without any smell, and ofa mildish 
insipid taste. Exposed for two months to the solar rays, 
without the contact.of the air, it acquires a very rancid 
penetrating smell, a bitter taste, which burns the nie 


* From Annales de Chimie, tome lviii. p. 154. Extracted by M. Bouillon La- 
grange from an Essay read in the Pharmaceutical Society of Paris by the 
late M. Vogel, Chemical Instructor in the School of Pharmacy at Paris, 


and 


Memoir upon Animal Fat. 73 


and ‘changes from a white to a yellow colour, without, 
however, acquiring any acidity. When the contact with 
the air is added to the solar rays, the same phanomena take 
place, and it always becomes acid. 

~ Caloric.—Fat melts at 32°34 of Reaumur (90:21 Fabr.). 
At this temperature it remains in fusion without undergoing 
decomposition ; but when the temperature is pushed be- 
yond 80° (174° Fahr.) it begins to be decomposed. 

The author did not think necessary to describe the distil- 
lation of hog’s lard: this operation has been already per- 
formed, and its products examined, by Messrs. Von Crell, 
Guyton and Thenard ; he only observes that fat, when well 
washed, does not yield ammonia upon distillation, while that 
which has not been washed yields very sensible traces of it. 
The water in which muscular substances have been washed, 
the cellular tissue of which is not exactly separated, takes 
away from it a notable quantity of gelatinous animal matter 
which accompanies the membranes ; it is this animal gela- 
tinous matter which produces the ammonia in distillation. 

Sulphur.—Fat mixed with half its weight of sulphur 
sublimed and washed, forms what is vulgarly called sulphur 
pomatum. 

This compound was examined four days after its prepara- 
tion, as well as a similar mixture a little older, and no traces 
whatever of sulphuric acid were discovered. By a slow 
fusion in B. M. we separated, by decantation, a quantity of 
fat ; and on passing the rest through fine linen, we obtained 
“e greatest part of the fat employed: it had a gray colour, 
a bitter, sharp, and very strong taste ; it congealed much 
more quickly than common fat when cooled, and it black- 
ened silver vessels. 

Thus there is sulphur dissolved in this compound ; it will 
even be found in solution, every time it is employed in fric- 
tion. The elevation of the temperature facilitates this solu- ' 
tion. 

We know how rapidiy sulphur penetrates through places 
far remote from the spot where it was made use of in the 
shape of pomatum: this is not so surprising when we res 
flect that the sulphur is in solution. I am ignorant, says 

‘ i M. Vogel, 


74 Memoir upon Animal Fat. 
M. Vogel, if sulphur, divided by any other vehicle, (thick 


mucilage or gelatine, for instance,) acts mm an analogous 
manner. I suspect, however, that when it is employed in 
friction, divided by means of one of these bodies, its results 
would be different from those of sulpbur dissolved in fat. 

If we raise the sulphurated fat to the boiling poimt, and 
if itis hastily decanted and cooled, a part of the sulphur is 
precipitated ; but if it has been allowed to cool slowly, the 
sulphur then crystallwes in beautiful needles. 

When we distil in the open fire sulphurated fat in a 
Juted glass retort, and receive the products over mercury, 
we obtain a great quantity of gas, which, being collected 
and examined, appears to be.a mixture of plenty of sulphu- 
gated hydrogen gas, carbonated hydrogen gas, and a little 
carbonic acid gas. We never found any sulphurous acid 
gas, as several chemists have asserted. 

From the moment that the elastic fluids cease to pass, 
white thick vapours are perceived, condensing with difh- 
culty, and there is sublimed at the neck of the retort a yel- 
Jow matter, which was merely fat mixed with a little sul- 
phur: the liquor of the receiver looked milky ; it yielded, 
upon cooling, small white crystals; this was merely sul- 
phur in minute division. The retort contained a brilliant 
prismatic charcoal in abundance. 

Sulphurated hydrogen gas, passed through melted fat, 
effected no change on it, and was not dissolved in it. 

Phosphorus. —I melted, says the author, half an ounce of 
fat in B. M.; I added, after the fusion, two grains of good 
phosphorus, very transparent; I kept the whole for ait 
a quarter of an hour at the same temperature : I took care 
not to-agitate the liquid too much, in order to avoid the 
action of the air, which would have acidified the phos- 
phorus. 

When the fat was cold, I recovered a part of the phos- 
phorus which was not dissolved. This fat had a slight 
smell of garlic, and a disagreeable taste ; it reddened turn- 
sole ; it formed a very abundant black precipitate with the 
nitrate of silver, and a Jess abundant precipitate of the same 
colour with the neutral nitrate of mercury at the minimum. 

As 


—— 
tal 


Memoir upon Animal Fat. 7S 


As the heat of the B. M. was not sufficient to dissolve 
the phosphorus employed, 1 made other mixtures of fat 
and phosphorus in different proportions, which I brought 
to the boiling point: this method favoured its solubility. 
After many trials, I ascertained that one ounce of fat, at a 
slight ebullition, can dissolve five grains of phosphorus, 
a part of which js precipitated upon cooling. 

This phosphorated fat was washed several times in boil- 
ing water: the washings were acid, blackened the nitrate of 
silver, and formed a flaky precipitate with lime water: this 
water had taken from it its acid property, but not that of 
blackening the nitrate of silver: thus, one part of the phos- 
phorus remained in a true solution without acidifying. 

These two kinds ef phosphorated fat, that which had 
been prepared in B. M., and that prepared by ebuliition, 
either washed or not, emitted no light in the dark at a tem- 
perature of 10°15 (50°27 Fahr.), nor even by rubbing with 
the hand; but if the temperature was raised to 60° (140° 
Fahr.), the luminous effects were a Jittle visible. The phos- 
phorated fat, the undissolved phosphorus of which. had 
been carefully separated, did not shine in the ordinary tem- 
perature. 

I distilled twelve grains of phosphorus with two ounces 
of fat: the matter soon assumed a charry appearance, much 
more speedily than common fat submitted to the same ope- 
ration; there was liberated at the beginning, phosphorated 
hydrogen gas, which took fire in the receiver ; and we after- 
wards obtained under a bell-glass, in the mercurial appara- 
tus, phospkorated hydrogen gas and carbonated hydrogen 
gas. The receiver contained fat which had been blended 
with phosphorus and phosphorated hydrogen gas. After 
cooling, it took fire with the contact of the air, and burned 
the fat rapidly. 

Whatever is the temperature, therefore, employed to dis- 
solve phosphorus in fat, there is formed every time a 
greater or less quantity of phosphorous acid :—this inclines 
me to think that the same thing happens in many other 

hosphorated compounds. 

M, Bouillon Lagrange last year, in his lectures upon fixed 


and 


76 Mienibir upon Animal Fat. 


and volatile ‘oils, has presented analogous results ; he has 

shown, that the solution of phosphorus in one or other of 

these oils can never be considered as a regular medical ap- 

plication ; that there is immediately formed a small quan-_ 
tity of acid, and that this quantity increases through time. 

All the experiments hitherto mentioned were made with 
the contact of the air, the result of which’ alw ays was an 
acidification of the phosphorus. 

I did not omit to repeat several experiments without the 
contact of air, such as M. -Boullay had announced in one of 
his reports to the Pharmaceutical Society. 

In a small flask, almost entirely filled with melted fal: 
YT put a morsel of phosphorus. I hastily corked’ it, and 
heated it for five minutes in B. M.: a part of the phospho- 
rus was dissolved; and I remarked, with M. Boullay, that 
fat was not acid, but that it blackened the nitrate of silver, 
A few minutes afeleowrnds upon decanting or agitating li- 
quid fat in the open air, it acquires acidity. 

This speedy change, therefore, gives us little hope of 
» finding a sure or constant medical appiication in the solution 
of phosphorus, in spite of the processes continually re- 
commended for this purpose. The physician, therefore, can 
never be certain of the quantity of phosphorus, because the 
contact with the air 1s unavoidable. 

Being desirous of knowing the action of fat upon phos= 
phorated hydrogen gas, I passed a piece of fat under a bell- 
. glass filled with mercury ; I liquefied it with hghted char- 

coal, which I carried round about the bell-glass ; at the 
same time I passed phosphorated hydrogen gas into it: 
there was very little apparent absorption. For the greater 
certainty, I varied the experiment in the following manner: 
Into a cylinder nearly ten inches Jong and eight lines in 
diameter I poured melted fat until it was full: having car- 
ried it to the mercury tub, I made phosphorated hydrogen - 
‘gas pass into it, so as to drive off a part of the fat; I corked 
the cylinder below the mercury with a linen stopper; I 
plunged it for some minutes in hot water to keep the fat in 
fusion ; I shook the mixture continually until it cooled; I 
uncorked it below the mercury, it rose five or six lines 
above 


Memoir upon Animal Fat. 77 


above its level 5 the gas which remained in the cylinder did 
not inflame in the air, but took fire immediately on the ap- 
proach of a lighted candle. 

' The gas was thus entirely decomposed, and the whole 
quantity of phosphorus was decomposed. I attribute the 
cause of this absorption not only to the loss.of phosphorus, 
which, without doubt, had diminished the volume of the 
gas, but also to its temperature ; since it was recently libe-~ 
rated, and had passed through the hot fat, which would con- 
sequently dilate its volume a little. 

The fat which remained had all the characters of phos- 
phorated fat ; it soon became acid in the air. 

The Acids.—As the sulphuric and muriatic acids are not 
very interesting, the latter having even no action at all upon 
fat, I directed my attention chiefly.to the phenomena pre- 
sented by the nitric acid. 

This .acid has become a valuable agent in the hands of 
the chemists. To the action of this acid upon organized 
bodies we are indebted for a great number of discoveries. 

It is well known how much facts have multiplied since 

we have been able to explain the changes which take place 
upon animal and vegetable compounds. 
. Berthollet has in some measure paved the way by his im- 
portant labours upon animal substances; and the experi- 
ments of Messrs. Fourcroy and Vauquelin have left us no- 
thing more to desire on that subject. These gentlemen 
have considerably enlarged the sphere of our knowledge in 
this department, so difficult of comprehension, and so use- 
ful in the science of medicine. 

M. Fourcroy was the first who ascertained the action of 
the nitric acid upon fat. M. Alyon and several other che- 
mists have since presented interesting results on the subject. 

I treated fat in the manner prescribed by Messrs. Four- 
eroy and Alyon for making the oxygenated pomatum. The 
Jatter observes, that it does not stand in need of washing, 
as it is not acid: I repeated the process prescribed by him 
with one ounce of acid at 32° to the pound of fat; I em- 
ployed afterwards nitric acid of an inferior strength, from 
80° down to 24°; the oxygenated fat was always acid. 

I made 


78 Memoir upon Animal Fat. 


I made this experiment in a retort in the pheumatic ap? 
paratus, and I obtained azotic gas as the produce: this gas 
was not disengaged pure, as M. Alyon announced ; it was 
mixed with nitrous gas and carbonic acid gasy as justly 
observed by M. Van Mons. 

Fat thus oxygenated, of a hardness equal to suet; melts at 
the temperature of 36° or 38° of Reaumur, (96° to 100° of 
Fahr.) 

I boiled it with water, which acquired a citron yellow co- 
lour from it, had a bitter and sharp taste, reddened turnsole 
paper, and constantly precipitated the acetate of lead and 
nitrate of mercury. This water distilled in a retort, almost 
to dryness, yields a colourless white liquor which contains 
a quantity of acetic acid; it does not then precipitate the 
above metallic solutions. 

The washings of fat, evaporated to the consistence of a 
thick liquid, deposit, upon cooling, a tenacious brown sub- 
stance, which attracts humidity from the air. .The liquor 
being decanted and exposed to evaporation in a stuve, am 
infinity of very brilliant white needles crystallize in it. I 
took these crystals at first for oxalic acid; but lime-water 
was not in the least affected by them ; besides, they had no 
other of the properties of the oxalic acid: we shall see their 
nature a little further on. 

However often we may wash oxygenated fat, its yellow 
colour and its acidity never leave it. After the twelfth boil- 
ing it is still yellow, and the water coming from it reddens 
turnsole. 

Alcohol acts differently : on boiling it with oxygenated 
pomatum, it dissolves a very great quantity of it; upon 
eooling, plenty of flakes are separated from it, which, being 
collected and dried, yield an oxygenated fat which is singu- 
larly bleached. The fat remaining is also whiter ; the al- 
cohol acquires a yellow colour, and becomes acid: it ree 
tains enough of matter in solution, to be abundantly preci« 
pitated by water. 

I evaporated this alcohol; plenty of yellow acid fat re~ 
mained ; water effected its solution in part. 

Boiling alcohol, frequently employed to wash oxygenated 

fat, 


Memoir upon Anintal Fat. 79 


fat, does not completely take off its acidity ; it rather dis- 
solves it for the most part, and this last liquor is still 
acid. | 

Since the acid adheres so intimately to the fat, I tried to 
separate it from the latter by-salifiable bases, and I made use 
of lime-water, which I boiled with oxygenated fat; the fat 
Jost its alkalinity, and acquired a colour of a citron yellow. 
This neutral liqnor, which I regarded more as a combina- 
tion of lime with an aeid, than fat, was abundantly preci- 
pitated by the acetate of lead. ; 

Evaporated to the consistence of a syrup, it is discoloured 
by the nitric and muriatic acids, which form in it a whitish . 
precipitate; at the same time, when we pour the acid, a very 
rancid odour is manifested. 

Barytes water acts upon oxygenated fat in a more effica~ 
cious manner. The orange yellow colour which the water - 
acquires from it is equally destroyed by the acids. I poured 


into it a quantity of sulphuric acid sufficient to carry off the 


barytes ; I boiled the whole, and I filtered the liquor while 
boiling. 

The filtered liquor, which contained no barytes, was in a 
great measure evaporated in a sand-bath ; small fine needles 
were crystallized mixed with silky tufts, not precipitable by 
lime water, insoluble in alcohol, and which were not sub- 
limed in close vessels. 

When fat is boiled with concentrated nitric acid, and the 
ebullition is continued, adding water from time to time, a - 
white crystalline powder is formed upon cooling. 

This substance is rough to the touch, insoluble in alcohol, 
much more soluble in boiling water than in cold water. By 
its combination with the bases, and by several other charac- 
ters, I was convinced that it was mucous acid*. 

Fat thus oxygenated at the maximum is soft, of a brown 
colour, sensibly soluble in water, and very soluble in alco- 
hol. Its washing was saturated by potash; from this re- 
sulted a leafy salt, attracting humidity from the air, and 


* Beef suet, although it decomposes less strongly the nitric acid, also yields 


mucous acid. r 
which 


80 Memoir upon Animal Fat. 


which liberated acetic acid upon treating it by the sulphurie 
acid *, 

The precipitate formed by the acetate of Jead in the wash- 
ing of oxygenated fat, is nothing else but the fat itself com- 
bined with oxide of lead, and which carries with it a little 
mucous acid; the former floats above, when the precipitate 
is decomposed by the sulphuric acid. 

Oxygenated fat being very soluble in alcohol, a great 
part of it may be precipitated by water. By the energetic 
action of the concentrated nitric acid upon fat, there is a 
notable quantity of nitrate of ammonia formed, of which 
we may be convinced by mixing potash or quicklime with 
the washings. 

Oxygenated Muriatic Acid.—The action of this acid upon 
fat not having been yet described, I think it may be useful 
to enter into some details. 

I passed a great quantity of oxymuriatic acid gas into fat 
kept in fusion in B. M., the gas, before arriving at it, pass- 
ing through a vessel containing water. The fat absorbed a 
very great quantity of it. 1 continued to pass it until the 
bubbles no longer arose. i 

After cooling, the fat was considerably augmented in 
weight; its whiteness became dirty, and its consistence was 
entirely changed; it was soft, resembled an oily thick h- 
quid, which might be easily poured from one flask to the 
other, even at the temperature of 10°'(50° Fabr.): in the 
air, white vapours of acid are disengaged at the commence- 
ment. 

Having left it nearly two months in the air, it resumed a 
little more solidity, but never that of common fat, much 
less that of oxygenated fat: its taste was rancid, not sensi- 
bly acid, leaving behind it a slightly bitter taste, which 
burns the throat. The simple muriatic acid is so combined » 
with fat, that by washings in boiling water I only took off 
a very small quantity of it. The nitric acid disengages the 
above acid from it in abundance, with effervescence and 


* Rancid fat, and very old suet, also furnished me with acetic acid upon 
treating them in this manner. 
white 


On the Use of Fumigations of Oxymuriatic Acid. 81 


white vapours. What is singular is, that the nitric acid is 
no longer decomposed in it, notwithstanding the quantity 
employed ; and the fat acquires neither colour nor solidity. 
I shall now proceed to speak of the effects of the metals on 


fat. 
[To be continued. ] 


XIV. Report made to the Class of Physical and Mathema- 
tical Sciences of the’ French Institute on the 6th of Janu- 
ary 1806, ly M. Pine, upon the advantageous Results 
ohtuined by M. DesGenettezs, from the Use hice Fumigas 
tions of Oxymuriatic Acid. 


M. GuyrTon and myself were directed to report to the so- 
ciety on the use of fumigations of oxymuniatic acid gas em- 
ployed by M. Desgenettes according to the ordinary pro- 
cesses, and upon the results be obtained from it. These 
fumigations seem not only to have had an influence upon 
the salubrity of the air, but also in the cure of diseases. 
The author of these observations remarked, at first, that 
the military prisons of the capital regularly furnished a num- 
ber of cases of adynamic fevers to the hospitals, which fre- 
quently spread to the patients in the nearest beds, and also 
to the nurses; he adds, that for nearly a year past no such 
infections have taken place. M. Desgenettes also observed 
that gangrenes, being common among the wounded, were 
also greatly checked : the specific smell of the gangrene was 
not annihilated, but, according to him, it was modified by 
the fumigations. . 
Another general observation made by M. Deagenetizs was, 
that for several years the scurvy had been very frequent ; 
that three persons, in particular, had been affected with it in 
a very violent manner; and, in short, one of them had been 
shut up from the rest on account of the insupportable infec- 
tion spread by torrents of sanious saliva, Nevertheless, by 
means of fumigations, this specific smell was neutralized. 
Ti seemed to be concentrated, as it were, round the patient. 
The nurses were then permitted to sleep near these scorbutic 
Vol. 26. No, 101, Oct, 1806. F patients 


$2 Advantageous Results from the Use of 


patients without any bad effects, and they attended them 
regularly. 

™M. Desgenettes does trot confine himself to these general 
reniarks ; fe renders the favourable effects of -fumigations, 
according to~M. Morveau’s method, much more manifest, 
by giving monthly, for these last nine months, the respec- 
tive numbers of patients admitted into the military hospital, 
‘with the addition of those patients who had been there from 
the first ; this formed a sum total, which may be easily comt- 
pared with the number of those who died during the nine 
months. Upon turning over the registers it appears, that 
out of 3617 patients, 223 dicd; that is to say, a sixteenth, 
or 0°06. This report of icra is one of the most ad- 
vantageous that could be expected in an hospital; and it 
is so much the more conclusive in favour of mineral fumi- 
gations, according to M. Guyton’s process, that the mili- 

tary hospital of the capital often contains serious diseases, 
and is, for the most part, filled with refractory conscripts, 
and veterans not in garrison, who never come into the hos- 
pitals until they have suffered a great deal elsewhere. 5 
Such are the facts related by M. Desgenettes; and they con- 
firm more and more the advantayes of mineral fumigations, 
already established by other numerous observations collected 
in the work of M. Guyton. It may be inferred that these. 
fumigations not only act as preservatives agamst adynamic 
fevers and scurvy, but also concur in the cure of the 
same maladies, by destroying the baneful influence exercised 
apon sick persons by deleterious miasma. The use of this 
salutary process in hospitals ought to excite a lively interest. 
T shall here add some facts within my own knowledge, and 
which have shown, in the Hospital de la Salpetriere *, that 
some variations in the mode of mineral fumigations are ne- 
cessary, according to local circumstances. 

The iatbiion which I made of the lunatics, to enable 
me to follow out, with proper attention, my object of re- 
search, was to confine in particular apartments such of them 
as, were attacked with other incidental maladies, as agues or 


* The hospital for lunatics. 


chronic 


Fumigations of Oxymuriatic Acid. 83 


county diseases, intermittent or continued fevers, rheurna- 
tisms, dropsies, &c., which require a particular treatment. 
Some of these patients were more or less affected ; and we 
may easily imagine the cries and confusion produced by the 
first trials of fumigation a year ago,wheti the lunatics were en- 
veloped in clouds of vapours : but experience has shown that 
such fumigations as were then used retard the cure of lunatic 
patients. At that time I employed nitric fumigations, fol- 
lowing the usual method of throwing successively small quan- 
tities of nitrate of potash into a little sulphuric acid, put ina 
glass. At other times I caused to be carried into different 
parts of the hall a mixture of muriate of soda and oxide of 
manganese in the usual proportions, pouring, by degrees, 
into it some drops of sulphuric acid, that slight vapours 
only might be formed. 

Such patients as exhale a fetid smell are confined at the 
end of the hall, and it is there where the ordinary fumiga- 
tions are used. But I think I have ascertained the source 
of the evil by remarking, that, in general, the lunatics at- 
tacked with adynamic fevers, scurvy, or even scorbutic gan- 
grene, who were brought to the infirmaries, came always 
from certain infected places, which I resolved to discover. 

' The first place [ examined was a small room containing 
fourteen beds, and in which were confined such lunatics as 
are of a very advanced age, or in a complete state of mad- 
ness or idiotism. The most of them are constantly bed-rid, 
and in such a state of stupor and imbecility that they can 
scarcely indicate the object of their necessities. The infec- 
tion must arise from the insalubrity of the air in a place in- 
habited by such unfortunate persons, heated in winter by a 
stove, and very small besides. Whatever precautions were 
at any time used, this place was always very unwholesome ; 
and it was there where adynamic fevers and scurvy were con- 
tinually cherished previous to the repeated use of fumiga- 
tions of oxymuriatic.acid gas, which were repeated once or 
twice a month in summer, and oftener in winter, producing 
little or no inconvenience on account of the state of stupor 
_ and insensibility of lunatic patients. I then mixed fifteen 
decigrammes of muriate of soda with three decigrammes of 

F3 oxide 


84 Onthe Use of Fumigations of Oxymuriatic Acid. 


oxide of manganese, which I distributed in two crucibles 
placed at a certain distance from each other, and into eacly 
of which we successively poured six decigrammes of sul- 
phuric acid. 

_ Another place of the hospital, where the infected state of. 
the air required reiterated mineral fumigations, was where. 
the cells were situated for the confinement of certain dan- 
gerous or delirious melancholic patients. Some of these are, 
confined in strait waistcoats, others are left to themselves, 
as experience shows that a superfluous restraint only pro- 
longs the duration of lunacy. Their rooms are commonly 
very s small, their dimensions not being more than two metres 
in length and breadth, and three metres in height: this 
only forms acapacity of twelve cubic metres for each lunatic. 
The air not circulating in these close apartments, rendered 
humid by frequent washings, we may easily conceive how 
fetid emanations are accumulated in them, as well as from 
the description of patients who inhabit them, who from 
negligence or a propensily collect around them every kind 
of nastiness ; it was in these unwholesome apartments that 
the fumigations of the oxymauriatic acid gas were most fre- 
quently practised, by filling them successively with these 
mineral vapours, and shutting the door and window. The 
infectious smell is always destroyed by this method in a 
sure manner; and I did not perceive any inconvenience to 
arise to the lunatics who were lodged in them, having pre- 
viously removed the worst among them into a neighbouring 
cell until the vapours were dispelled. 

In making use of these fumigations, there is a variety 
which ought to be remarked. Some of these apartments 
are ill paved, and the urine then remains more or less be- 
tween the crevices of the pavement; this causes a very 
disagreeable smell of ammoniacal gas. In this case T made 
use of fumigations with plain muriatic gas, by simply pour- 
ing sulphuric acid upon muriate of soda: this produces a 
rapid combination of muriatic acid gas with the ammoniacal 
gas, and forms, without doubt, a new chemical compound 
which does not permit the old smell to continue. We must, 
however, take care to remove the patient for two or three 
hours, 


On the Acetic Acid and its Ether. 85 


hours, on account of the action of the muriatic vapours upon 
the nostrils and the lungs. 

Several things may concur to diminish the number of 
adynamic fevers and scurvy in an hospital; but every thing 
leads us to believe, that one of the most powerful means is 
the use of mineral fumigations ; and that they act particu- 
larly by destroying the deleterious miasmata which commu- 
nicate infection. ; 


XV. On the Acetic Acid and its Ether. Extracted from 
a Letter of M. GEHLEN to M. Guyton*, 


Berlin, 31st Dec. 1805. 
2 are acquainted with the assertion of Scheele, that 


the acetic acid, without the intervention of a mineral acid, 
is incapable of forming ether. M. Schultze, of Kiel, has 
proved, by experiments, that this assertion is well founded. 
M. Lichtemberg and myself have repeated these experi- 
ments, and found them very exact ; but it is necessary that 
the acetic acid should be very pure, so that the acetates of 
silver and barytes may have no re-action upon it. A mi- 
_ nimum of sulphurous acid is sufficient to form ether. On 
distilling to dryness a mixture of equal parts of acetic acid 
and absolute alcohol, (i.e. prepared according to Richter, 
with the melted muriate of lime,) no trace remains in the 
retort, and no gas is formed. On mixing the acid and the 
alcohol they are not sensibly heated, 

I found, also, that the acidity of the acetic acid is not 
always i in direct proportion to its specific gravity. An acid, 
(obtained from one part of acetate of soda, deprived of the 
water of crystallization by means of one part and a half of 
smoking concentrated sulphuric acid), crystallizing at a low 
temperature, which had a specific gravity of 1°055, saturated 
much more alkali than another acid, (distilled from the 
acetate of copper crystallized by 0°75 of concentrated sul- 
phuric acid), haying a specific gravity of 1075. 


* From Annales de Chimie, tom. lvii, p. 94. 


F3 XVI, Ob- 


[ 86] 


XVI. Observations upon the two Preparations of Acetic 
Ether. By M. Henry, Professor of Pharmacy in the 
Pharmaceutical School of Paris*.° 


Havine been directed by the society to ascertain the dif+ 
ference which exists between acetic ethers prepared imme+ 
diately, or by the intermedium of the sulphuric acid, I have 
now to EpauDiCate the experiments made with that 
view. 

M. Gehlen, in a letter addressed to M. Guyton, lately 
published i in the Annales de Chimie f, insists that, accord- 
ing to the assertion of Scheele, it is proved that the acetic 
nets without the intervention of a mineral acid, is not ¢a- 
pable of forming ether. 

The author aes not tell us what acetic acid he employed ; 
he merely asserts the fact, recommends very pure acetic 
acid to be used, and adds, that ‘¢ a minimum of sulphu- 
rous acid is sufficient to form ether.” 

I know that in a great part of Ger many they extract the 
acetic acid from acetate of soda by the intervention of sul- 
phuric acid: in place of that pointed out by Pelletier, 
acetate of copper is made use of. It was the latter ] em- 
ployed, it did not contain an atom of mineral acid. 

But, without entering upon the discussion of a point long 
ago decided by constant facts, 1 return to the present object 

of my inquiries. 

We are indebted to Pelletier for the process of obtaining 
acetic ether, which consists in making a mixture of equal 
parts of rectified alcohol and acetic soins in re-cohobating 
ihree times the produce of the distillation upon the residue, 
and rectifying the ether over potash. 

I followed this process, with this difference, that I re- 
cohobated the produce of the distillation six times. — 

From a mixture of 500 grammes of rectified alcohol, at 
36 degrees, and an equal quantity of acetic acid at 11 de- 
grees, I obtained 495 grammes of ether at 24 degrees, im- 


* From Annales de Chimie, tome lviii. p. 199. 


+ See the preceding article, et 
miscible 


On the two Preparations of Acetic Ether. 87 


miscible in water, of an agreeable smell, reddening strongly 

the blue vegetable colours. No particular gas was liberated 

_during the operation, merely atmospheric air displaced by 
the ethereal gas. I rectified this ether over pure alcohol 
(concentrated by potash): it did not redden any longer the 
blue vegetable colours ; it marked 25 ae in the areome- 
ter, and weighed 420 grammes. 

As to the process by the intermedium of the seh get 
acid, indicated by our fellow member Durosicr, it consists 
in introducing 500 grammes of the acetate of copper, in 
powder, into atubulated retort, to which the apparatus of 
Woulff is adapted. A mixture is afterwards made of equal 
parts (500 grammes of each) of rectified alcohol and sul- 
phuric acid, which is introduced, when it is cooled, by the 
tubulure of the retort; it is gradually heated, and 640 
grammes of acetic ether are obtained, mixed with sulphu- 
rous acid in. a small quantity, marking in the areometer 
25 degrees and a half, reddening strongly the blue vegetable 
colours, forming a precipitate with water of barytes and 
lime-water. During the operation a small quantity of an 
elastic fluid is liberated, poien I ascertained was sulphu-. 
rous acid gas. 

I ratified this ether with 50 grammes of alcohol. (pu- 
rified by potash) ; and in order to ascertain if any sulphuric 
ether existed in this ether, I divided the produce of the rec- 
tification into portions of 50 grammes cach, 

The first produce marked 31 degrees in the areometer ; 
the second, 28 degrees ; the third, 274 degrees ; the fourth, 
264 degrees, These different products marked 28 degrees, 
and weighed 535 grammes. 

, -{n order to ascertain if it was easy, by dividing the pro- 
ducts into portions, to ascertain the presetice of sulphuric 
ether in acetic ether, I made a mixture of 50 grammes of 
the former at 56 degrees, the thermometer at 0, (32° Fahr.), 
and a mixture of 200 grammes of the secoud, at 25 degrees. 
The two ethers, thus mixed; yielded, after two days, 30 de- 
grees. 

I distilled about 70 grammes of ether ; it marked 39 de- 
grees, and had avery decided smell of sulphuric ether ; 

4 whence 


88 Society of Arts and Sciences at Utrecht. 


whence I concluded, that the method I emploved was the 
only one for separating these two ethers. 

I afterwards submitted the acetic ethers to the following 
examination ; 

1. Both of them have an agreeable smell. 

2. Their specific weight does.not differ more ‘than four or 
five degrees. 

ss They boil at almost equal temperatures 3 ; the former at 
50° of Reaumur, (122° of Fahr.), the latter at 46° (114°& 

Fahr.). 

4, Exposed to, the air they slowly evaporate. 

5, Both of them are equally soluble in eight, parts and a 
half of water. 

6. The sulphuric acid has but very little action upon 
these ethers: it colours them slightly: one part of ether 
and one part of acid mixed very exactly, disengage some 
heat, about 30° (86° Fahr.). 


7. Nitric acid, at 46 degrees, is strongly decomposed by | 


these ethers: there 1s a ‘considerable liberation of nitrons 
gas: the residue is oxalic acid. 

It results from these different facts, that these two ethers 
are nearly the same; that they only differ im some slender 
shades, which do hue change their intimate nature. 

Thus the process npoposed by M. Parmentier is preferable 
to that of M. Pefletier, in so far as it is less expensive, 
shorter, and the product more abundant. But, in giving 
the preference to this last process, I ami far from subscribing 


to the assertion of M. Gehlen, who admits the necessity of" 


a mineral acid for the formation of acetic ether. 


, 


XVII. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES AT UTRECHT. 


Tus society has offered a gold medal, or thirty ducats in 
money, for the best answer to the following question: 

1. * As the two hemispheres of our earth, the north and 
south, are in some measure different from each other in 


shape 


Royal Academy of Berlin, &ec. 89 


shape and size, what astronomical appearances should this 
give rise to? And cannot the existing difference between 
the summer and winter observations upon the obliquity of 
the ecliptic be accounted for from these ?”’ 

The above society has also offered a double medal, or 
sixty ducats in money, for the best answer to the following 
question : 

2. As the latest observations and inquiries upon elec- 
tricity, the electrical eel, (Gymnotus efectricus,) and the 
galvanic powers of other similar fishes, seem to demonstrate. 
a very strong coincidence in the nature of the various elec- 
trical powers of these animals, and yet a most remarkable. 
difference in their effects ; it becomes requisite to reconcile 
these apparent contradictions from actual experiments.” 

The answers to the above questions must be transmitted 
to Utrecht on or before the 1st October 1808. 


THE FREE SOCIETY FOR PHYSICAL AND MEDICAL KNOW- 
LEDGE AT LUTTICK, 

On the 6th of June 1806, announced a prize of 200 
francs for the best answer to the following question : 

«© What influence have the passions in bringing on dis- 
eases ?” 

The answers must be sent in on or before the 1st of 
April 1807. ~ 


LITERARY SOCIETY AT MONTAUBAN. 

This society has offered a prize of a gold medal for the 
best answer to the following question : 

«© What connection subsists between electricity, mage 
‘ netism, and galvanism? and what part does caloric act in 
all the operations of the above principles ?” 

The answer must be transmitted on or before the 20th of 
March 1807. 

ROYAL ACADEMY OF BERLIN. 

On the 7th of August, 1806, this: academy had its grand 
-annual meeting, when the following prize questions were 
announced for the ensuing year : 
© Has electricity, or have any other pure chemical powers 

any 


‘ 


90- Agricultural Society of Amsterdam.—Travellers. 


any influence on the greater or lesser strength of magnet- 
ism? and if this influence is proved by actual experiments, 
what are the modifications which the magnetic power thereby 
undergoes ?”’ 

ie What were the frontier lines of the Roman possessions 
in old Germany? and what were the different periods when 
these possessions were acquired or renounced ?” 


AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF AMSTERDAM. 

At the sitting of this society on the 6th of May 1506, the 
following prize question was announced : 

«¢ As the price of wax and honey has risen much within 
these late years, and as the propagation of bees is by no 
means increased, but rather diminished ; what is the best 
method of increasing the propagation of bees in Holland, 
and of removing the obstacles that may exist to their in- 
crease ?”” 

The prize is a gold medal of the value of 50 ducats, or a 
silver medal along with 50 ducats ready money. The an- 
swers may be written in Dutch, Latin, French, English, or 
German ; and must be transmitted to the society on or be- 
fore the 31st of January 18067. 


XVIL. Intelligence and M iscellaneous Articles. 


TRAVELLERS, 


W: are happy to announce the arrival in London of Jord - 
viscount Valentia, in good health, on his return from India, 
by the way of Suez, with his secretary, Mr. Salt, after nearly 
five years absence from England in various parts of India. 
His lordship made several months stay in the Red Sea, and 
the adjacent sea coasts ; and has made some valuable charts 
of those different places. His lordship had, by order of the 
government of India, the Panther (company’s cruiser), cap- 
tain Court, to assist him. Mr. Salt, his lordship’s secre- 
tary, made an excursion into wae boa with major Aundle, 
of the honourable company’s service, as far the capital, 
Gondar, Lord Valentia’s state of health, at this period, 
would 


‘ 


/ 


Destruction of Vermin. 01, 


would not permit him to accompany Mr. Salt. The public 
will be exceedingly gratified by much valuable information, 
collected by his lordship during this long, Jaborious, and 
laudable research. A young Abyssinian prince is in his 
‘lordship’s suite, who is a near relation of Negade Ra Maho- 
met, one of the principal officers of state, so often men- 
tioned by that celebrated traveller the Abyssinian Bruce, as 
being his friend. This young prince appears possessed of 
great natural endowments, and anxious to become acquainted 
with the manners and customs of Great Britain. ‘ 

We are happy once more to contradict the report of the 
death of Mungo Park, who was said to have fallen a victim 
in the interior of Africa. Accounts were received of him 


, about the middle of the present month, which stated his 


arrival at Tombuctoo, and that he is now on his return. It 
is to be feared that he will encounter great difficulties in his 
journey, as he has to tow his boat all the way back against 
the stream. The journal that is sent to Europe is dated 
from Sansapang. 


DESTRUCTION OF VERMIN. 


The following methods are practised in Germany for free- 
ing granaries from mites or weevils: 

1. Cover completely the walls and rafters, above and below, 
of the granaries which are infested by weevils, with quick- 
Jime slaked in water in ‘which trefoil, wormwood, and hys- 
sop have been boiled. This composition ought to ‘be ap- 
plied as hot as possible. 

2. A very sagacious farmer has succeeded in destroying 
weevils by a very easy process. In the month of June, 

_ when his granaries were all empty, he collected great quan- 
tities of the largest-sized ants in sacks, and then scattered 
them about the places infested with the weevils. The ants 
immediately fell upon and devoured every one of them; 
nor have any weevils since that time been seen ou his pre- 
mises. 

3. Another method, not less efficactous, but which -re- 
quires a great deal of care and attention in the application 
of it, is the following :—Place in your granaries a number 


of 


.92 Education of the Blind.—Voyage to Iceland, Se. 


of chafing-dishes filled with lighted pieces of wood. Every 
aperture must then be carefully closed, in order to prevent 
any fresh air from entering. The carbonic acid gas, pro- 
duced from the burning wood, proves fatal to the insects. 
Rats and mice, also, are.so strongly affected by it, that they 
are seen running out of their holes, and dying in all direc- 
tions. The persons employed to manage this process must 
take great care of their own safety, by keeping a current of 
air around them until the burning wood is properly placed. 
Another danger may arise from the premises taking fire ; 
but this also may be avoided by proper caution, particularly 
if they are paved with brick or stone. 
EDUCATION OF THE BLIND. 

Professor Haiiy, of Paris, has introduced into Prassia 

his plan for educating the blind, and an institution for the 


encouragement of this laudable object is in great forward- 


ness at Konigsberg. 
VOYAGE TO ICELAND. 

M. Leopold de Buch, member of the Academy of Sci- 
ences at Berlin, and the friend of baron Humboldt, has set 
out on a voyage to Iceland at his own expense, where he 
intends to pass the winter for the purpose of making phy- 
sical and geognostic inane in that hitherto neglected 


country. 
ANTISEPTIC PROPERTIES OF CHARCOAL. 


The crews of the two Russian ships which lately sailed 
round the world were extremely healthy. During the whole 
three years of their voyage only two men died of the crew of 
the Neva, and the Naveshda did not lose a single man. It 
is already known that their fresh water was preserved in 
charred casks, but it is not so generally known that they 
used the same precaution for preserving their salted provi- 
sions. The beef they earried out with them tasted as plea- 
santly upon their return as it did three hel before, ae 


first salied. 
‘ MISCELLANEOUS. 


The celebrated Von Mechel, from Basle, but who is at pre= 
‘sent in Berlin, is occupied in company with Messrs. Humboldt 
aid De Buch, the travellers, Tralles the mathematician, and 
; Bode 


Miscellaneous. * - oF 


Bode the astronomer, in preparing a grand work for publi- 
cation. It is to be a large copper-plate, which wil exhibit 
a general picture of the highest mountains of the globe, 
under the title of “ Tableau general des plus hauts Mon- 
tagnes du Globe.” It will contain about 150 mountains, 
with an exact measurement of their several heights above 
the level of the sea. These heights are reckoned by the fa- 
thom of six feet. The drawing is by M. Von Mechel, and 
the explanatory text is from the pen of baron Humboldt. 
America is the most eminent for the height of its, moun- 
tains of all the other quarters of the world. 

Several literary works in the modern Greek language are 
continually issuing from the press in various parts of Ger- 
many. Among these isa History of Walachia and Molda- 
via; and a translation into modern Greek of Goldsmith’s 
History of Greece, accompanied by a map of antient Greece. 

Dr. Hager, of Paris, has been appointed by the vice- 
king of Italy, professor of the oriental languages in the 
university of Pavia, the first school of learning in Italy. 
His appointment was accompauicd. with a flattering letter 
from his majesty. F xi . 

Dr. Bozzini, of Frankfort, has invented an instrument 
which must be very interesting to the medical profession. 
The object of this instrament, to which the name of light- 
spreader has been given, is to afford an inspection of the 
interior of wounds, or the various parts of the human body, 
such as the cesophagus, the vagina, the uterus, &c. The 
inventor is preparing for the press. drawings and*descrip- 
tions of this curious instrument, which has already attracted 
considerable notice on the continent. 

M. Lebrun, first trumpeter in the King of Prussia’s band 
at Berlin, having long reflected on the deleterious conse- 
quences arising from the oxides of copper being collected in 
the inside of brass trumpets, and thus inhaled into the lungs 
of the performer, has invented a method tu avoid any bad 
effects from this circumstance. He coats the inside of his 
trumpets with a lac, which unites to smoothness: tenuity ; 
and does no injury whatever to the sound of the instrument, 
Nitric acid poured into these trumpets docs not change the 

cologr $ 


92 Deaths.—A List of Paients for New Inventions. 


colour ; which proves that no place of the copper is unco-_ 


vered. M. Humboldt has examined this improvement, 

and has declared himself perfeetly satisfied as to its superio~ 

rity in point of wholesomeness and fineness of tone. 
DEATHS. 

On the 23d of June, 1806, died at Broissy, near Ver- 
sailles, in the 83d year of his age, Mathurin Jacques Bris- 
son, member of the French national institute, and author 
of several useful elementary books in chemistry and natural 
philosophy. 

On the 10th September, at Dresden, in the 75th year of 
his age, John Christopher Adelung, author of the celebrated 
dictionary of the German iurenage: 

LIST OF PATENTS FOR NEW INVENTIONS. 


To Henry Pratt, of Birmingham, in the county of War- 


“wick, ‘steel toy-maker; for a new toast-stand, or an im- 
provement on the article called cats or dogs, upon which 
things are placed before a fire. Dated October 2. 

_ To Robert Salmon, of Woburn, in the county of Bedford, 
surveyor; for a mathematic-principled safe and easy truss 
for the relief and cure of ruptures. Dated October 2 

To William Cooke, of Chute House, in the county of 
Wilts, gent. ; for certain improvements in the construction 
of waggons, aud other carriages which have more. than two 
wheels. Dated October 2. 

To Ralph Wedgwood, of Charles-street, Hampstead- 
road, in the county of Middlesex, gent. ; for an apparatus 
for producing duplicates of writings. Dated October 7. 

To Ralph Sutton, of Macclesfield, in the county of Ches- 


ter, brazier and tin-plate worker ; for certain ‘improvements 


in an apparatus for cooking either by steam or water. 
Dated October 7. : 

To William Sampson, of Liverpool, in the county of 
Lancaster, millwright ; for an invention to be acted by the 
impulse of wind, in orderto work mills, pumps, ana other 
machinery, suitable to its application. Dated October 7. 

To Archibald Jones and James Jones, of Mile End, in the 
county of Middlesex, printers; for a method of discharging 
colours fram shawls, and other dyed silks, and silk and 

worsted 


(af 


List of Patents for New Inventions. 95 


worsted of every description; or stich part or parts thereof 
as may be required for the purpose of introducing by print- 
ing or staining various patterns on such discharges, or other- 
wise. Dated October 7. 

To William Clegg Gover, of Rotherhithe, in the county 
of Surrey, carpenter; for an improved wheel or purchase, for 
the steering of ships, by means of which wheel or purchase 
a considerable degree of Jabour is saved, and a ship may be 
steered with more ease, and greater steadiness aud certainty, 
and with more safety to the steersman. _ Dated October 15. 

To Joseph Bramah, of Pimlico, in the county of Middle- 
sex, engineer; fora machine whereby valuable improvements 
in the art of printing will be obtained. Dated October 15. 

To John Fletcher, of Cecil-street, in the Strand, in the 
county of Middlesex, esq. ; for a composition for agricultu- 
ral purposes, which is not ae of the greatest value asa nia- 
nure, but is also extremely efficacious in the destruction of 
the fly in turnips; snails, slugs, ants, and the majority of 
those other insects which are detrimental to vegetables ; 
whicn Loqmposyion he usually HeBOruInates a Palared Gyp- 
sum.” Dated October 21. 97" ' 

To Elihu White, of Threadneedle-street, in the city of 
London, gent. in consequence of a communication made to 
him bya certain foreigner residing abroad ; for a method 
of making a machine, for casting or founding types, letters, 
spaces, ae quadrates, usually made use Ick in printing. 
Dated October 23. 

To John Prosser, of Back Hill, Hatton Garden, in the 
county of Middlesex, smith; for various improvements upon 
smoke- or air-jacks, which may be applied to those now in 
use. Dated October 30. 

To James Capam, of Leicester, in the county of Leices- 
ter, brazier ; for a machine for discharging smoke from 
smoking chimneys. . Dated October 30. 

To Isaac Sanford, of the city of Gloucester, civil engi- 
neer, and Stephen Price, of Stroud, in the county of Glou- 
cester, civil engineer; for a new improvement or method 
to raise a nap or pile on woollen, cotton, and all other cloth 
which may require a nap or pile, as a substitute for teasels. 
Dated October 30. 


; 


METEORO- 


Ct on Meteorolozy. 

METEOROLOGICAL TABLE, : 

By Mr. Carey, or THE STRAND, 
For October 1806. 


Thermometer, ta t 
aot . [2 1} peicht of | 23 2 : 
wenn Sel 's |S ithe ui 35 Weather. 
SH eS obec iicheae uh seta kan \ 
SS Aan Sie ane oe 
eo = Ast 
56°|-64°| 54°] 30°20 | 36 [Fair * 
1 55 } 63 188 "12 26 {Fair 
59 | 58 | 55 | 29°82 oO {Rain 
50 '| 63 | 50 ‘96 36 |Fair 
44 | 59 | 51 | 30°02 27 «\Fair * 
46 | 60 | 55 | 29°98 30. {Fair : 
55 | 60 | 56 ‘61 6 |Rain ne 
56 | 64 | 55 *76 14 |Showery . 
56 | 60 | 56 | 30:02 25 |Fair . 
57 | 64'| 51 “18 42. |Fair R | 
46 | 59 | 55 *34 15 |Cloudy 


55° | 59 | 54 "28 | 47 |Cloudy 
55 | 62 | 54 *20 36 |Cloudy 
54 | 59 | 53 "10 25 {Cloudy 
55 | 60] 54 “305 35 {Fair 

52 | 58 | 46 “02 29 {Fair 

45 | 59 | 53 | 29°85 25 {Fair 

55 2°) 54 ‘70 21 |Showery 
51 | 59! 55 ‘76 20 «‘|Fair 

53 | 55 | 50 [0°74 18 .|Cloudy 
4G |'S4 | 47 74 24 |Fair 

42 | 54 | 43 "50 33.. |Fair 
47 | 56 | 42 °56 OT AM och 

42 | 52 | 50 *60 10 |Showery 

51-55 | 47 “10 o |Rain 

50 | 51 | 38 | 28°75 oO |Rain 

37.| 45 | 35 | 29°87 35 {Fair 

36 | 49 | 36 | 30°19 36 {Fair ' 

40 | 50 |} 50 "10 20 {Cloudy 

51 | 62 | 51 ‘Ol 25 {Fair 


\ 


N.B. The Barometer’s height is taken at one o’clock. 
TEE IEEE NE LEI AAAS 
_ 


4 


Latics 3 


XIX. Memoir on the Saccharine Dialetes. By Messrs. 
DupuyTREN and THENARD *. 


Tr has been long known that the human urine is so strangely 
altered in the disease called diabetes, that in place of being 
in asmall quantity and acrid, like that of a person in health, 
it becomes, on the contrary, saccharine and very abundant. 
It is only about thirty years, however, since the first ana- 
lyses were made of diabetic urine. Three causes retarded 
this investigation: on the one hand, the infrequency of the 
disease ; on the other, the uncertainty of the chemical ap+ 
paratus formerly employed ; and, thirdly, the neglect which 
animal chemistry has suffered until within these very few 
years. 

It was not sooner than 1778 that the existence of sugar 
in diabetic urine was demonstrated. This discovery, for 
which we are indebted to Caulcy, was established in 1791 
by Franck. It was, indeed, hinted at by Willis, at the be- 
ginning of the 17th century; and afterwards, in 1775, by 
Pool and Dobson. M. Caulcy, however, having only di- 
rected his attention to the saccharine substance alone, left 
a great deat undone. It was necessary to ascertain the 
other principles of diabetic urine, and particularly those 
which enter into common urine; and this was accomplished 
in 1808 by Messrs. Nicholas and Guendeville of Caen. It 
results from their researches that the urine of diabetic pa- 
tients does not contain a sensible quantity of wrea, or of uric 
acid; that the most sensible reagents scarcely indicate traces 
of phosphate and sulphate ; that it is impossible to discover 
a free acid in it; and, in short, that nothing is found except 
sugar in great quantity, and more or less marine salt. 

in the present memoir we purpose not only to. confirm 
the results we have cited, but in particular we shall com- 
municate, 

ist, The medical observations made by us upon the dia- 
betic patient whose urine we analysed. 


* From Annales de Chimie, tom, lix. p. 41. 


Vol. 26. No. 102. Nov.1806. G od, The 


98 Memoir on the Saccharine Diabetes. 


2d, The very peculiar nature of the saccharine substance 
we found in that urine. : 

$d, The different transformations which it underwent 
before being brought back to its natural appearance and 
consistency. 

Part First. 
Medical Observations upon the Case in which we analysed 
the Diabetic Urine. 

It resulted from these observations : 

ist, That the saccharine diabetes may last several years, 
and even as long as the digestive faculties continue, and are 
able to administer to the excessive losses which take place 
through the urine. 

2d, That this disease is not incurable in any of its stages, 

not even when an altered digestion seems no longer to fur- 
nish matters of secretion and the animal ceconomy is ex- 
hee ; 
, That the seat of this affection seems.to be in'the kid- 

Be nor not in the intestinal canal. 

_ In fact, the appetite and thirst of diabetic patients are 
not perverted; they appear merely to be in proportion 
to the want of organical repair, as well as the digestive 
faculties; in the second place, the alimentary substances 
undergo the same operation in the stomach of a diabetic pa- 
tient as in that of a healthy person; and what proves that 
the digestion is not altered, but merely increased, in diabetes 
is, the quantity of food taken, the rapidity with which it is 
digested, the great proportion of matter which is absorbed 
from that food, and the small quantity of faeces to which it 
is reduced: in short, we find no saccharine liquid, or any 
liquid which has undergone any alteration in its composi- 
tion, all the way from the organs of digestion to those of 
the urinary secretion. 

4th, That the cause of saccharine diahewse appears to be 

a heightened and perverted action of the kidneys. 

That in consequence of this action the saccharine matter 
of urine is produced, and to this cause we may ascribe all 


the symptoms of this malady. 
6 5th, That 


Memoir on the Saccharine Diabetes. "99 


5th, That the excessive losses which take place in this 
disease seem to ascertain, in some circumstances, a very 
considerable absorption at the surface of. the body in dia- 
betes. 

6th, That the new relations determined by saccharine 
diabetes between the aliments and the secretions in general, 
and between each of their species in particular, are analogous 
to those which are determined by an excessive evacuation, 
of whatever kind it may be. 

7th, That the treatment prescribed by Rollo, and after- 
wards employed with so much success by our countrymen 
Messrs. Nicholas and Guendeville, and which consists in’a 
regimen purely animal, has the same degree’ of efficacy in 
diabetes as Jesuits’ bark has in intermittent fevers, 

8th, Finally, that the saccharine diabetes produces ‘no 
other change in the state of our organs than a development 
of the digestive and urinary apparatus ; both of which are 
highly active during this disease, the one ia preparing and 
the other in discharging the alimentary substances, 


Pant SECOND. 


Analysis of the Urine evacuated by a Diabetic Patient, from 
the 15th Day of his Admission into the Hotel-Dicu untel 
he was carried into the Infirmary of the School of Medi- 
cine of Paris. 


The above urine came from the patient in an- uncommonly 
large quantity, and exhaled a smell by no means disagreea- 
ble. 

Tt was limpid, yellowish, specifically heavier than water, 
and scarcely reddened the tincture of turnsole ; slightly sac- 
charine, it had at the same time something of the taste of 
sea salt. 

Left to itself at a temperature of 15° (59° Fahr.), it became 
turbid in five or six days; bubbles of carbonic acid were libe- 
rated from it if it was ever so little shaken ; the urinous smell 
it had at first was dispelled ; and it contracted a smell analo- 
gous to that of newly made wine: it yielded alcohol upon 
being distilled, and became strongly acidified on exposure 

ey capt: G 2 to 


100 Memoir on the Saccharine Diabetes. 


to the air; it therefore presented, in a weak degree, all the 
characters of a spirituous fermentation. 

When distilled in a retort, or evaporated in a capsule, the 
phenomena were the same ; it becamre turbid, thickened by 
little and little, and was reduced to a syrup sometimes equi- 
valent to a seventeenth, sometimes a twentieth, but never 
Jess than a thirtieth of its own aveight. We extracted in 
this manner from the urine we treated, nearly thirty pounds 
of this syrup, which upon cooling always became one mass, 
composed of a multitude of small grains without consist- 
ency. These soft granulated crystals being hardly sweet, it 
was natural to think that the substance of which they were 
formed was not homogeneous, and contained only a very 
small quantity of the saccharine principle. In order to 
ascertain it, the following experiments were made : 

We took 100 parts of this substance and distilled it in a 
retort, the neck of which was inserted into a receiver which 
was continually kept at a low temperature. We obtained 
plenty of water, a little oil, and no ammonia; a great quan- 
tity of gases a little fetid, and abundance of charcoal easily 
incinerated, yiclding, upon complete incineration, two parts 
and a half of sea salt and one half part of phosphate of lime. 

From this result may be drawn the three following con- 
sequences :—I1st, [That this substance contains no animal 
matter, since when calcined it yields no volatile alkali: 
2d, That it contains very little saline matter, because when 
reduced to ashes it only presents a residue equal to some 


one hundredth parts of us weight: 3d, That it is formed of 


vegetable principles alone, because it gives all the products 
ot vegetables upon being distilled. 

Presuming that the sugar was one of these principles, and 
forming no kind of conjecture upon the nature of those 
with which it was supposed to be mixed, we resolved to 
employ fermentation to destroy the former, and to keep the 
latter principles unaltered, in such a manner, that by fil- 
tration and evaporation we ought to have obtained them 
very pure. We mixed in a large flask 100 grammes of the 
substance to be analysed, 25 grammes of ferment, and 500 

l grammes 


a ee 


Memoir on the Saccharine Diatetes. 101 


grammes of water; we adapted to the neck of this flask a 
tube fixed under a flask full of water ; the temperature being 
then raised to 18 degrees, the experiinent was left to itself. 
Some hours after the contact took place between these sub- 
stances a motion was evinced in some parts of the liquor, 
which soon became general: plenty of solid flakes, which 
gave birth to a great number of gaseous bubbles, were raised 
to a considerable height; these bubbles rapidly passed into 
the vessels full of water, but the flakes fell back to the bot- 
tom of the flask, and, giving birth to new bubbles, they: 
again ascended to be once more precipitated. This phzno- 
menon, which took place for three days, announced a very 
active fermentation, and, consequently, the presence of a 
great quantity of saccharine matter: in fact, more than thir- 
teen pints of pure carbonic acid gas were liberated; the li- 
quor was very alcoholic, and contained nearly 48 parts of 
alcoho] at 40 degrees ; evaporated to dryness, only 23 parts 
of extract were obtained, formed of three parts of sea salt 
and twenty parts of a viscous brown matter. 

We know that 100 grammes of sugar produce 12 gram- 
mes of a similar residue, 56 of alcohol, and 36 of carbonic 
acid. Thus the substance drawn from diabetic urine yielded 
by fermentation the same products, and almost in as great 
quantity, as pure and finely crystallized sugar; and if we 
add, that it acts like sugar with the nitric acid, eae and 
the other reagents, we must regard these two sut 
being in some measure precisely the same. 

We ought, however, to recollect that it is scarcely sweet, 
at least much less so than sugar. It may be thence con- 
cluded, 1st, That, as has been long suspected, there are dif- 
ferent species or varieties of sugar, the differences being so” 
striking as now to render certain what before was only pro- 
bable. But as the taste only is not a certain criterion of the 
saccharine principle, it becomes necessary to examine if, 
among the substances which have hitherto been confounded 
with sugar on account of their taste, there are not some of 
them which differ essentially from that substance. 

For this reason we were led to examine manna. Our first 
care was to mix it with ferment and water at the tempera~ 

G3 ture 


tances as 


7 


102 Memoir on the Saccharine. Diabetes. 


ture of 18° (64° Fahr.), and to remark attentively all the 
phenomena produced by this mixture. Fermentation soon 
began: it was brisk at first, but it soon. decreased ; and in 
two days it ended. The liquor had nevertheless. a very 
strong vinous smell; but far from being alcoholic, it was, 
on the contrary, very saccharine, aud deposited upon, eva- 
poration, in the form of crystals, almost all the, matier em- 
ployed, deprived of the fermenting faculty. 

Although convinced by these veanlts that manna copiained 
only a very small quantity of sugar, we ought nevertheless 
to compare it in all its properties with this substance, in 

order to place the fact beyond a doubt, and thus to discover 
all the characters peculiar to the particular principle of which 
it, appeared. almost entirely formed: we therefore tried its 
action on spirit’ of wine, which did not attack. the saccha-. 
rine principle, and upon the nitric acid, which did not con- 
vert any portion of that principle. into mucous acid, . 

The former of these reagents, at the temperature of 60° 
(140° Fahr.), dissolved so, greata quantity of manna, that, 
upon cooling, the liquor was a mass composed of a crowd 
of crystalliné heaps, every crystal in each heap springing 
from a common centre. The second reagent produced, after 
a long ebullition, so, great a deposit of mucous,acid, that 
it was almost half the weight of the manna employed. 

Here therefore, there are two characters which are striking 
ly different; sugar properly so called, and the particular prin+ 
ciple of manna. 

New researches will doubtless present many other diffe- 
rences more or Jess prominent ; but those above related being 
sufficient to occasion these bodies to be regarded as very di- 
stinct from each other, we did not think it necessary to 
enter more deeply into the subject. 

It follows from hence, that it would be always easy to 
recognize and separate manna, or rather the peculiar prin- 
ciple of manna, whatever may be the substances with which 
it is mixed. It is only necessary to treat with warm alcohol 
the matter which contains this peculiar principle of manna, 
and it will be almost entirely precipitated upon cooling. In 
truth, there are other yegetable substances which possess 

this 


Memoir on the Saccharine Diatletes. ‘103 


this principle even in a remarkable degree ; but these sub- 
stances always hold some acid in their composition, from 
which they may be freed by combining it with an alkaline 
or earthy base, or a metallic oxide, according to the nature 
of the acid; and consequently this mode of separation may 
be generally employed. 

It is in this manner that we may ascertain if the honey- 
like substance observed upon the leaves of certain trees, and 
- particularly on those of the linden tree, is in reality a kind 
efamanna; and if the saccharine principle which exists in 
asparagus is of the same description; it having been latcly 
discovered by Messrs. Vauquelin and Robiquet, that im aspa- * 
ragus the saccharine substance is mixed with a principle en- 
tirely peculiar *. 


Analysis of the Urine evacuated by the Patient from the 
Time, he was brought. to the Infirmary of the School of 
Medicine until he went out cured. 


~ During the whole time the patient was in the Hotel-Dieu 
he could not be ‘subjected to any particular regimen. He 
lived as he pleased; his disease therefore ahainea station- 
ary, and his urine, at all times very abundant, was never 
changed in its nature. It was then resolved to carry him to 
the Infirmary of the School of Medicine, where, being al- 
most’ continually watched by M. Dupuytren and his pupils, 
it became easier to make him do whatever he was desired. 

After a few days all kinds of vegetables were refused, and 
animal food only was given him. The weights of what he 
ate, and of the liquids he drank to quench a most dreadful 
thirst, were ascertained. 

For the first two or three days no change was remarked 
in his urine; but in five’ or six days it became less white, 
sharper, more acid, and less saccharine ; when submitted to 
evaporation, in place of continuing limpid as before, it be- 
came turbid, and was covered with a thick pellicle of albu- 
minous matter. When I perceived this change, particularly 
the presence of an animal matter in his urine, although the 


* The paper here referred to will be given in a subsequent number. 
G4 state 


’ 


104 _ Memoir on the Saccharine Diabetes. 


state of the patient was absolutely unknown to me, and I 
knew nothing of the treatment which he had undergone, I 
presumed that the disease began to yield: having afterwards 
observed this animal matter to become daily more abundant, 
I regarded the cure of the patient as at no great distance: 
I communicated my opinion to M. Dupuytren, who seemed 
surprised at my prediction; this surprise, however, ceased 
when I informed him what had taken place in the patient’s 
urine. é‘ 

From this period the patient became better and better. 
His urine was daily more animalized and less saccharine. 
The animal albuminous substance gradually diminished also, 
and the wrea and uric acid began to appear. His urine then 
became perfectly similar'to that of a person in health. Jn 
other words, he was cured; but, having given himself up 
to various excesses, he soon fell ill again; the diabetes again 
made its appearance, accompanied with other diseases which 
had also formerly attended it in the same patient. 

If we resume, however, all the consequences which may 
be drawn from the experiments we have related in the second 
and third parts of this memoir, we may assert, 

Ist, That the urine of the diabetic patient above exa- 
mined was almost entirely composed of a matter only a little 
saccharine; that nevertheless this matter enjoys all the pro- 
perties which characterize sugar ; because it is transformed into 
alcohol and carbonic acid by fermentation ; it yields plenty of 
oxalic acid and no mucous acid by the nitric acid; it is very 
little soluble in alcohol at 36° ; it produces when calcined little 
oil, and plenty of water and carbonic acid; thus it is clearly 
demonstrated that there are different varieties of sugar. 

2d, That manna is not a species of sugar; that it only 
contains a small quantity, which may be destroyed by fer- 
mentation ; that it contains, on the contrary, plenty of a 
-peculiar principle, the taste of which is very sweet, and 
the character of it is not to ferment with yeast 5 it gives 
plenty of mucous acid ‘with the nitric acid, is more soluble 
in warm than in cold water; but, above all, it is soluble in 
alcohol to such a degree, that, upon cooling, the solution 
» becomes. a crystalline mass, 


3d, That 


Memoir upon Animal Fat. 105 


3d, That upon giving nothing but animal food to diabetic 
patients, their urine speedily changes; that at first we find 
an albuminous matter in it; that this albuminous matter, 
which always increases for some days, is an unequivocal 
sign of a speedy cure; that afterwards this albumen gradu- 
ally disappears ; that the kidneys then begin to secrete the 
substance called wea, uric acid, and also the acetous acid; 
the urine soon becomes like that of an individual in health. 

Notwithstanding all this, however, the patient, in order 
to prevent a relapse, ought to observe the animal regimen 
for along time, and avoid every thing which may tend to 
cause the reappearance of diabetes. 


—————— nna 


XX, Memoir upon Animal Fat. and some Medicinal Pre- 
parations which are administered through that Medium. 
By M. Vocey. 

{Concluded from p. 81,] 


Fat and the Metals. 


I; has been ascertained that fat acts more or Jess upon a 
great number of the metals. Copper, for instance, gives a 
green colour to fat, when the air also is allowed to act upon 
it. The solution of the oxide of copper in fat is a fact 
proves by daily experience. 

As mercury, however, is the metal which excites most 
interest in the pharmaceutic art in its combinations with 
fat, I shall restrict myself particularly to discussing the ef- 
fects of these combinations. 

Several apothecaries have endeavoured to improve the 
quality of mercurial ointments, and particularly of the 
double ointment. M. Vean-Delaunay proposed rancid oil, 
and M. Fourcroy has shown that oxygenated fat is most 
proper for killing mercury. 

Of late, several chemists have imagined that the mercury 
of the double mercurial ointment is not oxidated, but that 
it exists in the metallic state, 


I know 


106 Memoir upon Animal Fut. 


I know of no experiment which supports this idea. The 
following were my own experiments on the subject : 

I triturated equal quantities of mercury and fat in a mor- 
tar, the weight of -which I had previously ascertained ex- 
actly ; when the mercury was entirely absorbed, I weighed 
the mortar with the ointment, and I found no increase: this 
made me suspect, that if the mercury was oxidated, it was 
not by the oxygen of the atmosphere, but by means of the 
fat. 

Being desirous ms ascertaining the state of the mercury, 
I Wa some newly prepared omtment into a glass cy- 
hinder hermetically sealed at one of its extremities ; I plunged ~ 
it horizontally*, for three hours, into boiling water. After 
it cooled there were two-very distinct layers formed; the 
upper one was: perfectly white like fat, and I separated the 
under layer by cutting the cylinder with a file. Then, upon 
shightly mixing the mereury with boiling water, there was 
collected three drachms and eight grains of mereury quite 
liquid. The remainder of the mercury, which obstinately 
retained, a little fat, was treated with a ley of caustic potash. 
The soap which resulted from it being collected, was redis- 
solved im rectified: alcohol; amd by this senha I ehenise) 
the whole of the mercury ebhploviade 

I also. separated fat fromm mercury by boiling the double 
‘ointment with water; the fat floated above, and it was slightly 
coloured in consequence of a little of the mercury which 
‘strongly adhered to it. I obtained at the bottom of the 
vessel metallic mercury mixed with a little fat. ‘The least 
agitation brought the globules together. L int 

I also treated the ointment directly by the muriatic acid. 
Wishing to ascertain if the muriatic. acid could take the oxy- 
gen from oxidated mercury, and if it passed to the state 
of oxymuriatic acid, I made the experiment in close’ vessels 
with the chemical pneumatic apparatus, but I had no hbe- 
ration of oxymuriatic acid gas; besides, it is difficult to be- 
lieve that the oxide of mercury at the mimum, containing 


* We suspect an error here in the French, and that we ought to PES ver- 
tically —Env1T. 
SO 


Memoir wpon Animal Fat. 107 


so little oxygen, yields any part of it to the muriatic acid, 
and makes it pass to the state of oxymuriatic acid. 

I made the comparison with different ointments, which 
had been prepared three months, eight months, and several 
years; in the latter compounds I found a little oxidated 
mercury, but the greatest part was always in the metallic 
“State. 

I also triturated mercury with Venice turpentine ; and it 
was absorbed with great facility. To ascertain if the mer- 
cury obsorbed the oxygen from the air, or if it got any oxy- 
gen from the turpentine, J dissolved the mass. in alcohol at 
40°; all the turpentine was dissolved, and-the mercury was 
precipitated in small globules; the alcoholic solution was 
afterwards evaporated : ,I then obtained the turpentine with 
all its. properties. 5 
It results, therefore, that in the ointments above men- 
tioned the mercury is not in the state of..an oxide, as gene- 
rally supposed, but that it is in, the metallic state, and in 
very minute division, particularly in newly prepared oint- 
ment. I am of opinion that mercury is inva similar state 
in several mercurial compounds, more or Jess in wse,,as in 
the vigo-mercurial plaster, ethiops saccharatus, ethiops alka- 
lisatus, or mercurius gummosus Plenki, &c. of the shops, 

It may be objected that the colour of the ointment and of 
the above preparations speaks very much for the oxidation 

of the mercury; but let glittering antimony, bismuth, or 
any other metal susceptible of pulverization be reduced toa 
fine powder, and it will be seen that these substances are of 
a blackish gray when in minute division. 

It remains for. me to speak of the action of fat upen the 
metallic salts. I shall confine myself more particularly to 
the nitrate of mercury, from which a compound results very 
much used in pharmacy. 

I prepared the citrine mercurial ointment according to the 
process described in Baumé’s Elements of Pharmacy, by dis- 
solving three ounces of mercury in four ounces of nitric acid 
for two pounds of fat. 

As the surface of this ointment always becomes white 
after some time, the cause of which is only explained by 

asserting 


108 Memoir upon Animal Fat. 


asserting that it arises from the absorption of the oxygen ‘of 
the atmosphere, I was anxious to ascertain if this was cor- 
rect. hee ty . 

After having poured the ointment, while yet liquid, into 
squares of paper, I placed one part of it under a bell-glass 
filled with air over mercury: at the end of 24 hours. no ab- 
sorption had taken place; yet the surface was uncommonly 
white. 

I placed another part of it under the receiver of an air- 
pump, and I suddenly made a vacuum, which I kept up for 
some hours, giving from time to time a stroke of the piston, 
which produced at first some bubbles of air. The ointment 
extracted from the vacuum was perfectly yellow, and re- 
mained always so, without the least change. 

‘I think, therefore, that this white crust 1s owing to the 
disengagement of the gases, whether azotic or nitrous, which 
takes place from every part of the interior towards the sur- 
face ; and they augment the volume of the ointment. The 
latter cools by degrees, and does not allow the gases to escape 
entirely ; one part of the gas remains, and forms an infinity 
of small white bubbles at the exterior part. 

In support of what I have here advanced it may be added, 
that when the ointment is left to cool in the vessel in which 
it had been melted, and particularly when it is heated a little 
more, the quantity of caloric given is sufficient to drive off 
all the gas, and the ointment remains constantly yellow, 
without experiencing any further alterations. 

In order to examine this compound, and to appreciate the 
chemical changes which might have taken place, I boiled 
an ointment which had been two years prepared, for half 
an hour with water. It became very clotted; the water was 
interposed in such a manner that it was difficult to separate 
the whole quantity from it. The water had acquired a yel- 
lowish colour from it, and a slightly bitter taste; it was 
scarcely acid at all, and did not contain an atom of mer- 
cury. ; 
In order to establish a comparison, I made use of fresh 
ointment, made within 24 hours; I exhausted it by warm 
water, which had almost the same characters as the wash- 


ings 


Memvir upon Animal Fat. 109 


ings of old ointment, and scarcely contained any traces of 
mercury, indicated by a hydrosulphuret. : 

According to these data it would be natural to think that 
the acid nitrate of mercury had undergone a change, and 
one would think that it had passed to the state of a yellow 
nitrate or nitrous turbith, which is little soluble in water. 

I kept ointment a long time in fusion, but I could not 
separate the nitrous turbith from it; the latter, therefore, is 
not merely disseminated in the ointment, but must be inti- ° 
mately united with and dissolved in it. I convinced myself 
of the possibility of the solution of turbith in oxygenated 
fat, by heating these two matters together. -T decanted the 
liquid clear ; it perfectly imitated the citrine ointment, and 
contained a very great quantity of mercury. 

As to the use of this production, the effects of which, 
_ some physicians allege, are analogous to pomatum simply 
A by the nitric acid, I do not allow myself to give 
any opinioh on the subject; it is probable, however, that a 
substance which holds mercury in true combination will 
produce different effects from -one which does not contain 
any at all. , 

In place of the acid nitrate employed above, I took neutral 
nitrate at the s2nimum. 

When reduced to fine powder, I projected it upon heated 
fat: bubbles were immediately produced, and the white pew- 
der of the nitrate was soon converted into yellow powder. 

The fat acquired a solid consistency ; it contained mercury 
in solution. 

The neutral nitrate is therefore decomposed by hogs’ lard. 
It is not that the mercury here yields its oxygen because it 
is already in it at the minimum ; but it is the nitric acid 
which abandons in part the oxidated mercury and acts upon 
the fat where it is decomposed; from which results the yel- 
low nitrate of mercury, which contains little nitric acid *. 

Lexamined several other metallic salts with fat, such as 


% Nitrous turbith contains, according to the Portuguese chemists Braam- 
comp und Oliva, 12 per cent. of nitric acid. (See their analytical treatment 
of the mercurial substances by the phosphorous acid in the Annales de Chimie, 
No. 161.) 


the 


110 Memoir upon Animal Fat. 


the nitrates of silver and lead, the muriates of platina and 
hyperoxygenated mercury, and I found that there was very 
little decomposition, and that they produced upon fat si- 
milar effects with the nitrates of mercury. 

It results from the facts announced in this memoir : 

ist, That light without the contact of the air makes fat 
become vellow, gives it a sharp rancid smell and taste with- 
out acidifying. 

ed, That fat yields no ammonia upon distillation, and 
that it contains no azote; we may regard it therefore as a 
purely vegetable substance. 

3d, That in sulphurated pomatum there is a part of the 
sulphur in solution, and that, either dissolved or mixed, it 
does not pass to the acid state. 

4th, That phosphorus is dissolved in it, but it oui 
passes to the state of phosphorous acid; and this acidifica- 
tion increases by the contact of the air. 

5th, That fat oxygenated by long contact with the ait 
constantly becomes acid. Its washing precipitates some 
metallic solutions ; at the end of the distillation of ‘this 
washing, acetic acid passes into the recipient. 

6th, That the nitric acid forms with fat a bitter yellow 
matter, acetic acid, and an acid susceptible of crystallizing, 
which could not be entirely separated from it by simple 
washing. This solid acid is mucous or saccholactic acid, 
which is also obtained with suet by the nitric acid. 

7th, That the oxymuriatic acid is decomposed with fat, 
but the latter remains whitish, and becomes very soft. The 
bitter yellow matter is not formed, nor can it even be pro- 
duced by afterwards treating it with nitric acid. 

sth, That mercury is in the metallic state, and in Very 
minute division in mercurial ointments recently prepared. 

oth, Lastly, that in the citrine ointment mercury is in 
the state of nitrate oxidated at the minimum. The white 
crust which is formed is owing to a simple disengagement 
of the gases, which could not entirely escape, and which fill 
the surface with small bubbles. The nitrate of neutral mer- 


cury at the minimum is decomposed in fat. 
4 


a pie o>, 


ab 


XXI. Memoir upon the Acetic Acid. By M. Troms- 
DORFE. ' 


Tas memoir has for its object to ascertain if, as M. Proust 
has asserted, azote forms any part of the acetic acid. . 

The author, after having considered what is at present 
known on the composition of ammonia and the vegetable 
acids, was much surprised to find in M. Proust’s memoir 
that this chemist had found ammonia and prussic acid in 
the composition of acetates. The author of the present me- 
moir, notwithstanding the exactitude and sagacity of the 
chemist of Madrid, was anxious to ascertain the existence 
of azote in the concentrated acid from his own experiments, 
and he was directed to the research by the love of truth and 
the importance of the fact. 

Before giving the processes employed by M. Tromsdorff 
to attain the object he proposed to himself, we shall give 
a summary of the objections which presented themselves to 
M. Proust’s theory. 

If, says M. Tromsdorff, by the distillation of acetates 
ammonia is formed, it is evident that azote ‘is contained 
therein: But where could this principle come from? Could 
it be from the alkaline base? But that is not the case; for, 
according to M. Proust, the ammonia has also been ex- 
tracted from the acetate of lead. In this case it can only be 
furnished by the acetic acid; or it must be said that azote 
is only hydrogen modified. 

The-author afterwards examines if among the vegetable 
acids azote is met with as frequently as in the animal acids ; 
because, if that was the case, the classification of it must 
fall to be changed. In order to repeat the experiments of 
M. Proust, it appeared essential to the author to employ 
only the purest substances. 

Thus, in order to obtain the acetic acid im the greatest 
degree of purity possible, he decomposed the acetate of pot- 
ash by the sulphuric acid; he afterwards saturated this acid 
by carbonate of soda finely purified, and evaporated in a silver 

* Extracted from the Journal de Berlin, 
bason 


2 : Memoir upon the Asetic Acid. 


bason the saline solution which resulted from it. The salt 
obtained, which he closed up in a flask shut with a ground 
stopper, was of a very fine white colour. 

He used the same precautions in the preparations of the 
acetates of potash and lead. 

He took eight ounces of each of these salts, which he 
introduced separately into strong glass retorts; the retorts ~ 
were placed upon an open fire in a furnace; he adapted to 
each a bell-glass, from which a glass tube issued opening 
into a bell-glass proper for receiving the gases. 

The products were always (as all the world knows) an 
ethereal acidulated fluid mixed with oil. The alkali and the 
carbon remained in the retort, and in the decomposition of 
the acetate of lead nothing of this salt remained except ox- 
idated lead. 

Thus, by the predisposing affinity of the alkalis for car- 
bonic acid, the former determined the decomposition of the 
acetic acid, in order to afford room for the formation of the 
carbonic acid. The oxide of lead, on the contrary, not 
haying so much affinity for carbonic acid, abandoned the 
acetic acid in its greatest purity. | 

The author asks if the metallic base abandons oxygen to 
burn charcoal, or if the power of attraction is less.powerful 
between an oxide and an acid than between an acid and an 
alkali. 

He has made a great number of experiments in order to 
answer this question. 

The gases examined exhaled no ammoniacal smell ; their 
smell was only empyreumatic and penetrating. The liquids 
had the same smell, and all the chemical reagents did not 
ascertain any ammonia there. 

The residues which, according to M. Proust, contain 
some prussiate, were only pure alkaline carbonate or pure 
oxide of lead. 

M. Proust, on examining the residue of the acetate of 
potash, says that it was a residue formed partly of prussiate 
and partly of carbonate of potash. IM. Tromsdorff expected 
to find these two salts ; but upon breaking the retort he only 

found 


, 


Memoir upon the Acetic Acid. 113 


found a homogeneous charcoal, which neither yielded him 
ammonia nor prussic acid, and which had not the smell 
of any of these substances. Yet we know well how easy it 
is to recognise the smell of the latter acid wherever it exists 
in a state of liberty. 

M. Proust adds, that the residue of the acetate of potash 
was so saturated with prussie acid, that it had a bitterness 
as if the alkali had been directly combined with this acid ; 
whence M. Tromsdorff concludes that the above author had 
made use of common vinegar. 

In order to ascertain the products resulting from the de= 
composition of the acetic acid, M. Tromsdorff passed the 
vapours through a tube made red hot; this operation gave 
him nothing but carbonic acid gas, carbonated hydrogen 
gas, and a small quantity of empyreumatic liquid, without 
ammonia and without prussic acid; these substances no 
longer exist in the residues. 

M. Tromsdorff afterwards attentively examined the ethe- 
real acidulous fluids mixed with oil. He distilled them over 
carbonate of potash, and obtained an ether which oe 
to be true acetic ether in Bee! respect. 

The results of this memoir are: 

Ist, That the presence of azote im acetic acid is by no 
means demonstrated. 

2d, That the pure acetates, when distilled, yield neither 
ammonia nor prussic acid. : 

3d, That the pure acetic acid is changed a little in its na- 
ture by passing through red hot tubes. — 

4th, That in an iron tube it is completely decomposed 
into carbonic acid gas and carbonated hydrogen gas. 

5th, That it is demonstrated that the constituent parts of 
acetic acid are, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. 

6th, That the ethereal fluid is, by its properties in gene- 
ral, similar to the other ethers; the author regards it as a 
medium between alcohol and ether. And as the acetic acid 
partly changes it into ether, and the latter, when treated by 
the nitric acid, is transformed into oxalic acid, the transi- 
tion of the acetic acid into oxalic acid is thus demonstrated, 

“Vol. 26. No, 102. Nov. 1806, H indi- 


114 Account of a Discovery of Native Minium. ; 
indirectly it is true ; and lastly, that M1. Proust probably did - 
_not make use of pure acetates in his labours, or that the ethe- 
real pungent empyreumatic smell made him conjecture that 
there was ammonia present. 


KXII. Account of a Discovery of Native Minium. In & 
Letter from James Smiruson, Esq. F.R.S., to the 
Right Honourable. Sir JoserH Banks, K. 5, P.R.S.* 


MY DEAR SIR, 
T BEG leave to acquaint you with a discovery which I have 
lately made, as it adds a new, and perhaps it may be thought 
an interesting species, to the ores of lead. I have found 
minium native in the earth. 
_ It-is disseminated in small quantity m the substance of 
a compact carbonate of zine. 

Its appearance in general is that of a matter in a pulveru- 
lent state, but in places it shows to a lens a flaky and cry- 
stalline texture. , 

Its colour is hike that of a factitious minium, a vivid red 
with acast of yellow. 

Gently heated at the blowpipe it assumes a darker colour, 
but on cooling it returns to its original red.” At a stronger 
heat it melts to litharge. On the charcoal it reduces to lead. 

Tn dilute white acid’ of nitre it becomes of a coffee colour. 
On the addition of a little sugar, this brown ealx dissolves, 
and produces a colourless solution. 

By putting it into marine acid with a little leaf gold, the 
gold is soon entirely dissolved. 

When. it is inclosed in a small bottle with marine acid, 
and alittle bit of paper tinged by ternsole is fixed’ to the 
cork, the paper in a short time entirely loses its blue colour, 
and becomes white. A strip of common blue paper, whose 
colouring matter is indigo, placed in the same situation, 
undergoes the samme change. 

The very small quantity which I possess of this ore, andi 


* From the Transactions of the Royal Suciety for 1806, : ’ 


‘a 


Analytical Essay on Asparagus. 115 


the manner in which it is scattered amongst another sub- 
Stance, and blended with it, have not allowed of more qua- 
lities being determined, but I apprehend these to be sufh- 
cient to establish its nature. 

This native minium seems to be produced by the decay 
of a galena, which I suspect to be itself a secondary pro- - 
duction from the metallization of white carbonate of lead 
by hepatic gas. This is particularly evident in a specimen 
of this ore, which I mean to send to Mr. Greville as soon 
asIcan find an opportunity. In one part of it there is a 
cluster of large crystals. Having broken one of these, it 
proved to be converted into minium to a considerable thick- 
ness, while its centre is still galena. 

Iam, &c. 


Cassel in Hesse, JAMES SMITHSON, 
March 2, 1806. 


XXIII. Analytical Essay on Asparagus. By M. Rost- 
QUET junior, Apothecary at Vale de Grace. 
{Concluded from p. 38.] 


Perna what has been stated, we cannot conclude, with 
M. Antoine, that the acid obtained from asparagus by the 
process pointed out is malic acid. The difference is very 
remarkable. The latter forms with barytes, strontian, and 
lime, salts a little soluble; while those of the former are very 
insoluble, We may be convinced of this by taking equal 
proportions of these two acids, supposed to be of the same 
degree of concentration, and afterwards diluted with a great 
quantity of water. If we pour into these two liquors, drop 
by drop, a solution of lime for example, a precipitate shows 
itself with the acid obtained from asparagus ; but the malic 
acid does not give any trace of one, provided always that 
the liquors be sufficiently diluted. The same thing takes 
place with barytes or strontian. A character still more 
marked is that of decomposing the sulphate of iron, 
the acetates of iron and of copper, which the malic acid 
does not. Besides, as I have formerly recalled to the reader’s 
recollection, the, malate of lead is soluble in vinegar; but 

He! the 


116 Analytical Essay on Asparagus. 


the precipitate formed by the other acid in the acetate of 
lead refuses altogether to dissolve itself therein, whatever 
quantity be employed. The malic acid, besides, does not 
decoinpose earthy acetates. 

The malate of magnesia is so very deliquescent that it 
has been proposed by M. Chenevix as the means of sepa- 
rating alumen from magnesia, by treating those two earths 
with malic acid and dissolving them in alcatel: and since 
the acid of asparagus, when saturated with an alkali, preci- 
pitates dbusduntte the muriate of magnesia, if, as I have 
said, the solutions are concentrated, we may infer that this 
salt is not soluble in spirit of wine, 

It is equally impossible to confound this acid with vi- 
negar, since it decomposes almost all the earthy and me- 
tallic acetates. 

Its property of not crystallizing prevented me from com- 
paring it with other vegetable acids, and [ could not, with 
any bettcr appearance of probability, regard it as a mineral 
acid, since when submitted to the action of heat it became 
charred. I was therefore naturally led to believe it a new 
acid: but having communicated my experiments to M. Vau- 
quelin, he advised me to examine carefully its combinations 
with earthy bases, and from this examination resulted, as 
we shall see, the discovery of its nature. 

I precipitated it by lime water, and after filtering and 
washing it well, I calcined it in a sitver crucible. On the 
first action of the heat this salt blackened, and gave out at 
the sanie tie a Slight ammoniacal odour. 1 continued this 
process until there no longer remained a trace of carbona- 
cvous matter: the residue was insipid, and insoluble in water. 
J boiled it with distilled vinegar. I filtered and saturated it 
‘with ammonia; an abundant white flaky precipitate was 
formed, presenting the characters of phosphate of lime. To 
assure myself that the acid of asparagus was phosphoric acid, 
i treated with the blowpipe some grains of its combination 
with lead. It-presented at first the same phenomena as the 
ealcareous salt; it passed immediately to yellow, entered 
dnto fusion, and the button, on cooling, assumed: the forra 
of an irregular polyhedron, a property exclusively belonging 

to 


Analytical Essay on Asparagus. i17 


to the phosphate of lead. It is thus demonstrated, that if 
this acid had presented, in its principle, differences from 
phosphoric acid, it must have happened from its holding in 
solution an animal matter, and which I belicve to be the 
same with that which this matter contains in the green fe-: 
culence: at least, I dissolved a portion of the latter in pare 
phosphoric acid, I evaporated it so as to burn the animal 
substance, and there was developed an odour very similar to 
that which the phesphoric acid of asparagus yields. 

In was in that portion of the extract that was insoluble im 
alcohol that I ought to have found, according to M. An-: 
toine, this animal matter, which he has recognised for ge- 
Jatine. Distilled water, as I have shown, entirely redissolved 
this extractive substance; and although it had been washed 
repeatedly with alcohol and dissolved in water, it reddened: 
very sensibly turusole paper. 

I believed it possible that the precipitate formed by infu- 
sion of galls was occasioned by an animal substance held in 
solution by means of this free acid; consequently I poured 
into the liquor ammonia till it was saturated. There was a 
very abundant flaky precipitate, which I separated by the 
filter and washed very carefully. The solution, united with 
the washings, did not give any more precipitate with gall- 
nut; and the acetate of lead, as well as the oxygenated mu- 
riatic acid, did not produce any change. 

T burnt a part of the precipitate formed by ammonia to 
have some notion of its nature; but in place of presenting 
the characters of an animal or vegeto-animal matter, as L 
suspected it to be, it burnt without swelling, and left for 
residue a grayish powder, which I ascertained to be a calca- 
reous salt. This experiment showed me, that if the liquor 
had ceased to precipitate by gall-nut, &c. this would have 
depended merely on the degree of concentration. I there- 
fore evaporated it; and after having reduced it to three- 
fourths of its volume, I still obtained precipitates by the 
acetate of lead, the oxygenated muriatic acid, and gall-nut. 

I continued the evaporation till I obtained a dry extract : 
it was of a dark brown colour, had an agreeable taste, a 
little saltish, and slizhtly attracted the humidity of the at- 

H 3 mosphere. 


118 Analytical Essay on Asparagus. 


mosphere. I calcined a part of it; it swelled considerably, 
and the smell that was disengaged rather announced a vege-. 


table substance than a product of an animal nature. The, 


incinerated charcoal left a little lime. Thus certam reagents 
denoted the presence of an animal matter; others appeared 
to show the opposite. To obtain a more conclusive result, 
I redissolved this extract. I treated it with tincture of galls, 
and after washing and drying the precipitate, I submitted it 
to distillation to see if it yielded ammonia. Some was dis- 
engaged, but very, small in quantity; so that, although we 
eannot deny that this principle, which is soluble in water, 
bas many characters exclusively belonging to animal mat- 
ters; it is, however, fair to say, that it has some properties 
which appear very different, and which could not agree with 
the admission of animal gelatine, 

It only remains to me to speak of a salt which is found 
in the decoction and in the juice of asparagus. To obtain 
it, we ought to evaporate both to the consistence of thick 
syrups. .At the end of some days a salt is deposited, which 
when washed and redissolved in water, presents the follow- 
ing properties: it crystallizes in little rhomboids more op 
jess regular, transparent and very white, almost insipid 3 
very little soluble inthe cold, but much more so in heat; 
and depositing itself upon cooling : it swells when burning, 
giving out a sharp but agreeable smell, and a little am- 
moniacal. Its charcoal, which was very considerable. in 
volume, is easily incinerated, and leaves very little resi- 


due: when pounded with caustic alkali it gives sensible 


marks of ammonia. Its solution is not precipitable either 
by the alkalis or by alkaline earths. The oxalate of ammo-~ 
nia produces a slight turbidness, the muriate of barytes and 
the nitrate of silver do not occasion any change, neither is 
it decomposed by acetate of lead. Thus all that [ have been 
able hitherto to discover of its nature is, that it has a double 
base, Jime and ammonia; but I must confess I am entirely 
ignorant what acid is its constituent. Its not decomposing 
the acetate of lead and the muriate of barytes, prevents us 
from confounding it with~tartarous acid, oxalic acid, &c. 
Vinegar 1s what appears to come nearest to it; but it isin 

: vain 


Analytical Essay on Asparagus. 119 


yain that I have tried to produce a similar salt with the ace- 
tous acid. Iam therefore obliged to wait till I shall have 
obtained a greater quantity of the salt which this juice con- 
tains, before I can prononnce definitively on the nature of 
this acid. 

T must further observe, that the presence of ammonia 
does not authorise us to think that we cannot obtain this 
triple salt till after having allowed a commencement of al- 
teration in the juice of asparagus; for I have had it.on eva- 
porating decoctions and juices recently prepared, but always 
in smalj quantities. 

To recapitulate what I have had the honour of laying be- 
fore you, I shall detail the principal substances which have 
been furnished me by the juice of asparagus. The green 
feculent substance is itself composed of three others; the 
first insoluble in alcohol, and which approaches nearer to 
the nature of anima! matter than any that is contained in the 
vegetable. The twe others are soluble; but one of them is 
deposited on cooling. This is what I call vegetable wax. 
The latter is only obtained by evaporation, and appears to 
hold a middle nature between volatile oils and resins. 

We find in the filtered juice, 1st, Albumen, which co- 
agulates on the first ebullition: 2d, Phosphate of potash, 
of which we separate the acid in precipitating it by the ace- 
tate of lead: 3d, The same acid combined with lime, and 
heldin solution by a portion of free acetous acid: 4th, Foli- 
ated earth (de ta terre foliée) and phosphate of potash in very 
great abundance: 5th, The vegeto-animal substance which 
is found in the aqueous solution: 6th, An extractive matter 
which we Obtain after having precipitated by gall-nuts that 
portion of the extract which is insoluble in alcohol: 7th, A 
triple salt-of lime and ammonia, of which the acid is yet 
unknown to me; 8th, and lastly, A colourimg principle sus- 
ceptible of becoming red by acids and yellow by alkalis*. 

The results which I have obtained are different, as you 
observe, in several points fram those announced by M. An- 
toe; but I beg you to remark that we have not followed 


# It may be presumed that it is the acetous acid which carries the animal 
substance of the green feculum with it down to the urinary passages. 


H4 the 


120 On the inverted Action 


thesame mode of analysis, and that certain substances which 
I have separated without difficulty, could not present them- 
selves to him but after a number of experiments. But J am 
far from pretending to have made a complete analysis, and 
I shall esteem myself very fortunate if I have been able to 
present you with some facts worthy of your attention. 


XXIV. On the inverted Action of the allurnous Vessels of 
Trees. By Tuomas ANDREW Knicut, Esq. F.R.S., 
Ina Letter to the Right Honourable Sir Josern Banks, 
K. B. P.R.S* 


MY DEAR SIR, 

] HAVE engeavoured to prove, in several memoirs¢ which 
you have done me the honour to lay before the Royal So- 
ciety, that the fluid by which the various parts (that are an- 
nually added to trees, and herbaceous plants whose organiza- 
tion is similar to that of trees,) are generated, has previously 
circulated through their leaves f either in the same or pre- 
ceding season, and subsequently descended through their 
bark ; and after having repeated every experiment that oc- 
curred to me, from which I suspected an unfavourable re- 
sult, Iam not in possession of a single fact which is not 
perfectly consistent with the theory I have advanced. 

There is, however, one circumstance stated by Hales and 
Du Hamel which appears strongly to militate against my 
hypothesis; and as that circumstance probably indused Hales 
to deny altogether the existence of circulation in plants, and 
Du Hamel to speak less decisively in favour of it than he 
possibly might otherwise have done, I am anxious to recon- 


* From Philosophical Transactions for 1806. 

+ In the Phil. Trans. for 1801, [803, 1804, and 1805. 

¢ During the circulation of the sap through the leaves, a transparent fluid 
is emitted, in the night, from pores situated on their edges; and, on evapo- 
rating this liquid, obtaimed from very luxuriant plants of the vine, I found 
a very large residuum to remain, which was similar in external appearance 
to carbonate of lime, It must, however, have been evidently a very different’ 
substance, from the very large portion which the water held in solution. Ido 
not know that this substance has been analysed, or noticed by any naturalist. 


cile 


of the alburnous Vessels of Trees, 121 


eile the statements of these great naturalists (which I ac- 
knowledge to be perfectly correct) with the statements and 
opinions I have on former occasions communicated to you. 

Both Hales and Du Hamel have proved, that when two 
circular incisions through the bark, round the stem of a 
tree, are made at a small distance from each other, and 
when the bark between these incisions is wholly taken away, 
that portion of the stem which is below the incisions through 
the bark continues to live, and in some degree to increase 
in size, though much more slowly than the parts above the 
incisions. They have also observed that a small elevated 
ridge (Lourvelet) is formed round the lower lip of the wound 
in the bark, which makes some slight advances to meet the 
bark and wood projected, in much larger quantity, from the 
opposite or upper lip of the wound. 

I have endeavoured, in a former memoir*, to explain the 
cause why some portion of growth takes place below inct- 
sions through the bark, by supposing that a small part of 
the true sap, descending from the leaves, escapes downwards 
through the porous substance of the alburnum. Several 
facts stated by Hales seem favourable to this supposition ; 
and the existence of a power in the alburnum to carry the 
sap in different directions, is proved in the growth of in- 
verted cuttings of different species of trees. But I have 
derived so many advantages, both as a gardener and farmer, 
(particularly in the management of fruit. and forest trees,) 
from the experiments which have been the subject of my 
former memoirs, that I am confident much public benefit 
might be derived from an intimate acquaintance with the 
use and office of the various organs of plants; and thence 
feel anxious to adduce facts to prove that the conclusions I 
have drawn are not inconsistent with the facts stated by my 
great predecessors, _ 

It has been acknowledged, I believe, by every naturalist 
who has written on the subject, (and the fact is, indeed, too 
obvious to be controverted,) that the matter which enters 
into the composition of the radicles of germinating seeds 


* Phil. Trans. for 1803. + Ibid. for 1804. 
existed 


329 ‘ On the inverted Action 


existed previously in their cotyledons; and as the radicles 
increase only in length by parts successively added to their 
apices, or points most distant from their cotyledons, it fol- 
lows of necessity that the first motion of the true sap, at this 
period, is downwards. And as no alburnous tubes exist im 
the radicles of germinating seeds during the earlier periods 
of their growth, the sap in its descent must either pass 
through the bark or the medulla. But the medulla does not 
apparently contain any vessels calculated to carry the de- 
scending sap, whilst the cortical vessels are during this pe~ 
riod much distended and full of moisture; and as the me- 
dulja certainly does not carry any fluid in stems or branches 
of nore than one year old, it can scarcely be suspected that 
it, at any period, conveys the whole current of the descend- 
ing sap, 

As the leaves grow, and enter on their office, cortical] 
vessels, imevery respect apparently similar to those which 
descended from the cotyledons, are found to descend from 
the bases of the leaves; and there appears no reason, with 
which I am acquainted, to suspect that both do not carry 
a similar fluid, and that thé course of this fluid is, in thé 
fitst instance, always towards the roots. : 

The ascending sap, on the contrary, rises wholly through 
the alburnum, and central vessels; for the destruction of 4 
portion of the bark, in a circle round the tree, does not im- 
tuediately, in the slightest degree, check the growth of its 
leaves and branches; but the alburnous vessels appear, from 
the-experiments I have related in a former paper *, and from 
those I shall now proceed to relate, to be also capable of an 
inverted action, when that becomics necessary to preserve the 
existence of the plant. | 

Ags soon as the leaves of the oak were nearly full grown 
in the last spring, TI selected in several instances two poles 
of the same age, and springings from the same roots in a 
coppice, whicli had been felled about six years preceding ; 
and making two circular incisions at the distance of three 
inches from each other through the bark of onc of the poles 


* Phil. Trans, for 1804, 
on 


hg ee 


sc oh) 


of the allurnous Vessels of Trees. 128 


on each stool, I destroyed the bark between the incisions, 
and thus cut off the communication between the jeaves and 
the lower parts of the stem and roots, through the bark, 
Much growth, as usual, took place above the space from 
which the bark had been taken off, and very little below it. 

Examining the state of the experiment in the succeeding 
winter, I found it had not suceeeded according to my hopes; 
for a portion of the alburnum, in almost every instance, was 
lifeless, and almost dry, to a considerable distance below the 
space from which the bark had béen removed. Jn one in- 
stance the whole of it was, hawever, perfectly alive; and in 

this I found the specific gravity of the wood above the de- 
corticated space to be 1114, and below it 11113 and the 
wood of the unmutilated pole at the same distance from the 
ground to be 1112, each being weighed as soon as it was 
detached from the root. E 

-Had the true sap in this instance wholly stagnated above 
the decorticated space, the specific gravity of the wood there 
ought to have been, according to the result of former expe- . 
riments *, comparatively much greater: but I do not wish 
to draw any conclusion from a single experiment; and in- 
deed I see very considerable difficulty in obtaining any very 
satisfactory or decisive facts from any experiments on plants 
in this case, in which the same roots and stems collect and 
convey the sap during the spring and summer, and retain 
within themselves that which is, during the autumn and 
winter, reserved to form new organs of assimilation in the 
succeeding spring. In the tuberous-rooted plants, the roots 
and stems which collect and convey the sap in one season, 
and those in which it is deposited and reserved for the suc- 
eeeding season, are perfectly distinct organs; and from one 
of these, the potatoe, I obtained more interesting and de+ 
cisive results, 

My principal object was, to prove that a*fluid descend 
from the leaves and stem to form the tuberous roots of this 
plant; and that this fluid will, in part, escape down the al- 
burnous substance of the stem when the continuity of the 


* Phil, Trans. for 1805. 


cortical 


“124 ' On the inveried Action 


cortical vessels is interrupted: but I had also another object 
in view. fr 

Every gardener knows that early varieties of the potatoe 
never afford, either blossoms or seeds; and I attributed this. 
peculiarity to privation, of nutriment, owing to the tubers 
being formed preternaturally early, and thence drawing off 
that portion of the true sap, which in the ordinary course of 
nature is employed in the formation and nutrition of blos- 
soms and seeds. 

I therefore planted, in the last spring, some cuttings of a 
very early variety of the potatoe, which had never been 
known to blossom, in garden pots, having heaped the mould 
as high as I could above the level of the pot, and planted’ 
the poriion of the root nearly at the top of it. When the 
plants had grown a few inches high, they were secured to 
strong sticks, which had been fixed erect in the pots for that 
purpose, and the mould was then washed away from the 
base of their stems by a strong current of water. Each 
plant was now suspended in air, and had no communica- 
tion with the soil in the pots except by its fibrous roots; 
and as these are pertectly distinct organs from the runners 
which generate and teed the tuberous roots, I could readily 
prevent the formation of them. Efforts were soon made by: 
every plant to generate runners and tuberous roots; but these 

were destroyed as svon as they became perceptible. An in- 
creased Juxuriance of growth now became visible in every 
plant, numerous blossoms were cinitted, and every blossom 
afforded fruit. 

Conceiving, however, that a small part only of the true 
sap would be expended in the production of blossoms and 
secds, I was anxious to discover what use nature would 
make of that which remained ; and I therefore took effectual 
means to prevent the formation of tubers on any part of the 
plants, exceptthe extremities of the lateral branches, those 
bemg the points most distant from the earth in which the 
tubers are naturally deposited. After an incffective struggle 
of a few weeks, the plants became perfectly obedient to my 
wishes, and furmed their tubers precisely in the places I had 
assiened them. Many of ile joints of*the plants during the 


experiment 


of the allurnous Vessels of Trees. 125 


experiment became enlarged and turgid; and [ am much 
inclined to believe, that if [ had totally prevented the forma- 
tion of regular tubers, these joints would have acquired an 
organization capable of retaining life, and of affording tee 
in the succeeding spring. 

T had ee oe variety of the potatoe, “which erew with 
great Juxuriance, and afforded many lateral branches; and 
just at that period, when I had ascertained the first com- 
mencing formation of the tubers beneath the soil, I nearly 
detached many of these lateral branches from the principal 
stems, letting them remain suspended by such a portion 
only of alburnous and cortical fibres and vessels as were suf- 
ficient to preserve life. In this position I conceived, that if 
their leaves and stems contained any unemployed true sap, 
it could not readily find its way to the tuberous roots, its 

passage being obstructed by the rupture of the vessels, and 
by gravitation ; and I had soon the pleasure to see, that, in- 
stead of returning down the principal stem into the ground, 
it remained and formed small tubers at the base of the leaves 
of the depending branches. 

The preceding facts are, T think, sufficient to prove that 
the fluid, from which the tuberous root of the potatoe, when 
growing bencath the soil, derives its component matter, 
exists previously either in the stems or leaves; and that it 
subsequently descends into the earth; and as the cortical 
vessels, during every period of the growth of the tuber, are 
filled with the true sap of the plant, and as these vessels ex- 
tend into the runners, which carry nutriment to the tuber, 
and in other instances evidently convey the true sap down- 
wards, there appears litle reason to doubt that through these 
vessels the tuber is naturally fed. 

To ascertain, therefore, whether the tubers would continue 
to be fed when the passage of the true sap down the cortical 
vessels was interrupted, I removed a portion of bark of the 
width of five lines, and extending round the stems of se- 
veral plants of the potatoe, close to the surface of the ground, 
soon after that period when the tubers were first formed. 
The plants continued some time in health, and during that 
period the tubers continued to grow, deriving their nutri- 


ment, 


126 - On the inverted Action 

ment, as I conclude, from the leaves by an inverted actiort 
ef the alburnous vessels, . The tubers, however, by no 
-means attained their natural size, partly owing to the de- 
clining health of the plant, and partly to the stagnation of 
a portion of the true sap above the decorticated space. 

The fluid contained in the leaf has not, however, been 
proved, in any of the preceding experiments, to pass. down= 
wards through the decorticated space, and to be subsequenily 
discharged into the bark below it; but I have proved with 
amputated branches of different spacies of trees that the 
water which their leaves absorb, when immersed in that 
fluid, will be carried downwards by the alburnum, and con- 
veyed into a portion of bark below the decorticated space } 
and that the insulated bark will be preserved alive and moist 
during several days*; and if the raoisture absorbed by a leaf 
can be thus transferred, it appears extremely probable that 
the true sap will pass through the same channel, This power 
in the alburnum to carry fluids in different directions pro- 
bably answers very important purposes in hot climates, where 
the dews are abundant and the soil very dry; for the mois- 
ture the dews afford may thus be conveyed to thé extremities 
of the roots: and Hales has proyed that the leaves absorl 
most when placed in humid air; and that the sap descends, 
either through the bark or alburnum, during the night. 

lf the inverted action of the alburnous vessels in the de- 
corticated space be admitted, it is not difficult to explain the 
cause why some degree of growth takes place below such 
decorticated spaces on the stems of trees; and why a small 
portion of bark and wood is geuerated on the lower lip of 
the wound. A considerable portion of the descending true 
sap certainly stagnates above the wound, and of that which 
escapes into the bark below it, the greater part is probably 
carried towards, and into, the roots; where it preserves lifes 
and occasions some degree of growth to take place. But a 
small portion of that fluid will be carried upwards by capil- 
ary attraction, between the bark and the alburnum, exclu 


* This experiment does no! succeed till the leaf has attained its full growth 
and maturity, aod the alburnum ofthe ennual shoot its perfect organization. 


SIE 


of the alburnous Vessels of Trees. 127 


sive of the immediate action of the latter substatice; and the 
whole of this will stagnate on the lower lip of the wound, 
where I conceive it generates the small portion of wood and 
bark, which Hales and Du Hamel have described. 

I should scarcely have thought an account of the preceding 
experiments worth sending to you, but that many of the 
conclusions I have drawn in former memoirs appear, at first 
view, almost incompatible with the facts stated by Hales and 
Du Hamel, and that I had one fact to communicate relative 
to the effects produced by the stagnation of the descending 
sap of resinous trees, which appeared to lead to important 
consequences. I have in my possession a piece of a fir tree 
from which a portion of bark, extending round its whole 
stem, had been taken off several years before the tree was 
felled; and of this portion of wood one part grew above, 
and the other below, the decorticated space. Conceiving 
that, according to the theory I am endeavouring to support, 
the wood above the decorticated space ought to be much 
heavier than that below it, owing to the stagnation of the 
descending sap, I ascertained the specific gravity of both 
kinds, taking a wedge of each as nearly of the same form as 
I could obtain, and [ found the difference greatly more than 
Thad anticipated, the specific gravity of the wood above the 
decorticated space being 0°590, and of that below only 0-491; 
and having steeped pieces of each, which weighed a hundred 
grains, during twelve hours in water, I aie the latter hae 
absorbed 69 grains, and the former only 51. 

The increased solidity of the wood above the decorticated 
Space, in this instance, must, I conceive, have arisen from 
' the stagnation of the true sap in its descent from the leaves ; 
and therefore in felling firs, or other resinous trees, consi- 
derable advantages may be expected frem stripping off a por- 
tion of their bark all round their trunks, close to the surface 
of the ground, about the end of May or beginning of June, 
_in the summer preceding the autumn in which they are to 
be felled. For much of the resinous matter contained in 
the roots of these is probably carried up by the ascending 

sap in the spring, and the return of a large portion of this 
matter 


/ 


128 Inverted Action of the alburnous Vessels of Trees. 


matter to the roots would probably be prevented *: the tim- 
ber I have, however, very little doubt would be much im- 
proved by standing a second year, and being then felled in 
the autumn ; but some loss would be sustained owing to 
the slow growth of the trees in the second summer. The 
alburnum of other trees might probably be rendered more 
solid and durable by the same process; but the descending 
sap of these, being of a more fiuid consistence than that of 
the resinous tribe, would escape through the decorticated 
space into the roots in much larger quantity. 

It may be suspected that the increased solidity of the wood 
in the fir-tree I have described was confined to the part 
adjacent to the decorticated space; but it; has been long 
known to gardeners, that taking off a portion of bark round: 
the branch of a fruit-tree occasions the production of much 
blossom on every part of that branch in the succeeding sea- 
son. The’blossom in this case probably owes its existence 
to a stagnation of the true sap éxtending to the extremities 
of the branch above the decorticated space; and it may 
therefore be expected that the alburnous matter of the trunk 
and branches of a resinous tree will be rendered more solid 
by a similar operation. +, ' 

I send you two specimens of the fir wood I have described, 
the one having been taken off above, and the other below 
the decorticated space. The bark of the latter kind scarcely 
exceeded one-tenth of a line in thickness; the cause of which 
I propose to endeavour to explain in a future communica- 
tion relative to the reproduction of bark, 

Iam, &c. 
T. A. Knieut. 


* The roots of trees, though of much less diameter than their trunks and 
branches, probably contain much more alburnum and bark, because they are 
wholly without heart wood, and extend to a much greater length than the 
branches; and thence it may be suspected that when fir-trees are felled, their 
roots contain at least as much resinous matter, in a fluid moveable state, as 
their trunks and branches, though net so muchas is contained, ina concrete 
state, in the heart woed of those. ; 


{ aso J 


XXV. A Memoir on the lest Method of measuring Time at 
Sea, which obtained the double Prize adjudged by the 
Royal Academy of Sciences; containing the Description 
of the Longitude Watch presented to His Majesty the 
5th of August 1766. By M. Le Roy, Clock-maker to the 
King. Translated from the French by Mr.T. S. Evans, 
F.L.S., of the Royal Militery Academy, Woolwich. 


[Continued from p. 68.] 


Article V. 
Description of the escapement of the new watch, which pre- 
serves isochronism in the regulator, and freedom in its 
vibrations. 


At that precedes has proved to us, that the best, the most 
certain, and even the only method of bringing a marine 
clock to the requisite degree of truth, is, as has been said, 
to render the vibrations of its regulator as free and as iso- 
chronous as possible * ; this is what I have followed. It 
thas been seen in what manner I have arrived at it,—by the 
suspension of the regulatur. But to preserve to it this free- 
dom, so precious in its application to the wheel-work, it is 
necessary to employ an escapement totally different from 
those which have hitherto been made. 

Of what use would it have been, in effect, to have anni- 
hilated friction in the suspension, if by the nature of the 
escapement the regulator had met with twenty times as 
much? This is what would have happened if I had had re- 
course to the cylinder, or to other dead escapements, which, 

qn the end, amount to the same as this first; the friction 
being always very much increased. I dare affirm that it 
was, in a great measure, on account of the escapement that 
most of the attempts to discover the longitude by clock-work 
have miscarried. We may consult on. this subject the re- 
marks made by M. Sully on marine clocks. 

The following is an experiment which will show how 
considerable the friction is even in the best escapements. 
T took a cylinder watch, by Mr. Graham, and turned the 


* I cannot here agree in opinion with Mr. Daniel Bernoulli, who recom- 
mends (i/idem pag. 43) to augment purposely the resistance of the air to the 
motion of the balance, and to add to it three or four small wings. 


Vol. 26. No. 102. Nov. 1806. I ferrule 


130 Le Roy’s Memoir 6n the best Method 


forrile of the spirals in such a manner, that the points of the 
wheel, instead of corresponding to the lips. of the cylinder, 
fel] in the middle of the cylindric portion where the dead 
part takes place: I then moved the balance, whose axis was 
vertical, from its point of rest by an arc of about 80°; it only 
remaincd in vibration four seconds and a half; instead of 
which, when it was free on its pivots, it vibrated a minute 
and a half. hy 

To avoid this inconvenience of the best: known escape- 
ments, I have used in the new watch an escapement nearly 
similar in its principle to that with @ detent, which is the 
invention of M. le Roy, and described in the History of the 
Academy for the year 1748 *. , The balance wheel_r (PI. I. 
fiz. 7, and Pl. III.), whose teeth are very wide apart, and very 
slight, and consequently whose strengih is very small, its 
power consisting in the length of the lever on which it acts ; 
the balance wheel, I say, by means of the pallet P adapted to 
the circumference of the balance (Plate HI. fig. 1, 2, and 3.) 
restores to it, every second vibration, the motion which it 
loses; and its action is suspended in these vibrations by an 
obstacle foreign to this regulator, that is to say, by a sort of 
detent D, e,H,C, F, (fig. 2, 3, and 5, Pl: II.)f. / The fol- 
Jowing is the way it 1s bora : 

The halance wheel stopped by the ae at D, as in fig. 2. 
Plate Il}, and the balance turning on its axis from nto A, 
after having surmounted the spiral springs, and consumed its 
force, these springs bring it back, and make it turn from A 
toi. In this return, by means of a pin situated on its upper 
plane at i, the balance pushes the arm of the lever F, H; and 
consequently draws out the arm D Hi of the detent from the 
circumference of the wheel and makes the arm eH enter, 
on which the following radius Kr of the wheel rests; this 
is what I call the preparation, and 1s represented i in fig. 3. 
In the following vibration the balance wheel restores the 
motion to the balance by means of the pallet p, in the fol- 
lowing manner :—A pin situated as the preceding, but on 
the lower plane of the balance, pushing the ar m a4 the lever 


~ 


* This is the first work that ty Pp abl shed. 


+ This detent forms a kind cf escapewent which may be varied at pleasune, 
using indifferently that of Graham, Am: an, Sully, &c. 
cH, 


of medsuring Time at Sea. 131 
eH, draws out the arm eH of the anchor from the eircum- 
ference of the wheel, and makes D H enter; and when the 
pallet p has arrived at F, then, the wheel being free, the 
radius Fr (fig. 1.) restores to the balance its ast motion, 

_and pushes the pallet p until it is stopped by the arm D of 
the detent, &c.; as in fig. 2: 

By this construction, vith the exception of the-very small 
arc employed for the disengagement of the detent, and the 
pulsion of the balance w heel, the vibrations of the balance 
are absolutely free, and disengaged from all friction on the 
part of this wheel, stayed, as I have said, on an obstacle ab- 
solutely foreign to the regulator; and as the disengagement 
of the detent, and the restoration of motion by the wheel, 
are executed about the middle of the arcs of vibration, where 
the regulator has arrived at its greatest velocity, the very 
slight obstacle which this detent causes, &c. becomes yet 
wineh smaller; the obstacles of friction, of cohesion, like 
those of gravity, are proportional, as has been said, to the 
time during which the body surmounts them. 

f shall add to this description, that to hinder the detent 
from getting out of its plaee by great shocks, I have placed 
in the circumference of the balance, near each pin which 
removes the detent, a portion of a circle 7A, Az (fig. 1, 2, 
and 3, Plate IIJ.), which the correspondent arm of this de- 
tent, nevertheless, can never touch, except in cases of the 
most violent shocks. 

To find out the degree of freedom preserved to the regu- 
lator by my escapement, Imade an experiment similar to 
that which I made with Graham’s escapement. I took away 
from my balance the pallet p, by which the balance wheel 
restores the motion, leaving only the detent. Having then 
removed this regulator from the point of rest, about go°, it 
vibrated seven minutes nearly; at the end of this time it 
would even yet describe in its vibrations a sensible arc, 
although not sufficiently great to disengage the detent. I 
donclude from this, that the influence of friction is almost 
nothing in my regulator; for the detent, although very 
slight, has nevertheless a small mass, and in the preceding 
experiment the regulator could not move it in each vi- 
bration without employing a considerable part of the lost 

J 2 force 5 


152 . Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


force; whence we may legitimately infer, that what is’ de+ 
stroyed by friction is almost nothing: now the obstacle 
arising from my detent must“be reputed of no value, con- 
sisting in a mass always the same, whilst the friction varies 
continually. 

E made the same trial with a seeonds pendulum having 
an enchor escapement. The whole motion of the pen- 
duluny ceased in about thirty minutes, whence I believe I 
can conclude, considering what has been seid of the resist- 


ance of the detent, and of the motion which remains to the 


balance after seven minutes, that this balance im the new 
watch has almost as much regulating power as this pendulum. 
Ihave said that my pallet was situated near the circum- 
ference of tle balance. [ placed it thus,.m order that it 
might be drawn. by a point in its circumference of percus- 
‘sion, which point is where the wheel in its action makes no 
effort on the pivots, and where the balance only receives the: 
eircular motion*. 

Moreover, although the escapement of the new watch, 
and that whith M. le Roy presented to the Academy in 
1748, are founded on the same principle, they differ never+ 
theless essentially. In the first, the effect of the detent 
operates by means of a small spring, which brings it back. 
into the teeth of the wheel: in this there is nothing of that 
kind, as we have seen. Various trials have proved to me the 
inconveniences of the spring escapements. These springs: 
are either strong or weak: in the first case, it is to be feared: 
that the detent would be disengaged by shocks; in the se- 


cond, you:rive to the regulator a considerable obstacle to- 


overcome in each vibration, which obstacle being the same 
for the smallest as it is for the largest arcs, must be disad+ 
‘vantageous. Besides, if this detent, that is meved by so 
feeble a spring, meets with ever so slight a difficulty ; or if this 
spring loses its strength, it does not enter sufficiently quick 


* It is extraordinary that M. le Roy nowhere mentions his having applied 
jewels either to the pivot-holes or to the balance of his watch. Sully (p.248, 
Regle Artif. du Temps) says that in 1704 Sir Isaac Newton showed him a watch, 
that was-put into his hands to try by Messrs. Facio and de Baufre, the pallets 
of whose balance were formed of a diamond; and expressly mentions that the 
art of piercing rubies was invented by this M. Facio, of Geneva, about the 
year 1700. The utility ef their application must therefore have been fully 

- known to watch-makers at the time Le Roy wrote this paper, and it is extra- 
ordinary that he did not make use of this additional advantage. ; 
mie 


es 


« 


of measuring Time at Sea. 138 
into the tecth of the balance wheel, and then several teeth 


escape. Lastly, after many attempts of this kind, I was 
only completely satisfied with that of the new marine watch. 


: Article VI. 

Of the compensation for the effects of heat and cold :—Of 
the necessity of preserving to the spiral spring an inva- 
riable length:— Means by which, without changing this 
fength, we regulate the new watch to almost the smallest 
quantity :—Description ef the new compensation, Sc. 


The first thing that I thought necessary to clear up before 


_ Tattempted to compensate the effects of the different de- 


grees of heat and cold in my machine, was, the proportion 
that its gain or joss followed by these different degrees. I 
feared much that this progression was not proportional te 
that of the degrees marked by the thermometer; that, for 
example, the watch having lost three seconds for six degrees 
of ascent in the thermometer, it would not lose six for 
twelve degrees of this same instrument, but either a greater 
or less quantity. Various. reiterated experiments happily 
proved to me that my fears were unfounded; that when the 
regulator was free, as it is in my machine, the progression 
of gain or loss absolutely follows that of the thermometer ; 
that is to say, that the watch losing 3 seconds when the 
thermometer from 0 passes to 6, it will lose 6 at 12, 9 at 
i8, and so on. IE in our researches nature often contradicts 
our views, we may say that she is sometimes more favour- 
able than we had reason to hope: of this, the precision to 
which clock-work is arrived furnishes undoubted proofs. 
All this shows the indispensable necessity of having a 
perfectly free regulator, without which, the effect of heat on 
the machine depending more or less on the fluidity of the 
oii, which is very variable in different degrees of heat and 
cold, and the alterations of this fluidity, produced by time 
and by the wear of the parts, &c., the progression remarked 
above no longer takes place, and bas not even any thing 
certain: this is a just objection made by M.'Basser* against 
Mr. Harrison, among a number of others which are not so, 


* See the Gazette du Commerce. 


13 After 


134 Le Roy's Memoir on the best Method 


After being well assured of the fact I have just described, 
it appeared necessary to examine a second, not less impor- 
tant to clear up, and to know whether metals would follow 
the same progression as fiuids/in their extension or contrac- 
tion by heat and cold; which required very nice experig 
ments. To make them with some success, I nailed in a 
cabinet against.a thick stone wall, at four feet distance from 
each other, in a vertical line, two potences of copper, the 
upper one of which carried an index of thin hard steel 
about four feet in length, which descended almost vertically : 
T then took three rods, one of copper, one of iron, and one 
of steel, of nearly equal size, and four fect in length. Thad 
made to each of these rods, ‘as well as to a tube of glass of 
exactly the same length, to serve as a standard, a sheath, 
made sufficiently thick of cloth: these rods and this tube 
were adjusted firmly, without being able to turn, by their 
lower extremity, and by a, pivot adapted to their upper 
extremity, they caused the index to move whose path was 
marked on a limb. 

- All being equal in the arrangement of the three rods and 
the tube, I began my experiments, and I presently saw that, 
to have any thing exact on this subject, it was necessary that 
- the rods should remain a Jong time exposed to the degree of 
heat and cold in which we would make these experiments 5 
particularly when from a considerable degree of heat, as 20 
or 30 degrees * for example, I wished to remove my rods to 
a degree of cold approaching that of ice. The reason is 
known: by the experiments of Boerhaave, and those of 
Newton, bodies attract heat in proportion to their specific 
gravities. Now when you would remove a body whose de- 
gree of cold corresponds to 6 of the thermometer, for ex- 
ample, to the term 30 degrees of this same instrument, by 
placing it in an air that is "Be this degree, it is clear that by 
its attraction it will presently have acquired the quantity of 
caloric that will give it the degrce of heat 30. But it will 
not be the same if you then remove this body to an air where 
the thermometer is OF, to make it acquire this degree of colds 
* Of Reaumur’s thermometer, equal to from 77 to 99% of Fahrenheit’s. 


+ $2 of Fahrexheit. 
tor 


of measuring Time at Sea. 135° 
for then, its attraction being much ‘stronger than that which 
the ambient air opposes to the quitting of the particles of 
ealoric, it coals with so much the more difficulty. I have 
found, indeed, that after having heated our rods and replaced 


them again in the temperature 0, whence they had. been 


taken, it required sometimes almost twelve hours to reduce 

them to the length they were before ; that is to say, for the 

overplus of caloric totaily to abandon the interior. After 

having found this effect, and paid the greatest attention in 

my experiments, I happened at last to find in their results. 
the exactness which | had vainly sought for before; and I 

found that the glass and metals in their contractions and 

expansions followed precisely (as well as the augmentations 

and losses of elasticity of springs) the proportion ofthe de- 

grees described by the spirit-of-wine thermometer, 

These methods of proving the various contractions and 
dilatations of metals appear to me very exact: for, 1st, the 
cabinet where the instrument was placed being defended 
from the external air, no considerable change could happen 
to the wall (which was hung with tapestry, and to which 
our potences were fixed) between one experiment and the 
other: 2dly, when it does happen (and in effect it is some- 
times seen very evidently that the wall of which I have 
spoken is dilated by heat as much as the stecl very nearly), 
then, I say, this effect is announced to us by the spirit-of- 
‘wine thermometer on the one part, and by the tube of glass 
on) the other, which was very little dilatable; and which’, 
tube may, hesides, be kept in the same temperature. 

The sheaths with which our rods. were covered enabled 
them to be removed from one place to another; that is to 
say, from a stove, or from a cool place in the cabinet of. 
trial, and to adjust them on the instrument before they bad 
undergone any alteration ia their dimensions and in their 
degree of cold or heat, which would not appear practicable 
otherwise, Being well assured of these facts, I turned my 
attention to compensating the effects of heat and cold in 
my machine. 

The first idea that occurred to me, as to many others, 
was, to apply to the revulating spring a metallic thermo- 
[4 . meter, 


- 
4 


186 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


meter, which would shorten or lengthen it by different tem- 
peratures, as has been practised in the seconds pendulum, ' 
I found presently the insufficiency of this method. Having 
in my machine two regulating springs of about 1S inches 
each, to produce the desired effect, the shortening or length- 
ening would be proportional to this length. By the com- 
putation which I made, four Jines passed over ii the com~ 
pensation pyrometer would barely have sufficed; now three 
feet of copper combined with three feet of steel hardly gives 
a sixth of a line of difference in their lengthening for 30 de- 
grees of ascent in the Jiquor of the thermometer. We see, 
therefore, that I had not the power of obtaining an exact 
compensation, unless by multiplying the effect by very large 
levers, and a great number of metallic bars; but all this 
brings in a play of the parts, and a want of solidity im the 
pieces of the regulator, absolutely incompatible with the 
desired exactness. 

A second consideration determined me against making 
use of these expedients im my machine, and in general all 
those that alter the length of the regulating spring; which 
is, as I have explained, that the isochronism of the vibra- 
tions absolutely depends on a certain Jength of the spiral 
springs: now every method which renders this length varia~ 
ble, not even excepting that of Mr. Harrison, although 
very ingenious, is on this account inadmissible, 

Here, I am sensible, an objection may be made to me which » 
T shall make myself: as a spring loses its elastic force by heat, 
it may be suspected that the place in its length where all its 
vibrations are isochronons cannot be the same in different 
degrees of heat and cold. The following are the experi- 
ments which dispelled my doubts on this subject :—After 
having found by experiment, in a temperate place, the 
Jength of a spring where all its vibrations, long and short, 
were isochronous, I removed the machine tu a cold five de- 
grees below freezing* ; the watch experienced an advance 
proportional to the cold, (for the sake of greater simplicity I 
had not applied any thermometer to it:) then [ made it go 
six hours, the great spring being almost down; and during 

* About 20} of Fahrenheit. : 
SIX 


of measuring Time at Sea. 137 


six other hours the machine being wound to the top, which 
produced a difference of one-half in the extent of the 
arcs. I found, then, that the regulating spring had pre- 
served all the isochronism of its vibrations, the machine 
having advayced’ precisely the same quantity in the first six 
hours as in the six last. Not contented with this trial, F 
removed the machine into a stove where the thermometer ~ 
constantly stood at about 35 or 46 degrees*: is then retarded 
proportionally to this degree of heat. J repeated the above 
trial, which again gave me the same result; whence it fol- 
lows, that the different degrees of heat do not sensibly change 
the laws of isochronism in springs, 

I concluded from this experiment, that whatever expedient 
we may use to render the vibrations of the balance isochro- 
nous, the inconvenience remarked above in the compensa~ 
tions which are made by the shortening or lengthening of 
the spiral spring, does nevertheless take place. For let it be 
by means of a compensation curb formed at the parts of the 
escapement, or applied to the spiral spring, &c., that the 
isochronism is produced, or by other similar methods ; it 
will be perceived that these curbs, &c. are always according 
to the relations which exist in the times of vibrations of dif- 
ferent extent of this spring, supposed to be free; and these 
relations can never change without the conditions of these 
curbs varying at the same tume. Thus all the reasons which 
have induced me to render the length of the spiral invaria~ 
ble, must also apply, in whatever construction it may be, 
where we aspire to give the greatest degree of accuracy to a 
swatch. 

It follows again, from what precedes, that nothing can be 
more opposite to the regularity of a marine watch than to 
regulate it, as in common watches, by shortening or length- 
ening the spiral; therefore, for my own part, I took good 
care not to make use of it in my watch. For this purpose I 
have placed two screws, GZ, GZ, (Plate III. fig. 6.) perfectly 
equal, at the bottom of the balance arbor; so that we may, 
by turning them with the hand, make them approach or 
recede equally from this arbor. These screws by their mass, 
which may be diminished at pleasure, according to the exi- 


* From 1109 to 122 of Fahrenheit. 


gency 


138 Le Roy's Memoir on the lest Method ; 


gency of the case, and which we may make to describe a 
Jarge space, Pepe us to regulate the machine to the greatest 
nicety, 

If the effects of he and cold were less bs the incon- 
venience | have just explained might be neglected; but as 
the machine is in a state of trial during more than. six months 
together, it is clear that as the vibrations of different extent 
of the regulator have not then the requisite isochronism, the 
causes which may make the magnitude of these vibrations 
vary, would alter the bai Re of- the clock considerably. 
Convinced of the principle I. have just established, to com- 
pensate the effects of different temperatures in my machine, 
T took a method altogether new. 

I anap'ed to the balance several small bars of copper and 
stecl, disposed in such a‘manner, that, BY, their Jengthening 
or cael in heat and cold, they make to approach or 
recede.from its centre, two considerable parts of its mass, 
each placed at the extremity of a lever, and diametrically op- 
posite. By the computation which I had made, it sufficed 
that the total mass of the balance should approach or recede 
from the centre by about the thirteenth of a line, to com- 


pensate a variation in heat, which would produce one of 15, 


seconds per hour in the rate of the watch, 


One inconvenience of the preceding method made me 


abandon this presently ; the play of the levers, and the small 
solidity of the balance, produced errors greater than those 


which [ wished to compensate; this made me have recourse ° 


to_a third method, which completely succeeded, 

Tt consists in applying to the balance two small thermo- 
meters ¢¢ttt, &c. (Plate III. fig. 6.), each made of a tube 
of bent glass, open at O, fig. 7. These thermometers, com- 
posed of mercury and spirit of wine, would each form an 
exact parallelogram, if the upper side which carries the ball, 
in which is comtained the spirit of wine as well as in this 


side, were not a little inclined. Both these thermometers 


are firmly adjusted and placed on opposite sides of the arbor 
of the regulator, so that the axes of their tubes and that of 
the balance are in the same plane that cuts the balls through 
the middle. . 
It is easy to conceive how this construction produces the 
required 


ee ae 


eee ee ee ee 


et, 


5 ee = 


eM Cie’ ar Ah 


of measuring Time at Sea. 139 


required compensation. The thermometers making part of 
the regulator, when the spirit of wine, by its dilatation, 
pushes a part of the mercury contained in the outer branch tt 
(fig. 7.) towards that to, which is near the axis of motion, a 
portion of the mercury, forming part of the mass of the regu- 
Jator, passes then from its circumference towards its centre. 
At temperate, for example, the mercury occupies the parts 
tkkt ofthe tube; whilst, in extreme cold, when Reau- 
mur’s thermometer is at 15 degrees below freezing*, the 
branch ¢o is empty, and that corresponding, ¢f, is full of 
mercury. Now as the mass of a balance resists in the ratio 
of the square of its distance from the centre, there arises 
evidently from this a compensation ; the retardation arising 
from losses of elasticity in springs, and from the dilatation 
of the balance by great heat, being compensated by the loss 
of mass in the circumference of the regulator, and vice versa 
in the passage to cold: this effect is so much the more cer- 
tain, as there is no play to fear here; besides, the dilatation 
of spirit of wine by heat, and its condensation by cold, are 
constant effects, as we have found by the thermometers of 
this liquor, which at the end of thirty years had Jost nothing 
of their exactness. 

The following is the computation of these thermometers, 
to whichI have given the fourm we see them of, in order that 
the balls might be turned towards the centre of the balance, 
and also to diminish the resistance that the air gives to the 
motion if it was near the circumference. 


Calculation for the Thermometers. 

Suppose the weight of the balance to be three ounces, or 
1728 grains, experience proves that for 30 degrees of heat a 
marine watch where this effect is not compensated loses 157 
per hour, or z},th part. Tt is therefore necessary, that by 
the diminution of its mass the balance should produce an 
equivalent acceleration: now 1729, the number of grains of 
which three ounces are composed, divided by 240, is equal 
to seven grains; and as the accelerations are only as the 

_ square roots of the diminutions of the mass, it is necessary 
to take away about 14 grains of the mercury, placed towards 
* Or 14 below: zero of Fahrenheit’s. 


the 


140 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


the centre of percussion of the balance, to produce: the de~ 
sired compensation: this is what is effected by a ball. of 
spirit of wine of about five lines and a half in diameter, 
which size may be varied according to the greater or less 
force of the liquor. Whence it is evident that we may. di- 
minish or increase the effect at pleasure to arrive at the pre- 
cise term of the compensation: Ist, by augmenting or di- 
minishing the size of the ball: 2dly, by placing the exterior 
branch further from, or nearer to, the centre of the balance; 
3dly, by using spirits of wine more or less, rectified. 

These thermometers, having a very smal] mass, produce 
their compensation at the same instant that the springs. are 
dilated or contracted: this is what cannot happen in all kinds 
of thermometers composed of metallic bars, which to be 
solid. must be made very strong with regard to the blade of 
the regulating spring. 

I use two thermometers instead of one, which, at first 
would’ appear to suffice; without this, in the different de- 
grees of heat and cold, the regulator would not preserve its 
equality of weight in all points of its circumference; which 
is an important thing, as I have explained, to prevent the 
effect of shocks and various motions. 

Before we terminate this article let us remove some diffi- 
culties that may be thrown in our way. 

Tt may at first be feared that the two liquids would mix 
by violent shocks; it is easy to be assured of the contrary 
by taking a similar thermometer, turning jt upside down, 
and shaking it. 

Perhaps it may also be apprehended that the spirit of wine 
would be compressed, more or less, according to the weight 
of the atmosphere, because I leave the inner branch open, 
i order that all the parts of the mercury and spirit of wine 
may tend with more force towards the ball: I will not deny 
that this will happen, but in so small a quantity that it must 
absolutely be neglected. By Mr. Canton’s experiments the 
whole weight of the atmosphere only compresses the spirit 
of wine the +,45syath part 5. therefore the variations of these 
weights, which hardly amount to +;th, would only form in 
24 hours the variation of four millionth and a half of 5’ or 

300”; 


es 


ee ee ee 


of measuring Time at Sea ~ Hi 


$00”, which the compensation produces; that is to say, 
about the 600dth part of a second in 24 hours. 

Lastly, it may be asked why, instead of making my ther- 
mometers of one liquor only, | have used mercury and spirit 
of wine. It is well known that spirit of wine, being more 
than eighteen times hghter than mercury, it would have 
made my thermometers too large for my regulator, which 
would have augmented the resistance of the air, &c. 

‘With regard to mercury, exclusive of its having the in- 
conveniences which I have just remarked in spirits of wine 
alone, its dilatation would not have been sufficient. Be- 
sides, it would have been imprudent to have used too great 
a mass that was fluid and moveable, whose inertia in any 
shock would have broken the tubes, &c-* 


Article VIT. 


Of the methods used in the new watch to make ali its parts 
remain the same, after having been subjected to the greatest 
differences in temperature. 


The effects of heat and cold which I have just examined 
in the preceding article, are not, in my opinion, those which 
would be most opposed to the regularity of a marine watch ; 
there is another, which I was unable to correct until after 
a great number of useless trials. The following is what made 
it known to me: 

Being assured of the regularity of my machine in the sanre 
temperature, Iwas willing to try if it would preserve this 
same accuracy in great degrees of heat, such as those that 
are felt between the tropics: for this purpose, by means of 
a stove, I kept for near aday, ina small room, a degree of 
heat where the thermometer stood between 35 and 40 de- 
grees: my compensation being a little too strong, instead 
of losing, as others would, my watch gained, as I had fore- 
seen, some seconds: the advancement was casy to correct 
by the methods pointed out in the preceding article; but 
this I did not wait for: having then removed my machine 
into the mean temperature where it was before, it gained 

* Berthoud says, one of the thermometers of one of Le Roy’s watches broke 
during its trial in La More, by a blow which it received onthe ease.—T.S.E 

10” 


142 Le Roy's Memoir on the best Method 


10” in 94 hours. I repeated ‘the trial, which furnished a 
new advancement, less considerable than the preceding, and 
the same with a third, &&.: other watches, instead of gain- 
ing, on the contrary.would lose by the preceding operation; 
which sometimes also does not produce any effect. 

By reflecting on these subjects, I conceived that there hap- 
pened here some effect similar to those observed in the ela- 
terometer: it might very well be, that the springs, or the 
revulating springs (for } made this trial by different methods), 
experienced some change of figure by heat, which would 
atigment or diminish their strength; whence I concluded 
that it would be necessary to take particular care that these 
springs move very freely, and that they do not receive the 
smallest constraint in their application to the balance. 

With this view I made the pieces dd (Plate III. fig. 6.) ca- 
pable of receiving all the requisite situations, that the spring 
might be attached without experiencing the least constraint. 
By their first motion they could move backwards or forwards 
in their groove to receive the springs ; we might then raise 
or lower them at pleasure by turning them on the screws dd 
(Plate IIT.), by which they are affixed to the frame: lastly, 
the part where the spring is attached turns itself on a pivot, 
in order that this spring might be applied without changing 
its figure in any respect. When ull these precautions are 
taken, we fix all the parts by thcir screws. By means of 
these pieces we diminish this effect greatly, if we do not to- 
tally destroy it; and we completely annihilate it, by succes? 
sively heating and cooling the machme until it no longer 
exists. Without these precautions it is only by chance that 
we can produce a goud marine watch. 


Article, VIII. 
Means used to prevent the effect of shocks and different, 
positions. 

These shocks may be opposed to the regularity of out 
Marine watch by two causes: Ist, because the regulator in 
teceiving its own motion, that is to say, the motion that 
the motive force of the watch keeps up, may be aug- 
mented or diminished, &c.: 2@dly, since by the repeated 

agitations 


of measuring Time al Sea. 143 


agitations of all the parts of the machine, especially those of 
the regulator, the situation, the form, and the texture of 
these parts may be changed; whence arise errors so much 
the more important, because, instead of being transitory, as 
others are, they would only cease when we had applied the 
remedy to the changes as they happen. 

The methods which appeared to me proper to prevent 
these inconveniences are, Ist, to render all the parts of the 
watch.as solid and as unalterable as they can be made: 2dly, 
to suspend the machine in such a way that it may receive 
little motion from shocks: 2dly, to diminish the effect of 
this motion as much as it can be done: lastly, to arrange 
things in such a manner, that this motion when received — 
may not be preserved, but may cease, on the contrary, as 
soon as possible. To fulfil these different conditions, [ took 
care not to give my spiral springs too great a magnitude or 
mass with regard to their strength. M. Daniel Bernoulli 
recommends in his Mémoire to make them very large; but, 
having applied some of them to my watch, I presently per- 
ceived that agitations a little considerable made them move 
and yibrate not only according to their length, but even in 
their width; whence I concluded that there was a mean 
term to be chosen in the size of these springs. After some 
experience, I fell upon that point of magnitude in the spring - 
where all the vibrations are exactly isochronous* without 
being affected by considerable shocks. 

Nothing could appear more opposite to that solidity, which 
isso necessary in the parts of the regulator, than the harpsi- 
chord wire by which itis suspended. Although its strength 
be such as to sustain a weight fourteen times greater than 
the balance without breaking, nevertheless it was much to 
be feared that it would not withstand violent shocks (which 
happened, in effect, before | bad taken the precautions which 
Tam going to mention), or at Jeast that it would lengthen. 
To prevent this inconvenience, J attached the upper extre- 
mity of this wire toa spring x,x (fig. 7. Plate I.), sufficiently 
strong to keep the wire and the balance suspended, and ele- 
Vate it to a fixed point above, against which this spring 
presses, ands stopped ;-by this means it is no longer the 

* See Article I. of Part Il. . 
wire 


142 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


wire which sustains the balance in great shocks. Then, the 
suspension spring, which could only raise a weight a little 
greater than the balance, gives way, and the extremity of 
the lower pivot of the balance touches and rubs during the 
mometit of the shock on a plate, as is done in common 
watches when they are laid down. 

An essential thing to determine was the magnitude of the 
vibrations, 1 acknowledge that the true place where we 
might find this with most success would be a sea-port. 
M. Bernoulli recommends that they should be very small ; 
but I feared then that shocks would have had a considerabie 
effect on them. I have therefore made the balance describe 
an arc of about 100 degrees in the long vibrations—that is 


to say, when the watch is just wound up—which is reduced © 


to 90 after the watch has been going 24 hours. In other 
respects I have followed the principles of M. Bernoulli, zdid. 
who requires that a considerable motion of the balance should 
produce little change in the fignre of the spring. 

After having put the regulator, by the proper disposition 
of its parts, as much as possible out of the power of shocks, 
to fulfil our views entirely, it is necessary to find some me- 
thod of rendering these motions as small as they ean be; 
the Jeast abrupt, and of as short duration as possible: this 
is what I have done by the suspension which I have given 
to the new watch. 

The motions which it may receive can only be either ho- 
rizontal, vertical, or m a direction compounded of these 


two. To compensate the first, which would particularly | 


affect the spiral springs, I have suspended and rendered my 
watch moveable on two axes A, A (fig. 1. Plate [V.) adapted 
to a frame or strong parallelogram of copper AB, AB, which 
itself, as well as the watch, turns on two other axes BB, 
fixed to the box, which contains the whole maghine*. By 
this means the watch forms a kind of pendulum, at the bot- 
tom of which are placed the spiral springs. When, there- 
fore, they receive a shock, we see at first sight that it is the 

* A watch suspended in this way is said to be hung upon ‘gimbals. Ber- 
fhoud (Eclaircissemens, p. 53.) attributes the contrivance to Cardan: but I 
hawe seen an old work on Mechanics, of much earlier date than ‘any thing of 


Cardan’s, where this suspension was proposed for a carriage to convey 
wounded soldiers from thetield of battle, or from one place to another.—T.S.E, 


points 


of measuring Time at Sea: 145 


points of suspension which feel it, and that the lower part 
of the pendulum, or the watch, remains almost fixed at that 
moment; this pendulum then redescends by an inclined 
plane to the vertical, whence it was removed by the shock, 
and that by a gentle motion, progressive and slow, which 
can neither affect nor derange that of the spiral springs. 

These motions, although rendered more gentle and infi- 
nitely less prejudicial, nevertheless cannot be otherwise than 
contrary to the accuracy of the watch, if they were of long 
duration ; that is to say, if the oscillations of this watch, 
forming a pendulum, continued like that of the common 
pendulums: this construction would then have had another 
more considerable disadvantage. These oscillations would in- 
crease by a continuation of shocks ; whence it would happen 
that the points of suspension would be worn; that the watch 
would be found, in a great number of instances, in situations 
very remote from the vertical (which is the most advantageous 
Situation, being the one in which it was regulated); and that 
the sum of the motions, now rendered less conttary to trath, 
would he considerably augmented. I have prevented this 
inconvenience, Ist, by gentle friction springs acting near 
the points of suspension on planes or large surfaces; which, 
with a sufficient resistance to diminish considerably the oscil- 
latory motion, are very little subject to wear, and neverthe- 
less permit the watch to move on thcse axes: @dly, by a 
pad B, B, (fig. 2. Plate 1V.) formed at the bottom of the 
case which contains the watch, and by cushions which are 
placed round the sides of the box, in such a way, that in 
great shocks the lower part of the watch meets obstacles 
that are supple and moveable, which extinguish the motion 
by their softness, and prevent it from continuing. 

But a very essential point to render the motion of the ba- 
Jance unalterable by shocks is, as M. Bernoulli recommends, 
p- 39, of the Researches above cited, that it be of equal 
weight throughout. This is one of the considerations which 
has induced me to use two opposite spiral springs in my 
watch *, both opening and shutting together, in order that 

* Sully used two spiral springs in his watch. See the Description alregée, 
p- 175 and 177.1. S. E. 

Vol. 26. No. 102, Nov. 1806. K each 


146 Chemical Examination 


each spring may have one-half less mass than if, being sii 
gle, its height were double; and in order that, this mass 
being more equally distributed around the centre of motion, 
the regulator might not be exposed to gain or lose by lateral 
shocks. The-advaniages of this a ey have been confirmed 
to me by a number BF experiments. : 
By means of these precautions we may turn the watch ra- 
pidly, or make it vibrate quickly on its suspension, without 
any sensible difference resulting in the arcs of vibrations. 
There is but one foreign motion that can derange it ; and 
that is the one which it may receive circularly on the axis 
of its regulator. But the machine being adapted to the vessel 
by means of four fastenings, fixed at the bottom of the box, 
it is impossible that it can receive any thing of the kind, 
Moreover, I have thought it best (on the authority of 
what has been observed by M.1’abbé Chappe, and on what 
has been said by M. Bouguer, p. 214 of the Manewvre de 
Vaisseuux, that the inclination of a ship is much too great 
when it is from 18 to 20 degrees,) to dispose my machine, 
not for inclinations which rarely take place, but for a mean 
term. It has therefore the liberty of describing on. its sus- 
pension, and in its box, only 15 or 16 degrees ; this may 
go as far as 18 or 20 by the giving way of the cushions and 


pad, if the weight of the watch press them any time. 
[To be continued.] 


XXV. Chemical Examination of the native Cinnabars of 
Japan, Newmarktel, and Idria. By M. Kvarrotu*. , 


as 


Tue cinnabar of Japan, which is brought to Europe in 
crystallized grains, is of a deep cochineal red, inclining to 
steel gray ; and in other places it is of a scarlet red, iadlipes 
ing to brick colour, fe 

There are fragments of flat hexaédral prisms, outwardly 
very smooth, .of a metallic lustre, inw ardly very brilliant, 
and semi-metallic. 


* From Annales de Chimie, tome lviil. p. 303. 


» 


The 


of the native Cinnabars of Japan, Sc. 147 

The transverse fracture is scaly, the longitudinal one la- 
mellated. 

The fragments are irregularly angular and opake. Pyri- 
tous points are partly scattered over them, or rather they 
adhere to a quartzy matrix. The mineral is tender; its 
powder is of a scarlet colour; its specific gravity is 7°710. 

A. 1000 grains were sublimed in a retort furnished with 
a globular receiver, in which a little water was put. The 
produce sublimed was exactly similar to artificial cinnabar. 
The water of the receiver, rendered turbid by some parts of 


sulphur, contained sulphuretted hydrogen gas and sulphu- 


rous acid in small quantity. The residue in the retort, 
weighing 38 grains, being digested with muniatic acid, the 
latter took up the iron coming from the pyrites and left the 
guarizy matrix. 

B. a. 104 grains of mineral, which according to the above 
experiment contained 100 grains of cinnabar, were heated 
with 500 grains of muriatic acid, which disengaged from it 
sulphuretted hydrogen gas. 100 grains of nitric acid were 


‘successively added, which produced, with lively efferves- 
‘cence, the decomposition of the cinnabar, and the complete 


solntion of the metallic parts. 

b. The sulphur remaining, of a grayish yellow, had a 
viscous consistence; it weighed 11°8 grains. When burnt 
it left a blackish residue of 1°5 grains, which deducted from 


the preceding weight determines the quantity of sulphur at 


10°3 grains. 

c. The solution of cinnabar in nitro-muriatic acid was 
mixed with muriate of barytes. The precipitate, after hav- 
ing been made red hot, presented 30 grains of sulphate 
of barytes, which correspond with 4-2 grains of sulphur. 


. Besides these 14°5 grains of sulphur, we may count a quarter 


of a grain of loss by the sulphuretted hydrogen gas ; whence 
it results that 100 parts of pure cinnabar contain 14°75 of 
sulphur. 

C. 1040 grains of cinnabar, which contain, according to 
the above experiment, 1000 grains of pure cinnabar, were 
distilled with half the weight of iron filings; the produce 

K 2 was 


148 Chemical Examination 


was 845 grains of mercury: thus cinnabar contains, not iz- 
eluding the heterogeneous parts, 

Mercury - - 84°50 

Sulphur - - 14°75 


99°25 


Hs 
Cinnabar of Newmarktel, in Carniola. 

This ore is distinguished by its beauty from every other 
in Europe. The mineral is of a lively cochineal red. It is 
found in considerable masses, enveloped with a blackish gray 
chalk, traversed with veins of calcareous spar of a milky 
white. Its specific gravity is 8°160. 

A. 100 grains were heated to ebullition with 500 grains 
of muriatic acid; 100 grains of nitric acid were afterwards 
successively added. After perfect solution there remained 
10°20 grains of yellow sulphur, which burned withont leav- 
ing any residue. Mariate of barytes produced in the so- 
lution 27 grains of sulphate of barytes, which correspond 
to 3°80 of sulphur. If the loss of the sulphur, which formed 
the sulphuretted hydrogen gas, amounts to a quarter of a 
grain, the quantity of sulphur in 100 parts of cinnabar 
ought to be 1425 grains. 

B. 500 grains of cinnabar mixed with half as mueh iron 
filings, and distilled, yielded 425 grains of mercury. | 

100 parts of the cinnabar analysed, therefore, contain : 


Mercury ~ - 85 
Sulphur - - 14°95 
99°25 
Ill. 


Hepatie Subphuret of Mercury of Idria. 

A. 1000 grains of cinnabar, distilled with half that quan- 
tity of iron filings, yielded 818 grains of pure mercury. The 
sulphuret of iron remaining was mixed with a black dust. 

B. 100 grains were treated with the nitric and muriatic 

aeids, 


of the native Cinnabars of Japan, &'c. 149 


acids, and precisely the same phenomena were observed as 
in the preceding analysis of the cinnabar of Japan. Upon 
the combustion of the sulphur a black residue remained, 
consisting of three grains of charcoal, which left upon in- 
cineration one grain of reddish ashes. The quantity of sul- 
phur obtained was 13°75. 

C. a. 1000 grains of hepatic sulphuret were distilled in 
the chemico-pneumatic apparatus: 34 cubic inches of sul- 
phuretted hydrogen gas passed over, without mentioning a 
part which was dissolved by the water of the receiver. 256 
grains of pure cinnabar were sublimed, and the neck of the 
retort was coated with a mixture of humid ethiops and me- 
tallic globules, from which 217 grains of mercury were me- 
chanically separated. 

b. The residue in the retort was of a charcoal black ; it 
weighed 39 grains. V/hen incinerated it left 16 grains of a 
grayish powder, which ascertains the charcoal consumed to 
be 23 grains. | 

c. This earthy residue, treated by the muriatic acid, left 
61 grains of silex. 

d. The muriatic solution, of a greenish yellow, was hy- 
persaturated by ammonia, which produced a brownish pre- 
cipitate: the liquor was of a clear blue. 

e. The precipitate, treated by potash, left two grains of 
oxide of iron. The same alkaline liquor furnished 54 grains 
of alumine ky the muriate of ammonia. 

f: Into this ammoniacal liquid, after having hypersatu- 
rated it with muriatic acid, a plate of zinc was dipped, which 
separated from it 0°20 of copper. 


Result of the above Analysis. 


Mercury . - - 818° 
Sulphur - - - 137°50 
Charcoal - - - 23° 
Silex - - - 6°50 
Alumine - - - 5°50 
990°50 
K 3 Oxide 


+ 


150 Examination of the native Cinnahars of Japan, &'o. 


Brought over 990°50 
Oxide of iron - - 9s 
Copper - 2 - ERT ey: 
Water, which served for the formation of 
the sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and other 
loss - =, eK eS 7°30 


1000- 


Those who are of opmion, with Messrs. Kirwan and Sage, 
that the mercury in this cinnabar is only partly combined 
with the sulphur, will see by this analysis that the two sub- 
stances are in round numbers, as 1 and 6; and if there was 
any mercury not combined, the nitric acid would attack it, 
The idea entertained that this ore contained oxidated mer- 
cury besides cinnabar, may have arisen from the appearance 
of part of the mercury when distilling. But it arises entirely 
from the charcoal, which decomposes a part of the cinnabar, 
whether it takes from it its necessary quantity of oxygen, or 
forms at a high temperature carburetted sulphur. A distil- 
lation of artificial cinnabar with lamp-black absolutely pre- 
sents the same phznomiena. 

Whether the mercury in the cinnabar is entirely exempt 
from oxygen, is a problem which is not yet resolved. 

There is some appearance that the mereury exists in it in 
so very low a degree of oxidation, that it has hitherto escaped 
observation. Jn the examination of this subject it must not 
be lost sight of, that the mercury in cinnabar (analogous 
with some other metals oxidated at the minimum) resists the 
nitric acid; that in the making of cinnabar the passage of 
the ethiops to. the state of cinnabar is always accompanied 
by an inflammation, and each inflammation seems to be an 
oxidation. 


XXVI, Upon 


eee ee ee ee 


Font SY 207 
XXVI. Upon the Affinities of Bodies for Light; and parti- 
cularly upon the refractive Powers of different Gases*. 


Aprer some preliminary reflections upon the utility of 
studying the radical properties (if we may be allowed the 
expression). of different substances, taking them in the siate 
of gas, on account’of their greater simplicity in that form, 
and because they then belong to three sciences—pbysics, 
chemistry, and astronomy; the authors of the above me- 
moir proceed to detail the object of their experiments, and 
their method of investigation. 

We know that light, on passing from one transparent 
medium into another of a different density or chemical na- 
ture, experiences a deviation known in physics and astro- 
nomy by the name of refraction. Newton proved that this 
change of direction was owing to an attraction which bodies 
exercise upon the element of hght, and which acting only 
at very small distances completely resembles the chemical 
affinities. The principal idea of the authors of the memoir 
was to employ the physical fact of the deviation of light in 
different gases, in order to study its connection with their 
chemical nature ; they conceived the idea of applying this 
subtle element to the aériform substances, nearly as the che- 
mists apply their reagents to liquids ; an ingenious idea, and 
which became very fertile in their hands. | 

The first and most interesting of the aériform substances 
is, without doubt, that which envelops the terrestrial globe | 
by the name of atsnosphere, and preserves beat and life at its 


surface. It was also the first aériform substance examined 


by the authors. Two general processes present themselves 
in studying the refractions of the common air: the one (astro- 
nomical) consists in comparing the positions of the stars af- 
fected by refraction with their true positions, that is to sav, 
such as found by calculation: the difference is the effect of 
refraction, The other process is physical, and completely 
analogous to that in use for determining the refracting power 


* Extracted from a memoir read at the National Institute by Messrs. Biot 
and Arrago,. 
K4 of 


152 On the Affinities of Bodies for Light ; 

of solids and liquids; they are disposed in the form of 
prisms, z.e. they are terminated by surfaces oblique from 
each other; and upon looking throngh them, we observe 
the deviation experienced by the rays of light, occasioned 
by their entrance and exit under a certain obliquity. 

But how can we make a prism of air? In the same man- 
ner as a liquid prism, by inclosing air in any cavity, termi- 
nated, at the points where the light enters and departs, by 
transparent plates of glass, the respective inclination of 
which, as well as the refracting angle, is well known. If 
the apparatus is so constructed that what is called a vacuum 
in physics may be made and maintained round the glass 
plates in which the air is contained, the atmospheric air may 
then be considered as a prism; because, the essential condi- 
tions being the difference of the mediums which the light 
ought to traverse, and the obliquity of incidence, these are 
obtained if-the hollow prism is left empty ; or if it be filled 
with an aériform substance different from the ambient air; 
or, lastly, with common air, but of a different density. 

Newton induced Hawksby to pursue some experiments of 
this kind; but Hawksby’s prism having only a very small 
refracting angle, and the means of observation of the visual 
angles being at that time very much below the degree of 
precisior LW hick may be obtained at present, these pursuits 
were left unfinished; and they could not have fallen inte 
better hands. 

At the suggestion of M. de la Place, the Institute charged 
the authors of the present memoir with the further develop- 
ment of the above pursuits; and in detailing their results 
they do becoming homage to the illustrious authors of the 
Static Chemistry and the Mecanique Céleste: «* The sub- 
ject of all our researches,” they say, ** was indicated in the 
above works, and the conversation and advice of their au- 
thors furnished us with the means of making our re- 
searches.’? 

Borda had undertaken the same researches with instru- 
ments, to the perfection of which he had ereatly contributed 3 
he died, however, before having terminated his labours, and 
we bibve only recovered some “slight traces of them, But 


his 


and on the refractive Powers of different Gases. 183 


his instruments and his method still exist, and the authors 
of the memoir availed themselves of them; adding thereto 
such improvements as were suggested by their own genius 
and the progress of science. 

They employed the same prism as that of Borda. It is 
a brass tube, terminated by two planes of glass carefully 
luted to the tube, oblique to its axis, and making between 
them an angle of 143° 7’ 28” (sexagesimal degrees), deter- 
mined by processes which ascertained it within a few se- 
conds. This tube is sustained by a support with a stop- 
cock, by means of which the vacuum is made in its interior 
by an air-pump. It is furnished with a barometer commu- 
Nicating with the interior, and acting the part of a proof to 
ascertain the degree of vacuum made in it. In the results 
an account was kept of a very small error in the parallelisms - 
in the two surfaces of each of the glasses at the ends of the 
tube; an error which was discovered by observations, and 
which only rose to 16:6”; this quantity is constantly added 
to the angles observed ; it is but a very trifling portion of 
the total deviation, which rises to 362°6”, 

In order to determine this deviation the following process 
was resorted to:—The apparatus, being placed on the top of 
the Palace of the Senate (formerly the Luxembourg), imme- 
diately behind it was placed a repeating circle, the lower eye- 
glass af which was constantly pointed to the thunder-rod of 
the observatory, 1400 metres distant. The lower eye-glass 
was directed upon the same object, but traversing the prism ; 
and the visual ray was affeeted with all the deviation due to 
the refraction. The angular quantity of it was very exactly 
observed; then, after having half turned the prism upon 
its vertical axis (being on a horizontal plane), which this 
turning had doubled, it was again observed, and was found 
so great, that the bent ray passed from one extremity to the 
other of the facade of the observatory. This whole angle 
was observed a great number of times, in order to take ad- 
vantage of the characteristic property of the repeating circle; 
and thus a perfect exactitude was obtained. An account 
was always kept of the variations of the barometer and of 
the hygrometer during the operations. 

The 


154 - Onthe Affinities of Bodies for Light ; 


The barometer connected with the ‘interior of the prism, 
compared with that in the open air, always gave the exact 
aecount of the density of the contained fluid compared with: 
that of the ambient air. The prism was filled at pleasure 
with any given gas, by previously exhausting it of ar and 
then connecting it with a reservoir filled with the gas, which 
was ascertained to he the purest of its kind by several pre- 
cautions. This apparatus was constructed by M. Fortin, 
to whom the authors pay the compliment of having fulfilled 
their expectations in point of convenience and precision i 
his execution of that apparatus. 

The specific gravity of the gases empfoyed was arm esser- 
tial requisite im this kind of experiments. The authors as- 
certained it by the commron process of weighing a globe of 
glass previously emptied, and afterwards filled with the gas: 
all the corrections were made for the state of the barometer, 
the thermoineter, and even of the hygrometer; because, the 
vapour of the water being lighter than the air, as 16 to 14, 
at equal pressure, it was nceessary to have regard to this cir- 
eumstance, and it was done according to a formula which 
™M. de la Place deduced from the experiments of De Saussure 
and Dalton. Al! the weights were reduced to what they 
had been inthe vacuum at the freezing pomt, and under the 
coustant pressure of 0-76 of a metre. Regard was even paid 
to the dilatation of the glass, supposed equal to 00600262716 
of its volume for each degree of the centigrade thermometer 3 
a result discovered by Messrs. Lavoisier and De la Place in 
a work upon the dilatation of solids, which, unfortunately, 
has not been published. With all these precautions, the 
results obtained on different days, and in very different states 
of the air, scarcely deviated a few milligrammes from each 
other, when they were reduced to the same temperature and 
the same pressure. ° 

In order exactly to compare the weights of the gases with 
that of water, the authors gauged very exactly the globe with 
pure water at the temperature of 4° (39°2° Fahr.), the point 
at which the greatest condensation takes place, and at which 
the absolute weight of water was very preciscly determined 
by experiments made in I'rance for the determination of the 

gramme, 


and on the refractive Powers of different Gases. 155 


gramme. The mercury was weighed with great precaution, 
in order to compare its weight with that of water; and set- 
ting out with that of the air, a relation upon which several 
useful results rest, and particularly the measure of heights by 
the barometer, the metal was introduced into a matrass with 
a straight beak, aud from which all air was carefully expelled 
by the ebullition of the mercury, and by afterwards putting 
it under the receiver of the air-pump. The same precautions 
were taken with the water; all the corrections were made in 
respect to the temperature and the density of the atmospheric 
air, as well as for the dilatation of the vessels ; and there was 
found for the final relation of the weight of the mercury and 
of the air, 2. e. for the constant coefficient to employ in the 
calculations of the measurement of heights by the barometer 
expressed in metres, the number 18332, at the freezing point 
and at the pressure of 0°76 of a metre. 

We know that this same coefficient may be obtained by 
a very different method, 7. e. by comparing the barometric 
heights observed in the open air in stations differently ele« 
vated, with the real differences of height of the same:stations 
determined by levelling or by trigonometrical measures.. De 
Lucs, Schuckburgh, Trembiey, and other men of science, 
have proceeded in this manner; but no person has followed 
up this part of the research, or fathomed the different ele- 
ments of it with more sagacity than M. Ramond, whose 
conclusions we shall shortly state. 

The coefficient indicated by M. Ramond as the most con= 
venient to apply to observations made in the open air is = 
18336, and differs only by four unities of the fifth order of 
decimals, from that which the authors concluded from their 
experiments in close vessels; an agreement which forms a 
presumption very favourable to the exactitude of this funda- 
mental determination. M.Ramond has also shown that 
this coefficient, introduced into the formula of M. de la 
Place, would give the heights of mountains in a manner so 
nearly corresponding, that the uncertainty which remains is 
within the limits of those errors of which the minutest and 
most accurate observations are susceptible. 

The specific gravity of each of the gases employed may 


6 be 


156 On the Affinities of Bodies for Light ; 


be ascertained, in some measure, from their purity; but the 
authors did not content themselves with this, and the gases 
were always submitted to chemical analysis. Messrs. The- 
ard, and Berthollet junior, assisted their friends in this part 
of their labour; and their names inspire confidence. It be- 
came still mecessary that these gases, although produced 
very pure, should be introduced with all their purity into 
the prism of the experiment. The authors succeeded in this 
essential requisite by a particular disposition of the cocks of 
communication, difficult to be understood without the as- 
sistance of drawings. 

« Knowing,” they say, “ the specific weights of our 
gases, and the refractions exercised by them upon the light, 
we concluded, by calculation, their refractive power com- 
pared with that of the atmospheric air. 

«© What we mean here by the term refractive power, is 
not only the deviation produced upon the luminous ray, nor 
is it the angle measured by-this deviation, If the function 
of the distance which expresses the action of bodies upon 
the light was of the same form for all bodies, and did not. 
differ relatively to each of them but by the produce of their 
density, and of a constant coefficient dependent on their na- 
ture, the quantity, which we call the refractive power of a 
body, would be proportional to the intensity of its attractive 
force for the light; but in every case it is the sum of all the 
actions exercised by the body multiplied by the element of | 
space and by the density. These rigorously exact notions 
are conformable with the principles given by Newton and 
by the author of the Mecanique Celeste: it appeared neces- 
gary to recall them to observation, because it is only by at- 
taching precise ideas to principles that we can employ them, 
and follow with certainty the consequences which may he 
deduced from them,” 

By applying these principles to their experiments the au- 
thors of the memoir have established the refractive power of 
yarious agriform fluids. Oxygen of all these fluids, and in- 
deed of all natural bodies yet observed, refracts the least, 
and hydrogen refracts the most,—it refracts 6} times more: 
than common air, 

Newton 


and on the refractite Powers of different Gases. 137 
Newton discovered in the refracting power of the dia- 
mond what suggested to him that it was combustible; and 
M. de la Place announced, in a printed memoir, the creat 
refractive power of hydrogen. The refracting power of the 
other gases is intermediate between those of hydrogen and 
oxygen. That of the muriatic acid gas was tried, not- 
withstanding the great difficulties attending its manipula- 
tion, and it was found to surpass that of the atmospheric 
air. 

But it is the study of the refracting power of this latter 
fluid, and of its modifications on account of its density, that 
ought particularly to occupy philosophers, since the rays of 
light never reach us, except more or less turned from the 
right line by this influence. We might vary at pleasure the 
density of the common air inclosed im the apparatus; that 
is to say, produce a given difference between this medium 
and the external air, on leaving the one and the other iden- 
tical in their nature, and only changing the element of den- 
sity. When we have brought the density of the interior 
and exterior air to the term of equality, there will remain 
no more refrangent cause than the error in the parallelism 
of the two surfaces of each glass; and it is thus the absolute 
quantity of this correction was determined, which did not 
reach 17 seconds of a degree. This series of observations 
made upon the atmospheric air and upon the cther gases, 
taken at different densities, and always marking the state of 
the barometer, thermometer, and hygrometer, afforded the 
authors of the memoir a conviction of this important prin- 
ciple in the theory of refractions, namely, that from the most 
perfect vacuum to the ordinary degree of pressure of the at- 
mosphere, the refraction of the light in any given gas is al- 
ways proportional to its density, without this rule haying 
any occasion for the slightest modification. 

The authors propose to examine, by future experiments, 
the influence of a temperature more or less elevated, and of 
the condensation of the air beyond the ordinary atmospheri- 
eal limits upon the refractive power of this fluid. 

It did not appear to them that the state of the hygrometet 


had 
? 


158 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


had any appreciable influence upon the refractive power wher 
the sky is clear, and the air transparent. They propose to 
themselves further experiments upon this subject, and upon 
the refracting power of vapours; and as these experiments 
require high temperatures, they are obliged to wait for the 
great heats in summer. 

In order to reduce the gases to the same pressure and the 
same temperature in the calculation of the results, the au- 
thors made use of the Jaw laid down by Guy-Lussac, namely, . 
that by equal increases of heat there is the same law for all 
the gases, and that the dilatation of each is equal to 0°00375 
of its volume for each degree of the centigrade thermometer. 
This number was determined by 25 experiments, which did 
not sensibly differ from one another, and were made with 
tubes perfectly dry, and of exact calibres. ‘ This result,” 
the authors say, ‘as given by Guy-Lussac, is one of the 
most useful in physics ; it serves at the same time chemists, 
and even astronomers, to reduce their observations. It is 
probable that by adding the specific gravities of the gases 
and their refractive powers, as given in this memoir, an | 
exact and complete knowledge will be obtained of all the 
physical properties of a tiorae fluids.” 

We reserve for a future number the consequences deduced 
by the authors of the memoir from their experiments, and 
the development of the relations in which these results may 


be interesting to chemistry. 
{'To be continued.] 


XXVII. Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. By 
G. Cuvier*. 


Tue fossil ossifications of elephants have excited not only 
the most lively interest in the minds of men of science, but 
also the curiosity of the vulgar in a high degree. Their 
enormous size has caused them to be collected and preserved 
wherever they were found; their frequency in every climate, 


* From Annales du Mustum d@’ Histoire Naturelle, année iv. cahier vii. p. 1. 
and 


Membir upon living and fossil. Elephants. 159 


‘ and even in places where they could not subsist at present, 
has struck every one with astonishment, and has given rise 
te a number of hypotheses in order to account for them: 
but it would have been highly proper if as much activity 
had been shown in determining the conditions and the na- 
ture of the problem, as there has been in resolving its and 
perhaps this very negligence in fixing the bases, and even 
the terms of the question, has been one of the causes-why 
the most ef these solutiens have been so unfortunate. it 
must be admitted, at least, that we have been rather too 
late in- occupying ourselves with questions which ought te 
have been answered before trying cur strength in resolying 
the problem. 

Are the elephants of the present day of the same species ? 
Supposing that there are several species, are the fossil ele~ 
phants of different countries indiscriminately of all. these 
different species? or rather, Are they divided into different 
countries, according to their species? or are they of species 
which are now lost? 

It is evident that we can say nothing demonstrable upon 
the problem, before resolving all the preliminary questions ; 
and we are as yet hardly in possession of the elements ne- 
cessary for the solution of some of them. 

The osteologies of the elephant hitherto published are so 
little detailed, that. we cannot as yet say of several of them if 
they belong to the osteology of any of our living elephants; 
and of the innumerable quantity of fossil ossifications so 
much talked of by authors, we have scarcely obtained passa- 
ble drawings of two or three. Daubenton, who had_an 
African skeleton before his eyes, perceived none of the enor- 
mous differences of its grinders from’ those of a fossil ske~ 
leton; and he confounds a fossil thigh of the animal of the 
Ohio with that of the elephant. The comparisons made by 
Tentzelius, by Pallas, and so many others, of fossil bones 
with fresh ones, were never expressed, except in general 
terms; and were never accompanied with exact drawings, 
rigorous measurements, nor those abundant details ‘which 
such important inquiries necessarily require, 


7 


- iiife 


160 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 

The figure published by Allen Moulin * is copied inte 
the Elephantography of Hartenfels, and into the Amphi- 
theatrum Zootomicum of Valentin; but it 1s so badly exe- 
ented that nothing precise can be learned from it, nor eyen 
the species to which it belongs. 

That of Patrick Blair f belongs, it is true, to the species 
of the Indies; but although designed after a very young ani- 
mal, the epiphyses of whith were not cemented, it is very 
badly done. The shoulder blades are wrong placed, while 
six toes are given to the left fore-foot and only four to the 
hind ones, &c. 

Those of Perrault ¢ and Daubenton § were both made from 
a skeleton, stil in preservation, of the African species. The 
first of these is well enough, but the head is represented as 
too small; the second is not above mediocrity. 

That of Camper |] is rather of the Indian species, like that 
of Blair; but although better designed than the others, it 
is done from a very young animal ca hich had not acquired 
its full form, and from the bones of which the ligaments 
had not been removed. 

Iam now occupied, along with M. Huet, in the execu- 
tion of some grand drawings on the anatomy of the elephant, 
which, I hope, will tend much to increase our knowledge of 
that branch of science when they are given to the public. 
In the méan time a detail of some of the observations I have 
made cannot fail to be interesting, particularly such of them 
as regard the increase and structure of the teeth. What I 
have to remark on that subject, however necessary to the 
history of fossils, is of a still more gencral importance in 
another respect, as explaining the history of the teeth in 
men and animals; and the immense size of the teeth of an 


* Anatomical Account of the Elephant accidentally burnt in Dublin, &e, 
London 1682, 72 pp. 4to. with two engravings. 
4 Phil. Trans. vol. xxvii. no. 325, June 1710. Plate IL. 
+ Mem. pour servit 4 l’Hist. des Anim, iii partie, Plate XXIII. It was 
published i in 1734. 
§ Hist. Nat. in gto. tome xi. Plate IV. 
|| Descrip. Anat. d’un Elephant. 


elephant . 


pe 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 161 
elephant renders things visible which it is extremely Mefhcislt 
to distinguish in those of men or animals. 

But in the first place, accordmg to my usual method, T 
shall describe those places where fossil ossifications have 
been found of that species which forms the principal eejatt 
of my present researches. 

To describe every place where they have been discovered 
would be an endless task; suffice it to say, that every coun- 
try, and every era, hag furnished fossil bones. 

Traces of them ate discovered in the writings of the an- 
tients. Theophrastus speaks of them in a work no longer 
in existence, of which Pliny has given us his testimony + 


** Theophrastus autor est, et ebur fossile candido et nigro 


colore inveniri, et ossa ¢ terra nasci, invenirique lapides 
osseos.” Lib. xxxvi. cap. 18. 

It is probable that the bones of elephants have been often 
taken for human ones ; and this may have given rise to the 
pretended discoveries li the tombs of giants spoken of in 
—__antiquity. 

Of this number the bones discovered in digging a weil 
at Tegea certainly were, although taken for the bones of 


_ Orestes *; and also those seen at Caprea, according to Sie- 


tonius, and regarded as the bones of heroes or giants t. 

As to the stories of bodies still larger, such as that of a 
skeleton 46 cubits in length thrown out of the ground during 
an earthquake at Crete, and regarded as that of Entellus or 
Otus }; or that of another, of 60 cubits, dug up near Tingis 
im Mauritania, when Sertorius commanded there, and which 
was taken for the skeleton of Antzus§; these accounts are 
vertainly exaggerated, or else they have for their origin the 
skeletons of whales. Strabo, who relates the latter story 
on the authority of Gabinius, does not hesitate to regard it 
as fabulous. 

These erroneous ideas, which arise from a total ignorance 


* Herodot. lib. i. § 68. 

t Suet. Aug. § 72. 

¢ Plinwdib. vii. cap. 16. 

§ Strabo, Geogr. lib. xvii. Amsterdam edit. 1707. p. 1185. 


Vol. 26, No, 102, Nov.1806. LL of 


162 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. © 


of anatomy, lasted to the middle age: even at that period 
mention is made. of giants, and the descriptions of their 
bones are sometimes so exaggerated that they make them 
ten times larger than those of the largest elephants. 

As more correct ideas have now dissipated these chimeras, 
one would think that the elephants whose bones were dis- 
covered had been buried by human beings. Thus, so far as 
these discoveries are confined to Italy, and those countries 
frequented by the Macedonians, the Carthaginians, and the 
Romans, they may be reasonably accounted for by reflect- 
ing on the prodigious number of elephants possessed by these 
people. . 

We know that the first Europeans who had elephants 
were Alexander and his Macedonians after the defeat of 
Porus *; and on that occasion some excellent notions were 
furnished by Aristotle on the subject of these animals: after 
the death of Alexander, Antigonus possessed the greatest 
number of elephants +. The Seleucides maintained them 
always, particularly after Seleucus Nicator received fifty of 
them from Sandro-Cottus in exchange for a whole canton 
on the banks of the Indust. Pyrrhus was the first who 
brought them ifto Italy in the year of Rome 472 §;. and as 
he disembarked at Tarentum the Romans gave these ani- 
mals, which were then unknown to them, the name of Lu- 
eanian bulls. They were in very small numbers, and Pyrrhus 
hhad taken them from Demetrius. Curius Dentatus captured 
four of those from Pyrrhus, and brought them to Rome to 
grace his triumph. © These were the first that were seen. by 
the Romans; but they soon became quite common. 'Me- 
tellus, having conquered the Carthaginians in Sicily, in the 
year of Rome 502, conducted their elephants to Rome upon 
rafts, to the number of 120 according te Seneca, and 142 
according to Pliny ||: these were all massacred in the Circus. 
Hannibal also brought elephants with him into Italy. Clau- 
dius Pulcher and Lucullus introduced them to combat with 


* Pausanias, Attic, lib. i. + Id, ib. } Strabo, lib. xv. 
§:Plin, viii, «6 | Id. ib. 


bulls. 


Memoir upon living and -fossil Elephants: 163; 
balls in the Circus. Pompey had them yoked:to his car at, 
his triumph for Africa. Germanicus exhibited ‘some which 
danced ludicrously ; and under Nero, at the games which 
he gave in honour of his mother, they were exhibited dancing’ . 
upon a rope, ana performing a number of feats of activity. 
Zilian says expressly of those belonging to Germaniicus, that 
they were elephants born at Rome; and they must have con- 
sequently propagated there : 

“© Cum Tiberii Cesaris Nepos Germanicus gladiatoram 
spectaculum edidit, plures jam grandes utriusque sexus cle- 
phanti Rome erant, € quibus alii plerique generati extite= 
runt: quorum artus interea dum committebantur et con- 
firmabantur, et membra infirma conglutinabantur, peritus 
vir ad pertractandos eorum sensus animosque mirabili quo- 
dam discipline genere eos erudiebat.” Adlian. de Anim. 
lib. i. cap. 11. 

Columella asserts the same fact still more positively :— 
« Tndia perhibetur molibus feraruni mirabilis; pares tamen in, 
hac terra (Italia) vastitate belluas progenerari quis neget, cum 
inter Mcenia nostra natos animadvertamus elephantes?’” Col. 
de Re Rustic. lib. ii. cap. 8. 

If our naturalists had paid attention to these two passages, 
they would not haye credited so long the impossibility of 
domesticating the elephant, and they would have perhaps 
tried a little sooner the experiments which have succeeded 
so well when made by M. Corse on that animal. 

Thus, though italy presents a’ great quantity of fossil 
bones, they were for a long time attributed to such indivi- 
dual animals as had been brought there by mankind; some 
of them only, however, may be attributed to this cause. 

The following is an account of the principal places in Italy 
where fossil bones have been found; but we are far from 
regarding it as complete : 

The largest tusk was found by Messrs. Larochefoucauld 
and Desmarets near Rome: it was ten feet long, and eight 
inches diameter, although it was not entire*, We have 


* Buffon, Epoques de la Nat. Notes justif. 9, 
L2 ' four 


164 Memoir upon living:and fossil Elephants. 


four pieces of it in our museum, which are very much al- 
tered. Some bones were also found at Rome since 1664, 
in digging some foundations at the entrance of the Vatican. 
Thomas Bartholin speaks of even prior discoveries made at 
Rome *; and it is probable that the supposed body of Evan- 
der, found in 1041 or 1054+, was nothing else than ele- 
phants’ bones. 

M. Charles Louis inboane gives a dea of a jaw- 
bone found in April 1862 in a  vineya tl without the gate 
Del Popolo, with several other fragments of bones and ivory, 
Bonanni speaks of several large’bones, teeth, and lower jaws, 
dug up in‘his time near a castle named Guidi, on the Aure~ 
lian Way, twelve miles from Rome §.- 

The vale of Arno seems to abound with fossil bones. The 
grand duke Ferdinand.of Medicis had-an entire skeleton dug 
up in 1663 in the plain of Arezzo. 

Doctor Tatgioni Tozetti deposited in the musenm at Flo- 
rence a humerus found in the caves near the upper valley of 
Arno, and'to which oysters were attached. 

Dolomieu says that the elephant:bones of the vale of Arno 
are found at the bottom of hillocks:of argil which fill the 
intervals of the calcareous strata; that the beds which con- 
tain them are filled with pieces‘of wood, some of them pe- 
trified and some bituminous, which‘he takes to be oak, and 
which are covered with beds of marine shells and immense 
banks of argil |v 
There isa remarkable depot of bones upon Mount Ser- 
baro, three Icagues from Verona: they seem to be those of 
several other animals besides elephants. 

Fortis has given a description of this Bepoe im his Natural 
History of Italy. 

Among the clephant bones there was a tusk more than 


_* De Unicornu. 
get Dom. Calmet, Dict. de la Bible, ii. 160. 


" $ Mem. de Ia Societé Stal. tom. z. p. 152; and Journal de Phys. tom. liv. 
p. 143. . 


§ Mus. Kircher. p. 200. 
| Journal de Physique, tom. txxix. p. 319 


nine 


ei. 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 165 


nine inches diameter, and which must have been at least 12 
feet long. M. de Gazola has sent to our museum the half 
of a lower jaw and a metacarpal bone, which must have be- 
longed to an animal 15 feet high. 

Piedmont has furnished plenty of bones: I Jately received 
for our museum, from M. Giorna, two large pieces of jaw- 
bones which were in the cabinet of Natural History at Turin. 
This gentleman informs me that there is also an elephant’s 
Femur in that cabinet. 

Abbé Nazari speaks of a skeleton at least 18 feet long, 
dug up in 1665 at Toriolo, in Upper Calabria. It is, in- 
deed, said that it resembles that of a human being; but we 


_ know how little credit this comparison is now entitled to. 


Sicily possesses these curiosities in abundance. Two ske- 


_letons were discovered in the 14th and 16th centuries at Tra- 


pani and Palermo, and are described by the writers of that 
age as being those of giants. The account of one of them 
is shamefully exaggerated ; it is described as being 300 feet 
high: but Kircher, who visited the cavern out of which it 
was said to have been dug, positively asserts that it could 
not have been more than 30 feet high. 

Kircher mentions three other giant skeletons found in Si- 
eily ; but, as usual, almost all the bones were consuined, 
except the teeth *, 

The state of oppression under which modern Greece has 
always groaned, does not admit of any correct anatomical 
accounts of the fossils it contains; but that country, also, 
has had its animal giants. ‘ 

In 1691 there was found, about six leagues from Thessa- 
lonica, some bones which admitted the arm of a man into 
their cavities: one lower jaw was 74 inches high, and weighed 
15 pounds. Three other teeth weighed from two to three 
pounds each. The humerus was two feet eight inches in 
circumference. 

Suidas speaks of giants’ bones found in great quantities 
under the church of Saint Mena, at Constantinople; and 


* Mund. Subterr. lib, viii. § 2, cap. iv. p. 59, 


L3 adds, 


166 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


adds, that the emperor Anastasius caused them to be depo- 
sited in his palace. 

Some large bones were bis found at Demotica; and 
there is a jaw from the island of Cerigo deposited in the ca- 
binet of Morosini, at Venice. 

Although we scarcely ever heard of France biothots pos 
sessed any elephants at any period, yet fossil skeletons 
of these animals are not less numerous there than in any 
other country. 

It is now pretty clear that the giant skeleton, said to have 
been found in 1456, in the reign of Charles VII., near Va+ 
lence, was that of an eluptiaait. It is also probable, that 
the bones dug up near Valence, under Louis XI., were of 
the same description. They were said to belong to an ani- 
mal 18 feet long. 

It was also in Daupbiné that the skeleton was discovered 
which of all others has given rise to most controversy. The 
numerous pamphlets which were published on the subject 
throw little light on it. | 

From what we can judge at this distance of time, it appears 
that in 1613 some large bones were found in a sand-pit near 
the castle of Chaumont. 

A. surgeon of Beaurepaire, named. Mazurier, exhibited 
these bones at Paris for money; and in order to excite 
greater curiosity, he distributed a small pamphlet, where he 
asserted that they were found in a sepulchre 30 feet long, 
upon which was inscribed  Teutobochus rex.” We know 
that this was the name of the king of the Cimbri, who fought 
against Marius. . But Mazurier was accused of forging this 


inscription; and he does not seem to, have justified himself 


from the imposture. ' 

As for the bones he exhibited, they consisted of the fol; 
lowing pieces : . 

1. Two pieces of the lower jaw, one weighing six pounds, 
containing two grinders and the cavities for two others ;, and 
a larger, weighing twelve pounds, with one whole and three, 
broken teeth. Each tooth had four roots, and was as large 
as the foot of a bull; and they were petrified, and of the co- 
Jour of gun flint. 

2, Two 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants.- 167 

2. Two vertebre, into the medullary canal of which a 
man might introduce his fist. 

3. A piece of a rib six inches long, four broad, and two 
thick. 

4. A fragment of the shoulder-blade, the articulary fa~ 
cette of which was twelve inches long, and eight broad. 

5. A head of a humerus, as large as a man’s head. 

6. A femur, five feet long, aha three feet round at the’ 
top; the trochanters were wanting. The neck had neither 
the Jength nor the obliquity of a Hated femur. 

7. Atibia, nearly four feet long, and more than two feet 
round at the bottom. 

8. An astragal, different from that of domestic animals. 

9. Lastly, a calcaneum, which had facettes below for the 
scaphoid and the cuboid, but the posterior apophysis or tu- 
berosity of it was not so strong as that of a man. 

This posterior extremity was certainly that of an elephant; 
there is no other large animal, the astragal of which resem- 
bles that of a man so much as to be mistaken for the hu- 
man astragal ; but the teeth cannot be those of an elephant : 
that animal never has so many, nor have they any roots. It 
appears, therefore, probable that elephant and rhinoceros 
bones were buricd promiscuously together in the place 
where the above bones were found. 

The nearer we approach to our own times, tbe descrip- 

tions of these bones become more reasonable. A true 
elephant’s jaw has been described by M. de la Tourette in 
the ninth volume of Savans Etrangeres de l’ Academie des 
Sciences, p. 747. It was found in 1760, at St. Valier, near 
the Rhone, and 80 feet above the level of that river, in a 
gravelly soil mixed with flint. 
_ M. Faujas describes a tusk found by M. Lavalette in the 
commune of Arbres, near Villeneuve de Berg, in the de- 
partment of Ardeche, at the foot of the Gorion geese aD 
and five feet deep, in a volcanic mass*. 

M. Cordier, engineer of the mines, has furnished me with 
a remark on this position, which he carefully examined, 


~ 


* Annales du Muséum d’Hist. Nat. tome ii. p. 24. 


L4 The 


168. Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


The tusk was encrusted in the heart of a solid volcanic 


breach, which not only forms the summit of the hill of. 


Arbres, but stretches in horizontal strata under all the Coi- 
rons, of which it forms the base. M. Cordier knows se- 
veral other places where the fossil bones are enveloped in 
volcanic matters. 

On approaching the Pyrenees, great collections of bones 
are met with, The Black Mountain in particular contains 
a great quantity, 

If we turn towards the north, they are not less abundant, 
There is inthe Museum a piece of a shoulder-blade, discover- 


ed near Chalons-sur-Saone. The labourers employed on. 


the grand centre canal have recently discovered a depot of 
bones in the same province. By means of M. Gerardin, in 
the employment of the Museum, I have received a very 
large jaw from this depdt. There was a rhinoceros jaw 
found near it. 

The environs of Paris abound with fossil ossifications, 
In digging the canal which brings the waters of the Ourcq 
to Paris, two tusks and two jaws were dug up, larger than 
any Ieversaw. M. Girard, the directory of this canal, sent 
them to me for the purpose of being deposited in the mu- 
seum, 

As I carefully examined the ground where they were 
found, along with M. Girard, and M. Alexander Bro- 
gniard the mincralogist, I think a short description of it 
here will be extremely acceptable. 

The canal is dug in the plain of Pantin and Bondy, the 
soil of which is 70 or 80 feet above the level of the Seine, and 
which embraces the foot of the gypsous hills of Montmar- 
tre and Belleville. ‘This plain is formed to the depth of 40 
feet of different layers of sand, marle, and clay; but no cal- 
careons stone has been met with, although there is plenty of 
it at the level of the river at St. Quen, The cana] in some 
places passes through beds of gypsum. In some places the 
beds of marle and clay are hollowed, as if they formed ba- 
sons or pits filled with foreign matters. There are, in fact, 
at these places heaps of blackish earth, which fill these cre 

Z vices, 


On. the Mineralogy of the Island of Ceylon. 169 


vices, and which are covered in their turn by yellowish 
sand, 

It-was in this blackish earth, at the depth of 18 feet, that 
the elephant’s jaws and teeth were found, There was also 
a skull found, but it was broken by the workmen, and I am. 
in possession of the pieces of it, as well as other bones of 
the ox kind, and, in particular, a very remarkable skull of 
a large and unknown species of antelope, which I shall de- 
scribe afterwards. The upper yellow sand contains plenty 
of fresh-water shells; but the black earth only contains 
green clay and yellow marle. The ivory is much decom- 
posed; the jaws less so, and the other bones not at all. The 
most part of them, indeed, do not seem to have been rolled 
about at all. 


{To be continued. ] 


XXVIII. Letter of Dr. DE Carro fo Professor Picrer of 
Geneva, on the Mineralogy of the Island of Ceylon*. 


i. Vienna, Feb. 17, 1806, 
Hayixe requested from the governor of the English set- 
tlement at Ceylon, the favour of some information upon the 
mineralogy of that island, accompanied if possible with 
some specimens of minerals, his excellency governor North 
had the goodness to transmit to me the subsequent note of 
M. Jouyille, the only mineralogist in the island. 


«Columbo, July 5, 1805. 

«© The only person who is occupied in the mineralogical 
department of Ceylon has not yet discovered the gems in 
their matrices. All those he ever saw were found in cur- 
rents. There are no others im the market. It is very rare 
to meet with well preserved and determined crystallizations ; 
we saw, however, the oriental stone corundum in the state 
of a lengthened pyramid, and the spinel rubies in very small 
ectaédral crystals. The tourmaline and the schorl are also 


* From Bill, Britan, des Sciences et Arts, vol. xxxit. p. 281. 


found 


170 On the Mineralogy of the Island of “Ceylon. 

found in-very good preservation: but even these stones 
have never yet been found in the matrix in which they had 
been formed. It is easy to explain why the Europeans are 
not permitted to penetrate into the interior of the country 
belonging to the king of Candy, where the high mountains 
are from which the rivers flow that furnish the precious 
gems; but eyen if access were permitted, still great difficul- 
ties stand in the way of any researches, ‘These difficulties 
principally arise from the great strength of vegetation 
through all the island. The mountains are every where co- 
yered with thick’ woods, which it is almost impossible to 
penetrate, No crevices or breaks whatever are any where 
to be seen, which may direct the mineralogist in his re- 
searches. Nevertheless, it may not be altogether impossible 
to discover some naked crevices, which, when well exa- 
mined, may lead to the discovery of the gems in their ma- 
trices. The Candians themselves, however, will never sub- 
mit to the risks‘and trouble experienced by those who work 
mines of precious stones or metals, and they content them- 
selves with raking them up at great expense in the beds of 
currents, after the rainy season. 

«? We have never seen primitive granite or any porphyry 
at Ceylon, although we penetrated tothe city of Candy, si- 
tuated nearly inthe middie of the island. The apparent base 
(i.e. so far as is visible) of the mountains is gneiss, or 
secondary granite, sometimes in layers and sometimes in 
rows, some feet thick. It sometimes contains large plates 
of mica two or three inches in diameter, and often no mica 
at all. The feld spar is often very abundant, but never in 
a state of determined crystallization. The white and milky 
quartzes are very common, and sometimes in masses of two. 
or three feet. Rock crystal is found at Candy in large and 
clear pieces ; we never found it ourselves, however, in that 
state. 

‘© The stone which covers the gneiss towards the sea- 
coast, and often several miles in the interior, is an argilla- 
ceous compound, friable, and susceptible of being diluted 
in water in a great measure ; it sometimes gives signs of ef- 

feryescence 


On Music. 17% 


fervescence by the action of the acids, and contains a good 
deal of black and red oxide of iron: this friable stone is 
called kaloc, aud it is employed in building. 

<€ This is all we can say in answer to the questions upon 
the mineralogy of Cevlon. It is with much regret that we 
cannot better satisfy the curiosity of the learned on the 
subject: indeed, we have not yet been able to gratify our 
own, notwithstanding a stay of nearly seven years in the 
island. ; 

<¢ Before concluding this short notice, we shall hazard a 
conjecture, which to us has the appearance of probability at 
least ; it is, that the gems are formed in argillaceous veins of 
secondary ‘matters. If these stones were attached to the 
rocks, is it not probable that they would be sometimes 
found in the torrents attached to fragments of a stony na- 
ture? This is what we have never seen, although we have 
been often present at the rakings made by the natives in the 
beds oft torrents.’” 


XXIX. On Music. By Mr. Joun Farey. 


To Mr. Tilloch. 
SIR, cr 


I HAVE carefully perused the folio treatise on the Theory of 
Music, &¢. by Mr. William Hawkes, published in 1805 by 
Clementi and Co. of Cheapside, which you obligingly sent 
me a few days ago; which, though it may prove a useful 
work to theoretical musicians, contains little of novelfy, 
except its engraved examples, but what is to be found in 
am anonymous pamphlet, price 1s. (perhaps from the pen 
of the same author), entitled 4 Treatise on the Theory, and 
Practical System of Music, published by Cawthorne in 1798. 
The object of both of these works is, to recommend a tem- 
perament of the diatonic scale on keyed-instruments, as 
organs, harpsichords, piano-fortes, &c., in which each 
ascending FirtH is flattened by one-fifth of a comma as the 
instrument is tuned, except that the fifth above b E and the 


fifth 


79 On Music. 


4 

_ fifth below » G are directed to be tuned perfect; but why 
these anomalies in the system are introduced I am at a loss to 
guess, especially as » G is thereby made 1c the worse by it. 

It isto be lamented by those who study the philosophy 
of musical sounds, that among the various ways in which 
musical intervals can be expressed, no one mode has yet 
been generally adopted by the writers on this subject, parti- 
cularly by those who treat on the temperament, or deviation 
from truth and nature, which is necessary for adapting the 
harmonic intervals to our imperfect instruments and com- 
mon notation of music, wherein only 12 intervals of sound 
are admitted in an octave; and this occasions the necessity 
to the student, on the appearance of every new scheme of 
temperament, for reducing the intervals resulting therefrom 
to some one standard or measure, before he can compare or 
judge of its merits and defects. Among the several ways of 
expressing these intervals, none is so general, or convenient, 
as the logarithms of their corresponding ratios ; and, in order 
to save the readers of Mr. Hawkes’s Treatise, and of your 
Magazine, a repetition of the trouble which I took in 1798, 
as also to compare this with the Stanhope temperament, 
described in your October number, and with Dr. Thomas 
Young’s progressive temperament: Phil. Trans. 1800; Sup- 
plement to Ency. Brit. 3d edit. ii, 663; or Young’s Sylla— 
bus, p. 95, I beg to present 


A Table 


eS 


oy 
ws 
pci apres ert RC TET ET 
ae ee B= 
-urayshg nuaysig rua shg 6594 MELT WeITITAS urayskg artowwiq: | = jae 
s8unox “J, | s,adoyurig | “vururo9 *2110} a s za 
"ql jo priory yo. [eso surg ur} -eICy Woy ‘suygIeBory sup edo'y sone y] ° Fs > 
sy UAVsO'T | sury avsorT | soouarayIC] | S9UI1IFTT ea" 

00000' |oo00000"| - - - _- |0000000*| 0000000°| 1 |*49¥} O | 
SFOLG' IGISILL6’| 9% — |O8¢1S00"|SVE06L6'| 9l8916° ett] po} Oe] 1 | 

g 1g0¢6" lecpg0c6'| 9% — log¢1s00"|scoors6:| sLF88t6"| * | “IT | A | % | 

S oges6’ |1996¢66'|9 tt — |6290L00°|8S90rs6"| L8ttIe6"| +o |"Pe| Aa) e | 

J p1106° |ooG0g06"| 9+ + |06L0100"/O110506"| 006006") ¥ |"IIT| A | F | 

= 19pL8" le1gogls'| 9+ + oGLoToO'|EssGezs"|e1gocle"| * |r) A | s 

faa) 16198’ |es8Ioes'| 94 — JOGLOL00'|S9toEgss"|gZE6198"| ew | "AT | a * | 9 
s668° \L806e28'| 90+ — |06Z0100°|£86ne8"| 906es8"| * | "A |} OD | 4 
geoos’ joogotos'| 9% + |OL€SE00"|OFF6G08"}008 1908" ot (°119}D *| 8 
ossLl’ |6oceglL'| 9% + |08¢Ts00"| Ee66eL 1: ers sll: = | JA) v36 
[36PL" |GS5TOSL'| 2 “eT a 6290100" 8) 
OL9SL' |L8669oL"| - eos 1 


1 
‘ 
‘ 
4 


16869° |0016869° 


The 


174 On Music. 


The established practice of musicians in reading the mu= 
sical notes upwards, makes it more convenient, in computing 
and using tables like the above, to follow the same order; 
which is the reason that the title of the table is at bottom 
instead of the top; and it is to be read, and its intervals reck- 
oned, upwards. It is necessary here to remark, respecting the 
4th and 5th columns entitled the Diatonic System, that this 
term has too frequently been restricted by authors to the 


ratios set against the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B and c, re- 


spectively; while others, who were writing on a tempera- 
ment of the scale, have introduced ratios answering to » C, 
bE, x F, x G, andbB: these in the above table consti- 
tute the chromatic octave, example No. 4, in Mr. Hawkes’s 
treatise. But the student must not be surprised, on looking 
into different authors who treat on the a of music, to 
find the poe key «C bearing a ratio of 43, or even 4% 

bE s,) or4z3-% F 43} «G23 ‘and hig =o siseuOe 
those in the atte. talsles and yet to find the same denomi- 
nated diatonic intervals ; because, on consulting Maxwell’s 
Essay on Tune, a work of great merit, printed in Scotland, 
(which was advertised in 1794, anda few copies vended in 
London, with a spurious title-page and date,) he will find 
that 56 notes or intervals, at the least, are required in each 
octave of the diatonic system to render modulation into.each 
of the twelve finger-keys, major and minor, practicable with- 
out false intervals, or such as a good ear would pronounce to 
be out of tune. Indeed, the diatonic system, when limited 
to the seven notes, C, D, E, F, G, A, and B, has but little 
of the perfection in practice, which is usually ascribed to it ; 
for, except in sounding the notes E, F, G,and A, with their 
fundamental note C, if the base note moves into D,E,F,G, 
&c., it will be found that the harmonies marked in the piece 
of music to accompany it, are but few of them to be found 


among these seven notes, or even among the five intermediate | 


orhalf notes, which are set down by the authors above alluded 
to, except Maxwell; but a false note, or one differing in an 
offensive degree from the true one, must be substituted for its 

By adding the logarithm of the octave .6989700, suc- 


cessiyely to those of the notes x C, D, bE, &c, in 5th, 
6th, 


Bitte “5 


2On Miisles ooe27 175 


6th, 9th, or 10th columns of the above table (rejecting or 
borrowing 1° when necessary) the logarithms of «c,d, b dy 
&c. in the next octave above will be obtained: for example; 
if to .9030900 the diatonic E, .6989700 be added, we have 
‘€ = .6020600; which ought to be a true Vth to A, and 
such we accordingly findit, on adding the logarithm ofa Vth, 
or .8239087, to that of .7781513 = A. © The true, or 
harmonic 3d, is § = .9208188; this deducted from E = 
.9030900, gives x C = .9822719, differing 53950, or a 
comma, = £1, from * Coin the etidée The true 6th is.$ 
= +7958800, which added to bE = 9311187 gives B= 
#7269987, as we find’ it to be in the table. In this: manner 
may the curious reader’ examine all the harmonies, or any 
particular ones, in the systems contained |in. the. above or 
any similar tables, and decide on the pretensions to truth 
and exclusive advantages claimed, by the advocates for each 
system. 

Mr. Hawkes, in the work before us, has left his i: 
without any directions for tuning fifths + of a comma flatter 
than perfect, as-required in the tuning of his system, except 
the judgment of the ear, which is incompetent to the purpose. 
To those who wish to adopt or try this, or indeed any other 
tempered system, I recommend a careful study of that excel- 
lent work Dr. Smith’s Harmonics, and the article Tempera- 
ment in the Supplement to the third edition of the Encyclope- 
dia Britannica, where the correct and elegant method of tun- 
ing any system by Leafs, is thoroughly and clearly explained. 

I am somewhat surprised to find a nobleman of lord 
Stanhope’s degree of information, laying so much stress 
upon four false intervals, which he calls wolves, oecasioned 
by the particular series of perfect i Jifths, which he recom- 
mends to follow each other in the tuning, without duly 
considering, whether any perfect fifils can be introduced 
between the twelve sounds of a tempered system for our 
present keyed instruments, without doing mischief, and 
particularly, by occasioning transitions during performance 
from a better to a worse harmony; which Dr. Smith, and I 
think justly, considers as the principal cause of the disa- 
greeable effects which nice ears experience, in our best con- 

8 certs 


176 Notices respecting New Books. 


certs where keyed instruments are used. If, either the tunirig 
of an organ &c. was begun on any othernote than C, as in 
tuning the violin, &c., or tuning progressions were carried 
oi, wholly or in part by perfect IIIds, 4ths and VIths, or 
even by 3ds and 6ths, which are alike practicable, with 
using Vths alone, wolves might shortly be found on each 
of the 12 notes, and even three and sometimes four of 
these jarring elements would be found, inherent in the same 
finger-key; as an inspection and trial, upon Maxwell’s 
complete diatonic scale, would readily satisfy any ones 
Much Jabour would attend the collecting, of what I have 
conceived to ‘be the requisite data, for determining the best 
general system of tones for our keyed instruments, viz. a 
very general and extensive search mto the music, both an- 
tient and modern, seriousand gay, which is now performing, 
to ascertain the relative or proportionate frequency of occurs 
rence, of the several chords or harmonic intervals, which 
occur upon each finger-key as a bass or lower note ; that, if 
possible, the chords most frequently occurring, may be made 
proportionally nearer to perfection ; for none can, with pro 
priety, it is plain, be made absolutely perfect. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
Joun Farry. 


22, Upper Crown-Street, Westminster, 


WNov..4, 1806. 


XXX. Notices respecting New Books. 


A Treatise on Plain and Spherical Trigonometry : with their 
most useful Practical Applications. By Joun Bonny- 
CASTLE. §8vo. pp. 419. Johnson. 1806. 


Mz. Bonnycastle has. for several years been well known to 
the public, as the writer of various ‘useful elementary works 
on mathematical topics; and one of those treatises in pars 
ticular, we mean that on astronomy, displays so much 
chasteness and propriety of style, as to rank its author 
among the most elegant scientific writers of the present 


times: but we conceive none of his publications will. tend 
sO 


Notices respecting New Books. 7 


sd fully to establish his reputation as a mathematician, and 
to exhibit his dexterity in analytical investigations, as the 
work now before us. Convinced as we are that the higher 
parts of the doctrine of trigonometry are admirable instru- 
ments in many philosophical researches, and especially in 
_those which relate to physical astronomy, we trust we shall 
be benefiting many of our readers by introducing this va- 
luable performance to their notice. 

The work is preceded by an introduction of twenty-eight 
pages, containing a judicious, though concise, history of the , 
principal writings relative to trigonometry. The loga- 
rithmic and algebraic rules for all the cases of plane trian- 
gles, whether right or oblique, and a great variety of practi- 
cal examples, several of which are wrought out at length, 
occupy about seventy pages.) These are succeeded by the 
doctrine of spherical trigonometry, and its application to 
astronomical problems, comprised in two hundred pages. 
The distribution of this part of the subject is as follows: 
General properties of spherical triangles; on the ambiguous 
cases of spherical triangles; the affections and other pro- 
perties of right-angled spherical triangles; solutions of 
the six cases of right-angled spherical triangles, by con- 
struction, by calculation, and instrumentally ; a similar di- 
vision with respect to the six cases of quadrantal triangles ; 
and, a similar one relative to the six cases of oblique-angled 
spherical triangles ; logarithmic and analytic solutions of 
all the cases of right-angled, quadrantal, and oblique-an- 
gied spherical triangles; miscellaneous problems for exer- 
cise; application to the solution of astronomical problems; 
tables of right ascension, &c. useful in the preceding solu- 
tions; and, miscellaneous astronomical problems. This 
part of the work cannot fail to be of the highest utility ; for 
in the exhibition of the general rules of spherical trigono- 
metry, the author has struck into the happy medium be- 
tween the fatiguing prolixity of most writers on this branch 
of the subject, and that abstracted analytical process by 
which Euler, Gua, Lagrange, and others, have deduced all 
the practical theorems from one fundamental formula; 4 
process which, though it is so conducted as to be both gra- 

Vol. 26, No, 10%, Nov, 1606. M tifying 


178 Notices respecting New Books. 


tifying and serviceable to the advanced mathematician, is not 
in our opinion perfectly calculated for the initiation of a stu- 
dent, at least in the present state of other branches of ma- 
thematics in this. country. Besides this, there is a very im- 
- portant advantage in exhibiting the algebraic formula as Mr. 
Bonnycastle has done, together with the logarithmic rules ; 
because by properly attending to the signs (+ and —) of 
the various expressions for the sines, tangents, &c., of ares 
or of angles, and particularly by adopting those forniule 
which furnish results in cosies, or cotangents, or the tan- 
gents of half arcs, or tangents of 45°+4 half arcs, or angles, 
every ambiguity which would otherwise arise on the resoln- 
tion of spherical triangles may be kept clear of, except 
those which appertain to the two cases that are necessarily 
ambiguous: even in these two cases the student may pro- 
ceed without difficulty by attending properly to this author’s 
observations at pp. 77, 78, 79. Had he, indeed, inserted in 
his work, Bertrand’s table, given by Lacroix, to which he 
refers In a note at p. 79, a table which, though it com- 
prises all the possible varieties of these two cases, does not 
fill a page, there would have been little or nothing wanted to 
render this part of his treatise complete. 

After the doctrine of spherical trigonometry, Mr. Bonny- 
castle treats of the mutations of the signs of trigonometrical. 
quantities ; and then presents, in fifty-four pages, a most 
gopious and interesting collection of trigonometrical for- 
mula, relating to what is usually termed the arithmetic of 
sines and cosines, the values of sines, cosines, &c. in terms 
of circular ares, &c., and vice versi, exponential quantities, 
logarithmic series, the series for logarithmic sines, tangents, 
secants, &c, This part of the work alone is sufficient to 
stamp its value, did not every other part bear evident traces 
of the same hand. 

The demonstrations of the principal theorems in plane 
and spherical trigonometry, made use of in the earhier part 
of the volume, succeed the trigonometrical formule ; and 
these are followed by demonstrations of the leading theorems 
in the stereographic projection of the sphere,—some miscel- 
taneous problems relative to spherical areas,—solutions of 


alt 


- _ Royal Society of London. 179 


all the cases of plane triangles, independently of any tables, 
formule respecting the increments and fluxions of the 
Sines and tangents of arcs and angles,—the solutions of 
quadratic and cubic equations by tables of sines and tan- 
gents,—and rules for the admeasurement of altitudes by the 
barometer and thermoaicter. and 

Such are the principal topics discussed in the volume be- 
fore us: our mathematical readers will at once see their va- 
Jue and importance. We could have wished that some of 
these had been treated more at large ; especially the different, 
kinds of projection, and the application of the: fluxions of 
trigonometrical quantities to astronomical and other pro~ 
blems ; and we should also have been gratified to see the de- 
Monstrations accompanying their respective rules, instead of 
being separated from them,—and to find no theorem, whe- 
ther simple or complex, but what was demonstrated. We 
are, however, aware that all this could not be:comprehend- 
ed in a single volume ; and we therefore hope the present 
edition will experience the encouragement it so richly de- 
Serves, that Mr. Bonnycastle may be enabled in-a future 
edition to extend the utility of his performance, by making 
the additions we now suggest. Taking the work, however, 
as it is, we think it by far the best on trigonometry that has 
yet been published in the English language; and we are 
conscious, that in recommending this treatise to general fa- 
your, we are equally discharging an act of justice to the 
‘author, and of service to the public. 


ee 


———_——————— eee Eee 


\ 
\ 


XXXI. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 


ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 


Os Thursday the 6th of November the Royal Society as- 
sembled, after tlie summer vacation, at its apartments, So- 
merset-House, when the right honourable colonel Greville, 
vice-president, took the chair. The reading of the Croonian. 
Lecture on muscular motion, by J, Peirson, Esq. com- 
menced. lo a 

oT M 2 On 


iso Royal Society of London. 


On the 13th the right honourable Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. 
president, in the chair, the reading of the Jecture on mns- 
cular motion was resumed. Mr. Peirson entered into along 
and rather amusing detail of the relative beat and pulsations 
of animals in different latitudes, with a view tu ascertain 
their effects on the muscles. In this country, he observed, 
horses pulsate 36 times in a minute, cows 48, and men 72; 
in Lapland and the northern provinces of Russia, men pul- 
sate only from 45 to 50 times in a minute.’ From these ob- 
servations on pulsation, however, no positive conclusion 
relative to its effects on muscular power could be drawn. It 
appeared, indeed, that all excess either of heat or cold is 
nimediately followed by a sensible diminution of this pow- 
er; and a fellow of this society is so affected by swimming 
in water only 10 minutes, that it occasions such a prostration 
of muscular power, as cannot be completely re-established 
in 24 hours after. Mr. P. made numerous experiments on 
the muscles of frogs, in all of which he found the muscular 
irritability completely destroyed by plunging them in water 
at the temperature of 96°: electricity, after such immersions, 
sometimes gave slight symptoms of excitability, but no hu- 
man effort could ever again restore the muscular fibre to 
ite proper tone and vigour. Cold produced precisely similar 
effects on the muscular fibre, by instantly destroying its ir- 
ritability. Here Mr. P. observed that great care was necessary 
in applying warm water to the surtace of bodies recently 
immersed i water in cases of suspended respiration, as the 
heat might be equally as bad as the cold, with regard to its 
effects on the muscular fibre, which he considered in some 
degree the organ of life. Blood, he alleged, was essential 
to life only as a necessary stimulus to muscular irritability ; 
and the abstraction of blood occasioned death, not from. de- 
stroying the continuity of that fluid, but from the want of 
its great stimulating powers to the muscles. The effects of 
Jaurel water and the vegetable poisons were next examined. 
A small quantity of laurel water was thrown into the sto- 
mach of a frog: it occasioned instant death, and on exa- 
mining the stomach, it was found that the muscular mo- 
tion of this most important organ was totally destroyed. 
a The 


Society of Antiquaries. 181 
The excessive irritability, or rather sensibility, of the sto- 
mach, indeed, accounts for the instantancous and fatal effects 
ef poison, as a blow on that organ immediately destroys 
life, whilst the heart can support a wound for some days. 
All vegetable poisons, it appears, act by destroying the 
irritability * of the muscles, or the power of the muscular 
fibre. The word power he defined to be the appellation of 
an indefinable quality inherent in muscles, as magnetism in 
steel or electricity in the torpedo. This definition is per- 
haps worthy the attention of the northern professors who 
have said so much about the term power. 

Noy. 20. The president in the chair.—The reading of 
the Bakerian Lecture, “ On some chemical effects of Elec- 
tricity,” by H. Davy, Esq. commenced. The preliminary 
experiments related chiefly to the production of fixed alkali 
in water by means of a powerful Galvanic battery, having 
the positive and negative wires inserted in different inoxi- 
dizable vessels containing distilled water. From these ex- 
periments a very obvious, but very important, fact resulted ; 
namely, that even distilled water is never chemically pure, 
but that it still retains frequently both vegetable and animal 
matter combined or dissolved in it, and always nitrogen gas. 
or some salt. Hence, after reapeated experiments, he 
found that electricity did not generate fixed alkali, as sup- 
posed by Pacchiani, but only evolved it. “* Water,” observed 
Mr. D., ‘* when chemically pure (a state which at present 
searccly appears practicable by all our art), is decomposed 
by electricity, and resolved into pure oxygen and hydrogen.” 
We have to lament that this ingenious experimentalist, with 
such peculiar advantages, should still continue to opcrate 
on so small quantities as single ounces of water. 


SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. 


This society also assembled after the vacation, on Thurs- 
day evening of the 6th November, the Rev. Dr. Hamilton, 


* Mr. P.’s experiments certainly do not prove that these poisons act by 
robbing the system of its necessary portion of oxygen, as supposed by some 
philosophers, 


M 3 vice. 


182 Society of Antiquaries. 

vice-president, in the ¢hair.—After the usual business of the 
society in reading the minutes of last meeting was performed, 
a short but well-merited eulogium was pronounced from 
the chair on the late secretary, the Rev. John Brand, A. M., 
the loss of whose talents, integrity and industry was sen- 
sibly felt by all the members. As a singular coincidence, a 
reverend gentleman of the same name was elected a fellow 
on that evening. 

Noy. 13. Sir H. C. Englefield, bart. vice-president, in 
the chair.—A letter was read from Boydell, Esq., 
on the antient use of the word burgh or borough, and the 
modern signification of this term, which has been applied 
to a castle or fortified town. The real meaning of this ap- 
pellation was illustrated by a reference to, and local de- 
scriptions of, several places now bearing this particular ter- 
mination, as Peterborough, Harborough, Loughborough, &c. 
It was alleged that the word burgh, signifying borough, 
eastle, or declivity of a rock, was derived from the Saxon ; 
but when applied, as-it often was, to designate low marshy 
tracts with slight elevations, it had its origin from a Gaelic 
word, signifying a flat country on the banks of rivers or 
estuaries. Instead, however, of having recourse to the Gaelic 
for the significations of names used in countries where that 
Janguage was certainly never known, it is much more ra- 
tional to conclude that the term signifying the banks of 
rivers, &c., is from the Anglo-Saxon durn or bourn, whence, 
probably, the names Eastbourn, Woburn, Sherbourne, Red- 
burn, &c. The term wry is evidently of the same origin 
as burg, although not. noticed by this writer, whose letter 
was so controversial, declamatory, and dogmatical, that it 
was sometimes very difficult to comprehend his real 
meaning. 

Noy. 20. Craven Orde, Esq., vice-president, in the chair. 
—Several letters were read from J. H. Thornton, esq. and 
others, relative to some barrows or tumuli which were opened 
last October in Gloucestershire. Drawings of these barrows 
were exhibited ; they occupied an extent of land from 40 
to 55 yards long, and from 19 to 30 yards broad each, and 


contained several kistraens which presented nothing singular, 
except 


Ul 


French National Inst itule. 183 


except that of their being of an oval figure, and composed of 
calcareous stones, some of which were 14 feet long, and 
would weigh about five tons. In one of these kistraens eight 
skeletons were found, the bones of which were sufficiently per- 
fect and entire, but were deranged in the act of opening. Others 
of the kistraens contained one, two, four and six skeletons, 
in general all of them well preserved; and a jaw-bone con- 
taining all the teeth white and perfect, was submitted to 
the inspection of the society.- In one of the most distin- 
guished kistraens some things, resembling the beads worn by 
the savages in the South-sea Islands, were found in a posi- 
tion as if they had been suspended round the neck of some 
of the bodies. From this circumstance, as well as the oval 
figure of the kistraens, it was conjectured that these tumult 
must have heen erected prior to the invasion of Britain by 
the Romans, and at a period when the people were in a 
state almost totally savage. 


FRENCH NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 


At the meeting of -the Institute, on the 7th of July last, 
M. Cuvier, the perpetual secretary, read the following ana- 
lysis of the labours of the class of physical and mathe- 
matical sciences, from the 20th of July 1805 to-the first 
of July 1806. 

The productions of nature have such an intimate con: 
nection with the climates which produce them,, and are so 
essentially modified by the variety of climate, that no branch 
of natural history can make any solid progress without a 
correct acquaintance with geography : thus the latter science 
ought to be cultivated as assiduously by naturalists as by 
astronomers. We know well how much we are indebted 
to naturalist travellers; and M. Olivier has given us new 
proofs of their utility in a topography of Persia with which 
he has presented us. 

He describes the chains of mountains, the course of the — 
rivers, and he explains the nature of the productions by 
that of the climate. The almost absolute aridity prevents 
any more than a twentieth of this-vast empire from being 
cultivated. Whole provinces have not a single tree which 
, M 4 has 


184 French National Institute. 


has not been planted and watered by the hands of man. The 
evil is continually increasing, from the destruction of the 
canals which carry the water from the mountains; and the 
districts which are abandoned are impregnated with salt, 
which renders them for ever barren. 

But the meditations.of the sedentary naturalist may also 
contribute to the perfection of geography by views proper to 
direct the researches of travellers. 

M. Lacepede, by examining what is already known of 
Africa, by comparing the volume of the rivers which fall 
into the sea with the extent of ground upon which the rains 
of the torrid zone fall, and with the presumable quantity of 
evaporation, and, lastly, judging of the number and direc- 
tion of the chains of the interior by those which have been 
visited on the sea-coast of this great division of the globe, 
has offered some conjectures upon the physical disposition 
of the countries of the interior still unknown, and particu- 
larly upon the seas and large lakes which he presumes to 


exist there. He has also pointed out the routes which ap-- 


pear the most proper for conducting travellers most speedi i 
to the countries which remain to be discovered. 

There is another kind of conjectural geography, which 
endeavours to determine the antient state of countries by 
what we observe in them at present. 

M. Olivier with this view has examined what truth 
there was in the communication said to have formerly 
existed between the Black Sea and the Caspian. He thinks 
that it was in fact formed on the north af the Caucasus, 
and that it was the heaps of earth formed by the waters of 
the Conban, the Volga, and the Don which interrupted it. 

As the Caspian has not since then received from the 
rivers which fall into it enough of water to allow for its 
evaporation, it has always lowered jts level, and is at pre- 
sent 60 feet lower than the Euxine. 

It was in this manner that it separated itself Hae the 
great lake Aral, and left uncovered those immense plains 
of salt sand which surranund it to the north and the east. 

M. Dureau de la Malle, son of a member of the Insti- 
tute, has found in the Greek and Roman writers numerous 

testimonics 


a a ie > 


ee eS ee ee 


Se eae 


French National Institute. 185 


testimonies of this antient extent of the Caspian Sea and of 
its communications with the Euxine and with the Aral, and 
has collected them into an elaborate memoir, which he has 
presented to this class and to that of history and antient 
literature. 

The antients attributed the separation of the two former, : 
and the great diminution of the Euxine itself, to the rup- 
ture of the Bosphorus, which they supposed had caused the 
deluge of Deucalion; the Euxine being thrown with 
violence by this aperture over the Archipelago and Greece. 
Some of them even thought that at this era the Mediterra- 
nean, ‘suddenly augmented by the same cause, had broken 
through the Pillars of Hercules, and formed the streights 
which unite it to the great ocean. 

But M. Olivier thinks that if the Euxine had ever been 
higher than at present, it would have naturally found an 
outlet by the plain of Nicea, and the other valleys which 
lead to the Propontis and the Archipelago; that, at all 
events, the strait channel of the Bosphorus could not have 
furnished enough of water to inundate the high mountains 
of Greece, which are more elevated than any on the shores 
of the Euxine, and tar less could it have produced a sensi- 
ble effect upon the immense expanse of the Mediterranean. 

He is of opinion, therefore, that the stories of the an- 
tients in this respect, have their foundation neither in ob- 
servation nor in tradition, but merely in conjectures which 
the physical situation of the places entirely reverses. 

It is not less true that the part of the Bosphorus nearest 
the Euxine sea presents traces of volcanic revolutions, but 
the rest of its extent is a natural valley: it is the same with 
the Hellespont. 

Some other researches tend also to show the utility of the 
alliance between the sciences and erudition. 

M. Monges, upon the occasion of two mill-stones being 
dug up near Abbeville, collected together all the passages in 
the antients relative tothe stones of which they made their 
mill-stones. It results, that they were almost always made 
ef porous basaltic stones; those dug up at Abbeville being 


} made 


86 French National Instituté. 


made of pudding stone, appeared to M. Monges to have 
belonged to the Gauls or the Franks. 

M. Desmarets having examined the vestments er eey in 
an old tomb at the aie of St. Germain-de-Pres, disco- 
vered that almost all the processes at present employed in 
weaving our different stuffs were known so far back as the 
tenth century: from this he takes occasion to explain in a 
new manner the passages in Pliny upon the weaving of the 
antients. 

The position, the nature, and the boundaries of a country 
being once clearly ascertained, it then belongs to descriptive 
natural history to make known its productions s ; and the re- 
searches of the members of the class in this branch of sci- 
ence have been very productive.-—The botanical department 
continues with increasing success the publication of import- 
ant works. 

The Flora of New Holland, by M. de Ia Billardiere, and 
the magnificent Description du Jardin de la Malmaison, by 
M. Ventenat, have arrived at their 19th number each, The 
Flora d’ Ovare et de Benin, by Mi de Beauvois, is at its 5th 
number. A fifth volume has appeared of the Botaniste 
Cultivateur, of M. Dumont-Courset: and M. de Lamarck 
bas given, in conjunction with M. Decandolle, a third and 
greatly enlarged edition of the Flora Frangaise. 

M. de la Billardiere has made us more particularly ac- 
quainted with six new genera of New Holland. 

The three first are nage naturally among the myrtles, 
a very numerous family in New Holland, and from which 
medicine and the arts may derive an advantageous use, on 
account of the aromatic oils furnished by the trees and shrubs 
belonging to them. 

The first genus, named pileanthus, i is very remarkable for 
an envelope of one entire piece which incloses every flower; 
the petals of the latter are five in number ; and the calyx is 
divided into ten equal stripes: the fruit contains several 
seeds. 

The second has received the name of acide tTeomboite) on- 
account of the elegance of the flowers, the numerous sta~ 

mina 


© 


Agricultural Society of Turin. —- 187. 


mina of which are supported on a large filament divided into 
two at each extremity, while the two other filaments are 
barren: the fruit is quite similar to the metrosideros.. 

The third is named calytrix, and is known by its tubu- 
lous calyx above the germ, and divided into five parts, each 
terminated by a long bristle. The capsule only contains 
one grain. 

The fourth has received the name of cephalotus, and be- 
longs to the rosaceous tribe: the species named follicularia 
is perhaps still more remarkable than the saracenia and the 
nepenthes, by the form of some of the leaves, which repre- 
sent very distinctly a purse full of shoots, surmounted by 
an operculum edged by crotchets directed towards its inte- 
rior. 

The fifth, named actinotus, has all the appearances of a 
plant of the family of the corymbifera, although in reality 
it belongs to that of the wmlellifera. The two stigmata are 
swelled out towards the top, and are surmounted in the in- 
ternal side by a bristle, which gives thein the appearance of 
the antenne of insects, as in the /agoecia: it has only one 
seed, 

The sixth, named prosanthera, belongs to the numerous 
family of the Jabiate. The calyx is formed of two entire 
divisions ; the Jargest of which inclines towards the other, 
and covers it-as soon as the corolla has fallen. A thready- 
like appendage issues from below each of the anther. The 
fruit is the same as that of the prasium genus; but it is 
very remarkable in this family, that the embryo orcorculum 
is inclosed in a fleshy and thick albumen, while in the other 


labiata hitherto observed, it is uncovered. 
[To be continued.] 


AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF TURIN. 


Two memoirs lately presented to this society have been 
well received. The one is by M. Freylino, relative to the 
extraction of a saccharine matter found very abundantly in 
the fruit of the black mulberry tree, and which may be ceco- 
- nomically extracted, either in the state of syrup or concrete 
sugar, The author confined himself to the extraction of the 

syrup, 


188 Academy of Useful Sciences at Exfurt, Fe. 


syrup, which he effected by means- of extracting the juice, 
clarifying it with the whites of eggs, and afterwards evapo- 
rating it to the consistence of syrup. The other memoir is 
by M. Gogo, who has extracted a sweet and agreeable oil 
from the kernel of common hazel nuts. 


ACADEMY OF USEFUL SCIENCES AT ERFURT. 

At the meeting of the above society, on the 5th of April 
last, professor Bernhardi afforded some new ideas upon the 
double refraction of the rays of light by means of gypsum. 
M. Haity, and still more recently M. Brisson, had observed 
this property, but not with sufficient accuracy: in general, 
the surfaces were not parallel to each other; the angle they 
formed, and the direction taken by the images, were not 
earefully determined. 

M. Bucholz communicated the results of his researches 
upon the seeds of /ycopodium. His experiments present the 
following results : 

1, These seeds contain a sixteenth part of a fat oil of a 
brownish yellow, and soluble in alcohol, 2. A portion of 
real sugar. 3. A viscous extract of a brownish yellow, and 
an insipid taste. 4. The residue, after being treated with 
alcoho] and water, may be regarded as a peculiar product 
of the vegetable kingdom. 5. The yellowish aspect of the 
seed in this latter state indicates the union of a species of 
pigment with the first principle of the seed, or at least a 
very intimate union of the constituent parts of this seed. 
6. The oily part which enters into the composition of this 
seed occasions its lively combustion, and its constant sepa- 
ration from water. 


ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF BOHEMIA. 


The above academy has announced a prize of 100 ducats 
of gold, for.the best memoir upon the processes for ame- 
liorating the races of Tartar, Moldavian, Transylvanian, 
Hungarian, Polish and Bohemian horses: a second prize 
will be also adjudged to the best memoir upon the advantages 
or disadvantages attached to the employment of Hungarian 
horses and mares in the cavalry, 


XXXII. In- 


- 


[ 189 J 


AX XII; : Intelligence and Miscellaneous Ap ticles. 


PROGRESS OF VACCINATION IN FRANCE. 


Pk central vaccine committee of Paris on the 12th of 
July last made their report upon the exertions made in France 
for the propagation of vaccine inoculation, during the Jast 
twelve months. The number of individuals vaecinated in 
42 departments during that period amounts to 125,992, 
which gives a total of nearly 400,000 for all France; and by 
supposing, as in the former year, the number of births at 
1,088,157, it follows that a third at least of the infants born 
last year in France have been vaccinated. 

Numerous tests have been tried in order to ascertain the 
preservative eficct of vaccination ; and whether inoculation 
for the small-pox was resorted to, or an intimate and habi- 
tual commerce between small-pox and vaccine patients, and 
the latter also subjected to the influence of variclous epi- 
demies, and even when all these three kinds of proofs were 
united together, the small-pox never had any effect upon 
those who had gone regularly through the vaccine infection. 
The most important result of the report of the committee 
is the certainty of the progressive diminution of mortality 
wherever vaccination was introduced, and the increase of 
mortality in those places where vaccination was neglected. 

New and fortunate experiments have been made upon the 
manner of simplifying still more the insertion of the matter, 
and also the best means of preserving the infectious sub- 
stance. 

The central committee have not confined themselves to 
the human species alone in their inquiries. They endea- 
voured to ascertain if vaccination introduced among sheep 
would preserve them from the scab. They found, however, 
that it is more advisable to inoculate these animals with 
scabby matter than to vaccinate them, although the latter 
process was often completely successful. 

The report concludes witht the names of those who have 
distinguished themsclyes by their zeal in promoting vacci- 

nation 


190 Literature. —Misceflaneous. 


nation in France, and by recommending them to the hotice 
of the governments. 
LITERATURE. 

Russia.—The late M. Hadsi Niku, an eminent Russian, 
founded a school at Cronstadt for the education of the mo- 
dern Greeks, and it already contains thirty-four students. 
The objects of instruction are, religion, reading, writing and 
arithmetic, and the ancient Greek according to the grammar _ 
of Constantine Lascaris. The professors are monks of 
Mount Athos. Cronstadt has also a yery good choo! for 
the Walachians, with three professors. 

Ausiria.—A school of philosophy has been eatehtisincs 
at Bruix in the circle of Saatz in Bohemia. Besides the 
university of Prague, the kingdom of Bohemia has seven 
other schools of philosophy and theology, the chairs of which 
are filled by ecclesiastics. 

The Austrian government is more and more persuaded 
that it is not so much necessary to punish crimes as to pre- 
vent their commission by removing the causes of the evil. 

As crimes have been more frequent in the Bannat and in 
the countries of Transylvania inhabited by the Walachians, 
seminaries of education, and schools of theology and phi- 
losophy, are established in these districts. 

During the Jast war the book trade in Austria was com- 
‘pletely at a stand, and there was no bookseller from, Vienna 
at the last Leipsic fair. 

Hungary.—Several works have issued from the press at 
Pesth, within the last year, in the Hungarian language. 
Among these are translations of the Letters of Cicero, Tasso’s 
Jerusalem Delivered, and of M. Chaptal’s work on the Cul- 
ture of the Vine. 

A journal also appears under the title ** Ungrische Mis- 
cellen,” (Hungarian Miscellanies) of considerable interest to 


the foam 
MISCELLANEOUS. 


There is in the press at Edinburgh an “ Account of a 
Tour. through the Orkney and Shetland Islands,” by Mr. 
. Neill, secretary to the Natural History Society of Edin- 

burgh. The author, after describing the objects of natural 


history ee occurred in his progress, treats fully of the 
state 


List of Paients for New Inventions. 191 


State of agriculture and the fisheries in those much neglected 
but interesting islands. The tour is to be followed by a 
Mineralogical Survey of Shetland, from the pen of Dr. 
Traill, of Liverpool, who lately visited those northern 
islands. 


LIST OF PATENTS FOR NEW INVENTIONS. 


To Robert Bowman, of Leith, in Scotland, manufacturer, 
for making hats, caps, and bonnets, for men and women, of 
whalebone; harps for harping or cleansing corn or grain, 
and also the bottoms of sieves and riddles, and girths for 
horses ; and also a.cloth or webbing fit for making into hats, 
caps, &c., and for the backs and seats of chairs and sofas, 
gigs, coaches, and other similar carriages and things, and 
the bottoms of beds, as also reeds for weavers. Dated Oc- 
tober 30. : 

To Robert Vazie, of the parish of St. Mary, Rotherhithe, 
in the county. of Surry, civil enginecr; for improvements in 
the measures and in the machinery to be used in making 
bricks and éarthen ware, and also improvements in the car- 
riages for removing the said articles. ~Dated November 6. 

To James Royston, of Halifax, in the county of York, 
eard-maker; for his improvement on the system of card- 
making, by a method of cutting teeth for carding of wool 
and tow. Dated November 6. 

To John William Lloyd, late of Brook-street, Bitersirs 
square, in the county of Middlesex, but now of Bishop 
Wearmouth, in the county of Durham, esq. ; for antifric- 
tion rollers or wheels, to assist ail sorts of carriage wheels. 
Dated November 20. 

To John Henckell, of the city of London, merchant, in 
consequence of a communication made to him by a French 
emigrant residing abroad; for certain improvements on a 
machine for dressing coffee or barley, or any other corn, 
grain, pulse, seed, and berries. Dated November 20. 

To William Nicholson, of Soho-square, in the county 
of Middlesex, gentleman ; ; for various improvements in the 
application of steam to useful purposes, and in the apparatus 


required to the same. Dated Noyember 22. 
METEORG- 


192 Meteorology. 
METEOROLOGICAL TABLE, re 
By Mr. Carey, or THE STRAND, 
For November 1806. 


Thermometer. 3 3 
az to 2. Vdreitiepeheamier | on 
Dae ee Ee é 22 abe ral Hea Weather. 
38 Z Vee Inches. pew So 
co ~~ ace 
Oct. 27| 52°| 63°} 51°| 29°96 95 {Fair 
28) 52 | 61 | 48 85 10 |Cloudy 
99} 47 | 55 | 46 | 30°92 | 41 {Fair 
- 30] 45 | 55 | 45 "12 12 ‘Fair 
31) 46 | 57 | 50 | 29°76 10. {Fair 
Nov. 1) 50 } 59 | 49 “64 12 (|Fair 
9} 51 | 53 | 49 sts oO |Stormy 
3] 50 | 54148} <10 o |Stormy 
4| 49 | 50 | 46 “16 - O {Rain 
5} 47 | 55 | 38 “52 25 |Fair 
6| 38 | 48 | 36 °78 20 |Fair 
7| 35 | 48 | 44 | 30°20 15 {Fair 
8| 45 | 55 | 46 °30 22 «|Fair 
9} 45 | 52 | 44 20 18 |\Fair 
10) 40 | 47 | 46 09 5 {Cloudy 
tl] 46 | 48 | 45 “12 16 «‘|Fair 
12} 41 | 45 | 40 ‘02 2 {Cloudy 
‘ 13] 46 | 56 | 47 "12 12 |Cloudy 
14) 49 | 53 | 51 "20 3 = |Cloudy 
15} 50 | 53°} 51 | 29°82 7 |Cloudy 
16} 41 | 49 | 45 “76 19 {Fair 
17| 46 | 53 | 51 | 30°00 16 {Cloudy 
18} 51 | 55 | 50 | 29°80 0 |Cloudy 
19} 47 | 53 | 40 ‘60 oO. {Fair 
20} 38 | 47 | 40 "42 17_—({Fair 
21; 46 | 48 | 37 "02 2 |Fair 
22] 34.| 45 | 37 "50 12 ‘Fair 
23) 38 | 47 | 46 "65 oO jRain 
24; 49 | 55 | 55 90 3 |Cloudy 
Bo) Fo) 57) 59 mast O {Small rain 
26} 54 | 50 | 47 *38 oO {Rain 


N.B. The Barometer’s height is taken at one o'clock. 


[ 193 J}. 


XXXIII. A Memoir on the best Method of measiiring Time 
at Sea, which obtained the double Prize adjudged by the 
Royal Academy of Sciences; containing the Description 
of the Longitude Watch presented to His Majesty the 5th 
of August 1766. By M. Le Roy; Clock-maker to the 
King. Translated from the French by Mr. T. S. Evans, 
P.L.S., of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. 


{Concluded from p. 146.] 
Par? IV. 
Further observations on the construction of the new watch, 
by which we confirm the advantages of the methods which 


are used: difficulties in some of these methods removed : 
recapitulation, &c. 


I PROPOSE, in this fourth part, to clear up sore articles 
that I could not give with sufficient extent in the pre- 
ceding without removing one object from another, which 
when brought together mutually render each other more in- 
telligible. 

One of those whith most requires to be explained is the 
motive force. 

This part of my watch, perhaps, may to some persons 
appear neglected: it has no fusee; nor have I used the me- 
thods which Messrs. Leibnitz*, Hook f, Huygensf, Sully §, 
Harrison ||, and others, have applied to render the magnitude 
of the vibrations, and the force which maintains them, con- 
stant. According to this method, the watch has, we know; 
two motive forces; of which one that only moves the last, 
or the two last wheels, is wound up by the other, which 
being successively stopped, or put at liberty by means of any 
detent, becomes foreign to the regulator. 

I answer, that by supposing these methods to possess 
any advantage, nothing would prevent their application to 
nmiy chronometer; they ate known to men of science and 


* Journal des Savans 1675. + Ibid. 
+ Horologia oscillatoria. § Descrip. d'une Pendule Marine. 
|| Gazette du Commerce. 


Vol. 26, No. 103. Dec. 1806, N artists, 


194 Le Roy’s Memwir on the best Method 


artists, and the public have been in possession of them for 
a Jong time. : 0 

I might have copied the able gentlemen just now cited, 
if I had thought them necessary, or even favourable for my 
machine ; but various experiments, and the following rea- 
sons, have prevented me from making use of them. 

Ist, This method renders the machine more comphcated, 
and of more difficult execution ; it requires, besides the com- 
mon constructions, a detent, a spring, a wheel, or a fly, &c. 
whose adjustments are dificult. There are also few work- 


men capable of executing these in such a way as to be cer-— 


tain. They augment, says M. le Roy, the friction 3 and the 
risks of stopping are greater in proportion to the number of 
pieces. But if there are found so many inconveniences in 
remontoirs * applied to clocks whose size is arbitrary, and 
besides are made to remain in a temperature that varies very 
httle, on land, and in cities where we find workmen to re- 
pair them; what may not be objected against this practice 
mm works whose size is confined, destined besides to receive 
continual motions, to be removed into all climates, to ex- 
perience the extremes of different temperatures, and to be al- 
ways either at sea, or in places destitute of skilful workmen ? 
With regard to the fusee, I only think it useful in watches’ 
where the vibrations of the regulator are not isochronous, 
and where it is necessary that the balance, when stopped, 
should be put in motion by the motive force. I think it 
would be superfluous and even disadvantageous in mine, 
where the very powerful regulator makes its vibrations iso- 
chronous: in effect, it does not remedy the losses of elas- 
ticity of the main spring, nor the clogging of the wheel- 
work: besides, when the vibrations of my balance are so 
nearly equal in duration that they are isoehronovs, the fusee 


* Itis usual in clocks to place a wheel underneath the barrel round which 
the cord is wound that sustains the weight. This barrel has the liberty of 
turning in a contrary direction to its usual motion in the clock. To the bar- 
rel is attached a rachet and click, which prevents it from turning the way it is 
drawn by the weight, and of course the weight can therefore only descend by 
the motion of the whole train of wheels that give action to the elock. ‘This 
contrivance is called a remontoir by the French artists. See Alexander, Traité 
gen. des Horloges, p, 140,—F.S, E, 

. would 


‘ 


of measuring Time at Sea. 195 


would riot become the less useless if we wound up the ma- 
chine at the same hour; which it would be easy to confine 
ourselves to. There would not even be a difference at all 
sensible in the arcs of vibrations, if we wound it up every 
twelve hours ; and in the twenty-four hours the difference in 
the arcs actually amounts to but one-sixth. This fusce, 
whose inutility in my watch appears to me evident, would 
besides be disadvantageous: it would complicate the ma- 
chine, and render it more subject to stop, by the breaking 
of the chain; the watch could not go when winding up (an 
indispensable thing ina watch where two seconds is a con- 
siderable object) without having recourse to complicated 
methods, the greater part defective; especially in the pre 
sent case, where nothing can be too simple for sailors. 

The omission of the fusee gives likewise to my watch a 
very essential property, which it would have been deprived 
of by the methods of Messrs. Leibnitz, Sully, Harrison, 
&c. He who makes use of it is always by this means able 
to see whether the fundamental principle on which this kind 
of work ought to be constructed is found there*; I mean 
the perfect isochronism of the long and short vibrations, 
which will be verified by observing the rate of the watch 
during the whole course of the spring. 


Observation IT. 
On the suspension wire. 


This wire is absolutely necessary to avoid friction, which, 
withont it, would take place in the extremity of the lower 
pivot of the balance, and to preserve its freedom, on’ which, 
as has heen demonstrated, depends all the reaularity of the 
clock. An experiment, which I have repeated several times, 
suffices to show how essential it is that so powerful a ba- 
lance, whose mass is so considerable, should be thus sus- 
pended. I took away the suspension wire, and I suffered 
the lower pivot to rest on a plate of tempered steel, well po- 


* ‘To receive this advantage more completely, Ileaye the spring to open 
thoroughly, so that the watch goes about 38 hours. In common practice we 
stop this spring at about one turn. 


N2 lis 


196 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


lished and thoroughly hard: three days afterwards this plate 
was worn at the place of the pivot; the arc of vibration was 
considerably diminished ; the freedom of the balance, con 
sequently, very much altered; and the accuracy of the ma- 
chine destroyed. I substituted for the steel plate a polished 
agate, and the same effect again took place. Lastly, to see 
whether when the weight of the balance was diminished on 
the agate the wear would not cease, I replaced the suspen- 
sion wire, I attached its upper extremity to a lever, and I 
put a weight on the other arm of this lever, so that the ba- 
Jance, exceeding the weight a little, rested very gently on 
the plate of steel or the agate. Notwithstanding this pre- 
caution, the freedom was again very much altered by this’ 
slight friction; the plate and the agate both wore, although 
“much less than before; whence arose the inconveniences 
above mentioned. It appears, therefore, absolutely neces- 
sary in these kinds of works that the regulator should be 
suspended by a harpsichord wire, as the foliot was formerly 
‘by two threads of hemp or silk. 

In the first attempts which I made with this machine, 
nearly twelve years ago*, instead of using a harpsichord 
wire to suspend it, I used a piece of thin narrow spring. 
Several experiments (by which I found that the different vi- 
brations of a body thus suspended were much more isochro- 
nous than those procured to the same body by a spiral 
spring) induced me to make the regulating spring of my 
watch of this suspension spring, and to omit the spiral 
spring: but I soon perceived that to approach isochronism 
nearly, it would be necessary that this regulating and sus- 
pending spring should be very long; this would render the 
machine yery unwieldy in a ship. At last I arrived at the iso- 
chronism of the vibrations, by combination and a certain pro-~ 
portion between the spiral spring (of which I found the long 
vibrations slower than the short) and the suspension spring; 
which gave me, on the contrary, the short vibrations slower 
than the long. This method, like the preceding, required 
a very long suspension spring ; whence arose various incon- 


tie 
* See the sealed paper which I left with the secretary to the Academy in 
1754, The Exposé succinct, &e, p. 40 and 42, 


veniences, 


of measuring Time at Sea. 197 


veniences. It was at first difficult to be assured that the spring 
was sufficiently straight, and that the balance was attached in 
such a manner, that its weight acted in a line along the middle 
of the breadth of the spring throughout its whole length : 
without this, however, it produced a very disadvantageous 
friction, and a difficulty in each vibration. Moreover, the 
weight of the balance was not sufficient to stretch this spring 
perfectly ; it was hardly possible for it not to be bent a little 
in some part of its length: these curvatures diminishing by 
shocks and heat, or augmenting by cold, there arose irre- 
gularities difficult to prevent. Lastly, the distance at which 
the elastic force acted, being only equal to half the width of 
the spring, the least differences which might happen in the 
situation of this spring, whether by the small play of the 
balance in its holes, or by other causes, could not but have 
some influence on the manner in which it acted; this does. 
not happen in the spiral spring, which acts always at a con- 
siderable distance from the axis of the balance. 

All these inconveniences are prevented by the harpsichord 
wire; itis so small that it can have but little influence on 
the vibrations ; it may be made much shorter ; it is exactly 
stretched, and without curvature throughout its whole length ; 
and being round, we may be certain, at first sight, that all 
its parts agree with the axis of the balance. 

To this it may also be added, that, by the operation of 
drawing the wire, we are assured that the substance of which 
it is composed is homogeneous and pliant, such as it ought 
to be for this suspension. 

I have said it is necessary for the wire to be fine: expe- 
rience has proved to me that without this it would require 
to be very long, which would render the machine cumber- 
some. Having taken to suspend a balance a thicker harp- 
sichord wire, of about four inches long, I remarked that the 
motion of the regulator lost with the greatest readiness until 
it was reduced to describe only four or five degrees, and 
then it remained as long a time in motion as if it had been 
either very long or very small; whence I concluded that the 
motion is not lost so readily in a large are, that because the 
parts touched they formed an obstacle in some degree insur- 

N3 mountable, 


198 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


mountable, or experienced a considerable friction of the parte 
one against the other; whence it is evident, that, a suspension 
spring being necessarily much more extensive in its width 
than a wire in its size, it can but be very long, and conse- 
quently very embarrassing. Independently of the defects 
which we have before remarked in it, the necessity of using 
a very fine suspension wire (by having recourse to the means 
which [ used to place this wire out of the way of accidents, 
to which its fineness exposes it) is therefore proved. (See 
Article VIII. Part [1,) 


Observation ITT. 
On the substance of the regulator. 


/ 
Steel appears to me preferable to construct the balance of; 
being a snbstance less dilatable, more solid, and Jess variable 
by the eficet of ieat, than brass, &e. The fears of magnetic 
influence are not, in my opinion, of any consequence. For 
them to have any foundation it would be necessary for this 
balance to acquire poles, which can never happen in a body 
that is continually changing its position; every effect which 
only increases its weight, or gives to its mass a tendency to- 
wardssone side, wou!d produce nothing in the vibrations, 
the balance only acting by its inertia, 


Observation IV. 
On the motion of the balance. 


The friction on the pivots of the rollers which contain the 
balance of the new watch is almost nothing; for the follow- 
ing reason: The pivots of these rollers have necessarily a 
Nittle play in their holes; whence it happens that, when 
these rollers describe a very small arc, their pivots only rest 
on the edges of their holes without rubbing. To receive 
the full adyantage of this, and to have besides more free- 
dom, .a less resistance on the part of the air, &c., I have 
only rendered the arcs of. vibration as great as the effect of 
shocks appeared to me requisite to be prevented. Each vi- 
bration of the balance is half a second, and the watch beats 
seconds; this appeared to me the most convenient and the 
jnost advantageous, I could not have increased the number 


of 


7 


of measuring Time at Sea. 199 


of vibrations in a given time without increasing the opera- 
tions of the escapement also, and without the freedom of 
the balance suffering some diminution. 


Observation V. 
On the compensation for the effects of heat and cold. 


According to the Gazette du Commerce, and the report 
signed Ludiam, sent to the Academy, to remedy the irregu- 
larities produced in marine watches by heat and cold, Mr. 
Harrison uses a bar composed of two thin pieces of brass* and 
steel, two inches in length, riveted together in several places, 
Jixed at one end, and having at the other two pins across, 
through which passes the balance spring. If this bar remains 
straight in temperate heat (as brass receives more impression 
from heat than steel), the side where the brass is becomes 
convex by heat, and ihe steci side becomes so by cold. Thus 
the pins, one after another, fix the parts of the spring ac- 
cording to the different degrees of heat, and lengthen or 
shorten it; whence follows the compensation for the effects 
of heat and cold. . 

If I had known this ingenious method before I thought 
of my thermometers, probably I should not have hesitated 
to have made use of it in my machine. 

I considered some time whether I should not give it the 
preference. I even made some attempts with this view. I 


shall speak of them presently; but, after having thought of 


them seriously, and after haying put aside, as much as I 
could, that prejudice which we have in favour of our own 


productions, my thermometers appeared to me preferable. 


The following are the reasons which induced me to judge 
$0: 

The first, which would have prevented me from making 
use of it without some considerable change, was, that by 
Mr. Harrison’s method the regulating spring does not re- 


* The author makes use of the word cuivre, which is commonly used to 
express copper ; but in Mr. Harrison’s pamphlet it is lrass; we have there- 
fore given itso. From this it appears probable that the author in other places 
may mean braés, although that is commonly distinguished from copper by 
cuivre jaune—T. 8. E. 

N4 main 


200 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


main always of the same length, which I have proved, Arti- 
cle III. Part V. to be absolutely necessary: likewise, when 
I endeavoured to compensate the effect of heat and cold by 
pieces of brass and steel, riveted together as Mr. Harrison’s, 
T endeavoured not to change the Jength of the spiral, but to 
make a considerable part of the circumference approach or 
recede by this means from the centre of the balance. For 
this purpose I used a balance (fig. 4 and 5. Plate I.) com- 
posed of two semicircles, each formed of a piece of brass 
and steel, united as in Mr. Harrison’s thermometer picce. 

The effect sufficiently answered my intentions : ] ever 
observed, by means of the index i, which was moved by 
similar pieces ¢/ (fig. 2. and 3. of the same plate), that by 
heat and cold the motion of these pieces would follow very 
exactly the motion of the thermometer; there resulted from 
this a compensation for heat and coid, whose effect might be 
increased or diminished at pleasure by putting a greater or 
less mass at the extremities of these semicircles ; but by this 
construction the balance does not appear to me to haye suf- 
ficient solidity: besides, in the different degrees of heat and 
cold, it would be difficult for it to preserve its equality of 
weight in all points of the circumference, Lastly, having 
exposed the machine, provided with this regulator, to a heat 
of 35 degrees * of the thermometer, after having replaced 
it in a common temperature, J saw that it would advance 
about six seconds in 24 hours; this appeared to me a con- 
sequence of what we have observed to happen in pieces of 
metals heated’and kept in a state of constraint; for, here, the 
piece of brass dilating more than that of steel, neither one 
nor the other is ina state of freedom ; besides which, it is 
almost impossible for them to be nayeteil together, and ad- 
justed in such a way that their figure does not arise from 
their mutual constraint ; inconveniences to which our ther- 
mometers are by no means subject, _ 

Before finishing this article I shal] make a remark which 
may Le of some utility to those who would construct similar 
thermometers ; which is, that it is necessary, before using 
the watch to which they are applied, that it be placed in the 


* 1104 of Fahrenheit.’ 
greatest 


of measuring Time at Sea. 201 


greatest degree of heat that can happen to it in different cli- 
mates ; without which (the metal being by this heat a little 
annealed, and metals forged more or less and then annealed, 
dilating unequally, and besides, acquiring more extent by this 
annealing) the machine would gain after having experienced 
great degrees of heat; the parts of the metal, however little 
they may be annealed, do not return to the first contraction 
which had been given them by tempering, forging, &c.; 
and the same may be said of other parts of the regulator. 


Observation VI. 
On the size of the machine, 

I think it ought not to exceed much the size of a varia~ 
tion compass, of which we can never complain. 

This watch in itself is of a sufficiently small size; but it 
appeared to me, that to give greater security to all the parts, 
to put them more out of the way of rust, of excess of heat 
of short duration, and other accidents which may happen in 
a ship, it would require a case; and it would be right that 
all the parts of suspension, as well as the watch, should be 
shut up in a strong box with a lock. Besides, to diminish 
the effect of shocks, it would be necessary, as I have ex- 


plained Article VIII. Part III., that it should be stopped in 


its motions by the cushions, which can hardly be adapted 
but to the sides of such a box. 


Recapitulation. 
After having explained the principles which have directed 
me in the different parts of my work, being the fruit of 
twenty years researches and labour, I shall attempt to show 


that by means of it we shall have the best measure of time 
at sea. 


The following is the way I prove it: 

It is evident by the first part, that this measure of time must 
consist in the most advantageous application of the balance 
and its spiral spring to the clock; that is to say, in a watch 
perfected as much as possible. To prove, therefore, that we 
are arrived at the best measure of time at sea, it is necessary 
to show that we have used the best methods to perfect the 
watch, that is to say, to correct its defects, which consist, 


3 as 


202 Le Roy’s Memoir on the best Method 


as we have explained in ihe Second Part, in the non-isochro~ 
nism of the vibrations of the regulator; 2dly, in its little 
power and freedom; 3dly, in the multiplicity of friction 
which it experiences ; 4thly, in the variations to which it is 
subject by heat and cold; Sthly, in the bad effect of shocks. 
Now it is, I believe, demonstrated in the Third Part, that 
the method which [ have found to give the balance a perfect 
isochronism by the length of the spiral spring * is incontesta- 
bly the most simple, the most certain, and the most exact. 
2dly, That it is not possible to render the regulator more 
powerful, more free, and more disengaged from friction t, 
than I have made it by my suspension, my escapement, the 
double spiral spring, the rollers, the moveable pieces, the 
situation of the balance, its size, &c.; which is proved by 
the experiment related in Article V.{ 3dly, That the me- 
thod 1 have used to correct the effect of heat §, which is 
‘not subject to the inconvenience of giving way like me- 
tallic compensators, which are made securely and without 
play, which leave the Jength of the spiral spring constant, 
and do not destroy the isochronism of its vibrations, &c. is 
incontestably the best. 
4thly, That the methods recommended Art. VIT. Part III. |] 
to correct in a marine watch the effects that heat leaves after 
it, that is to say, the gain or loss which sometimes follows, 
are probably the most efficacious. 5thly, That the expe- 
dients to which I have had recourse to render the motions 
impressed by shocks less abrupt, of less magnitude, and less 
durable, are, without contradiction, the most certain, and 
likewise those which I have used to regulate the watch to 
the smallest quantity **, without changing the length of the 
spiral spring, or destroying the isochronism of its vibrations, 
All these methods, therefore, appearing to me indisputa- 
bly the most certain, the most simple, and the best that can 
be used to perfect the watch, I have some hopes of having, 
conformably to the demands of the Academy, determined the 
lest method of measuring time at sea. 


* See page 61 of this volume. + Page 60. + Page 131. 
§ Page 138, || Page 141. 4] Article VIII. Part III, p. 142. 
** Article VI, Part IL p. 137. 
APPEN« 


, of measuring Time at Sea. 203 


APPENDIX. 


I think it proper to add a word or two here on pocket 
watches, which may accompany the marine watch; they can 
never be so perfect, on account of their small size, which 
would not permit all the resources to be used which we have 
applied in our watch for the diminution of friction, &c. I 
believe, nevertheless, we may render them more exact: Ist, 
By giving to the vibrations of the balance a more perfect iso- 
chronism, by the method explained (Article IIT. Part IT.*); 
edly, By compensating the effects of heat and cold by an 
expedient similar to that which Mr. Harrison has made use 
of in his time-keepert: 3dly, By applying a dead escapement 
where the friction is much less than in the cylinder, &c, 


Ido not here propose the detent escapement, because a watch 


appears to me too small for us to apply this mechanism 
easily to it. That of M. Sully, where the wheel is perpen- 
dicular to the plates, being pertected, appears to me the 
most proper to procure this dttinution of friction. I have 
finished several watches in this way: for this purpose I have 
given to the balance wheel such a size, that it reaches as far 
as the dial plate one way, and to the spiral spring the other; 
I have also given to its teeth the form of radii, that this 
wheel might be very slight; and by means of some other 
correctious, I believe it may be demonstrated, considering 
the diminution of friction which results from the place where 
the wheel remains at rest being made very near the axis of 
the balance, that this escapement is the most perfect of all, 


Ee - 


*,* At the word “ anchor-eseapement,” p. 63, line 27, 
the following should have been added as a note :—The an- 
chor escapement is represented in Plate V. fig. 1. of Bers 
thoud’s Essai sur ? Horlogerie; and that with a double 
Jever in Plate III. fig. 5 and 6 of the same work; also in 
Plate XLIIT. fig. 30, of Thiout’s Traité de ? Horlogerie ; but 
the first figure is the best. An ingenious watch-maker has 
Jately considered this as a detach¢d escapement, and sup- 


* Page 60 of this volume. + Page 199, 
poses 


£04 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


poses it to be the first that was invented; but it does net 
appear how it can be reckoned of that kind.—T.S.E. 


THE following is the opinion given ef this watch by the 
French "Academy. of Sciences at their public sitting the 5th 
of April 1769: 

“¢ The Academy has adjudged the prize to the memoir 
which has for its device Lalor improlus omnia vincit, and to 
the watch that accompanies this memoir. The author of 
both of them is M. Le Roy, clock-maker to his majesty. 
The rate of M. Le Roy’s watch, observed at sea in several 
voyages (one of which was fromthe coast of France to New- 
foundland, and from Newfoundland to Cadiz) has appeared 
in general sufhciently regular to merit this reward for the 
author, the principal intention of which is to encourage him 
to new researches; for the Academy must not dissemble, 
that in one of the observations which have been made on this 
watch, it appeared, even while on land, to gain rather sud- 
denly 11 or 12 seconds per day: from which it appears that 
the desired degree of perfection has not yet been obtained.” 


XXXIV, Memoir upon living and fossil Etephants. By 
M. Cuvirr. 
[Continued from p. 169.] 


Tae fossil elephants of Belgium have been long known. 
In the 16th century Garopius Becanus combated the pre- 
judices which attributed to giants the large fossil bones for- 
merly found in the neighbourhood of Antwerp; and he men- 
tions the bones of two elephants dug up near Vilvorde, in a 
canal which the inhabitants of Brussels dug from that city 
to Rupelmonde, to avoid the trouble attending the convey- 
ances by the canals of Malines. 

John Lauerentzen, in his edition of the Museum Regis 
Danie of Jacobeus, parti. § 1. no, 73, relates the history 
of a skeleton which Otho Sperling saw dug up at Bruges 
yn 1643, the thigh of which is preserved in the above cabinet. 
Tt is four feet jong, and weighs 24 pounds, 

" M. de Burtin, in chap. i. § 2. p. 25. of his Prize Dis- 
sertation 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 208 
sertation ** Upon the Revolutions of the Surface of the 
Globe,”’ published at Haarlem in 1787, says that he pos- 
sesses an elephant’s tooth found in Brabant. He adds, that 
avery large fossil headsof this kind was dragged out of a 
river two leagues from Louvain by some fishermen. 

The pretended bull’s horn, so long suspended from one 
of the pillars of the cathedral of Strasburg, is merely a fossil 
tusk which had been formerly dragged out of the same river. 

In general, the whole banks of the Rhine swarm with 
these bones. 

In the canton of Basle, in Swisserland, they also abound. 

The landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt’s cabinet has a lower 
jaw of great size, found near Worms, 

There is a particular dissertation of Charles Gotlob Steding 
upon the fossil ivory in the environs of Spires. It repre- 
sents a jaw of thirteen distinct laminz, weighing three 
pounds and a half, and was found four feet deep, near a 
fragment of a tusk of four pounds weight. 

Merk mentions a cranium found near Manheim, a plate 
of which exists; but I cannot procure a sight of it. Its 
two jaws weighed 200 pounds. 

M. Hammer possesses a tooth dug up in an island of the 
Rhine opposite Manheim, and a fragment brought out of 
the Rhine near that city. M. Gmelin, an apothecary at 
Tubingen, has a lower jaw found in the Rhine also near 
Manheim. -» | 

Germany is certainly the country where the largest quan- 
tities of fossil bones have been discovered ; not, perhaps, be- 
cause it contains more than any other country, but because 
there is not in the whole empire any district which does not 
contain some learned man capable of collecting and publish- 
ing whatever is remarkable. 

Every body knows the history of the elephant discovered 
at Tonna, in the country of Gotha, in 1696, and which 
has been described by Tentzelius and Hoyer *. 

%* Tentzelii Epistola ad Magliabecchium, de Sceleto Elephantino, Tonnz 
nuper effosso, Phil. Trans. vol. xix. no. 234, p.757—776. I. G. Hoyer de 
Ebore fossili, seu de Sceleto Elephantis in colle sabuloso reperto, Ephem. Nat. 


Cur. dec. 3. an. 7—8. p. 294, obs, clxxv. See also Act. Erudit, Lips. Jan. 1697; 
and Valentini Amphitheatr, Zootomicum, p. 26. 


A. second 


206 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


A second skeleton was dug up in 1799 about 50 feet from 
the place where the former had been found: M. Baron Zach, 
upon this occasion, gave a circumstantial description of the 
soil, to which we shall resort in order to give the details of 
the discovery. s 

Thete are two places calle sTonna (Greffen Tonna and 
Burg Tonna), both situated in the valley of Unstrut, below 
Langensalza, and to the right of Salza and Unstrut. Al} 
this valley, like most of the low valleys in Thuringia, is 
filled by horizontal layers of a tender calcareous sandstone; 
which contains bones, deers’ horns, impressions of various 
Jeaves which are thought to proceed from the aquatic plants 
and trees of the country, and shells which apparently belong 
to the helix stagnalis, and other fresh-water shells. This 
sandstone in some places resolves into a marly sand, which , 
has been employed for this century past in manuring land.. 
It is partly obtained by subterraneous and irregular trenches; 
those of the commune of Burg Tonna are 40, 50, and 60 
feet below the surface. 

The workmen find, from time to time, elephants’ bones 
and teeth, and the bones of the rhinoceros, animals of the 
stag kind, and that of the tortoise. 

These dep6ts of sandstone are mixed alternately with 
others of clay, where these bones are also found, although 


more rarely. 
The two skeletons of 1696 Hey 1799 were found 50 feet 


deep. 

Of the former there was collected a femur weighing 32 
pounds ; and the head of the other femur as large as a man’s 
head, and weighing nine pounds ; a humerus Sask feet long, 
two spans eid a half broad; vertebrz, ribs; the head sath 
four grinders weighing twelve pounds each, and two tusks 
eight feet long: but a great number of these pieces were 
broken. 

We shall not detain our readers by giving an account of 
the disputes occasioned by this discovery. The medical in-, 
habitants of the country, when consulted by the duke of 
Gotha, unanimously declared that these bones were lusus 


nature, and supported their opinions by several pamphlets : 
but 


—— 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 207 


but Tentzel, the librarian to this prince, thought differently ; 
he compared each bone, taken separately, with its analogous 
bone in the elephant of that period, such as tt was in the 
description of Allen Moulin, and by some remarks of Ari- 
stotle, Pliny, and Ray; and showed the resemblance. He 
went further, and proved, by the regularity of the stratum 
under which this skeleton was found, that it could not be 
said that it was interred by human hands; but that it must 
have been brought there by some general cause, such as the 
deluge has been represented. 

The second skeleton, that of 799, was in a compressed 

and crooked position: it occupied a length of 20 feet; the 
hind fect were near the tusks. Tlie latter were 10° feet tong. 
They were tender, but entire; their cavity easily admitted a 
man’s arm. A part only of the lower jaw of the head was: 
preserved, and the two largest grinders. he greater part of 
the other bones and the ribs were broken as they were’ 
detached-from the soil; but larger or smaller portions of all 
the bones were found. The cellulous parts of them were 
filled with crystals of spar. 
. The corona of one of the grinders was nine inches long, 
by three broad ; its height was six or eight inches; an entire 
tibia was two feet four inches, and six or eight inches in 
diameter: a head of a femur was six inches in diameter. 

At a small distance, and in similar strata, stags’ horns 
were found, or what is called the fossil elk; and at Bell- 
stadt, a neighbouring village, some rhinoceros’ teeth were 
found. 

The valley of Unstrut has furnished fossil elephants ix 
several other places of it, particularly a tusk, weighing 115 
pounds, and 10 feet long, near Vera. 

Another place, not less celebrated than Tonna for the 
number of fossil elephants, and bones of other strange ani- 
mals which it has furnished, is the little town of Canstadt, 
in the kingdom of Wirtemberg, upon the Neckar. The 


' principal discovery was made in 1700; and David Spleiss, 


a physician of Schafhausen, gave an account of it in a par- 
ticular dissertation, entitled « Qdipus osteokithologicus 5 seu 
& : Dis;. 


208 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


Diss. histor. phys. de Cornibus et Ossibus fossilibus Canstadi- 
ensilus, 1701, 4to; in which Spleiss has inserted an ac- 
count written by Solomon Reisel, physician to the duke of 
Wirtemberg. This discovery is also treated of in the Me- 
dulla mirabilium de Seyfried, and in the Descriptio Ossiunt 
fossilium Canstadiensium de Reiselius, 17153 and John Sa- 
muel Earl has given a chemical analysis of it, very correctly 
considering the period in which he lived, in his Lapis Lydius 
philosophico-pyrotechnicus, &c. Francfort 1705. 

T am indebted to the friendship of M. Autenrieth, pro- 
fessor of anatomy at Tubingen, and of M. Yeger, keepet 
of the cabinet of natural history at Stutgard, for a still more 
‘circumstantial account of the above discovery. 

These two gentlemen have still the bones before their 
eyes ; they know the place where they were found ; and they 
are in possession of the proces-verbaux which were drawn 
up at the time of the discovery. 

The spot is on the east of the Neckar, about a thousand 
paces beyond the town of Canstadt, on the side of the vil- 
lage of Feldbach. Riesel says that there are the remains of 
an antient wall there, eight feet thick, and eighty round it, 
which seems to have been the inclosure of a fort or temple $ 
and, in fact, some more remains of the same descriptron are 
to be seen. Spleiss concluded that these bones were those 
of such animals as were sacrificed; but they were, for the 
most part, by far too deep for this supposition: besides, they 
have been found much nearer the Neckar in a natural soil, 


and quite similar to that where they are usually dug up. All 


that can be concluded from their abundance within this in- 
closure is, that they have been once before dug up in great 
quantities in that neighbourhood, collected together by some 
curious people, and again covered over. 


The soil is a yellow clay mixed with small grains of © 


quartz and small shells. M. Autenrieth has sent me draw- 
ings of five of the latter, which appear to me to be fresh- 
water shells. This clay fills the various cavities of the cal- 
careous hillocks in regular rows, and these hillocks are in- 
terspersed with larger ones of a reddish marl. 

These 


4 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 209 


These marly hillocks sometimes present us with petrified 
plants and beds of coal, and their summit is covered with 
eld marine petrifactions, such as ammonites, belemnites, &c. 

Tt was 4 common soldier who first remarked some large 
bones above the ground in April 1700.. The reigning duke 
continued digging for them for six months, and such bones 
as were most entire were carefully preserved. The remains, 
being a prodigious quantity, (for, according to Reisel, there 
were more than sixty tusks,) were sent to the laboratory to 
be employed as fossil ivory. 

The bones themselves were without any order, for the 
most part all broken; some few of them were as if they had 
been rolled about. There were whole cart loads of horse 
teeth, and there were not bones in proportion to the tenth 
part of these teeth. The elephants’ bones seem to have been 
uppermost, and the others buried lower. In general, they 
were never found deeper than twenty feet. A part of them 
were entangled in a kind of rock formed of clay, sand, flint, 
and ochre, agglutinated together ; and the workmen were 
obliged to have recourse to gunpowder in order to separate 
them. 

-The elephant bones still in the royal cabinet at Stutgard 
consist of the following pieces; viz. part of an upper jaw 
with two parallel grinders ; two upper fore teeth almost en- 
tire, and fragments of two others: the evamel on the used 
part of the teeth was, as in almost all fossil teeth, siender 
and thin; four upper back teeth; two lower teeth; a very 
crooked tusk of five fect and a half long, and another four 
feet and a half, measured on the convex side; fragments of 
several other tusks; pieces of vertebra and ribs ; four shoul- 
der blades, and pieces of some others ; a piece of a humerus; 
three cubitus; six nameless bones of the right side, and 
seven of the left, for the most part incomplete; four heads 
of femurs; three femurs without the heads; a rotula; two 
tibias. There is also, at an apothecary’s in the same city, 
a lower jaw and a portion of a tibia. 

These bones are accompanied in the cabinet with plenty 
of bones of the rhinoceros, the hyzna, and animals of 

Vol. 26. No. 103, Dee. 1806. O the 


210 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


the horse kind, the stag, the ox, the hare, and small car- 
nivorous animals. Some very large epiphyses of vertebrae. 
might incline us to think they were of the eetaceous class 
of animals. There are also some fragments of human bones, 
to which I shall recur. Unfortunately, the different depths 
at which each bone was found were not accurately enough 
ascertained; neither were the bones which were found in 
the entrenchment mentioned by Reisel, sufficiently distin- 
guished from those found out of their limits. 

Canstadt is not the only place in the vale of the Neckar 
where similar discoveries have been made. 

Near the village of Berg, above Canstadt, there is a sin- 
gular mass of calcareous earth which consists of nothing 
else than incrustations of aquatic plants: I have often vi- 
sited this place myself, and [ learn from M. Autenrieth that 
he found a fossi} skeleton of a horse there. In 1745 a 
tusk of fifty pounds weight was dug up in the same place ; 
and M. Joeger found a lower jaw four years ago. 

About eighteen months ago there was found, very near the 
walls of Stutgard, upon digging a cave, a considerable part 
of a large elephant’s skeleton, two large tusks and a smaller 
one, in reddish and blueish clay. 

The narrow valley of the Kocher, near Halle, in Suabia, 
furnished some tusks in 1494 and 1605; the latter discovery, 
which is still suspended in the church of Halle, weighs 
300 pounds, An inscription below it informs us that there 
were a great many very large bones found near it. A fire 
having destroyed one third of this city in 1728, upon dig- 
zing the new foundations plenty of fossil ivory was found, 
and in particular a tusk seven feet and a half long. A 
grinder, from the same place, is represented in the Musewm 
Closterianum, fig. 8. 

All the alleys of the great rivers in Getnny have fur- 
nished fossil bones, as well as the places we have mentioned. 
In the valleys of the Danube, and through all Hungary, they 
particularly abound. 

To return to Germany. We find a skeleton was dug up in 
1722 at Tide, in the valley of the Ocker, between Wolfen- 

buttel 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 211 


buttel and Stetlerburg: Leibnitz had previously given a 
drawing of a jaw- sos found at the same place. 

In 1742 there was an entire skeleton discovered by Dr. ° 
Koenig, at Osterode, at the foot of the Hartz, and at the 
same place where a shoulder-blade and a radius of a rhino- 
ceros had been dug up in 1778. 

In the valleys of the Elbe, besides the entire skeletons of 
the vale of Unstruth, mentioned above, we find the nume- 
rous collections of bones at Esperstedt, in the county of 
Mansfeld, between Halle in Saxony, and Querfurt, and in 
the vales of the Sala. It is very remarkable that some part 
of them was found in a quarty of hard stone, as if the ani- 
mat had fallen into some crevice. 

Some fossil bones have been also lately found at Dessau, 
upon the Elbe, and at Potzdam, at the confluence of the 
Havel and the Spree. 

As far as concerns the valleys of the Oder, we may con- 
sult the Silesia subterranea of Volkmav, who speaks of a 
humerus suspended in the church of Trebnitz, a femur in 
the cathedral of Breslau, and of a pretended giant dug up at 
Liegnitz on digging the foundations of the church, the bones 
of which were distributed through the different churches of 
the country. 

The banks of the Vistula in Prussia and Poland, although 
much less examined than those of the rivers of Gerfnany, 
also furnish us with fossil bones, which have given rise, as 
in other countries, to stories of giants, The banks of the 
Dniester also supply great quantities of these phenomena ; 
and in 1729 great quantities were found near Kaminiek. 


{To be continued. } 


02 XXXV. Me- 


[era y 


XXXV. Memoir upon a Process employed in the ci-devant 
Maconnais of France, to avert Showers of Hail, and to 
dissipate Storms. By M.Lrscuevin, chief Commissary 
for Gunpowder and Saltpetre at Dijon*. 


I. is more than five-and-twenty years since the considera- 
tion of the mischief produced by storms accompanied with 
hail, induced several philosophers and friends, of huma- 
nity to ascertain the method of averting this destructive 
plague. The celebrated coadjutor of Buffon, M. Guenaut 
de Montbeillard, thinking that hail is only formed after vio- 
lent claps of thunder, suggested, in 1776, the establishment 
of a great multiplicity of conductors, which, by drawing off 
the electric fluid, would prevent the explosion of thunder- 
bolts, and the.consequent formation of hail. His memoir, 
in the form of a letter to M. Guyton Morveau, was read by 
the latter to the academy of Dijon, and will be found at 
length in the Journal de Physique, tom. xxi. p. 146. 
M. Montbeillard, in support of his opinion upon the causes 
of hail, brings forward the observations of the first-rate na- 
tural philosophers, and suggests the most scientific and ceco~- 
nomical method of executing his projects. 

This circumstance induced M. Guyton de Morveau, who 
never allows any opportunity to escape of being useful, to 
investigate the theory of the production of this meteor, He 
seconded the philanthrophic views of his fellow-countryman 
by developing this theory in an excellent memoir, published 
in the Journal de Physique for January 1777, p. 60, by the 
title of, ‘© Letter of M.de Morveau to M. de Montbeillard 
upon the influence of the electrical fluid in the formation of 
hail.” 

Some years afterwards, M. Buissart, of the academy of 
Arras, without knowing any thing of M. Montbeillard’s 
work, read a memoir to that society on the various advan- 


tages that.might be derived from a multiplicity of electrical 


conductors or thunder-rods. This memoir will also be 
found in the above journal, vol. xxi. p. 140. 


* From M, Millin’s Magazin Encyclopedique for 1806, tom. ii. p. 5. 


Although 


~_ -- 


Process to avert Showers of Hail, ec. 2182 


- Although these various works had called the attention of 
the public administration and of the affluent landholders to» 
this important subject; and although, since the first. publi- 
cation of the ideas of Messrs. Montbeillard, Guyton de Mor- 
veau, and Buissart, innumerable disasters caused by hail in 
various parts of France had demonstrated the extreme utility, 
of the measures proposed, or of any other more efficacious 
or simple which might be suggested ; yet not a single land- 
owner, that we know of, has to this day put in practice any 
method to avert this plague. 

In an interesting memoir, presented to the Academy of 
Dijon, an 11, by M. Denize, member of the learned So- 
ciety of Magon, and containing inquiries upon the means 
of dispersing storms and preventing hail, we find a curious 
account of the custom, established in several places, of 
firing off powder-boxes on the approach of storms, in order 
to prevent the production of hail. This account, however, 
was not accompanied with any detail upon the process, 
nor even with the name of those places where it is prac- 
tised; and the schemes proposed by M. Denize appeared 
to the academy to be accompanied with too much difh- 
eulty in their execution: his memoir, in which al] the phe- 
nomena analogous to his subject are presented with much 
clearness, and explained according to the principles of sound 
philosophy, excited much interest, but did not meet with 
that degree of attention it seems to deserve, 

I learned accidentally, some time ago, that the process 
indicated by M. Denize is in use in most of the communes 
of the ci-devant Macgonnais, and that a part of, the mining 
powder which I send into this district of the department cf 
Saone and Loire, is employed for the purpose of dissipating 


_storms and preventing hail. The desire of ascertaining such 


an interesting fact induced me to profit by my connections 
with that department, in order to procure circumstantial de- 
tails upon this process, and its analogy with the principles 
established in the memoir of M. Denize; and the conclu- 
sions be draws induced me to revise his memoir, and to exa~ 
mine the various methods he suggests to check a hail storm 
in its birth, 

O 3 M. Denize, 


214 Process to avert Showers of Hail, 


_ M. Denize, after having examined the history of antiquity 

to ascertain if the antients knew any thing on the subject, 
concludes, if they did, that they have left us nothing instruc- 
tive on the subject. Among the moderns he finds no other 
practice resorted to than that of ringing the church bells ; 
and he observes, with great reason, that this method of avert- 
ing a storm may be regarded as purely superstitious, and as 
affording no physical preventive whatever. 

The author then proceeds to an examination of the pro- 
cess resorted to of exploding gunpowder ; a process, as he 
says, only adopted within these few years, and the aduption 
of which he ascribes to two causes: ‘* On the one hand, the 
suppression of the ringing of bells since the revolution; on 
the other hand, some observations which lead us to think 
that the commotions excited in the air by considerable dis- 
charges of artillery are sufficient to prevent hail; storms 
being far less frequent, or at least very moderate, in the 
track of camps or armies*.” 

The investigations J procured to be made taught me, that 
so far from the suppression of bell-ringing having had any 
influence in encouraging the gunpowder process, the latter 
has been in use for upwards of five-and-thirty vears in one 
of the communes of the ci-devant Maconnais, as I shall — 
afterwards demonstrate. I shall add to the observations 
which appear to M. Denize to be the second cause of the 
adoption of the above method, a fact which convinced me of 
the influence exercised upon dense clouds by strong and reite- 
rated explosions. JT was led personally to make this remark 
at Grenoble, where there is a school of artillery established. 

The sky was pure and serene, when about nine 6’clock 
in the morning numerous clouds began to extend over all 
the valley in which Grenoble is situated, and covered the 
mountains by which it is bounded. The instant the dis- 
charges of the field-pieces commenced, between nine and 
ten o’clock, the clouds opened away before us, and the sky 
resumed its serenity. They did not again collect until the 
exercise of the guus was finished. 


* For some,curious remarks on this subject see Philosophical Magazine, 


vol, iv. p. $33. 
Next 


and to dissipate Storms. 215 


Next follows in the above memoir the indication of the 
only preservative against hail, suggested by naturalists, being 
the establishment of a multiplicity of thunder -rods. 

Before entering into the detail of the new methods he 
submits to the judgment of the learned, M, Denize pro- 
ceeds to lay before them the results of his own observations 
upon the formation of hail. It will not be out of place to 
follow him in this branch of his subject. 

I think we may thus state the principles upon which the 
author’s opinion is founded : 

The elements which enter into the composition of storms 
are, the atmospheric air, water, electricity, and caloric. 

Water dilated by caloric is formed into vapours, and be- 
comes specifically lighter than the atmospheric air; it 
ascends, and carries with it a quantity of electricity propor- 
tioned to the capacity it has just acquired. 

If the air in which these vapours are suspended is of a 
temperature lower than theirs, they condense, by the disen- 
gagement of their caloric, into clouds more or less thick. 

Under this new form, their dimensions being diminished, 
they contain a superabundant quantity of electricity, which 
they may get rid of by communication either with others or 
with the earth by means of conductors ; but aftera time they 
will be less electrified, if, by traversing some streams of air 
abounding in caloric, they resume their former state of dila- 
tation, 

It is from the contact of clouds variously electrified that 
storms are produced, the electric fluid darting successively 
from one cloud to another in order to obtain an equilibrium. 

As the author explains the formation of drops of. rain 
during storms, and afterwards drops of hail, in a manner 
peculiar to himself, that is to say, by referring their forma- 
tion to the concussion occasioned in the atmosphere of the 
clouds by claps of thunder, I shall quate his own words on 
the subject : 

** As soon as the thunder begins to explode in the apart 
of the storm, the explosion shakes every part of the sur- 
rounding air, at the same time that it suddenly diminishes 

O 4 its 


216 Process to avert Showers of Hail, - 


its density. This concussion occasions violent vibrations in 
the smaller molecules of the air; consequently i it detaches 


from them the heaviest humid particles, and forces them | 


mutually to approach each other. They unite in virtue of 
their attraction, and they are immediately precipitated in 
drops of rain, the size of which is proportioned to the quan- 
tity of particles of water which have been united to them 
during their fall. 

“¢ It is generally at this moment that the formation of 
hail takes place.” 

The theory of the author for explaining the phenomena 
that successively take place during a storm, is precisely the 
same with the theory ascribed to the same phenomena by 
M. Guyton de Morveau in his above-mentioned memoir. 

The following, according to M. Denize, are the characters 
according to which we may judge when it is time to put m 
practice the preservative processes : 

«’ From the moment that the thick and obscure clouds 
begin to accumulate, if we perceive that violent and impe- 
tuous winds tend to compress them the one against the 
other, and to condense them strongly, and as soon as we 
hear the thunder roaring in the middle of these clouds, and 
when they appear isolated in the air, and not communi- 
cating with the earth by means of any mists or undulations, 
it is ies that the danger threatens, and we cannot too spee- 
dily establish the most powerful and energetic conductors 
between these clouds and the surface of the earth.” 


I think we may class under three divisions the methods. 


recommended by the author for dispersing storms: and it 
seems to me that, although he has followed no order in the 
indication of these methods, they may be reduced to the fol- 
lowing three propositions : 

1. Excite in the air strong commotions capable of shaking, 
if we may use the expression, the particles of water adhering 
to it, so as to produce an abundant rain. 

We may attain this object by the sound of great bells, 
the reiterated noise of guns or drums, &c.; by the detona- 
tion of the fulminating powder, and by the explosion, in the 

middle 


bs eae 


and io dissipate Storms. 217 
middle of the clouds, of rockets directed towards the place 


-where the clouds are thickest. 


2. Establish energetic conductors between the clouds and 
the earth, either by fires lighted from distance to distance, 
and kept burning by supplies of dry substances, or by the 
disengagement of bumid vapours, or the combustion of re- 
sinous matters. 

3. Draw off the electric fluid, which is in superabundance 
in the clouds, by a multiplicity of thunder-rods. As the 
storms in our country are accompanied by the east and 
south-east winds, it would be proper to establish in every 
canton, on those sides of their horizon, these conductors, 
which might be placed both on elevated places and on high 
trees: this consideration would lead to the multiplication of 
large trees in the above quarters, and immense advantages 
would consequently result in respect of the increase of fire- 
wood, 

Such is the succinct analysis of this memoir, which 
evinces that its author is a philosopher familiarised in the 


- explanation of the grand phenomena of nature: it belongs 


to learned men and enlightened ministers to decide how far 
the means proposed are practicable in the country, and com- 
patible with the security of the inhabitants and the princi- 
ples of a good government. To the hopes held out in this 
memoir, that one of our greatest earthly plagues may be suc- 
cessfully averted, the unhappy reflection is added of the 
dreadful accidents that may arise from the inconsiderate 
employment of most of the preservatives recommended by 
M. Denize. However tliat may be, it seemed to ine to be 
interesting to Jay the above analysis before my readers pre- 
vious to giving the details of the process employed in the ci- 
devant Maconnais for preventing storms. 

It was at Vaurenard this process originated, 35 years ago, 
The marquis de Chevriers, a naval officer, retired upon his, 
estate at Vaurenard, having often witnessed the ravages oc- 
casioned by hail, and recollecting to bave seen the explosion 
of guns resorted to at sea in order to disperse stormy clouds, 
resolyed to combat this plague by an analogous method. 

Yor 


213 Process to avert Showers of Hail, Se. 


For this purpose he made use of boxes of gunpowder, which 
he caused to be fired off from the heights on the approach 
of a storm; and his attempts had the happiest effects: he 
continued until the period of his death, which happened at 
the commencement of the revolution, to preserve his lands 
from the ravages of the hail-storms, while the neighbouring 
villages frequently experienced their baneful effects. He 
consumed annually about 200 or 300 pounds of mining 
powder, which was furnished to him from the magazine at 
Macon. 

The inhabitants of the communes where the marquis de 
Chevriers’s estates were situated, convinced, by the experi- 
ence of a great number of years, of the excellence of this 
practice, continued to employ it. Their example was-imi- 
tated by the surrounding communes ; and the practice gain- 
ing ground, it is at this moment in use in the communes of 
Vaurenard, Iger, Azé, Romanéche, Julnat, Le Torrins, 
Touilly, Fleury, Saint Sorlin, Le Viviers, Les Boutteaux, 
and many others. The largeness of the powder-boxes, their 
charge, and the number of times they fire them off, vary 
according to circumstances and the position of the places. 
In the commune of Fleury they make use of a mortar which 
carries a pound of powder at a time; and it is generally 
upon the heights, and before the clouds have had time to 
accumulate, that they make the explosions, which they con- 
tinue until the stormy clouds are entirely dissipated. Ac- 
cording to the account given me by the keeper of the maga- 
azine at Macon, the annual consumption of mining powder 
for this purpose is from 400 to 500 kilogrammes. 

The extension of this process for these some years past, 
and the suecess with which it has been constantly accom- 
panied, makes it desirable that it should be more generally 
‘known wherever hail-storms extend their ravages. It be- 
longs to the learned societies to propagate, by premiums and 
experiments, a practice by no means ) costly as to produce 
inconvenience, and which from its simplicity of execution 
1s open to every country inhabitant, 


XXXVI. On 


[ e19 7 - Se ay 


XXXVI. On Canal Track-Boats. By Ropertson Bu- 
CHANAN, Esq. Civil Engineer, Glasgow. 


DEAR SIR, To Mr. Tilloch. 


WV ems lately in Ireland I made a short excursion on the 
Grand Canal, which joins the Liffy with the Shannon. I 
was much pleased with the arrangements and punctuality 
observed with regard to the canal packets, or track-boats. 
The accommodation on board and at the hotels for the use 
of the passengers does very great credit to those under whose 
care the whole is conducted. 

The construction of the vessels, both with regard to their 
general plan and the mechanical contrivances connected with 
them, seems to me to merit the attention of those who take 
an interest in what relates to the improvement of our inland 
navigation. Iam therefore induced to lay before you the 
following details : 

The general appearance of the vessels is like that of those 
on our canals, but the number of passengers and the length 
of the voyage require additional accommodation ; an idea 
of which may be formed by inspecting the accompanying 
sketches, although not accurately drawn to a scale. 

Fig. 1. (Plate V.) is a sketch of the plan of the vessel. 

A, the principal cabin. 

B, the second cabin. 

C, a board which is occasionally raised up to prevent 
the water from the sluices from filling the vessel; an acci- 
dent which I am informed once occasioned the sinking of 
one of these vessels and the loss of many lives, and which 
probably gave rise to this improvement. 

Fig. 2. is a stern view. 

DD, are pieces of plate iron which are let down, when 
necessary, to retard the vessel’s motion, and are frequently 
of great use in entering the locks. 

E, the cab-house or cooking-place, the smoke-pipe of 
which seems well contrived to prevent the bad effects of the 
wind. 

Fig. 3, the smoke-pipe on a larger scales the same con- 

trivance 


220 Analysis of the Substance 


trivance is applied to the cabin stove, and I should think 
might, with equal advantage, be applied to dwelling-houses 
in situations where eddy winds are apt to occasion smoke. 

But what attracted most of my attention was the manner 
in which the track-rope is attached to the vessels ; and which, 
Tam informed, has prevented many dangerous accidents, to 
which they were formerly liable. There is a contrivance 
by which it may be instantaneously disengaged by a kind of 
trigger, a plan and profile of which are sketched in figures 
4. and 5. 

I, represents the end of the track-rope. 

K, a pin firmly connected with the frame, which is bolted 
to the deck above the cabin. 

KL, a lever, the end K of which preponderates, and 1s so 
formed as to allow the loop on the end of the track-rope I, 
to remain on the pin K, while the horses are pulling pro- 
perly forward; but should any accident occur, and endanger 
their being dragged into the water, all that is necessary is 
for a person to put his foot on the end L of the lever; which 
end being thus depressed makes the end K to rise, and 
along with it the loop of the track-rope is raised, which, 
getting to the top of the pin K, is instantly disengaged. 

These contrivances (figs. 4. and 5.) are placed one on 
each side of the roof, at HH, so as to leave the roof of the 
cabin quite free and safe for the use of the passengers; and 
here seats are placed, where they may enjoy the air, and the 
beautiful scenery which so often presents itself in the pro- 
gress of the voyage. 

I remain, dear sir, yours, &c. 


Glasgow, ROBERTSON BUCHANAN. 
November 20, 1806. 


XXXVIT. Analysis of the Substance known by the Name 
of Txrquoise. By M. Bouriton Lacrance*. 


Severat mineralogists have placed the turquoises among 
the calcareous bodies and those bodies which are called the 


* From Annales de Chimie, tome lix. p. 180. 


opake 


known by the Name of Turquoise. oe 


‘opake gems ; others, on account of their blue or green co- 
lour, have ranged them among the ores of copper. 

« The turquoises,” says M. Chaptal*, ‘* are merely 
bones coloured by the oxides of copper. The colour of the 
turquoise often passes to green, which depends on the al- 
teration of the metallic oxide: the turquoise of Lower Lan- 
guedoc gives out a/fetid smell on the action of fire, and is 
decomposed by the acids; the turquoise of Persia gives out 
no smell, and is not attacked by the acids. Sage supposes 
that in the latter the osseous part is agatised.” 

Plenty of turquoises are found in Persia, and none in 
Turkey, as the name would incline us to believe: they are 
dug out of two mines}; the one is called the Old Rock, 
three days’ journey from Meched, to the north-east, near 
Nichabourg; the other is five days’ journey from Meched, 
and is called the New Rock. The turquoises of the latter 
mine are of a bad blue inclining to white; and they are sold 
at a very low price. Since the end of last century, however, 
the king of Persia has prohibited all digging at the Old Rock 
except on his own account ; because the Persian goldsmiths 
work only with the file, and do not understand the art of 
enamelling upon gold, and therefore they make use of the 
turquoises of this mine for decorating sabres, ponjards, 
and other pieces of workmanship, in place of enamelling 
them. They shape the turquoises into flowers and other 
figures, and then insert them into enchasements. 

I shall add some other details extracted from different 
works, and for which T am indebted to the politeness of 
M. Haiiy, the celebrated mineralogist. 

Turkis (Turquoise), Reuss, p. 511, part ie vol. aii. *“'The 
turquoise has been always regarded as the tooth of an un- 
known animal, the sky-blue colour of which arises from 
the oxide of copper, and according to some from the oxide 
of iron: this has caused it to be classed in the calcareous 
as well as in the coppery order of bodies, as an animal pe- 


trifaction (odontalite). 


Lommer, in the ‘* Alhandlungen einer privat geschell- 


* Elements of Chemistry. 
+ See l’Abrégé des Voyages, par M. de la Harpe, tom. vi. p. 507. 


schaft 


222 Analysis of the Substance 


schaft in Boéhmen,” vol. ii. p. 112 and 118, thinks that 
the turquoise is a product of art: he relates that a tooth, 
found in the environs of Lissa, in Bohemia, having been 
exposed to a violent fire under the muffle of an assay fur- 
nace, was converted into turquoise : he strongly recommends 
the precaution of increasing the fire gradually, so as to avoid 
causing the tooth to fly off.in splinters. 

Bruckman has given a complete history of every thing 
which has been written upon turquoises from the days of 
Pliny to those of Lommer: he names Mount Caucasus, 
abont four days’ journey from the Caspian Sea, as the native 
place of turquoises, where there exists, according to Char- 
din, a quarry of them. They are also found in Persia, 
Egypt, Arabia, and in the province of Samarcand. 

Dombey brought some of them from Peru; a few con+ 
tained native silver. 

The turquoise of the western world is found in France 
at Simore in Lower Languedoc, in Bohemia, Silesia, and 
Hungary. 

Demetrius Agaphi, who visited the place where the tur- 
quoises are found near Chorossan, in the neighbourhood 
of the town of Pischpure, relates, in the fifth volume of the 
Nordischen Beytre@ge 1793, p. 261, that turquoise is found 
in a stone as a matrix, in fragments and small pieces, and 
that it ought to be regarded as a particular mineral, which 
lies in the same beds as the opal, the chrysoprase, and the 
resin-formed quartz. 

M. Bruckman, in Crell’s Journal de Chimie 1799, vol. 11. 
pages 185 to 189, according to the account of iis situation 
in the mine at Chorossan, and according to the analysis of 
Lowitz, thinks that the turquoise is not a petrification of 
the parts of animals, but a particular mineral. 

Lowitz produced from it, by means of analysis, a good 
deal of argil, a little copper and iron; but he found no lime 
nor <a acid *, 

According to Meder, the oriental turquoise is found in 


* LT know not whether the substance analysed by M. Lowitz ought to be 
considered as turquoise, or rather as a particular mineral. 1am inclined to 
think it was the latter, asT always found, in the turquoises J examined, both 
lime and phosphoric acid. ‘er 

1 a primitive 


known by the Name of Turquoise. 293 


a prunitive argillaceous schistus of a blueish gray or grayish 
black colour, which excludes all idea of petrifaction: in the 
same place graphic schistus and quartz are found: in the 
argillaceous schistus the turquoise is disseminated through 
it; it is the same with it in the quartz and graphie schistus. 

In order to remove every idea of the turquoise being re- 
garded as a malachite or green copper (kupfergriin), Meder 
has given the following character of it: 

Its colour is the grayish green of the celadon apple: when 
the turquoise begins to soften in the acids, it is decomposed, 
and assumes a mountain green colour: when entirely de 
composed it is of a yellowish greenish white, and even straw 
coloured. 

It is generally met with disseminated in small scattered 
fragments, and rarely in a large mass; it is dull interiorly ; 
its fracture is compact, the fragments indeterminate, with 
sharp edges, opake when it is decomposed, and more or 
less translucid at the edges; it becomes softer and softer 
according to the degrees of decomposition, and _ latterly 
becomes brittle *: its specific gravity, according to Kirwan, 
is from 2°500 to 2°908. 

The turquoise in the mass is sometimes mixed with earthy 
oxidulated copper (ziegelerx) of a brick red. 

M. Meder thinks, according to all these characters, that 
the turquoise ought to be placed between the opal and the 
apple-green chrysoprase, with which it seems to agree the 
most. 

Lastly, the celebrated Cuvier, in the Journal de Physique, 
tome lii. p. 263, thinks that the turquoises which are found 
near Simore in Languedoc, and near Trevoux, are eupre- 
ous teeth of an animal whrch resembles that found at the 
river Ohio, or the mammoth of the English and the Ame- 
ricans, the carnivorous elephant. 

M. de Reaumur is the only person who has given any 
details upon the mines of turquoise, and the nature of the 
substances found m them. 


%* The turquoises are not all of an equal hardness: this may be attributed 
to the difference of the osseous substances which serve as their base. The 


degree of pctrifuction of these bones ought also to have an influence upon 
their hardness. 


His 


“224 Analysis of the Substance 


His memoir is printed among the proceedings of the 
Royal Academy of Sciences for the year 1715. We may 
therefore consult his observations for every thing that re- 
Jates to the position of the mines and the extraction of the 
turquoises. 

As to the experiments made by M. Reaumur with the 
view of depriving them of their colour, although not alto- 
gether conclusive, yet it will be useful to ‘mention them 
here, as they are connected with the means I resorted to in 
order to ascertain the nature of the turquoise. I shall there- 
fore present my readers with that part of M. Reaumur’s 
memoir. 

<¢ The colouring matter,”’ he says, ‘ which fills the cel- 
hues of the turquoise, and which tinges the whole stone, is 
certainly a distinct substance. But is it a simple mineral 
substance like cobalt, or the substance of which azure and 
sapphire are formed, and which give such a fine blue colour 
to china and earthen-ware; or is it a metallic substance ?”’ 
This is a question which I have not been able to resolve to 
my own satisfaction. 

<< I supposed at first that our turquoises derived their co- 
lour from copper, this metal yielding a blue and a green co- 
lour; but I saw that we might discharge the colour from 
them as we do from coral: of all the solvents I tried, di- 
stilled vinegar succeeded best with me. If a thickish piece 
of turquoise is steeped for an hour or two in this vinegar, its 
corners become white; and in two or three days all the sur- - 
face of the stone, and even almost all its interior, assumes 
the same colour. 

<< The vinegar, besides taking away the colour, also dis- 
solves the stone, which is always covered with a kind of 
white cream composed of the particles which had been de- 
tached from it. Citron juice also dissolves these kind of 
stones, but it only weakens their colour; and that part 
which is below the sort of cream above mentioned is blue 
when the stone has been steeped in this juice. 

“¢ As to aqua-fortis and aqua-regia they are not proper for 
extracting the colour from our turquoises: they dissolve 
very speedily the whole substance of the stone; but they 

supply 


known by the Name of Turquorse. 295 


supply us with a method of distinguishing the turquoises of 
Persia from those of Europe. Aqua-fortis does not act upon 
the Persian ones; whence it follows, that these two kinds 
of stones, although similar in appearance, are nevertheless 
of a very different nature: it would be wrong, however, to 
draw an inference disadvantageous to our turquoises from 
this circumstance, or to think them more brittle. 

<¢ Aqua-regia, also, acts differently upon these two sorts 
of stones. It entirely dissolves the European, andr educes 
the Persian to a kind of paste whiter than the stone itself 
was, but which, however, is not deprived of all the blue 
colour. 

‘<< In general, these stones have a singular fault; their 
colour changes through time, without any solvent: their 
blue colour imperceptibly assumes shades approaching to 
green ; and they latterly become entirely green; while the 
colour of all the other precious stones is unalterable. When 
the turquoise has become green, it is no longer of any va- 
lue; for it is not yet the fashion to esteem this stone when 
it becomes green.” 


Chemical Examination of the Turquoise. 


Physical Characters.—Specific gravity, 3°127. Colour, 
clear green and blue. Hardness, a slight degree harder 
than glass; very difficult to pound; its powder is of a 
greenish gray, and its fracture is smooth. 

Chemicul Characters. —Exposed to the blowpipe it loses 
its colour and becomes of a grayish White, but does not 
melt. Heated in a platina crucible it assumes the same co~ 
lour, but becomes friable and is easily reduced into powder. 

In this experiment it loses six per cent. of its weight. The 
nitric and muriatic acids dissolve turquoise entirely. The 
solution made by the muriatic acid is yellow; that by the 
nitric acid is colourless. , 

The nitric solution presented the following phenomena: 

1. With lime water, a white flaky precipitate. 

2. With ammonia in excess the precipitate was of the 
same colour, but more abundant. The liquid above it ac- 
quired no blueish tint. 

Vol, 26. No, 103. Dec, 1806. P 3. Car- 


226 Analysis of the Substance 


3. Carbonate of ammonia formed also a precipitate in 
it. . . 

4. With oxalate of ammonia the precipitate is very light, 
and very minutely divided. 


5. The precipitate by the prussiate of potash is of a deep 
blue. 

We see that these preliminary experiments already give 
an approximate knowledge of the constituent parts of tur- 
quoise, but they are not sufficient to lead us to.a regular 
classification of it; for which reason, out of a large quantity 
of turquoises, I made choice of such as were highest coloured 
and hasdest, and I submitted them to the following experi- 
ments: 

A. 100 parts of turquoise reduced into powder were in- 
troduced into a small retort, and 300 parts of nitric acid at 
36° were poured upon them. In a short time a slight effer- | 
vescence took place, which continued until the solution was 
completed. The gas was collected by the hydrargyro-pneu- 
matic apparatus, and it presented all the properties of car- 
bonic acid gas. 

B. This nitric solution is white, and of a syrupy consist- 
ence; it was evaporated to dryness, and the matter remain- 
ing was afterwards made red hot in a platina crucible. 

Cc. Calcination scarcely changed its colour. 

This substance was again Hisealved in very dilute nitric acid, 
for the purpose of separating from it the iron which might 
have existed in it in the state of an oxide; but the whole 
was entirely dissolved ; which evidently shows that the iron 
was neither in the state of a red oxide nor as a’nitrate, but 
rather in the state of a phosphate. 

D. Ammonia in excess was poured into the liquor C, 
which gave an abundant white precipitate. After being 
washed and dried, this precipitate was treated with a strong 
solution of potash, which dissolved a certain quantity of it. 
The liquor was afterwards separated from the portion not 
dissolved, and muriate of ammonia was added, which se- 
parated a white matter from it that presented all the pro- 
perties ofalumine. This substance, after calcination, weighed 
a part and a half. 


E. The 


known by the Name of Turquoise. 907 


E. The portion dissolved by the potash was also calcined, 
and weighed 82 parts. 

F. Bein desirous of knowing if the Hquor in the experi- 
ment D contained any lime in solution, we poured carbo- 
hate of ammonia into it; a precipitate was obtained which, 
when dried and slightly heated, was found to be carbonate 
of lime ; its weight was eight parts, 

G. The liquor floating above was afterwards evaporated, 
but no precipitatewas formed; which led us to conclude that 
it contained no magnesia, 

H. Being persuaded that the precipitate E contained phos- 
phates, it Was treated with the sulphuric acid. The sub- 
stance was afterwards washed; and the washings being col- 
lected, prussiate of potash was poured into thems which 
formed a precipitate of a deep blue, the weight of which, 
after calcination, was one part and a half: it was red oxide 
of iron. (Care must be taken to heat the liquor, in order 
to separate the precipitate entirely.) 

The liquor floating above held in solution acid phosphate 
of lime; this was ascertained by obtaining phosphorus from 
it by the help of charcoal. 

I. this oxide of iron was again made red hot with a little 
pure potash. The matter assumed a deep green colour; the 
cooled mass was afterwards dissolved in water, which as- 
sumed the same colour. A little muriatic acid was added, 
and it then became of a fine rose colour. This experiment 
was repeated upon several turquoises, and the phenomenon 
always took place; which evidently proves the presence of 
a very small quantity of manganese. 

K. Wishing to ascertain if turquoises contained any phos- 
phate of magnesia, as the experiments of Messrs. Fourcroy 
and Vauquelin upon bones might lead us to think, I treated 
this substance in the manner pointed out by these chemists 
(Annales de Chimie, tom. xlvii.*), and the result was, that 
100 parts of turquoise contained two parts of phosphate of 
magnesia, 


* For M. Fourcroy’s abridgmeiit of this paper see Philosophical Maga- 
wane, vol. xxiv. p. 262. 


Pg It 


228 — Analysis of the Substance called Turquoise. 


It results from all the above experiments, therefore, that 
100 parts of turquoise contain, 

Phosphate of lime - - - 80 
in place of 82, found in the experiment E, de- 
ducting the above quantity of phosphate of mag- 
nesia, 


Carbonate of Jime - - - 8 
Phosphate of iron - - - 2 
of magnesia - his 1m 
of manganese (an inappreciable quantity) 0 
Alumine . - - - it 
Water and loss - - - - 6L 


Although I obtained similar products on examining se- 
veral turquoises, yet we cannot decide if they are identical. 
The turquoises that I made use of, were exactly similar to 
those in the cabinet of the Museum of Natural History; and 
M. Haiiy, whom I consulted, could not say that they were 
true Persian ones. M. Guyton thinks that there is a dif- 
ference between the Persian and European turquoises. In 
his lectures on mineralogy at the Polytechnic School he has 
for some years maintained that the former contains silex. 1 
Tt is possible they may contain this substance accidentally; ¥ 
but I never found any in those [ examined. Idonot think 
“that this difference ought to hinder mineralogists from clas- 
sifying turquoise. M. Guyton himself has already placed it 
among the fossil bones: this celebrated chemist has also 
made some comparative experiments: he saw that fossil 
bones assumed in the fire a colour analogous to that of tur- 
quoise ; that digested in water containing potash they be- 
came blue, and that this blue varied in shade and passed to: 
a greenish or deep blue; and lastly, that bones exposed to 
the air became white. . 

Messrs. Fourcroy and Vauquelin have also observed that 
bones calcined strongly often assume a blueish tint; this 
colour appeared to them to be owing to the presence of a. 
little phosphate of iron, 


Thus 


On the Force of Percussion. - | aay 


_ Thus there exists no doubt upon the substance which 
colours the turquoise. If it was necessary to add to the facts 
already given, I would say, that having sent M. Vauquelin 
the same turquoises I had analysed, he found no particle of 
‘copper in them; lastly, I ascertained that, by pouring into 
a solution of muriate of lime phosphate of soda and some 
drops of muriate of iron at the maximum, a phosphate of 
lime and iron was obtained of a greenish blue colour: again, 
by decomposing the phosphate of soda by the muriate of 
iron at the maximum, we may obtain a phosphate of iron 
which is not white, as some chemists have said, but of a 
blueish green colour. 

The above reflections may not be very important ; but I 
offer them with the view of showing the possibility of imi- 
tating the colour of the turquoise, and as showing at the 
same time that iron, in several circumstances, may yield 
colours similar to those produced by copper. 


XXXVIIT. The Bakerian Lecture on the Force of Percus- 
sion. By Witt1am Hype Wottaston, M. D., Sec. 
ROS.* . 


Wauen different bodies move with the same velocity, it is 
universally agreed that- the forces which they can exert 
against any obstacle opposed to them are in proportion to 
the quantities of matter contained in the bodies respectively. 
But, when equal bodies-move with unequal velocities, the 
‘estimation of their forces has been a subject of dispute be- 
tween different classes of philosophers. Leibnitz and his 
followers have maintained that the forces of bodies are as 
the masses multiplied into the squares of their velocities (a 
multiple to which I shall, for conciseness, give the name of 
impetus), while those who are considered as Newtonians 
conceive that the forces are in the simple ratio of the velo- 

cities, and consequently as the momentum or quantitas motits, 


* From the Transactions of the Royal Society for 1806. 
Pa a name 


230 On the Force of Percussion. 


a name given by Newton to the multiple of the velocity of 
a body simply taken into its quantity of matter. 

It cannot be expected that at this time any new experi- 
ment should be thought of by which the controversy can be 
decided, since the most simple experiments that have already 
been appealed to by either party have received different in- 
terpretations from their opponents, although the facts were 
admitted. 


My object in the present ‘lecture is to consider which of 


these opinions respecting the force exerted by moving bodies 


is most conformable to the usual meaning of that word, and 
to show that the explanation given by Newton of the third 
law of motion is in no respect favourable to those who in 
their view of this question have been called Newtonians. 

If bodies were made to act upon each other under the cir- 
cumstances which I am about to describe, the leading phee- 
nomena would occur, which afford the grounds of reasoning 
on either side, 

Let a ball of clay or of any other soft and wholly inelastic 
substance be suspended at rest, but free to move in any di- 
rection with the slightest impulse; and let there be two 
pegs, similar and equal in every respect, inserted slightly 
into its opposite sides. Let there be also two other bodies, 
A and B, of any magnitude, which are to each other in the 
proportion of 2 to 1, suspended in such a position, that 
when perfectly at rest they shall be in contact with the ex 
tremities of the opposite pegs without pressing against them, 
Now if these hodies were made to swing with motions sa 
adapted that in falling from heights in the proportion of J 
to 4, they might strike at the same instant against the pegs 
opposite to them, the ball of clay would not be moved from 
its place to either side; nevertheless the peg, impelicd by 
the smaller body B, which has the double velocity, would 
be found to have penetrated twice as far as the peg impelled 
by A. 

Tt is unnecessary to make the experiment precisely as 
here stated, since the results are admitted as facts by both 
parties ; but upon these facts they reason differently. 


Ong 


Ou the Force of Percussion. 231 


One side observing that the ball of clay remains unmoved, 
considers the proof indisputable, that the action of the body A 
is equal to that of B, and that their forces are properly mea- 
sured by their momenta, which are equal, because their ve- 
locities are in the simple inverse ratio of the bodies. Their 
opponents think it equally proved by the unequal depths to 
which the pegs have penetrated, that the causes of these 
effects are unequal, as they find to be the case in their esti- 
mation of the forces by the squares of the velocities. 

One party is satisfied that equal momenta can resist equal 
pressures during the same ime; the other party attend to 
the spaces through which the same moving force is exerted, 
and finding them in the proportion of 2 to 1, and convinced 
that the vis viva of a body in motion is justly estimated by 
its magnitude and the square of its velocity jointly. 

The former conception of a quantity dependent on the 
continuance of a given vis motrix for a certain time may 
have its use, when correctly applied, in certain philosophical 
considerations; but the latter idea of a quantity resulting 
from the same force exerted through a determinate space is 
of greater practical utility, as it occurs daily in the usual 
occupations of men; since any quantity of work performed 
is always appreciated by the extent of effect resulting from 
their exertions ; for it is well known that the raising any 
great weight 40 feet would require four times as much Ja- 
bour as would be requisite to raise an equal weight to the 
height of 10 feet, and that in its slow descent the former 
would produce four times the effect of the latter in conti- 
nuing the motion of any kind of machine. Moreover, if 
the weights so raised were suffered to fall freely through the 
heights that have been ascended by means of four and of 
one minute’s labour, the velocities acquired would be in the 
ratio of 2 to 1, and the squares of the velocities in propor- 
tion to the quanuties of labour from which they originated, 
or as 4 to 1; and if the forces acquired by their descent were 
employed in driving piles, their more sudden effects pro- 
duced would be found to be in that same ratio. 

This species of force has been, first by Bernoulli and after- 

P4 wards 


232 On the Force of Percussion. 


wards by Smeaton, very aptly denominated mechanic force s 
and when by force of percussion is meant the quantity of 
mechanic force possessed by a body in motion, to be esti- 
mated by its quantity of mechanic effect, I apprehend it can- 
not be controverted that it is in proportion to the magnitude 
of the body and to the square of its velocity jointly. 

But of this quantity of force Newton no where treats, and 
has accordingly given no definition of it. If, after defining 
what he meant by the quantitas acceleratrix, and quantitas 
motrix, he had bad occasion to convey an equally distinct 


idea of the quantitas mechanica resulting from the continued 


action of any force, he might, not improbably, have pro- 
ceeded conformably to the definition given by Smeaton, and 
have added, 

quantitas mechanica est mensura proportionalis io 
per quod data vis motrix exercetur 5 

or, if speaking with reference to the accumulated energy 
communicated toa body in motion, 

proportionalis quadrato velocitatis quam in dato cor- 
pore generat. 

But, if we attend to the words of his preface to the first 
edition of his Principia, he evidently had no need of such 
a definition : 

** Nos autem non artibus sed philosophie consulentes, 
deque potentiis non manualibus sed naturalibus scribentes,”” 
&e. 

And again, nearly to the same effect in the Scholiwm, 
which follows the laws of motion: ‘* Czterum mechani- 
cam tractare non est hujus instituti.” 

In the third law of motion he has, on the contrary, been 
supposed to speak of this force from an ambiguity in the sig- 
nification of the words actio and reactio. By these, how- 
ever, Newton certainly meant a mere vis motrix or pressure, 
as he himself explains them: ‘ Quicquid premit vel trahit 
alterum, tantundem ab eo premitur vel trahitur. Si quis 
lapidem digito premit, premitur et hujus digitus a lapide,” 
&c. The same meaning is equally evident from his demon- 
stration of the third corollary to the laws, in which he as- 

serts 


s 
ee ee, ee ee ee 


——. 


ed 


On the Force of Percussion. 933 


serts that the guantiias motiis of two or more bodies ésti- 
mated in any given direction is not altered by their action 
upon each other. The demonstration begins thus: 

‘© Etenim actio eique contraria reactio cequales sunt per 

legem tertiam, ideoque per legem secundam equales in mo- 
tibus efficient mutationes versus contrarias partes.” Now, if 
he had considered the third law as implying equality of more 
than mere moving forces, there could have been no occasion 
to refer to the second law, with a view thence to deduce the 
equality of momenta produced. 
* Some authors, however, have interpreted the third law 
differently, and accordingly have expressed a difficulty in 
comprchending the simple illustration given by Newton. 
When they say that action is equal to reaction, they mean 
hot only that the instantaneous intensity of the moving 
forces, er pressures opposed to each other, are necessarily 
equal, but conceive also a species of accumulated force re- 
siding in 2 moving body, which is capable of resisting pres- 
sure during a time that is proportional to Its momentum or 
quantitas motis. 

If it be of any real utility to give the name of force to 
this complex idea of vis motrix extended through time, as 
well as that of momentum to its effects when unresisted, it 
would be requisite to distinguish this force always by some 
such appellation as momental force; for it is to be appre- 
hended that for want of this distinction many writers them- 
selves, and it is certain that many readers of disquisitions 
on this subject, have confounded and compared together 
vis molrix, momentum, and vis mechanica: quantities that 
are all of them totally dissimilar, and bear no more compari- 
son to each other, than lines to surfaces, or surfaces to solids. 

In practical mechanics, however, it is at least very rarely 
that the momentum of bodies is in any degree an object of 


_ consideration ; the strength of, machinery being in every case 


to be adapted to the quantitas motrix, and the extent and 


value of the effect to.be produced depending upon the quan- 
titas mechanica of the force applied, or, in other words, to 

the space through which a given vis motrix is exerted, 
The comparative velocities given by different quantities of 
mechanic 


34 On the Force of Percussion. 


mechanic force to bodies of equal or unequal magnitude 
have been so distinctly treated of by Smeaton, in a series of 
most direct experiments *, that it would be a needless waste 
of time to reconsider them in this place. So also, on the 
coutrary, the quantities of extended mechanic effect pro- 
ducible by bodies moving with different quantities of im- 
petus, have been as clearly traced by the same accurate ex- 
perimentalist t. 

But there is one yiew in which the comparative ores of 
impact of different bodies was not examined by Smeaton, 
and it may be worth while to show that when the whole 
energy of a body A is employed without loss in giving ve- 
locity to a second body B, the impetus which B receives is 
in all cases equal to that of A, and the force transferred 
to B, or by it to any third body C, (if also communicated 
without Joss, and duly estimated as a mechanic force,). is 
always equal to that from which it originated. 

As the simplest case of entire transfer, the body A may 
he supposed to act upon B in a direct line through the me- 
dium of a light spring, so contrived that the spring is pre- 
vented by a satchet from returning in the direction towards A, 
but expands again entirely in the direction towards B, and 
by that means exerts the whole force which had been wound 
up by the action of A in giving motion to B alone. In this 
case, since the moving force of the spring is the same upon 
each of the bodies, the accelerating force acting upon B at 
each point is to the retarding force opposed to A at the cor- 
responding points in the reciprocal ratio of the bodies, and 
the squares of the velocities produced and destroyed by its 
action through a given’space will consequently be in that 
same ratio, The momentum, which is in the simple reci- 
procal ratio of the bodies, might consequently be increased 
at pleasure by the means proposed, in the subduplicate ratio 
of the bodies employed ; and if momentum were an efficient 
force capable of reproducing itself, and of overcoming fric~ 
tion in proportion to its estimated magnitude, the additional 
force acquired by such a means of increase might be employed 


* Phil. Trans. vol. lxvi. p. 450. t Ibid. vel. lxxii. p. 337, 
for 


On the Force of Percussion. 235 


for counteracting the usual resistances, and perpetual motion 
would be easily effected. But since the impetus remains 
unaltered, it is evident that the utmost which the body B 
could effect in return would be the reproduction of A’s ve- 
locity. and restitution of its entire mechanic force neither 
increased nor diminished, excepting by the necessary im- 
perfection of machinery. The possibility of perpetual mo- 
tion is consequently inconsistent with those principles which 
measure the quantity of force by the quantity of its extended 
effect, or by the square of the velocity which it can produce. 

In estimating the utmost effect which one body can pro- 
duce upon another at rest, the same result is obtained by 
employing impetus as ascensional force, according to Huy- 
gens ; for if the body A were allowed to ascend to the height 
due to its velocity, and if by any simple mechanical con- 
trivance of a lever or otherwise the body. B were to be raised 
by the descent of A, it is well known that the heights of 
ascent would be reciprocally as the bodies; and consequently 
that the square of the velocity to be acquired by free descent 
of B would be in that ratio, and ‘the quantity of mechanic 
force would be preserved as before unaltered. 

It may be of use also to consider another application of 
the same energy, and to show more generally that the same 
quantity of total effect would be the consequence not only 
of direct action of bodies upon each other, but also of their 
indirect action through the medium of any mechanical ad- 
vantage or disadvantage ; although the time of action might 
by that means be increased or decreased in any desired pro-+ 
portion. For instance, if the body supposed to be in mos 
tion were to act.by means of a lever upon a spring placed at 
a certain distance from the centre of motion, the retarding 
force opposed to it would be inversely as the distance of the 
body from the centre; and since the space through which 
the body would move to lose its whole velocity would be 
reciprocally as the retarding force, the angular motion of 
the lever and space through which the spring must bend, 
would be the same at whatever point of the lever the body 
acted, And conversely, the reaction of the spring upon any 


other 


2 


236 On the Force of Percussion. 


other body B, would in all positions communicate to it the 
same velocity. 

It may be remarked, however, that the times in which 
these total effects are produced may be varied at pleasure im 
proportion to the distances at which the bodies are placed 
from the centre of motion; and it should not pass unob- 
served, that, although the intensity of any vis motria is in- 
creased by being placed at what is called a mechanical ad- 
vantage, yet, on the contrary, any quantity of mechanic 
force is not hable to either increase or diminution by any 
such variation in the mode of its application. 

Since we can, by means of any mechanic force consisting 
of a vis motrix exerted through a given space, give motion 
to a body for the purpose of employing its impetus for the 
production of any sudden effect, or can, on the contrary, 
occasion a moving body to ascend, and thus resolve its im- 
petus into a moving force ready to exert itself through a de- 
terminate space of descent, and capable of producing pre- 
cisely the same quantity of mechanic effect as before, the 
force depending on impetus may justly be said to be of the 
same kind as any other mechanic force, and they may be 
strictly compared as to quantity. 

In this manner we may even compare the force of a body 
in motion to the same kind of force contained in a given 
quantity of gunpowder, and may say that we have the same 
quantity of mechanic force at command, whether we have 
1 lb. of powder, which by its expansion could give to one 
ton weight a velocity sufficient to raise it through 40 feet, 
or the weight actually raised to that height and ready to be 
let down gradually, or the same weight possessing its ori- 
ginal velocity to be employed in any sudden exertion. 

By making use of the same measure as in the former 
ceases, a distinct expression is likewise obtained for the quan- 
tity of mechanic force given to a steam-engine by any quan- 
tity of coals; and we are enabled to make a comparison of 
its effect with the quantity of work that one or more horses 
may have performed in a day, each being expressed by the 
space through which a given moving force is exerted. In 

the 


Hisiory of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 237 


the case of animal exertion, however, considerable uncer- 
tainty always prevails,in consequence of the unequal powers 
of animals of the same species, and varying vigour of the 
same animal. The information which I have received in 
reply to inquiries respecting the weights raised in one hour 
by horses in different situations, has varied as far as from 
6 to 15 tons to the height of 100 feet. But although the 
rate at which mechanic force is generated may vary, any 
quantity of work executed is the same in whatever time it 
may have been performed. 

In short, whether we are considering the seurces of ex- 
tended exertion or of accumulated energy, whether we com- 
pare the accumulated forces themselves by their gradual or 
by their sudden effects, the idea of mechanic. force in prac= 
tice is always the same, and is proportional to the space 
through which any moving force is exerted or overcome, or 
to the square of the velocity of a body in which such force 
is accumulated. 


XXXIX. History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. By 
JEROME DE LALANDE*, 


Ox the morning of the 20th of October 1805, M. Bouvard. 
discovered a comet upon the paws of Ursa Major: it was 
small, had no tail, and was almost round, and so faint that 
it was scarcely discernible with a night-glass which mag- 
hified five or six times. At 4° 19’ in the morning it had 
166° 31’ of right ascension, which I call equatude, and 33° 
30° of northern declination. The same night it was disco- 
vered by M. Pons, at Marseilles. We know from the public 
journals that M. Huth saw it also at Frankfort on the 
Oder. Messrs. Bouvard and Arrago observed it with the 
great equatorial, made this year by M. Bellet for the ob- 


__ servatory ; and they followed it as long as the bad state of 


the weather would permit. M. Thulis observed it at Mar- 
seilles so late as the 6th of November. Messrs. Biot and 


* From Mag. Ency. for 1806, tom, ii. p. 92. 
Arrago 


238 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 


Arrago ascertained its elements as follows :—Node, 115 15% 
6’; inclination, 11° 53’; perihelion, 4° 28° 45’; distance, 
0°3762: passage, 18th November 1 8’ 6” mean time; mo= 
tion direct. This is the 95th comet according to the cata< 
logue in my astronomy, which I have continued in the va= 
rious volumes of the Connoissance du Temps. 

The 96th comet was discovered by M. Pons, on the 9th 
of November, in Andromeda: he was not certain of it until 
the 10th. Upon that day M. Thulis found it at 16° 38’ of 
equatude, and at 40° 43’ of northern declination ; and he 
continued observing it till the sth of December. His ex 
cellency M. Champagny, minister of the interior, has given 
M. Pons a present of 300 francs in consideration of the four 
comets he has discovered. 

On the 14th of November M. Bouvard also perceived it, 
and on the 16th he determined its position. It was very 
small, and very difficult to see, notwithstanding its nucleus. 
As soon as M. Burckhard had received three observations, 
he sent me the elements of its orbits on the same day. 
Those who know the difficulty of this problem will be asto= 
nished at the readiness of this able astronomer: but this 
was only the first essay. Messrs. Legendre, Bouvard, and 
Biot, afterwards calculated it: they found the node 8° 10? 
32’; inclination, 15° 34’; perihelion, 3° 19’ 26”; distance, 
0°8916: passage, 31st of December, at 8°; motion direct. 
On the 22d of November M. Huth also discovered it at 
Frankfort on the Oder. As it approached the earth it be- 
came more beautiful: on the 5th of December it was seert 
with the naked eye in Pisces. M. de Flaguergues observed 
it on the 7th at Viviers ; but it rapidly advanced towards the 
south, and the bad weather prevented it from being seen any 
more. It was seen at Greenwich, however, on the gth of 
December ; and by Dr. Herschel at Slough. 

The most important thing ‘in the history of astronomy is 
the publication of the fourth volume of the Mecanique Ce- 
leste of M. de Laplace, which treats of satellites, comets, 
refraction, of the inequalities of Jupiter, Saturn, and the 
moon, and which on every subject contains the greatest ef+ 
forts of theory and the last degree of perfection. M. de La~ 

place 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 339 


place there gives some new results wpon the masses of the 
planets; and he has latterly confirmed them by the calcula- 
tion of an old Chinese observation on the obliquity of the 
ecliptic, made 1100 years before the vulgar cera, which gives 
23° 54’, while he finds 52” by his theory, (tom. ii. 1. vie- 
ch. 16) ; another observation, 100 years before our era, gives 
23° 45’, while it is 44’ by the theory: this confirms the mass 
of Venus made use of by M. de Laplace, and the diminu- 
tion of the obliquity of the ecliptic of 52” per annum, al- 
though several observations have seemed to give only 36”. 

We have received a book (196 pages in 8vo.) containing 
the exposition of the operations made in Lapland for the des 
termination of an arc of the meridian in 1802, by Messrs. 
Osverbom, Svanberg, Holmquist, and Palander. They made 
use of the new decimal measures ; a procedure which I think 
the duty of all those who interest themselves in the progress 
of truth. 

The result {p. 187) is, that the degree, of which the mid- 
dle passes at 66° 20’, is 111477°4 metres, or 57196°2 toises; 
but to make this reduction they have supposed the metre to 
be 443°2959 lines, as the commissioners of weights and 
measures have made it in France; and for that purpose they 
took the metre at the freezing point, and the toise at the 
13° of the thermometer of 80°. It seems to me most na- 
tural to take them both at the mean temperature, which is 
4°. By amean between the observations of several years, 
it is the zero of my new thermometer: for this we must 
subtract 0-064 lines from the metre, and add 0°046 lines ta 
the toise, according to the experiments made by M. Lavoi- 
sier, and in which IJ took a part in 1782; and we may make 
this proportion ; 863°954 : 448°360 :: 854 lines are to the 
metre; and thus it is found to be 443°435 lines in place of 
296. Itis to this yalue that [ shall change all the. mea- 
sures in my astronomy, as I announced to the Institute on 
the 28th of October. Thereby I find that we must subtract 
154 metres from the number above given, and that the de- 
gree is 57200. 

The degree of 1736 having been measured at 15°, there 
must be added to it three toises; that of 1802, having been 


measured 


240 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 
measured at 3°, but reduced to zero, we must take from it 
eight toises: this augments the difference by eight toises, 
The former, in ede of 57419, becomes 574225. and the 
second reduced to 111462 metres, makes 57200 toises: thus 
there are 222 toises too much. As this agrees with the other 
degrees measured, and with the oblatencss given by the pen- 
dulum and the moon’s parallax, we cannot refrain from 
adopting the new resuit, although it is difficult to compre- 
hend how our academicians in 1736 came to commit so great 
anerror. The Swedes thought that the sector of nine fect 
was more liable to be deranged, and less certain, than the re- 
peating circle which they made use of. 

M. de Zach has examined the work of the Swedes: he 
compared the angles, and the reductions: he finds the re- 
duction payers but the work is not less important or 
beneficial. 

In order to clear up the enormous differences between the 
measurement of the French and that of the Sites I observe 
four things. 

1. The sector was not reversed: this was too difficult. 

2, The wire was suspended by astud upon a thickish cy= 
Iinder; and there might be friction. 

It was not then known how important it was that the 
optic axis of the telescope should be parallel to the plane ; 
two lines of difference in the position of the glasses make 
six minutes upon a radius of nine feet, and this difference 
may thence arise; there may result from this upon the di- 
stance to the zenith an error so much the greater, as pro- 


bably the glass was directed_to the stars by their transits to 


the meridian, and not by a meridian wire. 
4. | remember extremely well that Maupertuis told me 
“that he was anxious to recommence the measurement. 
We have also seen in the London Transactions that Mudge 


as measured three degrees in England. He found 111189 


metres at 52°; this agrees with the French measurements : 
but he found for the ieott part 164 metres less than for the 

south part, and he ought’to have found 23 metres mores 
which announces irregularities in the interior structure of 
the earth and in the attractions of mountains, and which 


makes: — 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 241 


makes us wish for other measurements of degrees of longi- 
tude which are not affected by these irregularities. —Phil. 
Trans. 1804. 

M. de Zach has continued the measurement of his de- 
grees of the longitude and latitude of Capel, at Gotha; he 
hopes next year to finish 4° of longitude. 

M. de Zach has been making observations at Hieres, Aix, 
and Avignon, for these 17 years past: he has found 897 
toises for the height of Mount Ventoux. He expects to 
finish in Provence the celestial arc between the mountain 
Saint Victoire, and the pillar of Cette in Languedoc, for 
the degree of longitude measured in 1739, and upon which 
there had been always some doubt entertained. 

He observed at the Isle of Planier, the most southern 
point in France. General Roy had formed some doubt upon 
the longitude of Porquerolle; M.de Zach determined it. 

In the month of March there appeared a large spot with 
two nuclei upon the sun, whick J observed at 9° to the north 
of the solar equator: this differs little from the beautiful 
spots which I made use of in determining the rotation of 
the sun in the memoirs of the academy for 1776, and which 
were from 11 to 12 degrees. This seems to confirm the dis- 
covery I then made, proving that there are in the sun some 
points where great spots are formed in preference to others : 


» perhaps these spots are mountains, which attract and retain 


the scorie of this immense furnace. The parallel, which is 
9° to the south of the equator, abounds most in large spots. 

These spots with two nuclei, which have appeared at dif- 
ferent epochs (Mem. 1776 & 1778), seem to me to over- 
turn the system of volcanoes proposed by Herschel. 

The beautiful spot of the month of March had its middle 
at 101 degrees of declination. That of which I calculated the 
appearance (Mem. 1776, p. 496) had from 11° to'14°; but a 
spot of a minute occupies near 4°: thus the mountain which, 
I suppose, served it for the foundation or obstacle to arrest 
and to fix it by, may rather, by taking it at a different point, 
draw it to 2° or 3° further in one appearance than in the 
other. 


Vol. 26, No, 103, Dee, 1606. Qu M., de 


242 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 


M. de Flaugergues again saw this beautiful spot in the sun 
in the month of April, and this return gave him the rotation 
of the sun 25 days 16 6’, as I have found by many observa- 
tions. (Aslronomie, art. 3276.) 

M. Piazzi, the celebrated astronomer of Palermo, writes 
me, that he has observed the principal stars in the two sea- 
sons of the year, when the difference of the situation of the 
earth in its orbit ought to produce a difference upon the si- 
tuation of the stars.. People have been disputing for these 
two centuries upon this effect of the movement of the earth, 
which has been called the annual parallax. M. Piazzi found 
it in three months 1:5” for Aldebaran, 3” for Procyon, 4% 
for Sirius, from which it follows that the stars are not di- 
stant, as was thought, more than seven millions of mil- 
lions of leagues; but he propuses to continue and verify 
these important observations. 

One of the most important works of 1805 is that of 
M. Legendre, entitled “ New Methods for the Determina- 
tion of the Orbit of the Comets,—Firmin Didot ;” where 
be has quoted the methods of Lambert, and Insignores Or- 
bite in the memotrs of Berlin for 17715 and he gives a new 
method for determining au orbit by three observations; and 
he has applied at to the comets of 1769 and 1781. He makes 
use of a method he calls that of moindres carrés, which also 
served him to determine the 45th degree of latitude, and he 
ccnclude | from it that the length of the arcs of the meri- 
dian is less proper than that of the pendulum for the deter- 
mination of an universal measure. 

M. Gauss, already known as one of our greatest geome- 
tricians, is occupied in computing the attractions of Jupiter 
upon ihe three new planets; but as there will be several 
hundreds of equations, he proposes to give only the me- 
tLods with which our caleulators will easily determine the 
qnantities of these equations. 

“ Lilienthalische Beobachiungen der neu entdeckten Ceres, 
Pallas, &§ Juno, Von Dr. Johann Hieronymus Sehroter ; 
Gottingen, 1805, pp. 336, Svo. Treuttel; price 15 francs.” 
These are observed diameters, but which appear too great 

; according 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 243 


according to Herschel’s memoir. He finds 3°5” for Piazzi 
for distance ; diameter 587 leagues: Olbers, 4:5”; diameter 


_760 leagues: Harding, 31”; diameter 515 leagues. 


In the Bibhothéque Britannique of the month of August 
there is an ephemeris of the three planets up to the month 
of May 1806. 

The astronomical medal founded by Lalande, which is 
adjudged every year towards the spring equinox, has been 
decreed by the Institute to M. Harding for the discovery of 
his planet. 

The prize which M. Bode had been charged to give for the 
best memoir on astronomy, has been raised to 600 francs. 

M. Laplace read at the Institute a memoir upon the ca- 
pillary tubes, in which he gives the analytical calculation of 
their attraction perfectly conformable to experiments. There 
is an extract of it in the Journal de Physique for January 
1806. I read one myself upon levelling = where I explained 
the table of the level made use of in going from the north 
to the south, and that which must be employed when we 
level from the east to the west, on account of the figure of 
the earth ; a consideration which has hitherto escaped all the 


authors who have written of levelling. 


- 


The fifth volume of the Institute, which appeared on the 
14th of January, contains fourteen memoirs on astronomy. 
I have there given researches upon the motions of Mercury, 
Mars, and Venus; some calculations of occultations of the 
stars, and a description of the zodiac of Strasbourg. M. De~ 
lambre there treats of the stereographic projection, and of the 
astrolabe of Senezius, which M. Gail had stated to the class. 
There is also a memoir of M. Messier upon the transit of 
Mercury; observations of M. Ferrers in America; on the 
oscillation of Mars, by M. Duc la Chapelle; and a notice 
of the grand tables of logarithms which M. de Prony has 
caused to be calculated ; and some remarks upon the history 
of the trigonometric tables. M. Cassini there gives the de- 
scription of his compass. 

The London Transactions for 1803 contain a memoir of 
M. Herschel uppn the transit of Mercury, where he has not 


Q2 perceived 


244 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805: 


perceived any ring; and another upon the causes which 
make the mirrors of a telescope change their form. 

In the Transactions for 1804 he speaks of the double stars 
which for 25 years seem to have experienced some varia- 
tions, particularly in respect to the angles of distance with 
the ecliptic, which makes him think that they turn but so 
slowly that it is difficult to affirm it. He has seen one part 
conceal the other in one of these double stars. 

M. Delambre’s tables of the sun, and M. Burg’s tables 
of the moon, have been finished and presented. M. De- 
lambre has revised the tables of the moon in such a manner 
that all the equations are additive ; which will save time, 
and diminish the risk of making errors. These tables are 
about to appear. 

The new table of refractions of M. de Laplace, which 
appears with the tables of the sun, gives six-tenths of the 
second at 45° more than that of Bradley; but M..de La- 


place informs astronomers that discordances have been often . 


found between the two solstices, from having placed the 
thermometer within an observatory, instead of placing it 
outside, but out of sunshine. 

The observations of the two solstices,and the two equi- 
noxes, made by M. Delambre, with a repeating circle, du- 
ring several days, have confirmed the epochs of the  obli- 
quity of the ecliptic, which he uses in his new tables. 

Epoch for 1800, 9° 10° 23’ 32: 6”, less by two 2” than in 
his former tables. Mean obliquity, 23° 27’ 57” ; greater by 
4” than in the tables of my third edition, which have been 
hitherto made use of. 

M. Delambre has finished the printing of the first volume 
of the great work on the meridian, in 750 pages: it is en- 
titled Base du Systeme Métrique Decimal; or, Mesure de 
Arc du Meridien. It contains all the triangles formed 
from Dunkirk to Barcelona. The second volume will 
contain the bases, the azimuths, the latitudes, and the 
calculations of the triangles. Perhaps there will be a third 
volume afterwards added. 4 
The new tables of Jupiter and Saturn, calculated by M. Bou- 


vard, haye been finished, and they are about to be printed. 
Those 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 245 


Those of Mercury, Venus, and Mars, made by M. La- 
Jande, my nephew, will immediately follow. M. Delambre 
revises the tables of the satellites ; and we are about to have 
a new and complete collection of astronomical tables, to be 
published by the board of longitude. 

We have received the Memoirs of Berlin for 1862, which 
contain some observations of M. Bode, and calculations 
upon the planets of Piazzi and Olbers. 

M. Bouvard has continued at the observatory his course 
of observations with excellent instruments, and they will 
appear in the Connoissance des Temps for 1808 ; which will 
be printed in the form of the Gregorian Calendar, accord- 
ing to the senatus consultum of the 9th of September, sup- 
pressing the republican calendar, and which is printed m 
our small Annuary. 

In the bulletins of the academy of Montpelier there are 
some observations of M. Poitevin and of M. de Flauger- 
gues. 

M. Vidal, director of the observatory of Toulouse, fis 
sent us a large collection of observations which he made in 
1804, and which evince the zeal of this excellent astrono- 
mer. . } : 

The Ephemerides of Vienna for the year 1806, contain a 
great many longitudes determined by eclipses, in continua 
tion of the great work of M. Triesnecker; a memoir of 
M. Burg, to prove that it is necessary to increase Bradley’s 
refractions ; observations made at Vienna, Buda, Prague, 
Cremsmunster, Carlsbourg or Alba Carolina, Naples, Pa- 
lermo, Ratisbon, Amsterdam, Gotha, Milan, Munich, and 
Brunn, and to the south of Olmutz. 

The Ephemerides of M. Bode for 1808, also contain se- 
veral observations made at Berlin, Vienna, Petersburgh, 
Bremen, Breslaw, Prague, Vilna, Cremsmunster, Palermo, 
Upsal, Huth, and Danzig ; and computations of the three 
new planets. This volume, as well as the preceding ones, 
shows how important it is for astronomers to be acquaint- 
ed with the German language. I see with pleasure, that 
M. Bode approves of the name of equatude, which I substi- 


Q 3 tuted 


s 


246 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 


tuted for that of right ascension, that we might have a 
simple name, and one not indicating a thing never seen. 

M. Poczobut and M. Tregshleas astronomers in the uni+ 
versity of Vilna, have sent us a great number of observa- 
tions of the new planets, made in 1803 and 1804 with ex= 
cellent instruments, 

M. Scarpelini has sent from Rome observations made im 
the observatory of the duke of Sermonata (Gaetani) upon 
the eclipses of the sun and moon, and the transits of Mer- 
cury over the sun, 

Pope Pius VII. Chiaramonte, whose stay at Paris gaye us 
so much pleasure, has given me orders to procure a circle, 
aclock, and an achromatic telescopefor the observatory of the 


Roman college ; which Messrs. Calendrielli and Conti have 


rendered icine and which cardinal Litta, prefect of 


the studies of the Roman college, specially protects. 


The astroromers of Florence have requested me to send - 


them a chronometer of Berthoud. 

M. Ciccolini, astronomer of Bologna, has published 4 
memoir upon the eclipse of the sun of the 11th of February, 
1g04 ; which it was thought would have been total in Italy. 
But that was not, nor,could it be the case, according ta 
the diameters of the sun and the moon in my tables ; but the 
observation has succeeded as ill in Italy as in France. 

M, Ciccolini has made an useful addition to the reflecting 
circle. He has made the back part of this instrument a 
quadrant, the radius of which is the diameter of the instru- 
ment itself; and with a plummet and the telescope of the 
circle, he is thus able to ascertain, in half a minute of time, 
the altitude of a star within half a degree, and at the same 
time the degree to which the yernier of the telescope must 
be placed to observe with, In this manner we avoid the 
disagreeable method of trial in observations of altitudes, 
always complained of by the most skilful astronomers and 
navigators. By this method also we can give a greater mag-- 
nifying power to the telescope than is usual; which will be 
extremely advantageous in these sorts of observations. 

M, Lenoir has ee made at Paris a stand, with which a 

single 


. History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 247 


single observer is enabled’ to make use of the repeating 
circle, i 

M. Augustus Pictet, of Geneva, has given a method of 
- observing meridian transits, by means of the sextants which 
are used in the navy. It is sufficient to fix due west a mark 
which will be at 90° exactly from all the points in ihe meri- 
dian. 

M. Julian Ortez Canelas, son-in-law of the Jate Tofind; 
and director of the observatory of Spain, has sent us the ob- 
servations made in the isle of Leon from 1798 to 1801. 

M. Tiscar has sent us observations of eclipses, and accu- 
rate calculations, from which to deduce the longitudes. 

M. de Ferrers, a Spanish officer, travelling in America, 
has sent us an observation of the eclipse of the 26th of June, 
1805, which was not visible in Europe. He settles New 
York in latitude 40° 49’, and 5° 6° 0” west of Paris. The 
beginning happened at 6" 50° 10” apparent time. From this 
Tcéncluded the conjunction at 11524’ 42” at Paris, and the 
error of the tables —- 46”; but as it includes the supposi-- 
tion of the latitude of the moon, it may be something Jess, - 
M. de Ferrers adds the positions of New York and Albany, . 
and several other observations. 

We have received from Portugal the Bphetiievides of 
Coimbra for 1803; they are sjmilar to those of 1804, which 
we mentioned last year. The author has banished the signs 
and the seconds : every thing is expressed in degrees, minutes, 
and hundredths ; the time is in hours, minutes, and bun- 
dredths ; and all the calculations are for mean noon. The 
article Planets contains all the longitudes, heliocentric and 
geocentric latitudes; their right ascensions, their declina- 
tions, their transits, and their parallax. Instead of confign- 
rations of the satellites, we find for the times of eclipses 
their situation relative to the centre of Jupiter expressed by 
two rectangular co-ordinates, one of which has tor its axis 
the line of the belts. ‘he distances of the moon from the 
sun and the stars are only given for noon and midnight 5 
‘but at the end of the calendar we see, as in the preceding vo- 
Jume, subsidiary tables, intended to enable mariners to dis- 
" pense with the tables of logarithms in the most ordinary cal- 
Q4 culations. 


248 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 


culations. The first volume contains tables proper for calcu= 
lating without logarithms the horary angles, the azimuths, 
and the semi-diurnal arcs; the distances of the moon from 
the stars, to reduce the apparent distances to the true, and 
to find the longitude of a ship; formule for the calculation 
of eclipses, in which are employed the right ascensions and 
the declinations of the two stars ; and lastly, tables of Mars, 
by M. Monteiro, and which give the perturbations in ten 
equations, 

The volume of 1805 also presents several subsidiary tables, 
serving to calculate, without logarithms, the right ascension 
and the declination of a star whose longitude and latitude 
are known, and that according to two different methods: 
we there find a table of the horary angles of the stars when 
they have 8° of altitude, which has been constructed to find, 
among the eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter, any one which 
we cannot expect to be able to see; a table of the distances 
of the centre of Jupiter from the centre of the section of the 
cone of shadow through which the four satellites pass ; tables 
of latitude for these same satellites; the abscissa of the sha- 
dow, 7. e. the path of the satellite in the shadow during the 
semi-duration of the eclipse. These tables serve to compute 

the position of ‘the satellites with regard to the centre of 
Jupiter, such as we see them every six days of each month 
in the Ephemerides ; they also serve to ascertain whether 
the satellite is visible at the time of immersion or emersion. 
For the general tables, which the author had given in the 
’ preceding volume for the aberration, he has in this volume 
substituted others which are all similar to those of M. De- 
lambre, with this exception, that the quantities, in place of 
being in seconds, are in minutes and decimals: some of these 
tables are founded upon very ingenious plans of calculation, 
and the author has skilfully avoided the necessity of having 
recourse to the tables of logarithms: this calculation is not 
always so short as that by the known methods ; but we there 
find for the problems given in 1804, the advantage of not 
having occasion for any other ephemerides; far the pro- 
blems which that for 1805 contains, this advantage is much 
diminished, since we may refer to the yolume for 1804. 

The 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 249 


The author has omitted the formule upon which these tables 
have been constructed. In order to appreciate their exact- 
ness they must be decomposed, which is sometimes long 
and difficult enough when they are founded upon formulz 
simply approximative. 

M. Canclas has sent us from Spain the Almanack Nom- 
tika for 1807. That for 1808 is calculating. 

The Academy of Sciences in Norway, to which council- 
lor Hammer bequeathed 80,000 francs, with a library and a 
cabinet of natural history, have not forgotten to devote a 
part of these resources to the service of astronomy. I have 
already had occasion to remark that astronomy was culti- 
vated in these terrible climates, where Messrs. Pihl, Wib 
senior and junior, and M. Aubert, have made many useful 
observations. 

M. Goldbach, having arrived at Moscow on the Ist of 
April, fixed upon the spot for the observatory in the Botanic 
Garden. He expects a three-foot circle, made by Berge, 
the successor of Ramsden ; and a five-foot transit instru- 
ment from Carey. The senator Mouravieff, curator of the 
university of Moscow, favours this establishment, which 
cannot fail to procure us some excellent observations. 

M. Goldbach has determined the latitude of the univer- 
sity to be 55° 44’ 39”. The observatory will be one minute 
more northerly: thus the latitude marked in the Connois- 
sance de Temps 55° 45’ 45”, nearly approaches that which 
we shall have to use. 

On the 28th of November the grand pensionary of Hol- 
Jand named M. Fokker astronomer to the republic. This 
leads me to hope that an observatory and instruments will 
be procured in that country, where astronomical observa- 
tions have been so long wanted for the use of their navy. 
I have already spoken of the zeal of M. Fokker in the His- 
tory of Astronomy for 1801. (Bibl. p- 856.) 

_ The emperor, in passing through Turin, promised general 
Menou to grant 60,000 francs for the use of the observa- 
tory; and the academy will send from France a practical 
astronomer, in order to show theorists the method of making 

observations. 


250 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 


observations. MM. Wasalli-Eandi of the Turin Academy has 
promised that he will not lose sight of this useful project. 

At Milan the emperor gave 8000 livres as a pension to 
M. Orian, the most welcbsated geometrician and astronomer 
in Italy. 

At Lyons the municipality, whom F had solicited to re= 
pair the observatory where I made my first observation in 
$748, have come to the resolution of doing so; and M. Clere 
has given them the designs. 

We have received from Berlin three memoirs in French ¢ 
First memoir containing the exact value of the radius of cur- 
vature for all azimuths upon the surface of an ellipsoid with 
three arcs, presented to the Royal Society of London by 
Rohde, captain in the Prussian service: Potzdam 1804, 
15 pages in 4to. Second memoir, upon the famous devia- 
tion towards the south or north in bodies which fall from a. 
great height; presented to the Academy of Petersburg by 
Rohde. Potsdam 1805, eight pages in 4to. Third memoir, 
upon the absolute attractive forces or masses of the planets 
without satellites, upon the masses of the satellites, and 
upon comets; laid before the Academy of Berlin (Epheme- 
rides 1807, p- en by Rohde: Potsdam 1905, 28 pages 
im 4to. 

M. Biot has ehh lishod Elements of Physical Astronomy, 
for the Use of Schools. As they are quite different from 
my Abridgment of Astronomy, they do not prevent mine — 
from being still useful to beginners. 

T have given a third edition of my Astronomy for the La- 
dies, improved and augmented. This small book, whieh in 
two days will give any one a satisfactory idea of our science, 
im my estimation wil) be extremely useful for many persons. 

M. Raymond, professor of astronomical geography, has 
published lectures upon the system of the world, where he 
explains the machines of M. Loysel, and which have the 
advantage of several more figures than my Astronomy for the — 
Ladies. He will give the development of them in his subse- 
quent course Traité de Geodesie, or exposition of the astro- . 
nomical and trigonometrical methods applied to the mea= — 

2 surement 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 251 


surement of ground, as well as to the preparation of the 
eanvas for charts and maps; by L. Puissant, professor of 
mathematics in the Imperial Military School: 400 pages in 
Ato. price 18 francs; Paris, chez Courcier. 

We find in this book plenty of astronomical problems 
necessary for drawing of charis, tables for the spheroids, and, 
in particular, a complete description of the repeating circle, 
with excellent plates. 

Manuel de Trigonometrie Pratique, by M. V’abbé Dela- 
grive, of the Royal Society of London, and geographer in 
the city of Paris ; revised, and augmented with tables of lo- 
garithms for the use of engineers, particularly land-survey- 
ors: by Reynaud, professor of Jand-surveying in the Poly- 
mathic School; 1 vol. 8vo. 352 pages, with 6 plates; Paris, 
chez ae price 7 francs. 

Trigonometrie Analytique, preceded by the Theory of the 
Logarithms, by Reynaud ; Courcier, 1805, in 18mo. There 
are here added tables of logarithms made upon my small 
stereotype tables, but which are probably far from being so 

exact as mine. 

M. Benzenberg has published a book in German, where 
we find his experiments upon the fall of bodies, Versuche 
uber das Gesetzx des Falls: 1 spoke of this last year. He 
found a deviation of 12 millimetres and a half for 86 me- 
tres; but the extremes differ by six millimetres, on account 
of the great difficulty of the observations. 

M. Benzenberg has also sent us some curious observations 
upon the shooting stars; he observed 500 of them in one 
night; he shows how they may be made useful in deter- 
mining longitudes. Having so concerted with M. Brandes, 
who was 25 leagues distant from him, he found the distance 
of these meteors to be from 5 to 60 leagues.’ 

M. Adrian Duquesnoy has published the first two volumes 
of Asiatic Researches, or Memoirs of the Society established 
in 1784 at Calcutta in Bengal; translated by A. Labaume, 
with notes of Messrs. Langlés, Delambre, Cuvier, Lamarck, 
and Olivier. There are seven volumes of this collection pub- 
lished, but they contain scarcely any astronomical memoirs 
Peerving of the trouble taken by M. Delambre to render 

them 


252 History of Astronomy for the. Year 1805. 


them interesting. We there see the mistakes of Baillie in 
his History of the Astronomy of the Hindoos. There are 
none so well acquainted with antient and modern Jndia as 
the academicians. of Calcutta. 

M. Marquey, in 1804, published at Rome a work of 
Gama, upon the astronomy, the chronology, and the my- 
thology of the Mexicans, with curious figures and interest- 
ing researches. 

The 39th number of the Notices de ’ Almanac contains 
the greatest part of our History of Astronomy for 1804. 
This collection contains every thing important in the sciences 
for 40 years past, and each year only costs 24 sols., If there 
was a coadjutor in every science as accurate as the astrono- 
mical one, this would be a precious collection. 

M. Lanulin, naval engineer, has published a work enti- 
tled ** Theory of the Organization of Worlds,” im which 
he explains the motion of projection of planets by the rota- 
tion of the sun, supposing them to have been hurled from 
the sun by volcanoes; but we have shown him that this is 
impossible, and that they fall back into the sun. M. Si- 
gorgne, although 86 years of age, has published a refutation 
ef M. Lanulin in 55 pages 8vo. Courcier 1806. 

We have been still more astonished to see a work appear 
entitled “* On the Impossibility of the Astronomical Systems 
of Copernicus and Newton; by L. S. Mercier, member of 
the National Institute of France; Dentu 1896, 318 pages, 
8vo.” Here an academician, celebrated for interesting 
works and some sentimental dramas, occupies himself with 
collecting the objections of the ignorant, and the difficulties 
of those who do not understand astronomy: M. Mercier 
would have required less time to comprehend the science 
than to write this book. 

The Astronomical and Geographical Journal, published 
in German by Messrs. Bertuch and Reichard, has continued 
its seventh year. It contains figures, charts, and portraits. 

This journal, as well as that of M. Zach, which we have 
often mentioned, is necessary for such as would wish to 
know completely the progress of astronomy. It is the same 
with the Ephemerides of M. Bode; but the German lan- 

guage 


Surgical Cases in the Finsbury Dispensary. 253 


guage is by far too little cultivated in France: this deficiency 
in the knowledge of the language might be’ supplied bya 
periodical work if it was as carefully conducted as the Bildi- 
othéque Britannique of Geneva. 

Since the year 1796, M. Olivarius has published at Kiel 
the journal entitled “ Ze Nord litteraire Phy sique-politique, 


Litteraire et Rural; chez Levrault, rue de Seine. 
{To be continued.] 


Se ee eee 


XL. Report of Surgical Cases in the Finsbury Dispensary 
from the 1st of September to the ist of November 1806 ; 
with Olservations on two Cases of Hernia which proved 
fatal. Communicated by Joun Taunton, Esq. Surgeon 
to the City and Finsbury Dispensaries, and Lecturer on 
Anatomy, Surgery, &c. 


Is the last report (see Philosophical Magazine, vol. xxv. 
P- 346,) there were 132 patients under cure; 117 of whom 
have been cured, 5 relieved, and 10 remain on the books : 
‘these are chiefly old persons, who have been afflicted with 
ulcerated legs for many years, and for whom little more is 
to be done by the art of surgery than to keep the parts clean, 
which might be accomplished with more convenience to the 
patients in other institutions; and the letters which these 
persons have occupied for so many years, and are still likely 
to keep, might be given to such patients whose cases admit 
of cure or relief, by which act the utility of the institution 
would be extended. 

Since the above report there have been admitted into this 


dispensary 202 patients : 


Cured - - 75 
Relieved - . - 3 
Died * - - i 
Not known - 1 \ 
Under cure - - 122 

202 


* This was a case of aneurism, which it is intended to notice in a subse+ 
quent report. 
: It 


254 Surgical Cases in the Finsbury Dispensary. 

It was observed in the lust report, that in many cases of 
ulcers situated on the legs, more pain had been experienced 
than was usual in similar cases, and that the cures were con- 
siderably protracted: much good has evidently been derived 
in these cases by the free administration of preparations of 
steel, nitric acid, and the bitter vegetable infusions. 

A case of hernia, which took place in consequence of an 
opening in the mesentery that existed, through which a part 
of the small intestines protruded, became strangulated, and 
produced death. 

Mrs. Davis, zt. 31, on the 21st of May last, when she 
was very warm, drank about a pint and a half of new fable 
beer, then in a state of fermentation; soon after which she 
became very uneasy, complained of being much swelled, 
and was occasionally sick. She was immediately removed 
to her apartments in Snow-hill, and visited by Mr. Skin- 
ner, who found her vomiting large quantitics of bilious 
matter, accompanied with violent pain in the umbilical re- 
gion; a quick but not hard pulse. The saline mixture was 
given, and a large blister was applied to the fore part of the 
abdomen. 

gad, No relief, or ease, had been obtained during the 
night: an enema was administered, which was returned 
withont efect: the medicine was also rejected from the sto- 
mach as soonsas taken. 

23d, The symptoms continuing,, venesection was had 
recourse to, another blister applied, the enema repeated, 
and the saline mixture taken occasionally. 

gath, No mitigation of symptoms; the enema was re- 
peated without eifect ; every thing was rejected from the 
stomach. In the afternoon she was ordered into the warm 
bath ; pil. ex opii gr. 4 quilibet hora: the enema nicotiane 
was administered. 

25th, No relief had been obtained: the matter now vo- 
mited was of a greenish hue; the pulse was quick, but low 3 
the pain more violent; a little water was the only thing that 
remained on the stomach even for a short time: the enema 
nicotiane was repeated. I was requested to see her this 
evening for the first time, when the pain was rather abated, 

and 


‘ 
*~ 


3 in. The symptoms continued to increase during the two 


Surgical Cases in the Finsbury Dispensary. 255 
and there was a moist skin over the whole body. The opiate - 
was continued, and the saline mixture was repeated in small 


- doses at short a 


26th, Every unfavourable symptom had increased; the 
pulse was quick and small, attended with a dry skin: au 
enema was given, which returned with a small quantity of 
thin feculent matter, extremely offensive, and perfectly 
green. 

27th, The pulse was quicker and weaker than on the pre- 
ceding day, but the pain had nearly subsided. 

28th, The pain had considerably increased, but she ap- 
peared to be sinking fast, and died at 11 o’clock at night. 

On examining the body after death, the thoracic viscera 
were perfectly healthy and natural. 

In the abdomen the small intestines were distended with 
flatus, and much discoloured; the jejunum and ileum were 
in some parts in a gangrenous state, and their coats so tender 
as to give way to the slightest pressure; an opening was ob- 
served in the mesentery, through which many feet in length 
of the small intestines had protruded ; the distension of whick, 
added to the subsequent inflammation of the mesentery, in 
all probability produced the stricture on the intestinal canal. 
This malformation, from all appearance, must have existed 
from the first formation of the parts, as there was not the 
least trace of laceration or accidental injury. The other 
viscera were all natural and healthy. 

A fatal case of strangulated’ hernia, in which the opera- 
tion might have been performed with the greatest hope of 
guccess. 

Mrs. » et. 35, had been the mother of several 
children, and had always enjoyed good health, attended di- 
vine service on Sunday, the 12th of October last, and ap- 
peared quite well after her return home; but in the even- 
ing she was seized with pain in the abdomen, attended with 
sickness, hiccup, and vomiting: on going to bed she com- 
plained of a small swelling in the right groin, but which was 
not mentioned to the professional gentleman who was called 


.. followi ing 


256 Surgical Cases in the Finsbury Dispensary. 


following days, when she was asked if she had ever been 
subject to hernia, which question was answered in the ne- 
ative. 

In the afternoon of the 15th J was requested to see her, 
and found her then labouring under symptoms of strangu- 
Jated hernia, situated under poupart’s ligament, on the right 
side, between the femoral vessels and the ilium, not larger 
than a moderate-sized walnut. From the smallness of the 
tumour, and the pain being particularly referred to the um- 
bilicus aud region of the stomach, she could scarcely be 
convinced that the disease arose in consequence thereof. All 
attempts to reduce the hernia were unsuccessful ; enemas 
had been repeated frequently during the preceding night 
without having obtained the desired effect; every thing was 
rejected from the stomach as soon as taken. It appeared 
from the length of time strangulation had existed, from the 
remedies which had been employed, and from the present 
alarming symptoms, that the operation ought to be imme- 
diately performed. From the earnest entreaties of herself 
and husband I was induced to postpone it for two hours, 
giving in the mean time one of the following pills every half 
hour, R calom. gr. vill. opi. gr. iv. f. pil. iv. These were 
immediately rejected by the stomach; and the operation 
would have been performed but for the interference of an- 
cather surgeon, who sent me word ‘ that he had ‘reduced the 
hernia in part, was going to give some medicines, and had 
no doubt of complete success.’”’ By his improper and very 
reprehensible conduct the patient was taken from under my 
care and placed in the hands of one who promised a cure 
on much easier terms than myself: but the event proved the 

fallacy of his pretensions, as the patient died on the morn- 
ing of the 17th, leaving a young family and a disconsolate 
husband to lament the loss of a parent and wife no more. 

It was asserted by the surgeon that he had succeeded 
completely in reducing the hernia in his second attempt 5 
but on examining the part after death he acknowledged his 
error by saying, ‘* that it was not, nor never had been, re- 
duced ;” which was the fact. 

Had 


On Pneumatic Medicine. 257 


Had the operation been performed as advised in this:case, 
in all probability the patient would have recovered ; and it is 
only in the repeated fruitless attempts at reduction, and the 
consequent delay.of the operation, that so many valuable 
lives are lost to their families, to their friends, and to the 
community. , 


Joun TAUNTON. 
Greville-street, Hatton-garden, : 


December 22, 1806. 


XLI. Thirty-third Communication from Ry. THORNTON; 
relative to Pneumatic Medicine. 


Suspended Animation restored by Vital Air. 


Mk. B——, a tradesman in Duke-street, Manchester- 
square, from causes which I need not enter into, resolved 
upon self-destruction. He deliberately retired to a garrét in 
his house, and wrote down his causes of distraction, which 
he left upon the table. He sent the maid-servant down 
stairs, and leaped, as he thought, into eternity. . 
It being the top of the house, and Sunday, the rest of 
the family at church, his wife, child, and servant below 
stairs, no one heard his struggles, and he was full twenty 
minutes before the wife entered the apartment, saw her 
husband suspended, and to all appearance dead. He was 
cut down, and every assistance sent for in the neighbour- 
hood. When I arrived, all pulsation had ceased, and ani- 
mation appeared fled. In all cases of apparent death, time 
presses, and the urgency of the case demands all possible 
expedition. The grand question is, what is first to be done, 
and by what means? Then it may be right to premise, that 
I consider hanging and drowning as the same effect, but 
only produced by a different cause. Both may be thus de- 
fined, ** A stop put to the actions of life in the body, with- 
out any irreparable injury to any vital organ ; but itis requi- 
site to put the animated machinery into action in a given 
time, or the power of action will be irrecoverably lost.” 
Cullen, Boerhaave, Mr. White, &c. &c. have, on the con- 
Vol. 26. No. 103. Dec. 1806. R trary 


958  Thirty-third Communication from Dr. Thornton 


trary, considered suspension and drowning as extremely 
different; for hanging, they represent as destroying by 
inducing apoplexy, This also is the common, and a very 
natural opinion ; but I shall here prove it to be erroneous. 
The following experiment was Jong since made by professor 
Monro, at Edinburgh. A dog was suspended by the neck 
with a cord ; ina few minutes he ceased to struggle. The 
same experiment, exactly, was tried upon another dog, but 
an opening was previously made in the wind-pipe below the 
cord, so as to admit of air being forced into his lungs. In 
this state he was kept alive three quarters of an hour, when 
the cord was shifted below the opening into the wind-pipe, 
so as to intercept the ingress of air into the lungs, and the 
animal died in a few minutes. Upon examining the head, 
there was found vo rupture of vessels in the brain. To prove 
this point more clearly, I shall relate a still more decided 
experiment by the veterinary professor, Mr. Coleman. The 
carotids, or arteries, which carry blood to the head, may be 
secured without soon materially destroying the animal func- 
tions. This operation was first done, and then the animal was 
hanged,-and he died in a few minutes. Upon the brain 
being examined, there was. found a less congestion of blood 
than usual, and therefore no apoplexy. In apoplexy the 
irritability continues several hours, whilst in drowning or 
hanging, the animal functions are abolished in a few mi- 
nutes. In apoplexy, respiration together with the action 
of the heart and arteries go on, and the pulse often vibrates 
more forcibly than in health. In hanging or drowning 
respiration is suppresséd, and the pulse obliterated. In 
apoplexy there is the stértor apoplecticus very distinct ; —this 
is not to be discovered in hanging: and, lastly, after reco- 
very from apoplexy, the subject is generally paralytic; 
whereas no such event follows recovery from suspension : 
and where death ensues, the appearances in the brain, in 
the two instances, are ¢ntircly toto c@le different. . I press 
this distinction forward, as the proximate cause being ascer- 
tained Jeads to the right mode of treatment. This proximate 
cause I have sufficiently proved to be, in both hanging and 
drowning, a stoppage of air to the lungs, by which the ve 
» nous 


relative to Pneumatic Medicine. 259 


nous blood ceases to imbibe oxygen, and hence the heart, 
unstimulated by oxygen, ceases to contract, the arteries to 
vibrate ; and hence the whole machine, although sound and 
entire in every part, yet on a sudden, like a “aide whose 
pendulum is stopped, remains entirely at rest. 

In the watch, if we move but the pendulum, the wheels 
are immediately put into motion, the clock again correctly 
marks its hours and minutes as before: so likewise in the 
animal machine, if the blood can but be influenced by oxy- 
gen, the heart recovers its action, the brain its energy, and 
the nerves their sensibility; such is the wonderful harmo- 
nious consent of parts! " 

From this privation of oxygen in drowning and suspen- 
sion, we can now explain why the blood grows dark, the 
lips and countenance livid, arid why the body quickly loses 
its animal heat. That the motion of the heart depends upon 
the air thrown into the lungs, was established by the illus- 
trious Hook, a century ago, before the Royal Society. He 
laid open the thorax of a dog, cut away the ribs and dia- 
phragm, and removing the pericardium, he kept the animal 
alive above an hour by means of a pair of bellows. It was 
observed, that as often as he left off blowing, and the lungs 
were collapsed, the dog fell into convulsive motions, and 
revived again upon renewing the blast, and the heart began 
afresh to beat. John Hunter repeated the same experiment, 
and hence concludes, as with still-born children, in sus- 
pended animation, the first thing is to force air into the 
lungs to restore the heart’s action. For this purpose, John 
Hunter invented a pair of bellows of such a construction, 
that by one action fresh air is thrown into the lungs, and by 
another it is pumped out again, to imitate artificial breath- 
ing. This invention may be seen at Sayigny’s. But in this 
case no such instrument could be procured ; I therefore re- 
quested a common pair of bellows, and by inserting the 
nozzle up one nostril, while the mouth and opposite nostril 
were closed by a forcible pressure, the Bec were expanded 
with common air. 

We are now come to the next process. The heart or 

R2 nerves 


260 Thirty-third Communication rae Dr. Thornton 


nerves are to be roused into action. Volatiles, ‘especially 
aromatic vinegar, &c. are recommended by John Hunter ; 
but these are not always at hand. T requested the servant, 
at the time she brought the bellows, to bring some mustard 
and loiling water. As soon as the lungs were dilated, some 
mustard was put up the nostril and into the mouth, and a 
cloth dipped in boiling water, that is water scalding hot, 
was put over the region of the heart and thorax. 

This had a double effect: it stimulated the heart by ex- 
citing the nerves, and by imparting heat gave it more sus~ 
ceptibility to be acted upon. - ** Some years ago,”’ says Dr. 
Gardiner, “ the heart and part of the large vessels of a turtle 
were removed, with a view to examine the structure of 
these parts, and the circulation of the blood of that animal. 

Having wiped off the blood and other moisture, the heart 
"was wrapped up ina handkerchief; but engagements in 
the way of my profession obliged me to postpone my cu- 
riosity till about six or seven hours after it was cut out. 
When I examined it, there appeared not the least signs of 
life; but by putting it into water nearly milk warm it 
acquired a tremulous motion ; laying it on the table, and 
pricking it with a large needle, it palpitated several times. 
The palpitations were renewed as often as the needle was 
pushed into its substance, until it became cold, when it 
seemed to be insensible'to every stimulus. But after warm- 
img it again in the water, it recovered its irritability, and 
repeated its palpitations on the application of the needle. 
Though no movement could be excited in it by any 
stimulus when cold, yet it moved several times after 
being placed in the warm water.” This proves the neces- 
sity of heat for maintaining the full powers of the con- 
tractile living fibre. 

For the purpose of stimulating the heart, electricity is 
recommended by John Hunter. But this is often as unat- 
tainable as his bellows. 

Immediately upon the inflation of the lungs, and the 
application of the stimulus of boiling water to the chest, 
our patient gave signs of returning life by an apparently 
painful struggle; his eyes dreadfully rolled, his counte- 

nance 


‘ 


relative to Pnewmatic Medicine. 961 


nance became distorted, and the struggles of convulsive 
nature ensued. 

The legs were next rubbed with mustard, as also the 
thighs and arms; he was also continually blown upon by 
the bellows, raised upon the bed.‘ In order to oxygenate, 
the air the more, and stimulate the olfactory nerves, six 
quarts of vinegar, in fine sprays from a hearth-broom, 
were dispersed over the apartment. The acid principle of 
the vinegar is the product of oxygen, the reader already 
knows. In order to keep up the nice sympathy which 
exists betwixt the lungs, heart, and stomach, a cordial of 
very weak brandy and water was forced into the stomach, 
sweetened with sugar. 

In time of health, cordials, as they are called, on being 
received into the stomach, presently manifest their en- 
livening effects ; even long before they can be supposed to 
enter the lacteals and pass to the heart, their stimulus is dif- 
fused to the most remote part of the system. The rationale 
of this appears to be as follows: Alcohol has a high af- 
finity for oxygen, and by combustion it has been discover- 
ed, that sixteen ounces of the former, being burnt, produce 
eighteen ounces of water, which we know to be composed 
of hydrogen and oxygen. From this rapid combustion 
much caloric or heat is extracted. In order to give a di- 
stinct idea of the exact quantity,.one pound weight of hy- 
drogen melted 295 pounds of ice, whereas in similar cir- 
cumstances a pound of wax candles only melted 133 
pounds. Not only a great degree of animal heat, therefore, 
arises from the union of hydrogen and oxygen, but the 
nerves which supply the heart and stomach, the par vagum, 
are therefore ‘stimulated, and act by sympathy, as snuff 
stimulating the olfactory nerves produces sneezing, or 
spasm of the abdominal muscles ; and it is also found that 
the blood by possessing hydrogen becomes more attractive 
of the oxygen. Dr. Withering, writing to Dr. Beddoes, 
says, ** The experiments you wished for have been in part 
made. The late ingenious Mr. Spalding, who did so 
much in improving and using the diving-bell, and had 
practised with the greatest success for many years, was a 

R 3 man 


262 =6Thirty-third Communication from Dr. Thornton 


man of nice observation, and had he not fallen a sacrifice 
to the negligence of drunken attendants, would have him- 
self informed you of the circumstance. He particularly 
informed me, that when he had eaten animal food, or 
drunk fermented liquors, he consumed the air in the lell 
faster than when he lived upon vegetable food and drank 
only water. Many repeated trials had so convinced him 
of this, that he constantly abstained from the former diet 
whilst engaged in diving.” 

John Hunter eae ** the conveyance of some 
stimulating substance-into the stomach, to rouse this seat of 
universal sympathy. This operation should be performed 
with all possible expedition, for fear of inducing sickness.” 
, What this stimulating substance should be, he has not 
infermed his readers. The mode of conveyance is by 
means of a spoon, pressing down the tongue, the patient 
being partly elevated. Among the class of internal stimu- 
lants are hartshorn, rum, brandy, and usquebaugh, which 
are powerful stimulanis. But here it should be remembered, 
that the cessation of the actions of parts predispose them 
to be affected by lesser stimuli, and thrown into inordinate 
action by any strong stimulus. Thus, in a frost-bitten 
limb; the actions have ceased but the power remains. 
Heat only is wanting to call this power into action. But 
this must be gradually applied, or the highest inflamma- 
tion will ensue, ending in mortification. So with those 
starved nearly to death by hunger. Thus may the salu- 
tary efforts of nature be overpowered by the officiousness 
of art, a circumstance we may have frequent occasion to 
observe with regret. Thus, if our stimulants are too po- 
tent, they may prove destructive, by soon exhausting the 
living fibre. We must recollect here, that irritability is 
accumulated, and therefore weak brandy and water is to 
‘be preferred as the stimulant, as was employed in this 
instance. 

I now ordered more blankets to be added to the ‘sia 
covering. 

When respiration ceases in a drowned or suspended per- 
son, the ag of yenerating heat is suspended, and the 


body 


relative to Pneumatic Medicine. 263 


body loses gradually its natural heat, until it be reduced to 
the temperature of the surrounding medium. During this 
petiod, if we attempt to raise the heat to the natural stand- 
ard by warm pans of coals passedover the bed-clothes, or 
heated bottles or bricks applied to the legs and feet, we 
are not only disappointed in our expectations, but do an 
actual injury. Thus if a snake be taken from his autumnal 
hiding-place, and exposed to the sun’s rays, or in a warm 
room, he quickly shows signs of returning life, and even 
increased powers, but he will die from the experiment ; 
whereas another, gradually stimulated by heat, according 
to his state, will be restored to full animation. Thus by 
an ill-judged artificial and continued heat, many destroy 
the patient they had wished to save. But the lungs being 
supplied with air, the blood receives the oxygen gas (oxy- 
gen and caloric in is latent state) which is diffused, to be 
decomposed, through innumerable arteries and veins, from 
the centre to the extremities. Thus is the animal heat re- 
stored, and communicated throughout the system, and 
with more certainty than from any other mode. The most 
efficacious method therefore of imparting heat is, to excite 
the generating causes, by renewing respiration, and by 
placing the patient betwixt blankets, which it escapes as 
it becomes generated, flannel being a bad conductor of 
heat. To produce a quicker evolution of animal heat, an 
eighteen-gallon cask of oxygen gas was procured, and the 
air was taken out of the barrel by means of a common bel- 
lows, and forced into the lungs of the patient. 

Each time of this process there was an evident im- 
provement for the better. Our patient became less con- 
vulsed, and the countenance visibly lost. more and more of 
that ghastly lividness which was the most alarming sym- 
ptom. All the attendants noticed, each time, these very 
salutary changes. 

In order to relieve the head (for although the proximate 
cause of suspended animation is the pressure on the tra- 
chea, or wind-pipe, yet, as probably there is some turges- 
cence in the brain, owing to former pressure on the jugu- 
Jars), a dozen leeches were applied to the temples, but not 

R4 before 


264 Notices respecting New Pulfidations. 


before the powers of life were sufficiently established, 
and these bled very freely*. 

Then also a stimulating enema was thrown up. with: some 
tincture of aloes in it, to invite the aorta descendens. 
Cataplasms were likewise, for the same purpose, applied to 
the fect. . 

At night I saw my patient again, greatly restored but 
still very insensible ; and having got down a. draught with 
valerian, and, the volatile tincture of valerian, mixed 
in some camphor julep and cinnamon water, the. cata- 
plasm and blister across the thorax I ordered. to be removed 5 
but another was placed, along the nape-of the neck, he 
T left him. I was informed os his nurse, that he was rest- 
less that night, occasionally convulsed, had some inter- 
vals of sleep : but when I saw. him in the, morning, he wa 
perfectly himself, yet had. no recollection of: any Dae 
that had passed; the whole. narrative seemed to. him a, 
dream ; he felt. sore all over; was very thankful to find 
himself in existence, and eyen could smile at what appear- 
ed to him a strange event, and which. had brought him, 
actually on the very brink of eternity, but without any re- 
membered sensation. : 


XLII. Notices respecting New Publications. 


Tur late Mr. Russell, celebrated amongst men of science 
for the production of the lunar globe, left at his death two 
Junar planispheric drawings, the result of numberless tele- 
scopic observations scrupulously measured by a micrometer: 
one of which drawings exhibits the Junar disk in a state of 
direct opposition to the sun, when the eminences and de- 
pressions are undetermined, and every intricate part, arising 
from colour, form, or inexplicable causes, is surprisingly 
developed and exquisitely delineated ; the other, of precisely 


* John Hunter s says, “* I would by all means discourage blood-letting, which 
IL think weakens the animal principle and life itself, consequently lessens 
both the power and disposition to action.”—Phil. Trans. 


the 


: 


eee a 


4 He: ; 

Notices respecting New Publications. 263 
the same proportion, represents the eminences and depres- 
sions of the moon, determined as to their form with the ut- 
most accuracy, producing their shadows when the sun is 
only a few degrees above the horizon of each part. The 
former of these was beautifully and most correctly engraved 
by Mr. Russell, who had likewise very considerably advanced 
in the engraving of the latter, when death terminated his la- 
hours: it is, however, left in such a forward state, that it 
will be finished with the greatest exactness, and all possible 
dispatch. 

Mr. William Russell, son of the late Mr. Russell, proposes: 
to publish by subscription these lunar plates, which have 
been long promised to the scientific world: and the first en-' 
graving is now offered for their inspection. The whole will 
be incomparably the most complete lunar work ever offered 
in any age—a work, the more carefully it is examined, 
either as to its; accuracy or elegance (effected, indeed, by — 
extreme labour during twenty-one years), the more it will 
excite the wonder and admiration of the diligent inquirer. 

The utility of these engrayings is best expressed in the 
author’s own words: “‘ The principal use of the moon to 
astronomers is, that of ascertaining the longitude of places 
by the transit of the earth’s shadow when the moon is 
eclipsed. The shadow of the earth coming in contact 
with many known spots, if the observation be made in 
different places at the same time, the longitude of each 
place could by this means be ascertained with great preci- 
sion, provided the spots to be made choice of be sufficiently 
represented and recognised; but there being ‘no faithful 
delineation of the moon, and the edges of those spots which 
are known being undefined, the observations. made have 
not been so useful as could be wished: for this purpose, it 
is believed, Mr. Russell’s labours will be found very useful, 
and will very much add to the certainty and precision of 
the observations on lunar eclipses; as the chief design 
of his planisphere, representing the moon in a state of 
opposition to the sun, is directed to this end, and which he 
has spared no pains in bringing to perfection.” 

These 


266 Royal Society of London. 


These engravings, it is expected, will not only prove of © 
great utility to the astronomer, but lead to very important 
speculations in natural philosophy. The remarkable 
changes of forms in various eminences, the different radi- 
ations of light observable at one age of the moon and not 
at another, with its numerous surprising phawnomena, are 
in these plates faithfully and fully expresssed, so as to 
form a work, it is presumed, highly interesting in the 
departments either of astronomy or natural philosophy. 

The price of the work, to subscribers only, is five gui- 
neas, half of which sum is paid at the time of subscribing, 
when the first plate of the work is also delivered. ane 
tion will accompany the second plate. | 


Dr. Herdman has in the press, his second discourse on 
the interesting subject of The Management of Infants and 
the Treatment of their Diseases—written in a plain fami- 
har style, to render it intelligible and useful to all mothers, 
and those who have the management of infants. : 


We have great pleasure in announcing that the lectures 
which Mr. Landseer read at the Royal Institution on the 
art of engraving, are in the press. We believe Mr. L. is 
the first person who has lectured in England on that inter- 
esting and valuable art; and as his discourses were listened 
to with considerable approbation, and attended by nume- 
rous audiences at the Institution, we have reason to antici- 
pate their favourable reception with the public. 


XLII. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 


Nov. 27. The Right Honourable the President in the chair. — 
—Continuation of Mr. Davy’s Bakerean lecture on the 
«© Chemical. Agency of Electricity.” The third and fourth 
sections were read, consisting chiefly of numerous isolated 


experiments, conducted with great accuracy, on the effects 
of 


Royal Society of London. 267 


of electricity on different chemical compounds, most of 
which it decomposed. 

On the Ist December, the society celebrated its anniver- 
sary at their apartments in Somerset-place.—Afterwards the ~ 
society proceeded to the choice of the council and officers 
for the ensuing year; when, on examining the ballots, it 
appeared that the following gentlemen were elected of the 
council : 

Of the old council—The Right Honourable Sir Joseph 
Banks, Bart. K. B.; Mr. John Abernethy ; sir Charles Bladen, 
knt. ; Hen. Cavendish, esq.; Edward Whitaker Gray, M.D.; 
right honourable Charles Greville ; William Marsden, esq. 5 
reverend Nevil Maskelyne, D. D. ; George earl of Morton; 
William Hyde Wollaston, M. D. ; Fhomas Young, M. D. 

Of the new council—Right honourable Charles Abbott ; 
John Heaviside, esq. ; honourable Frederick North ; sir John 
S. Aubyn, bart. ;_ right honourable sir William Scott, knt. ; 
Francis lord Seaforth ; Charles Shaw Lefevre, esq. ; George 
viscount Valentia; Roger Wilbraham, esq. ; C. Wilkins, esq. 
_ And the officers were—The Right Honourable Sir Joseph 

Banks, Bart. K. B. President ; William Marsden, esq. trea- 
surer; Edward Whitaker Gray, M.D. and William Hyde 
Wollaston, M. D. secretaries. 

The Copleyan medal being adjudged to T. A. Knight, esq. 
for his numerous discoveries in vegetable physiology, the 
Right Hon. President pronounced a most able and animated 
discourse on the valuable philosophical inquiries of that 
gentleman :—with all that refined taste and elevated elo- 
quence for which he is particularly distinguished, he 
proceeded to take a philosophical view of the interesting ex- 
periments and discoveries of Mr. Knight ; of his researches 
and observations on the alburnous juice of plants, in its 
ascent elaborating the buds and leaves, and in its descent 
forming wood ; and of his discovery of the natural decay of 
apple-trees, and of the grafts which decline and become un- 
productive at the same time with the parent stock *. The 

experiments 


* This fact has been doubted by several practical horticulturists ; but Mr. 
Knight supperts it, both by experiments, and by reference to historical facts. 
bs 


268 Royal Society of Lotidon. 


experiments proving that all vegetables radicate by gravita- 
tion only, and not by any instinctive energy, were also no- 
ticed ; that new and superior speciés of apples may be pros 
dined’ from seed ; that impregnating the pollen was found 
to be an davantublous substiture for grafting ; that the authot 
has produced a new and highly valuable species of pears by 
this means ; and, finally, that in thé course of his numerous 
experiments he had produced and cultivated a new species 
. of vines, which bear grapes superior in flavour to any others 
hitherto known, and capable of arriving at perfection, even 
in the most adverse seasins, in our climate. These, and 
many other discoveries, which the learned and eloquent 
President most ably enumerated, with equal elegance and 
precision, were the reasons which induced’ the council of 
the society to award’ the Copleyan medal to Mr. Knight, 
whose successful labours in this branch of natural history 
have at'least’ equalled, if not surpassed, those of any other 
philosoplier, in developing the ceconomy of vegetation, and 
the laws of vegetable life. 

We have to regret that in this slight sketch we are un- 
able to convey any adequate idea of the elegance, spirit, 
and-phifosophical acumen of this admirable discourse, which 
far excelled those of his predecessor, the late sir John 
Pringle, bart. It is hoped that the Right Hon. President’s 
sense of public utility will overcome every other secondary 
consideration in this case, and that (contrary to his former 
practice) he will suffer his discourse, which is so important. 
to agriculture, to be laid before the public, and not confine 
it to a few fellows of thé society, who, from their habits of 
life, however conscious they may be of its merits, are yet 
incapable of facilitating the ‘practical application of the dis- 
coverics and principles which it unfolds. 


Yh the latter’, he shows that many speciés of apples, once’ highly esteemed, 
are now become extinct; and that several others have degenerated both in 
sizt and quality, especially that kind denominated pippins, which in 1629 


were represented as the largest apples then cultivated, but whicl at present ~ 


do not exceed the dimensions of the wild crab. The scion he considers as 
possessing all the diseaséd juices of the parent stock, and therefore subject to 


decay ina similar manner. 
s 


Dec. 


Society of Aniiquaries. 269 


Dec. 11. The right hon. C. F. Greville, vice pe daece 
in the chair.—The reading of Mr. Davy’s Bakerean lecture 
was continued. The fourth and fifth sections detailed seve- 
ral original experiments on the effects of electricity on cer- 
tain chemical menstrua, in all of which the negative pole 
disengaged oxygen, and the positiye hydrogen. _ 

Dec. 18. The right hon. C. F. Greville, vice-president, in 
the chair.—The reading of Mr. Davy’s Bakerean lecture 
was concluded. The afath took a view of the influence of 
electricity in the mineral kingdom, its action on carburet of 
iron (plumbago), and various other mineral bodies hitherto 
not sufficiently known or examined : and also its importance 
as tending in a great degree to elucidate many phenomena in 
geology, which are irreconcilable with received hypotheses. 
Mr. Davy likewise mentioned how the application of elec- 
tricity might be found extremely advantageous in the prepa- 
ration of acids for economical purposes, &c. &c. In this 
interesting lecture, the author particularly noticed the im- 
portant discoveries of Mr. Peel, and of Pacchiani, relative 
to the formation of alkali and acid, by the electric influence, 
and which have assisted him in exploring a new and untrod- 
den region of chemical science, that ‘* holds up a quarry to 
the busy mind” of future philosophers. 

A paper on ‘* The Precession of the Equinoxes,” by Mr. 
Robertson, Savilian professor of geometry in the university 
of Oxford, was also read; in which the author proposed 
some new methods of ascertaining, with greater accuracy 
than has been hitherto done, the calculations of compound 
rotatory motion. The paper contained seven mathematical 
tables, of a nature not to be read. 


SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. 


Noy. 27. Craven Orde, esq. vice-president, in the chair.— 
Several antient records of the reign of Edward III, were 
read, 

Dec. 4, The same as above.—Mr, Smith exhibited to the 
society a silver ring about an inch in diameter, with twelve. 


points (resembling the teeth of a wheel in clock-work), in 
one 


270 Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle.’ 


one of which was a rowel or spur, which projected a little 
more than the others. The learned antiquary supposed this 
ring to have been used as a chaplet or rosario in the days 
of the catholic religion in this country, and that:each point 
was to indicate a prayer, as a help to the memory, or to 
those who could not read. These chaplets or rosaries are, 
however, always divided by tens, and at the end*of every 
ten Ave Marias, the devotionist says a Pater Noster; in 
this manner he proceeds till he has said a hundred and fifty 
Ave Marias and fifteen Pater Nosters, which completes the 
number of his prayers, and is what is called ‘ saying: his 
rosario.” - The rosario is also divided into thirds, at the end 
of which the supplicant makes the sign of the cross, and 
then continues. The fact, however, that the points on this 
ring are not divisable by tens, militates somewhat against 
the opinion of its being a rosario or chaplet. 

Dec. 11. Sir H. C. Englefield, bart. vice-president, in the 
chair.—The right hon. the earl of Egremont furnished some 
additional records of the expenses and equipages of the em- 
barkation of the earl of Northumberland, on his embassy to 
France in the reign of Henry VIII. 

Dec. 18. The right hon. the earl of Leicester, president, 
in the chair.—The reading of the antient registers of the 
household expenses, wardrobe, &c. of the earl of Northum- 
berland, was concluded, 

The reverend Mr. Freston exhibited another of his Greek 
coins to the society, which, in consequence of the ap- 
proaching festival, adjourned till Thursday the 8th of Janu- 
ary, 1807. 


LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF NEWCASTLE- 
UPON-TYNE. 

This respectable society has published its thirteenth year’s 
report, by which we are happy to learn that it continues in 
4 prosperous state. ’ 

‘The papers this year have not been numerous, but some ~ 
of them have been of considerable importance. In April 
(1805), Mr. Clennell read an essay on the expediency of © 
disclosing the processes of manufactures, a subject which © 

was 


Smithfield Club. 271 


was afterwards discussed at some meetings of the society *,— 
In May, an essay was read on thenature of style, and the causes 
of its diversity, by Mr. W, Turner, jun.—In August, Mr. G. 
Gray gave an account of some experiments on the root of 
the crocus vernus, as a substitute for wheat flour, and pre- 
sented some specimens of bread made from that substance. 
——In September, Mr. Turner read a sketch of the history 
of the society from its first establishment to the end of its 
twelfth year, which was ordered to be printed, as an intro- 
duction to anew catalogue now preparing of the books, 
philosophical apparatus, and other property belonging to 
the society.—At the November meeting was read a memoir, 
by Dr. Fenwick, on the life, character, and professional 
merits of the late Dr. Clarke, a worthy and zealous asso- 
ciate of this useful body.—In Dec. Mr. Turner read an 
outline of the lectures on optics and astronomy proposed to 
be delivered in the early part of 1806, in the new institu- 
tion, established under the patronage of the society. At the 
January meeting he communicated several improvements in 
arts, manufactures, and’ agriculture, with which he had 
been favoured by an ingenious correspondent : and in Feb. 
a letter inclosing a copy of the preliminary discourse deli- 
vered to the society of antiquaries at Perth, by their presi- 
dent, 


SMITHFIELD CLUB. 


This club, which was instituted in 1798 for encouraging 
the economic feeding of animals of the best kinds for the 
London markets, at their Jate mectings, during the show of 
fat cattle, have determined on a material alteration of their 
premiums for oxen or steers, in consequence of the Here- 
ford breed of those animals having of late years-carried off 
so large a portion of the six prizes annually given for the 
best oxen of different weights. &c. without distinction of 
breeds, as probably to discourage other valuable breeds : for 
the ensuing year six prizes, of 20 guineas each, are offered 
for oxen or steers of the weight of 120 stone or upwards, of 
cach of the following breeds, viz. Hereford, long -horneil, 


* This essay, we understand, will be published very soon. 
short. 


872 French National Instiiuie. 


short-horned, Sussex or Kent, Devon, and any mixture of 
breeds ; with an additional prize of ten guineas for the best 
ox or steer exhibited, in claim of the above six prizes. For 
the convenience of graziers attending Smithfield-market, 
printed conditions of the premiums of the next show are 
Jeft for distribution with Mr. Mitchel, draper, No. 7, Cloth- 
fair, near the market. Mr. Arthur Young having resigned 
the offices of secretary and treasurer to the club, Mr. John 
Farey, and Mr. Paul] Giblett, were elected thereto. Thirty- 
one new members were balloted for and admitted. Lord 
William Russell presided, and will continue to do so while 
his noble brother remains in his government of Ireland. 


FRENCH NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 
{Continued from p. 187.] 


M. de Beauvois having followed some mushrooms through 
all their developments, perceived that they changed their 
form in such a manner, that some botanists have placed 
them in different genera, according to the age at which they 
observed them: thus the rizomorphus of Porsoon is only 
the second age of the mushroom, which becomes a true 
dolet mushroom in the third; the dematrium bombianum 
of the same author becomes at the end of some time his 
mesanterica argentea; then it thickens, assumes cells which 
make it resemble a morell, and also finishes by becoming a 
true Jolet mushroom. But this plant has need of a little 
light to enable it thus to run through all its stages. 

The researches on the natural history of animals have 
heen Jess numerous than those on botany, but they have not 
been deyoid of interest. 

M. de Beauvois has begun to publish the insects he col- 
lected in America and on the coast of Africa. Two num- 
bers of them have already appeared. 

M. Cuvier has continued the two great branches of re- 
searches in which he has been occupied these some years 
past, upon animals without vertebre, and upon the fossil 
ossifications of quadrupeds. 

_In the former of these branches he has this year given 
the anatomy of seven genera, the scyllea, the glaucus, the 
eolide, 


French National Institute. 273 


eolide, the snail, the Linnea, and the planorbus. The two 
former were very little known even externally ; and the 
author has rectified the false ideas of naturalists concern- 
ing them. 

In the second branch he has treated of the fossil bones of 
the bear; the rhinoceros, and the elephant. 

Two sorts of bears hitherto unknown have been buried 
along with tigers, hyenas, and other carnivorous animals itt 
a great number of caverns in the mountains of Hungary and _ 
Germany. 

Bones of the rhinoceros and elephant are found in abun- 
dance in every part of the globe. The author has collected 
the names of several hundred places of both continents 
where the fossil bones have been found. (See Philosophical 
Magazine, page 158 of the present volume.) 

M. Fourcroy has given a new edition of his Chemical 
Philosophy ; the shortest, most methodical, and most fre- 
quently used elementary book in the science. The two 
principal agents in chemistry,—affinity, which unites the 
molecula of bodies, and fire, which separates them,—have 
been this year the subject of new and important researches. 

We know that ice is lighter than water, since it floats 
upon it: on the other band. warm water Is generally lighter 
than cold: But does this liquid always condense in propor- 
tion as it cools, in order suddenly to dilate itself at the in- 
stant of its freezing? 

We may doubt this ; and in fact it is not the case; itis 
some degrees above the freezing point that water is at its 
maximum of density. M, le Febvre-Gineau has directly 
proved it these some years past by means of the thermome- 
ter and the hydrostatic balance; and count Rumford has 
suggested an experiment which makes the fact very evident. 

A thermometer has its bulb placed directly under a tube 
suspended by a strip of linen, and the whole is placed in 
water ready to freeze. The surface of this water, opposite 
to the opening of thé tube, is touched with a body heated 
only to three or four degrees ; the molecules of water heated 
by this contact descend into the tube and act upon the ther- 

Vol. 26. No. 103, Dec, 1806, § mometer, 


274 French National Institute. 


mometer. Thus this water, being a little warmer, is aise, 
heavier, 

: This experiment rests upon count Rumford’s own theory, 
regarding the manner in which heat is propagated in the Ji- 
quids. He thinks that the latter do not conduct it as all the 
other solid bodies do ; the metals, for instance; and that the. 
contact of a warm body only heats the mass of a liquid) in 
proportion as the heated molecules at first elevate themselves 
in virtue of the lightness they acquire, and allow the cold 
molecules to oceupy their place and be heated in their.turn. 

He has recently given us upon this doctrine an experi- 
ment more delicate and still more precise than all the pre- 
ceding. A portion of watery, heated to 80°, was only sepa- 
rated from a thermometer placed above it by a layer of cold 
water of some lines in thickness: not one of, the heated 
molecules was able to descend, and the thermometer did not 
rise one degree. 

The same chemist has made some experiments upon 3 
question in physics which, nearly concerns the doctrine 
of affinity, or rather the adherence of the molecules of a 
liquid with each other. The following is the manner in 
which he renders it palpable. He places oil upon water, 
and drops into the oil some very small grains of tin, or 
some very small drops of mercury : these small bodies pass 
through the oil quickly enough ; but when they come to the 
water, they stop on the surface of it, although much hea- 
vier than the water. The adherence of the water here forms 
something equivalent to a kind of pellicle which supports 
them ; but if we accumulate them, their mass acquires a 
weight which surmounts that adherence, they tear this pel- 
licle, and are precipitated. The appearance of a similar 
pellicle is also formed at the lower surface; for if we place 
water over mercury, and then drop some globules of the lat- 
ter into the water, they also stop at the bottom of the water 
without mixing with the rest of the mercury, until they have 
been enlarged and become heavy enough. M. Rumford 
adds to these experiments the striking remark, that without 
this adherence the least wind would carry off the water 

i ~ from 


Academy of useful Sciences at Erfurt. 275 


from the sea and rivers much more easily than it blows 
away the dust; that there would be dreadful inundations 
every minute; that the banks of rivers and shores of the sea 
would-be uninhabitable, and navigation impossible, 

As to chemical affinities, properly. so called, M. Ber- 
thollet seems to have made that subject his peculiar do- 
main, and has imposed new laws upon. these affinities, of 
which we have often had occasion to give an account. His 
first memoirs upon this subject have been announced in our 
reports of 4n 8 and An Q, and his great work Statigue Che- 
mique, wliere he has consigned all his theory, in that of 411. 

We know that his principal idea consists in not consider- 
ing affinity, as was formerly the case, to be an absolute 
power; nor combinations as always uniform in the propor- 
tions of their elements. 

He shows, on the contrary, that many circumstances, fo- 
reign to the chemical nature of the substances placed in con- 
tact,—such as their more or less cohesion, pressure, tempe- 
rature, and, above all, their relative quantity,—influence their 
combinations, both as to the species and as to the propor- 
tion of the elements which enter into it. 

There is indeed very seldom any entire separation ; but 
when we place three substances in contact, for instance, 
there is produced a mixture, the one- with the two others, 
according to the power of the affinities of the Jatter; and 
when four substances are put together, if there is a_preci- 
pitate formed, it must be referred to the indissolubility of 
the combination, and not to a calculation rigorously appre- 
ciable in the sums of the affinities taken two and two. 

We may easily conceive that such new views, applicable 
as they are to phenomena so complicated, will be suscep- 


tible for a long time of ulterior developments. 


[To be continued. } 


ACADEMY OF USEFUL SCIENCES AT ERFURT. 


In the sitting of the above academy of the 6th of January 
last, Dr. Thielow, dissector in the anatomical theatre, read 
a memoir upon the esophagus of a man accompanied with 
a crop like that of a bird. He found this anomalous con- 

$2 formation 


276 i _ Vaccination. 


formation in a subject of 52 years of age, on the left side of 
the lower part of the neck. The base or lower part of this 
sac, which was shaped like a pear, was below the left cla- 
vicle; and the upper part, which was wrinkled (effilée), 
had an aperture furnished with, a kind of valve, which 
was near the commencement of the gullet. Its contexture 
had more density than the esophagus. From the aperture: 
to the extremity the length of this crop was two inches and 
a quarter in a relaxed state; its greatest diameter was an 
inch and three quarters ; the aperture was three-eighths of 
an inch. ; 

The size of this crop was considerably increased by infla- 
tion. It might contain about a pound of water ; and when 
filled, the water could not be evacuated without a strong 
pressure of the hand. 

The meat and drink taken by this man passed at first mto 
this sac, and remained there for more than two hours before 
passing into the stomach. 

M. Thielow: has developed in this memoir the reasons 
why this sac may be considered as a crop. He has given a 
description and a drawing of it in the second edition of his: 
work upon anatomy and pathology, published last Easter 
fair at Leipsic *. 


= eee 


XLIV. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 


VACCINATION. 
A Voyage round the World, undertaken with a View of im- 
parting tie Blessing of Vuccination, by Order of the Spa- 
nish Government. Communicated by Dr. THORNTON fF. 


On Sunday, the 7th of September last, Dr. Francis Xavier 
Balmis, surgeon extraordinary to the king, had the honour 


* A case somewhat similar to this has been described by Dr. William 
Hunter, in the London Medieal Observations and Inquiries; and the pre- 
paration still exists in the Windmill-street Collection. In the case’to whieh 
we allude, the formation of the bag arose from the lodgment of a cherry- 

) stone.—-FP pir. P 
+ Tvanstlated from the Madrid Gazette, published October 14, 1806. f 
} fo) 


] 
f 
f 
R 
{ 
‘ 
f 
i 
“ 
" 
4 
i‘ 
{ 
' 
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4, 
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Vaccination. 97 


of kissing his majesty’s hand on occasion of his return from 
a voyage round the world, executed with the sole object of 
carrying to all the possessions of the crown of Spain situ- 
ated beyond the seas, and to those of several other nations, 
‘the inestimable gift of vaccine inoculation. His majesty has 
inquired, with the liveliest interest, into all that materially 
related to the expedition, and learned, with the utmost sa- 
tisfaction, that its result has exceeded the most sanguine ex- 
pectations that were entertained at the time of the enterprise. 
. This undertaking had been committed to the diligence of 
several members of the faculty and subordinate persons, 
carrying with them twenty-two children who had never 
undergone the small-pox, selected for the preservation of 
the precious fluid, by transmitting it successively from one 
to another daring the course of the voyage. The expedi-. 
tion set sail from Corunna, under the direction of Balmis, 
on the 30th of November 1803. It made the first stoppage 
at the Canary Islands, the second at Porto-Rico, and the 
third at the Characas. On leaving that province, by the port 
of La Guayra, it was divided into two branches: one part 
sailing to South America, under the charge of the subdi- 
rector don Francis Salvani;-the other, with the director 
Balmis on board, steering for the Havannah, and thence for 
Yucatan. There a subdivision took place: the professor 
Francis Pastor proceeding from the port of Sisal to that of, 
Villa Harmosa, in the province of Tobasca, for the purpose 
of propagating vaccination in the district of Ciudad Real of 
Chiapa, and on to Goatemala, making a circuit of four 
hundred leagues, through a long and rough road, comprising 
Oaxaca; while the rest of the expedition, which arrived 
without accident at Vera-Cruz, traversed not only the vice- 
royalty of New Spain, but also the interior provinces ; 
whence it was to return to Mexico, which was the point of 
reunion. 

This precious preservative against the ravages of the small- 
pox has already been extended through the whole of North 
America, to the coasts of Sonora and Sinaloa, and even to 
the Gentiles and Neophites of High Pimeria. In each ca- 
pital a council has been instituted, composed of the prin- 

53 cipal 


978 Vaccination: 


cipal authorities and the most zealous members of the fa- 
culty, charged with the preservation of this invaluable spe- 
cific, as a sacred deposit, for which they are accountable to 
the king and to posterity. 

This ‘being accomplished, it was the next care of the di- 
rector to carry this part of the expedition from Ameriea to 
Asia, crowned with the most brilliant success, and, with it, 
the comfort of humanity. Some difficulties having been sur- 
mounted, he embarked in the port of Acapulco for the Phi- 
lippine islands, that being the point at which, if attainable, 
it was originally intended that the undertaking should be 
terminated. 

The bounty of ie Providence having vouchsafed to 
second the great and pious designs of the king, Balmis hap- 
pily performed the voyage in little more sien: two months, 
carrying. with him, from New Spain, twenty-six children, 
destined to be vaccinated in succession as before; and, as 
many of them were infants, they were committed to the 
care of the matron of the Foundling Hospital at La Corunna, 
who, in this as well as the former voyages, conducted her- 
self in a manner to merit apprabation. The expedition 
having arrived at the Philippines, and propagated the specifie. 
in the islands subject to his catholic majesty, Balmis, hav- 
ing concluded his philanthropic commission, concerted with 
the captain-general the means of extending the beneficence 
of the king and the glory of his august name to the re- 
motest confines of Asia. 

In point of fact, the cow-pox has been disseminated 
through the vast archipelago of the Visayan islands, whose 
chiefs, accustomed to wage perpetual war with us, have laid’ 
down their arms, adusiring the generosity of an enemy who 
conferred upon them the blessings of health and life at the: 
time when they were labouring under the ravages of an epi- 
demic small-pox. The principal persons of the Portuguese. 
colonies, and of the Chinese empire, manifested themselves 
no less beholden when Balmis reached Macao and Canton ; 
in both which places he accomplished the introduction of 
fresh virus in all its activity, by the means already related ;. 
aresult which the English, on repeated. trials, had failed to, 

procure 


Vaccination. 279 
procure in the various occasions when they brought out por+ 
tions of matter in the ships of their East India company, 
which Jost their efficacy on the passage, and arrived inert. 

After having propagated the vaccine at Canton as faras was 
.possible and the political circumstances of the empire would 
permit, and having confided the further dissemination of it 
to the physicians of the English factory at the above-men- 
tioned port, Balmis returned te Macao, and embarked in a 
Portuguese vessel for Lisbon, where he arrived on the 15th 
of August. In the way he stopped at St. Helena, in which, 
as in other places, by dint of exhortation and perseverance, 
he prevailed upon the English to adept the astonishing anti- 
dote, which they had undervalued for the space of more than 
eight vears, though it was a discovery of their nation, and 
though it was sent to them by Jenner himself. 

Of that branch of the expedition which was destined for 
Peru, it is ascertained that it was shipwrecked in one of the 
mouths of. the River de la Magdalena; but having derived 
immediate succour from the natives, from the magistrates ad- 
jacent, and from the governor of Carthagena, the subdirector, 
the three members of the faculty who accompanied him, and 
the children, were saved, with the fluid in good preserva- 
tion, which they extended in that port and its province 
with activity and success. Thence it was carried to the 
isthmus of Panama, and persons properly provided with all 
necessaries undertook the long and painful navigation of 
the River de la Magdalena; separating, when they reached 
the interior, to discharge their commission in the towns of 
Teneriffe, Mompox, Ocana, Socorro, San Gil y Medellin; 
in the valley of Cucuta, and in the cities of Pamplona, Gi- 
ron, Tupja, Velez, and other places in the neighbourhood, 
until they met at Santa Fé; leaving every where suitable 

'  iistructions for the members of the faculty, and, in the 
more considerable towns, regulations conformable to those 
rules which the director had prescribed for the preservation 
of the virus, which the viceroy afhrms to have been com- 
municated to jifly thousand persons without one unfavoure 
able result. Towards the close of March 1805, they pre- 
pared to continue their journey in separate tracks, for the 

S54 purpose 


———=u— re 


a. 


280 Facciniation. 7 


purpose of extending themselves with greater facility and 
promptitude over the remaining districts of the viceroyalty, 
situated in the road of Popayan, Cuenca, and Quito, as far 
as Lima. In the August following they reached Guayaquil. 

The result of this expedition has been, not merely to spread 
the vaccine among all people, whether friends or enemies, 
among Moors, among Visayans, and among Chinese, but 
also to secure to posterity, in the dominions of his majesty, 
the perpetuity of so great a benefit, partly by means of the 
central committees that have been established, as well as by 
the discovery which Balmis made of an indigenous matter 
in the cows of the valley of Atlixco, near the city of Puebla 
de los Angeles, in the neighbourhood of that of Valladolid 
. Mechoacan, where the adjutant Antonio Gutierrez found 
it, and in the district of Calabozo, in the province of Ca- 
racas, where don Carlos de Pozo, physician of the residence, 
found it. 

A multitude of obastiediidls, which will he published 
without delay, respecting the development of the vaccine 
in various climes, and respecting its efficacy, not merely in 
preventing the natural small-pox, but in curing simulta- 
neously other morbid affections of the human frame, will 
manifest how important to humanity will prove the conse- 
quences of an expedition which has no parallel in history. 

Though the object of this undertaking was limited to the 
communication of the vaccine in every quarter, to the in- 
struction of professors, and to the establishment of regula- 
tions which might serve to render it perpetual ; nevertheless 

the director has omitted no means of rendering his services 
beneficial, at the same time, to agriculture and the sciences. 
He brings with him a considerable collection of exotic plants. 
He has caused to be drawn the most valuable subjects in 
natural history. He has amassed much important informa- 
tion; and among other claims to the gratitude of his coun- 
try, not the least consists in having imported a valuable as- 
semblage of trees and vegetables in a state to admit of propa- 
gation, and which, Being cultivated in those parts of the pe- 
ninsula that are most congenial to their growth, will render 
this expedition as memorable in the annals of agriculture as 
in 


Extraordinary Phenomenon 281 


in those of medicine and humanity. It is hoped that the sub- 

director and his coadjutors, appointed to carry these blessings 
to Peru, will shortly return by way of Buenos-Ayres, after 
having accomplished their journey through that viceroyalty, 
the viceroyalty of Lima, and the districts of Chili and Chara- 
cas; and that they will bring with them such collections and 
observations as they have been able to acquire, according to 
the instructions given by the director, without losing sight 
of the philanthropic commission which they received froma 
his majesty in the plenitude of his zeal for the welfare of 
the human race. 


EXTRAORDINARY PHANOMENON. 

The most singularly formed individual in the world, pe- 
haps, exists at this moment at Void, a town in the second 
division of the department of the Meuse. The writer of this 
article vouches for the truth of it: the facts are supported 
by the testimony of respectable medical gentlemen, the 
mayor of the town, and personal examination of this ex- 
traordinary man. 

This unfortunate being enjoys good health, although de- 
prived of the ordinary means of voiding his excrements. He 
has lived more than half. a century, notwithstanding his 
mouth performs by turns the labours of mastication and 
dejection. Being thus deprived in a manner of all the parts 
of the body from the chest downwards, he ‘constantly sits in 
a small cart, which-is drawn by children sbnoeh the streets, 
and he nals by begging. 

His name is Claud Rouget, a native and inhabitant of 
Void,. and he is 59 years of age. In his youth he expe- 
rienced a gradual and long continued compression. © This 
compression was felt from the xiphoid cartilage and over 
the whole extent of the lower belly, so that the pylorus, all 
the viscera of that region, such as the intestines, the liver, 
_ the spleen, the kidneys, the bladder, the glands of the pan- 
creas and of the meseutery, and all the secretory organs, ex- 
perienced such an alteration, that they are as if totally anni- 
hilated. The abdomen is glued to the spine of the back ; all 

the 


282 — Art of Memory. 
the lower extremities are atrophous ; the anus is obliterated ~ 
and quite close. 

This unfortunate individual only prolongs his existence 
by means of the glands of the stomach, which pump up 2 
slight portion of chyle, diluted by the salivary and gastric 
juices. In half a quar ter of an hour after having lance food, 
he voids it by the mouth, in the state of a ck emulsion, 
with as much and even more ease than by the ordinary me- 
thod. The bile, this animal soap and the glands of the 
lower belly, not concurring to the extraction of the nutritive 
parts of his food, the voiding of it is thus facilitated, and 
obliges him to eat frequently. 

This simple account of it may excite surprise and: curi- 
osity ; but we presume that such of our readers as are de- 
voted to the study of nature will make some observations 
on the subject.—JMagazin Encyclopedique, 1806, tome le 


p. 418, 
ART OF MEMORY. 


Germany.—A new branch of science is begun to be stu- 
died in Germany. It is the science called by the antients 
mnemonica, or the art of memory. We find in Herodotus, 
that it was carefully taught and practised in Egypt, whence it 
was transplanted into Greece. This historian attributes the 
invention of it to Simonides ; but this opinion is refuted in 
a dissertation published by M. Morgenstern, of Dorpat, 
upon mnemonica. He there asserts, that this science is 
more intimately connected with the Egyptian hieroglyphics 
than is generally thought, and that this connection may 
help to explain them. However the case may be, this sin- 
gular art, so long neglected, has reappeared in Germany 
with some eclat. M. Aretin, who may be accounted the 
restorer of it, has recently had M. Keestner, a clergyman, as 
his pupil, whom be has permitted to teach his new doctrine 
at Leipsic ; at the same time exacting a promise from him not 
to suffer his pupils to write down his lectures. M. Keest~ 
ner travels about like Dr. Gall. 

According to a book written, it is said, by a child of 

iwelye years of age, and mentioned in the Leipzic. cata~ 
Jogue 


New Coniet.—Lectures. 933 

Jorue for the last September fair, mnemonica is a true 

science, and may be taught by means of seventeen different 

tules, and which will give a memory to individuals of every 

age. 

NEW COMET. 

A small comet has been discovered by M. Pons, at Mar- 

seilles, on the 10th of November. According to Lalande’s 
enumeration this is the 97th. 


LECTURES. 


Mr, Brookes’s Spring Course of Lectures on Anatomy, 
Physiology and Surgery, will commence on Wednesday 
the 2ist of January, at Two o’clock in the Afternoon, at 
the Theatre of Anatomy, Blenheim-street, Great Marlbo, 
rouch-street. 

In these Lectures the Structure of the Human Body will 
be demonstrated on recent Subjects, and further illustrated 
by Preparations, and the Functions of the different Organs 
will be explained. 

The Surgical Operations are performed, and every Part 
of Surgery so elucidated as may best tend to complete _ the 
Operating Surgeon. 

The Art of Injecting, and of making Anatomical Prepa- 
rations, will be taught practically. 

Gentlemen zealous in the pursuit of Zoology, will meet 
with uncommon opportunities of prosecuting their researches 
in Comparative Anatomy. 

Surgeons in the Army and Navy may be asssisted in 
renewing their Anatomical Knowledge, and every possible 
Attention will be paid to their Accommodation as well as 
Instruction. 

Apatomical Converzationes will be held Weekly, when 
the different Subjects treated of will be discussed familiarly, 
and the Students’ views forwarded——To these none but 
Pupils can be admitted. 

Spacious Apartments, thoroughly ventilated, and replete 
with every convenience, will be open at Eight o’clock in the 
Morning, for the purposes of Dissecting and Injecting, 

where 


254 _ Lectures. 


where Mr. Brookes attends to direct the Students, and de- 
monstrate the various parts as they appear on Dissection, — 

An extensive Museum, containing Preparations illustra- 
tive of every part of the Human ang and its Diseases, ap- 
pertains to this Theatre, to which Students will have occa- 
sional admittance-—Gentlemen inclined to support this 
School by contributing preternatural or morbid Parts, Sub- 
jects in Natural Plcterys &c. (individually of little value to 
the possessors,) may have the pleasure of seeing them pre- 
served, arranged, and registered, with the names of the 
Donors. 

The inconveniencies usually attending Anatomical Inves- 
tigations, are counteracted by an Antiseptic Process, the re- 
sult of Experiments made by Mr. Brookes on Human Subd- 
jects at Paris in the year 1782; the account of which was 


delivered to the Royal Society, and read on the 17th of 


June, 1784. This method has since been so far improved, 
that the florid colour of the Muscles is preserved, and even 
heightened. Pupils may be accommodated in the House.— 
Gentlemen established in Practice, desirous of renewing 
their Anatomical Knowledge, may bé accommodated with 
an Apartment to Dissect in privately. 


Mr. Taunton will resume his Winter Course of Lectures 
and Demonsirations, on Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, 
and Surgery, on Saturday the 31st of January, 1807, at 
eight o’Clock in the Evening, precisely; at No. 21,Greville- 
street. The Lectures will be continued at the same hour 
every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. : 

Particulars may be known by application to Mr. Taunton, 
Greville-street, Hatton-garden. ; 


Mr. Blair’s Lectures on Anthropology, or the Natural 
History of Man; illustrated by anatomical preparations, &c, 
(for the ape Gor of scientific and professional gentlemen, 
amateurs of natural history, students in the liberal and fine 
arts, &c.) will recommence on Tuesday evening, the 27th 
of January, at the Bloomsbury Dispensary, No, 62;. Great 

"Ramee 


eS - 


Lectures. 585 


Russel-street ; to be continued every succeeding Tuesday and 
Friday evening, at eight o’clock precisely, until the termi-: 
nation of the course, which consists of about twenty lec- 
tures, delivered in the following order: 

I. Preliminary Observations, on the Structure of Animals 
and Vegetables in general. (This introductory lecture is 
epen to visitors, without tickets.) 

II. Classification of the Organs and Functions of the 
Human Body. | 

Ill. Description of the Bones, Cartilages, Ligaments, and 
Fascie. 

IV. Enumeration and Action of the Muscles ; illustrated 
by various Drawings, Casts, and a living Muscular Figure, 
&e. 

V. Remarks on the Application of Anatomy to the Arts 
of Painting and Sculpture. 

VI. On. the common Integurients, Membranes, and Ca- 
vities. 

VII. The Organs and Theory of Digestion, Nutrition, 
and Absorption. 

- VUT. The Organs and Phenomena of Circulation ; in- 
cluding an Account of the Properties and Uses of the Blood, 
and the Modes of applying a Tourniquet in Cases of yiolent 
Feemorrhage. 

1X. On the Glands, Secretions, and Excretions. 

X. The Organs and Theory of Respiration and Speech ; 
with Remarks on the Production of Animal Heat. 

XI. The Doctrine of Procreation, Gestation, and Par- 
turition ; accompanied by Suggestions on infantile Life, 
Growth, Maturity, and Decay. 

XII. The Structure and Functions of the Brain and Nerves. 

XIII. On the Organs and Theory of Hearing, Smelling, 
and Tasting. 

XIV. Description of the Mechanism and Uses of the 
Eye; with Hints on several of the Causes and Remedies of 
depraved Vision. 

XV. The Sense of Touch or Feeling, and the supposed 
physical Causes of Bodily Perception. 


AVI. On 


236 ‘List of Patents for Néw Inventions. 
XVI. On the: Meter and corporeal Effects of the Humatt 


Passions, 

XVII. Of Physiognionry and Craniognomy ; with con- 
cluding Observations on the Study of animated Nature, as 
a Branch of Liberal Education. 

Twenty transferable tickets are given for two guineas, 
which admit gentlemen to all the lectures delivered in one 
season; and, after having attended a single course, the com- 
plete set of tickets may be renewed, for their own use, by 
an advance of one guinea. 

Further particulars, with a printed Syllabus of the whole 
Course (price 5s. im boards), may be had at Mr. Blair’s houses 


No. 69, Great Russel-street, Bloomsbury-square. : 


LIST OF PATENTS FOR NEW INVENTIONS. 


To James Frederick Matthey, of Suffolk-street, Charing- 
cross, in the city of Westminster, lieutenant in De Meu- 


ron’s regiment; for various improvements upon fire-arms- 


and guns of all descriptions. December 4. 

To Samuel Williamson, of Knutsford, in the county of 
Chester, weaver; for an improvement in weaving cotton, 
silk woollen, worsted, and mohair, and each of them, and 
every two or more of them, by looms. December 4. 

To William Hyde Wollaston, of the parish of St. Mary- 
Ja-Bonne, in the county of Middlesex, gentleman ; for an 
instrument whereby any person may draw in perspective, or 
may copy or reduce any print or drawing. December 4. 

To William Speer, of the city of Dublin, esq. now re- 
siding in Crown-street, in the city of Westminster; for his 
new art, method, or process, of purifying, refining, and 
otherwise improving fish oils and other oils, and converting 
and applying to use the unrefined parts thereof. Decem- 
ber 13. 

. To Thomas Scott, of Clerkenwell-close, in the county of 
Middlesex, musical instrument-maker; for an improved 


musical instrument called a flageolette English flute, or an 


instrument on the flageolette principle, so constructed as a 
single instrument that two. parts of a musical compesition 
oe ; - can 


vies igs 
Se 


, 


List of Patents for New Inventions. 337 


ean be played thereon at the same time by one person. De- 
cember 13. 

To Ambrose Bowden Johns, of Plymouth, in the county 
of Devon, bookseller ; for certain compositions, and a mode 
of manufacturing the same for covering and facing houses 
and various other useful purposes. Deceinber 22. 

To William Bell, of the town of Derby, engineer ; for an 
improvement upon and an addition to smoothing irons, 
planing irons, and various edge-tools applicable to many 
useful purposes. December 22. 

To Anthony George Eckhardt, of Berwick-street, Golden- 
square,in the county of Middlésex, gentleman, F.R.S. and 
member of the Society of Haerlem; for certain improve- 
ments in the mode of covering or inclosing books, whercby 
their contents will be secured from the observation of any 
person but the owner, and will also be preserved from in- 
jury. December 2z. 

To Anthony George Eckhardt, of Berwick-street, Golden- 
square, in the county of Middlesex, gentleman, F.R.S. and 
of the Society of Haerlem, and Joseph Lyon, of Millbank- 
street, Westminster, in the said county of Middlesex, cooper; 
for their new method of manufacturing pipes for the con= 
veyance of water under ground different to the present pipes. 
December 22. 

Charles Schmalcalder, of Little Newport-strect, in the 
parish of St. Ann, Soho, in the county of Middlesex, ma- 
thematical and philosophical instrument-maker ; for a deli- 
neator, copier, or proportionometer, for taking, tracing, 
and cutting out profiles; as also copying and tracing re- 
versely upon copper, brass, hard wood, card paper, paper, 
asses’ skin, ivory, and glass, to different proportions directly 
from nature, landscapes, prospects, or any otber objects 
standing or previously placed perpendicularly; as also pic- 
tures, drawings, prints, plans, caricatures, and public cha- 
racters. December 22. 


METEORQ- 


288 


Days of the 
Month, 


METEOROLOGICAL TABLE, 


Meteorology. 


By Mr. Carey, or THE STRAND, 
For December 1806. 


8 u'Clock, 
Morning. 


Thermometer. 


Noon. 


{ 
| 


11 0’Clock, 


A 5 

Heigit of }% 3 2 

the Barak : SE 

Inches. ar 0 

G45 eps 

Qa 
30°02 oO 
29°90 10 
‘708 7 
‘78 10 
“02 7 
28°80 91 
29°67 10 
‘72 e) 
°48 16 
135 5 
"34 O 
12 O 
"a0 16) 
“40 15 
‘AO 5 
*49 10 
‘09 0 
"40 0) 
‘70 11 
“69 5 
“C2 0 
‘74 0 
*65 6 
Fete, 12 
O25. 0 
56 4 
“98 8) 
30°28 15 
"12 6 

26 10° 


Weather. 


Showery 
Fair; a violent 
storm’in the 


N.B. ‘The Barometer’s height is taken at one o’cloek. 


LO ALLELE LIT AE 


[ 289 J 


XLV. Discovery of a new Vegetable Principle in Asparagus 
(Asparagus sativus of Lizmneus). By M. VavauEvin*. 


Ox examining the products of the vegetable kingdom more 
attentively than was formerly the custom, modern chemists 
have distinguished a great number of products unknown to 
the antients ; but for a long time no immediate principle has 
been found in any vegetable so singular and interesting as 
that which we are about to mention. 

Last summer M. Robiquet, a young chemist who joins 
to a solidity of reasoning the greatest accuracy in’ making 
experiments, by desire of M. Parmentier submitted the juice 
of asparagus to the chemical analysis, of which he has given 
the results in the Annales de Chimie t. 

During a journey I lately took to the country, having left 
in my laboratory a certain quantity of the juice of asparagus 
concentrated by evaporation, I observed in it a great variety 
of crystals, two of which varieties appeared to belong to new 
substances: as they had a different form, transparency, and 
tastc, it was easy to separate them. 

The one of these species, perfectly white and transparent 
when it had crystallized several times, has a fresh taste, a 
little nauseous, exciting the secretion of the saliva: it is 
hard, brittle, and has a regular form. 

The other species, although equally white, is not so trans- 
parent nor so hard, nor is it crystallized in the same form ; 
on the contrary, it is without consistency, crystallized in 
fine needles, having a perceptible saccharine taste, and ana- 


ogous to that of manna. ; 


M. Robiquet, on making the experiments anda men- 
tioned, had perceived the former of these substances ; but 
he thought it was an ammoniacal salt ; because at that time, 
having only obtained a very small quantity and imperfectly 
purified, it retained, to all appearance, among its flakes some 
traces of a salt with a base of ammonia, with which the juice 
of asparagus abounds ; and this circumstance deceived him. 


* From Annates de Chimie, tom. lvii. p. 18. 
4 See the present volume, pages $3 and 115. — 
Vol. 26. No, 104, Jan. 1807. T Since 


290 Jew Vegetable Principle in Asparagus. 

Since that period M. Robiquet and myself jointly sub- 
mitted this substance to new experiments, the principal of 
which are subjoined. The form which it assumes in its 
crystallization, according to M. Haiiy, to whom we sent a 
certain quantity, springs from a straight rhomboidal prism, 
the grand angle of the base of which is about 130 degrees. 

This substance is soluble in water in a middling degree, 
and its solution gives no sign of acidity or alkalinity : the 
infusion of galls, the acetate of lead, the oxalate of ammo- 
nia, the muriate of barytes, and the hydrosulphuret of pot- 
ash, cause no change in the solution of this substance ; and 
it is not soluble in alcohol. 

These experiments indicating that the substance in ques- 
tion is not a salt with an earthy base, we triturated a certain 
quantity of it with caustic potash and a little water, to see 
if ammonia was disengaged from it; but we discovered no 
sensible traces: the potash, as we thought, rendered it more 
soluble in water. 

Seeing, therefore, that it contained neither an earth nor 
any ammonia, we endeavoured to ascertain the existence of 
the alkalis in it, and for this purpose we burned a great 
quantity of it in a platina crucible; it swelled considerably, 
at first exhaling pungent vapours, which affected the eyes 
and nostrils like the smoke of wood; it furnished plenty of 
charcoal which had no taste, and which upon incineration 
left but a very imperceptible trace of earth, which 1s certainly 
foreign to it. 

Towards the end of the decompesition of this substance, 
the smell which is liberated from it is a little analogous to 
that of animal matters, and it is likewise a little ammoniacal. 

The nitric acid decomposes this substance; nitrous gas is 
disengaged ; the liquor assumes a yellow colour and a bitter 
taste like that of animal substances; when the action of the 
nitric acid is finished, lime is abundantly disengaged from 
the ammonia of the liquor. } 

This alkali, therefore, is formed during the operation we 
have related, since the substance of asparagus affords no per- 
ceptible traces of it before. 

This substance is not an acid, since it does not redden 

the 


few Vegetable Principle in Asparagus. 291 
the tincture of turnsole, and since it has not the taste com- 
mon to all these bodies in a more or less remarkable degree. 

It is not a neutral salt, since jt contains neither an earth 
nor an alkali; but as it furnishes, by means of fire, the 
same products as the vegetables, we are obliged to regard it 
as an immediate principle of asparagus. 

It is probable that it is composed, like the vegetable pro- 
ducts, of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, in particular pro- 
portions: it is not less probable that there is also a small 
quantity of azote in it ; this seems at Jeast to be indicated by 
the smell which is disengaged from it by heat, and by the 
ammonia which it forms with the nitric acid. 

Although we obtained a sufficiently large quantity of this 
substance, we could not submit it to a great number of expe- 
riments, because the greatest part of it was wasted in the la- 
boratory ; and the smal] quantity we gave M. Haity to deter- 
mine the form of it only remained: we purpose continuing 
our researches as soon as the asparagus season returns, but 
we thought it our duty to give an account of our progress 
hitherto. 

We shall also ascertain whether or no this singular sub- 
stance exists in other vegetables. 

As to the saccharine matter which we also found in the 
juice of asparagus, we had not enough of it to recognise 
what kind of sugar it was; in the mean time we are of opi- 
nion that it is manna. 

It may be concluded from the above experiments, that, 
besides the principles discovered in asparagus by M. Robi- 
quet, there exists a principle crystallizable like the salts, 
which is, however, neither an acid nor a neutral salt, and the 
solution of which is not affected by any of the re-agents ge- 
nerally employed to ascertain the presence and the nature of 
the salts dissolved in water; and that there also exists an- 
other saccharine principle, which seems to have an analogy 
with manna, 


Te XLVI. Upon 


the various refracting bodies presents a very extensive scale, 


{ 292 | 


4 


XLVI. Upon the Affinities of Bodies for Light; and pare 
ticularly upon the refractive Powers of different ite ial 
[Concluded from p- 158.] 5 


Mv A> authors ¢ of the memoir now Relate us commence the 
second part of their work by a very ingenious and just ob- 
servation. ‘ The action of bodies upon light,” they say, 
“¢ is not exercised in a sensible manner except at very short, 
distances; the intensity of this action is necessarily con- 
nected with the nature of the particles of the bodies, and 
with their arrangement; that is to say, with their most in- 
timate properties : so that the philosopher who observes the 
refractive powers of substances in order to compare them 
with each other, acts exactly like the chemist who presents, 
one and the same base successively to all the acids, or one 
and the same acid to all the alkalis, in order to determine 
their respective powers and their degrees of saturation. In 
our experiments the substance we present to all the bodies 
is light, and we compute the action which they exercise 
upon it by their refractive power; that is to say, by the in- 
crease of effect which the action of their particles tends to A 
impress on them. 

‘© There is here a particular advantage, which is not to, be 


met with in the same degree in any chemical experiment; : 
it is the almost inconceivable intensity of the action of i 
bodies upon light, an intensity which sometimes goes the ; 
length of impressing upon it, in an infinitely small instant ¥ 
of time, a velocity double of that which it has in space ; i 


and which at least always modifies it in a sensible manner, i 
even in bodies of the weakest refractive power.” 
The diversity of the velocities impressed upon light by 


upon intermediate points of which all these may find a place 
at great intervals, and which thus presents a method, of 
distinguishing them by this particular character, and even. 
of pursuing them, in some measure, in various combina- 


tions. 
*® From Billioth. Brit. vol. xxxii. 
+ Messrs. Biot and Arrago. 


Fhe @ 


Om the Affinities of Bodies for Light, ee, 293 


*Thé authors of the memoir, having ascertained by their 
experiments the powerful action of hydrogen upon fight, 
naturally infer from this, that it is the presence ofthis prin- 
‘ciple in water, in gums, oils, and other inflammable sub- 
stances, which gives them that great refractive power which 
Newton has so well observed. This refracting influence of 
hydrogen is eminently conspicuous in ammonia, which ts 
composed of hydrogen and azote; the refractive power of 
this gas being double that of the air, and surpassing that of 
water. 

The great velocity, and the extreme tenuity of the mole- 
cules of licht, give it a particular advantage in this mode of 
research, where it is employed as a re-agent, the greater or 
less degree of condensation of the constituent principles of a 
‘body having little influence upon its refractive power in 
comparison with that produced by the affinity of these same 
principles with light, excepting certain extraordinary cases 
in which the condensations are very considerable. In every 
case, by multiplying the refractive power of each principle 
by the ponderous quantity which enters into the combina- 
tion, the sum of these products gives the refractive power 
of the compound. 

In a simple mixture, without intimate combination among 
the component parts, the refractive power observed in the 
compound is exactly equal to that which the calculation 
gives according to the proportion of the constituent princi- 
ples; thus the refraction of the common air is exactly equal 
to-what ought to be produced by a mixture of 0-21 of oxy- 
gen in volunfe with 0°787 of azote and 0-003 of carbonic 
acid. By calculating the refraction according to the rela- 
tive quantity of thesé principles, we obtain it as exactly as 
by direct observation. : 

This law holds in combinations in which cbbribiienrions 1s 
not very strong: for instance, in ammoniacal gas, m which 
the constituent principles, the azote and the hydrogen, are 
reduced to one-half of their total volume by the effect of 
condénsation, the refraction observed is exactly what agrees 
with a mixture of 0°S05 of azote (in weight), and of O° 195 

T-3 of 


294 On the Affinities of Bodies for Light, 


of hydrogen. Thus supposing that the composition of am- 
monia was unknown, but that barely the nature of its prin- 
ciples was known, their relative proportion might be disco- 
vered by the proof of their refractive power as well as by 
chemical analysis. 

And in water composed of hydrogen and oxygen, in which 
there is a strong, intimate, and very dense combination re- 
latively to its component parts, the same law still holds, 
with some slight difference only, which may arise either 
from the uncertainty even of the experiment which Newton 
himself made to determine the refractive power of water at 
a time when the necessary instruments were much less per- 
fect than they are at present, or rather from the influence 
of the state of condensation of the molecules of the liquid 
compared with the state of gaseous dilatation. Thus the re- 
fractive, power of water, calculated according to the propor- 
tions given by Humboldt and Gay-Lussac in their excellent 
memoir upon eudiometry, is = 1°50, that of the atmo- 
spheric air being 1. But according to Newton, and by em- 
ploying for the mean refraction that of yellow light, it would 
be = 1°73; stronger than the preceding by about one-eighth 
of the total value. Far from being astonished at this dif- 
ference, we ought to be surprised that it is not more ¢con- 
siderable, when we reflect upon the enormous condensation 
experienced by oxygen and hydrogen thus combined. 

After having proved-the exactitude of this new process of 
analysis by a comparison of its results with those already 
obtained by the ordinary chemical analysis, it became inter- 
esting to endeavour to apply it to the solution of the grand 
znigma of the composition of the muriatic acid. The au- 
thors therefore proved, not without great difficulties in the 
manipulation, its refractive power in the state of gas. They 
found it a little more considerable than that of azote ; which 
proves that the above acid is not a compound of azote and 
oxygen, since the presence of the latter principle would di- 
minish instead of augmenting the refraction of the former. 
Nor is it an oxide of hydrogen Jess oxygenated than in wa- 
ter, as has been supposed from some late Galvanic experi-— 

3 ! ments 5 


and on the refractive Powers of different Gases, 295 


ments; for its refraction is much weaker than that of this 
liquid. 

The proof of the refracting power of the carbonic acid gas 
was doubly interesting, as a confirmation of the analysis of 
Lavoisier, as well as because carbon enters into the compo- 
sition of a great number of transparent bodies, and consti- 
tutes, according to modern experiments, almost the whole 
body of the diamond, the refractive power of which has been 
remarked by Newton; a result which might be compared 
with that obtained from experiments upon carhonic acid gas. 

Here an anomaly presents itself. The refractive power 
of the carbonic acid gas is a little less than that of the atmo- 
spheric air, and a little greater than that of oxygen. If we 
admit as the most probable chemical constitution of this 
gas that which results from the analysis of Lavoisier, we 
shall ascertain that it is composed of 0°76 in weight of oxy- 
gen and of 0°24 of carbon. It results from this that the re- 
fractive power of carbon is = 1°44; that is to say, less than 
that of water. Every other proportion, into which less ox- 
ygen entered, would give to carbon a refractive power still 
weaker. 

If this result gave rise to doubts upon the proportion ad- 
mitted above, between the two components of carbonic 
acid, we might verify it by this simple method—by exa- 
mining if the refractive power of certain liquid or solid sub- 
stances into which carbon enters in a known proportion, 
with other component parts, of which the relative propor- 
tion and the individual refractive power have been deter- 
mined; by examining, we say, whether the refractive power 
of these really agrees with the results of the calculations 
founded upon the analysis of Lavoisier, which are presumed 
to be exact. 

We have as yet, unfortunately, but a very small number 
of accurate analyses of those substances into which carbon 
enters in a remarkable quantity. These analyses have been: 
made by Lavoisier, Berthollet, Fourcroy, and Vauquelin. 
We have also the observations of Newton upon the refrac- 
tive powers of compounds. 

T4 Thus, 


296 On the Affinities of Bodies for Light, 


Thus, according to Lavoisier, oil of olives is composed 
of 0°21 of hydrogen (in weight), and 0°79 of carbon.. But 
on combining according to these relations the refractive 
force of hydrogen as it results from the observations of the 
authors of the memoir, and that of carbon, as concluded 
from the trial made on carbonic acid, we find the refractive 
force of the oil of olives to be = 250, that of the air being 1. 
But Newton’s observations give 2°73 for the refractive power 
of oil of olives. The difference between calculation and ob- 
servation is, therefore, scarcely one-ninth of the total value ; 
and it takes place in circumstances which condensation tends 
to explain. The following is a verification sufficiently satis- 
factory : 

The analysis Bs alcohol, also made by Lavoisier, pre- 
sents another mean for athe a similar proof. This li- 
quid is composed, according to him, of 0°544 of oxygen, 
0°166 of hydrogen, and 0:29 of carbon. According to these 
proportions, the refractive power of alcohol is found upon 
calculation to be = 1:94, that of the air being 1. But the 
experiments of Newton give = 2°23 for alcohol. The dif- 
ference is one-eighth of the total amount ; but the difference 
of the results; may be explained by a condensation of the 
change from the gaseous to the liquid state. Jn the last 
place, the chemical analysis of gum given by Messrs. Four- 
croy and Vauquelin admits of trying the refractive analysis 
~ of the same solid as a verification of this new process. Ac- 
cording to these chemists, gum is composed of 0°6538 of 
oxygen, 0°1154 of hydrogen, and 0:2308 of carbon. . From 
this the refractive power of gum deduced from calculation 
would be = 1°63; according to Newton it is = 1°89, The 
difference of abebt one-seventh is again, in some > measure, 
favourable to the explanation given. 

The want of an exact analysis of other substances into 
which carbon enters, does not allow us to push the parallel 
of the two methods any further. But we may say that in 
these very substances the refractive powers observed place 
them in the order indicated by the combined influence of 
their elements. Thus the refraction is strongest where hy-: 

drogen 


ss 
; 


er ee 


r 


saad ning OI 


— 


oo 


and on the refractive Powers of different Gases. 297 


drogen predominates, weakest where carbon prevails, and 
still weaker where oxygen abounds. Thus etuer refracts 
more than alcohol ; and the essence of turpentine more than 
the fixed oils: carburetted hydrogen refracts less than pure 
hydrogen, and so much the Jess as the proportion of car- 
bon is increased in it. These views, which by themselves 
furnish but a very slight induction, assume some importance 
when they agree with the results obtained by a rigorous cal- 
culation. 

But the diamond here presents a very great exception, 
The experiments. of Newton give as its reftadtive power 
= 3°2119, that of the air bene 1; this amount is almost 
double of that just now assigned to carbon. Condensation to 
the solid state will not explain so great a difference; for in 
gum, for instance, which ‘is also a solid, we do not see that 
this circumstance has an influence equally disproportioned : 
wax, which is equally solid; ought to refract much more 
than oil of turpentine, for it contains also more carbon ; ne- 
vertheless it refracts much less, and far less, for a stronger 
reason, than the diamond. 

«© What ought we to conclude,” say the authors, “ from 


~ the detail we have given? Is not the diamond a pure car- 


bonate? and does not its great refractive power display the 
presence of hydrogen, the most energetic of all other’ mnie 
in the power of refraction?” 

It would be necessary, according to the experiments of 
Newton, that the diamond should contain more than a third 
of its weight of hydrogen, in order to explain, by the 
presence of this ingredient, its great refractive power. If 
we want to reduce this number prépobtionally to the small 
differences remarked between the calculation and the theory, 
we should carry it to one-fourth, but we cannot descend 
lower without being in opposition to all the other re- 
sults, 

The authors, on this occasion, request the first class of 
the Institute to repeat, by a direct experiment, the analysis 
of the diamond with all the precaution which should attend 
their suspicions of the presence of hydrogen. We know 

that 


298 On the Affinities of Bodies for Light, 


that their request has been complied with, and we may ex- 
pect some excellent results from their labours. 

In the mean time they invite chemists to continue their 
scrupulous researches into the composition of bodies. «* On 
our part,” they add, ‘* we shall neglect nothing in order 
to multiply our observations upon solid bodies, liquids, 
and aériform fluids; and perhaps we may still owe some 

useful result to the happy analogy unfolded to us by Newton. 
These researches seem already sufficiently advanced to pre- 
sent a method of verifying to a certain point the chemical 
analyses of transparent bodies; and it is, perhaps, a result 
~ singular enough in itself that we may penetrate so far tnto 
the composition of bodies, and ascertain, in a sufficiently con- 
nected manner, the nature and proportions of their princi- 
ples by the geometrical instrument called a repeating circle.” 

The authors remark that the results they have obtained 
are yery favourable to the system of the emission of light, 
and appear to be contrary to that of the undulations of 
light. ‘In fact,” they say, ‘in the first system one should 
conceive that the refracting powers of compounds ought to 
depend on those of their principles. The combination of 

the attractive powers should take place proportionally to the 
masses ; and the little influence of condensation only proves 
the prodigious relative distance of the particles of light, as 
well as their extreme tenuity relative to the molecules of 
bodies and to the distances which separate them; circum- 
stances which are already indicated by many other pheno- 
mena. But if we supposed with Huyghens and the partisans 
of his doctrine, that light is produced by the vibrations of a 
very elastic substance, without transmission of substance, 
we could no longer conceive this relation so simple of com- 
pounds with their component parts; the condensation or 
the dilatation of the mediums ought necessarily to have a 
very complicated influence upon the progress, the direction, 
and the velocity of the numerous waves which are propa- 
gated: and what would not this influence be in the passage 
from the gaseous to the liquid state, when the constituent 
principles are collected under a volume two or three thou- 

sand 


and on the refractive Powers of different Gases. 299 


sand times less than their primitive volume?-in the same 
manner as takes place, for instance, in the composition of 
water.” 

The well-known phenomena of the prismatic dispersion 
of light, a dispersion which varies in general with the re- 
fractive powers of the mediums, are also connected with the 
chemical composition of bodies, and seem to indicate that 
their molecules have an action a little unequal over that of 
light: this same inequality may arise from a method of 
analysis analogous to that now developed, but stil] more 
subtle; and by observing the dispersion which takes place 
in liquids, from it we might infer what would take place in 
the component gases if their smallness of density permitted 
its effect to be appreciable. Thus we should have, for in- 
siance, the dispersive power of the atmospheric air accord- 
ing to that of the oxygen and the azote observed in the h- 
quid composed of these two gases. 

_ The labours of which we have now given an account are 
as applicable to astronomy as they are to chemistry. The 
refractive force of the atmospheric air, which is given by 
these experiments, is one of the most delicate elements of 
the theory of refractions. It is capable of being determined 
in two ways; by a great number of celestial observations, 
and by the direct and terrestrial method employed_by our 
authors. M.Declambre, to whom astronomy is so much 
indebted, has just published on this subject new researches 
for his solar tables according to the formule of M. de La- 
place; and the coefficient he has deduced from the compa- 
rison of more than 500 observations is that which has been 
employed in the Mécanique Céleste. But it happens, by a 
very remarkable coincidence, and well calculated to merit 
confidence, that one single terrestrial observation of our au- 
thors is sufficient to give the coefficient of M. Delambre: 
not one of them differs from it in any sensible measure ; and 
the mean result deduced from their aggregate would not pro- 
duce a difference of one-¢ighth of a second upon the position 
of the stars observed at 45° of altitude *. 
The 
* In order to give an idea of the progress of these experiments, and the 
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and on the refractive Powers of different Gases. 301 
fear, as well in the theory of astronomical refractions 4s in 
the reduction of observations. Thus the tables of refraction 
published by the Board of Longitude in France,.and which 
are founded upon this law, upon the coefficient of M. De- 
lambre, and upon the beautiful analysis of M. de Laplace, 
may be regarded as being as perfect as astronomers can ever 
require. 

Lastly, the coefficient of the barometer, as well as the 
exact relation of the specific gravities of the air and mercury, 
is a determination of some utility to astronomers, since upon 
that depends the height of the atmosphere (being supposed 
homogeneous), a height which is one of the elements of the 
theory of refractions. 

«¢ We are of opinion,” the authors conclude, ‘ that we 
may still deduce from our researches one other important 
truth; but it is requisite that we should recall the general 
eles found by naturalists and chemists upon the nature 
and constitution of the atmosphere. 

« Mr. Cavendish is the first who endeavoured to establish 
that the proportions of the two elements of the atmospheric 
air were constant, in spite of the distance of places and the 
difference of temperatures. The observations since made 
by M. de Mairy in Spain, M. Berthollet in Egypt and in 
France, Mr. Dayy in England, and by Beddoes on the air 
brought from the coast of Guinea, have confirmed this grand 
result. But one of the finest experiments made on this sub- 
ject is that of Gay-Lussac, who, having been elevated alone 
in a balloon to the height of 6900 metres, the greatest ever 
attained by any person, brought some atmospheric air from 
“these regions. This air, being analysed on his return, com- 
paratively with that on the surface of the earth, gave the 
same principles in the same proportions: this proves that 
the chemical constitution of the atmosphere at these great 
heights is the same as at the surface of the earth. This re- 
sult has been since confirmed by the experiments made by 
Messrs. Humboldt and Gay-Lussac on eudiometry. The 
air of the surface of the earth, analysed at different days, at 
various hours and temperatures, presented no change in its 
composition : it always contained 0°21 of oxygen in volume, 


0'787 


302 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


0°787 of azote, and 0°03 of carbonic acid. We ourselves 
had occasion to verify this grand law of nature in a journey 
we made to the Alps last year. The atmospheric air, ana+ 
lysed in places tlie most distant from each other, in deep val- 
Jeys and on high mountains, on the banks of the lake of Ge- 
neva and at Neufchatel, in the glacieres of Chamouny, at Col 
de Baume, in the Valais, upon the great St. Bernard, at Turin, 
and at Grenoble, always presented to us the same compo- 
sition. But since we have found that the refractive power 
of the air corresponds to that of the constituent principles 
which compose it, and that ‘it may be deduced from them 
exactly, it also results from this fact, that this refractive 
power is the same over all the world at equal densities; and 
thus the tables of refraction, calculated by the geometricians 
and the astronomers of Europe, may extend, without modi- 
fication, to all the countries in the world, provided that the 
refractive power of the air is not changed by the effects of 
heat : this is what the experiments we purpose making this 
summer will enable us to decide. 

<< In the present memoir we have endeavoured to present 
to natural philosophers and to chemists some useful results 
founded upon scrupulous calculations and precise observa- 
tions. We have endeavoured to determine, by direct expe- 
riments, all the physical facts which serve as the founda- 
tion of the theory of the atmospheric refractions, and’ which 
hitherto had been concluded from observations. In this re- 
spect we have it particularly in view to answer the questions 
proposed by the author of the Mécanique Céleste in his, 
tenth book, and to fix the points to which he had called the 
attention of philosophers.”’ 


XLVII. Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. By 
M. Cuvier. 
{Concluded from p. 211.] 


fhe British islands, which from their Jocal situation do 
not seem to have ever had any living elephants, present us 
with a great number of fossil ones. 

Sloane © 


L 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 303 


- Sloane possessed a tusk, dug up from a bed of gravel in 
Gray’s-inn-lane, London, 12 feet below ground. He had 
another, also, from the county of Northampton, found in 
blueish clay, below layers composed of 14 inches of vege- 
table earth, and 30 of flint mixed with earth *. 

A grinder from the same, and of 14 lamin, was found 
further down, being under 16 feet of veretable earth, 5 feet 
of sandy earth mixed with flint, 1 foot of black sand mixed 
with small stones, 1 foot of small gravel, and 2 feet of large 
gravel, where the tooth was, and below it alone was found 
blue clay f. 

In the year 1630 a portion of a cranium was found at 
Gloucester with some teeth; and a lower grinder has been 
dug up at Trentham, in the county of Stafford f. 

In 1700 several very Jarge bones, one of them a humerus, 
were dug up at Wrebness, near Harwich, upon the river 
Stowre, 15 or 16 feet below the surface, in a bed of gravel §. 

At Norwich, in the county of Norfolk, in the year 1745, 
there were found a grinder weighing 11 English pounds, and 
several large bones ||. 

J have myself at this moment before my eyes, owing to 
the kindness of M. G. A. de Luc, the metacarpal bone of 
a little toe of the right fore foot, found at Kew, 18 feet 
below ground, one foot and a half of which was composed 
of mould, 5 feet! of reddish sandy clay, very fit for making 
bricks of; 8 feet of siliceous gravel, and 3 feet of reddish 
sand, which rests upon clay. This sand contained many 
other ossifications: among others, the nucleus of a horn of 
the ox Kind; and in another pit, in the same field, there 
was found a tusk, which broke upon being taken out. The 
clay contained shells, and among others some nautili . 

The small island of Sheppy, at the mouths of the Thames 
and Medway, furnished a vertebra, a femur, atusk, &c. 
in a place washed by the tide **, 


* Natural History of Northamptonshire, by Morton, p, 252. + Ibid. 
t Plot’s History of Staffordshire. § Phil. Trans. vol. xxii. no: 274. 
|| Phil. Trans. vol. xlv. art. xxi. 
§ These details are extracted from a letter with which I was favoured by 
M. de Luc, dated Geneva, December 6, 1805. 
*#* Phil. Trans. vol. xlvili. p. 626, 627. 
Mr. 


304. Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


Mr. Peale mentions, still more recently, some bones found 
in Salisbury Plain, near Bristol, and in the Isle of Dogs*. 
Dom Calmet, in his Dictionary of the Bible, speaks of a 
giant found in the neighbourhood of Salisbury, near the 
famous Stonehenge. 

Pennant procured two grinders and a tusk from Flint- 
shire. They were extracted, by some miners, from under 
a lead mine 118 feet deep, in a bed of gravel; and among 
the upper layers there was one of calcareous stone 10 or 12 
feet thick: a stag’s horn was found along with them. I 
suspect much that this position has not been well described ; 
it is, perhaps, the only one of its kind. ; 

Treland has furnished elephant bones in its southern parts. 
There were four fine jaw-hbones dug up in 1713 at Magher- 
ry, eight miles from Beltarbet, in digging the foundations 
of a rail to 

Scandinavia, although extremely unfit to breed living ele- 
phants, contains plenty of fossil oncs. 

M. Quensel, superintendant of the cabinet of natural his- 
tory of the Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, has had the 
goodness to send me the drawing of a large ower jaw in the 
ahaa cabinet: it was found in a hillock of ihn near the 
river Jic, in Ostrobothnia. 

J. J. Deebeln has already described some gigantic bones 
dug up, in 1733, at Falkenberg, in the province of Halland. 
To judge of them from the drawings, they must be a first 
rib, a metacarpal bone, and a nondescript bone of an ele- 
phant. 

The giants’ bones dug up in Norway, spoken of by Pon- 
toppidam in his Natural History of Norway, must be no- 
thing else than elephants’ bones. 

Thomas Bartholin speaks of an elephant’s jaw-bone which 
was sent from Iceland to Resenius, and given by the latter 
to the cabinet of the university of Copenhagen. It was-pe- 
trified into silex, 

Sloane had some in his cabinet altered in the same man- 
ner; but he has not informed us of the cause of it, 


* Historical Disquisition on the Mammoth, p. 7. Note. 
+ Phil. Trans. vol. xxix. no, $49. 


Pon toppidan 


Memoir upon living and fossil: Elephants. 305 


Pontoppidan also mentions after Torfeeus a cranium and 
a tooth found in Iceland of a prodigious size. 

Of all the countries in the world, the vast empire of Russia 
contains the greatest quantities of fossil bones, particu- 
larly in those provinces where we might least expect to find 
them, the frozen regions of Siberia. 

Russia in Europe contains great quantities in- several 
places ; an immense quantity was found in 1773 at Swija- 
towski, 17 wersts from Petersburg. 

There is in the Petersburg cabinet a tusk from the neich= 
bourhood of Archangel, in “the valley of the Dwina. Cort 
neille le Brun mentions some tusks found near the surface 
of the ground at Vorones upon the Tanais. . There is an im= 
miense collection of them, as well as of the bones of various 
other animals, upon the banks of the Tanais, n near the town 
of Kostyusk. 

M. Pallas, in his recent travels through the southern pro 
vinces of Russia, mentions several pews between the Tanais 
and the Wolga; particularly the environs of Pensa, and two 
other places nearer the Wolga. 

As to Asiatic Russia properly so called, the testimony of 
travellers and naturalists agrees in representing that region as 
swarming with fossil elephants. 

This phenomenon is so general there, that the inhabitants 
have invented a fable to explain it; and they tell us that 
these bones and tusks belong to a subterraneous animal living 
in the manner of the mole, but never being permitted to see 
the light of day. They have named this animal sammont, 
or mammouth according to some, from the word mamma, - 
which signifies earth in some Tartar idioms; according to 
others, from the Arabian word behemoth, employed in the 
book of Job for a large unknown animal, or mehemoth, an 
epithet which the Arabs are accustomed to add to the name 
of elephant (/h/) when it is very large. 

They describe the tusks found in Russia by the appella- 
tion of mammont horns (mammonto vakost): these tusks are 
so numerous and so well preserved, particularly in the south- 
ern parts, that they are employed in the same manner as 
fresh ivory; and they form an article of commerce so im- 

Vol. 26. No. 104. Jan,1807. U portant, 


306 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


portant, that the czars furmerly reserved the monopoly of it 
to themselves. 

It was the profit they produced which perhaps excited the 
searching for them, and which occasioned the discovery of 
so many of these bones in that vast country; adding to 
these circumstances, that the immense rivers which run inte 
the Frozen Sea, and which are prodigiously swelled at the 
time of a thaw, and carry away large portions of their 
banks; and thus every year immense quantities of bones are 
discovered, besides those which are found in digging wells, 
&e. 

We ought not to believe that these animals have been 
simply led from India by the rivers of the neighbouring 
mountains, because this would still take place at the present 

day, as lately observed by a respectable author *. 
_M. Pallas informs us that there is not in all Asiatic Rus- 
sia, from the Don or the Tanais to the extremity of the pro- 
niontory of the Tchutchis, any brook or river upon the banks 
or beds of which elephants’ bones, and those of other ani- 
mals foreign to the climate, have not been found. 

But the higher regions, and the primitive and schistous 
chains of mountains, want them, as well as marine petrifi- 
cations, while the lower declivities and the vast sandy plains 
furnish them wherever they are intersected by brooks or 
rivers, which proves that they would be found in abundance 
in the rest of their extent also if dug for. 

There is but very few elephants’ bones in such places as 
are Jow and marshy: thus the river Ob, which flows some- 
times through low and marshy forests, only contains them 
in such places ‘¢ ubi adjacentes colles arenosi preruptam 
_ripam efficiunt.’”’ Strahlenberg made the same observation 
several years ago upon the manuer in which these bones are 
brought to light in consequence of inundations. 

They are found in every latitude, and it is from the north 
that the best ivory comes, because it has been less exposed 
to the action of the elements. 

A circumstance which, independently of this prodigious 


* Patrin Hist. Nat. des Mineraux, tom. v. p. 391, et sequent.: also Nou- 


veau Dict. des Sc. Nat., art. Fossiles. 
abundance, 


rd 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 307 


abundance, excludes every idea of expeditions conducted by 
men is, that in some places these bones are mixed with an 
innumerable quantity of bones of other savage animals large 
and small, 

What is still more remarkable is, that they are often found 
in beds filled with marine bodies, such as shells, &c. The 
above is an extract of the details of M. Pallas. 

One particularity not less striking than any other related 
to us by this great naturalist is, that in some places elephants’ 
bones have been found having stil] some fragments of flesh 
attached to them, The general opinion of the people of Si- 
beria is, that mammonts have been dug up covered with skin 
and flesh, and still bleeding: this is an exaggeration; but it 
arises from the circumstance of the flesh being sometimes 
found preserved by the frost. 

Isbrand-Ides speaks of a head the flesh of which was pu- 
trid, and of a frozen foot as large as a man of middling sta- 
ture: and Jean-Bernhard Muller speaks of a tusk the cavity 
of which was filled with a matter resembling clotted blood. 

We might, perhaps, doubt these facts if they were not 
confirmed by one of the same kind extremely well authen- 
ticated, that of the entire and complete rhinoceros dug up 
near Vilhorci, in 1771, with all the flesh, skin, and hair 
belonging to it. We are indebted to M. Pallas for a cir- 

-cnmstantial description of this phenomenon; and the head 
and feet of it are still preserved at Petersburgh. These facts 
prove that it must have been a sudden revolution which had 
buried these astonishing monuments of antiquity. 

To these general remarks we shall subjoin a cursory view 
of the principal places in Russia where fossil bones have been 
discovered. 

We have already mentioned those found in the beds of 
the Wolga; we may add those between the Wolga and the 
Swiaga, and those along the banks of the Kama, where they 
are mixed with marine shells ; those of the river Irguis, and 
the bones given by M. Macquart to the Council of Mines, 
which are mixed with rhinoceros’ ones. 

It was also from the Wolga, without doubt, that the fe- 

U2 mur, 


308 ‘Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


mur, brought from Casan by the astronomer Delille, and 
described i Daubenton *. 

M. Pallas gives a long fist of bones, tusks, ana elephants* 
and Rattocehaes teeth sent from the government of Casan to 
Petersburgh in 1776 and 1779, and which also come from 
the banks of the Swiaga. 

The French journals recently contained an account of @ 
complete skeleton found in the territory of sincliows } in the 
government of Casan. ; 

The beds of the Ob are full of them. ‘The people of Sa- 
moieda bring great quantities of them continually for sale at 
Beresova: they collect them in the immense naked plains 
which extend to the Frozen Sea, and which are also filled 
with shells. There is an immense heap of bones at Kut- 
schewaskoi, upon the Ob. 

The Irtisch, one of the principal branches of the Ob, is 
perhaps the river which has afforded the most; as well as its 
tributary rivers, the Tobol, the Toura, and the Isette. The 
two latter, which descend from the eastern range of the 
Oural mountains, often afford these bones mixed with ma- 
rine productions. 

Strahlenberg speaks of an entire head, of four feet and a 
half long, brought from Tumen upon the Toura. The Tom, 
another tributary of the Ob, has furnished plenty of them, 
as well as the Keta. 

An entire skeleton has been found upon the banks of the 
former, betwecu Tomsk and Kafnetsko, by Messerschmidt. 

Fossil bones have been found upon the Alei, and even at 
the foot of these mountains so rich in mines, from which 
several branches of the Ob derive their source. M. Pallas 
-asserts that there was a grinder taken from a mine in the 
famous mountain of the Serpents, and found along with 
some antient marine productions. 

The beds of the Jenissca has furnished them at all times 
near Krasnojark, whence M. Pallas received a grinder. They 
are to be found even so far north as the 70th degree of north 
latitude, below Selakino, that is to say, very near the Frozen 


* Mem, de l’Acad. for 1762. 
- Sea. 


ye ae Sent or: 


anengh a 


Lae 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 309 


Sea. The above naturalist also names the Angara, other- 


wise called the Great Tombuska, among the rivers where 
they have been dug up. Messerschmidt and Pallas mention 
the Chatanga also, a river which falls into the Frozen Sea 
between the Jenissea and the Lena. Isbrand-Ides and Jean 
Bernhard Muller mention Jakutsk, upon the Lena; and the 
Academy of Petersburgh is in possession of a rbinoceros’ 
cranium found not far from the mouth of this river, with 
almost the whole skeleton. 

The Vilhoui, which falls into the Lena, and upon the 
banks of which this whole rhinoceros was found, is certainly 
not devoid of elephants’ bones. 

Upon adding to all these places the shores of the Kolyma 
and the Anadir, spoken of by Pallas, we shall find that there 
is not a spot in Siberia which does not contain elephants’ 
bones. But what will appear, without doubt, still,;more ex- 
traordinary than all we have related, is, that of all places in 
the world, certain islands in the Frozen Sea, to the north 
of Siberia, contain the greatest quantity of elephants’ and 
other bones. 

The island which is nearest,to the continent is 36 leagues 
long. ‘ The whole island,” says the editor of Billing’s Voy- 


age, ‘* with the exception of three or four small rocky moun- 


tains, 1s a mixture of sand and ice; so that when a thaw 
melts a part of the shore, abundance of teeth and bones of 
the mammont are found. 

** All the island,”’ he adds, “ according to the expression 
of the engineer, is formed of the bones of this extraordinary 
animal, of horns and craniums of the buffalo, or of an ani- 
mal resembling it, and some rhinoceros’ horns.” This is 
certainly a very exaggerated description, but it proves how 
yery abundant these bones are. 

Another island, five leagues further of than the former, 
and 12 leagues long, has also plenty of teeth and bones ; 
but a third, at 25 leagues to the northward, showed none of 
them. 

It may be that the south of Asia furnishes these bones in 
as great abundance as the north. 

The most southern parts of Asia hitherto found to con- 

U 3 tain 


310 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 


tain fossil elephants’ bones are, the sea of Aral and the 
shores of the Jaxartes. Daubenton mentions a petrified 
fragment of a grinder from the shores of this lake; and 
Pallas asserts that the people of the country bring to market 
ivory from the neighbourhood of this river. 

In general it may be remarked, what is very singular, 
that none of these bones are dug up in such climates as we 
know to be inhabited by elephants at the present time, while 
they are so common in latitudes where they could not exist 
at present, 

Have none of them been ever buried in the latter places ? 
Has heat decomposed them? or, when they have been dis- 
covered, have they been neglected, from being ascribed to 
the animals of the country, aud nothing extraordinary ob- 
served about them? Naturalists who intend visiting the 
torrid zone, have a very important subject of inquiry before 
them. 

It would seem, at least, that fossil hones have been seen 
in Barbary, where there are no elephants of any kind at the 
present day. 

Without mentioning the giant’s.tooth seen by saint An- 
thony upon the shores of Utica, and which was as large as a 
hundred of the human teeth of the present day, the skele- 
ton of the giant dug up by some Spanish slaves near Tunis,° 
in 1559, must have been that of an elephant, more particu- 
larly as a second skeleton was dug up at the same place in 
1630, which was certainly that of an elephant, as was ascer- 
tained by Peyresc *, 

In order to complete the history of fossil elephants, it is 
necessary io inquire if they are to be found in America, a 
country where no living ones have been discovered since it 
was known to the Europeans, and where these animals 
surely could not have been destroyed by the weak and small 
population which occupied that continent previous -to its 
discovery by the Europeans. 

Buffon has already advanced the doctrine of the existence 
of these bones in South America, aud, as he asserts, in that 


* Gassendi’s Life of Peyresc. 


part 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 311 


part of it alone. We know, also, that he imagined as the 
cause of their extinction in that continent, theimpossibility, 
from the place where they lived, of their passing the isthmus 
of Panama when the gradual increase of cold weather forced 
them towards the south, as if the whole of Mexico was not 
stili warm enough for them to live in. 

To conclude ; the facts upon which Buffon rested his hy- 
pothesis are not entirely accurate. The bones which were 
discovered in America in his time were not those of the ele- 
phant ; they belonged to another animal which we have now 
distinguished by the name of mastedonta, and which is also 
known by the name of the animal of the Ohio. ‘ 

But there are certainly proofs of the existence of real ele- 
phants’ bones in America at this.moment: several recent 
authors testify this. Mr. Rembrandt Peale, in his Historical 
Disquisition on the Mammoth, says that jaw-bones have 
been found in Kentucky completely similar to those of Si- 
beria, but in small number, in a state of decomposition, 
and unaccompanied with other bones; whence he coneludes 
that the extirpation of the elephant in this continent was 
long previous to that of the mastodonta or animal of the 
Ohio, or that its carcase was brought there by some cata- 
strophe. 

I find a true elephant’s jaw, very well represented, in a 
plate of the work of J. Drayton upon Carolina. 

Catesby speaks of some real fossil elephant teeth in this 
country. ‘ In a part of Carolina called Stono were dug up 
three or four teeth of a large animal, which all the negroes, 
who were natives of Africa, declared to be elephants’ grind- 
ers; and I thought so myself also, having seen some similar 
ones which bad been brought from Africa *,” 

Mr. Barton, who pointed out this passage to me, remarks, 
with truth, that it ought uot to be inferred that these teeth 
were precisely similar to those from Africa, but merely ele- 
phants’ teeth in general : I should here say, teeth composed of 
lamine. In fact, we cannot suppose that Catesby and his 


* Catesby’s History of Carolina, vol. ii App. p.7. 
U4 negroes 


312 Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 

negroes were fit to distinguish the species of this genus at a 

petiod when no naturalist had as yet distingaichodl them. 
Mr. Barton adds, that he has himself seen some teeth of 

the European fossil elephant found, in 1795, at some “di- 


stance to the north of the place spoken of by Catesby, at a ~ 


place called Biggin-swamps, near the source of the west 
branch of Cooper river.. They were cight feet deep, mixed 
promiscuously with bones of the great mastodonta. 

The same gentleman saw a grinder of this description pro- 
cured from a branch of the river Susqueanna, with a portion 
of a tusk six feet long and 31 inches round, which would 
have been at least ten feet long if it had been entire; and, 
what is remarkable, the Déliware savages call this branch 
Chemung, or Horn river. 

“It was according to these facts that Mr. Barton wrote to 
M.‘Lacepede. ‘* The skeletons or bones of some large ani- 


mals,/more or less allied to the family of elephants, have - 


also been discovered in different parts of North America. 
Among these I recognise the grinders of a species which, 
if not the same as the elephant of Asia, must have been (as 
to the form of its grinders at least) more nearly allied to that 
species than is the mammoth*.” Mr. Barton here means 
the mastodonta. : 

I have some pieces of fossil bones from America in my 
own possession. I am indebted for them to the friendship 
with which I am honoured by M. Humboldt. During all 
his travels, he neglected no opportunity of collecting fossil 

‘carcases, with -the view of furthering my researches; and 
he sent me, upon his return, two pieces of real elephants’ 
bones, the one from North and the other from South Ame- 
rica. 

The first consists of separate lamin of grinders, and is 
consequently unequivocal. They are very large, and en- 
tirely similar to those of Siberia by the straightness and:the 


smal! degree: of festooning in the lamina of the enamel, as 


well as by the small dilatation of their middle, This spe- 
cimen came from Mexico. 


* Sce Philosophical Magazine, vol. xxii. p. 98. 


The 


a a 


<r 


“7 
‘ 


Memoir upon living and fossil Elephants. 313 


The other piece is a point of a tusk of calcined ivory, but 
completely recognisable: it comes from the province ot 
Quito, in Peru. This tusk was less compressed than the 
tusk of the mastodonta is at present, and I have every reason 
to believe that it belonged to an elephant. 

I shall carefully deposit in the museum these two precious 
pieces, which prove that the true elephants of antiquity, 
with grinder tecth composed of thin lamin, have also left 
their carcases to the north and south of the isthmus of Pa- 
nama. 

That we may neglect no information on the subject, we 
have to mention the stories told us by the Spaniards of the 
giants’ bones found in Mexico and Peru. We may find 
extracts of these fables, accompanied with new and detailed 
accounts, in the ‘ Gigantologie Espagnole,” by Torrubia 
the Franciscan. 

What hinders us from applying all these details to the 
elephant is, that they may owe their origin to the bones of 
two mastodontes, which are much more common in Ame- 
rica than those of the elephant; and no person who has 
transmitted these details has taken the trouble of giving 
drawings, or has said any thing that might lead us to di- 
stinguish the species. It is true, however, that their pre- 
tended giants are now completely extirpated. 

This enumeration of the places where the fossil bones of 
elephants have been found, is the result of an investigation 
which our anatomical labours, properly so called, have not 
permitted us to render so complete as we could have de- 
sired. It is probable that our enumeration would have been 
much more voluminous if we could have spared time to go 
over more carefully the works of naturalists and travellers, 
or the philosophical journals. It is, however, already sufhi- 
cient to give an idea of the prodigious quantity of these 
bones which the earth contains, and of what may be yet 
discovered if such researches are continued, and if they were 
oftener directed by men of science. 


7 


XLVIIT. De- 


{ 314 ] 


XLVIII. Description ef an Autocratic Cock, useful in 
Breweries, Distilleries, ۤ8c. By Josera STEEVENS, 
Esq. 

SIR, 
Hisixe frequently observed the great inconvenience at- 
tending the application of ball- edéke to the supply-pipes of 
large reservoirs, liquor-backs, &c. (arising from their be- 
ginning to close the aperture of the cock Jong before the 
backs, &c. are full); and having had’ a case of this kind 
immediately under my own divedeisn! I was induced to turn 
my attention to the construction of an apparatus to remove 

this objection. , 

The reservoir, or back, being about 60 feet above the level 
of the Thames, from whence it was supplied, it was there- 
fore necessary to have a large conduit-pipe in order to fill 
it during the short period which the water continues on, at 
such heights, at neap tides; and it was also indispensable 
that the cock should remain fully open during the whole 
time, and shut suddenly when the back was full; which 
could not be accomplished by the modes new in use: for 
in cases where large cocks are to be opened and shut by 
means of a ball or other float, the lever must be much longer 
or the float much larger than in common, as some of those 
cocks require a force to turn them from 50 to 100 |bs., with 
a lever 16 or 18 inches Jong: hence it is in broad and shal- 
low backs (the area of some of which are from 4000 to 5000 
feet) that the ball begins to contract what is termed the water- 
way of the cock before the back or reservoir is half full, in 
consequence of which the whole quantity of water would 
seldom be admitted in one tide. I have therefore inclosed 
you a drawing and description of an apparatus* to obviate 
this objection, and which I feel confident in saying will be 
found far more useful in similar situations than the ball- 
eock.—I am, sir, your obedient servant, 


26, Garlick-hill, JoserH STEEVENS. 
Dec.-5, 1806. 


To Mr. Filloch. ‘ 


* The original has been three years in use at the brewery of Cade and Co , 
an acting model of whica is in the Mathematical Society's repository. 


Description 


Description of an Autocratic Cock. 315 


Description of ihe Autocratic Cock. 


Let ABC (Plate VIII.) represent the section of a portion 
of a reservoir or liquor-back. DE, a large pipe supplying 
the same. F,acock on which is fixed the large wheel T, 
about two feet diameter, and the small wheel w, about five 
inches diameter: to the former is attached on one side the 
weight G, and on the other the vessel Hs, which is provided 
with the tube so. 7k is a tube to supply the vessel Hs, and 
is moveable on the joint c, to allow the orifice i to be occa- 
- Slonally raised above and depressed below the surface of the 
water, by means of the line or copper chain zw, which is 
fastened to the wheel x. Jm is a slender rod of iron or wood 
moveable on the centre 7: to this, by means of the bar x7, 
is fixed the cork or hollow metal float r, which, for the sake 
of rendering visible, is represented a little below its proper 
Situation. To the end of the rod /m is fixed the wire mn, 
provided with a yalve at 7 and another at s, for the purpose 
of closing alternately the ends of the tube so. The valve n, 
when the apparatus isin the present position, must be as 
much below o as is equal to an are of 90° of the wheel T: 
the tube so must also be equal in length at least to on, that 
the orifice o may fall within the waste-pipe op, which passes 
through and is supported by the bracket gq, which bracket 
Serves also to receive the vessel Hs when it descends. The 
vessel Hs is capable of containing a sufficient quantity of 
water, when about four-fifths full, to overcome the weight G 
and the friction of the cock F: this cock being open when 
the weight rests on the bottom of the back, it 1s evident if 
the vessel H be filled it will descend until it meets the 
bracket gq, by which descent the weight G will be raised 
and the cock shut: the tube z will also, by means of the 
wheel w, be lifted above the surface of the water vi, which 
will prevent any more from running into the vessel H; and 
the application of the orifice o to the valve x will prevent 
that which is already in from escaping until it is again 
opened by tlie descent of the float 7, which cannot happen 
until a portion of the water is drawn off: the valve near s 
prevents the water from escaping while H is filling ; but if 

the 


7. 
316 Improved Piston for Steam- Engines. 


the tube so, or the orifice 0, be small, there will be no oc* 
casion for the valve s. Now it is plain from the figure, if 
the back be filled until the surface of the water rises to x7, 
the float 7 will be lifted, and the valve x brought within the 
reach of the tube so when it descends, which will presently 
be the case; for when the surface arrives at v it will run 
through ik into H, and cause it to descend and shut off the 
cock F. The wheel T should be a little flatted near y, that 
after being set in motion it may not be stopped by friction 
until the cock is effectually turned off, 


XLIX. Description of Mr. Antuur Woour’s improved 


Piston for Steam- Engines. 


Tas common method of packing the piston of a steam- 
engine is so well known, that a very particular description 
of it in this place is not necessary. Suffice it to say, that 
the hollow part round the piston (A,a, Plate VII.) is filled 
with reunds ef hemp or cotton, loosely spun or twisted, 
which is pressed into a pretty compact form by a ring B,d, 
which is worked down by screws distributed round the 


ring and working into the body of the piston; by which’ 


means the packing is made to fill the diameter of the cy- 
linder pretty closely, and to prevent, while the packing re- 
mains sound, any steam from passing between the piston 
and the cylinder. In the usual method, whenever the pis- 
ton, by continued working, becomes too easy, and so occa- 
sions a waste of steam, it is necessary to take off the top of 
the cylinder, even when fresh hemp or cotton is not wanted, 
merely to get at the screws, which serve to force the upper 
ring nearer to the bottom of the piston, by which means 
the packing is forced outwards against the side of the cy- 
linder. This is beavy laborious work, and is therefore ge- 
nerally shunned by the man that attends the engine, as long 
as the engine can possibly be made to work without taking 
this Souble ; and in consequence of this neglect a great and 
unnecessary waste of steam is pacaaacede. and a waste of 
fuel. in proportion. é 


Mr. 


On the Food of Blints. 317 


Mr. Woolf’s improvement on the piston is such as to 
enable the engine-man to tighten the piston without the 
necessity of taking off the cover of the cylinder, except when 
new packing becomes necessary. He accomplishes this by 
either of the two following methods : 

He fastens each of the screws into a small wheel (c, fig. 1, 
and c,c,c,c,c, fig. 2. Plate VI.), which are all connected 
with-each other by means of a central wheel (d,d,}, which 
works loose upon the piston-rod in such a manner, that if 

eone of the small wheels be turned, it turns the central wheel, 
and the latter turns the other four. The one that is to be 
first turned is furnished with a projecting square head, which 
rises up into a recess in the cover of the cylinder. This re- 
cess is surmounted by a cap or bonnet e (Plate VI. and VIT.), 
which being easily taken off, and as easily put again in its 
place, there is little difficulty in screwing down the packing 
at any time. ‘The parts are so clearly expressed in'the plates 
that no further description is necessary to make any person 
comprehend it. 

The other method is similar in principle, but a little dif- 
ferent in construction. (See Plate VII.) Instead of having 
several screws all worked down by one motion, there is in 
this but one screw, and that one is a part of the piston-rod ; 
on this is placed a wheel of a convenient diameter, the centre 
of which is furnished with a female screw. This wheel is 
turned round, 7. e. screwed down by means of the pinion 0,0, 
which is furnished with a square projecting head rising into 
a recess of the kind already described. The ring is prevented 
from turning with the wheel by means of two steady pins. 


L. On the Food of Plants.. By the Rev. Josrra Towns- 
HEND, Rector of Pewsey, Wilts*. 


W war is the food of plants ?—Before we can give a satis- 
_ factory answer to this question we must collect facts, we 
must multiply experiments. Tor this purpose, in the years 


* From Letters and Papers of the Bath Agricuttural Sucisty, vol. x, ., 
1792 


313 On the Food of Plants. 


1792 and 1793 I put various seeds to vegetate-in different 
airs; in atmospheric air, in vital air, and in azote. The 
general result was, that neither wheat, oats, nor barley, ve- 
getated in azote; but in vital air vegetation was nabioraly 
rapid. 

July 12, 1796, I placed eleven cabbage plants in pots, al] 
healthy plants, and weighing each a quarter of an ounce 
apothecaries’ weight. The pots stood in pans with water, 
and remained mm them till June 12, 1797, when the plants 
were taken out of the pots and weighed again. 

OF these pots four had quartz eel washed clean, and 
rendered perfectly free from mixture of either argil or cal 
careous earth. d 

Ne. 1. had nothing bur this sand: the plant lived, but 
did not increase in bulk; when examined, the radical fibres 
were found numerous and extended, but very small; and, 
when the plant was weighed in January 1797, it had not in- 
creased in weight. 
~ No. 9. had the same kind of sand and woollen rags: the 
roots shot vigorously, the plant cabbaged, and in January 
1797 weighed two ounces. 

No. 3. had the same kind of sand, with seeee 1-4th part 
charcoal in powder: the roots were less vigorous than the 
former, and in January 1797 the plant weighed 3-4ths of an 
ounce. 

No. 4. had this sand with about 1-20th lime. The plant 
did not increase, yet lived, and in January 1797 weighed 
only 3 dwts., having lost 2-5ths of its original weight. 

No. 5. had brickmaker’s clay alone: the plant lived, 
looked fresh, but in January 1797 weighed only half an 
ounce. 

No. 6. had brickmaker’s clay, with an equal proportion 
of the quartz sand. This plant, like the former, livedg 
looked fresh, and in January 1797 weighed half an ounce. 

No. 7. had brickmaker’s clay, with about 1-4th part 
charcoal in powder. In January 1797 the plant weighed 
half an ounce. : 

No. 8. had brickmaker’s clay and woollen rags. This plant 
eabbaged well, and in January 1797 weighed four ounces. 

No. 


On the Food of Plants. 319 


No: 9. had brickmaker’s clay, with about.1-20th lime, 
The plant lived till December, but never grew. 

No. 10. had clean dung from the bowels of a fiat with 
quartz sand well washed, This plant dropped some of its 
largest leaves during the frost, and yet in January 1797 it 
weighed 41 ounces. 

No. 11. had peat earth alone: the plant continued healthy 
to ‘appearance, and in January 1797 weighed half an ounce, 
but the root was rotted off. 

No. 12. was planted at the same time in the garden, near 
the pots, in rich mould: this did not drop any leaves, and 
in January 1797 weighed four ounces. 

Such was the result of these experiments on cabbage plants. 

In January 1797, having removed the cabbage plants, I 
sowed wheat in the same pots; and 25th September of the 
same year I made the subsequent report : 

No. 1, with quartz sand alone, had two stems 23 inches 
long, and the ears 12 inch. 

No. 2, the sand and rags, had four stems 28 inches long, 
and the ears 24 inches. 

No.3, the sand and charcoal, had one stem 18 inches 
long, and the ear 13 inch. 

No. 4, the sand and lime, had two stems 21 inches Tong, 
and the ear 2 inches. 

No. 5, the clay alone, had three stems 27 inches long, | 
and the ears 13 inch. 

No. 6, the clay and sand, had four stems 25 inches long, 
and the ears 24 inches. 

No. 7, the clay and charcoal, had four stems 24 caaiies, 

_and the ears two inches. 

No. 8, the clay and rags, had twelve stems 33 inches 
long, and the ears 24 inches. 

No. 9, the clay and lime, bad one stem, very slender, 15 
inches, and the ear 12 inch. 

No. 10, the dung and sand, had sixteen stems 37 inches 
long, and the ears 2% inches, very strong. 

No. 11, the peat earth, had six stems 35 inches long, and 
the ears 24 inches. 

Thus, 


' 320 On the Food of Plants. 


Thus, it appears, that in both sets of experiments the re- 
sults were similar. 

From these facts, compared with other facts with which 
we are conversant, such as the flowering of bulbous roots in 
water, and more especially the vast increase of the withy- 
tree, recorded by Mr. Boyle, our attention is naturally turned 
in the first place to water, as the supposed nutriment of 
plants. 

In the experiments before us, both the cabbage and the 
wheat of No. 1. were well supplied with water; but in the 
space of six months the former had not increased in either 
weight or bulk ; and the latter, in eight months, produced 
only two miserable stems. 

In Catalonia, more especially in the vicinity of Barcelona, 
the soil is principally quartz, from decomposed granite; yet 
being well watered, and plentifully supplied with hight and 
heat, the crops of every kind are most abundant. 

M. de Saussure remarks, that ‘* we deceive ourselves ex- 
ceedingly when we imagine that the fertility of any district 
depends wholly on the nature of its soil, because abundance 
and scarcity in crops arise principally from the degree of 
heat and humidity in the air with the quantity and quality 
ef -the exhalations with which it is charged.’ He adds, 
**T have seen, in Sicily and Calabria, rocks and gravel arid 
and uncultivated, such as in Switzerland would have been 
altogether barren, which there produced more vigorous 
plants than are to be seen on the richest and best cultivated 
lands amongst the Helvetic. mountains *.” 

It is aarohieting to see, in a warm cliagate, the rapid 
growth of vegebibles when they are well supplied with water. 
The smallest cutting of a vine will, in the space of fifteen 
or sixteen months, cover the front of an extensive edifice, 
or form a spacious harbour from which the assembled family 
may gather in abundance of the most Juxuriant grapes. In 
such a situation the seeds of limes, oranges, and lemons, 
will, in four or five years, produce a shady grove; and mul- 
berry trees, when wholly stripped of their leaves for the na- 


* Voyage dans les Alpes, 1319. : 
triment, 


ee ea ee 


On the Food of Plants. 321 


triment of silkworms, will again, in a raphe daysidb be covered 
thick with foliage. 

Adanson, in his account of Plshtl informs us, that 
** when every thing green has been devoured by. locusts, not 


‘a vestige of their destructive progress, after a few days, can 


be discovered.” He 
From the consideration of these and» other facts» similar 
to them, many distinguished chemists have: delivered wit 
as their opinion that water is decomposed by vegetables. 
M. Chaptal says, “ La décomposition de l’eau est prouvée 
non seulement dans le vegétal mais dans lanimal.”’ And 
for this Jast he quotes the authority of Rondelet. 

That water, as such, enters largely into the compositionof 
vegetables, is evident; but whether or not, and to what extent, 
it is decomposed, has not, as lL apprehend, been yet demons 


strated. In water meadows, with a plentiful supply of ruan- 


ning water, vegetation proceeds even in the depth of winter, 
and during the scverest frosts ; but stagnant water is at all 
times unfriendly to our meadows. Any given quanitity may 
remain upon the surface for weeks or months subject to de- 
composition ; but instead of being in this state beneficial, it 
is injurious to our crops. In our water meadows we uni- 
versally observe that it is not humidity which dees good, but 
a thick sheet of water flowing incessantly, night and day, 
(for a certain period) over the surface. 

Hence it seems probable that water is essential to the 
growth of plants, not merely as such, but as it proves a 
vehicle of other substances which are their proper food. 

If we may form a judgment from their analysis, carbon 
may be regarded as the chief pabulum of plants; and this 
we know can, ina given proportion, be conveyed ‘to’ them 
by water. M. Chaptal is not only of opinion that carbonic 
acid is essential to their growth, but he affirms that the base 
of this acid contributes to the formation of the vegetable 
fibre. In support of this opinion he observes, that in fungi, 
which live in subterrancous places, this acid abounds 5 but 
by bringing them from almost perfect darkness gradually to 
the light, this acid disappears, and the fibres proportionably 
increase, This opinion is confirmed by some experiments 

Vol. 26. No. 104. Jan. 1807. X of 


522 On the Food of Plants. 


of M. Senebier, in which he observed, that ** plants abuw- 
dantly supplied with water which had been impregnated with 
carbonic acid, transpired much more oxygen than when they 
were supphed with common water.” 

Some plants take more carbon than others into their com- 
position; as for instance, the Agaricus quercinus, Agaricus 
antiquus, Boletus versicolor, Boletus igniarius, Boletus str?- 
atus, Boletus perennis, Clavaria hypoxylon, Clavaria pistil- 
éaris, and many others. All these contain, from the result of 
analysis, a quantity of carbon nearly equal to al} their other 
component parts. But the Lichen crispus, Pinaster granu- 
latus, and Lycoperdon tessellatum, contain a very small por- 
tion of carbon. 

Plants do net, however, retain all the carbonaceous mat- 
ter they receive; they obtain more in the day, when exposed 
to light, than they naturally require ; but by the absence of 
hight they part with this surplus, and therefore yield respira- 
ble gas only in the day-time. 

The separation of oxygen from plants by radiant light, 
seems to arise from the chenrical affinity between oxygen 
andlight. For this fact we are indebted to Dr. Ingenhouz ; 
but Humboldt was the first who ascertained that hydrogen 
gas applied to plants, even when excluded from the light, 
occasions a separation of their accumulated oxygen. 

Some plants, as for instance tremella nostoe, the filices, 
musci, aud alg@, retain their oxygen weakly, and part with 
it readily. And it is remarked by Van Uslar, to whom I 
am indebted for many of these observations, that such plants 
as coutain much oxygen, and retain it obstinately, are white; 
as for instance, our endive and celery when excluded from 


the light; while such as contain much oxygen, and part — 


with it easily, are generally green. 

Tf the analysis of plants leads us to consider carbon as one 
of the most essential articles in their composition and sup- 
port, no less does the experience of ages prove to us that 
the principal source fyom which they derive their nutri- 
ment, whatever it may be, is to be sought for in vegetable 
earth, the produce of ahimal and vegetable substances de- 
eayed. Many plans, indeed, require little or no earth for 

their 


Se aes 


On the Food of Plants. _ 323 


their vegetation, such as the numerous lichens and traga- 
canths, of which genera the former were discovered by Saus- 
sure on the highest of the Alpine granite rocks. In lower 
situations these form a soil for the genista, for the cistuses, 
and more especially for rosemary and lavender, which abound 
on the miost elevated mountains of the Pyrennees. These 
again, by their decay, form vegetable earth, in which the 
luxuriant pine-trees and the ilex grow. 

This vegetable matter, being washed down into the val- 
leys, helps to form and to increase their soil to a considera- 
ble depth, and to give them that fertility which is not rea- 
dily exhausted. 

When we analyse a soil, we never fail to find it composed 
of substances derived from a superior level. If the hills are 
quartzose, calcareous, argillaceous, or magnesian, so is the 
soil in all the valleys which communicate with them. But 
with these earths in a rich soil we find a great proportion of 
vegetable matter, or of animal exuvize; and as these are de- 
ficient or abound, vegetation languishes, or is exceedingly 
Juxuriant. : 

Good mould abounding with vegetable matters is com- 
monly of a dark colour, pulverises easily, and has therefore 
what is called a mellow look; but when exhausted or im- 
poverished by frequent crops, the richest soil, such as I have 
here described, becomes arid, of a lighter colour, compact, 
and comparatively barren. In a maiden soil, or where every 
shower of rain brings down from more elevated regions a 
quantity of vegetable matter, a succession of luxuriant crops 
may be taken incessantly without any diminution of ferti- 
lity.. Thus it is in the country newly occupied by the Ame- 
ricans, in Kentucky, on the Ohio, and in the whole extent 
of territory watered: by the Mississippi or by its tributary 
streams. Thus also in some parts of Spain, where an ex- 
tensive plain happens to receive the spoils of rich cireumja- 
cent hills, as in the well-watered vale of Orihuela, near Mur- 
cia, of which they say, ‘ Let it rain or not rain, corn never 
fails in Orihuela.” Indeéd, so productive is wheat in that 
highly-favoured district, that the farmers commonly receive 
100 for 1 upon their seed. 

X 2 Tn 


304 Ms On the Food of Plants. 


In my _expermenis, No. 10,,,we. see, by, the luxurtairt 
growth of the cabbage and the wheat, what vegetable matter 
can produce : : ra in Shee of these could any kind of nu- 
triment be, derived from the quartz sand) in which , ape 
spread their roots. 

The same kind of sand ‘in, the vicinity of Bareelona. is, by 
the assistance of a bright sun and, copious irrigation, ren- 
dered exceedingly productive; but then they. spread upon 
the land all the ‘dung they can procure, and not only station 
children and old women on the bighways with little baskets 
to collect this manure as it falls from horses or from, mules, 
but, like the farmers in the south.of France, they pick the 
leaves from. the trees in autumn, and this at a considerable 


expense. Of such importance do they consider vegetable’ 


matter as the food of plants. 

It must be confessed that we have frequently occasion to 
observe plants dependant on the nature of the earth in which 
they are found, and affecting, each its peculiar earth, in which 
they grow spontaneously ad thrive. 

Thus on chalky and calcareous soils we find Thesiwm li- 
nophyllum, Anthyllis vulneraria, Asperula cynanchia, Lotus 
corniculatus, Hippocrepis comosa, Poa cristata ; and. three of 
the Sedums, the S. acre, S. allum, and S. reflecum 3 as on 

the Wiltshire downs, and on the hills round Bath. 

On sand we see drenaria, Rumex acetosella, and all the 
sorrels; the Plantago maritima, the Plantago Coronopus, 


the Onopordum Acanthium, the Sedum Anglicum, and most. 


remarkably the Spartium scoparium. 

On clay, if wet, the Carices, the Junci, Scheenus, Aira 
cespitosa, and Aira cewrulea, Orchis latifolia, and Orchis 
conopsea; if dry, the Primula veris, Orchis mas, Orchis 
maculata, and Poa pratensis. . 

-On bogs, the Eguiseta, Vaccinium uliginosum, Anagallis 


tenella, Scirpus palustris, Menyanthes trifoliata, and ‘Dro- 


sera, delight to dwell. 


On he sca shore, “ia wherever the muriatic salt abounds, 


as near Alicant in Spain, we find Salicornia Europea, four 


species of Salsola, Chenopodium maritimum, and two spe-, 


cies of Mesembryanthemum. 


These 


| 


ee ee ee 


eg: Clee 


~~" 


ee em 


age 


On the Food of Plants. 325 

‘These maritime plants appear to decompose a part of the 
soil in which they grow; the alkali produced by burning 
them, or the sal soda used in glass and soap, is évidently 


é genres by them from the muriatic salt. 


' Bat when we sce the Lichen parellus fixing itself on the 


siliceous rock, or the Lichen immersus affecting as it does 


the calcareous rock in preference to the siliceous ; whatever” 
may influence this choice, we cannot suspect that cither of 
these rocks contributes by its decomposition to the nutrition 
of these plants; nor, as I apprehend, have we reason to ima- 
gine that either chalk, sand, or clay, are im any form the 
-aliment of the plants. . 
Woollen rags have been found of great utility as a ma- 
nure, more especially for wheat. And in the experiments 
before us we may observe, that sand with rags produced a 


cabbage of two ounces, and four strong ears of wheat. In 


clay with rags our cabbage weiched role ounces, and we had 
twelve strong ears of wheat’ But in what manner these 
rags produced effect it is difficult’ to say, for in January 1797 
they were ‘not visilly decayed; and in the month of Sep- 
tember in that yer they still retained their texture. The 
quantity we usually spread upon one acre is not more than 
four or five cwt.; and yet in the experience of every farmer 
it is found that in the first year they néarly double the crop 
of wheat, and in the two succeeding years they yielded a 
visible increase. At present, therefore, we can’ merely re- 
cord it a3 a fact, that woollen rags are highly beneficial to 
the land: but we cannot pretend to say by what process they 
contribute to the nutriment of plants. 

Lime in our experiments was clearly detrimental with 
sand; the cabbage lived, but weighed less in January than 
when planted in July: the wheat had two slender’ stems’ 
In clay with lime our cabbage lived till December, but‘ ntver 
grew. The wheat had one stem, which was: ‘extremely sfen- 
der, and the ear was diminutive. na 

These facts appear discordant with the experience of far- 
mers in every quarter of the globe; for lime is found to be 
an excellent manure. In some parts of Wales’ they “have 

X 3 scarcely 


326 On the Food of Planis. 


scarcely any other dressing for their wheat. J well remem- 
ber, that in the parish of Lansamlet, in Glamorganshire, my 
father, who was very attentive to agriculture, put most of 
his stable dung on meadow Jand, and used only lime for 
wheat. He had two lime-kilns constantly burning for his 
own use, and with this manure he obtained the most abun- 
dant crops; but then his land was principally a dark vege~ 
table mould, and much of it was peat, which before it was 
drained had been a bog. On this land I have counted sixty 
grains to an ear, not picked and culled out of many. others 
as being longer than the rest, but taken by handsful at 
random. 

In his land, lime asa dressing was particularly apt, be- 
cause, as we know, it hastens the putrefactive process, and 
promotes the dissolution of vegetable substances, converting 
them quickly into vegetable mould. 

Now in my experiments there was no vegetable matter to 
be dissolved, and therefore no benefit, according to chemical 
principles, was to be expected from the lime. The trial was 
however made, and the received opinion as to the effect of 
lime is thus far confirmed. 

But in my experiments the lime appears to have been de- 
Icterious, This was not from its causticity, for the plants 
lived; but from its ction as a cement in forming a crust on 
the surface of the pots imper vious to air. For in these pots 
I remarked, that after rain the water stagnated, and did not 
readily penetrate as in the other pots. 

Free access of air to the roots of plants seems to be of 
vast*importance, and almost essential to their growth, With 
regard to seeds, access of air is absolutely needful to their 
vegetation. Hence it is that charlock ( Sinapis arvensis) will 
remain in the earth for centuries, if deposited below the ve- 
getating distance, as we have occasion to observe on Salis- 
bury plain, where no charlock is ever seen, unless when 
the downs are broken up. The land is then covered with 
it; but till then the seeds remain as 27 vacuo, and are there~ 
fore not liable to change. 

This deposit of seed must have happened i in most remote 

antiquity, 


On the Food of Plants. 327 


antiguity, either when the hill country, like the low lands, 
formed part of an extensive forest; or more probably when 
these extensive downs were subject to the plough. 

Being soliciteus te know whether these seeds were ante- 
diluyian, I took earth from different depths, and soon got 
below the stratum in which these seeds are found. 

The necessity of air for the vegetation of seeds will ac- 
count for effects which in agriculture are too frequently ob- 
served. 

If soon after wheat or barley has been sown on what is 
called arunning sand there falls a dashing rain, the sand 
ruus together, that is, it forms a crust, which in a great 
measure is impervious to air, and scarcely a grain of corn 
will grow ; or if on clay land, during a time of drought, a 
garden plot is watered, and left exposed to the scorching 
beams of a meridian sun, the ground will bake, that is, the 
surface will be hardened, and being thus rendered imper- 
vious to. air, vegetation ceases. But if the surface has been 
previously covered with fern leaves, as practised by skilful 
and attentive gardeners, no such effect will be produced. 
The plot may be watered, and vegetation will be rapid. 

The admission of air, and its vast importance to the 
growth of plants, will account for the good effect produced 
by harrowing our wheat crops in spring, as lately intro- 
duced, and now universally adopted by our best farmers. 
The good effect produced is made apparent by the luxuriant 
growth of pease, beans, turnips, and cabbages, after they 
have been hoed; and is at present so well understood, that 
many agricuiturists hoe their turnips twice, and their beans 
four times, not merely with a view to the destruction of 
weeds, but because they observe the benefit arising to their 
crops by the free admission of air into the earth, The pal- 
pable advantage of this practice has led many farmers to 
consider the principles on which the practice has been 
founded, and to try by experiments how far it can be 
pushed. 

In this pursuit, and satisfied of the benefits to be derived 
from loosening the surface of the ground contiguous to his 
crops, the Rev. Mr. Close has given up the broad-cast hus- 

X4 bandry, 


328 On the Food of Plants. 


bandry, keeps the hoe constantly i in motion, and now finds 
that he has never occasion for a fallow. 

But the most astonishing effect produced by giving free 
admission of air to the roots of wheat was last year exhibited 
by Mr. Bartley, secretary to the Society of Arts at Bath. 
In August 1800 he sowed his wheat in rows with three-feet 
intervals, and six inches distance from grain to grain. The 
proportion of seed was two quarts to an acre. The soil was 
a deep sandy loam, but out of condition, and filled with 
couch. This wheat was hoed in autumn, hoed again, and 
earthed up.both at Christmas and spring. When it was in 
bloom the ‘intervals were dug up, and it was once more 
earthed up. At harvest this crop yielded sixty-six bushels 
per acre.. Such was its luxuriancy, that many of the plants 
produced 98 perfect ears,’ many of which, nine inches long, - 
contained each 100 grains.. 

In the broad-cast husbandry of the bill counties of Wilts 
and Hants, the produce was formerly three or at most four 
for one, as it was in the greatest part of France. By the 
drill, without hoeing, the return would not be near so” 
much ; but in Mr. Bartley’s crop we see more than 1000 
for 1; and some grains yielded nearly ten times as much*. 

I shall make but one observation more upon this subject, 
which is, that an orchard planted on the green sward re- 
quires double the time for its maturity as one on culti- 
vated land, that has a more plentiful supply of air admitted 
to its roots. 

Thus we see that all the great agents in nature are con- 
cerned in the process of vegetation, and may be considered 
as the food of plants. But to determine in what manner 
each contributes to nutrition, must be left to the investiga 
tion of succeeding generations. 

LI. Letter 


* It must ever be with reluctance that an exception can be taken against 
any argument of so able a writer as the present, especially in a matter of al- 
leved fact. But in this instance it seems proper to remark, that the argument 
drawn from the reported, success of Mr. Bartley should be received with cau- 
tion, on account of the peculiarity of the soil ;—that soil being remarkably 
deep, fat, and productive, and within the limits of a nursery-man’s garden, 
near a city abounding with manure, are circumstances not common to other 


situations. 


CE OO —<-—- —, 


[ 329°] 


LI. Letter from Tuomas Kerrn, Esq. Secretary. to the 
Master of His Majesty’s Household, &&c., respecting Mr. 
Bownycastix’s Treatise on Plane and Spherical Trigo- 

nometry: 

| : To Mr. Tilloch. 
SIR, 4 


I BEG leaye to correct some erroneous statements in your 
valuable Magazine for November 1806, article xxx. p- 176, 
‘&c., respecting Mr. Bonnycastle’s Treatise on Plane and 
Spherical Trigonometry, lately published ; not doubting, from 
that attention to impartiality which I have bad frequent op- 
portunities of observing in your work, that you will do me 
the justice to insert my remarks. 

_ It is not my intention, sir, to follow the writer of this 
article step by step in his observations on Mr. Bonnycastle’s 
book, nor im the smallest degree to doubt the rectitude of bis 
intentions when he Says, ‘f we are conscious that in recom- 
mending this treatise to general favour, we are equally dis- 
charging an act of justice to the author, and of service to 
the public.” My remarks-will therefore be as short as pos- 
sible. 

The plane trigonometry, we are told, contains * a great 
variety of practical examples ;” and the spherical is applied 
* to the solution of: astronomical problems,”’ and. contains 
“‘ tables of right ascension, &c. useful in the preceding so- 
lutions ;” to which he adds, « This part of the work cannot 
fail to be of the highest utility.’ In another place, (speak- 
ing of a part of the work, the merit of which [ am not in- 
clined to dispute, as it concerns not.myself,) ** This part of 
the work alone is sufficient to stamp its value, did not every 
other part lear evident traces of the same hand.’ This is 
an assertion, sir, which could not possibly have been made 
had the writer seen my treatise on the same subject, pub- 


situations. Consequently, the result of any experiments made in such a spot, 
is not to be considered as applicable to the general practice of agriculture and 
planting on a large and common scale of cultivation. | With the necessary 
allowances which the local advantage above mentioned suggests, the conse- 
quences drawn by this gentleman may still be of importance for the consi- 
deration of our practical readers.—Editor of the Letters and Papers. - 


lished 


.Y 


330 = Letter respecting Bonnycastle’s Trigonometry. 


lished by Longman and Co. and Vernor and Hood, in 1801. 
I do not, from this observation, by any means wish to ascribe 
to myself any of the merit attributed to Mr. Bonnycastle by 
the writer of the article im question, nor to put my work 
in competition with Mr. Bonnycastle’s; but I cannot suffer 
such a remark as the above to pass unnoticed, when I can 
clearly prove that a very considerable portion of Mr. Bonny= 
castle’s work is @ direct copy of mine. Exclusive of detached 
matter, there are npwards of seventy pages in which there 
are searcely ten lines in any one page which are not directly 
eopted from my work ; and in many pages not a single line 
nor figure but what is copied. For instance, pages 232 and 
233 are both entirely copied from different parts of my work : 
thus, example 2d, is my second example, p. 267; example 
3d, is my fourth example, p. 268. The note at the bottom 
of the page is taken from my article marked D, p. 268 ; and 
the xixth preblem is a copy of my first example, p. 255. In 
p- 255 of my Treatise is the following erroneous remark : 
** The sun’s parallax is about 9”, therefore his upper limb 
will appear in the horizon when he is 32’ 53” below it; and 
as his semi-diameter is 15’ 47”, his centre wilt appear in the 
horizon when it is 48’ 38” below.” Mr. Bonnycastle, in 
his note, p. 233, says the same. At p. 303 of my work, 
10° 46’ are stated to be equal to 43’ 40” of time; and this 
error is carried through my calculation: this Mr. Bonny- 
castle has copied at p. 250 of his treatise; and brings out 
my conclusion, though the calculation occupies two pages. 
All the astronomical problems in my work, the framing and 
calculation of which were attended with a considerable de- 
gree of labour, are adapted to the year 1796, at which time 
Texpected my work to be published ; and the ‘tables of right 
ascension, &c. useful in the solutions,” and already noticed, 
were collected from the Nautical Almanac, for the purpose of 
ilustrating the examples. Mr. Bonnycastle has adapted all 
his examples to the year 1796, and copied my tables altoge- 
ther; the intention of which ts too obvious to need any com- 
ment! Lastly, the geometrical figures in various parts of the 
book are hkewise the same as those in my work, as if pricked 
from my plates by schoolboys. Thus the figure at p. 111 is the 

same 


—— ee ee eee eee 


ee 


“a 


On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 331 


same size as my figure xiil. Plate VI; the figure in p. 128 
is a copy of my figure xvii. Plate VJ; and the examples at 
both places are mine, as well as the constructions; but as 
my examples ard constructions are placed at different pages, 
and my figures are given in plates, the coincidence, at first 
sight, is not so obyious as it would have been had my work 
been printed i in the manner of Mr. Bonnycastle’ 3. 

From the specimens already given, the truth of my asser- 
tions cannot be doubted ; for it would baffle all the mathe- 
matical laws of chance to produce, from fortuitous circum- 
stances, such a coincidence as I have pointed out: but as 
this subject will be more amply discussed elsewhere, I shall 
desist from troubling you with any more remarks ; and hope, 
as it is a mere act of justice to myself, that your readers 
will excuse me for having occupied any part of your valuable 
work with matter which has no tendency either to instruc- 
tion or entertainment. 


‘ 


; I am, sir, 
No. 18, Norfolk-street, Your most obedient servant, 
Fitzroy square, : 
January 12, 1807. Tuomas KEITH. 


LII. On the Cultivation of the Poppy. By T. Cocan, 
M. 


Aursovcu the ardour with which the British nation pur- 
sues whatever promises to be of public utility, is perhaps un- 
equalled by any other, and certainly exceeded by none; vet 
there is one subject which has hitherto been permitted to 
escape our attention, and in which several nations upon the 
continent can not only boast of their superior policy, but 
are already enjoying considerable advantages from it; I mean 
the cultivation of the poppy to a great extent for tlie benefit 
of its oil, as an article of food, and for other useful purposes. 
~ It will doubtless be remarked, that we ought not to ascribe 
the neglect of it as an article of food to inattention altoge- 
ther, but to a superior caution, as the narcotic quality of 


* From Letters and Pupers of the Bath Agricultural Society, vol. x. 
the 


332 On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 


the poppy renders it totally unfit to be taken inwardly? 
This, it is allowed, is, in appearance, a very formidable ob 
jection ; and, as it respects the lives of multitudes, it ought 
not to be treated with levity: the objection itself, and the 
argument from analogy on’ which it is founded, ought: to bé 
completely confuted before the article can be recommended 
to the community in this novel point of view. | iia 

We might observe that the objection is solely founded 
upon very ‘slight and imperfect analogy. It assumes, that, 
because some parts of a plant are noxious, the whole must 
be equally noxious. Bat this assumption may be con- 
futed in numberless instances. Daily experience testifies 
that different parts of plants possess not only different, but 
opposite qualities. Oranges and lemons, which are used in 
profusion, possess juices that are both palatable and refri- 
gerating; but these are inclosed in a rind, the essential oil © 
of which is extremely acrid and stimulating: and it is well 
known that the bland and nutritive tapioca is the produce of 
a tree whose roots are highly poisonous. In this case, there- 
fore, the argument from analogy may be considered as a very 
proper motive for caution ; but if it advances further, it de- 
generates into a pernicious prejudice. 

There have been, however, many incidental circumstances 
which have had a partial influence in removing these preju- 
dices. It is well known that compounders of aneere have 
made a very liberal use of the seeds of poppies, as substi- 
tutes for the oil of sweet almonds, without the least detri- 
ment to the patient. They have sometimes imputed to it 
additional virtues, from its being supposed to possess nar- 
cotic properties. But that they have erred in their hypo-* 
thesis is plain, from the practice of many individuals who 
have made the seeds of poppies a common article of food *. 
> But it will be the principal object of the following paper 
to inform the inhabitants of this country, through the me- 
dium of your publication, that the above objection has been 
repeatedly advanced and repeatedly confuted ; that experi~ 
ments, first made with a degree of caution, have finally re~ 


* See Prosper Alpinus, lib. iv. capsi. Geofrey Mat. Med, tom, ii p. 715. 
Lewis's Materia Medica, article Papaver album. 
moved 


. On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 338 


moved prejudices long and inveterate; and that the white 
poppy (Papaver hortense-semine allo) is cultivated to a very 
great extent in France, Brabant, and Germany, and, more re- 
cently in Holland, chiefly to extract. the oil from its seeds ; 
which is found not only to be salubrious, but to be pecu- 
harly delicate in its flavour. . It is now become a considera- 
ble article of commerce; the oil of.a superior quality for the 
use of the table, and the inferior for manufactories and va- 
rious other purposes. It is produced not only with. consi- 
derable profit-to the cultivator, but also to the merchant and 
consumer.. 

As it is natural to imagine that the prejudices against the 
common use of poppy oil for culinary purposes will be very 
general, since they are apparently sanctioned by prudent 
caution, it is not expected that the most positive assertions, 
founded upon the experience of strangers on the continent; 
would be sufficient'to. remove them. But a circumstantial 
narrative of a contest, which has, already taken place, and of 
the final triumph of experience over. the opposition founded 
on analogous reasoning, and a particular statement of the 
advantages which have accrued to the cultivator, merchant, 
and consumer, may perhaps attract the attention of some 
agriculturists in our own country, who may thus be encou- 
raged to make similar experiments; and as the issue must 
be the same, they will be able to produce absolute demon- | 
stration that the oil is totally destitute of the noxious quali- 
ties that have been ascribed to it; and finally conyince the 
public that it may become a cheap and useful substitute for 
the olive oil, and a very beneficial article of commerce. 

For this purpose I shall state to the agriculturist a suc- 
cinct account of the rise and progress of the cultivation of 
the poppy, in order to express the oil from the seed; the 
manner of cultivating it, and the emoluments which have 
been received by the cultivator, from authentic documents 
m the’Dutch and German Janguages which are in my pos- 
session. 

In the year 1798, the society established at Amsterdam 


for the encouragement of agriculture, beiry: informed that 
the 


334 On the Cullivation of the Poppy. 

the oil of poppies was cultivated in several parts of France, 
Flanders, and Brabant, thought it an object of sufficient im- 
portance to make more particular inquiry ; and they learned, 
from indubitable authority, not ouly that it was generally 
used in the place of olive oil, but that several thousand casks 
of it were exported annually, a Jarge quantity of which was 
imported into Holland and sold under the name of olive oil, 
or mixed with it in considerable abundance; and they ap- 
pealed to several merchants, who were members of the soci- 
ety, for the truth of this assertion, without being contradicted. 

These facts induced the society to propose three premiums, 
consisting of a silver medal and ten ducats each, which were 
divided into the three following classes : 

The first to the husbandman who should sow not less than 
half an acre of a clayey soil with poppy seed; the second on 
a sandy ground; and the third on turf or peat land. 

They also offered to the person who shall have cultivated 
the largest quantity of ground, on the two first species of 
soil, in the most masterly and advantageous manner, a gold 
medal, value fifty ducats, or that sum in money, in lieu of 
the above premiums. 

The candidates were to give an accurate statement of the 
quantity of seed sown per acre; the time of sowing and of 
gathering the poppies; the quality of the soil; the manner 
of procedure in every part of the process; the quantity of 
oil produced, and the total of the expenses. 

In consequence of the above proposals, in the year fol- 
lowing (1799) Mr. P. Haak became a claimant; sent in sa- 
tisfactory specimens of the oil produced, accompanied with 
testimonies from two respectable physicians, that upon ex- 
periments made, it fully appeared that the use of the oil was 
not in the least prejudicial to the human constitution; and 
that the oil cakes were very whclesome and nutritive food 
for cattle. 

The committee appointed to receive this report, not only 
expressed their entire satisfaction at the attestations of the 
physicians, but they laid before the society at large an ac- 
count of the proteedings which had taken place in France 


upon the interesting question concerning the noxious or sa- 
lubrious 


On the Cultivation of the Poppy: 333 


lubrious qualities of the poppy oil, in the fellowing narra- 
tive: } 

So early as the beginning of the 17th century the oil of 
poppies was produced in such large quantities that 1t gave 
rise to great and lasting contentions, which, rose to such a 
height that the government was desired to interfere and ap- 
pease the contending parties, either by authorising the use 
of this oil, or totally to prohibit the consumption, according 
as experiments should decide whether it contained the nox- 
ious qualities ascribed to it, or not. 

The opposers urged the objections already stated: they 
asserted, that as the capsulum or poppy-head contained 
Juices highly narcotic, this must also be the case with its 
seeds; that the frequent use of the oil extracted from them 
exposed the consumer to all the dangerous consequences 
arising from the too liberal use of opiates; and that they 
would finally obtend the faculties of the soul; that the oil 
was of a drving quality, for that it was upon this account it 
became peculiarly useful to painters: they therefore implored 
government to confine its uses to this object. 

The advocates maintained that no proofs existed of these 
pernicious effects; on the contrary, experience testified that 
the seeds were peculiarly nutritive both to men and cattle; 
they asserted that the antient Romans, conecrning whose 
mental powers there could be no doubt, were accustomed to 
mix the oil and meal of the poppy seed with honey, and 
have it served up as a second course at their tables; and that 
it-was on account of its nutritrious qualities, so well known 
to the Romans, that Virgil gives it the title of vescum, food, 
by way of pre-eminence ; and that the peculiar qualities of 
this oil rendered it a desirable object of cultivation ; that its 
taste was delicate and pleasant, somewhat resembling that 
of the hazel nut; that it continued in a fluid state, exposed 
to a much greater degree of cold than was required to con- 
geal the olive oil; that it contained a larger quantity of fixt 
air, which preserved it a longer time from being rancid; 
that in these particulars it not only approached to the ae 
oil of Provence, but it mitigated the disagreeable taste which 

that oil acquired by kengshn of time ; and. that the poppy oil 
decidedly 


336 On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 


decidedly deserved a preference to every other oil expressed 
from seeds, whether nut, almond, or beech; which, though 
they yielded large quantities, soon became rancid: and as 
there was no appearance of its being pernicious in the more 


extensive use of it, so valuable a product ought not to be. 


confined within the narrow bounds of the painter’s use. 
Things were in this state, without any prospect of accom- 
modation between the parties, when the severe winter of 


1709 overtook the combatants. This damaged the olive, . 


nut, and almond trees to such a degree, that there was a 
great scarcity of their oils; and they were obliged to have 


recourse to the substitutes; beech and rape, &c. But it was’ 
goon perceived that these were far inferior to the oils ex-. 


tracted from the red, white, or brown poppy, which had a 


much nearer resemblance to the small portion of the olive’ 


oil which the winter had spared.) This was consequently 
- mixed with the olive oil in the proportions of one-fourth, 
one-third, one-half, without the least opposition: But when 
it was attempted to sell the poppy oil in its pure and un- 


mixed state, the opposition became so violent, that the lieu-) 


tenant-general of the police of Paris resolved, in the’ year 
1717, to order the medical faculty of that city to make the 
strictest examination concerning this subject, and deliver in 
their report. 

The faculty appointed forty of the most celebrated practi- 
tioners in medicine as a committee of inquiry, who were 
witnesses to various experiments accurately made, and whose 
report was expressed in the following terms: “ cum sensu- 
issent doctores, nihil narcotict, aut sanitati inimici in se con- 
tinere, wpsius usum tolerandum esse existimarunt ;” that is, 
they were of opinion, that as there is nothing narcotic or 
prejudicial to health contained in the oil,* the use of it might 
be permitted, 3 

But this decision was unsatisfactory ; and popular cla- 
mours determined the court of justice to pass a decree in the 
year 1718, whereby the sale of poppy oil, whether mixed 
or unmixed, was prohibited, under a fine of three thousand 
livres for tlie first offence. Notwithstanding this prohibi- 


tion, the sale of the article was clandestinely encouraged and _ 
gradually 


On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 37! 


gradually increased until the year 1735, when the court’is- 
sued a severer decree, enjoining it, upon superintendants ap- 
pointed, to mix a certain quantity of the extract of turpen- 
tine to every cask containing 1100 lbs. of this oil; of which 
not less than two thousand casks were consumed in Paris 
alone. This attempt to render the use of it impracticable, had 
no other influence than to annihilate the public sale of the 
article, but the secretdemand for it increased ; till at length, 
in the year 1773, a society of agriculture undertook to exa- 
mine, with the closest attention, all that had been alleged, 
either by writing or otherwise, for or against the general 
use of this oil. Experiments were repeated, in the presence 
of the most distinguished chemists, with the same resuli, 
and the society presented a petition to the minister of police, 
setting forth the great advantages that would accrue both to 
commerce and agriculture by reversing the prohibition. 

This petition was put into the hands of persons who vended 
various kinds of drugs, and who had, as a body, opposed the 
subject of it, with orders to state all their objections to the 
medical faculty ; by these means the faculty became masters 
of every thing that was urged in the debate. They again 
made several experiments in the year 1776, and finally con- 
firmed the decree of the faculty issued in 1717, declaring 
that the oil of poppies was not injurious to health, that it 
did not contain a narcotic power, and that it might be re- 
commended to general use with the utmost safety. The 
medical faculty at Lisle had also made a similar declaration 
in the year 1773. From that time to the present the culti- 
vation of the poppy has not met with any formidable opposi- 
_ tion; and has increased to such a degree both in France and 
Brabant, that they have been able to export a considerable 
surplus, to the great advantage of the hushandman as well as 
the merchant ; and in seasons of scarcity it has been found 
of the most essential service in all cases where the use of 
oils was required. In the northern parts of France it was 
used by soap-boilers as a substitute for other oils, which 
were extremely dear; and in Brabant the oil-cakes are con- 
stantly used as food for catile with obvious benefit.” 

These facts being established, the committee of agricul- 
Vol, 26. No, 104, Jan.1807.  Y ture 


338 On the Cultivation of ihe Poppy. 


ture in Amsterdam proposed the premiums above mentioned, 
in order to ascertain whether the experiments made would 
authorise the cultivation of the article upon a large scale ; 
wheiher the soil and climate of Holland were beneficial to 
its growth; whether the quantity or quality of the oil would 
be similar to the product of France and Brabant ; whether 
the profits would indemnify the busbandman from giving it 
the preference to other crops; whether the oils could be at- 
forded cheaper than those in common use ; and to what pur- 
poses either in the arts or manufactories it might be applied. 
Deeming it possible that the narrative of a contest which 
subsisted the greater. part of a century, and in which the 
advocates for the internal use of the poppy oil were uni- 
formly triumphant, may have some influence in destroying 
our own prejudices and apprehensions respecting the perni- 
cious quality of this oil, I shall now proceed to state, in as 
concise a manner as perspicuity will permit, the most in- 
‘teresting particulars respecting its culture, selected from 
various foreign publications upon the subject. 

Soil,—The poppy may be cultivated with. success on va- 
rious kinds of soil. It has been tried ona rich. black soil, 
eat ground, and sandy heaths, and been productive. Those 
Jands in which the wild poppy abounds the most, are obvi- 
ously mest congenial to its nature. The richer the soil, and 
the clearer from weeds, the larger will be the crop. It is 
‘not so adviseable, however, to manure for the poppy, as for 
the crop preceding it, as it is more exposed to injury by 
weeds. Hence it succeeds the best after carrots, cabbage, 
potatoes, &c, The land was generally prepared by the 
spade, as in planting potatoes; and the finer it is worked, 
the greater the advantage. But when it 1s cultivated toa 
great extent, they use the plough. The seed has generally 
been sown broad-cast, the plants thinned, and weeded after- 
twards, as in the culture of tarnips; but in drills it is sown 
about six or eight inches distant in the rows, whieh has 
been strongly recommended, experiments upon a small scale 

“having manifested a superiority in this mode, 
- The Kind and Quantity of Seed.—Although the white 
poppy has been chiefly used in France «and Brabant, under 
r the 


lis etl 


- 


On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 339 


the supposition that it produced the finest oil, yet it has been — 
found that various other kinds will answer the purpose as 
well. It is even asserted that the blue poppy, while it yields 
the largest quantity of seed, is in no respect inferior in the 
quality of the oil. Admiral Kingsbergen, whose private 
virtues render him no less a favourite with his countrymen 
than his skill and courage as a naval officer, instituted an 
experiment with different kinds of seeds in the same soil, 
and he could not. perceive any difference in the quality of 
the oil, while the seeds of the blue poppy yielded considera- 
bly more. . 

The quantity of seed generally used in the broad-cast has 
been after the rate of 2 lbs. to an English acre. In drills a 
lesser proportion has been used. 

‘Time of sowing. —This is from the middle of March to 
the middle of April. If it be sown much earlier, it is more 
likely to be choked by weeds; if later, the harvest will be 
thrown deep into the autumn; and unless the weather be 


“unusually favourable, the seeds will not ripen kindly. 


Weeding.—As soon as the plants appear about two inches 
above the ground, they must be carefully weeded and thin- 
ned, till they stand about seven or eight inches from each 
other. The weeding to be repeated as often as it shall ap- 
pear necessary. 

Harvest.—In the beginning, middle, or end of August, 
according as the time of sowing has been earlier or later, and 
the season propitious, the seeds are ripe for gathering the 
poppy heads. Several methods have been recommended to 
harvest the crop. At first, the heads or balls were broken 
off from their stems, gathered together in large quantities, and 


deposited in a barn, or any other convenient place, in large 


heaps, in order to dry them. This method was not only tedious 
but injurious ; some of the balls becoming musty, commu- 
nicated a disagreeable taste to the seeds, and consequently to 
the oil. Mr. Poske, of Zell, in the electorate of Hanover, pre- 
fers the following method :—He draws the entire plants out 
of the ground; binds a sufficient number of them at each ex- 
tremity, and places them against each other in the manner 
of wheat-sheayes; and lets the whole remain in the field for 

Y? eight 


340 On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 


eight or ten days, until they are perfectly dry. It was cus- 

tomary to cut open the capsulum with a knife: he prefers 

hacking it in two or three places with a bill-hook, and as- 

serts that one person may in this manner do more work than 

ten times the nuinber of hands in the former’manner; and 

that the seeds are more easily evacuated from their cells. But 
the most convenient and expeditious method is to cut off the 

poppy heads as they stand in the field: the reapers having 

an apron before them, tied up at the corners. In this they. 
collect as large a nuniber as is convenient, and empty them 

into bushel baskets placed upon a cloth; by which a con- 

siderable quantity of seed is saved. The heads are after- 

wards put into corn sacks, in a competent number to be 

trodden by men or children -in sabets, or to be bruised by a 

mallet or flail; by these means the heads are confined from 

flying from the stroke, and the seeds preserved from being 
scattered, and afterwards passed through a sieve of a proper 
size. 

In extracting the oil, it is of the utmost importance that 
mill, press, and bags, be perfectly clean and pure., New 
bags are necessary, as those used for linseed, rape, or any 
other seed, will communicate an unpleasant taste to the oil. 
It is adviseable to extract the oil as soon after the harvest as 
possible, as the seeds will yield a larger quantity than if de- 
ferred till the spring, 

The first oil is destined for the use of families. This is 
cold-drawn, as any degree of warmth injures the flavour. 
After as much is extracted in this manner as possible, a con- 
siderable quantity of an inferior quality is obtained by heat- 
ing the cakes, and pressing them a second time. 4 

The oil expressed must remain for the space of five or 
six weeks before it is used, that it may deposit in a sedi- 
ment a kind of milky substance that is mixed with it. It 
must then be poured into another vessel; and this should 
not be perfectly closed at first, bat the opening be covered 
with a linen cloth, or a pricked bladder, that certain exhala- 
tions may pass. Nor should the oil be immediately used 
after the process is finished, as it continues to improve for 
a considerable length of time. 


7 That 


On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 341 


That which is first expressed is of a pale colour; is pecu- 
liarly bland and soft, has a flavour approaching to that of 
the almond oil. Tt is used for salads and other domestic 
purposes, either alone ur mixed with olive oil. Should the 
latter be stale or rancid, it will be considerably improved by 
a mixture of recent poppy oil. It is not asserted that this 
oil may be placed in competition with Provence or Italian 
oils of prime quality ; but that it is superior to the olive oils | 
sold in shops, being often used to improve their quality. 
May I not add, that the inhabitants of this country are 
somewhat prepared for ihe’ culinary use of this oll, by being 
already accustomed to.its taste, though without their know- 
ledge. ’ For since it has long been imported into Holland, 
and used without suspicion, we cannot suppose that the mer- 
chants of this commercial nation are totally strangers to the 
commodity *, . 

The second-drawn oils are of a deeper colour, and are ap- 
plicable to all the purposes of the more common oils. This 
may even be used as lamp oil; and it is alleged that it does 
not give off so large a quantity of smoke, and emits a brighter 
flame. : . ' 

The oil-cakes are peculiarly serviceable for feeding and fat- 
tening of cattle; being deemed equal to linseed cakes. All 
cattle are very fond of it, and eat it with eagerness. This is 
the constant use of it in Brabant. The stems are sometimes 
used for fodder, containing a considerable quantity of nutri- 
tive vils; or mixed with stable-dung and other manures, 
they enrich their quality, 


* We are told by Mr.C. A. Fisher, in his Letters written during a Journey 
to Montpellier, in the Year 1804, “ that the oil of Provence, which, on account 
of its purity, mildness, and fine flavour, is. famous all over Europe, is ex- 
ported to Italy in large quantities, and was formerly exported to many distant 
countries. But since the hard winters of 1789, and the following years, so 
many olive trees have been frozen, and during the revolution so few planted, 
that Aix (which was the principal seat of its traffic) has now entirely lost its 
first and most lucrative branch of commerce.” 

’ ‘Two inferences may be drawn from the above information : our best oils, 
though imported from Italy, are probably of the growth of Provence; and 
it is still more probable that the inferior sorts could not be afforded, even at 
the present price, without a large mixture of the poppy oil. 


¥Y3 Erpenses, 


342 ' On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 


Expenses, Produce, and Profits.—Concerning these arti- 
cles it will be necessary to be particular, though it is some- 
what difficult, from a difference in the current coins, mea- 
sures, &c. JI shall state the result of experiments made on 
300 roeden *, about one acre of a sandy soil, and 300 roeden 
of a heavy peat, made by a claimant named S. N. Van Eys. 
The peat land being low and humid, he was obliged to make 
deep trenches between the beds. The harvest on this soil 
was later, the poppy heads were not so dry when gathered, 
and they shrunk considerably in drying. There was so small 
a difference in the quantity of seed from these different soils, 
that no important preference could be given. The sand 
ground yielded in this instance rather less than the peat land. 
As the quality of the seeds appeared perfectly similar, he 
mixed the whole produce together, when he sent them to 
the oil mills. 

The produce of the sand ground rather exceeded 13 sacks, 
that of the veen or peat land was about 12 sacks; together, 
they made 25 sacks 1 bushel of seed. These yielded of oil 
in the following proportions : 

Minglest. Cakes. 


23 sacks which were pressed cold gave 271 834 
2 sacks warmed - - - 29 56 
834 cakes, warmed and pressed, gave 73 


—— 


Total oil 373 800 
Cakes diminished in a second pressure to 
726 - - - - minus 108 


Total of cakes 782 
Mr. Van Eys remarks, that poppy oil, of a very inferior 
quality, is sold retail at one guilder, or 15. 10d. per mingle, 
or quart, and that mixed with olive oil at a much higher price. 
However, he estimates the cold-drawn at 16d. only, and 


* The English statute acre is 160 square perches; and the Dutch merge, 
consisting of 600 roeden, is equal to 800 square perches: so that the differ- 
ence between a Dutch morge and two acres, is as 300 to 320, the former 
being only twenty perches less than two acres. 

+ A mingle is about two pints. 

the 


On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 343 


the second sort at 14d. per mingle. The cakes are valued 
at ten guilders, or 19s. per 100. His receipts stand thus: 
271 mingles (cold-drawn), at 16d. F. 216 16 

102 ditto (warm), at 14d. - 71 8 

782 cakes, at 10 f. per 160 - 78 4 


Total F.366 8—{.33 0 8 


Statement of Expenses. 


To digging, &c. 600 iia Biastoais 

at 1d. per roeden 
Seed, sowing, weeding, &c. 42 19 
Harvesting, beating out seed, &c. 48 3 | 
Pressing out the oil, bags, &c. 63. 8 


Total F.207 0—f.18 14 0 


Receipts - - F. 366 8 O—£.33 08 
Expenses - - 207 0 O 18 140 
Total of profit 200 Bynsgrs “olyy14e" 6x8 099 


This degree of ‘profit upon nearly two acres does not at 
first appear to be encouraging; particularly if we take into 
consideration rent of Taine: taxes, &c. which are not men- 
tioned in the statement. Mr. Van Eys has remarked, that 
the expenses attendant upon pressing out the oil, iu this first 
essay, were considerably greater than would be experienced 
in the usual course of business. We may also notice that 
the preparation of the ground by manual labour created a dif- 
ference in expense that would prove an equivalent at Jeast 
to the value of land and contingent charges. But what. is 
of much greater moment is the very low price of the oil, as 
stated in the above account: that of an inferior quality being 
valued at somewhat less than 5s per gallon, and the superior 
at less than 5s. 6d., whereas common lamp oil is with us 
sold for 6s. per gallon, and salad oil of no extraordinary 
quality at 2s. 6d. or 3s. per pint, or 12. or 1/7. 45. per gal- 
Jon. 

It clearly appears from these facts, that 1s. 6d. per pint, 
or 125. per gallon for the prime article wholesale, and at 
least 4s. per gallon for the inferior sort, would be an advan- 

Y4 tageous 


344 On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 


tageous price for the purchaser, who would be able to retail 
it considerably under the current prices of these articles. 

According to this estimate, the receipts upon 271 :min- 
gelen, or quarts, of the celd-drawn would amount to about 
401.; upon 102 quarts of the inferior, to 5/.; and upon 782 
cakes, at 1/. per 100, to 7/. 105.: total 527. 10s. for one 
morge, which would he after the ratio of 26/. 5s. per acre. 
The expenses, not exceeding 10/4. per acre, would yield a 
clear profit of 164. 

Should the oil of superior quality answer the description 
given of it, and be more palatable than the olive oil in com- 
mon use, 12s, per gallon, would, perhaps, be too low ,an. 
estimate for our national character. For observation autho= 
rises me to assert it as a serious fact, that nothing has a~ 
greater tendency with us to,depreciate articles of nutrition, ” 
especially if they approach to luxuries, than to render them 
too cheap: and although we complain universally, that such 
articles are extravagantly dear, we almost as universally sus- 
pect or despise whatever may be purchased at a very reasona- 
ble price.', But as retailers are both able and willing to ob- 
viate this objection, the above statement for the vender in 
wholesale may be permitted to remain. ; 

But there is another important point of view in which 
this subject may be considered. Successful attempts have 
Jately been made to procure opium from the poppy, in no 
_Tespect inferior to that imported from the East*; and it is. 
asserted, that although it may he afforded at a very inferior 
price, the product would afford ample profits to the culti- 
vator. As the opium issues from the rind, and the sceds 
have been proved not to partake of its narcotic properties, 
an. important inquiry presents itself, Whether the poppy 
may not be cultivated: with a view to both articles? This 
can only be determined by solving another question: Will 
the incisions made in the green and unripe capsulum, and 
the exudation of its juices, prave injurious to the seeds in 
this advanced state of its growth? The argument from ana- | 


* See Transactions of the Society instituted at London for the Encourage- 
ment of Arts, &c. on the mode and adyaatages attending the cultivation of 
opium, Vols. xiv, xv, xvi, Xviil. 

ov 
logy, 


On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 345 


logy, which is the only mode until we can obtain facts, ap- 

pears to favour the negative of the question; not’only as 
there is no immediate correspondence in the qualities of 
these two parts of the same vegetable, but as many experi- 
ments have proved that by checking the growth, or weak- 
ening the vegetative powers of onc part of a plant, they are 
increased and improved in another. 

. Desirous of obtaining some information concerning this 
interesting subject, I sowed, in the year 1804, about halfa 
lug of garden ground with the white poppy seed; and when 
the beads were. advanced to a sufficient state of maturity, I 
scarified the external surface of one portion of them with a 
penknife, suffering the others to. remain entire; and though 
the exudations were very considerable, there was no per- 
ceptible difference in the colour; taste, or size of the seeds; 
excepting where the incisions passed through the whole in- 

tegument, which frequently happened from. the imperfec- 
tion of the instrument, and my inexpertness. The seeds 
which lay nearest to the openings were discoloured by the : 
admission of external air, but the taste of the. seed was got. - 
injured. #. 

This little experiment served to convince me that the steds'* a 
of the poppy are peculiarly grateful to birds, rats, and mices” 
The first ‘dexterously made large holes in the lower surface’ 
of the ball, through which the seed fell to the ground; and 
they thus materially injured a considerable portion of my 
crop while it was standing; nor were the latter less destruc- 
tive, when the poppy heads were spread ‘upon the floor of 
the summer-house in order to dry them. I was, however, 

\indemnified for this Joss, by observing, that not a single in- 
stance of mortality presented itself to evince the noxious 
quality of the seed. 

If future experiments should prove that both objects 
be pursued by the same. culture, scarcely any plan can be 
devised. which would prove equally profitable to the culti- 
vator, and more beneficial to the community. 

I am not so sanguine, gentlemen, as to expect that 
any person, upon reading the above account, will ummedi- 
ately resolve to cultivate the poppy to a great extent, as an 

article 


346 On the Cultivation of the Poppy. 


article of profit. There is often a long repose between the 
acquisition of knowledge, and the application of it to prac-, 
tical purposes; and in this case I allow that many difficulties 
are to be surmounted before the open and avowed consump- 
tion of this oil would be sufficiently extensive to make the 
production of it an object of sufficient magnitude. But the 
increasing demands for oils of all sorts in our extensive ma- 
nufactories, and by the daily improvements in our provin- 
cial towns, the immense sums expended in the importation 
of foreign oils, and most probably of this very oil under a 
false name, and the daily incréase of their price, render a 
power in reserve most desirable. The time may arrive when 
the scarcity of oils for domestic use may increase to an alarm- 
ing degree ; in this case, the general reluctance to the use of 
those which are now deemed of an inferior quality may in 
a great measure subside, and we may perhaps rejoice at being 
supplied at a cheaper rate with that very oil which passes 
emoothly among us under the fictitious character of genuine 
oil of olives. I shall at least enjoy the satisfaction of put- 
ting it in the power of the public to assist themselves at 
some future period; and take encouragement respecting the 
success of ny endeavours from the nature of this very plant, 
which is frequently known to lie for years in the soil in a 
state perfectly inert, until some favourable circumstances 
may have promoted a vigorous vegetation, to the surprise 
and alarm of the farmer,: who has uniformly mistaken it for 

a weed. 
N.B. It may be objected that in the above estimate of 
the profits mention is not made of the duties which may 
hereafter be imposed by government, and become considera- 
ble deductions. But this objection has no reference to our 
first essays. The duties will not become an object until the 
product of poppy oils shall sensibly diminish the importation 
of foreign oils; and in that case the wisdom of government 
will doubtless prevent their rising so high as to operate as a 
discouragement to a culture which would turn the balance 
of the oil trade in our favour; and, should we be able to ex- 
tend this culture so far as to export the article, a very mode 
fate duty upon both home consumption and exportation may 
prove 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1905. 347 
prove more than equivalent to the duties at present col- 
lected. 

“Since writing the above, I am informed by a person who 
deals largely in foreign oils, that letters from Leghorn an- 
nounce an alarming deficiency in the last year’s product; 
‘that the quantity is very small, and of a very inferior qua- 
lity. This information should operate as an additional mo- 
tive to the attempt recommended. The injury induced upon 
olive trees by inclement weather is frequently to such an ex- 
tent, that it can only be repaired by the slow growth of new 
plantations. This circumstance gives an astonishing advan- 
tage to a substitute, of which, by its being an annual pro- 
duct, the deficiency of the most unfavourable year cannot 
be equally extensive, and would probably be supplied by the 
mereased abundance of the year ensuing. 


LIIi. History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. By 
JEROME DE LALANDE, 
{Concluded from p. 253.] 


Tus meteorology of 1805 has been remarkable for the va- 
riations of temperature. It froze in the months of March, 
June, and September: on the 17th and 18th of December 
a degree of cold of from 6° to 7° froze the Seine at Paris 5 
and on the 3ist we had the same temperature as in spring. 

On the 7th of December, at eight o’clock in the evening, 
at Basle, in Switzerland, the inhabitants thought themselves 
at the mouth of a furnace. This heat lasted three hours. 

There was a hurricane on the 13th of December, in which 
several vessels were lost. 

Perbaps the aurorz boreales, which have such an intimate 
connection with electricity, and which are constant in the 
north, may occasion storms which determine the winds, 
and contribute to these unaccountable variations of the sea- 
sons in our country. 

There happened a phenomenon this year which furnished 
me with an opportunity of explaining the origin of hurri- 
canes. At Belfort, on the 4th of July, there was one of 
those hurricanes, so rare and extraordinary in Europe, which 

tore 


“Fie 


ey 


348 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805., 


tore up trees, and unrgofed houses. Hitherto Thad not been 
able to ascertain the cause; but my journey to Lyons fur-_ 
nished me with an idea which might.be realized. M. Molet, 
an intelligent medical professor, found, from his notes, that 
it thundered that day at Lyons. In passing through Sens I 
saw M. Soulas, who informed me that the wind had changed 
from north to south. The journals informed me that there 
was a dreadful storm at London on the same day. 

_ There_is, in my opinion, a mass of electrical clouds of 
§00 _myriametres in extent, the detonation of which had 
made an immense vacuum, and that the atr rushed with 
great violence to fill up this vacuum. I bad a confirmation 
of this on the 11th of January 1806. Some dreadful claps 
of thunder at Brest, Rouen, Chartres, and Ypres, produced 
tempests and hurricanes which overturned the chimneys,of 
the houses at Bourdeaux, ‘Besancon, Nancy, and Dijon. 
oud claps of thunder are very rare at this time of the year, 


~ but the south wind made it very hot ; the atmosphere was, 


rainy, the lower clouds were near enough to draw sparks 
from the earth to an extent of 60 mvriametres: there were 
also earthquakes at the same time. 

The hurricanes of the Isle of France and America, which 
are much more violent, require us to suppose the stormy 
masses much larger; but to these must be added water- 
spouts and submarine eruptions. 

M. Fiot, inspector-general of health, has sent me the 
results of the heights of the river, observed every day during 
the year 13. The mean state of the river this year was 1°34 
metres on the scale of the bridge of La Tournelle, stead of 
1-24, which | had found by a mean of eighteen years, 1777— 
1794. The year 13 has been considered as a rainy year, 
nevretheless there have becn years of 1°73, as 1787; whilst 
in 1803 we had only 0°59. This height is relative to the 
low water of 17193 but the river has sonretimes been lower 
by some centimetres. 

The Turi Academy has published its memoirs for 1804 
and 1805, in which there is a new barometer of M. Vassalli- 
Eandi, with heights measured in Piedmont. . 

M, Beraud, who for these thirty years past has made an im- 

mense 


— 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 349 
mense quantity of meteorological observations in Piedmont, 
and who still continues them, notwithstanding his great age, 
has sent us those of 1805. 

Meteorology and.navigation may equally claim a memoir 
by M. Biot,: which,explains, by means of an interior mag- 
net, all the declinations and inclinations of the needle, obs. 
served by M. Humboldt in his travels. : ee 

There is an unpublished memoir of Tobias Mayer, of 
which his son had the goodness to send me an extract. It 
contains an hypothesis by which ‘he explains the observed 
inclinations and declinations. He supposes a very small 
magnet in the interior of the earth having two poles, the 
centre of which magnet is removed from the earth by one- 
seventh of the radius, and recedes from it each year one 
thousandth part. : 

The line drawn: from the centre of the earth through that 
‘of the magnet was in 1750 at 201° of longitude and 17° of 
north latitude: the longitude increases 9’ a year, and the la- 
fitude 14’. . 

The axis perpendicular to the Ime joining the centres, 
drawn in such a manner’ that the plane which passes by 
this axis and this line, is inclined to the meridian of this 
line 114 degrees towards the east on the north side; and 
this angle increases 8} minutes a year. 

M. Azuni has published a dissertation upon the origin of 
the compass, in order to prove that the French were the first 
who used it: it was known iu France in the 12th century, 
by the name of mariniere : it was used in the reign of Saint 
Louis. Gioia d’Amflai, to whom it has been attributed, 
did not live till about the year 1300. The figure of the 
fleur de lys has been used in the compasses of all nations. 
I have already remarked, in my Abridgment of Navigation, 
that father Ximenes, the celebrated Italian astronomer, has 
proved the priority of the French in his work Del Gnomone 
Fiorentino, p. 59. 

Mr. Earnshaw and Mr. Arnold, two English watch - 
makers, on the 7th of June 1804 presented to the Board 
of Longitude of London their escapements for time-keepers 

or 


350 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 


or chronometers ; and the Board of Longitude has published 
them. That invented by M. Breguet at Paris, is described 
in the volume of the History of Mathematics of Montucla, 
where I have given the history of machines. 

Nautical astronomy has been enriched with an important 
book entitled “* A complete Collection of Tables for Navi- 
gation,” by M. Mendoza, a Spanish officer, who has re- 
sided some time in England; comprised m 727 pages, 
in large quarto. It contains all the tables necessary for cor- 
recting the altitudes and distances by the simplest method 
hitherto found out ; for it is reduced to the addition of three 
numbers, which we take from these tables. We have also 
tables of logarithms, semi-diurnal arcs, amplitudes, the 
most extensive table of the longitudes and latitudes of places 
on the earth, and, generally speaking, every thing that is 
requisite at sea. If we add to the above the horary tables 
which I published at great length in my Abridgment of 
Navigation, in 1793, sailors will require nothing more to 
know when they are in any part of the world; and I hope 
that, in spite of all the efforts of the English, the French 
will not be the last to profit by these advantages, under an 
emperor who ts so well acquainted with the importance of 
a navy. 

These tables render the calculations so easy, that naviga- 
tors would do wrong not to use this method of finding the 
longitude. M. Mendoza is at present occupied with a more 
complete treatise on nautical astronomy. 

M. Luyando has published at Madrid twenty-three charts, 
upon which we may find, by a pair of compasses, the sides 
or augles of spherical triangles within a few minutes, and 
the correction of the distances observed at sea within a few 
seconds. These charts, as well as those of M. Margett’s, at 
London, may be useful to navigators who are not fond of 
calculations, Those of M. Luyando will cost Jess, but 
their use is rather more difficult. 

M. Duval le Roi has published at Brest, Elements of Na- 
vigation, which are worthy of that able professor. 

M. Depaquit has published a new Theory of the Tides. 

1 did 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 351 


I did all I could to dissuade him from it: my efforts have 
been in vain ; and I only mention this to prevent the public 
from being deetivedl: 

The dhe servations of the tides have been continued in se- 
veral harbours: at St. Maloes, by’ M. le Cerf; at Ostend, 
by M. Porquet ; at Sables d’Olonne, by M. Depoge. 

The tide at Brest, at the spring equinox, having taken 

place with an east wind, I requested some observations of it, 
and J found that it had not surpassed the mean tide ; which 
completely confirms the system I have laid down in my 
treatise upon the flux and reflux of the sea.—that when the 
equinoxial tides are highest, it is occasioned by the wind. 
, Geography has been enriched by various important 
voyages. ‘That of Hearn has been published, made be- 
tween 1769 and 1772, to the north-west of Hudson’s bay. 
Jt extended from Churchill’s river, which flows into the 
bay, to the 72° of latitude, an extent of 100 myriametres, 
in the country of the Esquimaux who inhabit the neigh- 
bourhood of the Coppet river. The maps of North Ame- 
rica will be much altered by this voyage. The communica- 
tion from sea to sea, so often spoken of seems to be more 
and more illusory. 

Captain Krusenstern, the commander of two Russian 
vessels, with which he sailed round the world, arrived at 
Kamschatka on the 8th of August, 1804; after having dou- 
bled Cape Horn and landed upon the Marquesas and Sand- 
wich islands, he proposes visiting China and Japan. The 
account of this voyage will be very interesting, and will 
do honour to the Petersburgh Academy, who obtained 
permission from the emperor of Russia for it to be under- 
taken. 

In the 28th number of the Annals of the National Mu- 
seum of Natural History, February 1805, we find that cap- 
tain Lewis is gone to feconnoitre the Missouri as far as its 

-source. He will afterwards search for the nearest river to 
the westward, and will descend by it to the Pacific Ocean. 
This expedition, composed of twelve persons, will probably 
return in a few months. The president, Mr, Jefferson, -in- 
‘ tends 


352 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 


tends sending persons to explore some other rivers » wht as 
yet are absolutely unknown. 

On the 6th of February 1805, Manke Park ‘tailed from 
Portsmouth, in order to return mto’ the interior of Africa, 
where he before made an interesting expedition. 

Lieutenant Ohlsen is occupied in drawing a map of Ice- 
Iand. He speaks of a boiling. spring at Stort, which first 
made its appearance in 1784. « It throws up the water to the 
height of 300 feet... This proves that there is a great deal 
of water in the interior of the earth, and supports the by- 
pothesis by which T have explained the sinking of the wa- 
ters which covered our mountains, and which I think must 
have entered into the interior cavities. 


M. Schubert, the able astronomer of Petersburgh, has set 


out for China with the Russian embassy. We may there- 
fore expect from him: some good observations on the geo- 
graphy of Asia. We understand that the embassy had ‘ar- 
rived upon the frontiers after a journey of 600 myriame- 
tres, and that they were within 130 myriametres of- Pekin 5 
but the Chinese are not fond of much company, and 
M. Schubert returns by the north: his journey will be very 
useful in many respects. 

M. Portalis, minister of religion, wishing to send some 
missionaries to China, concerted for that purpose with 
M. Brunet, the superior of St. Lazarus. They hope to be 
able to sct out this year, accompanied by an astronomer, 
who is already preparing his instruments. The manuscripts 
collected by M. Bertin on the subject of China, are in the 
hhands of a secretary, who has offered to sell them, to govern- 
ment. M. Billien and M. Abaric, attached to the foreign 
missions, have been in China, and know the Chinese well. 
Thus we have not lost all hope of seeing this branch of 
knowledge come again into favour in France. 

The geography of Europe has also received some recent 
advantages. M. Benzeuberg writes from Dusseldorf, that 
the king of Bavaria has ordered some accurate maps of the 
country of Berg to be drawn. 

M. Henry bas returned from Alsace; on account of the 

; wary 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 353 


war, he could not venture into Spain to continue the mea- 
surement of the meridian. © He will resume his triangles for 
his degrees of longitudes, or rather “he will continue his 
ttidngles of Helvetia. , 

M. Hennet, imperial commissary of land- -sutveying, has 
published the laws, arréts, and instructions, the circular 
orders and decisions on that subject, in two volumes octavo. 
He will give a third in 1806. They are busily occupied in 
drawing plans of every part of France. 

The chief geometer of the department of Aveyron, and 
the learned professor at Rhodes, M. Tedenat, are occupied 
in rectifying the principal points of the plan with a circular 
instrument of eight inches radius, made by Messrs. Becker 
and Michel, which gives the angles certain to two seconds. 

While we have been waiting for this complete and de 
tailed’ description of France, there has been published a 
geographical, statistical, historical, and political dictionary 
of France, containing a description of the cities,. villages, the 
history, population, mineralogy, hydrography, cornmerce, 
natural and artificial productions, the old and new govern- 
ment, the civil, military, and ecclesiastical institutions, and 
a dictionary of the colonies, with a general map, &c. in 
five large volumes im quarto. Fifteen years’ labour has been 
bestowed on this great work, and much pains and expense : 
several men of learning have assisted in it; they are not 
named, but they certainly deserve to be Rib ey The dic- 
tionary of Expilly, in six volumes folio, was never finished, 
although I had repeatedly requested it might: this perhaps 
will suppl, ’ the place of it, 

As it is necessary we should coaclutie our History of 
Astronomy with an, account of the losses it has sustained, I 
shall begin with M. Ratte, who, as an astronomer, has for a 
long period been an honour tothe academy of Montpelier. 

Etienne-Hyacinte de Ratte, son of Jean-Pierre de Ratte, 
and of Gillette de Flaugergues, was born at Montpelier the 
Ist of September, 1722. His taste for the sciences, and 
principally for mathematics, displayed itself very early : he 
/had anasters of every kind ; he studied all the sciences with 
atdonr, and the extent and the variety of bis acquirements 

Vol. 26. No, 104. Jan. 1807. Z at 


354,  _History.of Astronomy forthe. Year 1805. 


at so, early an, age, astofished) the literary characters: who 


were then very numerous at. Montpelier. The Royal Society 
of Sciences established in that, city,in 1706, were anxious 
to receive among them so promising an associate, and in 
spite of the regulation, requiringsthe members to be twenty 
vears of age,, that requisite was dispensed with in) favour of 
young de Ratte, who.in, 1741 was admitted. a member. In 
ibe year following he was elected perpetual secretary ; the du- 
ties of which function .he continued to discharge with the 
greatest credit until the Royal Society of Montpelier was 


suppressed. He published some volumes in 1766 and.17785 ' 


under the. title of JMemoires, afterwards under the: title of 
Assemlés et Bulletins, and in every volume there/are;some 
articles, eulogies, and memoirs of his composition. His 
eulogies on Plantade, ‘Clapics, Lapeyronie, Venel,, Lafosse, 
Pitot, Sauvage, Linné, Leroy, Lamure, &e. have proved 
both the extent of his knowledge.and his ability as-a writer. 
He also composed several physical and mathematical me- 
moirs upon vortices, fluids and aloes, which are printed in 
the Collections of the Royal Society; and he furnished for 
the French.Encyclopedie the articles cold, tce, hail, &c. 
The famous prediction of Halley, respecting the return of 
the comet of 1682, which he fixed about 1757 or 1758, 


occupied the attention‘not only of ‘astronomers, but also of ' 


all the scientific men.of the day.. M. de Ratte was anxious 
to participate in the discovery of this;comets and this was 
the occasion that determined him to, pursue the | study of 
astronomy, He.wasamong the first who, discovered it) at 


- . - . 4, r res 2 ‘ 
its issuing from the sun’s rays. “These, observations gave ; 


him pleasure, and, he never atterwards/omitted observing 
_ every comet any way, remarkable, He also observed) .the 
transit of Venus in 1761: the observation which he made 
of it, at Montpelicr was one ofguhe most complete; and it 
became the basis of, much calculation..upon the !san’s. pa- 


rallax, with whych, M. Raite was, occupied. . He afterwards, 
made several obseryations upon the transits of Mereury over: 
the sun, upon the, eclipses of the sun.and moon, the sa-- 


=} 


tellites of Jupiter, and occultations \of) the stars; they! 


greatest part of which have never been, published, Herdi-, 


, __reeted 
a8 


\ 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 355 
rected M. Poitevin’s studies towards astronomy, who is still 
occupied with it, and whose observatioris have been fre- 
quently printed. He often regretted very much, that no 
astronomer was established to make use of the observatory 
of Montpelier. 

M, de Ratte, the father, died in 1770: he was deacon of 
the counsellors of the court of-aids at Montpelier. The wishes 
of his family and of the public engaged M. Ratte, jun. to 
take that office upon him; and he discharged the duties of 
it, until the suppression of the court of aids, in the most di- 
stinguished manner. He was often the principal organ of 
that assembly on important occasions and in times of difh- 
culty ; it was totally set aside, however, in 1793. 

At the conclusion of the reign of terror, the members of 
the old Royal Society who had the good fortune to escape 
proscription, conceived the idea of re-establishing it under 
the name of the Free Society of Sciences and Belles Lettres. 
This idea succeeded; the society was formed, and M. de , 
Ratte was at first appointed secretary, and then president. 
This society has already published two volumes of its me- 
moirs under the title of Bulletins, which contain interest- 
ing researches and observations. There is a discourse by 
~@M. Ratte in the bulletin of the 3d of May, 1801. We 

‘there see that his zeal set his age at defiance. 

M. de Ratte was chosen a non-resident associate of the 
National Institute, and afterwards named a member of the 
legion of honour. 

He had enjoyed the most perfect state of health during 
the whole course of his life; but he was latterly attacked 
with a retention of urine, the attacks of which becoming 
very frequent, were exceedingly painful ; but the habit he 
had taught himself of suffering without complaining, and his 
natural gaiety, made his friends forget that he was unwell, 
He was present at the academy on the 24th of June, 1805; 
and it was not until the night of his death that he was 
thought in danger. He expired on the 15th of Angust, 
aged 83. 

M. de Ratte was of a low stature ; he had a happy and in- | 
telligent physiognomy ; he conversed with pleasantness and 


Z 2 good 


356 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 


good humour; he never contradicted any one; and he 
always descended to the level of every person with whom 
he conversed: his modesty and simplicity were extreme ; 
and it was surprising to find in a man so consummately 
learned, the candour and simplicity of a child: his memory 
was surprising : he lived a life of celibacy, and by his death, 
the house of Ratte, established in Languedoc since 1433, 
became extinct. This family was originally from Bologna 
in Italy, and was known so early as the year 1125 by the 
talents and virtues of. Hubert de Ratte, cardinal and archbi- 
shop of Pisa, and by the military exploits of Jean de Ratte, 
count of Caserta in the kingdom of Naples. 

The astronomical observations of M. de Ratte have beet 
collected by his nephew M. de Flaugergues, at Viviers. 
M. Poitevin, secretary of the academy, who is also an astro- 
nomer, has published his eulogy at great length at Montpe- 
lier. 

We have also lost M. Romme, an able professor of navi- 
gation at Rochefort. He had laboured in astronomy along 
with me in his youth ; I procured a place for him at Roche- 
fort, and he made several observations. 

In 1771 he published a method for determining the longi- 
tudes at sea; in 1800 he gave a model of a calculation for 
finding the latitude and longitude at sea, wherein he seems 
to think the method of Borda inconvenient in certain cases. 
M. Delambre, in the Connotssancé du Temps, An XII. 
p. 263, has shown that several authors are actually mistaken 
in thinking that the sum of the two altitudes and the di- 
stance surpasses 180°; but this cannot happen. 

Romme yave in 1778 the art of mast-making ; in 1781, 
that of sail-making ; in 1787, L’ Art de la Marine, or prin- 
ciples and general precepts on the art of building, mancen- 
vring, and steering vessels; a work very much esteemed 
among navigators. 

He had composed several other works, which Barois the 
elder was upon the point of printing in 1798; but I was 
particularly desirous of seeing published his tables of the 
winds, the tides, and the currents in every sea; which ap- 
peared in two volumes in octavo. In 1796 he sent me 

some 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 357 


some curious observations upon the tides of the Charante 5 
in which there’ are some particular circumstances which I 
intend to publish in a second edition of my Treatise on th¢ 
Flux and Reflux of the Sea, 

In 1787 he made some experiments upon the resistance 
of water, which ship-builders are much in want of. I have 
given the result of them in Montucla’s History of Mathe- 
matics, tome iv. p. 454, according to the account given by 
the commissaries of the academy. He gave a marine vo- 
cabulary in French and English ; and perhaps no person 
was ever more usefully or more constantly employed in this 
grand art, which is the principal source of the prosperity 
and grandeur of states. 

re was brother to the deputy, who obliged me to make 
the republican calendar in 1793, and who perished in the . 
troubles of the revolution on the 17th of June, 1795; the 
latter had been tutor to the children of count Stroganoff, a 
Russsian nobleman, who resided a long time at Paris. 

We have also lost M. de Chabert, a celebrated navigator, 
of whom I shall speak more at length. 

Joseph Bernard de Chabert, ci-devant marquis, chef d’es- 
cadre in the navy, commander of the orders of Saint Louis 
and Saint Lazarus, inspector of the marine depot, free asso- 
ciate of the Academy of Sciences, and lately member of the 
Board of Longitudes, and of the Royal Societies of London, 
of Berlin, Stockholm, Bologna, and Brest, was born at 
Toulon, 28th February, 1724. He was the son of an officer 
of the royal navy, and he entered into the service in 1741 3 
his father, when dying, caused himself to be carried on 
board the ship commanded by his son, and said, ‘ I shall 
now die without regret.’ 

In 1746 he went to Nova Scotia in a French squadron, 
He then sav’ how very defective the maps of America were ; 
he was a witness to the dangers our vessels experienced, and 
he gave an account of them upon his return. Lemonnier 
undertook to request permission of the minister to allow 
him to remain at Paris for the purpose of studying astrono- 
my, that he might go and remedy the inconveniences he 
had met with, and encourage the officers of the navy to 

Z 3 pursue 


358 History of Astronomy for the Year 1803. 


pursue the study of a science which equally contributes ts 
their glory and their security. At ‘the age of thirty he re- 
ceived the’cross of St. Louis, which he prehc Hel to a pen- 
sion. -At the return of peace in August’ 1748, he pre- 
sented a prospectus of the voyage and ‘the observations. 
M.-Reuillé and M. de ta Gallissonicre furnished him with 
instruments ; he sét sail in 1750, in a frigate commanded by 
the marquis de Choiseul-Praslin, aad he executed a chart of 
the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and of: the 
banks and islands inthe Gulf of St. Lawrence. I had the 
saisfaction of furnishing him with an object of comparison 
by my first observation of an eclipse of one of the satellites 
an ‘the @d of October, 1750. His voyage was printed in 
1753, in 288 pages in quarto. It contains observations on 
the magnet and upon currents ; details upon the calculations 
Which navigators require; all of which evince that he had 
already become a very good astronomer, and his example 
excited emulation in the navy, where it was much wanted. 
The first volume of the Savans Etrangéres, published by 
the academy in 1750, contains a memoir of M. de Chabert 
upon the longitude of Buenos Ayres. In the history of 
the year 1756, his observations made in 1753 along the 
coast of Spain and at Port Mahon are mentioned. In 1756 
he gave several other memoirs upon the transit of Venus, 
upon burricanes, and the eclipse of 1710. 

Tn 1758 he was received a member of the academy ; and 
on the 25th of April, 759, he read at his public entry into 
it his idea of constructing charts of the Mediterranean, for 
the ‘purpose of ‘making a second volume of the Neptune 
Francais, published in 1693, and thereby following the la- 
bours of Chazelle and Feuillée, who died in 1710. 

He set out on the first of May, 1764: after having laid 
down the eastern coast of Spain, he passed into Sardi- 
nia, and crossed over to Fez, Algiers, and Tunis, where he 
succeeded in determining several important longitudes, by 
means of a transit instrunient which he fixed on shore, and 
which he succeeded in placing in a few hours exactly in the 
meridian. | 
Tn 1767, after haying sailed round the coasts of Sicily, 

he 


~ Se 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 359 
he'steered for Tunis: he then went to Tripoli, and returned 
into the Adriatic gulf. In 1768 he commanded the Hi- 
rondelle, in 1775 the Mignonne, and in'1776 the Atalanta, 
on board of which was M. Choiseul. He was in possession 
of a time-keeper, without which he could not have drawn 
the chart of the Cyclades and that part of Greece adjoining 
he had reserved this business to the present opportunity. ° 
‘The inscription he caused to be engraved in the grotio of 
Antiparos proves his ‘great learning, and will be a monu- 
ment of it to future travellers. At his return our able’ astro-- 
nomer Mechain, beitig attached to tae depot of which 
M.:de Chabert was director, passed several years of his life 
in reducing and ‘calculating this immense quantity of ob- 
servations, which had cost so many years of Jabour and tra- 
velling, and from which resulted the best charts of that part 
of the Mediterranean.» Several times he was in imminent 
danger of his life. I hope his journal will be published, 23 
it cannot fail to excite considerable interest ‘from the ance- 
dotes I have heard him reiate. 

The American war obliged’ him to exchange his scientific 
labours for ‘the military marine service in the naval arma- 
ments of generals d’Estaing and De Grasse. In 1778 he 
commanded the Valiant in d’Estaing’s fleet: in 1750 |- 
had the Saint Esprit: be fought a battle, near the Chesa- 
peak, with five English vessels, on the 5th of September 
1781: he relieved the Diadem, which the Enelish were very 
near having taken. He brought safely into a French port a 
convoy of 130 sail; he was then named chef d’escadre, and 
received the red ribbon ; this was the reward of twenty-two 
naval campaigns, in fifteen of which he commanded cor- 
vettes, frigatesy or ships of the line: he sailed during the 
whole of the war, which ended in 1783, first as commander 
of a vessel and afterwards as chief of a division, without ever 
neglecting his astronomical observations and ‘the use of the 
time-keepers, as may be seen in the Memoirs for 1783. 

The misfortunes of the revolution obliging him to remove 
from France, he went to England, where Dr. Maskelyne 
paid him every attention that could be expected from one 
great astronomer to another, giving him an unlimited credit 

Z4 upon 


360 History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 

upon his banker *, which M. de Chabert, however, would 
not make use of. He lost his sight suddenly in 1800; and 
this misfortune can only be attributed’ to bis excessive labour 
in calculating observations. Having retarned to Paris in 
1802, he was received in the most distinguished manner by 
those heroes of France who were best acquainted with his 
talents and bravery. He received a pension in the month of 
December 1804: he was elected a member of the Board of 
Longitude, and would have been included in the reorgan- 
ization of the Institute in 1803, had there been a vacant 
place. On the 4th of January 1805 he presented to the 
Board of Longitude a chart of Greece, with the particulars 
of the coast; and I trust we shall find many useful things 
among bis immense collection of materials. Although blind, 
he never ceased bis labours: he generally wrote or dictated 
until nine o’clock every evening; and when M. Nevev, his 
secretary, left him, he always felt regret. We have many 
times found his memoir useful in the, geographical, discus - 
sions of the assembly. Some days previous to his death he 
asked me for sume observations which I had received from 
Spain, in order to compare them with his own; and two 
days before his death he desired some passages of his Me- 
moirs upon Pensacola, in Spain, where he laboured in 1768, 
to be read to him. Whenever his journals are published, 
the world will be astonished at his ardour, his accuracy, his 
Jabours, his dangers, and the presence of mind with which 
he remedied al] the inconvenient circumstances that opposed 
his pursuits. ; 

An inflammation of the Jungs carried him off in nine 
days; but he died without pain, consoled by religion and 
adored by a beloved family. > 

He married, in 1771, mademeiselle Tascher, the daughter 
of a gentleman at Coire, in the Grisons, and sister of a 
Jate president, who was intendant of the Isles-du-Vent, and 


* It is presumed Lalande has mistaken Dr. Maskelyne for sir Joseph Banke 
in this account; for he lived almost the whole time either with sir Joseph 
er at his expense. Dr. Maskelyne was always very civil to him, and the 
marquis usually spent about a month at the royal observatory every summer 
during his stay in England, 


who 


History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. 361 


who was considered the best informed man in Paris, and 
frequented as, such by men of letters. M.de Chabert left one 
daughter, madame Roland, who, in concert with her mo- 
ther and her husband, afforded the greatest comfort to this 
excellent man. M. Roland, who has been already distin= 
guished by his travels in Egypt, is at present attached to the 
army of Naples, and his extensive knowledge will enable him” 
to profit by his interesting travels. 

No person is better qualified to speak of M. de Chabert 
than myself, who have known him since the year 1750, and 
have lived with him: his benevolence and his mildness were 
universally admired by his inferiors. He once found a new- 
born infant upon a desert, nearly dying, whom he reared 
and educated. She became an interesting girl, but died too 
young to enjoy the full extent of bis bounty. M. de Chabert 
was one of the first among the officers of the navy to show 
an example of zeal and learning: he was also one of the 
first who made use of his dignity to promote the good of the 
service itself; and lis memory will be preserved among those 
who have rendered service to all nations, since the navy is 
one of the sources of their prosperity, as it is one of the 
means of improving the human species. M. de Missiessi, 
known by his campaign in America in 1804, and by his 
. work on the stowage of vessels in 1789, was the son of a 
first cousin of his; and the name of this worthy successor 
of his fame was in the expiring lips of his illustrious parent. 

On the gth of September we lost M. Dulague, born at 
Dieppe on the 26th of December 1729, an able professor of 
navigation at Rouen, to whom we are indebted for several 
works and observations. The Academy of Rouen will pub- 
lish his eulogium. 

M. Lesage, who died at Geneva, was occupied with ce- 
lestial philosophy. His Newtonian Lucretius, upon the 
cause of universal gravitation, is a curious work, which T 
have quoted in my Astronomy, art. 3530. 

Victor Comeiras, who died in thé month of October, 
published Bailly’s History of Antient and Modern Astro- 
nomy, in two yols. 8vo, and thereby brought that work 


within 


oO 
+ 


$62 On the Addlieration of Wineswith Litharge. 


within the reach of a greater number of readers by reveling 
the price. 

M.,Arago, secretary to the obiagntedbrsg devotes hiniself 
entirely (o astronomy, and we have reason ‘to hope he ht 
repair, our losses. 

Isaac Lalande, the third of the name, has begun to turn 
his attention to astronomy: -he both calculates and observes. 
The first eclipse which he calculated made us ‘acquainted 
with an error of a quarter,of an hour’in the calculation of 
the next eclipse. I baptized shim Jsaa¢ in honour ‘of ‘sir 
Isaac Newton, whom I wish him -to take for his pattern, 
and that he might always have him in his memory. 

M. Conté, who died on the 6th of December, at the age 
of fifty years, was not decidedly an astronomer, but his la- 
hours in aérostaties authorise me to speak of his Joss” here ; 
which is,indeed, truly lamentable both for the arts and sciences, 
7, in more extensive terms, for the whole human species. 


LIV. Method of ascertaining whether Wines are adulterated 
with Litharge. By M. Naucue, Physician*. 


¢ Ne property possessed by litharge, or the demi-nitrous 
white oxide of lead, in depriving wines of a bad quality of 
their bitterness or pungency, and thereby rendering them 
mild and pleasant to the taste, has induced some avaricious 
speculators to raise the price of their wines by adding a crs 
tain quantity of litharge to them. 

This reprehensible practice, occasioning colics and va- 
rious other diseases, renders it dangerous to use wine. It 
is necessary, therefore, to be in possession of the means of 
ascertaining this adulteration, or of ascertaining the inno- 
cence of sueb persons aS may be unjustly siege of it. 

- The agents employed for this purpose are the sulphuric 
acid, and water charged with sulphuretted hydrogen gas. 

When pure sulphuric acid is poured upon wine contain- — 


* Krom Bit:uoth. Phys. Econ. July 1806. 


Royal Society of London. 363 


ing litharge, it causes a white precipitate in the liquor which 
soon falls to the bottom of the vessel. 

The same acid poured upon unadulterated wine merely 
brightens its colour a little, without producing any precipi- 
tate. 

This method, although a good one, is not so accurate as 
the employment of water charged with sulphuretted hy- 
drogen. 

In order to prepare this water, it is only necessary to put 
into a phial a paste made of iron filings and sulphur ; pouring 
afterwards into it some drops of sulphuric acid, and libe- 
rating the gas which is produced from the mixture into a 
flask filled with water, by, means of a bent tube with which 
the phial is furnished. 

Poured upon unadulterated wine, this water does not oc- 
casion the least change in it; while, on the other hand, it 
renders the wine Saulterated with litharge black and flaky, 
and produces an abundant precipitate, which soon falls to 
the bottom of the vessel. . 

Some people make use of sulphur or alkaline sulphurets ; 
but these re-agents produce in pure as well as in adulterated 
wine a change of colour, and precipitates so little distinct 
from each other, that it is difficult to establish any thing 
decisive from their differences. It will be much better to 
adhere to the processes here pointed out. 


LV. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, 


Jasuany 8, 1807. The Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, bart. 
president, being recovered from his indisposition, took the 
chair, when an interesting mathematical paper was read on 
the power of friction and the resistance of bodies, applied to’ 
the cogs of wheels, &c., by Davis Giddy, esq. M.P. The 
principles, which were here slightly introduced in the form 
‘ofa letter at the request of the president, Mr. Giddy ob- 
served had been discovered nearly at the same time by the 

mathe- 


S64 Society of Antiquaries. 


mathematical professor at Cambridge, who he hoped would 
be induced to Jay them before the public in a more detailed 
mranner- Not being able, at present, to give the whole of 
this very ingenious paper, we shall not mutilate it by any 
imperfect abriderent, 

January 15. T he President in the et Home, esq. 
furnished the history of two cases of cataract in which the 
operation of couching was successfully adopted. The ob- 
servations on light and colours, and on the figures of bodies, 
made by the patients, the one a boy of seven, the other of 
thirteen years of age, were similar to those recorded in the 
writings of Pott and Ware, whose opinions these two cases 
only served to confirm. One of these patients discriminated 
correctly the difference between colours, but called a card 
that was held before him round, until that he was suffered 
to touch it with his fingers, when he observed that it was: 
square. In the dimensions and distance of external objects 
they both evinced extreme ignorance, and seemed to acquire 
that knowledge gradually, as children learn to read. 

January 22. On this evening the Society proceeded to the 
election of a secretary and member of the council, in conse- 
quence of the death of the late E. W. Gray, M.D. The 
junior secretary, Dr. Wollaston, naturally suecceded the 
senior, Dr. Gray; and H. Davy, esq. was unanimously 
elected junior secretary and member of the council. The 
right hon. C. Greville then took the chair, and Mr. Davy 
commenced the reading of a paper, by Dr. Herschel, on sir 
fsaac Newton’s explanation of the circular rays of light seen 
between two lenses placed on each other, or brought in con- 
tact in varions manners. Dr. Herschel rejected the suppo- 
sition of sir Isaac in ascribing fits of transmission to light, 
and: proceeded to detail the various minute experiments he 
yperformed with plano-concave and plano-convex lenses in 
order to produce these circular rays. The reading of this 
emrious paper was not coneluded. 


SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, y - 


Jan. 8, 1807. The earl of Leicester, president, im the ~~ 
chair. Dr. Latham communicated some verbal corrections 


to 


Original Vaccine Institution. - 365 


to a paper in the 14th volume of the Archaiologia, relative 
to the names of some birds formerly found in this country. 

A very antient and original charter granted by an earl of 
Buchan to the family of Gartshore of Gartshore, ances- 
tors of the present Dr. Garthshore, was read. This char- 
ter, like most of those given in former times, had no date ; 
but from the name of the earl of Buchan, and other col- 
lateral circumstances, it appeared not to be of a later date 
than 1250, and was probably granted during the reign of 
Alexander the First or Second. In sir John Sinclair’s Sta- 
tistical Account of Scotland it is observed, that the laird- 
ship or manor of Gartshere has continued in the same 
family more than six centuries, and this charter confirms 
the fact. It is a curious, and certainly amoug the most an- 
tient documents of former times. 

Jan. 15. The Rev. Dr. Hamilton in the chair. Mr. Jack- 
son presented the society with some specimens of antique 
marble belonging to the churches of Florence. He was un- 
able to give any account in what provinces these marbles 
were found. 

Jan. 22. The earl of Leicester, president, in the chair. 
The indefatigable Mr. Lysons communicated some more 
of the records in the Tower. 


ORIGINAL VACCINE INSTITUTION, 
Broad Street, Golden Square. 


A meeting of the members of the Vaccine Club was 
held on the 4th of December, at the British Coffee-house, 
W. Devaynes, Esq. M. P. vice-president, in the chair. After 
the minutes of the proceedings of the institution since the 
former meeting were read, it was determined that the most 
important part of the investigation of the cow-pock for the 
public at present is, the ascertaining the proportional num- 
ber of cases of small-pox amongst those who have been ino- 
culated for the cow-pock. It appeared, that in the practice 
of this institution the proportion was a little more than one 
case out of each thousand inoculated since the commence- 
ment of this establishment. These cases it was requested 
might be well considered, to discover whether or no they 

could 


366 Original Faccine Institution. 


could have been prevented by any known circumstances of 


moculation. On examination it was admitted that no such 
circumstances were known, and of the reality of the sub- 
eo eccurrence of the small-pox there was the most 
convincing evidence. 

The next question for consideration was, the proportion 

f persons who might be still susceptible of the siall-pox 

fter vaccination, but who had not been yet infected, either 
pieaite they had not been exposed, or, if exposed, because 
their constitutions were not at that time susceptible, 

It was proposed to defer the attempt at an estimate till 
subsequent occurrences should furnish data, except that it 
might be admitted that at least not more than one balf had 
been infected with the small- -pox, who were susceptible ; 
so that at the fewest nuinber, according to the prac- 
tice of this institution, was one out of fe hundred, who 
might be considered as susceptible of the small-pox after 
vaccination. These results, it was remarked, had induced 
the institution not to warrant any person as secure without 
the test of a second inoculation. 

In the fourth ‘place, inquiry was made, What might haye 
been the probable proportion in the same region of prac~ 


tice in. other hands than those of. this establi$hment ?- 


This could not be accurately stated for want of documents 3 
but there was no reason to believe that it was less than above 
mentioned, in all probability it was greater, if confidential 
communications were to be depended upon. : 

In the fifth place, the question was proposed, What 
might be the proportion of failures elsew here than in Lon- 
dene in our own country ? 

It was observed, that in all probability the proportion of 
failures of persons duly vaccinated was muci smaller in 


other parts of the imperial kingdom than in London, for 


which two'reasons might be assigned. 


dst. Because fice was 4 less chanié te of exposure to in- ? 


fection. 


ad. Because there had probably not been any epidemic ~ 


prevalence’ of small-pox as there had been in London. 


Hénce, if even one person out of a hundred was left sus- 


e ceptible 


. 
: 
, 
; 
; 


Original Vaccine Ihistitution. 367° 


ceptibte of the small-pox, it was very conceivable that a 
failure might not yet have occurred in many places ; and it 


was remarked that on this:account, without supposing any, 


imposition, a delusion might subsist for some time that per- 
sons were secure who in reality were not so. 

With regard to the accounts from abroad, the Seitedcs 
was almost entirely negative with regard to failures. This 
evidence, however, was stated to be of little weight com- 
paratively to that in London, for various reasons. 


Ist. For the reasons assigned for the exemption from fai- « 


lures in this country out of London. 


2d. Because the mass of people bad not the liberty of 


acting or speaking as they profess under our government ; 
howeyer, lately accounts had arrived, and more might be 
expected, of failures in India. 


In the last place was discussed the proportion ae failures 


in the small-pox inoculation ; and here it appeared astonish- 
ing, that any sensible practitioners should ever have consi- 


dered the small-pox inoculation as upon the same footing ° 


as vaccination upon this point. It would be unjust to place 
the'two modes of inoculation upon the same footing 5 for 
the most extensive inoculators ia this country had declared 
they had never seen the small-pox twice in the same per- 
son. Such was the evidence of the late Dr. Archer, baron 
Dimsdale, sir William Watson, Dr. Woodville, and the 
whole family of the Suttons. Thus, while in the course 


of sixty years, or from 1746 up to 1806, at the Small- . 


pox Hospital, amongst 60,000 persons who had under- 


‘gone the small-pox, not one had been known to have 
taken the small-pox a second time; yet in the course of 


seven years vaccine practice at the samé place, it was well 
known that a certain number had taken the small-pox sub- 
sequently to the cow-pock, 

Tt was ‘not to be concluded, however, from. these state- 
ments, that vaccination was not greatly preferable to vario- 
lation ; but'it was to show tlie necessity of a second inocu- 


lation until the circumstances ‘should be known im which ° 


seeurity could be given ‘by one inoculation, 


It was the conduct of the too sanguine and. prejudiced 


eft 1A advocates 


368 French National Institute. 


advocates that made these statements necessary ; but it was 
allowed that, with the precaution just mentioned, there was 
good reason to ‘believe vaccination would be highly benefi- 
cial to society, and merited the further investigation re- 
quired for secure practice. 


FRENCH NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 
{Continued from p. 275.] 

M. Berthollet has taken up the subject of affinities with 
2 perseverance worthy of its importance; and he has this 
year communicated to us a third course of his researches. 

He has shown that we may by means of compression 
combine with the three alkalis quantities of carbonic acid 
much greater than usual, and thereby form salts perfectly 
neuter, like all the other acids. 

It is to these complete combinations that he reserves the 
name of carbonate: to the ordinary combinations he gives 
the name of sub-carbonate ; and he shows that there are be- 
tween the one and the-other several intermediate combina- 
tions. 

It is the same with the earthy carbonates and several sorts 
of salts: the phosphate of soda, for instance, can crystallize 
both with excess of acid and excess of base. ) 

Indeed the partisans of the old doctrine suppose, that in 
these cases of variable proportions there is no combination, 
but the superabundant principle is simply interposed in the 
free state between the molecules of the two principles com- 
bined in the ordinary proportion. 

M. Berthollet says in answer, that if this was the case, 


sulphuric acid poured upon a sub-carbonate would at first , 


take up some free alkaline molecules, before attacking those 
which. are combined with carbonic acid. But this is not 


the case ; for the least drop of the first acid immediately 


produces the liberation of the second, that is to say, effer- 
vescence. The acidulated sulphate of soda effloresces in the 
air, 2. e. it there loses its water of crystallization ; which 


would not take place if the superabundant sulphuric acid — 
was present in the free state, because there is no substance. 


which more strongly attracts humidity than this acid. 


M. Ber- | 


; 


French National Institute. 369 


M. Berthollet had given a method of estimating the de- 
gree of acidity of the different acids, and the degree of alka- 
linity of the different bases, by the quantity required by each 
of these kinds of substances in order to saturate or neutra- 
lize the other completely, so as that the combination may 
evince no sign of acidity or alkalinity. J 

He confirms this method by showing, that the propor- 
tions of these quantities are constant, and that if it requires, 
for instance, twice as much of any kind of acid to saturate 
one base than another, there must be twice as much of 
every other kind of acid to the first than to the second. 

But the degree of resistance of heat does not correspond 
to this force, and it is easier, for example, to decompose by 
fire the carbonate of magnesia than that of lime, although 
the affinity of these two earths for the acid is nearly the 
same. It is that the former carbonate has much more water, 
and, as other experiments show, that water favours the libe~ 
ration of carbonic acid. 

The consequences of these facts to all the branches of 
chemistry, and particularly for the theory of analyses, are 
incalculable. 

The tables of the affinities and a great part of the ana- 
lyses made to this day are invalidated by the above; and in 
short, experience proves that almost all these products have 
need of being revised. For example, M. Klaproth, and 
after him M. Vauquelin, have found a fifth of fluoric acid 
in the topaz, where its existence had never been suspected, 
This stone therefore passes into the class of acidulated sub- 
stances. 

Another mineral, hitherto regarded as a stone, passes into 
the class of the metals : it is that which was formerly called 
oisanile, or octaédral schorl of Dauphiny, and which 
M. Haiiy has recently named anathasis. M. Vauquelin 
found nothing in it but the oxide of titanium, as in the 
other mineral called red schorl. 

This fact is important, because it presents two minerals 
among which chemists cannot yet find any essential diffe- 
rence of composition, although their physical qualities, and 
particularly their crystallization, are all different. 

Vol. 26, No. 104. Jan. 1807. Aa In 


3870 French National Institute. 


--In mineralogy there has» also been a)similar case’iin’ that. 
of the arragonite,' where chemists have only found:a carbo- 
nate of lime, although its whch hardness, fracture, and 
erystallization ‘differ much from that of calcareous pet or 
eommon.-carbonated lime, 

A different example, but which also establishes a sort of 
opposition among the physical and chemical characters of 
the miinerals, has also presented itself this year. 

Jt is the ore of iron Known by the name of spathic iron *. 
It constantly has the’ same crystalline form: as carbonated 
lime, and indeed it often'contains avery considerable quan- 
tity of the latter substance. M. Haiiy had ranked it among 
the varieties of this species, considering the oxide of iron 
in it as merely accidentally arising out of the crystallization 
of the lime, nearly the same as it is with the sand in the 
singular cfystals‘of stone found in’the forest of Fontain- 
bleau: in fact, we have known for a long time past that 
the quantity of iron is very variable in it. ; 

But two young cheniists, Messrs. Drappier and Destos- 
tils, have discovered that the quantity of lime varies still 


raore considerably in spathic iron, that sometimes there is 


none at all in it; and that magnesia and the oxide of man- 
ganese are often in as variable quantities, according to the 
specimens. 

Here, therefore, there are very different combinations 
which present themselves under a form always the’same. 

These kinds of difficulties, these apparent oppositions be- 
tween two branches of one and the same science, or between 
two methods of regarding objects, must be referred to some 
imperfection in the principles of the one or other of the two 
methods, and merit all the attention of the friends of truth. 
Researches on the subject would probably terminate by the 


discovery of some new general fact, which conciliates every 


thing. 

The labours upon native platina, of which we have spoken 
in our two’ last reports, have been continued this year by dif- 
ferent chemists, and have led to some clear and satisfactory 
results. » to’ 

* See-Philosophical Magazine, vol. xxv. pages $1, 245, 911. 
ee”. M. Fourcroy 


’ 


French National Institute. 371 


M. Fourcroy has given an account of these labours in a 
memoir, wherein he has done justice to those who have 
taken part in them. 

The following is an abridged account of these labours : 

It will be recollected that M. Descostils, in endeavouring 
to account for the various colours of the triple salts of pla- 
tina, perceived that the red colour of some of them was 
owing to some unknown metal. re 

Messrs: Fourcroy and Vauquelin on their part, on exa- 
mining a black powder which remains after platina has been 
dissolved, and finding that in some experiments a yery strong 
smelling metallic vapour arises, that in others the substance 
is manifested in a manner more fixed, they also regard this 
powder as a new metallic substance, the different properties 
of which they attribute to different degrees of oxygenation. 

But at the same time Mr. Tennant of London had exa- 
mined this same black powder, and succeeded-in decom- 
posing it once more into two different metals, the one fixed 
and the other very volatile: and Mr. Wollaston, another 
English chemist, operating upon the solution which was 
formerly thought to contain only platina, found in it two 
other metals, different both from platina and from those 
which compose the black powder. 

Thus, after the long and painful researches of which this 
singular mineral has been the object for more than forty 
years, chemistry has succeeded in producing from it eleven 
metallic substances, yiz. platina, gold, silver, iron, copper, 
chrome and titanium, found by Messrs. Fourcroy and 
Vauquelin in the sands, more or less coloured, which are al- 
ways mixed with platina. 

The two new metals discovered by Mr. Wollaston were 
palladium and rhodium ; and those discovered by Mr. Ten- 
nant were iridium and osmium *. 

The metal discovered in platina some years ago by 
M. Vauquelin and called chrome, has been discovered in 
the meteoric stones by M. Laugier, 


* Mr. Wollaston’s and Mr. Tennant’s papers have already been given in 
the Philosophical Magazine. 
Aa 2 It 


372 French National Institute. 


Tt has been since discovered by M. Thenard in the me 
teoric stones which fell near Alet, department of Gard, and 
which the Academy collected and sent to the Institute. 

These stones, the fall of which has been established by 
testimony no less respectable than that of preceding ones, 
differ from them, however, in colour-and consistence : they 
are blacker and more friable; but their analysis yielded 
M. Thenard nearly the same prineiples : the metals in them 
are only more oxidated, and there is a little more coal in 
them. This result has been confirmed by a committee of 
the Institute. 

The last year announced the opinion of M. Pacchiani 
upon the composition of the muriatic acid, which he thought 
he had produced by depriving water of a part of its oxygen 
by means of the Galvanic pile. 

This discovery would have been one of the most impor- 
tant that chemistry had ever produced; but it is not veri- 
fied when care is taken to remove from the apparatus 

every thing which could furnish sca-salt. This has been 
established by Messrs. Biot and Thenard by direct’ experi- 
ments. 

In a work upon refraction, at first undertaken for astro- 
nomical purposes, M. Biot was led to employ the action of 
bodies upon light in a very advantageous manner, for the 
analysis of transparent substances *. The substances’ pro- 
duced by organized Leings have never yet been sufficiently 
rigorously examined.- Although we know generally of 
what elements they are composed, and that these primitive 
elements are not very numerous, their combinations are so 
varied, they change their nature so easily in the operations 
which they undergo ; that we must study for a much longer 
time these combinations’ themselves as if they were simple, 
and abstraction made of their true elementary principles. 
These matters thus considered are what are called the imme- 
diate principles of organized bodies. This year has made 


# An extract of Messrs, Biot’s and Arrago’s memoir upon this subject is 
given in our present yelume. 


A : known 


New Comet. 373 


known to our chemists several of these immediate prin-— 
ciples. 

Messrs. Vauquelin and Robiquet have found in the juice 
of asparagus a crystalline substance soluble in water, which 
nevertheless is neither an acid nor a neutral salt ; and it is 
not affected by the ordinary re-agents *. They purpose fol- 
lowing up the examination of its nature. 

[Vo be continued.} 


LVI. Intelligence and Miscéllaneous Articles., 


NEW COMET. 


Letter of Dr. Olbers to the Editor of the Hamlurgh 


Correspondent. 
Bremen, Dec. 23, 1806. 


Miss comet discovered by M. Pons at Marseilles oa the 
10th of November has not been visible to us these few days 
Past, on account of its too great increase of southern de- 
clination. According to observations made here and at Li- 
lienthal, M. Bessel, superintendant of the observatory of the 
celebrated senator of justice Schroter, at Lilienthal, has cal- 
culated the path of this comet. From the calculation it fol- 
lows that the new comet, after appearing in superior bril- 
lianey in the southern parts of the globe, and after passing 
very close to the south pole of the ecliptic on the 3Ist of 
December, will be again visible towards the middle of Ja- 
nuary, above the horizon of the observatories in the sonth 
of Europe, and about the 20th of the same month will be 
also visible in this neighbourhood. It will then be seen in 
the milky way, in the sign of the Whale, included by the 
new astronomers in the sign of the Electrical Machine. With 
us the comet will rise but a very little above the clearest part 
of the south and south-west horizons, and on that account 
we can only observe it if we are favoured with warmer wea- 
ther; but in the south of Germany, France, Italy, &c. it 
may be very distinctly observed, and followed with the te- 
fescupe, until very near the end of February. 


* See the present volume, pages 33, 115, 239. 


Aas Tn 


374 List of Patents for New Inventions —Lectures. 


In order to facilitate the finding again of this comet, 
M. Besse! has calculated the following places of the same 
for the midnight of Pars: 


Degrees of Ascension. South Declination. 
,January'15,..-, 25° 14° - + - 39° 18’ 
January 25, .- 19 40 -+ -, 7 29 34 
February 4, 5;7,).17), 38) (oF mites 23) 58 


Until the 16th of February this comet will become clearer 
and more brilliant than it was on the 10th of November, the 
day of its first discovery. 


W. OvzeErs, Dr. 


LIST OF PATENTS FOR NEW INVENTIONS. 

To Walliam Henry Wyatt, of Hatton Garden, gentle- 
man, in consequence of a communication made to him by 
a foreigner; fora new discovery of the means of facilitating 
the chemical action between copper and several saline sub- 
stances, so as to produce important improvements in the art 
of separating gold and silver from copper plated or united 
with either of those metals, and in the manufacturing of 
sulphate of copper, and in the making of many kinds of 
colours for painting. January 15. 

To Chester Gould, of Birmingham, in the county of 
Warwick ; for his invented improvement or machine to as- 
certain the weight of any thing to the amount of ten tons 
and upwards, to be made use of instead of the common 
steel-yard, or beams and weight. January 24. 


LECTURES. 


On Monday, February 3, a Course of Lectures on Physic 
and Chemistry will recommence at the Laboratory in George- 
street, Hanover-square, at the usual morning hours, viz. 
the Medical at Eight, and the Chemical at Nine in the 
morning, by George Pearson, M.D. F.R.8., of the Col- 
lege of Physicians, senor Physician of St. George’s Hos- 
pital, &c. . 

A Clinical. Lecture is given every Saturday Morning at 
Nine o’clock, on the Patients in St. George’s Hospital. 

Proposals may be had in George-street, and at the Hos- 


pital. 
1 METEORO- 


— 


Meieorology. 
METEOROLOGICAL TABLE, 
By Mr. Carey, OF THE STRAND, 
For January 1807. 


Thermometer, ae 
ad 2 bweiohe of | 23:2 
er S| 8 [5 5|tne Baron. gE | Weather 
25 Pa 7, ncnhes,. Pie 
Dec. 27| 44°] 51°) 47°) 30°11 5 |Cloudy 
28} 50 | 53°] 47 | 29°90 12 |Fair 
29| 48 | 50 | 40 50 oO {Rain 
30] 47 | 54.1] 45 “56 oO {Rain 
31) 41 |} 41 | 35 | 30°19 10 |Cloudy 
Jan. 1] 34 | 39 | 30 56 11 |Fair 
2} 28 | 30 | 927 55 7 |Fogey 
31 30 | 38 | 35 26 45,1) Par 
4) 41 | 41 | 35 30 8 |Fair 
5| 35 | 39 |. 97 50 10 ‘|Fair 
6| 26 | 35 | 32 42 4 |Fair 
7| 33 | 39 | 30 *33 3 |Fair 
8} 31 | 38 | 35 04 7 |Fair 
9| 40 | 46 | 46 | 29°76 4 |Cloudy 
10) 40 | 44 | 39 98 8 |Fair 
11| 33 | 38 | 36 | 30°24 6 |Cloudy 
12| 37 | 41 | 40 “05 0 |Cloudy 
13] 40 | 41 | 52 "75 10 {Fair 
14| 28 | 35 | 30 | 30°00 6 |Cloudy 
15} 21 | 31] 44 | 30°08 11. |Fair 
16} 46 | 51 | 48 | 20°88 14 *+|Fair 
17| 47 | 51 | 42 *85 o 'Rain 
18] 38 | 44 | 35 65 10. ‘|Fair 
19| 32 | 42} 45 “50 8 {Fair 
20| 32 | 41 | 35 ‘06 5 |Fair 
21) 35 | 42 | 37 | 28°85 0» |Rain 
22| 39 | 38 | 35 | 29°18 oO {Rain 
23| 36 | 42 | 35 *66 12 {Fair 
24| 35 | 43 | 34 | 30°20 12 {Fair 
25| 29 | 34 | 28 "42 10. |Fair 
26| 27 | 39 | 40 ‘48 7 |Fair 


N.B. The Barometer’s height is taken at one o’clock, 


rrr 


£ 376. J 


INDEX to VOL. XXVI. 


ACETIC ether. On, 85, 86 
Acid, acetic. On, 85, 86, she 
Acid fumigations. On, 71,8 
Acids. Action of, on fat, 7 
Agricultural patent, 
Agriculture, Smithfield Club,” 
291 
Air-pump. Improved, 38 
Aliurnous vessels of trees. On, 
120 
Alcohol. Action of, on fat, 78 
Alembics. On the form of, 8 
Amsterdam, Agricultural Soctety 
of, 99 
Analysis of ipecacuanha, 14; of 
coffee, 175 of asparagus, 33, 
11S; 289; ; of native cinnabar, 
146; of seeds of lyeopodium, 
188; of turquoise, - 220 
Animal fat, On, 72, 105 
Antifriction rollers. Patent, 191 
Antiquaries. Society of, 181, 269, 


; 364 

Anis destroy weevils, gl 
Arrago on affinities of bodies for 
light, 151,292 


Asparagus. On,73, 116, 289,373 
mae omy. A prize question, 89 ; 


history of, 237, 3473 preces- 
sion of equinoxes, 269; co- 


met, 373 
Austrian literature, igo 


Balances, compensation, On, 133 
Barrows. Opening of, 182 


Beauvois on mushrooms, 272 
Bees. A prize question, go 
Bell's patent, 287 


Berlin. Academy of, 89 
Bernoulli’s time-keepers. On, 47 
Biography, 353 
Biot on affinities of bodies for 

light, 151, 292 
Blind, Educationiof the, —_g2 
Boats for canals, On, 219 
Bohemian Royal Society, 188 
Bonefos on fumigation, 71 


Books. New, 93, 171, 176, 186, 
190, 238, 264, 272, 329: pa- 


tent for binding, 287 
Boots. Varnish for, 
Botany. New books on, 184 
Bowman's patent, Ig! 
Boyd:i] on the word Burgh,” 
182 


Bramah’s patent for printing, 95 
Buchanan on canal boats, 219 
Burgh, Meaning of the word, 


182 
Capam’s patent, 95 
Canal boats. On, 219 


Capillary tubes, Notice on, 24% 

Card-making. Patent for, 191 

Carey’s meteorological tables, 96, 

192, 288, 375 

Carriages. Patent, 9+ 

Caspian Sea. On the, 183 

Ceylon, Mineralogy of, 169 

Chabert the navigator, Death 
of, 35 
Charcoal. Antiseptic power of, 

92 

Chronometers. Le Roy on, 40, 

1299), 493 

Cinnabar, native. On, 146 


— Sl 


INDEX. 


Clege’s patent, 95 
Chth. To varnish, 3 
Cock, autocratic. The, 314. 
Cofizc. Uses, preparation, and 


analysis of, 17 

~ Cooke’s patent, 94 
Come's, 237, 242, 283, 373 
Cooking apparatus, Patent, 94 
Couching. Two cases of, 364 


Cuvier on living and fossil ele- 
phants, 158, 204, 302 


Davy on chemical effects of elec- 
tricity, 181, 266, 269 
Day (H2.) elected junior secretary 
of Royal Society, 364 
De Carro on mineralogy of Cey- 
lon, 169 
Deaths, 94> 353 
Descroiz lies on distilling plants, 


Desgenet on fumigation, 81 
Deucalion’s flood. On, 183 
Deyeux on distilling plants, 10 


Diabetes. On, 97 
Dispensary. The Finsbury, 253 
Distiilation of waters from plants, 
6 

Drawing machines, Patents for, 
286, 287 

97 
44 


Dupuytren on diabetes, 
Dutzrire’s pendulum. On, 


Eckbara’s patent, 287 
Eclipse of sun, 246 


Electrical fishes. A prize ques- 
tion, 8 
Electricity. Prize questions, 8g 5 

Davy on, 181, 266, 269 
Elephants, living and fossil. On, 
158, 204, 302 


Equincxes. Precession of, 269 
Erfurt Society, 188, 275 
Farcy on music, 171 
Fat, Memoir on, 72,105 
Finsbury dispensary. Report of 

cases ir, 253 
Fire-arms. Patent for, 26 
Flageslctte. Patent for, 286 


377° 
Fletchers patent, 95 
Force of percussion. On, 229 


Fossil elephants. On, 158, 204, 


302 
French Nat-onal Institute, 183. 
2725 368 

Fruits. To produce new species 
of, 268 
Fumigations, acid. On, 71, 81 
Guiters. Varnish for, 3 
Galvanic experiments, 181 


Galvanism. Prize questions, 89 
Gases. On refractive power of, 

151, 292 
Gehjen on acetic acid and ether, 


8 
Geography, 183, eo 
Go/d. Patent for separating, from 
coppers 374 
Gould’s patent, 374 
Granaries. To free, from vermin, 


gr 


Hail storms. To avert, 212 
Hanged man restored to life, 257 
Harrison’s time-keepers. On, 455 

b 


Hats or helmets. Varnish for, 3 
Huutefeuille's improvement on 

watches, 50 
Hawkes’s theory of music, 171 
Hernia. Cases of, 254 
Henry on ipecacuanha, 13; on 


acetic ether, 85 
Flome on cataract, 364. 
Horses. A prize question, 188 


Hospitals. On fumigating, 71, 81 


Hurricanes. On, * OO RAa 
Huygens’s pendulum. On, 44 
Hydraulic machine, 314 
Ipecacuanha. On the ligneous 

part of, 13; analysis of, 14 
Fohbns's patent, 287 


Jones’s patent, 94 
Fouville on mineralogy of Cey- 
lon, 16g 
Keith on Bonnycastle’s Spherical 
Trigonometry, 329 
Klapr oth 


373 IN DE X. 


Klaproth on native cinnabar, 146 
Knight on alburnous vessels of 
trees, 120 


Lazrange on turquoise, 220 
Lalande’s history of astronomy 

for 1805, 2375 347 
Laugier on meteoric stones, 11 


Learned Societies, 88, 179, 266, 


395 

Lectures, 283, 374 
Le Roy’s memoir on chroaome- 
ters, 40, 129, 193 
Leschevin on averting hail storms, 
212 

Levelling. On, 243 


Lichen islandicus very nutritious 
as food, 

Light. Effects of, on fat, 72; 
affinities of bodies for, 151, 
292 
Linen. To varnish, 3 
Linseed o:/. Boiled, to prepare, 4 
Liverary intelligence, 93, 171,176, 
186, 190, 264; 272 

Litharge. To detect, in wine, 
362 
Lloyd's patent, Ig 
Longitude. On chronometers for 
determining, 40, 129, 193; 


on degrees of, 240 
Lunar planispheres. Russel’s, 264 
Luttick, Society at, 89 


Lycopodium seeds. On, 188 
Magnitism. On, 45, 3493 prize 
8 


questions, 
Malconformation. Singular cases 
of, 275, 281 
Mat:bey's patent, 286 
Meat, salt, On preserving, 92 
Mechanical power. A patent, 94 
Medicinal preparations. On, 72, 


105 

Medicine, pneumatic. On, 69, 257 
Memory. Art of, 282 
Mercurial cintments. Qn, 1095 
Meridian, On arc of, 239 
Meteoric stgnes. New principle 
in, 11, 37% 


Meteorology, 96, 192, 212, 288, 


375 

Millstones, 133 
Minium, native. On, 114 
Mist. Efficts of, on vision, 31 
Montauban Society at, 89 
Mountwzins. A work on, ° 93 
Muriatic acid. On compositioa 
of, 372 
Muscular mo!ion. On, 180 
Mushrooms. On, 272 
Musi:. Yarey on, 171 
Navigation. On chronometers 
for, 40, 129, 193 
Nauche’s test for wines, 362 
Newcastle Society, 270 
New York, Latitude of, 247 
Nicho!son's patent, Igl 


Oil, boiled linseed. To prepare, 4 
Oils. Patent for purifying, 286 
Oil, poppy.» Valuable subs:itute 


for olive oil, 331 
Olbers on a comet, 373 
Opiics. Facts applicable to, 151, 

292 
Oxymuriatic acid fumigatious. On, 
71, 81 


Park, Mungo. News of, oI 
Passions, the. A prize question, 


9 
Patents, 94, 191, 286, 374 
Peirson on muscular motion, 180 
Percussion. Wollaston on, 229 


Perspective. Patent instrument 

for drawing in, 286 
Phosphorized fat. On, 75 
Pinel on fumigation, 81 


Plants, On distilling waters from, 
6; on growth of, 120; on 
food of, * 317 

Platina. On, 371 

Pneumatic medicine. 69,257 

Poppy. On cultivation of, 331 

Porcelain. On, 68 

Prati's patent, 94 

Printed goods. Patents respect- 
Ing, 94,95 

Prize questions, 89, 188 

Prosser’s 


Be rey 


eS, pa Be a Oe 


IIN D EX. 


Prosser’s patent, - 95 
Protst on porcelain and on the 
Lichen is!andicus, 
P-ovisions. On preserving, 92 
Publications. New, 93,171, 176, 
ufo, 1g0, 758s 264;.272,329> 
GPUS TO 


Ratie,dz. The philosopher, death 

sc of; 

Refraction, atmospheric. Instances 
of, 31 

Refraction. On, 151, 252, 372 

Robiquet on asparagus, 33,115 


Romme, professor. Death of, 
. 356 
Rosarios. On, 270 


Royal Society, London, 179, 266, 


365 

Royal Soc'ety. The old French, 
355 
Royston’s patent, Igf 
Rumford. New exper. by, 274 
Ruptures. Patent truss for, 94 
Russel’s lunar planispheres, 264 
Russian literature, 1go 
Sa/mon’s patent, 94 
Sumpson’s patent, 94 
Sanford’s patent, 95 
Schmalcalder’s patent, 287 
Scort’s patent, 286 
Shoes. Varnish for, < 43 
Silver. Patent for separating, 
from copper, 374 


Smoking chimneys. Patent for cu- 
ring £> 95 
Sm't' field club, 271 
Smithson (James) on native mi- 
nium, II4 
Societies. Learned, 88, 179, 266, 


365 
Sonorous bodies. On, 5° 
Spathic iron ore. On, 370 
Speer’s patent, 286 
Steering wheel, Patent, 95 
Steevens’s autocratic cock, » 314 


Stars. Distance of, 242 
Seam. Patent for application of, 


1gi 


379 

Steam-engiae. Woolf’s piston for, 

316 

Stills. On the form of, 3 

Stones, metecric. New principle 

in, a 

Storms. To ‘dissipate, 2125* res 
marks on, 3 

Sugar extracted from mulberries, 

187 

Sulphur pomaium. On, 73 


Suilly’s lever clock. On, 43 
Sun. On spots of, 2413 eclipse 

of, 246 
Surgical cases, 253 
Suspended animation restored. Sin- 


gular case of, 257 
Sutton’s patent, 94 
Sylvester's improved air-pump, 

i 33 


Taunton's dispensary report, 253 
Thenard on diabetes, 97 
Thornton on pneumatic medicine, 
Methods of measuring, 
42, 129, 193 
Townshend on food of plants, 


Time. 


317 
Track-hoats. On, 219 
Travellers, go 
Trees. Oa growth of, 120 
Tromsdorff on acetic acid, IIL 
Tumuli opened, 182 


Turin. Society of Agriculture, 


187 
Turquoise, Analysis of, 220 
Types. Patent forcasting, 95 
Uirecht. Society at, 88 


Vaccination, 189; voyage to 
propagate the blessings of, 


276 

Vaccine Institution, Broad-street, 
305 
Valentia, Lrd. Return of, — go 


Varnish for hats, gaiters, leather, 
&e. a. 
Vauquelin on asparagus, 289 
Fazie’s patent, 1gt 
Vegetation. 


380 


Fermin. To destroy, gt 
Vision, E. Walker on, 29; cu- 


rious facts concerning, © 364 
Voyages, 90, 92, 351s 352 
Wazgons. Patent, 94 


Walker on vision, 29 
Watches. On, 40, 129 
Water. On condensation of, 273 


Weaving. Patent for, 286 
Wedgwood’s patent, 94 
Weevils. To destroy, 91 


Weighing machine. Patent, 374 
Whalebone. Patent for using, 191 


INDEX,, 


Vegetation. Experiments on, 317 


White’s patent, 95 
White swelling cured by vital air, 

7° 
Wlliamson’s patent, — 286 


Wines. To detect adulterations 

of, + : 362 

Wollaston on percussion, 2293 

patent to, 286 

Woolf’s piston for steam-engines, 

316 

Writings. Patent for ce 

duplicates of, ~ 

Wyatt’s patent for separating gold 
and silver from copper, &c. 

ie 


END OF THE TWENTY-SIXTH VOLUME. 


Erratum.—Page 4, line 11 from the bottom, i 
for oil of marmite read Soiled oil. 


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Insurance rom aw throughout Great Britain and cy 
and i in Foreign Countries ; —for the psorance of Lives; ; | 
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ng | ‘other advantages, it will appear, by the ‘Company’ 8 Proposals, 
“that no charge is made for Policies or Indorsements ; 
: that a large and unprecedented Commission i is allowed, on ‘Life 
oe Insurance ; Aint) REL Reap ene tar 
ah, “that Life Insurances are not attended with ‘aithapeaen rey nor 
with any responsibility, on the part of the sigh theutin ge: to 
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op Insurances OUT oF Lonpon, whether effected at the Company’ 8 ; 


CONTENTS of NUMBER Cit. 


Page 
XXXII. A Memoir on the best Method of measuring Time —  ; 
AY at Sea, which obtained the double Prize adjudged by the Royal 
| Academy of Sciences; containing the Description of the Lon- 
SS gitude Watch presented to His Majesty the 5th of August 
“A 1766: By M. Le Roy, Clock-maker to the King. - Trans- 
} eee from the French by Mr. T.S. Evans, F. L.S., of the 
N Royal Military Academy, Woolwich - 
XXXIV. Memoir ape lan and fossil | Elephants By 
M. Cuvier 
XXXV. Memoir upon a Prades eenlareal in the ci- aegacit 
Maconnais of France, to avert Showers of Hail, and to dissi- 
MW pate Storms. By M. Lescuevin, chief Commissary for Gun- 
eee and Saltpetre at Dijon - - - 
XXXVL_ On Canal'Track-Boats. By Robertson Bu- 
Ke } cHANak, Esq. Civil Engineer, Glasgow 
XXXVII. Analysis of the Substance known by the Name 
of Turquoise. By M. Bourtron Lacranee » = 
sty  XXXVIII. The Bakerian Lecture on the Force of Perens- 
zsion. By Witttam Hype Woutaston, M.D. Sec. R.S, 
* XXXIX. History of anes for the Year tBO5: By 
JEROME De LaLanpDeE 
XL. Report of Surgical Chak in the Figshaty Ditpsasary 
Hfrom the rst of September to the ist of November 1806; 
4 vith Observations on two Cases of Hernia which proved fatal. 
~ Communicated by Jonn ‘Taunton, Esq. Surgeon to the 
@ City and Finsbury Dispensaries, and Lecturer on Anatomy, 
\ Surgery, &c. - - - - - 
} XLI. Thirty-third Communication from Dr. Taornron, 
relative to Pneumatic Medicine - ‘2 
XLIF. Notices respecting New Publieations 
XLII. Proceedings of Lenses Societies _ 


Extraordinary Paahonitohins Art of POSNER Comet— 
Lectures—List of Patents for New Inventions, &c. ~~ 2]6—288 4 x 


*,* Communications fer this Work, addressed to the Editor, at i 
No. i, Carey-street, Lincoln’s Inn, Sill meet with every attention, \ 


pas wa 


MECHANICS. : 1 


* SKETCH of the Peneeeriidad ADVANTAGES of RE PAL 
TENT GRAVITATED SAILS for WINDMILLS, ~ 
By W.S. HESLEDEN, Esq.of Barton upon Humber. NS 
Printed for the Author; and sold by J. Taylor, at the Architectural Boe : 
rary, No. 59, High Holborn. 
Where may be had, lately published in 8vo, price 10s. 6d. in boards, 

A Treatise on the feeru of WHEELS, PINIONS, &e.3 demonstrating the 
best Forms which can be given:them for the various Purposes of Machinery, f\ A 
such as Mill-work, Clock-work, &c. and the Arts of Finding their Numbers: 

‘Translated from, the French of M. Camus; with Additions. finn 
Illustrated by Fifteen large Plates, : 


ere 
"ENGRAVINGS, So 


) XXIV. is embellished with a Plate of Bical to ‘iMustrate Mr. Dar« 

N's. Theory of the Absorption of Gases by Liquids—On the same ;—Also. 
Refrigeratory for Distillation, acting on the Prisciple of the Syphon—The 
Effects produced by Mr. Ez. Watker’s newly invented Cometarium— | 


s of Compression in modifying the Action of Heat—Mr. Srer-- 
mproved Gasome‘er, for Purposes where uniform Pressure is essen-. 
A Plate illustrating Mr. Waxxen’s Paper on the apparent Magnitude 
horizontal Moon—A Quarto Plate illustrative of Sir James Hart's 


AwBERT: engraved by Mr. E. Mackenzie—A Quarto Plate of Na- 
, viz.,the Fishes Eremophilus Mutisii, Astr ‘ablepus Grixalvii, and — 

t Yyclopum 5 and a South American Monkey, the Sinia (sean: 
Lowry. By 


Plate siinacrateee of Experiments by Sir James Haxt, Bart. on. _ 


ents on the Effects of Heat modified by Compression—A Portrait | ~ 


XV. contains an adv Plate iihustraitve of Beperiotente by Sir’: i 


Quarto Plate on the same Subject—A Quarto Plate to illustrate. 
Hatt’s Paper on the Effects of Heat modified by Compression 
LMon’ s improved Geometrical Quadrant, “Level, and Calculator, _ 
ining inaccessible Distances on Land or at Sea coy MonrTcoLt- | 
alorimeter, for determining the comparative Quantities of 
by the Combustion of different Kinds of Fuel—Mr. Giz- 


in Silex, found coated over with Chalcedon y- 


~ 


"i . is ‘illustrated with a Quarto Plate of M. Le Rox? s Chrono= ; 


“Sarge stehiey Octave ip on the same Seni snares Trish 
Boat. — N a, ve 


is published, Report: printed in fe Ay ahines Octavo, with Hi 
rhe of Senprntrt Price af AS: 6d. in Boards 8 gl. Is, in > 


i “F F ARMER'S MAGAZINE, a “ Pectoaical Work, agulosively de- 
roted to Agriculture and Rural Affairs, for the Vers 1800, 1801, 
2, 1803, 1804, Koes and 1806, Somes ae of Original Raper; 
hed Quarterly. 


an 5 also by the principal Booksellers in Town’ and Country. 
1X. being the First Number of Volume VIII. will be pub-_ 
iday, “agar 9 1807, price: 25, Od., and continued hit 
three Months. | ra Se : 
“DR ah neat 


L on the Effects of Compression in modifying the Action of Gs 


improved Crane with. Flexible Chains—Mr. Hergert’s | 
‘Bolt, and Mr. Le Caan’s Check for Carriage Wheels on Rail” 
ALM N's Improvement on Canal Locks-—Figures to illustrate re 
THIuss Memoir on the De composition of Water by Corte aed 


. S¥LVESTER’s improved Air-Pump—A_ large Plate relating to | 


yh: Printed for Archibald Constable dad Co., and sold by John 


Vo.. 26. Philosophic 


CONTENTS of NUMBER CIV. (te 


Pa ieee Page§ 
XLV. Discovery of a new Vegetable Principle in Asparagus , : 
US (Asparagus sativus of Linneus). ‘By M. Vauauetin = 


Autocratic Cock, useful in 


ed 
" A Ag et Si in hae 3164 
L. On the Food of Plants. By the Rev. Josera Towns- 
2 WEND, Mector of Pewsey, Wilts mi wie ae 3 
¥ LI. Letter from Tuomas Ketrn, Esq. Secretary ta the 
“Master of his Majesty’s Household, &c., respecting Mr. Bon- 
NYCASTLE’s Treatise on Plane and Spherical ‘Trigonometry 329 RS 
} LIT. On the Cultivation of the Poppy. By T..Cocan, — ih 
: it 


ver 


tort 


.D. . 3 caste = 3 
: LIU: History of Astronomy for the Year 1805. By Jz- i 
\ ROME DE LALANDE ers, - Ee ee 
§ LIV. Method of ascertaining whether Wines are adulte- N 
fail rated with Litharge. By M. Navcwe,* Physician - 362 Biss 
LV. Proceedings of Learned Societies - . - +, 353 % 
LVI. Intelligencé and Miscellaneous Articles: —New Comet— 
Si? List of Patents for New Inventions—Lectures Wi 3783154 
i *.* Communications forthis Work, addressed to’ the Editor, at 
LE No. 1, Carey-street, Lincoln's Inn, will meet with every attention, (dif 


“e Se 4 = Ld jaa ENO 
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TAYLOR AND CO, PRINTERS, 38, 


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