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52

Literary News. Spain....Sweden, &c.

impoffible these objects should be fully obtained, whilft women, the guardians of our childhood, were excluded, fuggefted to the before-mentioned gentlemen, the plan of a new courfe, accommodated to a female audience. Many ladies, with a becoming zeal for ufeful information, have been forward in promoting this defign, and there is no queftion of its ultimate fuccefs.

Dr. Beddoes intends to deliver a courfe of chemical lectures at Briftol; exhibiting on an extenfive apparatus, the general principles of chemistry, with the improvements which have been made at different periods in this valuable branch of ftudy. The propofal was made at the earneft folicitation of a few friends. Doctor B. propofed a course of chemical lectures at three guineas the course, to confift of about thirty; but as he wifhed the point to be fpeedily decided, he mentioned in his advertisement that unlefs one hundred names were given in the firft fortnight, he fhould altogether relinquifh the defign. More, however, than that number were given in the first week!

Among the books recently published at Madrid, the following are the moft deferving of notice :

Origin of Caftillian Poetry, in one volume, quarto. This work is divided into four parts, the first of which examines the fources from whence the Caftillian poetry has been drawn; namely, the poetry of the primitive Spaniards, and the Latin, Arabic, Provençal or Limofin, Portuguese, and other poets.

The Origin, Progrefs, and Stages of Caftillian

Poetry.

An Examination of whatever belongs to the Origin of Spanish poetry, in each of its principai Kinds in particular.

Collections of Caftillian Poetry, the comments and notes by which it has been illuftrated, and the tranflations in the Caitillian tongue from the poets of other nations. The whole terminated by a complete lift of the Caftillian poets. Index to the work, entitled " Literary Memoirs." This work is published in numbers, making three volumes yearly. It made its firft appearance at the commencement of 1791.

The World, a Dream. This is a fatire on the manners of the prefent age. It defcribes men as they are, and points out to them what they ought to be.

The cultivation of rice is ftill continued in many parts of the kingdom of Valencia, in Spain, notwithstanding repeated prohibitions. DON ANTONIO JoSEPH CAVANILLES, in his valuable work on the Natural Hiftory, Geography, Agriculture, Population and Vegetable Products of the Kingdom of Valencia, has en tered into a very interefting difcuffion of

[Jan.

the important question, whether the cultivation of this grain ought to be totally profcribed in Spain, on account of the fatal confequences attending it. To determine this point, he takes a review of the maladies occafioned by its cultivation, which requires a fwampy foil, and at the fame time a fultry climate. He gives a table of the births and deaths, from the year 1730 to 1787, in the different places in which the cultivation of rice has been practifed. The refult is, that during the pace of fifty-eight years, there have been born 42,022 children in the places where rice was not cultivated, and only 36,248 where the cultivation of rice was carried

on.

On the other hand, during the fame period of fifty-eight years, 39,595 perfons have died in the places where rice was grown, and only 29.630, in the places where it was not cultivated.

Among the branches of fence most fuccefsfully cultivated in SWEDEN, appear to be political history, geography, phyfic, natural hiftory, and rural economy. The Swedes are rich in geographical and ma rine charts. The firft volume of the Marine Atlas, publifhed in 1795, by the vice-admiral NORDENANKER, is juftly entitled to particular commendation. In the theological department, a new tranflation of the Bible, patronized by the late Swedish monarch, and undertaken at his particular inftance, is preparing for the prefs, and now actually in a state of great forwardness. Of this tranflation, an Essay, by way of profpectus, appeared in 1772. The new verfion of the Pfalms of David, by the learned DR. TINGSTA DIUS, may likewife be confidered as fpecimen and appendage to this grand undertaking. In the fame year (1772) WARMHOLZ publifhed the feventh volume of his Bibliotheca Hiftorico-Sueo-Gothi ftructive work. GANANDER published ca, which completes that learned and inand there has appeared very recently the at Abo, in 1789, a Mythologia Fennica; first part of the new edition of PAUL JUSTEN's Chronicle of the Bishops of Finland. As tranflators, the Swedes tranflate a great number of German books, but comparatively very few from the French and English languages. The first Literary Journal, which made its appearance in Sweden, was published by Doctor OLAUS CELSIUS, in 1742. Since that

a

* An English translation of Tingstadius's Verfion appeared in London about four years ago. Though little known, it contains many valuable and important novelties.

1798.]

Scientific News.--Ruffia.... Araneology.

period the number of works of this defcription has amazingly increased. Sweden boasts two academies of fciences, the one established at Stockholm, the other at Upfal. There is, likewife, a patriotic fciety of Agriculture; another fociety Pro Fide et Chriflianifmo; another for Phyfic and Natural Hiftory, at Lund; a fociety of Fine Arts and Sciences at Gothenburg; another fociety bears the denomination of Utile Dulci; and laftly, there is the Swedith Royal Academy, founded in 1786. The principal object of this latter fociety is to purify and perfect the Swedish language. It likewife caufes a medal to be ftruck regularly every year for fome illuftrious Swede. Of all thefe various focieties, the two first named are the only enes which publ:ih periodical Memoirs of their tranfactions.

RUSSIA, with refpect to the sciences and polite arts, has made aftonishing progrefs within thefe few years. Catharine II created a particular commiffion to fuperintend and direct the fchools, fettle the method of tuition, and to take particular care to form good inftructions. Since this arrangement, three different fchools are established in each government; an inferior fchool, in which reading, writing, and arithmetic, are taught; an upper fchool, or college, in which written exercises are compofed, geography,, national hiftory, &c. taught an univerfity, where all fpecies of knowledge may be acquired. There are at prefent univerfities at St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kiov; and the most celebrated colleges are at St. Petersburg, Mofcow, Kaffan, Riga, and Revel. The college of Mittaw is about to be changed into an univerfity. Several academies, and affemblies of learned men, arduoufly co-operate in diffeminating fcientific intelligence. Thefe are attached to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Peterfburg, the Academy of the Ruffian Language, the Academy of Arts, the Economical Society at Petersburgh, &c. Catharine II fent to the German univerfities fuch young perfons as manifefted happy difpofitions for learning. She alfo invited to Ruffia foreigners who were eminent for their erudition. She has, in fact, fo judiciously difpofed of things, that all branches of the fciences are cultivated by the Ruffians. The whole number of Ruffian publications, including fome tranflations, did not, however, four years ago, amount to more than 4000 volumes; the fifth part of thefe works treating of politics, economics, morals, hiftory, and geography.

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ARANEOLOGY. It is well known, that many animals are influenced by natural electricity, and extremely fufceptible of every variation of the atmosphere. Of thefe, none are more affected than the garden-fpider. To M. Quatremer d'Ifgonval, aid-de-camp general of the French and Batavian army, the world are indebted for the important difcovery of being able to rely on garden-fpiders, with as much, if not more confidence, than on the catgut or mercurial barometers. The garden-fpider, according to his obfervations, have two ways of working, according to prevailing, or rather future, weather. If the weather is to be rainy, or even windy, they attach fparingly their principal threads, which fufpends their whole fabric, and thus they wait for the effect of a temperature, which is about to be very mutable. Spiders, like barometers, poffefs not only future, but a more diftant prefentiment than thefe, concerning what is about to take place in the the atmosphere. A good barometer will foretel the weather until the next day; but when the fpiders work with long threads, there is a certainty of having fine weather for twelve days, or a fortnight, at least ! When they are idle, it denotes rain or wind; when they work fparingly, it prognofticates changeable weather; but when they work abundantly, it may be regarded as a fure forerunner of fine weather. As foon as the fpider is perceived inceffantly renovating the web, deftroyed by the continual effusions of rain, it not only is a criterion of their being of fhort duration, but, alfo denotes a speedy return of a greater permanence of fine weather. We find, at the end of the Araneological Calendar, of M. Quatremer d'lfgonval, a declaration, figned by the staff of the French and Batavian army, by which thefe officers certify, that in the month of November, 1795, M. d'Ifgonval announced to general Pichegru, upon the faith of his new difcoveries, that the enfuing fummer would fupply him with all the means of terminating the campaign, and that this bold prediction, in a feafon abounding with fnow and hail-ftones, was realized in the commencement of December, on account of the mildnefs of the weather. M. Quatremer d'Ifgouval has juft cftablished araneories in Paris.

The municipality of Mantua have given a general invitation to artifts to furnish the defign of a monument intended to be erceted in honour of Virgil, at Petcolum,. the place where, according to tradition,

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Foreign Scientific Intelligence.

that excellent poet was born. The fides of
the monument are to bear the following
four infcriptions. Firft infcription:
Primus ego in patriam mecum (modo vita fu-
perfit)

[Jan.

From thefe experiments it should feem' that the only circulation of the fap in trees is effected by the parts which border on this centrical medullary canal, by means of the infinite number of horizontal radii, at the extremities, of which the buds are formed, which establish a fucceffive communication with the centrical canal. This communication, of course, augments Nec fpes libertatis erat, nec cura peculi. in exact proportion to the growth of the Third infcription: bud till it becomes a branch.

Aonio rediens deducam vertice mufas:
Primus Idumeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas.
Second infcription:

Olim

Nunc

Dr. Reimarus, correfpondent of the O Melibee, Deus nobis hæc otia fecit. Hamburgh fociety, having remarked, that Fourth infcription: a few drops of belladonna diffolved in water, and applied to the eyes, cause the pupil to dilate in fo extraordinary a manner, that the iris is nearly reduced to nothing, was led from this circumftance to fuggeft the propriety of having recourfe to this expedient, preparatory to the operation of couching the eye for a cararact. Ofthis intimation Dr. Grafmeyer, who practises this operation with great fkill at Hamburgh, has made a very fuc cefsful experiment. The effect produced by the folution in question on the eye, continues about half an hour, affording, by the dilatation of the pupil, an excellent opportunity of performing the operation, without danger of hurting the iris and the palfy, if it may be so termed, which invades the retina, prevents the baneful confequences which otherwife might accrue from too fudden acceffion of light. Bothe, of Magdeburg, is engaged upon new critical and exegetical edition of the works of Plautus. A fpecimen, which he has already published, of his undertaking, proves him completely qualified for the tafk, and poffeffed of great critical knowledge.

Natali Pub. Virgilii Maronis facrum. The Theophilanthropists have founded a fchool under the title of Ecole Thés

philanthropique, in which the young pupils receive inftructions in writing, arithmetic, the elements of the Latin tongue, French grammar, hiftory, geography, &c. They are likewife taught the relative duties which they owe to God, to their parents, to their country, to all their fellow creatures, to themfeives. No elementary books on religion will be put into their hands but fuch as have or fhall receive the fanction of, and be adopted by, the fociety.

Citizen Coulomb, fome time fince, caufed feveral large poplars to be cut down on his eftate. It was in the spring feafon, and the fap had begun to mount into the branches, which were covered with new leaves. As he was infpecting the workmen, he noticed that one. of the trees, on being cut nearly through a to the centre, emitted a found fimilar to that produced by air bubbling from the furface of water. He perceived that this noife, as well as the difcharge of a limpid and taftelefs liquid, did not take place till the trees were nearly cut through to the centre, This led him to furmife, that the fap in large trees was only imparted to the branches by the medullary canal in the centre, with which the branches have a direct communication. To ascertain this point, he caufed feveral large poplars to be pierced with a borer, when it appeared, that, within a certain diftance of the centre, the inftrument remained nearly dry; but no fooner did it penetrate to the middle, than a, watery fubftance was emitted in great abundance, accompanied with the bubbling noise before mentioned. This effect was regularly produced on every repeated experiment during the fummer, the found, as well as the liquid emitted, bearing a due proportion to the precife degree of heat, and confequent tran:piration of the foliage. At night, and during cold, damp days, very little effect was difcerned.

Gerard Vrolick, profeffor of phyfic and botany, at Amfterdam, has published a differtation, at Leyden, on the annual defoliation of trees and vegetables; in which he maintains, that the leaves of trees have a distinct vegetable life, characterized by different periods, though connected with the life of the parent tree, and in fome measure dependant thereon. On the annual return of the period of defoliation, the leaves drop off and perish with age, but the life of the ftock fubfifts. He maintains that the dead leaves detach themfelves from the branches by the fame laws which caufe any mortified part of an organized body to feparate itself by the abforption of the live particles immediately connecting the decayed and healthy members. To prove this affertion, he cites examples from organized animals, which, as well as vegetables, poffefs many parts endowed with a distinct and separate

1798.]

Varieties....Dr. Beddoes on the Nitrous Acid.

life. Thus, for inftance, the foetus of frogs are furnished on the fides of the head with organs of respiration, analogous to the gills of fishes. These organs in a fhort time become indurated, die, and drop off, before the individuum has attained to the perfect developement of its exiftence, The horns of ftags, which fall off and renovare every fpring, complete in the fpace of a year all the fucceffive periods of their diftinct life; but a series of years is neceffary to achieve the different periods of the existence of the animal.

Some remains of a Roman antiquity have been lately difcovered at Nimes, in France, in confequence of an order given by the municipality to demolish a parapet to a convent of Dominicans. Under the parapet was found a Corinthian entablature, the cornice of which was much impaired. On the frieze, which was in tolerable prefervation, was this infcription, engraved in the stone, with holes to retain

the metal which had been melted into it:
IMP. CESAR. IVL. F. AVGVSTVS.

COS. XI. TRIB. TEST. VIII.
PORTAS. M... ROS. DA.'.

In the third year of the republic, the director of the military hofpital, of his own authority, overturned the infcription, fo that many parts of it were dafhed to pieces. It was not then fufpected that under the entablature there exifted an antique edifice, which was the reafon that almoft all the architrave was taken away at firft; but the municipality having perceived, by the demolition of a small part of the modern wall, which served as a lining to the ancient one, the appearance of Corinthian capitals, they ordered all the modern wall to be demolished, the architrave to be repaired with as much care as poffible, and the frieze on which was the infeription to be replaced. They alfo caufed the earth to be raised again up to the ancient pavement, and a wall to be built at the distance of lix feet from the monument, in order to fecure it from injury. The ancient edifice is twentyfive feet feven inches in height, and fixtyone feet fix inches in length, frontwife (en façade) not including two round towers, nineteen feet in diameter, at each end, and forming an avant-corps of nine feet. Four pilafters, twenty-eight inches wide by twelve inches in projection (de fuillie) with a column in the wall, the whole of the Corinthian order, divide the overtures of the monument, in which are yet founded, rft, two large porticoes, full arched, in the centre, having twelve feet overture, and separated from the impoft to the architrave by a column which refts upon a cupola, level with the im

55

poft; 2d, two other porticoes, also fullarched, of fix feet overture each, over which is a femi-circular niche, covered by great ftones decorated with mouldings, which anfwer to the architrave. The form of this edifice, to judge of it by what remains, indicates a fortreis, which the Romans had ornamented with all the elegance of architecture. Some of the connoiffeurs imagine it to have been a capitol.

More than 300 medals of the latter æra of the Roman empire, in high prefervation, have been lately dug up in the neighbourhood of Is-fur-Tille; among which are the following: A. D.

117. Two medals of Lucila, wife of Ælius

138.

138.

Cæfar.

Two ditto of Fauftina, wife of Antoninus. Two ditto of Antoninus, emperor; on the reverse a figure feated on a globe. There are four more medals of the emperor, but not with this device.

fame

161. One model of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius; on the reverfe three figures.' 161. Two medals of Fauftina, wife of Marcus Aurelius, and daughter of Antoninus. 180. One medal of Crifpina, wife of the em peror Commodus.

The difcoverers of this new historical treasure have been invited to bestow them towards the enrichment of the cabinet of medals belonging to the central fchool at

Paris.

[The following Letter, by fome accident reached us too late, to appear in its proper place.] To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

IN the collection of obfervations on

nitrous acid, now in the prefs, and of which the firft (and perhaps the fecond) century will appear in March next, I fhall have the fatisfaction of producing evidence from very various and diftant quar ters. I fhall give a fecond letter from Mr. SCOTT of Bombay. The positive evidence is fuch as appears to be incapable of being invalidated by negative; efpecially as the facts to be brought forward will account to a certain extent for the general failures that are faid to have been experienced in fome places.

Some correfpondents, who are advan tageously fituated, have been obliging enough to vary their trials confiderably and even to extend them to gonorrhoea. I am, fir, yours,

Clifton, Jan. 1, 1798. T. BEDDOES. P. S. I have feen great fervice from the nitrous acid in hepatic and dyfeptic cafes. Several facts of the fame nature have been generally mentioned to me. If particulars were tranfmitted to me, I would print them as an appendix to the Siphylitic Collection.

DESCRIP

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THIS

India Houfe....French National Inftitute.

[Jan.

DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW INDIA-HOUSE IN LEADENHALL-STREET. (With an Engraved Elevation.) handfome edifice, conftructed un-, der the able direction of R. Jupp, Esq. is from eaft to welt 190 feet in length. The principal ftory is plain funk ruftic, with five circular-headed windows in each wing. The portico, from a Grecian example (the temple of Minerva Polias at Priene. Upon the centre of the pediment of the portico will be an emblematical figure of Britannia; on the caft fide

Afia; on the weft Europe. On, the keyftones of the windows of the principal ftory within the portico are to be heads in relief, emblematical of the greatest rivers in India. The story over the principal ftory is neat, and occupied in the old building the height of two stories. The whole is to be covered with, handsome balustrades,

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE
OF FRANCE.

Notices of the Memoirs prefented to the Inftitute, during the last Quarter, communicated
in the Public Sitting of O. 16th, 1797.
CLASS OF MORAL AND POLITICAL The titles of men of genius have been
SCIENCE. BY DAUNOU.
given to thofe in whom it has been be-
ERCIER read fome
M
obfer- lieved that thought, more exerted, more
vations upon the contents of the ftrong, or more happy, had fuddenly en-
Petits Auguftins, or Museum of French riched the arts and the fciences with
Monuments. CREUZE LA TOUCHE ufeful and illuftrious creations. But has
read a difcourfe upon philofophical Into- there truly exifted a man of genius ?
lerance as well as one upon religious In- MERCIER has put it in doubt; and
tolerance : TOULONGEON, a me- in two memoirs which he read to
moir, intitled, The Influence of a Na- the clafs, he expatiated on the fenfe, and
tional Obfervance of a distctic Regimen upon explained the motives, of his opinion.
the political Condition of fuch Nation: and
REDERER a dialogue upon the fol-
lowing question: Is it poffible to unite men
fo perfectly in fociety, that they have no
occafion for Chiefs to control them, nor
for coercive Laws?

LEVESQUE in an ideological memoir upon fome acceptations on the word Nature, did away the abufes which are made of this word, in the three ways it is ufually expreffed The Man of Nature, the Religion of Nature, and natural Law. Man, according to Levefque, never ceases to be the man of nature. It is true, that in pafling through the different periods of the focial ftate, he fucceflively acquires the ideas they fuppofe, or infpire; but the progreffions which he makes therein, are only thofe which nature permits, or even which the commands him to make at the periods which the herself has fixed. The intellectual faculties, which the progrefs proportions to itfelf, at the different ages of each fociety, were made the object of another memoir, wherein TOULONGEON defcanted in the way of an analyfis, upon fenfations and ideas. He compared the faculties purely intellectual with thofe of the fenfitive, diftributed over the furface of the human body; and he has entered largely into thofe relations, which are found to exift between the one and the other.

He admits among the mental capacities, fenfible inequalities, very difcernible fhades: he further acqnowledges that the fciences and the arts in their courfe from age to age are enlarged and perfected. Difcoveries are made, inventions are proclaimed; but, according to MERCIER, they are never on a fudden, and therefore, of confequence, no one ought to be confidered as the work of an individual. It is to the human understanding he is willing we should render homage, and not to the understanding of an individual. That which we call invention is (fays the author) only a fucceffion of trials and attempts which follow each other, more or lefs eafily or laborioufly, in the courfe of many ages; and the man to whose name one wont to attach all the glory, would find it difficult to recognize all the attributes of the work imputed to him, or even to comprehend the leffons of thofe who believe themfelves, and above all, call themfelves, his difciples.

Among the caufes which are wont to exert an influence upon the progrefs of the human underftanding, public inftruction is, without doubt, the moft powerful. This has been the object of a work in which MENTELLE has reconciled the various confiderations upon primary fchools, with thofe of the central schools. The law and the inftruction

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