fential to the defence of the general antiquity of the record. It may, without violence to probability, be furmifed (Afruc, Conj &tures fur les Memoires originaux dont il paroit que Moyfe s'eft fervi) that the account of the fall was contained in one document, the account of the deluge, and the lives of the patriarchs, in others.

Now it is apparent that the lives of the patriarchs are cftimated by the more ancient years, the lunar years of the gyp tians fince, upon this fuppofition, their length of life agrees with the experience of ages, as to the ufual and probable duration of naman life in the regions which they inhabited. But, in the account of the deluge, the year of twelve months, the more modern year, has been made ufe of for computation.

Ought we not, then, to infer, that the document including this account, is the more modern of the two, having been compofed fubfequently to the time of Nabonaffar, and that the more ancient document was as certainly compofed prior to this epocha, having really preceded the birth of Chrift by more than 747 years?

If, with Cenforinus, we attribute to the Egyptians the temporary ufe of a four-month year, intervening between the re ection of the lunar, and the adoption of the folar year, the older document will thence acquire an antiquity yet more auguft.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine,

SIR,

THE following anfver to the Query, p. 264, is fubmitted to the propofer, by your's, J.J. G. As the object of all manufactures is, by certain operations, founded on known principles, to exhibit materials in a different form or ftate from that in which they before appeared; every application of thefe principles, by which a nerv effect is produced, from the fame materials being exhibited in a different form, or by a fimilar article being produced from new materials, must be a manufacture," and, confequently, the term includes all new applications, and therefore all poffible applications of thefe principles; otherwife it can have no meaning; the mechanic principles, and the natural properties of bodies being invariable.

Qa. 8, 1796,

❝ new

687

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

PRMIT me, through the channel of

your ufeful Publication, to communicate acircumftance which occurred in feveral young people of my acquaintance this fummer. A fmall pimple arose on the fkin, in various parts, which in two or three days appeared with a very mi- . nute red point, just like an extremely fmall drop of blood, from the puncture of a very fine fharp needle; in a fhort time a fmall red infect could be drawn out of the pimp e, which being placed on paper, thowed evident figns of life.

I could wish to be informed by fome of your ingenious correfpondents, whether this affection is arranged by nofologifts in any of their claffes of difeafes, and what name naturalifts have given to the infect which caufes this appearance? I am, fir,

Your conftant reader,

SIR,

ALLOW me to fay a few words in

anfwer to the obfervations made by your correfpondent B. in the Magazine for laft month, upon fome parts of what I had faid in the preceding Number, with refpect to the Structure of the Welsh language.

In the first place, he confiders that "Sanconiathon, Manetho, and Berofus, afford but bad premifes on which to erect a demonftration; and that there is no validity in the foundation of Mr. Bryant's fyfiem, because the explanations given by him of the Ammoniat particles are conjectural, and thofe conjectures proved to be totally unfounded."

For my part, I imagine that more certain ufe could be made of the bints contained in the fragments preferved from thofe ancient authors before mentioned, either with regard to the appellations of particular perfonages, or in allufion to their rites and myfteries, than of any thing faid upon the fame fubject by writers in fubfequent times, when those allegories and emblems, that were fimple in their origin, were become an accumulation of inexplicable fables.

Suppofing every thing advanced with refpect to the Ammonian language, to be nothing more than conjecture, it must have been a happy one, that fo many coincidences can be brought from the

oriental

oriental and other languages to fupport st. And when I bring in the Welth, I am nearly induced to exclaim, that Mr. Brent must have been fpcaking of it ander another name: for, however furpring it may feem, all thofe little words, which he calls particles, are ftill found in the language of Wales, with fmilar meanings appropriated to them. We have fuch as thefe-Por, Dór, Don, Dar, Nig, Na, Ner, Ion, Iór, Hu, On, El, Uz, Ur, Pûr, Tor, Sus, as epithets applied to the Deity, and fome of them exclufively fo. With refpect to compound appellations, the fame ftriking coincidence is equally preferved. I fhall here add but one example; it being my intention, at a future opportunity, to beg leave for the infertion of fome farther proofs upon this point.

;

The ancient name of Hercules, amongft the Phoenicians and other neighbouring nations, was OURCHOL, and he was delineated under the form of a ferpent, the general fymbol of a revolution or a period of time. CHWYL (once written pya) in Welsh, implies a turn or revolution; ARCHWYL, is a fuperior turn or revolution; GORCHWYL, is a fupreme or grand revolution and YR ORCHWYL, the grand courfe or revolution; alfo, what is more particularly going on; concern or employment.Next comes the twelve labours of this faperior revolution, or the year, being fo many particular feafons or the months, which had alfo their fymbols, Killing or cutting the many-headed Hydré was one.-Hydré, in Welth, is the barvest feafon, or autumn in general, and alio the name of a particular month! This explains the killing of the Hydré, to be the reaping of the corn, and the heads of the corn fo cut off increased fifty-fold.If I were disposed to be minute, I think the particular grain in which the emblem originated, might even be named; for it faid the Hydré was killed or cut off in the lake of Lerna. Lyn Loerenau, means, in Welsh, a shallow lake where the ground peeps out in fmall iflets, being juft fuch a place as is proper to grow

With refpect to the antiquity of the Welth language, as it is now fpoken, I quoted the Laws of Howel, and Geoffrey of Monmouth's Hiflory. I might have adduced many other proofs, fuch as Caradog, of 'Langarvan, the poets, &c.; but I brought the latter forward purposely to excite the obfervation which correfpondent was pleased to make; and which he has done without impugning the firft of my two authorities; confequently, my proof of the ftability of the Welsh language is not invalidated.

your

Geoffrey made no less than two tranflations of Tyfilio's original history inte Welb, as he fays himfelf at the conclufion of fome of the copies; and one he made from his own augmented Latin verfion" in his old age." We have now extant three different hiftories in Welfk; one I judge to be the original of Tyfilio, and the other two are ac counted for by Geoffrey. There is a valuable MS. containing the laws, chro nicle of the Saxons, and Geoffrey's laft verfion, all in Welfh, in the British Mufcum (Bib. Coit. Cleop. p. 136. Plut. xix. A.) There is in the Welsh school, in London, alfo, a copy in Welsh of the fame hiftory, collated with five MSS. judged to be as old as the age of Geoffrey

There are in the Welfh fchool about fixty MSS. of Welth poetry, clofing with the fixteenth century; yet this is but an inferior collection to feveral others in Wales. There has not yet been a hundredth part of the ancient poetry tranflated, in any form, confequently, a ftranger to the language cannot, in the leaft, be a judge of its merits.

The points, which B. has touched upon with refpect to Welsh affairs, are fo pregnant with matter, that a volume of proofs might be formed upon any one of them, in fupport of my premises; therefore, all that is done here must be confidered merely as notices of fome of the principal heads which may larged upon, occafionally, by your indulgence.

Sept. 7.

I remain, &c.

be en

MEIRION,

* I refer your correfpondent for farther fatiffaction, in this and other Welth matters, to a new annual work, called the Cambrian Regifter, the first volume of which is now publishing, by Williams, in the Strand.

To

vantageous. In the process of making quick lime, it becomes divefted of the fixed air which iz contained when chalk, which, in its changed state (lime) becomes highly cauftic, and powerfully attractive of fixed air. This power it exerts on the furrounding atmosphere, and takes from it a portion of its conftituent principle (fixed air); the foil then being blended with this new matter, and plentifully fupplied with the princ ple of vegetable life, becomes more prolific, being acted upon by the fixed air (acquired by the lime) as a ftimulus, and not by any feptic quality inherent in the lime or fixed air, the latter of which, particularly, poffeffes a confiderable antifeptic power, and will even check the putrefaction of animal

fubftances.

It may be objected, that if the lime attracts fixed air, why not expect it to exert its power on the land on which it is laid, rather than act on the atmosphere It may be answered. it acts on that which retains it the flighreft; this the air does. Thus by the ufe of lime, as a manure, land is improved by the application of an increafed ftimulus (name, fixed air); yet, undoubtedly, the continued and too frequent application of this will impoverish the land, by too much exhaufting its quality; thus, though to the human frame pure air, in a proper degree, is highly falutary, yet if it were pollible to form an atmosphere wholly, or too plentifully fupplied with it, ill confequences would, very probably, follow, by fuch increafed action on the circulation.

Corrupting vegetables and animal fubftances may be fersiceable to land on the above principle, the admillion of fixed air (which is the combining part of matter); when it efcapes, decompofition and putrefaction enfue,

By Dr. Priestley's experiments, it appears, that vegetation meliorates foul air, and, in fome cafes will render air, when noxious to animal life, favourable to it. The fervice experienced by frequent white-washing the cells of prifons, and apartments where putrid difeafes have been, may be accounted for, by the attraction lime has to fixed air; the latter exifting in an increafed degree in thefe places, and in which the putrid effluvia Jurk, which by means of the action of

the lime become abforbed.

Air, deprived of a portion of its fixed air, or fupplied with an increafe of pure air, produces a pleafing effect on the human frame; hence the fenfation experienced in paffing over fresh dug or

I LOOK over your Monthly Labours

with amufement and inftruction.Your fubjects are generally well chofen, and many of them ably handled. I muft confels, however, that you have adopted one which, I muft fay, I was concerned to fee you bring forward; as I fear. fir, it 18 too extenfive and unweildy to be treat ed of, with profit, in a miscellaneous work like your's. The fubje&t I mean is Agriculture: a fubject with which men of letters and general science re feldom well acquainted; and I forefaw that you would be liable to the fpeculations of vifionary minds, and to the erroneous, though well intended, remarks of the inexperienced. I am not afhamed to tell you. fir, that I am grown grey in the practice of this old and ufeful art: yet fo far from having reached any degree of perfection in the higher and more abftrufe parts of it, almoft all that I have learned on them is diffidence. Neverthelefs, in the common occurrences of farming, I have few difficulties left to encounter; and although I have but little leifure for correfpondence, I cannot refrain from offering you a few remarks, on this my moft favourite fubject.

What has thus drawn me forth as your corre'pondent, is a letter in your last month's Number, figned J. S. on the fubject of "fallowing land for a crop," by which I judge the writer means, keeping land in tillage all the fummer; but he has not well expreffed himself.

Now, fir, though I ever pay respect to the wifdom of our forefathers, and in matters of practice that have been long in ufe I often find them right; yet I confider the practice of fallowing land each third year (as was once commonly done through the kingdom, and fiill remains an ufage in counties where lands lic in open common fields) as altogether improper, in the prefent ftate of things; however proper it might have been at the time that practice was fet on foot.But, fir, with respect to neglected land, which, through a want of proper tillage, hoeing, and weeding, are become deeply infected with weeds, I have always found it moft advifeable to effect, at once, a radical

5