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ON A LADY'S BIRTH DAY.
BY C. REDDING,

Author of "Retirement," &c. just published.
HASTE! all ye sy!phs that, light as air,

Hover around your chosen fair,

Or 'mid her tresses play;
Prepare your sweets, your music bring,
With all the roseate stores which Spring
Has given to bless the day.

Dive to the ocean's depths profound,
Compass the massy globe around,

From earth, and sea, and sky;
Pour out the year's collected store,
Each bounteous planet too explore,

And lay the treasures by.

Then of ambrosial dews and showers,
Of amaranth's unfading flowers,

Of nectar from on high;
I.ove's best delicious draught prepare,
(Of love unmix'd with pain or care,)
And equal shares supply.

Then make the feast, and at the treat
Bid Mirth and Pleasure take a seat,

And laughing Joy preside;
Enclose the fair with magic art,
Bind in his easy chains her heart,

And dark-brow'd Care deride. Now bid the dance, and gaily sing, And on each light and airy wing, Tune sweet the sprightly lay;

Raise high the strain, and give command
To all your happy joyous band;
Proclaim it to the day:

"We that wanton in the air,

Guardians of our favourite fair,
So etimes visiting the fountains
Where we sip the glassy stream;
Sometimes Aoating o'er the mountaing
Riding on the moon's pale beam;
Ever there our vigils keeping
O'er the chosen head we guard,
Hovering o'er our charge when sleep-
ing,

Watchfulness our best reward:

Chorus. Let us celebrate the day.

Dance and sing and sport away.

"Light as gossamer we move,

Every step attun'd to love,
Every mortal eye unseeing,

While our revels we enjoy ;
Every evil distant fleeing

That could dare our peace annoy
Thus we welcome in the morning,
Joyous moments of delight;
Grief and care, and envy scorning,
Thus we'll welcome in the night.
Chorus.--Let us celebrate the day,
Dance and sing and sport away.”

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

Royal ACADEMY of COPENHAGEN. Academy has proposed the Tfollowing prize questions for 1810: -In Mathematics. A body which has the form and figure of a cylinder, such as Congreve's rockets, is projected at a certain elevation or angle with the horizon, and is continually impelled by the flames which issue from it. The substance which feeds the fire is gradually consumed, and the weight of the body diminished. This being the case, 1. What is the curve described by that body? 2. If the inflammable matter contained by the cylinder burns in such a manner that the inflamed strata are neither parallel to each other nor per pendicular to the axis, to what perturbations will the rocket be subject: how are they to be prevented or corrected? 3. As it is necessary that the cylinder be perforated and hollowed so as to afford the flame a greater surface and to increase the force of the flame that issues from it, it is required to know what form or figure is most advantageous for the excavation? The society wishes that attention be paid, if possible, to the resistance and pres sure of the air; but yet the prize will be

adjudged to the best answer to the above three questions. In Natural Philosophy. Philosophers have long bestowed great pains on seeking to discover the connec tion that subsists between electricity and magnetism, which exhibit phenomena so similar and so different. Modern observations and discoveries have furnished new means of prosecuting these researches. The older philosophers have left us numerous experiments on this subject, which do not exactly correspond with the principles of the experimental philosophy of the present day. Some philosophers have made new and impor. tant experiments which have not been sufficiently examined or repeated. The Royal Society thinking that this part of experimental philosophy may be consi derably improved, offers a prize to the writer, who, taking experience for his guide and support, shall give the best exposition of the mutual connection between In Philoso electricity and magnetism. phy. 1. There are persons who still deny the utility of physical doctrines and experiments in explaining the phenomena of the mind and soul: others, on the contrary, contemptuously reject psychologi

cal

cal observations and reasons, in researches which relate to the body, or festrict the application of them to certain diseases. It would be useful to discuss these two opinions, to shew and establish more clearly how far psychology and natural philosophy may be combined, and to demonstrate,by historical evidence, what each of these sciences has hitherto contributed to the advancement of the other. 2. The idea of an universal and characteristic language proposed by Leibnitz, having never been sufliciently explained by himself, and appearing to have not been understood by any person, the question is, to give an accurate and luminous designation of that language, to point out the way that is capable of leading to this desirable object, and at the same time to examine how far the methods hitherto tried in certain sciences, for instance, in mathematics and chemistry, might be correctly applied to philosophy and the other branches of human knowledge. For the best answer to each of these questions, the academy offers a gold medal of the value of fifty Danish ducats. Answers to all, except the last, the term of which is extended to 1811, must be sent before the conclusion of 1810, either in Latin, French, English, German, Swedish, or Danish, to M. BUYGE, professor of astronomy, at Cupenhagen.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

DR. WOLLASTON has lately given an account and description of a reflective Goniometer, to be applied to the measuring of angles of crystals. By this instrument, in most cases, the inclination of surfaces may be measured as exactly as is wanted for common purposes, and when the surfaces are sufficiently smooth to reflect a distinct image of distant objects, the position of faces onlyth of an inch in breadth may be determined with as much precision as those of any larger crystals. For this purpose, the ray of light reflected from the surface is employed as a radius, instead of the surface itself; and for a radius of th of an inch, we may substitute, either the distance of the eye from the crystal, which would naturally be about twelve or fifteen inches; or by a second mode, substitute the distance of objects seen at a hundred or more yards from us. The instrument consists of a circle graduated on its edge, and mounted on a horizon tal axle, supported by an upright pillar. This axle being perforated, adinits the MONTHLY MAG, No. 203.

passage of a smaller axle through it, to which any crystal of inoderate size may be attached by a piece of wax, with its edge, or intersection of the surfaces, horizontal and parallel to the axis of mo◄ tion. The position of the crystal is first adjusted, so that by turning the smaller axle, each of the two surfaces, whosę inclination is to be measured, will reflect the same light to the eye. The circle is then set to zero or 180°, by an index attached to the pillar that supports it. The small axle is then turned, till the farther surface reflects the light of a candle, &c. to the eye; and lastly, the circle is turned by its larger axle, till the second surtace reflects the same light. This second surface is thus ascertained to be in the same position as the former surface had been. The angle through which the circle has moved, is the supplement to the inclination of the surfaces; but as the graduations on its margin are num. bered accordingly in an inverted order, the angle is correctly shewn by the index without coinputation. By this instru ment a perfectly clean and uniform fracture is not necessary, for since all those small portions of a shattered surface, that are parallel to one another, glisten at once with the satne light, the angle of an irregular fracture may be determined nearly as well, as when the reflecting fragments are actually in the same plane. The inventor of this goniometer thinks the accuracy of it to be such, that a circle of moderate dimensions, with a vernier adapted to it, will probably afford corrections to many former observations. He adds, that he has already remarked one instance of a mistake that prevails respecting the common carbonate of lime, which he particularly mentions, because this substance is very likely to be employed as a test of the correctness of such a goniometer, by any one who is not convinced of its accuracy from a . distinct conception of the principles of its construction. The inclination of the surfaces of a primitive crystal of carbonate of lime, is stated to be 104° 28′ 40′′, a result deduced from the supposed posi tion of its axis, at an angle of 150 with each of its surfaces. Dr. Wollaston contends, that the angle is not 45° exactly, but 450 20', for he finds the inclin nation of the surfaces to each other is nearly, if not accurately, 105°, as it was formerly determined to be by Huygens; and since the measure of the superficial angle, given by sir Isaac Newton, corresponds with this determination of 11oy

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gens, his evidence may be considered as a confirmation of the same result.

Sir JAMES EARLE laid before the society an interesting, but truly distressing, account of a calculus, taken after death, from the bladder of sir Walter Ogilvie, bart. This gentleman, an officer in the army, at the age of twenty-three, received a blow on his back, from the boom of a vessel, which paralized the pelvis and lower extremities. During the first two months, after the accident, he was obliged to have his water drawn off, and for fourteen months he remained in an horizontal posture, and though he then had recovered the use of the bladder and of his limbs, sufficiently to walk across the room by the help of crutches, and also to ride, when placed on an easy low horse, his health continued many years in a weak and precarious state, while the limbs acquired but little additional strength. About twenty years after the accident, symptons were perceived of a stone in the bladder, and it was recommended to him to submit to an operation; but from circumstances it was postponed for eight years, though his health declined, and the irritation and pains in the bladder greatly increased; he now be came unable to evacuate his water in an erect position, and the inconvenience in treased so much, that at last he could discharge none without standing almost on his head, so as to cause the upper part of the bladder to become lower, and this he was obliged to do frequently, sometimes every ten minutes. At length he came by water to London, and determined to submit to the operation: his sufferings were itnmense, but the attempt did not succeed: the main body of the calculus was too hard to be broken in pieces, and too large to be brought away, unless by an operation above the os pubis, which was considered as too uncertain and dangerous to hazard even the attempt. In ten days after the operation, he resigned a most singularly miserable existence. On examination "after death, the form of the stone appeared to have been moulded by the bladder; the lower part having been confined by the bony pelvis, took the impression of that cavity, and was smaller than the upper part, which having been unrestricted in its growth, except by the soft parts, was larger, and projected so as to lie on the os pubis. The stone weighed forty-four ounces, the form was elliptical, the periphery on the longer axis

was sixteen inches, on the shorter fourteen, The ureters were much increased in their dimensions and thickness, and were ca pable of containing a considerable quan, tity of fluid; they had, in fact, become supplemental bladders, the real bladder being at last nothing more than a painful and difficult conductor of urine, which trickled down in furrows formed by it on the superior surface of the stone. This explained the cause which obliged the patient, when compelled to evacuate urine, to put himself in that posture which made the upper part of the blad der become the lower; by this means a relaxation, or separation, was allowed to take place between the bladder and the stone, so that the ureters had an oppor tunity of discharging their contents; when the body was erect, their mouths, or valvular openings, must have been closed by the pressure of the abdominal viscera on the bladder, against the stone. "The disease," says sir James Earle,

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probably originated when the patient was obliged to continue such a length of time on his back, in which position the surface of the water only may be supposed to have been, as it were, decanted, and the bladder seldom, if ever, come pletely emptied: thus, in a constitution perhaps naturally inclined to form concretions, the earthy particles subsided, and by attraction soon began to lay the rudiments of a stone, which was not felt above the brim of the pelvis, till many years after." The texture of the stone, upon examination, appeared different from the generality of calculi, to contain more animal matter. mined its composition, by chemical analysis, and found it to consist of the triple phosphate of ammonia and magnesia, with phosphate of lime, mixed with a certain portion of animal matter, which was separated and floated under a mem brane-like form, on the solution of the salts in diluted acids. The calculus agrees with the description given by Fourcroy, and confirms his observations on this species: “ Ce sont aussi les concretions urinaires les plus volumineuses de toutes; elles ont depuis le grosseur d'une oeuf jusqu à une volume qui occupe toute la vessie, en la distendant même considerablement :" hence it should seem, that similar instances have occurred to this able chemist; "but," says sir J. Earle, "from my own observation, and from all the information that I have been able to collect, no calculus

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from the human bladder, of such magnitude, has been hitherto exhibited or described in this country.

Mr. HOME has communicated to the Royal Society, some hints on the subject of animal secretions, with a view of throwing new lights on animal chemistry. The discoveries of Mr. Davy suggested to Mr. Home the idea, that the animal secretions may be produced by chemical changes effected by the power of electricity. The voltaic battery, he observes, is met with in the torpedo and electrical eel, a circumstance that furnishes two important facts: one, that a voltaic battery can be formed in a living animal; the other, that nerves are essentially necessary for its management; for in these fish, the nerves connected with the electrical organs, exceed those that go to all the other parts of the fish, in the proportion of twenty to one. The nerves are made up of an infinite number of small fibres, a structure so different from that of the electric organ, that they are evidently not fitted to form a voltaic battery of high power: but their structure appears to adapt them to receive, and preserve a small electrical power. That the nerves arranged with muscles, so as to form a voltaic battery, have a power of accumulating and communicating electricity, is proved by the well-known experiments of the frog. There are several circumstances in the structure of the nerves, and their arrangements in animal bodies, which do not appear at all applicable to the purposes of common sensation, and whose uses have not even been devised. The organs of secretion are principally made up of arteries and veins; but there is nothing in the different inodes in which these vessels ramify, that can in any way account for the changes in the blood, out of which the secretions arise. These organs are also abundantly supplied with nerves. With a view to determine how far any changes could be produced in the blood by electricity, at all similar to secretion, Mr. Brande, at the suggestion of Mr. Davy, made some experiments, first upon blood recently drawn from the arm, and then upon a deer, in order to obtain the blood in a perfectly Auid state. Finding, however, the coagulation of the blood an insurmountable obstacle to the long continued electrical action, the serum only was employed. In one experiment, coagulated albumen was rapidly separated at the negative pole, and alkaline matter Evolved; at the positive pole, a small

quantity of albumen was gradually deposited, and litmus paper indicated the presence of acid. These effects were produced by a high electrical power upon serum. With a lower power there was no appearance of coagulation at either pole; in five minutes the positive wire became covered with a film of albumen, and in fifteen minutes a filament of about a quarter of an inch in length, was seen floating in the fluid, and adhering to the same wire. By these, and other experiments, it was ascertained, that a low negative power of electricity separates from the serum of the blood an alkaline solution of albumen; that a low positive power separates albumen with acid, and the salts of the blood. That with one degree of power, albumen is separated in a solid form, with a less degree it is se parated in a fluid form. From these facts the following queries are proposed: (1). That such a decomposition of the blood, by electricity, may be as near an approach to secretion as could be ex pected to be produced by artificial means, at present in our power, (2), That a weaker power of electricity than any that can be kept up by art, may be capable of separating from the blood the different parts of which it is composed, and forming new combinations of the parts so separated. (3). That the structure of the nerves may fit them to have a low electrical power; and as low pow ers are not influenced by imperfect conductors, as animal fluids, the nerves will not be robbed of their electricity by the surrounding parts. (4). That the discovery of an electrical power which can separate albumen from the blood in a fluid state, and another that separates it in a solid state, may explain the mode in which different animal solids and fluids may be produced, since albumen is the principal material of which animal bodies are composed. (5). That the nerves of the torpedo may not only keep the electric organ under the command of the will, but charge the battery, by secreting the fluid between the plates, that is necessary for its activity. (6). As albumen becomes coagulated by the effect of a power too low to affect the most delicate electrometer, may it not occasionally be employed as a chemical test of electricity, while the production of acid and alkali, affected by still infe rior degrees of electricity to those required for the coagulation of albumen, may likewise be regarded as auxiliary tests on such occasions.

VARIETIES

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VARIETIES, LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICA L.
Including Notices of Works in Hund, Domestic and Foreign.

Authentic Communications for this Article will always be thankfully received.

ITERATURE languishes in com. mon with the manufacturer's credit and external commerce of the country. There never were so few works in the press, and printers for a long time have not complained so muchy of want of employment. Still, owing to the increased number of readers, and the eagerness in the mass of the people for information on all subjects, the trade in useful books was never more steady than at this time, and large editions are demanded of all improved books on education. The extravagant price of paper, owing to monopolies of rags, together with the res. pect paid to the impertinencies of anonymous criticism, are fatal to the interests of elegant literature in England, and must render all extensive or bold book-making speculations ultimately ruinous to those who engage in them. Hence it is that the English publisher is obliged to succumb before the magnificence of the French press, which every month successfully produces, works, that in England would be destroyed by the pestilential breath of hired anonymous critics. In France too there is a spirit of patronage among the great, and at the head of every subscription list stands "Napoleon le Grand," followed by those of the tributary kings, and newly-created princes and dukes; while on the other hand in England, it must be confessed, that the late Marquis of Lansdown was the last of our noble patrons of letters, and that since the Earl of Bute, we have not had a minister, who, as a minister, has not been studious to express his utter disregard of science and literature.

Mr. RUDING's great work on the Coin. age of the Kingdoin and of its Dependencies, is in considerable forwardness, and may be expected to appear in the next year.

A new edition is in preparation of DUGDALE'S Warwickshire, with the additions by Dr. Thomas, and a variety of

new matter.

Mr. A. CHALMERS, F.S.A. (late of
Aberdeen), is preparing a History of the
Public Buildings of Oxford.

New editions are in forwardness of
ENDERBIE'S Cambria Trumphans; and
of LLOYD's History of Cambria,

The fourth and last voluine of STEWART's Athens, will be published in the ensuing winter.

An edition is nearly completed of the

works of PORTEUS, late Bishop of Lon-
don, in six volumes, octavo.

Mr. CoxE is engaged on a History of
the Life and Age of Stillingfleet.

a fifth
Mr. BELOE has in the press,
volume of his interesting Anecdotes of
Literature.

A work on the Law of Vendor and
Purchaser of Personal Property, consi-
dered with a view to mercantile trans-
actions, by GEORGE Ross, esq. of the
Inner Temple, is preparing for publi-

cation.

Mr. CAMPBELL, Comptroller of the able work on the Value of Annuities Legacy Duty, has in the press, a respectLives, from the Age of One to Ninety from 11. to 10001. per Annum on single Years; with the number of years' purchase each annuity is worth, and the rate of interest the purchaser receives for his money. He has subjoined, for the information and convenience of the profession, and of executors and administrators, the amount of the several ates of Legacy Duty payable on the value of each annuity,

A religious poem, called Joseph, in blank verse, historical, patriarchal, and typical, with notes, by the Rev. CHARLES LUCAS, A.M. curate of Avebury, Wilts, is in the press.

A new edition of the poetical works of DRYDEN, in an uniform size with Mr. Malone's edition of the prose works, with the notes of the late Dr. Warton, Mr. John Warton, and others, is in the The Rev. JAMES RUDGE, Lecturer of press, and will appear early in the winter. Limehouse, is preparing for the press Twenty-five Discourses on the Creed, de livered in the parish Church of St. Aune, Limehouse, at the afternoon lecture.

Dr. WATKINS is engaged in a History of the Bible, or a connected View of the Sacred Records; with copious dissertations and notes, forming an entire com mentary on the inspired volume; with an appendix, containing, Menoirs of the Apostolic Age, and Chronological This work will be comprised in two 400. Tables of Sacred and Profane History. volumes.

A work called Hints on Toleration, in
five essays, submitted to the Right Hon.
Lord Viscount Sidmouth and the Dis-

senters, is in the press, and will speedily
be published.

A work is in the press, giving

an ac Count

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