VARIETIES, LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL. •*. Authentic Communications for this Article will always be thankfully received. DR R HUTTON has, for some time past, been employing his leisure in arranging and printing a complete collection of what may be considered his original discoveries, improvements, and ́inventions, under the title of "Tracts," mathematical and philosophical, in 3 vols. 8vo. of which the first volume is printed, and ready for publication, containing, among many improvements, a greatly enlarged edition of his Treatise on Bridges. All the readers of the Monthly Magazine have been interested by the communications relative to Stramonium, and their opinions will be rendered uniform by the valuable letter of Dr. SIMS, in the present Number. As the subject is become of such great importance, the editor of the Monthly Magazine has resolved to collect into a pamphlet all that has appeared, to add other letters in his possession, and to invite further coin. munications from the faculty, and others. He purposes also to annex a coloured engraving of the thorn apple, a botanical description, and some introductory observations, Communications intended to have place in the pamphlet, should however be sent immediately. Mr. YATMAN, a gentleman of independent fortune at Chelsea, after the conviction of eight years expérience of the utility of the Galvanic principle, as exhibited in the theories of the Doctors Davy and Garnet, wishes to extend its influence so as to be permanently beneficial to the human body. He has accordingly addressed a letter on this sub. ject to the physicians of St. George's Hospital, of which he is a governor, and this is now under the consideration of the Medical Board of that charity, Mr. J. NORRIS BREWER, has ready for press a new Romance, in four vo lumes, under the title of "An Old Family Legend, or one IIusband and two Marriages." Mr. CUITT's second set of Etchings of the Antiquities of Chester will be published early in May. Mr. THOMAS ORGER, husband of the beautiful Mrs. Orger, of the Lyceum Theatre, is now closely engaged in making a new Translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, in Rhyme, to be pubMONTHLY MAG. No. 213. lished in quarterly Numbers. The first Number to make its appearance in the course of next month. Dr. EDWARDS has nearly finished a work in two volumes, with which he has been long engaged, to ascertain tire real and relative foundations of the different civil, political, commercial, and indi vidual interests of society and nations. Mr. H. M. BROWNE has in the press, and will speedily publish, the Apothecary's Vade Mecum, or Companion to the New London Pharmacopoeia, for the use of Students and junior Practitioners. Mr. PETER NICHOLSON has in forwardness, a Dictionary of Architecture, to be completed in two quarto volumes, with many plates. General MALCOLM, late envoy to the Court of Persia, will shortly publish a sketch of the Political History of India, from 1784, to the present time. Dr. THOMAS YOUNG, has nearly ready for publication, in octavo, a System of Practical Nosology; with an Introduction to Medical Literature in general. Dr. CURRY, of Guy's Hospital, has in the press a work, on the Nature of the Hepatic Function, which is to be comprised in two octavo volumes. The Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Council of the city of London, have directed that the proceedings in common council, authenticated by the proper officer, and superintended by a committee, shall in future be printed, for the use of the members of the corporation. The state papers and letters of Sir WALTER ASTON, afterward Lord Aston, ambassador in Spain in the reign of James 1. and Charles I. are printing uniformly with those of Sir Ralph Sadler, in two quarto volumes. Mr. CLIFFORD, editor of the state papers of Sir Ralph Sadler, has in the press, in a quarto volume, Tixall Poetry; with notes, &c. &c. The Rev. II. B. WILSON is preparing for the press "A History of Merchant Taylors' School, London," from its foun dation to the present time. Dr. PEARSON's Warburtonian Lec. tures, preached in Lincoln's Inn chapel, will soon appear. Mr. BAWDWEN has completed his translation of the whole of the larger 22 volume volume of Domesday Book; and has a volume nearly ready for the press, which comprises the counties of Middlesex, Herts, Bucks, Oxon, and Gloucester. The remaining volumes, five in number, will be published in due succession; as will also the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, which are comprised in the smaller volume of the originai. Dr. KEMP's second course of lectures at the Russell Institution, on music, will commence at the rooms of the Inst tution, on Monday evening, the 22d inst. at eight o'clock; the remaining lectures on each succeeding Monday, till the course is completed. FRANCE. Messrs. A. PorTEAU and P. TURPIN, have commenced a work of great interest to the French botanist, entitled, Flora Parisiensis, containing a description of the plants which grow naturally in the environs of Paris. powder, for several days; after which they may be used as tea. The imitation is said to be so perfect as to deceive persons not previously informed. M. SAGE, has lately stated in a meinoir read to the national institute, at Paris, the efficacy of fluor volatile alkali, in cases of severe apoplexy. "For at least forty years," says he, I have had opportunities of witnessing the efficacy of volatile alkali, taken internally, as an immediate remedy for the apoplexy, if employed on the first appearance of the disease. One of the keepers of my cabinet, aged 72 years, robust, though thin, and very sedate, was seized, while fasting, with an apoplexy. He fell down deprived of sense. When raised up he had the rattles in his throat, his eyes were closed, his face pallid, and his teeth fixed together. I drew out his under lip so as to answer the purpose of a spout, into which was poured a spoonful of water, containing 25 or 30 drops of fluor volatile alkali. At the same time two slips of paper, the edges of which were wetted with volatile alka M. WALCKENAER is engaged on a Natural History of Spiders, which will extend to 300 plates, designed, engraved, and coloured, by the most celebrated artists of Paris, and accompanied by deli, were introduced into his nostrils. The scriptions in Latin, French, English, and German. According to a report made by Messrs. Deyeux and Thenard to the first class of the Institute, M. ZANETTI has discovered a mode of extracting from maize a very fine syrup, the flavour of which is comparable, in every respect, to the syrup made from the sugar-cane. Instead of pressing, as had beretofore been attempted, the entire stalk of the maize, M. Zanetti removes the leaves and the external skin, so that he submits to the pressure only that portion of the vegetable which contains the most saccharine matter. M. Zanetti has also proved according to the same report, that the syrup of maize is susceptible of passing into the vinous fermentation, and that by distillation may be obtained from it an excellent alcohol, little or not at all different from that obtained from mo❤ Jasses which has been subjected to feranentation. A person of Verdun has discovered a method of producing an imitation of Chinese tea, by heating the leaves of the horn-beam in a new earthen vessel, placed in the midst of boiling water, till they have acquired a brown hue, lighter or darker at pleasure. They are then scented by being placed in a box, toge ther with the root of the Florence ins in teeth were specdily separated, and the eyes opened. A second dose of alkali was instantly poured down the throat, The rattles ceased; speech and recollestion returned. In the course of an hour the patient recovered sufficient strength to proceed without assistance about three hundred paces to his own chamber. In another hour he got up, asked for something to eat, and has since experienced no return of the disorder." He reports another instance in the per son of one of his friends, who was a great eater, and was struck with the apoplexy while at table. "The volatile alkali excited a vomiting, and after that had abated, the patient took twenty drops of volatile alkali in half a glass of wine. His senses returned, and in two hours he was able to walk in his garden.” A premium of a million of livres was offered by the FRENCH GOVERNMENT, in May last, to the inventor of the best machine for spinning thread.—1. Ta spin thread for woof and warp, proper to be made into a piece equal in fineness to muslin made with cotton thread, No. 400,000 metres; corresponding to No. 164,000 elis to the pound weight. The method of obtaining thread of this fineness, must be such as to effect a saving of eight-tenths of spinning by hand. 0.2 1811.] Literary and Philosophical Intelligence. hand.-2. The same for thread equal to fine cambric muslin: No. 225,000 metres; or No. 92,000 ells to the pound, The saving to be seven-tenths of the labour and cost of spinning by hand.3. No. 170,000 metres; or No. 70,000 ells to the pound. The saving to be six-tenths of the cost of spinning by hand. In these savings are included whatever may be obtained in all the preparatory operations to the spinning of the thread.-4. If all these conditions are not fulfilled, 500,000 francs, will be granted to whoever fulfils the conditions of the second and third class.-5, The models must be large enough to be used for working, as in a manufactory.-6. The candidates must explain the whole of their manner of proceeding from the raw material to the finest spinning.-7. The machines that abtain the prize are to become public property. The introduction of machinery into the woollen manufactories at Vervins. Hodimont, Aix la Chapelle, and Carcassonne, has given new life to the trade of France; and of seven millions of livres to which their exportation to Turkey amounted, before the revolution, they bave recovered six millions. These machines were introduced by two Englishmen named Cockerill and Douglas, and the government has bought the property; and given them large premiums for various inventions. By an order of police, dated November 20, the following regulations were established, concerning the cleansing, and keeping clean, the streets and pas Sages of the city of Paris.* 1. Proprietors or tenants of houses, are bound to direct the sweeping regularly every day, the fronts of their houses, shops, courts, gardens, and other offices. The sweeping to extend from the kennel in the middle of the street, to the edge of the pavement next the houses. The mud to be gathered in heaps on the sides. None to sweep his own mud on to his neighbour's premises. 2. The sweeping shall be finished at eight o'clock in the morning, from October 1, to March 1; and at seven o'clock, from March 1, 10 October 1. In case of negligence, the police will sweep the place, and charge the expense. 3. The laying of any filth or refuse, from the interior of the houses, after the scaven The paper of our correspondent, "Co MON SENSE," on this subject, was written in London three days before this French dict. 359 ger carts have passed, will be punished with great severity. 4. Glass of all kinds, broken bottles, lumps of ice, earthen-ware, &c. shall be placed close to the houses, apart from the mud. from the windows of any house. before the houses, or suffering it to lie more 7. In time of snow, or of frost, every householder is bound to sweep away the snow, and to break the ice before his house, shop, court, garden, &c. to the middle of the street. They shall form the snow and ice into heaps. In case of slippery ice, they shall strew ashes, sand, or gravel 8. It is forbidden to lay in the streets, any of houses, &c. snow or ice, from courts, or from the interior 9. It is equally forbidden to proprietors, others which make great use of water, to let or occupiers of baths, dyers, washers, or any part thereof, flow over the public way; during frosty weather. GERMANY. M. VIELTZ, of Vienna, is publishing a work on Botany, containing plants used in medicine, in domestic economy, and manufactures, with the description of the methods of using them. The first two volumes comprise the indigenous medicinal plants, and the third, which is the last that has appeared, contains the plants for household uses, from Acanthus to Amygdalus, arranged in alphabetical order. The author has followed Murray's system. M. TROMSDORFF has in publication at Erfurt, a periodical work entitled, The General Chemical Library of the Nine. teenth Century. It consists of criticisms ject, and the last number contains a on all new works published on the subreview of the chemical literature of France, England, Holland, Sweden, &c. from 1800 to 1804. A shepherd, of the village of Kappel, near Klagenfurt, Carinthia, found accidentally, during the last autumn, a vein of quicksilver; this discovery will in part compensare the Austrian monarchy for the cession of Taria; there Las likewise been discovered in Transyl vania, a mine of quicksilver, which pio duces annually 700 quintals of that mi mera!! The editors of the Annals of the Progress of Inventions, a work which collects discoveries, inventions, systems, opinions, opinions, and hypotheses, considered as new, have calculated the number of these novelties for the year 1809, and they find 20 articles of natural history, 51 of mineralogy, 37 of botany, 70 of chemistry, 89 of medicine, 30 of surgery, 14 of farriery, S6 of mathematics, 6 of mathematical geography, 4 of the military art, 8 of metallurgy, 15 of woods and forests, 2 of marine and navigation, 45 of domestic economy, 45 of the fine arts. These may serve as a specimen of the labours and studies of the learned and ingenious for one year. The list of subjects in the mechanical arts alone, contains near 100 articles of all kinds, and connected with the implements of all trades and businesses. A physician of Mentz has lately pub-, lished a caution to nurses on the abuse of the narcotic properties of the poppy, which, as this plant is becoming an article of cultivation, cannot be too exten sively known. Several incautious mothers, in order to keep their children quiet, give them milk in which the heads of poppies, after the seed is taken out, or other parts, have been steeped or boiled. In time this practice induces a lethargic habit, and some children remain incurably stupid all their lives in consequence of this pernicious and unna tural sedative. SWITZERLAND. The river Linth which descends from the Alps to the canton of Glaris, had in fifty years raised its bed sixteen feet. This elevation of the soil stopped the course of the river Maag, which was the outlet to the lake of Wallerstein. Hence arose an increase of the waters of the Jake, and frequent inundations of the towns of Wallerstein and Wesen; and the whole country, covered with stagnant water, became extremely unwholesome. M. ESCHER, a celebrated mineralogist, of Zurich, at the head of a company, undertook to remedy this mischief and has succeeded. He constructed a mole of rock stones, 15,000 feet in length; and formed a new channel for the Linth, of 50,000 feet, and with roads on the sides, ITALY. Dr. MICHELOTTI has communicated to the Academy of Sciences of Turin, a new mode of extracting indigo from the plants Isatis and Pastel, The leaves are Arst boiled to obtain the fecula by filtration. This fecula, which is composed of a green matter, of wax, and of the indigo, must be thoroughly washed with clear water, and at length dissolved in a solution of caustic potash, the whole being boiled together. By a new filtration, a very turbid liquor is obtained, which, concentrated and calcined by the same process as is used to the blood em- · ployed in making Prussian blue, yields a good prussic ley for the preparation of the colour. A great quantity of water must then be poured on the greenish matter which remains upon the filtre. This matter is the indigo, the presence of which is manifested by the edges becoming blue, mingled with the greenish matter of wax. The action of the air completes the blue colour of the whole, M. BOSSARELLI, a chemist of Turin has extracted an oil from the arachidis or arachis hypogea, which he describes as good for burning and for the use of the table. He pounded and pressed the nuts; purified the liquos, by means of carbonated magnesia, and filtered it It when he wished it to be very clear. is not able to become rancid. The specific gravity of water being 10,000, linseed oil is 9,403, olive oil 9,153, arachis oil 9,182. The refuse serves to feed fowls. The Academy Della Crusca, at Florence, has been re-established by a decree of the French government. It is to be composed of twelve members and twenty associates.. The former are particularly charged with the revision of the Dictionary of the Italian Language, the preservation of the purity of that tongue, and the examination of works presented for the prizes offered by former decrees. M. GUIDOTTI, professor of chemistry, at Parma, has successfully cultivated the woad plant for two years, and has obtained from it an immense quantity of seed for the use of dyers. He has likewise succeeded in extracting from it a quantity of indigo. rection nearly parallel to the surface of the earth; and its velocity exceeded three miles per second. The least of all the limits a-cribed to the diameter of the meteor is 491 feet. A body of this magnitude, and of the same specific gravity as the stone which fell at Weston, which weighed about 225 pounds to a cubic foot, would contain a quantity of matter exceeding in weight six millions of tons. that of the air at the surface of the earth If the specific gravity were the same as the quantity of matter would exceed 2000tons; but if we reckon it to be the same as that of the air at the height of the meteor, which by the usual rule for barometrical adineasurements is about of that at the surface of the earth, the quantity of matter would exceed 50 tons. The weight of the whole mass that fell near Weston does not appear to have been more than half a ton. A chain bridge has been cast over the: river Merrimack, three miles above Newbury port, in the state of Massachusetts. It consists of a single arch 244 feet in length. The abutments are of stone, 47 feet long and 37 high; the uprights, er framed work which stands on the abutments, are 35 feet high, over which are suspended ten distinct chains, the ends of which on both sides of the river, are buried in deep pits, and secured by large stones: each chain is 516 feet long, and where they pass over the uprights, and where the greatest strain rests, they are treble, and made in short links. The four middle joists rest on the chains; all the others are suspended to the main chains, to equalise the floor. This bridge has two passage-ways of 15 feet in width each, and the floor is so solid as to admit of horses, carriages, &c. travelling at any speed, with very little perceptible motion of the floors. A company of gentlemen and booksellers have been incorporated at New Jersey, under the title of the Franklin Society, with a capital of 750,000 dollars,i and the liberty of importing and printing books, and establishing a paper manu factory and type foundery. NEW |
