Blackwood's Magazine/Volume 1/Issue 2/Literary and Scientific Intelligence
LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.
A new instrument, called a Capillary Hydrometer, for measuring the strength and specific gravity of spirituous liquors, has lately been invented by Dr Brewster. The principle of the instrument is to determine the specific gravity from the number of drops contained in a small glass bulb, so that we have only to fill this bulb with any mixture of alcohol and water, and count the number of drops necessary to empty it. When a bulb about 113 inch in diameter was filled with water, it yielded only 724 drops, whereas, with ordinary proof spirits, it yielded 2117 drops, giving no fewer than a scale of 1393 drops for measuring specific gravities from 0.920 to 1.000. A correction must be made for temperature as in all other instruments.
A remarkable fossil has lately been discovered in the parish of Alford, in the county of Surrey, some miles east of Guildford. It was found about eight feet under the surface in a bed of clay. Above the clay, in that particular part, is a bed of gravel, which extends to a considerable distance east and west, and varies in breadth from eleven yards to about forty, and has the appearance of having been the bed of a river. The fossil consists of hard clay covered with thin rectangular scales, lying in a regular order, about 34 of an inch long and 58 broad. These scales have been analyzed by Dr Thomson, and found to consist of
| Animal matter, | 11.37 |
| Phosphate of lime, | 65.51 |
| Carbonate of lime, | 19.65 |
| Loss, | 3.47 |
| ——— | |
| 100.00 |
This is nearly the composition of the scales of fishes as determined by Mr Hatchet.
A new mineral, consisting of sulphate of barytes and carbonate of strontian, has been lately discovered at Stromness, in the Orkney Islands, by Dr Thomas Traill of Liverpool. An account of the analysis of this mineral by Dr Traill, was read at one of the late meetings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He proposes to call it barystrontianite from its composition, or stromnessite from its locality———N. B. We have seen specimens of this mineral, and conjecture that it is a compound of the two known species, carbonate of strontian and sulphate of barytes, and that with care the two minerals might be separated from each other.
A new artificial horizon has lately been invented by Mr White of Kinross, of which an account will be found among our Original Communications.
Mr W. K. Northall of Wolverhampton announces, that he has discovered a new method of propelling boats by steam. The velocity of the boat may, by this plan, be easily increased from three to seven miles an hour. The weight of the machinery will not be more than three tons, and the space it will occupy is comparatively small.
Mr J. B. Emmett of Hull has published some experiments, which he made during the summer of last year, with the view of ascertaining whether a gas might not be obtained from oil, equal to that obtained from coal, so as to prevent the injury threatened to the Greenland trade by the rapidly increasing use of the latter in the lighting of towns, &c. By distilling various oils, previously mixed with dry sand or pulverized clay, at a temperature little below ignition, he obtained a gas which appeared to be a mixture of carburetted hydrogen and supercarburetted hydrogen gases. This gas produces a flame equally brilliant, and often much more brilliant than that produced from coal. It differed very little in quality, whether obtained from mere refuse, or from good whale sperm, almond or olive oil, or tallow. The gas, when burnt, produces no smoke, and exhales no smell or unpleasant vapour. Whatever oil is used, it evolves much more light when burnt as gas than when consumed as oil; in the latter case, the flame is obscured by a quantity of soot; in the former, the soot remains in the distilling vessel, and the flame burns with a clear light.
The water of the ebbing and flowing spring lately discovered in the harbour of Bridlington, Yorkshire, and described in the Philosophical Transactions for 1815, by Dr Storer, has been found to possess many excellent properties, and been administered with decided benefit in numerous cases of chronic disease. It has been analyzed by Mr Hume of Long-Acre, who finds that great purity is one of its most distinguishing properties, in which it may vie with Malverne well; that although this stream is so nearly connected with the sea, which covers its whole vicinity twice a-day, yet it is altogether free from muriate of soda, every kind of sulphate, and magnesia. It is little heavier than distilled water, and contains no other aeriform substance than carbonic acid. The solid contents of a wine gallon amount to 1312 grains, consisting of carbonate of lime, 3.750; silex, and a little oxide of iron, about .125.
The Rev. F. H. Wollaston has submitted to the Royal Society a description of a thermometer constructed by him, for determining the height of mountains, instead of the barometer. It is well known, that the temperature at which water boils diminishes as the height of the place increases at which the experiment is made; and this diminution was suggested, first by Fahrenheit, and afterwards by Mr Cavendish, as a medium for determining the heights of places above the sea. Mr Wollaston's instrument is as sensible as the common mountain barometer. Every degree of Fahrenheit on it occupies the length of an inch. The thermometer, with the lamp and vessel for boiling water, when packed into a case, weighs about 114 lb. It is sufficiently sensible to point out the difference in height between the floor and the top of a common table. The difference, on two trials with it, compared with the same heights, measured by General Roy by the barometer, did not exceed two feet.
Dr Leach, of the British Museum, has recently printed a very complete Catalogue of Birds and Quadrupeds, which are natives of Great Britain. It is perhaps the most correct Catalogue which, in our present imperfect knowledge of British Ornithology, has been as yet compiled.
Dr Leach has submitted to the Linnæan Society a description of a species of deer called the Wapiti, found on the banks of the Missouri. Four of these animals, which are extremely gentle, docile, and elegant, brought from America by Mr Taylor, are now exhibiting in the King's Mews. It is said to be domesticated by the natives of America; and Mr Taylor is of opinion that it might be used with advantage in this country, in many cases, as a substitute for horses.
Mr Beech, a chemist of Manchester, on the important subject of gas-lights, states, that the oil of bitumen, or coal tar, which is considered as waste by those who make and burn gas, if mixed with dry saw-dust, exhausted logwood, or fustic, to the consistence of paste, and allowed to remain until the water has drained off,—2 cwt. of the mass, being put into the retort instead of coals, will produce more gas, and be less offensive, than the same quantity of cannel coal; and the process may be repeated until the whole of the tar is consumed. This, he says, will not only be a saving of about one half the expense of coals, but will add to cleanliness and neatness, as the residuum is well known to have a very offensive smell.
It has been generally believed, that Bonaparte was occupied in writing a history of his eventful life. Santini, his hussier du cabinet, lately returned from St Helena, states, that the work is already considerably advanced, having reached the termination of the Egyptian expedition, but that its future progress was in some measure arrested by difficulties in procuring certain printed documents, a set of the author's military bulletins, and the Moniteur from France. So far as written, every year is said to form a large volume in manuscript; and it is computed that the whole, when completed, might extend to eight or ten printed volumes in quarto. Bonaparte, who has at all times been particularly careful of his own personal safety, not choosing to run the risk of being fired upon by some one of the numerous sentries placed around his dwelling, keeps himself within doors, and passes his time in dictating his memoirs to MM. Las Casas, De Montholon, and Bertrand. Our government, however, it appears, are not more disposed to grant facilities to the execution of the work of the imperial historian, than they were to the execution of his Berlin and Milan decrees. To a late application of a London publisher, for permission to communicate with Bonaparte on the subject of publishing his work, a direct refusal was given by Earl Bathurst.
Two lizards were lately discovered in a chalk-bed in Suffolk, sixty feet below the surface; and the publication of this fact has produced the following affidavit:—We William Mills and John Fisher, both of the parish of Tipton, in the county of Stafford, do hereby certify and declare, that a few years ago, in working in a certain coal-pit belonging to the Right Hon. Viscount Dudley and Ward, at what is called the Pieces, in the parish of Tipton aforesaid, and on cleaving or breaking the stratum of coal, which is about four feet thick, and in that situation lies about fifty yards from the surface of the earth, we discovered a living reptile of the snake or adder kind, lying coiled up, imbedded in a small hollow cell within the solid coal, which might be about twenty tons in weight. The reptile, when discovered, visibly moved, and soon afterwards crept out of the hole; but did not live longer than ten minutes on being exposed to the air. The hollow in which it lay was split in two by means of an iron wedge, and was rather moist at the bottom, but had no visible water. It was nearly the size of a common tea-saucer; and the reptile was about nine inches long, of a darkish ashy colour, and a little speckled.
FRANCE.
The Musée Impérial-Royal has again been opened for public inspection; and notwithstanding the pretty large drafts upon it by Messrs Blucher, Canova, and Co. it is still perhaps entitled to rank as the richest collection in the world. It contained, before the restitutions, 1,233 pictures. The catalogue now published comprehends 1,101 pieces: of these the French school furnishes 233, some artists, not deemed formerly worthy a place, being now admitted. The German and Flemish schools seem nearly as numerous as before, though some of the best works are wanting.
The petition of the booksellers of Paris, for the repeal or reduction of the heavy duties on the importation of foreign books into France, has received attention from the government. By the new tarif, books printed in foreign countries, in the dead or foreign languages, are only subjected to a duty of 10 francs per 50 kilogrammes métriques, about 2 cwt.
Madame de Stael is said to have sold her Memoirs of M. Neckar (her father) to an association of English, French, and German booksellers, for £4,000: the work is to appear in the three languages at the same time.
A report made to the council-general of hospitals in Paris, relative to the state of those establishments from 1803 to 1814, contains some important facts. They are divided into two classes, called hopitaux and hospices; the former, ten in number, being designed for the sick and diseased; and the latter, which amount to nine, affording a provision for helpless infancy, and poor persons afflicted with incurable infirmities. The Hotel Dieu, the most ancient of the hospitals, contains 1200 beds. The general mortality in the hospitals has been 1 in 7½, and in the hospices 1 in 6½; and it has been more considerable among the women than the men. It is found, that wherever rooms of the same size are placed one over another, the mortality is greatest in the uppermost. In the Hospice de l'Accouchement, in 1814, there were delivered 2,700 females, of whom 2,400 acknowledged that they were unmarried. In the ten years from 1804 to 1814, there were admitted into the Hospice d'Allaitement, or Foundling Hospital, 23,458 boys, and 22,463 girls, total 45,921 children, only 4,130 of whom were presumed to be legitimate. The mortality of infants in the first year after their birth was under 2-7ths. During the ten years, 355,000 sick were admitted into the hospitals, and 59,000 poor persons into the hospices. The total number that received relief out of these establishments in 1813, which gives about the average of that period, was 103,000, of whom 21,000 belonged to the department of the Seine.—Some pains have been taken to ascertain the different causes of mental derangement. It appears, that among the maniacs the number of women is generally greater than that of men. Among the younger females, love is the most common cause of insanity; and among the others, jealousy or domestic discord. Among the younger class of males, it is the too speedy developement of the passions, and with the others, the derangement of their affairs, that most frequently produces this effect. The calamities of the revolution were another cause of madness in both sexes; and it is worthy of remark, that the men were mad with aristocracy, the women with democracy. Excessive grief occasioned lunacy in the men; whereat the minds of the females were deranged by ideas of independence and equality.
The National Institute of France has this year adjudged the prize, founded by Lalande for the most interesting observation or the most useful memoir in astronomy, to M. Bessel, director of the Royal Observatory of Konigsberg.—As the Institute has received no satisfactory memoir for the premium of 3,000 francs left by the late M. Ravrio, for any person who should discover a process by which mercury may be employed, without injury to the workman, in the art of gilding, the same subject is proposed anew for 1818.—Two other prizes, gold medals, of the value of 3,000 francs each, remaining also unmerited by any of the memoirs which they have produced, are in like manner offered again for 1818. The subject of the first is "To determine the rise of the thermometer in mercury comparatively with its rise in air from 20 below to 200 centigr.; the law of cooling in a vacuum; the law of cooling in air, hydrogen gas, and carbonic acid gas, to different degrees of temperature, and according to different states of rarefaction." The subject of the second prize is, "To determine the chemical changes which fruits undergo during and after their ripening." Another prize to the same amount is offered for 1819, for the following subject:—"To determine by accurate experiments the detraction of luminous rays direct and reflected, when they pass separately or simultaneously near the extremity of one or many bodies of an extent either limited or indefinite."
On the first day of the publication of Germanicus at Paris, 1,800 copies were sold. The copyright has been purchased for 4,500 francs.
The grand desideratum of rendering sea water potable, seems at length to be obtained by simple distillation. The French chemists have been unable to discover in distilled sea water, any particle of salt or soda, in any form; and it is ascertained that one cask of coals will serve to distil six casks of water. A vessel going on a voyage of discovery, by order of the French government, commanded by M. Freycinet, will only take fresh water for the first fortnight, and, instead thereof, coals, which will be but one sixth of the tonnage; distilled sea water being perfectly as good as fresh water that has been a fortnight on board.
M. Dorion has discovered that the bark of the pyramidal ash, in powder, thrown into the boiling juice of the sugar-cane, effects its clarification. The planters of Martinique and Gaudaloupe have given him 200,000 francs for communicating his discovery.
Perpetual Motion.—Mr Maillardet of Neuchatel announces, in a foreign journal, that he has succeeded in resolving the celebrated problem of perpetual motion, so long regarded as a scientific chimera. The piece of mechanism to which he applies his principle is thus described: It is a wheel, around the circumference of which there is a certain number of tubes, which alternately radiate or turn in towards the centre, rendering the moving power at one time strong, at another weak; but preserving throughout such an intensity of force, that it is necessary to keep it in check by a regulator.
M. M. Majendie and Pelletier have communicated to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, an interesting discovery upon ipecaipecacuanha. It appears that these gentlemen have succeeded in separating the principal substance to which the good effects of ipecacuanha in medicine are owing, from those adjuncts which give it that odour and taste so disagreeable to invalids. They have named this principal substance hemetine. A great number of experiments and observations have been made, which fully confirm the truth of the discovery.
The recent sale of the library of the late Count Macarthy affords a standard for judging of the force of the bibliomania in France. Among articles which fetched the highest prices were the following:—
Psalmorum Codex, Mogunt. 1457, fol. sold for 12,000 francs.
Psalmorum Codex, Mogunt. 1459, fol. 3350 fr.
G. Durandi Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, Mogunt. 1459, fol. 2000 fr.
Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, fol. 1320 fr. (The same copy sold in 1769 for 1600 fr.)
Historia Beatæ Mariæ Virginis, per figuras, fol. 1560 fr. (Sold in 1769 for 352 fr.)
Ciceronis Qfficiorum, libri iii. Mogunt. 1465, sm. fol. 801 fr.
Ciceronis Officiorum, libri iii. Mogunt. 1466, sm. fol. 1190 fr.
Gul. Ficheti Rhetorica, 4to. (One of the first books printed at Paris about 1470.) 501 fr.
Biblia in Lingua Vulgare, 1471, 2 vols fol. 1199 fr. (Sold at the Duke de la Vallière's sale, in 1784, for 720 fr.)
Quinctiliani Instit. Orator. Venet. 1471, fol. 1515 fr.
Virgilii Opera, 1472, fol. 2440 fr.
Anthologia Græca, 4to, Florent. 1494. 1000 fr.
Apollonia Rhodia Argonauticon, libri iv. 4to, Florent. 1496. 1755 fr.
La Bible Historiée, traduite du Latin de Pierre Comestor, par Guyard Desmoulins, Paris, fol. with 410 miniatures. 1202 fr.
Missale Mozarab. fol. Toleti, 1500, et Breviarum Mozarab. ib. 1502, fol. 1020 fr.
Euripidis Opera, studio Jos. Barnes, Cantab. 1694, fol. 1800 fr.
Xenophontis Opera, Oxon. 1703, 5 tom, in 6 vols 8vo, large paper. 1960 fr.
Xenophontis Cyropædia, Oxon. 1727, fol. et Xenophontis de Cyri Expeditione, libri vii. Oxon. 1735, fol. large paper. 2550 fr.
Thuani Historiæ, Lond. 1733, 7 tom fol. bound in 14 vols, large paper. 1225 fr.
GERMANY.
Professor Kanngiesser of Breslaw has announced an extensive work, in Latin, on archaiology, in which he promises some important discoveries in that science.
Goëthe has produced the fourth volume of his Life, which he is publishing under the whimsical title of Truth and Fiction.
Professor Berzelius has just discovered a new earth, to which he has given the name thorite, from the Scandinavian god Thor.
ITALY.
M. Niebuhr, the Prussian envoy at Rome, has discovered, in the Vatican Library, the fragment yet wanting in Cicero's Oration pro Marco Rabirio, and a fragment of the Oration pro Plancio. These two fragments were discovered in the same MS. from which Amaduzzi has already extracted an unpublished fragment of Livy. The learned Prussian envoy has also found some passages of the Works of Seneca.
There is reason to hope that the researches, which are actively continued at Pompeji, will soon lead to important discoveries. The works in the interior of the Forum of that ancient town, have already begun to lay open a peristyle of six columns, which must doubtless have belonged to some temple. The number of labourers has been increased. The portico around the arena of the amphitheatre is already completely cleared; and Padiglione, an able artist, has received directions to make a model of that monument on a small scale.
By more recent accounts we learn, that magnificent monuments of ancient splendour still continue to be discovered in searching the ruins of Pompeji. Behind the temple lately noticed, a public building has been found, built at right angles, 260 Neapolitan palms long, and 120 broad, and surrounded in the interior by a portico of 50 columns. It is ornamented with beautiful paintings, some of which are very valuable; among others one which represents a warrior precipitated from a car drawn by fiery horses. The pavement is of Mosaic, formed in part of small white and coloured stones, and in part of large slabs of marble of various colours. Several inscriptions have been traced that ascertained the use of this monument. One of them indicates, that the right, luminum obstruendorum (a right established by the Roman laws, preventing, in certain cases, neighbouring proprietors from having lights or prospects over the contiguous estates), had been purchased at the price of several thousand sesterces. This discovery has afforded new riches to sculpture—several statues have been found. A Venus, five palms high, and a Hermophrodite, may be placed among the finest specimens of the Greek chisel that have come down to us. Several distinguished artists think, that in this Venus they have discovered one worthy to dispute pre-eminence with the Venus de Medicis. This opinion, inspired, perhaps, by the pleasure of the discovery, may be before long discussed, as these precious monuments of sculpture are to be transported to the Musée Bourbon. In the same place have been found two arms of bronze, adorned with bracelets. The Chevalier Ardite, who directs the search, hopes to be enabled, in a short time, to expose the whole extent of Pompeji, which will probably be a mine fruitful in objects of the fine arts.
Andrea Mustoxidi, a young native of Corcyra, who has already obtained some literary distinction, has addressed a letter to the Abbaté Morelli, the learned librarian of St Mark, on the four celebrated Venetian horses, commonly supposed to be the work of Lysippus. In this tract, printed at Padua, and dedicated to Lord Holland, the author successfully combats the opinion which gives a Roman origin to these monuments, and employs all his erudition and sagacity to prove that they came originally from the isle of Chio. This notion has since been adopted by the celebrated German writer, F. Schlegel.
NETHERLANDS.
Safety Lamp.—Mr Van Mons has communicated the gratifying intelligence, that the safety lamp of Davy has completely succeeded in the Netherlands. "Fortified with it," he says, "we can penetrate into the foulest mines. We have even opened depots of gas, and procured its mixture with the proportion of atmospheric air, calculated to produce the most prompt inflammation and the strongest explosion, but the gas has never taken fire. We use gauze made of stronger wire than with you, in order to guard against any exterior damage from the awkwardness of workmen, and to prevent the men from opening the lamp; we have also adopted the expedient of a small padlock, with the key of which the master miner is intrusted. The heating of the gauze cloth, however intense it may be, is not attended with any danger, for iron the most incandescent will not affect gas; nothing but flame will kindle it. Some attempts have been made to light a mine by means of its gas, but I am not acquainted with the result. I should think that such a project would be attended with many difficulties."
Hydrophobia—Mr Van Mons has succeeded in curing all cases of hydrophobia by means of oxygenated muriatic acid, employed both internally and externally; which proves that in this malady the moral holds in dependence the physical powers. All cases of tardy hydrophobia may be considered as the effect of imagination. Examples have occurred of the disease reaching its last stage, when it has been completely dissipated by the sight of the animal by which the patient was bitten.
RUSSIA.
Baron Ungern-Sternberg began, many years since, to search the archives and private libraries in Livonia for documents tending to complete or illustrate the history of that province. Of these he collected several thousands, and had them printed, with the assistance of Professor Brotze of Riga, under the title of Diplomatic Codex of Livonia. This work, however, left several chasms, which it was the more difficult to fill up, as many of the archives of this province had been destroyed by fire, war, and other accidents. In 1807, Dr Hennig proposed that copies should be procured of all the original acts relative to Livonia, Esthonia, and the island of Oesel, preserved at Konigsberg, in the archives of the grandmaster of the order to which these provinces formerly belonged. The proposal was approved by the nobility of the provinces, and Dr Hennig appointed to carry it into execution. With the permission of the Prussian government, that scholar proceeded to Konigsberg in 1809, and in 1812 had sent off copies of 2000 documents. As the undertaking proved too burdensome for the nobility, by whom it was previously supported, the Emperor Alexander, at the instance of Karamsin, the historiographer, granted a yearly sum for its prosecution. The copies have since that time been forwarded to Petersburg, to be employed by Karamsin for his history of the Russian empire, and then deposited in the archives of foreign affairs. This enterprise is now completed, and 3160 documents, on subjects of interest for the history of the north, have been rescued from oblivion, to furnish new sources for the historian.
The Bible Society of Petersburg has received from England the stereotype plates for printing the New Testament in modern Greek, with which 300,000 copies may be taken off. The sphere of action of this society is rapidly extending. At Tula and Woronesch, the auxiliary societies formed there have opened shops for the special purpose of selling the Holy Scriptures. Paul, the Armenian patriarch at Constantinople, has also declared his willingness to co-operate in the object of the Bible Society; and even the heathen Buraits of Siberia have intimated their ardent wish to possess "the word of the only God," (according to their own expression in their memorial addressed to the civil governor of Irkutsk), in the Mongol language, and have voluntarily subscribed more than 9000 rubles towards the expense of printing it. The emperor has granted to the Bible Society of this city the privilege of establishing a printing-office at Abo.
The Berlin Gazette gives the following account of Von Kotzebue's voyage round the world, which has been received from Kamschatka. Letters of an earlier date, which, after having doubled Cape Horn, he sent from the coast of Chili, have been lost, or at least are not yet come to hand. M. Von Kotzebue discovered three new islands in the South Sea, in 14° of latitude, and 144° of longitude, to which he gave the names of Romanzow (the author of the expedition), Spiridon, and Krusenstern. Besides these, he discovered a long chain of islands in the same quarter, and two clusters of islands in the 11th degree of latitude and 190th degree of longitude. (It is not specified whether the latitude is N. or S. or the longitude E. or W.) These he called after his ships, Rurich's Chain; the two latter, Kutusof's Cluster (a group), and Suwarrof's Cluster. All these islands are covered with wood, partly uninhabited, and dangerous for navigators. The discoverer has sent to Count Romanzof a great many maps and drawings. On the 12th July O. S. Kotzebue designed to sail from Kamschatka to Behring's Straits, according to his instructions. He hopes to return to Kamschatka in September 1817. On the whole voyage from Chili to that place, he had not a single person sick on board. He touched at Easter Island, but did not find the inhabitants so friendly as La Peyrouse describes them. He thinks that something must have happened since that time, which has made them distrustful of the Europeans: perhaps it may be the overturning of their surprisingly large statues, which Kotzebue looked for in vain, and found only the ruins of one of them near its base, which still remains. He saw no fruits from the seeds left by La Peyrouse, nor any sheep or hogs, which by this time must have multiplied exceedingly. A single fowl was brought him for sale. It seems we may hope much from this young seaman, who is not yet thirty years of age. He was obliged, for many reasons, to leave the learned Dane, Wormskrold, behind in Kamschatka.