monly called Hydrocephalus Internus, is, from first to last, purely an affection of the nervous system, the offspring of a general temperament, and coinbined with all the irregular movements of the nervous power in the stomach, liver, &c. so peculiar to this train of complaints. The Rev. S. BARROW, Author of Questions on the New Testament, has in the press a very useful compilation under the title of the Poor Child's Lirary. It is calculated to be put into the bands of Children who have received an eleemosynary education; and consequently to give effect to such education. A more useful or desirable work could not well be conceived. Mr. J. N. BREWER, author of a Winter's Tale, &c. has a romance, in four volumes, ready for the press, entitled Sir Ferdinand of England. The story is laid in the reign of King Edward IV. A mechanic of Birmingham has undertaken to teach a whole regiment to shoot point-blauk at 350 yards! The Rev. Mr. HART, of Bristol, has in the press, Miscellaneous English Exercises, being selections of prose and poetry, written in false grammar, false spelling, and without stops. Dr. REUBEN MUSSEY, of Massachusetts, lately published Experiments and Observations on Cutaneous Absorption. These experiments shew how the system may be supported in cases of emergency, without the reception of food by the stomach. They explain how extreme thirst may be allayed by sailors in distress, by the immersion of their bodies in salt water; as the salt will not percolite through the pores of the skin to increase thirst, though the water will be absorbed by the skin, and refresh, if not nourish them. In his first experiment he remained immersed in a pretty strong watery infusion of the rubia tinc torum two hours and forty-five minutes." The urine he voided three hours after be left the bath, "was slightly tinged with red, and treated with a solution of the common sulphat of iron, it gave a tinge of a purplish brown." In the second experiment, "I continued" says he, "three hours in the madder bath. The portion discharged five hours after leaving the bath was a little deeper-colored than 66 *This depends however on the people themselves, and none but raw and inexperienced persons would ever consent to a reference to a Barrister. common Sherry, or Sicily wine. Treat✩ ed with the sulphat of iron, a strong purplish brown precipitate was produ ced." In the several succeeding experiments, the results were similar, the third excepted; in which however he remained immersed but one hour and five minutes. In his subsequent expe riments, he tested the urine voided after he had been into the madder bath by the "caustic or moderately-carbonated potash, which turns urine slightly tinged with madder of a cranberry red." To detect whatever there might be of fallacy in the experiments, the caustic potash was put into urine, in which there could be none of the coloring principle of the madder, and no change took place in the color of the urine. We consider these experiments as involving points of the deepest consequence to the perfect knowledge and skilful treatment of the human body. Mr. SHULHER is printing the Triumphs of Learning, a poem. Miss JOANNA BAILLIE has nearly ready for publication, the third volume of her Series of Plays on the Passions. The inhabitants of the world at the present time are computed by a theological writer at 800 millions, of whom he supposes 2,500,000 to be Jews, 48% millions Pagans, 175 millions and half Christians, and 140 millions Ma homedans. a A splendid original work, delineating the Border-Antiquities of England and Scotland, is in great forwardness. The first part will be published on the 31st of March, and a part will be continued regularly every three months. It is ine tended to exhibit specimens of the Architecture, Sculpture, and other vestiges of former ages, from the earliest times to the union of the two crowns, accompanied with descriptive sketches and biographical remarks, together with a brief historical account of the principal events that have occurred in that part of Great Britain. Dr. CROTCH will commence his Course of Lectures on Music, at the Surry Institution, on Tuesday, the 4th of February; and will continue them on each succeeding Tuesday evening until com pleted. Dr. REID will commence his next Course of Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Medicine, on Monday, the 10th of February, at nine o'clock in the morn ing, at his house, Grenville-street, Brunswick-square; where the course will be continued continued, at the same hour, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, until its conclusion. The NEW COMET passed Aldeberan in Taurus about the 15th of January, and was then advancing northward, nearly at the rate of a degree per day. It was very faint, and is supposed to have passed its perihelion. The great comet of 1811 is now out of sight. The continuity of divine service, from the dark and monkish to the present enlightened age, having engrafted the crude nielodies of the infancy of musical science on our religious ceremonies; it has evidently been a desideratum that the great modern improvements of that divine art should be rendered subservient to public devotion. This idea has, we are glad to learn, been acted upon by Mr. WILLIAM GARDNER, of Leicester, a gentleman well known among professors and amateurs, and he has adapted the finest airs and movements of the greatest Masters to the most classical devotional compositions of our national Poets. By uniting the two points, superior music with superior poetry, Mr. Gardner has produced a series of chef-d'œuvres in this interesting class of compositions; and we are not surprised to learn that his proposed Sacred Melodies" have been honored with the patronage of the Regent, and other branches of the Royal Family, all of whom know so well how to appreciate productions of this na ture. 66 Mr. ARCHDEACON COXE has announced Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of Bourbon from the Accession of Philip the Fifth to the Death of Charles the Third, in 1788, with an introduction concerning the government and present state of Spain. A volume of Funeral Orations from the Greek of Thucydides, Plato, and Lysias, with notes, will shortly appear, and some account of the authors. By the Rev. T. BROADHURST, of Bath. The Rev. T. THOMAS is preparing for the press a History of Solomon, King of Judea, in continuation of his View of Heathen Worship, and Homer's Attachment to its Rites. The Editor of the "Plain and Useful Selections from the books of the Old and New Testaments according to the most approved modern versions," is preparing a sequel to his former labors, which will comprise every part of the Apochryphal writings, of which the meaning is instructive and important, with such corrections of the common version as MONTHLY MAG., No. 223, Mr. WILSON, of Magdalen College, Oxford, has in the press, a volume of Poems, the principal of which is entitled the Isle of Palms; and there are others descriptive of the scenery of the English lakes. Mr. JAMES SMYTH, of the CustomHouse, Hull, intends shortly to publish, in one volume octavo, a Treatise on the Practice of the Customs, in the entry, examination, and delivery, of goods and merchandize imported from foreign parts; with a copious illustration of the warehousing system, intended for the use of merchants, officers, and others, concerned in this branch of the business of the customs. Mr. BRANSBY, of Ipswich, author of some useful publications on astronomy and geography, who has been an attentive observer of the comet of 1811, with the most accurate instruments, will, within a few days, publish a correct delineation of its path, and a full and distincaccount of its elements, &c. In the plate will also be exhibited the path of the comet of 1807. The Rev. J. NIGHTINGALE proposes to publish a Portraiture of the Roman Catholic Religion; or, an unprejudiced Sketch of the History, Doctrines, Opinions, Discipline, and present State of Catholicism. It will contain also a Summary of the Laws now in force against Papists; and a Review of the Origin and Progress of the Catholic Question. The work is to consist of a thick octavo volume. The number of prisoners of war in England at this time, on a moderate computation, is FIFTY THOUSAND men, exclusive of officers, and many of them have been incarcerated since 1803 ! Twelve thousand English are in a similar situation in France! Is this a civilized and rational country? If it be so let it be answered-wherefore and for what are we at war, and why are such indescribable miseries to be inflicted. The REV. T. CASTLEY has in the press, Essays and Dissertations on Subjects in Philology, History, Politics, and Common Life. Mr. CHARLES BUTLER has circulated proposals for publishing by subscription, an Easy Introduction to the Mathematics, in two volumes, octavo, being a complete system of elementary instruc tion tion in the leading branches of the Mathematics; wherein each particular subject is preceded by a brief historical account of its rise, and progressive im. provements. The Mr. GOODACRE, of Standard Hill Academy, near Nottingham, has in the press, an Impartial Review of the New System of Education, generally ascribed to Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster. object of this publication is not to give any opinion on the question to which of these gentlemen the honor of the invention is due, but to investigate the merits of the systems themselves. The Author of the preceding pamphlet is also preparing for the press, Outlines of an Economical Plan for the Education of the Poor, on national and solid principles. In this publication the agency of the boys will be amply discussed, and plans will be laid down for securing the advantage of their assistance under the direction of judicious teachers. Mr. WATSON will publish, in the course of the present month, Strictures on Book-keeping and Accounts as exhibited in the Counting-house, on a scale of extensive general business. Dr. WILLIAMS announces a Defence of Modern Calvinism; containing an examination of the Bishop of Lincoln's work, entitled a Refutation of Calvinism. The following mode of preventing flies from settling on pictures, or other furniture, has been used with success. Soak a large bunch of leeks for five or six days in a pail of water; then wash the pictures, or other furniture, with the water, and flies will avoid any thing so ashed. Dr. HUTTON, in reply to an observation of Dr. Davy, has lately published the following account of the curious experiments made in 1774, at Schehallien, About the year 1774, says he, "there was much conversation among some of the most scientific members of the Royal Society, about the universal attraction of all matter, and in devising some general and familiar proofs of it. It was then concluded that it would be a very decisive and, indeed, palpable proof, if it could be experimentally shown that any hill attracted a plummet, drawing it sensibly aside from the perpendicular direction towards itself.-After several reports to the Royal Society, Mr. Smeaton announced that he had discovered the mountain Schehallien, one of the Grampian hills in the north of Scotland, possessing the desired properties in a very eminent degree; being a very lofty and narrow ridge, very steep, extending a great length cast and west, and very narrow from north to south. This hill was in consequence deemed sufficiently eonvenient for making the experiment; and a person, who had been an assistant to Dr. Maskelyne, at the Royal Observatory, was engaged by the society, and sent down to Scotland to take the necessary measures about the hill, to ascertain its shape and magnitude by horizontal measurements, and by vertical sections in a great many directions and situations; and, lastly, by placing a proper instrument and plummet against the 16 middle of the sides of the hill, to observe, by zenith distances, the deviation of the plumb-line towards the hill. Before the survey and observations were quite completed,, at the request of the society, Dr. Maskelyne himself went down to Scotland, to see how the business was carried on; and brought back the account of the survey, with the report that, having tried the plummet on the it between 5 and 6 seconds from the perpenopposite sides of the hill, each side attracted diculary and, in fact, that the sum of the two opposite attractions was just equal to 11 seconds. Thus, then, the original question was satisfactorily answered in the affirmative, viz. that the hill, a mass of dense rocks, did sensibly attract the plummet, and draw it aside from the perpendicular direction of the earth's gravitation, and that by a certain quantity. The next consideration was, whether and how these observations and measurements could be employed, in comparison with the magnitude and effects of the whole globe of the earth, to determine its mean density, in comparison with that of the mountain. The magnitude and novelty of these nice calculations, the requisite portion of science and ingenuity for making them with effect, were such as appalled every mind, and every one shrunk from the task; when, at the request of the president and council of the society, I undertook the performance; and, after incessant labour, during the course of a year, produced the result of the whole, to the entire satisfaction of all tions was published in the Philosophical the society. The account of these calculaTransactions for the year 1778, and in volume xiv. of my Abridgment of these Transactions; and, though in a very condensed form, occupied no less than a hundred quarto pages in that work, containing only the results of many thousands of intricate calculations. The conclusion from all which was, that the mean density of the whole mass of the earth is nearly double that of the mountain, being to the former in the proportion of 9 to 5; whence it appears that the density. of the earth is about five times that of water. FRANCE. millions speak the French language, 6453,000 the Italian, 4,063,000 the Dutch or Flemish, 967,000 the Breton, and 108,000 the Basque. The population of the states connected with the system of France, in which number are included the kingdom of Italy, Swisserland, Spain, the Confederation of the Rhine, &c. is estimated at 38,141,541 souls. When the first experiments, with respect to the extraction of sugar from the beet-root took place in France, some persons entertained doubts whether any considerable quantity could be obtained from it, or whether it would be at all comparable to sugar from the cane. Now, that positive and multiplied results no longer permit them to doubt that the two sugars are of exactly the same quality, and that the article may be obtained from the beet-root in abundance, these same persons express apprehensions, that it cannot be had but at a very advanced price. The process not having been tried there yet on a sufficiently extended scale to ascertain the lowest rate at which the article can be sold; M. Heusteloup, first surgeon of the French army, has been endeavouring to remove these apprehensions, and to forward the views of the emperor in his hostility against colonial produce, by re-publishing, with notes, M. Cotin's translation of the German work entitled, "Instructions with respect to the Culture and Saving of Beet-root, by C. F. Achard." Most of this gentleman's experiments have, from time to time, been communicated to our readers. This general view of the details cannot fail to encourage the French cultivators to persevere in their efforts. They are told, that it appears from the report of the official commission appointed in Prussia to inspect the manufactories of Messrs. Achard and Koppey, that the raw sugar of the beet-root may be produced on a large scale, and furnish sugar capable of crystallizing, at the same price as the colouial raw sugars in ordinary times. Another official report, with respect to the refining of sugars, states, 1st. that the raw sugar from the beet-root for this operation, is with respect to the quality, the same as that of the colonies: 2dly. that the refined sugar may be sold at the old and moderate prices of the commodity, leaving still a sufficient profit to the refiners. relative to the topography of the Plain of Troy. Having drawn up an extensive memoir, accompanied with a chart of the Morea, which has been since engraved at the Depôt de la Guerre; this circumstance induced him to make a comparative estimate of that country, in respect to both the former and the present times. On this occasion he has paid particular attention to Argos, and the plain with which it was surrounded. The various parts of the topography have been fixed by him with great exactitude, and he has pointed out where the most celebrated monuments stood; whither the various roads led; and, in short, every particular worthy of notice, relative to a city so celebrated in ancient times. M. MONGEZ, in a late communication to the Institute, recommends that learned body to apply itself anew to a consideration of the masks of the ancients. The mouths of these being exceedingly large, did they not contain certain blades of metal for the purpose of aiding the voices of the actors, or were they wrought after the fashion of a cockle-shell, in order to produce the effect of the modern speak ing-trumpet? He differs from the learned in respect to both these particulars, altough Fiuroni embraces the latter notion in his treatise "Sur les Masques des Anciens," and Abbé Bartheliny has declared himself, in the most decisive manner, in behalf of the former*; and is supported in his opinion by three ancient authors, viz. Phiny, Aulus Gellius, and Cassiodorus; together with one modern authority, that of the Abbé Dubos.. M. LOUIS PETIT RADEL, another member of the Institute, has been long Occupied with the developement of a general theory relative to the primitive es tablishments of Italy and Greece, and he has accordingly dedicated his attention to the ruins of ancient cities. The city of Tarragona, the walls of which were built by the Scipios, has excited the most lively interest, and he has discovered that the stones then used by the Romans were all marked with Celtiberian characters of an age much anterior. M. GROPIUS, a native of Westphalia, and an artist of great merit, has lately' transmitted a letter from Athens on the ruins of two cities lately discovered in Asia Minor. He resided, during the last five years, in Greece, where he has been M. BARBIE DU BOCAGE has been lately occupied at Paris, on researches 1790. Voyage d'Anacharsis, p. 9, t. VI. 8vo. constantly occupied in researches amidst its ruins. M, FAUVEL has addressed a letter from Athens, to M. Mongez, containing a variety of particulars interesting to antiquaries; and particularly the following inscription, recently discovered in that neighbourhood, which is but little mutilated. "The disciples of Julius Theodotus, of Melita, The sophist, have erected this monument M. de Guignes, author of a Voyage to Pekin (3 vols. 8vo. with 1 vol. folio of designs and charts), has just prepared an answer to the critics who have attacked his History of that empire. He has also read to the Institute an historical exposition of Chinese astronomy, from the earliest times, until the year 1776; and, to crown his labours, he is now about to publish a Chinese Dictionary, under the sanction of the French Emperor Napoleon. M. CHARLES VILLIERS, who has already obtained renown from the historical class of the French Institute, lately published a work in which he greatly praises the system of education pursued in the protestant schools of Germany, particuJarly those of Westphalia. A correspondent of the Institute has presented a most afflicting contrast, on the "History of the Pachalike of Bagdad," where he has resided for some years. The fine country, for which nature has done so much, has, since the decline of the empire of the Khalifs, been successively devastated by the Persians, Tartars, and Turks. It still, however, retains some traces of its former magnificence, and on account of its natural fertility always possesses within itself the means of a renovated prosperity. The inhabitants are perpetually menaced, however, by a wailike, fanatical, and formidable, sect, called the Wahabites, who have formerly made incursions into their territories, during which they treated the natives with the greatest injustice, cruelty, and oppression. The Wahabites consist of certain Arabs of the Desert, who, during the last half century, have subjugated all the neighbouring tribes in succession, and have at length attained such an amazing degree of preponderance and celebrity, that they have spread affright and consternation throughout all the country from the Persian Gulf to the confines of Syria. They derive their name from the father of their founder, who did not pretend to innovation, but to reform and restore the Koran, so as to bring it back to its original purity. They combat against those who profess any other religion than their own, but they are most exasperated against the Mahometans, as their own sect consists of Heretics; they expect crowns of martyrdom for themselves, provided they die in battle, and deem it agreeable to God to massacre, pillage, and destroy, all whom they are pleased to term infidels. There are no exploits, however formidable, and no crimes, however odious, that may not be expected from this union of warlike ferocity and religious fanaticism. REPORT OF DISEASES, In the Practice of a Physician, in Westminster; from the 20th of December, 1811, to the 20th of January, 1812. |