Italy-A celebrated improvisatrice, named Rosea Taddei, is now at Rome, where she excites the enthusiasm of numerous audiences, who behold her performances with delight and astonishment. On the third of last month, she composed, extemporaneously, on seven subjects, in different metres. An elegant style, splendid imagery, rhymes, always happy, and verses always harmonious, have distinguished her effusions. She unites profound learning to the most lively wit. The Latin Academy have hastened to inscribe this new Corinna in the number of their members.

The celebrated optician, Strayel, of Bale, has just finished an improved telescope, sixty-four feet long. It is said that with the aid of this enormous instrument several learned persons have been enabled to discover animated beings, roads, monuments, and temples in the moon.

:

Mortality of Children.-There are born at Paris about 22,000 annually; about two-thirds of these are sent out to nurse in the country of these, the mortality, during the first year, is three out of five while of the 7,000, to 8,000 nursed in Paris, more than half die within the year. In the very populous quarters of Paris, where the streets are narrow, and the inhabitants wretched, the mortality is about nine in ten the first year. In the country, when good air, cleanliness and comfort are united, as in Normandy, the mortality during the first year is only one in eight. At the Foundling Hospital at Paris, where they were all confined to the establishment, of 7,000 to 8,000 received annually, there only remained 180 at the age of ten!

The Academy considering the importance of these facts, decided on communicating them to the Societe Maternelle, and all the societies whose object it is to aid the unfortunate. Hitherto. these societies have invariably recommended mothers nursing their children; but it is evident that bad air, and other concomitant circumstances, more than counterbalance the advantages. It is more charitable, therefore, to aid them to send their children to nurse in the country.

Goethe. The property of the whole of his works has been purchased from Goethe by a great publishing firm in Germany, for the sum of 100,000 francs; and it is said that measures will be adopted to prevent the printing of the new edition in the various states of the Germanic confederation.

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.

JANUARY-1826.

WESTERN CANAL.-The Report of the Commissioners appointed to examine the route of a Canal through the Western Counties of Massachusetts, to Boston Harbor, has been transmitted to the Legislature by the Governor. The cost of constructing a navigable communication from Connecticut River to the tide waters is stated at about $3,000,000.

BLACKSTONE CANAL.-The annual meeting of the Blackstone Canal Corporation, was held in the capital of the State of Rhode Island, on the first Wednesday of January. $40,000 had been received, and $31,000 expended in the prosecution of this undertaking. An assessment of $5 on each share is ordered to be paid on the 7th of June, $5 on the 2d of August, and a further sum of $5 on the 4th of October next. Engineer; Holmes Hutchinson. Commissioners; Gen. Edward Carrington, Stephen H. Smith, and Moses B. Ives, Esquires, of Providence, R. I.: John W. Lincoln, Esq. and Hon. John Davis, of Worcester; and Joseph Thayer, Esq. of Uxbridge, Mass.

FINANCES OF MASSACHUSETTS.-The receipts from the labor of the convicts in the State's Prison for the year ending on the 30th of September last, exceed the expenses by the sum of $10,051 32, A melancholy picture of the moral condition of this institution has been recently exhibited. After paying off the sum of $39,900 heretofore borrowed by the State, there remained on the 31st of December a balance of $86,486 25 in the Treasury, although the assessment of the usual annual tax was last year omitted. Claims are still due on warrants, &c. from the Commonwealth of about $12,000, and a small amount of old state notes.

MARRIAGES.

Barre-Mr. Joel Wilder and Miss Clarinda Cheney.--Mr. Asa Saunders and Miss Isabella Wilson. Mr. Enos Sears aged 18,and Miss Martha Stone aged 13. Oxford-Mr. John Stone and Miss Pamela Stone.

Ashburnham-Mr. Samuel Foster and Miss Emeline Kibling.-Mr. Amos D. Scollay and Miss Cinderilla Adams-Mr. Isaac N. Davenport, of Ashburnham, and Miss Elizabeth G. Whittemore, of Fitchburg.

Northborough-Mr. Abraham Fay and Miss Abigail Ball.

Shrewsbury-Mr. Nathaniel C. Warren and Miss Maria Parker.

Grafton-Mr. John H. Meriam and Miss Sally Goddard.—Mr. Nathan Mayo and Miss Purlina Metcalf.-Mr. David Wadsworth and Miss Carolina Metcalf.

DEATHS.

Boylston-Mrs. Mary Goodenow, relict of the late Deacon Jonas Goodenow-77.-John Willington-60.

Millbury-Tyler Richmond Bates-17.

Charlton-Widow Susanna Newell-83.

Gardner-Mrs. Rebekah Nichols-80.

Rutland-Dec. 19-Abigail Howe-21.

Leominster-Widow Beulah Fairbanks-80.

Spencer-Jonah Perry-34.

Sutton-Nov. 25-Peter Sibley-76.

Barre-Jeduthan Sherman-71.—Mrs. Anna Sherman, relict of Mr. Ja

son Sherman-76.

SCIENTIFIC.

ORIGINAL.

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION FROM ASHES.

Ir is a fact, perhaps not generally known, and certainly not noficed by any precautions in common practice, that wooden vessels containing ashes so long removed from the hearth as to avoid all suspicions of retaining fire in the unextinguished embers or unquenched coals, are sometimes kindled into a blaze, on the sudden application of water; a fluid possessing so few combustible properties, as to be considered a perfect remedy for carelesness in securing the other more violent element. An intelligent friend once related to us, that during a most copious and abundant shower of rain, he was surprised to observe a cloud of smoke hovering over a small building appropriated for an ash house, which had been completely filled, and so secured for many weeks previous, as to prevent the possibility of any addition to its contents: and that his astonishment was much increased, on seeing flames burst from its roof, and continue to rage, notwithstanding the violence of the storm, until much of the structure was consumed. Personal observation has furnished us with a single opportunity for confirming the truth of the extraordinary incident we have mentioned, but circumstances have prevented further attention to a phenomenon so singular. When we consider the frequent occurrence of conflagrations, originating from unexplained causes, the instances where suspicions have injuriously attached to the innocent as the authors of the destruction, and the numbers of lives and aggregate of property exposed by the careless management of a dangerous production, we are convinced the subject merits examination. We propose, therefore, in this article, to enquire whether the effect can be produced, and to invite attention to the instances of its occurrence on the part of those more favorably situated.

The danger, if any exists, of spontaneous combustion, arises from the singular properties of the alkaline basis of ashes. To explain these it will be necessary to tax the reader's patience by an excursion into the territories of chemistry.

When the ashes obtained from burnt vegetable matter are washed with water, and the liquid is evaporated to dryness, the product of the process, is a greyish white solid, the common potash of commerce. By exposure to a strong heat, it assumes a bluish white shade, and is converted into the pearlash of domestic use.

When dissolved in water, mixed with double its own weight of re» cently slaked quicklime, and evaporated with frequent agitation, it is changed to the caustic potash of surgeons. To obtain the substance in a state of still higher purity, various methods are employed, which it is not now necessary to detail.

Until the year 1807, potash was supposed to be a simple substance, not capable of being resolved into its component parts; as all the attempts of the scientific to detect its compound nature, had been unsuccessful. About that time, Sir Humphrey Davy, in the course of that series of splendid discoveries, which have formed an era in the history of Chemistry, and acquired for him that distinguished reputation, so justly merited by brilliant invention, accurate research, and fearless daring, succeeded in decomposing the substance, obtaining its basis, and demonstrating its properties. On subjecting a piece of potash to the action of galvanic electricity, small particles of a new metal were obtained, which darted through the air with bright sparkles, or slowly burned into potash. He at length succeeded in preserving quantities of this inflammable body sufficient for experiment, and bestowed upon it the name of potassium. A more easy mode of procuring the article was afterwards invented by the great French Chemists. They found, when melted potash passed over red hot iron, the alkali was rapidly decomposed; and the most approved process for obtaining the metal is, to pour the potash over clean iron turnings in a curved gun barrel heated to redness,*

Potassium, at the temperature of 60° Fah. has the general appearance of Quicksilver, possessing the same lustre, but less perfectly fluid. When the temperature is reduced to 50° it becomes soft and malleable; and at the freezing point of water, is hard, solid, and brittle, exhibiting on its fragments a beautiful crystalline structure, of perfect whiteness and high lustre. When exposed to the air, its surface is tarnished, and it becomes covered with a white crust, which dissolves and is changed into liquid potash. The most singular property, and that most noticable for our present purpose, is the degree of inflammability it possesses. When heated in the air, it takes fire, and burns with a white flame and great heat. In some of the gasses it is inflamed spontaneously and consumes readily. When brought in contact with water, a slight explosion takes place, the metal bursts into a blaze on the surface of the fluid, and burns with a vivid rose colored flame. If deposited on ice, it in*II. Gorham's Chemistry 44. Brewster's Ency. Article, Chemistry, 682

stantly takes fire, and a hole is melted, which is found to be filled with a solution of pure potash.

The possibility of fires in buildings originating from the deposit of ashes in situations exposed to moisture, may be inferred from the facts we have stated. They furnish an explanation of the singular phenomena exhibited in the instance first mentioned. The roof of the structure being pervious to rain, the contents would be drenched by the occasional showers. When the summer sun shone out, they would be gradually dried by the heat of a sultry atmosphere, and potash would be slowly produced by the evaporation. Writers of deep research have informed us, that the decomposition of this alkali may be effected by a low electrical power. We know that

the atmosphere abounds with this mysterious agent; that the clouds above and the earth beneath are charged with the subtile fluid ; and that galvanic effects are produced by the contact of many substances. The application of these principles will readily resolve the problem we have proposed for ourselves. After the potash is formed, a slight electrical shock, conducted by an iron nail, or occasioned by the presence of galvanic bodies, may separate minute particles of that metal which kindles on contact with water. The descent of the rain will furnish the necessary moisture, and the blaze, catching on the wood dried by the drought of the sultry season, and fanned by the light breath of the wind, will soon venture to make its appearance in open day.

It may be perhaps urged as an objection to this hypothesis, that ashes when exposed to water do not always cause fire. This fact. is perfectly reconcilable with the position, as it is necessary they should be wet and dried alternately before the potash, will be deposited from the evaporation of the liquid, and an electrical effect be excited, to decompose the solid, and separate the metal. In a climate, constant only in change, days and weeks may pass without the combination of these chances; when they do unite, danger may come from a quarter whence we least expect its visitation, and from a source so unsuspicious, that our vigilance is lulled to rest.

It is certain, that conflagrations spreading wide destruction in their progress, have originated from the careless deposit of ashes in dry places. It is probable, that the same desolating calamity may arise from their location in wet situations. Our own intimacy with the retort and crucible is too slight to afford confirma. tion of a theory, not supported by the authorities of books, and not, to our knowledge, stated by the learned. We therefore advance