ty at home. It was from the gay, it is time to look about and calculate witty, and licentious court of the Se- what we have lost or gained on the cond Charles that the orders were is-score of truly useful knowledge dursued for the legal murder of Russell ing this momentous period. and Sydney; and it is to be observed that there was no defect of intellect, but a considerable taste for science and the arts, prevalent among the princes and their followers who have left that indelible stain on the pages of our history. There is reason to presume, that, had Charles II. lived in our days, his progress in chemistry and mineralogy (for a royal student) might have been considerable. Even the pious and veracious Evelyn, who held the abominations of that court in due abhorrence, bears testimony to the king's taste and capacity for science. The inference from all is, that we are not entitled to think that we are the people, and wisdom shall die with us, because we have made a rapid progress in those sciences useful and honourable in themselves, yet to be considered merely as an exercise of the understanding, neither calculated to warm and enlarge the heart, nor to strengthen and fix the principles, and no otherwise exerting a beneficial influence on the conduct, than as they Occupy time which might be otherwise devoted to worse purposes. We do not mean to undervalue sciences from which the community have largely benefited; nor to infer, that a pious and virtuous man will become less so by being a proficient in them. But confining ourselves to their moral influence on individual character, we feel safe in asserting, that if they take nothing away from a man's piety or virtue, they add nothing to it, nor yet to that kind of every-day knowledge which is requisite for the conduct of affairs, or to enable a man to please and instruct in conversation. The talents peculiarly adapted to those pursuits ought to be cultivated and encouraged, yet the general devotion to them by those who are not calculated to derive any advantage to themselves or others by such studies, has certainly co-operated with the convulsions of the age to withdraw the attention of our contemporaries from subjects at least equally important, and worthy at any rate to share the attention which these sciences have engrossed.-Now that The hurly-burly's done, There is no short pithy sentence in our language so often quoted as that maxim of Pope-" The proper study of mankind is man." Those sentences which pass into apothegms, and are oftenest applied, have always something in them that meets the general sense of mankind. The mystic future that awaits us all is mercifully veiled from our sight. But, besides the entertainment and improvement to be derived from studying human character, called into action by these passions or principles, in which we all share, the only means permitted to us of judging of the future is by a comparison with the past. It is thus we are instructed, in the strange medley of human affairs, what to seek or what to shun, where to hope, and where to fear. He who is merely engaged in viewing what passes before him, has comparatively a narrow range indeed of observation. The passions and prejudices of the multitude who have been so long tost on a stormy sea of terror and uncertainty, lead to results that defy all foresight and calculation. Uncertainty, more than usually dim, covers even the more immediate future. It is only from an intimate knowledge of the past, that regular deductions can be made, or sound opinions formed. But we live, like Katterfelto, upon wonders, or a gossiping inspection into the lives and habits of contemporary individuals. These, if possessed of any good or bad quality, distinguishing them from the nameless crowd, can find no shelter in the most sacred shades of privacy. There are always persons ready to gratify this morbid love of private anecdote and dissected character,-like the tyger, who, having once got the taste of human flesh, never willingly returns to that of other animals. Those once accustomed to the gratification of an idle, and often criminal, curiosity, do not often acquire a taste for useful, or, at least, harmless information. How much do we owe to any one who furnishes us, in the form of a biographical memoir like the present, a worthier theme for thought and conversation than this ephemeral impertinence! (To be continued.) . LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. Sir Isaac Newton. The 6th number of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal contains a letter from the late Dr Reid to Dr Robison, communicating some particulars regarding the family of Sir Isaac Newton, which go to show that he was descended of a Scots family, and that his grandfather had gone to England with James I. at his accession to the crown of that country. Pitcairn's Island.-Captain Henry King of the Elizabeth visited this island in March 1819, and gives a very interesting account of the inhabitants, (the mutineers of the Bounty and their descendants,) in an extract from his Journal, published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. The population is upwards of forty, who, under the patriarchal superintendence of John Adams, seem to have acquired no inconsiderable knowledge of religious and moral duties. The officers and crew of the Elizabeth left them nearly two hundred books of various descriptions. > 66 Diminution of the Waters of the Globe. Mountains having been conjectured to be formations from a state of solution in water, it has been inquired, What has become of the vast body of fluid which formerly covered the earth, and stood over even the highest mountain peaks ?" The following statement it is presumed may remove some of the difficulties attending this question. Salts, when crystallizing from a state of aqueous solution, are not confined to the surface of the liquid, but frequently rise above it. This effect being considerable in the small scale in our soda cisterns, how much more striking must it not have been during the crystallization of mountains. If crystals in a soda cistern shoot an inch lution, it canDove the surface of the so excite surprise if, in the vast primeval fluid, crystallizations have in this way risen many thousand feet above the level of the fluid. If this be admitted as a fair inference, it will go far in assisting us to explain what has been called the diminution of the original waters of the globe,Edin. Phil. Jour Account of a Vessel struck with a Swordfish. A vessel which arrived at Liverpool about a year ago, (the Kitty, Captain Hod. son,) from a voyage to the coast of Africa, being put into the graving-dock for the purpose of receiving some repairs, was found to be perforated through the bow, by a hard bony substance. This substance, probably a part of the rostrum of a Xiphias or Sword-fish, had penetrated through a solid part of the vessel, where the thickness in timber and planks was 12 inches of sound oak. The shattered end of the bone VOL. VII. was visible on the outside, and the smaller extremity appeared within the ceiling. The latter part being observed by a carpenter, who mistook it for a trenail, he struck at it a blow with a mallet, by which a portion of the tip was broken off. Finding it to be something curious, he pointed it out to Messrs J. and R. Fisher, shipbuilders, the owners of the vessel, who caused it to be taken out. The position of the bone was at the distance of four feet, horizontally from the stem, and two feet below the surface of the water when the vessel was afloat. Hence, it appeared, that when the ship had been in rapid progress through the water, she had been met and struck by a sword-fish advancing in an opposite direction, by the shock of which, or by the action of the water forced past the body of the animal by the vessel's pro gress, the snout had been broken off and detached. The blow, though it must have been singularly forcible, was not observed by any person in the ship. Had the bone been withdrawn, the vessel would probably have foundered. The substances through which it had penetrated were, a sheet of copper, an oak plank 24 inches in thickness, a solid oak timber of 7 inches, and another plank also of oak, of 2 inches. The bony substance, which, through the politeness of Messrs Fisher, I was allowed to examine, is 15 inches in length, 2 inches greatest diameter, and weighs 1 lb. 2 oz. It is nearly cylindrical at the point, but considerably compressed towards the root. The longest and shortest diameters in the middle are respectively 17-10th inches and 1 1-10th; and in the thickest part, near the extremity, 2 inches and 13-10th. Most of the surface is rough, the colour grey, the fracture splintery. The roughness, which extends all round the bone to the distance of 5 or 6 inches from the point, and indeed all over it, excepting on a part of the surface, consists of minute tubercles or denticles, imbedded in a substance having the appearance of an incrustation of the thickness of a shilling. Some of the tubercles are wanting, but their cavities remain visible. Whether these tubercles are natural to the substance on which they are found, or whether they are the incrustation of a species of sertularia, I had not an opportunity of determining. That part of the surface which is free from any denticles appears of a fibrous bony texture. The broken extremity is hard, white, and splintery in the fracture. In the interior of the bone are four angular perforations, running longitudinally almost as far as the very tip; they are from 1-10th to 1-5th of an inch in their largest diameter.-WM. SCORESBY jun.—Edin. Phil. Jour. Preservation of Eggs. As it is of great importance in a zoological, and even in an economical view, to be able to transport eggs fresh from one country to another, it has been proposed, as the best mode of effecting this, to varnish them with gum. arabic, and then imbed them in pounded charcoal. The gum-arabic answers better than varnish, as it can be easily removed by washing in water, and the bed of charcoal, by maintaining around the eggs a pretty uniform temperature, prevents them from suffering from the great alternations of heat and cold, experienced in carrying them to different countries.Edin. Phil. Jour. Nature of Hard Woods.We have already alluded to the remarkably abundant formation of calcareous earth in the genus Chara, and in that curious tribe of vegetables so often considered as of animal origin, and named Corallina. Other plants are particularly distinguished by the quantity of silica they secrete, and of these, the best known are the rush and the bamboo. Masses of silica of considerable magnitude have been cut out of the teak wood; this circumstance, conjoined with the hardness and weight of the wood, led Professor Jameson to conjecture, that the teak, and other similar woods, might contain silica, or even adamantine carbonaceous matter. This conjecture has been confirmed in part by the experiments on teak made by Dr Wollaston, on the suggestion of Professor Jameson, who found that it contained a considerable portion of silica, and similar results have been since obtained by Mr Sivright of Meggetland, of which an account was lately communicated to the Wernerian Society.--Edin. Phil. Jour. Uses of Iceland Moss. The esculent properties of the Iceland lichen are well known in many districts on the continent of Europe. Of late years it has been proposed to use it either alone or mixed with flour in the composition of bread in those districts where flour is scarce. The Saxon Government lately published a report on this subject, which is full of information interesting to those mountainous districts, where this plant abounds. In this report, we are informed, that 6 pounds and 22 loth of lichen meal boiled with fourteen times its quantity of water, and baked in this state with 594 pounds of flour, produced 11 pounds of good household bread. Without this addition, the flour would not have produced more than 78 pounds of bread; consequently, this addi tion of 6 pounds and 22 loths of lichen meal has occasioned an increase of 323-6ths of good bread. It is known that 3 pounds of flour yield 4 pounds of household bread. One pound of lichen meal, added in the form of paste, gives an addition of nearly 6 pounds, and therefore is equivalent, in this view, to about 3 pounds of flour, because it affords above 3 times more bread than this. But at present nearly all the Iceland moss collected in Germany is sent through Hamburgh to England, where it is used in brewing, and in the composition of ship-biscuit, as it is said biscuit which contains it as a constitu ent part is not attacked by worms, and suffers little from the action of sea-water. This lichen, when deprived of its bitter principle, forms an excellent soup, and when coagulated, a good jelly; and it has been recommended in this prepared state as an excellent substitute for sago, (the pith of the Cycas circinalis,) salep, and even for chocolate.-Edin. Phil. Jour. Singular discovery respecting Copperplate Printing.-M. Gonord is said to have excited the surprise of the public, by an nouncing that he can take impressions from an engraved copperplate on any scale, either larger or smaller than the plate, without requiring another copper plate, or occupying more than two or three hours. For example, from the large atlas engravings of the Description de l'Egypte, he could make an edition in octavo with out changing the plates. The certainty of the process has been corroborated by the members of the jury admitted into his works; and the jury, in consequence, de creed a gold medal to M. Gonord. Ann. de Chim. XII. p. 95. This discovery, if there is no mistake about it, must be con sidered as one of the most surprising that has ever been made in the arts. We can see no reason why stereotype plates, or pages of types, should not be employed to yield duodecimo and folio editious of the same work, and why the same die should not be employed in coining farthings as well as crowns. Edin. Phil. Jour. Population of Van Dieman's Land. The total population of Van Dieman's Land in 1819 was about 4360 persons; the free persons being 2074, and the con victs 2289. The whole number of acres in cultivation was 8330. The number of horses was 366; horned cattle 23,124; and sheep 172,128. There were 10 schools on the island, and 220 scholars. Asiatic Journal. It appears from an account,&c. of the Island of Ceylon, in the Revue Encyclopedique, that the part which belongs to England contains about a million of inhabit ants. The revenue amounts to two or three hundred thousand pounds sterling, but falls short of the expences at least one third Its political importance is admitted to be very great. Since the introduction of the cow-pox, the population of the island has been considerably augmented. The growth of rice is much neglected, though few countries are better adapted for its culti vation. At the sale of the late Mr Bindley's library, at Evans's in Pall Mall, a collection of single poems and ballads, published at about a halfpenny or one penny each, bound in eight volumes, sold at the immense price of L. 837. Germany.The Emperor Francis has published an edict, ordaining that the work entitled Jus Criminale Hungaricum, or the Criminal Laws of Hungary,' published by M. Vuchetich, Professor of the Roman Civil Law, &c. in the University of Pesth, be considered as the standard and guide by which all the lectures on law in the Universities of Hungary shall be modelled. His Majesty has ordered the sum of 3000 florins to the author. The number of students in the University of Leipsic has increased of late to upwards of a thousand. Many that were at the University of Jena, and which they were obliged to quit, have repaired to Leipsic, where their conduct has been unblameable. At Jena, there were thirteen Greeks, seven of whom are now at Leipsic where others of their countrymen had previously been prosecuting their studies. A number of Courlanders and other Russians are also in that University. One of those institutions called a Savings Bank, for the working classes, common in England, has been lately established at Leopoldstadt, one of the suburbs of Vienna, under the patronage of the Minister of Interior. Relief Globe.-Charles P. Khummer, an artist of Berlin, has lately published a globe, in which the mountains are beauti fully executed in relief. It is admirably calculated for communicating lasting and accurate ideas of the distribution and grouping of the great ranges of mountains, and table lands in the different quarters of the globe. There are globes of this description of different sizes and prices. Globe, 16 inches in diameter, 8 dollars, without names, with names 11 dollars. Globe, 26 inches diameter, 25 dollars, without names, with names, degrees, and fine ly finished, 50 dollars.-Edin. Phil. Jour. Sweden.-M. Rothleib, Gentleman of the Chamber to the King of Sweden, intends to publish a description of the church of Bitterholm, a monument as important to Swedish history as Westminster Abbey is to that of England. Stockholm is built on seven holms or islands, in one of which, called the Bitterholm, besides the ancient royal chapel which was burnt in 1767, there is yet remaining a church, built five centuries ago. Within its arches and vaults are more than four thousand national trophies, and the remains of all the illustrious characters in Swedish history, kings, queens, generals, statesmen, &c. M. Rothleib, in his description of this venerable edifice, will trace, in some measure, the annals of the Swedish monarchy. Africa In a letter from M. Graberg, Swedish Consul at Tangier, to the College of Health, at Stockholm, he states as follows: "I am about to announce to you a discovery of the highest importance, ascertained by a number of successful experiments. The external use of oil of olives, as a preservative against the plague, has been long known in the Levant; it has been applied by fomentations, frictions, and lotions; but no one has hitherto taken it as an internal remedy, by drinking it. This discovery was made, last year, by M. Colaco, Portuguese Consul at Laraché. His first experiment was upon 200 persons, out of whom there were not ten in whom it did not prove efficacious. As soon as the infection is caught, from four to eight ources of oil of olives should be taken, at once, according to the strength, &c. of the constitution. A universal sweat will then take place, and in such abundance, that it appears to expel the virus, even alone: or at least, this has occurred in many instan ces. Its effects, however, as a sudorific, may be properly seconded, by taking a decoction of elder berries. In some indivi duals, the oil operates as an emetic; in others, it purges the bowels. But sweat or excessive perspiration is usually the prin→ cipal symptom, and also the most beneficial." Greece. M. de Rosnavano, principal Aga of Moldavia, who was in France, in 1818, had formed the project, during his residence, of naturalizing the system of mutual instruction in Greece. This worthy character has been a traveller in France and England, making inquiries into the means of effecting this design.. A part of this plan consists in having leaves printed on one side only, and the matter being invariable, may be communicated from a highest to a lower learner, without alterations in the text, or even referring to the master's instructions. M. R. has had Greek characters cut and cast, large enough for children to read, at the distance of three feet. M. Eberhard, to whom the execu→ tion has been assigned, has printed seventythree tablets, under the direction of M. Cleobolous, of Philippolis, a pupil of the Normal school founded at Paris, by M. de Chabrol, Prefect. On this a French Journal observes, that an undertaking which denotes the revival of letters in the Levant, may well represent Greece as again seeking from Europe the knowledge which she had formerly imparted. East Indies. A meteoric stone, which fell in India on the 18th of February 1815, is now in the East India Company's Museum at Calcutta. On the above day, about noon, some people at work in a field near about half a mile from the village of Dooralla, were suddenly alarmed by an explos on which they conceived to be of a large cannon, succeeded by a rushing noise like that of a cannon ball in its greatest force. Turn ing their eyes towards the quarter whence the sound proceeded, they saw a large black body in the air, apparently moving directly towards them; it passed them with inconceivable velocity, and buried itself in the earth at about sixty paces from the spot where they stood. The explosion was heard to the distance of twenty-five miles from Dooralla. It weighs rather more than 25lbs. is covered with a thin black pellicle, is somewhat triangular, and exhibits on a corner, whence a piece has been broken off, iron pyrites and nickel. America. The superficies of the territory of the United States from the Atlantic to the Great Ocean is estimated at 2,257,000 square miles, and the population at eleven : millions. The proportion of Whites to Blacks has increased as follows since the year 1790 in that year there were 27 blacks to 100 whites; in 1800 the proportion was 20 to 100; and in 1810 only 19. The number of emigrants that arrived in the different states in 1794 was about 10,000; in 1817, 22,240, of whom 11,977 were British or Irish. From the British possessions in America there arrived the same year 2901 individuals. There is now publishing, at Montreal, L'Abeille Canadienne, or the 'Canadian Bee,' the first number of which was published in August 1818. This undertaking embraces a melange of sciences, arts, and literature, announces the best publications in foreign languages, and gives a successive account of historical and biographical noti ces, with the principal discoveries, anecdotes, political and literary, and poetry. The proprietor and editor is M. Henri Maziere, an Anglo-Canadian. WORKS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. LONDON. THE next part of the Journal of New Voyages and Travels will contain Gourbillion's Travels in Sicily in 1819, exhibiting a spirited account of the present State of that interesting Island. Mr Godwin will shortly publish a new work, under the following title: "Of Population: an Enquiry concerning the Power of Increase in the Numbers of Mankind, being an answer to Mr Malthus's Essay on that Subject." Travels in Syria and Mount Sinai; by J. L. Burkhardt, are preparing. Dr Ramsbotham, Lecturer on Midwifery, &c. &c. will shortly publish the first part of Practical Observations on Midwifery, with a Selection of Cases. In a few days will be published Eccentricity, a Novel, by Mrs MacNalli, daughter of the late Rev. Robert Edgeworth, of Lissard, Ireland. Devonia: a Poem, in Five Cantos, descriptive of the most interesting Scenery, Natural and Artificial, in the County of Devon: interspersed with Historical Anecdotes, and Legendary Tales, by the Rev. G. Woodley, of St Marys, Scilly, will soon appear. The Book of Nature laid Open is in the press, in one volume duodecimo, in a popular survey of the phenomena and constitution of the Universe and the appearances of Nature, during each month of the year; the whole distinctly traced, and intended as a pleasing and instructive companion, by the Rev. W. Hutton, M. A. Speedily will be published, " Traits and Trials," a novel. Another volume of Mr Surtees's Topography of Durham may be shortly expected. An Appendix to the Midland Flora is preparing for publication; comprising also, corrections and additions, referring to the two former volumes; with occasional observations, tending to elucidate the study of the British Fungi, and concluding with a generic and specific index to the whole work, and a generel index of synonyms; by T. Purton, Surgeon, Alcester. It will be embellished with numerous coloured engravings, by James Sowerby, F.L.S. Mr W. G. Rogers will publish, early in October, an engraving of the Warwick Vase, in the Lithographic manner. And, shortly will be published, the first number of a progressive Series of Ornamental Sketches, original and selected; drawn on stone by W. G. Rogers. An Account of the most memorable Battles and Sieges, since the fall of Troy, is in the press, classed and arranged to afford a view of their respective consequences on the moral condition of mankind; by G. Haliton, M.A. Mr Winter Betham has in the press, a History of the Church at Hafley, Gloucestershire, read at a Centenary Commemoration, and published at the request of the church. A Select Cabinet of Natural History, with an account of the Silkworm, and an elegant method of obtaining very exact and pleasing representations of plants; by the late Dr Schaw, F.R.S. Principal Naturalist of the British Museum, is preparing for publication. |