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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

WERNERIAN SOCIETY. THE second volume of the Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society contains a great variety of curious and interesting papers, the subjects of which we shall lay before our readers under distinct heads. METEOROLOGY.Observations made in Greenland in 1811 and 1812, by Mr Scoresby. On the coincidence in the pressure of the atmosphere, in different latitudes, at nearly the same time; by the Right Hon. Lord Gray. HYDROGRAPHY.On the state of the Polar Ice, by Mr Scoreshy. On the tendency to filling up in the German Ocean, by Mr Stevenson, engineer. CHEMISTRY-Analyses of magnetic iron-ore from Greenland, and of a new species of lead-ore from India; by Dr Thomson, of Glasgow. Analysis of pearl-spar, by M. Hisinger; and of native iron from Leadhills, by Mr Dacosta. ZOOLOGY.-Account of some new or rare British Fishes, and also of British Sponges, by Colonel Montagu. Description of a Swordfish killed in the Firth of Forth; observations on the genus Squalus of Linnæus; and on eproboscideous and oestrideous insects, by Dr Leach, of the British Museum. Contributions to the British Fauna, by Dr Fleming. On the genus Falco of Linnæus, by Mr James Wilson. On the Colymbus Immer, by Dr Edmondston. On the Irish Testacea, by Captain Brown. On the structure of the cells in the combs of bees and wasps, and on the causes of organization, by Dr Barclay. MINERALOGY.-On the mineralogy of the Pentland Hills; on the geognosy of the Lothians; on conglomerated or brecciated rocks; on porphyry; and mineralogical observations and speculations, by Professor Jameson. Geological account of the Campsie Hills, by Colonel Imrie. Description of Tinto, and of the Cartlane Craig in Lanarkshire, and of Ravensheugh in East Lothian, by Dr Mac. knight. On the rocks in the neighbourhood of Dundee; on those near St Andrews; and on the Red Head in Forfarshire, by Dr Fleming. On the Ochil Hills, by Charles Mackenzie, Esq. Mineralogical observations in Galloway, by Dr Grier

son.

A history of the proceedings of the Society, from its origin to the present time, is subjoined; and also an index to both the 8vo volumes, the Society, it is understood, intending in future to publish their Memoirs in the 4to form. It may also be

VOL. II.

noticed, that the volume is illustrated with twenty-seven engravings, several of which do honour to our artists.

Of the papers above enumerated, several of the most important are contained in the second part of the volume, which is just published. The account of the Greenland or Polar Ice, by Mr Scoresby, may be particularly mentioned: it is illustrated by a map of the state of the ice about two years ago, before the great breaking up of the icy barrier, which has given rise to the voyage in search of a north-west passage, about to be once more undertaken. It is exceedingly to be regretted, we think, that this undertaking has not been confided to a person so eminently qualified as Mr Scoresby. The descriptions of new or rare British Fishes, by the late Colonel Montagu, accompanied with coloured figures, may be considered as the last contribution of that distinguished naturalist to the illustration of the natural history of his country, having been received by the Society only a very

short time before his death. Edinburgh, Jan. 12.

RECENT accounts from Malta state, that the Weymouth store-ship, Mr Turner, had sailed from that island for Tripoli, to receive on board the curiosities collected at Lebida, (the site of the ancient Carthage,) and destined for the Prince Regent. They are represented as highly curious, consisting of massy columns of porphyry, statuary, and other fragments of ancient art. This collection has been made under the direction of Captain Smith, who has been some time employed in surveying the African

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historical and explanatory letter-press, forming altogether an elegant 4to volume.

Mr Rees Price, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, has in the press a translation of the Memoirs of the celebrated Dr Gales, of Paris, on the efficacy of Sulphurous Fumigation in Cutaneous Affections, Chronic Rheumatism, Gout, Paralytic and Scrophulous Affections, &c. It will be illustrated by several coloured engravings, a plan of an apparatus for applying the sulphurous acid gas, 120 cases, and copious observations by the translator. Early in the spring of 1818, the copperplates and their impressions, the property of the late Messrs Boydell, will be sold by auction in London. This collection, the largest ever brought to the hammer, consists of upwards of 5000 copperplates, engraved after the most capital pictures of the first-rate masters of the various schools of painting; among which are above 900 from the Italian school; 400 from the German; nearly 200 from the Flemish; about 300 from the Dutch; above 800 from the French; and about 2500 from the English. The catalogue of this immense stock will be published with all speed.

As St Andrew's Day fell this year on Sunday, the Royal Society held their annual meeting on Monday the 1st December, when the President, Sir Joseph Banks, after a very able speech on the determination of an invariable Standard of Linear

Measure, presented, in the name of the Society, the gold medal, called Sir Godfrey Copley's medal, to Captain Henry Kater, for his Experiments for determining the Length of the Pendulum vibrating Seconds in the Latitude of London.

A meeting was held at Newcastle on the 8th of November, for the purpose of remunerating Mr George Stephenson for his safety-lamp, when the following resolution was adopted :

"That it is the opinion of this meeting, that Mr George Stephenson having discovered the fact, that the explosion of hydrogen gas will not pass through tubes and apertures of small dimensions, and having been the first to apply that principle in the construction of a safety-lamp, is entitled to a public reward.”

The investigation of this claim was undertaken by some of the most eminent scientific characters, who, at a meeting held on the 20th November, at the house of the venerable President of the Royal Society, (who himself took the chair,) agreed to and subscribed the following resolutions :

We, having considered the evidence produced in various publications, by Mr Stephenson and his friends, in support of his claims, and having examined his lamps, and inquired into their effects in explosive mixtures, are clearly of opinion,

1. That Mr G. Stephenson is not the au

thor of the discovery of the fact, that an explosion of inflammable gas will not pass through tubes and apertures of small di

mensions.

2. That Mr G. Stephenson was not the first to apply that principle to the construction of a safety-lamp-none of the lamps which he made in the year 1815 having been safe; and there being no evidence even of their having been made on that principle.

3. That Sir H. Davy not only discovered, independently of all others, and without any knowledge of the unpublished experiments of the late Mr Tennant, on flame, the principle of the non-communication of explosion, through a small aperture, but that he has also the sole merit of having first applied it to the very important purpose of a safety-lamp, which has evidently been imitated in the latest lamps of Mr Stephenson.

Jos. BANKS, P. R. S.

WILLIAM THOMAS BRAnde.
CHARLES HATCHETT.

W. H. WOLLASTON.
THOMAS YOUNG.

FRANCE.

A volume in 12mo. entitled, De Linguâ latina colendâ, et Civitate latinâ fundandá, liber singularis, has appeared at Toulouse. It is indeed a singular book. The author, who is a Spaniard, devoted to the ecclesiastical profession in France, proposes to the great Sovereigns assembled in Congress, to found a Latin, free, and Hanseatic city, to belong to all the nations of Europe. The plan may seem extravagant and difficult of execution; but at least it is explained in a novel and original manner.

By an ordinance of the 15th October, the following patents for inventions or improvements have been granted :

To M. Plant, for the construction of carriages with reservoir naves.

Ollivier, for mechanical shoe-making. Lotz and Simon, for plate iron chimneys. George, for a geo-celestial globe, to facilitate the teaching of geography and astronomy.

Abellard, for an apparatus for cooling liquids, called by him refrigerant. Navier, jun. for a windmill with horizontal sails.

Dubochet, for the refining of common salt or muriate of soda.

Dunnage and Marshall, for silk fur hats. Sauvage de Saint Mare, for re-acting cylinders, applicable to various machines. Thory, for a harmonic harp.

Jallade Lafond, for trusses for ruptures, which he calls renixigrades.

Cochot, Brunet, and Gagnot, for a mechanical lamp, called à la Cochot. Mayman, for a portable apparatus för distilling.

Robin de la Quintinye, for an iron case to surround trees.

Sevene, for a machine for shearing cloth. Sievrac, for the construction of carriages, called Velocifères.

Pilet, for an apparatus for grinding corn without the aid of wind or water.

Jacquinet, for a plate iron vapour flue, called à la Nancy.

Hebre, for a four-wheeled carriage, called Gondole.

Solichon, for a new system of navigation, both maritime and inland.

Banse, for a contrivance to be adapted to the silk loom, capable of determining the action of two shuttles.

Tourasse, for a machine employed by him in making sugar-loaves.

Ternaux and Son, for the manufacture of new stuffs, called by them asimodes.

M. Girard, of the Institute, has publish. ed, in a Treatise on the Valley of Egypt, an analysis of the mud of the Nile, so celebrated by the fertility it communicates to the soil of that country. It appears from chemical experiments made by M. Regnault, that in a hundred parts of the mud, there are eleven of water, nine of carbon, six of oxide of iron, four of silex, four of carbonate of magnesia, eighteen of carbonate of lime, and forty-eight of alumen. The quantities of silex and alumen vary according to the places where the mud is taken; that on the banks of the river contains a great deal of sand, while in that at a distance the argil is almost pure. The abundance of this earth in the mud renders it proper for the purposes of the arts. They make excellent brick of it, and vases of different forms; it enters into the fabrication of pipes; the glassmakers employ it in the construction of their furnaces; the inhabitants of the country parts cover their houses with it, and consider it as a sufficient manure for their lands.

GERMANY.

The best German poem produced this year is printed in the Urania, an almanac for 1818. The title of this piece, which is

in three cantos, is, Die bezauberte RoseThe Enchanted Rose. Brockhaus, the publisher, in April 1816, offered three poetical prizes for a romantic tale, a poetical epistle, and an Idyl. The above mentioned piece, by Ernest Schürtze, obtained the prize of 50 ducats in the first class. It is written in the manner of Wieland's Oberon, except that the stanzas are more regular; the whole is more delicate, and, as it were, of pure ethereal texture. It combines all the magic tones of melody. The publisher has announced a separate edition of this poem, on which he designs to bestow every possible typographic and chalcographic embellishment. The young poet died at Celle, in the Hanoverian dominions, in his 28th year, a few days after receiving intelligence of the success of his performance, and just as he was preparing to set out for Italy.He contracted the disease which proved fatal, during the siege of Hamburgh in 1813, when he served as a volunteer in the Jägers. We are promised his posthumous works, together with a memoir of his life, by Professor Bouterweck, of Gottingen.

Mr C. K. Barth, of Baireuth, is printing the Ancient History of Germany, down to the time of Arminius, in two 8vo volumes, the second of which will be devoted to the geography of the country, and the manners, religion, &c. of the inhabitants.

M. C. A. Erb, professor of philosophy at Heidelberg, has invented a cheap and simple hydraulic apparatus, by which ships and vessels of all kinds, from the smallest to the largest, may be propelled, with a small exertion of force, against the most violent currents and storms, in constant uniform motion, with a rapidity capable of any increase, without the use of oars or sails. Sinking ships may be preserved from farther sinking by this apparatus, according to the direction to be given to it. It governs the motion of the largest ship, so as to move it at pleasure, from a state of rest, by the small difference of an inch, or a line, or without progressive motion, to turn it round on one point in every direction.

WORKS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION.

LONDON.

THE fourth and last canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, with considerable notes, comprising observations upon society, literature, &c. collected during his travels and residence abroad, will soon appear from the pen of Lord Byron.

An interesting work of Delineations of the city of Pompeii, consisting of forty

picturesque views, on a large scale from accurate drawings made in the year 1817, by Major Cockburn, of the Royal Artillery, is in preparation. The plates are etched in a free and spirited outline by Pi nelli, of Rome, and will be finished by W. B. Cooke. It will be printed uniformly with Stuart's Athens, in folio.

A History of the Civil Wars of Eng

land, from original, authentic, and most curious and interesting manuscripts, and scarce tracts of the times, is in the press. It will be illustrated by 200 engravings by the first artists, from original paintings, by G. Arnald, R. A. taken expressly for this work, on every spot on which battles or other important events took place.

Mr Mawe, honorary member of the Mineralogical Society of Jena, and author of Travels in Brazil, a Treatise on Diamonds, &c. has in the press, Familiar Lessons in Mineralogy; in which will be explained the methods of distinguishing one mineral from another.

A Picturesque Tour of Italy, with references to the text of Addison, Moore, Eustace, and Forsyth, is in preparation, from drawings taken on the spot during the years 1816, 1817, by James Hakewill Arch.

Observations, moral, literary, and antiquarian, made during a Tour through the Pyrenees, France, Switzerland, Italy, and the Netherlands, in the years 1814-15, by John Milford, jun. late of St John's College, Cambridge, are in the press.

Mr Montgomery has a new volume of poems nearly ready for the press, entitled, Greenland and other Poems.

Mr Campbell's Selected Beauties of British Poetry, with lives of the poets, and critical dissertations, will soon appear, in five volumes, post 8vo.

An Account is preparing of a Voyage of Discovery to the Western Coast of Corea, and the great Loo Choo Island, in the ship Lyra, by Captain Basil Hall, R. N. F. R. S. L. & E.; with a vocabulary of the language of that island by Lieutenant Clifford, R. N., and an Appendix, containing charts and various hydrographical and scientific notices, illustrated by eight colour ed engravings, after drawings by Havell, of scenery and the costume of the people of Corca, and particularly of the more interesting inhabitants of Loo Choo; in one volume quarto.

The first volume of the Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, with plates, is in the press.

The Desâteer, with the ancient Persian translations and commentary, and a glossary of the ancient Persian words, is printing by Mulla Feruz Bin Mullu Kaws: an English translation will be added, and the whole will form two volumes quarto.

Early in the present year will be published, the Hall of Hellingsley, or the Discovery; a novel, by Sir Egerton Brydges,

Bart. M. P. &c.

A View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, is preparing by Henry Hallam, Esq. in two volumes quarto.

A new provincial miscellany, with the title of The Northumberland and Newcastle

Monthly Magazine, will be commenced in sixpenny numbers.

Dr Adam Neale, formerly physician to the British embassy at Constantinople, will speedily publish a volume of Travels through some parts of Germany, Poland, Moldavia, and Turkey; illustrated by views and cos

tumes.

A translation of Signor Pananti's Nar rative of a Voyage to Barbary, and Residence at Algiers; comprising Biographical Sketches of the Dey and his Ministers, Anecdotes of the late War, Observations respecting the relation of the Barbary States with the Christian Powers, and on the necessity and importance of their complete subjugation, is now in the press. By Edward Blaguiere, Esq. author of "Letters from the Mediterranean.""

EDINBURGH.

Women; or, Pour et Contre: a Tale. By the author of Bertram, a Tragedy. In 3 vols. 12mo.

Travels from Vienna through Lower Hungary, with some Account of Vienna during the Congress. By Richard Bright, M. D. In 4to, with numerous engravings.

An Account of the Life and Writings of the late John Erskine of Carnock, D. D. one of the Ministers of the Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh. By Sir Henry Moncreiff Wellwood, Bart. In 8vo.

An Account of the Kingdom of Nepaul. By Francis Buchanan, M. D. Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, of the Society of Antiquaries, and of the Linnean and Asiatic Societies. In 4to, with engravings.

An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language; in which the words are deduced from their originals, explained in their different senses, and authorised by the names of the writers in whose works they occur. Abridged from the quarto edition by the author, John Jamieson, D. D. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland, and of the American Antiquarian Society. In 8vo.

The Conchology of Great Britain and Ireland, being a complete Natural History of all the Shells which have been found to inhabit Great Britain and its Islands, arranged according to the Linnean method. Illustrated by figures of every shell hitherto

Our readers are already partly acquainted with the contents of this interesting book, from the able account of it by a distinguished foreigner, inserted in this and the preceding Number; and we are happy to observe from the above notice, that it will speedily be at their command in an English dress.

discovered, drawn from nature. By Thomas Brown, Esq. Fellow of the Linnean Society, Member of the Wernerian Natural History Society of Dublin, and Honorary Member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Bolton.

Zoological Elements; or, an Introduction to the Natural History of the Animal Kingdom. Illustrated by fourteen plates drawn from nature. By Thomas Brown, Esq. Fellow of the Linnean Society, &c.

The colours of the different objects will be described according to the Wernerian Nomenclature.

History of Great Britain, from the Revolution in 1688, to the French Revolution in 1789. By Sir James Macintosh, M. P.

LL.D. F.R.S.

A View of the History of Scotland, from the earliest Records to the Rebellion in the year 1745. In a series of Letters. 3 vols. 8vo.

MONTHLY LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

LONDON.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIRS of the Legal, Literary, and Political Life of the late Right Hon. J. P. Curran, once Master of the Rolls in Ireland; by William O'Regan, Esq. barrister. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

Memoirs of the Public and Private Life of Benjamin Franklin, LL.D. now first published from the Original MS. written by himself to a late period, and continued till the time of his Death by his Grandson, William Temple Franklin, Esq. 4to. L. 2, 2s.

Madame de Staël's Memoirs of the Private Life of her Father; to which are added, Miscellanies by M. Necker. 12s. The same in French, 10s. 6d.

DIVINITY.

Old Church of England Principles Opposed to the "New Light;" in a series of plain, doctrinal, and practical Sermons on the First Lesson in the Morning Service of the different Sundays and great Festivals throughout the Year; by the Rev. Richard Warner. Vol. I. 6s.

A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, with the Text at large; by the Rev. Robert Hawker, D. D. Complete in 48 parts, demy 8vo. 3s. each, or royal 8vo. 4s.

The New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, translated into pure Biblical Hebrew, for the use of the Jews in any part of the world. L. 1, 1s.

The Unitarian Refuted; or, the Divinity of Christ, and the doctrine of the Holy Trinity plainly proved from copious Texts of Scripture, accompanied with Notes collected from the New Family Bible; by the Rev. G. Baker. 8vo. 5s.

The Bible, not the Bible Society, being an Attempt to point out that mode of dis. seminating the Scriptures which would most effectually conduce to the security of

the Established Church, and the peace of the United Kingdom; by the Rev. W. Phelan, Fellow of Trinity College. 8vo. 4s.

God is Love the most Pure, my Prayer, and my Consolation, freely translated from the Original of M. D'Eckarthausen, with alterations and additions, and a Companion to the Altar; by Johnson Grant, M. A. 12mo. 2s. 6d.

Lectures on Scripture Doctrines; by William Bengo Collyer, D. D. 8vo. 14s.

The Clerical Guide, or Ecclesiastical Directory, containing a complete Register of the Prelates and other Dignitaries of the Church; a List of all the Benefices in England and Wales, arranged alphabetically, &c. 8vo.

Instructions for the use of Candidates for Holy Orders, and of the Parochial Clergy, as to ordination, licences, institutions, collations, induction, dispensations, &c.; by C. Hodgson. 8vo. 8s.

The Divine Authority of Holy Scripture asserted, from its adaptation to the real State of Human Nature; in eight Sermons, preached before the University of Oxford; by J. Miller, M. A. Fellow of Worcester College.

EDUCATION.

An Introduction to the study of German Grammar, with practical Exercises; by Peter Edmund Laurent. 12mo. 5s.

A Greek Primer, containing the various Inflexions of Nouns, Participles, and Verbs, with numerous Vocabularies, and a few easy Extracts with Explanations. 8s. 6d.

A Dissected Terrestrial Globe for the Instruction and Amusement of Youth; by M. Wauthier. L. 1, 10s.

LAW.

The Trials of Jeremiah Brandreth, William Turner, Isaac Ludlam, and George Weightman, for High Treason; taken in short-hand; by W. B. Gurney. 2 vols. 8vo. L. 1, 4s.

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