13.

time, the inside of his hand swells downwards into the receiver. 11. If the air be exhausted from a thin bottle placed under a receiver, and then suddenly let in again, its weight will instantly reduce the bottle to very small pieces. 12. If a piece of wood be cemented in the lower part of the neck of an open receiver, and mercury poured upon it, after two or three exhaustions the pressure of the external air will be so great on the mercury, as to cause it to descend through the pores of the wood in form of a beautiful shower, which will shine in a dark room. The lightest and heaviest bodies descend with equal velocity in vacuo: thus a guinea and a feather, let fall from the top of a tall exhausted receiver, arrive at the bottom both together. 14. It appears, that air is necessary to the existence of fire and flame; for a piece of burning charcoal, or a lighted candle, is presently extinguished in the exhausted receiver: neither will gunpowder flash or make any explosion therein, but melt and die away. 15. Air is likewise shewn to be the medium of sounds; for a bell rung in vacuo is not heard, but as the air is admitted into the receiver, the sound increases in proportion. 16. That fermentation and putrefaction depend on the air, is shewn by preserving fruits in their native bloom and perfection through the winter in an exhausted glass and eggs, which in the air soon grow stale and putrid, retain their goodness a long time in vacuo. 17. How necessary air is to vegetation appears from hence, that seed sown in earth kept under an exhausted receiver will not grow at all. 18. Air is likewise absolutely necessary to most sorts of animals, though some will live a long time in vacuo, whilst others expire presently.

59. Animalcules.

AN animalcule is an animal of such a minute size, as to be scarcely discernible by the naked

eye.

Of these minute animals, the numbers are far greater than those of all the other parts of animated nature. They are found disseminated throughout all parts of created matter: the air we breathe, our drink of every sort, and our most wholesome food, teem with myriads of these creatures: and since the improvement of microscopes, numbers have been discovered which have lain concealed from the creation of the world.

Be

fore the invention of this curious optical instrument, a mite was thought to be the utmost limit of animated minuteness; but it is now well known that there are numbers of creatures twenty-seven million times smaller than this minute animal. The strength and velocity of these small creatures, greatly exceed those of the larger parts of nature, in proportion to their respective sizes. M. De Lisle has computed the velocity with which a small insect moved, and which was scarcely visible to the naked eye: he found it run three inches in half a second of time: therefore, if its legs be the fifteenth part of a line in length, it must make five hundred steps in travelling three inches; that is, it must shift its legs five hundred times in the space of a single second of time.

These animals are also found to vary in their forms, and that great naturalist, Sir John Hill, has arranged all animalcules under three classes, viz. those which have no tails, nor any visible limbs; those which have tails, but no visible limbs; and those which have visible limbs: each K

class is again subdivided into several distinct genera, too numerous to find a place here.

But the most natural division of animalcules appears to be, that of visible, invisible, and microscopical animalcules. Visible animalcules are all those which are perceptible by the naked eye; of which we may reckon mites, with several species of insects, reptiles, and other vermin. Invisible animalcules are all those beings which are neither visible by the naked eye, nor even through the best microscopes; concerning which naturalists have formed many strange conjectures. Microscopic animalcules are such as are perceptible only through a microscope, of a great magnifying power: many of these are so small, as to appear very astonishing, the length of some of them not exceeding the three hundred thousandth part of an inch; or in other words, several thousands of these minute animals would have sufficient room to dance upon the point of a common needle: and the magnitude of the whole earth is not large enough to form a third proportional to one of these animals, compared with the common whale. The structure of these minute creatures is also as surprising as their diminutive sizes. Each of them, like the larger animals, has a perfectly or ganized body, furnished with veins, arteries, nerves, fibres, and all the other smaller appendages of animated life.-Dic. of Nat. Hist.

60. Customs of the Germans.

WE shall begin the customs of the Germans with observing, that on the saint's day of the name of any of the imperial family, operas are exhibited, which, for the magnificence of the theatre,

the splendour of the decorations, the richness of the habits, and the performance in the orchestra, are said to surpass any thing of the kind in Europe. These days are called days of Gala; and the ladies of quality, whenever they are disposed to display the magnificence of their apartments, or oblige a friend by complimenting them on the day of their saint, make known that on such a day will be their Gala; when all the relations and friends of the lady, whose saint it is, are obliged to appear richly dressed, and in all their jewels; the mistress of the house takes no particular notice of any body, nor returns any body's visit. The company are splendidly entertained, and afterwards divide into several parties at cards, or conversation, all games of hazard being for

bidden.

The pride of rank is an eternal subject of quarrels among the great, none being willing, upon any condition, to desist from their pretensions, where they imagine their rank concerned. A very learned lady, whose husband was there in a public character, observes in her letters, that they are never lively but upon points of ceremony; and mentions two coaches, which meeting in a narrow street at night, the ladies in them were unable to adjust the ceremonial of who should put back to make way for the other; and therefore sat with equal gallantry, till two in the morning, when the emperor sending his guards, they were both taken up exactly at the same moment, and carried away in chairs. The men are equally touched with this point of honour, and not only scorn to marry, but even to make love to a woman of a less illustrious family than their own.

The lady Wortley Montague visiting one of their operas, says, the stage was erected over a

very large canal, and at the beginning of the second act, divided into two parts, discovering the water; on which there immediately came, from different parts, two fleets of little gilded vessels, which engaged in a naval combat. The above lady says, it is not easy to imagine the beauty of this scene; and all the rest were perfectly fine in their kind. The story of the opera was the enchantment of Alcina, which afforded an opportunity for a great variety of machines and changes of the scenes, that were performed with surprising swiftness. The theatre was of an amazing extent, and the habits in the utmost magnificence; but the ladies' sitting in the open air, exposes them to great inconveniences, there being but one canopy for the imperial family.

The same ingenious lady has described another common amusement of that court. The empress was seated on a little throne at the end of a fine alley in her garden; and on each side of her were ranged two parties of the ladies of quality, headed by two young archduchesses, all dressed with their hair full of jewels, with fine light guns in their hands; and at proper distances were placed three oval pictures, which were the marks to be shot at. The first was that of a Cupid filling a bumper of Burgundy, with the motto, It is easy to be valiant here. The second, Fortune holding a garland in her hand, and the motto, "For her whom Fortune favours." The third picture was a sword, with a laurel wreath at the point, and the motto, "Here is no shame to the vanquished." Near the empress was a gilded trophy, wreathed with flowers, formed of little crooks, on which hung rich Turkish handkerchiefs, tippets, ribbons, laces, &c. for the small prizes. The empress gave the first with her own hand, which was a fine ruby ring,