preserved their form. He made a collection of them, and found that they suffered no alteration afterwards; indeed they served him for a hygrometer; but if they soften in moist weather, they recover their hardness in dry weather, and, every principle of vegetation being destroyed, their form does not alter either by wrinkles or by rottenness. In imitating the process of nature, he dries mushrooms in a stove of sand moderately heated.

Dr. Bolschoi, who went out in the quality of physician with a Russian and Bucharian caravan, gives the following account of the Kirgisian Cozaks, by whom he was taken prisoner: "When the Kirgisians had divided by lot the booty which they had obtained from this rich caravan*, they cut to pieces the mathematical instruments, watches, telescopes, &c., that each might take a portion. They did the same with the medicines. The roots, powders, pills, and mixtures were all divided into equal parts. Each person then threw his portion into a vessel, and this they considered as the most valuable part of the plunder. When the Kirgisians found that their prisoner was a physician, and, according to their idea, a sorcerer, they thronged in crowds around him, that he might feel their pulse, in order to tell them, from the nature of it, whether the horse they had lost, the cow that had strayed, cr the camel that was missing, would be found again: nay, some of them even wished him to tell, from the nature of their pulse, whether their sick mother, wife, sister, &c. would recover. If his answer turned out to be true, the prophet was rewarded; but, in a contrary case, he was often subject to the discipline of the whip. A violent storm having once taken place, the whole body began to murmur, and a general suspicion fell on the captive doctor. They threatened him with death; but the storm subsided, and the supposed sor

* Dr. Bolschoi was estimated at the value of a camel.

cerer escaped with a slight correction. As he was considered as a man of the higher order, he was not sold in Bucharia with the other captives, but served as a common domestic, exposed to cold and hunger, and obliged to perform all those menial services which are allotted to the slaves of the Kirgisians. He did not long remain under one master, but was considered transferable property. He at length came into the hands of the khan, who gave him a rich Kirgisian dress, and in that state he was ransomed."

M. Demmenie, a Dutch artist, has given us an improved method of making varnish of copal, which consists merely in placing the copal in contract with alkohol in the state of gas. "Put rectified alkohol into a glass vessel, suspend at a certain distance above it a piece of copal, and place the whole in a balneum maria. When the alkohol is sufficiently heated to raise the gas, it touches the copal, and dissolves small portions of it, which drop into the liquor. Continue this operation till the drops that fall have saturated the alkohol; then withdraw the apparatus from the balneum mariæ, and let the liquor cool; decant it, and you will have a perfect solu tion, without mixture of foreign matter. The varnish may be prepared in the same manner with oil of turpentine, by substituting the essence instead of alkohol."

M. Lenormand gives the following as a new and easy method of instantly removing spots of oil, grease, and tallow, from any kind of stuff, without changing its colour. Take five or six pieces of lighted charcoal, about the size of a walnut; wrap them in a piece of linen, which has been previously dipped in water, and squeezed in the hand, to press out the superabundant moisture; extend the stuff that is spotted on a table on which a clean napkin has been spread, then take the cloth containing the charcoal by the four corners and lay it on the spot; lift it up and put it down on the spot ten or twelve times successively,

pressing lightly upon it, and the spot will disappear.

The count of Hoffmansegg has, with the permission of the prince regent of Portugal, sent M. Sieber, a very able naturalist, to travel in Brasil. This gentleman, in a letter to his patron, gives an account of the various observations he has had occasion to make on the properties ascribed to the ayapana, said to be a sovereign remedy for the bite of all kinds of venomous animals. From these it results, that the juice of that plant, when applied without delay, effects an instantaneous cure; but that, when it is not immediately applied, it does not always prevent the suppuration, though it abates the inflammation and the swelling. Among the three examples mentioned by M. Sieber, one of the wounds was given without the person injured being able to discover by what animal it was inflicted: the two others were only stings of scolopendras. This observation must somewhat diminish the hopes entertained of curing, by means of the ayapana, even the bites of mad animals.

M. Canova, the sculptor of Rome, has made designs of the celebrated horses at Monte Cavallo. He thinks that, to produce all the effect of which they are susceptible, they ought to be placed in a different point of view from that in which they have hitherto been exhibited.

The elector of Bavaria manifests increased zeal for the arts and literature. Not content with having suppressed a multitude of monasteries, and established public schools in their stead, he has recently founded three universities in his new dominions in Suabia. Latin schools already existed in those provinces, but they were not sufficient to the formation of a man of letters, and too learned for the simple artisan. The elector, therefore, ordered these schools to be suppressed, and public schools to be established for the people, and three universities at Ulm, Dillingen, and Kempten. These universities were to be open

ed on the first of November, and pupils of the various christian denominations admitted. The general inspection, composed of learned protestants and catholics, is immediately under the direction of public instruction established at Munich.

A society has been established at Berlin, whose object is to send missionaries every year to Africa, and especially to that part of it inhabited by the negroes, that with the light of christianity they may dif fuse some tincture of our arts, and sow seeds of a more refined civilization. Two missionaries have already set out for Guinea.

The Russian nobles continue to distinguish themselves by their donations to the schools and universities. Lieutenant general Urusoff has presented the university of Moscow with a very considerable cabinet of minerals and a beautiful collection of mosaics. The same officer has given his own library, and a rich collection of Russian minerals to the gymnasium of the government at Porchow. M. de Sudjenkoff, nephew of the late count Besborodko, has deposited in the hands of the minister who superintends the arts and sciences the sum of 40,000 roubles, for the establishment of schools in his native province, Little Russia.

The chevalier Calcagni, of Naples, has found a medal belonging to the city of Petra in Sicily, with the inscription ПETPEIN. This medal represents on one side the head of Hercules, and on the other a female standing and resting her elbow on a small column. Calcagni is at present engaged on a large work concerning the coins of the ancient sovereigns of Sicily, which will throw new light on that interesting subject.

By letters from Corfu, it is said that the English vice consul, with the aid of two celebrated divers from Calimno, and after a labour of two years, has recovered from the bottom of the sea the precious collection of works of art of ancient Greece, formed by lord Elgin during his residence at Constantinople,

and which was lost, with the vessel, in 1802, near Cerigo.

M. Aibert has received from M. Lameyran, chief physician to the hospital of Versailles, the foot of a woman sixty years of age, the nails of which are of extraordinary length. That of the great toe is particularly remarkable; it is bent back, extends over the whole surface of the foot, and perfectly resembles a ram's horn, having both the form and the hardness of one. M. Alibert has had a drawing made of this extraordinary foot, and intends to introduce it into his great work on the diseases of the skin, to which the nails are considered as an appendage.

A piece of artificial anatomy, in wax, has been exhibited before the Society of Medicine of Paris, where it excited great interest. It was executed for the collection of the school by M. Laumonier, one of the nonresident associates, and represents all the details of the human ear, both internal and external, nine times the natural size. It is easy to conceive how highly useful, both for study and for public lectures, such works, executed by such an able artist and skilful anatomist, must be.

The Medical Board of Health at Berlin has offered a prize of two hundred ducats, for the best dissertation on the yellow fever.

Professor Bernhardi, of Erfurt, has undertaken a botanical tour in the Tyrol. The happiest results may be expected from the zeal and intelligence of the professor, who has before deserved well of natural history.

The famous Dr. Gall has been reading lectures on craniology at Berlin. The king and queen have honoured him with their attendance, and presented to him a valuable ring set with brilliants.

During the pope's late residence at Paris, the most constant homage was paid him, by numerous exhibitions, to explain the progress of the useful arts in that country. One circumstance, however, but little known, though unparalleled in the

annals of printing, deserves to be recorded. On the first of February his holiness visited the imperial printing-office. As he passed along the galleries, 150 presses furnished him, as he passed, with a sheet each, upon which was given the Lord's Prayer, in some different language or dialect: in Hebrew, Samaritan, Chaldee, ancient Syriac, Rabinical, ancient and vulgar Arabic, Armenian, Persian, and also in the languages and letters of the Crimea, of the Malay, of Java, of Indostan, of the Mogul empire, of China, and of Tartary; in all, 46 dialects of Asia. We cannot enumerate all the European languages and dialects, but they amounted to 75. Africa furnished 12, and America the remaining 17. The reputation of the French press is well known; and the constant attention paid by that nation to the art of printing, even amidst their revolutionary horrors, enabled them to pass before the eyes of the Roman pontiff whatever has been employed to improve or enrich the noblest and most useful art known to man.

A variety of valuable antiquities have been discovered in Thessaly. Among them are the busts of Aristotle and Anacreon, a large statue of Ceres, with a coin of Lysimachus, and some remarkable pillars. A Greek MS., containing a commentary of Nicephorus on the ancients, and the ancient Greek church, was discovered at the same time.

The researches at Pompeii are continued with great success. The queen of Naples has been with the royal family to inspect them, and in her presence was discovered an ancient edifice, in which were found vases of the greatest beauty, medals, musical instruments, and, what is of more value than all the rest, a beautiful bronze statue representing Hercules killing the celebrated hind on mount Manalus. The composition and design of this group are perfect. In the same building have likewise been found some extremely beautiful paintings, among which one representing Diana surprised by

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