hand, by a judicious plan of selection, reserves a due space for the discussion of important subjects, while it is overloaded with no useless and lumbersome matter. Its plan is sufficiently extensive to embrace every thing useful in history, literature, and science, but not so extensive; and herein lies its excellence, as to admit of the tedious and perplexing tautology, which is unavoidable when the same subject is brought under the view of the reader, in different articles, and in various forms. The respectable names which appear in the list of its contributors were, from the first, a pretty sure pledge of the ability with which it would be conducted; and the pledge has been fully redeemed. Many of its leading articles may be held forth as the best treatises which have appeared on their respective subjects; and the plan very properly adopted, of having every article an original communication, marked by the signature of its author, has excited among the contributors a very beneficial emulation, and conferred on the work a uniformity of excellence of which none of its rivals can boast.

Our notice of the articles which this half volume contains must be extremely brief; and this we are the less disposed to regret, as there are not many of them which can be supposed to be very generally interesting. The first in order is HERPETOLOGY, the natural history of reptiles. Under the term reptiles, it is observed, naturalists have generally comprehended all those tribes of oviparous animals commonly called amphibia, including both oviparous quadrupeds and serpents; but in this article it is proposed to consider only the first order, reserving the history of the serpent tribes for the article OPHIOLOGY. The account which is given of these animals, and of the history of the science, is methodical, clear, and comprehensive; accompanied with a full list of references, which will be found very useful to those whose attention is directed to this department of zoology. The reptile tribes are dis tributed into three orders, Chelonians, Saurians, and Batracians. The first order comprehends turtles, of which there are six species, and tortoises, of which there are fifty-two species. The second order comprehends crocodiles, dragon, basilisk, tupinambis, guana, flying-dragon, agamas, stellios, cha

meleons, geckos, anoles, lizards, takydrome, scinks, efts, and chalcides. The third order comprehends the hylæ or tree frogs, rana or common frog, bufo or toad;—these constitute one family, called the batracians, without tails the other family (or tailed batracians) consists of the salamander, proteus, and siren. In treating of the anatomy and physiology of these reptiles, the author gives a clear and comprehensive account of their motions, sensation, digestion, circulation and absorption, respiration and voice, secretion and excretion, integumation, generation, and hybernation.

HISTORY is the next article of importance. The plan proposed is, first, to point out and explain the various advantages of the study of history; secondly, to enumerate those branches of study which ought to be entered upon, previous to, or contemporary with, the study of history; thirdly, to give a brief and rapid sketch of the order in which ancient and modern histories may most conveniently and advantageously be read; fourthly, to point out the order in which the history of particular countries may be read, so that they may be illustrative of one another; fifthly, to notice the different species of history, besides what is emphatically called history. Notwithstanding some defects, this article may be perused with considerable advantage by those who wish to commence a regular course of historical reading.

The account of the province of HOLLAND is full of important and interesting information. Indeed the geographical articles of this Encyclopædia are distinguished in general by the extensive and accurate knowledge which they display, and by a happy discrimination, which rejects all extraneous matter, without omitting any thing that it is useful to know. The languishing state of manufactures and commerce in that once flourishing country, affords a striking exemplification of the vicissitudes of national prosperity. We have no room for details; but, as a proof of the declining condition of the country, we may state, that, since the year 1732, the population of this province had, even previ ous to 1796, decreased by one thirteenth of the whole; that, except the internal trade with Germany, its commerce is almost annihilated; that many

of its principal manufactures have gone to decay; and that the only one which is on the increase, is the distillation of ardent spirits.

The article NEW HOLLAND Supplies the information, which the publication of Captain Flinders' discoveries has put us in possession of respecting this island, since the article Australasia was written. The author of these articles, however, seems to have known nothing of the journeys of Mr Evans and Governor Macquarrie into the interior-a deficiency which, we doubt not, the attention of the Editor will take the earliest opportunity of supplying. In other respects the article is valuable; containing an accurate and well-digested account of the coasts and bays, the mineralogy, botany, and zoology, of this immense island; of its inhabitants, their arts, manners, and

customs.

Our attention is next arrested by a very long article on HOROLOGY. We are told by the Editor, that he is indebted for this article to Mr Thomas Reid; and this may be regarded as a pretty sure pledge of its technical accuracy. On the whole, we consider it as the best account of horology that we have seen, so far as the practical part of it is concerned; and as many of the improvements on various branches of the art were invented by Mr Reid himself, no person, surely, could be better qualified to describe them. The departments of this curious art we shall merely mention, in the order in which they occur in Mr Reid's description. 1. The escapement, or 'scapement, that part of a clock or watch connected with their beats-on this part of the machinery Mr Reid has made several improvements; connected with the escapement is the remontoir, the intention of which is, that the movement passing through the wheels should, at intervals, be made either to wind up a small weight, or to bend up a delicate spring, which alone should give its force to the 'scapement; by which means the pendulum or balance was supposed to be always impelled by an equal and uniform force-Mr Reid has described a remontoir which he applied to the clock of St Andrew's Church in Edinburgh; 2. the compensation-balances, intended to counteract the effects of heat and cold on time-keepers; 3. balance or pendulum springs; 4. jewellery of

pivot-holes; 5. machinery for going in time of working, invented by Harrison-a contrivance of his own for this purpose is described by Mr Reid; 6. the dividing or cutting engine; 7. equation-clocks, an ingenious contrivance to show both mean and apparent time, invented in London about 120 years since; 8. repeating clocks and watches; 9. compensation-pendulums, two kinds of which have been invented by Mr Reid, the one with a zinc tube and steel rods, the other with a glass tube; 10. wooden pendulumrods, on which Mr Reid made some experiments, which he details; 11. on the sympathy or mutual action of the pendulums of clocks; 12. on turretclocks; 13. on the method of fitting up astronomical clocks; 14. on chimes and bells.

66

To the amateurs of gardening, the article HORTICULTURE must prove an exquisite treat; while to the practical gardener it will afford much valuable instruction. It is evidently written by a person who not only understands the subject in all its practical details, but who has brought to that delightful study an elegant taste, and a philosophical mind. We cannot afford, at present, to give any analysis of so long an article, or even to mention the various topics which it comprehends. His own definition of HORTICULTURE, however, will give some idea of the principal branches into which the subject is divided. By the term horticulture," he observes, "is to be understood the whole management of a garden, whether intended for the production of fruit, of culinary vegetables, or of flowers. The formation of a garden may be included also, to a certain extent, under this subject: draining, enclosing, and the forming of screen plantations and hedges, may be considered as parts of horticulture, while the general situation of the fruit and the flower gardens, in regard to the mansion-house, and the position of some of their principal component parts, as shrubberies, hot-houses, parterres, and walks, belong more properly to landscape-gardening."

Thus we have adverted, in a very cursory manner, to the leading articles in this half-volume. It contains, besides, several excellent articles in biography, geography, &c. On the whole, we think that this number supports well the credit of its predecessors.

A NEW instrument, called a Capillary Hydrometer, for measuring the strength and specific gravity of spirituous liquors, has lately been invented by Dr Brewster. The principle of the instrument is to determine the specific gravity from the number of drops contained in a small glass bulb, so that we have only to fill this bulb with any mixture of alcohol and water, and count the number of drops necessary to empty it. When a bulb about 1 inch in diameter was filled with water, it yielded only 724 drops, whereas, with ordinary proof spirits, it yielded 2117 drops, giving no fewer than a scale of 1393 drops for measuring specific gravities from 0.920 to 1.000. A correction must be made for temperature as in all other instruments.

A remarkable fossil has lately been discovered in the parish of Alford, in the county of Surrey, some miles east of Guildford. It was found about eight feet under the surface in a bed of clay. Above the clay, in that particular part, is a bed of gravel, which extends to a considerable distance east and west, and varies in breadth from eleven yards to about forty, and has the appear ance of having been the bed of a river. The fossil consists of hard clay covered with thin rectangular scales, lying in a regular order, about of an inch long and broad. These scales have been analyzed by Dr Thomson, and found to consist of Animal matter,

Phosphate of lime, Carbonate of lime, Loss,

11.37 65.51 19.65 3.47

100.00

This is nearly the composition of the scales of fishes as determined by Mr Hatchet.

A new mineral, consisting of sulphate of barytes and carbonate of strontian, has been lately discovered at Stromness, in the Orkney Islands, by Dr Thomas Traill of Liverpool. An account of the analysis of this mineral by Dr Traill, was read at one of the late meetings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He proposes to call it barystrontianite from its composition, or stromnessite from its locality.- -N. B. We have seen specimens of this mineral, and conjecture that it is a compound of the two known species, carbonate of strontian and sulphate of barytes, and that with care the two minerals might be separated from each other.

A new artificial horizon has lately been invented by Mr White of Kinross, of which an account will be found among our Original Communications.

easily increased from three to seven miles an hour. The weight of the machinery will not be more than three tons, and the space it will occupy is comparatively small.

Mr J. B. Emmett of Hull has published some experiments, which he made during the summer of last year, with the view of ascertaining whether a gas might not be obtained from oil, equal to that obtained from coal, so as to prevent the injury threatened to the Greenland trade by the rapidly increasing use of the latter in the lighting of towns, &c. By distilling various oils, previously mixed with dry sand or pulverized clay, at a temperature little below ignition, he obtained a gas which appeared to be a mixture of carburetted hydrogen and supercarburetted hydrogen gases. This gas produces a flame equally brilliant, and often much more brilliant than that produced from coal. It differed very little in quality, whether obtained from mere refuse, or from good whale sperm, almond or olive oil, or tallow. The gas, when burnt, produces no smoke, and exhales no smell or unpleasant vapour. Whatever oil is used, it evolves much more light when burnt as gas than when consumed as oil; in the latter case, the flame is obscured by a quantity of soot; in the former, the soot remains in the distilling vessel, and the flame burns with a clear light.

The water of the ebbing and flowing spring lately discovered in the harbour of Bridlington, Yorkshire, and described in the Philosophical Transactions for 1815, by Dr Storer, has been found to possess many excellent properties, and been administered with decided benefit in numerous cases of chronic disease. It has been analyzed by Mr Hume of Long-Acre, who finds that great purity is one of its most distinguishing properties, in which it may vie with Mal verne well; that although this stream is so nearly connected with the sea, which covers its whole vicinity twice a-day, yet it is altogether free from muriate of soda, every kind of sulphate, and magnesia. It is little heavier than distilled water, and contains no other aëriform substance than carbonic acid. The solid contents of a wine gallon amount to 13 grains, consisting of carbonate of lime, 3.750; silex, and a little oxide of iron, about .125.

for determining the heights of places above the sea. Mr Wollaston's instrument is as sensible as the common mountain barometer. Every degree of Fahrenheit on it occupies the length of an inch. The thermometer, with the lamp and vessel for boiling water, when packed into a case, weighs about 14 lb. It is sufficiently sensible to point out the difference in height between the floor and the top of a common table. The difference, on two trials with it, compared with the same heights, measured by General Roy by the barometer, did not exceed two feet.

Dr Leach, of the British Museum, has recently printed a very complete Catalogue of Birds and Quadrupeds, which are natives of Great Britain. It is perhaps the most correct Catalogue which, in our present imperfect knowledge of British Ornithology, has been as yet compiled.

Dr Leach has submitted to the Linnæan Society a description of a species of deer called the Wapiti, found on the banks of the Missouri. Four of these animals, which are extremely gentle, docile, and elegant, brought from America by Mr Taylor, are now exhibiting in the King's Mews. It is said to be domesticated by the natives of America; and Mr Taylor is of opinion that it might be used with advantage in this country, in many cases, as a substitute for

horses.

Mr Beech, a chemist of Manchester, on the important subject of gas-lights, states, that the oil of bitumen, or coal tar, which is considered as waste by those who make and burn gas, if mixed with dry saw-dust, exhausted logwood, or fustic, to the consistence of paste, and allowed to remain until the water has drained off,-2 cwt. of the mass, being put into the retort instead of coals, will produce more gas, and be less offensive, than the same quantity of cannel coal; and the process may be repeated until the whole of the tar is consumed. This, he says, will not only be a saving of about one half the expense of coals, but will add to cleanliness and neatness, as the residuum is well known to have a very offensive smell.

It has been generally believed, that Bonaparte was occupied in writing a history of his eventful life. Santini, his huissier du cabinet, lately returned from St Helena, states, that the work is already considerably advanced, having reached the termination of the Egyptian expedition, but that its future progress was in some measure arrested by difficulties in procuring certain printed documents, a set of the author's military bulletins, and the Moniteur from France. So far as written, every year is said to form a large volume in manuscript; and it is computed that the whole, when completed, might extend to eight or ten printed volumes in quarto. Bonaparte, who has at all times been particularly careful of his own personal safety, not choosing to run the risk of being fired upon by some one of the numerous

sentries placed around his dwelling, keeps himself within doors, and passes his time in dictating his memoirs to MM. Las Casas, De Montholon, and Bertrand. Our government, however, it appears, are not more disposed to grant facilities to the execution of the work of the imperial historian, than they were to the execution of his Berlin and Milan decrees. To a late application of a London publisher, for permission to communicate with Bonaparte on the subject of publishing his work, a direct refusal was given by Earl Bathurst.

Two lizards were lately discovered in a chalk-bed in Suffolk, sixty feet below the surface; and the publication of this fact has produced the following affidavit :-We William Mills and John Fisher, both of the parish of Tipton, in the county of Stafford, do hereby certify and declare, that a few years ago, in working in a certain coal-pit belonging to the Right Hon. Viscount Dudley and Ward, at what is called the Pieces, in the parish of Tipton aforesaid, and on cleaving or breaking the stratum of coal, which is about four feet thick, and in that situation lies about fifty yards from the surface of the earth, we discovered a living reptile of the snake or adder kind, lying coiled up, imbedded in a small hollow cell within the solid coal, which might be about twenty tons in weight. The reptile, when discovered, visibly moved, and soon afterwards crept out of the hole; but did not live longer than ten minutes on being exposed to the air. The hollow in which it lay was split in two by means of an iron wedge, and was rather moist at the bottom, but had no visible water. It was nearly the size of a common tea-saucer; and the reptile was about nine inches long, of a darkish ashy colour, and a little speckled.

FRANCE.

THE Musée Impérial-Royal has again been opened for public inspection; and notwithstanding the pretty large drafts upon it by Messrs Blucher, Canova, and Co. it is still perhaps entitled to rank as the richest collection in the world. It contained, before the restitutions, 1,233 pictures. The catalogue now published comprehends 1,101 pieces: of these the French school furnishes 233, some artists, not deemed formerly worthy a place, being now admitted. The German and Flemish schools seem nearly as numerous as before, though some of the best works are wanting.

The petition of the booksellers of Paris, for the repeal or reduction of the heavy du ties on the importation of foreign books into France, has received attention from the government. By the new tarif, books printed in foreign countries, in the dead or foreign languages, are only subjected to a duty of 10 francs per 50 kilogrammes métriques, about 2 cwt.

Madame de Stael is said to have sold her Memoirs of M. Neckar (her father) to an

association of English, French, and German booksellers, for £4,000: the work is to appear in the three languages at the same time.

A report made to the council-general of hospitals in Paris, relative to the state of those establishments from 1803 to 1814, contains some important facts. They are divided into two classes, called hopitaux and hospices; the former, ten in number, being designed for the sick and diseased; and the latter, which amount to nine, affording a provision for helpless infancy, and poor persons afflicted with incurable infirmities. The Hotel Dieu, the most ancient of the hospitals, contains 1200 beds. The general mortality in the hospitals has been 1 in 7, and in the hospices 1 in 61; and it has been more considerable among the women than the men. It is found, that wherever rooms of the same size are placed one over another, the mortality is greatest in the uppermost. In the Hospice de l'Accouchement, in 1814, there were delivered 2,700 females, of whom 2,400 acknowledged that they were unmarried. In the ten years from 1804 to 1814, there were admitted into the Hospice d'Allaitement, or Foundling Hospital, 23,458 boys, and 22,463 girls, total 45,921 children, only 4,130 of whom were presumed to be legitimate. The mortality of infants in the first year after their birth was under 2-7ths. During the ten years, 355,000 sick were admitted into the hospitals, and 59,000 poor persons into the hospices. The total number that received relief out of these establishments in 1813, which gives about the average of that period, was 103,000, of whom 21,000 belonged to the department of the Seine. Some pains have been taken to ascertain the different causes of mental derangement. It appears, that among the maniacs the number of women is generally greater than that of men. Among the younger females, love is the most common cause of insanity; and among the others jealousy or domestic discord. Among the younger class of males, it is the too speedy developement of the passions, and with the others, the derangement of their affairs, that most frequently produces this effect. The calamities of the revolution were another cause of madness in both sexes; and it is worthy of remark, that the men were mad with aristocracy, the women with democracy. Excessive grief occasioned lunacy in the men ; whereas the minds of the females were deranged by ideas of independence and equality.

The National Institute of France has this year adjudged the prize, founded by Lalande for the most interesting observation or the most useful memoir in astronomy, to M. Bessel, director of the Royal Observatory of Konigsberg. As the Institute has received no satisfactory memoir for the premium of 3,000 francs left by the late M. Ravrio, for any person who should discover a process by which mercury may be employed, with

out injury to the workman, in the art of gilding, the same subject is proposed anew for 1818. Two other prizes, gold medals, of the value of 3,000 francs each, remaining also unmerited by any of the memoirs which they have produced, are in like manner offered again for 1818. The subject of the first is, " To determine the rise of the thermometer in mercury comparatively with its rise in air from 20 below 0 to 200 centigr.; the law of cooling in a vacuum; the law of cooling in air, hydrogen gas, and carbonic acid gas, to different degrees of temperature, and according to different states of rarefaction. The subject of the second prize is," to determine the chemical changes which fruits undergo during and after their ripening." Another prize to the same amount is offered for 1819, for the following subject:-" To determine by accurate experiments the defraction of luminous rays direct and reflected, when they pass separately or simultaneously near the extremity of one or many bodies of an extent either limited or indefinite."

On the first day of the publication of Germanicus at Paris, 1,800 copies were sold. The copyright has been purchased for 4,500 francs.

The grand desideratum of rendering sea water potable, seems at length to be obtained by simple distillation. The French chemists have been unable to discover in distilled sea water, any particle of salt or soda, in any form; and it is ascertained that one cask of coals will serve to distil six casks of water. A vessel going on a voyage of discovery, by order of the French government, commanded by M. Freycinet, will only take fresh water for the first fortnight, and, instead thereof, coals, which will be but one sixth of the tonnage; distilled sea water being perfectly as good as fresh water that has been a fortnight on board.

M. Dorion has discovered that the bark of the pyramidal ash, in powder, thrown into the boiling juice of the sugar-cane, effects its clarification. The planters of Martinique and Gaudaloupe have given him 200,000 francs for communicating his discovery.

Perpetual Motion. Mr Maillardet of Neuchatel announces, in a foreign journal, that he has succeeded in resolving the celebrated problem of perpetual motion, so long regarded as a scientific chimera. The piece of mechanism to which he applies his principle, is thus described:-It is a wheel, around the circumference of which there is a certain number of tubes, which alternately radiate or turn in towards the centre, rendering the moving power at one time strong, at another weak; but preserving throughout such an intensity of force, that it is necessary to keep it in check by a regulator.

M. M. Majendie and Pelletier have communicated to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, an interesting discovery upon ipeca