terrified by the appearance of a very however, on examination, its bars, as vivid light, filling the whole funnel well as the conductor, were in a perof the chimney, only ten or twelve fect state: his conductor te minates feet distant from the paratonnere. in a welk He concludes that the This kitchen is only lighted from the paratonnere not being sufficient to top-roof by four squares of glass. At carry off all the electric fluid, had sufthe same instant a violent shock was fered a part of it to escape. It is now a perceived, not only in Mr. Sage's stu- question whether several paratonueres dy, but also in the kitchen. The ra- may not be necessary on the same pid succession of the noise, and the building, or whether they are not capaHashes of lightning, induced him to ble of being rendered more compiete think his paratonnere was defective; and effective than they are at present, VARIETIES, LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL; R. THORNTON'S Proofs of the containing such letters, notes, ex- per to be published by way of supplement to his translation of Dr. Thornton's work. an answer to the objections that have been brought against Vaccination, the History of the Discovery, &c. &c. has obtained a degree of celebrity in This pamphlet, which is distributed the French capital and the Depart- gratuitou ly by Dr. Duffour to the ments, probably beyond all precedent Prefects, Archbishops, Bishops, Prewith any English production in any fects, and other Public Functionaries, former period. This work being li- and such persons as have purchased terally translated from the English by copies, contains extracts from a numDr. Duffour, physician to the Imperial, ber of journals, from which we have Hospital of the Quince Vingts, Corres- translated the following: pondent Member of several Commit- "Vaccination now appears to be tees of Vaccine, and embellished with appreciated and seconded by all the two coloured engravings, representing Administrators of the Empire, by the the bastard and genuine Vaccine Bishops, the Archbishops, the Learn Pock, in their various periods, it ed Associations, and the Medical Soseems has net with the approbation of cieties, and by men whose names all ranks, public bodies, as well as pri- alone are arguments in favour of the vate individuals. Dr. Duffour's translation appears to have been dedicated by permission, to his most serene highness, Prince Cambaceres, Arch-Chancellor of the Emperor, &c. Dr. Duffour, in a letter which he has addressed to Dr. Thornton, with a ccpy of his translation, informs him, that his work has obtained the unanimous approbation of the most distinguished physicians in the French capital, with all the learned, who are acquainted with the subject of vaccination; which he urges as a proof that he ought to congratulate himself upon the choice he has made of Dr. Thornton's work from so many others that have been written upon the Vaccine." It also appears, that subsequent to the publication of the Parisian translation, Dr. Duffour's bookseller has received from him a printed pamphlet, doctrine, viz. the Portals, the Corvis- These obstacles arise from the iguorance, the carelessness, and prejudice of the common people, but especially from the artifices employed by some persons to prevent the adoption of the Vaccine. This lamentable truth is announced with a generous freedom In a letter written to me on the 7th of dain a general Vaccination. It is May last, by the Archbishop of Besancon. After having mentioned that his Curates and the Ministers of his Chapels of Ease, appeared to have exhorted their parishioners with warmth respecting the adoption of the Vaccine, and to have represented it to them as one of the most signal benefits of Providence: he adds-but. The following paragraph in the they are frequently opposed, and by 41st page of the French pamphlet, is those very persons who it seems ought as just as it is expressive. If, says the to be the first to assist them in the writer, we were to cite the innumerameans of annihilating the popular ble testimonies which have been sent prejudices and opening the way for us from several learned Societies, and truth. The fact, Sir, is, that the coun- those of the National Institute, which try surgeons and physicians behold in has thought proper to place our work these improvements in medicine, the in its library, with that of the School ruin of all the finances which they of Medicine at Paris, we might fatigue, have been used to derive from the pe- the attention of our readers. riodical ravages of the Small Pox. added in a note, that in 1770, under the ministry of the Duke de Choiseul, a general inoculation took place at the Military School De la Fleche, under the inspection of the physician Gatty, the complete success of which did credit to the common mode of inoculation. M. Hilaire, Prefect of La Haute Saone, writes, that Vaccination no longer finds any opposers in his Department, but from the remains of some old customs and prejudices in favour of the Old School, in some few of the faculty, and some ignorant and fanatical priests. He adds, however, that the majority begin to submit to experience, and that the results of this year are highly satisfactory, with respect to the number of persons vaccinated, and the success of the operation. We have only room to add, that the French translation of Dr. Thornton's work is enriched with several notes by the translator, and an historical preface of considerable length; and that the head line in the French title page very properly recommends the work to the use of families. Dr. Dennison and Dr.Squire, physicians and men-midwives to the Lyingin-Charity, will, on Monday the 5th of October, begin a course of Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery, and the Diseases of Women and Children. The author of the Revolutionary Plutarch announces the Military Annals of Revolutionary France, from the beginning of last war to the end of the present year, with maps of the theatres of war, portraits of all the commanders in chief, &c. In the press, by the rev. W. Shepherd, the author of the Life of Poggis, Bracciolini, Dialogus an Seni set Uxor ducenda, written by Poggis about the year 1495, and deposited in the royal library at Paris, where Mr. Shepherd translated it during the interval of peace. Dr. Duffour observes, that it will be favourable to the propagation of Vaccination, to mark the obstacles that it meets with, obstacles which can only be destroyed by the perseverance and zeal of enlightened men, and the authority of government. He therefore thinks the Mayors of the Communes should annually transmit à list. of the infants vaccinated to their Prefects, and that a reward should be given to those who sent in the highest number-while those magistrates should be reprehended who had not exerted themselves in the same view. He would also have those country surgeons suspended who avow themselves The Landsdown Library of Manuthe opponents of Vaccination. These, scripts has been purchased by Parlia-. he observes, are the real enemies of ment for the British Museum, at an the State, since they can see its fairest average of the valuation made by three. hopes perish without pity; and who, parties, viz. 4970l. Mr. Planta, the instead of being the saviours of the principal librarian of the Museum, people intrusted to their care, know- estimated their value as under: Ingly compromise their existence.' Burleigh and Cecil papers,.,120, £.. Government should, if possible, or- lots ... 1200. Twenty-seven vols. of Original Forty numbers of Royal Letters, 500 270 Manners in the remote province of Connaught, which will soon be published, under the title of "Sketches." Mr. Davis's improvement of the Glaziers' Stand, is intended to afford a better mode of securing it to the window than the pins or bolts in com mon use. Instead of these, Mr. D. 200 makes use of a kind of sliding bracket, moved backwards or forwards along 80 the plank of the stand underneath, by 750 1970 The Petty papers, amounting to fifteen volumes, were reserved by the family. means of a long screw, which passes 4970 through a nut in the bracket, and is turned by a winch at the inner end of the stand, where it passes through a collar; the foot, or outside support of the stand, is formed in the common Mr.Wrangham's Buchanan Sermon mode; when the stand is placed at a on translating the Scriptures into the window, the window seat, or the sill, is oriental languages, preached before griped between the outside foot and the University of Cambridge in May the bracket, as if it were in a vice, by last, will shortly be published, with turning the screw to the necessary notes and illustrations. degree. Mr. Clarkson, author of the Por- The bracket slides along steadily traiture of Quakerism, intends to pub- under the plank by two dove-tailed lish the Rise, Progress, and Accom- grooves in the latter; in the corre plishment of the Abolition of the Slave sponding parts of the bracket doveTrade, with engravings, in two large tails are inserted to fit the grooves volumes octavo, easily. A new edition, greatly improved A bar of wood accompanies the by the author, of the Rev. Dr.Towns- stand, to place inside across the winend's popular work, entitled the Phy- dow, against which the bracket is to sician's Vade Mecum, is nearly finish- be screwed, when any injury might ed at press, and will appear in a short arise from screwing it against the cen time. tre of the recess of the window. Mr. Davis, author of the History of Nice, has a new work in the press, in two volumes octavo, entitled More Subjects than one, concerning France and the French People. It is thought this stand would be rendered still more secure, if a light rail were fastened to its outside extre mity, to prevent the person who uses it from falling backwards; this rail The Rev. G. Crabbe, author of the might be made to take off occasion. Library, Village, and Newspaper, is ally. preparing for publication the Parish It would afford still more security Register, a poem, in three parts, in in cleaning windows, if the slips of one vol. octavo. To this some other the sashes were so constructed as to poems are to be added, with some cor- admit of their being removed and rections of his former publications. fixed up again firmly in their places. Mr. George Douglas, author of a For this reason only half of each slip, Translation of Euclid's Elements, has at one side of the window, need be in the press a Set of Mathematical made moveable. Tables, including Logarithms of Num- Common glue has been used in bers, from 1 to 10,005, and by an aux- Italy for the cure of intermittent and iliary table to 100,000,000, or more, if other fevers, and is found a safe and necessary; tables of natural and arti- effectual remedy. The glue is given ficial sincs, tangents, &c. and of natu- in a dissolved state, a short time before ral and artificial sines to every degree, paroxysm; and its effect consists in minute, &c. &c.; together with direc- taking the atony of the stomach and tions for their use and application. the skin. The patient should take no Miss Owenson has finished a work acid beverage after drinking it, but on the State of Rustic Society and may drink and eat two hours after it America. operates as a sudorific. The propor- work, not only proving by historical tion is eleven or twelve drachms of facts the wonderful sagacity of glue in two ounces of water; some pigeons for that service, best describ practitioners have repeated the dose ag the mode of training them. His every quarter or half hour, with ef- work on this subject, translated from fect. the Arabic into French, by A. J. Silvestre de Sacy, consists of five chapters. The first treats of the species of birds called hamam, and that species in particular to which the work refers. The second, of the variety of pigeons, and their natural character and quali ties. The third, of the original inven tor of the method of conveying intelligence by pigeons and his imitators. The fourth, of the mode of breeding and training, and the cautions to be taken when they are sent with a letter. The fifth book contains quotations in prose and verse, from learned writers of former times. The French transla tor has likewise enriched his transla tion with grammatical and historical illustrations, which evince his learn. ing and acuteness. Mr. Thomas Ash, author of Tracts on Nondescript Animals, intends to publish a work, called Exploratory Travels and Voyages from the Western part of the Allegany Mountains to the Mexican Gulph, down the Monongamela, Ohio, Mississippi, and other great rivers, and through the Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Upper and Lower Louisiana Territories and States. A Literary Institution is established at Boston, under the name of the Boston Atheneum. It contains a reading room, which is to be supplied with all the newspapers and political pamphlets in Europe and America, with the magazines, reviews, and scientific journals, in the English, French, An Arabian coin has been discoand other modern languages. The li- vered on the occasion of removing the brary is to be furnished with dupli- materials for the foundation of a house cates of books, particular classes of on the ramparts at Nismes. By Pro which are to be distributed among the fessor Jaubert's accounts, it appears members; and one copy is always to that this coin was struck at Wafeth, remain on the shelves for the in- on the shores of the Tigris. Thevin spection and perusal of visitors. scription on one side is, "There is There is also a Museum, or Cabinet but one God, and that God has no of Natural and Artificial Curiosities; companions." On the reverse is, and a Repository of Arts, to contain "God is one; he is eternal, neither new and useful machines; Specimens begetting or begotten; none can be of Painting, &c.; with a Laboratory like unto him." The legend runs and Apparatus for Experiments in thus-"Mahomet is the Apostle of Natural Philosophy. It is intended God, who sent him for the guidance to add a Course of Lectures on Lite- of the faithful. The religion of the rary and Philosophical Subjects, as true faith is manifested above all other soon as the plan is sufficiently matured. religions, notwithstanding the hatred Arabian Literature. of those (Trinitarian Christians) who Michael Sabbagh, a Syrian by birth, associate companions with God." who was employed at the imperial France. press, and followed the French army when it evacuated Egypt, having printed two Odes at Paris, in Arabic and French, and being some time since in company with some of the literati, he was intreated to give an extemporaneous example of his talent; the subject the message of an absent lover to his mistress; it run upon the circumstance of a dove carrying a letter and bringing back an The physical and mathematical class answer; but as the company doubted of the French National Institute his of the possibility of training a dove, proposed the following question as the he determined to compose a little subject of a prize, to be adjudged on UNIVERSAL MAG. VOL. VIII. 21 The first and second volumes of the Asiatic Researches have been lately translated into French, and printed at the imperial printing-office. The French are at present working coal-mines in forty-seven of their departments, and sixteen others seem to possess the same mineral; and upwards of 60,000 individuals earn their subsistence at the French collieries. the first Monday of January, 1809. "To ascertain by experiments, the relations which subsist between the different modes of phosphorescence, and the cause to, which each species is owing, excluding from examination the phenomena of this kind which are observed in living animals." The prize is a gold medal of the value of 3000 francs.-The memoirs must be transmitted to the Secretary of the Institute previous to the first of October, 1808. Another subject of a prize was proposed by the same class, in its sitting on the 26th of June last, viz. to determine, by anatomical and chemical experiments and observations, what are the phenomena attendant on the torpor which certain animals, dormice, marmots, &c. undergo during winter, with respect to the circulation of their blood, respiration, and irritability; and to ascertain the causes of this sleep, and why it is peculiar to these animals. The essays on this subject can only be received till the first of October, 1807. The Civil Tribunal of Verdun have been engaged in an enquiry, whether a person, born deaf and dumb, was capable of devising by will, and whether the legacy was good; but though the determination of this court is not known, the deaf and dumb person, if capable of writing, it is supposed might express the intention of his mind, and to which nothing but proper testimonies need be added. The Emperor Napoleon has established a Professorship of the Arabic Language, at Marseilles, to which he has appointed Don Gabriel, formerly Missionary at Cairo, with a pension of 8000 francs. A Voyage and Discoveries in the South Seas has been announced at Paris, undertaken by the command of his Majesty the Emperor, by the Corvettes Geographe and Naturaliste in 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, compiled by M. Peyron, naturalist to the expedition, and correspondent of the Institute of France, in two volumes quarto, with 41 charts. Mr. C. Pictet of Geneva, has commenced a work entitled a Course of English Agriculture, with Explanations for the Use of the Husbandmen of the Continent. This will form ten vols. in svo. of about 500 pages each. The publishers of the Bibliotheque Britanique have determined to reprint their ten volumes on Agricul ture. The person more particularly entrusted with this department has gathered from the mass of English publications, whatever could be use ful to the husbandmen on the continent; to which he has added, the results of his own experience, comparing them with those of the English writers. The improvements in the breed of sheep, and the course of crops, have peculiarly engaged his attention; and these articles contain more numerous facts and observations than any work hitherto published. M. Alibert, physician to the hospital of St. Louis, has commenced a work on disorders of the skin; the second number relates to that dreadful malady, called in Poland the Plica, of of which he enumerates five sorts; he describes their general and particular symptoms, &c. Mr. Depere has published a Manual of Agriculture without manure, in which he expatiates on the advantages | of his plan, the succession of crops, &c. &c.; the whole founded upon experiments, adopted and made at the Experimental Farm at Reffy. Germany. The Academy of Sciences at Mu nich, is to have a more extensive influence than any similar institution in Europe; as under the direction of the Bavarian Ministry, it is to exercise an immediate superintendance over all the establishments for public instruction in that kingdom. The privy Coun sellor Jacobi, is president. His philcsophical writings and his personal cha racter has rendered him respected all over Germany. Among the names of the academicians announced to the public, is that of M. Seyffer, an astronomer, late a director of the Observa tory at Gottingen; M. Eichoru, the celebrated historian and orientalist; and M. Wolf, known by his valuable history of the Jesuits. The royal library at Munich, already very consi derable, has a commission employed for it, with authority to procure every valuable article in the suppressed li braries. The picture gallery at Munich, by the addition of those of Manheim and Dusseldorf, next to the Napoleon Museum, is become the finest in Europe. |