by different perfons; but I fall ftate, without the leaft partiality, and I hope without prejudice, what I conceive to be the cause of this evil fo generally diffuted' and injurious in its tendency.

The well known candour and impartiality of the much efteemed Dy. Vernon preclude every idea, that he can be acquainted with the existence of this evil; and, were he informed of it, the great care and unremitting activity, with which he fuperintends every part of his diocefe, forbid to imagine he would not immediately endeavour to eradicate it. Some may, perhaps, argue that the contracts and agreements entered into by the curates themfelves defeat and annul whatever provifions the a& had made in their behalf. This I partly admit to be true; and the curates are blameable for making agreements contrary to what the law appoints. But, fhould they not be inclined to enter into these contracts, so detrimental to themfelves and degrading to the honour of their profeffion, the incumbents are able, by means of giving a title for orders, to obtain a curate almost upon any conditions they fhall think proper to propofe. And this I apprehend to be the true fource from whence the evil originates. It was lately obferved by a beneficed clergyman, in my hearing, who was contracting with a curate to perform the duty of his church, "If you will not agree to accept the fum I have offered you, I can have a perfon ordained to the living, who will accept it." Such are too often the language and the actions of the re&tors and vicars towards the curates. Far, however, be it from me, to cenfure a whole body of men for the meannefs of a few. There are amongst them, who, I am proud to fay it, fcorn the low artifices of thofe that would reduce to mifery and diftrefs men, whofe talents, deportment, and affiduity in their profeffion, entitle them to every claim of encouragement and reSpect.

I know with certainty, that the bishop of Carlile allows every one, who is ordained, twenty-five pounds per annum, Specified in his licence; but I alfo know, with an equal degree of certainty, that a private agreement is frequently made between the parties themfelves, of a nature entirely different, and to the difadvantage

of the curate.

Infomuch that I will not

fay, no perfons ever receive twenty-five pounds a year, for performing the duty of the church to which they are ordain

ed; but I dare aver that very few receive it*.

Nor let any one imagine, that the curates have greater falaries in fome of the more fouthern counties. I am acquainted with a clergyman in Lincolnshire, who ferves four churches for fixty pounds a year. And, I doubt not, many inftances of a fimilar nature will occur in that and other diocefes, difgraceful in themselves and derogatory to the most effential interefts of chriftianity.

At a time, therefore, that chrifiianity is attacked on all fides by every weapon, which infidelity and fcepticism are capable of furnishing; and, when those who are enemies to our religion, are for the moft part inimical to our civil govern ment; it is certainly requifite in the highest degree, whether taken in a religious or political view, to infufe vigour into the minds of the inferior clergy, by giving every due attention to the bill intended for their relief, and by making their fituations comfortable, and them refpectable in the eyes of their people.

If in any part of the foregoing letter I fhall be found to have mifreprefented the tate of this or other dioceles, with repect to the curacies, it is not only foreign to my wishes and intention, but is more than at prefent I am confcious of. My only defign herein was to point out an evil, that called loudly for redrefs. And, if I have erred in any of my affertions, I fhall, however, have the confolation to fupport me, that this error was unintentional.

Ravenftonedale.

JOHN ROBINSON.

By the general grant of licences, and a transfer or indorfement on remoyal to other parishes within the fame diocefe; by fuffering no curates to officiate without licenfes, except occafionally in the abfence of the proper curates or perfons regularly performing the duties of any parithes; a check would be always at hand to difcover the profor orders, and the diocefan would thereby priety or impropriety of nominations or titles "

at all times understand how far fuch nomi

nations or titles correfponded with the pur poes for which they profefs to be given." Curates Alt examined, p. 35..

termed

termed the plague of the Weft; that the felfishness, if not the fympathy of Europe, might be aroused to a thorough inveftigation of the nature and means of counteracting the invisible and creeping progrets of a peftilence which may, fooner or later, find its way to our own fhores.

Alarmed as the United States are, upon this subject, I do not think they are alarmned fuficiently. Too credulous reliance feems to be paid to the fufpenfion of the contagion, the mere torpor of the ferpent; and it is forprifing that the executive of America, whofe eyes ought to be like thofe of a nurfing mother over the health and confequent happinefs of the people, does not offer, or get itself impowered to offer, a large reward, not narrowly reftricted to profeffional men, or to inhabitants of the United States, but to fcientific men of all nations; fome of whom, by the help of an accurate, authenticated hiftory of the complaint, might hit upon a method of cure; or, what is better, of effectual prevention, which has hitherto efcaped the fagacity of practitioners and philofophers on the spot. The active and benevolent intelligence of a Rumford might difcover what Priestley appears either not able or not willing to investigate.

The question agitated fo much by, and which fo much agitates, the faculty, whether the fever be imported, or original, feems to me of finall comparative importance. There it has been-There it Jurks- There it will become endemic. Of what importance, at prefent, where the finall-pox or meafles originated? The great object is an effectual method of cure in the individual patient, and the ftill greater bleffing would be a perfect means of prevention, the cure unverfal.

This preventative cure is to be attained by inveftigating the means of de compofing, or diffipating, or totally detroying the fomes, or fuel of contagion, which refts in the fubftances receiving it; and is there, for a length of time, kept active, adhering to the body-cloaths, to the bed cloaths, to the furniture, to wool and cotton moft tenacioufly, and acquir ing in all thefe fubftances a more active malignity than it pofleffed in the infected perfon. Thus contagion multiplies its force; but were means found out of extinguifhing the fomites of fever, the patient would then be confined, as it were, in the lazaretto of his own perfon.

The vapours of various fluids, particularly of the acids, have been propofed in order to dilute, or to neutralize this poifon, or to render it inert by mak. ing it enter into fone new combina

tion. But is not the most penetrating and most powerful decompofer, the finiple element of HEAT? and is it not to this, that other fluids are indebted for their apparent effects as neutralizers or alteratives of contagion? There appears to be a certain limited and definable range in the scale of heat, within which the perfon may be nurfed or cherished into activity, and above which degree, as well as below it, this activity or life is loft; and, as at a certain degree of cold in the atmosphere, the poifon feems blunted and deadened; is there not ground from análogy, as well as from the hiftory of contagion, to infer that a certain high temperature may be as effectual in altering, or in decompofing fuch fomites of fever, without, at the fame time, injuring the texture or deftroying the fubftances in which they are lodged. It is a certain degree of heat which hatches the poison, and therefore may perhaps be deemed the real fomes, but it is probable that thele miafmata or morbific feeds may partake fo much of the feminal quality as to lote their productive or multiplying power, when expofed a fufficient time to a degree of heat above that which is fuitable to their peculiar life and activity,

Contagions of different kinds feem to require a particular temperature which fuits their nature and modifies their force. The fmall-pox and meafles feem to have their particular featons. The marth miafinata, vernal and autumnal, are extinguifhed by the fummer heat, as well as the cold of winter. With refpect to the plague itself, the very latest traveller (Brown, page 78) exprefsly fays, that the extremes of heat and cold both appear to be adverfe to it. In Conftantinople it is often terminated by the cold of winter; and in Kahirà or Cairo, by the heat of summer.

In every apartment, therefore, where the yellow fever had occurred, on the removal of the patient by death or recovery, ought not the room to be heated by the ufe of a portable furnace to a certain high temperature, which, without injury to any article, might be fufficient to penetrate to all parts impervious to any vapour, and thus decom. pofe, or at least fo much alter the nature of this adhering poifon, as to render it harmlefs in future? Might not fuch an experiment be tried on the next occurrence of the puerperal fever in the wards of the lying-in-hofpital; a difeafe fo fatal and fo remarkably contagious as to infect all women who happen to be delivered in the fame room; and a poison fo permanently

Those who are acquainted with the fift principles of harmony, may, by these tables, find any concord to a given colour, and by the numbers which are annexed to them may also find the true con. cord and difcord in any given key; that is, when any colour is taken as the fundamental, from whence the 3ds, 4ths, 5ths, &c. receive their names.

It is not neceffary here to confider keys any further than as they are diftinguished by having their 3ds. major or minor;—

1

thus, a 3d. major to Green is Purple ; whereas, a 3d. minor would be Indigo, which it is not eafy to understand, unleís a perfon has a previous notion of the grounds of mufic.

In all keys where the 3d. is minor, the notes properly belonging to that key may be found thus :-place, the notes in their proper order, and write the intervals between them underneath.

I.

2.

3. 5.

2d. 3d. 4th. 5th. 6th. 7th. 7. 8. II. Suppofe Green D is the fundamental colour, or key note given, and I would know what colour is a 4th. to it; when the 3d. is minor, D in the Table of Colours is marked No. 6, and under the 4th. in the little Table above, is wrote 5;add 5 to 611, which in the Table is G Violet and so of any other.

But when the Key is major, that is, when it has a major 3d. the fecond of the firft two Tables must be used; thus a 3d. major to Bb, or Red Orange, is found by adding 4 to 26 is D Green.

A 3d. minor would have been C or Db, which upon the harpsichord, or organ, are the fame notes; this is a defect in the inftrument, and cannot be remedied; but in colours the gradations ought to be taken more exa&t, which may be done by the next Table, expreffing the Flats and Sharps on every note ;-thus, Dxis blue green, more green; and Eb is blue green more blue; Cx is yellow green more yellow; Db is yellow green, more green; and the leffer 3d. to E is Ab, not G*

The colours, according to the fcale of mufic, including the major and minor femitones.-

I -A Red

2- -A* Scarlet
3-Bb-Red Orange
4-B Orange

5-B-Pale Orange, more orange 6-Cb-Pale Orange, or pale Gold 7-C-Yellow

8-C Yellow Green, more yellow 9--Db-Yellow Green, more green} 10-D-Green

11-DX Blue Green, more green 12-Eb-Blue Green, more blue 13-E-Blue

14-EX Indigo Blue, more blue 15-Fb-Indigo Blue, more Indigo 16-F-Indigo 17-FX-Purple

18-Gb-Purple, more violet

19-G-Violet

20-GX Rofe Violet, more violet'

21-Ab Rofe Violet, more red

For the Monthly Magazine.

ACCOUNT

OF TRAVELS THROUGH PERU, FROM BUENOS AYRES ON THE GREAT RIVER LA PLATA, BY POTOSI, TO LIMA, THE CAPITAL OF THE KINGDOM OF PERU.

By ANTHONY ZACHARIAS HELMS. [Continued from page 785]. the remarks which Helms noted down in his Journal in his paffage over the highest ridge of the Cordilleras from Potofi to Lima, we fhall extract fome of the most important and interefting. Argillaceous flate is here likewife the chief component part of the mountains, with at firft a ftratum of fand-ftone upon it; through which, not far from Potofi, a mafs of granite, two miles in length, rifes in huge weather-beaten rocks that threaten every moment to roll adown the precipices. The traveller foon after enters a charming valley, which, with little variation, extends above 200 miles to Cufco; in fome places covered with a cruft of falt or falt-petre; in others, thick fown, as it were, and befpangled with quartzofe cry ftals and topazes. In the bofom of this valley is fituate the lake Titicaca, which is faid to be 80 miles long, and in fome parts almost equally broad; and on whofe western fhore rife the higheft Cordilleras of the kingdom of La Plata. Ouro, a town in this valley, was formerly the refidence of wealthy capitalifts, who derived their riches from the mines in the adjacent ridge of mountains. But in the dreadful infurrection of the Christian Indians of La Plata and Peru, in the year 1779, here, as in most other towns of thefe extensive kingdoms, the greatest and richest part of the Spaniards were murdered, the town plundered, and almost totally deftroyed. Thofe who efcaped, and had concealed their money and valuable effects in the monafteries, moftly emigrated to Europe: and hence here too the mines are in a fate of decay and neglect from the total want of pecuniary refources. Mr. Helms fays nothing farther concerning this infurrection, of which a circumftantial account would have been highly interefting.-The rich town of La Paz, in the fame valley, likewife fuffered confiderably through the revolt of the Indians; but ftill is faid to contain 4000 hearths, and 20,000 inhabitants; whose chief fource of opulence is the coca, or tea of Paraguay, as it is called

a greenish, tart herb, which the Indians chew mixed with calcined lime. This delicacy is as indifpenfible to them, as tobacco is to our mariners; and the town of MONTHLY MAG, No. LI.

La Paz carries on a lucrative trade with it to the extent of 200,000 piaftres annu ally. The mountain, at whofe foot La Paz is built, is the higheft Cordillera in this part of the country, and covered with everlasting fnow. This mountain, and the whole ridge as far as Sicafica, abounds in rich gold-ore; and when, 80 years ago, a projecting part of it tumbled down, they fevered from the stone lumps of pure gold, weighing from 2 to 50 pounds. now, in the layers of fand, &c. washed from the mountain by the rain-water, pieces of pure gold are found, fome of which weigh an ounce, From the igno. rance, however, of the inhabitants this treafure lies totally neglected. The province of Tiapani, which is 40 Spanish miles diftant from La Paz, is faid to abound more with gold than even the latter. From Tiapani, Helms proceeded along the fouth-weft fide of the great lake, through Santa Rofa (the last town of La Plata on this border, and fituated in the province of Puno), along the chain of the higheft Cordilleras, to Cufco, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Peru, and the refidence of the Incas; and even at present a very confiderable city, which is built in the Gothic ftyle. Though the circumjacent mountains abound with rich filver. ore, only one mine is worked in the neighbourhood of Cufco.

Farther on, the bafe of argillaceous flate is covered with an affluvious fuper-ftratum, which confifts of marle, gypsum, limeftone, fand, a large quantity of rock-falt, and of fragments of porphyry, &c. in which pure filver, and rich filver-ores, occur in abundance. There are few inftances in Europe of fuch mountains being fo generally abounding in the nobler metals or their ores, as in this quarter of the globe. The whole range of mountains is full of affluvious veins of heavy filver-ores, in which pieces of pure filver, folid copper, and lead-ore, occur, intermixed with a great quantity of white filver-ore, and capillary virgin filver. Twelve miles before we reach Guancavelica, behind Parcos, lie mountains of weather-beaten argillaceous flate, mixed with fand. The fections of thefe mountains confift entirely of feparate, more or lefs fharp-pointed, pyramids Behind

of a flesh coloured fand ftone. Guancavelica the mountains gradually become compofed of lefs various materials, and at last confift of only fimple fand-ftone, with layers of marle, lime-ftone, and fpath; or of fimple lime-ftone: they continue, however, equally rich in gold, filver, quickfilver, rock falt, &c.The ridge 5 R

of