MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. 90.] AUGUST 1, 1802. [No. 1, of VOL. 14. On the 28th of July was published, the SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER to the Thirteenth Volume of the MONTHLY MAGAZINE, containing-A comprehenfive Retrospect of the Progress of BRITISH LITERATURE during the laft fix Months-and fimilar Retrofpects of GERMAN, FRENCH, SPANISH, and AMERICAN LITERATURE; with INDEXES, TITLE, &C. SIR, ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. HE 30th of June finishing another half-year, I have sent you the abstract of my Tjounal, as ufual,-See Monthly Mag. Vol XIII. Page 3. It being in the middle of the year, it may be thought premature to make any general remarks, but I could not help obferving; that the annual quantity of rain has been diminishing for theie last five half-years; and, what appeared to me Arange, the approximation of the wind to the faath has been proportionably increafing. There are a few particulars of the thermometer that ought to be noted:-the month of January was about 5° below the average heat of the feafon, and the fucceed MONTHLY MAG No. 90. ing months were rather above the average till near the middle of May, when fuddenly, on the 13th, the thermometer fell 11°, and continued down at 41° nearly a week, and, on the 17th, at fix in the evening, it ftood at 30°, the wind being at the fame time weft, and fo early after as the 27th, at the fame time of day, it flood at 75o, making a difference of 45° in five days: by this fevere week, we have loft in our diftrict nearly all the apples, cherries, and currants. The Depth of Rain by Mr. Farey's Rain-gauges.-See Monthly Mag. Vol. XII. Page 92. The depth of fnow, which fell in January, was nine inches, which, when reduced by weight, &c. was found equivaJent to 0.61 inches of rain, which fum has been added to all the guages for that month. I am concerned to ftate, that the above concludes the interefting experiments on the rain falling in different fituations, which my friend, Mr.Farey, was making; and doubt not, that the scientific friends of that gentleman will hear with regret, that the changes confequent on the death of that truly illuftrious character, the late Duke of Bedford, have caufed him to refign the fituation at Woburn, which, for near ten years, he has fo honourably and ufefully filled. It is particularly to be regretted, that the very confiderable local knowledge, connected with geology, mineralogy, draining, &c. which his thare in conducting thofe extenfive improvements of the late Duke had furnished him with, will probably be loft to this country, the importance of which was increased by the number of very accurate obfervations that Major Mudge had the goodness to furnish him with, to which he had connected a series of accurate levels for many miles round Woburn, all of which are connect ed with the Grand Junction Canal, at Fenny Stratford, by means of which it might be connected with ary part of England, I am, Sir, your's, &c. Leighton, Bedfordshire, B. BEVAN. July 15, 1802. articles that I formerly fent you on the fubject of phlogiston, I hope you will have no objection to the following account of the different principles on which one of my experiments has been attempted to be reconciled to the antiplologiftic theory; and it is the only one that has been particularly difcuffed by my opponents. Heating together finery-cinder and charcoal, neither of which, according to the new fyftem, contains any water, which is maintained to be the only fource of hydrogenous or inflammable air, I get a great quantity of one fpecies of this air. To account for this, Mr. Berthollet fays, that it must come from the water, ftill adhering to the charcoal, or contained in its pores. But whatever moisture may adhere to charcoal, or any other fubftance, of which it does not make a conftituent part, it would be expelled in the form of vapour, with the heat of boiling water; and this has been previously subjected to a much greater heat. Dr. Woodhoufe fays, that this inflam mable air comes from water in the finery cinder. But, according to the new theory, iron becoming finery cinder, imbibes not water, but pure oxygen from the water; while the other conftituent part of this element, with the addition of calorique, takes the form of inflammable air and water cannot be both decompofed and not decompofed in the fame procefs. The addition, therefore, that is made to the iron, when it becomes finery cinder, muft either be wholly oxygen, or wholly water. In the laft place, Mr. Cru khank not finding any water in the materials, main teins that there is no occafion for it; for that this inflammable air comes from the decompofition of fixed air, that this fixed air is formed from the oxygen, in the finery cinder and carbon in the charcoal, its affinity to oxygen being greater than that of the iron to it; that the iron, thus revived by lofing its oxygen, decompofes the newly-generated fixed air. But as this cannot be effected without the fixed air parting with its oxygen, he fuppofes the iron to take it back again, and thus to become partially oxygenated, or finery cinder. He calls the air, produced in this manner, an oxide of carbon. In this explanation, I find, by a correfpondent in Paris, that Mr. Morveau, and the other French chymifts, diffatif fied, no doubt, with the two preceding anfwers, triumph greatly. But it appears to me to be loaded with more difficulties than either of them. 1. Suppofing it poffible for the ozygen to quit the iron, without any thing entering into it, and by uniting with carbon to form fixed air, and that the finery cinder thus becomes iron, this metal has no power to decompofe fixed air, as I find, by heating it in fixed air, by means of a burning lens. not carbon, as the antiphlogiftians fuppofe, but only pblogifton, in the process of cementation; and that the addition to its weight is from finery cinder. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, WAS lately prefented, at the order of a deceafed lady, Mrs. Palmer, of Cirencefter, with a copy of Dr. Kennicot's "Two Differtations; the first, on the Tree of Life in Paradife, &c.; the fecond on the Oblations of Cain and Abel." 2d edition, 1747; which copy was a prefent from the author himself to my friend. In the blank leaf is written a memorandum, which afcertains the ground and manner of his receiving the degree of B.A. As it appears to me a curious article that will have its importance in any future biographical memoir of the Doctor, and reflects honour on his memory, I wish it may be preferved in your literary Mifcellany. I am, Your conftant Reader, JOSHUA TOULMIN. Copy of a Memorandum written in the blank leaf of the Book above-mentioned. On June 20th, 1747. 2. If it could do this, the refult would Taunton, 24th June, 18c2. not, according to the new theory, be any fubftance that was inflammable, fince fixed air contains no water, from which alone, it is faid, that inflammable air can come. Being an oxide, it is the reverse of subftances that are combuflible, combustion being the union of oxygen with fome fubftance that, being without it, has an affinity to it; whereas, all oxides are already faturated with this principle, and therefore cannot take any more. 3. It is abfurd to fuppofe, that finery cinder fhould both part with its oxygen, and take it again, in the fame procefs. And, in fact, where the process is finished, the iron is completely revived, and not partially oxidated, as Mr. Cruikshank's hypothefis requires, and as he afferts. To what other hypothefis the antiphlogiftians will have recourfe, in order to reconcile this experiment to their principles, time will how. For the prefent, I muft acquiefce in my own explanation, which is that finery cinder contains water, and not oxygen; and that this water, uniting with the hot charcoal, produces the fame kind of air, viz. a mixture of fixed air and heavy inflammable air, that water itself coming into contact with hot charcoal always does. Northumberland, June 20, 1802. Yours, &c. The University of Oxford unanimously agreed in convocation to confer the degree of B. A. (without examination, determination at Lent, or fees) on the Author of this book, in confequence of the following letter from the Chancellor to the Univerfity: "Whereas it hath been reprefented to Wadham College, is a perfon well deferving Me, that Benjamin Kennicott, Scholar, of of your favour; particularly on account of a Book lately published by him, entitled, Two Differtations,' &c.-For a further encouragement to him in the profecution of his ftudies, and as an excitement to the Youth of your Univerfity to follow fo laudable an example, I give my confent that the degree of B. A. be in the fulleft manner conferred upon him, without fees. I am, &c. ARRAN." To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, N compliance with the request of Dr. take up my pen once more on a pallage My My reafons for rejecting the common panctuation were, that qui veniens fe ferebat appeared awkward and redundant, and that the words qui fe ferebat seemed to require fomething elfe to be connected with them in order to a good fenfe, and a legitimate conftruction, both which were fupplied by connecting them with immani corpore. Vide Wakefield ad locum. I have now little doubt but that Dr. Hunter has been more perfpicacious than either of us, and that bis is the true punctuation of the paffage. In confirmation of qui fe Amyci de gente ferebat, it will be fufficient to cite a line of Silius Italicus : Atque Antenorea sese de stirpe ferebat. I quote from memory, as I write this in the apartment of a friend. Dr. Baggs will now perceive that I acquit Aulus Gellius of blame in connecting immani corpore with villorem Buten; but whoever obferves the ufe he makes of the paffage, will not hesitate to pronounce whether it was Mr. C. or Aulus Gellius that was napping. I muft again depend upon my memory, but I think that the reader will find my judgment of the chapter of Aulus Gellius confirmed by Heyne in his Var. Lec. in Virgil Æn. vii. 187. However, no confirmation can be needed. Your Correfpondent L. p. 522, will find the following line fomewhere in the Medea of Euripides. λιμην πέφανται των εμών βυλευμάτων. Sir, Your's, &c. I am, Hackney, July 2d, 1802. E. COGAN. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. IN SIR, N the Critical Review for laft March, the manner in which the extracts in the New Annual Regifter for 1800 are arranged, is groffly mifreprefented. It is therein stated, that, to the furprize of the Reviewers," fome useful information on Kitchen Gardening," is admitted into the number of felections in the philofopbical class; and that it alfo comprehends "feveral other papers as little entitled to infertión under fuch a head." Whether there is the leaft fhadow of a foundation for the latter affertion, must be left to the judgment of those who may take the trouble to examine the fubjects of the three articles, of which only the philofophical class confifts. The article on Kit The chen Gardening, however, is not placed in July 1ft 1802. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, LLOW me to submit to your va Aluable correfpondent Mr. DUPRE, the propriety of an emendation of the following paffage, in the latt letter of Brunetto Latini, copied from your Magazine for the prefent month. "The Ciftercians are in particular favor with the king, because they made a generous offer of all the BOOKS belonging to their feveral convents, that they might be fold towards raifing the fum of one hundred thousand pounds, which was demanded by the Emperor for the ranfom of King Richard, called Coeur de Lion, Henry's uncle." For BOOKS in this extract, we ought, I apprehend, to fubftitute wooL. Matthew Paris, enumerating the contributors to Richard's ranfom, has the words :"Ordo Ciftercienfis, qui hactenus liber ab omni exactione extiterat, LANAM fuam univerfam ad Regis redemptionem dedit.” Hift. major. Tiguri 1589, 167. From a fubfequent paffage it appears, that the revenue of these monks was principally derived from the produce of their sheep-farms :-" Novit mundus, quod in LANIS eorum omnis eorum fubfiftit commoditas & fuftentatio." 895. The text of the original was corrupted by the tranfcriber, who, being ignorant of this occurrence in English history, mitook LAINES for LIVRES. Of Henry's partiality for the Ciftercians it is impoffible to discover any trace in the Chronicle of the honeft monk of |
