To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

THANK your correspondent Mr. A. for the notice he has taken of one of my papers inserted in your journal; I allude to my remarks on fulminating silver, and the relations of vegetable poisons to the galvanic agencies, through the medium of the nervous system.

However much I may be inclined to admit the importance of the collision of minds for the purposes of eliciting truth, I feel disinclined to combat with those rude sentiments, which flatly accuse me of "exaggeration," and being desirous of "preposterously" thrusting my dictum, unsupported and alone, on the credulity of the world.

My counter-remarks shall be few, and they are final; the sooner the asperities raised by controversy are smoothed down the better, clse they may swell into all the unlovely form of personal invective. I have laid it down as a fixed principle never to throw the gauntlet to any one, and to retire from that fruitless field, where no good is to be gained, but in which much evil may be found.

As to the quantum of danger to be ap prehended from the incautious use of fulminating silver, it was estimated by me only in its relation to an improper use of it by the unwary; to this all my views have tended, and it is illogical to judge of a whole from a part; it is certainly disingenuous to judge of it irrelevantly; in a point of view, it is obvious, that it was never intended to be regarded.

I presume not to "lord" over any one. It never could be my intention to dictate to the experienced chemist, who must be allowed to be well-versed in the sum of risk.

Mr. Howard's fulminating silver is that adverted to by Mr. A.; and he names besides Chenevix's and Berthollet's; now, I allude to none of these, but to Brugnatelli's. I name this to show that I have been anticipated.

It is well known, notwithstanding Mr. A.'s fearless demeanor, that fulminating silver explodes on the slightest possible friction, or the gentlest increment of temperature. It frequently even fulminates on the chalkstone; the friction of a glass stopper on the neck of a phial including it, has produced serious consequences. Surely it cannot have escaped the recollection of your correspondent, that the dreadful explosion in Dublin (of the fulminating silver), whereby some lives were lost, was occasioned merely by the slight friction of the knife employed; this speaks volumes in my favor: sophistry can no

ver disturb this evidence. Is it wise to glory in an escape, which is not the calm and dispassionate result of the judgment? Does it follow that, because we have escaped often from the danger, that an accident may not occur? Let it be remembered that the pitcher may go often to the fountain, but it at last returns broken from the cistern.

Mr. A.'s experiment on the fulminating silver is liable to the same objections which I have already advanced; it would be now quite superfluous to repeat them. The gunpowder and fulminating silver, it appears, were wrapped in paper, and struck on an anvil, and with a hammer too. Gunpowder will not explode in the flame of a candle; the paper is first inflamed by the fulminating silver, which is attended by a flash of light; the paper it is which communicates the ignited spark to the gunpowder. The experiments of Capt. Manby and others put the question far beyond a doubt.

My words respecting the question of the identity of Eau Medicinale and Colchicum Autumnale are not presumptive, "I am happy to corroborate in some small measure," &c. Mr. A. seems not aware that Mr. Want's experience proves that neither acts as a sedative; this was all I pointed to.

The analysis of vegetable matter is so equivocal, that I should be inclined to question the prudence of an implicit reliance on the results. The more subtle and essential parts, in which their virtues principally reside, are intangible, and escape detection.

I have no hesitation to inform Mr. A. that I do not experiment on the living system; I leave such experiments to the hardier feelings of a Brodie and a Mạjendie.'

If opium, applied to the sciatic nerves, suspend electrical stimuli, and if acetic acid counteract the sedative effect, is it not a fair analogy that acetic acid is the neutralizer of opium?

I wave all further remarks on my Researches on Vegetable Poisons, which would be improper here. I have submitted a detail of them to the Linnæan Society, and have received the testimonial of approbation from an enlightened character, and one capable of appreciating them. J. MURRAY. Kettering; June 19, 1815.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine,

seilles, and added thereto his own observations on the nature of our climate.

Mr. Jennings states, "that, notwithstanding snow rarely lies long on the ground here, vegetation is not commonly so forward as it is in the same altitudes at a greater distance from the sea;" but, without pretending to deny this position, so far as it regards the coasts of the Bristol or the St. George's channel, or on the more eastern parts of the kingdom, I will venture to assert that the contrary effect is the case on the southern coasts of the counties of Cornwall and Devon, but of the former in particular. Count Rumford was of opinion "that the ocean, always temperate at its surface, softens, on the sea-coast, the rigours of winter;" and, consequently, we might conclude that vegetation must be much more forward, and the air milder and more congenial to the emaciated faculties of the invalid, on our coasts, than at a distance from the sea. The truth of the count's hypothesis is placed beyond a doubt along the western shores of Cornwall, where the mildness of the climate is proverbial; and the spring much earlier than in any other part of the kingdom. Many of the early kind of vegetables and fruits are sent annually from Penzance and its neighbourhood for the supply of other towns, several weeks before their own produce can be brought to market; this port, for instance, is regularly supplied with new potatoes from thence for a month, at least, previous to any being produced in this neighbourhood.

The mildness of the climate, the salubrity of the air, the romantic and picturesque scenery of the neighbourhood, particularly of St. Michael's Mount, the enchanting walks and pleasant rides ncar the town, together with the conveniency of sea-bathing, and many other local ad

the Geological Society, recently formed there by the learned, scientific, and indefatigable Dr. Paris, (of which society his royal highness the Prince Regent is, I believe, the patron,) affords an opportunity of devoting his leisure hours to this delightful study.

The excellency of the meat, the poultry, and fish, and of the fruits, vegetables, and water, cannot be surpassed, and they are to be procured during the different seasons at a moderate price. The only objection I have ever heard advanced against this pleasant place is its distance from the metropolis; but which, in fact, is nothing when compared to the south of France, or to the celebrated cities of antiquity in Italy.

The charming and fashionable watering places in this county, as Sidmouth, Exmouth, Teynmouth, Torquay, Starcross, Dawlish, &c. are no less deserving of notice, and the justly extolled beauties of Devon, whether delightfully diversified in wood and water, or hill and valley, are all amply deserving the attention and admiration of the lovers of native grandeur and of rural scenery.

Possessing these advantages within our grasp, advantages which equally apply to the valetudinarian, to the tourist, or to the philosopher, can there be any just cause for their being disregarded? And do our countrymen, who willingly quit their firc-sides, and the charms of their native country, for the idle vanity of visiting France, deserve any pity for the treatmont they have lately experienced on the other side of the water? They have learnt wisdom, and I hope they will not fail to profit by it. Plymouth.

J. E. BLEWEtt.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

HE theory of public morals seems

most delightful spots for the residence of the invalid that can possibly be desired. The noble and expansive bosom of the Mounts Bay presents throughout the summer and autumnal months an animating and busy scene, by being covered with numerous boats, and other craft, employed on the fisheries for which this coast is so justly celebrated. To the sportsman, the neighbourhood affords a fund of amusement by the abundance of game and fish with which it abounds. To the florist, the stores of Flora present gifts in profusion. To the pedes trian, the rural and umbrageous walks of Alverton, or the grassy sand-bands from Marasion to Newlyn, furnishes an ample treat. And to the man of science

Thus, for example, it is often overlooked that wars, to be JUST, ought to be NECESSARY; and, to be NECESSARY, can only be waged in SELF-DEFENCE. It is equally lost sight of, that GLORY cannot be ac quired in UNJUST WARS, and that, before glory is ascribed to victors, it is needful to examine the previous question, whether their cause was JUST, and whether the war in which they were engaged was NECESSARY or in SELF-DEFENCE; for, WITHOUT JUSTICE, THERE CAN BE NO

GLORY. Would it not tend to rescue us from VULGAR ERRORS on such important points, if all graduates were examined on questions of public law at our Universities? PHILO-VERITATIS.

LETTER

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR,

IT

T will be recollected by many of your readers, that the doom of the many unfortunate colliers who perished in Felling-colliery, south-east of Newcastle, in 1812, (vol. 35, p. 649,) was supposed by many on the spot to be sealed, by the necessity which existed, of closely covering over all the pits of that colliery, soon after the fire-damp explosion happened, in consequence of the same having set fire to the loose coals in some parts of the works, and which fire there seemed no other immediate mode of extinguishing. This is not a very uncommon calamity, following the gazeous explosions in coal-works. On inquiry in the proper quarters, I have been informed that the burning of some refuse coal at the coal-pit at Brora, in Sutherland, in the north of Scotland, which happened last summer, of which mention is made, in an anonymous paragraph, in p. 448 of your last volume, did not happen through any peculiar property of these coals, occasioning their spontaneous combustion, as is there asserted; but happened, not on the pit-hill, as any one reading this loose and extraordinary notice might have supposed, but below in the works; and is said by my correspondent to have been solely occasioned by the neglect of preserving proper air-gates therein, as I will mention below, by which inflammable gas was accumulated, although the same is evolved in very small quantities only, in these works; and the accidental firing of this gas set the gob, or waste coals and rubbish, on fire, which had been improperly left in loose heaps in the works; but which fire was very soon extinguished, and the works

soon after resumed, instead of their remaining shut up six or seven months after the event, "partly on account of this peculiar property of the coal," that is, of spontaneous deflagration, as is there asserted.

As this is the most northern coal-field known in Britain, and is in the near vicinity of mountains containing granite, I have thought that the following account of it may not be unacceptable to your

readers.

Accounts are preserved in Sir Robert Gordon's History, which I saw at Dunrobbin in 1812, that coals were first wrought on the shore, south of the mouth of the Brora river, by Jane Countess of Sutherland, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in 1598, and where she erected MONTHLY Mag. No. 272.

salt-works*; also, that, in 1614, John the fifth earl of Sutherland, the son of the above countess, re-opened these pits.

In the early parts of the last century the Earls of Sutherland prosecuted the Inver-Brora coal-works, and tradition points out one of the pits of this period, in Shean park, in which fifteen men lost their lives at the same time, by the falling in of the roof of the pit!

About the year 1764 the workings of the Inver-Brora coal was again resumed by Mr. John Williams, the since well-known author of "The Mineral Kingdom," under a lease from the late Earl of Sutherland; and at the same time Messrs. Robertson and Mackenzie, of Portsea, erected new salt-works there, under a lease from the earl, and Mr. Williams contracted to supply them with coals, at a stipulated price per ton.

The coal-seam then in work was 3 feet 8 inches thick, in two beds, of a good quality of coal, but having between them an 8-inch black pyritic dirt-bed: it appears however, from the information of Major Hugh Houston, of Clyne-house, who when young assisted Mr. Williams, and has preserved many papers and documents, to which he kindly allowed me access, that Mr. W.'s practical knowledge of collierying was then very scanty, (although in twenty years afterwards he acquired so much knowledge and reputation in this art), so much so, as not to discover the mischief of cutting down this pyritic dirt among the coals, which also the smallness of his coal-rooms and mode of working rendered exceedingly broken and small: nor did he discover

*It furnishes a curious proof of the

progressive rise of the Sea, of which I have had similar proofs on every coast of Britain, that the remaining walls of this old salthouse are washed now to a considerable height by the ordinary tides, which mostly flow higher than the tops of the fire-places, which are still visible, on which the saltpans stood, and the tops of the coal-pit hillocks, that were made at this period, are most of them since covered by the seabeach! On the shore at Mostyń, in Flintthe year 1640, in which the fire-damp exshire, in North Wales, the pits sunk about the Phil. Transactions, No. 136, and where plosions happened, which are recorded in the water-wheel and chain-pumps were used, that were drawn in 1684, and have been since engraved in Mr. Pennant's "Account of Holywell and Whitford," have now long had their tops covered by almost every tide!

C

(as

(as will appear from his Min. King. 2d edit. vol. ii. p. 32,) that this dirt, among the broken coals, occasioned the spontaneous firing of a large heap of these small mixed coals on the pit-hill at InverBrora, or the firing of a cargo of them at sea, in a vessel which was conveying them to Portsea.

These defects of management, occasioned Mr. Williams' sale of coals to fall off, except to the salt company, (whose pans and grate-bars were rapidly wasted by the use of these foul coals,) and his affairs to become embarrassed; and, be ing also threatened by the kirk officers, on account of a natural Child which was born to him (who was still living near Brora, in 1812), he gave up his coal lease and works to the salt company, and in the year 1769 removed to East Lothian, where the foundations of his welldeserved fame as a writer on coal-works was laid, and his work compiled.

Mr. Houston succeeded to the management of the Inver-Brora coal-works,

*It seems to have been this circumstance, of near 50 years standing, which has been revived, mixed up, and confounded with other recent events at Brora coal-pit, half-a-mile distant from this spot, and on a quite different seam of coal, by the writer of the paragraph in page 448; who errs also, in supposing it to be peculiar to the Brora coal, or rather to its accompanying dirt-bed, to fire spontaneously, since Mr. Williams mentions another instance at Ayr, in Scotland; and, at Heanor, Ripley, Denby-hall, Donisthorp, and other collieries in Derby. shire, a thin dirt-bed, swells and heats on access of the air, and actually fires the loose waste coals, if mixed with them, as I have mentioned in my Report on that County, vol. 1, page 348; wherein I have also mentioned the probability, that the serious evil so well known in the vicinity of Dudley, in Staffordshire, of the waste small coals in the hollows of the thick coal hollows, taking fire after several months, if the external air be not sooner excluded, is owing to some distinct bed of dirt between the coals, that might be found and separated, and remove this evil, that occasions the waste of so many coals. At Lasalla, Fontaines, and other places in the Aubin coal-field, in the department of Aveyron in France, the same thing happens; (see Nicholson's Journal, vol. 29, p. 352.) On Cefn-mawr colliery pit-hill, in Ruabon in Denbighshire, a large heap of mixed dirty coals, intended for time-burning, took fire, after the rain of a thunder. storm in hot weather, in 1809; and other instances might be quoted, but none, I think, that would shew that coals themselves, in auy instance, take fire spontaneously.

for the salt company, merely pursuing the system he had seen under Mr. Wil liams, until January 1776, when Mr. William Beaumont, a coal viewer from Lime-kilns in Fifeshire, being employed to examine and report on these coalworks, first pointed out the defects of management that have been mentioned above. In consequence of which, larger rooms were adopted in working the coal, and a very careful separation of the pyritic dirt-bed was made, as Mr. Beau mont had recommended; and thereupon the coals proved free from sulphur in the burning, or of any other defect, as the very ready sale of several cargoes of them at Inverness and Aberdeen, when subsequently sent there by Mr. Houston (as the produce of a new seam) fully proved; and which account of the quality of this seam was confirmed to me by the colliers at work at Brora in 1812, who, in the previous year, had opened the Inver-Brora coal-seam on the shore, and raised and burnt this coal for some time in their houses, and which, when divested of the middle dirt, proved sweet and of good quality.

The Salt Company would now have put down a steam-engine, and entered on a spirited working of this coal-seam, of which a considerable space remains yet unwrought; but, their lease being too near expiring, and the tutors of the present Countess of Sutherland being unable, in her minority, to grant a new one of sufficient length, they soon after relinquished the concern altogether; and the colliery at Inver-Brora has since lain unwrought.

When the Marquis of Stafford and the Countess of Sutherland, his lady, entered on their spirited and general system of improvements on this fine, but hitherto neglected county, Mr. William Hughes, a coal-viewer from Flintshire, fixed on a spot higher up the river, where advantage might be taken of its fall, to turn wheels for pumping and drawing the coals, if found; and which, on boring there, were found, in a new double seam, of excellent quality, at 79 yards deep; the upper bed being 34 feet, and the lower 1 feet thick, separated by 2 feet of black clunch, and dipping 1 in 43 to the south-east; several tons of which coals had been raised previous to my examining Brora, and were daily burned at Dunrobbin Castle, while I was there, and gave great satisfaction to every one from their quality in burning; but deprived of the advantage of inspecting

Was