riod the reflection was double; and the fame appearance of land was feen over the first object, with feeming water between the two images.

IX. An Account of the Sugar Maple-Tree of the United States, and of the Methods of obtaining Sugar from it, together with Obfervations upon the Advantages both public and private of this Sugar. In a Letter to Thomas Jefferson, Efq. Secretary of State to the United States, and one of the Vice Prefidents of the American Philofophical Society; by Benjamin Ruth, M. D. Profeffor of the Institutes and of Clinical Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania.'

X. Memoir of Jonathan Williams, on the Ufe of the Thermometer in difcovering Banks, Soundings, &c.' These articles have before occurred.

XI. An Account of the most effectual Means of preventing the deleterious Confequences of the Bite of the Crotalus Horridus, or Rattle Snake. By Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D.'

This effay is too prolix, and adds little to what was formerly known. The poifon of the rattle-fnake feems to be foon exhausted by repeated bites, and not quickly replenished from fecretion. When the wound is made in the larger blood-veffels, fo that the poifon mixes with the blood, it is very foon fatal. When it is made in the cellular fubftance only, its deleterious effects are prevented by a tight ligature above the part, by cauterifing the wound, and applying fome acrid vegetable which will produce a ferous discharge from it: an internal warm fudorific is afterwards given. All the boasted Indian remedies for the bite feem to meet in these points.

XII. Magnetic Obfervations, made at the University of Cambridge (Maffachusetts), in the year 1785. By Dr. S.

Williams.'

XIII. Accurate Determination of the right Afcenfion and Declination of 6. Bootes, and the Pole Star: in a Letter from Mr. Andrew Ellicott to Mr. R. Patterson.'

Thefe articles cannot conveniently be abridged.

XIV. Account of feveral Houfes in Philadelphia, struck with Lightning, on June 7th, 1789. By Mr. David Rittenhoufe, and Dr. John Jones.'

XV. An Account of the Effects of a Stroke of Lightning on a House furnished with two Conductors, in a Letter from Meffrs. David Rittenhouse, and Francis Hopkinfon, to Mr. R. Patterson.'

In the first inftance, the lightning ftruck only thofe chimneys which had fire in them, attracted probably by the contrary electricity of the fioke; in the fecond, the conductors, perhaps, were not deep enough.

XVI. Experiments and Obfervations on Evaporation in cold Air, by C. Wistar, M. D.'

We can perceive nothing in this diffufe inquiry but varied forms of the well-known fact, that the vapour of any fluid, rifing in a colder medium, becomes vifible fmoke.

XVII. New Notation of Mufic, in a Letter to Francis. Hopkinfon, Efq. by M. R. Patterfon.'

As the fufible metal types, for printing mufic, are not com'mon in the United States, and engraving is dear, Mr. Patterfon propofes a new notation of mufic by letters and arbitrary. marks. A fpecimen is added, but it feems inapplicable to the more complex fyftems of the German or Italian mufic.

XVIII. Obfervations on the Theory of Water-Mills, &c. by W. Waring.'

Theory and practice have been greatly at variance in wheel-work. In Mr. Waring's opinion' the error feems to have lain in fuppofing the momentum of the water in the duplicate ratio of its relative velocity, while he endeavours to, fhow, that it is in the fimple direct proportion of the relative velocity: the latter is the difference of the abfolute velocities of the water and wheel, or that with which the former overtakes the latter. This correction, he thinks, will bring the theory and the experiments to coincide. A continuation of this effay occurs in the XXXIVth article.

XIX. Aftronomical Obfervations. David Rittenhouse.'

Communicated by

XX. A Letter from Dr. Rittenhoufe to Mr. Patterfon, relative to a Method of finding the Sum of the feveral Powers of the Sines, &c.'

XXI. Index Flora Lancaftrienfis, Auctore Henrico Muhlenberg, D. D.'

XXII. Investigation of the Power of Dr. Barker's Mill, as improved by James Rumfey, with a Description of the Mill, by W. Waring.'

For thefe articles we refer our readers to the work, as they are incapable of abridgment.

XXIII. A Thermometrical Journal of the Temperature of the Atmosphere and Sea, on a Voyage to and from Oporto, with explanatory Obfervations thereon.'

It feems, from this journal, to be clearly fhown, that the temperature decreafes quickly and fenfibly on approaching land; fo that the thermometer muft become an useful inftrument at fea, preparatory to the use of the lead. In approaching fmall islands, the change of temperature is more inconfiderable, but fufficiently fenfible.

XXIV. First Meinoir of Obfervations on the Plants denoninated Cryptogamick. By M. de Beauvois.'

This is the firit of a series of interefting effays, by M. de Beauvois. He endeavours to establish the pofition of Harvey.

omne ex ovo, which every day's experience contributes to confirm; and he finds reafon to diftruft, on the subject of moffes, the obfervations of all his predeceffors, particularly Hedwig.

XXV. A Letter from Major Jonathan Heart, to Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D. Containing Obfervations on the ancient Works of Art, the Native Inhabitants, &c. of the Weftern Country.'

The works, in the western part of America, fuppofed to be the remains of fortifications, have engaged much of the attention of philofophers. That they are fortifications, muft be confidered as gratis dictum: few have feen them; and thefe may have written not what obfervation, but what fancy, dictated. That they are the defenfive works of a civilifed race, is very doubtful. A fanciful author has caught the hint, and adduced it to favour his fyftem of the Welth Indians, the defcendants of the followers of prince Madoc. But we may obferve, that, if the Welsh Indians multiplied fo far, with fo many of the refources of civilifed life, as to have erected the fortreffes of which thefe are the remains, no Indian nation could have conquered them; and they would by this time have overfpread the western part of the continent. We cannot therefore avoid the fufpicion already hinted, that fancy has mifled the obfervers, and given them a delufive view of regular fortreffes in the irregular finking and retraction of foft earth.

XXVI. An Account of fome of the principal Dies employed by the North American Indians. Extracted from a Paper, communicated by the late Mr. Hugh Martin.'

This is an important paper.

XXVII. An Account of the beneficial Effects of the Caffia Chamæcrifta in recruiting worn-out Lands, and in enriching fuch as are naturally poor: together with a botanical Defcription of the Plant. By Dr. James Greenway, of Dinwiddie-County, in Virginia.'

The caffia chamæcrifta is a bean, whofe numerous feeds and luxuriant herbage meliorate the ground. If corn and oats are alternately fown in the fame ground, its period of growth prevents it from fuffering by the fickle or fcythe. It propagates fpontaneoufly, and more than compenfates the exhaufting power of the crops.

XXVIII. An Account of a Hill, on the Borders of N. Carolina, fuppofed to have been a Volcano. In a Letter from a Continental Officer, refiding in that Neighbourhood, to Dr. J. Greenway, near Petersburg, in Virginia.'

This is certainly a remain of one of the few volcanos found within the territories of the United States.

XXIX. An Account of a poisonous Plant, growing fpontaneously in the fouthern Part of Virginia. Extracted from a Paper, communicated by Dr. James Greenway, of Dinwiddie County, in Virginia.'

The plant is the cicuta venenofa, apparently a violent narcotic, and alone capable of what the antients endeavoured to effect by a compound; for the hemlock which they used was fuppofed to be the cicuta, united with anodynes; a compofition which would deftroy a perfon without exciting inHlammation or convulfions.

XXX. Defcription of a Machine for measuring a Ship's Way in a Letter from Francis Hopkinson, Esq. to Mr. John Vaughan.'

This is a more fimple mean of obtaining the fame information that may be derived from the more complex method, recommended in the second volume of this work.

XXXI. An Inquiry into the Queftion, whether the Apis Mellifica, or true Honey-Bee, is a Native of America. By Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D.'

The arguments in this effay, to prove that the honey-bee is not a native of America, are strong and cogent. The Indian name, viz. the white man's fly, is a ftriking argument. XXXII. An Account of a Comet, in a Letter to Mr. R. Patterson, by David Rittenhoufe, Efq.'

This is a comet of little importance.

XXXIII. Cadmus, or a Treatife on the Elements of written Language, illuftrating, by a Philofophical Division of Speech, the Power of each Character, thereby mutually fixing the Orthography and Orthoepy. With an Effay on the mode of teaching the Surd, or Deaf, and confequently Dumb, to fpeak. By Wm. Thornton, M. D. Honored with the Magellanic Gold Medal, by the Philosophical Society, in December, 1792.'

We cannot fpeak very favourably of the propofal contained in the prefent effay, or concur with the author in thinking it expedient. The founds of our letters are undoubtedly too numerous and irregular; but the rafhness of innovation, which would, to remedy the inconvenience that few feel, overturn the whole fyftem of orthography, we cannot approve. The fuppofed advantages of the plan, however, we will communicate to our readers, that they may judge of its importance.

ift. Travellers and voyagers would be enabled to give fuch. perfect vocabularies of the languages they hear, that they would greatly facilitate all future intercourfe. 2dly. Foreigners would, with the affiftance of books alone, be able to learn the language in their closets, when they could not have the benefit of mafters and would be able to converfe through the medium of books, which at prefent are of no fervice whatever, in learning to speak a language: and if this were to be adopted by the Americans, and not by the English, the best English authors would be reprinted in

America, and every stranger to the language even in Europe, who thinks it of more confequence to speak the English correctly, than to write it with the prefent errors, would purchase American editions, and would be ashamed to fpell incorrectly, when he could acquire the mode of fpelling well; for he would not be partial to difficulty, and would examine the old and new modes with more philofophy, than our blind prejudice will allow us to make the test of reafon.

3d. Dialects would be utterly deftroyed, both among foreigners and peasants.

4th. Every one would write with a perfectly correct ortho(graphy.

5th. Children, as well as all the poorer claffes of people, would' learn to read in fo fhort a time, and with fo little trouble, having only to acquire the thirty letters, that this alone ought to filence. all the objections that can be brought, and, particularly with the foregoing reafons, muft be deemed more than "equivalent to the confufion and perplexity of fuch an alteration." But, independent of what is faid above, I admit neither confufion nor perplexity to be the confequences of fuch a change; thofe who were never before taught to read, could have no idea of any other method, and those who now read would find no more difficulty in the two modes, than is found in reading by any secret character. Even fhort-hand writers, if in practice, find no difficulty in reading words which do not contain a fingle common vowel: fimple marks are used, and they attend not to the prefent absurd orthography of any word: how much more eafy then to read words which contain the fymbols of every found, and especially when most of the common characters are used! befides, thofe whose thirst after knowledge is quenched, may hereafter amufe themselves, with the books now published.' P. 272.

Some judicious obfervations, on the means of teaching the deaf and the dumb to fpeak, follow.

XXXIV.

Obfervations on the Theory of Water-Mills,

by W. Waring.'

This article has been already noticed.

}

XXXV. An Improvement on Metallic Conductors or Lightning-rods in a Letter to Dr. David Rittenhouse, Prefident of the Society, from Robert Patterson of Philadelphia. Honored with the Magellanic Premium, by an Award of the Society in December 1792.'

The propofal is to make the point of the conductor of black lead (to prevent its rufting or fufing), and its extremity of tin or copper. At leaft, if the ufual metal is continued, the part buried in the earth fhould be covered with a paste of powdered black lead, and be imbedded in a mass of charcoal.