1818.] Literary and Philosophical Intelligence. To prevent the blight or mildew from injuring orchards, rub tar well into the bark of the apple-trees about four or six inches wide round each tree and at about one foot from the ground. This effectually prevents blight, and abundant crops are the consequence. A gentleman has invented a perfectly novel apparatus for making the labels used by apothecaries and chemists in a neat ornamental manner by machinery. GERMANY. At the University of Göttingen there are at present more than forty professors, one thousand students, from all parts of the world, and a library of two hundred thousand volumes. The mode of instruction is entirely by lectures from the professors. The system of instruction is divided into four departments-divinity, jurisprudence, medicine, and philosophy. The following abstract gives an accurate view of the course of instruction, which has been pursued during the season of 1817 at Göttingen. Department of Theology. Professor PLANCK lectures on the first part of ecclesiastical history; and history of dogmatics.-STAEUDLIN on moral theology; and dogmatic theology in relation to its history.-POTT on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke; grammar of the Hebrew language. Law. BOHMER on ecclesiastical law; institutes of the civil law.-MEISTER on the system of Pandects; criminal law.-HUGO on the history and antiquities of Roman law; literary history of law; universal law in use; institutes of the Roman law in use.-BAUER on the institutes of civil law; law of nature; feudal law; criminal law; criminal process and art of defending criminals. HEISE on German law; principles of the Roman law respecting inheritance and ambassadors; commercial law. -EICHHORN on the history of Germany; public law of those states which are united in the German league.-BERGMANN on ecclesiastical law; theory of civil process. Medicine. BLUMENBACH On physiology; and natural history.--STROMEVER on special pathology; and the art of healing diseases. -OSIANDER on obstetrics; and forensic medicine.-HIMLY on nosology and the art of healing; clinical medicine.-SCHRADER on botany; economical botany; medical botany.-LANGENBECK on the first part of surgery; diseases of the eye; clinical surgery.-F. STROMEYER on the oretic and experimental chemistry; chemical analysis; practical chemistry; pharmacy. Philosophy. EICHHORN on the Epistles of the New MONTHLY MAG, No. 315. 65 Testament; pentateuch; elements of the Syriac language.-REUSS on universal history of literature. -TYCHSEN on the Acts of the Apostles and the book of John; book of psalms; elements of the Arabic language.-MITSCHERLICH OnRoman literature; style of Horace, his epistles and geography and ethnography; history of art of poetry; Theocritus.-HEEREN on modern Europe and its colonies; ancient history. SARTORIUS on the statistics of the principal kingdoms in Europe; general politics.-BOUTERWEK on metaphysics in relation to divinity; general practical philosophy and ethics; general history of philosophy.-MAYER on modes of mea suring angles; experimental philosophy.SCHULZE on logic, and psychology.ferential and integral calculus; introduc THIBAUT on the pure mathematics; dif tion to practical geometry.-Gauss on the elements of theoretical astronomy; practical astronomy and the construction and use of instruments.-HAUSMANN on geognosy; crystallography; mineralogy; technology.-FIORILLO on the history of the fine arts, with practical illustrations. -HARDING on the elements of astronomy; various methods of ascertaining time and geographical positions.-BENECKE on the elements of the English language; and the modern literature of Germany and England.-BUNSEN on physical geography; elements of the Spanish and Italian languages.-WELCKER on philology; history of ancient art; Clouds and Frogs of Aristophanes.-DISSEN on philology, illustrated by the Satires of Persius; Cicero de Oratore; the Greek syn. tax, with explanations of the metres of the ancient poets. Besides those here enumerated, seven professors give what are called extraordinary lectures on different subjects in the four departments. The languages and literature of all the polite nations in Europe are taught, as well as dancing, horsemanship, and the military art. FRANCE. M. MALLET, in a recent Essay, has proved from authentic records, that the Icelanders discovered and were in the of America in the eleventh century: practice of visiting the northern coasts they gave it the name of VINLAND. Nothing seems more probable. Those who sailed from Norway to Iceland would not consider it a formidable voyage from Iceland to Labrador, or Newfoundland. It was, however, a barren discovery, and unknown in southern Europe; because Columbus, when he discovered the Bahamas, by chance, was intercepted on an intended voyage to the East Indies. BARON VON HUMBOLT has published some Remarks on the natural Family K of the Grasses, in which he observes, that we may form a conception of the richness of America in plants of this nature, and of the smallness of the proportion of those which had come to the knowledge of the botanists of Europe, when we find, that of 843 species, observed by M. Bonpland and himself, in the course of their travels, scarcely a fifth or sixth part had been recorded. In casting up the Glumacea, enumerated in Persoon's Synopsis Plantarum, those found by Mr. Brown, in New Holland, and Van Diemen's Island, and the new ones published by myself and fellowtraveller, we find that we are now acquainted with about 1200 Graminee, 900 Cyperaceae, and 100 Junceæ, forming a total of 2,200 Glumacea. All over the world the Glumacea are found to increase their number in a wonderful proportion, either as you recede from the line, towards the poles, or as you ascend the mountain, from the level of the sea. In Lapland, there are three times more Glumacea than Composite; while in the temperate parts of Europe the families are nearly equal. On the other hand, in North America, from the 32d to the 45th degree of latitude, the Composite are already found to exceed the Glumaced by a fourth: a proportion which becomes still greater in the tropical regions of that continent. I have [Aug. 1, purposely taken the Glumacea and Compositeæ for points of comparison, as being the two families which, in every part of the world, comprise the largest portion of vegetable species, and display the greatest variety of configuration. Next, in point of numbers, to the Glamacea and Composite, as far as I am able to judge, are the Caryophylleæ, Amentaceae, and Ericinæ, in the frozen zone; the Leguminosa, Cruciferæ, and Labiatæ, in the temperate zone; the Leguminosa, Rubiacea, and Malvaceae, in the torrid zone. In considering, separately, the three natural orders which compose the family of the Glumacea, we shall find, that the respective relations of the Gramineæ, (grasses,) Cyperaceae, (flat rushes,) and Juncea, (rushes,) under the line, are, to each other, nearly as 25.7.1; in the temperate latitudes of the old world, as 7.5.1; under the polar circle, as 24, 23. 1. In general, the countries which lie within the tropic of Capricorn appear to abound in the Cyperaceae; for, of the 456 Glumaceæ of New Holland, described by Mr. Brown, 214 are ranked in the Gramineæ, and 200 in the Cyperaceae; which proportion, if it be admitted as the true one of the relative distribution of these plants, is widely different from that which is exemplified in the tropic of Cancer. MEDICAL REPORT. REPORT of DISEASES and CASUALTIES occurring in the public and private Practice of the Physician who has the care of the Western District of the CITY DISPENSARY, ~~the limits of which, commencing at the Fleet-street end of Chancery-lane, pass through Gray's Inn-lane, Portpool-lane, Hatton Wall, Great Saffron-hill, Weststreet, Smithfield-bars, Charterhouse-lane and square; along Goswell-street to Oldstreet; down Old-street, as far as Bunhill-row; thence crossing the Old Jewry, and extending along Queen-street, terminate at the water-side. THE writer of these Reports has recently been furnished with several opportuni error inculcates the impossibility being at any time the result of mere debility; and which derides the supposition of tonic agency in medicinals. Those affections that are called nervous, say the tenets alluded to, consist simply in determinations and accumulations of blood; and the only remedial principle that can, in any case, be brought to operate with efficacy, is that of either emptying the blood-vessels, or diminishing vascular impetus: hence cuppings and cathartics, without measure, and without mercy. While others (these now are a small minority,) not only denounce the principles and practice of the ruling powers, but roundly declare, that no circumstances of morbid being can at all justify the artificial detraction of a particle of blood from the human body.* The truth seems to lie at about an equi-distance from either extreme. That those sensations which, in a some what vague manner, we name nervous, are frequently connected with irregular distributions of the vital fluid, as part of their essence, is sufficiently obvious; but that in this irregularity of the circulation consists the whole of the malady-root and branch, *Such are the doctrines broached by Dr. Maclean, in his recent work on the Plague, a work to which the attention of the readers of these Reports will probably be again shortly called. 1818.] Report of Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, &c. 67 is one of the medical principia of the present day, that lead to practical inferences of erroneous bearing. Were nervous complaints occasioned solely by plenitude of vessels, how could both their cause and cure be so greatly regulated, as they are actually observed to be, by the exterior circumstances and mental condition of the sufferers? Pleasant news will often suddenly dispel even a sick head-ache: here the curative influence must have primarily acted, not on the eirculatory, but on the sentient, system; and, even at the moment that he is engaged in penning the present remarks, the writer has seen a case evincing, in the most satisfactory manner, the good resulting from steel,-where remedies of an opposite description had been tried (but without avail), on account of the apparent tendency to local irritation. Stimulants and tonics have undoubtedly been employed, in many instances, with worse than no effect: but the Reporter is persuaded that their careful and discriminate administration may occasionally ward off even actual inflammations, and eventual destruction, of vital organs. Inordinate action, let it ever be recollected, is by no means incompatible with radical weakness. In adverting to the fact of nervous indisposition being so intimately connected with mental and moral states, it is pleasing to anticipate even the physical good which must necessarily result from those plans and practices which have recently obtained among the middle and higher classes of society, systematically to provide for the exigencies of their more indigent fellow-creatures. Did working societies for the poor promise nothing further than the diminution of the class of complaints now under consideration, their establishment might be bailed as a public benefit. Every device of human ingenuity, which has for its end mere selfish and sensual gratification, proves its impotence, by creating wauts in proportion to the measure in which such wants are supplied: but, when we voluntarily labour for others' advantage, we gratify our feelings without thus morbidly increasing our sensibility. True it is, that, while we enjoy the benefits and blessings of social refinement, we cannot enjoy, at the same time, the hardy constitution of the vegetating and labouring rustic. We must, in the present state of things, be in some degree nervous; but, in proportion as our mode of living makes us more vulnerable to impressions, so ought we to be donbly vigilant, even for our own sakes, in repelling the shafts of our physical and moral antagonists; not by a slavish conformity to dietetic and medicinal niceties; not by trying to compound with luxury, in the way that the formal religionist does with crime,--who sets so many prayers against so much vice; but, by a constant, conscientious, and habitual, recollection of the duties and destinies of our being; by labouring to cultivate early habits of as little dependence for happiness as possible upon exterior excitations; by resisting the first shewings of vaporous depressions; and by a combination of a due self-respect with a humbling sense of our comparative insignificance in the great scale of Creation. To Dr. Burton's advice, "Be not solitary, be not idle," it might be well to add, “Be not proud, be not selfish" for pride and selfishness are, at the bottom, almost invariably of that morbid sensibility which is so poisonous in its operation upon polished society. D. UWINS, M.D. Thavies-Inn; July 20, 1818. REPORT OF CHEMISTRY, NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, &c. THE blue iron earth, or native Prussian blue, as it was formerly called, has been continent Europe; as also land: but it had never been discovered in the island of Great Britain, until it was observed by Dr. BOSTOCK in a clay, to be found in abundance on the north-east bank of the Mersey, at Knotshole, near Liverpool. We suspect, however, that the rarity of this substance arises principally from want of attention to the composition of our clay: for there is, we think, little doubt that, upon examination, the clays of the level parts of Somersetshire will be found to possess considerable quantities of native Prussian blue at some depth below the surface. We invite our Somersetshire philosophers to the examination of these clays. MR. GEORGE LIEBIG, in Darmstadt, announces that he has made a discovery respecting gas lights, from which he promises himself various advantages. His gas yields light and warmth, and the material of which it is made is of more value when it comes out of the retort where it is burnt than when it is put in. "We will leave," says he, "coals and charcoal to the manufactories; my gas is derived from a finer material, which we have in abundance in our country." In a treatise on the Blow pipe by Assessor GAHN, of Fahlun, he states that, the substance to be submitted to the action of the blow-pipe should be placed on a piece of charcoal, or in a small spoon of platina, gold, or silver; or, according to Saussure, a plate of cyanite may sometimes be used. Charcoal from the pine is to be preferred, which should be well ignited and dried, that it may not crack. The sides, and not the K 2 ends; 68 Report of Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, &c. [Aug. 1, ends, of the fibres must be used; otherwise the substance to be fused spreads about, and a round bead will not be formed. A small hole is to be made in the charcoal, which is best done by a slip of plate iron bent longitudinally. Into this hole the substance to be examined must be put in very small quantity; if a very intense heat is to be used, it should not exceed the size of half a peppercorn. The metallic spoons are used when the substance to be examined is intended to be exposed to the action of heat only, and might undergo some change by immediate contact with the charcoal. When the spoon is used, the flame of the blow-pipe should be directed to that part of it which contains the substance under examination, and not be immediately applied to the substance itself. The handle of the spoon may be inserted into a piece of charcoal; and, if a very intense heat be required, the bowl of the spoon may be adapted to a hole in the charcoal. Small portions may be taken up by platina forceps. Salts and volatile substances are to be heated in a glass tube closed at one end, and enlarged according to circumstances, so as to form a small mattrass. When the alteration which the substance undergoes by the mere action of heat has been observed, it will be necessary to examine what further change takes place when it is melted with various fluxes, and how far it is capable of reduction to the metallic state. These fluxes are, 1. Microcosmic salt; a compound of phosphoric acid, soda, and ammonia. 2. Subcarbonate of soda, which must be free from all impurity, and especially from sulphuric acid, as this will be decomposed, and sulphuret of soda will be formed, which will dissolve the metals we wish to reduce, and produce a bead of coloured glass with substances that would otherwise give a colourless one. 3. Borax, which should be first freed from its water of crystallization. These are kept powdered in small flasks; and, when used, a sufficient quantity may be taken up by the moistened point of a knife: the moisture causes the particles to cohere, and prevents their being blown away when placed on the charcoal. The flux must then be melted to a clear bead, and the substance to be examined placed upon it. It is then to be submitted to the action, first of the exterior, and afterwards of the interior, flame; and the following circumstances to be carefully observed: 1. Whether the substance is dissolved; and, if so, 2. Whether with or without effervescence, which would be occasioned by the libera. tion of carbonic acid, sulphurous acid, oxygen, gaseous oxide of carbon, &c. 3. The transparency and colour of the glass while cooling. 4. The same circumstances after cooling. 5. The nature of the glass formed by the exterior flame, and 6. By the interior flame. 7. The various relations to each of the fluxes. It must be observed, that soda will not form a bead on charcoal, but with a certain degree of heat will be absorbed. When, therefore, a substance is to be fused with soda, this flux must be added in very small quantities, and a very moderate heat used at first, by which means a combination will take place, and the soda will not be absorbed. If too large a quantity of soda has been added at first, and it has consequently been absorbed, a more intense heat will cause it to return to the surface of the charcoal, and it will then enter into combination. Some minerals combine readily with only very small portions of soda, but melt with difficulty if more be added, and are absolutely infusible with a larger quantity: and when the substance has no affinity for this flux, it is absorbed by the charcoal, and no combination ensues. When the mineral or the soda contains sulphur or sulphuric acid, the glass acquires a deep yellow colour, which by the light of a lamp appears red, and as if produced by copper. If the glass bead become opaque as it cools, so as to render the colour indistinct, it should be broken, and a part of it mixed with more of the flux, until the colour becomes more pure and distinct. To render the colour more perceptible, the bead may be either compressed before it cools, or drawn out to a thread. When it is intended to oxidate more highly a metallic oxide contained in a vitrified compound with any of the fluxes, the glass is first heated by a strong flame, and, when melted, is to be gradually withdrawn from the point of the blue flame. This operation may be repeated several times, permitting the glass sometimes to cool, and using a jet of large aperture with the blow-pipe. The reduction of metals is effected in the following manner :-The glass bead, formed after the manner already pointed out, is to be kept in a state of fusion on the charcoal as long as it remains on the surface, and is not absorbed, that the metallic particles may collect themselves into a globule. It is then to be fused with an additional quantity of soda, which will be absorbed by the charcoal, and the spot where the absorption has taken place is to be strongly ignited by a tube with a small aperture, By conti 1818.] Monthly Commercial Report. 69 nuing this ignition, the portion of metal, which was not previously reduced, will now be brought to a metallic state; and the process may be assisted by placing the bead in a smoky flame, so as to cover it with soot that is not easily blown off. The greatest part of the beads which contain metals are frequently covered with a metallic splendor, which is most easily produced by a gentle, fluttering, smoky flame, when the more intense heat has ceased. With a moderate heat, the metallic surface remains; and, by a little practice, it may generally be known whether the substance under examination contains a metal or not. But it must be observed, that the glass of borax sometimes assumes externally a metallic splendor. When the charcoal is cold, that part impregnated with the fused mass should be taken out with a knife, and ground with distilled water in a crystal, or, what is much better, an agate mortar. The soda will be dissolved; the charcoal will float, and may be poured off; and the metallic particles will remain in the water, and may be examined. In this manner most of the metals may be reduced. MONTHLY COMMERCIAL REPORT. PRICES OF MERCHANDIZE. Cotton, W. I. common Demerara Currants 4113 6 13 () 2 0 9 10 O ditto. 1 10 1 7 0 1 10 per lb. 0 2 3 0 1 11 0 2 2 ditto. 5 14 5 7 0 80 0 0 0 0 49 10 0 0 0 22 0 0 24 0 Bags 20 0 0 21 Iron, British, Bars Premiums of Insurance.-Guernsey or Jersey, 15s. 9d.-Cork or Dublin, 12s. 8d. -Belfast, 15s. 9d.- Hambro', 12s. 8d. out and home, 31g. Course of Exchange, July 24.-Amsterdam, 36 10 B. 2 U.-Hamburgh, 343 21⁄2 U.— Paris, 24 20.-Leghorn, 52.-Lisbon, 59.-Dublin, 11 per cent. At Messrs. Wolfe and Edmonds' Canal Office, Change Alley, Cornhill-Grand Junction CANAL shares sell for 230l. per 1001.-share.—Birmingham, 8401-Coventry, 9601.— 12 0 0 7. 10 0 16 16 0 82 3 0 0 3 1 0 22 10 20 0 12 10 9 0 19 0 3 0 per jar. 0 per ton. O per cwt. O ditto. 0 per ton. 0 ditto. O per cwt. 0 ditto. |