ART. V. The Sports of the Genii. By Mrs. John Hunter. 4to. 16 pp. With Fourteen Platos. Payne, Mews' Gate. 1804.

PROPRIETY demands a confpicuous place to be given to this publication, though fmall in extent, not only on account of the author, but of the fubject. The genius and tafle of Mrs. J. Hunter deferve refpeft; but, whatever may be the intrinfic merit of the prefent fpecimen, it is confecrated by being dedicated to the memory of an amiable and ingenious female, early loft to her friends. Mifs Macdonald, the eldest daughter of the prefent Chief Baron of the Exchequer, was pleafing in perfon, lively and fascinating in her manners, and fingularly ingenious in all works of tafte and art. The melancholy event of her death, when hardly arrived at Lisbon, under the care of her afflicted father, is too recent to be here related. It is but too juftly told in the words of Young, a father fimilarly circumftanced, and not more affectionate.

"With hafte, parental hafte,

He flew, he fnatch'd her from the rigid north,
Her native bed, on which bleak Boreas blew,

And bore her nearer to the fun, the fun
Deny'd his wonted fuccour, nor with more
Regret beheld her drooping, than the bells
Of lilies, faireft lilies, not lo fait."

One of the elegant amusements of Miss M. had often beer the cutting small figures of Cupids or Genii, in the manner practifed also by Princess Elizabeth, and giving them fanciful employments. In these inventions, her imagination was inexhaufible, and her figures always graceful. Her intimate friend, Mrs. J. Hunter, has juftly thought, that a more proper monument could not be raised to her memory, than one which hould owe a principal part of its attractions to her own ingenuity. Such is the origin of this truly pleafing publication; in which thirteen plates engraved in outline, with great tafle and truth, give an exact idea of the original cuttings; and a fourteenth, defigned by Mr. Mafquerier, reprefents a tomb, on which a Mufe is engraving the name of Sufan Macdonald. The following juft and beautiful tribute to her memory, written by Mrs. J. H. accompanies this plate.

"Led by paternal Love's protecting hand
Where golden Tagus laves the Lufian strand,
In fearch of balmy Health, we faw thee part,
While Hope fpoke comfort to the doubting heart.

Vain were, alas! the promises the gave!——
The bloffom fell, and dropp'd into the grave!
Thefe airy forms, which erft thy hand pourtray'd,
Recal to Fancy's eye thy parted shade :

Tafte fhall thy early talents learn to mourn,

While facred Friendship marks thy diftant urn."

To give these fketches the form of a book, Mrs. H. has written a fhort poem to each. For thefe, which, though not elaborate, are pleafing and ingenious, the poetefs makes the following very modeft interceffion.

"Critics fharp, with brow fevere,

Our fmall volume come not near:

Authors grave,

and learn'd, and wise,

Never this way turn your eyes.

Let us wander, wild, and free,
In fport and whimficality,

Thro' gay Fancy's flow'ty maze;

Nor blame us though you scorn to praise."

We should be forry to be fo wife as not to be pleased with elegance, though employed on light fubjects; or so morose, as to cenfure one of the most appropriate tributes of true friendship. Nor can the gravity of any critic be juftly offended with a work, which, if it excites the ideas it is rightly calculated to produce, will lead even to melancholy reflec

tions.

ART. VI. Philofophical Tranfactions of the Royal Society of London, for the Year 1804. Part I. 4to. 190 pp. G. and W. Nicol. 1804.

THE

HE contents of this volume confift of eight papers; to which the Meteorological Journal, kept at the apartments of the Royal Society, is fubjoined by way of Appendix. The fubjects of those papers are as follows.

I. The Bakerian Lecture. Experiments and Calculations relative to phyfical Optics. By Thomas Young, M. D. F. R. S.

This Lecture contains the account of feveral experiments and obfervations, principally relating to the coloured fringes that are produced by the paffage of rays of light within a certain diflance of the furfaces of interpofl bodies. The propofition which Dr. Y. deduces from thofe experiments is, that

C 2

fringes

fringes of colours are produced by the interference of two portions of light.

The paper is divided into fix fhort Sections, the titles of which are, 1. Experimental Demonftration of the general Law of the Interference of Light. 2. Compofition of Meafures, deduced from various Experiments. 3. Application to the fupernumerary Rainbows. 4. Argumentative Inference refpecting the Nature of Light. 5. Remarks on the Colours of natural Bodies. And, 6. Experiments on the dark Rays of Ritter.

II. Continuation of an Account of a peculiar Arrangement in the Arteries diftributed on the Mufcles of flow-moving Animals, &c. By Mr. A. Carlille.

About five years ago, Mr. Carlile prefented to the Royal Society an account of a peculiarity in the diftribution of the arteries fent to the limbs of flow-moving animals, which is published in the volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions for the year 1800. The prefent fhort paper, which is accompanied with one copper-plate engraving, is intended as a continuation of the above-mentioned account: and contains further illuftrations of the connection between the difpofition of the blood-veffels and the actions of mufcles.

III. An Account of a curious Phenomenon obferved on the Glaciers of Chamouny; together with fome occafional Obfervations concerning the Propagation of Heat in Fluids. By Benjamin Count Rumford, V. P. R. S. &c.

"In an excurfion", this author fays, "which I made the laft fummer, in the month of Auguft, to the Glaciers of Chamouny, in company with Profeffor Pictet of Geneva, I had an opportunity of obferving, on what is called the Sea of Ice (Mer de Glace), a pheno. menon very common, as I was told, in thofe high and cold regions, but which was perfectly new to me, and engaged all my attention. At the furface of a folid mafs of ice, of vaft thickness and extent, we difcovered a pit, perfectly cylindrical, about feven inches in diameter, and more than four feet deep, quite full of water. On examining it on the infide with a pole, I found that its fides were polished, and that its bottom was hemifpherical, and well defined.

"This pit was not quite perpendicular to the plane of the horizon, but inclined a little towards the fouth as it defcended; and, in confequence of this inclination, its mouth or opening, at the surface of the ice, was not circular but elliptical.

"From our guides I learnt, that thefe cylindrical holes are frequently found on the level parts of the ice; that they are formed during the fummer, increafe gradually in depth as long as the hot

weather

weather continues, but that they are frozen up and difappear on the return of winter."

Afterwards this author offers the following explanation of the above-defcribed phænomenon.

"The warm winds which, in funmer, blow over the furface of this column of ice-cold water, muft undoubtedly communicate fome fmall degree of heat to those particles of the fluid with which this warm air comes into immediate contact; and the particles of the water at the furface fo heated, being rendered fpecifically heavier than they were before, by this finall increase of temperature, fink flowly to the bottom of the pit, where they come into contact with the ice, and communicate to it the heat, by which the depth of the pit is continually increafed."

The remainder of the paper contains various remarks, which tend to corroborate this author's theory respecting the propagation of heat in fluids; namely, that fluids are not conductors of heat; therefore all the particles of a fluid muft fucceffively come in contact with the heated body, in order that the whole quantity of fluid may be heated; fo that if there be any immediate communication of heat from one particle of water to the other, that communication must be fo extremely flow, as to be confidered of no effect whatever.

IV. Defcription of a triple Sulphuret, of Lead, Antimony, and Copper, from Cornwall; with Jome Obfervations upon the various Modes of Attraction which influence the Formation of mineral Subftances, and upon the different Kinds of Sulphuret of Copper. By the Count de Bournon, F. R. S. and L. S.

The fubftance which forms the fubject of this paper is found only in Cornwall.

"The colour of this mineral is a dark grey, inclining to black. It has a very brilliant luftre. It is very brittle; fragments of it may be easily broken off by means of the nail. Its hardnefs is fuch, that it very eafily cuts calcareous fpar; but it is not fufficiently hard to scratch fluor fpar. When rubbed pretty strongly on white paper, it leaves on it a faint black mark; but not fo readily as lead, or fulphuret of antimony. It does not, when rubbed, emit any fell. When grofsly powdered, the powder fill retains the metallic lure. When thrown, in the last-mentioned ftate, upon an iron not quite red hot, it emits a hofphorefcent light, of a bluish-white colour, but without any fmell whatever; no fuch light, however, can be obtained from it by means of friction. Its fpecific gravity is 5765; it is confequently fuperior to that of fulphuret of copper, or fulphuret of antimony, but very ins ferior to that of fulphuret of lead. The fractures of its cryitals are not finooth, neither are they lamellated in any particular direction; but are generally granulated, and have rather a coarfe grain.

"The

"The cryftals of this fubftance are very brilliant, and often of a very large fize. I have feen fome that were more than an inch in length, and of a proportional height; but, as moft of them have a great number of facets, and are frequently very irregularly fhaped, on account of the inequality of their increafe, it becomes very difficult to determine their form; particularly as the cryftals moft commonly found are those which differ most from the primitive; to which, on that account, it becomes very difficult to refer them."

This author, in order to promote the knowledge of those mineralogical characters, proceeds to give a particular defcription of whatever relates to the cryftalline forms of the abovementioned fubftance. The various fhapes of those crystals are delineated on an adjoining plate. The reft of the paper is divided into two parts; the first of which contains obfervations on the various modes of attraction which influence the formation of mineral fubftances. The fecond contains obfervations upon the different kinds of fulphuret of copper. Of the fubject which is particularly examined in the firit of thofe fections, the following extract will give a fufficient idea.

"Of the two kinds of attraction", this author fays, "which have been hitherto permitted to prevail in the formation of mineral fub ftances, namely, the attraction of compofition and the attraction of aggre gation, the latter is fubject to different modes of action, all of which have a ftriking effect in the formation of mineral substances.

"The firft kind of attraction to which mineral bodies are fubject, and which is generally known by the name of chemical attraction, is the attraction of compofition. This kind of attraction takes place only between the most fimple or primitive molecules of a substance; but, at the fame time, it exifts only between molecules that are diffimilar, or that belong to different substances. To its action is owing the formation of new molecules, to which may be properly given the name of fecondary or integrant molecules; because they, and they only, deter mine the nature of all the compound bodies belonging to the mineral kingdom. Thefe molecules are the refult of the intimate combination, in different proportions, of the primitive molecules of two or more different fubftances. The difference exifting between mineral bodies confequently depends upon the following circumftances; first, upon the nature of the primitive molecules, by the combination of which they are produced; fecondly, upon the proportion in which those molecules are combined together."

The fecond of the above-mentioned fections contains a variety of obfervations on different fpecimens of minerals, principally confifting of copper, iron, and fulphur; and likewise on the peculiar cryftalline forms which fome of them are apt to affume.