minutes between bedclothes or wearing apparel, the motion of the index certainly detects the existence of damp, if there be any present. Portable, and of a moderate price, this instrument deserves notice, and may save many lives.-Hygrometers made of ivory, whalebone, hair, straw, and various other substances, have been known for centuries. Whether this is any more than an old discovery with a new name, we have not yet ascertained. Miscellaneous. Caution to Master Manufacturers and others.--It is stated in the Preston Chronicle, that in the petty sessions held at Walton-le-dale during the month of April, two cotton-spinners, of Chorley, were convicted before the justices, for paying wages in goods, and other ways than in money, in no less than nine cases, for each of which they incurred a penalty of ten pounds. This practice, we fear, is not confined to cotton-spinners. We do not want to have new laws enacted, as much as to have the old ones executed. In cases like these, the sufferers fear to complain, lest they should be turned out of employ. Some friendly neighbour, however, might render them essential service, by making their degraded situation known. Literary Notices. Just Published. The Old English Drama, No. 2, containing The Ball, a Comedy. By G. Chapman and I. Shirley. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.-demy, 4s. Parts I. and II. price 2s. 6d. each, of The Modern Traveller. This work is intended to comprehend a popular description of the various Countries of the Globe. The parts published embrace Palestine, Sermons on the Nature and Offices of the Holy Ghost. By J. Edmondson, A.M. and R. Treffry. 3s. 6d. The Pastor of Blamont, an Authentic Narrative. 1s. 6d. Emancipation, or Practical Advice to British Slave-holders; with suggestions for the general improvement of West India Affairs. By T. Winn. Sacred Melodies, preceded by an admonitory Appeal to Lord Byron, with other small Poems. By Mrs. I. H. R. Mott. 58. 6d. The Evangelical Rambler. 3s. 6d. bds. The Atrocities of the Pirates; being a faithful Narrative of the Sufferings endured by the Author during his Captivity among them, off the Island of Cuba. By Aaron Smith. 4s. 6d. In the Press. Rattlesnakes. Some curious facts respecting these formidable reptiles have lately appeared in the Richmond Inquirer, an American journal. A Frenchman, M. Neale, being in Northginal MSS. One vol. Svo. Carolina, procured some rattlesnakes with a view of forming a collection. Several observations, followed by experiments, induced him to believe that they were capable of being tamed; and in this he ultimately succeeded in a most surprising degree. Their docility is so great, that having talked to them a little, and stroked them with his band, he takes them as if they were ropes'-ends, and puts them up his breast, until they wind round his neck, and kiss him! The means which he employed to effect this object is unknown, but he himself ascribes it to the power of music, and pretends, that a tender melody is sufficient to tranquillize the greatest irritation on the part of the animal. The Three Brothers; or, The Travels and Adventures of the Three Sherleys, in Persia, Russia, Turkey, Spain, &c. Priuted from Ori Directions for Studying the Laws of England. By Roger North, Youngest Brother to Lord Keeper Guilford. Now first printed from the Original MS. in the Hargrave Collection. la a small Svo. volume. Eleazar, an Interesting Narrative of one of the Jewish Converts on the Day of Pentecost; supposed to be related by himself. By Thomas Bingham. One vol. 12mo. Maize Grain. So remarkably retentive of the power of germinating is this grain, that, as appears by the Philosophical Transactions for 1823, the maize found in the graves of the Peruvians, who lived before the arrival of the Europeans in that country, is still so fresh, that, when planted, it grows well, and yields seed. To destroy Insects in Gardens.-Scrape or brush off the wormcasts, and then water liberally with pare lime-water; not a mixtare, which leaves a white crust after it, but a sola tion of quicklime, which is quite clear, and leaves no mark. But an instrument has been recently proposed to the Horticultural Society, for the application of pulverized quicklime to destroy insects on trees and crops. The inventor stated that this process was much more effectual than lime-water. The machine is of tin, not unlike the flower of a watering-pot, and the lime-powder is shaken on through the apparatus. The Rev. Henry Moore has in the press a Life of the Rev. John Wesley, including that of his Brother Charles; compiled from authentic Documents, many of which have never been published. It will be comprised in two large Svo. volumes, the first of which is expected to be ready by the first of June. Sancho, the Sacred Trophy, and the Unparalleled Operations of Episcopacy, with a Presbyter's Hat, is preparing for the Press. By the Rev. S. H. Carlisle. servation of the Sabbath, answered. In eight QUERIES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 1. Query by a Framework-knitter. An Inquirer asks-Are there any framework-knitters in the United States of America? if so, in what states and towns are stocking manufactures carried on? Does this branch of trade exist in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or particularly in the town of Pittsburg? An answer through the medium of this magazine will oblige him. 2. Respecting Gas, by A. B.C.-A. B. C. having seen some directions for generating gas for domestic purposes, has made several experiments, which have not answered his expectations.-He wishes to know what method he must adopt to procure a steady light without much expense in apparatus? The town of Abergavenny is said to be lighted on an improved principle. He wishes to know in what its superiority consists LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY H. FISHER. MEMOIR OF GIOVANNI BATISTA BELZONÍ. SCIENCE may be said to have its martyrs in one sense, as well as religion; and it is painful to reflect on the numbers of ingenious men, who have, of late years, fallen victims to the spirit of curiosity. But of all the regions on the globe, Africa has proved most destructive to enterprising travellers; and yet the rapid succession of losses does not seem to damp the ardour of inquiry, or to deter other adventurers from attempting to explore the interior of that interesting, though, in a great measure, unknown quarter of the habitable earth. The catastrophe of the amiable and indefatigable Park, was followed by that of Burkhardt, Tuckey, and Smith, to which catalogue we have now to add the no less celebrated names of Bowdich and BELZONI. [1824. appearance, his stature considerably above six feet, remarkably straight and well formed; his head and upper part of the body not exceeding the ordinary size, but from his hips downward he was extremely muscular. Shortly after his arrival here, he commenced an exhibition of hydraulics, in which he was a complete adept, shewing the various fantastic forms into which water might be thrown by the power of different kinds of machinery. After some stay in London, he went to Bristol, where he married; but he did not tarry in that city long, moving northwards to Edinburgh, and thence to Ireland. Finding the resources of the mind not sufficient to feed the curiosity of his visitors, he determined to call in the aid of his powerful strength; and accordingly between the acts of his hydraulic experiments, he would bear upon his gigantic frame, not fewer than fifteen, This last extraordinary character sixteen, or even twenty persons.→→→ was born at Padua, but spent most of Thus he has been seen at the Cork his younger days at Rome, the former theatre, lifting up the superabundant abode of his ancestors. Here he re- weight of individuals, strapped around ceived a liberal education with a view his hips, shoulders, and neck, and to the monastic state; but the sudden moving across the stage with this liventry of the French army into that ing apparatus, as stately as the ele capital, in 1798, altered his destina-phant surmounted by a body of Indian tion, and he became a wanderer. Though supplied with occasional remittances by his family, yet, as his parents were far from being wealthy, and their circumstances, from the pressure of the times, became daily narrower, he did not choose to be a burden to them, and therefore contrived to live on his own industrious exertions, and the knowledge he had acquired in various branches of science. His principal attention was paid to hydraulics, which he had learnt at Rome, and now turned to his advantage, by the public exhibition of curious machines and experi ments. After visiting several cities on the continent, he came to London in 1803, being then about twenty-five years of age, of very handsome and colossal No. 66.-VOL. VI. warriors. After perambulating the united kingdom nine years, Mr. Belzoni turned his attention towards home, and proceeded to Lisbon; but instead of going, as he intended, to Italy, he went to Gibraltar, and from thence to Malta; and on being informed that the Bashaw of Egypt was a great encourager of the sciences, he embarked with his wife and an Irish lad for Alexandria, where they arrived on the 9th of June, 1815. The principal cause of his taking this cruise to Egypt was, the project of constructing hydraulic machines to irrigate the fields, by a system much easier and more economical than what was then in use in that country. From Alexandria, at the beginning of the following month, they proceed 21 66 the Turks eating mutton, and the Arabs buffalo's flesh, when they can afford it. ed to Cairo, where Belzoni, soon after his arrival, had nearly fallen a victim to Turkish barbarity. Going," says "The place where I was to erect he, "to the citadel of the bashaw, we my machine, was in Soubra, at the had to pass through several of the garden of the bashaw, on the Nile, principal streets, which are always three miles from Cairo. We went to crowded with people, and for this rea- reside there, in a small house within son a stranger supposes the capital the walls of the governor's palace, to be very populous; but except these which was closed at night by large streets and the bazars, the rest of the gates. I had many provoking diffitown is quite deserted, and a great culties to encounter before I became number of falling houses, and much acquainted with the people of the rabbish, are to be seen every where. place, as they supposed that the inWe were mounted on our asses, the troduction of such machines into the most convenient and only mode of country would throw many of them travelling for Franks in that city. out of work: consequently, I was not We met a soldier on horseback, who, welcome among them; and the very when he came near, gave me such a persons who were to furnish me with blow with his staff, upon my right leg, what was necessary in wood, iron, that I thought he had cut it in two. carpentry, &c. would be the first to The staves of the Turks, which are suffer by it, if the machine succeeded. like shovels, cut very sharp; and one It may therefore easily be imagined of the corners catching the calf of my that I had to contend with many obleg, tore off a piece of flesh in a tri- stacles, besides the prejudices against angular form, two inches broad and all strangers, and innovators on the pretty deep. After this, he swore two customs of the natives. As a proof or three oaths at me, and went on as of this, may be cited the hydraulic if nothing had happened. The blood machine already in Soubra, sent as a ran out copiously; and instead of see- present from England to the Bashaw ing the bashaw, I was taken to the of Egypt, which is said to have cost convent of Terasanta, as the nearest ten thousand pounds. It was neatly Christian place I could go to. There put up, though the engineer, who was was at that time a great discontent in charge of it, met with many diffiamong the soldiers against the ba-culties before he effected it. At last shaw, for having given orders that they should learn the European military evolutions; and, as I was in a Frank's dress, I suppose the fellow paid me for what he had learned of European fighting. From the convent I was taken home to my house at Boolak, where I remained under cure for thirty days before I could stand on my legs. When I recovered, I" At length the hydraulic machine was presented to Mahomet Ali Ba- was completed, and though constructshaw, who received me very civilly. ed with hard wood and iron, it was a Seeing that I walked lamely, and be- question whether it did draw six or ing told the cause, he said, such acci- seven times as much water as those dents could not be avoided, where in common use. The bashaw gave there were troops. I made an ar- his decision, that it drew up only four rangement with him, and undertook times as much. This calculation, to erect a machine, which would raise however, was to my satisfaction, as it as much water with one ox, as the decided on the accomplishment of my machines of the country with four. undertaking. Still Mahomet Ali perHe was much pleased with my pro- ceived the prejudice among the Arabs posal, as it would save the labour and and the Turks who were concerned in expense of many thousands of oxen the cultivation of the land; for, inin the country; a matter of impor- stead of four hundred people, and as tance, since these animals are scarcemany oxen, they would have only to ly of any other use than working; for, command one hundred of each, which though they are in pretty good condi- would make a considerable difference tion, they are seldom killed for food, in their profits: but as it happened, it was set to work; but as it was imagined that an English machine would inundate the whole country in an hour, the quantity of water raised was not adequate to their expectation, and it has been left useless ever since.This failure gave me an early surmise of what might be my own fate; and I was not mistaken. |