sented by Dr. Wollaston, relative to the theory of the diamond cutting glass, mentioned that he had some micrometers, made by the late Mr. Coventry, where the lines on glass had been so finely drawn, that the cross lines formed a series of squares, so minute, that 25 millions are equal to no more than one square inch.

The plan of a new drag for searching for drowned bodies has been submitted to, and approved by the same society. It consists of an iron rod, at least six feet in length, divided into three parts by two joints; so that, as the sides of rivers are generally sloping, the two extremities of the rod may lie on either bank, while the central part keeps its horizontal position on the bed of the river. To this rod are attached a number of creepers, at the end of small chains, about a foot asunder. This instrument, towed by a small boat, will, it is conceived, completely search the bed and banks of any small river.

It is a well established principle, that three united agents concur in the destruction of alimentary substances→ air, heat and water; and that, by neutralising one of these agents, the action of the other two is paralized. M. Fouque, jun. of Paris, is said to have succeeded in effecting this, by producing a vacuum in an apparatus, simple, easily used, and not expensive. He has made his apparatus of two sizes. One, which is intended to be kept in the kitchen to receive the dishes to be preserved, is made of a square piece of flat stone, thirteen inches in diameter. In this stone a circular groove is cut, and furnished with mastic (or lute;) a

cast-metal is fixed into the grove, and a hole is pierced in the top of the bell of one line in diameter. The other safe consists of a large earthen pot of a thin consistence, around the mouth of which a luted groove is cut, and a cast-metal hell, with a hole in the top fitted into it, in the same manner as in the other safe. When the substances, which it is desired to preserve, have been placed in either of these safes, a little spunge is dipped into spirit of wine, of 33 degrees, then placed in a sauce upon the eatables, and afterwards set fire to by means of a match. A considerable dilation immediately takes place, which expels the atmospheric air; and in order to prevent its return into the apparatus, the hole in the top of the bell is quickly stopt with common wax. A small quantity of atmospheric air may perhaps get again into the bell; but not more, it is probable, than the combustion of the spirit of wine, not yet finished, will suffice to decompose, and convert into carbonic acid gas, the preservative property of which is well known.

NETHERLANDS.

An ingenious mechanic in Holland, invented some years ago, a machine for deepening and scouring canals, rivers, docks, ports, &c., which, at the depth of 12 or 20 feet, cuts up all sand, mud, or hard clay, with the greatest ease. This machine can fill a mud-boat, containing 432 cubic feet, in the space of six or seven minutes with five to eight men, or with one horse power. It equally works at the borders or edges of rivers, the same as in the deep middle stream, clearing all away or deepening as required.Also, a mill for draining marshes, overflowed lands, &c. which it performs with such celerity, that, for example, in 1770 acres, there are 77, 101,200 square feet, which, multiplied by four, the depth given, contains 308, 404,800 cubic English feet, for the mass of water to be drained; this can be done with ease by one mill in 359 days, whatever the wind may be; and an instance has been known of its emptying the amazing quantity of 320 tons per min

ute.

GERMANY.

It has been recently ascertained, that fogs contain a great portion of wa

ter, but not in a condensed state, being kept suspended by the opposed powers of the electric fluid with which it is charged. A convincing proof of this was lately afforded by a curious meteorological occurrence in Westphalia, where the fog being driven by a gentle north-east wind against the trees, the electric fluid was attracted, condensation and congelation took place, and the largest trees were torn up by the roots, by the preponderating weight of ice upon their branches.

Messrs. Kauffman, senior and junior, of Dresden, have exhibited four instruments composing an orchestra, which they call the Belloneon, the Cordalaudion, the Automaton Trumpeter, and the Harmonicord. The upper part of the Belloneon exhibits a trophy of arms, in the midst of which are placed twenty-four trumpets reversed; and the lower part encloses two kettle-drums with their sticks. It executes flourishes and marches with extraordinary perfection. If it contained other wind instruments, it might be compared with Mälzl's Panharmonicon, exhibited some time since in London and in Paris. The Cordalaudion produces together and separately the sounds of the piano-forte, and of four flutes, which play with such precision and accuracy, that the illusion is complete. The Automaton gives out notes with double sounds. But these instruments, though highly curious, are surpassed by the Harmonicord. It is shaped like an upright piano-forte; a cylinder is adapted to it, and turns at a very small distance from the strings, which are the same as those of the piano. By pressing down the keys, which embrace four octaves and a half, the friction is effected. Two pedals serve to make the rotation of the cylinder quicker or slower, and to render the vibration stronger or weaker. Under the hands of Messrs. Kauffmann, this instrument gives out sweeter tones than the Harmonica, and produces a truly celestial harmony.

Mr. Menke of Berlin, has invented a process for converting Mahogany sawdust into a soft paste, which becomes harder by exposure to the atmosphere, and is susceptible of receiving and re taining the forms given to marble,

wood, and bronze. This substance takes the most beautiful gilding, as well as the colour of bronze. It is made into candelabra, lustres, lamps, vases, statues, and all kinds of ornaments for furniture, which equal in elegance the finest works in bronze, and cost only one-eighth of the price.

In a dissertation on Weights and Measures, and the best means of revising them, lately published by Dr. O. GREGORY in the British Review, we collect that one or other of the following means furnish an invariable natural standard of measure:

1. The length which must be given to an open tube or pipe, that it may yield a determinate musical sound.

2. The altitude to which a person must ascend vertically, to cause the mercury in the barometer to sink a proportional part of its height.

3. The space through which a body, falling freely from quiescence, will descend in a given time at a given place.

4. The length of a degree of a meridian in a given latitude, or from the length of a quadrant of such meridian. 5. The length of a pendulum that shall vibrate, in a given interval, in a given latitude.

Of these methods, the first three he observes are elegant in theory, but do not admit of sufficient precision in practice to require a deliberate examination. The fourth method, by the magnitude of the operations on which it depends, and the variety and utility of the scientific researches which it has tended to improve and perfect, has seduced many into its adoption. The most eminent members of the Paris Academy of Sciences, Lagrange, Laplace, Lalande, Borda, &c. recommended it warmly; and two skilful astronomers, both in theory and practice, MM. Mechain and Delambre, were appointed to conduct the grand geodesic operations which were to issue in this momentous result. Yet it is now well known that the system has failed in France; and Dr. Gregory says, he is decidedly of opinion that it ought to fail.* The

metre adopted by the commission was 443-295936 lines (equivalent to 39-3702 of our inches); but Delambre informs us that "his advice has always been that the metre should be 443-31, or 443 and three-tenths lines, in round numbers." The deduction of a system of measures from the pendulum is, in the opinion of Dr. Gregory, much more simple and natural. Is it possible, then, says he, to procure an invariable standard of length by means of pendulums, and that in a way which shall be sufficiently simple for practical purposes? He thinks it is. The seconds' pendulum at London being 30.126 inches, that at the equator would be 38.991; that at the poles, 39.211; that at latitude 40 degrees, 39-082; and at latitude 60 degrees, 39.156: so that the feet in the different states of Europe and America could not differ by more than a five hundred and sixtieth part: and that difference is easily to be allowed for, whenever it shall be requisite, upon indubitable principles. To him then, it appears, on the whole, that of the various philosophical methods which have been proposed to fix a standard of length, or to recover a standard supposing it to be lost, that by means of THE PENDULUM is the best. With this view he recommends that the standard foot, to be legalized, in future, should agree either with that on Bird's scale made for General Roy, or that on Bird's parliamentary scale of 1758, 12,000,766 inches; either of these being regarded as the 27404th part of the base on Hounslow Heath, and as equal in length to a prismatic plate that vibrates 36469 times in five hours, or, rather, that vibrates a certain number of times, agreeably to the result of experiments to be instituted for that purpose, under the direction of parliament. Instead of dividing this foot into inches, or helfth parts, he recommends that it be divided into tenths, and each of these again into tenths, or hundredths of a foot. course he proposes his measures of capacity and weight to be cubes of his measures of length.

Of

Mr. W. M. MOSELY, in a paper in the Philosophical Magazine, on the

rather from an illiberal opposition to every deduction of philosophy, than from any fault in the system itself. Ep.

spots which appeared on the sun during the year 1816, remarks, that the two which passed over the disk in September were the largest which occurred. They were each surrounded by an umbra, and preserved nearly the same relative position, with respect to each other, during their progress over the disk; their course being parallel with and near to the sun's equator. The larger of the two occupied about 1-25th part of the sun's diameter. As these maculæ were very distinctly marked with an opaque centre, and were encompassed by an umbra of considerable magnitude, they afforded a good opportunity of comparing their appearance with the theory of Dr. Wilson of Glasgow. He conceived these macula to consist of vast cavities in the substance of the sun; that the dark nucleus in the middle was the bottom or deep part of the cavity; and that the nebulous circle or umbra was produced by light faintly reflected from the sloping sides for some depth below the orifice. The appearances, however, which attended the spots in September last, did not correspond with the phenomena observed by Dr. Wilson. Mr. Mosely could not discover that the nucleus ever touched the edge of the umbra; nor did the nebulous circle contract; as the spots receded from the one limb, or approached the other in their passage, further than might be attributed to the oblique position of objects placed on the surface. These spots did not re-appear with the next revolution of the sun, nor did the disk of the sun present any thing remarkable till the middle of October; when, on the 16th, two small spots moving in a line were faintly seen near the centre. Having traversed the disk almost in a line, the foremost passed the western limb on the 21st, at an angle of about forty-three degrees south of the equator. On November 1st, two spots were seen, the one a little south of the sun's equator, and not far from the line of its axis; and another somewhat larger in size, north of the equator, and rather nearer to the line of the poles. On the following day the southern spot had advanced, but in an oblique direction; and that to the north had passed over a space more than equal to one-fourth of the diameter of the disk, and was stationed about half-way between the centre and

western limb. It is impossible to assign any philosophical reason for this accelerated motion; but it is obvious, from this example, as well as from the circumstances noticed in October, as above related, that the spots are floating substances, not adhering to the surface of the sun; otherwise they would not deviate far from the line pursued by the revolution of its axis. Few, if any, of the spots which appeared during the last year, are to be considered of large size; nor were there many surrounded with an umbra, which is usually the case with those of large dimensions.

From the Edinburgh Magazine, No. 3.

ORIGIN OF THE TERMS WHIG AND TORY.

I. "This year (says Hume, Hist. Eng. 1680,) is remarkable for being the epoch of the well-known epithets of Whig and Tory, by which, and sometimes without any material difference, this island has been so long divided. The court party reproached their antagonists with their affinity to the fanatical conventiclers in Scotland, who were known by the name of Whigs: the country party found a resemblance between the courtiers and popish banditti in Ireland, to whom the appellation of Tory was affixed. And after this manner, these foolish terms of reproach came into public and general use; and even at present, seem not nearer their end than when they were first invented."

II. Mr. Laing takes no notice of the term Tory,-but of Whig, he gives the following as the origin:

Argyle and Lothian had begun an insurrection in the Highlands," and so forth.

"The expedition was termed the Whigamores' inroad, from a word employed by these western peasants in driving horses; and the name, transferred in the succeeding reign to the opponents of the court, is still preserved and cherished by the Whigs, as the genuine descendants of the covenanting Scots."*

III. Bailey, in his dictionary, gives the following:

"WHIG (Sax.) whey, butter-milk, or very small beer,"-again,

*For a further account of the term "Whigamore," see Burnet, as quoted in Johnson's Dictionary.—EDIT.