fires; and producing, besides 10 per cent. of fuel or coke, no less than 18,000 cubic feet of gas. The cost in this case is 2/. 12s. 8d., and the total value of the products 16.--leaving a net profit of 13. 10s.; while, in the old way, the whole expense is 31. 12s. 8d., and the value of the products 9/. 10s.-leaving but 5l. 16s. 4d. of clear profit. Mr. Clegg's retort is made upon the same principle as the new Scotch stills. It is a flat horizontal vessel about 12 feet in diameter, made of iron plates rivetted together. We can give our readers no idea of the interior. Art. XVI. Description of the River Meta. By Palacio Faxar.

THE Meta is one of the great contributors to the Oronoco. It is from a mile to a mile and an half broad, and from four to eight fathoms deep; runs in a north easterly direction, and empties itself at the distance of fifty one miles from the Casanare. The banks are occupied by the hatos or habitations of numerous savage tribes; who are abundantly supplied with missionaries by the friars of St. Austin of Santa Fe de Bogota, and generally continue a reasonable length of time in a settled and sober way of life before they betake themselves to their old habits and their old religion. The Meta was explored by Don Joze Cortes Madariaga who was deputed on an important mission (says Mr. Faxar) by the government of Caracas to that of Santa Fe de Bogota, in the year 1811;' and who embarked on the river under consideration in order to return to Venazuela, in the most expeditious way.

Art. XVII. Some Account of Tayloria Splachnoides, a new Moss allied to the genus Splachnum. By William Jackson Hooker.

THIS moss differs from the splachnum in having a lengthened operculum, and long narrow apophysis. Mr. Hooker found his specimen in Switzerland,-and it had been found in Norway by professor Schmidt, of Christiana; who thus describes it: dentes peristomii longissimi, octo paria, torti, abrepto operculo, valde mobiles et mox inde reflexi. Mr. Hooker found them vade mobiles even with the warmth communicated from his hands.

Art. XVIII. On the Original Formation of the Arabic Digits. WE copied this paper into our last Number, p. 167. Art. XIX-A new Mode of improving or mellowing Wine. Extracted from the German of M. S. T. Von Soemmerring, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Science at Munich. June, 1814. Page 114. Quarto.

WE are going to give an abstract of this article for the sole benefit of our wine-bibbing readers.-M. S. T. Von Soemmerring recommends, that, in order to give wine all the advantages of age in a very short period of time, it should be kept in glass

vessels having their orifices closed with bladder. As the only effect of age upon wine put up in the common way consists in the opportunity it affords for the evaporation of the watery particles through the wood of the cask, and for the deposition of its salts on the sides in the shape of a film or concreted crust, any new mode of treatment which will facilitate both these operations must enable us of course to produce the same mellowness of flavour in a comparatively shorter period of time. That bladder has this effect, is proved by the following experiment. Four ounces of red Rhenish wine were put into a common tumbler, secured by a well prepared bladder which had been softened by steeping, and placed beyond the reach of the sun for the space of 81 days. One half of the original quantity of liquor had now escaped: but what had been left behind was neither mouldy nor mothery; as it would have been, if left without any cover, or with a stopper of cork: it had, both at the bottom and at the top, a stratum of crystallized cream of tartar: it was darker, yet brighter and finer than the same kind bottled in the common way: the proportion of alcohol was one half greater; and, both in taste and in smell, it was more aromatic and spirituous,-mellower, technically speaking, than it could have been made by the ordinary method of treatment. It is evident, therefore, that bladder has the property of separating particles of water from those of alcohol; and so great, indeed, is the rapidity with which separation takes place, that, according to the result of the abovementioned experiment, it would require but one year to mellow wine in the new way, where it must take twelve in the old.

Art. XX.-Analytical Review of the scientific Journals published on the Continent, during the preceding Three Months.

THE first work noticed under this head is the Journal de Physique, par Delametherie. Art. 1. (of the Number for May) Experiments, by Vogel, on the mutual decomposition of acids and sulphuretted hydrogen gas. Whenever this gas is passed through any of the strong acids in a concentrated state, or is brought into contact with them by any means, they assume a milky appearance, and sulphur is precipitated in the form of an opaque yellowish red paste. Perhaps the only effect is to raise the temperature of the gas; which, as all chymists know, is decomposed when that is pretty high.-Art. 2. On the influence which the abortion of the stamina seems to have on the perianth; of which the Reviewer says no more than to promise to say something in future.-Art. 3. Memoir by L. Cordier, upon the mountain of mineral salt near Cardonne in Spain. The town of Cardonne is situated in the interior of Catalonia, and is elevated 1404 feet above the level of the Mediterranean.

The salt mountain is about as large as Montmartre near Paris; and it every year produces a revenue to the government of about a million of francs. It consists 1, of pure muriate of soda in small masses, with large grains, semi-transparent and colourless; 2, idem with muriate grains, and of various colours; 3, of impure muriate of soda mixed with clay and small crystals of common selenite; 4. of pure muriate of soda in concrete tubercular masses, with a granulated fracture, fully transparent, and commonly snow-white; 5, of gray and white clay; 6, of common gypsum; 7, idem, mixed with anhydrous selenite.-Art. 4. Memoir (by Dessaignes) relative to the influence of temperature, of mechanic pressure, and of the humid principle, upon the generation, as well as upon the positive and negative nature of electricity. The object of this paper is to prove, that there are not two distinct electric fluids, as has been supposed; but that a fluid, eminently expansive, pervades and penetrates all bodies, to which it is united by a peculiar attractive force, forming around them a kind of electric atmosphere;' and that all the phenomena which are commonly exhibited by electricity, are nothing more than the effects of mechanical pressure, or of a change in temperature, and in humidity. The reviewer declines all detail; and we must follow him of course.-Art. 5. A Memoir by M. Flangergues; in which the author endeavours to prove that the unequal expression of the degrees of heat by the equal divisions of a thermometer, is occasioned by the mode in which bodies are dilated by caloric, and is not, as has been supposed, the effect of any peculiar quality in the fire employed.-Art. 6. A letter to the editor by M. de Heliz, giving an account of an alteration in the common plate electrical machine.-Art. 7. Observations, by H. Cassini, upon the cardamine pratensis; in which the author asserts, in opposition to one Mr. Richard, that the leaves of plants are susceptible of germination. He has himself seen the fact in the case of the plant here mentioned.

Art. 1. of the number for June, is a third part of the abovementioned memoir on electricity.-Art. 2. Observations, &c. by De Basbancois, to prove that all animals owe their origin to the successive development of a first organic being; or that, in other words, the animal system begins with the microscopic wigglers in vinegar and stale water, and ends in the African orang-outang.-Art. 3. A letter from M. Delezennes, intending to give a reason why the electric fluid circulates slowly with the dry voltaic pile, and rapidly with the humid one. Art. 4. Meteorological observations made at the observatory of Paris, for May, 1816.-Art. 5. A report made to the Institute, by Barbie de Bocage, respecting a memoir of general An

dreossy upon the irruption of the waters of the Euxine into those of the Mediterranean sea. This paper gives an account of the method by which Constantinople is supplied with water, as well as of several interesting objects of antiquity and the fine arts.—Art. 6. On the primitive matter of lavas. M. De Luc, the author of this paper, combats the common doctrines upon the subject of lava; and pretends that, as all lavas are confessedly nothing more than mixtures of water, salt, sal ammoniac, iron, sulphur, silica, alumina, &c. there is no foundation for their being classified amongst the rocks.—Art. 7. A favourable review (or report as the French call it) made to the Institute, on a sketch of military and naval architecture, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By M. Dupin.

Annales de Chimie et de Physique, for May, 1816. By Mess. Gay Lussac and Arago. Art. 1. Sequel to a natural classification for simple bodies. The reviewer gives no account of this paper; and only wishes that the author could be prevailed upon to give up his intention of coining new and hard names for the combination of simples.'-Art. 2. Extract from a Memoir read before the Institute, by M. Beaudant; in which the author alleges, as the result of actual trial, that fresh water moluscæ can gradually accommodate themselves to the salt, and vice versa the salt to the fish.-Art. 3. Experiments on the chymical nature of chyle, &c. extracted from an English publication.-Arts. 4 and 5. A review, by Barthollet, of a work entitled Traite de Physique Experimentale et Mathematique. We are to have a review of this work in the Quarterly Journal itself.-Art. 6. Upon dry galvanic piles. The author claims the invention for his own countrymen Messrs. Hachette and Desormes; while the reviewer ridicules such a pretension of course; and sticks to De Luc and Zamboni, as the real inventors of the arrangement. We have nothing to say.-Art. 7. Upon the decomposition of sulphuric acid.-Art. 8. Upon the precipitation of the oxid of gold by potash.-Art. 10. Meteorological table.

Art. 1. (of the number for June.) See Art. 1. for that of May.-Art. 2. By the editor, contains an account of experiments upon the expansion of fluids. M. Gay Lussac ascertained the remarkable fact, that alcohol and sulphuretted carbon yield the same volume of vapour, and possess equal expansibility.-Art. 3. is taken from the Annals of Philosophy.Art. 4. A Memoir read before the Institute, by M. Dulong; in which he attempts to prove that from a union of phosphorus with oxygen, there result, according to the different ratios of combination, four distinct acids, the hypo-phosphorus, the phosphorus, the phosphoric, and the-he does not say what. 26

VOL. IX.

Art. 5. Another paper on the same subject, by the Swedish chymist, Berzelius; of which the reviewer promises to give a separate analysis in a future number of the Journal.-Art. 6. Experiments, by MM. Bucholz and Meissner, to prove, in opposition to Stromeyer, that the crystallographical anomalies of arragonite are not attributable to a chymical combination of that mineral with strontian. Of twelve specimens which these gentlemen analyzed, some did and some did not contain strontian: yet all, without exception, presented the same mineralogical characters.-Art. 7. relates to a quarrel between M. Gay Lussac and Dr. Thomson about the discovery, that two distinct nitrous acids result from the combination, in different ratios, of azote with oxygene.--Art. 8. is part of a memoir by M. Leopold de Buch; in which the author attempts to describe the limits of the perpetual snow in the north.-Art. 9. See art. 7. of the number for May.-Art. 10. Extracted from the Bibliotheque Universelle, upon the variations of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, during winter and summer.--Art. 11. Mess. Robiquet and Colin attempt to prove, in opposition to Berthollet and Thenard, that the olefiant gas is a distinct substance from hydrochloric æther.-Art. 12. An attack upon the Annales de Chimie.-Art. 13. M. Planche, a Parisian apothecary, claims to have discovered, before M. Gay Lussac, (art. 8, for May) that, when sulphuric æther is left undisturbed a considerable length of time, acetic acid, perhaps some alcohol, and a particular oil, are formed from its decomposition.'

Journal de Pharmacie et des Sciences accessoires. Par Mess. Cadet-Planche, Boudet, Pelletier, Virey, &c. June, 1816. -Art. 1. Observations, by M. Figuier, to prove, in opposition to MM. Vauquelin, Duportal, and Pelletier, 1st, that a solution of muriate of gold with an excess of acid gives, with potash, a quantity of the oxide nearly equal to that obtained from a neutral solution; 2dly, that the triple salts of gold can be decomposed by an excess of their bases; 3dly, that these same salts can be decomposed by an excess of different bases; and lastly, that, of all the alkaline bodies, lime in equal weight, decomposes the greatest quantity of neutral muriate of gold.'Art. 2. On the formation of sugar, by M. Kirchhoff. Some years ago the author discovered that fecula might be changed into sugar by sulphuric acid; and he here announces the additional discovery, that the same change is affected by means of gluten; a fact which, if true, will be of great importance with regard to the general theory of fermentation.--Art. 3. On the refining of sugar by the powdered bark of the theobroma gua zuma.-Art. 4. Upon some new preparations of ipecacuanha, quinquina and rhubarb.- The three next articles (says the re