thefe it is certain, that either Homer imitated Hefiod, or, vice versa, Hefiod Homer. Which of them was the imitator is, I believe, a difficulty too hard to folve. I fhall only add,

that thofe who maintain that Hefiod was the more ancient of the two, fay that his language is much more antiquated than that of Homer.

1 am, &c.

Surprising Inflances of Suffocation, occafioned by the nitrous Vapours of a Cellar. From the Hiftory of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

A Chartres on

Baker of Chartres put into his cellar, which is thirty-fix fteps deep, and well vaulted, feven or eight fhovel-fulls of live coals out of his oven. His fon, a ftrong and lufty young man, going down with a candle in his hand to carry other live coals, the candle went out on the middle of the flairs: he came up, and, having lighted it again, went down. When he came into the cellar, he cried out that he was almoft fuffocated, and called for help, and then was no longer heard. His brother, as ftrong as he, went down immediately, cried out in the fame manner, and then left off crying. His wife went down after him, a fervant-maid followed her, and it proved the fame thing. Such a ftrange accident put the whole neigh. bourhood into a great confterna tion; but nobody cared to go down into the cellar. At laft a neighbour, more zealous and bold than others, not believing that thofe four perfons were dead, went down to give them his hand, and help them to come out. He cried, and was no longer feen. A very lufy man, who went by, asked for a grappling iron, to bring up one of those peo ple without going down to the bottom. He let down the grappling iron, and drew out the maid, who, breathing the air, fetched a figh. She was immediately blooded, but the

blood did not come out, and she died on the spot.

The next day a countryman, who was a friend to the baker, faid, that he would bring out all the bodies with a grappling-iron; but, for fear of being taken ill without being able to come up again, he defired to be let down into the cellar with ropes, upon a wooden pulley, and to be brought up again, as foon as he fhould cry out. He quickly cried; but, as he was drawing up, the rope broke, and he fell down again. The rope, which broke pretty near the upper part of the cellar, was tied again with all possible fpeed; but he came out dead. His body being opened, the brain was found almoft dried up; the meninges extraordinarily ftretched, the lungs ftained with black spots, the inteftines fwelled, and as large as a man's arm, inflamed and red as blood; and what was moft fingular, all the muscles of the arms, thighs, and legs, were feparated from the parts they adhered to.

The magistrate took cognizance of the accident, and ordered, that nobody should go down into the cellar, till the phyficians, furgeons, and even mafons fhould be confulted about it. The refult of the confultation was, that the live coals, which the baker had laid in the cellar, were not quite extinguished; 322

that

that, as there was a great deal of faltpetre in all the cellars of Chartres, the great heat had raised in that cellar a malignant vapour, which had occafioned fo many difmal effects; and that a great quantity of water fhould be thrown into the cellar to put out the fire, and bring down the nitrous vapour. This was executed, and fome days after a dog, faftened to a board with

a lighted candle, was let down into the cellar. The dog did not die, neither did the candle go out, which plainly fhewed that the danger was over. The dead bodies were taken out, but fo putrified by the water, that they could not be diffected. They were very much fwelled; and one of them had his tongue out of his mouth, as if he had been ftrangled.

An Account of a remarkable DARKNESS at Detroit in America. By Mr. J. Sterling. From the Philofophical Tranfa&ions.

ON Tuefday the 19th of October, 1762, we had almost total darkness for the most of the day. I got up at day-break: about ten minutes after, I obferved it got no lighter than before; the fame dark nefs continued until nine o'clock, when it cleared up a little. We then, for the space of about a quarter of an hour, faw the body of the fun, which appeared as red as blood, and more than three times as large as ufual. The air all the time, which was very denfe, was of a dirty yellowish green colour. I was obliged to light candles to fee to dine, at one o'clock, notwithstanding the table was placed clofe by two large windows. About three the darkness became more horrible, which augmented until half an hour paft three, when the wind breezed up from the fouth-west, and brought on fome drops of rain, or rather fulphur and dirt; for it appeared more like the latter than the former, both in finell and quality. I took a leaf of clean paper, and held it out in

the rain, which rendered it black whenever the drops fell upon it; but, when heid near the fire, turned to a yellow colour, and when burned, it fizzed on the paper like wet powder. During this fhower, the air was almoft fuffocating with a ftrong fulphureous fmell; it cleared up a little after the rain. There were various conjectures about the caufe of this natural incident. The Indians, and vulgar among the French, faid, that the English, which lately arrived from Niagara in the veffel, had brought the plague with them; others imagined it might have been occafioned by the burning of the woods: but I think it most probable, that it might have been occafioned by the eruption of fome volcano, or fubterraneous fire, whereby the fulphureous matter may have been emitted in the air, and contained therein, until, meeting with fome watery clouds, it has fallen down together with the rain.

An Account of the Infect called the Vegetable Fly. By Dr. W. Watson:

The following is the Manifefto published by the Court of Petersburgh on Occafion of the Death of Prince Ivan.

birth, unlawfully declared heir to the Imperial crown of Ruffia, but, by the decrees of Providence, he was foon after irrevocably excluded from that high dignity, and the fcepter placed in the hands of the lawful heiress ELIZABETH, daughter of PETER the Great, our beloved aunt of glorious memory. After we had afcended the throne, and offered up to heaven our just thanksgivings, the first object that employed our thoughts, in confequence of that humanity that is so natural to us, was the unhappy fituation of that prince, who was de

538 throned by the Divine Providence, and had been unfortunate fince his birth, and we formed the refolution of alleviating his misfortunes, as far as was poffible. We immediately made a vifit to him, in order to judge of his understanding and talents, and, in confequence thereof, to procure him an agreeable and quiet fituation to his character, and the education he had received; but how great was our furprize, when, befides a defect in his utterance, that was uneafy to himself, and rendered his difcourfe almost unintelligible to others, we obferved in him a total privation of fenfe and reafon! Thofe, who accompanied us during this interview, faw how much our heart fuffered at the view of an object fo proper to excite compaffion; they were also convinced that the only meafure we could take, to fuccour the unfortunate prince, was to leave him where we found him, and to procure him all the comforts and conveniencies that his fituation would admit of. We accordingly gave our orders for this purpofe, though the ftate he was in prevented his perceiving the marks of our humanity, or being fenfible of our at tention and care; for he knew nobody, could not diflinguish between good and evil, nor did he know the ufe that might be made of reading, to pass the time with lefs wearinefs and difguft; on the contrary, he fought after pleafure in objects that difcovered, with fufficient evidence, the disorder of his imagina

Manifefto published on Occafion of the Death of Prince Ivan.

tion.

To prevent therefore ill intentioned perfons from giving him any trouble, or from making ufe of his name or orders to difturb the public tranquillity, we gave him a guard, and placed about his perfon two

Briti

officers of the garrifon, in whose fi delity and integrity we could confide. Thefe officers were captain Wlaffeiff, their long military fervices, which and lieutenant Tfchekin, who, by had confiderably impaired their health, deferved a fuitable recompena, and a ftation in which they might pafs quietly the reft of their days. They were accordingly charged with the enjoined to let none approach him. care of the prince, and were ftri&ly Yet all these precautions were not fufficient to prevent an abandoned profligate from committing at Schluffelburg, with unparalleled wickednefs, and at the risk of his own life, an outrage, whofe enormity inspires horror.

regiment of Smolensko, a native of A fecond lieutenant of the the Ukraine, named Bafil Mirowitz, grand-fon of the first rebel that whom the perjury of his ancestors followed Maffepa, and a man in feems to have been infufed with their blood; this profligate, having paffed his days in debauchery and diffipation, and being thus deprived of all honourable means of advancing his fortune; having alfo loft fight of what he owed to the law of God, and of the oath of allegiance he had taken to us, and knowing prince Ivan only by name, without any knowledge either of his bodily er mental qualities, took it into his head to make ufe of this prince to advance his fortune at all events, without being restrained by a confideration of the bloody fcene that fuch an attempt was adapted to occasion. dangerous, and defperate project, he In order to execute this deteftable, defired, during our abfence in Livonia, to be upon guard, out of his turn, in the fortrefs of Schuffelburg. where the guard is relieved every eight days, and the 15th of laft month,