existence as an evil, he thought it unjustifiable to communicate it to other beings. His first work was entitled, "Principles of Natural Philosophy," in which he made the most decided profession of atheism, and rendered it the basis of his system of physics. He denied the possible creation and annihilation of matter, and conceived all its properties to be the result of powers necessarily inherent in it. He endeavoured to revive the antiquated division into four elements; and all his book was filled with speculations equally extravagant. As the booksellers of Paris would not venture to publish it, he printed it at Geneva. Next appeared, "Physiological Views," full of still wilder theories, in which he represented animals and vegetables as the product of crystallization; and the vital power as consisting in galvanism. He now removed to Paris, and formed connections with the men of science in that metropolis. Having contributed extensively to the Journal de Physique, he became, in 1785, editor of that Journal. It seems he possessed some of the requisite qualities, industry, punctuality, extensive information, and a strict sense of literary justice. Besides his extravagant speculations, however, he had a violent self-love and jealousy of rivalship, which made him undervalue the most important discoveries made by his contemporaries. He set himself in direct opposition to the new chemical system of Lavoisier, and insisted on continuing to use the word pure air, instead of oxygen. In the same spirit he attacked Hauy's doctrines of crystallography. When he was unable to deny the value of any discovery, he searched for passages in old works which appeared to anticipate it, and republished them, in order to shew that it was not original. The most useful direction that his pursuits took, was that of mineralogy and geology; and the "Theory of the Earth,"

which he published in 1795, is reckoned his best work, or at least that which contains the fewest absurdities. When the professorship of Natural History in the College of France became vacant by the death of Daubenton, he considered himself unjustly treated in the preference given to Cuvier, a much younger man, and who did not then possess the great fame which he has since attained. He afterwards, however, became joint lecturer, having the departments of mineralogy and geology allotted to him. He made his Lectures on these subjects very interesting, by the exhibition of specimens, and by making excursions with his pupils to the neighbourhood of Paris. He suffered severely in consequence of the Revolution, which both injured the family-property, and stopped the sale of his Journal; and he owed much on this occasion to the generosity of Cuvier. On the return of peaceable times, he immediately renewed his Journal, and, in 1804, published "Considerations on Organised Beings," in the same wild strain as all its predecessors. In 1812, he had a severe attack of apoplexy; and though he resumed his literary occupations, he continued in an infirm state till 1st July, 1817, when a second shock carried him off, in the 74th year of his age. In the course of thirty-one years that he conducted the Journal de Physique, he inserted in it nearly 120 papers, which, with his other works, made him one of the most voluminous writers of the age. He was accustomed to boast of this circumstance, not reflecting, that a smaller quantity of writing, better considered and digested, would have been much more useful to the public.

The scientific world of Paris lost this year another ornament in CHARLES MESSIER. He was born at Badonvilliers in Lorrain, and early devoted himself to the study of astronomy. He

became the pupil and confident of the celebrated Delisle, under whose direction he was the first to discover the return of Halley's famous comet. He thenceforth devoted himself to the observation of the heavens, and particularly of comets, nineteen of which were discovered by him between 1758 and 1800. He passed whole nights in the observation of celestial phenomena, while the days were employed in marking the spots on the sun, or in making charts of his numerous observations. In 1770, he was admitted member of the French Academy, on the same day with Cassini. He never sought wealth; but the Revolution deprived him of all means of support; and he had sometimes difficulty in obtaining oil for his nightly lamp. After the fall, however, of the Jacobin government, the Convention assigned him honourable places in the Institute, and in the Board of Longitude. After sixty years devoted to astronomy, he became blind, like Eratosthenes, Galileo, and Cassini. He made numerous contributions to the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, the Connoissance des Temps, the Ephemerides of Vienna, the Philosophical Transactions, the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin, and other collections. In conjunction with the learned Pingré, he edited the Voyage of the Marquis of Caustonvaux, (4to. Paris, 1768.) He died at Paris in 1817, at the of 87. age

Science also suffered by the death of ALEXIS MARIE ROCHON. He was born at Brest on the 21st February, 1761, and, being accustomed from infancy to the view of maritime objects and scenery, he contracted a passion for them, and devoted his life to the improvement of nautical science. In 1765, he became a correspondent of the Academy of Sciences; and soon after was nominated astronomer to the marine. In 1768 he was sent out to

the East Indies, and employed himself in determining the position of the islands and shoals which intervene between the coasts of India and the Isle of France. During this period he visited Madagascar, and published one of the most valuable accounts of that island which we yet possess. Returning in 1772, he brought home with him the most beautiful crystals of Madagascar quartz that had been hitherto seen. He discovered the property of double refraction possessed by this body, and conceived the happy idea of applying it to the measure of angles.— Such was the foundation of the micrometer invented by him. He felt an ardent zeal for the improvement of his native province, and particularly of the port of Brest. His representations induced the government to adopt the measure of opening a navigable canal across Brittany, between the ports of Brest and Nantes. He was also appointed chief civil engineer of Paris, and immense hydraulic works were, in the course of the last ten years, begun and executed under his direction. He died in the beginning of April, 1817, in the 77th year of his age.

We could have wished here to introduce a memoir of Deluc, the philosopher of Geneva; but, as we have not yet collected materials adequate to the subject, we shall reserve this till the following year.

On the opposite side of the water, this year is marked by the death of a person of some merit and importance,

Dr TIMOTHY DWIGHT, President and Professor of Divinity in Yale College. He was born at Northampton, in the state of Massachusetts, in May, 1752. After completing his studies, and on the commencement of the Ame rican war, he was invited to accept the office of chaplain, in which capacity he was attached to the division com

manded by General Putnam. He was distinguished by the facility with which he adapted himself to, and rendered himself useful in this peculiar mode of clerical duty. After the peace, he was chosen to represent the town of Northampton in the general court of Boston. Possessing poetical taste, he published, in 1785, an epic poem, called the "Conquest of Canaan." In 1794, he published "Greenfield Hill," descrip. tive of the place of his residence, situ. ated on the coast of the Sound of Long Island. His reputation as a preacher was constantly increasing, being distinguished for the clearness of his thoughts, the copiousness and elegance of his diction, and for the distinctness and warmth of his elocution. On the death then of President Stiles, in May, 1795, Mr Dwight was named by the public voice as the fittest person to succeed. He was elected, and discharged his duties with such ability, that the college soon began to flourish beyond former example. His labours seem indeed to have been very great, since, besides the general superintend

ence of the college, he undertook the entire instruction of the senior class in rhetoric, logic, metaphysics, and ethics; and heard each week two disputations. As professor of divinity, he delivered every Sunday forenoon, a Lecture,forming part of a general course of theological science, completed in four years; while in the afternoon, he gave a Sermon on miscellaneous topics. His course of divinity he left revised, and in a state ready for the press. In the same state were found a number of miscellaneous discourses and dissertations connected with the proofs of Christianity and Biblical literature. He left also, ready for the press, another laborious work-an Account of the States of New England and of New York, collected in various tours through this territory, during the last twenty years of his life. He contributed numerous papers to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, in the formation of which he had taken a very active part. He died on the 11th Ja nuary, 1817.*

In taking a view of the accessions made during the year to the different branches of physical science, it is not our intention to enter into any detail of minute particulars. The object will rather be to embrace those grand and leading discoveries, which retain a permanent interest, and form an era in the department of human knowledge to which they belong. Among these, the following are the most promi

nent:

DAVY'S SAFETY LAMP, AND RE

SEARCHES ON FLAME.

While the improvements made in science afford to accomplished minds a high rational pleasure, independent of their application to the useful arts, their influence on the latter contributes materially to those sentiments of respect and of gratitude which mankind at large entertain towards them; and in proportion to their operation as promoting public wealth and the general comfort of society, such sentiments are elicited with the greater promptitude and warmth. On this account, it is with feelings of no common admiration that we congratulate the public on the

discovery of the safety-lamp of Sir Humphrey Davy, by means of which, subterranean mines, which hitherto could not be visited without the risk of ruinous explosions, are rendered accessible without danger.

In the coal mines of Newcastle and most other coal districts, an evolution of inflammable gas, called by chemists carbureted hydrogen, and by the workmen, fire-damp, is liable to take place, and to accumulate in situations in which no regular ventilation is kept up. Wherever a mine, or a division of a mine, has been for some time left without ventilation, it is always dangerous to approach it with a lamp or candle, and in cases in which the rashness of individuals has allowed them to neglect the danger, or in which accumulations of the inflammable gas have been more rapidly formed than they were aware, an immense volume of an explosive mixture, has in many instances been set on fire, and explosions have been produced by which numerous lives have been lost; persons who have escaped immediate death have been miserably scorched, and the machinery connected with the works has been destroyed. Various preventives have been

suggested for destroying or removing these gases, or for lighting the mines where they are lodged, without the risk of explosion.

Sir Humphry Davy, on the invitation of the Sunderland committee formed for the express purpose of obviating these dangers, went to that part of the country to investigate the subject, and the result of his investigations, and the multiplied experiments dictated by his inventive genius, and conducted with unwearied perseverance, havebeen completely satisfactory. It is unneces. sary to mention the various expedients previously suggested for lighting the mines. One was that of the steel mill, consisting of a wheel with large steel teeth, made to elicit sparks from flint during its revolutions; light is thus afforded, while the heat generated is not so high as to explode the gas. Plans also were attempted for supporting the flame of a close lamp by air introduced from without by a tube, either with or without machinery. These and other measures, however, were either ineffectual or too cumbersome for general use, or laboured under both disadvantages together.

Sir H. Davy's first experiments consisted in examining the combustibility of this gas, the proportions of mixtures of it with atmospheric air which are combustible, and the circumstances occurring during combustion by which the process is liable to be arrested. He found that this gas differs from other inflammable gases in its combustibility, requiring a much higher temperature to produce explosion. He found also that the flame generated in combustion or explosion, did not pass through metallic tubes of small bore, and a certain proportional length. He ascertained at the same time the quantities of azote and of carbonic acid, which, by their presence, extinguished flame, an effect which he found to arise from their cooling power. On the data thus pro

VOL. X. PART I.

cured, he first constructed a lamp which gave light through glass, but was close in every part, with the exception of two or three small orifices beneath for admitting air to support the flame, and one above to give passage to the smoke and residual gases. These orifices admitted only a limited quantity of aerial fluid into the lamp, and such a quantity of azote and carbonic acid was produced as prevented the explosion of the fire-damp, while the nature of the apertures rendered it incapable of communicating any explosion to the surrounding air.

In this lantern the air admitted was only sufficient to support a certain size of flame: the mixture of fire-damp and air being gradually admitted, the first effect of the fire-damp was to produce a larger flame round that of the lamp, and this flame consuming the oxygen which the flame of the lamp required, and the standard of the power of the air to support flame being lowered by the admixture of fire-damp, and by its rarefaction, both the flame of the firedamp and that of the taper or lamp were extinguished together. The azote and carbonic acid present, by mixing with the fire-damp, prevented explosion in any part of the lantern. As the air gradually became contaminated with fire-damp, this fire damp was consumed in the body of the lantern, and the air passing through the chimney contained no inflammable mixture. In an experiment made on this point, Sir H. Davy gradually threw an explosive mixture of fire-damp and air into this lantern from a bladder. By a rapid jet of gas he produced an explosion in the body of the lantern. There was no tendency to a communication of the flame through the apertures below; the flame did not appear to extend upwards farther than the lower aperture of the chimney, and the explosion merely threw out from it a gust of foul air. The principle of this lamp being esta

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