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storm; stones and lumps of ice were measured from nine to twelve inches in circumference.

A tine peacock, belonging to Mr. Henwood, of Cardinham, near Bodmin, was lately attacked by a ferocious hog, and literally torn to pieces. It was more than ninety years of age, and a very old man now living in Warleggan, has remembered it more than eighty years. It was bred by Nance, Esq. of Trengoff, and successively became the property of the different inheritors of that estate, till their possessions in Cornwall were sold by Gudge, Esq. who gave this ancient fowl to Mr. Henwood about ten years ago. Its appearance made it probable that it would have lived many years longer. It was lively and active, and its plumage as perfect and beautiful as in early life.

The art of rising and moving in the air by means of wings, continues to engage the attention of a number of persons in Germany. At Vienna, the watchmaker Degen, aided by a liberal subscription, is occupied in perfecting his discovery. He has recently taken several public flights in the Prater, which will be detailed in one of our subsequent numbers. At Berlin, Claudius, a wealthy manufacturer of oil cloth, is engaged in like pursuits: he rises in the air without difficuly, and can move in a direct line at the rate of four mes an hour; but his wings are unwieldy, and he cannot turn round in them. At Ulm, a tailor, named Berblinger, announced on the 24th April, Chat he had, after great sacrifice of money, labour, and time, invented a machroe in which he would, on the 12th May, rise in the air, and fly twelve miles. From later accounts we learn that he has been unsuccessful. He placed himself on the walls of Ulm, at the edge of the Danube, for the purpose of flying over that river, but no sooner had he leaped from the wall, than one of his wings broke, and he fell into the water, and must have been drowned, had not some boats gone to his assistance.

A safe and commodious harbour has lately been discovered about seventy miles north west of Kangaroo Island, on the west coast of New Holland. It is represented as capable of containing and completely sheltering any number of ships of the largest size.

The Archduke John has discovered, in Upper Saxony, a mine of chrome, a very rare metal, and extremely useful for colouring porcelain.

A new sloop, of about forty tons, was lately launched at New Quay, Cardiganshire. The mode of launching, although common on that coast, is not generally known.-Two bars of iron, carinated, having a vertical motion, are, by means of a strong iron pin, attached to the keel of the vessel under the prow; to the curved end of each of the iron bars, which are in the same direction as the prow, two cables are fastened (being in all four), by means of which the vessel is hauled, by men and women, during neap tide, down to the beach, where, by the influx of the tide, she is, in a few hours, set afloat. In order to facilitate her motion, pieces of small timber are placed across the direction in which she was hauled, to serve as rollers.

Lately, was launched at Greenwich, a life-boat on a new construction, intended to be in the possession of all ships. It is invented by a Mr. Morris, and appears very simple. It consists of four common size beer-butts, which are laid lengthways, and two smaller at each end, which are lashed upright. These empty butts, fastened together in a frame, form the basis of the boat; on them are gratings, &c. and side-pieces, which form the gunwale. The whole apparatus may be put together in less than fifteen minutes, and is secured by means of wedges. It will carry twelve or fifteen people at one time, and if adopted, would no doubt be found of great utility, particularly in the Merchant service.-A number of Naval and Military Officers from Woolwich attended, and seemed to approve highly of the invention.

The

The Merced, which arrived lately at Plymouth, has brought accounts from Africa, which completely put an end to all hopes of the existence of Mungo Parke, the enterprising traveller. The search that had been made after him tended fully to confirm the accounts previously received of his dissolution. It seems the immediate cause of his death was a fever, brought on by the hardships he endured. He drew his last breath in the hovel of an old negro woman. Not a vestige of his papers have been received.

A bed of plaster of Paris, of about 100 acres in extent, has been discovered in the county called Duchess County, in the State of New York, which is said to be equal, if not superior, to that imported from Nova Scotia.

The extensive grape-vine at Hampton Court, exhibits, at this time, 2,750 bunches of the finest fruit that this celebrated tree has ever produced.

A remnant of the breed of wild cattle in this country is to be found in Chillingham Park (belonging to Earl Tankerville), in Northumberland. The bulls are extremely fierce, and when the cows calve, they conceal their young, going two or three times a-day to suckle them.

The quantity of rain fallen this year, from the 24th Feb. to the 1st March, is equal to nearly two inches in depth. Snow fell on the 7th of Feb. and on the 23d the thermometer was 76, or six degrees above summer heat. The average height of the thermometer for the last month is 48. 5, and that of the ba rometer 29. 54.

In making some agricultural operations lately on the farm of Fiddy, in the parish of Skene, Scotland, an oak tree of most enormous size was discovered about two feet under the surface. The dimensions of the trunk are full five feet diameter, and it seems to have been forty feet high. It is partly burnt at the root, and is supposed to have lain about 300 years. It is nearly in a state of petrefaction, and its weight and bulk are so great, that it will require to be blown in pieces before it can be removed.

Cordage and cloth have recently been manufactured from stinging-nettles, by Mr. Smith, of Brentwood, Essex, and for which he has received the silver medal of the Society of Arts.

A Literary Society has been established in the Philippine Islands-its first object is to form a vocabulary of all the languages spoken in the Western Archipelago.

A patent has been obtained for a new method of moving all kinds of goods or materials to high buildings, or from deep places. The specification describes it as an improvement on the principle of a lever on a moving fulcrum, whereby power is gained without loss of time. It may be used in direct, rotative, pendulum, crank, or any other kind of motion, and may be worked by animal strength, wind, water, steam, &c. It is applicable to mills or pumps, to the moving carriages on iron railways, and to various other kinds of machinery.

Some of the late West India Journals contain extraordinary praises of the Alcornoque tree, the inner bark of which, infused in a glass of liquor, and taken morning and night, is said to have acquired the reputation of a specific in all complaints of the liver and lungs.

A quarto Latin Bible, which had once belonged to the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, was lately advertised for sale at Paris: her name was written at length upon the title-page, beside the cyphers M. S. and two lines of poetry. The same frontispiece likewise contained the signature of the infamous Besme, who in 1572 assassinated Admiral Colligny. There are five lines in his handwriting, where he prays, in reference to the Bible, that God will give him "grace to profit thereby."

On

On the 18th of April last, there was found in a field in the neighbourhood of Arbroath, a skylark's nest, containing three young larks well fledged.

A patent has been obtained for a new method of engraving and printing maps of counties, charts, music, mathematical diagrams, figures, &c. on metal, wood, or any other substance, so that they may be worked off in a common printing-press.

Oil cakes given to milch cows add considerably to the quantity and richness of the milk, without affecting its flavour. When ground, mix it in layers, and boil it with the chaff, by which means half the quantity answers better than as much more given in the cake.

The cultivation of cotton has proved very productive at Prince of Wales' Island in proportion as that of coffee has diminished; and hopes are entertamed that the former article will shortly find an extensive market in our Dewly acquired colonies in the East.

Professor Leslie's process for effecting the congelation of a mass of water in a warm room consists in placing two vessels under the receiver of the airpump, the one containing water, the other any substance very attractive of moisture. The weight of the air being removed by working the moisture, coFous evaporations began to take place from the water. Were there nothing der the receiver but this liquid, an atmosphere of vapour would be formed, by se pressure farther evaporation would be prevented; but the other substance absorbs this vapour almost as speedily as it rises. Hence evapora tion and its invariable effect, the production of cold, proceed so vigorously, as soon to convert the water into ice, spicule of which are seen shooting beauti fully across.

A patent has been obtained by a female inhabitant of Bristol, for a new method of erecting bridges, &c. without arches or sterlings; the advantages to be derived from which are, that they are not subject to be injured or de stroyed by floods-no kind of ground is unsuitable for the foundation--they may be erected in the most difficult and almost inaccessible places: roads may be continued over marshy grounds without the danger of being destroyed in water; are erected in a small space of time, and comparatively inconsiderable expense.

A treatise on meteor-stones has been published in Vienna, in which the writer maintains, and endeavours to illustrate, the opinion of Laplace, that such stones are discharged from some great volcanoes in the moon.

A Sunday Paper has lately been published in Germany-we believe it is the ly one published on any part of the European Continent.

The art of curing beef has been brought to great perfection in the East Indes. Messrs. Gammidge and Fruta, of Calcutta, opened last year some bartes, and though the beef had been in salt six years, it was in excellent pickle, 8 preservation, and without the least taint.

The quantity of oil extracted from olives is not only increased one tenth, by the fruit being well wetted with vinegar, but is also better flavoured, and more limpid.

A poor woman at Haselback, near Augsburgh, was lately delivered of an infant perfectly formed from the navel downwards; but whose head, seated on the back bone, resembled nothing human. The mother remembers having seen sculptured, during the third month of her pregnancy, the head of a lion entangled in a net, and which was always present to her imagination. The infant died while undergoing an operation performed by order of the magistrates.

Fluor volatile alkali has been discovered in France, by M. Sage, to be of great efficacy when taken internally, in all cases of severe apoplexy. In a

Memoir read to the National Institute, he vouches the experience of forty years, for its being an immediate remedy if employed on the first appearance of the disease.

till

Chinese tea has been imitated at Verdun, by heating the leaves of the horn-beam in a new earthen vessel placed in the midst of boiling water, they have acquired a brown hue, lighter or deeper at pleasure. They are then scented by being placed in a box with Florentine orris-root, in powder, several days, when they may be used as tea; and though the medical properties are unknown, the imitation of tea is very complete.

An inhabitant of Westminster has obtained a patent for discovering that the alluvial soil which subsides in the Thames, may be applied instead of potter's clay, or other argillaceous earths, in making statues, artificial stone, melting-pots, bricks, tiles, &c. He finds that this soil consists of argillaceous earth, clay or chalk, gathered from the uplands, with materials of the nature of pit-coal, ashes, &c. and he gives the preference to such as is most clear of wormy and aquatic animals.

The draughtsmen of Plymouth-yard, in consequence of orders to that effect, are engaged in preparing drawings for the inspection of the Navy Board, of a first-rate ship of four decks, with a circular stern, round which guns will be planted. This vessel will, of course, carry an immense number of guns, and will be the largest ever built.

Gottingen, May 20.-For these eight months we have had among the students of our University, a boy ten years and an half old, who is a real phænomenon. The name of this young sçavant is Charles Witte. He understands the languages, history, geography, and literature, as well antient as modern: at the age of eight years he possessed, besides his mother-tongue, Greek, Latin, French, English, and Italian, to such a degree of perfection, that he could not only translate currently, the Eneid of Virgil, and the Iliad of Homer, but could likewise speak, with an astonishing facility, all the living languages which have been just mentioned. Of this, he last year gave such satisfactory proofs in a public examination, which he underwent at the University of Leipsick, that that body honoured him with the following diploma: Alma Universitatis Lipsiensis Rectore Carolo Gottlob Kuhnio, &c. &c. Carolus Witte Lochaviensis puer IX annorum,

Propter præmaturam eximiamque in iis quibus non puerilis, sed adolescentum ætas imbui solet, solertiam; potissimùm verò linguarum antiquarum græcæ ac latinæ, item recentiorum franco-gallicæ, anglicæ, etruscæ, notitiam haud vulgarem, quam à nemine nisi à patre Carolo Henrico Godofrego unico et solo præceptore accepit.

Exemplo planè singulari non modo albo Philyria (Leipsick) insertus, verum etiam datâ fide, civibus Academiæ nostræ adscriptus est.

Till his arrival at Gottingen, this child had no other instructor than his father, the clergyman Witte. His Majesty the King of Westphalia, desirous that he should continue to direct the studies of his son to their termination, has granted him a pension, which has enabled him to quit his pastoral functions, and to accompany his pupil to our University. The young Witte is now studying philosophy; he is engaged in a course of mathematics, physics, and metaphysics, and shews the most happy disposition for all the sciences.

A recent number of Mr. Nicholson's Philosophical Journal contains some interesting observations from a Correspondent, of an occasional increase and decrease of the hair of the head. The writer premises, that the sympathies between the skin and the stomach have been frequently adverted to by physiologists; the skin has been found to be alternately hot and dry, hot and moist, cold and dry, and cold and moist; and these varieties have been attributed to variations in the state of the stomach, between which and the

skin

skin a very direct sympathy is believed to exist. But the variations in the appearances of the hair do not appear to be duly noticed.

I have remarked, continues the writer, that people of what is usually called nervous and susceptible feelings, appear at times to have but half the quantity of hair on their heads, that they have at others, though they have assured me that none had been cut or combed off. On minute examination, I have found, that the apparent increase in quantity, at certain times, was occascued by the following circumstances: the shafts t..emselves were found to be specifically larger, and more tense or elastic, at the same time that they did not lie in such close contact. The apparent diminution in the quantity, at other times, I have found to result from a specific in the size of the shafts, which also lay in closer contact than ordinary, and were more flaccid, and generally more dry. Considering the considerable influence which the atmosphere exercises on our bodies, I was once induced to attribute the closer contact of the shafts to a diminution in their electricity, by which they would become less mutually repulsive; this, however, does not seem calculated to account for their increase in size. May the shaft be considered to be organized throughout, and its enlargement to be caused by an increased action af its vessels? or, is there an aeriform perspiration into the cavity of the shaft, or an increase of which it becomes distended? or may the increased tension and size of the shaft be considered as resulting from the co-operation of these two causes?

The strength and tension of the hair appears generally to accompany health, while the weakness, close contact, and flaccidity of it denote disorder. I bare observed also, that small doses of mercury have changed the appearance of the hair very soon after their administration, from being flaccid, dry, and small, it has become tense, strong, and moister; at the same time more tension and solidity has appeared in the muscles, and the countenance has displayed a more healthy appearance. Now mercury may increase an aëriform perspiration, (if such a one exist) into the shaft; it may also set the digestive organs to rights, thereby cause a more healthy action of the vessels in general, and of those of the shaft among the rest. I cannot help observing, that there is no objection to supposing hairs organized, because we cannot discover their vessels. On this subject we may, I think, be allowed to reason thus; if all nourishment be performed by the action of vessels, either vascularity must extend itself ad infinitum, or there must be certain small vessels not nourished at all. Can we demonstrate those small arteries, which ramify in the coats of and nourish the smallest vasa vasorum? Such considerations as these ought to prevent our denying organization to any part of an animal body, even to the cuticle and the enamel of the teeth.

The ancient city of Veii, which underwent the ever-memorable siege by the Romans in the year of Rome 360, and which was again erected and embellished by the Emperors, being ruined in a furious eruption of the barbarans, it was permitted, on the decline of the Empire, to remain in its state of desolation, and its relics, covered with rubbish and soil, are now yielding pleatiful crops. M. Georgi, an eminent agriculturist, and owner of the land, had the curiosity to dig into the bosom of the old scite, and on discovering part of a range of columns at twelve feet below the surface, he employed thirty men to follow out his discovery. The research still continues; they found a most beautiful statue of Tiberius; it is of the heroic size, and in a sitting attitude. The head bears a striking resemblance to the Emperor's medals, and is sublime both in execution and expression; the arms, the knees, the hair, and the drapery, are excellent. It is of Greek marble, and the evident work of a Grecian artist; along with the statue they found a fine bust, supposed to be a head of Lepidus, the Consul, a Phrygian slave, a Caryatides,

a beautiful

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