vernment; and is intended to be a general repository of Italian science and literature. Giuseppe Acerbi is its editor; and Vicenzo Monti, Scipione Breislak, and Pietro Giordani his three assistants. Every sovereign sees at last (it is said in the prospectus) how important and necessary it is, for their own glory and the public welfare, that errors should every where be extirpated, sound doctrines taught, and the knowledge of truth strenuously and generally promoted.' The reviewer promises to give a more particular account of it in a subsequent number.

Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the Royal Institute of France, from the 5th of August to the 16th of September,

1816.

THE only thing worthy of mention in the first sitting is a memoir, read by M. Cuvier, upon a new species of serpents found in Martinique and St. Lucie. From the conformation of the head it has been called, by Opper, trigonocephalus; and from a particularity in that of the tongue the natives have given it the name of vipere fer de lance. It belongs to Lacepede's first genus: is very prolific--very venemous--and always upon the offensive. The most extraordinary circumstance connected with this animal (we use the words of the journalist, and wish we had room for the whole article) is the power it possesses of climbing large trees, to coil itself up in a rising spiral of four circles, and then to leap to a considerable distance, plunging suddenly on its victim. At other times it erects itself perpendicularly on its tail, reaching the height of six feet or more, and in this position will stand a long while, agitating fiercely its triangular head and darting its sharp tongue in various directions.' Fortunately, however, nature has placed by the side of this tremendous reptile, another animal, of the genus Boha, which is perfectly innocuous to man,--but terribly hostile to the vipere fer de lance.--Nothing of much importance was transacted during the sessions of the 12th, 19th, and 26th of August.

• September 2nd, 1816. Mons. Girard read a report on the agrarian measures of the Egyptians, and the relation they bear to the modern decimal system of mensuration. The duodecimal division was introduced into Egypt by the Greeks; and before that epoch, their agrarian measure was a canne or measure of seven cubits, each subdivided into seven palms. The cubit was subdivided into seven palms from the manner of marking the cubits on the cane. The person charged to divide the latter, placed his elbow on a table or other support, the forearm being extended and vertical. The cane was applied to it, and at the point where it corresponded to the tip of the middle finger, it was grasped with the right hand, and brought down to the elbow again, which was then ap

plied to the lateral and superior part of the grasping hand, in order to measure the second cubit, and so on in progression. Thus the cubit being naturally six palms, had seven on the Egyptian measure from their mode of marking it.'

After some unimportant papers by other persons, M. Biot read a memoir on a new instrument of his own invention, by which we may be enabled to trace exactly and distinctly all the primitive and compound colours; so as to ascertain the precise intensity of a given colour by comparing it with a similar one produced by the instrument. It is called colorigrade; and it may, by a simple modification, be turned into a cyonometer.September 9th. A model of an apparatus intended to effect the passage of boats through locks without the assistance of water. It is called hydrobascule; and consists of a sort of lever, connected with two parallel wheels. We find nothing else worthy of mention.

Art. XXI.-Discourse of the honourable T. S. Raffles. Account of the Sunda Islands and Japan.

THIS is a very interesting paper; but we are afraid we shall not find room for all it contains.-Perhaps there is no little spot on the face of the whole globe, which contains more curiosities than the single island of Java. Not only is she superior to all the neighbouring islands in the variety of her natural productions; but she exhibits, more perhaps than any other oriental country, the traces of high antiquity-of foreign commerce-and of national greatness. Captain Baker, who has been actively engaged in investigating her antiquities, speaks in the following terms of the Chandi Sewo, or Thousand Temples, which lie in ruins in one part of the island.- Never (says he) have I met with such stupendous, laborious, and finished specimens of human labour, and of the polished, refined taste of ages long since forgot, and crowded together in so small a compass.' Of the ancient civilization of Java, indeed, there is abundance of unequivocal proof;-none more so, however, than the perfection which its language has preserved even to the present day. Its superiority in all other respects to the neighbouring islands may unquestionably, be, in a great measure, attributed to the superior fertility of its soil. Sumatra and Banca have evident marks of being a mere continuation of the Asiatic mountains: whereas Java is quite as evidently the creature of a volcano. It differs from the others, not only in its geological structure, but in its longitudinal direction: that of Sumatra being from north-west to south-east,—while that of Java is directly east and west.

Japan is another interesting country. The inhabitants are generally confounded with those of China; though, according to

Dr. Ainslie, who resided on the island four months, no supposition is more unfounded; and nothing, indeed, is so offensive to the Japanese themselves as to be compared, in any way, with their neighbours on the continent. The Chinese are inert and stationary; while the slightest impulse seems sufficient to set the people of Japan in motion. The latter are said to have a strong inclination for foreign intercourse-notwithstanding the restrictive system which they have adopted; and it is adduced, too, as proof of their energy and decision, that a people who had once been adventurous navigators and had communicated with all Polynesia, should now be able to exclude the whole world from their harbours and wrap themselves up in their own habits and institutions.

Art. XXII-A Geological Account of the Lead Mine of Dufton, in Westmoreland. By T. Allan, &c. &c. In a Letter to the Editor. Art. XXIII.-On the Mode of Ventilating and Warming the Infirmary at Derby. In a Letter to the Editor.

THE building here spoken of is a cubical edifice, three stories in height; the patients being exclusively confined to the highest. Their apartments are warmed and ventilated at the same time, by a current of air which is admitted through a subterraneous passage, and thrown into a chamber containing a sort of stove; whence it is conveyed by proper funnels to the various parts of the attic story.

Art. XXIV-Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. THE only thing worth mentioning under this head is a discovery by sir Everard Home,-that the colchicum autumnale produces the same effects upon the system, whether it be injected into the veins or conveyed into the stomach.

Art. XXV.-Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. REV. DR. FLEMING of Flisk gave an account of some experiments he had made to prove, that when the wave of the tide obstructs the motion of a river, so as to make it either stationary, or retrograde, the effect is produced by the salt water presenting to the fresh an inclined plane, the apex of which separates the latter from the channel, and holds it buoyant on the surface. A few specimens of words, manufactured in relief, for James Mitchell, the blind and deaf young man, were exhibited to the society by Dr. Henry Dewar. And this is about all the society either saw or did which seems to be worth our notice.

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Art. XXVI-Miscellaneous Intelligence.-Extract of a Letter from John Davy, M. D. F. R. S. to Sir H. Davy, dated at Cape

Town.

DR. DAVY made many experiments upon sea water during his

voyage to Cape-Town;-and the general result was, as might have been anticipated, that at considerable distance from the land, the ocean, and consequently the atmosphere upon it, are not liable to very great changes of temperation from the alternation of day and night. Indeed, throughout the whole watery world the temperature must always be more equable than it is on land; a fact which, in conjunction with the purity of the air-its freedom from dust or insects:-and the gentle exercise of sailing, is sufficient to account for the salutary effects of seavoyaging. The doctor ascertained, also, that the temperature of fish-particularly that of the porpoise-is not greatly inferior to that of land animals.

Art. XXVII.-Meteorological Diary:-followed by a List of Foreign Publications, from July to the end of September 1816; comprising eight in Natural history-five in Botany-eleven in Chemistry-five in Mineralogy and Geology-eight in Agriculture and Rural Economy-three in Geography-twentyseven in Medicine, Surgery, Anatomy, and Physiology-thirteen in Mechanic Philosophy and Mathematics-together with four Voyages and Travels.

ART. II.-Biographical Sketch of the late Captain Johnston Blakeley; of whom we gave a portrait in our Number for May, 1816.

JOHNSTON BLAKELEY was born near the village of Seaford, in the county of Down, Ireland, in the month of October, 1781. Two years afterwards his father, Mr. John Blakeley, emigrated to this country; and after residing at Philadelphia a few months, left it for Charleston, South Carolina, with a view of engaging in business. Meeting, however, with but little encouragement at Charleston, he finally removed to Wilmington, North Carolina, allured by more favourable prospects. Soon after his establishment at this place, Mr. Blakeley was deprived, one by one, of his wife, and all his children, except his son Johnston.

Ascribing these successive losses to the insalubrity of the climate, which is said to be peculiarly unfavourable to children, Mr. Blakeley was induced to send his only surviving son to New York; as well with a view to the preservation of his health, as to afford him an opportunity of acquiring an education. Johnston was, accordingly, in the year 1790, sent to that place, and committed to the care of Mr. Hoope, a respectable merchant of that place, and an old friend of his father. Here he remained five years, assiduously pursuing his studies; at the end of which he returned to Wilmington,-where he remained for some time without any particular pursuit or occupation.