E comes down only to the end of the sixteenth century; whereas this will reach to the end of the eighteenth century, and will likewise contain more specimens from the stock of sterling old petry. A work of this kind, executed by such a pen, has long been a desideratum in our literature; but is peculiarly desirable in this country, where every one is so engaged in the hurry or business as to have little of the quiet leisure necessary to extensive and critical research; and when also the collections of rare books and old authors are so scarce, as to afford but little access to those remote fountains of elegant literature. E. J. Coale, of Baltimore, has in press Demetrius, a Russian romance. A new poem has appeared in England, from the pen of Robert Southey, entitled Roderick, the Last of the Goths. It is expected shortly to be republished in this country. REPORT OF THE PROGRESS OF CHYMISTRY. [From the Monthly Magazine for November.] Mr. Brande, the ingenious successor of Sir Humphrey Davy in the chymical chair at the Royal institution, has read before the Royal Society a second paper on the state in which al ohol, or pure ardent spirit, exists in fermented liquors. It has been usually supposed that alcohol was a product of the process of distillation, and the experiments of Mr. B have been instituted with a view to ascertain the correctness or incorrectness of this opinion. iie had previously concluded that any new arrangement of the ultimate elements of wine, which cou d occasion the formation of alcohol, would constantly be attended with other marks of decomposition, and that carbon would be deposited, or carbonic acid evolved; neither of which circumstances does actually take place He has succeeded in showing that alcohol may be separated from wine without the intervention of heat, and that the same proportion may be thus procured as that yielded by distillation. iis plan is as follows He first separates the colouring matter and the acid of the wine, by means of a concentrated solution of subacetate of lead, and then, by sub-carbonate of potash, he finally disengages from it the alcohol. He answers the assertion, that a mixture of alcohol and water, in the same proportion in which it exists in wine, is much more intoxicating than the same quantity of wine itself, by proving that the union is incomplete; and he states also, that he acid and extractive matter blunt very much the real strength of the wine. Mr. B. therefore, again concludes, that the whole quantity of alcohol which is found after distillation, had actually pre-existed in the fermented liquor operated on. Mr. Gay-Lussac has now demonstrated that there are only three different oxides of iron which are perfectly distinct from each other; and that the various colours which some of them assume arise from their different states of aggregation The first oxide, which is white, and which is obtained whenever iron decomposes water by means of an acid, the acid not furnishing the oxygen by being itself also decomposed, consists of 100 parts of iron, and 28 of oxygen. The second oxide which is produced by burning iron in oxygen, or in atmospheric air, at a very elevated temperature, or where water is decomposed by iron without the au iliary presence of an acid, contains 38 per cent. of oxygen. This second oxide, when in a mass, is of a blackish gray colour, and when precipitated, is of a deep brown, but when very minutely di vided, it is green. It is also very magnetic. The third, the red oxide, is composed of 100 parts of iron and 42 parts of oxygen. In a natural state the white oxide does not exist, except in combination with carbonic acid. The celebrated hypothesis of Sir Humphrey Davy, which assures that muriatic acid is a compound of chlorine and hydrogen, and not a compound, as has hitherto been supposed, of oxygen and some unknown base, is stili unsanctioned by the opinions of many of our first chymists. Among these, professor Berzelius, of Stockholm, says, although it is difficult, experimentally, to demonstrate the incorrectness of Sir Humphrey's hypothesis, that, according to the very luminous doctrine of definite proportions, which was first given to the chymical world some years ago, by the celebrated Mr. Dalton, of Manchester, and of the truth of which sir Humphrey himself, with e ery o her scientific chymist, entertains no doubt, there are many combinations of muriatic acid, which, if explained according to Davy's hypothesis, are quite inconsistent with well-ascertained chymical proportions At any rate, he at least thinks that all the facts at present known concerning muriatic acid and its combinations, may be equally well explained upon our old opinions. THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF MANCHESTER. This distinguished society has just published the second volume of its second series, containing, among others, the following papers: An account of some Experiments to ascertain whether the Force of Steam be is proportion to the generating Heat, by John Sharpe, Esq.-Mr. Sharpe's experi ments have ascertained two things: 1. that water heats equably, or in the same time (supposing the heating cause the same) from 120 deg. up to he highest temperature that it can reach without boiling, (and that temperature depends upon the pressure.) Suppose, for example, that it is heated 10 deg. or from 120 deg. to 150 deg. in three minutes; it will be heated from 270 deg. to 280 deg. in the same time. This is a very curious fact, and not easily explained, unless the thermometer is an inaccurate me surer of heat. 2. that six ounces of steam of 212 deg. condensed into water, give out as much heat a six ounces of steam at the temperature 275 deg; but the second six ounces come over in a much shorter period han the first. Therefore the density of steam at 212 deg is 150 times greater than at 32 deg; and its density at 25 deg. is twice as great as at 22 deg. Hence we have the specific gravity of steam at dif ferent temperatures as follows: At 32'deg. 212 252 Sp. Grav. 0.0046 0.6896 1.3792 2.7584 This explains the elasticity of steam in a satisfactory manner, and brings it under the same law as common air, and all the other elastic fluids. On Respiration and Animal Heat, by John Dalton, Esq.-The phenomena of res piration described by Mr. Dalton in this paper, are as follows:-A portion of the oxygen of the air inspired disappears, and is replaced by an equal bulk of carbonic acid gas. The air expired is saturated with moisture, and its temperature is raised to about 98 deg. so that respiration is the source of animal heat. On the Measure of Moving Force, by Mr. Peter Ewart-A question has long been agitated, whether mechanical force is to be measured by the mass multiplied into the velocity, or into the square of the velocity. The last of these opinions was adopted by Hooke and Huygens, in consequence of their observations on the mo. tions of pendelums. It was also adopted by Smeaton, in consequence of his experiments on the mechanical action of water. Mr Ewart supports the opinion of Smea ton with great force of reasoning. The essay is remarkable for the extensive know ledge of the subject which the author displays, and for the great perspicuity of his reasoning, which is the consequence of this extensive knowledge. He gives a num. ber of examples, which he considers as inconsistent with the common notion, discusses these examples, and gives us a very fall history of the opinions of mechanical writers on the subject On the Theories of the Excitement of Galvanic Electricity, by William Henry, M. D. FR. S. &c.-Sir Humphrey Davy has given a theory of the galvanic energy, in which he conceives, that when the battery is composed of copper, zinc, and solution of common salt, the zine becomes positive, and the copper negative; therefore the zinc attracts the oxygen and acid, which are negative; and the copper, the hydrogen and alkali, which are positive. But this equilibrium is immediately destroyed by the formation of muriate of zine, and the evolution of hydrogen gas Hence the action of the zinc and copper is again repeated, and this goes on as long as the chynical action continues. Dr. Henry is also of opinion, that the primary excitement of electricity is owing to the chymical changes; but he conceives it to be essential to the activity of the battery, that one set of elements of the fluid should have no affinity for one of the metals. Thus, in the preceding example, the oxygen and the acid combine with the zine; but the hydrogen and alkali, having no affinity for the cop. per, deposite a portion of their electricity on it, and thus the accumulation proceeds. He accounts for the evolution of the two constituents of a substance decomposed by the battery at the two poles, though at a distance from each other, by supposing a series of intermediate decompositions to go on Suppose water to be the substance decomposed, we may conceive a series of particles of water arranged between the two poles. An atom of oxygen gas escapes at the positive pole. The hydrogen previously combined with this atom, unites with the oxygen of the next particle of water and this successive decomposition goes on till it reaches the negative pole, when the atom of hydrogen remaining, makes it escape in the form of gas. Essays on the Sources of the Pleasures received from Literary Compositions, second edition, 8vo. pp. 390. WHOEVER has had occasion to think much upon metaphysi cal subjects, 'knows the difficulty of expressing such thoughts to others. This arises frequently, no doubt, from a want of precision in the thoughts themselves, but frequently likewise from the deficiency of language. Languages were formed when men were hunters, fishers, warriors, husbandmen, any thing but metaphysicians; and, as might therefore be expected, they furnish words for every thing rather than the faculties and operations of the mind, its properties, and the ways in which it is affected. When phi, losophers arose, who wished to turn the attention of their followers to such like subjects, they had no words to express themselves by, and were, therefore, reduced to the alternative of either irventing new words, or employing old ones in new senses. If we may judge from the present state of languages, they chose the VOL. III. New Series. 45 |