Weights and Measures.-The commercial world will learn with satisfaction, that a plan has been commenced, under the auspices of the British Government, for determining the relative contents of the weights and measures of all trading countries. This important object is to be accomplished by procuring from abroad correct copies of Foreign standards, and comparing them with those of England at his Majesty's Mint. Such a comparison, which could be effected only at a moment of universal peace, has never been attempted on a plan sufficiently general or systematic: and hence the errors and contradictions which abound in tables of Foreign weights and measures, even in works of the highest authority. In order, therefore, to remedy an inconvenience so perplexing in commerce, Lord Castlereagh has, by the recommendation of the Board of Trade, issued a circular, dated March 16, 1818, directing all the British Consuls abroad to send home copies of the principal standards used within their respective consulates, verified by the proper authorities, and accompanied by explanatory papers and other documents relative to the subject. Most of his Lordship's orders have been already executed in a very full and satisfactory manner. The dispatches and packages transmitted on the occasion are deposited at the Royal Mint, where the standards are to be forthwith compared. The comparisons are to be made by Robert Bingley, Esq. the King's Assay Master of the Mint, and the calculations by Dr Kelly, of Finsbury Square, who originally submitted the plan to Government; and who will publish the results of those comparisons and calculations, as soon as they are completed, in the second edition of his "Universal Cambist."

Improvement on Boats.-We congratulate the public on the application or a simple mechanical apparatus to impel boats, instead of oars. It consists of the machinery of steam-vessels, but the moving pow. er is the hand applied to a windlass. Boats were first used on this principle with success on Whit-Monday, between London and Greenwich. The labour is much less than that of oars, and the impulse of the boat through the water much increased in swiftness.

Naphtha.-Mineralogists and chemists are aware of the existence of naphtha in Persia, and of the many wonderful stories that have been related of its volatility and combustibility. "I have," says Dr Thomson, in his Annals, "been lately favoured, through the kindness of a gentleman, who has spent many years in the neighbourhood

VOL. VI.

It

of Persia, with a specimen of the naphtha in the purest state in which it occurs. is colourless as water, has the specific gravity 0.753, and precisely the same smell and taste as the naphtha which is made in this country from the distillation of coal. Indeed, our artificial naphtha and the Persian naphtha resemble each other in all their chemical properties, as far as I have compared them together. I have never got any naphtha made in this country from coal quite so light as the Persian. The specific gravity of the lowest which I have met with was 0.817, but probably had it been rectified once or twice more, it would have become as light as the Per, sian."

New Acoustic Instrument.-Baron Cagniard de la Tour has invented a new Acoustic Instrument, designed to measure the vibrations of air which constitute sound. The wind of a pair of bellows is made to issue through a small orifice, covered by a circular plate, moveable on a centre placed at a little distance from the aperture. The circular plate has a number of oblique equidistant holes made through it, in a circle round the axis, which passes over the orifice of the bellows: when this plate is made to revolve, (which, by the obliquity of the holes, may be affected by the current of the air, or otherwise by proper mechanism,) the aperture is alternately open and shut to the passage of the air; and thus a regular series of blows are given to the external air, and sounds analogous to the human voice are produced, and more or less acute according to the velocity with which the plate revolves. In place of one aperture many are used, which are opened and shut simultaneously, by which means, without interfering with the height of the sound, its strength is increased. The instrument is a circular copper box four inches in diameter. Its upper surface is pierced by 100 oblique apertures, each a quarter of a line in width and two lines long: on the centre of this surface is an axle upon which the circular plate turns: this plate has also 100 apertures corresponding to those below, and with an equal obliquity, but in an opposite direction. The obliquity is not necessary to the production of the sounds, but it serves to give motion to the plate by the currents of air. The box is, by a tube, connected with the bellows that supply the air. In the experiments to ascertain the vibrations for each sound, the plate was made to revolve by wheel-work moved by a weight. The bellows were then used only for the purpose of judging whether the sounds of the machine accorded with the notes of a

4 A

ever, extends generally over the Austrian Empire.

The Secret Counsellor and President, Von Bulow, has published at Magdeburg 2 Censorial Regulation, by which no work, printed out of the jurisdiction of the States of the German Confederation, is permitted to be sold, without the authority of the Supreme Commission of Censorship.

Geographical Society.-A Geographical Society has been established at Vienna, the object of which is to facilitate the execution of different labours projected in the interior of the Austrian monarchy, and to concentrate various means of information relating to geography and statistics M. the Baron de Schwitzen, counsellor of state, has been occupied in the formation of this Board, which is placed under the immediate direction of the Council of State.

Netherlands.-M. Van der Straeten, who lately wrote a pamphlet on the present state of the kingdom of the Netherlands, was recently arrested at Brussels. Seven advocates of that city, who wrote a memorial for him, and his son, were also put under

arrest.

Italy. Some Documents relative to the Search after Antiquities in the bed of the Tiber have lately been published at Rome, under the following title: " Documenti legali ed autentici inservienti di publico ragguaglio delle operazione e seguitesi nell' estate 1819, par la prima stagione della escavazione nel fiume Tevere della Societa, denominata, Impress privilegiata Tiberina, Roma, 1819."

Professor Settele at Rome has been refused permission to publish his Course of Astronomy, because he treated the Copernican System positively, and not hypothetically, as required by a Bull of Pope Benedict XIV.

Vesuvius.—About the end of last July, M. de Gimbernat, a Spanish gentleman, taking occasion from some interruptions, was enabled to explore the crater of Vesuvius. No sooner had a lava just vomited by the volcano cooled, than the traveller, who is one of the Spanish literati in physics, &c. proceeded upon it, till he came near a new pit or orifice just opened, with a tremendous noise and explosion. The bottom seemed to be agitated with a hurricane; a great number of small peaks or conical elevations were formed within the new aperture. From it issued torrents of sulphureous vapours, and also masses of lava, so that M. de Gimbernat was not able long to maintain his dangerous position. The thick soles of his shoes were entirely burnt through by the first layer of lava, which retained thirty-five degrees of heat.

Travels in Africa.-Doctor Della Cella had lately an opportunity of traversing, in Africa, the regions of the Pentapolis, Cy.

renaica, and other countries almost inaccessible to isolated travellers or small parties, by joining himself to a little army of the Pacha of Tripoli. His narrative, in the form of letters, together with a collection of plants gathered in his travels, have been forwarded to Dr Viviant, professor of natural history and botany in the University of Genoa, who has charge of the publication. The work will shortly appear at Genoa, with three plates descriptive of the geography, antiquities and other interesting objects of Africa.

Cataracts.-M. the Baron de Zach, in his periodical Journal, at Genoa, remarks on the cataract of Riukan-Fossen, previously known, but only lately made public and described, that it is inferior to a waterfall in the Pyrenees, at a place known by the name of Le Cirque de Marboré, which, from the measurements of Messrs Vidal and Reboul, is of 1256 feet; whereas the Norwegian cataract does not exceed 800 feet.

Switzerland.-Mount Rosa. In the month of August 1819, M. the curate of Gressoney, with a few others, scaled the ascent of Mount Rosa, having previously supplied themselves with instruments proper for making observations. The height of its summit was determined at 2320 toises above the level of the sea. The great platform of Mount Rosa forms an immense glacier, and the party have given it the name of the Sea of Ice. It is crested with a number of needles or sharp-pointed peaks, the chief of which are to the number of twenty. The one which these travellers ascended was not the most elevated, and they were not a little surprised to discover other mountains of an extraordinary height rising above this elevation.

Russia. The under Librarian Gneditsch at St Petersburg has lately made a translation of Homer into Russian Hexameters. Since the year 1814, Plutarch's Lives, Aulus Gellius, and Cornelius Nepos, have also been translated into the Russian language.

It is stated in a German Journal, published at Leipsic, that the Emperor of Russia has prohibited the introduction of all Carlile's publications into the Russian domis nions.

New Expeditions.-M. the Count de Ro, manzow is projecting, at his own charges, two new expeditions, one of which is to set out from Tchouktches, so as to pass over the solid ice, from Asia to America, to the north of Behring's Strait, at the point where Cook and Kotzebue were stopped. The other is intended to ascend one of the rivers which disembogue on the western coast, in Russian America, in order to penetrate into the unknown tracts that lie between Icy Cape and the River Mackenzie.

Northern Languages.-M. the Professor Rask, of Copenhagen, author of a Memoir

LONDON.

THE Prophecy of Dante, a Poem by Lord Byron, is printing.

In a few days will be published, Rhymes on the Road, by a Travelling Member of the Poco-Curante Society, extracted from his Journal, by Thomas Brown the Younger, author of the "Fudge Family," &c.

A Narrative of the Operations and recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations, in Egypt and Nubia; and of a Journey to the Coast of the Red Sea, in search of the ancient Berenice, and another to the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon, is announced by G. Belzoni, accompanied by Plates, Plans, Views, &c. of the newly discovered places. Travels in Syria and Mount Sinai; consisting of, 1. A Journey from Aleppo to Damascus. 2. A Tour in the District of Mount Libanus and Antilibanus. 3. A Tour in the Hauran. 4. A second Tour in the Hauran. 5. A Journey from Damascus, through Arabia-Petræa and the Desert El Ty, to Cairo. 6. A Tour in the Peninsula of Mount Sinai; will speedily be published, by the late John Lewis Burckhardt.

Shortly will be published, a Series of Engravings from Drawings made upon the spot, by John Dennis, Esq. in Savoy, Switzerland, and on the Rhine. They will be accompanied with descriptive letter-press.

There is nearly ready for publication, in one quarto volume, A General History of the House of Guelph, from the earliest period in which the name appears upon record to the Accession of George the First to the Throne. It has been compiled from authentic and official documents preserved in the Archives, and in the Royal Libraries of Hanover and Brunswick, and to which access has been procured. The whole of the documents have been arranged by Dr Halliday, Domestic Physician to the Duke of Clarence.

Mr John Luccock is preparing for publication, Notes on Rio de Janeiro, and the southern parts of Brazil, taken during a residence of ten years in various parts of that country; describing its agriculture, commerce, and mines, with anecdotes illustrative of the character, manners, and customs of the inhabitants.

An Account of a Tour in Normandy, undertaken chiefly for the purpose of investigating the Architectural Antiquities of the Duchy, with observations on the country and its inhabitants; in a series of letters to the Rev. J. Langton, A. M. of Chesterfield, in Suffolk, by Dawson Turner, Esq. F. R. S. &c. is nearly ready for publica

tion, in 2 vols. royal 8vo, illustrated with numerous engravings.

Italy and its Inhabitants, in the years 1816 and 1817, with a view of the manners, customs, theatres, literature and the fine arts, with some notice of its various dialects, by James A. Galiffe, of Geneva, will soon be published in London.

A translation from the original Chinese of the Narrative of a Chinese Embassy from the Emperor of China, Kang Hy, to the Khan of Tourgouth Tartars, seated on the Banks of the Volga, in the years 1712, 1713, and 1714, by the Chinese Ambassa dor, and published by the Emperor's authority, at Pekin, by Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bart. LL.D. F. R. S. accompanied by an appendix of miscellaneous translations from the same language.

A work on Medical Jurisprudence is in a state of preparation, by Dr J. Gordon Smith, lecturer on that subject. It will be ready for publication in the ensuing autumn, and is particularly intended for the use of counsel in the examination of medical witnesses in questions requiring their evidence.

Principles of Education, Intellectual, Moral, and Physical, are preparing, by the Rev. Lant Carpenter, LL.D.

Mr Keates, the author of Endymion, will publish a new volume of Poems early in June.

A new edition of Mr Henry Neele's Poems is printing.

Practical Observations on the Symptoms, Discrimination, and Treatment of some of the most common Diseases of the lower intestines and anus, by John Howship, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, &c. &c.; author of Practical Observations in Surgery and Morbid Ana tomy.

Mr S. Rogers, of Risca, announces an Elementary Treatise on Iron-making, with hints for its improvement; wherein the feasibility of making good iron from all kinds of ores, and with every species of fuel, is elucidated upon scientific principles.

Dr Paris is preparing a Biographical Memoir of the late Arthur Young, Esq. in which he will be assisted by original documents, presented to him with that view.

The Rev. William Tooke has in the press, Lucian of Samosata, from the Greek, with the comments and illustrations of Wieland and others, in two quarto volumes.

The Rev. I. R. Fishlake, Fellow of Wad. Coll. Oxford, is preparing a Greek and English Lexicon, founded on the Greek and German Dictionary of Schneider.