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candlesticks without oil, invented, I believe, by WOOLASTON. metal stem passes down into the liquid, and, once heated, is afterwards kept warm by the burning vapour, which it causes to rise and issue from the gas-jets encircling the stem. Some mystery is made about the liquid, but its analysis proves to be very simple.

Specific gravity, 760 at 32°; easily volatile, with a smell of turpentine. 100 grs. allowed to evaporate spontaneously, left barely a trace of solid matter-resinous. 100 parts, mixed with water in a measured tube, turned white, and 15 parts of pure colourless turpentine finally settled at the top of the watery emulsion. In fact, a mixture of 85 alcohol, and 15 turpentine was found to possess precisely the qualities of the liquid, burning with a clear flame, and without smell. It is necessary to use the oil of, and not the rectified, turpentine, which latter is well known not to be soluble in alcohol.

5.-Native Remedy for the Spleen.

The late Dr. TwINING gave me some pills used by the natives as a cure for the spleen. They proved to contain nothing but sulphate of copper, mixed up with meal and mucilage.

6.-Three bottles of Water from Hot Springs in Assam.

Captain JENKINS is anxious for the result of their examination ; but I really am uncertain of two, which arrived in a dirty and odorous state-one, No. 3, containing an abundant putrid yellow scum, which appeared like a compound of bitumen and sulphuretted hydrogen, but was not further examined. No. 1, was a clear sweet water, having a specific gravity, 9964 at 91°, and containing only common salt.

7.-Mineral Water from Ava.

CAPTAIN MACLEOD favoured me with a bottle of water from the lake near the Khyendwen river, whence a mineral salt is obtained. It had a spec. grav. of .9985 at 88°, and was consequently nearly pure. But a second bottle, filled from a well only three feet from the same lake, weighed 1·0006 at 88°, and yielded a copious precipitate to muriate of barytes, and nitrate of silver, shewing it to contain a mixture of sulphates and muriates, which are extracted by the people of the neighbourhood.

8.-Hot Springs in the Mahadeo hills, (see Vol. III. p. 390.) The two bottles sent me by Dr. SPILSBURY were so nearly pure, that it was not worth while to examine them further than by the hydrometer. 9.-Minerals from Moulmien.

The following are, I believe, the correct names of the specimens obligingly sent by Lieut. FOLEY, in June. Nos. I, 4, 16, irom pyrites; 2, galena; 3, sulphuret of antimony; 8, 9, hydrated oxide of iron, hæmatitic; 10, fibrous gypsum; 11, magnetic oxide of iron; 12, 14, 17, granite with pseudo-metallic mica ;13, black oxide of tin.

10.-Sulphuret of Molybdenum.

This was put into my hands by a mercantile house in Calcutta, without however noticing whence it came.

It resembled graphite or plumbago so exactly in its qualities of drawing traces on paper, of being unaltered in the fire, and very gradually disappearing, that I should have been contented with these appearances, had not its specific gravity, 4.64 to 45, been so much higher than that of graphite, (1·4.) When heated also, white fumes, devoid of smell, or slightly sulphurous, were perceived at the moment of withdrawal from the fire.

It was digested with disengagement of red fumes in nitric acid; leaving a white insoluble precipitate in the filter, weighing 74.4 per cent. The liquid gave immediate evidence of sulphuric acid, that had been formed from the sulphur present. The white mass acted in all respects like molybdic acid, and was known to be so from its peculiar property of turning instantly blue on contact with metallic iron, lead, copper, or silver: a fact, I believe, not hitherto noticed water is required to produce this effect. Heated red with carbonate of soda, the metal was reduced with effervescence.

I am not aware that this singular mineral is turned to any profit, but it is desirable to ascertain where it has been discovered. The high specific gravity of the Ceylon graphite, 2.37, leads me to imagine that I may have mistaken that mineral also, and invites further inquiry. It may be remembered*, that in an English cabinet of minerals, a metallic ore was also found substituted for the true Borrowdale plumbago. IX.-Horary Meteorological Register for Calcutta. By JAS. PRINSep, Sec. &c.

The 21st September having been appointed one of the days for the combined series of horary observations, by the Meteorological Association, I could not allow it to pass without an attempt to fulfil the prescribed terms, even at the sacrifice of a night's rest.

The weather was not very favorable, although such as might be expected near the equinox: the barometer was gradually falling, indicative of blowing weather; which in fact followed a few days afterwards. The occasional violent showers checked the course of the thermometer and hygrometer; and the minimum temperature noted, was that of the rain, rather than that of radiation to the sky. As a different barometer was necessarily used during the night, care was taken to continue its readings during the day, to obtain an accurate comparison with the standard instrument at the Assay Office. The difference-017, has been added, to bring the whole to terms of the * See Analysis of Graphite, GLEANINGS, vol. III. p. 180.

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standard, which I have reason to believe does not differ more than 010 (in defect) from the Royal Society's barometer.

The thermometers were all standards from NEWMAN's, agreeing very closely together.

The diurnal tides for the two days are respectively 0.140 and 0116, from the former of which must be deducted the gradual decrease of the pressure for 6 hours; 732-663-4=017, leaving 0·123, and 116+123

2=0·120 is the mean, which is rather above the usual amount of tide for the month of September. The nocturnal tide from 101⁄2 P. M. to 41⁄2 A. M. is 700—607 (with allowance for the half hours)='083. The hours of maxima and minima correspond with those used in the registers of the Journal, and suggest the expediency of an alteration in those fixed for observation by Sir JOHN HERSCHEL, (see page 358.) Horary observations of the Barometer, Thermometer, and Hygrometer, made at Calcutta, from 6 A. M. of the 21st to 6 P. M. of the 22nd September, 1835. Thermometer Wet

Hour 21st.

Baro

Hair hy-
gromter.

Rain.

Weather.

E. Scud, cirri above. e. do., increasing.

o. cumuli, clear above. e. do.

e. cumuli.

wet bulb depres

6.9

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E. do., fine.

94

E. do.

e. overcast.

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79.2 91,0 78.6 0.6

100

e. hard shower, clear.

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e. fair.

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82.2 88.2 78.6 3.6

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78.7 3.6

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do.

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e. cumuli, rain 6 p.m.

o. rain.

e. overcast.

E. do., clearing.

e, clear night.

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e. do.

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e. do.

76.4 1.4

76.4 1.2

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e.

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e. do.

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e. do.

e. cloudy.

overcast.

E. cum. stratus.

E. do., wet.

E. do., clearing.

E. scud.

E. fine.

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X.-Proceedings of the Asiatic Society.

Wednesday Evening, the 7th October, 1835.

The Hon'ble Sir EDWARD RYAN, President, in the chair.

Messrs. J. BELL, G. LOCH, C. S., J. M. MCLEOD, Mad. C. S., and Lieuts. H. M. DURAND and W. E. BAKER, Engineers, proposed at the last Meeting, were ballotted for, and unanimously elected Members of the Society. Mr. J. STEPHENSON, proposed at the last meeting, was, upon the favourable report of the Committee of Papers, elected an Associate Member. Read a letter from G. A. BUSHBY, Esq., Secretary to Government, intimating, that the Society's Memorial would be dispatched by an early opportunity.

Read a letter from J. C. C. SUTHERLAND, Esq., Secy. Genl. Com. Pub. Instr., forwarding the list of Oriental Books, transferable to the Society. Read a letter from M. A. COURT, acknowledging his election as an Honorary Member.

Read a letter from M. E. BURNOUF, Secretary to the Asiatic Society of Paris, acknowledging the receipt of Volume XVIII. of the Asiatic Researches.

Read letters from J. FORSHALL, Esq. Secretary to the British Museum, and H. HARKNESS, Secretary to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, acknowledging the receipt of copies of M. CSOMA DE KÖRÖS's Tibetan and English Dictionary.

Read a letter from Professor H. H. WILSON, forwarding statements of the Society's accounts with Messrs. PARBURY and Co., made up to the end of December last, exhibiting a balance of £23 11s. 1d. in favor of the Society. Library.

Read a letter from Counsellor VON HAMMER, forwarding for presentation the undermentioned books published by himself.

History of the Ottoman Empire, vol. 10th.

Jahrbucher der Literature, vols. 65, 66, 67, and 68.

Uber die Länderverwaltung unter dem Chalifate.

The following Books were also presented:

Statuti dell' Accademia delle Scienze e Belle Lettere-by the Academy of Palermo.

De redigendis ad unicam seriem comparabilem meteorologicis ubique factis observationibus Conventio Proposita et Tabulæ Supputatæ ab Equite Nicolao Cacciatore-by the Author.

CLOUGH'S Pali Grammar, with a copious Vocabulary, 1 vol., and a Dictionary English and Singalese, 2 vols.-by the Author.

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 3--by the Society.

Moor's Oriental Fragments-by the Author.

Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, No. 37-by the Society. The Indian Journal of Medical Science, No. 22-by the Editor.

ROODRA VAN EYSINGA'S Dutch and Malay Dictionary, 2 vols. and
ANGLEBEEK'S Malay Grammar, 1 vol.-by Dr. Vos.

Hikaitismyateem, 1 vol. Malay Language and Character-by ditto.
Meteorological Register for August, 1835-by the Surveyor General.

A copy of the Tibetan, Mongol, and Chinese Vocabulary, alluded to in M. KLAPROTH'S notice sur le Tibet, procured through Mr. INGLIS of Canton, and presented by the Secretary.

The following Books received from the Book-sellers :

Illustrations of the Botany and other branches of the Natural History of the Himalayan mountains, by J. F. ROYLE, Esq. F. L. S. and G. S. M. R. A. S. SOWERBY'S Fossil Conchology.

LARDNER'S Cabinet Cyclopedia, Germanic Empire, vol. 2nd.

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Ireland, vol. 1st.

Museum.

A variety of bows, arrows, and other weapons from Chota Nagpore, Singhbhum, and the Jungle Mehals, were presented by Lieut. G. W. HAMILTON, 34th Regt. N. I.

Prepared skeleton of the hood of a Cobra de Capello Snake, presented by Colonel L. R. STACY.

Literary.

Read a letter from Lieut. G. W. HAMILTON, 34th Regt. N. I., forwarding two manuscript volumes of a poetical translation of part of the Sháh Námeh of Firdausí, by the late FRANCIS GOLD, Esq., Assistant Surgeon, 34th Regt. N. I.

Physical

A memoir, with drawings, of the Sivatherium Giganteum, a new fossil ruminant genus from the valley of the Markanda, by Dr. FALCONER and Captain P. J. CAUTLEY, was read.

Also, a notice of the fossil Crocodile of the Sewalik Hills, by Captain CAUTLEY.

Minerals from the neighbourhood of Kabul were forwarded by Syed KERA'MAT ALI, for presentation; also a large supply of flower and fruit seeds and medicinal drugs, from the same place, and a further collection of Bactrian coins for inspection.

The seeds were directed to be transmitted to the H. C. Botanical Garden, with a request that they might be examined, and bestowed to the best advantage. The medical drugs, in like manner, to be transferred to the Medical Society.

The collection of Coins, consisting of about 750 pieces, 11 gold, 72 silver, and the rest copper, possesses one silver EUTHYDEMUS; one ditto ANTILAKIDES, (new ;) two ditto MENANDERS; one ditto LYSIUS, (new ;) a fine gold KADPHISES. The remainder are of the Indo-Scythic, Sassanian, and Khálif dynasties.

The minerals collected by the praiseworthy and intelligent Syed are some from the neighbourhood of Kabul, and others from Demavend, &c. in Persia. Among others, a fine green talcose sectile steatite or agalmatolite from Kabul, native sulphur, gypsum, specular iron in large laminæ, &c.

A letter from Captain CONOLLY, accompanying the despatch, states that KERA MAT ALI has collected a large store of statistical information during his stay at Kabul while agent for the British Government, which it is his intention to put together for publication in Persian.

At the conclusion of the business of the evening, the Secretary exhibited a very powerful electro-magnet, lately received from London, which produced a brilliant spark, decomposed water freely, imparted a considerable galvanic shock to the human body, and lighted a spirit lamp.

XI.-Extracts from Correspondence.

1.-Semimenstrual Inequality of the Tides.

[We hasten to publish the following letter from the Rev. W. WHEWELL, of Cambridge, in correction of a quotation from the learned Professor's Essay on Cotidal Lines in our editorial notice of Mr. SINCLAIR's tables of the Calcutta tides, in the third volume of the Journal, p. 408. We regret that the period fixed for the contemporaneous observations on the shores of England should have passed but we once more repeat a request to our friends on the coast to furnish the information now called for.-ED.]

:

"In the number of your Journal for August, 1833, is given a table of the times of high water at the principal places between Calcutta and Point Palmiras, by Mr. P. A. SINCLAIR: an addition to our previous materials for a map of

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