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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

Dr Davy's Scientific Tour in Ceylon. The following Extract of a Letter from John Davy, M. D., to Sir H. Davy, dated Trincomalee, Oct. 3, 1817, relates to the same scientific tour in Ceylon of which a short notice was given in the Asiatic Journal, Vol. VI. p. 475. But something more is unfolded of the extent to which Dr. Davy was able to explore the country. With chemical and geological researches he combined attention to the remains of antiquity, to existing specimens of natural history, to the manners of the native inhabitants, and to the statistics of an important dependency of the empire.

My different excursions have been highly interesting. As soon as possible I shall give you a pretty minute account of the results of my observations: now I must be very concise indeed. In July. I went to the southern part of the island, and visited the districts of Matura and the Malaganpatton. In the former gems abound. I saw the natives at work in search of them in alluvial ground. Here I ascertained that the native rock of the sapphire, ruby, cat'seye, and the different varieties of the zircon, is gneiss. These minerals and cinnamon-stone occur imbedded in this rock. In one place I found a great mass of rock, consisting almost entirely of zircon in a crystalline state, and deserving the name of the zircon rock. It is only a few miles distant from a rock called the cinnamon-stone rock, from its being chiefly composed of this mineral, in company with a little quartz and adularia.

In the Malagan-patton, the most remarkable phenomena, and what I went chiefly to see, are the salt-lakes, the nature of which hitherto has been considered very mysterious from the want of inquiry. This I was able to make in a very short time, and ascertain the source of the salt. Many of these lakes are of great extent, and in a great measure formed by an embankment of sand, thrown up by a heavy sea along a level shore; the water, that falls in torrents during the rainy season, is thus confined, and inundates a great part of the country; the sea, more or less, breaks over or percolates through the sand-banks, and thus the water is rendered brackish. In the dry season the wind is very strong and dry, and the air very hot; it was from 85° to 90° when I was there: the consequence is, a very rapid evaporation of the water, the drying of the shallow lakes, and the formation of salt. It is from these lakes chiefly that the island is supplied with salt. The revenue that this one article brings government, amounts to about £10,000 annually.

The Malagan-patton altogether is a singular country; its woods, and it is almost

all wooded, are principally composed of euphorbia, and mimosa; its few inhabitants are a sickly race, miasmata destroying their health, and the wild animals with which the country abounds, as elephants, hogs, deer of different kinds, leopards, bears, &c. destroying the fruits of their labour. In the beginning of January I attended the Governor and Lady Brownrigg to Kandy, and had a good opportunity of becoming acquainted with the manners of the natives. The country in the interior, and particularly round Kandy, is magnificent; its grand features are high hills and mountains, and deep vallies and perpetual wood, and perennial verdure; the wood is in faulty exThe climate is fine; the air cool; generally at night below 75°, averaging all the year round the moderate temperature of 74°.

cess.

From Kandy I made an excursion alone into Doombera, and explored a mountainous region, where a white man was never seen before. My object was to examine a cave that yields nitre. It is a magnificent one in the side of a mountain, in the depths of a forest surrounded by mountains of great height and noble forms. I shall send you a particular account of this and other nitre caves I have visited. The rock is a mixture of quartz, felspar, mica, and talc, impregnated near the surface with nitre, nitrate of lime, and sulphate of magnesia, and in one spot with alum, and in another incrusted with hydralite, similar to that round the Geyser in Iceland. From the mountains of Doombera, I looked down on the wooded plains of Birtanna, and saw the great lake of Birtanna, which no European I believe ever before visited: it is full of alligators.

Returning to Kandy, after a short stay there I next came to this place, through a country almost entirely over-run with wood. I wish you could see some of the noble ebony trees which flourish here. Three days we travelled in a noble forest without seeing a single habitation, and without observing any traces of cultivation; but some fine remains of antiquity, especially about Candely lake, indicating that the country had once been in a very different state.

Topical Remedy for the Hydrophobia.Sig. A. M. Salvatori of Petersburgh, in a letter to Professor Morrichini of Rome, gives the following remedy for this dreadful malady:

"The inhabitants of Gadici, but when or how I know not, have made the important discovery, that near the ligament of the tongue of the man or animal bitten by a rabid animal, and becoming rabid, pustules of a whitish hue make their appearance, which open spontaneously about the 136

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day after the bite; and at this time, they say, the first symptons of true hydrophobia make their appearance. Their method of cure consists in opening these pustules with a suitable instrument, and making the patient spit out the ichor and fluid which run from them, often washing the mouth with salt water. This operation should be performed the ninth day after the bite. The remedy is so effectual, that with these people this hitherto incurable disease has lost its terrors." Bibl. Ital. xiv. 428.

Recent Observations respecting the height of Mount Etna, by M. the Baron de Zach, of Genoa." Admitting the height of this mountain, as ascertained by Captain Smyth, the visual ray from its most elevated point will extend one hundred and thirty miles, which is in exact accordance with the testimony of the Knights. With respect to refraction, it may be shewn from calculation, that it produces the effect of elevating the mountain near seven thousand feet; that is to say, that if there was no refraction to see Mount Etna from Malta, it would require in addition twice the height of Mount Vesuvius to be seen.

The travellers who have scaled Mount Etna vary much in their reckoning as to its height above the level of the sea. The Canon Recupero, an indefatigable traverser of Mount Gibello, assigns to it 15,000 French feet, but this is too much. The Canon has been in the habit of making observations on the Volcano, near forty years successively, making his ascent once every M. le Comte de Borch, in his letters year. on Sicily, assigns only 9,660 feet, but this again is too little. M. de Saussure approaches nearer the truth, and finds the height by a barometrical observation 10,032 feet. Captain Smyth makes it out 10,203 feet. All travellers who have ascended Etna that you may see from it the rock of agree, Malta, the Eolian isles, the Ionian sea, the entrance of the Adriatic, and the coasts of Albania.

A remarkable Cataract in Norway.NORWAY may boast of a cataract or waterfall, much superior to that of Schaffhausen on the Rhine, or even to the famous fall of Niagara in North America. It was discovered or noticed for the first time, about eight years ago, by Professor Esmark; a circumstance which is attributed to its very remote situation in the most lonely part of the interior, and to the very scanty number of curious travellers that resort to the Hyperborean regions, for the purpose of making observations.

It is situated in the district named Tellemarken, and named Riakan-Fossen, which in the Norwegian idiom, denotes the smoke of water falling. An immense cloud, formed by the drops of water in evaporation, to a spectator has the appearance of torrents of smoke.

Doctor Schow, of Copenhagen, visited this cataract in the summer of 1812. This

gentleman is one of the fifteen voyagers that
have been despatched by the King of Den-
mark into different parts of the world, for
the purpose of illustrating the sciences. He
was in Italy, in 1818. From his observa-
tions this account has been transcribed.

M. Schow could not fail to be struck with astonishment at the view of this magnificent spectacle of nature, so imposing and tremendous to the sense, though the fall is by far the most considerable in the spring, when the snow melts from the mountains. This immense descent consists, properly speaking, of three falls, two upon inclined planes, each of which, separately, would form such a cataract as is no where to be seen, and the last is an abrupt and precipitate perpendicular. Professor Esmark made a measurement of this last leap, and rates it at 800 feet in height!

In general, such cascades as are most elevated have the least water, and such as discharge large masses of water have little elevation; but in the Riakan-Fossen, the rule is reversed. The volume of its waters is supplied from a very considerable river, called the Maamelven, into which the lake Mioswatten, which is eight or ten German leagues in extent, empties itself, not far from the cascade.-Monthly Magazine.

Gauze Veils.-Mr Bartlett, in Thom son's Annals, has lately proposed gauze veils as preservatives from contagion. The idea is certainly deserving of serious consideration, more especially as Dr. Uwins, and some other medical gentlemen, consider that they may be adopted with a conThe gauze siderable prospect of success. employed for this purpose is similar in its properties to that so ingeniously ap plied by Sir Humphrey Davy in the safety lamp.

Salubrity of the London Air.-It was a saying of Mr Cline, many years ago, that "London is the healthiest place in the world." In no place are there so many human beings congregated together enjoying so high a degree of general good health. It has been stated, and we believe correctly, that the happy exemption which the inhabitants of London for the most part enjoy from the diseases common to other capitals, is owing to the sulphureous naptha emitted from the coal, serving the salutary purpose of checking the progress of febrile infection. To prove that the air is saturated with this naptha, we shall not be able to recognize the presence of a wasp, an insect to which sulphur is obnoxious, within the sphere of

its action.

Architectural uniformity in rustic dwellings.-There is something rather pleasingly allied to good management in a practice now adopted by the Russian government, of sending to every city, town, and village under its influence that is to say, not the exclusive property of any nobleman, a collection of engraved designs for dwellings, and buildings; among which any

person about to build himself a house may choose one to his mind, but he must choose one of the number submitted to his inspection. This duty is confided to the mayor or superior of the place (gorod-nisckew), and will by degrees introduce a general resem. blance or conformity into the country towns. At the same time, orders are given for the regular arrangement of the streets; for their being formed into lines of proper breadths, and the houses being of equal heights, two stories only being allowed. However rustic the construction of these abodes may be, and many are formed of nothing better than vast trunks of trees scarcely squared into timber, yet the effect will become equally striking and picturesque, especially with proper accompaniments of gardens, plantations, and other rustic embellishments.

Iron Rail or Carriage-ways.—In the neighbourhood of Newcastle, this ingenious mode of reducing friction, and facilitating the conveyance of loaded waggons, has been adopted to a very great extent. According to M. Gallois, an extent of 28 square miles on the surface of the earth, presents a series of 75 miles for this species of conveyance; while the interior of the adjacent coal mines contains them to as large an amount. Five or six waggons, made entirely of iron, fastened to each other in regular succession, descend these roads without any other mover than their own gravitating force. By means of a pulley, or wheel, a certain number of carriages in descending occasion a certain number of others to mount, in order to take in a load at the summit of the inclined plane they traverse. We are, however, naturally led to believe that, except

ing in very peculiar circumstances, there will always be a great saving of power in conveyances by water, for this simple reason, that the whole weight of the burden so transported is transported by the stream with a comparatively small loss of power by friction, while the inclined plane on which the carriage runs supports only a part of its weight. On the other hand, however, it cannot be denied that many situations in which it would be quite impossible to open a canal, might admit of the establishment of metallic and other railways.

Varnish for Wood.-The Italian cabinet work in this respect excels that of any other country. To produce this effect, the workmen first saturate the surface with olive oil, and then apply a solution of gum arabic in boiling alcohol. This mode of varnishing is equally brilliant, if not superior, to that employed by the French in their most ela borate works.

Crocodiles' Flesh an Article of Food.-At Sennaar crocodiles are often brought to market, and their flesh is publicly sold there. I once tasted some of the meat at Esne, in Upper Egypt; it is of a dirty white colour not unlike young veal, with a slight fishy smell; the animal had been caught by some fishermen in a strong net, and was above twelve feet in length. The Governor of Esne ordered it to be brought into his court-yard, where more than a hundred balls were fired against it without any effect, till it was thrown upon its back, and the contents of a small swivel discharged in its belly, the skin of which is much softer than that of the back. Burkhardt's Travels.

WORKS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION.

LONDON.

A new edition, in five octavo volumes, of Mr Coxe's History of the House of Austria. An Account of Timbuctoo and Houssa Territories in the Interior of Africa; by El Haye Abd Salem Shabeeniè, a Native of Morocco, who personally visited and resided as a Merchant in those interesting Countries. With Notes, critical and explanatory; by James Grey Jackson, late British Consul at Santa Cruz.

Travels in 1816 and 1817 through Nubia, Palestine, and Syria; in a series of familiar Letters to his Relations, written on the spot, by Captain Mangles, R. N.

The Life of Brainerd; by the Rev. Dr Styles.

A third Volume of Mr Grant's History of the English Church, brought down to the year 1800.

VOL. VII.

Travels in Holland, Germany, and part of France, in 1819, with References to their Statistics, Agriculture, and Manufactures; by Mr. Jacob, Author of Travels in Spain. A Tale in Prose, entitled, "Nice Distinctions," will shortly be published.

In the press, Royal Virtue, with engravings; being a Tour to Kensington, Windsor, and Claremont; or, a Contemplation of the Character and Virtues of George III. the Duke of Kent, and the Princess Charlotte.

Le Guesta D'Henrico IV. in Italian verse; by M. Guazzaroni.

Shortly will be published, Marmor Norfolcience, a very scarce and curious Tract, by Dr Sam. Johnson (under the assumed

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name of Probus Britannicus), which has never appeared in any edition of his Works. The Picture of Yarmouth, embellished with twenty engravings; by John Preston, Esq.

The Village of Mariendorpt, a romance; by Miss Anna Maria Porter.

A Volume of Sermons; by Mr Bradley of High Wycombe.

The History of the late War in Spain; by Robert Southey, Esq.

A Refutation of the Objections to the New Translation of the Bible; by J. Bellamy, Author of the Anti-deist, &c.

A Reprint of the Rev. John Wesley's Christian Library, originally in fifty vols 12mo, but now to be comprised in thirty octavo volumes; from a copy with MS. Notes of the Author.

Shortly will be published, in 2 vols post
8vo, Winter Nights; by Nathan Drake,
M.D. Author of Literary Hours, &c. &c.
A translation of Grillparzer's tragedy of
Sappho, in English verse.

In May will be published, Travels in
Sicily, Greece, and Albania, by the Rev.
T. S. Hughes, with numerous fine engrav.
ings, in two volumes, quarto.

Lacon; or Many Things in Few Words, by the Rev. C. Colton.

Anecdotes illustrative of the importance of Tract Societies; by the Rev. S. Meek. The Elementary parts of Pestalozzi's Mother's Book, in three parts; with Engravings by P. H. Pullen.

A History of the several Italian Schools of Painting, with Observations on the Present State of the Art.

Mr Fraser's Travels in the Himala Mountains.

Miss Holford's Novel of Sir Warbeck of Wolfsteen, 3 vols.

Dr Brown's Antiquities of the Jews, 2 vols, 8vo.

Mr C. P. Whitaker, formerly of the Uni-
versity of Gottingen, and author of the
modern French Grammar, is preparing an
improved edition of Hamonieres French and
English Dictionary, which will be compris-
ed in a portable volume, and printed on a
bold and beautiful type.

A Narrative of the late Political and Mi-
litary Events in British India, under the
Marquis Hastings; with Maps, Plans, and
Views; by H. T. Princep, Esq.

The Principles of Political Economy
Considered; by Mr Malthus.

The seventy-eighth and last part of Dr
Rees's Cyclopædia will speedily be publish-
ed.

The first No of "Annals of Oriental Literature," to be published quarterly, will appear on the 1st of May.

An Italian and English Grammar, from Vergani's Italian and French Grammar, in twenty lessons, with exercises; a new edition by M. Piranesi; with a key.

Speedily will be published, A History of the Modes of Belief usually termed the Superstitions of the Middle Ages; with some curious plates.

Preparing for the press, a Mineralogical Dictionary; comprising an alphabetical nomenclature of mineralogical synonymes, and a description of each substance. To be illustrated by numerous plates, the whole of them to be engraved by Mr and Miss Lowry.

Mr Neele is employed upon a new narrative and descriptive poem, to be given to the public in the ensuing winter.

A Geological Primer, in verse; with a Poetical Geognosy, or feasting and fighting, and sundry right pleasant poems; to which is added, a critical dissertation on King Coul's Levee.

Printing, in an octavo volume, Porson's Euripides, complete, with an Index.

P

EDINBURGH.

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be new to the English reader. Among these may be mentioned, Clavijo's Embassy to Timur, in 1404-Andrada's Passages of the Himmaleh, in 1624-Don Garcia de Sylva's Embassy to the Court of Shah Abbas, in 1618-Sir Thomas Grantham's Voyage in the Indian Seas, in 1683-4Proceedings of the Portuguese Missionaries in India and Japan, (from the great works of Gusman, Nieremberg, the Oriente Conquistado, &c.)-MS. Reports to the Senate of Venice, on various countries of the East; and narratives relative to Asiatic Russia, from the German collections of Pallas and Muller. The whole will be accompanied with geographical and historical illustrations of the past and present state of the continent.

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Hakewill's and Turner's Views in Italy, No 9. royal 4to. 12s. 6d.

An Inquiry into the Early History of Engraving upon Copper and Wood, with numerous fac-similes; by W. Y. Ottley, F.S.A. 4to. 2 vols. £8, 8s.

Notices Illustrative of the Drawings and Sketches of some of the most distinguished masters in all the principal schools of design; by the late Henry Revely, Esq. 8vo. 12s.

GEOGRAPHY.

The Life of John Sebastian Bach, with a Critical View of his Compositions and Mu- A new and comprehensive system of sical Examples; Translated from the Ger- Modern Geography, Mathematical, Physiman of the celebrated Dr Forkel, Author cal, Political, and Commercial, with coof the History of Music. As a specimen of loured maps and plates; by Thomas interesting Biography, the Life of the Im- Myers, A.M. of the Royal Military Acamortal Bach, written by so celebrated a cha- demy, Woolwich, 4to. Part I. 7s. racter as the late Dr Forkel, may fairly be ranked with the lives of Haydn and Mozart, but as a book of Musical Instruction (both to the Composer and Performer) its value is much greater, as Bach is universally allowed to have been the first writer in the strict and most learned style of Musical Composition.

Holt's Life of George III. 8vo. Part VI. 36.

The Life of Rev. John Wesley, and the Rise and Progress of Methodism; by Rob. Southey, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. £1,10s.

The Life of Fenelon; by Charles Buller, Esq. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

CHRONOLOGY.

A Key to the Chronology of the Hindus; being an attempt to facilitate the progress of Christianity in Hinduston. 8vo. 2 vols. 18s.

DRAMA.

Gonzalo, the Traitor, a Tragedy; by Thomas Roscoe. 2s. 6d.

Too Late for Dinner, a Farce; by R. Jones. 2s. 6d.

El Teatro Espanol, No 16. 4s.

EDUCATION.

A Greek and English Lexicon; by M. Bass. 18mo. 4s.

A Greek Selection; by W. Hodge. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

Elements of Latin Prosody; by J. R. Bryce. 12mo. 1s.

Eight Familiar Lectures on Astronomy, for the use of young persons, with plates; by William Phillips, M. G. S. 6s. 6d.

The Nature and Genius of the German Language Displayed; by D. Boileau, in one thick vol. 12s.

FINE ARTS.

The Original and Genuine Works of Wm. Hogarth, from the Plates lately in the possession of Messrs Boydell, with explanations by John Nichols, Esq. F.S.A. No 1. £1, 1s.

The Granger Portraits, No 5.

Rodd's Catalogue of British Portraits, from Egbert the Great to the Death of George III. 1s. 6d.

HISTORY.

An Historical Sketch of the Campaign of 1815. Illustrated by Plans of the Operations, and of the Battles of Quatre Bras, Ligny, and Waterloo. By Captain Batty, of the First or Grenadier Guards; Member of the Imperial Russian Order of St Anne. Second edition, considerably enlarged.

Memoirs of the Court of Westphalia under Jerome Bonaparte, 8vo. 9s.

The History of the Anglo-Saxons; by Sharon Turner, 8vo. 3 vols. £2, 8s.

Letters on History. Part II. 12mo. 5s. 6d. A History of the West Indies; by the late Rev. Tho. Coke, LL.D. 3 vols. with maps and plates. £1, 4s.

LAW.

State Trials; by J. Howell, vol. XXVII. royal 8vo. £1:11:6. Impey's Forms, 8vo. 7s. 6d. Vesey's Reports in Chancery, royal 8vo. vol. XIX. part 3. 7s. 6d.

Reports of Cases of Controverted Elections, in the sixth Parliament of the United Kingdom; by Uvedale Corbett, and E. R. Daniell, Esqs. barristers at law, 8vo. 9s.

Reports of Cases in the House of Lords, upon Appeals of Writs of Error, in 1819; by Richard Bleigh, Esq. vol, I. part 1. 8s.

MEDICINE.

The Mother's Medical Guardian on the Diseases of Children; by C. F. Vandeburgh, M.D. 8vo. 6s.

A Treatise on Uterine Hæmorrhage; by Duncan Stewart, Physician-Accoucheur to the Westminster Dispensary, 8vo. 6s.

Medical Notes on Climate, Diseases, Hospitals, and Medical Schools in France, Italy, and Switzerland; by James Clark, M.D. resident physician at Rome. 8vo.

The Pharmacologia; by T. Paris, 8vo. 10s.

The London Medical Repository, No 75.

MISCELLANIES.

A Series of Portraits of the most eminent Foreign Composers, containing a finely engraved Portrait of Beethoven, No I. A Number of this work will be published 1

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