3

doxi, fi placet, manum offenderam, qui quod lineam iftam tenuem haud obfervaffet pinguiori alia in medio literæ ductâ, virgulâque fupernâ atramento aliquantulum incraffata, curavit, ut emendate legeretur in pofterum .) Verum poftea perluftrato attentius loco, lineolæ, quæ primam aciem fugerat, ductus quofdam ac veftigia fatis certa deprehendi, præfertim ad partem finiftram, quæ peripheriam literæ pertingit, luculentiora multo habiturus, nifi obftaret litura, quam diximus, hodierna, lineolæ ifti fuperinducta."

6

Dr. Woide afferts, that, twenty years fince, he agreed with Mills in fuppofing the traces of an original tranfverfe line to be vifible, though a the Theta is almoft wholly effaced, he cannot now affirm the fame from the prefent ftate of the manufcript. He mentions Wooton, Croyk, and Berriman, as witneffes in favour of Mills's opinion, and then proceeds to combat the arguments of Wetstein. Non reformido,' fays he, etiam Wetflenium ipfum ut teftem hâc in re adducere. Quod hoc audacius dico, quia hæc aliquando ipfe confeffus eft, et præterea in Prolegomenis pro fe effe putat, quod omnino contra ipfum facit.' This affertion is, we think, proved very fatisfactorily, and we lament that it is not in our power to fubmit this part of the Preface to the inspection of our Readers, the want of types rendering it impoffiole to exhibit a fac fimile of the letters in queftion. Thofe who can confult the book itfelf, will, if we mistake not, difcover very probable reafons, at leaft, for adhering to the orthodox reading. For our own part, we are convinced that d, as it appears clearly to have been read by Walton and Fell, was coeval with the MS. itfelf, though the zeal of fome perfon, unfortunately not aware of the confequences, may have fince rendered the authority of the manufcript fulpected, by endeavouring to preferve its integrity. Without interefting ourselves in the fate of the Trinitarian caufe, or in the enquiry how far it may or may not be fupported by this paflage of Timothy, we rejoice in the fuccefs of every attempt to vindicate the authenticity of the facred page, to repel the invidious charge of treachery and interpolation, and to fix our faith and hopes in the bleffed Son of God, on the firm and unfhaken bafis of Scripture. Even thofe who differ from us with refpect to the integrity of this verfe, may fhare the pleasure we feel in commending the labours of Dr. Woide. Thofe, at leaft, who believe the antiquity and general integrity of the Alexandrian MS. will be happy to fee the completion of a work, which will preferve the prefent of the Conftantinopolitan Patriarch, not only to the British nation, but to the learned and pious Chriftian Many of the most precious remains of every age and country. of Grecian and Roman wifdom perifhed irrecoverably, together with the wreck of their empire, during the rude incurfions of

PP 4

the

the northern barbarians. The firft Library of Alexandria, enriched by the judicious munificence of the Ptolemies, with the labours of ages, was deftroyed by a fudden and accidental conflagration-the invaluable treafures of the fecond were offered a melancholy facrifice to the favage bigotry of the Eaft: but by the well-directed induftry of Dr. Woide, this facred monument of Chriftian faith is now effectually placed out of the reach of fuch calamities; and, fhould fome fatal accident hereafter await the venerable original, it still shall live in this its faithful image, and bid defiance alike to the devaftations of fire, the incurfions of future Goths and Vandals, and even the ravages of time itfelf. I__ s.

ART. II.

Hiftoire et Memoires de l' Academie des Sciences. i. e. Hiftory and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, for the Year 1783. Concluded. See Review for March laft, p. 247. GENERAL PHYSICS.

Memoir I. CONCERNING a new Electrical Machine, which may be confidered as a real Electrical Fire-Pump; as it is conftructed in fuch a Manner that its Effect confifts entirely in drawing the electrical Fluid from Bodies, and thus electrifying them negatively, or by Rarefaction. By M. LE ROY. This academician's theory of the two electricities, pofitive and negative, or (as he calls them) electricity by condenfation and rarefaction, was long fince known to all who are converfant in this branch of natural philofophy. He has fhewn, at different times, that the fparks, proceeding from a body electrified negatively, are as vigorous, and reach to as great a distance, as thole, that iflue from a body electrified pofitively. It was to afcertain the truth of this affertion, as well as to render the effects of negative eleAricity ftill more confiderable, and fufceptible of an application to medical and other ufeful purpofes, that he conftructed a machine adapted, exclufively, to this kind of electricity. One, among others, of the great advantages of this machine is, that its conftruction prevents any lois of the electrical fluid in its paffage from the body, rabbed by the cushion, to the conductor. It would be very difficult to render this conftruction intelligible to our readers, without the affiftance of the plates that accompany it, and a detail of its conftituent parts.

Mem. II. Experiments, adapted to shew the Effects of Light en certain Plants. By the Abaé TESSIER. The propenfity of plants to incline toward light when they are removed to a certain diftance from it, and to fhoot up with a palpable diminution of their volume and verdure, when they are furrounded with obfcurity, is well known. Of these phenomena the causes are, as yet, unknown. The experiments and inquiries of Meffrs.

Du Hamel, Bonnet, and others, have only tended to ascertain the facts. The Abbé Teffier has repeated and alfo diverfified thefe experiments; he has, moreover, made feveral new ones, to calculate the degree, in different circumftances, of the inclination of plants toward light, and to fhew how far light, variously modified, has an influence on the growth and nutrition of certain vegetables. In the first of the two articles, which compofe this Memoir, he has developed, more fully than has been hitherto done, the inclination of plants toward the light, which feems effential to their nutrition, and has fhewn that this inclination is much stronger toward a direct, than toward a reflected light. And he has fhewn in the fecond, how the colour of plants is affected by light in thefe different modifications.

CHEMISTRY.

Mem. I. Concerning the Inflammation of dephlogisticated Air, and inflammable Gas, in clofed Veffels. By M. MONGE. It is well known, that when a mixture of dephlogifticated air and inflammable gas is inflamed according to M. de Volta's method, the two fluids are decompofed, and deprive each other reciprocally of a great part of the heat which was previously an ingredient in their compofition. This heat or fire, left to itself, paffes from its ftate of compreffion to a ftate of expanfion, and paffing through the pores of the fides of the veffel, in which the experiment has been made, if the fides are not burft by its action, warms the adjacent bodies. There is then a vacuum in the receiver, which only retains the other fubftances that belonged to the compofition of the elaftic fluids, and which are deprived of the fpring and lightnefs that they derived from the matter of heat and light, with which they were united. Notwithstanding the numerous experiments on inflammation, that have been repeated in the Eudiometer of de Volta, the nature of this refiduum has been hitherto totally unknown. In this Memoir, M. Monge addreffes to the Academy an account of the experiments he made on large quantities of elaftic fluids, in dry, clofed veffels, in order to afcertain the nature of this refiduum. They were made at Mezieres, in June and July 1783. The fame experiments had been made in England, feveral months before, by Mr. Cavendish, and nearly about the fame time at Paris, by Meffrs. Lavoifier and De la Place.

II. Concerning the Difference between Radical Vinegar and the Acetous Acid. By M. BERTHOLLET. Radical vinegar has a more powerful action than the moft concentrated diftilled vinegar, as has been obferved by feveral eminent chemifts, who attribute this property to a fuperior degree of purity and concentration. A feries of experiments, here related, feems to have fully perfuaded this academician, that there are effential differ

ences,

ences, which diftinguish the radical from the acetous acid, fuch as the fuperior affinity of the former to alkalies, its forming with them a more perfect combination, and its refifting more powerfully the action of heat. M. BERTHOLLET fhews moreover how the acetous acid may acquire thefe properties, when it is converted into radical vinegar.

III. Concerning the Preparation of Cauftic Alkali, its Cryftal lization, and its Action on Spirit of Wine. By the fame. The experiments related in this Memoir, were defigned to obtain a cauftic alkali, difengaged from the foreign mixtures of effervefcent alkali, calcareous earth, iron, &c. which it generally

contains.

IV. NEW Reflections on the Augmentation of Weight, which Sulphur and Phosphorus acquire in Combustion, and the Caufe ta which this Augmentation is owing. By M. LAVOISIER. This ingenious academician attributes the augmentation of weight, which the phosphorus acquires when it is burned in vital (i. e. dephlogisticated) air, to the abforption and fixation of this air; and this opinion, which he founded upon experiments, was publifhed in different memoirs feveral years ago. M. Bergman, in a new edition of his Differtation on elective Attractions, mentions the experiments of the academician, but combats the conclufions he deduces from them. He acknowledges, that phofphorus, as alio fulphur, and feveral other fubftances acquire an augmentation of weight in combuftion; but he obferves, at the fame time, that the specific heat of the acids, that are formed, is greater than that which the phofphorus poffeffed; and it is to this augmentation of fpecific heat that he attributes the augmentation of weight obfervable in the experiments of M. LAVOISIER. He, moreover, afcribes the diminution of the vital air, in which the combuftion is effectuated, to the combination of the vital air with the phlogifton in the production of heat; and in this he adopts the opinion of SCHEELE.

To the opinions of these two refpectable adverfaries, M. LAVOISIER oppofes feveral new experiments and ingenious reafonings, in the Memoir now before us. From thefe it appears, that the quantity of heat difengaged from 92 grains of burning phofphorus, however confiderable it may appear, has no fenfible weight, none that can be ascertained even with the affiftance of the most exact inftruments; and, confequently, that the principle of heat is not compofed, as thefe two celebrated chemifts affirm, of vital air and phlogifton, fince a body which has weight cannot enter the compofition of a body that has little or none; it appears, alfo, from the experiments and reasonings of this academician, that the very great augmentation of weight, which the phofphorus affumes in combuftion (and which is nearly in the proportion of 150 to 100) cannot be explained by

the

1

the fixation of the heat, without building upon fuppofitions that are evidently false, and are, moreover, contradicted by palpable facts. M. LAVOISIER therefore ftands firm in the conclufions he formerly drew from the experiments above-mentioned, and ftill maintains, that phofphorus, as alfo fulphur, and feveral other fubftances, abforb, in combuftion, vital air, or rather decompose it, that they feize upon its bafis, and that the matter of heat, which is extremely abundant in vital air, becomes free, by the new combination which its bafis has undergone, and communicates itself to all the furrounding bodies. He likewife thinks that these explications, fo remarkable for their fimplicity, would have been long fince adopted by chemifts, had they not been prepoffeffed with a notion of the exiftence of a phlogistic principle, of which, fays he, no clear idea has been hitherto given, which every one defines in his own way, and which the fame chemift often defines differently, according to the nature of the facts he is to explain and account for. This is a fharp attack upon phlogiston; but it receives a deadly blow, or, at leaft, fuch a wound, as it will be difficult to heal, in the following Memoir.

V. Reflexions on Phlogifton, defigned as an Illuftration of the Theory of Combustion and Calcination, published in 1777. By the fame. In this extenfive Memoir, which occupies no lefs than 34 quarto pages, the ingenious academician illuftrates and confirms his theory by new experiments and confiderations which, at the fame time, tend to fhew the fallacy of fome prevailing opinions with respect to the nature of the inflammable principle, and the phenomenon of combuftion. It is more especially his defign, here, to fhew that the phlogiston of STAHL is an imaginary entity, of which he has gratuitoufly fuppofed the exiftence in metals, fulphur, phofphorus, and all combustible bodies, and that the phenomena of combuftion and calcination may be accounted for, and explained, much more eafily and fimply, without the fuppofed phlogifton, than with it. For this purpose he carries us back to the times anterior to STAHL, when the principal phenomena of combuftion were unknown, and takes particular notice of the important difcoveries of that eminent chemift, which he appreciates with accuracy and applaufe; but he expofes the defects, and the variations, of his hypothefis, relative to the inflammable principle of phlogifton, and endeavours to evince its total infufficiency, even in the advantagcous form under which Macquer exhibits it, to explain the phenomena of combuftion and calcination, with fome of which it is totally incompatible. He afterward confiders the attempts made by the acute Baumé, to improve Stahl's doctrine, and more particularly to account for the augmentation of weight in calcined metals, when they are deprived of their phlogifton, by fuppofing