Imatges de pàgina
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why we should be deterred from endeavouring to know more. Proverbs and poems have their graces and their uses; but from Eaftern learning we derive more fubftantial benefits than what can be expected from fuch compofitions. We owe algebra entirely to the Indians or Arabians; chymistry, medicine, natural hiftory, and geography, and many of the most abstract sciences, are indebted to the Arabians, if not for their birth, at least for their fupport and protection, when they were abandoned by all the states of Europe. It is faid, that the Arabians tranflated into their own language the moft celebrated works of all other nations. If this be a fact, and the learned admit it as fuch, have we not great reafon to believe that many monuments of Roman, Grecian, Egyptian, and Chaldean literature, may be preserved in the Arabic tranflations, though the originals may be irrecoverably loft? No language, not even the Grecian, after the conquefts of Alexander, had ever fo extenfive a fpread as the Arabic after the victories of Mahomet.-But I forbear to enlarge on a fubject well known to you all; nor will I remind you of the utility of Oriental learning in the interpretation of Scripture, it being acknowledged, that the beft commentators, either of ancient or modern times, from St. Jerome to the prefent Bishop of London, are those who have been the moft converfant with Hebrew, and the other fifter tongues.

It is a work worthy the attention of all the universities of Europe, to undertake the tranflation of the Oriental manufcripts which we are at prefent poffeffed of. We have hundreds of volumes in our English libraries; France, Holland, Italy, have many; and the library of the Efcurial alone, if we may judge from the catalogues which have been lately publifhed, would amply reward all our pains. Men fkilled in thefe languages fhould be invited from every quarter, formed into a kind of fociety, and employed for life, under the direction of proper perfons, in the drudgery of tranflation. Nothing worth notice in this way can be expected from the detached labours of a few profeffors of Hebrew or Arabic. Men of liberal education cannot readily be brought to undertake fuch a tafk; and if they could, the matter may be effected at a much easier expence, by the labours of inferior perfons. What would be an adequate reward for three or four needy Turks or Perfians, would not be a proper ftipend for one man of letters, who fhould be obliged annually to produce the fruits of his unremitted diligence.

But without entering into the particular manner of accomplishing this defign, I cannot help being of opinion, that an infitution eftablished at Cambridge, for the express purpose of tranflating and publishing Oriental manuscripts, would redound to the credit of the univerfity, and tend to put the learned world in poffeffion of a very valuable part of literature, of which at present

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we have but a very imperfect knowledge. There is no reafon to be alarmed at the difficulty of this undertaking, when we con fider what the great induftry of Dr. Kennicot hath effected, in collating the Hebrew manufcripts of the Old Teftament; for if the ability of one man can do fo much, what might not be expected from the joint abilities of a fociety of men, united into a body for the accomplishing one fingle object!'

After expatiating on the importance of eaftern literature, and its fubferviency to the Mofaic records, especially with respect to the univerfal deluge, and the common origin of the human race (illuftrated more particularly in the ftriking fimilarity that prevailed between the ceremonies of the Egyptians and the Peruvians), the learned author concludes his Difcourfe, with briefly pointing out the means by which the object he fo warmly recommends may be moft effectually accomplished. A fmall fociety of proper perfons (fays he), part of whom should be employed at home in tranflating, and the other part in travelling to collect materials, would complete the bufinefs in half a century. The public expence attending the maintenance of such a fociety, would be but as a drop in the ocean, compared with what is annually expended for lefs beneficial purposes. But without increafing the public burdens, by recurring to parliamentary liberality, we need have no fear of obtaining from royal munificence, or private benefaction, fuch aids, as, when added to other refources which the univerfity has a profpect of fpeedily poffeffing, would be fufficient for the purpose.

I hope no apology will be thought neceffary for having entered fo fully into a literary fubject, when it is confidered that I am addreffing a body of clergy, and that within the precincts of the UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.'

ART. XIII. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, Vol. LXIX. For the Year 1779. Part II. 4to. 78. 6 d. Davis.

PAPERS relating to AIR.

Article 22. An Account of the Manner in which the Ruffians treat Perfons affected by the Fumes of burning Charcoal, and other Effluvia of the fame Nature: In a Letter from Matthew Guthrie, M. D. to Jofeph Priestley, LL. D. F. R. S.

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R. Guthrie obferves, that a person who is expofed to the vapour iffuing from burning charcoal, in the Ruffian ftoves, falls into fo found a fleep, that it is difficult to awake him. This infidious poifon excites no fpafm in the trachea ar teria, or lungs, capable of roufing him; nor does it appear that the breathing is particularly affected. In fhort, there is no one fymptom of fuffocation: but towards the end of the catastrophe, a kind of groaning is heard by people in the next room, which

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confequently brings them to the relief of the fufferer. A perfon who only fits down in the room, without intention to fleep, is, after fome time, feized with a drowsiness, and inclination to vomit. If this warning be not attended to, and the perfon do not remove immediately, which his fleepinefs often prevents him from doing, he is foon deprived of his fenfes, and the power of motion; and fhould he not be discovered within an hour after he has been in this ftate of infenfibility, the attempts to restore him will not fucceed.

The recovery is attempted by a method diametrically oppofite, in one effential particular, to that which is used for the recovery of drowned perfons, and which confifts in the application of beat; whereas, in the cafe before us, the patient is laid naked upon the fnow, his ftomach and temples are well rubbed with it, and cold water or milk is poured down his throat. The friction is continued with fresh fnow, till the livid hue, which the body had acquired in the close chamber, disappears, and the skin affumes its natural colour. Accordingly, when life is reftored, the patient's body is much colder than when he was brought out of the room, and he awakes cold and fhivering. Article 24. Experiments and Obfervations on the inflammable Air breathed by various Animals: By the Abbé Fontana.

In this paper the Abbé Fontana fully establishes the delete, rious quality of inflammable air, procured from metals, which had been contested by that very ingenious chemift, M. Scheele ; and fhews the circumftances by which Mr. Scheele was led to con clude that this kind of air was not noxious to animals. In one of his trials, the Abbé was on the point of falling a martyr to this queftion, after having made only three infpirations from a large quantity of inflammable air contained in a bladder. After the first infpiration, he felt a great oppreffion on his lungs : during the fecond, he became pale, and objects appeared confused but on the third, his ftrength failed him, he loft his fight entirely, and fell upon his knees ; nor did he perfectly recover from the difficult and painful refpiration which fucceeded this dangerous experiment, till the next day. It is to be observed, that previous to the experiment, he had made a very violent expiration, in order to evacuate his lungs, as much as poffible, of the atmospheric air contained in them.

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The nature of inflammable air is very little known. rious obfervation of the Abbé's, relating to it, may poffibly furnifh fome hints with refpect to the analyfis of it. He has obferved, that when the inflammable air produced from iron and zinc is kindled, a kind of parks or explofions, of a vivid colour, may be perceived in the body of the flame, darting from thence in every direction. They resemble thofe emitted from red-hot iron, or from fmall ignited grains of gunpowder, fup

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pofing them to be kindled fucceffively, and not attended with fmoke. This phenomenon feems to form a diftinctive character between the inflammable air of metals, and that of animal or vegetable substances; as the Author never found the latter to fparkle like the air produced from the metals. The inflammable air of metals, when shook in water, fo as to be partially decompofed, and to become less inflammable, proportionally lofes its sparkling property: and when the procefs has been fo long continued, that the air has become fcarcely inflammable, it no longer emits any fparks. The principle, therefore, to which these sparks are owing, may probably be beft difcovered in the water in which the inflammable air has been agitated. Article 26. Account of a new Kind of inflammable Air or Gafs, which can be made in a Moment without Apparatus, &c. together with a new Theory of Gunpowder: By John Ingen-housz, F. R. S. &c.

We have already, in our review of Dr. Prieftley's laft volume of Philofophical Experiments *, given an account of Dr. Ingenhoufz's discovery refpecting the elaftic and inflammable air, or rather vapour, into which vitriolic æther is refolved, and which produces a very ftrong explosion when mixed with atmospheric or dephlogisticated air, and kindled. According to the Author's theory of gunpowder, the explosive force of that fubftance is owing to the almoft inftantaneous extrication of the great quantity of elastic fluids, which, before the conflagration, exifted in a folid or condenfed ftate, in the two principal ingredients, the nitre and the charcoal; the firft of thefe furnishing an immenfe quantity of dephlogisticated air, and the latter a confiderable portion of inflammable air. The author calculates, that a cubic inch of gunpowder will yield above 569 cubic inches of permanent elaftic fluid and as it appears from the experiments of Robins, that common air, expofed to the heat of red-hot iron, will be expanded to four times its former bulk, it follows that a cubic inch of folid gunpowder will, in the moment of the explosion, furnish above 2276 cubic inches of elaftic air.

Article 28. Account of the Airs extracted from different Kinds of Waters; with Thoughts on the Salubrity of Air in different Places: In a Letter from the Abbé Fontana to Dr. Priestley. The experiments related in this paper were made by the Author at Paris, in 1777 and 1778. By boiling the water of the Seine, as well as fome other waters, the Author expelled from them air fenfibly better than atmospheric air, after the fixed air, which was likewife expelled, had been feparated from it by fhaking it in water. From fome of the Author's experiments, it appears, that water in general abforbs about twice as much

*See M. R. Vol. LXI. September 1779, pag. 170.

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dephlogisticated as common air. He found that the Seine water, after it had been boiled a long time, absorbed, in forty days, about one fourteenth of its own bulk of dephlogifticated air: whereas, in the fame length of time, it did not abforb more than one twenty-eighth of common air. This experiment, as the author obferves, difcovers a new characteristic, by which dephlogisticated air may be diftinguished from common air; and fhews that water abforbs a greater quantity of those kinds of air which contain a lefs quantity of phlogiston.

If water, after being deprived of its air, be expofed to common air contained in a receiver ftanding in quickfilver, the air which remains unabforbed is fo much more phlogisticated as a lefs quantity of it remains in the receiver.

The Author mentions another, and hitherto unknown character, which diftinguishes dephlogifticated from common air. The latter, he obferves, fhaken in water, inftead of being diminished, is fenfibly increased in its bulk. This increase begins to be fenfible within a few feconds after the process commences; and has fometimes amounted to one twelfth of the bulk of the air, and even more. When it has attained its maximum, however, the bulk of the air begins to diminish; and in proportion to this diminution the air becomes gradually lefs good. On the other hand, dephlogifticated air begins to diminish from the commencement of the operation; and it continually lofes more and more of its bulk, and, with its bulk, of its purity.

From these obfervations, the Abbé is inclined to infer, that dephlogisticated air is a fluid much different from common air; because it has peculiar properties by which it differs from common air, not from more to lefs only, but entirely; as is fhewn by the property this fluid has of being abforbed by water; whereas common air receives an increase of bulk and elasticity by being fhaken in water.'- But is there not a feeming contradiction between this laft obfervation and one of the above recited experiments, from which it appeared that water abforbed a twentyeighth part of its bulk of common air? At least we cannot eafily reconcile the two obfervations.

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The Author found no difference between the air of London and that of Iflington, with refpect to purity, as indicated by the nitrous teft; nor between that at the iron gallery of St. Paul's cupola, and that of the stone gallery below it, or of the ftreet adjoining,

PAPERS relating to ELECTRICITY and MAGNETISM. Article 29. Account of fome Experiments in Electricity: By Mr. William Swift.

These experiments principally fhew, that points draw off the electric matter, when excited, or prevent its accumulation.

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