15th of September, containing the following information, which the writer says was first communicated to the public in a provincial newspaper. He does not give the date; but merely quotes the following passage from the newspaper, in the words of the anonymous writer of that article. "Last week, having occasion to go to Malpas (a village 15 miles from Chester), I witnessed a very singular phenomenon. About one o'clock in the day, from the great heat and the calmness of the air, I apprehended a thunder-storm, and supposed my apprehensions were going to be realised, when I beheld a bright cloud, out of which fell some large stones, which were soft and intensely hot at first, but afterwards acquired considerable hardness." I am not aware that any of the stones in question have been brought to London. These phenomena have been of rare occurrence in Great Britain of late; but five or six examples of similar falls on the continent, during the years 1811 and 1812, have been recorded, and the stones subjected to chemical analysis. As some of the results of analysis are curious, I have been intending to lay them before the readers of the Annals of Philosophy, but have hitherto been prevented by want of room. IV. Swedish Agriculture. I take this opportunity of correcting a very important mistake which occurs in my Travels in Sweden, relative to the quantity of grain produced annually in the kingdom. In page 426 of that work I have given an official table exhibiting the quantity of ground in tillage, and the annual produce in spanns; and I say, below the table, that the Swedish spann contains 28 kanns, or 41 English wine pints. This statement I took from a Swedish dictionary, published at Stockholm in 1807. But I have received a letter from a Swedish gentleman in London, stating the following to be the real amount of the Swedish measures, from his own personal knowledge, which I have no reason to call in question. 1. The Swedish tunn consists of two spanns heaped as much as can be laid on the top, and is the only lawful measure of the country. It amounts to French cubic English cubic inches. .9438.8 .149.9 Now a Winchester bushel is 2150·42 cubic inches: therefore the Swedish tunn, according to the preceding statement, is 4.3893 Winchester bushels, and the Swedish spann is 2.19465 Winchester bushels; so that these measures are above 40 fold greater than I made them. This removes the extraordinary barrenness, which appeared so very striking according to my original estimate; so that the tunnland (1 acre) produces annually rather more than eight Winchester bushels of corn. I thought it right to make this error known as soon as possible, to prevent any erroneous inferences from being drawn from the table in question. V. Sulphate of Soda. Want of room obliges me to defer for the present the continuation of the table of the constitution of the salts: but I think it necessary to point out a mistake in that part of the table which was inserted in the last Number of the Annals of Philosophy. Sulphate of soda (p. 294) is said to be composed of 1 integrant particle of sulphuric acid + 2 integrant particles of soda. From the note it will easily be seen that the reverse is the case. It is composed of 2 s. a. + 1 soda, and its weight, of course, is 10.7882. Hence the remarks made upon it in page 300, as an exception to Berzelius's rule, are erroneous. I have not yet met with any exception to his rule, except among the nitrates. These exceptions he admits, and endeavours to obviate by the ingenious theory published in this and the preceding Number of the Annals of Philosophy. VI. Electrical Oxides. The beautiful figures produced on paper by the oxidation of various metals with an electrical battery, cannot be effectually represented by engravings. Mr. Singer proposes to illustrate a few copies of his Elements of Electricity (now in the Press) with some real oxides, produced by his powerful apparatus.. Those who desire such copies may secure them by an early transmission of their names to Mr. Singer. VII. Practical Chemistry. Dr. Thomson proposes next winter to give a Practical Course of Chemistry to a very limited number of young Gentlemen, who will reside in his house during its continuance. The Course will begin on the 1st of January, 1814. ARTICLE XV. Scientific Books in hand, or in the Press. Mr. Kerrison is preparing for the Press An Inquiry into the Establishment and Progress of the Medical Profession in England, as it regards the Physician, Surgeon, Apothecary, General Practitioner, and Chemist and Druggist; with a Compendious Analysis of all the Charters granted to Physicians, Surgeons, and Apothecaries, tending to illustrate the Merits of the Bill about to be submitted to Parliament by the Associated Surgeon-Apothecaries of E ngland and Wales Mr. W. Henley is about to publish a Series of Chemical Tables, intended to exhibit the Properties of all the present known Bodies, the Result of their Union, &c.; forming a Complete Abstract of the Science of Chemistry. ARTICLE XVI. METEOROLOGICAL TABLE. 1813. Wiud. Max. | Min. Med. Max. Min. Med. Evap Rain. The observations in each line of the table apply to a period of twenty-four hours, beginning at 9 A. M. on the day indicated in the first column. A dash denotes, that the result is included in the next following observation, REMARKS. Ninth Month.-19, 20. Breezes by day: much dew. 21. Cloudy quite to sun-set: a few drops of rain. 22. A breeze, a. m. bringing clouds: p. m. a sudden shower: rain in the night. 23. Windy: showers. 24. Much wind. 25. Windy: cloudy. 26. Overcast a. m.: clear p. m.: a luminous twilight, with Cirrus and Cirrocumulus. 27. Morning twilight somewhat coloured: forenoon, overcas: clear p. m.: and at sunset, fascicular Cirri, arranged from W. to E.: the wind being E. and nearly calm. After these appearances, lightning far to the S. E. and S. W. 28. Cloudy, with a few drops. 30. A pink twilight, with dense, coloured Cirri. For three days past, a steady N. E. breeze, with pretty much sunshine. Tenth Month.-1. Overcast, a. m.: wind N. After sunset, Cirrocumulus passing to Cirrostratus, a corona round the moon, and a small meteor, which went W. 2. Overcast most of the day: a few drops, p. m. 3. Cirrus, with Cumulostratus: twilight opaque, orange coloured. The roads have become of late excessively dry, and the dust raised from them floats in great quantity in the air. 4. Early this morning began a steady rain, which continued till after sun-set. 5. Fine day lunar halo. 6. Cloudy. 7. A considerable storm of thunder and lightning early this morning, followed by much rain. 8. Fair, a. m. : wet, p. m. 9. Fine day. 10. Wet, with a fair interval. Wet, a. m. fair, p. m. 12. The reverse of yesterday. 14. Fair. 15. Very wet. RESULTS. 11. Prevailing Winds, Easterly, and drying, to the first quarter of the moon; soon after which they became Westerly, and brought much rain. Barometer: greatest observed elevation. .30 22 inches; Least Mean of the period. ..28.93 inches; .29 752 inches; ... 72° .33° 55.23° Evaporation, 119 inches. Rain, 3.95 inches. The rain of the 4th inst, having put a conclusion to a fine season of some week's continuance, Iavailed myself of the opportunity of a journey made immediately after it, to ascertain, as far as I could, its extent. I found that it had rained from morning to night on that day all the way between London and York, also, (by information from other travellers) as far north as the Tyne, and over the narrow part of the island, from Cheshire to Northumberland. It having been likewise a very wet day on the south coast, I conclude that probably the whole of England was, on this occasion, irrigated at once from an Atlantic current, which during the prevalence of the easterly breeze just before, had taken possession of the higher atmosphere, and which on that day arrived, in its progress of subsidence, near enough to the earth to part with its electricity, and displace the lower stream of air. TOTTENHAM, Tenth Month, 23, 1813. L. HOWARD. ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY. DECEMBER, 1813. ARTICLE I. Biographical Account of Sir Isaac Newton. (Concluded from p. 328.) IN the year 1704, the Treatise of Quadratures, by Newton, was published. This treatise had been written long before, many things being cited out of it in Newton's letters of Oct. 24, and Nov. 8, 1676. It related to the method of fluctions; and that it might not be taken for a new piece, Newton repeated what Dr. Wallis had published nine years before without being contradicted, namely, that this method was invented by degrees in the years 1665 and 1666. But the editors of the Acta Lipsica, in their review of this book, (and the author of the review was conceived to have been Leibnitz himself,) represented Leibnitz as the first inventor of the method, and said that Newton had substituted fluctions for differences, just as Fabri, in his Geometrie Synopsis, had substituted movement for the indivisibles of Cavalleri. This accusation gave a beginning to the controversy. For Dr. Keill, in an epistle published in the Philosophical Transactions for September and October 1708, retorted the accusation, asserting that "all these things follow from the now so much celebrated method of fluctions, of which our Newton was doubtless the first inventor, as will be evident to any one who shall read his letters published by Dr. Wallis. Yet afterwards the same method was published by Mr. Leibnitz in the Acta Eruditorum; only changing the name and manner VOL. II. N° VI 2 C |