2S(S SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Atkins on the and the other having accordingly in a great meafure fallen-into 

 o^fpfrituou? 1 " difufe amon g ft a]l bu * thofo immediately concerned in the col- 

 liquors, leftion of the duties, the lords of the treafury during the lad 



feiiion of parliament, applied for and obtained an aft, em- 

 powering them to order any other hydrometer to be ufed for 

 the purpofes of the revenue, which might be found more con- 

 veniently applicable to them. This has of courfe rendered a 

 review of the whole matter indifpenfably neceffary, and the 

 authors of the pamphlet before us, whofe attention to this 

 fubjecl is already fufficiently known, have accordingly with 

 great perfpicuity traced the principles on which alone an equit- 

 able fyftem can be eftablifhed. 



After (hewing the connection between the fubjeft of the 

 prefent Iraft, and the appreciation of our weights and mea- 

 fures in general, they proceed in the preface to ftate the au- 

 thorities on which they have founded their eflimation of the 

 weights of the known meafures of diftilled water. Thefe are 

 principally the experiments of Sir George Shuckburgh Eve- 

 lyn *, and thofe of the French commiffioners of weights and 

 meafures. ' From the former it appears to refult, that the cubic 

 inch of diftilled water at 60° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, 

 weighed in air at the fame temperature when the barometer 

 Hands at 29£ inches, is equal to 252.506 troy grains, and from 

 the latter, equal to 252.55, fo that the authors take it to be 

 under the circumftances fufficiently near 252£, and that this 

 weight therefore correfponds with the fpecific gravity of 1,000. 

 Their appreciation of the cubic meafure of the wine gallon is 

 fimilar to that of the board of excife, viz. that it contains 231, 

 cubic inches, and they eftimate the pound avoirdupoife at 

 7,000 grains troy. The preliminaries and a detail of the cal- 

 culations and reafons on which the deductions are founded, 

 are very properly introduced in this place, as neceffary to the 

 understanding of their fubfequent eflimation of the fpecific 

 gravity of proof fpirit. 



The work itfelf treats of the fubjeft under the following ge- 

 neral heads ; of the general relation between the fpecific gra- 

 vities and the ftrengths and values of fpirituous liquors, and 

 the circumftances by which the former are influenced ; of the 



* See Phil. Journal, Quarto Series, Vol. iii. p. 97, &c. and Oc- 

 tavo Series, Vol. iv. p. 35. (No. for January laft.) 



2 ftandard 



