1827.] Varieties. 



little hesitation in guying that such a pro- 

 ceeding as we have just mentioned, would 

 never have been had recourse to, except by 

 a nominee of the late Sir Joseph Banks, the 

 greatest incubus that ever sat on the scientific 

 genius of a country. 



' Chinese. Logarithms. In proportion as 

 our knowledge of tbe Chinese is augmented, 

 are we led to suspect their title to the inven- .. 

 tions to which they so uniformly lay claim. 

 An eminent historical writer, of the last 

 century, was led, oh what appears just 

 grounds, to doubt the very ancient use of 

 gunpowder in this nation, and to consider 

 that the knowledge of its composition had 

 been communicated to them by some Euro- 

 pean traders, about the time that this de- 

 structive matter was discovered in the western 

 world. An acquaintance with the logariih- 

 roic canon, and the possession of logarithmic 

 tables, boasting a much higher antiquity 

 than any which had appeared in this quarter 

 of the globe, were among the scientific 

 claims, with which, for a long time they 

 imposed upon the credulity of the learned. 

 A very accurate comparison that has recently 

 been made between the Chinese and Euro- 

 pean logarithmic tables, has satisfactorily 

 shewn that they had translated and copied 

 an original edition of those by Vega, with 

 such scrupulous fidelity as to have trans- 

 ferred to their pages the errors of the for- 

 mer ; ahd some of them of such a nature 

 as to leave no possible doubt of the fraud 

 they have unblushingly practised. 



New Musical Instrument.-- Mr. G. Gur- 

 ney, with whose chemical labours the public 

 are not unacquainted, has contrived a mu- 

 sical instrument, in which glass tubes are 

 substituted for strings, and fiom which the 

 sound is elicited, by an endless revolving 

 band, which the action of the keys brings 

 into contact with the tubes. The effect 

 produced resembles, but is superior to that 

 of thecelestina. 



Bismuth Cobalt Orr. --The following 

 analysis of bismuth cobalt orr, which has 

 hithertc^ been found only at Schurrberg, in 

 Saxony, is furnished in the Edinburgh 

 Journal. 



Arsenic 77.9602, cobalt 9.8866, iron 

 4.7695, bismuth 3.8866, copper 1.3030, 

 nickel 1.1063, sulphur 1.016099,9282. 

 The characteristic ingredients of this ore 

 are, arsenic cobalt, and arsenic bismuth, 

 a combination of these metals not being met 

 with in the animal kingdom. 



Mozart's Requiem. From researches 

 made in Germany, relative to the authen- 

 ticity of the Requiem of Mozart, it appears 

 that an anecdote, which has been injudici- 

 ously repeated by all the biographers of this 

 eminent German composer, and according 

 to which he died of poison, immediately 

 after finishing the Requiem, was invented 

 by the music-sellers, after the death of this 

 great genius, with the design of speculating 

 upon the works which they refused during 

 his life. However, it seems that the Re- 



319 



quiem was far from complete when Mozart 

 breathed his last, and that Siissmayer, with 

 the assistance of some of the works of 

 Handel, put the final hand to this inestimable 

 production. 



American Gold. A mass of native gold, 

 weighing nearly ten ounces, has been found 

 on the bank of a stream, in the town of 

 Newfane, Vermont. In its general appear- 

 ance it strikingly resembles the North Caro- 

 lina gold. Its specific gravity is 16.<5, con- 

 sidered worth i>9 cents per pennyweight. 

 It was studded with crystals of quartz. 

 Newton's Journal. 



Painting on Glass. The French are very 

 loud in their praises of a mode of painting 

 upon glass, equal to the ancients, invented 

 by the Count of Noe, a peer of France. 



Scotch Jet. Beautiful specimens of jet 

 have been found between a bed ot peat and 

 yellow clay, in the peninsula formed by 

 Loch Ryan and the Irish Channel. Edin- 

 burgh Journal. 



American Aerostation. A series of aero- 

 static experiments have been carried on in 

 a very intrepid manner, by Mr. Robertson, 

 of New York. Neither the proximity to 

 the sea, nor the dangers of the equinox, 

 have prevented the ascensions of this gentle- 

 man, even by night. On the 20th of last 

 September, he rose to such a height that 

 the fireworks attached to his balloon were 

 visible to a vessel at the distance of twenty- 

 three leagues. The result of his inquiries 

 are looked for in Europe with much anxiety. 



Produce of the Oural Mines. The pro- 

 duce of the new discoveries made in these 

 mountains, has been greatly exaggerated. 

 Mr. Erdmann, an intelligent and accurate 

 traveller, relates that, in 1823, the whole 

 produce of these new mines, as well the 

 royal as the private ones, amounted to 4,508 

 Russisin pounds, about 40,035 English ones ; 

 but that the attendant expences would reduce 

 this to about 2,434, English, so that the 

 net produce of these mines cannot exceed 

 137,500 sterling. The number of work- 

 men (for the most part children) employed 

 in searching for the gold, amounts to about 

 11,000. 



Discovery of an Ancient Manuscript.. 

 It is reported that the Abbe Angelo Mai, 

 to whom literature is so much indebted, has 

 discovered in the royal library, at Naples, 

 the manuscript of an ancient Latin writer 

 upon Husbandry, remarkable for the purity 

 of its style, and the interesting subjects of 

 which it treats. 



French- Egyptian Medal. Many of our 

 readers may remember an impudent hoax, 

 played oft' some thirty years ago, by an 

 intriguing Scotch bookseller, in London, in 

 conjunction with an alderman of some ce- 

 lebrity as an engraver, regarding an edition 

 of Shakspeare, too splendid for use, and 

 too costly, even for the unbounded enthu- 

 siasm for that author which Garrick had 

 manoeuvred to excite. The subscribers to 

 Boydell's Shakspeare were to have their 



