J48 



Varieties* 



[MAY 



*hould by any circumstance be made to take 

 up the excess of caloric in the steam, as well 

 as that from the upper part of the boiler, 

 which has become heated above the tempe- 

 rature of the water, in consequence of the 

 water having been allowed to get too low, 

 it will instantly become highly elastic steam, 

 and an explosion cannot be prevented by any 

 safety valve hitherto used. 



Iron Bridge at Paris. From the inade- 

 quate, perhaps we should say unscientific, 

 manner in which the ends of the chain bridge 

 at Paris, were fastened, that structure has 

 entirely given way; but as the scaffolding 

 on which the road-way had been formed, 

 was standing a little below it, and imme- 

 diately relieved the chains of a great portion 

 of their load, little damage was done to any 

 part of the materials. 



Entomology. In Dr. Brewster's Journal, 

 for April, there is noticed a new species of 

 Oscillatoria, O. rubescens, which, though it 

 has been long known to the inhabitants of 

 part of Switzerland, has only recently been 

 observed by the learned, and is described by 

 Professor Decandolle, of Geneva. It is annu- 

 ally observed from about November to May, 

 in the lake of Morat, which is covered in 

 several places with a remarkably red sub- 

 stance. During the first hours of the day 

 nothing particular is observed in the lake, 

 but soon after there are seen long red lines, 

 very regular and parallel along the margin 

 of the lake, and at some distance from its 

 banks. During the day this mass exhales a 

 putrid smell ; and during the night the whole 

 disappears to return again the next day. 

 When the lake, too, is agitated by high 

 winds, the phenomenon disappears, and pre- 

 sents itself again when a calm returns. Upon 

 submitting some of this substance to an at- 

 tentive examination, it was found, as above 

 described, to be a new species of Oscillatoria. 



Natural History. In the third part of the 

 Philosophical Transactions for 1 826,Mr .Osier 

 has inserted a -paper, on the burrowing and 

 boring of marine animals, in which this 

 learned naturalist states, that he conceives 

 the pholades and teredines perforate their 

 habitations by mechanical action alone ; but 

 the lithophagi, which would have the great- 

 est mechanical resistance to overcome, ap- 

 pearing to be destitute even of the smallest 

 mechanical force, he has come to the opinion 

 that they must form their burrows in the 

 rocks, which they inhabit, by means of some 

 sol vent secreted by the animal. 



Earthquakes. At St. Jago de Cuba, the 

 most tremendoHs earthquake which has been 

 experienced for fifty years, took place on the 

 18th of September, between three and four, 

 A.M., and destroyed nearly one half of the 

 town. It was felt at Kingston, Jamaica, the 

 same day and hour. An earthquake was 

 also felt and heard in the island of Arran, in 

 Scotlaad, on the 20lh of November, 1826. 



Length of the Ancient Stadium. A very 

 accurate map of Turkey in Europe and of 

 Greece, drawn up by M. Lepie, from mate- 



rials collected by Count Guilleminot, the 

 French Ambassador at Constantinople, and 

 Baron Tremelin has completely resolved the 

 problem of the length of the ancient stadia, 

 and has demonstrated that they were, accord- 

 ing to the opinion adopted by M. Gosselin, 

 and rejected by D'Anville, 700 to a degree. 

 Strabo, for example, reckons it 200 sttidia 

 from Corinth to Argos, and Pausanius, 

 660 from Sparta to Olympia. These are the 

 exact distances found on the new map on 

 stadia of 700 to a degree ; which proves at 

 once the accuracy of the ancient geographers, 

 and that of the modern map. 



Marking Ink. Moisten the linen to be 

 marked with one ounce and a-half of pre- 

 pared soda, and the same quantity of gum 

 arabic dissolved in four ounces of water ; 

 and when dry, write the characters with fifty 

 grains of lunar caustic, one dram of gum 

 arabic, and fifty grains of lamp black dis- 

 solved in half an ounce of water. The above 

 composition will resist every effort to re- 

 move it. 



Ganganellfs Correspondence. -A singu- 

 lar work has just made its appearance in 

 France : it is the correspondence, which has 

 been only recently found, between two per- 

 sons, each of whom obtained a great, but 

 very different celebrity. The facts are these: 

 In 1720, in a seminary at Rimini, there were 

 two children who contracted for each other a 

 very strong friendship ; one was the son of 

 a labourer in the neighbourhood of Santo 

 Angelo-in-Vado ; the other was the only son 

 of an officer of fortune in the service of the 

 King of Sardinia. These two engaged, that 

 whatever might be their lot in the world, they 

 would never allow more than two years to 

 pass without writing to or seeing each other : 

 this promise was religiously observed. One 

 of the children, Laurent Gang-anelli, became 

 professor of philosophy at Orsaro, entered 

 into the order of St. Francis, held some high 

 situation under the inquisition, was then made 

 cardinal, and lastly pope, under the title of 

 Clement XIV. The other child, Carlo Barti- 

 nazzi, went into France after his father's 

 death, and better known under the name of 

 Carlin, became one of the best harlequins of 

 the Italian comedy. These are the two per- 

 sons whose correspondence is now published. 

 It may be added, that it was this very Clement 

 XIV, predecessor of Pius VI, who in 1773, 

 and at the request of all the European 

 princes of the House of Bourbon, pronounced 

 the abolition of the Society of Jesuits, which 

 the present Royal Family of France are la- 

 bouring so hard to re-establish. 



Improved Chronometers. In the public 

 exhibition of the objects of national industry, 

 which has just closed at Neuchatel, a chro- 

 nometer was produced, the work of M. Hou- 

 riet, of Lorbe, in which steel was employed 

 only for the main spring and for the axes 

 of the movers ; all the other parts were of 

 brass, alloyed gold, j>old of eighteen carats, 

 and of platinum, and amounted in number 

 to sixty-two : all the pivots turn on jewels. 



