464 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



that the mere operation of solution would in some way determine 

 the question ; the French editor's words are, however, " Et s'assurer 

 s'il ne renferme point de I'acide suffitrique ;" that is, by a subse- 

 quent, although not named, operation. In p. 30, note> a gramme 

 is stated to be equal to nineteen grains English, instead of 15*406 ; 

 and in the following page, first line, one grain is stated instead of 

 one gramme. 



These, however, are not very important mistakes. When a second 

 edition is called for, Mr. Kees will of course refer to the French 

 translation of Berzelius, in which he will find that new matter has 

 been added to the section on analysis ; and he would greatly en- 

 hance the value of his translation by giving a list of atomic weights, 

 so that the pupil might estimate the products of his analysis with- 

 out the necessity of referring to other works. 



LXXIV. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



THE SCIAGRAPHICON. 



SEVERAL applications of scientific knowledge to the united pur- 

 poses of the amusement and instruction of young persons, or to 

 that of domestic use, which have been produced by Mr. Alfred Essex, 

 have already been noticed in our pages. He has now requested our 

 opinion of a kind of instrument, which, by taking advantage of cer- 

 tain principles in perspective, and known means of deceiving the 

 sense of sight when the other senses are not employed to correct its 

 impressions, is intended as much to amuse the youthful mind by 

 the perfection with which it deceives, as it is calculated to inform 

 it by demonstrating the fallacy of mere visual perception. The Scia- 

 graphicon is an Anamorphosis, representing a Castle, distorted by 

 the elongation and gradual expansion consequent on the ordinary 

 form of that mode of projection, but which, on being viewed from 

 the proper point of sight, determined by a well-constructed eye- 

 piece, appears erect " in all its fair proportions," and that with 

 a semblance of solidity, which no exertion of the sight alone could 

 possibly detect to be unreal. This instrument is in all respects 

 well designed and well executed, and in a manner not unworthy of 

 the existing state of science and of the arts of drawing and litho- 

 graphy: a brief explanation, however, of the principles of perspec- 

 tive according to which the figure is described, and also of the laws 

 of vision which are concerned in the deception, would in our judge- 

 ment greatly augment the value of the Sciagraphicon, by furnish- 

 ing the means of rendering permanently profitable the interest in 

 the sciences of perspective and optics which it is so well adapted to 

 excite. 



SOLANIA, ATROPIA, DATURIA, &C 



The family of the Solana particularly merits the attention of 

 chemists, on account of the still uncertain nature of the principles 

 to which it is reasonable to conclude that their marked action upon 

 the animal ceconomy is owing. 



Solania, discovered by M. Desfosses, is one of the best known of 



