424 Scientific Intelligence. 



Uttmus. I felt great disappomtment at not being able to follow up an 

 investigation so important." On this subject M. Arago makes the follow- 

 ing observations : — " There is in this communication a circumstance which 

 astronomers will have much difficulty in understanding. M. Cacciatore 

 says, that when the weather became favourable at Palermo, towards the 

 end of May, the moving star was no longer visible, owing to the crepus- 

 cular light of the evening. This explanation is admissible when the ques- 

 tion regards the passage of the star to the meridian ; but two or three 

 hours after sunset, or at night, nothing could prevent the comparison of 

 the suspected planet with the neighbouring stars, either by means of a pa- 

 rallactic machine, or with the great azimuth circle, which holds the first 

 rank among the instruments of the observatory at Palermo. It seems to 

 ns inconceivable that an observer so meritorious as M. Cacciatore, oppos- 

 ed by unfavourable circumstances though he was, should not have been 

 able to confirm the truth of such a capital discovery, — that he should not 

 have judged it proper to follow the star beyond the meridian. 



2. Climate of Palestine. — In the Annuaire of 1834, M. Arago published 

 a memoir, which had for its object to prove that, since the time of Moses, 

 the temperature of Palestine has undergone no sensible alteration. The 

 Duke of Ragusa denies the accuracy of the facts on which the conclusion 

 is founded. He says, '' There are now no palms in the part of Palestine 

 indicated by the memoir," But, nevertheless, I find farther on in the 

 Marshal's communication, " that there are a few at Jericho ;'* that at 

 Jerusalem he saw three " nearly barren ;" at Rama, a place cited in the 

 article in question, " there are some which yielded fruit :" but certainly 

 if there are some at that spot, a great many might exist. One single palm- 

 tree producing ripe fruit, would be sufficient in a question as to the tem- 

 perature. The limit assigned, in the same article of the Annuaire, to the 

 cultivation of the vine, is also called in question. We here transcribe this 

 portion of the memoir, in order that botanists themselves may decide if 

 the facts adduced by the Duke of Ragusa are of a nature to modify their 

 old opinions. " The article fixes at between 21° and 22^ cent. (69°.8 and 

 7l°.6 Fah.) the maximum of temperature that the vine can bear when 

 productive, and, to justify this assertion, it states, that at Cairo, where 

 the mean temperature is 7l°.6 Fahr., the vine is not cultivated on the 

 great scale, and that there are there only detached vine plants. This is 

 . the fact in regard to the past, but then the cause is quite of another de- 

 scription. Considerable plantations of vines have lately been made, which 

 promise to aflbrd excellent returns ; but a decisive fact is, that there have 

 always been, and still are, vines in Fayoum, which is one of the hottest 

 provinces in Egypt owing to the hills of sand which surround it on all 

 sides. These vines are situated at the villages of Fidemia, Adjamira, 

 and Tumban ; they are cultivated by the Cophts, and yield agreeable 

 wines. That which I have drunk presents a phenomenon which is rare in 

 such a climate ; it does not afie^t the head, and is drinkable after the 



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