Accounts of Books. 141 



in an expeditious way) had a particularly beneficial efFeft in producing early and vigorous 

 plants. The beneficial efl^efls of tliefe different fubftances may be eafily accounted for by 

 an intelligent reader, according to the theory laid down in this paper." 



" We were fomewhat aftoniftied that thofe feeds, viz. wheat, barley, rye, and oats, 

 which had been fteeped in the above-mentioned oxygenated muriatic liquid, even during 

 forty-eight hours, did thrive admirably well ; whereas the fame feeds fteeped during fo 

 long a time in fome of the other medicated liquids, were much hurt, or had loft their 

 vegetative power. The fame oxygenated liquid poured upon the ground had alfo a bene- 

 ficial effea." 



The diflertation from which the above extract is made, although evidently a hafty and 

 unfinifhed produftion of its truly fcientific and refpe£lable author, contains fo many ori- 

 ginal hints, and ufeful views, refpedting the important obje£l of increafing the fubfiftence 

 of mankind, as derived from the produftion of farinaceous vegetable matter, that it is to 

 be regretted, it is not known beyond the circle to which its peculiar mode of publication 

 has neceffarily limited it. 



Tour's 

 A conftant reader, 



B. 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS, ACCOUNTS OF BOOKS, 8(c. 



An Account of the Irides or Corona, -which appear around and contiguous to the Bodies of the Sun, 

 Moon, and other luminous OhJeEls *. Octavo, 46 p. one Plate. Cadell and Davies. 1 799. 



A. HIS work, as well as the other concerning the Inflexions of Light, noticed in the 

 Journal of the lad month, page 78. is the produ£l:ion^ of Glbbes Walker Jordan, Efq. 

 the initials alone of whofe name are affixed to the concluding page of each work. This con- 

 tains an application of fome of the principles and difcoveries contained in that, to the expla- 

 nation of the phjcnomena named in the title, an explanation which how greatly foever it 

 might have been hitherto defired, was certainly unattainable before thofe difcoveries were 

 known. 



All irides, or coronae, our author divides into four forts; i. irides confifling of many 

 concentric orders of colours contiguous to the fun or moon; 2. the iris of 45 degrees dia- 

 meter; 3. the iris of about 84° ; and 4. the iris of about 100 degrees diameter, the pri- 

 mary and fecondary rainbows of philofophy. After obferving the infufficiency of the 

 principles applied by Des Cartes, Huygens, and Newton, to the explanation of thefe dif- 



* For this article I am obliged to the fame correfpondent as for the former. 



fcrent 



