390 
the different facility or quickness with 
which the expansions or the contrac- 
tions of the fluids took place ; the spirit 
thermometer not indicating a change of 
temperature, until some time after it 
had taken place, as compared with the 
mercurial one; and the conclusion, I 
came to, has received confirmation, from 
the opinion M. Flanguergues has given 
in p. 340, viz. that spirit thermometers 
are totally unfit for nice or delicate ex- 
periments; they are, for the reasons I 
have stated, not even fit for the gardner’s 
purposes, to which they are still often 
applied ; and doubtless they have occa- 
sioned the over-heating and the over- 
cooling of many hot-houses and conser- 
vatories, by not, timely, shewing the 
changes towards these states of inju- 
rious extreme, which were in progress, 
through too brisk, or too slow a fire, in 
the stove. 
I much wish some correspondent, 
who has access to the details of M. 
Flanguergues’s apparatus and experi- 
ments, would inform us, whether due 
caper were in every case used, to 
eep the temperature stationary, until 
the indication of the spirit thermometer 
had approached as near to that of ‘the 
mercurial one as they would approach: 
for without these precautions had been 
used, but little reliance can, I apprehend, 
be placed on the results. — Yours, &c. 
Howland Street, Joun Farey. 
3d Nov. 1824. 
- ———ae———— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine: 
Sir: 
Cc any of your correspondents 
inform me, either by letter, or 
through the pages of your Magazine, 
at what time a portrait painter, of the 
name of B. Short, practised his art? 
The dresses in the pictures, in my pos- 
session, painted by him, represent those 
worn in the reigns of King William, or 
Queen Anne.—I am, &c. 
High Wycombe, James G. Taxem. 
30th Oct. 1824. 
—=zarae— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the Orntc1n of Parer-Money.* 
ARCO POLO, the celebrated 
Venetian traveller, was the first 
who made Europe: acquainted with the 
existence of paper-money, which the 
Mongols, masters of China, used at 
that period. They introduced it sub- 
sequently into Persia, where their notes 
were called djaoo, or djaw, a word evi- 
dently derived from the Chinese tshao, 
* From the Journal Asiatique. 
On the Origin of Paper Moncey. 
[Dec. I, 
which signifies the same thing. It is 
‘composed of the characters kin metal, 
and shao little, expressing want of 
(coined) metal. 
It has’ been asserted the Mongols 
were the inventors of this financial con- 
trivance; but the result of Mr. Kla- 
proth’s researches on this subject, laid 
before the French Asiatic Society. seems 
to prove, beyond contradiction, that the 
Chinese themselves were the original 
inventors. 
According to this account, the first 
trace of it appears in the year 119 
before Christ, during the reign of the 
Emperor Oo-tee, of the dynasty of the 
Han. The ministers of this monarch, 
in order to cover the increased expense 
of the state, introduced the phee-pee, or 
valties in skin. These were pieces of 
skin of certain white stags, which were 
kept in the inner park of the palace. 
They were one Chinese foot square, and 
were ornamented with very delicate 
paintings and embroidery. Every great 
personage, on waiting on the emperor, 
was obliged to cover with one of these 
skins the tablet which they held before 
‘their faces, in the presence of the Son of 
heaven. The price of these phee-pee 
was about £12. 10s.; but it does not 
appear that they ever served as a circu- 
lating medium. 
Ma tooan lin mentions that between 
the years 605 and 617, of our era, the 
general confusion in China had arrived 
at such a pitch, that a variety of things, 
such as bits of iron, cloth and paste- 
board, were used instead of money.* 
At the beginning of the reign of the 
Emperor Heean Tsoong (about 807 after 
Christ), copper coin having become ex- 
tremely rare, the prohibition against 
using vessels and utensils, of this metal, 
was renewed.t At the same time, the 
merchants arriving in the capital, and 
indeed all the rich families, were obliged 
to deposit their cash in the public trea-. 
sury ; 
* And now dried cow-dung‘and sand, 
mixed; 7,000 of which fragile wafers, strung 
together, go for an European ducat ; this 
change, we are informed, merchants are 
obliged to obtain ; and the Chinese are so 
precise, that if one be broken, it must be 
replaced from another set.—Ep. 
+ The cause of the frequent scarcity of 
copper in China, originated principally from 
its being manufactured into images of Foee, 
and the saints of that religion. Indeed, as 
often as this religion was persecuted, cop- 
per coin was seen to re-appear in large 
quantities, ar 
