1821.J 



Literary and Philosophical Intelligence. 



56S 



A novel is in the press to be called 

 Tlie Soldier's CUiild ; or, Virtue Trium- 

 phant ; by Charlotte Caroline 

 Richardson ; author of Harvest, a 

 poem ; also of Isaac and Rebecca, and 

 other poems. 



A new Annual Register is announced 

 by Messrs, Rivington, as preparing for 

 piiblication. The first volume, com-, 

 iiKmciog with the reign of George IV. 

 uiU be published in the coui'se of 

 this year. The pros])ectus, detailing 

 the motives for its publication, may be 

 had gratis of all booksellers. 



In addition to Mr. Busby's new and 

 interesting work on the American 

 Penitentiaries, mentioned in our last 

 number, he is on the point of publish- 

 ing a detailed architectural print of 

 the magnificent suspended wooden 

 bridge over the Delaware, in the high 

 i-oad between New York and Philadel- 

 phia — a structure far surpassing the 

 famous bridge of Schauffliausen. 



Productive as the coast of Dorsetshire 

 (between Charmouth and Lyme) has 

 been in specimens of organised fossiJs, 

 none have hitherto been discovered there 

 of so fine a character, and in such rare 

 perfection, as a skeleton found upon a 

 ledge of a rock, a few days since, byMiss 

 MaryAming,of Lyme, abouthalf a mile 

 to the eastward of that town. The ani- 

 mtil, whose remains have been thus 

 brought to light, appears to have been 

 one of the species called Ic/i/hi/'jsanrits 

 riilgaris, which was a common inhabi- 

 tant of the parts where his bones at 

 present repose. Its skeleton lies in high 

 relief upon a mass of the blue marl 

 which alternates on the western coast 

 of Dorsetshire with the strata of blue 

 lias, and presents the complete osteo- 

 logy of the monster, commencing at 

 the snout and terminating with the last 

 process of the caudal vertebrae. Its 

 length is five feet, and the natural ai'- 

 rangement of the bones is so little dis- 

 turbed, that the most perfect idea may 

 be obtained of its original curious and 

 terrible formation. Another fossil of a 

 similar description was found by Miss 

 Aming about six weeks ago near the 

 same spot. The remains of this beast 

 measnre nearly 20 feet in length ; its 

 vertebne are 95 in number; its head 

 five feet in length ; the jaws nearly of 

 the same extent ; and its teeth, round 

 ami sharp at the point, (equally cal- 

 culated for piercing and tearing,) are 

 full three inches long and one inch in 

 diameter. '|'he latter animal is called 

 ihe Ichthyosaurus Platyodon, 



Mr. A. Maxwell, the author of 

 Plurality of Worlds ; or. Letters, 

 Notes, and Memoianda — philosophical 

 and critical, in reply to the Rev, Dr. 

 Chalmers ; is preparing for the press, 

 a translation from the Latin, of Cona- 

 men recuperandi Nntitiam Principio- 

 rnm f'^eteris ef Fercf Pliilosophice, S^c. 

 by A. S. C'atcott, L.L.B. — or an attempt 

 to recover the principles of the an- 

 cient or true philosophy, collec'ted from 

 the sacred writings and latelj' explain- 

 ed by the eminent John Hutchinson, 

 Esq. with a new preface and many ad- 

 <liti(>nal notes, and illustrated by plates, 

 which clearly elucidate the different 

 phenomenii, connected with the annual 

 and diurnal motions of the earth. 



The Rev, Robert Hall has in the 

 press a new edition of his Apology for 

 the Freedom of the Press, with some 

 additions. 



Mr. MoFFATT, author of Christina's 

 Revenge, or the Fate of Monaldeschi, is 

 preparing for publication a poem, en- 

 titled The Village Church Yard. 



Mr. Dunn is preparing for the press 

 a new edition of the Dramatic compo- 

 sition of Gambold, entitled The Mar- 

 tyrdom of Ignatius ; it will be accom- 

 panied by a long prefatory dissertation 

 in the way of comment. 



The commissioners appointed to consi- 

 der the subject of weights and measures, 

 have published tho following' third report : 

 — We, the commissioners appointed for 

 the purpose of considering the subject of 

 weights aud measures, have now comple 

 ted the examination of the standards which 

 we have tlioiight it necessary to compare. 

 The measurements which we have lately 

 performed upon the apparatus employed by 

 the late Sir George Shuckburgh Evelyn, 

 have enabled us to determine with suffi- 

 cient precision the weight of a given bulk 

 of water, with a view to the fixing the 

 magnitude of the standard of weight ; that 

 of length being already determined by the 

 experiments related in our former reports : 

 and we have found by the computations, 

 which will be detailed in the appendix, 

 that the weight of a cubic inch of distilled 

 water, at 62 deg. of Fahrenheit, is 252-72 

 grains of the parliamentary standard pound 

 of 1758, supposing it to be weighed in a 

 vacuum. 



We beg leave therefore finally to recom- 

 mend the adoption of the regulations and 

 modifications suggested in our former 

 reports, which are principally these : 



1. That the Parliamentary standard 

 yard, made by Bird in 1760, be hencefor- 

 ward considered as the authentic legal 

 standard of the British empire ; and that it 

 be identified by declaring that 39,1393 



inches 



