75' Report of Chemistry and Experimental Philosophy. [Feb. I, 



smallest manifestation of disease during innocent fuu anil frolic ; bnt, in the visions 

 the day, awakes in the night with invohin- of tlie succeeding nif,'ht, she conceived a 

 tary laughter, attended with some gesticu- horror of the act, and, as just stated, epi- 

 lations, which last frequently till the time lepsy was the consequence, — a disorder 

 of rising. Upon it being mentioned to the with which she will probably be affected, 

 parents that the disorder was probably a from slight causes, during the whole of her 

 species of St. "Vitus's dance, they directly life. 



told the writer that a family, who lived The boy to whom allusion has just been 



opposite them, had recently been affected made is under a tonic plan of treatment, 



with that complaint ; and that their chil- the medicine principally consisting of the 



dren had intently noticed, and occasion- Nitras ar::c»li, and he already shows signs 



ally imitated, them. This, then, is proba- of improvcnunt. 



bly the source of the disorder in the pre- The continued severity of the weather 



sent instance ; and it is likely, as suggested induces the writer to reiterate his recom- 



by an ingenious friend, that the malady is a mendation of wash-lrathcr waistcoats. It 



species of oneirodynia, as well as chorea; is only they who liave tried the expedient 



that the child had been impressed in its 

 dreams with what it had seen during its 

 waking hours, and that such impression 

 had thus become associated with the time 

 and circumstance of sleep. Dreams per 



that can conceive the comfort of it. 

 The Reporter would almost as soon part 

 with iiis own skin as the additional one he 

 has adopted. Till he wore the material 

 in question, he scarcely knew the feeling 



haps modify, and in a manner duplicate, of warmth during the winter season ; he 



existence, more than we are generally now,with less exterior clothing than before, 



aware. Not long since, a case of well finds himself comparatively indifferent to 



marked epilepsy was seen by the writer, the temperature of the air. "God's blessing 



which originated in the following manner, (says Sancho Panaa,) be upon that man 



The subject of it, a young girl in the lower who first invented sleep; it enters one ull 



walks of life, had been engaged with some over like a garment." So does wash-leatlier, 



loose companions in throwing stones at says the writer of these Reports ; and so 



the skeletons that are disgustingly gibbet- will every one say who shall make an 



ed on the shores of the Thames. It seems essay of its virtue. D. UwiNS, M.D. 



that in the first instance the poor girl con- Be^ordrroic ; Jan. 20, 1823. 

 sidered this pastime as a mere matter of 



REPORT OF CHEMISTRY AND EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 



PLUMBAGO, or the substance com- 

 monly called black lead, — which 

 stands foremost in reproaching the insuffi- 

 ciency of chemical analysis, — lias lately 

 been supposed by Dr. M'Culi.ock to be 

 the oxide of a peculiar n.etal, which exists 

 invariable proportions in most cast-iron, 

 (without apparent deteriv. ration of its qua- 

 lity,) in some kind of union with the iron, 

 and from which it is capable of being 

 slowly separated by several weak acids, 

 the acetic in particular. The facts ad- 

 duced appear, however, to show nothing 

 more, than that part of a mass of cast-iron 

 is by such action, or the whole in a suffi- 

 cient time, changed into an equal mass of 

 plumbago, of far less weight than the iron. 

 The masses of native black-lead, of very 

 different sizes, in the Borrowdale-mine in 

 Cumberland, have appeared to Mr. Farey, 

 who elaborately investigated them in 1819, 

 to occupy detached spaces, which never 

 were empty, in a coarse, steatitic, slaty 

 rock (steaschist, graduating locally into 

 basalt) ; the transmutation or change, at 

 some early period, of local portions of 

 which rock, into pure plumbago, by some 

 operations of nature, or of nature's Crea- 

 tor rather, seemed to him almost an una- 

 voidable conclusion. 



M. HE Hempline, of Brussels, has dis- 

 covered that sulphat of ammoniac pos- 



sesses the property which M. Gay-Liis- 

 sac had already ascertained in phosphat of 

 ammoniac, — of rendering linen-cloth and 

 paper almost incombustible. Muriated 

 ammoniac and sulphate of zinc have the 

 same property, in a greater or less degree. 

 The phosphat and the boreat of ammoniac 

 possess a power of preventing wood from 

 burning with a flame. 



Journal of the Weather and Natural History, 



kept at Harlfield, by Dr. T. Forster, 

 from Dec. 20, 1822, to Jan. 20, 1823. 



Dec. 20.— Thermometer 33°; barome- 

 ter 30*13. A raw north-east wind blow- 

 ing hard all day, with a clouded sky. 



21. — 33°; 30'07. Slacken clouds, and 

 clear night ; but very cold. N.E. 



22.-34°; '49-91. E. A great deal of 

 clouds. 



23.— 39°; 29-91. E. Sender clouds, of 

 a loose sort, and warmer air. 



24. — 32°;S00j. E. Dull, starving east 

 wind, and cloudy sky. 



25. — 28°; 30-03. E. The sun rose fiery 

 red : a cloudy day. 



26.— 27°; 30-25. N.E. The sun rose very 

 clear : fine day. 



27.— 27°; 30-20. E. White frost: clear 

 morning, but cloudy in the middle of the 

 day. The white Polyanthus narcissus re- 

 mains in flower, and braves the cold. The 



birds 



