25G 



Spirii of Philosophical Discovery. 



[April Ij 



aiG some wlikli coiiiiucc to the interest 

 of ignorance r;illier tliiiii to wliat is use- 

 ful ami excellent in knowledge ; and 

 MhicI), in limes like the present, are not 

 likely to meet with a grateful reception 

 from the pnhiic. Admission is prohi- 

 bited to the sons of parents who are not 



in independent circiimsfanccs, or have 

 no determinate profession; and also to 

 young persons not of the canton, who 

 are not burgesses of some town, amt 

 w ho do not appear, lioni the rank and 

 fordine of their parents, adapted to a 

 liberal education. 



SPIRIT OF PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOVERY AND OF THE 

 VARIOUS SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 



jyOASTED Rye, as a beverage in 

 •*"' lieu of collee or tea, appears to 

 have succeeded, amongst the workingi 

 classes, beyond t!ie most sanguine ex- 

 pectations of Mr. Henry Hunt, its patri- 

 otic introducer, under the ban of the 

 .Excise Office ; but the Act of July, 

 1822, liaviuic legalised the article, iNIr. 

 H. has lalcly stated his outgoings, in 

 manufacturing and vending the roasted 

 corn, to amount to near 2800/. per 

 annuni ; that more than four- fifths of 

 what he roasis, is sold wiiolcsale to ven- 

 ders; that, in London, there are more 

 than 700 venders of the article, great 

 numbers of whom roast corn for them- 

 selves; and that, in other parts of Eng- 

 land, it is coin[)ulcd tliat more titan 4000 

 persons prepare or deal in the article. 

 A bushel of prime rye, weighing about 

 forty-fcigiit [lounds, and ai present cost- 

 ing about seven shillings, will produce 

 about twenty-eight pounds of the 

 roasted article, wiiicli Mr. Hunt's re- 

 tailers vend at one shilling per lb. 

 O'hers make and \end a similar article 

 at fifteen-pence t some retail inferior 

 preparations at eight- pence, and even 

 six-pence per lb. It is, however, an act 

 of justice due to Mr. Hunt to state, that 

 Lis apparatus for roasting is improved 

 and perfected by numerous cosily expe- 

 riments ; and that he is, in consequence, 

 enabled now to produce a pure and 

 elegant article, without foreign smell or 

 flavour. No jierson can produce so 

 delicate and wholesome a beverage as 

 his, without similar apparatus, — and 

 hence his imitators universally fail. 



Hail-stuncs in fnrtn of very flattened 

 Rings. — The Rev. D. A. Clark relates, 

 in No. V. of Professor Silliman's 

 Journal, that, on a hot summer's day 

 in 1806 or 7, during a short but tremen- 

 dous thunder-storm, there fell in Morris 

 county, New Jersey, U.S. a great many 

 flattened and round hail-stones, of the 

 breadth of a shilling; and, towards their 

 outer parts, |lhs of an inch thick, but 

 the centre parts of which were so much 

 hollowed on each side, as to occasion a 

 hole through most cf them, so that they 



could be strung like so many large flafi 

 beads. Mr. C. supposes the perforations 

 to have been efl'ected from some un- 

 known cause during the fall of these 

 stones. During a destructive thunder 

 and hail-storm which crossed Bedford- 

 shire in July 1800, many hail-stones 

 were picked up at Husband Crawley, 

 whicii, measurcil round by a string, 

 were found to girt eleven incites ! one 

 of tliese, brought two miles to the hou.sc 

 of the writer hereof, in a large tea- 

 saucer, two or three boms after its fall, 

 still filled all tlie bottom of the saucer, 

 and was | of an inch, or more, thick, 

 rointd its outer parts, which were so 

 streaked, concentrically, as evidently to 

 show that a rapid whirling motion, dur- 

 ing the fall and accumulation of these 

 stones, had occasioned their flattened 

 and centrally-depressed round fonn, 

 similarly to those mucli smaller ones 

 observed in America, as above; tho 

 Crawley hail-stones were none of then* 

 foimd to be perforated ; but, had they 

 passed through much warmer air in 

 their descent near the earth, it seems not 

 improbable, but an equal thawing over 

 each of their depressed surfaces may 

 have occasioned holes in their centres. 

 Ihe Temperate Season of America 

 and England differs 10°.' — Professor 

 Olmestead has observed, that the range 

 of agreeable heat of the air, to the feel- 

 ings of the inhabitants of North Ame- 

 rica, lat. 35|* N. lies between 70 and 

 80° of Fahrenheit: below the former, 

 fires are lighted, and the family circles 

 round it ; and, above the latter point, 

 contplaints begin to be made of uucom- 

 fortable warmth. In England, the na- 

 tural or agreeable temperature lies 

 between 60° aitd 70°, with the same 

 sensations as above mentioned when- 

 ever the thermometer stands below or 

 above these limits. In Scotland, Dr. 

 Black has said, that a moderately warm 

 summer weather raises the thermometer 

 to 64° 



The hold of Nails on Wood, into which, 

 they are driven, has been experi- 

 mented upon by Mr. B. Bevan^ 

 whereby 



