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1826. [ 
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: Paibosornre AL, CHEMICAL, AND SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANIES. 
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‘Statistics. —The following table will shew 
the state of the population in Tolland 
during six successive years : 
In 1820. . 5,642,552 | In 1823. . 5,838,123 
1821. . 5,692,323 1824... 5,913,526 
, 1822..5,767,038 1825. . 5,992,666 
The ratio of the deaths is about | to 44, 
while in France it is 1 to 39. The pro- 
portion of births to the population was | to 
27 in France, in 1824, and consequently 
the proportion of the deaths to the births 
was as 27 to 44. The constant ratio of 
male to female ‘births holds good in Bel- 
gium as elsewhere, and is nearly the same 
as in this country: the ratio is 1,000 to 
950; in England it is 1,000 to 947; in 
France 1,000 to 937; and in Naples 1,000 
to 955. This proportion, of which the 
cause will in all probability for ever be 
unknown, is not less remarkable for its 
singularity than for its constancy.’’-—Rev. 
Encyc. 
Africa.—Mr. Shaler, who resided for 
ten years at Algiers as consul for America, 
has furnished some particulars regarding the 
languages of Africa, which, to every scholar 
and antiquarian, must be replete with inte- 
rest. In the north of Africa there is a 
tribe denominated Kabyles, or Berebers, 
whose language, called the Showiah, has, 
as far as has been discovered, no resem- 
blance to those spoken by the other tribes, 
and which there are many reasons to be- 
lieve is of great antiquity; it is supposed 
tovbe identified with that of the Tuarics, 
who inhabit the interior parts of Libya to 
the borders of Egypt. Should this po- 
sition prove correct, and there are strong 
grounds for sustaining it, the Tuarics and 
Kabyles must be considered people of the 
same origin; that is, the same people and 
the same language prevail throughout the 
wns northern range of Africa, from the 
Atlantic to Egypt: and this people and 
language show marked peculiarities which 
distinguish them from any other now 
known; their origin, therefore, becomes 
a very curious subject of inquiry. Mr. 
Shaler’s opinion (and he supports it by 
considerations not easily to be shaken) is, 
that the Showiah is a language of greater 
antiquity than any other spoken in’ Northern 
Afri It is remarkable, that every trace 
of the Roman language appears to have 
heen eradicated by the Saracen conquest ; 
nor has it been discovered that the language 
in question has any analogy to the Persic 
or the Arabic, and of course. it must have 
ormed before the introduction of those 
rues into Africa; and there appears to 
be*nothing unreasonable in believing that 
‘Puaries are. an original unconquered 
le, and the depository of an aneient 
language, which being identified with that 
_ MLM. New Series.—Vow. II. No. 8. 
of the Kabyles, the Showiah, naturally leads 
to the conclusion, that it is one of the mest 
ancient in the world, which has withstood 
and survived the conquests of the Cartha- 
ginians, the Romans, the Vandals, and the 
Arabs. 
Cotton-seed Gas.—From some experi- 
ments made by Professor Olmsted, it seems 
probable that the cotton seed, which con- 
stitutes by weight. nearly three-fourths of 
the entire cotton crop, and which in most 
of the cotton districts of America has hi- 
therto been neglected as useless, will be 
employed as an eligible substance for gas- 
lights. The gas is easily and abundantly 
obtained from this seed, and affords a degree 
of illumination quite equal to that of the 
oil gas, of which indeed it is only a variety, 
and superior to most varieties of the bitu- 
minous coals. It is inferior to the pure 
olefiant gas; and this is the fact with the 
infammable gases obtained from perhaps 
every substance, except alcohol decomposed 
by sulphuric acid. The kernel of the hic- 
kory-nut comes the nearest to the olefiant, 
and is but little inferior ; the quality of the 
gas is considsrably debased by using the 
entire nut, the woody covering of which 
affords a gas which burns with a paler 
flame. A pound of seed yields 16,288 cubic 
inches, or more than a hogshead of the gas. 
The quantity of seed annually produced in 
the United States, above what is required 
for replanting, would afford 2,827,500,000 
cubic feet of illuminating gas; but little, if 
at all inferior to that produced directly from. 
oil. — Silliman’s Journal. 
Longevity of Animals.— Professor Schultze, 
of Gottingen, has published. some very cu- 
yious experiments upon the existence of 
cerceriz ephemera, and has added some 
facts relative to the duration of life in other 
animals. Birds are the shortest-lived of 
all vertebrated animals; yet he relates that 
a parrot, which in 1633 was brought from 
Italy into France, was living in 1743, conse- 
quently mere than 110 years old. A not 
less remarkable instance of longevity is also 
adduced: in 1497 a fish was taken in 
a reservoir at Kayserslauten, which had 
been placed there 267 years before, which 
was proved by a copperring fastened round 
the head of the fish. Bouffon considers that 
whales reach the enormous age of 1,600 
years: this is a mere hypothesis. 
Philology.—The Italian language is par- 
ticularly admired for its harmonious soft- 
ness—that nearly every final letter should 
be a vowel was made by Voltaire a subject 
of reproach. Had the philoscpher of Fer- 
ney been alive at the present day, he would 
not perhaps have failed to institute a com- 
parison between this “emasculated tongue,” 
as he was pleased to call it, and the dialects 
int ay: among the South Sea Islanders. We 
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