Foreign Literature and Science. 347 
‘books of one hundred and fifty killogramms each, are annu- 
ally imported into Milan from France, Switzerland and 
England; and without including the books which come 
from Germany, and especially from the Austrian states, and 
this commerce is principally in the way of exchange. The 
number of books published in Lombardy alone in the year 
1819, amounted in value to more than one million and forty 
thousand dollars.—Idem. : | pics * 
B. Braconnot has succeeded in converting by means of 
sulphuric acid, various ligneous substances, such as saw 
dust, linen rags, hempen tow, &c. into gum and _ sugar. 
‘The foundation of a new school for the fine arts has been 
id in Paris, in the place where the museum of French 
monuments has been kept. oisin patil on i eR 
~The canal of Alexandria in Egypt is prosecuted with vig 
our. Mines of lead and iron have been lately discovered 
im upper Egypt. 
A steam boat has been constructed to run between Stock- 
holm and St. Petersburg. The passage, which has hereto- 
fore been tedious and -uneertain, can now be effected in 
sixty hours. : eC 
The population of Sweden has increased in three years, 
viz. 1816, 17 and 18, by seventy-two thousand three hun- 
