390 Foreign Literature and Science. 
49. The head of Descartes, the celebrated = pe ae eo 
was presented to the French Institute at Paris, on the 
of April last, by Cuvier, one of the —— Serer. 
It was sent from Sweden by Professor Berzeliu 
50. Currents of the Atlantic.—A bottle was thrown into 
the sea from the Ospray, a British eee on the 28th of 
arch, 1820, in lat. 5° 12’ S. lon 8° W. (that is, on the 
N. W. of the Island of Ascension,) ae found ten months 
after on the shore of Martinique, in lat. 14° 23’ N. lon. 65° 
13’ W. Making all reasonable allowances for the sinuosities 
of its track, it must have moved at the probable rate of 150 
toises per hour, or about 54 feet per minute. It results 
st this that beyond the equator, at least as far as 5° 12'S. 
at the turn of the equinox, the great current of the At- 
sath | sets north, and that the great bay of Mexico receives 
the waters of the ocean not only from westerly currents on 
its own parallel, but from the south of the equa 
shows how and by what means the plants of Cones in Attica, 
are found reproductive in the flora of the American Archi- 
pelted, se and how they are are still t transported into these Islands. 
} si. Medical Wuichery. _The police of Paris, frei a 
conviction of the mischief and damages resulting from the 
secret remedies of Charletans, have revived and enforced 
the law which ike ie the editors of Ce and papers, 
from publishing the 1 
: i 
52. Pepper.—The analysis of black epper, (piper ni- 
grum,) has been recently made by o kp of Pa aie 
rently with mach care and judgment. The results are, 
Ist, That the common pepper is composed of a peculiar 
line matter, which he calls piperin—of a conerete and 
ide acid oil—of a volatile balsamic oil—of a coloured gum- 
my substance—of an extractive principle” analagous to that 
f starch— 
of Bassorieh of ligneous matter—and of earthy and alca- 
line ee in small quantity. 
tthere is no Oo alcali in pepper, notwith- 
staidt. 
ding the assertion of 
3d, That the crystaline sithettiien of pepper is of a pe- 
oulara nature. 
, That 
pepper owes its savour to an oil slightly volatile. 
