Ij8 On the Preparation, Culture, and Use 



rerum naturas ex vere existentihuscausis derivare — in horo- 

 lo2;iis automatis idem indicis horarii motas vel ab appeiiso 

 poadcre vel ab intus coiicluso elatere oriri potest. Quod 

 si ohlatum horologium revcra sit instructum pondere ; 

 vidcbilur qui fingit elatcrcm, ct ex hypothesi sic praepro- 

 pere conficta, motuni indicis cxplicare suscipict." 



In what I have stated above, I have, perhaps presump- 

 tuously towards better philosophers and wiser men than 

 myself, perhaps from inexperience in the present advanced 

 state of science, ventured to express a wish that a course 

 of experiments were instituted to investigate the nature and 

 operations of this ether, a principle known to exist ; how 

 •far and in what manner it acts ; how, if at all, it operates, 

 by its compressed elasticity, in becoming a cooperat'mg or 

 an efficient cause to gravity and attraction ; how far and in 

 what manner it may, bv its active movement and its vibra- 

 tions, cooperate with or be a cause to the phsenomena of 

 heat, light, electricity, and all the attractions of natural 

 or cliemical affinity, and of the various interchanges therein : 

 and how far, and in what manner, in animal sensations 

 and motion ; how far, and in company with what pow er, 

 it may give to mao;netism a polar course. I have ventured, 

 perhaps hazarding my prudence, to recall the study of phi- 

 losophy to these pursuits in the very line which Sir Isaac 

 Newton so long ago marked out — but v.hich yet, from 

 some suspended doubts about this ether and its existence, 

 have been, as seems to me, neglected and passed by. 



XXVI. On the Preparation, Culture, and Use of the Orchis 

 Root. By J. Phkcival, M. D.* 



OALHP is a preparation of the root of Orchis, or Dog- 

 stones, of which many species are enumerated by botanical 

 writers. The Orchis mascula Linn. Sp.pl. is the most valued, 

 . althousih the roots of some of the palmated sorts, particu- 

 larly of tiie Orchis latlj'olla, arc found to answer almost 

 ■equally w-cll. This plant flourishes in various parts of 

 turope and Asia, and grows in our country spontaneously, 

 and in great abundance. It is assiduously cultivated in the 

 East ; and the root of it forms a considerable part of the 

 diet of the inhabitants of Turkey, Persia, and Syria. A 

 dry and not very fertile soil is best adapted to its growth. 

 An ingenious friend of mine, in order to collect the seed, 



* From Hunter's Georgic.4 Essays. 



trans- 



