74 iilerary inlelligence. "July 1 7. 



by means of the chrystalized caustic alkali, freezes mercury 

 by the pound, nay in mafses of eight or twelve pounds at a 

 time, in an iron pot in a warm room, heated to twelve de- 

 grees above the freezing point of Reaumeur, and produced 

 thirty-six in his frigorific mixture below it. I cite here the 

 particulars of his experiment in the imperial academy. 

 He has never yet been, able to freeze highly rectified 

 spirit of wine, although he produced forty degrees of cold, 

 aided by eighteen and a half natural cold, no more than 

 his predecefsor in these experiments mentioned above ; a 

 fact that would have staggered the belief of natural phi- 

 losophy some years ago, when mercury was universally pre- 

 ferred for ascertaining the cold of the most northern coun- 

 tries, in perfect confidence that it was the most tenacious 

 fluid of the two, with regard to its retention of heat. How- 

 ever, Dr Pallas and the other academicians who attended 

 the experiments already mentioned in 1785, immediately 

 gave up as fallacious, all their observations made in very 

 high latitudes with mercurial thermometers, on seeing it 

 freeze at thirty- two, and then cease to be a measurer of 

 cold, as is literally the case. However, fortunately spirit 

 of wine still remains fluid, and perfectly answers that 

 purpose, in the greatest cold yet produced by all the re- 

 finement of physlcks 5 Indeed Its resisting such an Incon- 

 ceiveable degree of cold as forty degrees of Reaumeur 

 below the freezing point, efjual to fifty-eight and one third 

 below o of Fahrenheit, is rather a discovery of curiosity 

 than use, as probably no animated being could live even in 

 ihirty-six ; for we know that with a cold of thirty-four, all 

 nature seems to be threatened with destruction, whether 

 animal or vegetable ; birds fall down dead ; trees are rent 

 with It : nay even the joists and beams of houses, make 

 explosions as If blown up with gun powder, to the ter- 

 jTor c'f the inhabitants, who dare not fliow their faces to 



