Account of a Bacchanalian Vafe. 3^)3 



V, S. That the exiPcence cf a daily flux and re^[\x in the 

 atmofphcre has not been hitherto generally admitted, may 

 be in part owing- to the wnnt of frequent obfervations upoa 

 inftrunients with a fuffirient range of fcale. It is, however, 

 more probable, tliat the lunar weeklv flux or reflux, as either 

 prevails, may have the grealeft ftiare in preventing the de- 

 tection of the contrary fenii-diuraal movement; for, at Cal- 

 cutta, where the range of the barometer is at all times in- 

 conliderable (if we may judg-e by one vear's- obf rvalions), 

 and where the weeklv lunar influence can fcarcelv be traced, 

 a manifeft regular daily tide has be^n detected by tlie Jiii- 

 gent obfervations of Francis Balfour, Efq. in 1794, which 

 took place, as follows, during the month called April : — Be- 

 ginning from fix in the morning, the bai»meter rofe for four 

 hpiir-, then fell during eight hours; then rofe four hours, arnl 

 fell eight asain; which took place daily, and., with very little 

 exception, uninterruptedly.— (See the Regifter in the Afiatic 

 J^efearches.) 



VIII. Lef/er from C. H. Tatham, Efq. ArchiteB, con- 

 , ' taming a brief Account of the grand ant'iqjie Bacchana- 

 lian Fafc, late in the Poffejfion of the Right Hon. Lord 



Cawdor, now at IVobujii Abbey. 



SIR, September 15, iSou. 



A HE attention of the amateurs of the fine arts having 

 Oeen lately excited by the fale of Lord Cawdor's noble col- 

 Jciftion of ajitiques, and particularly of the celebrated Bac- 

 chanalian vafe, formerly an objeil univerfally admired in the 

 Lanii Palace at Rome, the following brief account of it may- 

 pot be unacceptable to your readers. 



The forms of all antique vafes, whether bell-fliaped or the 

 tazza, are fuppofed to have been firll taken from the calyx 

 of the lotus ; the latter reprefeniing the plant in a flatter 

 form, as it appears when fully blown, and the former in the 

 more earlv ftage ot inflorefccnce. 



The lotus is a ceii.l)tated water-plant, well known in Upner 



j^ia, which, from its It;ucture, and its reputed quality of 



3 A :3 being 



