Inundation of the Tyler. — Mechanics. I'gl 



Cayenne to the National Museum at Paris, and which wa* 

 captured on ks passage by two British privateers, in Sep- 

 tember 1803. It: will comprise upwards of one hundred 

 new plants. 



METHOD IN WHICH SNAILS BREATHE. 



T am ignorant, says Giobert, whether vqu know, that ac- 

 cording to the experiments of Spallanzani, it appears to be 

 proved, that snails absorb oxygen, not only by other organs 

 ihaa the lungs, but also through their shells, and that this 

 absorption continues some time after their death : even 

 when the shell of a snail has been freed from the animal it 

 contained, it seems to continue to absorb oxygen. 



INUNDATION OF THE TVBER. 



A letter from Rome, dated February 21, says, Andrew 

 Vinci, hydraulic engineer, has published the result of his 

 observations on the last inundation of the Tyber ; whence 

 it appears that the waters rose this year forty-two Romait 

 palms above their usual level, and, on the whole, higher 

 than in all the inundations which hav-e before taken place. 

 INIonsignor Naro, president of the department of waters, 

 has ordered tliat an inscription shall be placed on the shore 

 to transmit to posterity the remembrance of this terrible 

 inundation. The greatest remembered was that of the year 

 1750: the one this year exceeded it bv four palms. On 

 the 3] St of January the water covered all the neighbourincr 

 plains, penetrated to all the lower parts of the eity, and in- 

 undated a great portion of them : the Rue de la Cours, the 

 places Navonc and De la Rotondc, the church in the latter, 

 and all the adjacent quarters, were covered with water: in 

 that of the Jew?, the water rose to the first stories. The 

 waters did not retire within their usual bed till the day of 

 ihc Purification of the Virgin. 



MECHANICS. 



M. Rcgnicr, an ingenious mechanist, has invented a me- 

 ridian which may be placed in the window of an apartment. 

 It is so constructed that it may remain exposed to the open 

 air without any covering. It consists of a quadrant fur- 

 nished with a lens, and a plate of brass in the plane of the 

 meridian with a black horse-hair, which when it breaks lets 

 go the catch of a hammer which strikes on a bell. When 

 the faintest ray of the sun appears, the hair crisps and 

 breaks: a ray less brilliant than that which makes the 

 shadow on i sun-dial appear distinctly, is sntlicieut for this 

 purpose, and rlic mechanism is sufficiently strong to strike 

 noun on a lurgu bel!. 



METEOKO- 



