334 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANN'GlSgS. 



to have the same effect, as on my own ; though I used sucli force as at last to 

 break it in two. I intend therefore to try it at a cutler's wheel, laid with emery 

 and oil ; and likewise on a grindstone, both wet and dry ; and I rather choose 

 the grindstone, because the other wheel may be supposed to have much iron 

 worn into it from the many knives that have been ground on it, and so the 

 effect if produced will prove no more than that of iiling with, or drilling in iron. 

 And the wet grindstone, though it want heat to give a new polarity, yet 

 probably it may wear off those parts of the iron in which the old did inhere, and 

 so render it simple again. 



As to the 4th, whether brass or copper will, as well as iron, give a north po- 

 larity to a drill ; this cannot well be tried ; since the very making, if it be well 

 hardened, will certainly give it. Wherefore the drill Mr. Hunt made could 

 not, if well hardened, according to what I can find, be indifl^erent to either 

 pole. 



As to the conclusions, first, that a drill is naturally a north pole, I suppose 

 may be true, but it is contrary directly to what is just affirmed, viz. that the 

 drill made by Mr. Hunt was indiffx^rent to either pole, &c. And I suppose 

 that bare drilling might be able to give a polarity to a drill, if it could be made 

 indifi^erent, as well as filing does, if the drill be used so briskly as to be made 

 as hot as the file makes the iron. Secondly, That though a south pole given 

 by the magnet cannot be taken off by the heat of a brisk motion, as that of 

 drilling; which yet the experiment of my knife seems to be contradicted; yet 

 perhaps the heat may be great enough to produce a polarity in an indifferent 

 piece of iron; as was before said to be done, in little indifferent drill-like pieces 

 of steel, by filing. 



On some Indian Manuscripts, lately sent to the University of Oxford. By the 

 Rev. Geo. Lewis, from Fort St. George. N° 246, p. 421. 



Herewith I send some Indian manuscripts, which are in several languages 

 and different characters. There will arrive by the King William, 3 volumes of 

 Chinese books, stamped on wood, which is their boasted way of prmting ; of 

 such, you may have any quantity, books being very plenteous in China. 



On comparison, it appeared, by a sample or specimen of the leaves and fruit 

 of the Ampana Hort. Mai. Tom. 1, p. 13, fig. 10, or Palma Malabarica, flos- 

 culis stellatis, fructu longo squammato D. syen. ib. or Pa4ma Coccifera folio 

 plicatili liabelliformi major. Ampana H. M. Raii Hist. p. J 366, shown to the 

 society by Mr. James Petiver, one of their members, that the several leaves of 

 these books were made of the leaves of this palm, written on with a style. 



