VOL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 6}Q 



it should keep in the glass : that done, you are to pour oil, or quicksilver, which 

 is better, into the circular groove aa, so as to make it about half full. Then 

 you are to let down the piece into the preserving liquor ; and when it is entirely 

 sunk down, the cover c ought to light upon the glass, and its circular border bb, 

 enter into the circular groove aa, where it falls into the oil or quicksilver, which 

 rises up and fills the whole groove ; by which means the glass is in some mea- 

 sure hermetically sealed. The oil indeed permits some small evaporation ; the 

 quicksilver more completely answers the end of this invention. 



As he had contrived this glass for his own private use, he neglected making it 

 public ; till, happening to be present at the public meeting of the Academy of 

 Sciences of Paris, at Easter 1746, he heard M. de Reaumur read a memoir on 

 this subject. His own glass seemed to him vastly preferable to the vessels pro- 

 posed by that great academician. This incident roused his emulation, and gave 

 him the better opinion of his glass, a pattern of which he sent to M. Morand, 

 The same motive engaged him to send this description to the Royal Society.* 



Astronomical Observations made in Paraguay. By J. de Castro Sarmento, M.D. 



From the Latin. N°491, p. 8. 



An eclipse of the moon took place Feb. 24, 1747, but the sky was so cloudy 

 that very little of it could be observed besides the end, which happened at 15'" 

 16"" 4% at the town of St. Angelus, in lat. 28° 17' south, and 323° 30' longit. 

 from the Ferro Isle. 



Another lunar eclipse was observed Aug. I9, 1747, at the town of St. Mary 

 the Greater, in lat. 27° 3l' south, and 322° 40' longit. from the Ferro Isle. 



The penumbra was sensible, at 14*' 44"* ; beginning of the eclipse was at 14'^ 

 55"" 44^ 6 digits obscured at IS*' 24"^ 6'; the total obscuration at IS*" 53" l6»{ 

 beginning of emersion l?"" 34"" 48'; 6 digits emerged IS"" 3"" 30% 



• In using the bottle, M. le Cat found it was attended with one inconvenience. The circular 

 groove, the edge of which was turned up on the inside of the bottle, retained a «mall (juantity of the 

 water, when he emptied and rinsed it; so that it was impossible to do it thoroughly. He therefore 

 caused the vessel to be made, as represented in fig. 10, which is a section of it; and where it ap- 

 pears that the groove a a is placed on the outside of the edge of the bottle. By this means every drop 

 of the contained fluid can be poured out. It is easy to see that the circular border bb of the cover is 

 to enter into these grooves a a, which are filled with oil or quicksilver; and that the hook c, of the 

 same cover, is to suspend in the liquor such pieces as are to be preserved in it.^ — Orig, 



Mr. Carlisle's method of closing the openings of wide-mouthed vessels (for preserving anatomical 

 preparations, &c.) is to have a glass jar with a groove -J an inch deep round the outside of the top or 

 mouth, and a glass lid, like that used by confectioners in their show-glasses. The lid fitting closely 

 into the groove is rendered air-tight by hog's-lard, a substance which he finds never becomes quite 

 iluid at the highest temperature of this climate, and is always soft enough in the cold season to admit 

 of removing the lid or top. See the 6th volume of Nicholson's Journal of Nat. Phil. 



4 K 2 



