664 . PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 174^. 



Our author is of opinion, that this, as well as some other distempers to which 

 Europeans are liable at first, or soon after their arrival at Carthagena, and other 

 places under the same circumstances, should be considered as arising from the 

 great alteration that happens in their constitutions there: and this change, which 

 from the climate is soon brought about, makes them suffer this and other dis- 

 tempers, which either destroy them, or generate in them a disposition to bear 

 the heats ; after which, being as it were naturalized, they enjoy the same share 

 of health with the natives. 



Our author remarks, that at Carthagena, when the ships from Spain fail in 

 their arrival, the European productions are sometimes quite expended : these 

 more particularly are wine, oil, and raisins. When this is the case with regard 

 to wine, the people there suffer much in their health ; as every body, except the 

 negroes, and those who use brandy, accustom themselves to drink it with their 

 food. From the want of this, their stomachs fail, they grow sick, and this 

 sickness becomes general. This want of wine happened when our author ar- 

 rived at Carthagena, and the sickness in consequence was so general in that city, 

 that mass was celebrated only in one of their churches. 



The Declination of some Southern Stars of the \st and 2nd Magnitude, in June 

 1738; and the Method of Finding the Hour of the Night at Sea, by Observing 

 the Southern Cross. By Mans, de la Condamine* F.R.S., and of the Royal 

 Acad, of Sciences of Paris. N° 492, p. ISQ. From the Latin. 



In the ship Argo a Canopus 52° 34' 1 6'' 



In the west arm of the cross, y 57 17 32 



^, in the foot of the cross 61 38 57 



£, in the top of the cross 58 15 5 



y, the western foot of the Centaur 59 5 35 



a, the following foot of the Centaur. 59 44 56 



The southern cross, when in the meridian appears upright, or perpendicular 

 to the horizon ; and therefore may serve mariners to discover the hour without 

 sensible error, as follows : from the table of mediation of the first point of Aries, in 

 the Connoissances des Temps, the true hour of the night will be easily obtained, 



• Charles Marie de la Condamine was born at Paris, Jan. 1701, and was admitted an academi- 

 cian in 1730. In 1731, lie travelled into the Levant; an account of which tour was published by 

 his valet, without his consent, in 1734. It was he who first proposed terminating the disputes 

 about the figure of the earth by measuring a degree near the equator, and he was sent, in 1736, as 

 one of the principal agents in that expedition, in which he suffered extreme hardships. In 176O, 

 he was received in the French academy, and he contributed much to the last edition of their dictionary. 

 Besides several separate publications, as the travels in South America, and the measure of the first 

 three degrees of the meridian, &c. he communicated very numerous memoirs to the academy of 

 sciences, and to the French academy, &c ; and he died in December 1773, near 73 years of age. 



