VOL. WX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. dOf 



It is evident, that when the wires of a battery are not in close contact, there 

 must be some loss of force in the discharge ; but this never appeared to be very 

 considerable. To ascertain it by experiment, he first found, by repeated trials, 

 what length of a piece of iron wire he was able to melt with a battery consisting 

 of 20 jars, with the wires and connecting rods quite loose, and a chain to 

 join the rods belonging to each row of jars, which is the manner in which he had 

 generally constructed them. In these circumstances, he found the battery was 

 able to melt something more than 2 inches and a half of the wire. He then 

 soldered the wires of each jar to the rod which connected them, and also 

 soldered another rod to all these, instead of the chain which he had used; so 

 that he avoided near lOO sparks in the discharge, at each of which there must 

 have been some loss of force; but he did not find, after many trials, that the 

 strength of the battery had been thus sensibly diminished: for he could not 

 melt 3 inches of the same piece of wire in these circumstances. It was only 

 made red hot, which is equivalent to the melting and exploding of little more 

 than 2 inches and a half. 



X/. Account of an Earthquake at Macao, and a short Description of a singular 

 Species of Monkeys without Tails, found in the Interior Part of Bengal.* 

 By Stephen De Fisme, Esq. at Canton, in China, p. 71. 



The following account of an earthquake, at Macao, was sent to Mr. D. from 

 that place, in a letter, dated Nov. 23, 1767, viz. " Last night, at 50 minutes 

 after Q o'clock, we were all surprized with a heavy shock of an earthquake 

 which continued above a minute. This shock was so great that the house 

 rocked, and I was afraid we were all going down into the bowels of the earth. 

 Another shock we felt 5 minutes after 11 o'clock, but not so great: and at 3 

 this morning another pretty great. In all we have had 5 shocks, but the first 

 the greatest. It came with a rolling, and a dreadful noise in the air; so that 

 at first some people thought it to be the firing of guns, or thunder at some 

 distance. At the first shock I could hardly hold my feet ; but, thank God, no 

 bad accident has happened. The wind was northerly, but faint, and it was 

 sultry hot; the sky close and cloudy, and not a star to be seen. The oldest 

 people here say, they never remember to have felt so violent a shock, and of so 

 long continuance. The ships in the harbour shook and whirled about, and 

 those on board imagined at first that it had been a whirlwind." — At Manilla 

 earthquakes are often very violent, so as to overturn steeples, houses, and other 

 buildings; and I observed, when I was there, that, to prevent such accidents, 



* The species of ape here mentioned by Mr. De Visme is the Simia Lar, once described by 

 Linnaeus ander the name of Homo Lar. It is figured in Miller's plates of Natural History, pi. 27* 



