396 Palermo. 



S8. Atomic Weights of Bodies. 



Extract of a letter dated Glasgow, JVovember 2, 1820, from 

 Dr. Thomas Thomson Regius, Professor of Chemistry 

 in the University of Glasgow, ^c. &/-€. to the Editor. 



I have but little scientific news to communicate to yoUo 

 Little is doing at present in chemistry, either in this coun- 

 try, or on the Continent of Europe. I am at present en- 

 gaged in a set of experiments, to determine the true atomic 

 weights of bodies with mathematical accuracy, and I have 

 already made considerable progress. A first paper on the 

 subject has just appeared in the annals for November, a 

 second will appear in the January number. Having this 

 winter a course of clinical lectures to deliver, and being 

 anxious to take the opportunity of investigating more exact- 

 ly than has been done, the state of the urine in various dis- 

 eases, I shall be obliged to interrupt my experiments for 

 the winter, but I shall resume them next May. As soon 

 as I have completed this investigation I shall have it in my 

 power to apply mathematics to chemistry. 



59. Palermo. 



Extract of a letter to the Editor from Mr. William C. 

 Woodbridge, of the American Asylum for the Deaf and 

 Dumb, dated February 25, 1821, Palermo. 



" The University (of Palermo) has a noble unfinished 

 building, a small philosophical apparatus and scarcely any 

 chemical. There are thirty schools, where lectures are de- 

 livered on every branch of science, and about five hundred 

 students who attend gratis. The professors are supported 

 by the funds now much reduced, and by government. At 

 the Royal Palace is the observatory, under the direction of 

 Professor Cacciatore, a scholar of Piazzi. It contains sev- 

 eral very fine instruments, particularly a circle for the ob- 

 servation of altitudes, which is said to be unique. It was 

 made by Ramsden and presented by him to the University 

 when Piazzi was the Professor. It is said to have cost him 

 two years labour. It seems to be about three feet in di- 

 ameter and revolves horisontally in an iron frame, fixed on 



