390 Foreign Literature and Stience. 
49. The head of Descartes, the celebrated philosopher, 
was presented to the French Tastitute at Paris, onthe 30th 
of April last, by Cuyier, one of the perpetual sectetaries. 
It was.sent from Sweden by Professor Berzelius.. 
50. Currents of the Atlantic.—A bottle was thrown into 
the sea from the Ospray, a British vessel, on the 28th of 
March, 1820, in Jat. 5° 12’ S. lon. 28° W. (that is, on the 
N. W. of the Island of Ascension,) and found ten months 
after on the shore of Martinique, in Jat. 14° 23’ N. lon, 65° 
13' W. Making all reasonable allowances for the sinuosities 
of its track, it must have moved at the probable rate of 150 
toises per hour, or about 54 feet per minute. It results 
from this that beyond the equator, at least as far as 5° 12'S. 
and at the turn of the equinox, the great current of the At- 
lantic sets north, and that the great bay of Mexico receives 
the waters of the ocean not only from westerly currents on 
its.own parallel, but from the south of the equator. This 
shows how and by what means the plants of Congo in Afri¢a, 
are found reproductive in the flora of the American Archi- 
: pelago, and how they are still transported into these Islands. 
51. Medical Quackery.—The_ police of Paris, ‘from’ a 
conviction of the mischief and damages resulting from the 
secret. remedies of Charletans, have revived and enforced 
the law which prohibits the editors of journals and papers, 
from pulsing the advertisements of quacks and pretenders. 
52, Pepper.—The analysis of black, pepper, ‘(piper ni- 
grum,) has been recently made by Pelletier of Paris, appa- 
rently, with much care and judgment. The results are, ~ 
Ist, That the common pepper is composed of a peculiar 
crystalline matter, which he calls piperin—of a conerete and 
very acid oil—of a volatile balsamic oil—of a coloured gum- 
my substance—of an extractive principle analagous to that 
of leguminous plants—of malic and tartaric acids—of starch— 
of Bassorine—of ligneous matter—and of earthy and alca- 
line. salts, in small quantity, 
2d, ‘That there is no vegetable alcali in pepper, notwith- 
standing ‘the assertion of M. Olrstaidt. 
3d,. That the crystaline substance of pepper is of a pe- 
euliar nature. 
Ath, That pepper owesits savour to an oil slightly volatile. 
