358 Miscellanies. 
it may be inferred that there has been no material change since the 
origin of mankind.—Rev. Ency. Jan. 
13. New Machine.—At the meeting of the French Academy held 
Jan. 9th, 1832, M. Cagniard Latour gave a description of a new 
machine of his invention which he calls a hydraulic volcano. The 
principal piece consists of a bundle of tubes, of a calibre so small 
that the liquids and gas which are simultaneously introduced may re- 
main mixed during their circulation, and form an intermittent cqjumn 
analogous to that of several machines already known, such as the 
pump of Seville, the fountain of circulation, and the mercurial pneu- 
matic screw of Cagniard which is described in a report made in 1809 
to the Academy by Carnot. ; 
The water of a reservoir may be raised in a very simple manner 
by this machine, provided there is at hand a very small current of 
air nearly insoluble in water, for example a current of compressed 
atmospheric air. The lower part of the capillary stock is to be de- 
pressed to a certain depth in the water, and under this the gaseous 
current is to be introduced, by means of a tube conveniently adjust- 
ed. A mixed column of air and water immediately rises in each 
tube, which, if the proportion of gas is large enough, is lighter than 
the column of the reservoir which presses it upwards. Hence there 
is a constant ascensional movement, and from the top of each tube 
there will be a flow of air mixed with water.—Idem. 
At a subsequent meeting of the Academy, MM. Sarrut, professor 
of science at Strasburgh, announced that in the course of physique 
which he had given at Perpignan from 1827 to 1830 he had deseri- 
bed an apparatus similar to that of Cagniard. It had been applied 
to mesh tubs in such a manner as to raise again to the top the ley 
which flows from an inferior opening, and spread it over the linen. In- 
stead of a current of air, a stream of vapor was used from a small 
vessel of boiling water, which communicated with the ascending canal 
by a bent tube. 
14. Large Achromatic Telescopes of M. Cauchotx.—M. Cau- 
choix, a distinguished optician of Paris, having sold a year or two 
since to Sir James South, an instrument with an object glass of elev- 
en inches (french) aperture, and for which a gold prize medal was 
adjudged at the exhibition of the Louvre of 1823, has just delivered 
