22 Additional Notes. 



so a zigzag line made on white paper by a black-lead pencil, which 

 communicates with the surface of the mercury in the barometer, as 

 the paper itself is made constantly to move laterally by a clock, and 

 daily to descend through the space necessary, has ingeniously pro- 

 duced a most accurate visible account of the rise and fall of the 

 mercury in the barometer every hour in the year. 



Mr. Grey's Memoria Technica was designed as an artificial lan- 

 guage to remember numbers, as of the eras, or dates of history. 

 This was done by substituting one consonant and one vowel for each 

 figure of the ten cyphers used in arithmetic, and by composing words 

 of these letters; which words Mr. Grey makes into hexameter verses, 

 and produces an audible jargon, which is to be committed to memory, 

 and occasionally analysed into numbers \vhen required. An ingenious 

 French botanist, Monsieur Bergeret, has proposed to apply this idea 

 of Mr. Grey to a botanical nomenclature, by making the name of 

 each plant to consist of letters, which, when analysed, were to signify 

 the number of the class, order, genus, and species, with a description 

 also of some particular part of the plant, which was designed to be 

 both an audible and visible language. 



Bishop Wilkins in his elaborate " Essay towards a Real Character 

 and a Philosophical Language," has endeavoured to produce, with the 

 greatest simplicity, and accuracy, and conciseness, an universal lan- 

 guage both to be written and spoken, for the purpose of the commu- 

 nication of all our ideas with greater exactness and less labour than is 

 done in common languages, as they are now spoken and written. 

 But we have to lament that the progress of general science is yet too 

 limited both for his purpose, and for that even of a nomenclature for 

 botany; and that the science of grammar, and even the number and 

 manner of the pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet, are not 

 yet determined with such accuracy as would be necessary to constitute 

 Bishop Wilkins's grand design of an universal language, which might 

 facilitate the acquirement of knowledge, and thus add to the power 

 and happiness of mankind. 



