1797] 
Blaze, to whom their traditions afcribe 
the beneficial invention of the wool- 
comb. : 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
STR 4 
I BEG leave to trouble you with a few 
lines refpeCting fome *errata in the 
i eres é Z 
little effay of mine, on the different ftyles 
of ancient and modern muiic, inferted in 
your Supplement, which, it feems, in™ 
order to bring into the limited compsafs 
you had allotted for it, you have in fome 
degree abridyed. \ 
In the firit place, in page 982, col. 1, 
line 12, the word “ neverthelefs,’’ feems 
unaccountably, and moft unmeaningly 
foifted in. On looking at the original 
MS. I find that’ word to be part of a 
-parenthefis, the reft of which you have 
Correétion of Mufical Paper....National Inftitute. 
126 
omitted, and, doubtlefs, meant to obli- 
terate that word alfo from the MS. which 
the printer has unluckily inferted. 
There is only one other material error, 
which itis now worth while to mention, 
viz. in page 936, col. 1, lines 9 and 11, 
where the adverbs, fmply, plainly, in- 
tricatély, and complicatedly,” are put, with 
out any verb to fupport them ; inftéad of 
which, the adjeétives ‘‘ ple, plain, 
intricate, and cymplicated,’” ought to have 
been ufed. ‘This is alfo owing to.abbre- 
viation ; as, in the MS. the paffage ftood 
thus: ‘¢ in being neither fo very fimply 
and plainly compofed as to be likely foon 
to pall, 8c. nor yet of fo intricate and 
complicated a zature as to require hear- 
ing a number of times,” &c. 
1 am, fir, your obedient fervant, 
Feb, 13, 1797: J.M. 

PROCEEDING S 
OF THE 
FOURTH QUARTERLY SITTING or rHzE NATIONAL INSTITUTE 
OF ARTS anp SCIENCES, in FRANCE, 
Held on the isth of Nivofe, or the 5th of January, .1797« 
[For Accounts of the Three former Sittings, and of the Plan, and of the Names of the Members, of 
this Effalli/hment, fee Numbers 11, VIL, and X, of the MontHLY MacazinE.] 
pce was prefident of the fitting. 
The fecretaries read the memoirs of 
the laft quarter, in their feveral claffes : 
MonGez in that of Literature; Pro- 
NEY, in that of Mathematics; Lacr- 
FEDE, in that-of Phyfics; TaALLEY- 
RAND-PERIGORD, in that of Merals 
and Politics. 
He IGE RED R | reads; a. memoir + of 
Chaptal, on the black magnetic fand 
that is ufually found to accompany na- 
tive gold. The fpecimens, which were 
‘the {ubjects of the following experiments, 
were found mixed with gold, in the 
{ands of the-rivers Ceze and Tala, and in 
the vicinity of Barcelona and Nantes. 
This fubftance is not decompofed by 
expoture to the atmofphere, or to water; 
as almoft infoluble in acids, and infufible 
even by a ftream of oxygen gas. It is 
feparated by means of the magnet, from 
the other inatters with which it is mixed. 
it exhibits ‘no tendency to combine 
with fulphur. The diluted fulphuric 
acid has no action upon it: when con- 
centrated, it forms with it a greyifh green 
falt, of a filky texture, with excefs of 

_ *® The editor entreats that his readers, in 
jaftice to the intelligent writer of the effay 
alluded to, will have the goodnefs to make the 
corrections with the pen, 
‘ tate; Pruffic acid, a blue one. 
acid. . Phe ‘nitric seid acts, but very 
feebly upon it, and becomes of an orange 
colour. The muriatic acid firft reduces 
It to powder, of which it afterwards 
diffolves a part, affording, by evaporation, 
prifmatic .cryftals, with a rhomboidal 
bafe. ‘Lhe nitro-muriatic has the fame 
action on this fubftance as the preceding 
acid. The oxygenated miuriatic acid 
{carcely acts on it all. Gallic acid, added 
to the folution, affords a black precipi- 
It is not 
al} affe€ted by the alcalis. When ex- 
pofed to the heat of a forge, its weight is 
augmented one-third. With oxyde of 
arlenic and charcoal, it is fufible into a 
brittle button, of the colour of cobalt. 
When melted with Morveau’s flux, it pre- 
fented a vitreous glafs, containing a few 
globules of malleable iron. With arfeniate 
of pot-afh it forms a grey metallic button, 
{carcely at all fenfible to the magnet, 
and grearly refembling platina. Hence 
Chaptal concludes, that this metallic 
fubfiance has feveral properties in com- 
mon with iron and platina, but that, in 
many refpeéts, it differs materially trom 
both of them. 
SEGUIN, an affociated member, com- 
municated the theory of his improved 
- procefs for the quick tanning of fkins. 
Ra ROMIGUERE 





