1801. | 
to be directed to the hiftory and the per- 
fecting of the fcience of medicine. 
A French journal informs us, that the 
Central Mufeum of the Aris at Paris 
will fhortly receive from Munich 72 paint- 
ings, which had been collected by Neveu- 
Commiffary of the Government. They are 
(fays the journalift) a voluntary gift to the 
French armies, diftinguifhed not lefs by 
bravery than bythe ftrictnefs of difcipline ; 
and are fent in the name of the army of the 
Rhine. The paintings are by different 
German matters, none of whofe works the 
Mufeum before poffeifed. 
M. Guruirt, director of the royal 
pxdagogium at Klofterbergen, has been 
received an honorary member of the Royal 
Berlin Academy of Arts and Sciences. — 
The academy of cloquence and poetry 
in Stockholm will, for the future, beftow 
annually, befides the cuftomary large gold 
medal, a fmaller one of gold and one of 
filver. : 
C. Bertin relates an interefting oc- 
currence which took place two years ago, 
whilft he was employed as phytician to 
his countrymen on board the prifon-fhips 
in Plymouth harbour. Among the great 
number of French prifoners in this place 
there were eight hundred boys. Le Fort, 
colleague to C. Bertin, feeing with pain 
fo many of therifing generationabandoned 
to idlenefs, aud expofed to every kind of 
vice, from being conftantly kept ~ with 
thofe who were older, formed the plan of 
feparating thefe youths, of {electing from 
their fellow-prifoners thofe who were ca- 
pable of inftructing them in navigation, 
mathematics, drawings, &c. and forming a 
well-regulated fchool. ‘This defign was 
carried into execution, affifted by the 
French Commiffary, and the liberal en- 
couragement of the Englifh Infpector ; all 
the lads were put on board the Europa, 
in Plymouth Roads, and the expences of 
this inftitution and the falaries of the dif- 
ferent mafters were defrayed merely by 
facrificng to the laudable objet two 
thirds of the tobacco which, by the terms 
of the contract, was to be allowed to each 
prifoner. Several of the boys, who fhewed 
fome talent for declamation, feemed to 
with to have a little theatre. ‘This was 
granted them, and they eagerly entered 
into this amufement, which ferved them 
to unbend from their more ferious ftu- 
dies. 
Rail ways.—The principle of the rail- 
way is a {mooth road, projeCling from 
which, about an inch or two, and nearly a 
yard afunder, are two perfectly parallel ribs 
continued the whole length oftheroad. Be- 
tween thefe ribs isa path wide enough fora 
fingle horfe; and the wheels of all the carts 
ufed upon the rail-way are fitted with 
grooves to receive the ribs, fo that the 
friction being thus diminilhed, a given 
Literary and Philofophical Intelligence. 
Ul 
547, 
force will draw a greater load on a road 
conftruéted in this manner than in the 
ufual way. The ribs were originally 
made afwood. Iron bars were afterwards 
nailed on the wood: and at prefent the 
whole is conftructed of caft iron. The 
moft perfeé& rail-ways are in Derbyfhire, 
leading from the collieries to the canals ; 
and to Mr. Ourram, of Butterly-hall, 
in the fame county, the principal improve- 
_ ments are owing. Mr. Wilkes, of Meal- 
ham, near Loughborough, having made 
a-new rail-way five mules long, invited a 
committee from the Society of Arts to wit- 
nefs fome experiments that were to be made 
upon it. The defcent of the road was one 
foot ina hundred, and a moderate-fized 
horfe, of the value of about 20l. drew 
unon it with eafe, down hill, thirty-two 
tons, and without much difficulty forty- - 
three tons, and up-hill feveri tons, inde- 
pendently of the carriages. Such a fact 
as this {peaks for itfelf. 
Profefor Link, of Roftock, in his late 
Travels, under the title of Remarkable Tour 
threugh France, Spain, and Portugal, gives 
‘ ie ? 2ar, 
the following account of the Police of Lif= 
bon: —The farft thing that ftrikes a ftran- 
ger in Lifbon is the badnefs of the police. 
The dirt of the ftreets lies every-where 
heaped up, and in thofe ftreets which are 
not wafhed by the rain forms abfolutée 
hills, and one muft be perfectly acquaint- 
ed with the path to avoid finking in the 
mud. In one of the moft public ftreets 
near the river, towards the Ribera Nova, 
only one fmall path, which winds itfelf 
clofe to the houfes, is paffable. Imagine 
the number of people who are pailing daily 
that way, the galegos, with their heavy 
burdens, who cannot make way for any 
body.—Imagine the carriages alfo drive 
as near the houfes as poffible, that the 
horfes may not go in the deep mud, and 
that, in addition to this, all dirt and nafti- 
nefs of the very worft fort is thrown out 
of the windows on the heads of the people . 
pafling by. ‘The city was formerly light- 
ed, but is not at prelent: as the {hops are 
fhut up very early, there is nothing to en- 
lighten’ the darknefs of the narrow ill- 
paved ftreets. An immenfe number of dogs 
who have no owners but themfelves, at 
the expence of the public, wander about 
like hungry wolves; and, worlie than thefe, 
a number of banditti. ‘The people were 
very much aftonifhed that we had ven- 
tured to come to Portugal by land in fuch 
warfaring times; but I affured them that 
this was by no means fo dangerous an un- 
dertaking as to go by night from Belem to 
Maravilas, at the eaft end of the city. 
How is it poflible, that a people, amongtt 
whom there are doubtlefs many enlight- 
ened men, can fuffer fuch abominable 
practices ! ‘The government is faid to pay 
apnually a confiderable fum for cleaning 
AAS 
