i ’ 98] 
period the number of works of this def- 
cription has amazingly increafed. Swe- 
den boafts two academies of fciences, the 
one eftablifhed at Stockholm, the other at 
Upfal. There “is, likewife, a patriotic 
. feiety of Agriculture; another fociety Pro. 
Fide et Ohriftiami/mo; another for Phy fic 
and’ Natural Hiftory, at Lund ;:a fociety 
of Fine Arts and Sciences at Gothenburg; 
another fociety bears the dencmination 
of Uiile Dulci; and lafily, there is the Swe- 
dith Royal Academy, founded in 1786. 
The principal objeét of this latter fociety 
is to purify and perfect the Swedith lan- 
guage. It Ikewife caufes a medal to be 
ftriick regularly every year for fome illuf- 
tricus Swede. Of all thefe various fo- 
cieties, the two firft named are the only 
enes which publith periodical Memoirs 
of their tranfactions. 
RussrA, with refpe& tothe fciences and 
polite arts, has made aftonifhing progrefs 
within thefe few years. Catharine I] created 
a particular commitlion to fuperintend and 
dire&t the {chools, fettle the method of 
tu'tion, and to take particular care to form 
good, inftruétions. Since, this’ arrange- 
ment, three diiferent f{chools are eftablifhed 
in each government; an inferior {chool, 
in which reading, writing, and arithme- 
tic, are taught 5 an upper’ fchool, or col- 
lege, in which written exercifes are com- 
poled, geography, national hiftory, &c. 
taught ; an univerfity, where all fpecies of 
knowledge may be acquired. There ere 
at prefent univeriities at St. Peterfburg, 
Moicow, and Kiov; and the moft cele+ 
brated colleges are at St. Pererfburg, 
Mofcow, Kaffan, Riga, and Revel. The 
college of Mittaw is about to be changed 
into an univerfitv. Several academies, 
and aflemblies of learned men, arduouily 
co-operate im diffeminatiag. fcientific ‘in- 
telligence., ‘Thefe are. attached to, the 
Imperial Academy of Sciences at Peterf{: 
burg, the Academy, of the Ruffian Lan- 
guage, the Academy of Arts, the Econo- 
mical Society at Peterfburgh, &c. Cae 
tharine IL fent to the German univerfi- 
ties. foch young -perfons as manifefted 
happy. difpofitions for learning. She alfo 
invited to Ruffia foreigners who were 
eminént for theit-erudition, She has, in 
fact, fo. judicioufly difpofed of things, 
that ‘all branches ‘of the {ciences are cul- 
tivated by the, Ruffians,,. The whole 
number of Ruffian publications, including 
iome ears Cite, ‘however, four 
years ego, amount to more than 4000 vo- 
lumes ; the fifth part-of thefe works treat- .. 
ing of politics, ecdngmics, morals, hiftory, 
and geography. Pia. ie le ls 
cy 413 
SS oh 
. : 
oo” 
~ 
* 
Scientific News.--Riffian.Araneology. 
$3 
AranEotocy. It is well known, 
that many animals are influenced by natu-: 
ral electricity, and extremely .{afceptidle, 
of every variation of the atmofphere. 
Of thefe, none are more affeéted than the 
garden-{pider. .To M. Quatrenier Vit 
gonval, aid-de-camp general of the French 
and Batavian army, the, world are in- 
debted for the important: difcovery of. 
being able to rely on garden-{piders, with 
as much, if not more confidence, than on 
the catgut or mercurial barometers. The 
garden-fpider, according to bis obferva- 
tions, have two ways of working, accord- 
ing to prevailing, or rather future, wea- 
ther. If the weather is to be rainy, or 
even windy, they attach fparingly their 
principal threads, which. fofpends their 
whole fabric, and thus they wait .for 
the effect of a temperature; which..1s 
about to be very mutable. Spiders, like 
barometers, poffe{s. not only future, hur a 
more diftant prefentiment than thefe, con- 
cerning what is about to take place in-the 
the atmofphere... A good barometer will 
foretel the weather until the next day; but 
when the fpiders work with long threads, 
there is a certainty of shaving fine weather 
for twelve days, or a fortnight, at leaft ! 
When-they are idle, it denotes: rain or 
wind; when they work. fparingly, it 
prognofticates changeable weather; but 
when they work abundantly, it may be 
regarded as a fure* forerunner of. fine 
weather. As. foon as thefpider is. per- 
ceived inceffanrly renovating the-web, de, 
ftroyed by -the continual ettufions of. rain, 
it not only is a criterion of their being. of 
fhort duration; but alfo denotes a {peedy 
return of» a greater permanence of fine 
weather. We find, at the end of the 
Arapeological Calendar, of M. Quatre- 
mer dufgonval, a declaration, figned by 
the: ftaf® of the French and Batayian 
army, by which:rhefe officers certify, that 
in the month of ' November, 1795, M. 
d’Ifgonval announced to general Pichegru, 
upon the faith of his new difcoveries, that 
.thevenluing. fummer sould fupply him 
with all the means of terminating the 
campaign, and that this bold prediétion, 
ina feafon abounding with fnow and 
hail-ftones, was realized in the commence- 
ment of December, on account of the 
mildnefs of the weather. M. Quatremer 
d'Ifgonval has juft eRablithed araxeories 
in Paris. 
The municipality of Mantua have givea 
a general invitation to artifts to furnith 
the defign of a monument intended to be 
- ere&ted in honour of Virgil, at Petealum, 
the place where, according to tradition, - 
that 
