39 Proceedings of the National Inftitute, 4th of Jat, 1798. Jans 
man ought to attempt fuch a tafk after 
Mr. Hande!.. No ‘one, I believe, ad- 
mires more than mylelt the hitherto un- 
rivalled excellence of that illuftrious Ger- 
man; yet, I have been careful not to fuf- 
ter that admiration to inftil the fear ef be- 
ing loft in the blaze of his tranfcendant 
powers ; nor to thwart the hope of ex- 
hibiting dome faint beams uneclipfed by 
his {plendor, It was with this emulous 
ipirit that Beaumont and Fletcher, un- 
dazzled by the radiance of ‘ nature’s 
fweeteft child,’ df{pired to his path of 
glory, and 


od 

run 
Their brilliant courfe round Shakefpeare’s 
golden fun. 
Prompted by the fame fentiment, I 
have been laborious in my art, and my 
productions ia manufcript are voluminous. 
‘Phe day is approaching on which I pro. 
pofe to make my firft appeal to the public 
judgment, 1 am contequently deeply in- 
terefted in the removal of a prejudice 
wluch oppofes every modern effort to en- 
fure applaufe in the fublimer walks of the 
{cience. He who at the moment he is 
preparing a facred compolition for public 
performance, is told bv the advocates for 
the mufic or the aft age, that no naan, 
after Handel, wail ever be qualified te 
compote an oratorio, cannot but féel the 
weight of an opinion {fo detrimental to 
himicH and every future compofer. It 
was therefore my with, through the me- 
dium of your widely-ciwculated publica- 
tion, to foiten the obduracy of this pre- 
judice; and to expatiate on the injurious 
nature of an attachment, which, while 
it obftructs the prefent candidate for re- 
putation, deprives:the public of the nobleft 
efforts of living talent. Let me then hope, 
Sir, that I may induce the friends of an- 
cient harmony to liften with impartiality, 
?fnot with indulgence, to the compoti- 
tions of thofe moderns who revere the old 
majlters, and who endeavour to form their 
ftyle on the fame great balis. 
Tuomas Bussy, 
Vauxball-Road, Faun. 25, 1799. 

ProckEpDINGS at large 
Notice of the Labours of the Clafs of 
Phyfical Sci:nces during the lajt quarterly 
Sitting, by Citizen Lassus, Secretary. 
HE clafs of Phylical Sciences, dur- 
ing the three months which have 
jult elapfed, has heard the reading of 
many memoirs relative to chemittry, na- 
tural hiftory, rural economy, and the art 
of medicine, as applied to men and ani- 
mals. 
Citizen GuYTON, in treating of ano- 
malies.in the concatenation of affni- 
ties, has fhewn that thefe apparent de- 
viations open to chemifts a valt field for 
new difcoveries. He has examined the 
yeafons why there is no combination be- 
tween the azote and the oxigen which exitt 
fo abundantly in the atmofphere, and in 
the ftate of expanfion commonly fo fa- 
vourable to anunicn. He points out the 
means of producing it by the expreffion 
of caloric in an apparatus capable of fup- 
porting nine or ten times the weight of the 
atmofphere. 
The fame chemift has alfo been making 
experiments on the reciprocal decompoit- 
tion of falts at a temperature helow ice, 
a phenomenon the obfervation of which 
becomes fo important in the operation 
and management cf faline fabftances. 
ete dilcovers the caufe of it in ‘the 
the NATIONAL INSTITUTE of 
the 4th of “Fuly, 1798, as publifhed by the Secretaries. 
France, on 
difplacing of the caloric, which be- 
comes a dilaggregative power. Since 
chemifts have directed their refearches to 
the matter of heat, it is well known that 
coal is one of the weakeft conduétors of 
it. Citizen GUYTON has demonttrated 
by pyrometrical experiments, that a fub- 
{tance incloled in coals, only receiyes at 
the fame fire two-thirds of the heat of a 
fimilar {ubftance placed in iilicious fand, 
‘Yhe-conlequences to be drawn from this 
fact, may ferve to rectify the proceffes of 
reduction and fution employed to the pre- 
fent time. 
Many chemical operations have been 
hitherto interrupted for want of a power 
to augment the intenfity of the fire. The 
application of an hydraulic principle to 
the conitrudtion ef Macquer’s furnace, 
has enabled Citizen GuyTon to carry 
heat to fuch a point, that a crucible ef 
platina was beginning to enter - into 
tufion; a circumitance not obferved be- 
fore. 
We have had occafion to remark, in the 
preceding fitting, that the colouring mat- 
ter of the emerald of Peru is not iron, as 
KLAPROTH, a Pruffian chemift, had an- 
nounced,* but rather the oxide of a new 
metal diicovered by Citizen Vaueur- 
LIN, in the red lead of Siberia, The laf 
analyfes . 
ie 
