4799-1 
« fear of change’ obtaining among the 
powers of the earth at the prefent crifis! 
"The Empercr of Ruffia follows the /up- 
rejing policy with moft zeal; and in his 
‘diflike of every thing foreign, he only ap- 
pears to diftinguifh French manners and 
productions with his peculiar averfion. 
The invention of /ferzoiypes (folid types) 
by the Parifian printers Didot and Her- 
han, is thought a great improvement. 
Thefe types, inftead of being detached 
characters, like the common, jorm a fin- 
gle folid mafs for each page, which being 
incapable of derangement, fixes for ever 
the purity of the text. As all the types 
of a werk may be thus preferved, it is 
not necefiary to take off a greater number 
ef copies than are wanted at a time, 
whence «the great faving ‘of paper refults. 
It does not clearly appear how this vaft 
multiplication of typc can. be made eco- 
nomical on the whole, unlefs it were in 
printing books of common and perpetual 
demand; yet it feems, from the lift of 
prices given, that the fereotype editions, 
befides being more. correct than others, 
are fold almoft twice as cheap. ‘Thefe 
printers likewife fell on very moderate 
terms the ftereotype -plat:s of all the 
works they print; by which means any 
perfon with a common printing prefs is 
enabled to take off as many copies as he 
pleales. 
The naturalits Braguiere and Ofwier, 
who were fent by the French government 
in £793 to examine and collect objects of 
natural hiftory in Turkey, Lefler Afia, 
Perfia, Syria, 8c. after a five years’ ab- 
fence returned to Furope, and landed at 
Ancona, where Bruguiére died. His 
colleagne diipatched tor France the trea- 
fures collected by them, which are repre- 
fented as very rich, in feeds, fruits, 
drugs, plants, quadrupeds, infects, rep- 
tiles, &c. = 
The Royal Danifh Society of the 
Sciences has offered a prize medallion. of 
the value of 20]. for the beft anfwer to 
each of the following queitions, to be 
traniimitted to the fecretary of the fociety, 
Dry. Abildgaard, at Copenhagen, before 
the laft of June, 1799: 
1. In Hiffory: What nation has difcovered 
and circumnavigated America at an earlier 
peried than the Norwegians? How far have 
the-difcoverics of the Norwegians been ex- 
tended there, particularly towards the fouth ? 
The proofs and arguments mu‘ be derived 
pattly from authors, partly from monuments, 
for initance, works of fortification, build- 
ings, languages, or traditions, which are ftill 
extant in America. 
2. ‘In Mathematics: To afcertain the actual 
*Monrury Mag. No. xt. 
Foreign Literary Intelligence: 
57 
quantity and effect of every combuftible fub- 
ftance, or fpecies of fuel, which is ufed in do- 
mettic life, whether wood, or turf, or fea-coal« 
3. In Phyfics: To demonftrate by experi- 
ment the higheft degree of heat which can 
be communicated to becdies by means of 
fteam; and whether that. portion of the 
water, in Papin’s Digefter, which is notin a 
vaporific ftate, can acquire 2 higher-degree of 
heat than 212% of Fahrenheit ? 
4. In Philofophy : Which are the mof ree 
markable progreifive fteps, which praCtical 
philofophy has made fince the time it was re~ 
duced to fyftematic form >? 
The Royal Academy of the Sciences 
at Berlin has propoted the following cu-~ 
rious queftion in the department of Belles 
Lettres forthe year 1800: . j 
On the Goths and Gothic tafle, w Gothiafms 
t. Had the ancient Goths, who were a di- 
ftingujfhed nation, any thing peculiar which 
was not common to thofe who had attacked 
the finking Roman empire, whether in their 
conftitution, laws, manners, cuftoms, or it 
literature and the arts? Have the expref- 
fions ¢ Gothic’ and ‘ Gothicifm’ any other 
meaning but that given them in later times, 
to mark thereby in a general manner the ftate 
of the arts and fciences fince the downfall of 
the Roman empire, and curing the middle 
ages? And 3, if the lat conjecture te 
founded, when were the before-mentioned 
expreffions more generally ufed in that fenfe ? 
The patriotic Society for the Promo- 
tion of native Induftry at Nurnburg, 
on their laft public meeting, May 2r1ft, 
propofed a queftion, which does them in- 
finite credit: : 
Which are the moft efe&tual means of 
‘checking the hurtful predileGtion in the in- 
babitants of fmall towns, particularly in the 
free Imperial towns of Germany, for foreign 
produGtions and mannfattures3 and on thé 
other hand of imprefiing them with a more 
favourable tafte for domeftic productions, 
without the intervention of coercive ‘laws, or 
the limitation of a free trade. 
Mr. WaGnNirz, of Halle, (a German 
Howard) has for feveral years been eran 
ployed in colleSting materials for a Corm~ 
plete Hiftory of FPrifons, and thew manage- 
ment in ancient and mocern times; & 
work which the ingenious and philan- 
thropic author is now preparing for the 
prefs. He folicits alt literary men, parti+ 
cularly lawyers, to fupply him with the - 
minutes of remarkable trials which may 
throw a light upon the fubje&t of prifons 
as well as on the ftate of mind of pri+ 
{oners, according to the different methods 
and places of confinement. The fame 
author propoies fhortly to publith a con 
tinuation of his ‘¢ Hilorical Accounts end 
Remarks on-ibe prin:ipal Heoufes of Core 
retiion in Germany,” 
As 
