1797-] 
Auguftin wifhes to know if it would be 
potlible to refolve ir by means of fome of 
the metheds difcovered fince the inven- 
tion of the differential calculus; and, if 
any geometer, by engaging in fimilar 
refearches, has been able to refolve other 
problems of the fame nature, and to 
find, afrer the method fe thall have pur- 
fued, theories which may accelerate the 
progrefs of higher geometry. Don 
Auguflin thinks he has found out, long 
fince, a method for the folution of the 
faid problem, and of any other of the 
fame nature. This queftion appears to 
him to be not of pure curiofity only ; he 
thinks, on the other hand, it may give 
rife to a great number of fmportant ap- 
plications. Before he publithes it, he 
wifhes to know whatever fhall have been 
done on the fubjeét, in order to fubmit 
afterwards his method, together with the 
different applications he has made of it, 
to the judgment of the learned of Europe. 
His Catholic majefty, anxious. to encou- 
rage thofe of the learned. who may in- 
cline to make a fimilar attempt, has au- 
thorifed the Marquis del Campo, his 
ambaffador at Paris, to offer a premipm- 
of fifty Louis to the perfon who fhall, 
the firft, in the Judgment of the National 
Inftitute of France, prefent rhe folution 
of the announced problem.. The time 
given will be one year, to commence 
from Auguft 1, 1797, to, Auguft 1, 
17983 afcer which term the competition 
will ‘clofe. 
A new capftan, invented by Captain 
Botvon, in the navy, was tried: lately 
on. board the Centaurfhip of war, which 
bids fair to be of the greatef utility to 
the marine of this country. Affifted by 
the powers of this: machine, four men 
weighed the Centaur’s fheet-anchor: 
had all its’ powers been applied, it is 
allowed that two men would have done 
at. There is tittle doubt but one man 
may taife by it the anchor of a 74 gun 
diip. Ufed as a fimple capftan, it is 
greatly fuperior to any common one ; it 
polfefies, ‘moreover, ‘both power and 
velocity, as the powers .can be applied, 
or detached, with wonderful facility. 
Mr.‘ Van-Marum, fuperintendent 
of the Teylerian inftitution at Haarlem, 
has difcévered, that a piece of pholpho- 
rus wrapped in a little cotton, and placed 
under the receiver of an air-pump, in- 
flames f{pontaneoufly when the air is 
exhaufted to a certain degree, and con- 
tinues to burn till it is confumed. It is 
fingular that this combuftion fhould com- 
- ence and continue in air rarified to a 
Varieties, Literary and Philofophical. | 
219 
degree that would immediately extin- 
guifh any other burning material. Mr, 
Y. explains this phenomenon by fup- 
pofing, that the cotton which furrounds 
the phofphorus (for a piece of phofpho- 
rus placed in fimilar circumitances, but 
not enveloped with cotton, does not in- 
flame) accumulates the caloric, or matter 
of heat, in 1s immediate neighbourhood, 
while, at the fame time, the exhalations 
which phofphorus is con@antly giving | 
out when expofed to the air, can no 
longer rife, on account of its rarity, and 
thus the temperatyre is elevated to the 
degree at which phofphorus combines 
with the oxygene of the atmofphere, and 
inflammation takes place. This comy 
buition was found to take’place in air 
that had only 5}, of the denhty of the 
common atmofphere. It is certainly very 
fingular that the fmall portion of oxygene 
thar could remain in air fo rarified, fhould 
be adequate to iupport the combuftion 
of the phofphorcus ; and that it was a 
real combuition is proved by the dimi- 
nution in weight of the photphorus, as 
well as by the quantity of phofphoric 
acid formed, and found cn the plate ef 
the air-puimp. 
In a fpeech defivered. by Citizen 
Fourcroy before the free fociety of 
Pharmaciens, on his being admitted a 
member of that body, in the courfe of 
fhowing the intimate conneétion be~ 
tween chemiftry and pharmacy, and how 
much the latter is likely ro be improved 
by incorporating with icfelf a proper pro- 
portion of chemical knowledge, he in- 
forms the fociety, that the illuftrious 
LAVOISIER, the inventor of the new 
fyftem, at the moment when he faw. his 
ample fortune, which was altogether 
appropriated to the advancement of 
{clence, wrefted from him by a tyranny 
to which his hfe foon afterwards be- 
came a facrifice, confoled himfelf with 
the idea that he fhould ftill be able to 
procure an honeft and independent live~- 
lihood, and continue to benefit mankind 
by practifing pharmacy. In the fequel 
of the fame difcourie,, M. Fourcror 
endeavours to excite the attention of this 
auditors, by informing them of the im- 
portant experiments that Dr. Beppors 
has been carrying on in England, with 
various gaffes inthe cure of difeafes, and 
that, in all probability, they will foon be 
calied’on to prepare themoas articles of 
the materia medica. He adds, that the 
Englith government have put at the 
dottor’s dif{pofal, the fum of two thou- 
fand five hundred pounds fterling, we 
fhall 
