~ 4 
1802.] > 
The late public experiments made on 
the filtrating proceifes of Citizens SMITH 
and Cucuer, have fucceeded no lefs than 
the others. The water of the Garden of 
Plants, that of the River of the Gobe- 
hines, fotled by the finks of the Faux- 
bourg St. Marceau, by tanneries, dyeries, 
' &c. have been reftored to their primitive 
purity, At Verfailles, the water of the 
ponds has been rendered equal to {pring~ 
water. On this laftoccafion, it was difco-= 
vered, that the water, by purification, had 
acquired a principle of falubrity, which 
Citizen Chaptal, Minifter of the Interior, 
thought he had before perceived ‘in ‘it. 
This. principle: is effentially anti-putrid, 
and proper to prevent (corbutic difeafes at 
fea, and, in marfhy diftrits, the autumnal 
fevers occafioned by the ftagnation of the 
waters. ’ . i 
There is now at Florence, and has 
been'a Jong time; in a convent of Bene- 
dictines, the Father RAYNAL, who was 
formerly Profeffcr at Soreza. He*-was 
called to fuperintend the valuable manus 
{cfipts of that convent. It appears that 
be has found, in the library of another con- 
vent, a manuicript of the Fables of Efop, 
written in the thirteenth century; in which 
are two fables more than thofe that we 
have in the beft editions. This its a new 
proof to deftroy the ancient fuppofition, 
that thofe fables were only an impofture of 
Planudes. Raynal propofes to print his 
manulcript. . 
’M. DEMANNE, of the National Libra- 
ry, has publithed the Profpetus of a new 
' edition of the Geographical Works of the 
celebrated d’ Anville, with fixty-two. Maps. 
Sub{cribers’? names are received, but no 
money is to be advanced till the delivery - 
of the complete work. ! 
Count CHoiseuL GOUFFIER, former- 
ly French Ambaffador at Conftantinople, 
is returned to Paris, and intends to con- 
_ tinue his magnificent Voyage Pitiore/que eu 
_Greéce. 
The Italian Opera at Paris, is at pre- 
fent much in fafhion. The prefence of 
the famous PastELLo, whofe belt compo- 
fitions are now performed there, contri- 
butes to raife this tafte for Italian mufic. 
A Diétionary of the Vulgar Arabic Lan- 
guage, as fpoken in Egypt, has made its 
_ appearance at Paris. It, is the firft that 
contains the modern dialect. 
_ Citizen Camus, Member of the Nation- 
al Inftitute, and Keeper of the Archives 
of the French Republic, has latelypublifh- 
eda pamphlet at Paris, intitled * the Hifto- 
ry and Procefs of Polytypage and Stereoty- 
page.’ According tohim, the f enifcation-of 
Literary and Philofophical Intelligence. 
* 8938 
the words polytypage, ftereotypy, mono 
typy, and homotypy, have alla reiation, 
more or lefs, to the procefs better known, 
at prefent, under the name of ftereotype. 
Citizen Camus gives the hiftory of {everal 
attempts made at different periods, rela- 
tive to this procefs. The moft ancient 
attempt in this kind is the cafting ‘in 
moulds plates to print the calendars placed 
at the head of church-books. . Lorrin; 
in his Catalogue of the Printers of Paris, 
informs us, that this procefs was put in, 
practice towards the end of the feventeenth 
century, and that thefe fixed plates were 
rade ule of in the eighteenth century by 
the printer Valleyre. Citizen FirmMin 
Dinot has in his poffefion’’a fimilar 
plate, of which Citizen Camus gives a de- 
{eription,-and has joined a proof of it to 
his work, that every one may judge for 
himfelf of the effeét of this firft attempt 
and of its imperfeétions, and that people 
may feek for a copy of the book where 
the page it reprefents is employed. The 
date of the impyeffion, placed, doubtlefs, 
on the frontifpiece of this book, would 
indicate pofitively one of the years when 
ufe was made of thefe plates. It is ef- 
pecially among the books of ** Heures,’ 
printed by Valleyre, that we mui expeét 
to make this difcovery. It would, indeed, ’ 
be highly interefting to find one of thefe 
‘books, with the date of the year, which 
might fecure to Frenchmen, in an incon- 
teftible manner, the invention of ftereo- 
type melted plates. The affertion of Lot~ 
tin, which noone has yet falfified, already 
gives a great prefumption in their favour, 
According to Citizen Camus, a workman | 
compofitor, employed by Citizen Baus 
douin, affures us, that he was a witnefs of 
the ufe of thefe plates ‘at Valleyre’s, bes 
fore 1735, which tends to ftrengthen the 
opinion of Citizen Camus; according to 
which, the invention of fteréotypage is 
due to the French, and not to the Scetch-~ 
man Ged, who only perfected this procefs. 
In fat, the attempts of Ged date only 
from 1725, a long time after the end of the 
feveniteenth century ; and his Salluft only 
appeared in 1789, many years after the ufe 
of the copper-platesof Valleyre. Citizen 
Camus gives next a hiftory of the attempts 
made by Ged, and he detcribes his Salluit, 
and one of the caft-plates ufed in printing 
it. Both belong to Citizen Pierres, an 
expert printer, formerly at Paris, now at 
Verfailles, and known, among otherthings, 
by the defcription of a new prefs publith- 
ed in 1786. With the intention he had 
of making a defeription of the procefs ‘of 
of printing, Citizen Pierres had colleéted. 
a great 
