1801.] 
deaths each year is s112, and their pro- 
portion to the whole population is as 
one to 29%. Of thefe, 546 are children 
under ten years old. Winter and {pring 
are the healthieft feafons ; the burials in 
Avuguft are to thofe in May, as 34 to 2. 
In 1774, 1778, and 1783, the {mall-pox 
was epidemic, and in thofe years the an- 
nuai mortality was encreafed by gaz 
children. In the 21 years above-men- 
tioned, three men and thirteen women 
died at the age of 100 and upwards ; 
» and ove perfon in 7% arrives at the age of 
70. 
Citizen SEGuIN has communicated to 
the National Inftitute, a Memoir on the 
Manutacture 'of Paper from Straw; he 
prefented, at the fame time, feveral fpeci- 
mens of the paper, fome of which had 
been printed on and proved to be very 
{trong and good. 
A new and eafy method of purifying 
rape-cil has: been publifhed by C. Tue- 
-NARD—it is as follows: to 100 parts of 
oil add 12 or 2 of concentrated fulphuric- 
acid, and mix the whole weil by agita- 
tion: the oil immediately becomes turbid 
and of a blackifh green colour; in about 
three quarters of an hour the colourin 
matter begins to colleét in clots; the agi- 
tation fhould then be difcontinued, and 
clean. water, twice the weight of the 
fulphuric-acid, muft be added: in order 
to mix the water with the oil and acid, a 
further agitation of half an hour mutt 
be had ‘recourfe to, and the mafs may af- 
terwards be left to clarify for eight days : 
at the end of this time three feparate fluids 
will be perceived in the veffel, the upper 
_of which is the clear oil, the next is 
fulphuric-acid and water, and the loweft 
is a black mud or fecula: the oil fhould 
be feparated by a fyphon from the acid 
and water, and filtered carefully through 
cotton or wool; it will then be nearly 
without colour, {mell, or tafte, and will 
burn clearly and quietly to the very laft 
drop. 
According to a letter lately addreffed 
by C. HumseLpr to Cit. Fourcroy, 
it appears, that during fixteen months he 
has been traverfing the vatt territory be- 
tween the coait, the Orenoquo, Rio- 
Nigro, and the river of the Amazons. 
His companion, C. Bonpland, has dried, 
with -duplicates, more than fix thoufand 
plants, and he has defcribed with bim on 
the f{pot, twelve hundred fpecies, great 
part of which appeared to them to belong 
to genera not defcribed by Aublet, Jac- 
quin, Mutis, or Dombey. They have 
collected inleéts, fhells, aad different kinds 
Literary and Philofophical Intelligence. 
51 
of wood proper for dyeing ; diffected cro- 
codiles, lamantins, apes, and the gymno- 
tus eleétricus, the fluid of which is abfo- 
lutely galvanic and not eleétric ; and they 
have defcribed a great many ferpents, 
lizards, and fith. Amidft the thick forefts 
of the Rio’ Nigro; furrounded by ferocious 
tygers and crocodiles ; his body tormented 
with the Rings of the formidable mofkitos 
and ants; having had for three months no 
other aliment than water, bananas, and 
manioc, among the Otomaque Indians, 
whe eat earth; or on the banks of the Caf- 
quiara, under the equator, where, in the 
courfe of a hundred and thirty leagues, no 
human being is feen ;—in all thefe embar- 
rafling fituations he fays he never repented 
of his undertaking. When he left Spain he 
intended to proceed direétly to Mexico, 
thence to Peruand the Philippines ; but 
a malignant fever, which broke out in the 
frigate, induced him to remain on the 
coaft of South America; and, thinking it 
poffible to penetrate thence into the in- 
terior, he undertook two journeys, one to’ 
the miffions of the Chayma Indians of 
Paria, and the other to that vaft country 
fituated to the north of the river of the 
Amazons, between Popayan and the 
mountains of the French part of Guyana. 
They twice paffed the grand cataracts of 
the Orenoquo, and thofe of Atures and 
Maypura, in lat. 50° 12’ and long, 5° 39’, 
W. dep. from Paris 4° 43/and 4? 41'40”, 
Fronvthe mouth of the Guaviara and the 
rivers Atabapo, ‘Temi, and Tuamini, he 
caufed his pirogua to be carried by land 
as far as the Rio-Nigro, while they fol- 
lowed on foot through forefts of Hevea, 
Cinchona, and Canella Winterana. He 
afcended the Cafquiara inhabited by the | 
‘Ydapdminares, who eat nothing but ants 
dried in the fmoke, and penetrated to the 
fources of the Orenoquo, even beyond 
the volcano of Duida, or as far as the 
ferocity of the Guaica and Guaharribo © 
Indians would permit him to venture. 
The river of the Amazons, he obferves, 
has been inhabited for 200 years by 
Europeans ; but on the Orenoquo and the 
Rio-Nigro, it was only avout thirty years 
ago that the Europeans ventured to form 
a few fettlements beyond the cataracts. | 
Thofe which exift do not comprehend 
above 1800 Indians, from the eighth de- 
gree to the equator; and there are no 
other whites than fix or feven miffionary 
monks. From St. Thomas, the capital 
of Gurana. Jat. 8° 8/24", long. 42% 25’ 2", 
he crofied once more the great defert called 
Elanos, inhabited by wild-cattle and 
horfes, . At the time he wrote he was 
Hz em- 
