20 
‘fituation as Profeflor of Natural Philo- 
fophy and Chemiftry in the Royal Infti- 
tution, (as we noticed in our laft Num- 
ber,) intends, we undesftand, in future, 
to devote his time to the practice of the 
profeffion to which his ftudies have been 
particularly directed, that of medicine. 
He alfo intends to deliver Le&tures on 
the Theory and Praétice of Medicine, and 
on the Animal Economy, as well as on 
hemiftry, and thofe branches of Natural 
Philofophy conneéted with medicine. 
Mr. MusueEt, of the Clyde Works, to 
whom Science is indebted for feveral ex- 
cellent Memoirs on the Manufaéture of 
Tron,’and the Affay and Reduétion of its 
Ores, -has lately taken out a patent fora 
new and expeditious method of convert- 
ing iron into fteel, by combining it with 
more precifion than heretofore with vari- 
ous proportions of carbon, and by fub- 
fequent cementation to give to the fteel 
the valuable properties of welding and 
malleability. Of this valuable difcevery 
we fhall hereafter give a more detailed ac- 
count in the article of New Patents. _ 
Although the influence of folar-light is 
fo effential to the well-being of plants 
and animals, yet fome late experiments 
of Dr. MicueLoTtTi, of Turin, feem to 
prove that the fun’s rays are a ftimulus 
too ftrong to be fupported, for any confi- 
_derable length of time, by vegetables and 
infe&ts in their embryo ftate. Having 
collected moth’s eggs, in December, (the 
Phalena difpar. Linz.) he put a few into 
two bottles coated with black-wax, and 
an equal number into two tranfparent 
bottles ; a pair of each, viz. an opaque 
_and a tranfparent one, were placed on the 
outfide of a window, expofed to the full - 
fun ; and the other pair was fo fituated 
ina northern afpect, as only to receive 
the light by refle€tion. On the 21ft of 
April, the eggs in the firft opaque-bottle 
were moftly hatched, and thie little cater- 
pillars had crawled to the top of the bot- 
tle, while on the fame day only one of 
the eggs in the tranfparent-bottle had 
hatched—as this was the firft fo it was 
alfothelaft. On the next day a few cater- 
pillars made their appearance in - the 
opaque-bottle expofed to the North, and 
it was five days after before any eggs 
were hatched in the tranfparent one: the 
next year a fimilar experiment was tried 
with four more bottles, of which one was 
covered with black-varnifh, another with 
red, a third with white, and the other 
was left tranfparent; into each of thefe 
fome moth’s-eges were put and the bot- 
ties were expofed to the fun, Thofe_in 
Literary and Philofophical Intelligence: 
_ fourth. 
[Aug. ty 
the black-bottle were firfé hatched, ther 
thofe in the red and Jaftly thofe in the 
white one; all the eggs in the tranfpa- © 
rent-bottle perifhed. Similar exneriments 
were tried with correiponding refults on 
the feeds of vegetables; thofe fele@ed ~ 
for the purpofe were the lupin, kidney- 
bean, and chich-pea: thefe were kept 
moiltened with water till the procefs of 
germination commenced ; their cotyledons 
were then ftripped of their opaque kin, 
and fome of each were put in thin tubes 
with wet cotton, of which fome were 
tranfparent and others-coated with thin 
lead; all the tubes were then placed in 
the fame bottle of water and expofed to 
the fun. The procefs of germination — 
went on at firft rapidly in all the tubes, 
and the cotyledons affumed a yel- 
low colour; at this period all thofe in the 
tranfparent tubes died, whereas thofe in 
opaque ones became green, and vegetated 
vigoroufly till they had filled the tubes. 
It is now three years fince Citizen 
Dispan, of Touloufe,- announced the 
difcovery of a new acid exuding from 
the pods of the chich-pea,and which there- 
fore he called the ciceric-acid: Citizen 
Deyeux foon after publifhed, in the 
Journal de Phyfque, a Memoir to thew 
that this new acid was merely the oxalic. 
A quarter of an acre of chich-peas hav- 
ing lately been cultivated by Citizen Dif 
pan, for the purpofe of obtaining a fuf- 
ficient quantity of this acid for a com- 
plete analyfis, it has now been fubjeét to 
the rigorous examination of Vauquelin, 
and appears to confift of malic acid,mixed 
with a {mall quantity of oxalic and a flight 
trace of acetic. _ 
Citizen MourGueE has lately publithed 
a Statiftical Efay, which contains the re- - 
fult of twenty-one years obfervations on 
the relative and a€tual number of births, 
deaths and marriages, at Montpellier, 
from 1771 to 1792. The average of the 
whole population, during the above twen- 
ty-one years, 1s 32,897. During the 
three-autumnal months thereare one-fourth 
more births than during the. three {pring- 
months ; yet the greateft number of births . 
is in Jandary, and the leaft in June. 
The annual births are 1197,.0r 1-272th 
of the whole population. The number’ 
of males born is to that of females, as 
20 to 211: the illegitimate children form 
one-ninth of the whole annual reproduc- 
tion, whereas at Paris they compofe one. 
The number of marriages is 
282, which is, to the whole population, 
aS one to 113: of thofe that are bern, 
one in 23th is married, “The number of 
4 ' deaths 
