¥ 
4901.] 
lity, with. gangrene or blight in feveral 
parts of the plant. This may perhaps 
be ‘made more clear by an analogous in- 
ftance which is better known. if a per- 
fon, whofe hands are benumbed with 
cold, and whofe irritability is confe- 
quently accumulated by the fubduétion 
of the heat, bring the frigid limbs near 
a fire, the heat will act fo powerfully on 
their accumulated irritability, that a vio- 
lent inflammation and fometimes mortifi- 
cation will follow; whereas, if they had 
been expofed to warmth by degrees, the 
fuperabundant irritability would have 
been gradually exhaulted, and no bad ef- 
fe&ts would have enfued. 
That the effets produced on the goofe- 
berry-trees muft be explained in a fimi- 
jar manner, will appear from the follow- 
ing fact. My father’s houfe is at the 
. foot of a fteep mountain, at the diftance 
of about four miles from Kirkby Lonf- 
dale. ‘This mountain is to the eaftward 
of the houfe, and intercepts the rays of 
the fun in fuch a manner that they do not 
fhine on the garden for more than an hour 
after they have illuminated the town of 
KirkbyLonfdale and the furrounded coun- 
try. Though from this fituation being 
cold and expofed, there is feldom abun. 
dance of fruit; yet this year the bloffoms 
on the goofeberry-trees were very pro- 
mifing, and, contrary to what happened in 
other parts: of the country, they were fuc- 
ceeded by great plenty of fine fruit. The 
froft had here been as fevere to the full, as 
in the immediate neighbourhood of Kirkby 
Lonfdale; the fituation of the houfe is 
high, and expofed; and the irritability 
would be accumulated here by the fub- 
traction of the ftimulus of-heat, to the 
full as much asin the other fituations ; 
but then they were not immediately ex- 
pofed to the dire&t rays of the fun: the 
atmofphere had become in fome degree 
warmed by the effect of the fun on the 
furrounding country; the morbid irrita- 
bility was then gradually worn off, and 
by the time that the fun’s rays reached 
the garden, the vegetables were in a fitu- 
ation to bear their action without being 
overpowered. io 
A nearly fimilar effect took place with 
refpect ta the hazel: the blofloms were 
very abundant, but the profpect of nuts 
was in a confiderable degree deftroyed by 
the fame change of temperature in the 
atmofphere; that night proved almoft 
equally as deftruétive to the nuts as 
_to the goofeberries; yet in fituations 
where the trees were fhaded from the 
morning fun, this fruit was to be met 
Bank of England Notes, 
191. 
with in the gresteft abundance, In warm, 
funny fituations however, fcarce a fingle 
nut was to be found, and before the end’ 
of Aucuit, the autumnal tints had begun 
to vary the fcene; a clear proof that a 
ftate of indire&t debility, or exhaufted ir- 
ritability, had taken place. In fhort, Tf 
am pretty well convinced, not_ only from 
a number of faés which I’ have myfelf 
oblerved, and which I have ftated tully 
in my le&tures, but alfo from the obfer- 
vations of Uflar, that blight is almoft al- 
ways a fpecies of gangrene or mortifica- 
tion, brought on by the a&tion of the 
rays of the fun in the {pring, on the mor- 
bidly accumulated irritability which had 
been. produced by a confiderable fubtrac- 
tion of heat during the night. A froly 
night fucceeded by a cloudy or milty 
morning is never attended with thefe ef- 
fects, which almoft certainly follow, if 
when the {pring is confiderably advanced, 
a froft fhould be fucceeded by a fine, 
warm morning. If I have leifure, I may 
perhaps trouble you the next month with 
fome more obfervations on this fubject. 
No. 51, Great Marlborough ftreet, ; 
September 13, 180%. 
a 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
He Beg newfpapers have announced that 
the Bank of England is about to adopt 
fuch alterations in the Bank-notes as will 
prevent forgeries.—I mutt be permitted 
to doubt this, if the alterations relate. 
merely, as they ftate, to the watermarks in 
the paper. It is propofed to curve the 
perpendicular .and horizontal wires in the 
paper moulds, and the figures expreffing 
the value of the note to be water-marked. 
I have long been of opinion that the Bank 
does not underftand the moft effe&ual 
guard againft forgery. It is quite a dif- 
tinck objeé&t to have marks by which the 
Bank can deteé& forgery; to adopt fuch 
a note as may protect the public, has not 
yet been attempted. The engraving of 
the Bank-notes remains the moft mifera- 
ble fpecimen of the art, and the greatett 
care feems to be taken to copy exactly the 
rude example adopted at the firft inftitu- 
tion of the Bank. 
In a former number of your magazine, 
there is a letter of Mr. Landfeer the en- 
graver, refpecting a propofal made te the 
Bank, of a method of \ engraving the 
notes that could not be imitated. I have 
reafon to believe that this propofal origi- 
nates from a difcovery of Mr. Foulis, of 
Edinburgh, He has revived the art of 
cro{s- 
