| 
1802. J 
which are now totally extin&, and cad 
pnly be traced by the cafual difgovery of 
theirenormous remains. | 
Among thofe who haye devoted them- 
felves to the dangers and cares of remote 
voyages to extend the {phere of human 
knowledge, Atsx. DE HUMBOLDT 1s. 
highly to be diftinguifhed, who, with a 
moderate fortune, “and without the fyc- 
cour of any government, but with uncom- 
mon knowledge, with an ardent. zeal for 
the fciences, and a courage proof againft 
every thing, has propofed to make the 
tour of the globe, to collect new obferva- 
tions on nature, and on men, on the fhe- 
ory of the earth, on aftronomy, on geogra- 
phical pofitions, and on animals, plants, 
and ftones. After having already tra- 
verfed a great part of the defarts of South 
America, he has lately fet out for Peru, - 
by land, with a defign to return to Eu- 
yope by the Eat Indies. His laft letters 
are from Carthagena. ‘The paffage which 
he made to arrive thither was extremely 
plangerous.' After having difembarked 
on the rivers of Rio Sinu, where he found 
a multitude of crocodiles, and of the In- 
dians of Darixa, who are diftinguifhed 
from the Caraibes who furround them, 
both by their {maller fize, and by their 
plumpnefs and ftrength, he encountered a 
tempelt, wherein his little veffel was on 
the point of being overfet, and was only 
faved becaufe they were enabled quickly 
to cut ‘down a fail, at the very inftant 
when the’ pilot ved out, that the fhip 
would no lonzer anfwer the helm. They 
yetired behind Cape Gigante, where they 
fortunately efeaped: death. M..de Hum- 
boldt difembarked, to obferve an eclipfe 
of the moon, wich took place on the 2gth 
to the 30th of March;‘and which was to- 
tal in all thofe countries; but, when he 
was at acertain diftance’ from his com- 
panions, he faw fome Negro-fugitives 
making towards him’ with poniards 3 and 
it was with much difficulty that he was 
able to efcape them, and-to reach the floop 
Before them. ~ It°was on Paim Sunday, 
and precifely the fame day wherein, laf 
year, he had efcaped a danger no Je{s im- 
minent, on the river Oroonoko, where, 
furrounded with crocodiles, his hittle bark 
was near over(etting, and giving him up 
to thofe voracious animals. 
' Dr. GaLLy, at Vienna, who has been 
forbidden to teach, in public, his fingular 
_ and curious doétrine, takes the conform- 
ation of the fkull for the bafis of his ob- 
fervations or conjeéturcs : the more convex 
and arched the fkull is, the more capa- 
Literary and Philfophical Intelligence 
165 
city he fuppofes to be in the individual, 
and quotes, in fupport of his opinion, the 
fkulls of feveral celebrated men. ‘This 
convexity is generally remarked in 4ll 
great men; but handfome men, whofe 
head is round, and of a more agreeable 
form, have commonly but little wit. He 
thinks he can alfo affign to the brain the 
place of each of the faculties of the foul; 
for example, he finds the feat of the Fa 
cuity of obfervation immediately behind 
the forehead. This place is‘much arched 
in children, who, as is well-known, are 
particularly diftinguithed by that quality. 
This conyexity infenfibly diminifhes, and 
¢ven changes to concavity, except in per- 
fons of great obfervation, and Dr. Gall 
concludes fromhence, that liberty and ufe 
may produce many changes in this facul- 
tyof man. He has in his poffeffion the 
fkulls of feveral celebrated perfons, among 
others, thofe of Blumauer, of Axlinger, 
and of Wurmfer. In the fkull of this 
latter, he pretends to have difcovered the 
organ of courage, which is placed at an 
inch diftance and above the ear. The 
{kulls of animals have alfo furnithed him 
with important difcoveries. He has found 
the mufical organ in the fkulls of finging- 
birds, in thofe of celebrated muficians, 
and efpecially in that of Mozart. And, 
laftly, he finds the organ of cunning in 
the {potted fkulls of foxes and cats, as 
alfoin thofe of men whom he has known 
to be of great fubtlety. 
The lat Leipzig-fair was attended by up= 
wards of 36,000 foreigners, among whom 
it is computed there were '13,000Jews. 
One of the mot magnificent literary 
productions that has appeared of late 
years on the Continent, is the Celeftial - 
Atlas of M. Bove, Profeffor of Aftrono- 
mys &c. at Berlin, It has been publifhe ed 
in twenty large fheets, and contains a ca- 
talogue of 17,000 ftars, the major part of 
which has been furnifhed him by La- 
LANDE,the celebrated FrenchA fironomer. 
A. new fpecies of oats, which, from the 
circumftances of the feed having been. firtt 
difcovered in a potatoe field, is called the 
Potatoe Oat, is in general requeft and cul- 
ture, in fome parts of North America; it 
is a round full grain, refembling barley in 
fize, with a remarkable thin fhell, and the 
buthel of it weighs full ten pounds mere than 
a like meafure of any other {pecies of oat.’ 
Citizen LALANDE has offered to the Na- 
tional Inftitute a fum amounting to 
10,000 francs, to found an annual prize, , 
to be adjudged by the Inftitute, to the au- 
thor of the. moft remarkable or ufeful dif- 
COVELY, 
