1809] 
A new gas, compofed of hydrogen, 
carbon, and phofphorus, has been difco- 
covered by M. TRoMMSDORFF: it is 
nearly of the fame fpecific gravity as 
<ommon air; infoluble in water; under- 
goes no change when mixed with oxygen ; 
it does not aét upon the folutions of me- 
tallic oxides, which are not reducible by 
heat; but decompofes the fluid faline com. 
pounds, containing gold, filver,’ or mer- 
cury. 
Profefflor Proust promifes to fend an 
zccount of a new metal that he-has lately 
difcovered, in an ore in Hungary. He is 
not acquainted with its metallic afpect, 
but it is fufceptible of twodegrees of oxy- 
dation: the folution of its oxyde at the 
maximum is yellow; at the minimum it 
is green; when in thefe two ftates, it co- 
lours glafs. 
A new edition has been lately publithed 
‘at Strafburg, of the text, with commen- 
taries, &c. of Athenaus Naucratites, the 
Deipnofophift, a writer of whofe life but 
little is kaown, as it appears that even in 
his own time, fuppofed to be about the 
year 228 of the Chriftian zra, his writ- 
ings were better known thanhe. Few 
of the antients have fpoken of him. Some, 
as /Elian and Macrobius, have copied, 
without naming him. MHarpocration and 
Stephanus of Byzantium, appear to have 
cited him, Hefychius, and all the other 
gloffators and lexicographers, have necef- 
farily made ufe of him; but fome ofthem, 
and amongft others, Eultathius, have on- 
ly known the abridgment of his works ; 
the author of which, and in what time he 
lived, is likewife unknown. That abridg- 
ed work (attributed by fome to Hermo- 
laus of Byzantium) is fpoken very fa- 
vourably of by the prefent Editor, Citizen 
JEan ScoweicumuseR,—(although he 
blames the Abridger for having fo often 
fuppreffed the titles of the works, and the 
Dames of the writers, mentioned by Athe- 
Nexus }—who candifcover nothing inits ftyle 
but what may very well accord with the 
time wherein the Greek language was yet 
written in its purity. The firft printed 
edition of Athenzeus was that of Aldus, 
which was publifhed at Venice in the year 
1414. This edition both the prefent edi- 
¢or and Cafaubon confider as inaccurate, 
and unworthy of thofe who had the care 
of it. Citizen Schweigheufer, however, 
does juftice to the erudition of its editor, 
Mu(urus, who has happily, among innu- 
merable audacious alterations, re-eftablith- 
ed many paflages that were altered in the 
MSS. The fecond edition was publithed 
wt Bafil, in 1535, under the care of Jean 
I 
Literary and Philfophical Intelligence. 537 
Bedrot, and of Chriftian Herlin. This 
was nothing but a re-impteffion of that of 
Venice, with a great number of ill-judged 
corrections, as the MSS. of Aldus cer- 
tainly afforded better readings. Citizen 
Schweighzeufer does not {peak {o flighting- 
ly of this edition as Cafaubon does, who is 
here accufed both of having too much 
contemned and too fervilely copied it, 
After thefe two editions, Athenzus being 
then in the hands of all the Learned, tran{- 
lations foon appeared of him. ‘The fir 
was that of Noel le Comte, whofe labour, 
fays Cafaubon, is of little or no utility, 
although he had the advantage of filling 
up, by the hel» of MSS. a confiderable 
hiatus, or deficiency, which had remained 
till his time, in the fifteenth book. About 
that time a number of learned men, fuch 
as Pietro Vettori, Muret, Henry Stephens, 
collected many curious fragments and va- 
rious readings of Athenzus, which were 
publifhed in different works, and are now 
concealed in the libraries. ‘IYurnebus, it 
feems, undertook an edition of it, of 
which Cafaubon faw the firft book. In 
1583, the verfion of Dalechamp, the firt 
confiderable labour made upon Athenzeus, 
was printed at Lyons. Although, fays 
Citizen Schweighzufer, he has mittaken 
in a thoufand paflages the true fenfe of 
his author, yet he merits the higheft eu- 
logiums for having firft, by an admirable 
fagacity, furmounted very great difficul- 
ties without the helps we now have.— 
Laftly, the edition of Cafaubon appeared 
in 1597, the original of all thole now 
made ufe of, and which was followed 
three years after by his great Cummen- 
tary. Few works, fays the prefent Edi- 
tor, are better known, or more frequently 
cited, among the Learned, than this ad- 
mirable book. Citizen Schweighzeufer 
does not fail to correét or illuitrate a 
number of important peflages, by the con+ 
jectures, or explications, that are {catter- 
ed in a great number of books of critici/m 
or philology that have appeared fince Ca- 
faubon. » But an unappreciable merit of 
this new*edition is its having been revifed 
by two excellent MSS. one of which was 
almoft forgotten; the other appears to 
have been hitherto altogether’ unknown. 
The firfl contains entire the abridgement 
of Atheneus; and we not only find 
in it -the paffages which different learned 
men have publifhed feparatély, but 
others entirely unpublifhed. Although it 
is not more antient than the middle of the 
fourteen'h century, according to the con- 
jeCture of M. Schweighzeuler; it is, not- 
withftanding, of great utility, both for the 
coyrection 
