1802] 
fait fa confcience’’—we can create our own 
confcience. No, we do not prefcribe to 
our con{cience, as we do not light a flam- 
beau in broad day-light. The luminous 
light can neither be changed nor obfcur- 
chy 
ee ta bS are 
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL 
SOCIETY, 
Held at PHILADELPHIA, for producing 
USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. 
ROM the laft volume of the Tranfac- 
tions of this Society, which ought to 
have been noticed at a much earlier pe- 
riod, we can now only felect a few arti- 
cles to lay before the reader. 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
In Dr. BARTON’s memoir concerning 
the fafcinating faculty which has hitherto 
been aicribed to the rattle-fnake, and other 
American ferpents, it is proved by a va- 
riety of fats, that the motions of birds, 
which have been attributed to a fafcinat- 
ing power in the eyes of ferpents, are, in 
reality, calculated to drive away the rep- 
tiles from the birds’ young, or to divert 
their attention from the neft. 
The author tells us that the rattle- 
fnake is not a hardy animal—that a very 
flight ftroke on any part of its body dif- 
ables it from running at all, and the flight- 
eft blow on the top of the head is follow- 
ed by inftant death. The fkull-bone is 
remarkably thin and brittle; fo much fo 
indeed, that it is thought a ftroke from 
the wing of a thrufh, or even of a robin, 
would be fufficient to break it. The fub- 
{tance of this memoir is confirmed in ano- 
ther paper by M. De Beauvols, who 
afferts alfo, from his own obfervation, 
that the young rattle-fnakes conceal them- 
felves in the belly of the female at the 
approach of danger, into which they enter 
by themouth. 
We have a very curious account of the 
remarkable inftinét of a bird called the 
uine-killer, by Mr. HeckwaLper. It 
appears that this bird-hawk, as it is called 
by fome perfons, catches grafshoppers, 
and fticks them on the fharp thorny bufhes 
or trees, as baits for other {maller birds, 
on which the nine-eaterlives. It is affert- 
ed by the common people, that the nine- 
eater praétifes the catching and fiicking- 
up nine grafshoppersa-day ; and, as they 
know it does not live on infeéts, they be- 
lieve it muit employ itfelf in this manner 
for its amufement. Some naturalifts, 
among whom is Mr. Heckwalder, have 
taken pains to watch the progrefs of the 
MontTuLty Mac, No, 93. 
Proceedings of Learned Socicties. 
333 
bufinefs ; and there feems httle reafen to 
doubt, that the grafshoppers, which are 
always placed in their natural pofition, are 
ftuck as baits for the animals which ferve 
for the nine-eater’s food. 
in a very interefting paper, by THO- 
Mas JEFFERSON, Efq. we have ftrong, if 
‘not fatisfactory, evidence of the exiftence 
of an animal fimilar to the lion, only more 
than three times as large, in North Ame- 
rica. 
INLAND NAVIGATION. 
Mr. Nicuouas Kine fuggefts an im- 
provement in boats for river-navigation.— 
Having fhewn why the lock-navigation, fo 
much ufed in this country, cannot be 
adopted in America, he propofes to con- 
vey the boat (whichis, in fact, to be 
compofed of four boats put together with 
hinges) over an inclined plane. The ad- 
vantage of this contrivance is, that, at 
the inclined plane, the boat can be taken 
in pieces, and the feveral parts conveyed 
over without much difficulty :—and that 
in defcending a river, the component 
boats may be feparately navigated ; and in 
a river full of rapids, fands, and rocks, a 
fhort boat is much more commodious and 
manageable than a long one. 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES 0f @SUBMARINE 
VESSEL.. By D. BUSHNELL, of CON- 
NECTICUT, the INVENTOR, Ge. 
From this paper, which contains a de- 
{cription of a fmall fubmarine boat, and 
its apparatus, with which an attempt was 
made, in 1775, to. blow up an Englith 
fifty-gun veffel, evidently originated Mr. 
Fulton’s experiments lately made inFrance, 
an account of which was given in the 
Houfe of Peers early in laft winter. 
——E 
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF 
GREAT BRITAIN. 
MECHANICS AND HYDRAULICS. 
N one of the latter journals of this re- 
fpectable Inftitution, we have an ac- 
count of a new fteam-boat by Mr. Sy- 
MINGTON, who appears to have made 
confiderable progres in his experiments 
on this fubjeét. ‘The method employed 
by this gentleman for making a connex- 
ion between the pilton and the water- 
wheel is evidently attended with feveral 
advantages. 
By placing the cylinder nearly in a ho- 
rizontal pofition, the neceffity of a beam is 
avoided, which has ever been a trouble- 
fome and expenfive part of the common 
fteam-engines. The pifton is fupported 
in its pofition by friétion-whee!s, and it 
Uu commu- 
