316 
olive colour, have flat noses, and black 
curled hair of considerable length. In 
each canoe was a venerable old man, 
naked like the others, and who appeared 
to be their chief. One very remarkable 
circumstance is, that these two men were 
- white, had aquiline noses, and -had more 
of the air of Spaniards than of Savages. 
Captain Monteverde observed that 
these islanders bore a considerable re- 
semblance in their features and conduct 
to the inhabitants of the islands of St. 
Bartholomew, of Capa, and Ibictai, 
where he landed in the year 1800, then 
being in the frigate La Philippine, com- 
manded by Don Juan Ibarguitia. 
—<ee 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
\ Y attention has lately been turned 
ue towards the property of that cu- 
rious shrub called the sensitive-plant, 
which, you well know, assumes a languid 
appearance, upon its being brought into 
contact with any substance whatever ; 
it you think the following cbservations 
have any tendency to account for this 
phenomenon, and are worthy of a place 
in your widely circulated Miscellany, an 
early insertion will much oblige a con- 
stant reader. 
Every thing in nature seems in some 
Measure impregnated wit h that property 
or perhaps substance which the ancientg 
called Anima Mundi, or Elementary 
_ Fire: now as all things, which stand in 
the common nature of this lower world, 
have this fire in a greater or lesser pro- 
portion, only as they are in this or that 
piace, where more or less of it is offered 
to be received by them, or as they are 
in their own uature capable of recelving 
more of it than others are; and then if 
we suppose the nature of the sensitive- 
plant is’to possess nore of this fire than 
any other plant whatever; then it muft, 
by the nature of it, when any thing 
touches it, impart a great deal of its fire, 
or electricity, into that thing by which it 
4s touched; because that had less of it 
than was possessed by this curious plant. 
Therefore, till the sensitive-plant has had 
time to recover its vigour, by receiving 
from the air a fresh supply of this fire, 
ats leaves and braiches hang in a lan- 
guid state, from the great loss of that 
which it has imparted to some other sub- 
stance. To illustrate this idea more 
clearly, ifyou set any small plant, or tree, 
in 2 pot, upon a cake of resin, and then 
electrify the tree, even though it were a 
willow, whose leaves are very long and 
slender, yet it would be so. acted 
Ropiness of Bread. —Comparative Estimate of — [ Nov. 1, 
upon, that its leaves will be raised 
up in such a mamner as to strike the 
observer with a considerable degree 
of surprise: aud the moment you touch 
even but one of its leaves, the whole tree 
becomes as languid as the sensitive-plant 
would be, if touched by any other sub- 
stance ; this appears to me to giveas good 
a proof of the truth of this conjecture 
relative to the seusitive-plant, as the 
nature of the thing will admit of. T.W. 
EE 
To the Editor of the Slonthly Magazine. 
or SS PB yh ie) 
HA frequently during the pre- 
sent and former summer, (parti- 
cularly in the hottest weather,) heard 
families complain of having ropy bread, 
and ropy liquor, that is, beer, perry, or 
cyder, and having never met with any 
thing in the least elucidatiy the pheno- 
menon of ropiness, I shall be much 
obliged to any of your ingenious corre- 
spondents who wall throw some light on 
a subject which appears to me curious; 
and no doubt such communication 
would be beneticial to society, if an ex- 
planation of the cause and a mode of 
preventing or curing the effect, (which 
renders the article it seizes unfit for the 
use of man,) were made known to the 
public through the medium of your ex- 
cellent miscellany. 
I beg leave to add, that by ropzness, 
IT mean a certain glutinous tenacious 
quality, which bread or liquor sometimes 
acquires, rendering it so adhesive as to 
run into strings resembling ropes, when 
an endeavour is made to separate it, 
This disease, (for which I have never 
heard of a cure,) is in bread deemed in- 
fectious. Whether it is the incipient 
stage of the putrefactive fermentation, 
or proceeds from some other cause, I ain 
totally unable to decide, and am, Sir, 
Eastham, Worcestershire, Yous, &c. 
Sept. Wi ASOL. Ci T. Davis. 
a : 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SIR, rN Ri Le 
‘QO man can possibly be a grcater 
admirer of Handel’s music than 
myself, and I am willing to subscribe to 
every encomium, which Mr. Marshall, Gn 
Vol. xxiii. page 225) bestows on his sacred 
works, though at the same time, I con- 
fess, I cannot agree with him, on another 
subject of the same letter. His con- 
tempt ofamodern music, I opposition to 
that of his favourite author, seems,_ 
in my opinion, not justified by his 
mode of reasoning. Handel, as 1s 
well known, excelled in no species of 
composition 
