244 
Mr. Joun Gouen, of Middleshaw, has 
published some interesting observations 
on domesticated dormice, which strongly 
tend to invalidate the received theory of 
torpidity. The aceount which he gives 
of his expermnents is as follows: —“ Ha- 
ving procured two dormice, in January, : 
1792, which were caught in the woods 
but a few days before they came into my 
hands, I confmed them in a cage, fur- 
nished with a thermometer, and placed 
in a chamber where no fire was kept. 
They were supplied regularly with water 
and food, consisting of hazel-nuts and 
biscuits. The weather in February being 
warm for the season at the beginning 
and end of the month, and frosty from 
the 16th to the 28th, I had an opportu- 
nity to observe that whenever the ther- 
mometer, which was attached to the 
cage, feli to 42°, the dormice became 
inactive, and remained apparently in- 
sensible as long as the heat of that part 
of the chamber did not exceed the above- 
mentioned teniperature; but whenever the 
mercury reached 47° they became very 
susceptible of external impression, and 
awaked in the evenings,when they repaired 
to their stock of provisions, of which they 
consumed not a little. ‘The same dry 
food being injudiciously continued through 
the summer, they grew sickly and died, 
so that Thad not a second opportunity 
to attend to the economy of this couple 
during the cold season. About the mid- 
dle of April, 1795, I obtained a third 
dormouse. Experience taught me to 
manage this in a manner more congenial 
to its constitution. In addition to the 
nuts and biscuits, it was constantly sup- 
plied with green hazel bads or raisins in 
spring; with ripe fruits in summer, and 
with apples and raisins in winter. This 
generous diet not only preserved the 
creature in health and high condition, 
but appeared to fortify it against the be- 
numbing effects of cold, which it suppor- 
ted the following winter much better 
than the other couple had done; for it 
ever slept more than forty-eight hours, 
and that but seldom, without visiting the 
cup which contained its provisions. [ 
now began to suspect the torpidity of the 
dormouse, in a wud state, to be nothing 
but a custom imposed by necessity on a 
constitution which nature has intended 
to retain life during the coid season of 
winter, with but little food and an imper- 
fect degree of respiration, as well as a lan- 
guid, or, perhaps, partial action of the san- 
guiferous system. The uncommonly severe 
weather which ushered in the year 1795, 
Literary and Philosophical Intelligence. 
[April 1, 
confirmed this opinioa apparently beyond 
dispute ; for notwithstanding the hard 
frost it braved the cold with wonderful 
indifference. It awaked every. evening, 
when 1t consumed in the course of the 
night a quantity of food ampunting to 
one hundred or one hundred and twenty 
grains, and frequently gnawed’ the ice 
which covered the water in the cage. It 
even undertook, in the coldest part of 
January, to repair its nese, which hap- 
pened to receive an injury, and accom- 
plished the task in one night.” 
Mr. Josera Jewrt, has invented a 
new process of producing calomel that 
shall always be in the state of an impal- 
pable powder. This is effected by a 
particular manipulation in the last sub- 
limation of the calomel, which he de- 
scribes as follows :—“ I take calomel or 
mercurius dulcis, broken into small pieces, 
and put it into an earthen’ crucible of 
the form of a long bowl, so as to fill 
about. one half of it. I place the cru- 
cible on its side in a furnace provided 
with an opening, through which the mouth 
of the cracible projects about aw inch. 
I then join to the mouth of the crucible 
an earthen ware receiver, having an 
Opening at its oe to receive the open 
end of the crucible, The receiver is 
about half filled with water. I lute the 
joint with a mixture of sand and pipe- 
elay. The receiver has a cover, that has 
a side continued upwards for containing 
water, with a chimney or tube in it to 
allow ‘the escape of steam from the wa- 
ter below. I then apply a fire round the 
crucible sufficient to raise the calomel 
in vapors, and force it through the mouth 
of the crucible into the receiver; where, 
by the water while cold, or assisted by 
the steam when it becomes hot, it Js in- 
stantly condensed into an impalpable 
powder, possessing all the qualities of ca- 
Jomel in its most perfect state. The ca- 
lomel, when thus prepared, is purer, 
ees and more attenuated than that 
obtained by grinding. It is proper to 
wash the product over with water, before 
it is dried, to rid it of the. coarser par- 
ticles which may form about the mouth 
of the crucible. 
Mr. Josep Hume has published some 
observations on the use of sulphur as a 
vermifage, and the proper way of apply- 
ing It to vegetables. The method is ex- 
tremely simple, for nothing more ts re~ 
quired than to sprinkle sublimed sulphur, 
or what is commonly called flowers of © 
brimstone, over the leaves of the tree or 
plant wherever the effects of worms or 
insects 
