————— 
448 
and who knew the faéts, of what they 
had done during the year for improving 
the condition of their fubjects, that this 
fingie and apparently flight circumftance 
would better the fituation of all mankind ; 
and I am defirous, if any Britith govern- 
ment in Ivdia fhould ever, in fimilar cala- 
mitous circumftances, forget its moft im- 
portant and facred duties, that this ex- 
ample fhould be recorded for their re- 
proach and difgrace. 
Upon the whole, I am fure that I confi- 
derably underftate the faé&t in feying, that 
the Britith Government in this ifland has 
faved thelives of ONE HUNDRED THOU- 
SAND perfons, and, what is more impor- 
tant, that it has prevented the greater part 
ef the mifery through which they muft 
have pafied before they found refuge in 
death, befides the mifery of all thofe who 
loved them, or who depended upon. their 
care. 
The exiftence, therefore, of a Britifh 
Government in Bombay, in 1804,, has 
been a bleffing to its fubje&ts. Would to 
God, that every Government of the world 
could with truth make a Similar declara- 
tion! 
Many of you have been, and many will 
be, entrufied with authority over multi- 
tudes of your fellow-creatures. Your 
means of doing good will not indeed be fo 
great as thofe of which I have now de- 
{cribed to you the employment and the 
effect. But they will be confiderable.— 
Let me hope that every one of you will be 
ambitious to be able to fay to your own 
confcience, I have done fomething to bet- 
ter the condition of the people entrufted to 
my care. I take theliberty to affure you, 
that you will not find fuch  refleétions 
among the leaft agreeable or valuable part 
of that ftore which youlay up or your de- 
clining years. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
A focrt account of the moft remarkable 
FACTS and QBSERVATIONS iz an 
AEROSTATFIC VOYAGE made from 
PETERSBURG, JUNE 30, 1804, by 
MESSRS. ROBERTSON aud sACHA- 
- ROFF, under the SANCTION of the IM- 
PERIAL ACADEMY. 
ACCOUNT 6f a? AEROSTATIC VOYAGE 
_ performed at PARIS in the MIDDLE of 
OCTOBER, 1804, by M. GUY-LUSAC. 
HE object of thefe voyages being the 
farce, viz. the defire of obtaining phi- 
lofophical information, we have thought 
it right to combine the accounts of both 
in a fingle article, that the readex may, at 
Aécroflatic Vayages from Peterfourg and Paris, 
[June 1, 
one view, fee what has been done, and 
how much has been obtained, by two 
acrial excurfions, undertaken folely with 
a view to enlarge the boundaries of {ci- 
ence. 
The Imperial Academy of Sciences at 
Peterfburg entertained an opinion, that 
the experiments made by De Lue, Sauf- 
fure, Humboldt, and others, on moun- 
tains, muft give refults different from 
thofe made in the open air; that this dif- 
ference might arife from the attraCtion of 
the earth, and the decompofition of orga- 
nized bodies ; and that, by thefe means, the 
law which accurately determines the heighe 
of the atmofphere might perhaps be found. 
With. this view they requefted the acade- 
mician Lowitz, who undertook to make 
the experiments in the atmofphere, to con- 
fer on the fubje&t with Profeflor Robertfon. 
Mr. Robertfon not only confented to ac- 
company Lowitz, but offered the Academy 
a balloon which he had conftruéted at his 
own expence. While preparations were 
making for the excurfion, M, Lowitz fell 
fick, and M. Saccharoff undertook to 
fupply his place. : 
The experiments propofed by the Aca- 
demy, which were to be made at the great- 
eft diftance from the earth, were, what re- 
Jated to the fafter or flower evaporation of 
fluids; the variation of the magnetic 
orce 3 the inclination of the needle ; the 
increafe in the power of the folar rays te 
excite heat ; the greater faintnefs of the 
colours produced by the prifm; the ex- 
iftence or non-exiftence of the electric mat- 
ter ; fome obfervations on the influence | 
and changes which the rarification of the 
air occafions in the human body ; the fly- 
ing of birds; the filling with air flatks 
exhaufted by Torricelli’s method, at each 
fall of an inch in the barometer, &c. &c. 
For thefe purpofes the aéronauts carried 
with them : x. Twelve flafks in a box ; 
2. A barometer and thermometer con- 
joined; 3. Athermometer ; 4. Twoelec- 
trometers, with fealing-wax and fulphur ; ~ 
5. Acompaisand magnetic-needle; 6. A 
watch that beat feconds; 7. A beil; &. 
A fpeaking-trumpet ; 9. A prifm of cry 
tal ; to. Unilacked lime, and other fub- 
{tances for chemical and philofophical ex- 
E periments. 
The balloon made ufe ofonthis occafion 
was a {phere of 30 feetin diameter, and rofe’ 
at a quarter. paft feven in the evening, 
with the afcenfional force of one pound, the 
whole weight of folid matter (including 
110 pounds of fand for ballaft) being 622 
pounds, When they were over the river 
Neva, at the elevation ef 108 toifes, or 
62@ 
