226 
cut down and destroyed thousands, nay 
millions, of the human race; and in one 
of thy trivial freaks, thou hast cat down 
and destroyed the lofty ne solemn 
groves of St. Mary’s Isle, where the an- 
cient and warlike Caledonians assembled 
inaerowds for their devotion ; where they 
wept over the dust.of their departed 
friends, and viewed, with gustening eyes, 
and a melancholy pleasure, the sacred 
oaks under which themselves were one 
day to repose in the dust, free from the 
eares and hardships of that barren re- 
gion. Well, well, thou great mover of 
all our actions : thou great source of con- 
fusion, villainy, and destruction, go on and 
prosper. Heaven grant that thou art 
not at this very time secretly inciting a 
humble tourist to multiply words with- 
‘out wisdom. 
Leaving the holy isle, we again steered 
our course for Letterewe, where we 
‘shortly arrived. You will think, if 
i go backward and forward in this 
manner, I shall be as long in getting 
through the Highlands, as the chitdren 
of Israel were in the wilderness. But 
here your fancy must repose for a few 
days, until my next. arrive, which shall 
conduct it through a scene the most 
awful that we have yet visited. 
Ettrick. Thy. 
EE 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
AER. JONES, in a communication 
N to your ma agazine for last month, 
on the damp in coal- -mines, appears to 
have confounded the choak with the 
fire-damp, Bott very common in those 
mines. The first arises froin carbonic 
acid, and has a effect of extinguishing 
the lights, and rendering respiration dif 
ficult: in this case, slaking lime in the 
mine would be undoubtedly serviceable 
by absorbing, not “ producing,” carbonic 
acid. The ies 1s produced by hy- 
drogen gas, which is by no means un- 
‘frequent, especially if the miner chance 
to break inte an old working; and which 
may possibly be generated by the decom- 
position of the water, by the pyrites 
which are almost invariably found with 
the coal. The hydrogen is innoxious, (at 
least in the state of mixture with atmo- 
spheric air, in which it occurs in mines,) | s 
uuless it come in contact with any flame ; 
when an immediate explosion is the i in- 
evitable consequence. Canton’s phos- 
On the Plan for recording Alphabetical Sounds. 
4 
pai ot 
eminence, as a substitute for candies or 
lamps; of its success there can be litte 
doukt, considering the small quantity of 
hight required in a mine. The French 
have employed a wheel, armed with 
flints, which revolves against pieces of 
steel, and the light from the sparks has 
been found suficient: but Canton’s phos- 
phorus is certainly preferable, from its 
portability, and much greater cheap- 
ness. 
London, Nov. 4, 1899. 
Satire 
Te the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
rg °<HOUGH, in his strictures on Mr. 
iall’s plan for haviding down to 
posterity the wavy m1 which the modern 
languages. are. pronounced, your corre- 
spondent Z, in your nurabers for. July 
1808, and last month, scems to possess the 
power of combining ; yet he evidently 
wants that ee no less necessary, the 
power of discriminating ideas, and 
throwing out nothing but what bears on 
the point in hand. It as easy te huddle 
together a number of ludicrous ideas 
against any plan or proposal whatever, 
however useful and wopertant. Dr. 
Jones, who seems to possess the power 
of discriminating, as well as combining 
ideas, has, in my opinion, taken up the 
matter on more rational ground ;, and 
shewn, in_ your number for August last, 
that, though they differ, in many. re- 
spects from those of man, yet, on the 
whole, the .cries of the inferior animals 
seem adequate to represent all the 
sounds, necessarily arising from the va-. 
rious. combination of the letters of the 
alphabet. When the dog barks, when 
he snarls, when he rejoices at the retarn 
of his master, when he cries on being 
confined; when the cock crows, when he 
calls bis wives ; when the hen clucks, 
when she ealls her young, when she 
warns them of danger; when the cat 
mews: when the horse neighs; when the 
bull roars; when the duck quacks; when 
the pigeon coos; and the thrush sings: 
these, and a thousand other pOunEE, pro- 
duced by the inferior animals, evidently 
shew, that there are sounds to be found 
in every country, at all times the same, 
which, on being applied to words and 
syllables, seem calculated to fix the man- 
her in. which these words or syllables 
are pronounced. 
Had the Romans, who in a great mea 
phorus, enclosed between plates of glass, sure adopted the laws, customs, phra- 
has been proposed by a chemist of seology, and even many of the words 
3 and 
i 
FP ee ee 
