810.] 
Mar Dionysius, 
Tndian church? But though»all these — 
MSS. were brought from India, some 
were written at ‘Antioch, in Mesopo- 
tamia, and in other parts of Syria, Asia, 
and Africa, The Hebrew Pentateuch 
already mentioned, being probably one 
of the oldest MSS. extant, is a curlosity 
of the highest value and importance. Itis 
written upon a rell of goat-skins, dyed 
ved, and was found in the record-chest of 
a synagogue of the black Jews, in the 
interior of Malayala, in 1806. It mea- 
sures in length forty-eight feet, and in. 
breadth about twenty-two inches, ora 
Jewish cubit. The ha of Leviticus, 
and most parts of Deuteronomy, are 
wanting. . The original length of the roll 
was not less than ninety | feet, as appears 
from calculation, and it is properly 
Morocco, though now much faded. In 
its present state, it consists of -thirty- 
seven skins, contains one. hundred and 
- seventeen columns of writing, perfectly 
clear and legible, and exhibits a noble 
example of the manner and form of the 
‘most ancient Hebrew manuscripts ainong 
athe Jews. The columns are a palm 
broad, and contain from forty-Yive to 
- fifty lines each. 
appear more ancient than others, and it 
is evident, from a bare inspection, that 
they were not all written at the same. 
ai Hein or by the same hand... 
Tre Drovcut.—About twenty years 
ago, Sir Recwanp Purrwips published a 
dissertation, in which, arguing from the 
‘analogy of Nature, he coticeived itin the 
power of man to regulate the weather to 
certain extents. Nature, he remarked, 
provides bigh mountains and the innu- 
‘mierable. spiculz of leaves and grass, as 
means by which the electricity of the 
atmosphere aud the clouds is regu. 
Jated. Droughts arise when these, from 
an accidental absence of rain or mois- 
ture, cease to be good conductors, and 
a rainy season is a consequence of these 
becoming too powerful as conductors. 
Jlence mountains, trees, and vegetation, 
-Jnerease the quantity of rain In all-coun 
tries, and the cause and etfect alternately 
interchange... Hence too the immutable 
sterility of certain districts of Africa and 
Asia; and hence lhkewise the changes 
which have been observed to take plade 
in the fertility of coantries, All the pe- 
culiar phenomena.of Peru,-and other 
countries, may also be referred to the 
same causes. The practical deduction 
which Sir Richard Phillips made trom 
this reasoning was, that man, by means 
of very high metallic conductors, may be 
Literary and Philosophical 1 nielligence, 
the archbishop of the vable-so- ‘to affect ‘the electticity of the i 
‘count of the immense value and great in 
“respecting the toad, is communic 
Some of the skins” 
toad to see the experiment myse 
“he 
oa a i 
e $81. 
clouds as to produce the same e! ects as, 
Nature produces from the action cf moun- 
tains. and the points of trees, leaves, 
and vegetables; and he sabmitted the i 
idea to the notice and adoption of pa- \ 
triotic and Poe governments, in 
The idea of regulating the weather may, 
on a superficial view, appear to be a very me 
bold one; but when it is considered i 
that man triumphs over the seasons, — a 
and subjects Nature in many other see 
respects to his rule, an artificial m | 
of affecting the clouds ought not to 
considered as impossible ; and the no- 
tion deserves to’ be re-considered. on 
pore of the objects i in Feil 
‘The following curious circumsta \¢ 
correspondent to ‘Nicholson’s. Journal: 
<¢A person,” says ne, “ in the enhe 8 eee 
hood of Maidstone, who mavufactures _ 
brown paper, informed me, while I was” 
observing his people at work) ‘that h ad : 
frequently placed a toad amidst a pile: 
sheets to be pressed, and. always found: 
alive and well on taking it out, t 
‘must have sustained with the pape 
pressure equivalent to’several tons; 
frog could never survive the same deg 
of pressur ae sought along tit 
. but 
was unable to find one ‘all alter ee men ; 
had left work.” ; ee 
Sir GeorcE Mata viel soba sill ¥ 
by Mr. Henry TloLtLanp, and | Mr. ‘a 
cHaRD Baicur of the University 
burgh, has sailed from Leith fo: 
whence they proceed to. Teeland, | tg 
vessel from London. The abject of this 
arduous undertaking 1 is to explore a ae uM 
of that inhospitable country, which 
nevertheless, in the circumscribed stat e te 
of our COMME TERS ‘is well worth the atten= eee 
tion of Great Britain. In return Wrean 
coarse fabrics, we might procure from cee 
such articles as Iceland, with proper mas 
navement, would yield in great plenty, 
suchas fish, oil, feathers, andsulphur, the 
seurcity of which last article is such as ‘ 
‘to have already attracted the notice of 
parliament. 
At a late meeting of the Society of 
Arts, a premium of fifty guineas was 
awarded to Mr. Joan Davis, of John- 
street, Spitalfields, for a highly ingenious 
‘fire-escape, which promises to. be of 
great utility in decreasing the number of 
personal «ecidents which are so fre- 
quently occurring in cases of fire. This 
contrivance consists of a curious yet 
simply-construcied ladder, or rather 
; three 
