desire to vindicate the truth of Revelation: but he has shewn so little judgment in discriminating between the testimonieswhich he has brought together, or in drawing his inferences from them, that, to make any use of his book, the historical student must take the pains of unravelling the web, and separating the facts from the fancies that have been worked up with them. The authority of the Mosaic writings would be in a perilous state, if they were to stand or fall with those of Mr. Faber.

ART. V. Memoirs of Alessandro Tassoni, Author of La Secchia Rapita, or the Rape of the Bucket; interspersed with occasional Notices of his Literary Contemporaries, and a general Outline of his various Works; also an Appendix; containing Biographical Sketches of Ottavio Rinuccini, Galileo Galilee, Gabriello Chiabrera, Battista Guarini; and an inedited Poem of Torquato Tasso. With additional Notes and the Author's Preface. By the late Jos. Cooper Walker, Esq. M.R.I.A. &c. Edited by Sam. Walker, Esq. M.R.I.A. Crown 8vo. pp. 416. 15s. Boards. Longman and Co.

Α' LESSANDRO TASSONI, the author of the Secchia Rapita, was born at Modena in 1565, of a family sufficiently noble to have preserved its pedigree from the year 1306. Being early in life an orphan, he recollected only his instructors, not his parents. His first master was an absent man, who prescribed a draught for a dead cow: but from this tuition, which, by destroying reverence, may have favoured his comic turn, he was removed to the college of Pisa, whence he passed in 1585 to Bologna, there to qualify himself for the profession of the law. From Bologna, he removed in 1591 to Ferrara, and profited by the instructions of Cremonio, a celebrated doctor of civil law, until he settled in 1592 at his native place with a view to practice. A legacy and executorship, which devolved on him in 1596, drew him to Rome; where he attracted the notice of Cardinal Ascanio Colonna, to whom he became private secretary at a liberal salary. With this patron he visited Spain, staid there until 1602, when he revisited Italy, was admitted into the academy of the Umoristi, and of the Lincei, and printed his Pensieri. He also wrote against Petrarch, who was still a national idol, but derived so little emolument from his publications as to labour under pecuniary difficulties. In 1611 he undertook the Secchia Rapita, the first and even now perhaps the best comic epopea of modern Europe. It was originally printed at Paris in 1622 but a better and emended edition, carefully superintended by the author,

author, appeared at Rome in 1624; and indeed it is somewhat doubtful whether the first edition does not bear a fictitious place of date. This poem attracted to Tassoni the attentions of the reigning pontiff Urban VIII., who suggested various corrections, which were adopted with deference in the edition of 1628. Much moral tolerance is implied in his Holiness having spared the voluptuous descriptions of the second canto.-Tassoni afterward attempted a serious poem on the expedition of Columbus, of which the first canto has been printed, but without exciting great regret for the author's lassitude. A new edition of the Pensieri was also undertaken, which is remarkable for containing a dissertation Se le Lettere e le Dottrine siano necessarie nelle Republiche, the basis of Rousseau's academical diatribe against the arts and sciences.

Tassoni was employed for a time as secretary by the Duke of Savoy, and wrote Philippics against the Spaniards: but, the Spanish party having prevailed at Turin, the obnoxious pamphleteer was dismissed. During this connection he accompanied the Duke of Fiano to the Valteline in 1623, and wrote a comic epopea narrating the expedition, and ridiculing the recent sufferings of the massacred Protestants. This composition is stated to have stimulated a Cardinal into loud laughter: but it was never printed, probably because the poet felt compunction for having written it. The author appears, however, in consequence, to have obtained from Lodovisio, Archbishop of Bologna, an appointment with a salary of four hundred Roman crowns, and a right of resi-dence in the episcopal palace; of which Tassoni usually availed himself until 1632, when his patron died. He then went back to his native Modena, and resided with his relation Lucrezio Tassoni, who died in 1634, and bequeathed to the poet a competent legacy. This he enjoyed but for a single year, having yielded to his rapidly increasing infirmities on the 25th of April 1635, at the exact age of seventy. A pension was left in his will to a natural son; and the mass of his property devolved on a knight of Malta, who was his nearest legitimate kinsman.

Such is the substance of a memoir radically derived from Muratori, and here expanded after the manner of Mr. Roscoe, Dr. Black, and other commentators of Italian literature, into a considerable volume, by adding to it literary anecdotes of all the more distinguished acquaintances and cotemporaries of the person who was to be commemorated. On this plan, every biography in a given æra might be made to consist principally of the same circumstances, and to resemble a state

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bed, which receives one guest after another, but is always more remarkable for the embroidered hangings, fluted pillars, and fringed valances, than for the little figure buried in its down and veiled with its counterpane.

This memoir is a posthumous work of Mr. Walker, the writer of an interesting history of Italian tragedy, noticed in our xxixth Vol. N.S. p. 1., and it is edited by the pious care of his only surviving brother. Some account of the last moments of the author has been prefixed. He died at St. Valeri on the 12th of April 1810, in the 49th year of his age; and a more extensive and particular biography is announced.

ART. VI.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for the Year 1816. Part I. 4to. pp. 178. 178. 6d. sewed. Nicol and Son.

ON

CHEMISTRY and PHYSIOLOGY.

the Fire-damp of Coal-mines, and on Methods of lighting the Mines so as to prevent its Explosion. By Sir H. Davy, LL.D. &c. &c.

An Account of an Invention for giving Light in explosive Mixtures of Fire-damp in Coal-mines, by consuming the Firedamp. By the Same.

Farther Experiments on the Combustion of explosive Mixtures confined by Wire-gauze, with some Observations on Flame. By the Same.

In consequence of the numerous fatal accidents which have lately occurred in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, by the explosion of the fire-damp of the coal-mines, Sir H. Davy was induced to turn his attention to the subject; and, by investigating the nature and properties of the gas, to endeavour to form some plan of prevention. He therefore went into the north of England, personally visited the collieries, obtained specimens of the inflammable air, and made every necessary inquiry respecting its production and its effects. He observes that the fire-damp had been shewn by Dr. Henry to be light carburetted hydrogen gas, and that Dr. Thomson had also made experiments on it, but that some of its most important properties still remained unascertained; particularly, its degree of combustibility, as compared with that of other inflammable gases. He found that the gas was very peculiar in this respect, for that neither strongly ignited charcoal, nor an iron rod at a high red or even a common white heat, had the power of inflaming an explosive mixture of the fire-damp and atmospherical air. He afterward examined the power of these

mixtures,

mixtures, in communicating flame through apertures of different sizes to other similar mixtures; when he discovered that this communication was entirely prevented by small apertures, or by narrow tubes or canals: a property which probably depends on the gas being cooled down to a temperature below the exploding point, by its being exposed to so large a surface during its passage. He accordingly observed that the flame passed more readily through glass than through metallic tubes of the same diameter, in consequence of the greater conducting power of the latter. The explosions were entirely stopped by metallic tubes of one-fifth of an inch in diameter, when they were one and a half inch long.

Sir H. D. next examined the effect of mixing small propor tions of carbonic acid and azote with the explosive mixtures; and he found that only a small quantity of either of these gases, as one part of azote to six, or one part of carbonic acid to seven of the mixture, entirely prevented it from exploding.

Having made these important discoveries respecting the properties of the fire-damp, and especially concerning its explosive power when mixed with atmospherical air, he proceeded to his great object; viz. the invention of some apparatus by which light might be emitted from burning oil or tallow, and yet this flame be incapable of setting fire to a quantity of the inflammable gas in which it was immersed. He contrived several sorts of an instrument for this purpose, somewhat differing in their construction, but all essentially depending on the same principle. It was a lantern, to which the air was admitted only in a limited quantity, and through small tubes or apertures: so that, if by any accident a portion of the fire-damp should enter the apparatus, the air in the inside would probably not contain a sufficient proportion of oxygen for its explosion; or, if an explosion did take place, the effect would simply be to extinguish the light, without the possibility of its being communicated to the surrounding atmosphere.

Although this safety-lantern must be deemed a most valuable invention, inasmuch as it promises security to the lives of the miners, and is attended only with the comparatively trifling inconvenience of the light being extinguished by the fire-damp, yet it is superseded by the apparatus which the author describes in the second paper; which is more simple in its construction, equally safe for the miners, and possesses the additional advantage of consuming the fire-damp without the possibility of its exploding. In his former experiments on the passage of the flame through small apertures, Sir H. found that it could not be communicated through fine

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wire-sieves or wire-gauze; and on this discovery the improve instrument is framed.

The invention consists in covering or surrounding the flame of a lamp or candle by a wire sieve; the coarsest that I have tried with perfect safety contained 625 apertures in a square inch, and the wire was of an inch in thickness; the finest, 6400 apertures in a square inch, and the wire was of an inch in diameter.

"When a lighted lamp or candle screwed into a ring soldered to a cylinder of wire gauze, having no apertures, except those of the gauze or safe apertures, is introduced into the most explosive mixture of carburetted hydrogene and air, the cylinder becomes filled with a bright flame, and this flame continues to burn as long as the mixture is explosive. When the carburetted hydrogene is to the air as 1 to 12, the flame of the wick appears within the flame of the fire-damp; when the proportion is as high as 1 to 7, the flame of the wick disappears.'

We are informed that, when the thicker wires are used in the gauze, the metal becomes red hot, but yet no explosion takes place; and the larger are the openings the brighter is the flame: so that, when there are 625 apertures to the square inch, a mixture of one part of coal-gas with seven parts of air produces a most brilliant light. These results lead to many inquiries respecting the nature and communication of flame, which form the subject of the third paper: but, in the mean time, we must admit the justice of the following most important conclusion:

All that the collier requires to ensure security, are small wire cages to surround his candle or his lamp, which may be made for a few pence, and of which various modifications may be adopted; and the application of this discovery will not only preserve him from the fire-damp, but enable him to apply it to use, and to destroy it at the same time that it gives him an useful light."

उठ

Having established the general principle, of the power of wire-gauze in insulating flame, Sir H. Davy's next object was to ascertain what were the limits of the size of the apertures, and of the wire, which were sufficient to produce this effect. He discovered that, if wire of of an inch in diameter be formed into a gauze, containing 100 apertures in the square inch, an explosion will take place as soon as the wire becomes hot: but that the same wire, formed into a gauze with 576 apertures in an inch, is perfectly safe under all circumstances. He had observed in his former experiments that a flame, confined in a cylinder of very fine wire-gauze, did not explode a mixture of oxygene and hydrogene, but that the gases burnt in it with great vivacity.' This singular fact suggested some new considerations respecting the nature of the flame of combustible bodies, and induced him to conclude that it does not consist