4. Canon law. I was therefore desirous of making 5. The constitution and public law trials of its efficacy, aided by other of Great Britain. 6. The law of England. 7. The law of Scotland. 8. Mercantile law. 9. Military law. 10. Foreign law. means for obviating the usual concurrent causes of putrescence, which appear to be moisture, warmth, and the access of atmospheric air. With this view I procured some vessels to be made of tin, which may be As a specimen of the subdivisions we shortly described as canisters, to which give the instance of POETRY. Sec. 1. Greek poets. 1. Originals. 2. Translations. Sec. 1. Roman poets. 2. Translations. Sec. 3. French poets. written in Latin. 2. French poets who have have 3. Translations of French poets. Sec. 4. Italian poets. Sec. 5. English poets. a sliding lid is adapted. Into these vessels fumes of charcoal were introduced to expel the air, and substitute for it carbonic acid. They were then filled with slices of raw meat between layers of dry charcoal powder, and carefully closed, luting the lid, and then covering the whole with bladder. In this state the tin vessels were placed in a wine cellar, where they remained for more than eight months, from the beginning of April to the present month (December). Four of these vessels were opened on the 6th and the remainder on the 8th December. The meat was found perfectly sound, firm, and sweet; except 1. Translations of English two pieces which were soft. In all the On the preservation of Meat by means of Charcoal.-The antiseptic power of charcoal has long been known; the domestic use of it to remove or to disguise a slight taint of meat, which has been overkept, is familiar: as is the employment of it to subdue the stench of animal corruption in other circumstances. Trials had been likewise made of it for preserving raw meat for a long time, and preventing instead of merely remedying the decay; but not with complete success, or satisfactory result. rest, including three sorts of meat, the fat and the lean were alike good; and, on rubbing or scraping off the charcoal, the raw meat had precisely the appearance which it has when fresh from the shambles. Some of the pieces were dressed and tasted: and were pronounced to be entirely sound. A few were、 kept, after being taken out of the charcoal, and did not become tainted until after six days. The charcoal had imbibed a smell not unlike that of dried meat; but not materially offensive. The meat itself was entirely free from that smell. It is my intention to repeat and vary the experiment, chiefly with a view to ascertain whether any considerable changes of temperature can be rendered consistent with the preservation of raw meat by this method; observing the other precautions. It is plain however, that independently of still greater usefulness which would attend so desirable a result, the mode followed to the extent of the present successful trial cannot but be attended with much practical utility. It is both simple and cheap. Upon this account, and considering the time requisite to make progress in experiments where results are not obtained until after several months, I have not judged it necessary to defer the 358 communication of the success which lic, that the diminished strength of such has attended a first trial. 15th December, 1817. H. T: C. Patent Malt.-There are few patents that promise to be of such great national importance as one lately obtained by D. Wheeler and Co. for a new and improved method of preparing brown malt. The essential difference between ale and porter is, that the latter liquor is of a much deeper colour than the former, and has besides a peculiar empyreumatic flavour, not easily defined, though universally known. This colour and this flavour were originally obtained by mixing with the pale malt commonly used for brewing ale a certain proportion of malt dried at a somewhat higher temperature, and, in consequence of being thus slightly scorched, capable of communicating to the water in which it is infused a deep tan-brown colour, and a peculiar flavour. In the composition of the best genuine porter, two parts of brown malt are required to three parts of pale malt. The price of the former is generally about seven-eighths of the latter; but the proportion of saccharine matter which it contains does not, according to the highest estimate, exceed onehalf of that afforded by the pale malt, and probably on an average scarcely amounts to one fifth. Taking, however, the proportion of sugar in brown malt even at about one-half, it follows that the porter brewers are paying for the colour and flavour of their liquor onefifth of the entire cost of their malt. The price of this latter article has of late years increased so enormously, and the mutual competition of the manufacturers has become so active, as to offer temptations, not easily resisted, either of supplying the flavour and colour of porter by the use of Spanish liquorice, burned sugar, and other similar ingredients, which, however innocent in themselves, are prohibited by the Legislature, or of diminishing the strength of the liquor: thus rendering it more liable to become sour or vapid by keeping, and hence bringing on the necessity of using, alkaline substances to correct the first, and deleterious narcotics, such as coculus indicus, to supply the deficiency of alcohol. The result of all this is, that a large quantity of ill-made xious liquor is forced upon the pub as is made of allowed ingredients drives multitudes of the lower classes to the use of gin and opium, and that the scandalous frequency of frauds on this branch of the revenue has entirely abolished all moral feeling on the subject, and reduced it to a mere calculation of expediency. It appears that the patentees have discovered that, by exposing common malt to a temperature of about 430° Fahr., in close vessels, it acquires a dark chocolate-brown colour, and is rendered so soluble in water, either hot or cold, that, when mixed with pale malt in the proportion of one-eightieth, it communicates to the liquor the perfect colour and flavour of porter. From this it follows that the brewer, by employing four parts of pale malt and one-twentieth of a part of patent malt, may obtain a stronger liquor than from his usual proportions of three parts of pale and two parts of brown malt. The saving thus occasioned ought in equity to be divided between the patentees, the brewer, and the public. The revenue will be benefited by the increased consumption which will necessarily result from an improvement in the quality of the porter; and both the revenue and public morals will derive advantage from the greatly diminEd. Mag. ished temptation of fraudulent practi ces. The following is particularly worthy of the notice of directors of banking establishments, stock and exchange brokers, and of merchants and others, in general, whose counting houses are so frequently the subjects of depredation, where they contain notes and deposits of value. The construction and properties of Bramah's patent lock, in which the confidence of the public has so long reposed, having become a subject of discussion at the meetings of the Royal Institution, Mr. Bramah attended, and exhibited a large model, explanatory of the principles of his late father's lock and his own improvements upon it, to the institution; when every one was satisfied with the almost utter impossibility of opening locks upon this construction, their security depending upon the doctrine of combinations or inultiplica tion of numbers into each other, which is known to increase in the most rapid proportion Thus a lock of five sliders admits of 3000 variations, while one of eight, which are commonly made, will have no less than 1,935,360 changes, or, in other words, that number of attempts at making a key, or at picking it may be made, before it can be opened. Such was the case in the lifetime of its late ingenious inventor: but, by the simple improvement of his sons, the present manufacturers, this difficulty may be increased an hundred fold, or in a greater proportion, without at all adding to the complication of the lock. FINE ARTS. Poonah or Indian Painting.-This is a method of painting lately introduced from India, by which (with Poonah guides) the ladies of London have been enabled to decorate their dresses, &c. so as to give the appearance of real fruit or flowers. It is also applied to painting landscapes, animals, &c. We are also informed, that it is not necessary the pupil should be previously acquainted with drawing, and that it is done in less than half the usual time. Mr. Middleton has commenced teaching the whole of this elegant art in Edinburgh. PHILOSOPHICAL. Miss M'Evoy.-An account has appeared in the newspaper and in a philosophical Journal (Dr. Thomson's,) of a blind young woman at Liverpool, possessed of most extraordinary powers in the organs of touch, and a work has been written, by a medical gentleman, expressly on the subject. These powers are stated not to depend upon an improvement of the sense of feeling by habitual exercise, nor even upon a preternatural sensibility of feeling, but upon the actual formation of an optical organ in the skin of the fingers, hands, &c. She is said to feel the hour of the day through the plate of a watch-glass, and to distinguish colours and objects reflected by a mirror. Whoever considers the nature of the eye, and of the sense of vision, must pronounce the case to be no less than miraculous. Dr. Darwin, in his loose speculations on organic life, has traced an irritable fibre becoming sensitive, and by its appetencies acquiring the organs necessary for its existence. This case affords the only accredited fact we believe yet on record A young in favour of his hypothesis. woman is blind, and has an appetency for the sense of vision, and she gains not two eyes as a compensation for those she had lost, but ten, one in each of her fingers, besides occasional ones in the back of her hand and her cheek. There seems to be an extraordinary sympathy and connexion, we are informed, between these newly produced organs and those she has lost; for we have heard that on a book being presented to her having blue paper on one side and yellow on the other, she felt the part uppermost and said that it was blue, and on being asked what the colour was, she turned round the book so as to bring it into her natural sphere of vision, and then said it was yellow. There can be no doubt that she sees, and some persons may suppose not with her fingers. NAVIGATION. Mr. Hunter of Edinburgh has invented an instrument which is of great importance to the navigator. From two altitudes of the sun, and the interval of time between the observations, he can determine, within five minutes after the second observation, the latitude of the place, the hour from noon, and the variation of the compass. According to the common form of calculation for double altitudes, the latitude by account is supposed to be known, which in the use of this instrument is not necessary. It has been tried in several examples, and the results always found very near the truth. If a vessel was driven from her course by storms or currents, if the reckoning was altogether lost, and the mariner could not get a meridian observation, with this instru ment and a chronometer, he could, in a few minutes after the second observation, ascertain his position on the ocean with accuracy. An invention of so much utility in navigation is worthy of encouragement from those concerned in the commerce of the country. BOTANY. A botanical work in folio, printed from stone, consisting of coloured figures of rare plants, will be published in the early part of this year. The figures are taken from the collection of Chinese and Indian drawings in the possession of William Cattley, Esq. [The following is from the pen of Richard Nisbet, of the Pennsylvania Hospital. It is not unusual to find poets among persons similarly cir cumstanced; but their effusions mostly betray the wildness of an unsettled brain, and their flights of fancy are in the regions of extravagance. This piece is of a different character. It manifests a connexion of ideas, and a faithful adherence to the subject, which would not disgrace a poet whose rationality had never been suspended. The justness of the eulogy will be readily admitted by every one who had the happiness of an acquaintance with the much lamented Doctor, whose mildness of manners, and tenderness of disposition, appear to have left an indelible impression, even on the mind of the deranged.] Ah! virtuous youth! unknown, unsought too long! (Thy treasures lock'd, of cordial, mental fire) To thee, though prompt, how poor the friendly song→→ 6 By Almus Pater-fount of worth and love, May'st thou be blest in some Elysian sphere! 7 Meanwhile be mine to search where thanks are due; R. N. THE ANALECTIC MAGAZINE. MAY, 1818. ART. I.-The Emigrant's Guide to the Western and Southwestern States and Territories: comprising a geographical and statistical description of the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio;-the Territories of Alabama, Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan; and the western parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. With a complete list of the road and river routes, west of the Aleghany mountains, and the connecting_roads from New York, Philadelphia, and Washington City, to New-Orleans, St. Louis, and Pittsburg. The whole compris ing a more comprehensive account of the soil, productions, climate, and present state of improvement of the regions described, than any work hitherto published. Accompanied by a map of the United States, including Louisiana, projected and engraved expressly for this work. By William Darby, Member of the New York Historical Society, and author of a Map and statistical account of the State of Louisiana and the adjacent regions. New York: Kirk and Mercein. THE HE establishment of new settlements in our extended territories, operates upon the interests of the nation in a manner somewhat analogous to the colonial systems of the European powers. We do not, it is true, restrict importation to our own ports; we throw open the benefits of free trade to all those possessions which by treaty have been ceded, unconditionally as to their rights and privileges, and which, prior to their cession, were in a state of colonial dependence and restriction, we do not confine intercourse to our own Flag. The principles of general liberty on which our constitution is founded, extend equality to every member of the social compact; yet the vivifying effects of colonization are alike felt. Emigration rapidly fills up the void of every new acquisition, and the character of the emigrating population ensures the speedy development of its resources. The tillage of new lands affords to our vessels substantial objects of export,* while the demand for im *Especially in the article of flour. During twelve months between 5 and 600,000 barrels of flour were imported by American vessels into Liverpool alone. We have no returns of the supplies entered from the United States at other ports of Great Britain, or at the ports of France, but they must have been considerable. |