TO THE EIGHTH VOLUME OF THE MONTHLY REVIEW ENLARGED. FOREIGN LITERATURE. ART. I. Hiftoire et Mémoires de la Société des Sciences Phyfiques de Lausanne: i. e. The History and Memoirs of the Philofophical Society of Laufanne. Vol. III. For the Years 1787 and 1788. 4to. pp. 484. Laufanne. 1790. A$ s the compilers of this volume have not introduced it by any prefatory addrefs, nor have given any farther account of the ftate of the fociety, than by informing us that, fince the publication of the laft volume, it has acquired four new members, we shall imitate their conciseness, and proceed to give a brief view of the memoirs; in which we shall follow the claffical arrangement of the table of contents, in preference to the promiscuous manner in which they follow each other in the body of the work. GENERAL PHYSICS. On Fires, and the Means of extinguishing them. By the Abbé BERTHOLON. This fubject is important and interefting: but the Abbé has rather collected the obfervations and experiments made by others, than conveyed any new and original information. He afcribes the inflammability of bodies to the inflammable gas which they contain; and which, on their decompofition by heat, is let loose, and, coming into contact with the atmosphere, is ignited, and bursts out into flame. The principal part of the memoir is devoted to a detail of the means of preventing and extinguishing fires; and here the author's chief advice, which is, in the conftruction of buildings, to employ as little APP. REY, VOL. VIII. LI as as poffible of thofe materials which yield inflammable air on their decompofition,' will be allowed to be perfectly just in theory, but will probably be little followed in practice; nor is the fecurity refulting from brick floors likely to compenfate for their inelegant appearance. He informs us, however, that M. Ango, an architect of Paris, has contrived a method of conftruding a floor with iron bars, instead of timber joifts, which is even less expensive than the common mode. The wood ufed in building may be rendered uninflammable by being fteeped in a faline folution; and, by being prepared with alum, even canvas and paper hangings may be made to burn without flame. Many other precautions are mentioned by the Abbé, which we fhall not detail, because they are univerfally known, and, we believe, pretty generally adopted. After defcribing the inventions of Mr. Hartly and Lord Mahon, together with a preparation fimilar to that of Lord M. recommended by M. Frederic of Vienna, the Abbé gives an account of a fubftance, which he calls paper flene, invented by Dr. Faye, physician to the Swedish Admiralty. Its compofition is not known: but, from a chemical analyfis, it appears to confit of two parts of an earthy bafis, and one of animal oil, mixed up with two parts of fome vegetable fubftance. Carlferone, a hut was built of diy wood covered with this paper, which is not more than two lines in thicknefs; it was then filled with combuftibles, which were fet on fire and confumed without burning the building: the paper, which had been pafted on the boards, was reduced to a cinder, and formed a kind of incruftation which preferved them from the effects of the flame. As this paper readily takes any colour, it may be rendered ornamental as well as uteful. In his directions for extinguifhing fires, the Abbé obferves that water, in which a small quantity of potafh has been diffolved, is more efficacious than any other; he alfo recommends an engine, called the Hydraulic ventilator, invented by M. Caficili, which is worked by vanes inftead of piftons, and may be managed by one perfon. The advantages afcribed by our author to this machine are very confiderable: but we cannot fupprefs our aftonishment on being told that, with a cylinder of only three inches in diameter, it will throw up more water than the large fire-engines: however, it certainly appears to be lefs expenfive and more portable than the common forcing pumps, and may be of ufe in extinguifbing a fire before it has made any great progrefs. The utility of garden mould with wet fand, in this refpe, is well known: but it can seldom be applied; and we doubt the efficacy of the kind of catapulta, which the author recommends for throwing it to any distance. The The remainder of the memoir contains fome very just but obvious remarks on the neceffity of a regular difcipline among firemen; and it concludes with a particular defcription of the engines, cifterns, and pipes, at the opera-house in Paris, the conftruction and arrangement of which the Abbé recommends to be adopted in every public theatre. Account of a Species of Somnambulism occafioned by a Blow on the Head. By L. LEVADE, M. D. This diforder appears to have been what Etmuller and fome other medical writers call an epilepfy of the fecond degree. The patient, a lad of about nineteen years of age, had received a violent blow on the temple from a brutal fellow, to whom he had been apprentice. During the paroxism, refentment of the ill treatment which he had received from his master was the prevailing impreffion on his mind, and regulated all his actions: but when the fit was over, he remembered nothing of what he had faid and done in it. Dr. LEVADE prefcribed frequent and copious bleeding, and he conceives that it was of great fervice; we think it fortunate that this abundant and repeated evacuation did not prevent the patient's recovery, which we rather attribute to the use of the bark, valerian, and flowers of zinc. Report by Meffrs. LEVADE, REYNIER, and BERTHOUT VAN BERCHEM Jun', commiffioned by the Society to inquire into a Cafe of Noctambulation. This report was published in the year 1788, and an account of it was given in the 80th volume of our Review, p. 637, to which we refer the reader. Two Memoirs concerning the conparative Dilatation of Mercury and Spirits of Wine. By M. GAUSSEN. The experiments made by Micheli, and thofe afterward performed by M. De Luc, for comparing the dilatation of fpirits of wine with that of mercury in the thermometer, are well known to philofophers. Thefe gentlemen difcovered, not only that the progreffive dilatation of fpirits, from the freezing point up to the temperature of boiling water, is very different from that of mercury, but alfo that it increafes in ratio as the fluid rifes in the tube. If the interval between the above points be divided into eighty degrees, the expanfion of the fpirit below forty degrees is found to be lefs than that of the mercury; from forty to forty-five degrees of the mercurial thermometer, the dilatation of the two fluids is nearly equal: but, in the higher degrees of temperature, the expanfion of the fpirit is much greater than that of the mercury. L12 M. GAUS M. GAUSSEN obferves that, in M. De Luc's tables, there are fome irregularities in the progreffion of the dilatation of the fpirit; thefe he has endeavoured to correct by comparing the feveral expanfions of fpirits of different degrees of ftrength, and by taking the mean refults of thefe experiments. The progreffion, thus obtained, agrees nearly with that which M. De Lus had deduced from calculation, and is as follows: 30,2 75 67,8 +6 73,8 25,5 + 4,7 4030,2 + 4,9 35,1 8073,8 +6,z - 80. In his fecond memoir, M. GAUSSEN exhibits a comparative view of the tables of Micheli and De Luc, by reducing the former to the scale adopted by the latter of thefe philofophers. ZOOLOGY. Obfervations relative to the Natural History of Wafps. By L. LEVADE, M. D. Dr. LEVADE relates that, during the month of October 1788, He obferved fome wafps lying in wait for flies, and that they cut off the legs and wings of thofe which they caught, and carried the mutilated carcafes to their neft: he also favs that, toward the latter end of that month, a neft was difcovered containing a great number of wafps, which feemed to be in full vigour. From these facts, he concludes that the Abbé Le Pluche and M. Valmont de Bomare were mistaken in afferting, that these infects destroy their young on the approach of winter. An inftance is here given which thews that the wafp, notwithstanding its natural ferocity, is fufceptible of attachment to its benefactor. Having found a small neft, with three of its cells clofed up, the Doctor carried it home and placed it under a glafs receiver; in a few days, two young wafps came forth, and, as he allowed them no food except fome treacle which he offered them on the tip of his finger, they foon grew fo tame and familiar with him, that, on his raifing the glafs, they would inftantly fettle on his hand, and fuffer him to take hold of them and put them again under the receiver, without attempting either to escape, or to fting him. BOTANY. Memoir on the Origin and Formation of Mushrooms. By M. FRED. CASIMIR MEDICUS. 7 M. MEDI He M. MEDICUS is of opinion that mushrooms are produced, by means of moisture and heat, from the condensed juices of vegetables, in the first stage of their decompofition; for those which are actually become putrid are unfit for this process of nature, which our author calls vegetable cryftalization. thinks that mushrooms may thus be produced, not only from any vegetable, but also from animal fubftances; and he maintains that the mouldinefs, which is collected on meat, that has been dreffed and kept in a damp place, is nothing more than a kind of mushroom. We shall not detain the reader with the unphilofophical reafoning adduced in fupport of this hypothefis of equivocal generation, which, in this enlightened age, will not find many advocates. MINERALOGY. Obfervations tending to prove that all the Arenaceous part of Switzerland, and the Plains of the Circle of Bavaria, owe their Origin to Lakes of fresh Water. By Count RAZOUMOWSKI. In a work, entitled The Natural History of forat and the adjacent Countries, publifhed by the author of this memoir, he had expreffed his opinion that all the great lakes of Switzerland once formed one vast mass of water, out of which the fummit of the prefent mountains then rofe as fo many islands. The article before us contains the obfervations that occurred to him during a journey, which he took with a view to examine whether the appearance and ftrata of this country were fuch as to confirm his hypothefis. Thefe particulars are here very minutely defcribed but, as they would not be very interesting to our readers, we fhall only inform them, that the Count confiders his theory as fo fully confirmed, that he proceeds to afcertain the extent and boundaries of his fuppofed lake; of which he fays the greatest length, from fouth-weft to north-east, must have been fifty-nine leagues, and the greatest breadth, twenty-three; he imagines, that it was bounded on the fouth by the mountains of Upper Faucigny near the lake of Geneva, on the north-eaft by the mountains of Suabia, on the weft by mount Jura, and on the east by the calcareous mountains of the district of Aigle. He alfo thinks that the plains of Suabia and Bavaria, comprized between the northern banks of the lake of Conftance and the Danube, once formed a great bason of fresh water, which communicated with that of Switzerland. On the Natural Hiftory of the Circle of Bavaria. By the Same. This memoir is written with a view to fupport the hypothefis advanced in the former: but to thofe who have not a very strong predilection for geological conjectures, it will appear dry and uninterefting. The Count fuppofes that the great L13 lake |