XXVIII. Extract of a Register of the Barometer, Thermometer, and Rain, at This is Mr. Barker's usual annual communication, of the highest, lowest, and mean state, of the barometer and interior and exterior thermometers, for each month in the year. Also the rain of each month, the whole sum being 29% inches. XXIX. On certain Receptacles of Air in Birds, which Communicate with the Lungs, and are lodged both among the Fleshy Parts and in the Hollow Bones of those Animals. By John Hunter, F. R. S. p. 205. Reprinted with additions in this author's Observations on the Animal Economy, 4to., 1786. XXX. M. de Luc's Rules, for the Measurement of Heights by the Barometer, Compared with Theory, and Reduced to English Measures of Length, and adapted to Fahrenheit's Scale of the Thermometer: with Tables and Precepts, for Expediting the Practical Application of them. By Samuel Horsley, LL.D. p. 214. After the Astronomer Royal's clear and practical paper on the very same subject, in the 20th article preceding, (p. 520) it is quite unnecessary to reprint this very diffuse and elaborate work; and the rather, as other and later accounts of the same thing are to be seen elsewhere, treated in a manner much more simple and perspicuous. XXXI. A Catalogue of the Fifty Plants from Chelsea Garden, presented to the This is the 51st annual presentation, amounting to 2550 plants. XXXII. Observations on the Gillaroo Trout, commonly called in Ireland the P. 310. XXXIII. Explication of a most Remarkable Monogram on the Reverse of a very Ancient Quinarius, never before published or explained. By the Rev. John Swinton, B. D., F. R. S. p. 318. This piece is a very ancient, or rather an original, quinarius, extremely well preserved. It has on one side a female head in a helmet, with the letter v be hind, standing for 5, the number of asses it contains; and on the reverse, Castor and Pollux, or, according to Sig. Olivieri, two Castors, on horseback, with seven stars over each of their helmets, or caps. In the exergue we discover the word ROMA, formed of very ancient characters; and under the belly of one of the horses the monogram, which distinguishes this quinarius from all the other similar pieces that ever fell under my view or observation. Nor have I ever met with it in any author I had occasion to consult or peruse. To me therefore it cannot but appear in the light of an inedited coin. The Romans first coined silver money, according to Pliny, with whom Livy, in this point, agrees, in the 185th year of the city. Some of the earliest pieces, of which several still remain in the cabinets of the curious and the great, exhibited a female galeated head on one side, as the quinarius now considered; and on the reverse Castor and Pollux, or, as Sig. Olivieri calls them, two Castors, as both these figures are horsemen, such as clearly and distinctly appear on this coin. Therefore, as the letters forming the word ROMA, in the exergue, are antique enough, at least, for the time when silver was first coined at Rome, or 5 years before the commencement of the first Punic war, we may fairly suppose this quinarius to be either coeval with, or, as I rather imagine, a little anterior to the commencement of that war. The monogram on the reverse of this quinarius, so extremely remarkable for the number of letters it contains, we shall find, on a close and attentive examination, to exhibit the word ROMANORO, the masculine genitive case plural of Romanvs, in the days of C. Duilius and L. Scipio, the son of Barbatus, towards the close of the 5th century of Rome; some time after the completion of which, the Romans converted the last syllable ro into rvm. But to analyse this extraordinary complex character a little more particularly, the first part of it perfectly answers to the word roma, as represented by a monogram on several coins of the Calpurnian family; and the latter part of it is evidently formed of the letters noro, the last of which is apparently included in the head or top of the r. As the masculine plural termination of the genitive case was ro, instead of rvm, in the year of Rome 494, when the inscription mentioning L. Scipio's conquest of Corsica, and reduction of Aleria, seems to have first appeared; it is highly probable, that the piece in question was either coeval with, or a little anterior to, that year. The inscription is as follows: HONC. OINO. PLOIRVME. CONSENTIONT. R. DVONORO. OPTVMO. FVISE. VIRO. LVCIOM. SCIPIONE. FILIOS. BARBATI. CONSOL. CENSOR. AIDILIS. HIC. FVET. HIC. CEPIT. CORSICA. ALERIAQVE. VRBE. Hunc unum plurimi consentiunt Romæ, DEDET. TEMPESTATEBVS. AIDE. MERETO. Dedit Tempestatibus ædem merito. From what has been here laid down it seems highly probable, that this quinarius first appeared about the year of Rome 494, or rather that its first appearance was a little anterior to that year, Which if we admit, it will follow, that the Romans borrowed the monogrammatic way of writing rather from the Etruscans than the Greeks, as I asserted in one of my former papers; with the first of which nations they were perfectly well acquainted, even from the very beginning of their state; whereas they seem to have had little or no intercourse with the other, when the piece in question was coined. It remains, therefore, that what I advanced, in the paper here referred to, is clearly and indubitably true. With regard to monograms in general, it may not be improper to remark, that they were known and used in several parts of the east, from pretty remote antiquity. They occur on some of the Hebrew, or Samaritan, and Phoenician coins, as well as on the Greek and Roman. I have an exceedingly curious Hebrew, or Samaritan coin, coeval with Simon the Just, prince and high priest of the Jews, with a monogram on it. That the Phoenicians were not unacquainted with monograms, has been admitted by the learned and ingenious M. Pellerin, and is evinced by one or two of the Phoenician inscriptions on the stones found in the ruins of Citium. That the Arabs likewise anciently used them, on certain occasions, we learn from the ligatures of the Kufic letters, and the inscriptions still remaining on several of the earlier Arabic coins. Nay, they are not disused among the modern Arabs, in their common writing, even at this very day. As for the Greeks, nothing is more common than ligatures, or monograms, on their coins. That the Palmyrenes also had several such ligatures, or complex characters, I have many years since incontestably proved. With respect to the Romans, nothing is more certain than that combinations. of 2, 3, and even 4 elements, formed into one character, not seldom occur on their coins. More extensive or complex ligatures than the monograms of 4 letters on their ancient medals very rarely appear. I have, however, an inedited semissis of the Pompeian family, with the head of Saturn, and behind it the letter s, the mark of the semissis, on one side; and the prow of a ship, over which is a monogram composed of the 5 letters, Q, P, o, M, p. XXXIV. Astronomical Observations made at Chislehurst, in Kent, in the Year 1773. By the Rev. F. Wollaston, LL. B., F. R. S. p. 329. Mr. W. having the last 2 winters communicated to the R S. what astronomical observations he had occasionally made in the course of each year, it seems to be a call on him to continue the same now. His cstruments and situation are the same as before-described; and the accompanying tables are in the same form as the last year. His clock has been kept going on, without any alteration of any kind; it is only by long and uninterrupted trials, that any judgment can be formed concerning the cause of errors. The first is a series of observations on the going of the clock, which gradually gains by the heat of the season, and loses by the cold again. Then a register of the barometer, thermometer, and hygrometer. Next, occultations of stars by the moon. Then eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, after the manner of M. Bailly. Since the reading of a paper, communicated last year to this society by Dr. Wilson, professor at Glasgow, on the spots of the sun; who mentions some appearances when they approach the limb, which I thought I had now and then. observed, says Mr. W.; I have frequently turned my glass that way, as occasion offered, to see whether those appearances were constant, or what might be discovered to confirm the hypothesis laid down in the latter part of that paper. Dr. Wilson, I hope, will excuse me when I say, that the appearance he mentions when the spots approach the sun's limb, as if they were in a cavity on his surface, is not constant. They generally indeed have appeared so to me, I confess. But as they sometimes have not, and as I have very frequently seen them almost in contact with the limb, that is, not a second of time distant in passing a wire; I think they can scarcely be in such a hollow, below his surface, as the Doctor describes. To me indeed, by the brighter light often adjoining to them when near the limb, they have rather put on the appearance as if they were in the crater of a volcano on the top of an eminence, which then turned its side towards us; and if so, the spot would appear somewhat nearer to the limb than it actually was. I have indeed never seen any protuberance on either limb of the sun, as I have on the moon; but I have often observed, near the eastern limb, a bright facula just come on, which has the next day shown itself as a spot; though I do not recollect to have seen such a facula near the western one, after a spot's disappearance. Yet I believe both these circumstances have been observed by others, and perhaps not only near the limbs. per As to the nebulæ, they are certainly not always, though they usually are, quite round each spot, or each cluster of spots; neither are they always externally convex. Nothing therefore can be concluded from that circumstance. Besides spots are sometimes quite without any nebulæ at all; or none that I could ceive with any power of my glass. What the spots, or their nebulæ, are, I pretend not to guess. To me they appear as if they were adjoining to the surface: though that is doubted by better astronomers, who have calculated their motions. The circumstance of the faculæ being sometimes converted into spots, I think I may be sure of. That there is generally, perhaps always, a mottled appearance over the face of the sun, when carefully attended to, I think I may be as certain. It is most visible towards the limbs; but I have undoubtedly seen it in the centre: yet I do not recollect to have observed this appearance, or indeed any spots, to 1 wards his poles. Once I saw, with a 12-inch reflector, a spot burst to pieces while I was looking at it. I could not expect such an event; and therefore cannot be certain of the exact particulars; but the appearance, as it struck me at the time, was like that of a piece of ice when dashed on a frozen pond, which breaks to pieces and slides on the surface in various directions. I was then a very young astronomer; but think I may be sure of the fact. Perhaps I may be thought a young astronomer still, for throwing out these rough observations and crude thoughts: but whatever they be, if my errors shall lead others into inquiries which may be productive of certainty, their end will be answered. XXXV. An Account of a Woman accidentally Burnt to Death at Coventry. By B. Wilmer, Surgeon, Coventry. p. 340. Mary Clues, of Gosford-street in this city, aged 52 years, was of an indifferent character, and much addicted to drinking. Since the death of her husband, which happened about 14 year before, her propensity to this vice increased to such a degree, that, as Mr. W. was informed by several of her neighbours, she had drunk the quantity of 44 pints of rum, undiluted with any other liquor, in a day. This practice was so familiar to her, that scarcely a day had passed for a year before her death, but she swallowed from a pint to a quart of rum or aniseedwater. Her health gradually declined; and, from being a jolly, well-looking woman, she became thinner, her complexion altered, and her skin became dry. About the beginning of Feb. 1774, she was attacked with the jaundice, and took to her bed. Though she was then so helpless, as hardly to be able to do any thing for herself, she continued her old custom of dram-drinking, and generally smoked a pipe every night. No one lived with her in the house. Her neighbours used, in the day, frequently to come in to see after her, and in the night, commonly, though not always, a person sat up with her. Her bed-room was next the street, on the ground-floor, the walls of which were plastered, and the floor made of bricks. The chimney was small, and there was a grate in it, which, from its size, could contain but a very small quantity of fire. Her bedstead stood parallel to, and at the distance of about 3 feet from, the chimney. The bed's head was close to the wall. On the other side the bed, opposite the chimney, was a window opening to the street. One curtain only belonged to the bed, which was hung on the side next the window, to prevent the light being troublesome. She was accustomed to lie on her side, close to the edge of the bedstead, next the fire; and on Sunday morning, March the 1st, she tumbled on the floor, where her helpless state obliged her to lie some time, till a neighbour came accidentally to see her, who with some difficulty got her into bed. The same night, though she was advised to it, she refused to have any one to sit up with her; and at past 11, one Brooks, who |