§ 6. Experiments and Observations on the Electricity of Fogs, &c.-1771, Nov. 14, half past 8, A. M. I find a fog, not very thick, pretty strongly electrified. The balls separate full half an inch. They keep stationary, there being little or no wind. Dec. 2, half past 8, A. M., a fog, moderately thick, is strongly electrified. The balls diverge half an inch; but when they are brought near the building, they close, and open again on removing them. The inercury in the thermometer is 15 degrees above the freezing point. Dec. 18, half past 4, P. M., a moderately thick fog is strongly electrified soon after its appearance. The balls diverge full half an inch, and regularly close at the approach of excited wax. The wind is troublesome, but the balls keep their distance, and at intervals very well admit trying the experiment. 1772, Jan. 5, a fog is strongly electrified positively. The balls diverge full half an inch. The air is sharp, and frosty. Jan. 13, 9 o'clock, A. M., a fog, not very thick, is strongly electrified positively. The mercury in the thermometer is 7+ degrees above the freezing point. There is little or no wind. Jan. 18, 10 o'clock, A. M. The air is pretty strongly electrified by a fall of snow. ance. From the small number of experiments I have been able to make on the electricity of the atmosphere, I cannot help being of opinion, that fogs are much more strongly electrified in, or immediately after, a frost, than at other times; and that the electricity in the fogs is often the strongest, soon after their appear. I also now hold it for a certain rule, that whenever there appears a thick fog, and the air is at the same time sharp and frosty, that fog is strongly electrified positively. Though rain may not be an immediate, yet I am inclined to. think it is by no means a very remote consequence of electricity in the atmos-.. phere; and, from the trifling observations I have had an opportunity to make on. that subject, I have not failed to find that in 2 or 3 days after I have discovered the air to be strongly electrified, especially if that electricity continued for as long a time, we have had rain, or other falling weather, and I incline to believe, more. plentifully in proportion to the strength and continuance of the electricity; if not rain, snow, &c. according to the state of the atmosphere, with respect to heat and cold. If electricity be not a cause, I think it at least a prognostic, of. falling weather. XLII. A Letter from David Macbride, accompanying a Letter from Mr. Simon to Dr. Macbride, concerning the Reviviscence of some Snails preserved many Years in Mr. Simon's Cabinet. p. 432. In Mr. Simon's letter of the 26th of November, he mentions a particular. shell, whose snail had come out 4 several times, in the presence of different people, each of whom have assured me that they saw it. A day or two after the date of that letter, the above gentleman brought the identical shell, as he declared, into the presence of several other persons, that they might try if the snail would again make its appearance. The company were not disappointed: for after the shell had lain 10 minutes in a glass of water that had the cold barely taken off, the snail began to appear: and in 5 minutes more we perceived half the body fairly pushed out from the cavity of the shell. We then removed it into a basin, that the snail might have more scope than it had in the glass: and here in a very short time, we saw it get above the surface of the water, and crawl up towards the edge of the basin. While it was thus moving about, with its horns erect, a fly chanced to be hovering near, and perceiving the snail darted down on it. The little animal instantly withdrew itself within the shell, but as quickly came forth again, when it found the enemy had gone off. We allowed it to wander about the basin for upwards of an hour; when we returned it into a wide mouthed phial, where Mr. Simon had lately been used to keep it. He presented me with this remarkable shell; and I observed, at 12 o'clock, as I was going to bed, that the snail was still in motion; but next morning I found it in a torpid state, sticking to the side of the glass. In a few weeks after the time abovementioned, I took an opportunity of sending this shell to Sir John Pringle, who showed it at a meeting of the society; but as he has been pleased to inform me, some of the members could not bring themselves to believe but that Mr. Simon must have suffered himself to be imposed on by his son, who, as they imagined, substituted fresh shells, for those which he had got out of the cabinet. On this, I wrote to Mr. Sinon, which produced his letter of the 4th of February. I afterwards also examined the boy myself; and could find no reason to believe that he either did or could impose on his father. Mr. Simon is a merchant of this place, of a very reputable character, and undoubted veracity. He lives in the heart of the city, a circumstance which rendered it almost impossible for the son (if he had been so disposed) to collect fresh shells. The father of Mr. Stuckey Simon was Mr. James Simon, F R. S., who, being a lover of natural history, as well as an antiquarian, made a little collection of fossils, which is still in the son's possession, and contains some articles that are rather uncommon. Mr. Stuckey Simon to Dr. Mackbride, dated Dublin, Nov. 26, 1772. SIR,-An accident having brought to light what some naturalists have not had an opportunity to examine into, and which has been a subject of some conversation among gentlemen to whom I have mentioned it, has made me commit to Wr ng the simple facts, in ord to put others on making further experiments on the subject. About 3 months since, I was settling some shells in a drawer; among which were some snail shells. I took them out, and gave them to my son, a child about 10 years old, who was then in the room with me. The Saturday following, the child diverting himself with the shells, put them into a flower-pot which he filled with water, and next morning put them into a basin. Having occasion to use it, I observed the snails had come out of the shells. I examined the child. He assured me they were the same I gave him some days before; and said he had a few more, which he brought me. I put one of them in water; and, in half an hour after, I observed it put out its horns and body, which it moved with a slow motion, I suppose from weakness. I then informed Major Vallancy and Dr. Span of this surprizing discovery. They did me the favour to come to my house the Saturday following, to examine the snails; and, on putting them in water, found that only one had life, which was that I put in water, for it came out of its shell, and carried it on its back about the basin. The rest I suppose died by being kept too long in water; for, on the first discovery, I let them remain in the water till the Monday following, when I poured off the water, the snails being still out of their shells, and seemingly dead. They lay in that state till Tuesday night, when I found they had all: withdrawn into their shells; and, though I several times since put them into. water, they showed no signs of life. Dr. Quin and Dr. Rutty did me the favour, at different times, to examine the snail that is living; and were greatly pleased to see it come out of its solitary habitation, in which he has been: confined upwards of 15 years, for so long I can with truth declare it has been in my possession; as my father died in January 1758, in whose collection of fossils those snails were, and for what I know they might have been many years in his possession before they came into my hands. The shells are small, and of one kind; white, striped with brown.-Since this discovery, I have kept this snail in a small phial, with a cover with holes, to let in air; and it seems at: present very strong, and in health. XLIII. The Bill of Mortality of the Town of Warrington, for the Year 1773.. By the Rev. J. Aikin. p. 438. The town of Warrington, contains between 1600 and 1700 houses. At 5 persons to a house, which is supposed a sufficient allowance, as but few are occupied by more than one family, this will give above 8000 for the number of inhabitants. The average of yearly marriages, christenings, and burials, regis-tered in the parish church, 199 From 1750 to 1769 inclusive, is... 73......237.......... ...... For the years 1770, 1771, 1772, is. .95......331......258 This will serve to show the increase of the place, and its comparative healthie 圈 ness; especially if we consider that the deaths are much more exactly registered than the births. In the present bill, the number of children, who died after receiving only private baptism, in consequence of which their deaths were registered, but not their births, amounts to 17; which might therefore be added to the average of christenings for the last 3 years, and will form an extraordinary instance of healthiness and increase. The present bill also takes in the separate registers kept by different societies, in which the births much exceed the burials, as many of the latter are entered at the parish church. Its The melancholy overbalance of burials, which now appears, plainly arises from the dreadful ravages of a single disease, the small-pox; which perhaps has seldom raged with greater malignity than in its late visitation of this town. victims were chiefly young children; whom it attacked with such instant fury, that the best-directed means for relief were of little avail. The state of the air went through all possible variations in the course of it, but with no perceptible difference in the state of the disease. In general, the sick were kept sufficiently cool, and were properly supplied with diluting and acidulous drinks; yet where they recovered, it seemed rather owing to a less degree of malignity in the disease, or greater strength to struggle with it, than any peculiar management. Where it ended fatally, it was usually before the pustules came to maturation; and indeed in many they showed no disposition to advance after the complete eruption, but remained quite flat and pale. In one neighbourhood, out of 29 who had the disease, 12 died, or about 2 in 5; in others the mortality was still greater, and there is reason to believe it was not less on the whole. It may perhaps be worthy of observation that the proportion of females who died, to males, was nearly as 3 to 2. While we lament the severity of the scourge with which we have been afflicted, we cannot but highly regret, that a practice, which experience has established as so effectual a security against it, was so little followed. Not 10 were inoculated in the whole town and neighbourhood: these all did well, yet their example was not sufficient to overcome some accidental prejudices taken against it. General Bill for 1773. XLIV. Of the Stilling of Waves by Means of Oil. Extracted from sundry Letters between Benj. Franklin, LL. D., F. R. S., Wm. Brownrigg, M. D., F. R. S., and the Rev. Mr. Farish. p. 445. This paper may be consulted in Dr. Franklin's works, collected and published in 1806, in 3 vols. 8vo. see p. 144, vol. 2. XLV. On a New Map of the Northern Archipelago, and a Specimen of Native Iron. By M. de Stehlin, Couns. of State to her Imperial Majesty of Russia. p. 461. As a testimony of his attachment to the R. S., and as the first tribute he owed to that learned body, he had the honour to transmit herewith 2 novelties, which he thought worthy of their notice. The first was a new map, and his preliminary description of a new Archipelago in the North, discovered a few years before by the Russians, in the N. E. beyond Kamtshatka. The second was a piece of raw and native iron; of which Mr. Pallas, one of the R. S. of Petersburgh academicians, who had 5 years been employed in making researches in natural history, in the provinces of the Russian empire, had discovered in 1773 a hillock or mass, weighing 50 puds, the pud consisting of 40 Russian pounds, in Siberia, in the mountains called Nemir, between the rivulets Ubec and Sisim, which fall into the river Jenisei, scarcely 100 fathoms from a rich mine of loadstone or iron. The existence of raw or native iron has hitherto been doubted; but M. de S. almost thinks that this discovery determined the question; especially when it is considered, that in the whole district where this mass was found, there is not the least trace extant of any ancient forge, nor any place that might leave room to suspect that there had been, in former times, any works of iron ore, which had been melted, and afterwards abandoned to that mass. Should any doubt remain concerning the existence of the native iron, and the authenticity of this discovery, he should rather suppose that, many ages ago, there might have been a volcano, which by melting the iron ore had formed the above mass, to which might afterwards have been joined the little hyacinthine spars and other stones now mixed with it. Translation of an Article in the Petersburg Gazette of Sept. 6, 1773. "The academy expects from Siberia a black mass weighing about 40 puds,* of raw or native, soft and flexible iron, which the academician Pallas has discovered during his residence in the neighbourhood of the river Jenisei. This very remarkable and huge lump is of a spongy texture, of the most perfect and malleable iron, whose cavities are closely filled with small polished pieces of hyacinthine spar, some round, some with flat surfaces, and all of the colour of transparent amber. The mass is rusty only on the surface; but the interior has been preserved by a kind of black varnish spread all over the iron, which is of an irregular form blunted at the corners. This iron may be bent and hammered when cold, and, when moderately heated, may be shaped into nails and other tools; but, in a violent heat, and especially if, in order to separate it VOL. XIII. *The mass in its present state, weighs 152 Russian pounds. |