Children of natives may also be admissible under similar regulations, excepting such as may appertain to religious instruction, which shall not be enforced in any case where they are concerned.

Extract of a Letter from Benares, July 16, 1814.-Flights of locusts passed this place on the 13th. We got all the people we could together, and soon drove off those that had alighted, and prevented others from falling on our plant. I mounted my horse, and rode after them, assembling all the people I could at the different villages; by this means I prevented them from alighting, or I am confident they would have devoured large tracts of plant. Our neighbours have suffered more. Our whole loss amounts to twelve biggas; which, the locusts destroyed before the people could be collected.

Extract of a Letter from Tirhoot, July 12, 1814.-On the evening of the 7th current, between 7 and 8 o'clock, a luminous body resembling a meteor, was observed to traverse the atmosphere from south to north. In passing it gave so great a light, that the buildings here appeared to be on fire. Immediately afterwards a great noise was heard like the firing of cannon. The natives augur no good from this phænomenon. They are beginning to take the alarm; and are preparing themselves for all the horrors of a famine.-See page 145.

The following remarkable change was observed in the state of the weather at Madras, during the last week of April, 1815. On Monday morning the thermometer was at 52; on Wednesday morning at 33; and on Friday morning at 26.

"A

The Gazette de l'Ile Maurice, of the 28th October last, contains the following advertisement of a work on Madagascar, to be sold in the French MS, or printed by subscription :-"The Great Dictionary of Madagascar; Part I, containing the Madecasse before the French; and Part II, the French before the Madecasse." work," continues the advertisement, "containing a collection of all publications on that extensive island, from Flaccourt down to the present time, respecting the ancient and modern manners of the inhabitants; its trade, navigation, natural history, hitherto investigated; the most approved political systems for its colonization; sundry projects for forming settlements upon it, &c. &c.; the languages of the several nations now resident on the island; the analysis of every separate word traced back to its primitive origin, in order to enable the learned

reader to ascertain from what part of the world each tribe of its present inhabitants formerly emigrated. A grammar of the two idioms spoken in the north and south, preceded by an introductory preface, in which is exhibited an analysis of the language, a development of its genius and the formation of the words used in it, By Barthelemi Huet de Frobérville, exCaptain of Infantry. The extensive plan of this work supersedes all future reference to the former voluminous publications on the subject, as it comprises them all either in abstract, or, if the object is important, in the words of the authors; contradictory testimonies of authors are contrasted; coincidence of relation reduced to uniformity of system; on contradictory opinions that can lead to no conclusion, doubts are stated. On opening this work, the reader may survey Madagascar in every point of view, and by an attentive perusal become thoroughly acquainted with every part of the country. Since ten years this important subject has absorbed the attention of the author. This great Dictionary will be followed by, 1st.-A Dictionary of the denominations of the nations, provinces, cantons, villages, mountains and rivers, whereof mention is made by all ancient and modern travellers. The great dictionary only exhibits the most important points of geography; the latter will contain a succinct account of each part separately. 2d. The collection of manuscripts, journals, and travels which have been resorted to in the compilation of the great dictionary.-3d. The history of a renowned prince of the eastern coast, the founder of his dynasty in the kingdom of Foulpoints, and of the Betsimicaracs, about the year 1712, and whose descendants were still on the throne at the commencement of the present century.-4th. Notes on his son Diandzanhar, the famous Beti his daughter, &c.-5th. An abridged Catechism in both idioms.-6th. Anecdotes.-The history of Europeans settled at Madagascar might be considered as an important accession to this collection, but the author, being unprovided with authentic documents on the subject, has declined annexing it to his work; his publication can only comprise historical information derived from uniform and incontrovertible testimouy.-This work is not entitled to the merit it might have claimed if brought forward by abler hands, but the author in his progress, has been compelled to proceed over heaps of ruins, and to select from among them a suitable spot to raise his building. It may be compared to an unhewn stone, extracted from a quarry, and thrown on the way to arrest the observation of the learned, to whom it is now committed to receive a

The meeting instructed the secretary to express its acknowledgements to Mr. Baird for the communication.

Sir G. Clerk stated the steps taken last Session of Parliament, for obtaining an equalization of weights and measures, and the communications he had since had upon the subject, and that there was every reason to hope this important object, to which the Society had paid so much attention, would be attained in the course of the ensuing Session. The meeting, on the motion of Mr. Tait, convener of the Society's committee on that business, voted the thanks of the Society to Sir G. Clerk, for his perseverance and laudable exertions, which the meeting requested he would continue until a law was obtained for an equalization of weights and measures; and as connected with this subject, the Society, on the motion of Dr. Hope, resolved to concur with the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in purchasing the instrument invented by Mr. Troughton, the celebrated artist, of London, for regulating and correcting any measures of length; and placed a sum at the disposal of the directors for that purpose.

The meeting directed an essay by Mr. T. Dallas, merchant in Edinburgh, on the purposes to which potatoes, penetrated by the frost, are applicable, to be published in the Society's Transactions, it appearing from experiments made by the author, that frosted potatoes might be applied to several very useful purposes and the Society's report on Parish or Saving Banks, was directed to be published in the same manner.

There now is, or very recently was, living in Constantinople a very extraordinary man, upwards of one hundred years of age, generally known under the name of "Solyman, the eater of sublimate." This man, when young, accustomed himself as the Turks do, to swallow opium; but having taken by degrees a large quantity, without producing the desired effect, he adopted the use of sublimate, and, for upwards of thirty years, has taken a drachm, or sixty grains a day. He would sometimes go to the shop of a Turkish Jew and call for a drachm of sublimate, which he mixed in a glass of water, and drank it up immediately. The first time the apothecary was very much alarmed, for fear he should be charged with poisoning the Turk; but he was struck with amazement when he saw the same man again on the next day, who called for another dose. Lord Elgin, Mr. Smith, and several gentlemen now in England, have met this extraordinary man, and have heard him say, that the sensation he experienced after having

drank that extremely active poison, was the most delicious he ever enjoyed. Such is the force of habit! It is generally thought, that since the days of Mithridates, no one had ever made constant use of such a substance.

Hydrophobia cured by Vinegar, conimunicated in a letter from a gentleman at Venice to his friend in London :-" If you were here, you would be very much pleased with a discovery made at Udina, the capital of Friuli, a small province belonging to this republic. The discovery is this; a poor man, lying under the frightful tortures of the hydrophobia, was cured with some draughts of vinegar, given him by mistake, instead of another potion. A physician of Padua, called Count Leonissa, got intelligence of this event at Udina, and tried the same remedy upon a patient that was brought to the Padua hospital, administering him a pound of vinegar in the morning, another at noon, and a third at sun-set, and the man was speedily and perfectly cured. I have diffused through Italy this discovery, by means of a periodical paper that I am writing; and I hope you will make it known in England, in the most public manner; and as I am sure that this astonishing remedy will have as happy an effect there as it had here, so I should be glad to be apprized of it, that I I may relate it in my said paper. As you have more rambling dogs in London than we have here, it is probable that the experiment will soon be tried, please God, with success."

With respect to an explosion which has lately happened in London at a sugarhouse, it has been ascertained that, when the boiling of sugar, in the process of refining, is carried on without any fire being allowed to come directly in contact with the pan, a waste of sugar is prevented, and a better article obtained, A large close boiler, therefore, is constructed for the purpose of generating steam, to be conveyed through tubes, under the sugar pans, to bring them to the required temperature for boiling the syrup. These pans, made of copper, are each put into an exterior pan made of cast iron, and closely joined to their brim to prevent the escape of the steam. Only one pan had been got ready to be worked in this manner; and a trial was made of the boiler. At nine o'clock the engineer came to the premises, and it was proposed to prove the boiler by applying a large fire. The proprietor objected to the large fire; but the fire was urged, and the safety-valve, provided for the escape of steam when the internal pressure reaches a certain point, was overloaded

to prevent the steam from escaping. The consequence which might have been anticipated, followed. In an hour and a half the boiler exploded, and with such a force as to bring down the whole building, burying a number of people in the ruins. This is not the first accident arising from ignorance or inattention in the application of steam of high temperature to different purposes. But a few months ago, a locomotive engine was exploded at Newcastle, and several people lost their lives, from the folly of the man (calling himself an engineer), locking down the safety-valve, that his machine might go off in style! And, recently, a salt-pan heated by steam was blown up by similar imprudence. Nothing, however, is more manageable than steam, in the hands of men of prudence; while nothing is more dangerous when fools and pretenders are suffered to play with it.

The excavations at Pompeii are prosecuted after a certain plan, so as to go round the whole town, which, when cleared from the ashes which cover it, will probably become one day the most remarkable monument of antiquity.

The phenomena of the atmosphere, so little understood at present, are likely to receive considerable elucidation from a periodical work, under the title of "Journal de Météorologie." The object of which journal being directed to the collection of accounts from abroad, and to the returning that obligation, by imparting discoveries made in this island to meteorological observers on the conti

nent.

Some men employed to sink a pit in Reading abbey, have found an ancient stone sarcophagus, which there is little doubt, from its being placed to the right of the altar in the church, formerly held the coffin of Henry the First, the founder of the abbey. The end of a thigh bone, completely perished, was also discovered. The sarcophagus is seven feet in length, two feet six inches wide at the head, and two feet at the bottom; and seven inches and a half thick. It is carved round in columns, and iron rings are fixed in the sides, and at each end.

The slave-trade is still carried on with diabolical activity;-two hundred and ninety-seven fellow-creatures having been lately carried into the Havannah, for the purpose of this traffic.

There has lately been found upon the Appian way, near Rome, an ancient sundial, cut upon marble, with the names of the quarters of the heavens in Greek.

It is exactly calculated for the latitude of Rome. From circumstances, it is concluded to have been the discuss belonging to Herodes Atticus, and described by Vitruvius.

Several MSS have lately been discovered in the house of Madame Lavater, belonging to her late husband.

A Greek literary society has been recently established at Athens. It is composed of the most distinguished native and foreign literati residing in that city.

Russia is said to be making rapid strides in her manufactures and the general im-provement of her soil; while literature embellishes the circles of St. Petersburgh and Moscow.

Several inedited letters of Tasso have been recently published by the son of the celebrated Poggioli, of Leghorn. They were discovered by Count Baldelli in the public library of Ferrara.

Some curious fragments of Homer's Iliad have been discovered by Angelo Maja, attached to the Ambrosian library at Milan. One of these is a MS preeminently beautiful, and of all the Homer MSS, the most venerable and the most admirable. Of these, only fiftyeight fragments remain, each of which has its picture, and the whole comprise about eight hundred verses. Maja intends publishing these precious relics. The penmanship is simple and elegant.

Much curiosity is entertained respect. ing Hume's Correspondence, lately discovered, addressed to the Marchioness de Barbantine and the Countess of Boufflers.

The Emperor of Russia has purchased the pictures and statues which belonged to the gallery of Malmaison.

The statues which were found at Ægina have arrived at Rome, in order to be repaired. They belong to the Crown Prince of Bavaria.

A convoy of the works of art has arrived at Vienna, another at Brussels; and seventeen waggons, laden with those sacred treasures, have entered Antwerp.

The Archduchess Beatrice, as heiress of the House of Este, has received from Paris the works belonging to her house, which she has presented to the Duke of Modena.

The French artists are employed in delineating several of the most interesting scenes in the life of Louis XVIth. These pictures are intended for the gallery of Diana.

The Civic Council of Venice has purchased Canova's statue of Helen, in order to present it to the Empress of Austria.

A letter from the Continent states, that the British government has it in contemplation to open an academy at Rome,