THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. 90. AUGUST 1, 1802. [No. 1, of VOL. 14. On the 28th of July was published, the SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER to the Thirteenth Volume of the MONTHLY MAGAZINE, containing-A comprehenfive Retrospect of the Progress of BRITISH LITERATURE during the laft fix Months-and fimilar Retrofpes of GERMAN, FRENCH, SPANISH, and AMERICAN LITERATURE; with INDEXES, TITLE, &c. THE 30th of June finishing another half-year, I have fent you the abstract of my journal, as ufual.-See Monthly Mag. Vol XIII. Page 3. It being in the middle of the year, it may be thought premature to make any general remarks, but I could not help obferving; that the annual quantity of rain has been diminishing for thefe laft five half-years; and, what appeared to me frange, the approximation of the wind to the fouth has been proportionably increafing There are a few particulars of the thermometer that ought to be noted:-the month of January was about 50 below the average heat of the season, and the succeed MONTHLY MAG No. 90. ing months were rather above the average till near the middle of May, when fuddenly, on the 13th, the thermometer fell 119, and continued down at 41° nearly a week, and, on the 17th, at fix in the evening, it ftool at 30°, the wind being at the fame time welt, and fo early after as the 27th, at the fame time of day, it stood at 75°, making a difference of 45° in five days: by this fevere week, we have loft in our district nearly all the apples, cherries, and curkants. The Depth of Rain by Mr. Farey's Rain-gauges.-See Monthly Mag. Vol. XII. Page 92. I am concerned to ftate, that the above concludes the interefting experiments on the rain falling in different fituations, . which my friend, Mr.Farey, was making; and doubt not, that the fcientific friends of that gentleman will hear with regret, that the changes confequent on the death of that truly illuftrious character, the late Duke of Bedford, have caufed him to refign the fituation at Woburn, which, for near tears, he has fo honourably and ufefully filled. It is particularly to be regretted, that the very confiderable local knowledge, connected with geology, mineralogy, draining, &c. which his thare in conducting thofe extenfive improvements of the late Duke had furnished him with, will probably be loft to this country, the importance of which was increased by the number of very accurate obfervations that Major Mudge had the goodness to furnish him with, to which he had connected a feries of accurate levels for many miles round Woburn, all of which are connected with the Grand Junction Canal, at Fenny Stratford, by means of which it might be connected with any part of England, I am, Sir, your's, &c. Leighton, Bedfordshire, July 15, 1802. B. BEVAN. articles that I formerly fent you on the subject of phlogiston, I hope you will have no objection to the following account of the different principles on which one of my experiments has been attempted to be reconciled to the antiphlogiftie theory; and it is the only one that has been particularly difcuffed by my opponents. Heating together finery-cinder and charcoal, neither of which, according to the new fyftem, contains any water, which is maintained to be the only fource of hydrogenous or inflammable air, I get great quantity of one fpecies of this air. To account for this, Mr. Berthollet fays, that it must come from the water, ftill adhering to the charcoal, or contained in its pores. But whatever moisture may adhere to charcoal, or any other substance, of which it does not make a conftituent part, it would be expelled in the form of vapour, with the heat of boiling water; and this has been previously subjected to a much greater heat. Dr. Woodhouse fays, that this inflammable air comes from water in the finery cinder. But, according to the new theory, iron becoming finery cinder, imbibes not water, but pure oxygen from the water; while the other conftituent part of this element, with the addition of calorique, takes the form of inflammable air and water cannot be both decompofed and not decompofed in the fame procefs. The addition, therefore, that is made to the iron, when it becomes finery cinder, muft either be wholly oxygen, or wholly water. In the last place, Mr. Cruikshank not finding any water in the materials, maintains, that there is no occafion for it; for that this inflammable air comes from the decomposition of fixed air, that this fixed air is formed from the oxygen, in the Anery cinder and carbon in the charcoal, its affinity to oxygen being greater than that of the iron to it; that the iron, thus revived by lofing its oxygen, decompofes the newly-generated fixed air. But as this cannot be effected without the fixed prove, that iron becomes fteel by imbibing not carbon, as the antiphlogiftians fuppofe, but only phlogiften, in the procefs of cemen tation; and that the addition to its weight is from finery cinder. SIR, air parting with its oxygen, he fuppofes To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. the iron to take it back again, and thus to become partially oxygenated, or finery cinder. He calls the air, produced in this manner, an oxide of carbon. In this explanation, I find, by a correfpondent in Paris, that Mr. Morveau, and the other French chymifts, diffatif fied, no doubt, with the two preceding anfwers, triumph greatly. But it appears to me to be loaded with more dif ficulties than either of them. 1. Suppofing it poffible for the oxygen to quit the iron, without any thing entering into it, and by uniting with carbon to form fixed air, and that the finery cinder thus becomes iron, this metal has no power to decompofe fixed air, as I find, by heating it in fixed air, by means of a burning lens. I WAS lately prefented, at the order of a deceased lady, Mrs. Palmer, of Ci- dum, which afcertains the ground and 2. If it could do this, the refult would not, according to the new theory, be any Taunton, 24th June, 1802. fubftance that was inflammable, fince fixed air contains no water, from which alone, it is faid, that inflammable air can come. Being an oxide, it is the reverfe of subftances that are combuflible, combuftion being the union of oxygen with some fubftance that, being without it, has an affinity to it; whereas, all oxides are already faturated with this principle, and therefore cannot take any more. Copy of a Memorandum written in the blank leaf of the Book above-mentioned. 3. It is abfurd to fuppofe, that finery cinder fhould both part with its oxygen, and take it again, in the fame procefs. And, in fact, where the process is finished, the iron is completely revived, and not partially oxidated, as Mr. Cruikshank's hypothefis requires, and as he afferts. To what other hypothefis the antiphlogiftians will have recourfe, in order to reconcile this experiment to their principles, tune will fhow. For the prefent, I must acquiefce in my own explanation, which is that finery cinder contains water, and not oxygen; and that this water, uniting with the hot charcoal, produces the fame kind of air, viz. a mixture of fized air and heavy inflammable air, that water itself coming into contact with họt charcoal always does. Northumberland, June 20, 1802. Yours, &c. On June 20th 1747. The Univerfity of Oxford inanimously agreed in convocation to confer the degree of B. A. (without examination, determination at Lent, or fees) on the Author of this book, in confequence of the following letter from the Chancellor to the Univerfity: Me, that Benjamin Kennicott, Scholar, of "Whereas it hath been reprefented to Wadham College, is a perfon well deferving of your favour; particularly on account of a Book lately published by him, entitled, Two Diflertations,' &c. For a further encouragement to him in the profecution of hig ftudies, and as an excitement to the Youth of your Univerfity to follow fo laudable an example, I give my confent that the degree of B. A. be in the fulleft manner conferred upon him, without fees. I am, &c. ARRAN." To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, N compliance with the request of Dr Baggs, p. 544, of your laft Number, take up my pen once more on a p: fla of Virgil, of which I thought I had tak`n leave for ever. A 2 My reafons for rejecting the common punctuation were, that qui veniens fe ferebat appeared awkward and redundant, and that the words qui fe ferebat feemed to require fomething elfe to be connected with them in order to a good fenfe, and a legitimate conftruction, both which were fupplied by connecting them with immani corpore. Vide Wakefield ad locum. I have now little doubt but that Dr. Hunter has been more perfpicacious than either of us, and that his is the true punctuation of the paffage. In confirmation of qui fe Amyci de gente ferebat, it will be fufficient to cite a line of Silius Italicus: Atque Antenorea fefe de ftirpe ferebat. I quote from memory, as I write this in the apartment of a friend. Dr. Baggs will now perceive that I acquit Aulus Gellius of blame in connecting immani corpore with viorem Buten; but whoever obferves the ufe he makes of the paffage, will not hesitate to pronounce whether it was Mr. C. or Aulus Gellius that was napping. I muft again depend upon my memory, but I think that the reader will find my judgment of the chapter of Aulus Gellius confirmed by Heyne in his Var. Lec. in Virgil En. vii. 187. However, no confirmation can be needed. Your Correfpondent L. p. 522, will find the following line fomewhere in the Medea of Euripides. λιμην πέφανται των εμών βυλευμάτων. Hackney, July 2d, 1802. E. COGAN. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. IN SIR, N the Critical Review for laft March, the manner in which the extracts in the New Annual Regifter for 1800 are arranged, is groffly mifreprefented. It is therein stated, that, to the furprize of the Reviewers," fome useful information on Kitchen Gardening," is admitted into the number of felections in the philofophical class; and that it alfo comprehends "feveral other papers as little entitled to infertion under fuch a head." Whether there is the leaft fhadow of a foundation for the latter affertion, must be left to the judgment of those who may take the trouble to examine the fubjects of the three articles, of which only the philofo phical clafs confifts. The article on Kit chen Gardening, however, is not placed in the Regifter under the head of philofophical, but of mifcellaneous papers. The conductors of the Critical Review having thought proper, in the plenitude of their liberality, to take no notice of the remonftrance which has been made to them on the fubject; I trust that your candour will afford me the opportunity which I ought to have received from their justice of vindicating the editors of the Regifter from the reproach of blameable carelessnefs and blundering which has been attributed to them. Without maliciously retorting the imputation on the Gentlemen Reviewers, I am Your's, &c. ONE OF THE EDITORS OF THE NEW ANNUAL REGISTER. July 1ft 1802. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, LLOW me to fubmit to your va Aluable correfpondent Mr. DUPRE, following paffage, in the last letter of the propriety of an emendation of the Brunetto Latini, copied from your Magazine for the prefent month. "The Ciftercians are in particular favor with the king, because they made a generous offer of all the BOOKS belonging to their feveral convents, that they might be fold towards raifing the fum of one hundred thousand pounds, which was demanded by the Emperor for the ranfom of King Richard, called Coeur de Lion, Henry's uncle." For BOOKS in this extract, we ought, I apprehend, to fubftitute wool. Mat thew Paris, enumerating the contributors to Richard's ranfom, has the words :"Ordo Ciftercienfis, qui hactenus liber ab omni exactione extiterat, LANAM fuam univerfam ad Regis redemptionem dedit." Hift. major. Tiguri 1589, 167. From a fubfequent paffage it appears, that the revenue of thefe monks was principally derived from the produce of their theep-farms :-"Novit mundus, quod in LANIS eorum omnis eorum fubfiftit commoditas & fuftentatio." 895. The text of the original was corrupted by the tranfcriber, who, being ignorant of this occurrence in English history, mistook LAINES for LIVRES Of Henry's partiality for the Ciftercians it is impoffible to difeover any trace in the Chronicle of the honeft monk of |