the shining quality which so much destroys the effect of drawings in Indian ink, the information would greatly oblige

A CONSTANT READER.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

A PUNCTUAL peruser of your widely-circulated miscellany, earnestly solicits of the correspondents who combine to fill its interesting pages, a satisfactory communication on the subject of encased phosphorus, prepared for instant use in procuring flame as a substitute for the common tinder-box. I had purchased one of the usual make, the light from which was to be obtained by suddenly immerging a common match; but upon the first trial, though done with care, the phosphorus became instantaneously ignited, and the operator was severely scalded.

He shall be obliged to any philosophical gentleman who will not contemptuously smile at his query, but briefly inform him of the most portable and prudent construction of these light-procurers, and the best method of extinguishing the flame, and healing the burn, of phosphorus.

HAVING been lately engaged in translating a French work, wherein the term Canards tigrès is mentioned, and not knowing to what species of the duck the word tigrès refers, I shail feel obliged if some one of your correspondents, conversant in natural history and French literature, will inform me, through the medium of your magazine.

The letter of your correspondent from Bristol, signed E. T. I. of last month, page 134, refers, I presume, to a letter of mine in your Magazine for December last, page 461, concerning the atetic acid. Now, sir, I by no means desire to make your valuable magazine a vehicle for controversy; what I have there stated, is in the power of any of your readers to prove, without having recourse to any theory whatever. I must however take the hperty to remark, that the acetic acid is, in many respects, more agreeable, not to say

more efficacious, for the purposes mentione in my letter, than the process which he recommends.

Simplicity in undertakings upon a large scale is, at all times, most desirable; and in those for the purposes of general health, is most peculiarly so. It would have been as well if your correspondent had affixed his real Hame to his letter; we should then have had an opportunity of judging how far he was influenced in his remarks, by a soreness of feeling on some other subjects to which I have occasionally adverted.

Anonymous remarks are hardly fair upon those who fearlessly avow their sentiments and their names.

Unawed by the letter of E. T. I., I take the liberty of communicating another fact, not indeed of as much consequence as acetic acid may be: but it is, at any rate, singular; and such as perhaps few of your chemical readers have had an opportunity of witnessing. It is, that having occasion to try some experiments upon blood, in order to the making of Prussian blue, seventeen years ago, I put by about four ounces of dried ox blood in a dry place, not having immediate occasion for it; and this same blood I now have completely dry and unaltered.

JAMES JENNING.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

ABOUT twenty years ago I subscribed for a print to be engraved after the picture of the Siege and Relief of Gibraltar. Two guineas were paid to Copley the painter, and two more were to be paid on delivery.

The print has never appeared; nor has an apology been given, that I ever heard of.

Before I make any remarks on this dis

graceful transaction, permit me, sir, through the medium of your valuable publication, to request any information on the subject, which you, or any of your very numerous friends, can give me: particularly whether any explanation, or apology, has been publiely given; or whether the subscribers have still grounds on which to found their expectations of the print being delivered, or

not.

ALPHA.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

SHOULD be glad to be informed by some

of your legal readers, whether the clause in what is called the new police act, authorising the apprehension of reputed thieves, can be enforced by the city magistrates. The very serious depredations that have recently been committed in the city by pickpockets, render every precaution absolutely necessary. A CONSTANT READER.

To

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

IN reply to a query in the magazine for Sep

tember, whether the sun-flower "follows the course of the sun in the day, and in the night-time, (the stalk untwisting) returns to the east to face the sun next morning," I beg leave to observe that I believe it to be groundless; having a number of very fine flowers growing in an open garden, not in the least influenced by any surrounding walls or building. They have the finest possible heads of numerous flowers, growing to face all quarters; but my principal attention has been paid to the main flower, and I find it always retains, in the situation it first blows in, either north, east, south, or west. Some of the stalks appear twisted, which I consider to arise from the great weight of the head when in full seed; though, while making these remarks, a friend of mine asserted, he had observed the flower changed its position; but he is the only person I ever heard to believe it, whilst I have many observers with myself to the contrary.

Also in observation on chalk becoming Aint, by a natural process. Whilst in Bedfordshire, this was the subject of conversation; and it was asserted to me as a fact, that on the chalky hills in the neighbourhood of Dunstable, chalk actually became flint, though to the observers by an unknown process; and that after removing these flints, yet the fresh chalk replaced the usual quantity of flints, and that this would be the case ad infinitum; by what inherent chemical property in the chalk, aided by the atmosphere,

ON reading a paper in your number for May, 1808, on the state of the silk manufacture in this kingdom, I could not but feel a regret that an object promising such national utility, should be so much neglected by us. And it appears deserving of particular attention at this time, when some of our principal manufactures are on the decline, and numerous hands out of employment; and when our supply from the continent is uncertain, and the article increasing in demand. I cannot but think that were premiums offered, and due encouragement given to the growth of the mulberry, and the culture of the worm, it would produce a spirit of exertion, which can alone ensure, and which seldom fails of ensuring, success.

That no local impediment arises, is evident, from the success which has attended past exertions, when aided by a spirited government, and that still attends the experiments of individuals on a smaller scale.

Could any of your correspondents communicate information on the most successful method of rearing the worm, winding the silk, &c. with the profit attached to it, and recommendations on the subject either to persons or books, it would be esteemed a favour, by an obliged enquirer, S.

MEMOIRS AND REMAINS

MEMOIRS of the LIFE and WRITINGS of

M. BROUSSONNET.
ETER Marie Augustus Brousson

OF EMINENT PERSONS.

the first establishment of that academy; and he was elected a member of the Institute in his absence; and was continued

Medical School of Montpellier, member of the French Institute, Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and formerly associate-anatomist of the Academy of Sciences, was born on the 28th of February 1761, at Montpellier, where his father, Francis Broussonnet, was professor of medicine. The life of Broussonnet displays a striking series of proofs of the high opinion with which he had inspired the different societies to which he belonged: for at the age of eighteen he was selected by the university of Montpellier as one of its professors; at twentyfour he was unanimously chosen a menber of the Academy of Sciences, a cir ́cumstance unprecedented in the whole period (120 years) that had elapsed since

post at Montpellier rendered this absence perpetual. From these considerations it is evident that he must have possessed two classes of qualities which are not always united; those calculated to command respect, and to attract esteem.

Being born in the bosom of a celebrated school, and the son of a man who discharged with honour the duties of instruction, it may be said that the Sciences surrounded his cradle, and theirs was the language of his fispings. From his tenderest years he was animated by an insatiable curiosity after the productions of nature, in which the fine climate of his nativity is so rich; and his father, fearing that such a variety of attractive objects might divert him from those long prelimi

nary

nary studies without which there is no true science, thought it necessary to have him removed from home, and according ly placed him in succession at different colleges appropriated to the belles lettres. But young Broussonnet, at the same time that he distinguished himself among his companions in the common objects of their studies, found opportunities also for pursuing his own particular inclination. He was able to indulge himself much more in this respect, on his return to Montpellier for the purpose of studying medicine; where, by gathering herbs in the day-tine, and dissecting in the night, he crowded the apartments of his father with his botanical collections and his anatomical preparations. Yet notwithstanding these accessory labours, he made such a rapid progress in the regular course of medical study, that at the age of eighteen he received the degree of doctor, and the university of Montpellice solicit ed the chancellor of France for his succession to the professorial chair of his father on its future vacancy.

His Thesis on Respiration, which he had maintained some months before, in reality justified this proceeding, which otherwise bore the appearance of being premature. It is an excellent piece of comparative anatomy and physiology, exhibiting such facts as were then known with equal genius and learning, and anticipating the rudiments of several of the discoveries which have been recently made on this important subject.

He visited Paris for the first time, for the purpose of procuring the confirmation of his appointment as eventual successor to his father's chair; but the minister, perhaps forming an opinion of him from his youth, or influenced by some irrelevant suggestions, was not forward in dispatch ing this business; and Broussonnet, conceiving new ideas in the metropolis, and feeling that he could there open for himself a different prospect from that which he had contemplated at Montpellier, desired his father not to urge it.

His characteristic sagacity enabled him at once to perceive, from the manner in which natural history was then studied at Paris, that he might easily and quickly attract notice by the new and brilliant turn which it was in his power to give to that science. Indeed, though the eloquence of Butfon had inspired a general taste for the study of nature, it

* Printed at Montpellier in 1778, under the title: Varia Positiones circa Respirationem.

had at the same time directed most of those who engaged in that pursuit into a wrong path; and the zoologists and mineralogists were not yet familiar with the commodious nomenclature and the rigorous synonymy of Linneus. It appeared as if that great man had written only for botanists; and as these had all become his disciples, they seemed to form a sepa rate class, whose example had yet bat little influence on the investigators of the other two branches of natural history. Broussonnet had himself imbibed the Linnean doctrine in all its purity; and he now resolved to establish it in France, and to attach his reputation to the success of this undertaking.

As it is in the distinction of the species that the advantage of Linneus's method is particularly conspicuous, and the cabinets of Paris did not then present a sufficient number of new ones to serve as materials for labours of any importance he determined to visit the most valuable of the foreign collections: and he directed his first steps to England; as its universal commerce, its immense colonial pos sessions, its extensive maritime expeditions, and the taste which many of its most eminent personages entertained for natural history, had rendered that country the richest emporium of the productions of the two worlds. The house of sir Joseph Banks was at that time a resort of the most illustrious characters of Europe, and an open school for such Young persons as were incited to emulation by these distinguished examples. According to his usual practice, he made M. Broussonnet undergo a sort of noviciate for a year; and when he felt assured that his visitor was worthy of his esteem, he bestowed it on him unreservedly, and continued to give him proofs of it throughout the rest of his life.

Under the roof of sir Joseph Banks, Broussonnet began his labours on the subject of Fishes; and the presents which he received from that generous friend of the sciences, consisting of a multitude of objects collected by sir Joseph in captain Cook's first voyage, would have supplied the materials of continuing those labours, if it had not been for the different events which prevented the author from the fure ther prosecution of his design. The first Part of this work was published at London in 1782, under the title of "Ichthyologia Decus I:" it contains the Latin de scriptions, in the Linnean style, and per haps with too much minuteness of detail, of ten rare fishes (of which number hauf

wei

were before unknown), accompanied by as many plates. This was a fine specimen of an important work; and it will always be regretted, that notwithstanding the preparations which had been made for the engravings, the author did not carry it forward.

Broussonnet returned from London, preceded by the reputation of his book, decorated with the title of Fellow of the Royal Society, and counting among his friends the younger Linneus, Dr. Solander, Sparman, Sibthorp, Scarpa, and several other naturalists of distinction.

An unreserved conformity to the plan and systems of Linneus, would have been of itself no recommendation in the eyes of those who then possessed the most influence in France; and particularly of the respectable Daubenton, who enjoyed much credit both with the academy and the minister: but the amiable character, the mild and engaging manners, and the modest and dithident tone, of Broussonnet, atoned for his scientific creed; and his most zealous protector, was the man whose ideas on that subject were in the greatest opposition to his own. Thus Daubenton appointed him his substitute in the college of France, and his associate at the veterinary school; and was the principal means of procuring his reception at so early an age into the academy : a conduct which was equally honourable to both. He was not elected academician however without a competition which continued for six months; and during that period he presented a series of memoirs, of such merit as could not have failed of ensuring his success, even if he had not been assisted by any patronage. Among these was the plan of his intended great work on ichthyology. His arrangement was nearly the same as that of Linneus; but he enumerated 1200 species, though Linneus had then only 460. As specimens of his manner of description, he gave a memoir on the sea wolf (anurrhichus lupus), and another on the scomber gladius. He wrote after. ward on the spermatic vessels of fishes; and shewed that scales are possessed by several animals of this class, which are commonly thought to be destitute of them. But the article most likely to strike such men of learning as were not professed naturalists, was his Comparison of the Motions of Plants with those of Animals. In this he gave the first complete description of the vegetable which approaches nearest to the appearance of taving something voluntary in its oscil

lations, the hedysarum gyrans, a species of sainfoin, of Bengal, that raises and depresses its lateral folioles, day and night, without any external incitement. He gave an interesting account of the determinate directions taken by different parts of plants in spite of obstacles; of the progress of the roots to seek for moisture, and the infections of the leaves in pursuit of light.

Such subjects were far superior to those of his first writings, which were mere descriptions of species: but he soon rose to still higher; and his Memoir on the Respiration of Fishes belongs entirely to the philosophy of natural history. He here shews the diminution in the intensity of respiration, and in the heat of the blood, progressively from birds to quadrupeds, and from quadrupeds to reptiles; he compares the size of the heart, and the quantity of blood, in different fishes; explains how it is that those which have small bronchial apertures can live out of the water longer than others; and relates some experiments on the different degrees of heat which fishes can support, and on substances that prove fatal to them when mixed with the water in which they swim. The greater part of these ideas and facts had before been contained in his doctoral thesis.

His Memoir on the Teeth of Auimais is of the same class. The differences between those of carnivorous and of herbi vorous animals; the lamina of enamel which penetrate the substance of the lat ter, and give to their crown the inequali ty necessary for the purposes of trituration; the infinite variety in the number, figure, and position, of the teeth of qua drupeds; and the inference, that from the structure of the human teeth, man is naturally both a frugiferous and carnivo rous animal, in the proportion of S to 2— these facts, though now familiar, were then neither void of novelty nor of interest.

The experiments of Spallanzani and Bonnet on the reproductive power of aquatic salamanders, at this time excited a lively attention among natural philosophers. Broussonnet repeated them on fishes; and found that these also reproduce every part of their fins, if the sinall bones are not actually torn out by the root.

The whole of the above-mentioned labours were previous to his becoming a member of the academy, and they are nearly all that he published on natural history. It will doubtless appear sui

prising

prising that he quitted a career which he had entered upon with so much distinction, and in which there was reason to expect such happy results from his genius and activity. The occasion of this was, that in the same year in which he was admitted into the academy, he was also appointed secretary to the Agricultural Society; and this was followed by many other causes of turning his attention into a different channel.

Agricultural societies had been esta blished in the several districts of France in 1701: but as they were mostly composed of the great proprietors of land, or of mere farmers, they had evinced little activity in their proceedings; and that of the metropolis had done no more in a period of four-and-twenty years, than publish some instructions. Berthier de Sauvigny, however, who was intendant of Paris at this time, made it a kind of point of honour to raise this society to notice; and thought the execution of such a design could not be entrusted to any person more capable than M. Broussonnet, with whom he had had occasion to form a connection in England. The latter accordingly lost no time in applying all his exertions to this purpose; and succeeded in giving, in some measure, a new cha racter to the association. Useful me moirs were published every quarter of a year; numerous instructions were circufated in the country-places; meetings of farmers were established in every canton, for their more effectual information in advantageous methods and processes; and prizes were solemnly distributed to such of them as had most successfully applied those processes in practice. These steps quickly brought the society into general respect; and induced the government to form it into a central corporation, with a cognizance extending over the whole kingdom, for the purpose of collecting and communicating intelJigence of discoveries and inventions in agriculture. Persons of the first distinction did not disdain to enrol them sclves as its members; the society held public sittings; and in short, it assumed a rank among the great learned asso ciations of the capital.

It cannot be denied that, in his new office, Broussonnet shewed a great flexibility of talent. He gradually abandoned the dryness which forms a characteristic of the school that he had followed in natural history; and soon attained an elegant and well-supported style, rising sometimes to all the warmth

of eloquence. The first of his éloges, that of Buffon, is perhaps rather feeble for so great a name; but in two which followed it, at one time he charms us with the peaceful virtues of Blaveau, and at another excites our admiration of the self-devotion to the public good, and of the probity and frankness, which marked the conduct of Turgot. At the period when every wish seemed directed to a popular revolution, he frequently obtained applause by recalling the public attention to agricultural subjects.

It is well known what influence the activity of an individual can exert on that of a whole body of men; and how powerfully a young man of an ardent character, as Broussonnet then was, may be tempted by such occasions of exer cising a brilliant genius, and of acquiring the public favour: but perhaps it is less understood, in what degree that perpe tual self-devotion to the glory of others, which constitutes the first duty of those who are the organs of a learned society, may prove detrimental to the success and display of their personal labours. Broussonnet must have experienced this more than any body else, in a depart ment that is doubtless of the greatest inmediate utility; but which, being con fined by its very nature to noticing direct applications, had also, in an equal proportion, the effect of keeping him from access to those general truths which are the only possible objects of really scien tific labours; and of making his situation rather an intermediate office between the provinces and the government, than a centre of the correspondence of learned men. He thus entered insensibly on a new career, from the time of his being appointed to this post; and in that ca reer he became continually more and more engaged, particularly when the revolution seemed to have called every one to the management of public affairs.

A man who is capable of exercising a personal and independant influence on the welfare of his countrymen by the peaceful investigation of truth, will find it very hazardous, without previously ascertaining his own strength, to agree to become one of the inferior springs of the complicated machine of government; a machine in which the irresistible and simultaneous action of so many wheels, leaves to no individual an uncontrolled motion or will. How much more dan gerous must this determination be, at a time when the whole state, delivered up to the passions and caprices of the mul

titude,