To fum up the merits of our author, we cannot justly af cribe to him any of those nicer traits of fufceptibility, and those elevated and profound views of morality, which of all things afford us the greatest pleasure in performances of this kind. The higher energies of the understanding, and the venerable powers of difcovery are abfent. But en revanche, he entertains us with good fenfe and vivacity. His remarks speak the man of obfervation and experience, and his manner is fo enchanting and agreeable, that the moft faftidious critic will find it difficult to quit his volume, before he has given it nearly a complete perufal. ART. II. Memoirs of the Literary and Philofophical Society of Manr shefter. Vols. I. II. 8vo. 125. bds. Cadell. 1785. (Concluded from our laft.) A Brief Comparison of fome of the principal Arguments in Favour of public and private Education. By Thomas Barnes, D. D. Read May 7, 1783.' Dr. Barnes claffes the prime objects of education in the following order; beginning with thofe of lefs importance, and rifing up to thofe of the greateft. Health, knowledge, temper, felf-government, morals." On this divifion of the great objects of education, it. may be obferved, that the three last mentioned heads of temper, felf-government, and morals, are all of them reducible to one head, namely, that of morals. Arbitrary divifions fhould be avoided all arrangements fhould be fcientific: Qui bene dividit bene docet. After weighing the arguments for and against a public, and thofe for an dagainft a private education, Dr.Barnes gives a preference before either to a middle plan, which, by enlarging a private fchool, fo as more nearly to approach to a public one, feems calculated to blend, in fome degree, the advantages, and to divide the difadvantages of both the others. The common conclufion on this important fubject, after all that has been faid upon it, feems to be very juft: that a pri vate education is the moft favourable to good morals, and a public one the beft adapted to produce thofe qualifications which are requifite in order to make a figure in the active world. A Plan for the improvenment and extenfion of Liberal Education in Manchefter. By Thomas Barnes, D. D. Read April 9, 1783. Dr. Barnes remarks, "that there is a stage which paffes between a fchool and bufinefs, which is often a very diftreffing one to a parent, and an ufelefs, if not a dangerous one to a young man. He has paffed through the common forms forms of claffical inftitution: he is rather too old to continue to pace round the beaten tracts of a grammar fchool; and yet, he is too young to be trusted abroad in the world as his own mafter." This interval the author wishes to fill up with the acquirement of knowledge and the formation of taste: and, he thinks, that perhaps the happy art might be learned of connecting together liberal fcience and commercial industry. He therefore propofes, for the occupation and improvement of the young man, between the fchool and the active scenes of bufinefs, a courfe of lectures upon natural philosophy, the belles lettres, mathematics, hiftory, commerce, jurifprudence, criticism, and ethics. Propofals for establishing fuch a plan of liberal education in Manchester were drawn up by Dr. Barnes, and approved by the literary and philofophical fociety of Manchester. And as the fociety thinks that it is defirable that fimilar eftablishments fhould be formed in other large towns, a report is fubjoined of this inftitution, printed 1783, under the title of, " College of Arts and Sciences inftituted at Manchester, June 6, 1783." The lights of science may certainly open new hints to the manufacturer, and new views to the merchant. But where an enthufiafm of fcience prevails, we can hardly expect great application to the drudgery of bufinefs. It is impoffible to ferve God and Mammon ! 'On_Orichalcum. By the Right Rev. Richard Watson, D. D. F. R. S. &c. &c. Lord Bishop of Llandaff. Communicated by Dr. Percival. Read October 1, 1783.' Dr. Watson fhews that the Romans were not only in poffeffion of a substance, called by them orichalcum, and resembling gold in colour, but that they knew alfo the manner of making it, and that the materials of which they made it were the very fame of which we make b:afs. What we call brafs was anciently, in the French language, called archal, and brass wire is ftill, not unfrequently, denominated fil d'archal. Now, fays the author, if we can infer from the analogy of languages, that archal is a corruption of aurichalcum, we may reafonably conjecture that our brafs, which is the fame with the French archal, is the fame alfo with the Roman aurichalcum. From certain paffages in ancient writers, the bifhop infers that brass was made in Afia, much after the fame manner in which it appears to have been made at Rome. Remarks on the Origin of the Vegetable fixed Alkali, with fome collateral Obfervations on Nitre. By M. Wall, M. D. Prælector in Chemistry, in the Univerfity of Oxford, Communicated in a Letter to Dr. Percival. Read Nov. 19, 1783.' As the fum paid by the nation to Ruffia, and other foeign ftatés, is no lefs than one hundred and fifty thoufand F4 pounds pounds per annum for pot-afh, every hint that can be fuggefted towards an improvement in its preparation, is valuable; efpecially as it is not impoffible that we may now also lose, in a confiderable degree, the advantage of that, which has been hitherto prepared for the ufe of thefe iflands in North America. Dr. Wall thinks it probable that the Alkali, wherever it is found, whether in confequence of combuftion or otherwise, is formed by fome tranfmutation of the native acid of plants, or by the particular combination of it with the earthly and inflammable principles. I am inclined, fays he, to adopt this doctrine, from the three following circumstances; the two laft of which will alfo fhew, that this tranfmutation may be effected without combuftion, and therefore, that this alkali cannot be any longer confidered as the creature or offSpring of fire. Firft, Thofe vegetable substances, which contain the largest portion of the native acid, afford the largest quantity of alkali by incinera, tion; and the quantity of alkali obtained is very confiderably in creafed by particular modes of applying the heat, which can only be understood to operate, by bringing the feveral component principles of the vegetable fubftance into clofer contact, and within the sphere of each other's action. 'Secondly, This alkali is produced in a very confiderable quantity by the process of fermentation, to which only the faccarine and acefcent parts of plants are liable. And, Thirdly, It is produced in the putrefaction both of animal and vegetable matters". 'Some account of the Life and Writings of the late Profeffor Gregory, M. D. F. R. S. By James Johnstone, M. D. and Soc. Reg. Medic. Edinb. Socius. Communicated by Dr. Barnes. Read December 10, 1783.' Dr. Johnstone fays, that "Dr. Gregory displayed in his writings, and evidently carried into his profeffion, a fpirit congenial to that of the Gerrards and Beatties." This certainly requires fome illuftration. Dr. Gregory was a very amiable man, and the author of three publications; one intitled, "a comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man, with thofe of the Animal World ;" another intitled, "Obfervations on the Duties and Offices of a Phyfician, and on the Method of profecuting Inquiries in Philofophy;" and a third, which was pofthumous, namely, "A Father's Legacy to his Daughters.' Dr. Johnstone quotes fome elegant lines, from Dr. Beattie, bewailing the death of Dr. Gregory, between whom and the author there fubfifted a very ftrong friendship. • Remarks • Remarks on the Knowledge of the Ancients refpecting Glafs. By Dr. Falconer. Read, December 17, 1783.' Dr. Falconer, with great learning, fhews that glafs in various forms, and adpated to various ufes, as well as fpecula or metallic reflectors, were of very high antiquity. On the different Quantities of Rain which fall, at diffe rent Heights, over the fame Spot of Ground; with a Letter from Benjamin Franklin, L. L. D. By. Thomas Percival, M. D. Read Jan. 21, 1784.' It is matter of humiliation, as Dr. Percival obferves, to pride and arrogance, but of encouragement to the fpirit of patient attention, that many of the most interesting laws of nature have remained undiscovered, till fome happy coincidence of circumftances has pointed them out to inquiry or obfervation. After illuftrating the truth of this obfervation, the doctor gives an account of the following curious, interesting, and very important appearance or matter of fact in the natural world. A comparison having been made between the rain which fell in two places, in London, about a mile diftant, it was found that the quantity in one of them conftantly exceeded that in the other, not only every month, but almost every time it rained. The apparatus used was very exact; and this unexpected variation did not appear to be owing to any mistake, but to be the regular effect of fome caufe, hitherto unnoticed. The rain-gage, in one of thefe places, was fixed above all the neighbouring chimnies; the other was confiderably below them: and there was reafon to fufpect, that the difference in the quantity of rain might be owing to the different fituations of the veffels, in which it was received. A funnel was, therefore, placed above the highest chimnies, and another upon the ground of the garden, belonging to the fame houfe; and the like diverfity was found between the two, thus near together, which had fubfifted when they were fixed, at correfpondent heights, in different parts of the town, Similar experiments were made on Weftminster Abbey; and repeated at Bath, Liverpool, Middlewich, and other places, with nearly uniform refults. The obfervations, therefore, however new and fingular, are too well authenticated, to admit of the least degree of doubt and it is the office of philosophy to furnish an adequate and rational folution of them. * Dr. Heberden conjectures that this phenomenon depends on fome unknown property of electricity. But to Dr. Percival it appears probable that the common laws, by which this power influences the afcent and the fufpenfion of vapours, are fufficient to explain their precipitation in rain, and the lately-dif * Phil. Tranfa&t. vol. LIX. p. 359... covered covered mode of its defcent. In a memoir, written and publifhed fome time ago, Dr. Percival had endeavoured to prove that the electrical fluid is ftrongly attracted by water; and that, by deftroying the cohefton between its particles, and repelling them from each other, it becomes a powerful agent in evaporation, and in the formation of clouds. This memoir procured him many curious and interefting obfervations on the fubject of it; and, among other commucations, a letter from Dr. Franklin, from which the following is an extract. On my return to London I found your favour of the 16th of May (1771). I wish I could, as you defire, give you a better explanation of the phænomenon in queftion, fince you feem not quite fatisfied with your own; but I think we want more and a greater variety of experiments in different circumftances, to enable us to form a thoroughly fatisfactory hypothefis. Not that I make the leaft doubt of the facts already related, as I know both Lord Charles Cavendish and Dr. Heberden to be very accurate experimenters: but I wish to know the event of the trials propofed in your fix queries; and also, whether, in the fame place where the lower veffel receives nearly twice the quantity of water that is received by the upper, a third veffel, placed at half the height, will receive a quantity proportionable. I will however endeavour to explain to you what occurred to me, when I first heard of the fact. I fuppofe it will be generally allowed, on a little confideration of the fubject, that fcarce any drop of water was, when it began to fall from the clouds, of a magnitude equal to that it has acquired when it arrives at the earth; the fame of the feveral pieces of hail; because they are often fo large and weighty, that we cannot conceive a poffibility of their being fulpended in the air, and remaining at reft there, for any time, how fmall foever; nor do we conceive any means of forming them fo large, before they fet out to fall. It feems then; that each beginning drop, and particle of hail, receives continual addition in its progrefs downwards. This may be feveral ways: by the union of numbers in their courfe, fo that what was at firft only a defcending mift, becomes a fhower; or by each particle in its defcent through air that contains a great quantity of diffolved water, ftriking. againft, attaching to itself, and carrying down with it, fuch particles of that diffolved water, as happen to be in its way; or attracting to it felf fuch as do not lie directly in its courfe, by its different ftate with regard either to common or electric fire; or by all thefe caufes united. In the firft cafe, by the uniting of numbers, larger drops might be made, but the quantity falling in the fame fpace would be the fame at all heights; unlefs, as you mention, the whole fhould be contracted in falling, the lines defcribed by all the drops converging, fo that what fet out to fall from a cloud of many thoufand acres, fhould reach the earth in perhaps a third of that extent, of which I fomewhat doubt. In the other cafes we have two experiments. 1. A dry glass bottle, filled with very cold water, in a warm day, will prefently collect from the feemingly dry air that furrounds it, a quantity of |
