1813.]

SURF.

Surf is a word omitted in Johnson's Dictionary: it describes that portion of the sea-waves which curls into foam contiguously to the shore; and differs from breakers, in that they describe sea-waves which curl into foam at a distance from the shore.

KLOOP.

Kloof is a word omitted in Johnson's Dictionary: it describes a cloven portion of a mountain, a natural cavern, not scooped into rotundity, but formed by fundamental separation: it occurs repeatedly in Barrow's Travels.

PLUMPING AT ELECTIONS.

The Marquis of Condorcet wrote, and Mr. Windham, it is said, reviewed, an essay on the application of analytical reasoning to determine the probability of decisions grounded on a plurality of votes. The art of expressing the inferences of common sense in the jargon of mathematical science might deserve attention in France, when suffragatory institutions were to be solicited at the hands of pre-established power. In this country it is not necessary to employ a dialect so esoteric for the promulgation of any truism; still a tincture of the manner may serve to disguise the triviality of useful information.

An election is pending for two mem bers of parliament a club of twelve voters, suppose, is on the point of polling -each candidate possesses in the club

S

427

four firm friends, and, moreover, a hesitating attachment, a half-interest, among four of his adversaries.

The voters in the interest of A, suppose, give both their first and their second votes. The voters in the interest

of B give their first, and but half of their second votes. The voters in the interest of C give their first votes only; they all give plumpers. To express this fact algebraically the poll will stand thus:The friends of A vote The friends of B vote

4a+2b+2c 1a+46+16

4.

The ma

In a club of twelve, therefore, A, who splits all his votes, will have five; B, who splits half his votes, will have six; and C, who splits none of his votes, will have seven supporters. jority falls to the lot of the candidate whose adherents give plumpers. What is true of twelve is alike true of twelve hundred.

This corollary may further be deduced; that one third of the population, if resolutely bent on exclusive suffrage, may nearly suffice to return one candidate against a coalition of two, if the coalition does not operate on more than one half of the secondary votes: and, consequently, that the probability of success is increased by the solitarity of the candidate.

RETROSPECTION:

A FRAGMENT.

By WILLIAM TAYLOR.

WEET flew the hours when first in
Laura's mien

I saw the ray of bright perfection shine; When Friendship's fervour-kindling glow

serene

Blent with the flame of infant love divine.

For then I scrupled not to join in song, With nimble feet the mazy dance to hail; Pleasure her joys pourtray'd in colours strong,

And Hope prophetic told a pleasing tale. Twas then that Sorrow and her sad compeers

To me were strangers, for I knew not those Misguiding, strife begetting jealousies and

*

fears

That rack this tortur'd bosorn with their

SWEET

WEET flow'r that blooms in summer's
time,

And sweetly scents the sultry air,
Oh! who could pluck thee in thy prime,
So bright, so beautiful, and fair!

What if I find the parent tree,
Where thou first grew, O flow'r forlorn?
Not one that's there can equal thee,
For some are pluck'd and some unborn.

An emblem true art thou, fair rose,

Of beauty's fascinating charms, For who can know the bliss of those Who fold perfection in their arms! Julia, the idol of her time,

Who with the rose may well compare, Oh! who could pluck when in her prime, So bright, so beautiful, and fair!

Tilshead, Wilts.

WM. TUCKER.

From the Russian.

HARVEST;
ог,

THE APPROACH OF WINTER.

H

By Karamsin.

Translated by J. HINCKLEY.
ARK! how blows the autumnal gale,
Through yon oaken forest dark!

Rustling loud along the vale,
Yellow leaves the season mark,

Desolate see gardens, plains;

Hills, that 'augh'd, now seem to weep;

Cotters sing no cheerful strains,
Birds in hiding places keep.

* The present inhabitants of this island, (says Dr. Clarke, vide Supplementary Number to the thirty-third volume of the Monthly Magazine, p. 617,) confirm the ancient history of its climate, maintaining that hardly a dav passes throughout the year wherein the sun is not visible. Pagan writers (continues the same anthor) describe it as so peculiarly favoured that Jupiter is fabled to have poured down upon it a golden shower,

Migrant geese, a tardy race,
Haste to seek a sonthern sky,
And, with long-continued pace,
O'er the frontier mountain fly.
Fogs, swift rolling o'er the dale,
Clothe the franqmi scene in grey;
Thus o'er hamlets draws a veil,
Smoke, that wings tow'rd Heav'n its way,
Stranger, near yon steepy top,
Pausing long with mournful air,
View the ripen'd yellow crop,

Nor with sighs enhance thy care.
Sorrowing stranger, sooth thy pain!
Nature, tho' she seem to fade,
Soon resumes her smile again,

Soon revives the verdant blade. Ev'ry year young spring, newborn, Smiling, sweetly gay appears; Nature rises fresh like morn,

Bridal dresses new she wears. Mortal, ah! thou too must fade; Age, amid the warmth of spring, Feels life's frost each limb pervade, Wint'ry age of death the sting!*

L

From the Swedish.

THE CHILD OF SORROW.
TRANSLATED BY THE SAME.

ONELY on a sea-beat strand,
Sorrow, banish'd far from heav'n,

Pensive plied her plastic hand,
Human form to clay was giv'n.
Jove, now passing, asked, "What's here?
"God, a senseless form of clay;
Show thy godhead, hear my prayer,
Bid it living hail the day."
Jove consenting, said, "I swear,
Mine's the boy, since mine life's boon."
"No!" cried Sorrow, torn with care,
"Let me keep my own, own son!
Her's who form'd him-offspring dear!"-
Jove replied, "I gave him life"-
While they parlied, Earth came near,
Heard, and straightway join'd the strife,

"From my bosom he was stole,
Yield the boon I only lend."
"Pride," said Jove, " demands control,

Saturn shall the contest end." Saturn doom'd, "Let none repine.

In the boy you've equal share. Jove, thou claim'st a life once thine, Take his soul when Death comes there. Earth, his corse, when Death shall give,

In thy peaceful bosom hide. Sorrow, he with thee shall live,

Till ingulph'd life's billowy tide. Join'd with thee, while breath he draw Ne'er he'll part one sportive day; Sighing still with scarpe a pause, Furrow'd cheeks his birth pourtray."

* The original does not rhyme.

TOTHARIO, ravish'd with a smile

From in a public place,

"Nature ne'er form'd so fair a face!" By chance the fool for once was right, 'Twas merely paint and candle-light!

P

tary.

FRANCE.

HYSICAL DEPARTMENT, by M. Le
Chev. CUVIER, Perpetual Secre-

Physics and Chemistry. -Count Rumford, who is continually occupied with the sciences, as far as they contribute to the good of society, has this year treated of heat under this last point of view, and has endeavoured with much care to determine how much heat is produced by the combustion of various substances.

To attain this object it was necessary in the first place to find a general method of measuring exactly these quantities of heat; and when we reflect on the compli cated nature of the phenomena of combustion, we must be sensible of the nu

merous difficulties which Count Rumford had to encounter in his attempts, It was only after a laborious investigation of 20 years that he was able to overcome them.

Count Rumford, by means of his newly invented apparatus, burnt successively different combustibles, taking care that the combustion was complete, that no re siduuan was left, and that neither smoke nor sinell was emitted during the com bustion. He found that a pound troy of each combustible, during its combastion, raised the heat of the following quan tities of water from the freezing to the boiling point:

White wax ...... 7,2108 lbs. troy.
Olive oil
6,8900
Oil of colza...... 7,0906

Alcohol

Furnished with this previous know ledge, Count Rumford passed to the quantity of heat evolved by the combustion of wood; but here the problem became more complicated. A high temperature produces numerous changes in wood. One part of its constituents is driven off, white another enters into new combinations. It was necessary, there fore, in the first place, to examine the structure of wood, the specific gravity of its solid parts, the quantity of liquids and elastic fluids which it contains in their different states, and finally what charcoal furnishes.

After having exactly dried different specimens of wood in a stove, Count Rum ford obtained this singular conclusion, that the specific gravity of the solid matter which constitutes the timber of wood is almost the same in all trees. By the same means he determined that the woody part of oak in full vegetation is only four-tenths of the whole. Air constitutes one-fourth of it, and the rest consists in sap. Light woods have stili a much less quantity of solid matter; but the season of the year, and the age of the tree, occasion considerable variations. Ordinary dry wood contains above onefourth of its weight of water. Even the oldest wood, though in the state of timber for ages, never contains less than one-sixth of its weight of water.

Count Rumford has determined, by exact experiments, that all absolutely dry woods give from 42 to 43 per cent. of charcoal. Hence he concludes that the ligneous matter is identic in all woods. This loss, which the driest wood experiences when charred, the absolute quantity of carbon determined by Thenard and Gay. Lussac at 52 or 53 per cent., the matters which are deposited on the vessels, and finally, this fact, that wood too much dried, too nearly approaching to the state of charcoal, gives out less heat-all these circumstances induce Count Rumford to believe that the proper charry fibre, which he calls the woody skeleton, is surrounded by another substance, which he compares to the muscles, and which he calls vegetable flesh. The fire first attacks this envelope, because it contains hydrogen, which renders it more infiammable, and which contributes a great deal to the heat given out by wood,

From numerous experiments and com. plicated calculations, Count Rumford has drawn up a table of the quantity of water which the different woods, according to their state of dryness, can heat from the freezing to the boiling temperature. From this table it appears that the limetree gives out the most heat, and the oak the least, during combustion. From the same analysis it follows that the inevitable loss of heat during the charring of wood is more than 42 per cent., and by the or. dinary processes of the charcoal-makers more than 64 per cent., because they form a considerable quantity of pyroligneous acid, which consumes this great proportion of carbon. It follows, likewise, that all the charcoal furnished by any wood whatever, furnishes only one-third of the heat that is furnished by the wood itself from which it was formed.

Count Rumford conceives, likewise, that he has ascertained this important fact for chemistry, that carbon may combine with oxygen, and form with it car bonic acid, at a much lower temperature than that in which it burns visibly.

He has determined also that the tem. perature of water at the moment of its formation by the combination of oxygen and hydrogen is eight times higher than that of iron heated so as to appear red in broad day-light; and that boiling water, in passing to the state of vapour, renders latent 1040 degrees of heat, or, which comes to the same thing, that this quantity is evolved when the vapour of water is condensed.

And according to the same experiments, the capacity of the vapour of water for heat diminishes with its temperature; and from the phenomena relative to the vapour of alcohol, we may con. clude that the oxygen and hydrogen which enters into the composition of this liqnid are not in the state of water.

The Class had proposed, as one of its physical prizes, the determination of the capacity of oxygen gas, carbonic acid gas, and hydrogen gas, for heat. This prize has been voted to a memoir of M. M. François Delaroche and Berard. These two philosophers have not satisfied them. selves with the cases proposed; they have taken a general view of the matter, and determined the specific heat of other gases, and that of air and vapour under different pressures. Among other inte. resting particulars, they have found that the capacity of a given mass of air in creases with its bulk, Reducing all the capacities

......

1.0000

0.2669

431

three measures of hydrogen to one of azote. Sulphur and charcoal likewise decompose ammonia, but form with its elements new combinations.

....

..

Nitrous oxide gas....

..

Oxygen gas Azotic gas............

Olefiant gas Carbonic oxide gas

..

0.2884

Aqueous vapour...... 0.8470 Heat penetrates all bodies. It contriputes essentially to their dilatation, and it is squeezed out, to use the expression, whenever they are reduced, by any operation whatever, to smaller dimensions. Thus we know, by experiments made ten years ago at Lyons by M. Mollet, that air suddenly compressed gives out heat, and that this heat is accompanied with light. This phenomenon has given origin to the convenient instrument by which tinder is kindled by the pressure of a piston.

M. de Saissy, a physician in Lyons, having repeated the experiments of M. Dessaignes, could only produce light with oxygen gas, muriatic acid gas, and com. mon air. Oxygen gas gives the most light, muriatic acid gas comes next in order, and common air gives the least of the three. The other gases do not become lominous, except when some oxygen is mixed with them. M. de Saissy concludes from this that the aeriform fluids have not the property of giving out light by compression, except when they contain = oxygen free, or feebly combined. He thinks that this fact, when established, will give additional probability to the = opinion that heat and light are different substances.

M. Thenard has made very singular experintents on ammoniacal gas, nearly inexplicable in the present state of chemis. try. If we expose this gas in a state of purity to heat in a close porcelain tube, very little of it undergoes decomposition; but the decomposition goes on very rapidly if we put into the tube iron, copper, silver, gold, or platinum. These metals undergo a change in their physical qualities, but neither increase nor diminish in weight, neither take from nor give out to the gas any thing ponderable. Iron possesses this property in the high est degree. All the other metals (except the five above-mentioned) are destitute of the property altogether. The gas decomposed by this singular method consists of

coals have not that property in the same degree, and all gases are not absorbed in the same proportion. The same charcoal will absorb 90 times its bulk of ammoniacal gas, and scarcely 1.75 of hydrogen gas,

M. Thenard has repeated these expe riments, with some variations, and has obtained nearly the same results. He has thrown the whole into the form of a table. He has observed, as Saussure. and Count Ruinford had done in other experiments, that oxygen gas is changed into carbonic acid gas, though the tomperature be not high. Nitrous gas is partly decomposed, and carbonic acid and azotic gas disengaged. But sulphureted hydrogen is the gas the absorption of which presents the most remarkable phenomena. It is destroyed in a short time, water and sulphur deposited, and so much heat evolved, that the temperature of the charcoal is greatly elevated.,

M. Delaroche has been employed in ascertaining by new experiments the phenomena which animals present when exposed to a high temperature. He ascertained that the cutaneous and pulmonary evaporation was one of the causes which prevented animals from assuming completely the temperature of the surrounding medium; but that they did not preserve their own temperature unaltered, as had been said, but became hotter by degrees. But it was observed, that if the temperature of animals increased as that of the surrounding medium, they ought to reach a still higher temperature, because to that of the me. dium they ought to join that which is produced by respiration.

M. Delaroche, therefore, wished to determine the difference which the result of respiration, or, in other terms, the absorption of oxygen, would undergo in an air more or less heated, and he found it so small, that it is difficult to draw any conclusion. It is in the proportion of five to six. M. Delaroche conceived, that there might be no connection be tween the frequency of respiration and