the brain and nerves, we must be content to leave the various doctrines of animal heat in the same state as they have been since the promulgation of the theories of Black, of Irvine, and of Cranford. It is a little surprising to find that the Chinese, many centuries ago, had certainly some knowledge of the existence of oxygen as one of the constituents of the atmosphere. They however supposed it to be the impure portion, and knew that it existed in nitre, certain earthy matters, and in water. They were acquainted also with its combinations with sulphur, charcoal, and the metals. The saline white matter which many of our readers have no doubt observed on the surface of newly-burnt bricks, has lately been examined, and is found, as we ourselves ascertained some years ago, to be the well known salt called sal ammoniac. It is not easy to perceive from whence the muriatic acid is derived, although the alkali may certainly be produced from the fuel used in the process of burning bricks, especially if it contain any animal matter: large quantities of sal ammoniac being annually collected in Egypt from the soot of chimnies in which camels' dung, a common article of fuel there, has been consumed. It was long ago supposed by Scheele, that the unpleasant flavour of recently distilled spirits was owing to a peculiar vegetable oil. This oil has lately been collected and examined. It exhibits however no very singular properties, except that of becoming crys tallized at a higher temperature than most other vegetable oils do. It is no doubt a product of fermentation, and does not originally exist in the corn. A patent has been taken out in France for the manufacturing of glue from bones, and we are surprised that it has not been done before, the gelatine from bones being purer and more easily extracted than that from any other organised animal parts. M. VAUQUELIN has more accurately analysed egg shells, and has found that they contain magnesia, iron, sulphur, and phosphoric acid, as well as lime and the carbonic acid. This new analysis renders the explanation of the mode in which these various substances enter the body of the hen, fed only upon corn, still more difficult. MONTHLY COMMERCIAL REPORT. EPORT of the Woollen Manufactory for the past year, as taken from the official Parliament, to bessions *The markets both in Yorkshire and Lancashire, as well in the manufacturing districts as in the ports, are at present very flat. Every body is expecting the raw materials to fall, and with them the manufactured articles: this expectation keeps purchasers out of the market; and the uncertainty of a foreign demand damps the spirit of commercial enterprize, for the moment, and adds to the general stagnation.-Leeds Mercury, April 30. 1814.J Monthly Commercial Report. 469 An official account laid before the House of Commons, states the amount of British and Foreign Corn exported from Great Britain in the year 1812, at 39,441 quarters to Norway and Iceland-212 to Heligoland-51,582 to Portugal and Spain-563 to Gibral tar and Malta-38,329 to Ireland, the Isles of Jersey, &c. and the Greenland Fishery81,171 to the British colonies in America, the West Indies, St. Helena, &c. making a total of 161,300. The following is said by the London papers to be a correct return of the present prices of provisions in the several markets of Paris, viz.-Wheat 32s. per qr. 60lbs. to the bushel; oats 7s. 6d. per qr. 40lbs. to the bushel; bread 14d. per lb. about 74d. a quar tern loaf; beef 5d. per lb.; eggs 4 a penny; port wine 14d. per bottle; Burgundy 3s. 9d. per bottle. The Income of the Consolidated Fund, for the quarter ending the 5th ult. was 9,692,000l. exceeding the corresponding quarter of last year by 266,000l. The charge is about 9,120,000l. which is an excess, compared with that of the preceding year, of 678,0001. The Property Tax has experienced in the same quarter an increase of about 439,000l. While the remainder of the War Taxes have suffered a diminution in the whole of near 390,0001, The Stamps have increased about 40,0001. but the Customs and Excise have produced less by about 44,000 in the same period. The Property Tax produced, during the year ending the 5th instant, upwards of 14,400,0001. exceeding the previous year by about 1,500,0001. At the Castle of the Thuilleries, April 23, 1814.-We, Charles Philippe, of France, son of France, Monsieur, &c. upon the report of the commissioners of finance, and hav ing heard the provisional council of state, decree as follows :— Art. 1. The duties upon the importation of the articles hereinafter named are provi sionally, and until a new order, regulated as follows: Cochineal, ditto Francs. Francs. Dye woods of every kind, per cwt. 10 .6 Art. 2. The cotton wools now in stores, and those which may be imported in future, shall, from the date of the publication of the present decree, be subject only to a simple regulation duty (droit de balance). The Kingsmill, Capt. Cressel, was the first vessel which took advantage of the privilege of free trade to the East Indies, afforded to private traders in the new regulations adopt ed in the renewal of the East India Company's Charter. She sailed from the port of Liverpool for Calcutta direct; and others have sailed from Bristol. Good yeal was lately selling at Harwich at 5d. per lb. fresh butter 1s. per lb. and eggs 30 for 1s. which articles are imported from. Holland regularly twice a week in great profusion. Prices of Merchandize, May 20. £. s. Coffee, West India ordinary £. s. d. d. 4 0 0 per cwt. 5 11 0 6 0 0 9. 10 0 0 2 9 0 0 per ton. 0 per cwt. 10 0 0 0 Ο 0 9 0 per ton. ditto. per jar. per ton. ditto. ditto. per lb. ditto. ditto. Rags, Hamburgh 2 12 0 2 13 per cwt, Silk, China , Bengal, skein Sugar, Jamaica, brown fine Montuly Mas. No. 235, At Messrs. Wolfe and Co.'s Canal Office, No. 9, Change Alley, Cornhill; Commer cial Dock shares fetch 150l. per share.-West India ditto, 1591.-The Grand Junction CANAL shares fetch 2331. per share. The East London WATER-WORKS, 01. The Albion INSURANCE OFFICE shares fetch 451.-The Globe 1121. And the Imperial 481. The 3 per cent. cons. on the 25th were 67; 5 per cent. 97. ALPHABETICAL LIST of BANKRUPTCIES and Dividends, announced between the 19th of April and the 21st of May, extracted from the London Gazettes. N. B.-In Bankruptcies in and near London, the Attornies are to be understood to reside in London, and in Country Bankruptcies at the Residence of the Bankrupt, except other wise expressed. Botanical Report. Hitchcock H. Deal Hinchley and williams, London Harper and M'Whinnie, Surrey Hyde . Waltham Abbey Haigh W. Crofland Hill, Yorksh Love J. Newport, Ifle of Wight Martin J. Dover Martindale B. St. James's ftreet Pittitt and Burch, Southwark Prat J. and W. Smith, Piccadilly Phillips Sir R. New Bridge' ftreet BOTANICAL REPORT. E resume our account of the Botanical Magazine. No. 316 contains, WE ERICA primuloides. A beautiful little shrub, considered, in the new edition of Aiton's Hortus Kewensis, as a variety of fastigiata; but Dr. Sims thinks it entitled the rank of a distinct species, and has adopted the name before given it by Mr. Andrews. to OXALIS pentaphylla; a species which is supposed to have escaped the researches of the industrious Jacquin, unless it should be found to be only a variety of his filifor mis, described as trifoliate. VACCINIUM nitidum B. decumbens. GENTIANA Ochroleuca, a very near relative of Gentiana supoñaria, and, from this account, the same as G. villosa of Linnæus; one of these names should be therefore expunged, and ochroleuca, being so well established, is preferable to villosa, though this latter has the right of priority. OLEA fragrans. This plant is chiefly valuable for the fragrance of its flowers, which to the eye are but insignificant. The flowers of this plant, and of Chleranthus inconspicuus, are both said to be added to the tea in China to improve its flaSome have gone so far as to assert that the peculiar flavour of tea is altoge ther owing to these additions; but this appears to the author to be very improbable, It does not appear by the synonyms to have been before figured, except in the Flora Japonica of Thunberg. vour. ASTRANTIA maxima. It appears by Dr. Sims's researches, that this plant was described and figured by Pallas under this name in the year 1790. Yet Willdenow, 1801, described it as new, and gave it the name of heterophylla. Six years later, Mr. Salisbury, still supposing it not to have been described, published a figure of it in he Paradisus Londinensis, and gave it the appropriate appellation of helleborifolia, which as been adopted in the new edition of Aiton's Hortus Kewensis. BROMELIA BROMELIA Ananas B. The queen pine-apple. A double-sized plate is appropriated to a representation of this princely fruit. In No. 317 we have, PHLOMIS tuberosa. From a comparison of the synonyms attributed to this plant, it would appear that there are either two distinct species or remarkably different varieties; the one here figured having simple stems, from one to two feet high; the other, described by Miller and by Gmelin, branched, and five or six feet in height. CAPRARIA undulata. The figure usually quoted from L'Héritier's Sertum Anglicum, it is here observed, was never published. It is probable however that Lamarck's figure was a copy of it. CACTUS Juna y. nigricans, Mr. Haworth has again separated Cerens and Opuntia, which Linnæus united under Cactus, considering them as distinct genera. This division not having been adopted in the new edition of the Hortus Kewensis is not followed here. On the other hand M. de Candolle, in his Plantes Grasses, considers, with Lamarck, Ha worth's whole genus of Opuntia as mere varieties of one and the same species. SPERMACOCE strigosa, a new species, brought from the island of Cuba by Mr. John Fraser, of Sloane-square. ALLIUM Ampeloprasum.-PANCRATIUM calathinum. We must defer the farther account of this publication till another month. In the mean time some of our readers may be glad to be informed that Mr. Aiton has finished his new edition of the Hortus Kewensis, in five volumes. Mr. Pursh has published his Flora America Septentrionalis, in two volumes, with plates. And we have seen the Prospectus of an intended new publication, on the Classes and Orders of the Linnæan System of Botany; to be comprised in twenty-six numbers, We do not know that there is any want of such an introductory work; but if the execution is good, it may at least have the effect of exciting a love of an interesting and amiable science in the minds of some readers, who would only be induced to commence The study by the excitement of having a new work to guide them on their way. A new Dictionary of botanical terms is promised in numbers 25 and 26. If this should be executed with judgment, it may indeed be highly useful, as all the present explanations of botanical terms are extremely defective; the best of them containing little more than the terms which Linnæus published in his Philosophia Botanica, nearly at the commencement of his botanical career; which was indeed at that time a very excellent, an almost wonderful production. But he himself used many terms in his later publi cations, not to be found there, and in some instances the same terms in a sense different from his own definitions. But in a new explanation of terms, those of other botanists, as Jussien, Jacquin, Gartner, Willdenow, Lamarck, Decandolle, &c. should be col Jected; this would indeed be a work of considerable labour, but as a period of two years will elapse before these numbers will be published, there is time to do a great deal if the business should be properly set about. MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. OWING the spring corn generally and successfully finished, and potatoe plant. ing far advanced, but the breadth not so considerable as last year. Turnip fallows work well. The long continuance of the easterly winds has much retarded vegetation, and discoloured the leaf of the corn, but it is probable without injury to the roots; and some warm and genial showers from the westward would bring on a speedy and luguriant growth, though an early harvest may not be expected, Notwithstanding the length and severity of the frost, vermin have been as active as usual, and great damage has been done to the wheat by the wire-worm in many parts. Those wheats which were cut off to the very ground by the frost fully re covered, and even became rank and bulky, until checked by the late blighting weather, Some wheats are said to stand thin upon the ground, and to look sickly, but there is little danger of their recovery, under a favourable season. All the spring crops look well, and with some exceptions upon cold and wet lands, clover, lucerne, såînfoin, tares, &c. are fully planted, and promise great abundance. To save time m this critical season the barleys have been generally put in with one ploughing. The fruit trees have suffered greatly from cold and drought. The grass upon good meadow remarkably thick at bottom, although necessarily backward. ~~ Pastures opened for stock, and the keep good and substantial, though short. Quan, tity of hay on hand large, notwithstanding the extraordinary consumption during the frost, Ewe stocks doing well, after very severe losses. Markets declining for all kinds of both lean and fat stock, and expected considerably lower, The same in Ireland, yhere all kinds of produce are in the utmost abundance. Wool still a rising mar ket, with no stocks of coarse wool on hand. Barking really finished. Smithfield; |