- 1814.];

Monthly Commercial Report.

alone would rank him with the first vocal composers of the present day. The expression given to the words is equal to the taste with which the whole melody

547

is marked, and exhibits the abilities and science of this distinguished musician in the most flattering light.

MONTHLY REPORT OF DISEASES,

In the Practice of a Physician in Westminster; from May 20 to June 20, 1814.

The utility of exciting full vomiting in hooping-cough was strikingly manifested in one of the cases in this list. A child aged four years, suffering much from the complaint, in the absence of its mother, seized a phial of medicine, and drank down about as much as it should have taken in six doses. Nausea and reaching presently succeeded, and the pa rent on her return, not immediately perceiving what had happened, but observing the distressed condition of the child, hastened to assist what she thought an effort of nature, and administered an emetic powder which the child had been directed to take at certain intervals. The combined operation of the medicines was excessive, but not fatal, and great benefit was ultimately derived. Thus by heedless temerity, or mere accident, an object is sometimes attained, which has resisted the well-directed efforts of prudence and the most skilful combinations of art. Chance has led to the discovery of some of our most valuable medicines, and accident to their successful application. Alpinus, in his learned book de Medicina Ægyptiorum, tells us that we are indebted to the brute species for our acquaintance with several of our remedies, for many animals seem to possess the power of curing the diseases to which they are subject. According to him the Hippopotamus might have suggested the art of bleeding; for he states that, when that animal is gross and oppressed with over-stuffing, it searches out a sharp-pointed reed which grows on the banks of the river it frequents, and plunges it deep in the foot, and, after the wound has bled freely, plasters it up with mud. To the ibis he thinks we may trace the origin of glysters-"Quod ipsam sæpius sibi alvum exonerasse rostri aduncitate aqua per anum intromissa sæpe sit observatum." Whether this be true or not there is no doubt that the present refined state of the medical art has been arrived at by slow gradations, and from very dark and obscure beginnings. The philosophic mind disdains no fact however simple, and profits by observations derived from the humblest sources. Science, in fact, is built apon discoveries which the most simple individuals may make, unconscious of the benefit which they are instrumental in conferring on mankind.

Craven-street, June 23, 1814.

SAMUEL FOTHERGILL, M.D.

MONTHLY COMMERCIAL REPORT.

HE annual report of the director of the American mint, on the subject of the assays

Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal, from which it appears :-

1. That the gold coins of Great Britain and Portugal are all uniformly of the same quality, and exactly equal to that of the gold coin of the United States, and therefore their intrinsic value is at the rate of 100 cents. for 27 grains, or 88 8-9ths cents per pen ny-weight.

2. That the gold coins of France, especially those issued since the year 1806, inclusive, are also of an uniform quality; their intrinsic value being at the rate of 100 cents. for 27 351-691ths grains, or 87 25-100ths cents. per dwt.

S. That

S. That the gold coins of Spain are somewhat variable in their quality; their average Intrinsic value being at the rate of 100 cents. for 28 738-1331ths grains, or 84 3-100ths cents. per dwt.

4. That the intrinsic value of the French Crown, supposing its weight 18 dwt. 17 grains, is 110 cents. and 7527-694980 parts of a cent.

6. That the intrinsic value of the Spanish Dollar, exclusive of those issued prior to the year 1806, supposing it of the full weight of 17 dwt. 7 grains, is 100 cents. and 25936-69498 parts of a cent.

We collect from Mr. Mawe's late "Treatise on Diamonds," that the Diamond mines of India have long been declining; several of them are now abandoned, and scarcely any of the rest contribute at present to the supply of the European markets. Borneo furnishes a few bolsas, but these, to judge from such samples as Mr. Mawe had seen, contain a larger proportion of coloured and bad stones than those from Brazil. In fact it may be said that the European demand is now almost wholly dependant on the supplies from this latter country. The best Diamond ground at present known in the world is that of Serro do Frio, in Brazil; and this most assuredly has passed its zenith. The quantity of ground remaining to be explored is perfectly well known, and the average annual produce may be estimated from that portion which has already been exhausted.

An official account of the number of Promissory Notes stamped in England, in twelve months, from the 10th October 1812, to the 10th October 1813,

An official account of the number of Country Banks in England and Wales for which licences to issue Promissory Notes were taken out in 1813.,

Derbyshire

Middlesex

Devonshire

35 Staffordshire

20

Durham

10

Norfolk

15

N.B.-In 1810 they were 649; in 1811, 625; and in 1812, 643. For a Banker's Map,

see the Banker's Almanac for 1814.

Prices of Merchandize, June 24.

£. s. d.

9 0 0

0 0 0

-, Port, old

0 0

0

0 6

2

ditto. per lb. ditto.

90

120 0 O

0 0 120 0 0

0 6 8

per pipe.

125 0 0 ditto.

It concerns us to find that the domestic trade of the country was never in a worse condition than at this time; arising from the low price of all agricultural produce, which deprives the country of the means and the spirit of making its usual purchases in the towns, and perhaps from the diminution of the war-contracts of the government.

At Messrs. Wolfe and Co.'s Canal Office, No. 9, Change Alley, Cornhill; Commer cial Dock shares fetch 150l. per share.-West India ditto, 1601.-The Grand Junction CANAL shares fetch 2351. per share. The East London WATER-WORKS, 701.-The Albion INSURANCE OFFICE shares fetch 451.-The Globe 1121.—And the Imperial 491.

1

The 3 per cent. red. on the 25th were 684; 4 per cent. 844; new omnium 34 pr,

ALPHABETICAL LIST of BANKRUPTCIES and DIVIDENDS, announced between the 21st of May and the 21st of June, extracted from the London Gazettes.

1814.]

[ 551 ]

REPORT OF THE PROGRESS OF CHEMISTRY.

Dbles in composition that of the on, but the coagulum of human blood is more

R. BERZELIUS, of Stockholm, states that the blood of man perfectly resem

easily decomposed by water, and the fibrin thus obtained is more transparent. When dried it amounts to no more than 0.75 from 1000 parts. Human fibrin has the same chemical properties with that of the ox, but is more readily incinerated; the white ash consists of the phosphates of lime and magnesia, a little carbonate of lime and soda.

The colouring matter of human blood is also chemically the same with that of ox blood, but is much more easily reducible by fire to the same yellow ash, which seems to show that it contains less azote or ammonium. A hundred parts of dried colouring matter of human blood gave 15 parts of ash, of which 5 parts dissolved in water, and were alkaline, and when saturated with acetic acid, and mixed with muriate of barytes, it left a copious precipitate of phosphate of barytes, soluble in an excess of muriatic acid. I found in this acetic solution no trace either of muriatic acid or of potash. It appears, therefore, that soda and phosphoric acid, as well as the earthy phosphates, are products of the combustion. As to the portion of the ash of colouring matter, which was insoluble in water, it consisted of the same substances in nature and in proportion, as that of the ash of the colouring matter of ox blood.

The serum of human blood is composed, according to his experiments, of

Human albumen is more easily incinerated than that of the ox, and contains more soda and phosphate of soda, A hundred parts of the dried albumen give twelve parts of calcined ash,

The muriates found in human blood are triple the quantity of those in ox blood, owing doubtless to the salt consumed by man in his food. Human blood also contains a larger proportion of muriate of potash. On the whole the great agreement in the composition of human and of ox blood is remarkable, and explains to us the possibility of the phenomena observed in the experiments in transfusion.

The French chemists propose calling iode gas, from lens, violaceous; or violaceous gas. Its properties are singular; combined with hydrogen, with phosphorus, and with oxymuriate of silver, it forms a peculiar acid; it is a simple or uncompounded gas, at a suitable temperature a permanently elastic fluid, but heavier than any known gas, 100 cubic inches weighing 95.5 grains; it is a non-conductor of electricity, experiences no change exposed to the action of the Voltaic battery with charcoal, is not inflammable, and does not support combustion. As a simple substance it has many analogies with oxygen, chlorine, and the alkalies: like oxygeu, it rapidly unites with the metals; mercury, tin, lead, zinc, and iron, are converted by it, in a moderate temperature, into salts of orange, yellow, and brown tints, which are soluble in spirits, ether, and water, and form beautiful pigments, and most probably may be equally serviceable in the dye-house. Exposed to a moderate cold it condenses into solid plumbago-coloured crystals. Combined with hydrogen, it forms what the French call hydroionic gas. Like the alkalies, it unites with oxygen, from which it can be expelled by heat. The existence of this substance confirms the opinion that acidity and alkalescence do not depend on any specific princi ple, but on certain modifications of matter.

DR. CRICHTON conceives that there is a continual waste of vitality during life, and therefore that a regular supply is necessary. He thinks that this vitality is furnished by the food, and believes that the food contains particles endowed with vitality, and that this vitality is neither destroyed by the destruction of the organic texture, nor by the heat to which the food is exposed. He made decoctions of camomile, feverfew, nutgalls, &c. in distilled water, put the decoctions into glass jars inverted over distilled mercury, and introduced into them oxygen gas obtained from black oxide of manganese. Numerous confervas made their appearance in these decoctions, and considerable portions of the gas were absorbed. From these experiments he concludes that there are two kinds of particles of matter, namely, organic particles and inorganic particles; and that the vitality of the first is not destroyed by boiling water. In general he 4B3 found

01