lent artificial Pyrmont Water. The fubfequent improvements in the apparatus, which we have seen and used, principally confift in adding a neck, fitted with a ground ftopper, to the fide of the middle veffel; through which the operator may at any time draw off, and tafte the impregnated water, in the courfe of the process. The ftopper of the uppermoft veffel has likewife a fmall perforation running through it; fo that it may at all times be kept in its place, without any danger of explosions; and the uppermoft liquor is not liable to fo great a loss of the fixed air, with which it may have been impregnated, as it is fubjected to when the communication with the common air is leit more open. During a courfe of experiments, made with this apparatus, in which it was neceffary to carry on the fame process for feveral days, we have wished that this diffipation could be ftill further diminished, or totally prevented. This end might be anfwered, by discovering fome easy method of keeping the void fpace in the upper veffel conftantly occupied by fixed, inftead of common, air; or by the difcovery of fome taftelefs fluid, immifcible with, and lighter than water, and impervious to fixed air, if there exifts fuch a fluid; which might be poured on the furface of the uppermoft liquor, and intercept its communication with the atmofphere. We have failed in applying sweet oil to this purpofe, which is fuppofed to abforb fixed air with great difficulty. In the fpace of two days, its lower furface was feen ftudded with innumerable fmall bubbles of the fixed air, which had deferted the water, and were foliciting entrance into the oil, which was foon afterwards found to be impregnated with it. Perhaps this defideratum may be hereafter fupplied through the ingenuity of others. In operating on small quantities, for the purpose of experiment, mercury is excellently adapted to the impregnating any fluid with its maximum of fixed air, on immerging into it the neck of the inverted vial, which receives its fixed air by means of Dr. Priestley's apparatus. We fhall only further add, that if a proper flexible substance could be discovered, or a common bladder could be fo prepared, by oiling it, or other means, as to be rendered impervious to fixed and common air; it might answer the above-mentioned purpose effectually, either by tying it, empty, to the perforated ftopper, at the beginning of the procefs, after the upper veffel has been filled with the water; firft adjufting the length of the bent tube, and the quantity of the effervefcent materials, fo as that, after the uppermoft veffel has been filled with the water, a confiderable portion of fixed air may afcend through it into the bladder; or by previously introducing into the bladder a proper quantity of fixed air, expelled from materials contained in a vial. The expedient might be rendered more fimple, and perhaps not much less effectual, by only fuffering the common air contained in the uppermoft veffel to afcend into the bladder; for as that fluid can probably diffolve, or fufpend only a determinate and moderate quantity of fixed air; when it were once faturated with it, it would no longer deprive the liquor in the uppermoft veffel of any part of the fixed air which it had imbibed: whereas, even through the perforated ftopper of Mr. Parker's apparatus, fmall as the aperture is, fresh portions of atmospherical air neceffarily continue to enter the upper vessel, in proportion as the fixed air is condenfed in the middle glafs; and confequently rob the liquor of a part of the fixed air, with which it had been impregnated *. Thefe expedients are not wanted in the common procefs for impregnating fimple water; but fome contrivances of this kind would be of great ufe in certain other proceffes, of much longer continuance, as we have experienced. Article 9. Experiments on a new colouring Subftance, from the Iland of Amfterdam, in the South Sea. By Mr. Peter Woulfe, F. R. S. This new colouring fubftance is of the refinous kind, and has a good deal of affinity to Annotta. It gives out its colouring matter to fpirit of wine, which it tinges of a yellow colour. It is diffolved likewife in oil of turpentine, vitriolic æther, and in folutions of fixed and volatile alcali, and of foap. By thefe folutions, filk, woollen-cloth, and linen, receive various fhades of yellow and orange; which, however, are difcharged on boiling the dyed fubftances in foap and water. It can therefore be of use only in dying filk, and woollen cloths; for which purpofes, the Author obferves, we are already furnished with good dyes. Few colouring drugs, he adds, go fo far in dying, and none dye fo fpeedily; efpecially when a folution of foap is employed, which may perhaps be ufed with advantage, as the folvent for feveral other colours. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. Article 2. An Account of Two Giants Causeways, or Groups of prifmatic bafaltine Columns, &c. in the Venetian State in Italy, c. By John Strange, Efq; F. R. S. Might not the Caoutchouc, or elaftic refin of Cayenne, if it could be moulded into a thin, and yielding bladder-like form, be well adapted to this particular purpofe? It poffeffes the excellent quality of refifting the action of almost every known fluid, except ather. The bladder, however, in another refpect, would be preferable; unless we could diminish the remarkable elafticity of this refin, which, in the prefent cafe, is rather difadvantageous. An account of M. Macquer's Chemical Examen of this fubitance will be found in the Appendix to our 46th Volume (1772), p. 689. In In our last Appendix [Vol. lii. page 619], the Reader will find an account of the obfervations lately made by M. Desmareft, on the origin and nature of the Bafaltes in general, founded on an accurate examination of the numerous and extensive groups of this ftone fpread over the provinces of Auvergne and Velay in France. In this Article Mr. Strange particularly defcribes two groups of prifmatic bafaltine columns, discovered by him in the Venetian ftate; illuftrating his defcriptions by two topographical views, as well as other drawings relative to the fubject; and adding fore pertinent obfervations on the characters and formation of these and other fimilar vulcanic concretions, as well as on the phyfical geography of the countries, in which they are found. With respect to the origin of thefe bodies, he contraverts the common opinion of the fyftematical mineralogifts, who generally afcribe their formation, as well as that of the greater part of lapideous folids, to a depofition of ftoney matter from an aqueous fluid on the contrary, he thinks that it is evident, from various confiderations refpecting their ftructure, fituation, and 1 other phenomena, that they are chryftallizations, or concretions of a particular kind, and generated immediately from an igneous fluid as they are not only peculiar to vulcanic tracts of country, but differ in every refpe&t from the common chrystals produced, ftratum fuper firatum, by the flow and fucceffive precipitation of the ftoney particles contained in water. He accordingly attributes their formation to fome intrinsic principle of organization, operating on an ignited fluid; on the concretion, or confolidation of which, the organic principle may be supposed to have operated fimultaneoufly in a large mafs, and to have produced these bodies in the fame manner, as a linget of metal concretes at once in the mould.' This opinion is well fupported by various obfervations, but for thefe we must refer the Reader to the Article itfelf; the general doctrines contained in which will receive a ftronger confirmation from a more particular account of the vulcanic phenomena in the provinces of Auvergne and Velay, which the Author propoles hereafter to communicate to the Society. MUSIC. Article 5. Account of a Mufical Inftrument, which was brought by Captain Fourneaux, from the Ifle of Amfterdam, in the South Seas, to London, in the Year 1774, and given to the Royal Society. By Joshua Steel, Efq. Article 6. Remarks on a larger Syftem of Reed Pipes, from the Ifle of Amfterdam, with feme Obfervations on the Nofe Flute f Otaheite. By the fame. In thefe two Articles the Author has difplayed a minuteness of investigation, and a profufion of ancient mufical erudition, on a fubject a fubject ill adapted, in our opinion, to fo laboured and fcientific a difcuffion. The mufical inftrument imported from the Ifle of Amfterdam, appears to us to be neither more nor less than the Zupy, or fiftula Panis; the refult of the first rude and inartifi cial attempts to produce fomething like mufic, which have been made in most countries of the world, where reeds or canes grew. The various arbitrary, and indeterminate founds, given by the reed pipes of the barbarous islanders of the South Seas, nearly all of which we would undertake to produce by the weaker, or ftronger blowing through a penny whiftle, are here feriously, and fcrupulously, compared with the diatonic and chromatic genera of the polifhed Greeks. Such a comparison, were not the Author perfectly ferious throughout the whole of these two Artiticles, might appear as an intended folemn mockery of ancient wifdom. The Author acknowledges, however, that the South Sea inftrument does not, from his experiments, appear capable of furnishing founds correfponding with the diefes, or quarter tones, in the enharmonic genus of the ancients. From hence we are very naturally led to conclude, that the enharmonic divifion, at leaft, of the Tetrachord, is yet unknown to our mufical brethren among the Antipodes. Nevertheless, that our good friends, the Otaheitans, how lame foever they may be in theory, or in the fabrication of mufical inftruments, practife the intervals of the diefis, and ftill minuter divifions of the tone, we have fome reason to conclude, from the teftimony of a fober and difcreet perfon, who has a tolerable good ear, and has heard Omiah fing one of his country fongs. The melody, in fact, feemed to be wholly enharmonic-flubbering and fliding from found to found by fuch minute intervals, as are not to be found in any known fcale, and which made it appear to him as mufic,-if ic could be called mufic, of another world. According to Mr. Steele, the nofe flute of Otaheite affords, with a moderate blast, four founds which proceed, in an afcending feries, by the intervals of a femitone, a tone, and, a femitone. The Author has given us two fpecimens of melody compofed by himself, on this fcanty fcale, and written according to our notation. We violently fufpect, however, that thefe tunes would scarce be recognized, as juft fpecimens of his country mufic, by Omiah; from whom we think our Author might have derived more knowledge of this fubject, by only liftening to one of his fongs, than by thus learnedly conjecturing what, and how, his countrymen fing, or may poffibly ting, a pricri. MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. Article 12. Experiments and Olfervations in an heated Room. By Charles Blagden, M. D. F. R. S. Thefe These experiments were made by Dr. George Fordyce, in a fuite of rooms heated by flues in the floor; in one of which the air was in a dry ftate, and in another was loaded with moisture, by pouring boiling water on the floor. In fome of thefe experiments, in which the Doctor was accompanied by the Honourable Captain Phipps, Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and the Author, these gentlemen breathed, without fuffering much inconvenience, in a room heated, at different periods of the experiment, from 150 to 210 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer; while the heat of their bodies rose very little above its ufual ftate. Their watch chains, however, and other pieces of metal, felt fo hot that they could fcarce bear to touch them for a moment. It appears too that the heat of the room was very fenfibly diminished by their entrance into and continuing in it. We must refer to the ar ticle itself for the many other curious phenomena that were obferved in thefe trials, and which are too numerous and contain too many circumftances, to admit of a fatisfactory abridge ment. From the whole of thefe experiments the Author concludes that the human body has a power of destroying heat; and that this power, as well as that of generating heat, according as the circumftances of its fituation require, can only be referred to the principle of life itself, and is probably exercised only in thofe parts of our bodies in which life feems peculiarly to refide. That fome procefs exifts in living animal bodies, by which heat is produced, and which is different from the common proceffes of fermentation, putrefaction, and mechanical attrition, as carried on among the particles of inanimate matter, is very evident: but by attributing the heat thus generated to the principle of life,' nothing more is done than the giving a name to the unknown caufe of it; for no one is ignorant that this power does not exift in a dead carcafe.-The Reader will meet with fome reflections of ours on this fubject, in our Review of Dr. Franklin's Letters, &c. in vol. 42, April 1770, page 301, &c. As to the other power, which living animals are fuppofed to poffefs, of defiroying heat, when breathing in a medium confiderably hotter than their bodies; we fhall only obferve (not meaning, however, to deny the reality of it) that the Author feems to have almoft wholly overlooked a circumftance which appears to deferve confideration in the prefent cafe; at least with regard to the quantum or intenfity of this refrigerating power in living animals. A confiderable part of it, with reIpect to the human body, may very naturally be ascribed to the comparative coldness of a bulky mafs of folid and fluid matter |