names, he thinks, have been compofed out of thefe elements; and that they may again be refolved into the fame principles, by an easy and fair evolution.

In fhort, it has been Mr. Bryant's purpofe throughout, to give a new turn to ancient hiftory, and to place it upon a furer foundation. We must look, fays he, upon ancient mythology as being yet in a chaotic state; where the mind of man has been wearied with roaming over the crude confiftence, without ever finding out one fpot where it could repose with fafety. Hence has arifen the demand, 8 sw, which has been repeated for ages. It is my hope, and my prefumption, that such a place of appulfe may be found; where we may take our stand;. and from whence we may have a full view of the mighty expanfe before us: from whence alfo we may defcry the original defign, and order, of all thofe objects, which, by length of time, and their own remoteness, have been rendered fo confused and uncertain.'

Such is the scheme laid down by this writer: thus various and important are the things which he proposes to carry into execution. His promises are fo mighty, that, we must confefs, we should esteem it very philofophical to retain a strong incredulity with regard to the accomplishment of them, were not our hopes raised by the Author's extraordinary learning, and A great ingenuity. The account we have given of his plan muft. have entertained and furprized our readers; and it cannot fail of having excited their curiofity. This curiofity we shall endeavour to gratify, in one or two fubfequent articles, as far as the limits of our journal, and the progress hitherto made by Mr. Bryant in his defign, will admit.

ART. VII, CONCLUSION of the PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, Vol. LXIII. Part 1.

PAPERS relating to ZOOLOGY.

Art. 1. An Account of the Discovery of the Manner of making Ifinglafs in Ruffia; with a particular Defcription of its Manufailure in England, from the Produce of British Fisheries. By Humphry Jackfon, Efq; F. R. S.

I

N our diftribution of the remaining contents of the present volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions, we defervedly give the first place to the interefting and useful discovery made by the ingenious Author of this article, and here communicated without referve to the Public. Though ifinglafs forms a very effential article of our foreign imports, and is employed, in very confiderable quantities, in many of our arts and manufactures, the true nature of this fubftance, and the method of preparing it, have hitherto been totally misunderstood. By writers of the best au

thority

thority it has, we believe, univerfally been represented as procared by boiling the fkin, tails, founds, or finewy parts of certain fifh in water; by which means a glutinous substance is said to be extracted from them, which is afterwards infpiffated and reduced fo'a folid form by heat.

In the repeated attempts made by the Author to procure ifinglafs by following thefe inftructions, he found himself conftantly disappointed: glue, not ifraglafs, was the refult of every procefs. Nor was a journey which he made into Ruffia productive of any discovery; but fteadily perfevering in this inquiry, he at length not only found out the true nature of this fubftance, and the method of manufacturing it, but likewise difcovered a matter plentifully procurable in the British fisheries, which has been found, by ample experience, to answer fimilar purpofes.' Accordingly, in confequence of the Author's fuccefs in this inveftigation, upwards of forty tons of British isinglass, we are told, have been fince manufactured and consumed; and the price of that commodity has been very confiderably reduced. On the whole, it appears that ifinglafs is actually nothing more than certain membranous parts of fifhes, which undergo no other previous preparation than that of being well cleaned, and afterwards expofed to stiffen a little in the air; fo as to be made capable of being formed into rolls, and twifted into the forms in which we receive them ;-that a fibrous texture is one of the most diftinguishing characteristics of this drug-that no artificial heat is neceffary to the production of it; neither are thofe parts of the fifh, which conftitute it, diffolved for this purpose. They may, indeed, as well as ifinglafs already formed, be diffolved in boiling water; but the produce will be a glue, or a fubstance which becomes brittle in drying, and snaps short. afunder. By fuch folution, its organization, or the continuity of its fibres would be for ever deftroyed; and it would lofe thofe peculiar qualities for which it is employed in many of the arts and manufactures-particularly in the brewery, where an imperfect folution of ifinglafs, called fining, poffeffes a peculiar property of clarifying malt liquors; while the fame quantity of glue, diffolved in the fame menftruum, and added to turbid beer, increases both its muddinefs and tenacity. According to the Author's rationale of this procefs, the fining is not effected by any elective attraction, fuch as frequently occurs in chemical decompofitions, but by the formation of maffes composed of the filaments of the ifinglafs, combined with the feculencies of the beer, which defcend in their combined ftate to the bottom, in confequence of their increased bulk, and greater specific gravity.

In the 18th Article, Mr. J. R. Forfter circumftantially defcribes fome curious fishes fent to the Royal Society by the Hudfon's Bay Company.

BOTANY.

BOTANY.

Art. 15. New Obfervations upon Vegetation. By M. Muftel, of the Academy of Sciences at Rouen.

The ingenious Dr. Hales, who threw fo much light on the principles of vegetation by his curious ftatical experiments, has fatisfactorily fhewn that there is no circulation of the fap in vegetables, analogous to that of the blood in animals; though the Author of this article imputes to him a contrary opinion; mifled, probably, by his obfervation, that the fap fometimes moves forward from the trunk to the branches, and occafionally recedes towards the trunk, in confequence of the alternate changes of heat and cold, and the viciffitudes of dry and moift weather; as the Reader will find on confulting his firft volume of Statical Effays, page 142, &c. 3d edition. Such was the idea, as we have formerly obferved, that fome of the antients entertained of the motion of the blood; making it confift of a flux and reflux, like that of the tide, in the fame veffels.

The obfervations made by M. Muftel not only fhew that there is no circulation of the fap in vegetables, but prefent us likewife with fome curious phenomena relative to vegetation; fome of which, however, have been before obferved, in the practice of leading the branches of certain trees into a hot-house. Having placed feveral fhrubs in pots near the windows of his hot-houfe, fome within the house, and others on the outfide, he paffed a fingle branch of each through feparate holes made in the panes of glass: fo that the trunks which were in the open air had a branch within the hot-houfe, and thofe that grew within the houfe had a fingle branch expofed to the external air. Some dwarf apple trees, and rose bushes, were likewife fubjected to the fame experiment, which was attended with the following confequences.

Within a week after this difpofition, which was made in the middle of January, all the branches in the hot-houfe began to difclofe their buds. In lefs than a fortnight they were furnished with leaves, and towards the end of February they had put forth fhoots of a confiderable length, which prefented the young flowers. In fhort, the internal branches, as we fhall call them, of the apple tree and the rose bushes, exhibited the fame appearances as are ufual in May. At the fame time, the bodics of these trees and fhrubs were expofed to an intense froft, which killed fome of their external branches; fo that there was not the leaft fign of vegetation on the outfide, while the fingle branches on the infide were daily putting forth leaves, fhoots, and buds. In the beginning of May, the internal branch of the apple tree in particular bore fruit of the fize of a nutmeg; while on the

See Appendix to our 35th volume, 1766, page 551, & feq.

branches

branches of the fame tree that were abroad, the bloffoms were but just beginning to fhew themselves. In fhort, none of these internal branches appeared to be in the least degree affected by the froft-nipt state of their trunks; but were as forward, as if the intire trees or fhrubs had been in the hot-house.

The refult will easily be conjectured of the converfe of this experiment. The trees, &c. that were placed in the infide of the hot houfe, had their branches covered with leaves and flowers about the middle of May; while the fingle branch of each that was carried to the outfide, was abfolutely at this time in the very fame ftate with thofe that grew abroad, exhibiting the fame appearances that trees prefent during the winter, and deriving no advantages from the warm fituation of their refpective trunks and branches within the hot-house.

It seems evidently to follow from thefe experiments, that there is no regular or general circulation of the fap in trees between the trunk and the branches; as thefe laft, which were admitted into the hot-houfe, vegetated vigorously, while their trunks and their other branches were in a ftate of torpidity or inaction, and covered with ice. They likewife prove, that each part of a tree is furnished with a quantity of fap, independent of any fupply from the trunk or other branches, fufficient to effect the first production of buds, flowers, and fruits, provided that thefe juices are put into motion by heat.

An accident that attended the Author's courfe of experiments, suggests a useful improvement in the treatment of fruit trees. A fnail having gnawed and deftroyed the petals, and the Hamina, or male flowers, of three of the flower buds of one of bis apple trees, but without hurting the piftillum, he was (ur, prized to find that they produced fruit, while the greater part of the other flowers, which had not been injured, did not bear any. Taking a hint from the fnail, the Author cut with his fciffars the petals of different apple, pear, plum, and cherry bloffoms, close to the calyx, Almoft every one of the flowers, thus treated, bore fruit; while feveral of the neighbouring flowers mifcarried. It will naturally be fuppofed that the deftruction of the ftamina would render the fruit barren, or that it would want thofe feeds that contain the germen that is to perpetuate the fpecies. Accordingly, in cutting open the apples whofe petals and flaming were eat up by the fnail, he found the capfule formed as ufual at the center of them; yet they were entirely empty, without the leaft appearance of a pip.'

In the 12th Article are contained fome circumstances communicated by Dr. Ducarel, relating to the early cultivation of botany in England; and particularly concerning the celebrated John Tradefcant, a great promoter of that fcience, as well as of natural history, in the last century. In the 22d article is given

a de

a defcription and delineation of a rare American plant of the Brownææ kind,' by M. P. J. Bergius. Article 5th contains the catalogue of 50 plants prefented annually to the Royal Society by the company of Apothecaries.

NATURAL HISTORY.

In the 2d Article, Mr. Adam Walker briefly defcribes the petrefactions and other natural curiofities of the cavern of Dunmore Park, near Kilkenny in Ireland. In the 3d, Dr. Michael Morris gives a fhort account of fome fpecimens of lead ore, containing native lead, found in a mine in Monmouthshire. The 19th Article is a table constructed by Dr. William Withering, afcertaining the principles of twelve different kinds of marle found in Staffordshire: And in the 21ft Article, the Hon. Daines Barrington defcribes a foffil lately found near ChriftChurch in Hampshire.

PAPERS relating to ELECTRICITY and METEORS.

The 6th Article is a fhort extract of a letter from Mr. Kinnerfley to Dr. Franklin; in which after taking notice of the remarkable conducting quality of fome kinds of charcoal, and obferving that a ftrong line drawn on paper with a black-lead pencil will conduct an electrical fhock pretty readily, he mentions the effects of a late thunder ftorm in Philadelphia. A floop and three houfes were, in lefs than an hour's time, all ftruck by it. The floop, and two of the houfes, were confiderably damaged; but the third, which was provided with a cylindrical iron conductor, only half an inch thick, confifting of an affemblage of feveral rods ftrongly fcrewed together, the least of which was funk 5 or 6 feet under ground, was preserved from all kind of injury, by means of the apparatus; which had evidently fuftained the fhock, and conducted the lightning, with no other injury to itself than the melting of 6 inches and a half of the flendereft part of a brass wire fixed on the top of it. Captain Falconer was in the house during the accident, and obferved the explofion to be an astonishing loud one.' Article 8. A Report of the Committee appointed by the Royal Society, to confider of a method for fecuring the Powder Magazines at Purfleet.

Article 9. Obfervations upon Lightning, &c. By Benjamin Willon, F. R. S. &c.

Article 10. A Letter to Sir John Pringle, Pr. R. S. on pointed

Conductors.

We have already given the fubftance of fome of Mr. Wilfon's objections, offered in the 9th Article, to the report which forms the fubject of the 8th, and to a part of which he had formally expreffed his diffent in writing. [See our Review for laft Month, page 386.] Thefe objections having been maturely confidered by the committee, they, in the 10th article, declare that they