the equilibrium of heat in a state of uniform temperature, as the author himself has observed. In fact, these experiments show us the evaporation of camphor by the radiation of different bodies proportional to the greater or smaller disposition of these bodies to radiate, even when the temperature is uniform; or, in other terms, even when the equilibrium of caloric exists. Hence it follows that radiation exists even in this state of equilibrium. This direct expe*riment seems to confirm in a satisfactory manner the numerous arguments in favour of the theory of the equilibrium of heat. The memoir of M. Ruhland contains several other interesting facts, which appear to me to flow directly from the general laws of heat. For example, lamp-black, which is known to be one of the -most powerful radiators of heat, sublimes or evaporates camphor very rapidly. But if a metallic plate is placed over the lamp-black, the evaporation is immediately retarded. The caloric of the inferior strata is intercepted by this screen, or by this change of medium. I do not choose to enter into further details on this subject, which is beyond the particular point of theory that I was anxious to illustrate. ARTICLE IX. ANALYSES OF Books. Hints for establishing an Office in Newcastle for collecting and recording authentic Information relative to the State of the Collieries in its Neighbourhood, and the Progress that has been made towards ascertaining the Nature and Constitution of the Strata below those Seams to which the Workings in this Country have been confined. By Wm. Thomas, Esq. To which are added Observations on the Necessity of adopting legislative Measures to diminish the probability of the recurrence of fatal Accidents in Collieries, and to prolong the Duration of the Coal Mines of the United Kingdoms. By Wm. Chapman, Esq. Civil Engineer. Being two Essays read at a Meeting of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and published by order of the Society. 1815. THIS pamphlet contains a proposal to establish a Society in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by whom all the facts respecting the collieries on the Tyne and Wear are to be collected and registered. When a colliery is abandoned, an exact plan of it is to be constructed, exhibiting those parts in which the coals have been wrought out, and those in which they have been abandoned. The consequence of this plan would be that by degrees a complete knowledge of all the underground workings would be acquired. It is obvious that all the abandoned collieries must be filled with water, and that unless an exact, knowledge of them is obtained, it must become more and more difficult every year to sink new pits. Indeed the time must VOL. VI. N° V. 2 B. come when the mining for coals must be abandoned altogether, for want of such knowledge. Mr. Chapman gives examples of great expense already incurred in vain, merely from not knowing what part of the coal-bed had been wrought out. But when the whole high main shall have been exhausted, it will be necessary to have recourse to the low main. Now this will be hardly possible without an exact knowledge of the workings of the high main. Here and there considerable bodies of coal are left for the safety of the miners and the good of the mine. Through these bodies it would be pos sible to penetrate to the low main without the risk of being inundated by water; but this cannot be done unless the exact position of these bodies of coal be known. Mr. Chapman has shown that such a plan, though absolutely necessary for the good of the country, can never be executed without the interference of the Legislature. Indeed this is sufficiently obvious. The proprietors of the collieries, from mistaken views of self interest, are anxious to conceal every fact which they observe from the public. Hence it is quite obvious that they will never of their own accord form such a society as is described in the pamphlet before us; and that if such a society be formed by others, they will communicate no information to it unless compelled by an Act of Parliament. As to the coal viewers, they appear to be averse to all publicity and all changes in the present mode of working the collieries. This I conclude from a fact which I certainly should not have believed a priori. Though several hundred colliers lose their lives every year by explosions of carbureted hydrogen, and though they have been expressing a great anxiety to discover a mode of destroying this gas, not one of them has ever thought of trying the lamp of Dr. Reid Clanny, of Sunderland, though a model of it has been within their inspection for several years, and though there cannot be the least doubt that it would effectually prevent all such accidents. They may perhaps allege that it is more expensive than the present mode of lighting the mines. I should like to know at what they estimate the lives of 300 or 100 men; or what additional expense to the country it is to support the widows and children of so many workmen that have perished in their service, because they did not choose to increase the expense of lighting their mines. But setting this aside, if we consider the damage often done by these explosions, and the money requisite to put the mine in order again, I am not sure if the difference of expense would not be in favour of Dr. Clanny's lamp. Besides, nothing would be more easy than to substitute coal gas for oil; and a small steam-engine might easily be made to supply all the lamps with the requisite quantity of air. Such a substitution would make the lamps cheaper than the present mode of lighting the mines; and it would have the unspeakable advantage of preventing all deaths from the explosion of carbureted hydrogen gas. What excuse or apology can the proprietors of the mines and the coal-viewers make for never having made a single attempt to improve the present wretched and absurd mode of light ing their mines after other and better methods have been suggested to them? One would be tempted to suppose them entirely regard less of the lives of their workmen. The Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne should apply to the county members of Northumberland and Durham, and to the different members for boroughs within these counties, to lay the case before the House of Commons, and represent the necessity of legislative interference in order to preserve to the country the great benefits arising from the collieries on the Tyne and Wear. There can be no doubt that an Act of Parliament would be readily procured, establishing an institution similar to that proposed in the pamphlet before us. It would be better that no fees were exacted for liberty of inspecting the plans, or at least they should be trifling; for such things are extremely liable to be abused, and to destroy the object in view. In all parts of Europe, where mining has been carried to a great degree of perfection, it has been under the inspection and controul of Government. That coal-mines should be in this predicament, and that exact plans should be preserved of all the excavations, and of all the coals left, is too obvious to require any illustration. ARTICLE X. Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. ROYAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. Account of the Labours of the Class of Mathematical and Physical (Continued from p. 229.) M. Risso, author of the Ichthyology of Nice, has sent to the Class a supplement to that work, in which he describes several fishes that he was not acquainted with when he published his work. Some of these are very interesting, by the peculiarities of their character. M. Lamouroux has extended and completed his great work on the polypi history, of which we have spoken two years ago, and it is to be hoped that he will soon publish it. M. Magendie's fine experiments on vomiting will be recollected, and the invitation by the Class to examine the part which the desophagus may have in this disorderly movement of the stomach. Though these researches have not yet led to a decisive result, they appeared to him sufficiently interesting to be communicated. The alternate contractions and relaxations of the appear to him to take place only in the lowest third of it, where it is chiefly excited by the nerves of the eighth pair. The contraction increases much, and continues a long time, when the stomach is full. When the oesophagus is cut and detached from the diaphragm, the injection of tartar emetic into the veins does not produce vomiting its introduction into the stomach becomes necessary. M. Delpech, Professor of Surgery at Montpellier, has sent a memoir to the Class on the hospital sore, a kind of gangrene which affects the sores when the wounded patients are too numerous. He has ascertained that this dreadful malady, of which few practitioners have spoken, is produced by a local contagion. It is propagated by the linen, the charpee, and the instruments. Its Its progress is slower when the patients can be exposed to a current of air. The most minute attention to cleanliness is necessary to prevent it from spreading. But the only true remedy, according to M. Delpech, is the application of the actual cautery to the parts affected with it. Some years ago M. Maunoir, surgeon in Geneva, sent a memoir on the advantages of the method of amputation invented in England, and which consists in cutting the skin lower down than the bone and the muscles, so as to preserve a sufficient quantity to cover the stump, by bringing it immediately in contact. M. Roux, surgeon at Paris, has presented a memoir on the same subject, in which he has shown from his own experiments that this method diminishes the sufferings of the patient, that it prevents hæmorrhages and suppuration, that it greatly accelerates the cure of the sore, and that it leaves the stump in a more convenient state, and subject to fewer accidents. He points out the precautions necessary to avoid some inconveniences ascribed to it by those who performed it ill, and particularly to afford the blood and pus, if any be formed, a sufficient passage. M. Percy, our associate, who emplayed it since his youth, and who, as he informs us himself, has had the melancholy advantage of amputating more limbs than perhaps any surgeon that ever existed, expresses strongly in his report his wish that the memoir of M. Roux may soon render so useful a process general.. Two young surgeons of Paris, MM. Lisfrand and Champenne, have made known their method of amputating the arm at its upper joint, one of the most difficult operations in the surgical art. By making the instrument penetrate under the two eminences of the omoplate, called acromion and coracoid process, they reach directly the capsule of the joint, and terminate the operation more quickly than by any of the methods employed before them. M. de Saissy, surgeon at Lyons, has cured several deaf people by injections into the cavity of the tympanum, through the tube of Eustachius. He has sent to the Class an account of his method, and the history of the cures which he has performed. The treatise on poisons by M. Orfila, of which we announced the first volume in our last year's report, has been continued, and the second volume submitted to the Class in manuscript. It treats of the deleterious effects of preparations of tin, zinc, silver, gold, of the concentrated mineral acids, the caustic alkalies, phosphorus, cantharides, lead, and iodine; together with an appendix on the antidotes of corrosive sublimate and arsenic. The author explains with care, and from new and exact experiments, the physiological effects of these substances, whether swallowed, or injected into the veins. Milk, according to M. Orfila, is the antidote to muriate of tin; common salt, to nitrate of silver or lunar caustic; calcined magnesia, to the acids, provided it be administered very quickly; the sulphates of soda and magnesia, when taken in great quantity and repeatedly, stop the effects of the salts of lead and barytes; and acetic acid is the remedy against the action of the alkalies. M. Orfila shows that charcoal, which had been recommended against corrosive sublimate and arsenic, has no effect. It is of great importance to know the inefficacy of a remedy against evils so rapid that there is no time to bestow upon them any thing useless. M. Huzard has carefully informed the Class of the progress and termination of that terrible disease which has destroyed most of the horged cattle in those provinces into which the war brought its ravages. It is a bilious and putrid fever, very contagious, which, though it does not exist in Hungary, is always produced when the cattle of that country are carried to a distance in the train of armies. The total interruption of communication was the only efficacious preservative; but no remedy was capable of saving the individuals attacked. Fortunately their flesh was not unhealthy, which diminished a little the ruin of their proprietors. The same member has read a notice on a disease which had broken out among the cattle in the village of Rosny, and which different circumstances led the people to consider as hydrophobia. He ascer tained that it was only a gangrenous quincy. M. le Marquis de Cubieres, correspondent, has composed a work, the manuscript of which he has submitted to the Class. It treats of the culture of those gardens which we call improperly English gardens, though the celebrated comic actor Dufresny passes for having presented the first model of them to France towards the end of the seventeenth century. The author collects all the aids of botany and natural philosophy to an art, which has long amused his leisure hours, and explains them in the elegant style naturally inspired by his subject, and suitable to those to whom chiefly he destines his book. M. Tollard, farmer and merchant at Paris, has proposed some compositions of artificial meadows, formed of certain plants which he associates in consequence of the habit that they have of growing together, and with a view to the different soils, and to the qualities which these plants communicate to the hay. These groupes require to be tried for some years before they can be recommended for practice. The same author has presented a history of the useful vegetables, |