6. Conjectures relative to the Caufe of the Increase of Weight acquired by fome heated Bodies during cooling. By Thomas Henry, junior.

Mr. Henry, after attending to the ufual fources of inaccuracy in experiments of this kind, namely, the afcent of the rarified part of the column of air near the heated body, which tends to diminifh the weight and the lefs fpecific gravity of that air, together with the expanfion of the neighbouring arm of the balance, which tend to produce a contrary effect, directs his attention to the increase of weight which metals acquire by calcination, which he proves to have a very confiderable influence in results of this nature.

7. Remarks on the floating of Cork-Balls in Water. By

Mr. Banks.

The phenomena of attraction or repulfion, which feem to take place between bodies floating upon the furface of water, have been confidered, by many writers, as depending upon the energy of the bodies themfelves, and not of the fluid which fupports them. Gravefande and many other writers have, however, proved that this effect arifes from the gravitation of a portion of the water, which is either elevated or depreffed round the floating bodies. Mr. Banks fupports this last opinion, and defcribes the phenomena; but we do not perceive any thing new in either.

8. Cafe of a Perfon becoming Short-fighted in advanced Age. By Thomas Henry, F. R. S.

It having been mentioned in the Manchefter Society, as a means of preventing the neceffity of ufing fpectacles in advanced age, that a very small print fhould be habitually read, by the light of a small candle; Mr. Henry adduces an instance of a gentleman who became fhort-fighted in advanced age, by this very practice.

9. An Account of the Progress of Population, Agriculture, Manners, and Government in Pennsylvania. By Benjamin Rush, M. D. &c.

This paper contains a view of a certain progreffive feries of facts, which exhibits the human mind in a ftate very foreign to the views of it which have been taken for many centuries in Europe. The author confines himfelf to Pennsylvania only, and gives his information as deduced from his own knowledge and obfervations. P. 184.

The first fettler in the woods, is generally a man who has outlived his credit or fortune in the cultivated parts of the ftate. His time for migrating is in the month of April. His first object is to build a fmall cabin of rough logs, for himfelf and family. The floor of this cabin is of earth, the roof of fplit logs, the light is received through the door, and in fome inftances, through a fmall

window made of greafed paper. A coarfer building, adjoining this cabin, affords a fhelter to a cow and a pair of poor hories. The labour of erecting thefe buildings is fucceeded by killing the trees on a few acres of ground near his cabin. This is done by cutting a circle round the trees, two or three feet from the ground. The ground around thef trees is then ploughed, and Indian corn planted in it. The teafon for planting this grain is about the twentieth of May. It grows generally on new ground, with but little cultivation, and yields in the month of October following, from forty to fifty buthels an acre. After the first of September, it affords a good deal of nourishment to his family in its green or unripe ftate, in the form of what is called roafting ears. His family is fed, during the fummer, by a fmall quantity of grain, which he carries with him, and by fish and game. His cows and horfes feed upon wild grafs, or the fucculent twigs of the woods. For the first year, he endures a great deal of diftiefs from hunger, cold, and a variety of accidental caufes; but he feldom complains or finks under them. As he lives in the neighbourhood of Indians, he foon acquires a ftrong tincture of their manners. His exertions, while they continue, are violent, but they are fucceeded by long intervals of reit. His pleafures confiit chiefly in fithing and hunting. He loves fpiritous liquors, and he eats, drinks, and fleeps in dirt and rags, in his little cabin.

In his intercourfe with the world, he manifefts all the arts which characterize the Indians of our country. In this fituation he paffes two or three years. In proportion as population increases around him, he becomes uneafy and diffatisfied. Former y, his cattle ranged at large, but now his neighbours call upon him to confine them within fences, to prevent their trefpaffing upon their fields of grain. Formerly, he fed his family upon wild animals, but thefe, which fly from the face of man, now ceafe to afford him an eafy fubfiftence, and he is compelled to raife domeftic animals for the fupport of his family. He cannot bear to furrender up a fingle natural right for all the benefits of government, and therefore he abandons his little fettlement, and feeks a retreat in the woods, where he again fubmits to all the toils which have been mentioned. There are inftances of many men who have broken ground, on bare creation, not less than four different times in this way, in different and more advanced parts of the itate. It has been remarked, that the flight of this clafs of people is always increafed by the preaching of the gofpel. This will not furprize us when we confider how oppofite its precepts are to their licentious manner of living. If our firft fettler were the owner of the fpot of land which he began to cultivate, he fells it at a confiderable profit to his fucceffor; but if (as is oftener the cafe) he were a tenant to fome rich land-holder, he abandons it in debt; but the fmall improvements he leaves behind him generally make it an object of immediate demand to a fecond species of fettler.

This fpecies of fettler is generally a man of fome property. He pays one third or one fourth part in cash for his plantation, which confifts of three or four hundred acres, and the reft in gales or inftalments, as it is called here; that is, a certain fum yearly, without

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without intereft, till the whole is paid. The firft object of this fettler is to build an addition to his cabin. This is done with hewn logs, and, as faw-mills generally follow fettlements, his floors are made of boards; his roof is made of what are called clab-boards, which are a kind of coarfe fhingles fplit out of fhort logs. This houfe is divided by two floors, on each of which are two rooms. Under the whole is a cellar walled with stone. The cabin ferves as a kitchen to this houfe. His next object is to clear a little meadow ground, and plant an orchard of two or three hundred apple-trees. His ftable is likewife enlarged, and, in the courfe of a year or two, he builds a large log-barn, the roof of which is commonly thatched with rye-ftraw. He, moreover, increafes the quantity of his arable land, and inftead of cultivating Indian corn alone, he raifes a quantity of wheat and rye. The latter is cultivated chiefly for the purpofe of being diftilled into. whisky. This fpecies of fettler by no means extracts all from the earth which it is able and wining to give. His fields yield but a fcanty increafe, owing to the ground not being fufficiently ploughed. The hopes of the year are often blasted by his cattle breaking through his half-made fences, and deftroying his grain. His horfes perform but half the labour that might be expected from them, if they were better fed, and his cattle often die in the fpring from the want of provifion, and the delay of grafs. His houfe, as well as his farm, bears many marks of a weak tone of mind. His windows are unglazed, or if they have had glafs in them, the ruins of it are fupplied with old hats, or pillows. This fpecies of fettler is feldom a good member of civil or religious fociety; with a large portion of an hereditary mechanical kind of religion, he neglects to contribute any thing towards building a church, or maintaining a regular adminiftration of the ordinances of the gofpel. He is equally indifpofed to fupport civil govern ment. With high ideas of liberty, he refufes to bear his proportion of the debt contracted by its eftablishment in our country. He delights chiefly in company, fometimes drinks fpiritous liquors to excefs, will spend a day or two in hunting up a newspaper that contains a political publication, and thus he contracts debts which (if he cannot difcharge in a depreciated paper currency) compel him to fell his plantation, generally in the course of a few years, to the third and laft fpecies of fettler.

This fpecies of fettler is commonly a man of property and good character. Sometimes he is the fon of a wealthy farmer in one of the intérior and ancient counties of the ftate. His first object is to convert every fpot of ground, over which he is able to draw water, into meadow. Where this cannot be done, he felects the moft fertile fpots on the farm, and devotes them by manure to that purpofe. His next object is to build a barn, which he prefers of ftone. This building is, in fome inftances, a hundred feet in front, and forty in depth. It is made very compact fo as to fhut out the cold in winter, for our farmers find that their horfes and cattle, when kept warm, do not require near as much food, as when they are expofed to the cold. He ufes ceconomy likewife in the confumption of his wood. Hence, he keeps himfelf warm in

winter by means of ftoves, which fave an immenfe deal of labour to himself and his horfes, in cutting and hauling wood in cold and wet weather. His fences are every where repaired, fo as to fecure his grain from his own and his neighbour's cattle. But further; he increases the number of the articles of his cultivation; and instead of raifing corn, wheat, and rye alone, he raifes oats, buck-wheat (the phagopyrum of Linnæus) and fpelts. Near his houfe, he allots an acre or two of ground for a garden, in which he raifes a large quantity of cabbage and potatoes. His newly cleared fields afford him every year a large increase of turnips. Over the fpring which fupplies him with water, he builds a milkhoufe. He likewife adds to the number, and improves the quality of his fruit-trees; his fons work by his fide all the year, and his wife and daughters forfake the dairy and the fpinning-wheel, to fhare with him in the toils of harveft. The last object of his induftry, is to build a dwelling-houfe. This bufinefs is fometimes effected in the courfe of his life, but is oftener bequeathed to his fon, or the inheritor of his plantation; and hence we have a common faying among our beft farmers," that a fon fhould always begin where his father left off;" that is, he fhould begin his improvements by building a commodious dwelling-houfe, fuited to the improvements and value of the plantation. This dwellinghoufe is generally built of itone; it is large and convenient, and filled with uteful and fubftantial furniture. It fometimes adjoins the houfe of the fecond fettler; but it is frequently placed at a little distance from it. The horfes and cattle of this fpecies of fettler bear marks in their firength, fat, and fruitfulness, of their being plentifully fed and carefully kept. His table abounds with a variety of the belt provifions. His very kitchen flows with milk and honey. Beer, cyder, and wine are the ufual drinks of his family. The greateft part of the cloathing of his family is manufactured by his wife and daughters. In proportion as he increafes in wealth, he values the protection of laws. Hence he punctually pays his taxes towards the fupport of government. Schools and churches likewife, as the means of promoting order and happiness in fociety, derive a due fupport from him: for benevolence and public fpirit, as to thefe objects, are the natural offspring of affluence and independence. Of this clafs of fettlers are two thirds of the farmers of Pennfylvania. These are the men to whom Pennfylvania owes her ancient fame and confequence.' 10. A Phyfical Enquiry into the Powers and Operations of Medicines. By Thomas Percival, M. D. F. R. S. &c. 11. Obfervations concerning the vital Principle. By John Ferriar, M. D.

These two papers contain a confiderable mafs of observations upon medical and anatomical facts, and will be read with profit and advantage by the medical ftudent. We cannot, however, attempt a fummary of their contents.

17. On the comparative Excellence of the Sciences and Arts. By Mr. William Rofcoe,

Nothing

Nothing is more common than for the cultivator of science to look upon works of imagination, and the products of the fine arts, as trifling, and beneath the confideration of a man of fenfe. And, on the other hand, an equal contempt is beftowed on the abftract fciences, by thofe, who cultivating the purfuits of the imagination, are difpofed to confider mathematical, mechanical, or chemical fcience, as dry, uninterefting, and tending to contract, inftead of enlarging the mind. The mind of the pedant is ever contracted, whatever may be his purfuit; and the man who cannot caft a glance over the great whole or final purpofe to which the purfuits of men ought to be directed, or who, having caught a tranfient glimpse of fuch a profpect, ftill feels himself difpofed to give a very high degree of confequence to one particular purfuit, and that purfuit the one to which his own attention has been directed, may depend upon it, that he poffeffes more or lefs of this prejudice. It appears neceffary, however, for the happiness and comfort of fociety, that individuals fhould not in general purfue one particular object, to the depreciation of their character, as men of candour or general benevolence. Mr. Rofcoe has endeavoured to elucidate these topics, in a fhort eflay; and though he admits that the obligations of mankind, to fuch characters as devote themselves to the public good, on fubjects which have little or no connection with the promotion of virtue, are great; yet he appears to think, that the general mafs of mankind ought to prefer the fecret consciousness of a proper discharge of the duties of life, to that popular approbation which attends the fuccessful exertion of ability.

13. On the Cretins of the Vallas. By Sir Rich. Clayton, Bart.

In a certain confined diftrict, in the Lower Vallais, about thirty miles in length and eight in breadth, in a fort of vaft bafon, full of exceffive exhalations from the Rhone and the marshes on its fides; where the reflection of the fun from the furrounding mountains forms an atmosphere very fingular for its humidity and heat-in this diftrict a numerous fet of beings are produced, indeed above the brute fpecies, but in every refpect below their own. They are born either of intelligent parents, or by propagation with each other. Of these we cannot do better than give the defcription in the words of our author, p. 263.

Caft in the fame mould with the rest of mankind, they have, moft certainly, its form; but one looks in vain for

"The human face divine,"

illuminated with fenfibility, and lighted up with the ray of underftanding. Phyfiognomifts have pretended to difcover a trait of the inward character, written on almost every countenance, that befpeaks the paffions each individual is warmed with. One proof may at least be added to their fyftem, without adopting it in its

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