cussion. It is a long time since animal magnetism occupied the minds of the French. Forty years have elapsed since the question was first submitted to the consideration of the Royal Society of Medicine. Of the four commissions at that time appointed to investigate it, three pronounced against the reality of magnetism. At the sitting above alluded to, M. Marc proposed to the Academy to renew the consideration of the subject; he was opposed by M. Renauldin; and the Academy merely appointed a commission to examine if it was desirable again to agitate the question. The cauterization of the pustules of the small-pox was the subject of a very curious paper by M. Damiron. As to vaccination, all reports concurred in favour of that invaluable discovery, the universal practice of which cannot be too strongly recommended. The French Academy has proposed, as the subject of the next poetical competition, "The completion of the Louvre by Charles the Tenth." ITALY. The annual census (ending at Easter 1825) of the Roman population has been recently published. The entire population of the capital is, 138,750-Families, 33,271--Priests, 1,483--Monks and Friars, 1,662-Nuns, 1,502-Marriages, 1,158 Births, 4,243-Deaths, 4,446-in the Hospitals, 2,002--in the Prisons, 1,020-." Heretics," Turks, and Infidels, (exclusive of the Jews), 217-increase of population since the preceding year, 220. It is asserted in Rome, that within a few months, no less than five hundred persons, charged with, or suspected of being members of secret societies, have been arrested in the States of the Church. Prince L. Spada, and those who were taken up at the same time, still remain close prisoners at the fort of St. Angelo. The king of Sardinia has ordered the excavations on the site of ancient Tusculum to be carried on with assiduity, and some very interesting remains are being gradually discovered. Roads, walls, columns, a theatre, mosaics, inscriptions, sculpture, and paintings, will thus be added to the antiquarian stores with which this portion of the world is already enriched. The Court of Rome has taken alarm at the anomalous condition of the South American States. The Sovereign Pontiff thinks, though Ferdinand has been foolish enough to cast away the temporal dominion of his late rich western empire, Rome must take care of the spiritual despotism which she still holds in the New World, and that it would therefore be as well to separate the Papal cause from that of Spain. Accordingly he has addressed to the Spanish monarch a remonstrance, advising him to come to some accommodation with his late subjects, accompanied by an intimation that upon his failing to do so, the Court of Rome will feel itself bound to approve of the Bishops appointed by the de facto Governments of South America. Scavini, the celebrated Clinical Professor of the University of Turin, died lately in that city, aged 64. He was author of a clever Dissertation on the Gout, and other medical works. The French are full of hopes on the subject of cultivating the "new Leicester" and "South-down" breeds of sheep, in the department of Marne, and rivalling the British manufactures which are produced from their wool. They are importing the best races, and seem to calculate certainly on success. An extensive mine of alum, capable of being easily worked, has been discovered at the foot of Pic-Sancy (Mont d'Or.) Raphael.-Spain was in possession of five pictures by Raphael, executed by that great painter in his best period, and they were scarcely known to any one. Vasari, who mentions the "Virgin with the Fish," and the "Bearing the Cross," has not noticed the "Visitation," or the "Holy Family," surnamed the "Pearl;" or the other "Holy Family," surnamed the "Agnus Dei," which is evidently the joint production of Raphael and Julio Romano. These chefs-d'œuvre were in a state of complete obscurity when they were brought to France in 1813. The first impression which they produced was universal admiration; the second, a feeling that they required to be restored. This operation was performed with the greatest care; and when they returned to Spain they had received new life. Before they went, however, the Duke of Wellington wished to have copies of them. It was with the greatest difficulty that the General, who had assisted Spain to recover her independence, could obtain this favour. It became quite a matter of diplomatic negotiation. At last, permission was granted, and the work was confided to M. Bonnemaison, assisted by several very skilful artists. Profiting by the opportunity, M. Bonnemaison caused the most important passages of the various pictures to be traced and drawn, and afterwards engraved by the most able engravers in the chalk manner. M. Eméric-David undertook to write the explanations, which are full of taste and information. The publication consists of five Numbers, each containing an outline, slightly shaded, of the whole of the picture to which it refers, and several parts, as large as in the original, admirably executed.-Revue Encyclopédique. A patent for ten years has just been obtained in France for a machine for spinning flax. Buonaparte promised a reward of a million of francs to the inventor of such a machine. A chemist at Caen has discovered a very convenient method of obtaining ice at every season. It consists in mixing, in a small cask, five pounds of pulverized sulphat of soda with four pounds of sulphuric acid, at 36 degrees. The compo sition is capable of quickly freezing water. This freezing would inevitably take place at once, if large quantities were used; but in cases in which only such quantities as those above-mentioned are employed, the vessels necessarily parting with a large portion of their caloric to the bodies which they contain, the mixture must be made three times before the production of ice can be insured. GERMANY. Goethe, in his eightieth year, has just republished his celebrated Werter, so popular in Germany half a century ago. He brings it forth once more, enriched with a prologue of a sentence or two, of which the following is a translation :-" Once more, O shade, so much lamented! thou darest to venture in the broad glare of day! You trip over a fresh field of flowers to throw yourself in my way, and art not afraid to look me in my face, as if you still existed in the fresh morning of thy life! My destiny has been to remain on earth-and thine to quit it: thou hast passed away like a shadow-nor hast thou lost much by it." If Goethe is the greatest poet, Blumenbach is the greatest natural philosopher in Germany-the latter has just had his golden wedding celebrated (25 years married) by a grand féte. By a singular coincidence, both these distinguished men have arrived together at their half century of glory! While all the princes of Germany emulate each other in giving the poet extraordinary privileges within their separate states, all the learned of the empire gather round the great naturalist to sing his praises, and strike a medal in his honour, and have named after him a plant lately added to the botanical nomenclature. RUSSIA. The number of periodical publications in Russia amounts to nearly 70, and they may be classed as follows:-Published at St. Petersburgh, in the Russian language -The Asiatic Messenger; the Wellmeaner; the Journal of Liberal Arts; the Journal of the Imperial Philanthropic Society; Notices relative to the progress of Public Instruction; the News of the Russian Academy; the News of Literature; the National Intelligencer; the Technological Journal; the Champion of Knowledge and Beneficence; the Son of the Country; the Archives of the North; the Memoirs of the Free Economical Society in Russia; the Guide for Physic, Chymistry, Natural History, and Technology; the Christian Lectures; the Seal placed upon real Estates (a kind of Judicial Journal); the Proceedings of the Senate; the Russian Invalid; the Academical Gazette of St. Petersburgh; the St. Petersburgh Price Current; the Gazette of the Senate; the Northern Bee. In the German language-The St. Petersburgh Journal; the St. Petersburgh Academical Gazette; the Gazette of the Senate of St. Petersburgh; the St. Petersburgh Journal of Commerce; the St. Petersburgh Price Current; the Harp of the North, a Musical Journal. In the French languageMemoirs of the St. Petersburgh Imperial Academy of Sciences; the Political and Literary Journal of St. Petersburgh. The Museum for Children is also published at St. Petersburgh, in the French, German, and Russian.-Published at Moscow, in the Russian language, the European Messenger; the Ladies' Journal; Notices for Horse Fanciers; the Historical, Statistical, and Geographical Journal; the Moscow Telegraph; the New Magazine of Natural History, Chymistry, &c.; the Russian Messenger; Essays in prose and verse; the Moscow Gazette. At Dorpt, in the German language, the New Museum of the German Provinces of Russia; the Dorpt Gazette. At Libau, in the German language, the Weekly Journal of Liban. At Mittau, in the German language, Memoires of the Courland Society of Literature and Art; the Mittau News; the Universal German Gazette of Russia. In the Livonian language, the Mittau Livonian Gazette, and the Livonian Journal. At Pernau, the Weekly Journal of Pernau. In the Esthonian language, the Weekly Journal for the inhabitants of the country. The Official Journal, Essays intended to conduce to the knowledge of the Livonian language. At Revel, in the German language, the Revel Weekly Advertiser. At Riga, in the German language, the Medico-Pharmaceutic Journal; the Journal of the Baltic Provinces and of Riga; the Spectator; the Riga Gazette; the Riga Advertiser. At Wilna, in the Polish language, the Wilna Journal; the Journal of Benevolence; the Proceedings of the Wilna Medical Society; the Lithuanian Courier. At Odessa, in the French language, the Journal of Odessa, or Com 312 575.900 30,523 4,796,900 Total These calculations are drawn from the With the Statistical Essay of M. Balbi. increase of the three last years we may estimate the Portuguese Monarchy at 4,600,000, of which about 3,600,000 are Portuguese, 600,000 Negroes, and 400,000 Indians, Chinese, &c. The Revenues in 1822 were more than 17 millions of crusadoes, (about 50 millions of francs, i. e. two millions sterling;) and the expenses were about 21 millions of crnsadoes, (about 24 millions sterling.) Portugal had four ships of the line, eleven The frigates, and 30,000 land troops. Empire of Brazil, without the Banda or Oriental, or Cisplatina, on a space of 140,625 square miles, had a population which in 1817 was 3,617,900, but which must now exceed four millions. This is divided into the following classes: Whites 900,000 Revenue from 28 to 29 millions of francs (11 or 12 hundred thousand pounds.) Expenses unknown. Marine, three vessels of the line. Regular army, 10,000 men. Militia 50,000. Exports from Portugal for Brazil, in 1806, value 21 millions of crusadoes (24 millions sterling.) Exports of Brazil to Portugal 35 millions crusadoes (about 4 millions sterling). Export of Negroes from the Portuguese possessions to Brazil, 30,000 annual average. AMERICA. The Agricultural Society of East Florida have made a Report on the expediency and practicability of uniting the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico, by a canal across the Florida peninsula, commencing at St. Augustine, and ending at Vacassay Bay, embracing a distance of 92 miles, which is estimated at 90,000 dollars, as the intersection of several rivers will reduce the actual canaling to about 18 miles. This important canal will save a distance of nearly 800 miles in doubling the dangerous Florida reef or shoals, and bring the trade and commerce of New Orleans and Mexico closer to the Southern States. Upon the spot which bears the name of the illustrious Washington, a magnificent monument to his memory is to be erected. It is to be entirely constructed of marble, in imitation of that of Thrasybulus, who, assisted by only thirty friends, attempted the expulsion of the thirty tyrants from his country; in which he finally succeeded, and received-bis only reward-a crown of two twigs of olive. It is to be 130 feet high, and will cost 67,000 doliars, which are to be raised by subscription; and a great part is already realized. tree. The Coca Tree. This is a small tree, with pale bright green leaves, somewhat resembling in shape those of the orangeThe leaves are picked from the trees, three or four times a year, and carefully dried in the shade; they are then packed in small baskets. The natives, in several parts of Peru, chew these leaves, particularly in the mining districts, when at work in the mines or travelling; and such is the sustenance that they derive from them, that they frequently take no food for four or five days, although they are constantly working; I have often been assured by them, that whilst they have a good supply of coca they feel neither hunger, thirst, nor fatigue, and that, without impairing their health, they can remain eight or ten days and nights without sleep. The leaves are almost insipid; but when a small quantity of lime is mixed with them, they have a very agreeable sweet taste. The natives put a few of the leaves in their mouths; and when they become moist, they add a little lime or ashes of the molle to them, by means of a small stick, taking care not to touch the lips or the teeth. When the taste of the coca diminishes, a small quantity of lime or ashes is added, until the taste disappears, and then the leaves are replaced with fresh ones. They generally carry with them a small leather pouch containing coca, and a small calabash holding lime or ashes; and one of these men will undertake to convey letters to Lima, a distance of upwards of a hundred leagues, without any other provision. On such occasions they are called chasquis, or chasqueros, and this epithet is also given to the different conductors of the mails. RURAL ECONOMY. On the Fertilization of the Female Blossom sofone thousand five hundred. As I had never re Filberts. By the Rev. George Swayne.-When I first came to reside at Dyrham (which was in the year 1806), I found two young filbert plants, about three or four years old (from suckers) or probably more, growing in a situation which I did not approve of, and caused them to be removed and planted in a corner of a small garden, on a ditch bank which parted my neighbour's premises from mine. Here they were suffered to grow in their own way, with no cultivation, and scarcely any attention bestowed on them. As after many years they had borne none or but little fruit, so little or none seemed to be expected from them; but casually passing by them in the second week in February, in the year 1820, I was rather surprised to see a considerable number of scarlet blossoms thereon, in a state of expansion, but at the same time very few catkins, and those few apparently in a very imperfect state, not a single one being nearly prepared to discharge its farina. It immediately struck me that the sterility of my filberts hitherto had been occasioned by a deficiency of male blossoms. At the same time, it occurred to me, that the only probable remedy for the present deficiency, as the female blossoms seemed to be already prepared for male influence, was, to proceed without delay in quest of some male flowers of the common hazel; which I accordingly did, and after searching some sheltered parts of the neighbouring laues, I at length found, on some very old wood, a few sprays of catkins just beginning to open. These I gathered, brought home with care, and immediately suspended on the upper part of one of my filbert trees the most to windward. In a day or two after, I repeated my search, and obtained a few more, and so continued whenever I took a walk, to bring home a few small branches bearing expanding catkins, and to hang them up upon different parts of my filbert trees, for the space of a week or ten days; when the frost, which had been very severe in the early part of the preceding month of January, again set in with increased severity, so much so, indeed, that it killed and scorched up nearly all the catkins of the hazel, even those which had not shed their dust, and I entertained little doubt that the female blossoms of my filberts had shared the same fate; but it proved otherwise. In the course of the summer, perceiving some appearance of fruit, I gave orders, that no person should gather a filbert from my trees; these, I have no doubt, were strictly observed. At the time of ripening, I collected the whole of the crop myself, and immediately weighed it. The weight was exactly two pounds. Now, although this would seem to be but a moderate crop for two filbert trees (or rather bushes, for each has several stems), which had been growing nearly or quite twenty years, yet it was more than they had ever produced before, not only in any one year, but (I believe I may venture to say) in all the years of their previous existence, and, if I calculate rightly, it is more than double the annual average quantity which the Rev. Mr. Williamson, in his valuable Paper on Filberts, allows the Kentish orchards to produce,—that is, supposing the trees in those orchards to stand six feet apart, or to occupy thirty-six square feet of surface each, which, as they are not suffered to grow more than six feet in height, I should suppose to be a proper distance. On the 28th of the November following (1820), taking a view of my filbert trees, I observed so large a quantity of young catkins on them as induced me to count the number on two of the boughs, from whence I computed that on the whole of them there could not be fewer than marked so large a quantity on them before, I con. cluded, that, from some cause or other, their constitution was altered; and that in future they would have no need of extrinsic assistance. But again making them a visit in the beginning of the suc ceeding February (1821), I found that more than three-fourths of the catkins had vanished. Still, I supposed, there might remain sufficient for the purpose of fertilization. But whether so or not, I had determined to leave my trees the next season to their own exertions. In the summer I repeated my order, that my filberts were not to be touched, which I might as well have omitted, as there happened to be very little temptation. In the beginning of September (1831), I picked, I believe, every filbert on these trees, and, although I do not remember their number, yet I perfectly recollect that I grasped the whole at once in my single hand. In the following month of October, before the leaves were well off, I cut short the boughs which had projected into the garden, thinned them considerably, by taking out some of the oldest, crooked, and stunted wood, and pruned what remained with some severity; at this time, there appeared a pretty fair show of young catkins, but by no means so many as in the autumn of the former year (1820). By the 26th of January following (1822), these catkins had nearly all disappeared, and of those few which remained not one would have blossomed in any degree of perfection. However, as it was my intention to repeat the experiment of auxiliary catkins, I caused every remaining one to be carefully picked off; that, in the event of any fruit ripening the next season, the source of the fructifying dust might be subject to no uncertainty. On the 18th of February (1822), I caused several small branches of the catkins of the hazel to be suspended on them, as I intended that the operation should be performed ouly once; at which time, it is proper to state, I saw so very few female blossoms (from the bearing wood having been so much diminished by the pruning in the previous autumn), that I concluded it to be impossible there could be much fruit, but that if there should be any, the pollen of the suspended amenta of the hazel must have a share in their production. The next day (February 19th, 1822), I made a visit to a neighbouring farmer's orchard, who has a row of four filbert bushes, which have been growing therein, quite in a state of nature, for forty or fifty years, and standing about six feet apart. These I examined minutely. The scarlet blossoms were in plenty, but I am confident there were not more than twenty catkins in any degree of perfection on the whole four bushes; and the owner's wife informed me that they had borne hardly any fruit for many years past. I then told her, that if she wished to have any filberts in the ensuing season, she must immediately procure some branches of catkins from the nut bushes in the hedges, and hang them upon the tops of her filbert trees. She seemed much delighted to hear that they could be made to bear by so easy a contrivance, and promised it should be done. I have since understood that it was done the next day. On the 7th of August, 1822, before the filberts were ripe, and of course before I could suspect there might have been any diminution of them by depredation, I gathered every filbert I could find on my trees, and on counting and weighing the collection, found the number to be eighty-six, and the weight nalf a pound. This was a much greater produce than I had reason to expect from the scanty appearance of the female blossoms in the month of February, and proved, to my judgment, that the catkins of the hazel had wrought their due effect: more especially as there was not a single not in the whole number without a kernel, even in a cluster of nine, which I found among them; nor could I observe a maggot in either of them. On the last day of the same month (August 31st, 1821), my neighbour sent me six pounds of very fine filberts, as the produce of his four old stunted trees; he has no others.-If I rightly understand Mr. Williamson's description of the Kentish method of pruning filbert trees, the pruners, in their mode of operation, necessarily cut away a great proportion of the male blossoms, (for these, I beg leave to state, are for the most part produced towards the extremities of the strongest shoots,) in order to increase the number of female ones. Mr. Williamson indeed says, that "in pruning care must be taken to have a due supply of males to fructify the female blossoms, or our previous trouble will be entirely useless." But he does not say that the Kentish operators pay any attention to this important point, and I am rather inclined to suppose that the original inventors of their method might have designedly cut away the catkins, on the principle formerly acted upon by many gardeners, who carefully picked off the male blossoms of their cucumbers, under the notion of their being false blossoms. Whilst, therefore, I reflect on the great uncertainty of there remaining a due supply of males to fructify the females, under the unmerciful abscission described to be annually practised in the filbert orchards in the county of Kent, in conjunction with the result of the above detailed experiments; I feel fully persuaded, that the possessors of filbert trees, as well those who have adopted the Kentish method of pruning, as those who never prune at all, would find their account in suspending a few small branches of catkins of the common hazel on the tops of their filbert-trees, at the season of dispersing their farina; not only as making an addition to the too scanty number of those naturally remaining thereon, after escaping from the knife of the pruner, the depredation of birds, and the inclemency of the winter, but (if my conjecture be well-founded,) as supplying them with pollen of a more fertilizing nature than their own. With respect to the extensive filbert grounds in USEFUL Jacob Perkins, of Fleet-street, for improve ments in propelling Vessels.-In Mr. Perkins's method of impelling vessels, flat paddles or impellers, like the blades of oars, are made to revolve behind the stern of the vessel in a plane, at right angles to the keel; and, from being sloped so as to form inclined planes to the line of impulse, they tend to move the vessel in the opposite direction to that in which their faces act on the water. To prevent the oblique impulse from turning round the vessel, two sets of these paddles are made to move in opposite directions at the same time, and are of course attached to separate axles, which, to prevent any projection of the paddles beyond the sides of the vessel, are made to revolve concentrically by one of them being hollow, and the other passing through and turning round within it. On each of these axles Mr. P. only employs two pad. dles, opposite to one another, whose slopes or inclined planes are so curved, that close to the axle they form an angle of forty-five degrees with it, while, at their extremities, the angle of inclination is twenty-two and a half. One end of the solid axle, on which the other is sustained, lies inside the stern, and its other end is supported by a cross piece that rests on the ends of two long levers, which run along the sides of the vessel, and turn on pivots, placed exactly in a line with the inner extremity of the solid axle; which axle is supported by a the neighbourhood of Maidstone; as it would be quite futile to recommend a levy of auxiliaries from the lanes and hedges, or even from the woods and coppices; for concerns of such magnitude, it may deserve the consideration of the occupiers, whether, under the continuance of their present mode of pruning, it would not be worth while to try the experiment of introducing a few growing plants of the native or wild hazel into their planta. tions of filbert-trees, which last may be considered as exotics, and suffering them to grow at large, without attempting to despoil them of any of their golden honours; as I entertain a strong suspicion that the very frequent failures of the filbert crops (Mr. Williamson tells us that they totally fail three years out of five) are in great measure occasioned by a deficiency, either in number or in power, of the male blossoms. Without some such auxiliary dependence, I should much prefer Mr. Williamson's method of pruning to that of the Kentish pruners, how celebrated soever the latter may be, cr how extensively soever it may be practised in the filbert districts. In whatever soil or situation I have seen filbert-trees growing, as well as the common hazel, they have been attended by a continual suc. cession of suckers from their roots; or, if the latter have not been permitted to grow up, they have shown a strong tendency to produce them; which would seem to indicate that it is natural, and therefore ne. cessary to the complete prosperity of those trees (or rather shrubs), that their wood should be often renewed. It appears to me, therefore, to be in direct opposition to this propensity of Nature, to keep them always on the same stem; which I understand is the custom in Kent. I should rather think it more like pursuing the indication of this unerring guide, to permit several stems to arise from the same root, and after a certain period, to be constantly cutting out some of the old worn-out wood, and training up some of the strongest suckers in its place. The more I contemplate this subject, the more am I convinced that there is much room for improvement in the means of obtaining regularly adequate crops of this very agreeable fruit.-Trans. Horti. Soc. ARTS. cylindrical piece of metal, capable of moving in its socket or bed, so as to admit of the outer end of the axle being raised or lowered by the motion of the levers and cross bar; by which operation the depth to which the paddles shall descend into the water is regulated. To receive the requisite motion from the steam-engine, or other moving power, the solid and the hollow shaft have each a mitre wheel at their inner extremities, near the cylindrical piece by which the former is supported, and through which it passes a few inches, to allow of the mitre wheel, at its end, being at the same distance from the cylindrical piece as the wheel on the hollow axle is at the opposite side. Two other mitre wheels are placed at right angles to those, with their teeth mutually interlocking, but turning freely on their axles, the ends of which move in the cylindrical piece that sustains the solid axle of the paddles. On the same axle with these two latter mitre wheels, two spur wheels are fixed, which connect the axles with the moving power, and which, while they turn round with those axles, are capable of being moved sideways to or from the last-mentioned mitre wheels, so as to be united or separated from them as required, by projecting pieces attached to them for that purpose, in the manner common in mills for similar effects. A metal frame passes outside those spur wheels, and moves in grooves in the bosses which connect them with the |