ventions have laid under contribution a greater number of the sciences, and few have ever promised more happy results. A most ingeniously constructed instrument conducts into the bladder a little pocket, very thin in its texture, but capable of resisting the action of the strongest acids. By an admirable mechanical contrivance, the stone is enclosed in the pocket, which is subsequently closed in such a manner as to prevent the possibility of the escape of any of the liquids which are injected into it. The action of the dissolvents, powerful in itself, is augmented by the electrical current of the voltaic pile, which, alone, is capable of dissolv. ing the hardest bodies.

The Blood.-M. Segalas, of Paris, has been engaged in some very extensive researches, with a view to determine the long-contested question, whether or not the blood may be the seat of diseases. He has lately communicated to the French Academy of Sciences the result of a number of experiments which he has made on dogs with alcohol and with the alcoholic extract of the nux vomica. With regard to the first, it evidently appears, that concentrated alcohol acts chemically on the blood of a living animal; that diluted alcohol produces immediate intoxication if injected into the veins or the bronchia, and intoxication more or less slow if introduced any where else; that the effects of alcohol deposited elsewhere than in the veins, is in strict accordance with the intensity and vigour of the absorbing power of the part, and is entirely independent of the nerves which pervade it, especially the nerves of the stomach; that these effects are accelerated and augmented, or retarded and diminished, by the circumstances which either favour or obstruct the entrance of the alcohol into the blood; that the intoxication goes off as the alcohol abandons the blood, and with more or less rapidity as circumstances are more or less favourable to the exhalation; that the effects of the alcohol are in proportion, not to the quantity of alcohol which has been brought into contact with the organs, but to the quantity of alcohol which is actually in the blood; lastly, that profound intoxication, and death from intoxication, coincide with a manifest disorder of the blood, and with a less remarkable disorganisation of the solids. These facts, in showing intoxication to be the result of a real disease of the blood, serve also to explain several other facts which have been observed; for example, the operation of oil in preventing the effects of alcohol, and of ammonia, and acetate of ammonia, in dissipating them. It is evident that oil obstructs the ab

sorption of alcohol, and that ammonia or acetate of ammonia facilitates its escape; indeed it is by no means improbable that the two last-mentioned substances act immediately on the blood, in a manner directly the reverse of alcohol. With regard to the result of the experiments made with the alcoholic extract of the nux vomica, it appears that this poison operates almost immediately after its entrance into the blood, and produces either a general or a partial tetanus, accordingly as it has been either mixed with the mass of the blood, or confined to a part of that fluid: that, deposited any where else but in the sanguine system, it does not act, except through the medium of the circulation, and that its effects, independent of the nerves of the part, are in strict accordance with the intensity and vigour of the absorbing power of the part; that the local phenomena of general poisoning may show themselves independently of general enervation, and are in absolute dependance on the local circulation; lastly, that a great many phenomena, which are entirely inexplicable by any supposed injury to the nervous system, can be the result only of a partial disorder of the blood, and are intelligible only by a reference to the anomalous action which the disordered portion of the blood exercises on the parts of the nervous system with which it comes into contact.

GERMANY.

The King of Prussia has presented M. Boieldieu with a ring enriched with diamonds, in testimony of the pleasure he has received from his opera of "La Dame Blanche." This opera, the French journals say, is about to be produced in London, Petersburgh, Naples, and Berlin.

On the 27th of February, Capt. Von Biela, at Josephstadt in Bohemia, discovered another small comet, resembling a round nebulons spot, in the constellation of Aries; right ascension 26° 50′, and north declination 9o 25'. On the following evening, and the 2d of March, W. Von Biela found by comparison with the star 28, Arietis, of Bode's Atlas:

Feb. 28th, mean time, 8h. 7' 37"-Right ascension, 28° 1′ 54′′-N. declination, 9° 18' 32".-March 2, 8h. mean time, 33' 4"-Right ascension, 300 4'56"-N. declination, 9° 31′ 29′′.

This comet. which is invisible to the naked eye, was immediately found as soon as the news was received at Spires on the 10th; and it was observed till the 16th. Its positions were:

March 10th, 7h. mean time, 47′ 16′′Right ascension, 38° 50′ 41′′—N, declination, 10° 13' 55"-13th, 7h. mean time, 50' 03"-Right ascension, 42° 15′ 41′′

-N. declination, 10° 26′ 56′′-16th, 7h. mean time, 39′ 51′′-Right ascension, 35° 45′ 50′′-N. declination, 10° 37′ 0′′.

From these last observations we have the following elements, according to which the comet approaches the earth for some weeks, but without becoming much brighter, and disappears in about two months. It will move almost uniformly and parallel to the equator, towards the east. On the 25th of March, when the moon would not interfere with the observation, it would be found in 56° 48' right ascension, and 100 55. declination; and fourteen days later, it will be some degrees north of X in Orion.

The Agricultural Society of Moscow, over which Prince Galitzin presides, and to which the late Emperor Alexander gave a considerable grant of land near Moscow, for the purpose of establishing a farm, is going on very prosperously. It has already collected in its school above eighty pupils from various parts of Russia, even from Kamtschatka; and the journal of its proceedings has been so much in demand, that it has been found necessary to reprint the volumes for the first two years.

Russian Theatre.-Three dramatic works especially attracted the attention of the public at St. Petersburgh, in the course of the year 1823: first, the "Phædrus" of Racine, translated into verse, by M. Labanoff; secondly, the "Misanthrope" of Molière, translated into verse, by M. Kokoschine; and "Valeria," a prose drama, also translated from the French. Mademoiselle Kolosoff, in the part of Prelesta (Celimène) in the Misanthrope, and in that of Valeria, exhibited great natural powers, which have evidently been cultivated by the study of the best models. It is said that she possesses equal talents for comedy, and that she cannot fail to become one of the finest actresses of Russia in both descriptions of the dramatic art.-With the exception of the above, very few new pieces have lately disturbed the monotony of Russian theatricals. Of the distinguished Russian dramatic poets, Prince Schakhovskoï alone has shown any zeal. In the month of January, 1824, two novelties were produced from his pen, "The Adventures of

Nigel," a romantic comedy, in five acts, founded on Sir Walter Scott's work; and "The Strolling Actress," a vaudeville, translated from the French.-The German theatre in St. Petersburgh imports every celebrated German dramatic production in succession. Weber's "Der Freischutz" and "Preciosa" have been performed with great success; although the vocal part of the execution of the music was by no means equal to the instrumental.

ITALY.

Rome. The sum collected at the end of March for rebuilding the cathedral of St. Paul, at Rome, amounted to 214,301 Roman crowns. Several English persons of rank have subscribed liberally for this pious object.

Literary Discoveries.-Professor Rezzi, the keeper of the Barberini Library, has just discovered a manuscript copy of the Divina Comedia of Dante, with Landino's Commentary, full of notes in the handwriting of Tasso. These notes display great learning and taste, and show the at tention with which the illustrious author of Jerusalem Delivered had studied Dante's poem. M. Rezzi has made a present of this valuable manuscript to Professor Rosini, of Pisa, for the purpose of enriching his edition of the complete works of Tasso.-The Chevalier Arrighi, in a little pamphlet published some months ago at Petersburgh, states that he is in possession of a very beautiful manuscript of Petrarch's Sonnets, in the hand-writing of Petrarch himself. This manuscript will furnish the means of correcting several defective passages in the texts which have hitherto been followed, and of expunging several sonnets which have been erroneously attributed to Petrarch.-A letter from Count Louis Biondi, inserted in the 32d volume of the Journal Arcadique, incontestably proves that the ancient and elegant translation of Æsop's Fables, cited by the De la Cruscan Academy as a model of language, is not in prose, as has hitherto been supposed, but in verse, and, which is still more extraordinary, in rhyme! This curious discovery cannot fail of exciting great literary disputes.Two remarkable manuscripts have been found in the libraries of Kief in Russia. The first is a complete translation of the Gospel into the dialect of White Russia, and is preserved in the library of the monastery of Spass-Mikhailovskoi. The second of these manuscripts is Copht; it belongs to the Seminary, and was given to it by the late Count Potocky. The following inscription is on the first leaf, viz. "Manuscriptum quod mihi Cahiræ

M. de Humboldt details the reasons which induce him to think that the amount of population in this valuation is too low. After a mature consideration of all the materials in his possession, he makes the total population of these three divisions amount to 2,785,000 souls; and he thinks it probable that an exact census would make it amount to 2,900,000 souls. "The province of Caraccas," says M. Humboldt, "considered as a whole, without excluding the Llanos, had yet only a population in the same proportion as Tennessée; and that same province, excluding the Llanos, gives, in its northern part,

on more than 1800 square leagues, a po pulation equal to that of South Carolina. These 1800 square leagues, the centre of agricultural industry, contain twice as many inhabitants as Finland; though they are still, in proportion to the extent of territory, one-third less numerous than the population of the province of Cuenca, the most depopulated in all Spain. It is impossible (continues our author) to reflect on this fact without pain. Such is the state in which the colonial policy and misgovernment of Spain has, at the end of three centuries, left a country which, for natural riches, rivals all that is most wonderful in the world, that to find any other so thinly peopled, we must look either to the frozen regions of the north, or to the west of the Ullighany mountains towards the forests of Tennessée, which have only begun to be settled within the last half century."

The Arracacha. By EDWARD NATHANIEL BANCROFT, M.D." It is about forty years since the arracacha was made known in Europe as a valuable esculent vegetable, in general use in Santa Fé de Bogota, and in the adjoining provinces; and it is now twenty years since the public attention was called to it in England by the account which Señor Vargas gave of it in Koenig and Sims's "Annals of Botany," in which he described it as being very superior to the potato in flavour, in usefulness, and in the quantity of produce, and expressed his belief that it might be advantageously cultivated in Europe. Since the latter statement, various individuals in that quarter of the globe have been endeavouring to procure the arracacha from New Grenada, among whom, as I learn, was the late distinguished President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks. But such were the obstacles which war and other causes opposed to this object, that even Sir Joseph failed, whose name alone might have seemed sufficient to insure success to any such undertaking. Having learnt the importance attached to this plant, I was at length, in 1821, enabled to avail myself of the kind disposition of a gentleman in the highest respectability, Don Francisco Urquinaona, then about to return to Bogota, who readily promised to send me plants of it thence, and, in the following year punctually kept his word, by sending me a box containing twelve shoots, of which three perished on the voyage, and three here on being transplanted. Despairing of their succeeding in the heat of this city, I placed them in

charge of a very intelligent planter in St. David's Mountains, Mr. Henry Burger, and under his fostering care the remaining six throve perfectly, so that I was enabled, in the following year, to send young plants of the arracacha to the Horticultural Society of London, and to His Majesty's garden at Kew, &c., as well as to distribute others to various friends in different parishes, through whose attention this vegetable may now, I trust, be considered as being extensively and well established in this island. It is not for me to speak of the value of the arracacha as an esculent; this will be best shown in the course of time. I am aware that not a few of those who have tasted it but once have not liked it; yet I believe that those who have liked it, even on the first trial, are quite as numerous. For my own part, I am inclined to think that the taste for it may rather be deemed an acquired one, having found with several persons that its relish improved upon subsequent trials. As the root requires a longer application of heat than the vegetables in common use, a part of the distaste which it has experienced may have been caused by insufficient dressing. At all events a vegetable which has, for so many ages, been the constant and favourite food of a considerable portion of South America, in preference even to the potato, which is there indigenous, ought not to be thought undeserving of a fair trial in the way of cultivation in Jamaica. When the arracacha here had arrived at maturity, I was anxious to ascertain its botanical charac ters, as I could not learn that they had ever

been made known even in its native country, and as much curiosity about them had been felt in Europe. It manifestly belonged to the natural order of the Umbelliferæ; but, after very frequent and minute examinations of the flowers in all their stages, and careful comparisons of their appearances with the characters assigned to the different genera which that order contains, it seemed to be equally clear that, although it agreed in a few points with several of those genera, and most particularly with Apium and with Ligusticum, yet it disagreed with each in many others, so that there was no one genus in that extensive natural order, as described in any of the botanical works to which I have had access, with whose characters the arracacha could with propriety be deemed to agree sufficiently to allow of its being classed under it." Dr. Bancroft points out the differences, and considers the arracacha to be a new genus, which he proposes should be called Arracacia, "as being the nearest approach to the name by which it has been known in its native country as well as in Europe, and free, at the same time, from barbarous dissonance." The kind introduced into Jamaica is thus described :

"The root is annual, fleshy, solidly tuberous, and furnished on the outside with numerous knobs; it is of a light yellow colour internally, and grows to the size of eight or nine inches in diameter. Those knobs are of two sorts; the one are comparatively small, proceed from the upper surface, or crown of the root inclining upwards, give off each several gems or shoots towards the top, and are marked about the base with horizontal rings, bearing thin membraneous sheaths that gradually wither away. The other, or larger and edible sort, grow on the outside, and below those just mentioned, to the number of eight or ten, besides small ones, and descend into the earth; the largest measure eight or nine inches in length, by two, or two and a half inches in diameter, and are nearly of the same circumference throughout,tapering off suddenly, and sending out a few small fibres at the extremity. Their surface is nearly smooth, and covered with a thin pellicle marked across with some transverse cracks like carrots. These latter knobs are called hijos, i. e. sons, in Bogota, and are the roots generally preferred for the table, being more tender and more delicate in flavour than the main root, or madre, mother. One root sent to me from St. David's, which had the greatest part of the mother root, and all the upper knobs with their shoots cut off, as well as a large hijo broken off, was found to weigh eight pounds. The stem

In

is herbaceous, upright, round, jointed, hollow between the joints, sparingly branched, smooth, striated, streaked with purplish lines, and grows, in general, to the height of two feet and a half or three feet, sometimes of four feet, and to the thickness of half an inch or a little more in diameter at base. The flowers are small, and, at first, of a light yellow colour, which usually changes to a reddish purple. The greater part of the florets are barren; and in these the corollas do not expand, but fall off in a closed state. The stamens have the filaments at first green, afterwards purplish; the anthers are comparatively large, resembling two eggs joined by the side, and of a bright yellow; they open on the outside, emitting a pollen of minute white globules. The styles change in like manner from green to purple; their stigmas, however, are whitish and semi-transparent. the barren florets there are only rudiments of the styles. In those florets which, to judge from appearances, might be thought fertile, the fruit continues to grow until it arrives at its full size, when it begins to wither, the seeds being very seldom, as it appears, perfected. And this, it may be presumed, is the habit of this plant, which throws out shoots in luxuriant abundance, by which it is easily propagated, and the perfecting of the seed rendered unnecessary. I am accordingly told that it is never raised from seed by those who cultivate it largely in its native country; and in this island, when the most perfect, in appearance, of the seeds produced here have been sown, they have all failed. They are, however, of a large size, compared with those of most umbelliferous plants; some before me measure three eighths of an inch in length. Of the arracacha, I understand that there are four kinds, but I have not yet been able to learn whether these are to be considered as distinct species, or only varieties. The sort introduced here is that called yellow, from the colour of its root, and this, I am assured, is the kind most esteemed in Bogota. Another sort has a white root; and there are two sorts with purplish roots, one of which, I am told, is also much eaten, and is said to be equally liked at Antioquia, with the yellow sort; the other purple-rooted sort is, I learn, of a coarse quality, and not used for the table, though it is often employed for poultices, &c. Of the last three sorts, the only one with which I have had any opportunity of becoming acquainted, is the purple kind first mentioned, Mr. Higson having favoured me with a small dried specimen of it, which he lately brought over from Choco: upon compar