[46] See Number 1. page 59.

[47] The proper name of these prairies, and of one of the places where they are found, being illegible in the MS, we were obliged to omit those names; we believe however that the sense is not injured.—Editor.

[48] Former orthography, Toghconnuck and Toghconnuc. That of the text deviates farther from the Indian, but is later and preferable.

[49] See Map.

[50] If this memoir should ever meet the eye of this amiable man, I trust he will excuse the notice to which his labours so justly entitle him. To him we are indebted for a complete science of crystallography, and for having determined the existence and limit of species, which mineralogists had not obtained, and chemists could not determine. He has devoted a long life to the improvement of science, and it is his praise, that he has preserved the meekness of religion amidst the most flattering success. Our scientific countrymen, who have visited Paris, have been particularly indebted to him; and this notice is, in their behalf, both the tribute of justice and gratitude.

[51] Mr. Nuttall will excuse me for retaining my own specific name. His knowledge of this plant was derived from my Herbarium, where he found it under the name of tripsacum cylindricum, Mich? Although it can hardly be the plant of Michaux, it was so considered by the late Dr. Muhlenberg, when specimens were first communicated to him. It remains under this name in his Herbarium, but is not included in his work on the grasses. He left it for me to describe along with other new and doubtful plants from the south.

[52] This is the specific name found in my Herbarium by Mr. Nuttall, under which it had been previously transmitted to Mr. Elliott. Vid. Nuttall's North American Genera, v. I. p. 83.

[53] Mr. Nuttall was probably deceived from having examined the spikes before they were fully evolved.

[54] Mr. Stephen Elliott has confirmed the description of Aublet, in his Botany of the Southern States. (Received January, 1818. Editor.)

[55] I refer the scientific reader for further particulars to "An account of a storm of Salt, which fell in January, 1803. By Richard Salisbury, F.R.S. L.S." in the Transactions of the LinnÆan Society of London. Vol. VIII. p. 207-10.

[56] LinnÆan Transactions. Vol. VIII. p. 289.

[57] P. 339. Lond. ed.

[58] Maintained by Dr. Mitchill.

[59] My friend, Dr. John Torrey, has favoured me with the following results of some experiments, which he made at my request upon the last snow which fell. "A pint and a half of snow water was reduced by evaporation to a few drops. On testing this with vegetable blue infusions no alteration of colour took place. It was afterward evaporated to dryness, and about a quarter of a grain of a solid residuum was obtained. This was redissolved in a small quantity of pure rain water, and prussiate of potash added to it, without occasioning any precipitate. Nitrate of silver produced a white precipitate so copious, that the solution was thick with it. Carbonate of soda produced no effect. The transparency of a solution of muriate of barytes was not disturbed by it. These experiments prove, that a free acid does not exist in snow water, but that the muriate exists in it combined with an alkali, which is most probably soda."

[60] Mr. J. Murray, of London, considers this to be a mistake. Free muriatic acid, and not muriate of soda, he says, will be found in the recipient.—Elements of Chemistry. Part I. p. 212. Lond. ed. 1818.

[61] That is, in those oaks which grow near the salt water, the branches that directly face the sea do not attain so great size and strength as those on the opposite side; this has also been observed on the south side of Long-Island.

[62] Volney's Travels in Syria and Egypt. Vol. I. p. 48. Perth ed.

[63] Volney's Travels in Syria and Egypt. Vol. I. p. 217.

[64] Darwin's Botanic Garden. P. 256.

[65] To prove that salt is absorbed into land plants growing near the sea, the following facts, for which I am indebted to my friend, Dr. D. V. Knevels, are conclusive. The fruit of those cocoa-nut trees which grow near the seashore in the West-Indies is generally found to have a saltish taste; and even the milk in the nut is perceptibly impregnated with it. Those trees on the contrary which grow in the interior, beyond the influence of salt water, have their fruit perfectly fresh and sweet.

The same gentleman informs me, that in a plantation of his father's, in the West-Indies, situated on the seashore, a whole crop of the cane was rendered unfit for the purpose of making sugar, in consequence of the great quantity of salt which it had imbibed.

[66] Journal of Science and the Arts. No. X.

[67] Volney's Travels in Syria and Egypt, Vol. I. p. 167.

[68] On the subject of the Egyptian ophthalmia, it may be asked "why it does not appear in innumerable other situations, equally exposed to salt air, as Cape Cod, and the West-India Islands?" To this it may be replied, that in the production of any disease whatever, a predisposing state of the system is as necessary as an exciting cause. This predisposition appears to exist in a great degree among the Egyptians, and depends upon the nature of their climate, their habits, and mode of living, all of which have a tendency to produce debility of the eyes, and thus render them more susceptible of the impression of those causes which excite inflammation.

[69] Rush's Medical Observations and Inquiries, Vol. II. p. 132.

[70] Volney's Travels, Vol I. p. 226.

[71] Rush's Observations and Inquiries, Vol. II. p. 133.

[72] This was most remarkably perceived on one occasion, where, under the idea that possibly chrome might exist in the ores, they had been intensely heated in a forge along with pearl ashes. The mass, when lixiviated, gave only a greenish solution, becoming colourless by nitric acid, and again greenish by an alkali; this was supposed to be owing to iron and manganese. No metal was obtained, except a few minute globules of attractable iron, but the laboratory was filled with white fumes, having the peculiar odour alluded to.

[73] Several of the facts, we are aware, accord with the properties of bismuth, between which and tellurium there are several strong points of resemblance, but a number of other facts appear irreconcilable with the properties of that metal, and of every other except tellurium.

[74] Excepting, that the covers ought to be so depressed, as that their brims may be lower than the bottoms of the interior vessels over which they are placed respectively. This is necessary to prevent the gas from escaping, ere it have access to the surface of the fluid beneath those bottoms.

[75] The apparatus may also be made of glass bottles, duly proportioned, and cut (truncated) alternately near the shoulder and near the bottom.

[76] In whose Journal it was ordered to be printed, but, to prevent delay, it was published, by the Author, in a separate paper, and forwarded by him to the Editor of this Journal.

[77] Possibly the electric fluid causes decompositions when emitted from an impalpable point (as in the experiments of Wollaston) because its repulsive agency is concentred between integral atoms, in a mode analogous to that here referred to; a filament of water in the one case, and of wire in the other, being the medium of discharge.

[78] The conclusions are drawn from experiments made by the electricity of the Voltaic apparatus.

[79] Especially to Dr. T. P. Jones, and Mr. Rubens Peale, who remember the suggestion.

[80] See Plate. Fig. 3.

[81] This evidently differs from the common mode of decomposing the fixed alkalies by galvanism: there the effect depends on electrical attractions and repulsions—here on the chemical agency of ignited iron produced extemporaneously in the galvanic circuit: this mode of operating appears to be new. Editor.

[82] The glasses may be had by applying to Edw. A. Pearson, No. 71 Cornhill, Boston.