that his Royal Highness the Prince Regent has become its Patron; and, as this is the first instance in Great Britain in which the attention of the throne has been directed to the promotion of mineralogical science, it is to be fairly anticipated that it may lead our government to the establishment of a School of Mines; the great advantage of such institutions having been strikingly evinced in other nations. It was resolved that a deputation should present an address of thanks to his Royal Highness, for the great honour conferred upon them; and that it should consist of the Vice Patrons, Lord De Dunstanville, and the Earl of Yarmouth; the President, Davies Giddy, Esq. M. P.; and its founder, Dr. Ayrton Paris. Apartments have been provided at Penzance, which contain a collection of minerals already highly interesting: among the later additions we may notice rutilute, lately dicovered in the slate quarries at Tintagel; a grey copper ore from Crennis mine, the composition of which resembles the fal-erz, with the exception of lead, (on the authority of the Rev. William Gregor.) Wood tin from Trethurgy Moor, near St. Austel, in a matrix of shorl and quartz. The triple sulphuret of antimony, lead, and copper, which has reappeared at the Antimony Mine, near Port Isaac, after a lapse of twenty years.-Sulphate of barytes, now found at Huel Unity, for the first time in Cornwall.-A large quantity of stream gold, presented by Sir Christopher Hawkins, with an interesting account of its discovery, in which he states that it was found in streaming for tin in a moor in the parish of Ladock; and offers some information, which he trusts may direct future adventurers to a successful undertaking.--Many other communications have been also read before the Society, an analysis of which we shall offer to our readers in the next number of the Annals.-We understand that the Society are preparing a volume of Transactions, which are shortly to appear. ARTICLE XIII. SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE; AND NOTICES OF SUBJECTS I. Lectures. Mr. T. J. Pettigrew, F. L. S. will commence his Spring Course of Lectures on Anatomy and Physiology on Friday, the 10th of March, at half-past eight o'clock in the evening precisely, at his house, No. 3, Bolt-court, Fleet-street, where particulars may be obtained. Dr. Clarke and Mr. Clarke will commence their next Course of Lectures on Midwifery and the Diseases of Women and Children on Monday, March 20. The Lectures are read at Mr. Clarke's house, 10, Saville-row, Burlington Gardens, every morning from a quarter past ten to a quarter past eleven, for the convenience of students attending the hospitals. II. French Agriculture. The following account is given of the present agriculture of France, by Mr. Morris Birkbeck, in his Notes on a Journey through France, in July, August, and September, 1814, page 109. "In the agriculture of France there is a great sameness. The arable land, which comprises almost the whole surface of the country, the vineyards and a few tracts of mountains excepted, may be divided into five classes, according to its fertility, without regard to the nature of the soil. The first bears a crop every year, as in Auvergne, in the neighbourhood of Thoulouse, in some parts of Normandy, &c. This description is highly cultivated, and on a principle well adapted to soil and circumstances. The second somewhat inferior in quality, but good land, is also judiciouly cultivated, with the intervention of a fallow once in six years, as about Dieppe and Rouen. The third land of middling quality, which embraces a very large part of the kingdom, is managed on the old plan of fallow, wheat, oats. The fourth, poor land, which also covers a large space, is fallow and wheat alternately. The fifth, poor land, is cultivated in the round of fallow, rye, rest, without grass seeds. The first and second classes include what there is of variety and spirit in French husbandry. In the south, Indian corn alternating with wheat, exhibits management as good as the beans and wheat of the best English farmer: and the varied outline observable in the north, affords many proofs of a spirited and judicious culture. It is the three last which betray its weakness; if they comprise half the cultivated surface, which I believe is not over-rating their extent, half of that portion being fallow, appears that one fourth of the whole country is lying in a state entirely unproductive; a few weeds, mostly thistles, excepted. A very few half starved sheep are kept to pick over the constantly recurring barren fallows, often accompanied by three or four long legged hogs. On the borders, and out of the way corners, you may see a cow or two, with an attendant; but there appears so little for any of these animals to eat, that you wonder how even they are supported. The prairies artificielles, (the artificial grasses, as we less properly call them,) of which so much is said by the amateurs, are like specks of green on a desert. Clover and lucern are cultivated with great success, on the two first classes of land; but very rarely indeed on the others. Thus there is probably as much really waste land in France as in England, and it is of an expensive kind; whereas our wastes support much more stock than theirs, without any expense whatever." it By Mr. Birkbeck's account, the labouring classes in the country parts of France are in much better circumstances, and receive much better wages than the labouring people in England. Most of them are proprietors of eight or ten acres of land, having been enabled to make the purchace during the revolution. He considers their situation, their information and even their morals, as greatly improved since the revolution. Prices in France are about one half of what they are in England. III. Dr. Cross's Opinions respecting the Cerebellum, &c. In the last number of your Annals I observed a paper On the Use of the Cerebellum, &c. containing some supposed new observations on the structure of the spinal mass of nerves, and on the function of its parts. Although I have no wish to detract from the originality of Dr. Cross's statements, yet I feel myself bound in justice to inform you that the same facts, or facts that lead to similar conclusions, are published in the following works :Lettres de Hufeland a Portal, 1807. Anatomie du Systeme Nerveux en general, &c. par Gall et Spurzheim. By inserting a notice of the contents of this note, you will much oblige, your obedient servant, British Museum, Feb. 3, 1815, W. E. LEACH. IV. On the Petrifactions in Plymouth Lime-stone. In the last number of your Journal, p. 150, Mr. Hannah is said to have discovered madrepores and shells in the lime-stone of Plymouth. I am induced, for two reasons, to trouble you with a very few lines on the subject. In the first place, madreporites were first observed in the Plymouth lime-stone about eight years ago (and a notice of this circumstance is given in vol. ii. p. 465, of Annals of Philosophy); but it is to Dr. Lockyer, of Plymouth, that we are indebted for the discovery of the exact bed in the lime-stone of that district in which the madreporites are found. The same Gentleman (Dr. Lockyer) also first observed turbinated univalves in loose blocks of lime-stone imbedded in earth on Stonehouse Hill, but shells have no where been observed in the lime-stone of Plymouth in situ. In the second place, the Rev. Mr. Hannah some time since showed me a specimen of lime-stone of a fine blood-red colour full of madreporites: at the same time he informed me that he found it at a place called the Devil's Point, Stonehouse; and as I had never observed this variety of rock near Plymouth, I lost no time in examining the point on the same day; and as the tide was out, and the place not very extensive, I may with confidence assert that no bed or vein of lime-stone similar to that shown me by Mr. Hannah occurs at or near the Devil's Point; but as vessels often throw out ballast near that spot, I have no doubt that the fragments he found came there in that manner. I should feel it necessary to apologize for troubling you, but for the statement respecting the discovery of the univalve in situ, which will I trust afford a sufficient excuse. I am, dear Sir, your obedient servant, British Museum, Feb. 3, 1815. V. The Caucasus. W. E. LEACH. Engelhart and Parrot, during their travels in the Caucasus, ascertained that some of the peaks of that vast Alpine country are equal in height to Mont Blanc, in Switzerland. VI, Heliotrope. Dr. Macculloch, of Woolwich, has discovered heliotrope in the Hill of Kinnoul, near Perth. This is the second time that this rare mineral has been observed in Scotland. VII. Quantity of Paper at present made in the United States of America. In a preceding number of your Journal you have given an account of a "jet of burning gas," which you say was discovered by Sir H. Davy in the Appennines, and found by him to consist of carbureted hydrogen. In addition to this, you make some inquiries respecting the nature of the country, and the probability of the existence of coal among the Appennines. Knowing the fact to have been confidentially communicated in a private letter written by Sir H. to this country, I confess I felt some surprise at seeing it appear in a public journal; nor was the defective manner in which the statement was made in your Annals of Philosophy calculated to diminish that ungrateful sensation. The mentioning of this gas occurs in Sir H. Davy's letter as one of the many philosophical observations which that indefatigable inquirer has been constantly making during his travels through Italy, and from which the world will, I am confident, derive hereafter, whenever he shall think it proper to make them public, very great and useful information. As to the word discovery, it never once occurs in speaking of this subject; for Sir H. was perfectly aware that the phenomenon, known to all classes of persons travelling on the road from Florence to Bologna, had been particularly noticed The number of newspapers printed annually in the United States is estimated at twenty-two and an half millions. by Spallanzani, who had perceived the smell of hydrogen in the gas; then by your own countryman, Faber, in 1772; and since by Lalande and others. Nor has Sir Humphrey in his letter ever mentioned the height of the column of the gas, as stated by you, since this is greater or less according to the state of the atmosphere, which exerts also much influence on its combustion, it being more vivid at the approach of rainy weather. But you were quoting from memory, and under circumstances unfavourable for publication. You may, therefore, probably, be anxious for some corrections which my knowledge of the country enables me to submit to your judgment. The jet of gas alluded to is seen on the top of Monte di Fo, half a mile on the right of Pietramala, coming from Florence. The column occupies in circumference a surface of from ten to twelve feet. The ground around it is covered with large and small masses of primitive rocks, or rather of fragments of quartz and mica argentine held together by an argillaceous cement, and of limestone. Very feeble signs of vegetation are perceptible, either on this or the surrounding mountains. Monte Fo forms part of Mount Radicoso, or of the highest of the Appennine Ridge, being 883 metres, or 2901 English feet, above the level of the Mediterranean sea. About half a league from this gas-volcano, and from Pietramala, there is a well of cold water, called Acqua buja, from which there is a constant evolution of what I myself found to be carbureted hydrogen, which takes fire at the approach of a lighted taper, and burns with a brilliant yellow flame. The Italian naturalists had hitherto considered these emissions of subterraneous gas, by them called fumarole, to be sulphureted hydrogen, the formation of which they derived from a decomposition of pyrites, that are found in great quantities at a considerable depth in the Appennine country. They fancied they discovered the sulphur, which the decomposition of the gas set at liberty, incrustating the objects surrounding the spot from whence arose the gas; and I confess having myself been of the same opinion during my last visit to the Appennines in the course of last summer. My examination, however, was very superficial, and too hasty to be correct. That of Sir Humphrey Davy is, of course, of quite a different character. The Appennines consist chiefly of secondary rocks, amongst which lime-stone containing remains of marine animals is predominant. As they, however, approach the Alps, whence they took their origin, they participate more and more of their nature, and present for a long successive tract of ground a mixture of primitive rocks of various species, such as serpentine, argillaceous schist, grunstein, and sacharoid lime-stone. As to the existence of coals in the Appennines, Soldani, in 1780, in his Ornithographic Essay on the Nautilific Formations of Tuscany, mentions a considerable stratum of coal being discovered near Fiesole, a place at the distance of about 40 miles due south from Pietramala. Subsequent examinations, however, instituted for the purpose, and directed by very |