bad grounds on which to found charges of error. Before this dispute be carried further, it is recommended that the numbers. in the Table of 1809 be computed anew by just rules: then, if attention be paid to the difference of the elementary quantities and to the degree of accuracy aimed at, greater progress will be made in clearing up this question, than would be done by whole volumes of loose discussion. J. I.

LXXVII. Notice respecting the real Inventor of the Steam

Engine.

THE following communication by R. N. (i. e. as I conceive, R. Naires) which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine in the year 1811, deserves to be again brought before the public, that the merit of the invention may, as it ought, be ascribed to its true author.-A. T.

July 3, 1811.

Mr. URBAN,-The inventors of valuable improvements are generally thought worthy of celebration, and their names are sometimes sought with eagerness for the sake of doing justice to their merits. To such distinction few inventors seem more amply entitled than the person to whom we owe the Steam-engine; a contrivance which, assisted by modern improvements, is now performing what, a century ago, would have seemed miraculous or impossible; yet it appears that he has been hitherto entirely unknown to the world at large.

In 1699, a Captain Savary obtained a patent for this invention; and he has consequently occupied all the honour of the discovery. But in that noble assemblage of MSS. the Harleian Collection, now in the British Museum, the strongest testimony appears that the real inventor was Samuel Morland, who was Master of the Works to Charles II. and who I fancy was knighted; for in the MS. he is called Sir Samuel, and "Le Chevalier." That the first hint of the kind was thrown out by the Marquis of Worcester, in his Century of Inventions, is allowed; but obscurely, like the rest of his hints. But Morland wrote a book upon the subject; in which he not only showed the practicability of the plan, but went so far as to calculate the power of different cylinders. This book is now extant in manuscript in the above collection. It was presented to the French King in 1683, at which time experiments were actually shown at St. German's. The author dates his invention in 1682; consequently 17 years prior to Savary's patent. As Morland held places under Charles II., we must naturally conclude, that he would not have gone over to France to offer his invention to Louis XIV. had he not found

it

it slighted at home. It seems to have remained obscure in both countries till 1699, when Savary, who probably knew more of Morland's invention than he owned, obtained a patent; and in the very same year, M. Amontons proposed something similar to the French Academy, I believe, as his own.

The description of the manuscript in which Morland explains his invention will be found in the improved Harleian Catalogue, vol. iii. No. 5771; and it is also pointed out in the preface to that volume, sect. xxii; but hitherto seems to have been as little noticed as Morland himself. But if he was the real inventor, as these circumstances seem to render certain, it is highly necessary that his name should in future be recorded with all the honour which an invention of such utility demands.

I shall just add, respecting the same catalogue, that the Biblical collections in No. 7522 were made by Patricius Junius, that is, Patrick Young, who, as King's librarian, had the care of the Alexandrine MS., and had thoughts of publishing it. This is nearly proved by Woide, in the preface to his edition of the N. T. sect. 16, but was not recollected when that article was written. R. N.

Yours,

LXXVIII. On the Efficacy of Yeast, and the Application of Vinegar in Putrid Fever. By ROBERT JOHN THORNTON, M.D. Letter from the late Earl of EXETER.

DEAR DOCTOR, I AM sure you will be truly sorry to hear what

a dismal house we have had since our return home. My dear son Cecil was taken ill the day after we got home, which was on the 3d of last month. It turned out to be a putrid fever. He was attended night and day by Dr. John Willis, and occasionally by a Stamford physician, Dr. Arnold, and by Lady Exeter constantly. He became so bad at last, that the Doctors said, they could do no more for him. All irritability of the eye-sight was gone, no passage down his throat could be effected, and a rattling in the throat indicated the last moments to be arrived. Our poor dear Lady Exeter and Dr. John were the miserable bearers of this dreadful news to me. Having recollected your account of the good effects of vinegar in the case of the Rev. Mr. Townsend, and others; I wished this to be tried. His body was bathed with the vinegar, he took yeast inwardly, and it was applied in clysters; and in twelve hours he was so far amended, as to raise in us all hopes, and in four days he was convalescent, and is now lively and jocose.

I cannot conclude this letter without relating a discovery of Dr. John Willis, which ought to be gencrally known. In cases of

3H 2

spitting

T

spitting of blood he never fails to give a vomit, and it always stops the effusion of blood. He tells me, it has never failed him. Wishing you every success in your laudable endeavours to relieve the distresses of others, and extend the science of medicine, I remain, dear Doctor,

Yours very sincerely,

EXETER.

Case of Mortification cured by the Application of Yeast outwardly, and by the Form of Injection inwardly*.

Glasgow, June 7, 1816.

DEAR SIR,-My son Robert (now a man) when a child about two years old, had the chicken pox, after which, in consequence of catching cold, in the course of a single night a mortification took place across his belly; on the outside it had the appearance of a mazarine blue ribband laid across from the one side to the other. Immediately cloths dipt ia barm or yeast were applied, repeating them as often as they began to dry, at the same time giving him injections of barm; they were given cold, to prevent them being thrown off too soon. The reason of giving him the injections was, that he would not swallow the barm; and the Doctor assured me, the whole mass of blood was in a state of corruption; and indeed it appeared so, for in a few days after the first appearance of mortification there arose on one of his temples a gathering about the size of a pigeon's egg, of a very dark colour, and when it broke it discharged a black watery kind of stuff: before the first broke, a second began to gather on the other temple; it was longer in coming to maturity, but when it did break it discharged a good thick yellow matter, when the Doctor pronounced him out of danger. After the application of the barm, the blue part across the belly turned of a yellow colour, which the Doctor took out, and then the wound had the appearance of a mouth wide open; it could easily receive the side of a hand laid in. The barm was continued for ten days or a fortnight, till every appearance of danger was over; after that, there was some kind of simple ointment applied to heal up the wound, which now has the appearance of a deep burn after being healed.

His diet during his illness consisted chiefly of fruit. To Mr. Tilloch.

JANET ALLAN."

The last of these cases 1 communicated to Dr. Thornton, who thinks it deserves to be made generally known. The writer is a relation of my own. When R. Allan was taken ill, an able medical gentleman of Glasgow was instantly sent for. He frankly told the parents that there was no possibility of the child recovering. It was in consequence of this; and of Mrs. Allan having read, in one of the early volumes of the Philosophical Magazine, of the curative powers of yeast in putrid cases, that this remedy, and with such happy success, was resorted to.-A. T.

LXXIX. A

LXXIX. A Communication relative to a Correspondence between Dr. HENRY and Dr. URE.

To the Editor of the Philosophical Magazine.

SIR, IN page xiii of the Introduction to the Dictionary of Chemistry lately published, I have alluded to Dr. Henry in terms which have occasioned a private correspondence between that gentleman and me, the result of which we are desirous of making public in your Journal.

In the beginning of August 1816, I transmitted to him an Essay on Alkalimetry and Acidimetry, accompanied by a letter, in which I begged him to favour me with his opinion of its merits, cautioning him, meanwhile not to communicate its contents to any person. In the 8th edition of his Elements, which appeared in 1818, he published a plan of alkalimetry and acidimetry modified from that described in my Essay*. This struck me at the time as an unwarranted use of my communication; and declining to correspond with him on the subject, I resolved to seize the first favourable opportunity to reclaim my rights. Under this feeling I wrote the paragraph in the Introduction to the Dictionary.

Dr. Henry thus writes me on the 12th of April 1821, "I assure you that I had not at the time of publishing my book, nor can I now recall, the remembrance of any injunction of secrecy, respecting your alkalimeter; I conceived I had so expressed myself at page 512, vol. ii. of my Elements, as unequivocally to give to you the credit of inventing an instrument on the principle. of directly, and without calculation, indicating the per centage of alkali in any specimen; and that I pretend to nothing more than the modification of your method which is described in my book."

Under these circumstances, I am satisfied that Dr. Henry had no intention to appropriate to himself the credit of my invention; but I sincerely regret that, before promulgating the modification of my method, he had not consulted me on the subject. This would have prevented all chance of misunderstanding between me and Dr. Henry, whose accomplishments as a gentleman and a chemist, I have been accustomed to admire. The readers of the Dictionary will perceive under the articles CALCULI, COAL

"It has been very properly objected to it [the alkalimeter of Descroisilles] by Dr. Ure of Glasgow, (in an Essay on Alkalimetry, which he was so good, about two years ago, as to communicate to me in manuscript, and which I believe he has not yet published,) that these degrees, being entirely arbitrary, do not denote the value of alkalis in language universally intelligible; and he has proposed an instrument which shall at once, and without calculation, declare the true proportion of alkali in 100 parts of any specimen. The principal deviation in the following rules from the method of Dr. Ure, is," &c. &c.

GAS

GAS, GAS, SALT, &c. that I have not suffered temper to influence my judgement, but have done merited honour to the Doctor's researches on every scientific occasion. I have the honour to be, sir, Your most obedient servant, ANDREW URE.

Glasgow, April 15, 1821.

LXXX. Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons, on Weights and Measures. With an Appendix. THE Select Committee appointed to consider of the several Reports which have been laid before this House, relating to Weights and Measures, and of the Proceedings which have taken place for determining the Length of the Pendulum vibrating Seconds, andto report their Observations and Opinion thereupon to the House; -Have considered the matters referred to them, and have agreed to the following REPORT:

YOUR Committee concur entirely in opinion with the Commissioners on Weights and Measures, as to the inexpediency of changing any standard, either of length, superficies, capacity, or of weight, which already exists in a state of acknowledged accuracy; and where discrepancies are found between models equally authentic, they deem it right that such a selection should be made as will prove most accordant with generally received usage, and with such analogies as may connect the different quantities in the most simple ratios.

They also concur in recommending, that the subdivisions of weights and measures employed in this country be retained, as being far better adapted to common practical purposes than the decimal scale.

For the reasons assigned by the Commissioners, your Committee recommend that the Parliamentary brass standard of three feet, now in the possession of the House of Commons, and made by Bird in 1760, be henceforth considered as the authentic legal Standard of Length of the British Empire, so that the distance besween the centres of the two gold pins inserted in that scale, the brass being at the temperature of sixty-two degrees by Fahrenheit's thermometer, be one yard: And it appears from the experiments made for determining the length of the Pendulum vibrating seconds at London in a vacuum, and reduced to the level of the sea, that the distance from the axis of suspension to the centre of oscillation of such a Pendulum, is 39.1393 inches of the above standard distance: and that the length of a platina metre at the temperature of thirty-two degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, supposed to be the ten-millionth part of the qua

drant