ART. 5. TRANSACTIONS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Sitting of June 10. TH SIR, Being appointed a committee of the NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY (instituted in the year 1804) for the collection of Manuscripts and scarce Books, relating to the History of this Country, and hoping that it may be in your power to aid our researches, and to contribute to our collection, we beg leave to subjoin an extract from the first Report of the Society, which will explain the object. It is as follows: "Manuscripts, Records, Pamphlets, and Books relative to the History of this Country, and particularly to the points of inquiry subjoined; "Orations, Sermons, Essays, Discourses, Poems, and Tracts; delivered, written, or published on any public occasion, or which concern any public transaction or remarkable transaction or event; "Laws, Journals, Copies of Records, and Proceedings of Congresses, Legislatures, General Assemblies, Conventions, Committees of Safety, Secret Committees for General Objects, Treaties and Negotiations with any Indian Tribes, or with any State or Nation; "Proceedings of Ecclesiastical Conventions, Synods, General Assemblies, Presbyteries, and Societies of all denominations of Christians; "Narratives of Missionaries, and Proceedings of Missionary Societies; "Narratives of Indian Wars, Battles and Exploits; of the Adventures and Sufferings of Captives, Voyagers, and Travellers; "Minutes and Proceedings of Societies for Political, Literary, and Scientific Purpo ses; Accounts of Universities, Colleges, Academies, and Schools; their origin, progress, and present state; "Topographical descriptions of Cities, Counties, and Districts, at various periods, with Maps, and whatever relates to the progressive Geography of the County; "Statistical Tables; Table of Diseases, Births and Deaths, and of Population; of Meteorological Observations, and Facts relative to Climate; "Accounts of Exports and Imports at various periods, and of the progress of Manufactures and Commerce; "Magazines, Reviews, Newspapers, and other Periodical Publications, particularly such as appeared antecedent to the year 1783; "Biographical Memoirs and Anecdotes of eminent and remarkable Persons in America, or who have been connected with its settlement or history; "Original Essays and disquisitions on the. Natural, Civil, Literary, or Ecclesiastical History of any State, City, Town, or District."" As the object recommends itself to the attention of every gentleman who sees the importance of preserving, by such means as are now adopted, the otherwise perishing records of this country, we forbear any other remarks. Whatever information you can give, or Manuscripts and scarce Books you can contribute, be pleased to address to the care of Mr. JAMES EASTBURN, in this city, and your communications will be thankfully acknowledged by the Society. We are, Sir, very respectfully, Your most obedient servants, JAMES EASTBURN, Committee of the N.Y. Historical Society, for collecting Manuscripts and scarce Books. The Hon. Egbert Benson, late President of the Society, at the request of, Isaac Van Wart, deposited with the Society, for the more safe preservation of it, the medal presented to him by Congress, as one of the captors of Major Andrè. John Pintard, Esq. recording secretary, communicated to the Society the minutes of the astronomical observations, taken for determining the latitude of the City of NewYork, made in October, 1769, by Mr. David Rittenhouse of Philadelphia, and Capt. John Montresor, of the British corps of engineers, at that time stationed in this city, at the reThe quest of the Chamber of Commerce, and which have never been published. mean of the different observations, gave 40° 42 8" for the latitude of Fort George, near the present Battery. It was resolved, that application should be made to the Corporation of this city, to ascertain the site of the south-west bastion of Fort George, on which spot the above observations for determining the latitude of this city were made, and to perpetuate the same, by erecting a monument with suitable inscriptions. It was further resolved, that the Corpora tion should be solicited, in behalf of the Society, to have a new series of observations made, for the purpose of determining with precision the latitude of this city, and to cause an appropriate column and monument to be erected, with suitable inscriptions to perpetuate the same. The President of the United States being expected to arrive in this city on the ensuing day, it was moved by Col. Gibbs, and secondby J. G. Bogert, Esq. that the ordinary forms be dispensed with, and that, as a tribute of respect, JAMES MONROE, President of the United States, be elected an honorary member of this Society, which was unanimously agreed to. In the absence of his excellency, De Witt Clinton, L. L. D. president of the Society, David Hosack, F. R. S. one of the vice presidents, was deputed in behalf of the Society to wait on the President of the United States, and present, in their name, the certificate of his election. Sitting of June 13. The ceremony of inducting the President of the United States as an honorary member of this Society, took place this day, at an extraordinary meeting beld for that purpose. His excellency De Witt Clinton, governor elect of this state, and president of the Society, delivered a pertinent address on the occasion, to which the President of the United States made an appropriate and eloquent reply. tuber has weighed thirty or forty pounds. The common opinion entertained of this substance is, that it is the root of the erythrina herbacea, or convolvulus panduratus. The usual Indian name for it is tuckahoe, or Indian potato. It was used by the Indians as an article of food, as their name for it is said to imply. Dr. Mac Bride considers this fungus as parasitic. Like other fungi, it may emanate, he thinks, from dead wood; but the smallest specimens which he has seen were attached to living roots. Dr. M. in his interesting memoir noticed at some length its peculiar structure: from chemical and other experiments he is led to conclude that the inner part is wholly, or in a great measure, composed of gluten, but differently modified from that which we obtain from the cerealia. He has not procured from it any starch or fibrous matter. The communication was accompanied with numerous specimens of this singular vegetable, which were exhibited to the members; and the thanks of the society were voted to its author. Dr. Mitchill read an extensive memoir on organic remains, an abstract of which was given in our last Magazine. Silling of June 12. A memoir on the Geography of Africa, by Mr. John H. Eddy, was read. In this pa per the author attempted to reconcile some of the more apparently variant statements of LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SO- modern travellers respecting this portion of CIETY OF NEW-YORK. Silling of May 8. the globe, and took particular notice of the interesting narratives of Riley and Adams in connexion with the publications some time before the public from the pens of Rennell, Park, and Barrow. The author evinced research and ingenuity, and the greater confidence was placed in his views, from his well known accuracy and excellence as a geogra pher. A letter, addressed to Dr. D. Hosack by Dr. Mac Bride of South Carolina, was read. In this communication Dr. Mac Bride gave an account of the Lycoperdon tuber of Clayton, a subterranean fungus, found in the southern States. According to Dr. M. this vegetable is most frequently dug up in lands, which have Information being received that the Execunot been cleared of their original wood more tive of the Union, now in this city on a tour than three or four years, in the preparation through the country, intended to visit the for planting. It is found at various depths, apartments of the New-York Institution, on from a few inches to two feet, and it is some- motion of Dr. Francis, it was resolved, in times met with partly above ground. Dr. testimony of the high respect entertained by Mac Bride has seen it in every variety of soil this Society for the talents, virtues, and pubexcept the swamps; it seems to attain its lic services of JAMES MONROE, President greatest size in loose rich lands, the forest of the United States of America, that he be trees of which were the different species of forthwith admitted an honorary member of onk, the juglans alba of Linn: and pinus tada. this Association, and that the usual forms of It is very common in the southern states, but balloting be dispensed with. Whereupon rarely found farther north than Maryland. Dr. Hosack and Dr. Mitchill were appointed Its shape is irregular; the largest specimens a Committee to wait upon the President, and approach the globular form: or the cylindri- communicate to him the intentions of the cal with globular ends. Dr. Mac Bride has Society; and further, it was determined, that seen a specimen which weighed fifteen an extra meeting be held on the following pounds, and has been informed that a single day. Silling of June 13. An extra meeting of the Literary and Philosophical Society being convened this day at 12 o'clock, upon the Chief Magistrate of the Nation being conducted into the Philosophical Hall,the following Address was made to him by his Excellency De Witt Clinton, L.L.D. the President of the Institution. "SIR, "Viewing, in the course of your past life, the certain pledge of an able and patriotic administration, we are fully persuaded that you will always keep steadily in view the great interests of literature and science, as inseparably identified with the honour, the glory, and the prosperity of our country." "It was the good fortune of the commissioners to find another skeleton of that huge creature the Elephas Mastodon, which though apparently extinct, was formerly an inhabitant of New-York. This happened on the 27th and 29th of May, upon the farm of Mr. Yelverton, near Chester, a village in the town of Goshen. The soil is a black peat or turf, sufficiently inflammable to be employed for fuel. Its surface is overgrown with grass, "As it has been the usage of this Society forming a luxuriant meadow for grazing. to enrol among its members, such charac- The herbage and the bottom in which it ters as are distinguished for their virtues, grows, have a near resemblance to the turf their intellectual powers, and their literary meadow of Newton, in Queen's County, attainments, it affords me great pleasure to Long Island. The sward and turf covering inform you that you have been unanimously the skeleton are about four feet deep. Be admitted an honorary member-the highest neath these is a stratum of coarse vegetable stems and films, resembling chopped straw honour in our power to bestow-and it is peor drift stuff, along the sea-shore, about a foot culiarly gratifying to find that on this occasion the honour which is conferred is reflect- and a half thick; and under this is a stratum of fine bluish and soft clay. Specimens of ed on the institution. these are brought away, and are herewith presented. The bones raised were parts of a lower jaw with its teeth, of a scapula, of a humerus, of an ulna and radius, of the bones of the feet, of ribs, and of vertebræ. The upper maxillary bone was found, with its grinders and tusks, in their natural situation. Dr. Townsend and Dr. Seely, who had from the beginning aided with their own hands the acquisition of these curious remains, now laboured with the greatest assiduity in the pit to uncover completely, and elevate connectedly, these important parts of the animal. The unparalleled association of bones, teeth, and ivory prongs, were, after much exertion, denuded of their mud and developed to view. They lay upside down, or, in other words, their natural position was inverted, as if the creature had died in a supine posture. The palate bones were perfectly in sight, with the hnge molares on each side. From the point forward where the palate joins the upper maxillary bone in other animals, two ivory tusks proceeded. These were not inserted in sockets; at least no such holes or sockets could be found; but they seemed to be formed by a gradual change of bone to ivory, or of osseous to eburneous matter. In this respect the conversion resembled the jaw and tooth of the Saurian reptile of Neve. sink, already in the cabinet of the Professor of Natural History; in which organization the jaw is converted gradually to tooth. Their direction was forward, with a bold curvature outward and upward. Between the tusks could be seen and felt the nasal processes to which the proboscis had formerly been attached. They were short and ungular. On attempting to loosen the left tusk from its clayey bed, it broke across, though touched in the most delicate manner. Though approached with the gentlest touch, it flaked off in considerable portions, and cracked To which Mr. Monroe replied immediately in substance, That he was highly gratified by the honour which had been conferred on him by a society distinguished for the learning and patriotism of its members, and that he had also a due sensibility to its favourable anticipations of his future conduct, which had been announced in such kind and flattering terms by its president.-That with them he thought that the honour, glory, and prosperity of our country were intimately connected with its literature and science; and taking, as he did, a deep interest in the success of our Republican Government, he begged to assure them that the promotion of knowledge to the utmost of his feeble abilities, would always be an object of his attention and solicitude. LYCEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. Silling of May 26. Mr. Pierce read to the society a narrative of his excursion to the Catskill Mountains, giving the natural history and topography of that district of country. Silling of June 2. Dr. Mitchill, the president of the Lyceum, and Dr. Townsend, the committee appointed, by a resolve of the society, to visit and explore the tract between the Highlands and the Catskill Mountains, made a report in part; from which report the following is an extract: did not hatch. They were evidently, on their arrival, in a living state, that is, their vitality was not extinct, but the animating principle was nevertheless too much enfeebled and exhausted to be stimulated to growth and evolution. This experiment, though unsuccessful. was, nevertheless, he observed, fult of physiological instruction. It had a great analogy to the Penguin's eggs, presented to Dr. M. lately, by Capt. Fanning; unfit, indeed, for hatching, but yet sound and good through in several other places. Finding it ed in a leaden box, which had been sent to wholly impos ble to preserve its entirety, re- New-York for an experiment. The eggs course was bad to measuring the relics as were laid on the 21st Feb. at Antwerp, and they lay, and of making drawings from them were put under a sitting hen of Mr. Cleas acerately as possible. And as the fragments of New-York on the 29th April. They ments of the tusk were handed up, Dr. Mitchill casured them by a rule, and found their amount, reckoning within bounds, to be eight teet aud nine inches; or taking into calculation the space of connexion with the jaw as being three inches, or perhaps more, the length of the tusk was nine feet, or upwards, of solid ivory.* The circumference at the base was two feet and two inches, making a diameter of eight inches and two-thirds! The taper was easy, gradual, and smooth, like the tusks of other elephants. Dr. Townsend for eating. made a sketch of the parts in situ, before they were removed: by which it will be seen how the grinders are situated in relation to the tusks. and how tusks are to be considered as holding a middle place, in their anatomical structure and use, between teeth and horns. The various parts of the animal which were disinterred, and the drawings and illustrations, are herewith submitted to the society. "Although the fragile and friable nature of these bones might render it impossible ever to connect them into a complete skeleton, the commissioners state it as a matter of the highest probability, that at the aforesaid place, the remainder of a mammoth. as huge perhaps as ever walked the earth, reposes in the swamp, not more than fifty-four miles from the site of this institution.-He has already heard the resuscitating voice of the Lyceum." Sitting of June 9. Dr. Mitchill reported, that he had written an answer to Professor Sommè of Antwerp, concerning the incubation of the hen's eggs, dipped in mucilage of gum arabic, packed in powdered charcoal, and hermetically seal*The tusks, though solid, are changed in their nature. Professor Mac Neven, honorary member of the Lyceum, mentioned, in the society that he had found their substance to be converted into carbonate of time. Dr. Mitchill also presented a letter which he hadr eceived from H. A. S. Dearborn, Esq. of Boston,accompanying two perfect specimens of the fresh water Kusk, as it is called, taken in Sebago pond, in the district of Maine; on examining them, Doctor M. found reason to believe, that these individuals belonged to a species of fresh water cod; that this was not the gadus lota, or eel-pout of Europe, but another species not known to trans-atlantic naturalists. He also stated, that he had observed, in this fish, an ap pearance of an external organ of hearing, in the form of concave and pointed appendices to the anterior pair of orifices, commonly called nostrils, and actually having a resem. blance to outward ears. On motion of Mr. Francis, resolved, unanimously,-That the members of this Society, wear the usual badge of mourning, for one month, in testimony of their respect for their late fellow member, JAMES S. WATKINS, M. D. deceased. ART. 6. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE. GREAT BRITAIN. Tof the discovery of fossil bones of the HE following very extraordinary account Rhinoceros in a lime-stone cavern near Plymouth, in England, by Mr. Whitby, was com municated to the Royal Society, by Sir Everard Home, on the 27th of February, 1817. "Sir Joseph Banks had requested Mr. Whitby, when he went to superintend the breakwater constructing at Plymouth, to inspect all the caverns that should be met with in the lime-stone rocks during the quarrying, and to send up to him any fossil bones that might be found. The fossil bones described in this paper occurred in a cavern in a lime-stone rock on the south side of the Catwater. The lime stone is decidedly transition. This cavern was found after they had quarried 160 feet into the solid rock. It was 45 feet long, and filled with clay, and had no communication whatever with the external furnace. The bones were remarkably perfect specimens. They were all decidedly bones of the Rhinoceros; but they belonged to three different animals. They consisted of teeth, bones of the spine, of the scapula, of the fore legs, and of the metatarsal bones of the hind legs. the evaporation it promotes, under an exThey were compared by Sir Everard with hausted receiver. the bones of a skeleton of a Rhinoceros in the possession of Mr. Brookes, which is considered as belonging to the largest of the species ever seen in England. The fossil bones were mostly of a large size, though some of them belonged to a smaller animal. Several of them were analyzed by Mr. Brande. He found one specimen composed as follows Phosphate of lime, sixty parts ;-Carbo nate of lime, twenty-eight parts;-Animal matter, two parts;-Water, ten parts;-Total, one hundred parts. "The teeth as usual contained a greater proportion of phosphate of lime than the other bones. These bones were remarkably clean and perfect, and constitute the finest speci mens of fossil bones ever found in this country." Sir Humphrey Davy, in a recent communication to the Royal Society, states, that he is of Mr. Farey's opinion, that falling stars are solid ignited masses, moving with great velocity, and are not gaseous meteors. Some very curious discoveries, highly interesting to the lovers of Natural History, have recently been communicated to the Royal Society; by Mr Toud, a medical gentleman, as the result of numerous experiments on the Torpedo, or Electrical Fish. Mr. Todd observes, that the shocks received from the animal were never sensible above the shoulder, and seldom above the joint: the intensity, also, of the shock bore no relation to the size of the fish, but an evident relation to its liveliness, and vice versa. The shock did not always follow the touch; but required a degree of irritation, such as pressing, prick ing, or squeezing the animal; whilst not unfrequently animals to appearance perfectly vivacious, suffered this irritation without discharging any shock whatever. But the most curious fact is, that when caught by the hand, they sometimes writhed and twisted about, endeavouring to extricate themselves by muscular exertion; and did not, until they found these means unavailing, attempt the exercise of their electrical powers: though in many instances they had recourse to that power in the first moment of coercion. It was also ascertained, by repeated experiments, putting two animals of equally apparent health, into vessels of water, drawing successive shocks from one, and suffering the other to remain quiescent, that the death of the animal was hastened by the abstraction of its electric Buid! Professor Leslie has discovered that decayed whin-stone or friable mould, thoroughly desiccated and reduced to a powder, has an absorbent power that will congeal water, by VOL. I. NO. III. It is stated, that Mr. T. Carter Galpin, a young man of Bridport, has invented an instrument which, in one second of time, gives the day of the month; the moon's age; ris ing and setting of the sun; the time of high water at Bridport harbour; the degree of the sign in which the sun is; the moon's southing; declination of the sun; moveable feasts; cycle of the moon; &c. exact for any number of years. FRANCE. factured by a chemist in Paris, of such lished at Paris, the efficacy of flor. volatile Malines, has recently published an interestM. DE PRADT, formerly Archbishop of ing work, On Colonies and the Existing Revolution in America.' He is in favour of their emancipation. ITALY. A fragment of the Consular Annals was found at Rome, on the 29th of March, in the ruins of the Temple of Castor. It corresponds with the tables that were found some time before, and deposited in the Capitol. They contain the names of eight of the Decemvirs, who were the authors of the twelve tables. The Gazette of Venice says, that a Venitian pretends to have discovered the means of impelling a vessel at sea, without the assistance of sails, steam, or oars. He also declares that the machine, of which he is the inventor, will have the advantage not less greater than the first, of securing the vessel from shipwreck. tions that very interesting discoveries had A paragraph dated Naples, April 5, menlately been made at Pompei Near the tem ple, a rectangular public edifice, of 260 palms in length and 120 in breadth, with a portico of columns in the interior, has been discovered, and in it several remarkable pieces of statua ry and other works of art It is hoped that this enclosure may prove a productive mine. of objects of art. 2 C |