referred to the Bafha of Cairo, who is fure to divide the inheritance among all the brothers. This fentence not being agreeable to them, they fight it out, and he that conquersa must have recourfe to the Balha again, and pay a large tribute togbe confirmed in his dominions. It is not to be imagined, that all this is as foon done as faid; for thefe difputes and proceffes vlaft fometimesɗfor two or three generations. Such of the Arab Princes as are most powerful, are moft careffed by the officers of the Porte; who being liable to be removed, take care to behave in fuch manner towards these princes, that in cafe of neceffity they may have a fafe retreat among them.non

We are now arrived at the conclufion of the first volume: the fecond is come to hand, and next month, a view of its contents will be laid before our Readers. We make no apology for the length of this article; the work is new and curious is written in a foreign language; and the remarks, and b explanation of Arabic words, which we have added, may be of rufe ato those who fhall read Mr. Norden's performance in the original to saj „gmigran

316 VI L 940s #1 Conclufion of the Philofophical Tranfactions, begun in our last, sud la fuhug mi See page 271, feq.) in vid or I

Arts 225 Extracts of two Letters to Thomas Holles, Efq; congyai scerning the late discoveries at Herculaneum.,

HESE Extracts are curious, but Art. 23. is more to our purpofe, particularly Father Antonio's method of unfolding the paper fcrolls lately difcovered in the fame fubsil awo aus 125 m) OF Y*X terraneous city s vod

This Friar, who is a writer at the Vatican, made a ma 'chine, with which, (by the means of certain threads, which ⚫ being gummed, ftuck to the back part of the papyrus, where

there was no writing) he begins, by degrees, to pull, while, ♦ with a fort of engraver's inftrument, he loofens one leaf ⚫ from the other, (which is the moft difficult part of all) and

then makes a fort of lining to the back of the papyrus, with ⚫ exceeding thin leaves of onion, (if I miftake not) and with • fome fpirituous liquor, with which he wets the papyrus, by ⚫ little and little he unfolds it. All this labour cannot be well • comprehended without feeing. With patience fuperior to what a man can imagine, this good Father has unrolled a pretty large piece of papyrus, the worst preserved, by way of trial, It is found to be the work of a Greek writer, and

* is a fmall philofophic tract (in Plutarch's manner) on mufic; blaming it as pernicious to fociety, and productive of foft⚫ nefs and effeminacy. It does not difcourfe of the art of mufic. The beginning is wanting, but it is to be hoped, that ⚫ the author's name may be found at the end it feems how• ever to be the work of a ftoic philofopher; becaufe Zeno is much commended. The papyrus is written acrofs in fo ⚫ many columns, every one of about twenty lines, and every • line is the third of a palm long. Between column and co• lumn is a void fpace of more than an inch. There are now • unrolled about thirty columns, which is about half of the ⚫ whole; this roll being one of the largeft: the letters are diftinguishable enough. Father Antonio, after he has loofened • a piece, takes it off where there are no letters, and places < it between two cryftals, for the better observation; and then • having an admirable talent in imitating characters, he copies ⚫ it with all the lacunæ, which are very numerous in this fcorched papyrus; and gives this copy to the Canon Mazzocchi, who tries to fupply the lofs, and explain it. The • letters are capital ones, and almost without any abbreviation. • The worft is, the work takes up fo much time, that a fmall • quantity of writing requires five or fix days to unroll, fo that a whole year is already consumed about half this roll. The lacunæ, for the most part, are of one or two words, that may be supplied by the context. As foon as this roll is finifhed, they will begin a Latin one. There are some fo • voluminous, and the papyrus fo fine, that unrolled, they • would take up an hundred palms fpace. They tell me, that • fome of the Latin ones are in a running hand; which con⚫ firms the opinion of the Marquis Maffei, "That the cha"racter by us abfurdly called Gothic and Lombard, is the "antient running hand corrupted by time." However, I

< have not feen any of these laft. The curiofity of thefe papyri is, that there is no little staff of wood, on which they were rolled.

• Thus have I told you all that I know concerning these ⚫ papyri.

We may comfort ourfelves, that the affair is in good hands; being under the care and conduct of fo learned an antiquarian, as the Canonico Mazzocchi, and of this able and adroit Father Antonio.'

Art. 25. Letters of Henry Eeles, Efq; concerning the cause of the afcent of Vapour and Exhalation, and those of winds; and of the general phenomena of the weather and barometer.

There have been feveral hypothefes propofed, in order to account for the afcent of vapours. Des Cartes was of opinion, that the particles of water, by the action of the fun, are formed into hollow fpheres, filled with the materia fubtilis; by which means they are rendered lighter than an equal bulk of air, and confequently muft afcend in it.

But as the materia fubtilis could never be proved, this theory gave no fatisfaction to those who would not admit of any occult agent in accounting for the phænomena of nature. Inftead of the materia fubtilis, they had therefore recourse to the air, and fuppofed, that by the action of the fun on the surface of the water, the aqueous particles are formed into bubbles, filled with a flatus, or warm air, whereby they are rendered fpecifically lighter than those of air, and therefore must rise

therein.

Thofe among the foreign philofophers, who maintain fire to be a particular fubftance, fuppofe, that the rays of the fun, or the particles of fire feparated from them, adhere to those of the water; by which means the aqueous particles are rendered lighter than an equal bulk of air, and confequently, by the laws of hydroftatics, muft afcend in it.

Dr. Defaguliers, aware of the objections made to the above hypothefes, advanced another. He fuppofed, that the particles of water are so far feparated by heat, as to be without the fphere of each other's attraction, when they begin to repel each other, and by that means rife from the furface of the fluids in form of a vapour, or body of particles, which are at equal diftances from each other; and becoming thus fpecifiIcally lighter than the fame bulk of airy particles, they will rife in the fluid body of air, till they come to that part of it which has the fame gravity: where they will form what we call clouds, and will move with the current of the air in those regions.

Such are the principal hypothefes which have been advanced to account for the afcent of vapours; but all of them are liable to fo many objections and difficulties, that fome have, with very good reafon, declared, they can think of no way of accounting for the rife of vapours, according to the received principles of philofophy *.

As

See Rowning's Syftem of Philofophy, Vol. I. p. 138. where the reader will find the feveral objections brought against these hy

pothefes.

As therefore, neither impulfion, rarefaction of the air, or any alteration of the watry particles, by expansion, is fufficient to account for the afcent of vapours, our Author has advanced a new hypothefis: that of electricity. He obferves, that there is but one way of altering the fpecific gravity of the particles of vapour and exhalation, to render them lighter than air; which is, by adding to each particle a fufficient quantity of fome A whofe clafticity and rarity are exceedingly greater than that of the air. That the electric fire is fuch, will be eafily granted; but how far it is adapted to this purpofe, can only be determined by experiments; by the help of which Mr. Eeles has found, that all fumes arifing from fire, whether blazing or otherwife, and all teams arifing from boiling or warm water, and from all other fluids, and the breath of man, and of all other animals, and all the effluvia thrown off by perfpiration, are ftrongly électrified. And well known experiments have fhewn, Firft, that defultory motion by which it flies off from an electrified body to any number of non-electrics, which are brought within the fphere of its activity and affection, until it be equally diffused through all.

pothefes. With regard to that hypothefs which fome have ad font vanced, namely, That a body divided into minute particles, will afcend in a fluid fpecifically lighter than itfelf, it is too evidently falle to need a refutation: for tho it be admitted, that the folidity of a globular particle increases as the cube, but the furface only as the fquare, of the diameter, and confequently very fmall bodies will have much larger furfaces, in proportion to their folid contents, than larger bodies will yet this increafe of furface, whilft the fpecific gravity remains the fame, will as much retard its afcent as its des fcent; and the proportion between the weight of a particle of one body or fluid (water for inftance), and the weight of a particle of the fame dimenfions of another fluid (as air) will be the fame as between the weights of larger maffes of these fluids. Thus, leaf gold, for inftance, immerfed in a bafon of water, will not rife to the furface; but, on the contrary, fink to the bottom. Some caution, however, must be used in making this experiment; for leafgold being fo very tenuous, is apt to fold in immersing it in the water, and by that means confine fome particles of air, which must render it lighter than water, and confequently it will then rife to the furface. It is therefore neceffary, after the gold is immerfed, that thefe folds be entirely taken out, and the leaf preffed with the finger againit the bottom, till all the particles of air are difcharged, and the water brought in contact with, every part of its furface; after which it will no longer afcend to the furface of the water, but, on the contrary, if raifed to it, will immediately fink to the bottom by its own gravity,

• Se

which furrounds the furface of the mafs; and that, by that means, they must be equally electrified with the mafs; that is, they S must be covered with the electric fluid to as great a diftance Sifrom their fuperficies as the mafs is covered, which muft alsways be in proportion to the ftate of activity of the electrical fluid. In which ftate, when they have pafled the furrounding fluid, they must be repelled by it, and alfo repel each Other and if each particle of vapour, and its furrounding fluid, occupy a greater space than the fame weight of air, they must be fitted to afcend till they come in equilibrium <with the upper and rarer part of the atmosphere; where they muft float until their specific gravity is altered. As it is very difficult to affign the magnitude of each particle of Savapour and exhalation, and that of the furrounding fluid, Sand to fhew, that both taken together occupy a greater por tion of space, than the fame weight of air, we can only apply to experiment, to fhew that it is poffible that it may be fo and that will fhew, that in all probability it is to; fince it is evident, that every particle must be endued with a portion of this electrical fire, or fluid, and that there is not any other fufficient caufe affigned for their afcending.

It