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Large Diamonds-Population of England.

6. The House of Holstein bears the Imperial Crown of Russia, and that of Denmark; and not long since it reigned also in Sweden. One of the branches of this House governs the Grand Duchy of Oldenbourg.

7. The House of Nassau is also one of those of which the younger branch has acquired a more brilliant destiny than the elder. After many vicissitudes, the younger line of this House is seated on the throne of the Netherlands; the elder governs the Duchy of Nassau.

8. The House of Osman, of Turkish origin, now reduced by a barbarous policy to one Prince in the flower of his age, and two young children.

9. The House of Savoy. The House bears the Crown of Sardinia.

10. The House of Wettin, or of Misnia, which reigns in Saxony, where the younger line bears the royal title. The elder branch is honoured with several Ducal and Grand Ducal titles.

11. The House of Wittelsbach bears the Crown of Bavaria.

12. The Royal House of Wirtemberg.

Of the eight other Sovereign Houses which do not bear crowns, seven are German, and one Sclavonian. They are the Houses of Anhalt, of Brabant, or of Hesse (divided into two branches); of Lichtenstein, of La Lippe (divided into two branches); of Mecklenburg (the most ancient of all the Sovereign Houses), of Reuss, of Schwarzbourg, and of Waldeck.

With respect to religion four of these Sovereign Houses are all Catholic, viz. those of France, Savoy, Wittelsbach, and Lichtenstein; ten are all Protestant, either Lutheran Reformed, or of the English Church, viz. those of the Guelfes, of Nassau, of Wirtemberg, of Anholt, of Brabant or Hesse, of La Lippe, of Mecklenburgh, of Reuss, of Schwarzbourg, and of Waldeck. To these latter we may add the House of Bernadotte.

The following families are of different religions;

Those of Alsace, Lorraine, Hohenzollern, Holstein, Wettin or Misnia. One family is Mussulman,

Large Diamonds.-The number of known diamonds, of 36 carats and upwards, is stated to be no more than 19, two only of which were in England, i. e. the Piggott diamond, weighing 46 carats, and worth 16,2001., and one in the possession of the Hornby family, of 36 carats, worth 18,0001. Holland has but

[Dec. 1,

one, which weighs 36 carats, valued at 10,3631. France has two, the Regent, weighing 1364 carats, value 149,0581. Germany has one, weighing 1394, worth 155,6821. Russia is rich in these gems: its largest is that of the Sceptre, which weighs 779 carats; if this is true, it is worth, according to the general mode of estimating them, the enormous sum of 4,854,7281. For a long time it formed the eye of an Indian Idol; from whence it was removed by an European soldier; from him passed through several hands, and finally sold to the Empress Catherine for 90,000l., a handsome annuity, and a patent of nobility. Russia has several others, one of which is estimated at 369,8001. The Great Mogul has one of rose-colour, valued at 622,7281. The two principal ones belonging to Persia are called the Mount of Splendor; &c. and the Sea of Glory-one is worth 145,8001., the other 34,8481. The Portuguese royal family have two, one of which is still uncut, and, if we may credit the Portuguese account, is the largest ever found: it is said to weigh 1,880 carats, and supposing it loses half its value in cutting, it would be worth 5,644,8001.-nearly a million more than the Sceptre diamond of Russia. There is a small part broken off, which was done by the man who found it, who, ignorant what stone it was, struck it with a hammer upon an anvil: it was found in the Brazils. Some persons conversant in those things doubt the existence of this stone: according to the model exhibited, it is somewhat like the shape and size of an ostrich egg. The other diamond, in the possession of the house of Braganza, is worth 309,9001.

It is generally supposed that the population of this country has been increasing more rapidly during the last century than that of the other countries of Europe. With the exception of Spain, almost all the other states of Europe have increased at an equal, and some, such as Russia, at a much greater rate. Mr. Rickman, in the Preface to the last Population Returns, states the population of England and Wales in 1700 at 5,475,000, and in 1811 it was 10,488,090. In Sweden Proper, one of the poorest countries of Europe, the population in 1716 was 907,969. In 1816 Sweden Proper had 2,464,941 inhabitants. At the former period, too, Sweden had only seventeen iron-works, one alumwork, one glass-house, one paper-mill, and eight manufacturing establishments. At the latter, it had 560 iron-works and

1818.]

Columbus Infectious Fevers-Typhus Fever.

mines, and 901 manufacturing establish

ments.

Among the Parliamentary Papers printed since the close of last Session, is the Report of the Lords' Committee on the Poor Laws, in the Session of 1817, with the Minutes of Evidence annexed. The latter present a deplorable picture of the increase of pauperism of late years, and advance in the Poor Rates throughout the manufacturing districts generally, and the agricultural in numerous instances. In the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, the number of poor in their house in 1812, was 407; in 1817, it was 600, besides 100 children maintained out at nurse. In the year 1790 their poor rate was 3s. 6d. in the pound on the nominal rack rent; in 1817, 78. on the full rack rent. In Manchester, the average number of poor in the house throughout the years 1796-7, was 320; throughout 1816-7, 526. In the former year the rates amounted to 16,9411. 18s. Od.; in that ending Easter 1816, 27,8901.; and in that ending Easter, 1817, 56,9121. In many places the rates have been doubled within a few years. It was stated before the Committee, that in parts of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, the assessment was 20s. in the pound; that in the parish of Sutton, in Ashfield, about 13 miles from Nottingham, they in many instances very far exceeded the rents; and that in Midhurst, in 1816, the rates collected were at 25s. in the pound, and amounted to 2,0061. 18s. 3d. while in 1803 they amounted to but 7761. 10s. 3d.

Columbus. —A copy of an original painting of this great man has been presented to the Pennsylvanian Academy of Arts, by R. W. Meade, esq. During his residence in Madrid, in 1815, having ascertained that the Duke of Veraguas, the descendant of Columbus, and the present possessor of his estate and titles, had an original portrait of his illustrious ancestor, Mr. Meade obtained permission to have it copied.

Infectious Fevers.-Dr. Taunton, in his course of Lectures, delivered in November, at the Cornwall Literary and Philosophical Institution, held at Truro, laid down the following simple rules for preventing the propagation of contagious fevers:

1. Keep a door or window of the patient's apartments constantly open, often both.

2. Remove all bed-curtains, unless to shade the light.

3. Let foul linen and every thing

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offensive be immediately removed from the sick chamber and washed.

4. Keep the floor very clean by mopping daily.

5. Avoid inhaling the breath of the patient, or swallowing the saliva in the sick-room; and beware of exhalations from the patient in every form. Wash the hands immediately after touching him. Let not the nurse take her meals in the room.

6. Visit not the sick with an empty stomach.

7. Fumigate all clothes that cannot be washed before they are put away. 8. Do not permit any furred animal to approach the sick-room.

9. Let there be no unnecessary visitors, as they not only disturb the sick, but also run the risk of either being infected or of conveying the contagion.

With due attention to these rules, the disease is not likely to gain much ascendancy, neither will the medical or other attendants incur any danger. Dr. Clarke, of Newcastle, in eighteen years experience, and Dr. Henry, in forty years experience, in Manchester, never conveyed infectious diseases from one family to another, though they employed no other precautions than those enumerated above. If, however, the effluvia should arrive at such a concentration as to impregnate very powerfully the clothing, furniture of a house, &c. the mere act of ventilation will not suffice for its destruction; more efficient means must then be resorted to, and for this purpose the fumigation with nitrous gas, as recommended by Dr. Carmichael Smyth, or that with chlorine, as successfully used by Dr. Rollo, in England, and Guyton, Morveau, Desgenettes, Pinel, and Čabanillas, on the continent, are the most powerful antidotes. The former is best adapted for places where printed cottons and other coloured fabrics are to be subjected to the action of the gas; but under other circumstances the latter is infinitely preferable.

Typhus Fever.-Dr. John Bingham, of Leixlip, has published in the Irish papers the following, as a successful mode of treating the malignant fever now so prevalent in that country. He observes, that his own experience of its efficacy enables him to promulgate it with confidence. The remedy, in fact, consists in the exhibition of mustard. "From the favourable effect," says Dr. B. "I have invariably found it to produce on the patient, I place a great reliance on it, especially when administered

452 Progress of Christianity in the South Sea Islands, &c. [Dec. 1,

in the early stage of the complaint; by giving the patient, if an adult, a teaspoonful, or two drachms, of common mustard, mixed in a tumbler of tepid water, which in less than half an hour will produce a gentle, free, and salutary vomiting, merely disburthening the stomach of its contents; and during its operation I give the patient about a quart of tepid water, as used in the ordinary vomits. Immediately on the mustard being taken into the stomach, it produces a glow of warmth which pervades the entire system, together with a singular sensation scarcely to be described, unless by the patients who have used it, that soon changes the skin from that hot, dry, and uncomfortable feel, always to be met with in incipient fever, into a soft, moist, and cool state, which is succeeded by a gentle perspiration, and the re-establishment of the functions of the digestive organs. In about eight hours after the stomach has been emptied in the above manner, I give the patient (if full grown) four grains of calomel; and in the course of two hours after the administering of the calomel, I give a gentle saline purgative. With this prompt treatment, I have, in the majority of cases where the patients made application to me, during the first two or three days of their complaining, rescued them from a complaint setting in with all its malignant features; and in the few instances in which I have not suppressed the epidemic in this way, I have found, that having recourse to mustard, with other auxiliaries, in the future stages of the complaint, enabled me almost invariably to announce the certain recovery of the patient."

Iceland. In the course of the year 1817, the births in this island amounted to 1,317, of which number 688 were of the male, and 629 of the female sex; 187 were illegitimate, and 44 still-born. -During the same period the deaths amounted to 918, leaving an excess in the number of births over that of deaths, of 389. Of the deaths, 86 were occasioned by accident, such as the fall of avalanches, &e, and 14 died of hunger.

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milian of Wied-Neuwied's travels in Brazil during the years 1815, 1816, and 1817. The work will appear in four volumes quarto, with plates and maps.

The principal object of the illustrious traveller was to enrich natural history by a description of the animals of Brazil, yet unknown in Europe. But he has done more: he has pursued learned investigations relative to the statistics of the country, with observations on the manners and customs of its wild and civilized inhabitants. He visited the Eastern coast of Brazil, between the 13th and 23d degree of South latitude.

encountered in the course of his enterThe greatest dangers which the Prince prise were, among the Botocudos, a remarkably ferocious and cruel race of people; and in a desert near the river St. Matthew, which is infested with ounces, ocelots, and other carnivorous animals.

Prince Maximilian has formed a collection of 76 species of quadrupeds, 400 of birds, 79 of reptiles, and 1000 of plants.

M. Ocken, a native of Jena, an aulic counsellor, and a man of considerable learning, speaks in the following terms of this work, in the journal entitled the Isis:

"That a human being should undergo such enormous fatigue, and suffer so years, is almost inconceivable. The firm many privations, for the space of two resolution of the Prince, his extensive knowledge of natural history, and the great sacrifices he has made, could alone have inspired him with energy, and have furnished him with the means of realizing his vast undertaking. In addition to the novel nature of the information which this work will convey to the learned world, the immense number of plates and curious observations it contains, must render it superior to any work on Brazil that has hitherto appeared."

POLAND.

The Royal Literary Society of Warsaw, in its sitting on the 20th of June, 1818, proposed a prize, consisting of a gold medal, and 100 ducats (501. sterling,) for an historic eulogy on General Thadyears for the task. The work may be deus Kosciusko. The Society gives two written in the Polish, Latin, French, The authors, on sending their maEnglish, German, or Italian languages. nuscripts to the Literary Society of Warsaw, also are to send a sealed billet, containing respectively their names, places of residence, and the epigraphs

1818.]

Population of France.-Library of Stockholm.

453

which are placed at the head of the tific operation, and the celebrated M. composition.

FRANCE.

It is calculated that the French monarchy contains 29,800,000 inhabitants, of whom 108,000 speak Basque, 900,000 speak the Kymrique, or Low Breton, 160,000 speak Italian, 1,700,000 speak German, and the remaining 27,000,000 speak French. It is also calculated, that of these there are 26,400,000 Catholics, 2,300,000 Calvinists, 1,100,000 Lutherans, 60,000 Jews, 2,000 Herrenhutter, and 550 Quakers.

SWEDEN.

The Royal Library of Stockholm possesses a great number of Icelandic MSS. to which little attention has for a length of time been paid, and which were known only to a few men of letters, who, in consequence of their researches into Northern Antiquities, were induced to consult them. M. Lilliegren, Professor at Lund, is now employed in translating them. He has already published a volume, which will soon be followed by several others. Icelandic literature has, within these few years, obtained great attention in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, as well as in England and Germany.

According to the list of the University of Christiana in Norway, there were at the commencement of the present year, eighteen Professors, giving lectures in philosophy, theology, the learned languages, mathematics, astronomy, technology, natural history, jurisprudence, statistics, and political economy.

DENMARK.

In the Spring of the year 1816, his Majesty the King of Denmark resolved to have a trigonometrical measurement executed in Denmark, and intrusted it to Professor Schumacher. One of the instruments being damaged in the carriage, the operation could not be begun that year. The year following, Professor Schumacher went to Munich, and there received, from M. Reichenbach, a new instrument, in the room of the damaged one. Since that time the operations have been prosecuted without interruption, and the series of triangles now extend from Lauenberg to Fülinen. In Denmark and the Duchies four degrees and a half of latitude will be measured, and from Copenhagen to the West Coast the same number of degrees of longitude.

A few months ago, the Hanoverian government joined in this great scien

Gauss, Director of the Observatory at Gottingen, was ordered to go to Luneburg, there to connect one of the steeples with the Danish triangles, in order to continue the series of triangles through the kingdom of Hanover. This connection is now accomplished, and it will be happy for Astronomy and Geography, if all the neighbouring States will thus assist in bringing them to perfection.

RUSSIA.

The different establishments formed at St. Petersburgh for the education of youth, such as the Corps of Cadets, the Naval and Mineralogical Schools, Gymnasia, &c. contain more than 1,000 young men, who are supported at the public expense. Indeed the Government of Russia is making constant and continued efforts to enlighten the nation and to raise the lower classes of the people, step by step, from the state of debasement and ignorance into which the abuses of despotism have plunged them. When Voltaire wrote the celebrated line

"C'est du Nord aujourd'hui que nous vient la lumière,"

it was regarded merely as a piece of hyperbolical flattery; but from the exertions now making by the Government of Russia, it may become a prophecy.

AFRICA.

By a gentleman just arrived from Senegal, which place he left on the 11th September, some intelligence respecting the Expedition, now exploring the interior of Africa has been received. Mr. Adrian Partarreau, a native of Senegal, attached to the expedition under Major Gray, had arrived there from Gaylam, which they had reached after about seven weeks journey from Cayai, with the loss of Mr. Burton, late an officer of the Royal African Corps, and one soldier. They were at the time of his leaving all well, but in want of provisions. The Major and some of his party were to continue at Gaylam till the end of the rains. Dr. Dockhardt had proceeded for Lego, to prepare for the embarkation of Major Gray on the Niger. A supply of provisions had been forwarded to Major Gray.

SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.

The following account of the progress of Christianity in the South Sea Islands is taken from a letter written by the Rev. John Davies, one of the Missionaries at Otaheite, to the Rev. John

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Fortunate Discovery-Colouring of Wine-Beans.

Hughes, of Montgomeryshire, dated July 2, 1817:-" I shall now give you a short account of the state of things with us. The revival and reformation which commenced in 1813, 1814, continued and increased in 1815 and 1817, so that the whole of the inhabitants of Taheite, Eimeo, Tapan-manu, Huaheine, Raintea, Tahaa, Borabora, and Maura, have entirely renounced idolatry. The gods, altars, &c. are utterly destroyed. The offering of human sacrifices, and the practice of infanticide, are at an end. The worship of the true God, and the profession of Christianity, are general throughout all the above islands. In Taheite 66 chapels have been built; and in Eimeo 16. The people assemble for worship thrice every Sunday, and on every Wednesday evening. The Lord's day is strictly observed throughout the whole of the islands. Private and family prayer is general among the people. About 4,000 persons have learned to read, and many of them to write. In a word, the change far exceeds our expectation.

"They have been furnished with a printing-press by the London Missionary Society; and part of the gospels, translated into the language of the nations, is now printing. The culture of the sugarcane, and other arts of civilization, are also in progress."

EAST INDIES.

The following curious account has been taken from a Bombay paper:"Mr. Powell, commander of the Queen Charlotte, informs us of the interesting circumstance of his having recovered from a rock, 21 miles N. W. of Nooaheevah (one of the Marquesas,) a man that had been its solitary inhabitant for nearly three years. His account stated, that early in 1814, he proceeded thither from Nooaheevah, with four others, all of whom had left an American ship there, for the purpose of procuring feathers that were in high estimation among the natives of Nooaheevah; but losing their boat on the rock, three of his companions in a short time perished through famine, and principally from thirst, as there was no water but what was supplied by rain. His fourth companion continued with him but a few weeks; when he formed a resolution of attempting to swim, with the aid of a splintered fragment that remained of their boat, to the island, in which effort he must, no doubt, have perished. They had originally taken fire with them from

[Dec. 1,

Nooaheevah, which he had always taken care to keep continually burning. The flesh and blood of wild birds were his sole aliment; with the latter he quenched his thirst in seasons of long droughts, and the skulls of his departed companions were his only drinking vessels. The discovery made of him from the Queen Charlotte was purely accidental; the rock was known to be desolate and barren, and the appearance of a fire, as the vessel passed it on the evening, attracted notice, and produced an enquiry, which proved fortunate for the forlorn inhabitant of the rock, in procuring his removal to Nooaheevah, whither Mr. Powell conveyed him, and left him under the care of Mr. Wilson, who had resided there for many years, and with whom the hermit had had a previous acquaintance."

RURAL ECONOMY.

Insects.-A Pennsylvania farmer states that "the water in which potatoes are boiled, sprinkled over grain or plants, completely destroys all insects in every stage of existence, from the egg to the fly.

Colouring of Wine.-None of the substances used in giving the red colour to wine form with the acetate of lead, that greenish grey precipitate which is the result of its union with genuine red wines. When coloured by bilberry, campeachy wood, or elder, the precipitate is deep blue; and when with fernanbouc, red saunders, or red beet, the precipitate is red.

Beans. A correspondent who has favoured us with some observations on the subject of harvesting French, Turkey, and Scarlet Beans, says-it has generally been supposed that they should hang on the haume, until they get dry, in order to procure good seed, which, he adds, is a mistaken notion, as in consequence, very little that has proved good has been saved of late years, the seasons having proved wet and frosty before they were thought sufficiently ripe. This difficulty, he asserts, experience has taught him, may be easily obviated, by gathering the beans immediately as they begin to wither, or feel soft near the strig, or upper end of the pod, and harvesting them as the weather permits. By this practice much time will be saved, and the seed being then perfect, and free from the effects of severe weather, will vegetate sooner and stronger than any that may have been saved in the ordinary way!

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