Of East India stock, 1l. 10s.

Of stock of any other corporation, not otherwise charged under the head of mortgage or conveyance, 17. 108.

STRAW hat manufacture, is of very modern invention: it has, however, of late years afforded the means of support to a large class of our industrious poor, and of not a few in the middle ranks of life The manufacture requires but little capital, and the art is quickly required. Thirty or forty shillings are said to be sufficient for the purchase of the machines and materials for employing one hundred persons some length of time. The straw used is readily obtained, and, when properly sorted, it is cut at the joints, and the outer covering being removed, it is then ranged according to the different sizes, and made up into bundles of eight or ten inches in length, and about a foot in circumference. The bundles are then dipped in water, and shaken a little, so as not to retain much moisture; and then they are to be placed on their edges

in a box, which is sufficiently close to prevent the evaporation of the smoke. In the middle of the box is an earthen vessel, containing sulphur, which is set on fire, and the box covered over for several hours. The straws are next to be split, which operation is performed by a small machine, made chiefly of wood. When split, the straws are denominated splints, and of these each braider has a certain quantity, which they hold under the arm, and draw them out as wanted. The rules laid down are these: platters should be taught to use their second fingers and thumbs instead of the fore fingers, which are often required to assist in turning the splints, and very much facilitate the platting; and they should take care not to wet the splints too much. Each platter should have a small linen bag, and a piece of pasteboard to roll the plat round. When five yards are worked up, it is wound about a piece of board, fastened at the top with yarn, and kept there several days, to form it in a proper shape. Four of these parcels, or a score, is the measurement by which the plat is sold. When the straw it platted, it comes into the hand of the person who sews it together into the form of hats, bonnets, &c. of various shapes and sizes. These are then put on wooden blocks, for the purpose of hot pressing; and, to render them of a more delicate white, they are again exposed to the fumes of sulphur.

STURGEON, a species of the Acipenser genus is referred to, and being omitted in its place, we may briefly observe, that it is a very large fish, of eighteen or twenty feet long, an inhabitant of the northern seas, migrating during the early summer months into the larger rivers and Jakes, and returning to the sea again in autumn after having deposited its spawn. It is a fish of slow motion, and is easily ta ken: it is admired for the delicacy and firmness of the flesh From the roe is prepared the substance cailed caviar. In this country the sturgeon annually ascends rivers, but in no great quantities, and is occasionally taken in salmon nets. In its manner of breeding the sturgeon forms an exception among cartilaginous fishes, it being oviparous The sturgeon was a fish in high repute among the ancients, and was brought to table with much pomp, and ornamented with flowers, the slaves who carried it being likewise adorned with garlands, and accompanied with music. The flavour of the sturgeon is said to vary with the food on which it is chiefly fed; hence it is distinguished in

the North of Europe, into mackerel-sturgeon, herring-sturgeon, &c. See Shaw's "Zoology"

SUBSTANCES, simple. To this article references have been made, and it having been omitted in the alphabetical order, we must not pass it by here. In other cases we are grieved that haste or negligence should have required these additions and corrections; in this we have reason for different emotions, having, by the omission, an opportunity of stating some facts, and some results, which have not been made public more than two or three days.

In the language of modern chemistry, the term simple substances has a different signification from that attached to it in ancient philosophy. By elements, or simple substances, was formerly understood primary principles, which were essentially simple and indistructible, which, by modification of form, or by mutual combination, formed the different substances which compose the material world. Modern philosophy pursues a different mode of investigation: it analyses substances, and endeavours to decompose them, or separate them into their constituent parts, and when it arrives at any which it cannot decompose, and beyond which analysis cannot be carried, and whose properties can only be changed by causing them to combine with others, then such substances are denominated simple. This term does not imply their absolute simplicity, because new experiments, or new agents, may be able to reduce certain bodies that at present have not been decomposed into others that are more simple. Till very lately the fixed alkalies, the boracic, Auoric, and muriatic acids were reckoned among the simple substances: to these may be added the metals, the several earths, sulphur, phosphorus, and the diamond.

By the Voltaic battery, in the hands of Mr. Davy, Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, many of these substances, which were deemed simple a few months since, have been decomposed. For his experiments on the alkalies, we refer to the articles ALKALI and POTASSIUM: and on Saturday last, Dec. 17th, he announced in his public lecture, that he had decomposed sulphur and phosphorus, the component parts of which are oxygen and hydrogen, and a metallic base; that charcoal he had found to consist of hydrogen and the carbonaceous principle, and that diamond was a compound of the carbonaceous principle and

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oxygen; that he had succeeded in obtaining the metallic base of ammonia, which, when combined with mercury, in the proportion of only 6th part, rendered the mercury solid, and reduced the specific gravity from 13 to 3. The professor likewise informed his audience that he had decomposed the boracic and fluoric acids, and had enjoyed a glimpse of their metallic bases; and that he had fully ascertained, that lime, magnesia, strontites, and barytes, are compound bodies, each having a metallic substance as a base. Hence the number of simple substances, which, but a year ago, was estimated by Dr. Thomson at 38, is in a very short space of time considerably reduced. Chemistry, indeed, as a science, will probably undergo a complete renovation: the discoveries of Mr. Davy promise a total overthrow to the beautiful, and, as it was formerly deemed, simple, and almost perfect system of Lavoisier. The English professor assumes electricity as a general agent of decomposition; that different bodies are naturally in different electrical states; that by altering these states their affinities are altered. In justification of this theory, he has ascertained that oxygen, and all bodies containing an excess of oxygen, are naturally negative, and that all bodies containing an excess of inflammable principle are naturally positive. Should subsequent facts confirm this theory, it is highly probable that many other of the bodies, hitherto regarded as simple, will yield to the powers of his apparatus.

SUBSTANCES, imponderable, in chemistry, are, caloric, light, electricity, and galvanism; perhaps the identity of the two former may hereafter be discovered: and likewise that of the two latter more completely demonstrated. The common character that they all possess is, that of not being subject to the attraction of gravitation; at least their gravity has hitherto been incapable of appreciation, hence the term "imponderable." They possess the greatest subtility, or tenuity; they cannot easily be obtained in a sepa rate state of existence; they are observed only in states of combination, or in their rapid transition from one body to another. We can scarcely discover their specific affinities, or measure their force, and we are unable to trace their particular combinations, or consider them as essential constituent principles of any compound. They are moreover diffused over every kind of matter; at least caloric exists in all bodies, and probably also the electric

and galvanic agents. See Murray's Chemistry.

TELESIE, in mineralogy, a gem so named by Hauy, which answers to the perfect CORUNDUM and the SAPPHIRE : to these articles the reader might be referred without further addition, but hav ing directed him already to TELESIE from the article GEM, we shall, in this place, give Mr. Murray's description. It occurs in fragments, and is crystallized, the form of its crystals being the double threesided pyramid, the single six-sided pyramid, and the six-sided prism, variously modified by truncations and acuminations.. Its colours are numerous, blue, green, red, of numerous shades, and yellow or yellowish white, and sometimes more than one colour is present even in the same crystal. It is more or less transparent; its lustre is resplendent and vitreous; and it often presents a beautiful reflection of light, in the form of a star: the fracture is conchoidal, or imperfectly foliated: the hardness is inferior to that of the diamond, but superior to that of every other fossil, and not yielding to the file: the specific gravity is from 3.9 to 4.1.

TIME, equation of. The most usual and best measure of time that we have is a clock, regulated by the vibration of a pendulum. But with whatever accuracy a clock may be made, it must be subject to irregularities, as well from the imperfection of the workmanship, as from the expansion and contraction of the materi als by heat and cold, by which the length of the pendulum, and consequently the time of vibration, will vary. As no clock, therefore, can be depended upon for keeping time accurately, it is necessary that we should be able at any time to ascertain how much it is too fast or too slow, and at what rate it gains or loses. For this purpose it must be compared with some motion which is uniform, or of which, if it be not uniform, one can find the variation. The motions of the heavenly bodies have therefore been considered as most proper for the purpose. Now as the earth revolves uniformly about its axis, the apparent diurnal motion of the heavenly bodies about the axis must be uniform. If a clock, therefore, be adjusted to go 24 hours from the pas. sage of any fixed star over the meridian till it returns to it again, its rate of going may be determined by comparing it with the transit of any fixed star, and observing whether the interval continues to be 24 hours: if not, the difference shows how much it gains or loses in that time. A