Corcyra, who has already obtained some literary distinction, has addressed a letter to the Abbaté Morelli, the learned librarian of St Mark, on the four celebrated Venetian horses, commonly supposed to be the work of Lysippus. In this tract, printed at Padua, and dedicated to Lord Holland, the author successfully combats the opinion which gives a Roman origin to these monuments, and employs all his erudition and sagacity to prove that they came originally from the isle of Chio. This notion has since been adopted by the celebrated German writer, F. Schlegel.
NETHERLANDS.
Safety Lamp.—Mr Van Mons has communicated the gratifying intelligence, that the safety lamp of Davy has completely succeeded in the Netherlands. "Fortified with it," he says, "we can penetrate into the foulest mines. We have even opened depots of gas, and procured its mixture with the proportion of atmospheric air, calculated to produce the most prompt inflammation and the strongest explosion, but the gas has never taken fire. We use gauze made of stronger wire than with you, in order to guard against any exterior damage from the awkwardness of workmen, and to prevent the men from opening the lamp; we have also adopted the expedient of a small padlock, with the key of which the master miner is intrusted. The heating of the gauze cloth, however intense it may be, is not attended with any danger, for iron the most incandescent will not affect gas; nothing but flame will kindle it. Some attempts have been made to light a mine by means of its gas, but I am not acquainted with the result. I should think that such a project would be attended with many difficulties."
Hydrophobia—Mr Van Mons has succeeded in curing all cases of hydrophobia by means of oxygenated muriatic acid, employed both internally and externally; which proves that in this malady the moral holds in dependence the physical powers. All cases of tardy hydrophobia may be considered as the effect of imagination. Examples have occurred of the disease reaching its last stage, when it has been completely dissipated by the sight of the animal by which the patient was bitten.
RUSSIA.
Baron Ungern-Sternberg began, many years since, to search the archives and private libraries in Livonia for documents tending to complete or illustrate the history of that province. Of these he collected several thousands, and had them printed, with the assistance of Professor Brotze of Riga, under the title of Diplomatic Codex of Livonia. This work, however, left several chasms, which it was the more difficult to fill up, as many of the archives of this province had been destroyed by fire, war, and other accidents. In 1807, Dr Hennig proposed that copies should be procured of all the original acts relative to Livonia, Esthonia, and the island of Oesel, preserved at Konigsberg, in the archives of the grandmaster of the order to which these provinces formerly belonged. The proposal was approved by the nobility of the provinces, and Dr Hennig appointed to carry it into execution. With the permission of the Prussian government, that scholar proceeded to Konigsberg in 1809, and in 1812 had sent off copies of 2000 documents. As the undertaking proved too burdensome for the nobility, by whom it was previously supported, the Emperor Alexander, at the instance of Karamsin, the historiographer, granted a yearly sum for its prosecution. The copies have since that time been forwarded to Petersburg, to be employed by Karamsin for his history of the Russian empire, and then deposited in the archives of foreign affairs. This enterprise is now completed, and 3160 documents, on subjects of interest for the history of the north, have been rescued from oblivion, to furnish new sources for the historian.
The Bible Society of Petersburg has received from England the stereotype plates for printing the New Testament in modern Greek, with which 300,000 copies may be taken off. The sphere of action of this society is rapidly extending. At Tula and Woronesch, the auxiliary societies formed there have opened shops for the special purpose of selling the Holy Scriptures. Paul, the Armenian patriarch at Constantinople, has also declared his willingness to co-operate in the object of the Bible Society; and even the heathen Buraits of Siberia have intimated their ardent wish to possess "the word of the only God," (according to their own expression in their memorial addressed to the civil governor of Irkutsk), in the Mongol language, and have voluntarily subscribed more than 9000 rubles towards the expense of printing it. The emperor has granted to the Bible Society of this city the privilege of establishing a printing-office at Abo.
The Berlin Gazette gives the following account of Von Kotzebue's voyage round the world, which has been received from Kamschatka. Letters of an earlier date, which, after having doubled Cape Horn, he sent from the coast of Chili, have been lost, or at least are not yet come to hand. M. Von Kotzebue discovered three new islands in the South Sea, in 14° of latitude, and 144° of longitude, to which he gave the names of Romanzow (the author of the expedition), Spiridon, and Krusenstern. Besides these, he discovered a long chain of islands in the same quarter, and two clusters of islands in the 11th degree of latitude and 190th degree of longitude. (It is not specified whether the latitude is N. or S. or the longitude E. or W.) These he called after his ships, Rurich's Chain; the twoVOL. I.
