It is the purpose of, this paper to show, in what manner we arrive at the knowledge of simple sounds, by the analytical examination of our speech, or the resolution of it into its principles. These simple sounds may be represented to the sight, by means of certain figures, appropriated to those sounds. Such figures then become the principles, first, of the writing of our speech, and, 2dly, of the reading of our written language.

In summer 1776, Professor Ferguson observed a particular appearance on the hill of Arthur's Seat, near the summit, which drew his attention, and which he could not understand. He then carried Dr Black and me to the place, where we found something which, at a distance, resembled the withered grass of a foot-path, but which traversed a shoulder of the hill, in such a direction as corresponded to neither sheeptrack nor foot-path. Upon a near inspection, it appeared to be a narrow stripe of the grass quite dead and withered. The breadth of this stripe was about nine, or, in some places, twelve inches; the sides of this track were perfectly defined, without any gradation from green to withered grass, all the plants in the track being killed, without the contiguous part having suffered in the least. The length of this track was considerable, a hundred yards or two, extending from the south-east side of the southmost hill through a hollow, and ascending obliquely the shoulder of the summit of Arthur's Seat on the south-east side.

L'amy, Esq; one of the Justices of Peace for the county of Forsar, and Mr John Guild, one of the Magistrates of Dundee, inclosing an affidavit made before them, of Jens Anderson, master, and Mads Jenson, mate of a Norwegian ship, relating to the appearance of a supposed kraken or sea-worm, on Sunday, August 5. 1786. about 15 leagues to the eastward of the coast of Scotland, in north latitude 56.16. The appearance was that of three low islands or sand-banks of a grayish colour, within less than a mile's distance from the ship, and extending about three miles from the one extremity to the other. It remained in sight about fifty minutes, and upon the springing up of a breeze, gradually funk into the water. The account contains no further particulars worthy of notice, and is perfectly confident with the idea of this being nothing more than a fog-bank, of which the appearances are familiar to mariners.

Sir,

I had the following receipt for making the Otter of Roses, as it is prepared in the East Indies, from Major Mackenzie of Coull, in the county of Ross, who told me he got the account from an officer of his corps, who was up in the country where it is prepared, and assisted in making it himself.

“Mr Bogle, whom, out of your kindness, you were pleased “to send into this quarter, having (thank God) arrived here in “perfect health, I had, at an auspicious hour, the pleasure of an “interview with him, and was rendered fo completely happy on “the occasion, that it might in reality have been thought an in“terview with yourself. The letter which you addressed to me, “and the presents you sent by Mr Boole, I have likewise re“ceived safe. May your happiness and prosperity daily in“crease. All the particulars which Mr Bogle verbally repre“sented to me, I perfectly understand. You were pleased to “write me, that you had sent orders for establishing peace with “the Debe Doria, agreeable to my request.

Figure I. is a section of the instrument formed of mahogany or boxwood. A A are two oblong square cavities connected together by a narrow close channel, running from the bottom of the one to the other. B B are two grooves hollowed out of the wood, in order to contain the fights, &c. They are shut up by a lid, which turns upon a screw-nail at the centre C, as may be seen more distinctly from fig. 4.

The following observations may serve to illustrate and confirm the opinion now very generally adopted by Anatomists and Physicians, That an affection of one hemisphere of the brain, whether from internal disease or external accident, produces its morbid symptoms on the opposite side of the body.

“Il sera peut être agréable à la Societé d'apprendre que l'on “a appliqué à Dijon, avec fuccès un remede que l'on doit à “un medecin de votre isle: l'alkali caustique pris intérieure-“ment pour le calcul ou la pierre. M. Durande, medecin “de cette ville a eu un malade qui avoit rendu beaucoup de “gravier par les urines, et avoit de grandes douleurs. Le ma-“lade, en même tems, ne vouloit pas entendre parler de se “faire fonder. M. Durande lui a administré l'alkali causti-“que dans un bouillon de veau, qui contenoit à peu près une “livre d'eau. Il a commencé par dix gouttes, et a fini, en “augmentant la dose, par l'administrer jusqu'à quarante “gouttes. Au bout de fix femaines, les accidens avoient telle-“ment cessé que le malade a dit n'avoir plus befoin de rien. “Il y a dix mois, et il se trouve très bien.

Sir,

The following is an extract of a letter to me from Major Edward Williams, of the Royal Artillery, a learned man, and of great professional merit. Being at Quebec in some very cold winters, among various other ingenious experiments, it occurred to him to try the force of congelation in some of the iron bomb-shells, which are usually fired out of mortars in the practice of artillery; by filling the cavity of the shell with water, and then, having plugged up the fuze-hole, exposing it to the cold to freeze the water, in order to find whether the expansion of the ice would be capable of bursting the shell.

At the same Meeting, Mr Commissioner Smith reported the opinion of the Committee appointed to examine the three Dissertations offered as Solutions of the Count de Windischgratz's Problem, [See supra, Aug. 6. 1787.]; which was, That none of the three Dissertations amounted, either to a solution, or to an approximation towards a solution of that problem. The Committee, however, intimated their opinion, that one of thefe Dissertations, superscribed with the following sentence, Si quid novisti rectius istis, &c. though neither a solution of the problem nor an approximation to it, was a work of great merit. The Royal Society, hereupon, pronounced their judgment in terms of the said report; and they requested Mr Fraser Tytler to transmit this judgment, and the opinion of the Committee by a letter to the Count de Windischgratz.

We have examined the sample of spirits, which was sent by Dr Hunter of York to the Royal Society, and we have read the account of the experiment on the sermentation and distillation of carrots by which the said spirit was produced. The experiment was made by Mr Thomas Hornby, druggist in York, with one ton and eight stone of carrots, which, after being exposed to the air a few days to dry, weighed 160 stone, and measured 42 bushels; they were washed, topped and tailed, by which they lost in weight 11 stone, and in measure seven bushels; being then cut, they were boiled with the proportion of 24 gallons of water to one third of the above quantity of carrots, until the whole was reduced to a tender pulp, which was done in three hours boiling.

The experiments from which the following are extracted, make part of a course, instituted at the Royal Military Academy, for determining the resistance of the air to a surface of any form whatever, either plane or curved, moved through it with any degree of velocity. I was induced to undertake these experiments, both for the improvement of my students in the Academy, and with a view to apply the conclusions derived from them towards perfecting the theory and practice of military projectiles, as well as other branches of natural philosophy, in which the pressure or resistance of fluids is concerned: Circumstances, concerning the laws of which, authors on the theory have widely differed; some making the pressure or resistance equal to the weight of a column, whose altitude is equal to the whole height due to the velocity, while others make the altitude very different, either the half or the double of that.

Hence it may be deduced, (by following the method described in a paper formerly read to this Society) that the planet was in opposition January 13a. 04b. 56′ M. T. Greenwich, in longitude, 3a. 23°. 32′. 24″ from the mean equinox, with −°. 30′. 38″ north heliocentric latitude.

The error of the theory in longitude is nearly +5″, and in latitude nearly −18″.

I attribute this error in latitude to the different manner in which I observed the declinations. I formerly obferved the difference of declination between the planet and fixed star by means of a common micrometer. But I was obliged to substitute Dr Bradley's rhombus for my micrometer, which had received an injury which I could not get repaired in time. If this be allowed, the error in longitude will be diminished nearly 2″.

M. De Luc, in his Idées sur la Météorologie, has made some objections to the Theory of Rain which I had the honour to lay before this Society. I shall now endeavour to answer these objections; and hope the Society will forgive me for taking up a little of their time and attention with this subject. The reputation of M. de Luc is so well established in the republic of letters, that I must not neglect remarks which have the fanction of such authority; although, in the present case, they appear to me to have come from a judge who was too much preoccupied with a different system.

The mumps, or what I beg leave to call angina maxillaris, is an epidemic disease of a very singular nature. It has appeared sometimes to be pretty general; but this has not been the case for many years in this place. It seems to be analogous to, if not the same distemper with that called the branks, by the common people in Scotland. In the general account of epidemics, in the first volume of the Medical Essays of Edinburgh, a disorder is mentioned which seems to have been a flight degree of that which is the subject of the following paper. I have had much practice in this disease, and indeed was once reduced to the utmost danger by it myself.

The first knowledge we had of the cortex simaruba was in the year 1713. Some of it was sent to France to M. le Compte de Porchartrain, the Secretary of State, as the bark of a tree, called by the natives Simarouba, which they employed with good success in dysentery.