Observations on Charcoal and carbonated hydrogen Gases, in three papers. By M. BERTHOLLET.-From the numerous experiments made by the author on the subjects of these papers, he is confirmed in the ideas which he has long entertained, that charcoal is composed of carbon and hydrogen, together with a small quantity of oxygen; which last, however, may be in great measure dissipated by heat. For the sake of accuracy, therefore, he conceives that the gaseous oxyd of carbon, the important discovery of Mr. Cruikshank, should receive the appellation of oxicarbonated hydrogen.

First Memoir on the Natural History, Chemical and Medical, of Human Urine; containing some new Facts on its Analysis and spontaneous Changes.- Second Memoir on the Natural History, Chemical and Medical, of Human Urine; in which are particularly considered the Properties of the peculiar Matter which characterizes it. By MM. FOURCROY and VAUQUELIN.-From the result of the experiments of these gentlemen on the analysis of urine, and those of other experienced chemists on whose accuracy they rely, it appears that it is composed of the following substances, viz. muriate of soda; muriate of ammonia; phosphate of lime; phosphate of magnesia; phosphate of soda; phosphate of ammonia; uric acid; benzoic acid; gelatine and albumen; a substance which they denominate urea; acetous acid; oxalic acid; and silex.-From the effects of putrefaction, various changes take place in the management of the component parts of urine; the proportion of ammonia is continually increasing; hence the production of a greater quantity of phosphate of ammonia, and the formation of se veral new salts by the union of the ammonia with certain bases, as the uric acid, the acetous acid, and the benzoic acid. With the phosphate of magnesia, the ammonia forms a triple salt. The muriate of soda and muriate of ammonia unite to a portion of urea, and, by the agency of this substance, undergo a change in their crystallization.-The increase of the quantity of the gelatine and albumen seems, in the opinion of the authors, to be the principal cause of the formation of calculi; since the substances which compose them, though existing in so large a quantity as to be precipitated, would still pass off with the urine if it were not for the effects of the albumen and gelatine which, when they coagulate, being concrescible and flaky, attract and bind together in some way the particles of the uric acid, or of the earthy phosphates which are precipitated. The quantity of the albumen and gelatine varies very much in the same urine at different times, and the principal cause of this diversity seems to be the state of the digestive organs.

In the second memoir, the authors enter into a long and detailed account of their experiments on the nature of urea; a substance which exists in considerable quantity, and which is considered by them as the proper and characteristic component part of urine. It is obtained by evaporating this fluid to the thickness of a syrup, suffering it to cool, and then pouring on the mass four times the quantity of alcohol, which dissolves the greater part of it. The alcohol is drawn off by distillation in a sand bath, when the urea is left of yellowish white lamellated crystals, of an intolerably fetid smell. After having deducted portions of the muriate of ammonia, muriate of soda, and benzoic, with which urea is generally accompanied, MM. F. and V. found that 217 parts of this substance afforded 200 of carbonate of ammonia, 10 of carbonated hydrogen gas, and 7 of charry residuum.-The carbonate of ammonia was resolvible into 90 parts of carbonic acid gas, 86 of ammonia, and 24 of water. On comparing these results, and reducing the compounds to their simple parts, there appeared to be, 217 parts of urea, 85.2 of oxygen, 69.4 of azote, 32.2 of carbon, and 30.2 of hydrogen; and in 100 parts, 39.5 of oxygen, 32.5 of azote, 14.7 of carbon, and 13.3 of hydrogen.

Most of the spontaneous changes, which take place in urine, are referred by these chemists to the slight union in which the component parts of urea are kept, and to the facility with which they are capable of forming new combinations. As a considerable part of the oxygen, which is obtained from urea by analysis, exists with hydrogen in the form of water, the prin cipal ingredient which enters into its composition seems to be azote; and hence it is concluded that an important function of the urinary organs, hitherto overlooked, is to remove azote from the body, in the same way as carbon is removed by the lungs, or hydrogen by the liver.-Many interesting observations, which we trust will be farther prosecuted by the authors, are made on the probable advantage to which a knowlege of this new function may be applied, both in medicine and the arts.

The volume relative to

LITERATURE and the FINE ARTS

now calls for our attention.

History. In the list of unprinted memoirs in this division, the subjects are mostly of higher interest than those which are treated in the papers that have been honoured with publication. From the account of the disposal of prizes in the several arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, by the Institute, we find that the subject in the former was the example of military dis-. cipline

cipline afforded by Manlius Torquatus; in sculpture, the visit of Pericles to Anaxagoras when dying; in architecture, an elysium, or a public cemetery; and two pupils in each art, who obtained the grand prizes, are to be sent to Italy to pursue their studies at the expence of the republic. We mention this circumstance, in the hope that it will excite due attention in the proper quarter. This liberality of the French government cannot be the object of too much praise, nor be too speedily imitated.

M. COLLIN-HARLEVILLE pays tributes to two associates who died in the course of the year; the one, Anthony Le Blanc, a poetical writer, whose fame (we believe) had not extended beyond his own country; and the other, Charles Albert Desmoustier, whose popular letters on mythology, and whose respectable attempts in comedy, are more generally known. The biographer justly observes that the Lettres à Emilie sur la mytho logie have the fault which is too common in young writers of great promise, namely, too much finery. He considers the Conciliateur as the best of this writer's comedies. The Cours de Morale, adressé aux Femmes, a work partly in prose, and partly in verse, read at the Lyceum, and not yet published, is here highly praised. Demoustier had begun a long work which was to have been intitled Galerie du dix-huitième Siècle, in which the great characters that illustrated the close of the reign of Louis XIV. were to have been portrayed: but death snatched him away at the age of 38, before he had made any considerable progress in this grand undertaking; an event particularly to be regretted, considering the present low state of literature in France.

MEMOIRS.

On the Costume of the Persians under the Achemenides, (the race beginning with Cyrus the Great and ending with Darius Codomanus,) and the Successors of Alexander. By M. MONGEZ.-The researches, of which the results are communicated in this memoir, are highly creditable to the diligence and erudition of the writer; who states the object of his labours to have been the hope of rendering service to the arts of sculpture and painting, and of being able occasionally to illustrate chronology. He renders justice to the merits of his predecessor in these investigations, the inflexible but unfortunate President Brisson: but he observes that this respectable magistrate, not being aided by the descriptions of the bas-reliefs of Persepolis, since published, and of the medals of the Persian kings, since brought to light, was not able to sift the niceties of his subject. The matter of this paper being incapable of being condensed, we must refer those who have a taste for inquiries of this nature to the memoir it

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self: but we shall take notice of some curious observations which occur in the course of it.

The civil costume of the Persians under the Achemenides, says the writer, is nearly the same with that of the Eastern people of this day, after an interval of 23 centuries. The tiara is to be found among the varieties of turbans still in use; and the large floating cloak, the long tunic with sleeves, and the large pantaloons, are still worn by various Oriental 'nations. The author candidly owns that he has been unable to dispel the obscurity in which the military costume of the same people yet lies involved. The garments of the magi, as is well known, were white; their tiara was different from that which was worn by others; they rejected all ornaments of gold; and a bundle of herbs served them for a sceptre, while they discharged the functions of religion.-He calculates the value of the Persian regalia at from 3 to 4 millions sterling.-Engravings finely executed, which admirably elucidate the conceptions of the writer, accompany the present memoir.

A second memoir carries the same inquiry down through the two next dynasties, those of the Arsacides and Sassanides. Arsaces, a Parthian, having driven the successors of Alexander beyond the Tigris, founded the Parthian empire; of which there is such frequent mention in the Roman history, and which lasted till the year 226 of our æra: when Ardeschir, the grandson of Sassan, and the founder of the dynasty of the Sassanides, wrested the sovereignty from the Parthians, and restored it to the Persians.

The Parthians professed a religion different from that of the Persians. They held the Magi in no respect, The Greek mythology at this time obtained a footing in Persia; and Christianity at the same period counted numerous proselytes among its inhabitants, who were fostered and protected even by its monarchs, influenced (as it is conjectured) by motives of policy. The predilection entertained by the same nation for the Greeks appears from the legends on their medals being in Greek, and from the title which some of the Arsacides assumed, that of IAEAAHN, or friend of the Greeks. The Morocco boots, exclusively worn by the Emperors of Constantinople, formed a part of the regal costume of the Arsacides. It appears from a passage in Julian that, though the Parthians did not adopt the religion of the Persians, yet, like the Mantchou Tartars in China, they conformed to the civil customs and regulations of the people over whom they ruled.

The grandson of Sassan, having restored the sceptre to the Persians, revived all the rites of the Persian religion; the magi were reinstated in their functions and influence; and the sacred fire blazed on the altars, and was commemorated by

medals,

medals, with legends in a particular character, which was not till very lately decyphered by the moderns. The new dynasty professed a detestation of the Greeks, and persecuted the Christians.

Those who would inform themselves respecting the peculiarities of the costumes of the Arsacides and Sassanides, as distinguishable from those of the Achemenides and the successors of Alexander, will be gratified by the details and remarks of M. MONGEZ. We can only observe that the dress, under the latter dynasty, grew more extravagant and fantastic; and that the same race appears to have introduced the bombastic titles which are at this day so common in the East. Thus Chosroes, writing to the King of Armenia, styles himself, "King of Kings, Master of Potentates, Lord of Nations, Prince of Peace, Saviour of Men; who, in relation to the Gods, is only a good and immortal man; but who, in relation to men, is a most illustrious God, whose glory is without bounds, a conqueror who vies with the sun, and who lends to the night its brilliant lights," &c. &c.

The next memoir is written by M. PEYRE, relative to the danger from fire to which the National Library is exposed, and contains a plan for removing it.

In a subsequent paper, the same author presents a plan, section, elevation, and description of a new Library; into the details of which we cannot enter.

A Dissertation on the Paper-Money of the Orientals. By M. LANGLÈS. It appears from the first volume of the Asiatic Researches, that government-securities were issued in Hindostan at a period preceding the Christian æra: but it cannot be collected from the information there given, whether they were used or not as a circulating medium. It is indubitable that paper-money circulated in China, and in Persia, in the course of the 13th century. The convulsions and revolutions which have shaken the latter country would necessarily extinguish such a currency: but, even in the former, it has wholly fallen into discredit, and has not been known for ages; and while it was in use, it excited all the clamour in opposition to it which we have witnessed among ourselves. These These paper-engagements, however, being vulgarly supposed to have magic qualities, have been preserved in great numbers to the present time; and he who has the good fortune to possess one of them suspends it in the front of his house, convinced that it will protect the mansion and its inhabitants from evil accidents.On one side, was entered the sum which the bill represented, and on the other this inscription: "The court and the trea şuries having issued this bill, thus marked with the Imperial

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