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thy of the proposed premium? If this question be determined in the negative, the whole business shall be deferred till another year: but if in the affirmative, the fociety shall proceed to determine by ballot, given by the members at large, the discovery, invention, or improvement, most useful and worthy; and that dif covery, invention, or improvement, which shall be found to have a majority of concurring votes in its favour, fhall be successful; and then, and not till then, the fealed letter accompanying the crowned performance shall be opened, and the name of the author announced as the person entitled to the said premium.

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7. No member of the society who is a candidate for the premium then depending, or who hath not previously declared to the society, either by word or writing, that he has considered and weighed, according to the best of his judgment, the comparative merits of the several claims then under confideration, shall fit in judgment, or give his vote in awarding the said premium.

8. A full account of the crowned subject shall be published by the society, as soon as may be after the adjudication, either in a separate publication, or in the next fucceeding volume of their tranfactions, or in both.

9. The unsuccessful performances shall remain under confideration, and their authors be confidered as candidates for the premium, for five years next fucceeding the time of their presentment; except fuch performances as their authors may, in the mean time, think fit to withdraw. And the fociety fhall, annually, publish an abstract of the titles, object, or subject matter of the communications fo under confideration; fuch only excepted as the society shall think not worthy of public notice.

10. The letters containing the names of authors whose performances fhall be rejected, or which shall be found unsuccessful after a trial of five years, shall be burnt before the fociety, without breaking the feals.

II. In cafe there fhould be a failure, in any year, of any communication worthy of the proposed premium, there will then be two premiums to be awarded in the next year. But no accumulation of premiums fhall entitle an author to more than one premium for any one discovery, invention, or improvement.

12. The premium shall consist of an oval plate of folid standard gold, of the value of ten guineas; on one fide thereof shall be neatly engraved a fhort Latin motto, suited to the occasion, together with the words—The premium of John Hyacinth de Magellan, of London, established in the year 1786. And on the other fide of the plate fhall be engraved these words: Awarded by the A. P. S. -for the discovery of- -A. D.

Aud the feal of the fociety shall be annexed to the medal, by a ribbon paffing through a small hole at the lower edge thereof.

Surplus Magellanic Fund.

MR. de Magellan having fixed at ten guineas, the sum to be annually disposed of as a premium, according to the strict terms of his donation, and the fund having been fo managed as to produce an annual fųrplus, which has accumu

lated for fome years the fociety, with a view to promote as far as may be in their power, the liberal intentions of the donor, have determined that the furplus fund shall be employed, in the first instance, according to the strict conditions of the donation, if a fufficient number of deserving candidates shall have applied for the same, otherwise, that such surplus, or so much thereof as cannot be applied as above, be awarded by the fociety to the authors of useful inventions or improvements, on any subjects within the general view of the Magellanic Donation, or to the authors of fuch communications as may lead to fuch inventions or improvements, and which communications may be deemed worthy of the premium. The premium to consist of a gold medal of the value of not less than twenty, nor more than forty-five dollars, or the same sum in money, at the option of the candidate, to which will be added a suitable diploma.

The fociety have also thought proper to point out a few subjects to which they would wish to direct the attention of those who may be disposed to become candidates for the premium; informing them at the fame time, that communications on other subjects which come within the general or particular views of the donor, will not be excluded from the competition. It is alfo necessary to be obferved, that all communications for the extra premium must be made and transmitted, agreeably to the form and manner prescribed in the conditions for the original premium.

The fubjects the fociety would defignate, are,

1. The native American permanent dyes or pigments, illuftrated by experiments, and accompanied by specimens of the materials used, and articles coloured. 2. The best means of navigating the rapid rivers of North America against the ftream.

3. The general natural history of the principal ranges of American mountains, in the country eastward of the Miffiffippi.

4. The natural history and chemical and medicinal qualities of the warm (hot) fprings of the United States, or of any particular state.

To the Editor of the Philadelphia Medical Museum.
SIR,

A FEW days fince, Mr. Butland, of this city, put into my hands a fpecimen of a black coloured mineral, weighing five ounces, which was found in the county of Northampton, on the farm of Mr. Weifs, about thirty miles from Bethlehem, in the neighbourhood of the Lehigh, and informed me that it might be easily procured, in great quantities, at that place.

Having fubjected this fubftance to a variety of experiments, it was difcovered to be Manganefe of the firft quality, containing little extraneous matter; and far fuperior to most of that which is fold in the fhops of the druggifts, confiderable quantities of which I have frequently been obliged to throw away after purchafing it, from the impurity of the material.

The oxygen air obtained from this native ore, was equal in purity to that which was afforded by a specimen of the foreign, fent to me by the late Dr. Priestley, the discoverer of this gas, who informed me, that it yielded an air as pure as any he had ever procured during the course of his life.

Manganese is useful to the physician, in confequence of the air it affords, and to which fome of the most violent difeafes to which the human body is fubject, have given way; to the bleacher, paper maker, and manufacturer of glass, as a deftroyer of colouring matter, when combined with the marine acid; to the potter, as giving a black colour, and affifting in glazing his earthen ware; and to the philofopher and artist, as containing a gas, which, combined with certain combustible bodies, will generate a degree of heat unattainable by other

means.

As the fcience of mineralogy is little attended to in the United States, the intention of this communication is, to induce gentlemen refiding in the country, to pay fome attention to the mineral productions of their fields, by which means they may greatly benefit themfelves, and render the most important fervices to the arts, yet in their infancy in this part of the world.

Any perfon defirous of information, concerning any of our native foffils, by applying to me, fhall be gratified, as far as is in my power; and if the material fent to me, is thought to be of any ufe to fociety, an accurate analysis of it shall be made, free of expense.

I am, Sir, with Respect,
Your humble Servant,

JAMES WOODHOUSE.

P. S. Since writing the above, I have examined another fpecimen of this manganese, weighing one pound.

Two ounces of it reduced to powder, heated in an iron tube, in one of Lewis's black lead furnaces, yielded eighty cubic inches of oxygenous gas, which tefted by phosphorus, in the eudiometer of Fontana, left behind about three per cent azo

tic gas.

One measure of the oxygen gas, passed up over lime water, gave a portion of carbonate of lime, barely perceptible.

One ounce measure of muriatic acid, heated upon one ounce, by weight, of it over water, afforded forty-five cubic inches of oxy-muriatic gas, in which leaf-copper, commonly called Dutch metal, immediately inflamed.

Its specific gravity, taken by Mr. William Hembel, fenior, at the temperature of 62° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, and before it had abforbed water was 3.4193. After (and the abforption accelerated by thirty minutes boiling in water), it rose to 3.7667.

Like all the other ores of manganefe, it is combined with iron, filiceous earth, &c. A deep blue precipitate takes place, upon adding the pruffiate of pot-afh, to a folution of it in the muriatic acid.

April 26th, 1805.

J. W.

The following letter from Dr. Otto, on the use of the vaccine scab, is strongly in favour of the practice, and deferves the particular attention of medical men.

MY DEAR SIR,

April 29th, 1805.

I HAVE much pleasure in informing you, that I have fucceeded, at the first attempt, in communicating the kine pock to nineteen children in fucceffion; and that I was not disappointed in one instance when this portion of infection was used. It was a primary fcab, taken from a healthy girl eight years old, who had the disease very strongly marked, having confiderable fever for two days, a fwelling and much pain in the ax

illa, together with a very characteristic appearance on the arm. No infection had been taken from the patient, nor had the veficle been broken, and the mahogany-coloured part alone was employed to excite the disease. Nor fhould I omit to mention, that in confequence of having frequently failed heretofore, I bestowed unusual care in performing the operation, wiping away feveral times, the fmall quantity of blood that fometimes flows from the incifion, and endeavouring to introduce, by means of the flat fide of the lancet, well moistened with the infection, a certain portion, between the lips of the diftended wound; and to prevent any ill effects from diluting the virus, a fresh piece was used every time. Believing that the infection remains unaltered, as to its properties, longest in the form of fcab, perhaps from its being in a large mafs, and therefore, excluded in a greater degree from the atmospheric air, I give it a decided preference. It would give me pleasure to point out any circumstance that would render the communication of the kine pock more certain, or affift in afcertaining those marks which indicate active virus.

With great Regard,
Yours,

DR. COXE.

JOHN C. OTTO.

The following extract of a letter from Dr. De Carro, of Vienna, to a phyfician in London, dated October 6th, 1804, is an additional testimony in favour of the vaccine scab.

"The experiments made with the infertion of the triturated and moistened vaccine cruft fucceed every where. Dr. Valentin of Nancy, wrote me lately, that he has produced regular puftules in that way in twenty-three cafes. This is an important fact in the practice, which furnishes a very easy method of keeping and fending the matter for any length of time, and to any distance."* Med. & Chirurg. Review.

To these I may add, that I have never been more fuccessful in exciting the disease, than this fpring, during which I have almost exclusively used the vaccine fcab.

Editor.

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