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446 Lift of Books, -with Remarks.
34. A Brief Epitome of the Philosophical Transactions, Vol. LXII. for the Year 1772.-(Continued from p.390.) 
Art. XV. Account of the Irruption of Solway Moss, Dec. 16, 1772; in a letter from Mr.John Walker to the Earl of Bute, and communicated by his Lordship to the Royal Society.
This account was inserted in our Magazine for June last, p.265.
Art. XVI. A Letter from John Zepbaniah Holwell, Efq; F.R.S. to John Campbell, Efq; F.R.S. giving an account of a New Species of Oak.
Mr. Holwell, in this letter, which was written from Exeter, Feb. 24, 1772, says that, about seven years past, Mr. William Lucombe, an ingenious gardener in the environs of that city, sowed a parcel of acorns, saved from a tree of his own growth, of the iron or wainscot species. When they first came up, he observed one amongst them that kept his leaves throughout the winter, to which he paid particular attention, and, by grafting, propagated some thousands from it, which, a few days before this letter was written, were in high flourishing beauty and verdure, notwithstanding the severity of the winter. Its growth is straight and handsome as a fir; its leaves ever-green; and the wood is thought, by the best judges, to exceed that of all other oak in hardness and strength. But the peculiar and estimable part of its character is the amazing quickness of its growth, which may be attributed to its making but one foot in the year, viz. in May, and continuing to grow without interruption. The parent-tree, which is seven years old, measures 21 feet in height, and full 20 inches in the girt; a graft four years old is 16 feet high, and full 14 inches in the girt; and the first graft, which is six years old has out-shot his parent two feet in height. This oak is distinguished, in Devonshire, by the name of the Lucombe Oak. His shoots, in general are from four to five feet every year; to that, in the space of thirty or forty years, he will outgrow, in altitude and girt, the common oak at a hundred. He has been planted in the adjoining counties of Cornwall and Somerset, and is found to flourish in all soils.
Art. XVII. An Account of the Death of a Person destroyed by Lighting in the Chapel of Tottenham-courtroad, and its effects on the Building; as observed by Mr. William Henly, Mr. Edward Nairne, and Mr. William Jones. The account written by Mr. Henly. (See Mag. Vol. XLII. p.147.)
The progress of the electrical fire is here very minutely and accurately traced from its first stroke it its last fatal effect; and is illustrated by a delineation of those parts of the building that were chiefly affected by it. The writer concludes with observing, that, as the effects of this stroke so exactly correspond with those many times before observed by Dr. Franklin, we shall scarce ever meet with a stronger proof of the utility of his metallic conductors: and it is ardently to be wished, that, in the erection of all public edifices, &c. a regular communication of metal was made from the top to a considerable depth into the earth, and of such a diameter and kind, as may be sufficient to secure both the buildings and the lives of those who may happen to be in them. The poor man destroyed by this accident, was sitting on a short ladder placed horizontally on the pavement, with his back against the door. The lightning flew from the middle bolt, and struck him on and under his left ear; entered his neck, making a wound half an inch long, raised in a bur and burnt; and passed down his back, which it turned black as ink, and down his left arm, melting the stud in his shirt-sleeve. Hence it flew into his body, which it burnt in a hard spot resembling scorched leather, passing through it into his right leg, and breaking out a little about the ancle; making a large wound, and another bur, burnt as before, with two others smaller a little below it, and some still smaller in his feet. His cloaths and hair were much burnt; but his stock shoe and knee buckles, the metal buttons on his coat and waistcoat, a shilling in the left pocket of his breeches, and the metal clasps of a common prayer book in his coat pocket, were all uninjured. His death was truly instantaneous. The corpse, after lying two or three days on a table, seemed not more disposed to putrefaction than bodies which die a natural death generally are at that time.
Art. XVIII. A letter from Thomas Ronayne, Efq. to Benjamin Franklin, LL. D. F. R. S. inclosing an account of some Observations on Atmospherical Electricity, in regard to fogs, mills, mills, &c. with some remarks; communicated by Mr. William Henly. 
These observations were made in Ireland, where, Mr. Henly says, the air, during the winter season, is in almost a constant state of positive electricity, though weak. In the course of his experiments, having found but one exception to the contrary, which presented itself during a fog on a day in winter that proved uncommonly warm, Mr. Henly thinks it reasonable to believe, that cold electrifies the atmosphere positively; and upon that ground he offers a conjecture that heat electrifies it negatively. His experiments on the air were begun in the year 1761, and those on the clouds in the year 1762; and both were from that time continued unremittedly till the year 1770, when he came to England, where, by repeated experiments on the common air in different parts, he finds it the same as that in Ireland. 
ART. XIX. Observations on different Kinds of Air; by Joseph Priestley, L L.D. F.R.S.
Though this ingenious and indefatigable investigator of the properties of Nature admits, that some of the courses of experiments herein described are incomplete, yet many new and important facts are sufficiently ascertained, and form a good foundation for philosophers to pursue their enquiries into this subject to various beneficial purposes. 
The three terms in common use for distinguishing the different kinds of air, are Fixed air, Mephitic, and Inflammable; which, the Doctor observes, are not sufficiently characteristic and distinct. The last, tho' it characterizes and distinguishes that kind which takes fire and explodes on the approach of flame, yet it might have been termed Fixed, with as much propriety as that to which Dr. Black and others have given the same denomination, since it is originally part of some solid substance, and exists in an unelastic state, and therefore may be also called factitious. The term Mephite is equally applicable to what is called Fixed air, to Inflammable, and to many other kinds; since they are equally noxious, when breathed by animals. The Doctor, however, says, that, rather than to introduce new terms, or change the signification of old ones, he shall use the term, Fixed air, in the sense in which it is commonly used; and distinguish the other kinds by their properties, or some other periphrasis. After adjusting this preliminary, he proceeds to illustrate, by many ingenious experiments, the different properties of air, under the following heads of distinction: Of fixed air. Of air in which a candle, or brimstone, has burned out. Of inflammable air. Of air infected with animal respiration, or putrefaction. Of air in which a mixture of brimstone and filings of iron has stood. Of nitrous air. Of air infected with the fumes of burning charcoal. Of the effect of the calcination of metals, and of the effluvia of paint made of white lead and oil, on air. Of air procured by means of spirit of salt. And Miscellaneous observations, in which the Doctor has given a description, illustrated by a plate, of the apparatus with which the principal of the preceding experiments were made, and which is very simple and cheap. An appendix to this article contains an account of some experiments made by Mr. Hey, a surgeon at Leeds, to prove that there is no oil of vitriol in water impregnated with fixed air extracted from chalk by oil of vitriol; and also a letter form Mr. Hey to the Doctor, concerning the effects of fixed air, applied by way of clyster, in the cure of a putrid fever, which is a very interesting and important discovery.- Of this case, and the manner of treating it, and also of the apparatus above mentioned, we shall take further notice in some future Magazine.
35. Observations on the PRESENT STATE of the PAROCHIAL and VAGRANT POOR. Dilly. 28. THE cause of the Vagrant Poor is more powerfully pleaded in this treatise, than in any we yet remember to have read. The author contends for universal charity. "Let those, says he, who deny relief, lest they should be made the dupe of an imposter's specious pretences, severely scrutinize the motives of their own conduct: let them consider that it is the criminal vanity of appearing to possess a sagacity superior to deceit which restrains their hand, and produces uncharitable suspicions in their bosoms; and that the abuse of their liberality had better be a thousand times repeated, than one poor sufferer should fall a victim to their immoveable resolution of tenacity. Let those who give consider, that they give only a small portion of wealth, the absence whereof will not

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-10 17:30:34 Some words contain an s that appears like an f but it is not intended as an f so it has been transcribed as an s