endered neutral by evaporation of redunlant acid, or saturated by addition of potash, of soda, or ammonia, by lime or magnesia, by mercury, by copper, or by iron, and also hether the plating has or has not been preci pitated from the solution by sal ammonia, it is necessary to bid a solution of prussiate of mercury, for the precipitation of the palladium. Generally for a few seconds, and sometimes for a few minutes, there will be no appearance of any precipitate; but in a short time the whole solution becomes lightly turbid, and a flocculent precipitate is gradually formed, of a pale yellowish-white colour. This precipitate consists wholly of prussiate of palladium, and when heated will be found to vield that metal in a pure state, amounting Ho about 4 or 5 teaths per cent. upon the quantity of ore dissolved!" This valuable paper concludes with some interesting remarks on the properties by which platina and palladium on the one hand resemble, and on the other differ from each other. 23. Experiments on a mineral Substance formerly supposed to be Zeolite; with some Remarks on two Species of Uran-glimemr. By the Rev. W. GREGOR. Communicated by CHARLES HATCHETT, Esq. F. R. S. The first of these substances is raised in the urine called stenna gwyn, in Cornwall, and appears to be the same as the Barn staple mineral described in Art. 7. by Mr. Davy. It occurs here in minute capillary crystals upon quartz, or in mamillary pro cavities and fissures of compact granite. tuberances of the size of small peas, in the The general result of Mr. Gregor's analysis of it agrees very satisfactorily with Mr. Davy's; but the watery empyreumatic fluid which it contains was subjected to particular examination. When the crystals of this substance are distilled in a glass retort, a fluid passes over, and a white crust forms in the arch of the retort. The watery liquid has a peculiar empyreuma tic odour, changes litmus paper to a faint reddish hue, gives no precipitate with nitrat of silver, and a scarcely perceptible one with nitrat of mercury. The sublimed crust contained lead, and appeared to be nothing more than the substance-of the retort corroded by an acid, for it reddened litmus-paper; but this acid in its characters appears materially to differ both from the fluoric and phosphoric. The latter part of this paper contains some well-selected and apparently accurate experiments on some yellow and green crystals that accompany the preceding mineral: the quantity of them was too small for a regular analysis, but they were found to contain, beside oxyd of uranium, lime, silex, and oxyd of lead. ART. II.-Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, (being the Continuation of Part II. together with Part III. of the 5th Volume.) 4to. THE publication of the first fasciculus of this volume preceded the commencement of our annual labours: in our first volume will be found an account of the second fasciculus, and at an interval of three years the third and last of the fifth volume comes under our notice. 13. Disquisitions on the Origin and radical Sense of the Greek Prepositions. By JAMES BONAR, F. R. S. Edin. So much light has been thrown on grammar in general, and on the structure of the English language in particular, by the ingenious theory first fully developed by Mr. Horne Tooke, that the application of the same principles to other languages, especially those radically different from our own, has become an object peculiarly desirable. The origin of the ancient tongues is, however, enveloped in so much obscurity, that an approximation to the truth, not destitute of probability, is perhaps all that can be hoped for by the most sanguine. This Mr. Bonar, building on the foundation of Mr. Lennep, has attempted with respect to the Greek prepositions, which he treats in alphabetical order. The principles which Mr. Bonar lays down as postulates are the following: that to every preposition one primary radical idea was originally afixed; that this idea was for the most part taken from sensible objects; and that from this radical sense all the secondary applications may either immediately or circuitously be traced. Ho further supposes, "That all of them were originally either nouns or participles, most of them verbal adjectives, at first usually joined with some common substantive to complete the sense; which substantive, by use, came at length to being immediately implied and understood. be dropped, as unnecessary to be expressed, From this it will likewise follow, that in the junction of these words with other nouns, the primitive rule of construction by which they were joined in sentences, was that which is termed the geintive or ablative absolute; a construction of sentences, which though stig matized, and perhaps not unjustly, by Lord Monboddo, as lame and gaping, yet was pro bably of extensive use in the early stages of human speech, when bare co-existence of phenomena or events, (the precise idea denoted by this mode of construction), was more attended to than that mutual relation, and dependance, the gradual discovery of which afterwards gave rise to more compact and connected forms of expression." We shall mention the radical idea which Mr. Bonar attributes to each of the prepositions our limits will not permit us to attend him through the detail of the application. Au, with the related words auow and aucis, is derived from a supposed obsolete primitive, apa, to embrace or grasp. Auzi, therefore, with a substantive understood, means place or object grasped or comprehended. The Greek primitive is supposed to be preserved, in a metaphorical sense, in the Latin amo. The analysis of the particle ava is acknowledged to be difficult. The radical idea is supposed by Dr. Moor and Mr. Bonar to be, back, backward, reversed, traced back. Hence the secondary meanings of direction upward, iteration, passage through, i. e. backward and forward, sursum et deorsum. These explications certainly suit a great number of passages in which the word occurs; but what shall we say as to the power of this proposition in the word analogy, or its use in such phrases as the following, racav av oppvar, α χρόνον πεπλασμένον ? The early state of language is however so obscure, that, as Mr. Bonar justly remarks, "under every root we need not be surprized to find blanks in the analogy, which no ingenuity or conjecture can now possibly supply."* Ai, by Lennep, Scheidins, and our author, is supposed to be a case of an absolute noun, as, a face or front. This explication, we believe, may suit all the uses of which this preposition is susceptible, and is confirmed by the correspond ence which, in some instances, it possesses with the Latin ante. ανα obsolete adjective, meaning, with its sub stantive understood, a distant point-point of departure-point of origin. This word is well illustrated by a comparison with the English from, Scotch and Saxon jra, Gothic fairra, the root of the English far, and of the old English and German fremde, a foreigner. The English word off or aff, far or remote, is probably cognate with CUTCO. Aia, from dw, whose radical meaning is supposed by Mr. Bonar to have been, to bore or pierce. Hence the senses of liz, through, across, between, distance or inIt is also used to express causation, instruterval as applied to time, through, after. mental, formal, material, and final. the root of quas, to sit. Es, supposed to be a participle from is, Ex, from Ex, the parent of exo, to yield. the sense of being included or compreEx, from sw, or euw, to clothe. Hence hended. Ez, from Ew, supposed to mean, to touch closely; whence eruzi, I adjoin myself, I follow. te "'Es, the root, having this radical meaning, its cognate and derivative i, must express the same idea; and as appears to be a mutilated verbal adjective, with its substantive understood, it is properly and literally object pressed, adhered 10, or object touched closely; and this signification it retains whether applied to place,time, or relation. "1. As applied to place. 86 “ Η σφαίρα καλίνδεται ἐπί τῆς τράπεζης, " the ball rolls upon the table," "-" the ball rolls,-object pressed by it, or adhered to in so doing-the table." O aidos ir izí rŵ yv, “ the stone falls upon the ground," the stone falls,-object pressed or adhered to by its fall,—the ground" « Ὀλέσω δέ πολέας ἐπί νηυσὶν Αχαιών. Houzz. "to destroy many of the Greeks at or beside the ships,"" to destroy many-place or objects close touched in doing so, the ships." Ka ini Tv ialay," to sit down at or beside the hearth.” -to sit down, place touched, or closely adhered to in sitting,-the hearth." Eisr" 9.îav σαtrīsa, EUCLID)," a straight line standing upon a straight line," a straight line standing,-place or object adhered to, pressed, straight line." Ex' Aiyuzte guy,† (THUCYD.), or close touched in its standing, another "to flow towards Egypt,”— to flow, place adhered to, pressed, or touched in its flowing, AT is considered as the fragment of an Egypt." "The continuity of meaning may perhaps be tolerably preserved by the following genealogy on or over, XEVEN AYA CHATTEN, Tαsav av "Exλada, up, upward, backward. The sense of agreement sometimes included in ava, is to be referred to the first of these meanings. The English en, and the German an, are perhaps allied to the Greek ava.” "This example is directly against Dr. Moore's hypothesis, that i with the genitive denotes, motion upon, and with the accusative, motion directed upon; here it has the latter signification with the genitive. The same thing holds in many other instances, in the best and most accurate Greek writers." "2. As applied to time. • Τις πρῶτος ; τίς δέ ἐπί πρῶτῳ; ΕURIP, "who first, and who next after the first?" "who first and who adhering to, pressing, or closetouching the first,"-" just after the first?" “ "Oxın ix' öxvp ynçàσx. HOMER. pear grows old after pear,"-" pear grows old,-event close-touched in point of time, the growing old of another pear." ὅσσον ὁλκὰς ἐπί τρίτον ἦμας ἀνύσση. DION. GEOG. As much as a ship of burden would pass in three days,"" would pass,-period adhered to, touched or reached in this passage, the third day." "As applied to relation, possession, or occupation. « Τῶν ὄντων τὰ μέν ἐσιν ἐφ' ἡμῖν, τά δ' οὐκ εφ' , (EPICT.), " Of things some are in our power, others not,"-" some are so constituted, that the object adhered to, pressed, or closetouched by them, is the line of our power, or the line of our reach." "Eri Tois yeyevnμivous Xakers piguy," to be displeased in consequence of what has taken place," to be displeased, point or object which the displeasure touches, or adheres to, the things that have happened." Ο ἐπί τῶν δημοσίων λόγων, "the officer over the public accounts."-" the person so occupied, that the public accounts are the object touched or adhered to in his occupation."* σε Οίτινες ὕμνως ἐπὶ μὲν θαλίαις, EURIPID. "Who invented songs as an accompaniment at festivals, at convivial entertainments, and at feastings,"" songs,-object or event which they are made to adhere to, touch, or closely accompany,-festivals and entertainments." The etymology given of xara is ingenious, but dubious. Kaw, the absolute primitive of xauai, must have meant, to lay down. From the analogical system, it is inferred that xxw had the same signification; whence it is supposed that xara, place of laying or lying, has been derived. Mera is derived by Mr. Bonar from the obsolete usw, to go, preserved in the Latin, and is explained as denoting the object by which motion is directed. Hence the significations of with, among, and after. The last sense is very well explained in the hypothesis of Mr. Bonar; that of mere accompaniment is not equally well adapted to it. In this sense the Greek word seems to have an affinity with the German mit and mitte. Hapa is supposed to be an old substantive noun, signifying side or flank, to which rape and par are conjectured to be of analogous import and derivation. The idea is at least ingenious, and is well illustrated by the English preposition beside. Isp is conjectured to be merely a contracted dative of Tepas, a boundary. With respect to the preposition T, Mr. Bonar adopts the supposition of Scheidius, that it is a part of Tasos contracted, denoting object in front. The formation of the English preposition for is, on this occasion, very plausibly accounted for. "I may add here, that our English preposition, for, appears to have a similar origin with the Greek go. In the "Ewa Tigoera, indeed, a different source is assigned to the English for; it is said to be an abbreviation of the Saxon farina, a cause. Had lord Monboddo or Mr. Harris ascribed to it such a genealogy, how would Horne Tooke and Dr. Beddocs have ridiculed the fancy of originating a preposition from the abstract and metaphysical idea of causation, In fact, this derivation is far-fetched, and it evidently required no small straining to twist some of the applications of for into the line of cause and effect. Without going so far, a plain and obvious origin of it may be found in the word fore; and upon examination I think it will be found, that for in English, and ☛gò in Greek, and pro in Latin, as well as the var or fur, means, in its radical sense, position before; with this difference only, that in Latin, English, and German, the word denoting the fore object generally follows the preposition, but in Greek precedes it. In English, therefore, the preposition for may be always taken as meaning simply object. Substitute object in all the phrases in which the author of the Diversions of Purley has put cause as the meaning of for, and it is easy to observe how naturally and exactly the sentences may be resolved." Пcos, as well as Tapi, is deduced from Tapas, a termination. Zuy is traced to cuw, preserved in the Latin, to sew or join together. No diffi culty occurs in the common usage of the word. THE is supposed to be a descendant of the comparative form of an obsolete adjective ros, high, from which us and 'uraros remain. Similar to this, it is remarked, is the analogy of the English preposition over. The words, up and upper, seem also to present a conformity with the Greek. To, the preposition of contrary meaning to 'ures, is singularly supposed to be derived from the same root, thus, 'vivos, under the mud, i. e. the mud being the higher object. The appendix to this paper contains some remarks on the system of Greek "Perhaps, in this and similar phrases, there is a reference to the secondary sense of ww," to handle or work upon, hence to manage;--the same seems to hold in such expressions as òiri The Solos, "the governor of the city," he who is so placed-that the object handled or managed by him is the city." analogy as developed by Hemsterhusius To justify us in calling this an absurd and his disciples. Of the general truth of objection, it is sufficient to observe, that if this system, as explained by Valckenaër the apparent enlargement of bulk in water in his treatise, entitled "Observationes as it is cooling below 40', were caused by Academicæ, quibus via munitur, ad ori- a contraction of the vessel, the same effect gines Græcas investigandas ;" namely, ought to take place when the thermome that the Greek language, like the oriental ter-tube is filled with mercury or alcohol; dialects, is reducible to rests of simple in which case the fluid in all the common forms, commonly denoting qualities or thermometers, instead of sinking uniformly actions, little doubt, we think, can be en- from 40° to 32°, as the temperature dinitertained by those who have carefully ex-nishes, ought on the contrary to ascend. amined its tendencies. The way is not perhaps yet cleared for the successful pursuit of the subject any further. With the view of arriving at that great desideratum, the development of the ultimate structure of language, Mr. Bonar proposes a few considerations, which however he does not profess to consider as more than imperfect hints. The radical force he supposes to reside in the consonant, and accordingly he gives a table of the various modifications of force which seem to him to be denoted by the consonants of the Greek alphabet. It however unfortunately happens that the alphabet adopted by him is not the primitive one of the Greeks, but one containing, with the exception of the theta, all their most recent improvements and alterations. On the whole, the perusal of this paper has afforded us much pleasure. It is at once ingenious, learned, and temperate. It must at the same time be remembered that the utmost which can, in most cases, be conceded to speculations of this nature, is probability; and it is a circumstance in the memoir of Mr. Bonar, which we consider as very favourable, that in most instances he seems to claim no more. 14. Experiments and Observations upon the Contraction of Water by Heat at low Temperatures. By THOMAS CHARLES HOPE, M. D. F.R. S. Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. The experiments by which that remarkable anomaly (namely the expansion of water as its temperature is lowered from about 40' Fahr. to the point of its congelation) has been proved by Crowne, Deluc, and Blagden, were made in thermometershaped vessels. On this account it has most absurdly been objected, "That the dimensions and capacity of the instrument undergo so much change, from variation of temperature, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine how much of the apparent anomaly ought to be imputed to such changes, and that it is not improbable that the whole of it may be ascribed to them." The experiments, therefore, of Dr. Hope, contained in this paper, cannot be considered as of any very great importance, since they only confirm results of which there was good reason to doubt: they are entitled, however, to the praise of neatness and precision. A glass jar was filled with water at 32°, and two thermometers were suspended in it, the one half an inch from the bottom, the other an equal distance from the top of the water: the jar was then exposed to the air at the temperature of 60', and it appeared that the coldest water occupied the upper part of the ves sel till the temperature of the whole was brought to 38°: from this point up to 54", when the experiment was terminated, a contrary arrangement took place, the coldest water occupying the bottom of the vessel. The next experiment was the converse of the preceding. The jar was filled with water at 53° and placed in a cooling medium, and till the temperature of the whole mass was reduced to 40 ̊, the lower thermometer indicated a smaller degree of heat than the upper one; but from 40° to 34°, the temperature of the whole at the conclusion of the experiment, the upper part of the column of water was uniformly colder than the lower part. In another experiment heat was applied to the middle of a column of ice-cold water; and the lower thermometer, till the temperature rose to 39°, constantly indicated a higher degree of heat than the upper one: above this temperature the contrary took place. The converse of this experi ment then was tried with a corresponding result. Hence it appears that the contrac tion of water while it is heating, from 32 to 40', is real, and not dependant on the expansion of the vessel in which it is con tained. The remainder of the volume is occu pied by the history of the society, and contains an excellent biographical memoir of Dr. Hutton, by professor Playfair, and a very meagre unsatisfactory one of Dr. Black, by Dr. Ferguson. ART. 111The New Cyclopædia, or universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. By ABRAHAM REES, D. D. F. R. S. with the Assistance of eminent professional Gentlemen. Vol. IV. 4to. TO our opinion formerly expressed of the general merits of this highly respectable publication we have little to add. We perceive with pleasure, however, that the biographical, geographical, and historical articles, which appeared in the former volumes to occupy a disproportionate space, are in the present very judiciously restrained within narrower limits, to the manifest advantage of these articles themselves, as well as of the work at large. It appears also from the annexed list of contributors, that the editor has succeeded in adding to the number of his former associates, some very ablemen in various departments, from whom the Cyclopædia cannot fail of deriving much credit and advantage. It may perhaps be acceptable to our readers to have some of the leading articles in the present volume pointed out to their notice. The first article of importance that occurs is Battle: this, however, unhappily for human nature, is a subject of such magnitude as only to admit of being treated in a summary manner in a work like the present: it will be found, nevertheless, to contain some curious and interesting historical matter. Several very good biographical memoirs occur in the course of the volume. The pious and acute Richard Baxter is commemorated in a manner worthy of his high merit. Cardinal Becket's character is estimated with much good-sense and impartiality, not depreciating his splendid abilities, nor denying that he applied them but too often to the accomplishment of very pernicious designs. Bishop Berkley is the subject of a very interesting article, which, however, will be reckoned imperfect, as not containing a short summary of the arguments by which his ingenious system of metaphysics is supported. The account of Bononcini, the celebrated opera-composer, will also be read with much pleasure. The subject of Beards, and the reverence or intolerance which this emblem of manhood has experienced in different ages and various countries, gives occasion to the display of extensive reading, and affords much curious information. The common error that the North American Indians are naturally beardless is very properly noticed, and shown to be a mere mistake. The article Bell is valuable for the his torical and antiquarian information that it communicates, but would be more perfect. if it contained besides something of the musical history of bells. Of the geographical and historical articles, Bengal and the Birman empire will be esteemed, perhaps, as the most interesting: they are ably treated of without being diffuse, are full but not tedious, and entertaining but not superficial. The proportion of chemistry and mine. ralogy contained in this volume is bur small: Benzoic acid, Bile, Bismuth, and Bone, are the only articles of much, importance: these, however, are treated sufficiently at length to afford a clear and sátisfactory view of the present state of our knowledge concerning these substances. Two extremely important papers on the construction and history of Blast furnaces for the smelting of iron, and of Blowing machines, both of them, we presume, from the pen of Mr. Mushet, deserve to be especially pointed out, for the accuracy of their details, and their high practical utility. The comparative anatomy of Birds is, treated of at length: but few, except professional men, will be able to judge of the merit of the communication. To the merchant and man of business we may recommend the perusal of the articles Bill and Bond, as containing a very satisfactory summary of the legal enactments on these important subjects. In ecclesiastical history there occurs the article Bishop, which cannot fail of obtaining the praise of impartiality and research from moderate men of all parties. But the longest, most laboured, and most excellent article in the whole volume is Bible. It chiefly relates to the literary history of the sacred book, and from the researches of Kemicott, Lowth, and other distinguished critics, is collected a mass of extremely interesting information with re gard to the Hebrew Bible, and its most. valued editions, the Greek Bible or Septuagint, the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, Coptic and Sahidic versions of the Old and New Testament, the Ethiopic, Armenian, and Persic versions, and all the principal English translations of this most important of all books, from Wickliffe's, in the year 1370, to king James's, in 1003. |