The Medical and Physical Journal: Containing the Earliest Information on Subjects of Medicine, Surgery, Pharmacy, Chemistry, and Natural History ..., Volume 25

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R. Phillips, 1811
 

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Page 246 - No where does the lower people enjoy, in greater security, the fruit of their labour, than in the mines of Mexico, no law forces the Indian to choose this species of labour, or to prefer one mine to another; and when he is displeased with the proprietor of the mine, he may ofler his services to another master, who may pay, perhaps, more regularly.
Page 414 - This most elegant creature is of a colour changing between purple, violet, and pale blue ; the body is truncated before, and pointed behind ; but the form is difficult to assign, as it is varied by partial contractions, at the animal's pleasure. I have represented the two extremes of form...
Page 254 - The" passage of ,the sap upwards was in consequence much obstructed, and the inserted • buds began to vegetate strongly in July; and when these had afforded shoots about four inches long, the remaining ligatures were taken off, to permit the excess of sap to pass on ; and the young shoots were nailed to the wall. Being there properly exposed to light^ their wood ripened well, and afforded blossoms in the succeeding spring : this would, I do not doubt," have afforded fruit ; but that, leaving my...
Page 517 - ... The light is differently regulated, when the luminous matter exists in the living body, and when it is abstracted from it. In the first case, it is intermitting, or alternated with periods of darkness ; is commonly produced or increased by a muscular effort ; and is sometimes absolutely dependant upon the will of the animal. In the second case, the luminous appearance is usually permanent until it...
Page 513 - ... glow-worms shone more brilliantly when put into oxygen gas ; that their light gradually disappeared in hydrogen or in azotic gas, and was instantly extinguished in fixed air ; that it was also lost by cold and revived by the application of a warm temperature. He conjectured that the luminous matter of these insects, was composed of hydrogen and carbonated hydrogen gas. Forster relates in the Lichtenberg Magazine for 1783, that on putting a lampyris splendidula into oxygen gas it gave as much...
Page 349 - Dire was the tossing, deep the groans ; Despair Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch ; And over them triumphant Death his dart Shook, but delay'd to strike, though oft invoked With vows, as their chief good, and final hope.
Page 416 - B.mks, says, there is a peculiar phenomenon sometimes seen within a few degrees distance of the coast of Malabar, during the rainy monsoon, which he had an opportunity of observing. At midnight the weather was cloudy, and the sea was particularly dark, when suddenly it changed to a white flaming colour all around. This bore no resemblance to the sparkling or glowing appearance he had observed on other occasions in seas near the equator, but was a regular white colour like milk, and did not continue...
Page 424 - The shining of the scolopendra electrica I have always observed to be accompanied by the appearance of an effusion of a luminous . fluid upon the surface of the animal, more particularly about the head, which may be received upon the hand, or other bodies brought into contact with the insect at the moment, and these exhibit a phosphoric light for a few seconds afterwards. This fluid, however, I never could discover in the form of moisture, even upon the clearest glass, although examined immediately...
Page 517 - ... would afford. The uninterrupted and long continued light that is sometimes evolved by the luminous sacs, and the ova of the glow-worm, is also inconsistent with the notion of an accumulation and subsequent dispersion of a material substance.
Page 512 - ... luminous fluid in the plumule of the pennatula phosphorea \. The phenomenon of animal light has been attempted to be explained in different ways. By many persons it was formerly ascribed to a putrefactive process, but since the modern theories of combustion became known, it has been generally believed to depend upon an actual inflammation of the' luminous substance, similar to the slow combustion of phosphorus.

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