Discovery of fire. Tools of steel. Forests subdued. Quant.i.ty of food increased by cookery 212
Medusa originally an hieroglyphic of divine wisdom 218
Cause of explosions from combined heat. Heat given out from air in respiration. Oxygene looses less heat when converted into nitrous acid than in any other of its combinations 226
Sparks from the collision of flints are electric. From the collision of flint and steel are from the combustion of the steel 229
Gunpowder described by Bacon. Its power. Should be lighted in the centre. A new kind of it. Levels the weak and strong 242
Steam-engine invented by Savery. Improved by Newcomen. Perfected by Watt and Boulton 254
Divine benevolence. The parts of nature not of equal excellence 278
Mr. Boulton"s steam-engine for the purpose of coining would save many lives from the executioner 281
Labours of Hercules of great antiquity. Pillars of Hercules. Surface of the Mediteranean lower than the Atlantic. Abyla and Calpe. Flood of Deucalion 297
Acc.u.mulation of electricity not from friction 335
Mr. Bennet"s sensible electrometer 345
Halo of saints is pictorial language 358
We have a sense adapted to perceive heat but not electricity 365
Paralytic limbs move by electric influence 367
Death of Professor Richman by electricity 373
Lightning drawn from the clouds. How to be safe in thunder storms 383
Animal heat from air in respiration. Perpetual necessity of respiration.
Spirit of animation perpetually renewed 401
Cupid rises from the egg of night. Mrs. Cosway"s painting of this subject 413
Western-winds. Their origin. Warmer than south-winds. Produce a thaw 430
Water expands in freezing. Destroys succulent plants, not resinous ones.
Trees in valleys more liable to injury. Fig-trees bent to the ground in winter 439
Buds and bulbs are the winter cradle of the plant. Defended from frost and from insects. Tulip produces one flower-bulb and several leaf-bulbs, and perishes. 460
Matter of heat is different from light. Vegetables blanched by exclusion of light. Turn the upper surface of their leaves to the light. Water decomposed as it escapes from their pores. Hence vegetables purify air in the day time only. 462
Electricity forwards the growth of plants. Silk-worms electrised spin sooner. Water decomposed in vegetables, and by electricity 463
Sympathetic inks which appear by heat, and disappear in the cold. Made from cobalt 487
Star in Ca.s.siope"s chair 515
Ice-islands 100 fathoms deep. Sea-ice more difficult of solution. Ice evaporates producing great cold. Ice-islands increase. Should be navigated into southern climates. Some ice-islands have floated southwards 60 miles long. Steam attending them in warm climates 529
Monsoon cools the sands of Abyssinia 547
Ascending vapours are electrised plus, as appears from an experiment of Mr. Bennet. Electricity supports vapour in clouds. Thunder showers from combination of inflammable and vital airs 553
CANTO II.
Solar volcanos a.n.a.logous to terrestrial and lunar ones. Spots of the sun are excavations 14
Spherical form of the earth. Ocean from condensed vapour. Character of Mr. Whitehurst 17
Granite the oldest part of the earth. Then limestone. And lastly, clay, iron, coal, sandstone. Three great concentric divisions of the globe 35
Formation of primeval islands before the production of the moon.
Paradise. The Golden Age. Rain-bow. Water of the sea originally fresh 36
Venus rising from the sea an hieroglyphic emblem of the production of the earth beneath the ocean 47
First great volcanos in the central parts of the earth. From steam, inflammable gas, and vital air. Present volcanos like mole-hills 68
Moon has little or no atmosphere. Its ocean is frozen. Is not yet inhabited, but may be in time 82
Earth"s axis changed by the ascent of the moon. Its diurnal motion r.e.t.a.r.ded. One great tide 84
Limestone produced from sh.e.l.ls. Spars with double refractions. Marble.
Chalk 93
Antient statues of Hercules. Antinous. Apollo. Venus. Designs of Roubiliac. Monument of General Wade. Statues of Mrs. Damer 101
Mora.s.ses rest on limestone. Of immense extent 116
Salts from animal and vegetable bodies decompose each other, except marine salt. Salt mines in Poland. Timber does not decay in them. Rock- salt produced by evaporation from sea-water. Fossil sh.e.l.ls in salt mines. Salt in hollow pyramids. In cubes. Sea-water contains about one- thirtieth of salt 119
Nitre, native in Bengal and Italy. Nitrous gas combined with vital air produces red clouds, and the two airs occupy less s.p.a.ce than one of them before, and give out heat. Oxygene and azote produce nitrous acid 143
Iron from decomposed vegetables. Chalybeat springs. Fern-leaves in nodules of iron. Concentric spheres of iron nodules owing to polarity, like iron-filings arranged by a magnet. Great strata of the earth owing to their polarity 183
Hardness of steel for tools. Gave superiority to the European nations.
Welding of steel. Its magnetism. Uses of gold 192
Artificial magnets improved by Savery and Dr. Knight, perfected by Mr.
Michel. How produced. Polarity owing to the earth"s rotatory motion. The electric fluid, and the matter of heat, and magnetism gravitate on each other. Magnetism being the lightest is found nearest the axis of the motion. Electricity produces northern lights by its centrifugal motion 193