COFFEE. The quantity of coffee annually supplied by Arabia, is supposed to be upwards of 14,000,000 of pounds. Before the commencement of the French revolution, St. Domingo alone exported more than 70,000,000 pounds per annum. The consumption of this article, among the Mahomedans, is truly astonishing: all who can possibly obtain a supply, drink it at least twice a day, very hot, and without sugar or milk. Beaujour, in a work on Greece, speaks of a theriacophage, or opium eater, who drank sixty cups of this kind of coffee in a day, and smoked as many pipes. Formerly, in Egypt, the drinking of coffee was regarded almost as a religious ceremony, and was drunken only on Monday and Friday evenings, accompanied with solemn prayers.

FOSSIL SAURIAN REPTILES.-Dr. Hibbert, a few months since, read a highly interesting paper before the Edinburg Royal Society, descriptive of the limestone bed of Burdiehouse, about four miles from the city, which, he was sure, indicated the previous existence of a lake at that place, as fossil remains of fresh-water fishes and reptiles were found in it. The reporter, after some minute observations upon the paper, goes on to say that this discovery is one of the most important which has been lately made in geology. It refers to the existence of reptiles allied more or less to crocodiles, at a period much earlier than has been generally supposed by geologists, and, at the same time, shows that those immense animals must have existed coeval, perhaps, with the very first vegetable productions of the globe.

LATE SCIENTIFIC WORKS IN ENGLAND.-Curtis's British Entomology; Vol. X. Transactions of the Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; Parker's Chemical Catechism, thirteenth edition; The Philosophical Transactions, 1833-part II; Hooker's Botanical Miscellany; Inquiries concerning the medium of Light, and the form of its molecules, by Rev. John G. Macvicar; A century of Birds from the Himalayan mountains, by John Gould; Popular Introduction to Experimental Chemistry, by F. Watkins. None, or but a few of these, have been republished in this country.

MALT.-An English writer supposes the actual quantity of malt consumed in the United Kingdom, to be 33,000,000 of bushels, annually.

THE NAME OF A MUMMY.-Mr. Pettigrew, in the College of Surgeons, so say some of the last journals, unrolled a mummy, carried to England thirteen years ago. Having explained to the audience the ancient process of embalming, he also explained the mythological characters painted on the cases, and predicted, from his knowledge of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, that the mummy before him was a male. His observation proved true. It was a male, whose name was 'Horseisi, a son of Naspihimegori, an incense-bearing priest in the temple of Ammon, at Thebes.' By the best calculation, it had been embalmed two thousand years. Never was a public meeting more interesting to all classes.

GALVANISM.—If a living frog, or the fish called flounder, having a piece of tin-foil laid upon the back, be placed upon a bit of zinc, whenever the communication is made between the two metals, spasms will be excited in their muscles.

By placing the tin-foil over one eye, in a dark room, and holding a piece of silver in the mouth, as often as the edges of the two are made to touch, faint flashes of light will be seen, like lightning.

A MUSICAL KITE.-By leaving a large round hole over the back-bone of a common paper kite, and stretching strings across it, in the manner of an Æolean harp, while floating in the air above, it will give, in an audible manner, the sweet tones of that instrument.

NEW MEDICAL SCHOOL.-From a voluminous pamphlet of 113 pages, entitled Thoughts on the Policy of establishing a School of Medicine in Louisville, &c., by Dr. James Conquest Cross,' in which Dr. Caldwell, of Transylvania University, is handled without gloves, it is inferred that a new School of Medicine is about being organized.

A NEW SUBSTANCE DISCOVERED IN OPIUM.-Mr. Pelletier announces the discovery of a new substance in opium, which he has denominated paramorphia. It has a very marked action on the animal economy; and in very small doses, kills a dog in a few minutes. M. Magendie has proved that it acts upon the brain and occasions convulsions.

TITLES.-There is no country on earth, where the love of title prevails to such a laughable extent as in Germany. Even a common taxgatherer's wife is affronted, if she is not addressed as Frau Steuereinnehmerin, or Mrs. Taxgatherer. County court counsellors have the sweetly sounding title of Oberlandesgerichtsrath. China, a permission from the emperor of the celestial empire to wear a peacock's feather, is no more ridiculous.

In

ANCIENT AMERICAN CITY.-A German merchant at Valparaiso, in Chili, having employed a Dane, by the name of Kenous, to explore the wild regions of Chili, he has discovered the scattered ruins of a great city. In other parts of South America, traces of a high degree of civilization have been discovered, which, with many other circumstances, prove very clearly to antiquarians, that a race of men preceded the Indians, highly cultivated, and thoroughly acquainted with architecture.

A NEW METAL.-Prof. Breithaupt, of Freiburg, has found a new substance, possessing remarkable qualities-native iridium. Platina has long been considered the heaviest metal, but the professor proves that native iridium is two parts heavier, viz., 23.3 to 23.6; platina, on the contrary, is only 21.5.

MAGPIE, Corvus pica, which is a native of the north-western parts of the United States, when taken young, may be easily domesticated, and taught to pronounce not only single words, but sentences. Plutarch speaks particularly of the interest which was excited by one of them, in his day, owned by a Roman barber.

CONVERSAZIONE.-At the commencement of the first conversazione for the season, at the London University, Dr. Lindley delivered a lecture upon the nature of the ancient plants, by the remains of which the beds of coal at Newcastle have been formed. It was pretty clearly shown, by actual remains in the coal, that the scenery of the north of England must have once been ornamented by palms, tree ferns, gigantic cacti, tropical coniferæ, and other enormous plants, which are now characteristic of equatorial latitudes.

NEW SPECIES OF CHAMELEON.-Mr. Stutchbury, curator of the Bristol Institution, has discovered a new species of chamæleon, to which he has given the name of cristatus, from its peculiar dorsal crest, supported by spinous processes of the vertebræ, by which character it approaches the basilisks. The specimen which the gentleman has obtained, came from the banks of the river Gaboon, in the western region of Equinoctial Africa. The color is dark ash-gray.

MARYLEBONE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION.-Thefollowing gentlemen, whose names are well known in Europe and America, gave popular lectures, the past winter, in this institution, which is conducted very much like our lyceums, viz., Dr. Lardner, Dr. Ritchie, Dr. Copeland, Dr. Southerwood Smith, Sir A. Carlisle, Messrs. Burnet, Taylor, T. Phillips, Wallis, Brayley, Jr. and Hemming, the president of the Institution. The lectures continued six months.

ROYAL OBSERVATORY OF OUDE.-The king of Oude is about establishing an observatory, in his capital of Lucknow, in which the principal room will be fifty-four feet long, twenty-five wide and twenty-five high. Messrs. Troughton and Sims, of London, have been directed to construct for his majesty, a mural circle, six feet in diameter, and a transit instrument of eight feet focal length.

CROOKED GUNS.-Recent experiments, carefully instituted, show that a smooth-bore barrel, if bent to the right, will throw a ball considerably to the left of the object aimed at, and vice versa.

ROYAL SOCIETY of Edinburg.—At a late meeting, Dec. 2d, the Keith biennial prize, consisting of a gold medal and a piece of plate, was presented to a Mr. Graham, for a valuable paper on the diffusion of gases.

PRIZES. The French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, decrees, yearly, two sets of prizes; one for acts of virtue, and the other for writings the most useful to morals. In 1833, it assigned, for acts of virtue, one prize of 6000 francs, two medals, one of the value of 3000 francs and the other of 1500, and seven medals of the value of 600 francs each. Of the eleven, eight were decreed to females.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

MR. DAVIDSON has exhibited a very critical knowledge of the subject which he has had the goodness to send.

NEBULOUS has selected the very cognomen we should have given him. He is prodigiously cloudy and mysterious.

K. M. will invariably have the advantage, by laying us under obligations.
R. S. L.-Je n'y comprend pas.

A. A-?—Yes, law or anything else that can be of the least possible benefit. In answering this, we can again say, with propriety, that contributions are solicited in every department of human knowledge. Nothing comes amiss, if well and carefully written.

* *, of Windsor, Vt., is too late in the day, his views having been anticipated by a writer in volume third, of the Scientific Tracts.

P, as usual, is in the right, and therefore, like the setting sun, pears larger at its going down.

SOMETHING NEW,-is old as the hills.

which ap

HALIFAX.-When the next mail packet arrives, send the remainder, and if as good as part first, both will be published.

from Fryeburg, Me.-not original.

from Quebec,-excellent.

from Newark, N. J. Answer:-We should be gratified, and so would our patrons.

H. S. K.-Throw the lead often, friend; it will never do for your barque to leave soundings:

Little boats should keep near shore,

But larger ships may venture more.

The Constitution, By-laws, Catalogue of Members, &c., of the Concord Lyceum, forwarded by the politeness of Mr. Cyrus P. Bradley, will be particularly noticed hereafter.

An abstract of Mr. Fowle's Lectures, at the Temple, on Phrenology, which are particularly interesting, and original, too, are on file.

and

F. S.-Few, very few naturalists have ever been gratified with the sight; positively interesting as the facts are, it would cost one his head, or what amounts to the same thing, his reputation, to tell the story to every body. NEWBURYPORT.-Are you certain that the bat really sees without eyes?

CAPT. COUTHUoy's paper on the Luminous Appearance of the Ocean, will ap pear in the next number.