instead of the tapering point which is generally ufed. By thefe means, Mr. Smeaton tells us, half minutes may be diftinguished if the hour circle be four inches in diameter. After the globe has been rectified for the latitude of the place, the meridian is sometimes apt to flip; and, by that means, alter the rectification, while the operator is engaged in adjusting other parts of the apparatus: to prevent this, Mr. Smeaton fixes a crutch-like piece of wood to the pillar which supports the fouthern point of the horizon, by a fort of universal joint, which permits it to move, to a certain extent, in any direction, without shake. The other end of this crutch, being flit to a sufficient width and extent by a faw, may be made to embrace the brass meridian, after the globe has been rectified to the latitude, and to clafp it very tightly, by means of a finger-screw which passes through the two lips of the flit-end of the crutch. Art. sth. On the Method of determining, from the real Probabilities of Life, the Value of a contingent Reversion in which Toree Lives are involved in the Survivorship. By Mr. WILLIAM MORGAN. This paper is an appendix to, or rather a continuation of, the subject of one which was given by Mr. Morgan in the 78th vol. of the Philosophical Transactions, and of which an account may be seen at p. 141 of our Review for last February. In that paper, Mr. Morgan gave the solutions of three cafes, which more commonly occur in the doctrine of survivorships, where the ages of two persons only are concerned, from principles strictly true; that is, from the real probabilities of life, derived from bills of mortality. In this paper, he has extended the fame mode of investigation to one cafe, in which the ages of three persons are concerned. The cafe confidered is this: • Suppofing the ages of A, B, and C, to be given; to determine, from any table of observations, the [present] value of the fum S payable on the contingency of C's surviving B, provided the life of A shall be then extinct.' The solution of this question, like those in Mr. Morgan's former paper, is given on principles which may be applied to any table of observations whatever; and proves, in the fulleft manner, that it is neither safe nor neceffary to have recourse, in any cafe, even when three lives are concerned, to De Moivre's Hypothesis of Equal Decrements. Art. 6th. Result of Calculations of the Observations made at varisus Places of the Eclipse of the Sun which happened on June 3d, 1788. By the Rev. JOSEPH PIAZZI, C. R. Profeffor of Aftronomy in the University of Palermo. The author of this paper came over to England for the purpose of obtaining, from Mr. Ramsden, some astronomical in ftruments struments for the Obfervatory lately established at Palermo, in Sicily; and the celebrity of this artist's name over most parts of Europe, is such, that it was thought necessary for M. Piazzi to remain in England till the instruments were made, rather than run the risk of not obtaining them. Accordingly, he was detained here almost two years. During this interval, M. Piazzi amused himself with collecting the observations which were made, in different parts of Europe, on the folar eclipse that happened on the 3d of June 1788, and calculating from them the difference of meridians between the several places of observation, and Greenwich. The method which the Profeffor pursued, in deducing the geographical longitudes from the observations, was, by determining the apparent time of the true conjunction of the fun and moon, at each place, from the observed times of the beginning and ending of the eclipse, and then comparing each of these times with the time of conjunction deduced from the observation made by Dr. Mafkelyne at Greenwich. Where any doubt arose, he deduced the time of the conjunction both by means of the parallactic angle, and by the method of parallaxes; and, sometimes, by a new method which has been given by M. Gerstner, in the Berlin Ephemeris for 1791. The following Table contains the names of the several places where the eclipfe was observed, the name of the observer, the apparent times of the beginning and end of the eclipse at each place, the longitude of the place in time; and, of course, the substance of the whole paper. METEOROLOGICAL. Art. IV. Observations on the Dryness of the Year 1788. In a Letter from the Rev. Mr. B. HUTCHINSON to Sir JOSEPH BANKS, Bart. P. R. S. In this paper, Mr. Hutchinson states the quantity of rain which fell at Kimbolton, in the years 1781, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 1788; and shews that scarcely more than half the average quantity fell in the year 1788 that fell in each of the leven years which preceded it. He observes, nevertheless, that the cropa of that year, taken on the whole, were rather abundant than otherwise. To account for this, he states the quantity of rain which fell in each month, and also the extreme heights of the thermometer; and concludes, that the absolute quantity of rain which falls in the whole year, is not so material, with respect to its effects on vegetation, as the seasons when it falls, and the temperature of the weather. It must have been the fact, and not the reasoning contained in this paper, that procured it a place in the Philofophical Transactions. A Meteorological Journal, kept at the Apartments of the Royal Society, by Order of the Prefident and Council. This journal contains the height at which Fahrenheit's thermometer stood, both within the house, and on the outfide of it, twice every day; namely, at 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning, and at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. It contains also the height of the barometer, and the strength and direction of the wind at the same time; and, also, a general idea of the weather, fo far as it can be expreffed by a single word, and the quantity of rain that fell in the whole day. The strength of the wind is divided into three degrees; namely, gentle, brifk, and violent, or stormy, which are diftinguished by the figures 1, 2, and 3; but the last figure does not occur in the whole course of the year 1788. Calm is diftinguished by a cypher. We wish that fome idea had been given us of the method by which these several degrees of strength were estimated: but no hint of this kind appears. At the end of the journal, the following concise statement of its contents is given, which exhibits a tolerably good idea of the weather for the whole year: Deg Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Iaches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Perhaps the following particulars, which this table does not exhibit, may be amusing to some of our readers, and useful to others. The thermometer was highest on the 27th of May and the 17th of June, when it stood at 80°; and lowest on the 30th of December, when it stood at 18o. The barometer stood highest on the 16th of January, when it was 30,7 inches; and lowelt on the 21st of February, being then at 28,65 inches. The most rain fell on the 26th of June; and on that day there fell no less than 2,116 inches, perpendicular height. In January, were seven rainy days; thirteen in February, four in March, four in April, fix in May, ten in June, nine in July, fourteen in Auguft, fourteen in September, two in October, three in November, and not one in December. The word snow is not mentioned, except on the 17th and 31st of December. It is somewhat remarkable, that about one-feventh part of all the rain that fell in the whole year, fell on one day. [To be concluded in our next Number.] ART. XI. Bell's Classica! Arrangement of Fugitive Poetry. Vols. 5, 6, 7, and-*10. 12mo. about 190 pages each. 35. each fewed. Bell. 1789. A LL true lovers of the English Muse will be inclined to favour this undertaking, provided the Editor employed by Mr. Bell be a person of tafte, difcernment, and affiduity, who * The 8th and oth (for some particular reasons) are not yet ready for the Public. will be careful to winnow the chaff of modern poetry from the corn. Hitherto we have had little reason to complain; and we advise him, if he wishes this collection to find its way into the libraries of ladies and gentlemen, to be not only fcrupulous a to what he admits, but peculiarly attentive that no poem of pro minent merit be excluded. The poems reprinted in this Claffical arrangement are, in general, worthy of publication; but we are of opinion that fome which the Editor has inserted, do not properly come under the description of Fugitive Poetry. When authors themselves have collected their pieces together in regular editions (which has been done for instance by the celebrated Mr. George Keate, whose beautiful poem entitled Lady Jane Gray to Lord Guildford Dudley is given in this collection), there appears to be no neceffity for detaching some particular poems from their companions, in order to preferve them. What Mr. Bell, we apprehend, ought chiefly to aim at in this work, should be the collection of those beautiful little poems which are now blown about like the leaves of the Sybils; and from the mode of their publication, are in danger of being loft, except to a few careful individuals, and to rescue from the rubbish, in which they now lie buried, some jewels of Parnaffus which are sometimes to be met with in periodical publications. The latter part of the undertaking, we confefs, is dangerous; for unless the greatest care be employed, false brilliants will be gathered up, and fet, instead of real diamonds and precious stones. We hope this will not happen. The first of the volumes now before us (vol. 5.) is entitled EPISTLES SATIRICAL AND PRECEPTIVE, containing eleven poems, in which number are included the late Dr. Johnfon's greatly admired Satires (we cannot fee why they are classed with Epistles), London *, and The Vanity of Human Wishes; the former, an imitation of Juvenal's 3d, the latter of Juvenal's roth Satire; Newmarket, by the Rev. T. Warton; and Fashion, by Dr. Joseph Warton. We also meet here with the Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers, and the Heroic Postscript, ascribed by fome, but we do not pretend to say upon what ground, to Mr. Mafon +. Vol. 6, entitled EPISTLES PANEGYRICAL AND GALLANT, includes many amusing little poems, in number 67; among which we have a few of the productions of Mr. Garrick's sprightly Muse, and the well-known Epifile to a Lady with a pre • In the first note to this Epistle, at the end of the volume, there is an error of the press which ought to be corrected, figere for figere. + We expected, with the Heroic Epistle to Sir W. C. and the He. roic Postscript, to find the Archeological Epistle to Dean Milles on his Edition of Rowley's (alias Chatterton's) Poems, which seems to come from the fame author. Sent |