Massachusetts spy and Worcester advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1823-1825, 1824-05-19
WHOLE NO. 1865.

|
Africa; and the communications on these
subjects, which he transmitted to Eng
land, afforded the society The most graf
flying proofs of the ardent spirit of in
quiry, the unwearied attention, the per-
severing research, and the Iaborious,
interchangeable, anxious zeal, with which
their author pursued the object of his
mission. The society were of the opin-
ion that his remarks on Lower Egypt, if
the country had been less generally
known, would have been ranked with
the most valuable geographical records.
We conclude with the following
general outline of his history from the
| North American Review.
9 Of the man." says the Review,
"who rambled in his boyhood among
the Indians on our frontiers who was
The first to descend the Come cticut
River in canoe, and in one which was
constructed by his own hands, and man
aged In IFS voyage by himself alone;
who studied law and divinity who en-
| listed as a soldier at Gibraltar: who
went round the world with Cook pro-
jected the first trading voyage TO The
north west coast was intimate with
Robert Morris in Philadelphia, with
Paul Jones in Paris, with Sir joseph
Banks in London, and Professor Pallas
in Petersburgh; who was the friend
| and correspondent Of Jefferson and La
Fayette; who was one season in New
York, the next in Spain and France,
the next 10 Siberia, and the next under
the pyramids of Egypt; who was the
first 10 open the field of African dis
covery5 on which. during the last thirty
SIX years, so many have entered with
an enthusiasm aud love of adventure,
which nothing could damp but the sac
ritice of life Itself; and who in his own
language, trampled halfthe globe I'M
der his feet, of such man, no doubt :,
many particulars may be related, which
will be interesting TO his countrymen,
and which, at the same time they illus
trate the character, and do Justice TO
lie memory ola remarkable individual,
will prove what wonders may be
wrought by union of enterprise, per-
severance, and resolution, in the same
mind"
CURIOUS CALcULAT1oNs.--Mr. Shaw in
his Natnre Displayed, says, "Some
animalcule are so small that many
thousands together are smaller than
the point of needle. -Leeweehoeck
says, there are more animals in the
milt of Goldfish, than men on the whole
earth, and that grain Of sand is Iarg-
er than four thousand of these animals.
Moreover particle Of the blood of one
OF these animalcules has been found, by
calculation, TO be as much less than
globe l-10th Of an inch in diameter, as
that globe is less than the whole earth.
He states that a grain Of sand in dame
ter but the tooth part of an inch will
cover one hundred and twenty. five
thousand of the ori6ces through which
we perspire and that of some animacu-
lac, 5000 are not equal to grain of
sand. Human hair varies in. thickness,
from the 250th 10 the 6o0th part of an
inch. The fibre of the coarsest wool
is about the 500th part of an iuch in
diameter, and that of the finest only
one l500th part. The silk line, as
spun by the worm, is about the Booth
part of an inch thick but SPIDERS
line is pehaps six times finer, or only
the 30,000th part Of an inch in dame
ter-insomuch that single pound of
this attenuated, yet perfect substance,
would be sufficient TO encompass the
whole globe. Speaking of odours, the
author says single grain of musk has
been known to perfume room for
twenty years. How often during that
time the air OF the apartment must have
| been renewed and have become chaTg-
ed with fresh odour. At the lowest
computation, the musk had been, subdi-
vided into 800 quadrillons Of particles,
each of them capable of cffecting the
olfactory organs. The diffusion Of the
odorous efluvia may also be conceived
from the fact that lump of asafntida,
exposed TO open air, lost only one grain
in seven weeks. Again since dogs hunt
by the scent alone, the eflluvia emitted
from the several species of animals,
and from different individuals of the
same race, must be essentially distinct,
and being discerned over large spaces,
must be subdisided beyond our concep-
ton, or powers of numbers. The hui
man skin is perforated by thousand
holes in the space of a square inch. lf
therefore, we estimate the surface of
The body ola middle sized man TO be
sixteen square feet, il must contain not
fewer than 100000 pores. These
pores are the mouths Of so many excre-
tory vesiels, which perform the impor-
tant function in the animal economy, Of